Irish Northern Aid
News
 |
||||
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8000136.stm
Sinn Fein says one of its offices in west Belfast has been attacked three times in the last two weeks.
In the latest incident at Connolly House on Tuesday night paint was thrown at the property and a plaque was destroyed.
Sinn Fein MLA Paul Maskey said those responsible offer the community "nothing for the future".
On Sunday a Sinn Fein office in Londonderry was damaged in an arson attack.
Dissident republicans were blamed for the attack in Derry.
Mr Maskey said: "The people of west Belfast overwhelmingly support our political project, they have made that clear at elections but it was also made very clear when thousands upon thousands lined the Falls Road at this year's Easter Parade.
"I have no doubt that this latest attack will only serve as another clear reminder, if one were needed, that those responsible are not Republican and offer our community nothing for the future.
"Sinn Fein has come under attack in the past and we will not be deterred from our Republican work."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8000136.stm
Published: 2009/04/15 12:05:18 GMT
© BBC MMIX
http://www.ballymoneytimes.co.uk/news/Attack-on-hall-disgusting-and.5171490.jp
Published Date: 15 April 2009
THE attack on Rasharkin Orange Hall at the weekend has been condemned by two nationalist politicians.
Both Daithi McKay and Declan O'Loan said the incident was both disgusting and disgraceful.
Police say the attack took place during the early hours of Saturday morning.
At approximately 2am police received a report that two youths had thrown petrol bombs at the hall. The youths, described as being between 18 and 20 years old, approximately 5ft 7in tall and wearing hoodies and jeans, ran off into Carnfinton.
Two strike marks were discovered at the front of the hall and some scorch damage was caused.
Police are appealing to anyone who has information in relation to this incident to contact them on 0845 600 8000. Information about crime can also be passed anonymously to the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111
North Antrim Sinn Féin MLA Daithí McKay said that those who carried out senseless attacks on halls and churches in the area were not republicans and did not represent anybody in the village.
Mr McKay said: "I think I can speak for most of the people living here when I say that I am very proud to be from Rasharkin and the community that live here. And this community is disgusted when a handful of people start defacing the village and bringing its name into disrepute. They don't represent anyone living here; they certainly do not represent republicans.
"provocateur is now gone. By egging on and threatening local people this person was clearly looking for a reaction which would result in republicans being arrested and brought to court. I've seen this tactic
"Young people here are smart enough to know that attacking churches and halls with petrol bombs and graffiti will do nothing to free Ireland, all it does is drag the name of Rasharkin through the mud and people are sick of it."
SDLP MLA Declan O'Loan said: "I condemn this disgraceful petrol bomb attack.
"There are two necessary responses. The parades issue must be resolved. It damages relationships and makes this kind of attack more likely. Parade organisers and objectors both need to do far more.
"Secondly attacks like this are being carried out by a small group of youths. Information about them must be given to the police."
The Mayor, Councillor John Finlay, said it was yet another attack on unionism by republican thugs.
"Those responsible must be caught and face the full rigours of the law," he added.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/foyle_and_west/7999785.stm
An assembly member has criticised police budget cuts in Londonderry which will see fewer officers on the streets.
Chief Inspector Chris Yates said police overtime in Derry could be cut by as much as 60% over the next year.
He said staffing levels will be reviewed in key front line units but he still has enough resources to deliver a professional service to the Foyle area.
DUP MLA William Hay said: "The cuts are wrong at yhis time, especially when there's a high threat from dissidents."
He said that he had "deep concerns" about a policing budget where there are "frontline service cuts".
Within the last month the PSNI closed the response unit on the Waterside and transferred all base response units to Strand Road.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/foyle_and_west/7999785.stm
Published: 2009/04/15 10:22:18 GMT
© BBC MMIX
http://www.nwipp-newspapers.com/FH/free/361264980847353.php
BY MICHAEL BRESLIN
Sinn Féin's principal negotiator in the talks that led to the power-sharing regime at Stormont told the 'Herald' that his Party was willing to meet with dissidents, 'and point out the mistakes we believe they are making'.
"We in the Sinn Féin leadership have made previous attempts in recent years to offer them opportunities for discussion and they have declined them on each occasion. But, should they decide to change their approach we are willing to meet them and we will point out that the best strategy to be pursued to bring about the reunification of Ireland is the one that the Sinn Féin leadership is involved in.
"I believe that a united Ireland is inevitable, that it's coming, and I believe that many unionists believe that also, and it is how we manage to make that happen, by peaceful and democratic means."
He was then asked, given his close working relationship with the First Minister, Peter Robinson, what the DUP mindset was vis-a-vis a united Ireland.
