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By Deborah McAleese
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
The security forces have been placed on heightened alert after receiving intelligence of a dissident republican plot to attack a Northern Ireland Army base, the Belfast Telegraph has learned.
Security chiefs are concerned that a mortar attack on one of the bases is imminent and have placed all Army personnel on high alert.
It is understood military personnel were briefed about the developments over the weekend. An MoD source told the Belfast Telegraph: “We have all been placed on a high state of alert and have been warned that a mortar attack on any one of the barracks is imminent.”
The MoD declined to discuss the latest threat saying that matters of security in Northern Ireland are a matter for the PSNI. He added: “For obvious reasons we do not discuss operational security.”
The PSNI said: “We do not comment on specific intelligence matters and no inference should be drawn from this.”
The security forces have been on heightened alert since the March murders of two soldiers at Massereene Army barracks in Antrim and PSNI Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon.
The dissident republican terror threat remains “severe” and all three dissident terror groups — the Real IRA, Continuity IRA and Oglaigh na hEireann — have intensified their activities in recent weeks.
Oglaigh na hEireann was behind a 600lb bomb attached to a command wire stretching into the Republic which was defused by the Army in south Armagh last month. Security sources said the bomb was one of the most sophisticated to have been assembled by any of the dissident terror groups in recent years.
It is understood they were investigating whether a former veteran Provisional IRA bomb-maker from Belfast had defected to one of the dissident organisations and was helping to improve its bomb-making capability.
The Continuity IRA is believed to be behind two nights of violence on the streets of Lurgan last month when hijacked burning vehicles blocked the Dublin-Belfast rail line. The disturbances followed the jailing of three Continuity IRA men for 15 years in connection with a mortar bomb plot aimed at killing police officers.
In Londonderry the Real IRA left bombs at the homes of relatives of a Catholic PSNI officer. Catholic recruits to the police remain among the prime targets of dissident terror groups. A bomb exploded outside the home of the policeman's parents in the Shantallow area of the city. The dissident terror group then left a second device outside the same PSNI officer's sister's home in the Kylemore Park area of Derry.
No one was injured in the Shantallow blast but a car was damaged. Several families were forced to flee their homes close to the second house targeted in Kylemore Park.
The Real IRA has also been responsible for at least six so-called ‘punishment’ shootings in Derry over the last few months.
In August the Real IRA took over the south Armagh village of Meigh, where armed men wearing masks set up a roadblock to stop traffic. During the incident a PSNI mobile patrol spotted the Real IRA unit but withdrew from the village fearing that their presence would provoke a gun battle
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/army-braced-for-imminent-attack-in-northern-ireland-14523083.html#ixzz0TCvwlCVy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8293738.stm
Downing Street talks between the first and deputy first ministers and Gordon Brown on the devolution of policing powers have ended without agreement.
First Minister Peter Robinson said that progress had been made but more work was needed on outstanding financial issues.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said negotiations are at a crucial point.
"It's at a critical point, but I believe all this is doable," he said.
"I'm more convinced of that now in the aftermath of the meeting today."
It is understood that the DUP submitted an eight-page dossier to Mr Brown.
Besides looking for more money for policing, the party is also seeking the retention of the police reserve and the freeing up of the supply of personal protection weapons to former members of the security forces.
It's understood the dossier also calls for the implementation of a recommendation by Lord Ashdown that the Parades Commission should be abolished.
Sinn Fein has dismissed what it described as a "DUP wishlist".
"These side issues have no place in this negotiation," said Sinn Fein MLA John O'Dowd.
"What the talks in Downing Street are about is finance. The ending of the full time reserve is a Patten requirement and we fully expect the new Chief Constable to deliver on it."
The two parties have been at loggerheads over when the powers should be devolved from London.
While Sinn Fein wants it to happen immediately, the DUP is more cautious and has said the transfer of powers will not happen before Christmas.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8284038.stm
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is planning to visit Northern Ireland on 12 October.
The planned trip was announced by the Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward during his speech to the Labour Party conference in Brighton.
He said Mrs Clinton wanted to come to "help look at the jobs, opportunities and investment that American can bring to Northern Ireland".
She made a number of visits while her husband Bill was president.
'Attractive'
Meanwhile, the new US economic envoy to Northern Ireland has met the first and deputy first ministers at Stormont.
