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Loyalist representatives have given assurances to Sinn Fein that paramilitary groups will not retaliate against dissident republican attacks.
Frankie Gallagher of the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG), met Sinn Fein’s Tom Hartley on Wednesday.
Frankie Gallagher of the UPRG, which advises to the loyalist paramilitary UDA
“We made a conscious decision that we would meet Sinn Fein to demonstrate to these people they will not create any more division,” said Mr Gallagher.
Mr Hartley said nationalists and republicans would be “assured.”
“It will really go a long way to assure people in the nationalist and republican community about the stability of the process that we are now involved in,” said Mr Hartley, Belfast’s lord mayor.
“There is a very loud voice right across the political spectrum that does not want to go back to the period of conflict, that wants to go forward to a period of stability and peace.”
Thousands of people attended demonstrations across Northern Ireland on Wednesday to show their opposition to the killing of two soldiers by the Real IRA on Saturday and the shooting dead of policeman by the Continuity IRA on Monday.
Mr Gallagher said statements by First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness in the aftermath of the killings had shown “leadership” and “raised the bar to a new level”.
A group of MPs is to review the private civilian security service which guards Army bases in Northern Ireland following the murders of two soldiers.
Commons Counter Terrorism Sub-Committee chairman Patrick Mercer said they would examine if the NI Security Guard Service was an appropriate deterrent.
He said security at bases in Great Britain seemed to be more stringent.
The Security Guard Service was formed after the end of the Army’s involvement in operations in Northern Ireland.
“It’s very easy to be wise after the event, but I do have to ask why in Scotland, Wales and England if you go to a military barracks there you’ll find as a minimum a fully warranted armed MoD policeman and probably an armed soldier, sailor or airman with an automatic rifle standing alongside,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.
“I don’t understand why there was a difference in the alert levels in Northern Ireland.”
The Conservative MP added: “I understand the delicate and critical nature of the political situation in Northern Ireland and the raising of the security profile can have a disproportionate effect upon the political process – the fact remains that lives are at risk.”
‘Extremely testing’
Mr Mercer said witnesses were being contacted and he hoped the review would take place next month.
“I don’t want to pre-judge what we find but I shall be extremely testing on the witnesses, as I’m sure will my colleagues,” he said.
Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham and Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, were shot dead at Massereene Army base, Antrim, on Saturday evening. Two pizza delivery men were injured.
The Real IRA dissident republican group said it had carried out the attack.
On Monday, the Army’s most senior soldier in Northern Ireland, Brigadier George Norton, praised the guards, saying it would have been inappropriate for them to fire into “a closely packed group including my five soldiers”.
“Both the guard service and the soldiers did everything that they could possibly do to save the lives of those who had been shot, including obviously the pizza delivery individuals, and I’m delighted by the way they responded but in no way surprised,” he said.
On Monday, police constable Stephen Paul Carroll, 48, was shot dead in Craigavon by the Continuity IRA.
Mid Ulster Mail
11 March 2009
THE Orange Volunteers have claimed responsibility for the security alert at the Sinn Fein’s office in Cookstown on Monday.
Police received a tip-off that a suspicious device had been located outside the building on the Burn Road and the area was subsequently closed off after 3pm.
A search was initiated and as the police were evacuating residents, a suspicious object was discovered a few feet away from the Sinn Fein office.
An army technical officer was tasked and x-rayed and dismantled the short length of pipe which was sealed at either end with a granular substance.
As the operation was underway, Downtown Radio were informed by a male caller that the Orange Volunteers were claiming responsibility for the pipe bomb device.
Police enquiries are on-going and anyone who noticed anything suspicious has been asked to come forward.
Brian Feeney
COMMENTARY
Irish News
09/03/2009
People have been watching closely the way Sinn Fein has responded to the appalling murderous attack at Massereene Barracks on Saturday night.
Some people have been trying mischievously, just as the dissidents want, to insert a wedge between Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson on the one hand and between Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein assembly members on the other, so far without success.
Perhaps more important for the success of politics here is how the British administration responds and again, so far, it looks as though they are not going to fall into the trap laid for them.