"The mindset was epitomised by Ian Paisley when he said to me two years ago, 'we can rule ourselves', so we have that common ground that he and I can stand on. Peter Robinson has the same attitude. The DUP has bought into that, ie that we should be taking these decisions for ourselves, and that means all of us.
"We should not have Direct Rule Ministers deciding the future of the North and the institutions which are part of it is the way forward. That's important common ground and I think some of these groups who are opposed to the process fail to recognise that being involved in activities which, effectively, are designed to plunge the community back into conflict is really a very sectarian route to go. It is one that I absolutely reject."
Recalling his condemnation of the three recent killings by dissidents, he stressed that it was not Martin McGuinness talking.
He responded: "You have heard the very clear statement today on behalf of the Sinn Féin leadership which makes it quite clear that we believe that these groups need to reflect on what they're at, on the folly of the strategy they are engaged in, and on the fact that their approach is not accepted by the overwhelming majority of the people of Ireland."
http://www.nwipp-newspapers.com/FH/free/361264932493047.php
By Michael Breslin
The intense rivalry between Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin that has surfaced in recent weeks was in evidence at two separate Easter 1916 commemorations in Roslea where wreaths were laid at the grave of three local Republicans who were hanged in Enniskillen Gaol in 1797.
Martin McGuinness spoke at Sunday's Sinn Féin commemoration.
His description of those opposed to the Stormont government as 'traitors' attracted graffiti on gable walls. There was a low-key but visible Police presence.
By contrast, Monday's Republican Sinn Féin (RSF) commemoration was accompanied by a huge Police presence, both on the ground and in the air. The event organisers were warned by a Police Inspector that a parade along the main road into the graveyard would not be allowed.
Instead, the RSF parade took place in the grounds of the graveyard.
The split between the two groups was articulated in the two orations.
Mr McGuinness, who is the Deputy First Minister at Stormont, told the sizeable gathering they were there as Irish Republicans, and recalled his own active part in the struggle.
"I am proud I was a member of a group of young people in my generation who struggled and fought against the British Army and the RUC and who, as a result of that, brought about the enormous political changes of recent times."
He applauded the leaders of 1916 and, said while the Republic they sought had not yet been achieved, 'we also know we have the ability to achieve it'.
He then turned to the 'dissenting' voices, describing them as, 'a tiny group of people within the broad nationalist community who believe that the best way forward is to plunge the North back to what we have seen in the past'.
"For me, this makes no sense whatsoever because their strategy is about returning to the streets of Fermanagh and the rest of Northern Ireland and the tens of thousands of British soldiers that we managed through negotiation to get rid of. I don't accept their approach."
By contrast, John Joe McCusker, who gave the oration at the Republican Sinn Féin commemoration the following day was equally resolute.
He told a much smaller attendance: "Yesterday, a representative of the government that was responsible for the execution of these our martyred dead, stood in this graveyard in defence of the Good Friday Agreement which underpins the continuity of the British occupation in Ireland.
"He is an imposter. A Judas goat. The establishment of a two-nation mentality which is being pursued by the British and the Free State government does not incline me to think that the present process will lead to the All-Ireland Republic for which so many have sacrificed their lives.
"Rights are seen by the British imperialists a concessions to the weak in order to gain advantage. These concessions can be removed again when the advantage has been consumed. The Irish people should realise that British imperialism has an insatiable appetite."
Mr McCusker said it continued to deal with constitutional nationalism with the same temperament as an adolescent boy poking a dead rat with a stick, 'in wonderment and disdain, knowing full well that the creature is dead and cannot react'.
Concluding, he stated that a national consensus was missing and that, on that basis, solid-thinking nationalists and republicans should declare themselves out. And, he said the Republican Movement would see of the treachery, 'that has been visited upon us by Adams and McGuinness'.
"This country is going to be free. The British are not going to be allowed to stay."
http://www.nwipp-newspapers.com/FH/free/361264980581670.php
A Fermanagh-born priest is to join forces with a life-long Loyalist in a bid to lobby senior politicians in America for their support.
Father Sean McManus, the president of the Irish National Caucus which is based in Washington, has extended an invitation to Victims' campaigner Raymond McCord, whose son Raymond Jnr was beaten to death by the Mount Vernon UVF in 1997.
Mr McCord will visit the US next month where he will speak with Democrat and Republican politicians.
Fr McManus explained the background to the invitation: "Despite the tragic divisions in Northern Ireland, there is still a strong Ulster bond, which asserts itself when the Protestant and the Catholic each experiences British injustice."
For his part, Mr McCord stated: "All my life I have been a staunch Loyalist Protestant who believes in the Union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
"I used to dismiss claims of Catholic mistreatment as mere Republican propaganda.
