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Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams today gave the Easter Rising Commemoration oration at the republican plot in Milltown Cemetery .
Mr. Adams said that while it may take some unionists time to realise that the situation has changed “their leaders know that there is no going back to the old days of sectarian domination and two-tier citizenship.
The relationship between the North of Ireland and Britain has also been fundamentally altered and an increasingly confident republican community is taking co-ownership, as is our right, of every sphere of public, political and institutional life here.
And importantly a peaceful and democratic path to a united Ireland has been opened up.
But that does not mean that we republicans can sit back and wait for the British government to do the right thing for Ireland . We need to organise for freedom.”
Commenting on the so called republican dissidents the Sinn Féin leader said:
“I uphold the right of everyone to dissent from Sinn Féin’s point of view.
But no one is entitled to hijack our proud republican history and our republican future and abuse it for narrow selfish interests or self gain.
Sinn Féin, standing firmly on a republican platform, sets ourselves firmly against those elements who do this.”
Speaking about the current economic crisis Mr. Adams said:
“The dire economic situation is the number one issue for many people today.
Predictions of half a million citizens on the dole by Christmas give some sense of the difficulties facing working people across this island.
I note assertions by DUP ministers after the layoffs at Bombardier, FG Wilson and Visteon that there is little that a devolved administration can do in the face of a global crisis. I disagree.
We can always do more. We can be imaginative and innovative.
And if we have not enough powers, as the DUP appears to suggest, then it makes economic sense as well as political sense, that we should take whatever powers we need to do the job we are elected to do.
Sinn Féin is working to build an economy which serves the needs of Irish society and not the other way around.
While working to improve the quality of life in the here and now, we see a united Irish economy as the best option…
There is little difference between the social and economic policies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
Both pay lip service to republican principles and to the Proclamation. Both govern in the interests of elites and against the interests of citizens …
Sinn Féin is ready to join with other political parties, trade unions, community and voluntary organisations to forge a new political alliance for change in Ireland .
Such an alternative would seek to combine economic success with social responsibility. It would foster prosperity and equality.”
And finally he said:
“Republicans must ensure that the Irish Government does not renege on its obligations to the political institutions and all-Ireland integration.
For our part Sinn Féin will continue to push for Northern representation in the Oireachtas.
We will continue to work for an Acht na Gaeilge here in the north.”
Full Text of Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams Easter speech:
A chairde, tá mé lán sásta seasamh anseo libh inniu ar Domhnach na Cásca seo le smaoineadh ar ár gcomrádaithe a chuaigh romhainn agus a caint faoi an todhcaí.
Is cuimhin linn an méid a thug ár laochrai cróga ar son saoirse na tire seo, an méid a chaill siad.
Cuidíonn seo linn nuair a bhíonn fadhbanna againn nó nuair a bhíonn muid traochta.
I just returned last night from the Middle East .
I will not dwell at length on that issue today but I will be presenting a full report of the Sinn Féin delegations views of the situation there, particularly in the Palestinian Territories .
I will make this available to anyone here who is interested.
For now let me say that the situation for the Palestinian people has deteriorated, the siege of Gaza is a shameful indictment of the International Community and within our limited capacity Sinn Féin is committed to do all that we can to rectify that situation and to assist the process to bring about a viable state for the people of Palestine.
Irish republicans are internationalist and we are assembled here today to re-commit ourselves to the ideals of the 1916 Proclamation which are at the core of the Irish republican philosophy.
We are mindful also that this year marks the 90 anniversary of An Chéad Dáil - the first and only freely elected parliament of all the Irish people.
This year also marks the 100th anniversary of Na Fianna
Éireann, first founded in Belfast by the Countess Markievicz and Bulmer Hobson.
Later this year we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Battle of the Bogside, when the citizens of Derry defeated the RUC assault on their community and signalled the beginning of a popular uprising against the Orange state.
Belfast republicans will also reflect on events in this city at that time and particularly on the Belfast pogroms of 1969.