Some people have characterised the attack as ‘senseless’ and ‘pointless’. Far from it.
The attack was carefully timed just before Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson were due to fly to Washington for a series of high-profile meetings including one with President Obama.
The killings were designed to accomplish a number of objectives – to embarrass Sinn Fein; to provoke a disproportionate response from the British; to cause division between Sinn Fein and the DUP and make it less likely that policing and justice will be devolved to northern politicians.
However, it is up to politicians here and in Britain to ensure that those objectives are not achieved and to demonstrate that dissident actions are seen to be futile.
It took British politicians a long time over here to realise that it was disastrous if their policy was driven by the politics of the last atrocity, that reaching for draconian military responses was exactly what not to do.
Let’s be clear about what the Real IRA, one of the groups who claimed responsibility, want. They want the British army back on the streets mounting road checks, kicking down doors in nationalist districts and, ideally, meting out violence to nationalist youths who are then more likely to join RIRA. For people who call themselves Irish republicans to conspire to bring the British army back on to the streets shows how absurd the aims of RIRA are.
Secondly it should be remembered that the RIRA are tiny in number and that their actions are condemned by both republican and unionist communities, that in every election their proxies stood in they have received a derisory vote, below the one per cent mark. Republican dissidents are therefore faced with an insurmountable political obstacle in the north.
Always in the past we know that, even when Sinn Fein did not stand for election, they had a sleeping vote of around 100,000 and the IRA always had some degree of public support.
Now for the first time in the north’s history we know there is no sleeping republican vote waiting to support dissidents. There are no nationalist grievances to exploit.
Why then do they imagine they can achieve more than the IRA after a 25-year campaign?
Why do they imagine they can do anything different or anything the IRA didn’t try?
The only hope they can entertain is that the British do something stupid, play into their hands with some over-reaction. Given the experience of the past 40 years and the British open acceptance that decisions like internment and the prisons policy were mistakes, such a hope is far-fetched.
Dissidents certainly have no chance of spooking Sinn Fein into rowing back from the policy they have followed which has led them into jointly running the north’s administration. On the contrary, SF know perfectly well that the dissidents may call themselves the Real IRA but they are actually Sinn Fein’s real enemy and as such SF are more determined to defeat them than either the British government or the unionists and it’s about time unionists realised that.
The correct response to the shock and dismay of Saturday’s murders is to pursue steadily and resolutely the present policies which so annoy and frustrate dissidents, not to announce any flashy security measures which would play into their hands but to proceed with all deliberate speed to devolve justice and security to locally elected politicians.
In other words to do exactly the opposite of what dissidents want. Only in that way can their real targets, Sinn Fein, show publicly that their strategies lead to political success and that the dissidents’ murderous activities are not only futile but immoral.
• ‘No going back’ to Troubles, placards declare at vigils
• Police in republic increase border security
Henry McDonald, Esther Addley and Haroon Siddique
Guardian
Wednesday 11 March 2009
Thousands stand in silence outside Belfast City Hall in one of a number of rallies across Northern Ireland to protest at the murders of two soldiers and a policeman. Photograph: EPA
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Northern Ireland today for silent vigils to protest against the murders of two soldiers and a policeman by dissident republicans.
Carrying placards reading “No Going Back”, more than 2,000 people gathered in front of Belfast City Hall. As a lone bagpiper played a lament, the crowd fell silent for five minutes.
Former paramilitary convicts stood alongside mothers cradling children. Some people wept while others shook hands and offered condolences to police.
Aidan Kane, a paramedic who attended the rally with his six-year-old boy on his shoulders, said he was a Catholic who grew up in an area “where the police were the enemy”. But he said: “If my wee lad here wants to be a policeman when he grows up, I’d be proud.”
John Batch, 49, told Reuters: “What has happened over the last 10 years should not be surrendered. I grew up through the Troubles in Belfast. I don’t want that for my children.”
Other vigils were held in Londonderry, Newry, Downpatrick and Lisburn.
Speaking outside Belfast City Hall, Peter Bunting, the assistant general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions which helped organise the protests, said people were delivering a strong message that they did not want a return to bloodshed.