Declan Kelly's visit came a day after a sharp exchange of words between Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson over the devolution of justice powers.
Mr Kelly said he was confident that the two men could resolve their latest differences.
He said it was not his role to get involved in Northern Ireland politics but added: "It is fair to say that the US administration is anxious to ensure that there is an environment created for inward investment in Northern Ireland.
"Clearly, stability and progress in the political institutions is a key element of that."
http://www.derryjournal.com/inishowen/Cut-off-from-Ireland-and.5706356.jp
Published Date: 06 October 2009
'We don't feel a part of Ireland let alone Europe', that's the feeling from Inishowen people who voted a resounding 'no' in the Lisbon referendum.
Buncrana business man Paul Bradley said it's no surprise people turned against Europe in the second Lisbon referendum, held on Friday, because he says peninsula people feel so 'cut off and isolated from power'
Donegal North East and Donegal South West were the only TWO constituencies in the whole country who voted against the treaty.
In Donegal North East, 29,290 (50.1 per cent) people voted - 51.5 per cent voted no, while 48.5 per cent voted yes.
While in Donegal South West 31,544 (51.1per cent) people voted - 50.3 per cent voted no, while 49.7per cent voted yes.
Mr Bradley told the Journal: "There is a certainly feeling that the 'no vote' here seems to be saying that not only are we not part of Ireland, but we are also not part of Europe.
"We are so far away from Dublin and we are very much a rural county.
"It is a surprise, in one way, that in both of Donegal's constituencies, were the only two in Ireland that voted no to the Lisbon treaty.
"The people in Donegal feel isolated from Dublin and it looks like we're isolated from Europe too.
"It speaks volumes for our collective feeling of being cut off.
"There has been a huge neglect of the county from past governments particularly this government and there is a strong feeling from the farming and fishing industries that they have been totally wiped out over the years by EU directives."
"We thought when Mary Coughlan was made Minister of trade and employment that Donegal may get an uplift or increased support from the commercial sector with both the fishing and tourism but unfortunately that hasn't happened. The no vote is an indignation of this present government."
http://www.derryjournal.com/journal/BRADY-DEATH-PROTEST-VIGIL.5706310.jp
Published Date: 06 October 2009
Hardline republicans staged a protest outside Derry's Strand Road PSNI station yesterday after the death of prominent Strabane republican John Brady in police custody there at the weekend.
The protest vigil was organised by the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and was also attended by members of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and the Republican Network for Unity.
Around 100 republicans, many holding black flags, stood in the middle of Stand Road outside the PSNI station carrying posters reading 'Justice for John Brady.' Relatives and friends of Mr. Brady were also in attendance.
At the protest, Willie Gallagher from the IRSP blamed the PSNI for Mr Brady's death.
"The finger of blame is pointing firmly at the police," he told the crowd.
Mr Brady's family have said they do not believe he took his own life.
Speaking from her Strabane home, his sister Lorna told the 'Journal' yesterday: "John would not have done this and if he did I want to know what they did to drive him to do it."
Meanwhile, West Tyrone Sinn Féin MP Pat Doherty called for a full investigation into the Strabane republican's death. "This is a tragic loss for the family. I want to extend my deepest sympathies to them," he said.
"There are obviously serious issues of concern about how John Brady died during daylight hours while in police custody. While the full details surrounding his death are unclear it is vital that there is a full and open investigation by the Police Ombudsman," he added.
A post mortem on the body of the 40 year-old was due to be carried out yesterday and he is expected to be buried in Strabane on Thursday.
http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/38956
In a ‘special investigation’ this week The Irish News has rehashed the claim made by Richard O’Rawe in 2005 that a deal was on offer from the British government to resolve the 1981 Hunger Strike and that this alleged deal was scuppered by the leadership of the Republican Movement.
Even though O’Rawe’s claim was comprehensively refuted by republican ex-prisoners, The Irish News has revived the allegation, partly to sell newspapers through stirring up controversy on an issue of such huge interest and deep emotion and partly to attempt to discredit Sinn Féin. To create a new ‘angle’ to the story The Irish News went to former Fine Gael Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald who claimed he ‘believed’ that there was such a deal and that the IRA blocked it. This from a politician who has been vehemently opposed to republicans throughout his career and whose main concern, as he still makes clear, was not the hunger strikers but the fact that the British government was talking to republicans.