But for now at this Easter ceremony, it is suffice to assert clearly and truthfully that while we have yet to win our freedom, the Orange state as we knew it is gone.
It may take time for some unionists to catch up, but their leaders know that there is no going back to the old days of sectarian domination and two-tier citizenship.
The relationship between the North of Ireland and Britain has also been fundamentally altered and an increasingly confident republican community is taking co-ownership, as is our right, of every sphere of public, political and institutional life here.
And importantly a peaceful and democratic path to a united Ireland has been opened up.
But that does not mean that we republicans can sit back and wait for the British government to do the right thing for Ireland . We need to organise for freedom.
The British government will only leave Ireland , when the Irish people – together – demand that they leave.
Sinn Féin’s historic duty is to popularise republicanism, and to mobilise the Irish Diaspora across the world behind the demand for Irish unity.
Our job is to ensure that the political institutions on this island deliver for all of the people and our responsibility is to build the Sinn Féin party.
Part of our work has to be to persuade unionists of the desirability of a shared, united Ireland .
That does not mean that the unionist political class have a veto over the future.
It does means that we, as genuine democrats and republicans, recognise the validity and wisdom of Tone’s great call for the unity of Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter and that we are committed to bringing this about.
So, let me thank all of our activists who are engaging in this crucially important work.
In this city at this time there is more work being done by republicans, across the sectarian divisions, in working class unionist neighbourhoods, than at any time since James Connolly lived on the Falls Road.
Of course Sinn Féin also has a job of work to deliver for the republican citizens of Belfast especially those who are disadvantaged in any way.
We do this on the basis of objective need - we work for all citizens - in the knowledge that such work is part of the endless responsibility to build and use our political strength to tackle inequality and injustice.
At this point let me say a few short words about so called republican dissidents.
I uphold the right of everyone to dissent from Sinn Féin’s point of view.
But no one is entitled to hijack our proud republican history and our republican future and abuse it for narrow selfish interests or self gain.
Sinn Féin, standing firmly on a republican platform, sets ourselves firmly against those elements who do this.
Let me also pay homage to our patriot dead, not just the men and women who fell in 1916, but to every generation of heroes and heroines and particularly those of our own time.
We are extremely proud of the volunteer soldiers of the Irish Republican Army and the activists of Sinn Fein and all others who gave their lives for Irish freedom.
We are indebted to their families.
Our resolve is to finish the work that they began and Sinn Féin is about uniting the greatest number of people in active support of this aim.
There is a part for all citizens in this great endeavour and I take this opportunity at this sacred place to appeal to everyone to join with us in this necessary work.
The dire economic situation is the number one issue for many people today.
Predictions of half a million citizens on the dole by Christmas give some sense of the difficulties facing working people across this island.
I note assertions by DUP ministers after the layoffs at Bombardier, FG Wilson and Visteon that there is little that a devolved administration can do in the face of a global crisis. I disagree.
We can always do more. We can be imaginative and innovative.
And if we have not enough powers, as the DUP appears to suggest, then it makes economic sense as well as political sense, that we should take whatever powers we need to do the job we are elected to do.
Sinn Féin is working to build an economy which serves the needs of Irish society and not the other way around.
While working to improve the quality of life in the here and now, we see a united Irish economy as the best option.
But Sinn Féin is not just about a change of flags.
There is little difference between the social and economic policies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
Both pay lip service to republican principles and to the Proclamation. Both govern in the interests of elites and against the interests of citizens
1916 saw the coming together of nationalists, republicans, language activists, Trade Unionists and the women’s movement in the cause of Irish Unity.
So, in this 100th anniversary of the formation of the Irish
Transport and General Workers Union we send greetings to the labour movement.
We recall proudly how Jim Larkin campaigned in this city and how he lit a fire that blazed in 1913 particularly in the Great Lock-Out.
We recall how James Connolly led the vanguard of that movement in the Irish Citizen Army which played a pivotal role in the 1916 Rising.
We assert with James Connolly that ‘the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour and the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland - they cannot be separated'.