“This lunchtime thousands of citizens are gathering to collectively share moments of silence,” he said.
“The trade union movement stands together with all citizens in solidarity to prevent any derailment of the peace process. The callous attacks of the past few days were an assault on every citizen who supports peace.
“Here in Belfast, and in Newry, and in Londonderry, and at spontaneous gatherings across our land, workers and their families are making clear their abhorrence at these murders and the direct threat to the peace process.”
Security on the Irish border was tightened today in response to the upsurge in terrorist violence.
Additional checkpoints have been set up on the frontier after a security review by the Garda Siochana. The assistant garda commissioner, Mick Feehan, who heads the force’s northern region, has instructed local commanders to increase checkpoints and mobile patrols on the border with Northern Ireland.
Fears of loyalist paramilitary retaliation over Real IRA and Continuity IRA attacks subsided today after the Ulster Defence Association ruled out any revenge attacks.
The UDA leader, Jackie McDonald, praised the Sinn Féin MP and deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, for his strong condemnation of the killers.
“The IRA blew the two communities apart during the Troubles but the Real IRA and Continuity have actually united the people like never before,” the UDA chief said at today’s rally in Belfast.
“There is no place in this society for these people [the dissident republicans] but it’s up to the police alone to deal with them,” McDonald said. “People on the loyalist side are determined not to fall into any more traps. That’s what groups like the Continuity IRA and Real IRA want us to do. There is no reason to go there again and nobody wants to go back. Loyalism has matured an awful lot in recent years.”
The UDA commander revealed that the organisation’s political allies, the Ulster Political Research Group, held talks this morning with the Sinn Féin mayor of Belfast, Tom Hartley.
Hartley later confirmed that the ground-breaking meeting between himself and the UDA’s political voice had taken place, with the aim of calming fears within the loyalist community. He said loyalists had a “very important” role to play in building peace.
The other main loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force, has already made clear its opposition to any return to violence in response to the recent attacks.
During prime minister’s questions, Gordon Brown said the murderers should not be allowed to destroy the achievements of the peace process and said today’s vigils showed “the unyielding resolution to say with one voice that the peace that the people of Northern Ireland are building no murderers should ever be allowed to destroy”.
The prime minister sent his condolences to the families and friends of Sappers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar, who were shot dead on Saturday, and PC Stephen Carroll, who was killed on Monday. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said the most important thing was that everyone in the province worked with the PSNI to ensure the “callous killers” were caught, charged and convicted.
The pope joined in the condemnation of the killings, describing them as “abominable acts of terrorism” during an address to pilgrims in St Peter’s square, Vatican City.
Feehan said that despite the murder of Carroll, there were no plans to withdraw a small number of Garda officers who were working on secondment at the PSNI as part of an exchange programme between the two police forces.
A man, aged 37, and a 17-year-old youth remained in custody today after being arrested in the Craigavon area yesterday. They were being questioned about the Continuity IRA murder of Carroll, the first member of the PSNI to die at the hands of terrorists.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s first and deputy first ministers have left for the US after twice postponing their trip because of the murders. Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness are hoping to persuade US investors to set up businesses in Northern Ireland. During their tour, the DUP and Sinn Féin MPs will attend a St Patrick’s Day celebration at the White House hosted by Barack Obama.
By David McKittrick, Ireland Correspondent
Independent.co.uk
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Although the Provisional IRA was always by far the biggest and most dangerous of the violent republican groups, several smaller separate groups exist, some of them breakaways from the main IRA, which is now defunct.
Although co-operation has been known, with individuals occasionally switching allegiance, the cells are independent and often localised entities.
The group which has claimed responsibility for killing a police officer in Craigavon on Monday night, the Continuity IRA (CIRA), has existed for two decades. A spokesman for its political wing, Republican Sinn Fein, rejected the description of Continuity IRA activity on police as murder attacks, saying: “There were simply a number of military engagements designed to kill them.”
The CIRA originated from a split within IRA Fein in the mid-1980s, when some republicans broke away in protest against the developing peace process. They claimed the IRA and Sinn Fein would eventually “go political” and lose sight of traditional republican goals.