"So, I could not believe that my British Government and my police could be guilty of political assassinations, brutality and deadly cover-ups until it all happened to my own beloved son.
"Since Raymond Jr. was murdered, I have encountered stonewalling and obstruction from the British Government and Northern Ireland police. I can only turn for justice to Fr. Mc Manus and his many friends in Congress.
"He has assured me that the US Congress will fight for my rights as hard as they have fought for the rights of Catholics in Northern Ireland".
Fr McManus said he had been touched by Mr McCord's profound love for his son and was deeply impressed by his bravery and fearless integrity.
"I can pay him no higher respect when I call him, "The Protestant Pat Finucane of Northern Ireland".
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/easter-2009-and--irarsquos-silence-speaks-for-the-future-14269324.html
This Easter alternative voices were heard claiming to represent the true republican message. Security expert Brian Rowan reports that the words of the dissidents will not lure the IRA back onto the battlefield
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
It was a different republican Easter at the graves of their dead at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast; different because this time there was no statement from the IRA leadership, no words penned by P O’Neill.
“So you have a powerful statement in the sense of a non statement,” a senior police officer commented.
It is all part of the transition — part of the IRA fading away, the IRA of the ‘Long War’, and the IRA that has bought into the peace and the Adams-McGuinness strategy.
At Milltown Cemetery the IRA leadership statement was replaced with a Sinn Fein leadership statement, read by Eibhlin Glenholmes, who in the 1980s was on Britain’s wanted list.
She and Gerry Adams were the main speakers and part of what both had to say was directed at the other IRA groups, the dissidents who oppose the peace.
“Irish unity remains Sinn Fein’s primary objective,” Glenholmes said.
“We have a strategy to achieve that objective. Others disagree, but they offer no alternative.
“We are right to resist those who have attacked the peace process. This includes those in the British Establishment who would seek to use recent events as an excuse to rush back to the days of militarisation and the abuses that flow from that,” she continued.
“In Ireland today there is an alternative to armed struggle. A small number of militarist factions oppose Sinn Fein’s policies and strategy. Let us be clear many of those are involved in criminal actions and, moreover, they have no political programmes or strategies.
“There is no feasible alternative to Sinn Fein’s strategy for a united Ireland. Our objective now must be to consolidate the peace process,” she said.
The other IRA organisations — Continuity and Real — spoke up in an attempt to be heard this Easter, adding their words to the bullets fired recently at Massereene Barracks and in Craigavon.
This Easter the dissidents believe they have a more prominent place on the republican stage — achieved by killing two soldiers and a police officer.
In an interview with the Sunday Tribune, the Real IRA also claimed it killed Denis Donaldson, once Sinn Fein’s Assembly group administrator at Stormont, who admitted being a British agent within days of the collapse of the so-called Stormontgate intelligence gathering case.
He was shot dead in Donegal in April 2006.
In that interview with the Sunday Tribune, the Real IRA said its strategy is not a sustained campaign of violence but to “engage in tactical use of armed struggle”.
“Secure 32 counties by the odd murder. That’s a real clever strategy,” a senior police officer commented.
The dissidents in all their different forms continue to speak in a military language — to talk with their guns, but what is it that they want to be heard?
Is this really about Brits Out or is it about something else, something much more personal and raw within the republican community?
Is it about trying to prove Adams and McGuinness wrong?
Some suspect it is about trying to bring the IRA “back onto the battlefield” — the IRA that did not speak at Milltown Cemetery this Easter.
The dissidents are goading that IRA.
They are also trying again — as they did in a secret IRA Convention in 1997 — to unpick the Adams-McGuinness strategy.
Those recent killings at Massereene Barracks and in Craigavon did not break the political process.
But bringing the IRA back into play — back onto the battlefield — would.
The mainstream republican leadership is not going to walk into that trap.
At Milltown Cemetery, Adams had this to say: “Let me say a few very short words about so-called republican dissidents.
“I uphold the right of everyone to dissent from Sinn Fein’s point of view.
“But no-one is entitled to hijack our proud republican history and our republican future and to abuse it for narrow selfish interests or self gain.”
In its silence the IRA spoke loudest this Easter.
http://www.ballymoneytimes.co.uk/news/Bushmills-bonfire-bowl-examined-by.5171705.jp
Published Date: 15 April 2009
NATIONALIST-controlled Moyle Council has agreed to look at the issue of providing a £5,000 'bonfire bowl' in Bushmills.
Bushmills Residents and Environmental Forum has asked the council to consider developing a hard surface area for an annual July 11 loyalist bonfire.