But it is not enough to verbalise. Action is needed.
So Sinn Féin Féin is ready to join with other political parties, trade unions, community and voluntary organisations to forge a new political alliance for change in Ireland .
Such an alternative would seek to combine economic success with social responsibility. It would foster prosperity and equality.
Tá a lán obair maith déanta againn go dtí seo agus a lán le déanamh go fóill.
Ní bhéidh muid ag stopadh nó ní bhéidh muid ag maolú.
Is pobal aiséirithe Sinn Féin. Tá muid ag bogadh chun tosaigh agus tá mé cinnte de, tá an straitéis ceart againn.
We are also very mindful that there is a significant element within the Southern political establishment and the SDLP whose inclination is to view the Good Friday Agreement and the institutions which have arisen from it as a final political destination.
On this issue we are with Charles Stewart Parnell when he asserted, ‘No man has the right to say to his country; thus far shalt thou go and no further.’
Republicans must ensure that the Irish Government does not renege on its obligations to the political institutions and all-Ireland integration.
For our part Sinn Féin will continue to push for Northern representation in the Oireachtas.
We will continue to work for an Acht na Gaeilge here in the north.
We are the only party contesting all the Irish constituencies in the European elections in June.
There will also be local government polls in the 26 counties.
These are important elections and it is important that all of us work together once again to maximise the Sinn Féin vote.
That means republican Belfast recording the very highest possible vote for our candidate Bairbre de Brún.
So my friends, there is plenty of work for every one of us. Play your part.
40 years ago the Orange state thought it could crush us. It failed.
Today, on this Easter Sunday we stand proudly at the gravesides of our fallen comrades unbroken and unbowed and ready to persecute the next phase of our struggle.
The spirit of 1916 is needed at this time.
We leave here today confident in the reality that that spirit is alive and well in Republican Belfast and throughout republican Ireland .
There is work to be done. Let us go from here and do that work.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/real-iras-easter-message-to-mcguinness-traitors-die-1668018.html
Splinter group warns of more attacks on high-profile targets on British mainland
By Sadie Gray
Monday, 13 April 2009
Dissident republicans the Real IRA have issued an Easter statement threatening to kill Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness and resume terrorist attacks on the British mainland.
The statement, in the Irish newspaper the Sunday Tribune, branded Mr McGuinness, a former Provisional IRA commander, a traitor for holding the position of deputy First Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Mr McGuinness last month denounced the hardliners as "traitors to the people of Northern Ireland" after members of the group murdered two British soldiers outside the Massereene barracks in Armagh. Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, and Patrick Azimkar, 21, were the first troops to die in Northern Ireland since the IRA's ceasefire in 1997.
Last night, Mr McGuinness had not responded to the threat but Sinn Fein's president, Gerry Adams, told republicans at Belfast's Milltown cemetery that there would be no return to the days of "sectarian domination and two-tier citizenship".
"I uphold the right of everyone to dissent from Sinn Fein's point of view," Mr Adams said. "But no one is entitled to hijack our proud republican history and our republican future and abuse it for narrow selfish interests or self gain.
"Sinn Fein, standing firmly on a republican platform, sets ourselves firmly against those elements who do this."
The Sunday Tribune, which has published Real IRA statements before, quoted an anonymous spokesman who said London would again become a target; in 2000, the splinter group launched a rocket at MI6's headquarters on the South Bank and detonated a car bomb outside BBC Television Centre.
The spokesman said: "A former comrade [Martin McGuinness] has come full circle and with a knight of the British realm [Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde] at his shoulder he has labelled our gallant volunteers as traitors to justify his Redmondite [opposed to violent republicanism] stance and home rule politics.
"Let us remind our former comrade of the nature and actions of a traitor. Treachery is collaborating with the enemy, treachery is betraying your country." The spokesman also referred to the murder in 2006 of Denis Donaldson, a former head of Sinn Fein's administration at Stormont who was shot in a remote cottage in Co Donegal four months after confessing to having spied for the British. The Real IRA was due to claim responsibility for his death which rocked the peace process at a rally in Londonderry today.