The Continuity IRA has been responsible for two internal killings, as well as attacks on police officers, vehicles and premises. It was described in a security assessment as “active, dangerous and committed, and capable of a greater level of violent and other crime”.
Another group, the Real IRA, mounted the weekend attack that killed two soldiers in Antrim, and will always be associated with the 1998 bomb that killed 29 people in Omagh. Two years after Omagh, it staged a “spectacular” by launching a rocket attack on the London headquarters of MI6. This caused little damage, but the rocket hitting its target meant it was regarded as a significant coup for a small group. The organisation was responsible for two separate shooting incidents in 2007 in which police officers were wounded.
It was formed in 1997 after the resignation of five members of the mainstream IRA’s executive who objected to Sinn Fein’s sponsorship of the peace process. Its first leader was Micky McKevitt, now jailed, who, as IRA quartermaster, took some IRA weaponry with him when he quit.
Two new groupings have emerged, both styling themselves ONH, a reference to the Irish name for the army, Óglaigh na hÉireann. One of these, based around the Co Tyrone town of Strabane, is classified by the security forces as “a continuing and serious threat”. It has already committed one murder, of a member killed in an internal dispute. The intelligence assessment is that it is involved in targeting, recruiting and training new members, as well as trying to raise funds and obtain weapons.
A second group called ONH gave a newspaper interview last month, claiming responsibility for an abortive car-bomb attack in Castlewellan, Co Down. It said it had been formed three years earlier, claiming it was made up mostly of former members of the Provisional IRA but also included ex-Real IRA and ex-Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) members. Although the attack did not work, the group boasted of its capabilities, saying: “This bomb was very much viable and so that speaks for itself as to our bomb-making expertise … We have experts in our ranks and that will become apparent in the future.”
The head of the Special Branch, Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris, said recently that explosive devices had shown “some improvement in terms of sophistication” over the past eight or nine months. He believed, he said, that this might be due to one individual or perhaps a handful but, he added: “There is no sense of any drift across from what would have been the Provisional IRA to the dissidents. We don’t see that at all.”
The INLA is dangerous but relatively inactive. An originally Marxist grouping which has been in existence since the 1970s, it killed the senior Conservative MP Airey Neave at Westminster in 1979. In recent years it has not targeted the security forces, concentrating instead on activities such as “fundraising” and punishment attacks. But it maintains a capacity for violence.
Active in Northern Ireland: Dissident republican cells
Continuity IRA
Claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting of PC Stephen Carroll on Monday. Formed following a split from the IRA in 1986, it only went public and “active” in 1994, with a gun salute over the grave of the IRA commander Tom Maguire. Targets police officers and recently caught the attention of security forces for two internal “disciplinary” killings.
Real IRA
Claimed responsibility for Saturday night’s pizza delivery attack in Antrim which killed two soldiers. Murdered 29 people and injured hundreds in the 1998 Omagh car bombing, one year after it was formed in a breakaway from the IRA’s main executive. Objects to political engagement and aims to unite Ireland through militarism. Responsible for a Semtex attack last year.
ONH (Óglaigh na hÉireann)
A term for the Irish army, this name has been adopted by various Irish paramilitary units but is currently used by at least two dissident republican cells, one of them a splinter from the Continuity IRA. A “continuing and serious threat”, it has killed a member and is known to be actively recruiting.
By Deborah McAleese
Independent.co.uk
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has vowed to give Northern Ireland’s Chief Constable Hugh Orde extra financial assistance to track down the dissident republican killers of two soldiers and a police constable.
Last week, Northern Ireland’s police force was struggling to balance budgets following serious shortfalls as an outcome of the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review and had been forced to propose slashing police over-time, introducing a complete recruitment freeze next year and rejecting all internal bids for funding.
However, in order to help the Chief Constable root out the killers and stamp out the heightened threat of terrorist attacks, the Prime Minister has agreed to extra financial support.
Yesterday, the Chief Constable held talks with Mr Brown about the resources he needs.
The force had been left with an initial funding gap of over £100m for the current financial year and £74m for 2010/11.
