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Paul Malone
Newry Times
10 Feb 2012
**Via Newshound
The Smithwick Tribunal has revealed that up to 70 people may have been involved in the murders of two high ranking RUC officers in 1989. The Smithwick Tribunal heard from retired British Army Brigadier Ian Liles, who worked as an intelligence officer in the border area at the time of the ambush. Speaking about the hours leading up to the murders, Liles said that radio traffic between IRA members started between 11:30am and 12 noon on the day, just hours before Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan left Newry RUC Station to cross the Irish border.
The public hearings, which began on Tuesday 7th June 2011, aim to establish whether there was Gardaì collusion in the Provisional IRA murders of two senior RUC officers near the border in 1989. Smithwick has called in evidence from a wide range of sources since it began last June. The legal team for the Tribunal held face-to-face meetings with three former Provisional IRA members in recent months, one of whom allegedly had a commanding role in the attack. According to the legal team, the Provisional IRA members gave “detailed accounts” and replied to all questions from the inquiry team.
Newry British agent Kevin Fulton, who also released a detailed book (Unsung Hero) – documenting his Provisional IRA and covert British Army career – told the Smithwick Tribunal several months ago that there was “not a day when the IRA was not trying to kill a member of the security forces.” Fulton went on to tell Judge Smithwick that he had been supplied with a Triumph Dolomite car by the security services and asked to drive through notoriously IRA active parts of South Armagh to check for checkpoints.
The two RUC men, the two highest ranked police officers killed during the ‘Troubles’, were killed on their way home from Dundalk after a secret meeting with senior Gardaì officials. Last year the Smithwick Tribunal heard how Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan had promised not to cross the Irish border just four days prior to their murder. One witness spoke of his ‘surprise’ that Buchanan had crossed the border a staggering ten times in the four weeks before his murder.
Liles transcript of evidence, which was read out at the Tribunal, told of how he took up the role of Intelligence Officer along the border in the weeks after the RUC murders. He explained that there was analysis of information which suggested, in his view, around 70 people may have been involved in the ambush. He described how some of that figure would have been ‘beaters’ – who would check and beat hedges in the area to check for British army patrols before removing nearby arms – and others he described as ‘spotters’ – who would have been involved in looking out for patrols in the area – and then the gunmen actively involved in the murders.
The hearing continues.
By Donal Hickey
Irish Examiner
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Angry constituents of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Minister Jimmy Deenihan are due to protest again outside his office in Listowel, Co Kerry today against the ban on turf-cutting.
Up to 40 families want Mr Deenihan to lift the ban on turf-cutting in the nearby Moanveanlagh bog.
An EU directive is to end turf-cutting on 53 bogs designated Special Areas of Conservation, including several in Roscommon, Galway and Offaly.
The Listowel turf-cutters say they will picket Mr Deenihan’s office every Saturday between 11.30am and 1pm until March 7, the day the EU ban comes into effect. Michael Looney, spokesman for the Kerry Turf Cutters and Contractors’ Association, said they were not prepared to accept an offer from Mr Deenihan’s department to relocate to non-SAC bogs in the area.
“We have several hundred acres of bog in pristine condition and all of us are living within a kilometre of the bog, where our families have been cutting turf for generations. If we start bringing in turf from other bogs it would defeat the whole purpose,” he said.
Mr Looney said they intend to continue cutting turf and will join turf-cutters from around the country in a protest outside Leinster House on March 7. But he said they are still willing to talk to Mr Deenihan.
Mr Deenihan said his department had signed contracts with individuals in Galway and Offaly to move to un-designated bogs. Funding had been secured to facilitate relocation.
By Caroline O’Doherty
Irish Examiner
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Priory Hall residents will mark four months out of their homes with a protest march tomorrow to highlight the legal limbo in which they are trapped.
Almost 250 homeowners and tenants, evacuated by court order from the Dublin apartment complex after it was declared a fire hazard, have been in temporary accommodation in hotels and other rental properties since October.