"Let us give our one-time comrade an example. Denis Donaldson was a traitor and the leadership of the Provisional movement, under guidance from the British Government, made provision for Donaldson to escape republican justice," he said.
"It fell to the volunteers of Oglaigh na hEireann [the IRA] to carry out the sentence and punishment demanded in our army orders and by the wider republican family. No traitor will escape justice regardless of time, rank, past actions. The republican movement has a long memory."
The spokesman threatened attacks on the mainland "when it becomes opportune," and said high-profile targets would be sought out. In Northern Ireland, young Catholic PSNI recruits could be killed if they refused to leave the force: "Any young person fool enough to join the colonial police in the belief that the leadership of the Provisional movement will protect them or give them cover is sadly mistaken."
Sir Hugh Orde warned days before the Massereene murders on 7 March that the threat from republican dissidents was the highest it had been in his seven-year tenure as Chief Constable.
http://saoirse32.blogsome.com/2009/04/12/full-story-of-brutal-killings-may-never-be-known/
From R.S.F. News
SAOIRSE
10 April 2009
THE full story of the brutal murders of Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine on a lonely country road nine years ago may never be known, despite loyalist Steven Brown being sent to prison for at least 30 years on April 3.
David McIlwaine’s father Paul McIlwaine speaking on April 3 welcomed the fact that his son’s killer will not be eligible for release until he is almost 60 years old.
But Paul McIlwaine, who described Brown as a “pebble in an ocean”, believes that at least one other person involved in the murder was protected because he is a British Colonial police informer.
Brown, who at the time was known as Steven Revels, was first charged with the teenagers’ murders in 2000 alongside mid-Ulster loyalists Mark Burcombe and Noel Dillon.
However, within months the charges were unexpectedly dropped despite the victims’ families saying they were told there was ample evidence to bring the killers to justice.
In 2005 the charges were resurrected when Burcombe, who is understood to have undergone a religious conversion, walked into an RUC/PSNI station and confessed his role.
Dillon died in 2005 after apparently taking his own life.
In February last year the joint trial of Burcombe and Brown was dramatically halted when it emerged that murder charges against Burcombe were to be dropped in exchange for him agreeing to give evidence against his co-accused.
Burcombe later pleaded guilty to reduced charges of grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
However, he had already served the equivalent sentence while on remand. He was spirited out of the Six Counties and is now living on a witness-protection scheme.
It was the first time that a ‘supergrass’ had been used in a Six-County court in 25 years. The reintroduction of the controversial system has caused concern among victims’ families.
“I understand fully his evidence was used and was compelling as to the actions of Revels and Dillon but his own role in the murders is yet to be explored,” Paul McIlwaine said. “I don’t believe for one minute he told the complete truth and it’s an issue that will be taken up as soon as possible.”
Loyalist sources confirmed Burcombe’s role as a senior figure in the mid-Ulster UVF. He is understood to have personally driven Brown to Belfast to be sworn into the loyalist death-squad in 1999.
Paul McIlwaine’s campaign to bring his son’s killers to justice has also uncovered evidence that another loyalist implicated in the murders was paid £500,000 for building work on British Crown force bases over a three-year period after the killings.
Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine had been murdered by the UVF in retaliation for the LVF killing of UVF Portadown leader Richard Jameson weeks earlier.
Despite Jameson’s well-known links to the UVF, the RUC/PSNI admitted in September 2007 that £320,000 had been paid to his building firm and to another Co Armagh contractor for work carried out on various British Colonial police stations over a six-year period.
In November last year RUC/PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde publicly apologised to the families, admitting that almost £5 million had actually been paid to the two firms.
He pledged to investigate how Jameson’s firm had won British Crown force building contracts, despite twice failing RUC vetting procedures. It is understood that a third vetting process also resulted in rejection but was overturned on appeal by the British ‘Northern Ireland Office’.
In March Orde admitted that a total of £11 million had in fact been paid to the two Co Armagh building firms.