The group says the move would assist in clean-ups and say a similar facility exists in Dervock.
Some nationalist councillors expressed concern about the effect on the environment from bonfires but Council official Aidan McPeake said the bonfire will be held whatever the Council does and it would be better if the Council had a facility in place to aid the clean-up.
The Council has agreed to examine the issue.
Ulster Unionist Council Chairman, Councillor Willie Graham, said the scheme should be backed.
But Councillor Catherine McCambridge (SDLP) asked if the Housing Executive normally provided such bonfire bowls.
Aidan McPeake said the bonfire is normally held in the area between the changing rooms and the football pitch at Dundarave but said no money has been set aside in this year's budget for a 'bowl'.
Council Chief Executive Richard Lewis said there is an issue over a covenant regarding the car park at Dundarave and said that had to be considered.
Independent councillor Price McConaghy said there has been discussions lately in Northern Ireland about beacons instead of bonfires and Independent councillor Seamus Blaney said the Fire Service said they were keen to get involved in the funding of such initiatives.
Councillor McConaghy said that aspect should be further investigated.
DUP councillor Robert McIlroy(pictured) said the Bushmills group had to be encouraged in their efforts to move the bonfire situation forward as he said there have been issues about rubbish and safety.
"The Residents Group are trying to clean up the situation and I think as a Council we want to encourage that and maybe work with the Housing Executive," added the councillor.
Council Vice-Chairperson, Councillor Cara McShane (Sinn Fein), said she had concerns about the impact on the environment by "encouraging" people to light bonfires.
She said: "I think it is a bit of a contradictory term when it is called the Environmental Forum when they are proposing a bonfire".
SDLP councillor Madeline Black said she would support Councillor McIlroy's comments in seeing what merit there is in trying to move the situation forward with the Housing Executive.
Sinn Fein councillor Cathal Newcombe said in the Ballycastle area people had been "working pretty hard" to stop bonfires because of the environmental impact.
Council official Aidan McPeake said: "Other councils do provide these. There is some merit with the clean-up operation. It is probably inevitable a bonfire will take place"
If it is done in a more controlled way it is better, he added.
The Council agreed to examine the situation and Councillor McIlroy said: "I think it would be good for the area that we facilitate this."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/foyle_and_west/7999616.stm
A proposed wind farm at Drumsurn in County Londonderry has split the community, Limavady's mayor has said.
Gaeletric want to erect seven turbines at Smulgedon due to the wind speeds.
The farms would power about 10,000 homes, but some residents have said there are already too many wind farms in the Sperrins.
The town's Mayor, Brenda Chivers of Sinn Fein, said: "We're hoping to get all the parties around a table and solve this."
Gaelectric invited the public to view its plans in Dungiven on Tuesday night.
Around 30 supporters of the wind farm were at the meeting but members of the Roe Valley Anti-Wind Farm Group decided not to attend the meeting.
Group secretary, Deborah Mullan, said the group have sent a letter to Gaelectric, outlining their opposition, and their intention to fight the project "all the way".
"We are yet to be convinced the farms need to be built in Drumsurn," she said.
"We do have to move forward and renewable energy may be that way but do we need to have so much in one small area.
"We're not convinced by the arguments made by the company, this a beautiful area and we want to promote that."
Gaelectric operations director, Mike Denny, said three wind farms in one area is not particularly high.
"There are other areas of Northern Ireland where there are a higher concentration of wind farms.
"This is just a case of everyone having to do their part - In NI we import 94 per cent of fossil fuels which is not sustainable," he said.
Gaelectric said they contacted 34 households within a 1km radius.
The company said of the 28 that responded, 18 expressed support for the wind farm.
The planning service will decide the future of the wind farm but a decision could take up to two years.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/foyle_and_west/7999616.stm
Published: 2009/04/15 09:45:25 GMT
© BBC MMIX
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0415/breaking5.htm
A Dublin man who died in a surfing accident off the Aran island of Inis Oírr at the weekend has been named as David Deering (56), a father of two, from Mount Merrion.
Mr Deering was an experienced surfer and it is believed he hit his head in a fall from the surfboard off the southwest of Inis Oírr last Saturday evening. He was pulled ashore and his son administered first aid.
The crew of the Irish Coast Guard Sikorsky helicopter from Shannon also assisted, but Mr Deering could not be revived. His body was flown to Limerick Regional Hospital.
Mr Deering was a keen sports enthusiast, who coached many pupils at Willow Park and Blackrock College schools. He was also director of a company which ran summer courses for children in soccer and rugby.
Updated: 10/4/2009
Use the Guest Book to Comment on the web site or individual stories.
To get Irish News updates emailed to you