This was reduced after the Northern Ireland Office and Policing Board agreed to set aside the pressures emerging from multi-million pound hearing loss claims and money was brought forward from next year’s budget.
However, a number of proposals still had to be made to balance the books, including a complete recruitment freeze next year — which would see a big reduction in police officer numbers — cutting police over-time by 8 per cent this year and 20 per cent next year and scrapping plans to introduce Police Community Support Officers.
The Northern Ireland Policing Board and the Police Federation held emergency meetings yesterday with the Chief Constable and Security Minister Paul Goggins to discuss the security threat and have been told that additional resources have been promised by the Government.
It is understood the police will also now be provided with a second helicopter.
Policing Board member Basil McCrea said extra resources will not mean a change in the current style of peace-time policing, but that the reprieve in budgetary constraints will allow the police to “carry on with intelligence-led policing to support the entire community in an open and transparent way”.
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) added: “The stance will be more of the same only, understandably, a little bit more cautious.
“We are not going to get everything back as there are still tough financial circumstances, but we will make sure the police operations are fully resourced.
“It looks like the pressure on overtime will be realised and I would be surprised if there was a freeze in recruitment — but we have a year to work that one out.
“This is not a knee-jerk reaction, but a recognition that our strategy is the right strategy — but it is expensive and needs financing.
“We must realise that resolving this problem in the short term requires additional money for forensics etc.”
BBC
11 Marc 09
**More photos onsite
Thousands of people have attended a series of rallies across Northern Ireland to show their anger at the murders of two soldiers and a policeman
Several thousand people stood in sombre silence at the front of Belfast City Hall, the biggest of the rallies.
Irish News
10/03/2009
A High Court judge has quashed a decision not to call police witnesses at the inquest into the death of a west Belfast man allegedly beaten by officers more than 10 years ago.
Mr Justice Weatherup ruled that the coroner had applied the wrong test in deciding their evidence was not relevant to examining how John Hemsworth died.
He also referred the case back to the appropriate authorities with a direction that it should proceed in front of another coroner.
The judge issued the directions after declaring there were enough grounds for reasonable suspicion to warrant a full and public investigation into the circumstances.
“I consider it striking that the deceased reported to his wife and father that the police who beat him up also confronted him at another point some time later,” he said.
An examination of the records showed officers were at the location of the alleged confrontation on the night in question.
Mr Hemsworth (39) died in January 1998 – months after he was attacked and suffered a broken jaw as he walked home along Malcolmson Street in the city.
Following the assault in July 1997 he returned home and told his wife that RUC officers had beat him with truncheons and batons.
It was also alleged that he had been verbally abused by police at nearby Dunville Park before he arrived home at Conway Square.
The court heard how he told his wife “the Peelers have beaten me”, despite being unable to speak properly.
Although Mr Hemsworth’s death was first registered as due to natural causes, his family called in a professor who reported in 1999 that the assault was likely to have been a direct underlying factor.
The Attorney General then ordered an inquest to be held into the circumstances of the death.
During the judicial review hearing it emerged that the coroner believed no police officers could give any relevant evidence.
The court was also told that a Police Ombudsman investigation concluded no further steps could be taken due to inconsistencies.
Mr Justice Weatherup recognised criticisms could be made, such as Mr Hemsworth’s failure to say that police were allegedly responsible when he went for hospital treatment.
But he listed a series of grounds for suspicion in the case, including the dead man telling his wife, father and solicitor that officers beat him, and statements from two other witnesses in the case.
Mr Justice Weatherup also referred to a police presence at the scene around the general time of the alleged attack.
“Of course there are many criticisms to be made of all the matters I have referred to,” the judge acknowledged.
He added, however: “The coroner has applied the wrong test [over] whether or not there should be further examination of police involvement and whether police should be called as witnesses.
“He has concluded there is no independent evidence and thus the police evidence is not relevant.
“The test is whether there are grounds for reasonable suspicion… to warrant a full and public investigation. Undoubtedly that is so.”
Irish News
10/03/2009
A SUSPECTED dissident republican jailed for possessing explosives failed to have his return to prison overturned yesterday.