It is known that nearly £500,000 of this was paid to the second contractor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, despite him having been a key suspect in the teenagers’ murder.
Questioned as to how two builders with alleged links to the UVF could have received millions of pounds in British government contracts, the Orde said: “We have con- tracts with many builders, many who may have history, evidence or intelligence or whatever.
“If the [policing] board want to instruct me not to use A, B or C then that is fine – but I suggest that the board would need legal advice and I do think extreme care needs to be taken as to what is said in public.”
http://saoirse32.blogsome.com/2009/04/12/mla-condemns-graffiti-near-scene-of-shooting/
News Letter
10 April 2009
SINISTER graffiti daubed only yards from where a police officer was brutally murdered was condemned last night.
The message ‘Touts will be shot’ is prevalent on the gable of a bus stop in the Lismore area of Craigavon.
Last month, Constable Stephen Carroll was gunned down by dissident republicans as he responded to a routine call with colleagues.
The PSNI officer, the first to be murdered in the new dispensation, was shot dead 48 hours after the killings of two soldiers at the Massereene Army barracks in Antrim.
Three men have since been charged in connection with the 48-year-old’s death.
Information emanating from the predominantly republican area is thought to have assisted police with their inquiries.
DUP MLA for the area Stephen Moutray described the graffiti as “sickening”.
“This message comes from cowards who crawl about in the night and who won’t come out and identify themselves in daytime,” he said.
“The mentality of the so-called people who do this sort of thing must be questioned and there is no place for it in our society.
“I don’t believe for a second that this graffiti represents many people within the borough of Craigavon.”
The Upper Bann representative expressed the hope that the vandalism, believed to have appeared only in the last number of days, would be quickly eradicated by the relevant authorities.
Mr Moutray said: “I will be contacting the council as soon
as possible to ensure that it (the graffiti) is removed.”
A 17-year-old youth was the first person to be formally charged in relation to the incident.
Former Sinn Fein councillor Brendan McConville, 37, has also been charged with Constable Carroll’s murder.
A 21-year-old man has been accused of withholding information about the fatal shooting.
Earlier this week Const Carroll’s widow, Kate, pleaded with dissident republicans to stop their “nonsensical behaviour”.
The mother-of-one called for the men who killed her husband “to channel their energy in other, positive, ways and leave our island in the peace that the majority of the people of Ireland want”.
The Continuity IRA claimed responsibility for the policeman’s murder which caused revulsion across Northern Ireland and the world.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/sinn-fein-blame-dissidents-for-arson-attack-14267424.html?r=RSS
Monday, 13 April 2009
Sinn Fein has blamed dissident republicans for a weekend arson attack on one of its constituency offices in Londonderry.
Smoke and electrical damage was caused after petrol was poured through the front door of the office and set alight, a party spokesman said.
The arson incident happened sometime on Saturday night or early yesterday morning at the unit at Rathmore shopping centre in the Creggan after the vandals cut through metal shutters.
Derry Sinn Fein chairperson Paul Fleming said: “If those who carried out this attack think they were striking a blow for Irish freedom then they are deluding themselves.
“I can best describe them as no better than counter-insurgency groups that are heavily infiltrated and controlled by British intelligence services.”
He said they destroyed pictures of former hunger striker Bobby Sands' election victory announcement, portraits of other hunger strikers and republican memorabilia.
Mr Fleming added: “It is becoming clearer after every action carried out by these enemies of the peace process that their main target is not British rule in Ireland but Sinn Fein's success in dismantling the influence of the British government in Irish affairs.
“These impostors will not deter us from our agenda.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0413/1224244556795.html
RUADHAN Mac CORMAIC, Migration Correspondent
Mon, Apr 13, 2009
THE DRAMATIC easing of inward migration flows to the Republic has continued in the early months of the year, with the number of citizens from the EU’s newer member states registering to work or access public services falling by 57 per cent.