Dublin City Council, which secured the evacuation order, is trying to get out of paying for the alternative accommodation and an application to that effect will be before the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The council says Tom McFeely, the developer behind the substandard complex, should pay for the accommodation and for repairs to Priory Hall, but he was declared bankrupt in England last month.
Niall O’Reilly, spokesman for the residents, said they were growing increasingly anxious and stressed. “It’s the way it’s dragging on and the uncertainty about what’s ahead that’s so hard,” he said. “We’re still paying the mortgages on our homes in Priory Hall, even though we can’t live in them and probably will never live in them again. If the council stop paying the rent on our temporary accommodation, the mortgage payments will have to take a backseat because none of us can afford both.
“What happens to us then? It’s all very well for Tom McFeely to declare himself bankrupt and start afresh after a year, but we can’t take off to England to do that. And if we were made bankrupt, we’d be affected for life.”
The complex was sealed off last October for remedial works, but they were abandoned after a few weeks when Mr McFeely said he had no money to complete them.
Mr O’Reilly said the condition of the buildings was deteriorating all the time.
The residents have appealed repeatedly to Environment Minister Phil Hogan to meet them but in the last week he refused for a fourth time to do so, saying it would be “inappropriate” while legal proceedings were continuing.
Tomorrow’s march begins at 2pm at Donaghmede Shopping Centre and will carry on to Priory Hall.
:::u.tv:::
10 Feb 2012
A “chilling” recorded phone call made by the killers of two young soldiers at Massereene barracks in 2009 has been released by police, in the hope the public will help them to identify those involved.
The investigation into the dissident republican gun attack, which killed Sappers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar, is continuing after the conviction and sentencing of Magherafelt man Brian Shivers.
While he must serve at least 25 years in jail for his part in the murder plot, detectives know that others were also involved – including the two gunmen who opened fire on the soldiers.
“It’s our duty to bring as many of those individuals who were involved in this atrocity before the court,” Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Justyn Galloway, said.
“Anyone who listens to what the boys’ mothers have said and who knows anything about the murders or can identify the voices on the phone recording should do the right thing and talk to police.”
–DCI Justyn Galloway
“Following the conclusion of the trial last month, when the inadvertently recorded call was used as evidence, we are now making the recording available in a public attempt to identify the voices on it.”
The recording was found on a mobile phone left in the green Vauxhall Cavalier car used as a getaway car by the Real IRA gang behind the shooting – it was found partially burnt-out at Ranaghan Road, about eight miles from the scene of the attack.
The Azimkar and Quinsey families were not in Belfast on Friday to hear Shivers’ jail tariff being set, but made written statements to the court regarding the impact the fatal shootings had on their lives.
“A mother thinks she will hold her child’s hand for the rest of her life. Now my hand is empty and lost,” Pamela Quinsey, Mark’s mother, said.
“I get no rest from the hurt and torment it has caused us all.”
Geraldine Ferguson, Patrick’s mother, added: “We have all changed, all aged – our hearts and souls are no longer light but weighed down with sorrow and loss.”
DCI Galloway praised the families for their dignified conduct throughout the past three years and urged anyone who could identify the voices to come forward.
South Antrim Ulster Unionist MLA Danny Kinahan added his voice to the appeals for help.
“One of the most powerful images in the aftermath of the Masserene murders was the sight of the Antrim community walking out of the town’s churches and standing side by side in silent tribute. There were no Protestants and no Catholics that day – just a community united in shock and anger and determined to show the world that they wanted no part of this atrocity.”
–Danny Kinahan, UUP
“Today’s sentence will not bring back the two murdered soldiers, but I hope it will provide a small degree of comfort to the men’s families,” he said.
“While the Antrim community will welcome the fact that one of the murderers has been sent to jail, the fact remains that other guilty people are still at large and posing a threat to the lives of others.”
Detectives investigating the murder plot have already gathered nearly 9,000 related documents and taken 1,858 witness statements.
A total of 33 searches and 14 arrests have been made to date, resulting in one conviction – namely Brian Shivers.
Another person – veteran republican Marian Price – has yet to go on trial on a related charge of providing property for the purposes of terrorism.
SAOIRSE32 
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