Terence McCafferty (40) received a 12-year sentence in 2005 for an attempt to blow up a car tax office in central Belfast.
McCafferty, from the New Lodge area of the city, was freed on licence last November, only to be rearrested the following month.
NIO minister Paul Goggins authorised the revocation move on the grounds of a serious risk to the public and the possibility of further offences being committed.
Since then he has been held at Maghaberry Prison near Lisburn, Co Antrim. Lawyers for McCafferty challenged the move by claiming that only Secretary of State Shaun Woodward had the power to deprive him of his liberty.
But an application for a writ of habeas corpus to secure his release was dismissed by two judges at the High Court.
McCafferty was convicted of possessing explosives with intent to endanger life in connection with a bomb plot in November 2002.
He had been part of a two-man team who planted an improvised incendiary device outside the motor tax office at Upper Queen Street.
His co-accused, 30-year-old Paul Donnelly, from Colinview Street in Belfast, was shot and wounded by police as the two tried to escape.
Under the remission rules McCafferty was released from prison after serving six years of his sentence.
But he was detained last December at Belfast International Airport as he returned from honeymoon.
As part of McCafferty’s challenge his lawyers also claimed Mr Goggins’s role meant it was not appropriate for him to revoke the licence.
But Mr Justice Weatherup, sitting with Mr Justice Treacy, ruled: “We do not find any basis for finding that the minister of state for security should be disqualified.”
It is not yet known if McCafferty will appeal the verdict.
News Letter
11 March 2009
A REWARD of £100,000 has been offered for information which will lead to the conviction of the perpetrators of Ulster’s shooting atrocities.
Crime-fighting charity, Crimestoppers, and Britain’s biggest selling newspaper, The Sun, have teamed up to offer the monetary reward which will lead to the arrest of the killers of soldiers, Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar, and PSNI officer, Stephen Carroll.
Two males, a 17-year-old youth and a 37-year-old man, remain in police custody after being arrested on Tuesday in connection with the Craigavon shooting of the police constable.
Crimestoppers’ chief executive, Mick Laurie made a plea for members of the public to come forward with information.
He said: “People in the community will know who carried out these atrocities and they may not be able to tell the police for fear of retribution.
“Crimestoppers is not part of the police, we can guarantee anonymity, no one will ever know who has called as we don’t record or trace calls and we don’t take names.
He added: “All Crimestoppers needs is any information the public can give us, which will help the police arrest these perpetrators and you could claim this cash reward.”
BBC
11 Mar 08
Dissident republicans have said they killed Constable Stephen Carroll, sapper Patrick Azimkar and sapper Mark Quinsey
Two and a half thousand people have attended a silent vigil in Derry to show their anger at three murders by dissident republicans.
Thousands more also attended protests in Belfast, Lisburn, Newry and Downpatrick.
The mayor of Derry, Gerard Diver, has opened a peace book for the public to sign in the foyer of the Guildhall.
Inspector John Burrows said everyone in the police service appreciated the public’s support.
“We are massively grateful for the people of Derry who’ve turned out to support the police,” he said.
“They know what service we give them, and when they’ve seen one of our colleagues brutally murdered, the people of Derry are standing here today.
“They have come to show solidarity, I believe, with the police and to send a very clear message out to the people who killed Constable Stephen Carroll and the two soldiers that they do not represent them.”
Most of the rallies were organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Gareth Scott from the union UNITE said the Derry protest allowed ordinary people to make their voices heard.
“I think it’s important that we as the people show that this is not in our name.
“This is not what we want.
“We want to give people an opportunity to show what they feel, that they don’t want to return to the bad old days of the troubles.”
Dissident republican group, the Continuity IRA, said it shot Constable Carroll at Lismore Manor, in Craigavon, on Monday.
The Continuity IRA has claimed responsibility for the Craigavon killing
On Saturday, sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, and Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, were shot dead at Massereene Army base, Antrim.
The Real IRA said they killed the soldiers, who died in a hail of bullets as they accepted a pizza delivery at about 2120 GMT.