With a similarly steep decline in the number of work permits issued to migrants from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), and a drop of 16 per cent in new asylum applications, the figures suggest a significant overall decline in new arrivals as the economy shrinks.
Statistics collated by the Department of Social and Family Affairs show that 8,590 people from the 12 states that joined the EU since 2004 were granted PPS numbers between January and March, a 57 per cent fall on the same period last year.
The trend was even more striking among Polish migrants, with their take-up of PPS numbers falling by 62 per cent over the same period.
The figures have confirmed a trend that was firmly established last year.
After an initial surge in new arrivals from eastern and central Europe after 10 new states joined the bloc in May 2004, the post-enlargement flow appears to have reached its peak in 2006 and has been easing steadily since then.
The number of citizens from the EU12 who claimed PPS numbers in the second half of 2008 was down 47 per cent on the same period in 2007.
The decline is partly explained by the contracting Irish economy and improvements in labour markets elsewhere.
Separate data shows that 2,092 work permits were issued to migrants from outside the EEA between January and March this year, a fall of 58 per cent on the same period in 2008.
These permits are granted for jobs that cannot be filled from within the EEA, and exclude labourers, childminders and most catering staff.
However, annual comparisons are complicated by an administrative change made in early 2007 that means work permits no longer need to be renewed each year.
Another downward trend, albeit less pronounced, can be seen in the asylum system, where 524 new claims for refugee status were made in the first two months of the year – this is a 16 per cent fall on the equivalent figure last year.
Nigeria, at 24 per cent, was the top country of origin.
It was followed by Pakistan (12 per cent), China (6 per cent), Zimbabwe (5 per cent) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (4 per cent).
A general easing of the inward migration flow would be in keeping with overall international trends.
In Britain, which joined Ireland and Sweden in opening its labour market to new EU citizens in May 2004, the number of central and eastern Europeans going there to work dropped by 47 per cent as the economy moved into recession at the end of last year.
As is the case in Ireland, the fall was largely accounted for by a significant drop in the number of Poles.
© 2009 The Irish Times
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/seamus-heaney-hailed-as-he-hits-70-14267423.html?r=RSS
Monday, 13 April 2009
He looked like an unassuming schoolboy in 1950s Londonderry, but today Seamus Heaney will mark his 70th birthday and a life filled with poetic lyricism.
DARREN KIDD
By Breda Heffernan
Born the eldest of nine children on a Northern Ireland farm, he would become one of the most prolific and best-loved poets in the country with his 1995 win of the Nobel Prize cementing his standing as a heavyweight in the literary world.
Tonight he will join family, friends and fellow artists for a birthday celebration at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in Kilmainham in Dublin.
Mr Heaney will be honoured with a number of events from art exhibitions to television documentaries and specially commissioned performances of his works. Fans will be treated to a non-stop 12-hour marathon of his poetry — read by the man himself — on RTE Radio One Extra starting at 9am this morning.
A new exhibition at IMMA, ‘Artists/Heaney/Books: An Exhibition’, will also open today to coincide with his birthday party. It features collaborations between the poet and his artist friends such as Louis le Brocquy and Basil Blackshaw among others.
Sligo-based artist Barrie Cooke will unveil a pair of editioned prints, ‘Guttural Muse’ and ‘In The Boathouse’, featuring excerpts from Mr Heaney’s poetry written in the poet’s own hand.
In an interview which will be published to coincide with the exhibition, Mr Heaney talks about his collaborations with artists.
“I don’t think...an artist needs any specialised access to poems in order to make a significant response. It’s enough if the words set him or her to work.
“I’ve always liked the old schoolroom definition of work as moving a certain force through a certain distance, so you could argue that all that’s required is some stimulus to start that move, something that says to the artist — ‘The force be with you’.”
Born in 1939 to a nationalist family living near Castledawson, Co Londonderry, his rural up-bringing would become a rich harvest for his poetry. The talented young Seamus won a scholarship to study at St Columb’s College in Londonderry and later studied at Queen’s University in Belfast as the Troubles broke out.
It was while studying at university that his creativity flourished and he wrote his first book of poetry. After several teaching and lecturing jobs in Northern Ireland, he moved with his wife Marie, and their children Michael, Christopher and Catherine, to the peaceful idyll of Glanmore in Co Wicklow.
In 1983, along with his old friend, playwright Brian Field, and actor Stephen Rea, he co-founded Field Day Publishing. It later published an open letter in which Heaney criticised Penguin Books for including his work in an anthology of contemporary British poetry. “Be advised, my passport’s green / No glass of ours was ever raised / To toast the Queen,” he wrote.
In 1995 he received the highest honour for a poet when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Announcing his win, the Nobel committee commended his poems as “works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past”.
http://www.archaeologydaily.com/news/index.php?/Wood-you-believe-it-Stonehenge-find-at-Tara.html
April, 12 2009
Independent Ireland
SCIENTISTS have unearthed what appears to be a mammoth wooden version of the famous Stonehenge monument at the Hill of Tara.
An artist's impression of how the mammoth wooden version of Britain's famous Stonehenge monument would have looked at the Hill of Tara in Co MeathIn a revealing new RTE documentary, many theories and insights into the country's prehistoric past and 150,000 ancient monuments are unveiled and explained.
For the first time, people will be able to view a computer-generated recreation of what archaeologists believe was a major wooden structure -- a version of Britain's Stonehenge -- at the ancient seat of the Irish high kings in the Hill of Tara in Co Meath.
Archaeologist Joe Fenwick revealed a LiDAR (Light Detecting and Ranging) laser beam had been used to scan the ground surface to create a three-dimensional map, which revealed more than 30 monuments around Tara.
Using another technique -- described as taking an X-ray through the hillside -- archaeologists discovered the huge monument, a ditch stretching six metres wide and three metres deep in the bedrock.
The ditch, circling the Mound of the Hostages passage tomb, separated the outside world from the ceremonial centre of Tara.
It was believed the ancient architects had also surrounded the ditch with a massive wooden structure on each side -- a version of Stonehenge -- on a large scale. Its sheer size meant a whole forest would have had to be cleared to build it.
"In scale, it is comparable, for example, to Croke Park's pitch. The Hill of Tara had enormous ritual significance over the course of 5,000-6,000 years, so it's not surprising that you get monuments of the scale of the ditch pit circle," said Mr Fenwick, from the Department of Archaeology, NUI Galway.
Cutting-edge technology is helping to provide a new insight into the lives of our ancestors, according to the documentary makers behind 'Secrets of the Stones'.
Civilisation
It shows Ireland's first civilisation began 7,000 years ago, they withstood major climatic changes and voyaged throughout Europe, returning with new religions and mementos.
An RTE spokesman said the broadcaster, along with the Department of Education, would be sending two free copies of the book accompanying the series to all second-level schools in the country.
The first part of the 'Secrets of the Stones' will be shown on RTE One at 6.30pm on Easter Monday.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0413/1224244556837.html
PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Mon, Apr 13, 2009
A CATHOLIC identity card was launched yesterday which is intended to proclaim the bearer’s personal faith and to promote the Catholic priesthood.
The card, with a picture of Pope Benedict, carries the bearer’s name and the words “I am a Catholic. In the event of an accident or emergency please contact a Catholic priest”.
It is being promoted by Quantum Universal, a group of Catholic communications lay people in Ireland and the US. The concept was devised by Marion Mulhall, chief executive of Quantum Universal, to allow people to affirm their faith and acknowledge the integral role of priests in their lives.
As well as allowing Catholics to confirm their religious identity, it will help tell others that the holder requires sacrament if sick.
The card is available free from www.worldpriest.com
© 2009 The Irish Times
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0413/1224244556488.html
HARRY McGEE, Political Staff
Mon, Apr 13, 2009
THE GOVERNMENT has said it envisages no difficulty in withdrawing pension payments from former ministers who are still TDs and Senators.
The Department of Finance confirmed yesterday that the Attorney General Paul Gallagher had raised a number of legal issues about the Budget-day measure to withdraw the ministerial pensions.