A youth aged 17 and a 37-year-old man remain in police custody for questioning in connection with the murder of Constable Carroll.
Michael Evans, Philip Webster and David Sharrock
The Times
March 11, 2009
MI5 is ploughing resources into Northern Ireland as security officials admitted that there was a significant gap in their knowledge of the personnel and resources of the dissident republican groups.
Until recently MI5’s operations against dissident Irish terrorists had absorbed 15 per cent of the total amount spent on all forms of counter-terrorism, which represents 91 per cent of the annual budget, believed to be about £300 million. Yesterday Whitehall officials said that MI5 had increased the proportion of the budget to be spent on counter-Irish terrorism to meet the growing threat from the Real IRA and Continuity IRA.
More staff with Irish counter-terrorism backgrounds will be sent to work at MI5’s new headquarters at Loughside, in Palace Barracks, Holywood, Co Down.
Although the main figures in the Real IRA and Continuity IRA are known from their Provisional IRA pedigree, officials said that the groups had been recruiting young republicans with “clean” backgrounds. These new members, who are probably being trained on both sides of the Irish border, were more difficult to trace and identify.
MI5 and the Police Serivce of Northern Ireland (PSNI) admitted that it was a challenge hunting down dissident group members because they were scattered geographically in close-knit republican communities.
One security source said: “The fragmented groups present a challenging target. They don’t have a structure like the Provisional IRA.”
Officials also admitted that it was alarming that the groups appeared to have access to more sophisticated weapons. The semi-automatic rifles used by the Real IRA gunmen who killed the two soldiers on Saturday night are believed to be part of a new stock of weapons, possibly sourced from Eastern Europe or farther afield.
Some of the arms they are known to possess are “legacy” weapons, retrieved from Provisional IRA dumps. The Provisionals said that they had destroyed all their weapons in a “decommissioning” process that was overseen by independent witnesses. But Semtex, provided to the Provisionals by Libya in the 1980s, has been recovered from dissident republican explosive devices.
Security sources admitted there were real fears that the Continuity IRA and Real IRA were working in tandem. “It’s possible that there was some communication about these two incidents, with one group telling the other that it would follow the targeting of the Massereene Barracks with its own attack,” a security official said.
There appeared to have been a level of “basic co-operation”, the officials said. “They do talk to each other, depending on where they are and who they are,” one official said.
There was no evidence, officials said, that the dissident groups had been joined by former Provisional IRA members who had been convicted of terrorist crimes and released under the Good Friday agreement.
Gordon Brown has asked for extra security briefings on Northern Ireland. When the threat there was raised from “substantial” to “severe” last week, Mr Brown, who was on his trip to Washington, was told immediately, The Times has learnt.
The Prime Minister is regularly updated both by Robert Hannigan, his chief security adviser at the Cabinet Office, and Sir Hugh Orde, the Chief Constable of Northern Ireland.
He has taken an increased interest in the past year, with several visits to Northern Ireland. When the peace process hit trouble over policing towards the end of last year Mr Brown spent much of one week deeply involved.
4NI.co.uk
11 March 09
Following claims by the dissident republican group, the Continuity IRA, that it murdered Constable Stephen Paul Carroll in Co Armagh on Monday, arrests have been made.
Two people, aged 17 and 37, have been held in connection with the murder of the first PSNI officer event to die in such circumstances.
He was shot and killed as he answered a distress call at Lismore Manor, Craigavon.
The incident occurred just two days after the other dissident group, the Real IRA murdered two soldiers in Antrim.
Meanwhile, there have been minor disturbances in Craigavon last night and wheelie bins set on fire after police raided homes near the scene of the killing.
Police said they were monitoring the situation and advised drivers to avoid the Ardowen area of Craigavon.
Constable Carroll, 48, a married man, with children from Banbridge, Co Down, died when police were attacked as they responded to a woman’s call for help.
Constable Carroll was shot through the rear window of his police car when he arrived at the scene at about 9.45pm on Monday.
At the time, police said they were looking for a man in a light-coloured top who was seen running from the area after the shooting.