However, the department said the Cabinet reached a conclusion that there were ways around the legal obstacles and the decision could be proceeded with last week.
Mr Gallagher is understood to have advised the Government that the plan might not be capable of being enforced legally if any of the TDs affected by the measure challenged it.
However, the Government proceeded on the basis that none of the 26 TDs and two Senators entitled to the ministerial pension would object.
The politician who stands to lose most under the amendment is former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who is a TD in Dublin Central and is liable to lose pension payments of some €112,000.
The Department of Finance said yesterday that the measure was unlikely to be included in the Finance Act as it did not deal with taxation but was most likely to be the subject of a special resolution.
However, there are indications that all affected TDs and Senators will be asked to voluntarily forego ministerial pensions.
That would allow the Government time to introduce legislation giving effect to the decision at a later stage and would overcome any legal difficulties that would arise.
“The best way of doing it would be for people to do it voluntarily so there will not be a need for legislation,” said a Government source yesterday.
A number of former ministers have already foregone the pensions, including the Fianna Fáil TD for Longford-Westmeath Mary O’Rourke.
Contacted yesterday, Mrs O’Rourke said that she had decided this year not to receive it any more and had contacted the relevant person in the department. She said she then wrote to the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan to inform him of her move.
“I did not trumpet it. I was becoming very uncomfortable about it all,” she said.
In her letter to Mr Lenihan, she said she asked was it possible to divert the money to the “Sapling” school in Mullingar, one of 12 special schools throughout the State geared towards autism.
© 2009 The Irish Times
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/ireland/budget-2009-ministers-to-take-10-pay-cut-14002094.html
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan confirmed in his budget speech this afternoon that the government will share the responsibility for cutting costs and take a reduction in wages.
"I wish to advise the house that members of the government and ministers of state will surrender 10% of their current total pay," the minister said.
"Officers at Secretary General level in government departments have volunteered to make a corresponding surrender in respect of their pay.
"Other public servants in leadership and senior positions may wish to consider whether it is appropriate for them to make a similar move in current circumstances."
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0413/1224244556706.html
TOM GILMORE
Mon, Apr 13, 2009
THE NORTH Galway town of Tuam has laid claim to being the launchpad for the largest rocket to leave Irish soil.
The five metre rocket was built by American Erick Stenzel, who hosted the first meeting of the Tripoli Rocketry Association of Ireland in Tuam at the weekend.
Some 50 rockets were launched at the event under licence from the Department of Justice, using rocket fuel imported from Canada.
Mr Stenzel is preparing an entry for next year’s Young Scientist Exhibition with secondary school students from St Jarlath’s College in Tuam, Co Galway.
“The fuel used to power the rockets is the same as what is used for the space shuttle, and when the motor hit it with 400 pounds of force it pushed it up into the sky,” said Mr Stenzel, from California, who is married and living in Tuam.
For the past 12 months he has been teaching model rocketry to pupils in primary and secondary schools around Ireland.
His rocket soared to a height of almost 1,000 feet before the parachute was activated and it safely came back to Earth at the launching site at Cloonkeen, near Tuam.
Some of the smaller rockets launched by others reached even greater heights, with one sent up by Colin Fitzsimons from Dublin soaring as high as 4,000 feet – which is understood to be the highest ever for a rocket launched in Ireland.
Mr Stenzel imports the balsa wood and other parts for the rockets from the US and assembles them at his home. A computer engineer, he trained in model rocketry in his native California and last Easter introduced it to pupils at St Patrick’s NS Tuam, which his children attend.
Of the Young Scientist exhibition entry, he said: “While our planning is in early days, they [students] will be tasked with putting together a rocket mission. They will have to design experiments as payload for inclusion in an electronics bay of a rocket [which] they then must design and build to carry their payload to the desired altitude.”
He said they must recover their rocket, download and analyse all its data, and generate reports.
© 2009 The Irish Times
Updated: 10/4/2009
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