At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Chief Superintendent Alan Todd said the constable had given 23 years of service to the community, working with the police service.
Wife’s grief over murdered policeman
By Shane Phelan, Claire McNeilly and Deborah McAleese
Independent
Wednesday March 11 2009
THE widow of a Catholic policeman murdered by an IRA splinter group denounced the futility of his death last night amid a wave of revulsion over the killing.
Stephen Carroll (48) was shot in the head by a Continuity IRA gunman as he and his colleagues answered a 999 call that turned out to be a trap.
Hours earlier, he had left home reassuring his anxious wife: “Don’t worry. They won’t get me.”
Kate Carroll said: “A good husband has been taken away from me and my life has been destroyed. And what for? A piece of land that my husband is only going to get six feet of. These people have just taken my life as well.”
Last night, a teenager and a 37-year-old man were being quizzed over the brutal murder after a series of raids across the North.
As the Continuity IRA claimed responsibility for Constable Carroll’s death in Craigavon, Co Armagh, Martin McGuinness delivered Sinn Fein’s strongest-ever condemnation of dissidents, describing the gunmen as “traitors to the island of Ireland”.
Constable Carroll is the first PSNI officer to be murdered in the North and the first policeman killed since two RUC men in 1997. Mr McGuinness, a former IRA commander, visited Constable Carroll’s widow and said: “These people are traitors to the island of Ireland. They have betrayed the political desires, hopes and aspirations of all the people who live on this island.”
Taoiseach Brian Cowen condemned the killing and said the peace process would not be stopped by the “evil people” who had murdered Constable Carroll.
“Everybody is absolutely united. The peace process is unshakeable,” he said in Dublin.
His comments were echoed last night following an urgent security summit in Hillsborough, Co Down, attended by Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward and the North’s security minister Paul Goggins.
Mr Ahern revealed that he had received cabinet approval yesterday to fast-track a bill which will allow covert surveillance to be used in evidence in Irish courts to convict gangland criminals and terrorists.
The North summit was held just hours after a 17-year-old youth and a 37-year-old man were arrested in connection with the murder of Constable Carroll on Monday night.
The arrests followed a number of searches in the Craigavon and Lurgan areas.
The murder was carried out just 48 hours after two British army engineers were gunned down outside their barracks in Antrim by the Real IRA.
Security sources said it was not yet clear whether the two terror groups were now working together on an orchestrated campaign against the army and police forces.
Competing
It had been feared for some time that the two dissident groupings were “competing” over which one could carry out the killing of a police officer first.
The latest murder sparked a wave of revulsion across the North.
Thousands of people are expected to take to the streets today in Belfast, Derry and Newry for peace rallies organised by union leaders.
Constable Carroll, from Banbridge, Co Down, had lived for several years in Newbridge, Co Kildare. The Catholic police officer had been due to retire next year and was looking forward to taking up a new career as a personal trainer.
The North’s Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, vowed that the PSNI would not stop until they had caught those responsible for the murders of Constable Carroll and the two soldiers.
By Victoria O’Hara
Independent.ie
Wednesday March 11 2009
THOUSANDS are expected to pour onto the streets of Northern Ireland today for a series of peace rallies in defiance of the RIRA and CIRA murderers.
After a wave of condemnation of murders of PSNI constable Stephen Carroll and British soldiers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar the public are now expected to voice their anger.
The Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) have called for the public to participate in the protests at Belfast City Hall, Derry Guildhall Square and Newry Town Hall from 1pm today.
Peter Bunting, assistant general secretary of the ICTU, said the public must face down those behind the killings with a “massive display of the unity of the people of Northern Ireland.
Delinquents
“This show of strength from civil society will send a clear message to the killers who do not deserve the monopoly of the word ‘dissident’. The word is too good for them. They are delinquents,” he said. “A clear message will also go to the outside world which makes clear the decency and humanity of the people of Northern Ireland.”
Clergy leaders have also voiced their condemnation at the two atrocities. The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland Rev Alan Harper, appealed for the community to help the police.
“Violent acts do not serve the legitimate political aspirations of anyone on this island,” he said.
The Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education said now is the time for strong leadership.
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