McGuinness response
Writing in response in The Irish News on Monday, Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister and Chief Negotiator Martin McGuinness said he found it “quite ironic that in their desire to get at Sinn Féin our opponents are attempting to portray Thatcher as someone anxious to resolve the Hunger Strike”. McGuinness continued:
“Nothing could be further from the truth. According to our critics, the hunger strikers, on whose behalf we were acting, should have accepted an ‘offer’ which came to the prisoners and us, via a phone-call from a British official in London, through the intermediary (since identified as Brendan Duddy – an honourable man), to myself, to a phone-call to Gerry Adams, and in a verbal message to Danny Morrison to the prisoners. Clearly, they have chosen to forget of what mettle the hunger strikers were made, of their experiences of British deceit in December 1980. Sinn Féin had political and ideological differences with the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace (ICJP).
“We and the prisoners suspected that it would sell the prisoners short. Despite being a vehicle for the British government delivering a compromise and avoiding direct negotiations, even the ICJP’s expectations/demands that the British would send in someone to stand over what London was implying in messages was refused six times in the hours before Joe McDonnell died.
“This year the British government selectively released documents about this period under the Freedom of Information Act and our critics have seized upon their release, but not their content, as some sort of proof.
“That the republican leadership was in contact with the British was revealed long ago, not least in the 1987 book Ten Men Dead. I would encourage people to read this book and the documents released in 2009 and compare it to the allegations of those who never visited the hunger strikers in the prison hospital, never dealt with the prison administration and the British government or liaised with the ICJP (which, on its terms, to be fair, was attempting to resolve the situation).”
Former hunger striker
Also writing in the The Irish News Laurence McKeown, former hunger striker, described the deal claim as “totally unfounded” and disproved since it was first made. He said the claim has rumbled on “fuelled by an assortment of disaffected former members of the Republican Movement and political opponents of Sinn Féin”. He continued:
“Trying to ‘answer’ the claim is a bit like trying to convince an alcoholic that they’d be much better off not taking that next drink. There will never be an answer that will suffice, a response that will be adequate.
“So why bother? For the families of the six who died later that summer and for the thousands of ordinary people who did so much for us during that period.
“The Tory government of Maggie Thatcher is infamous for the trail of suffering, death, social upheaval, destruction of communities, and removal of civil and workers’ rights that it wreaked not just in Ireland but in Britain itself. But let’s just suppose for a moment that it wanted to end the Hunger Strike. Britain acts only in Britain’s interest so if it was decided that it was in their best interest to concede some or all of our demands it would not have been out of some humanitarian sentiment but because not to do so would be damaging to Britain’s long-term interests.
“So, this Tory cabinet of Maggie Thatcher, having decided that it was in Britain’s best interest to act to break the Hunger Strike, comes up with a list of concessions they are prepared to make, presents this to the leadership of the Republican Movement, who supposedly reject them and what do the Brits do? They walk away with their tails between their legs.
“Is this the same government that cold-bloodedly slaughtered the Argentinean sailors on the Belgrano? That smashed the powerful National Union of Mineworkers and left whole mining villages and communities desolate?
“If the British had thought it was in their interest to end the Hunger Strike then they would have done so regardless of what the Republican Movement did or did not do. They would simply have gone to the media – having first confided with and secured the support of the SDLP, the Catholic hierarchy and the Dublin government – and announced concessions they were prepared to make. We on hunger strike would then have been faced with either calling it off or trying to continue with a now deeply divided support base, not to mention internal and family divisions. It’s not rocket science.
Never a deal
“What we know for definite is that during the Hunger Strike there were always offers from the British but never a deal. And given that four comrades had already died and the hunger strike of 1980 had ended with not the merest crumb of concession there was no way we were ending ours without a concrete, copper-fastened deal witnessed by guarantors who could stand over it. And anyone who was on it or involved with it, including Richard, knows that to be the case. Such was our suspicion and distrust of the British.
“In the peace and tranquillity of 2009 it’s easy to forget that. To de-contextualise events. To forget the power of the emotions then and the strength of convictions. It’s also easy to wish it could somehow have been different. What is unforgivable, though, is to attempt to make cheap political gain from those events and in the course of it to cause hurt.”
http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/article.php?id=253
Shell Oil Get the Hell Out of Ireland
By Morgan Kilcollins
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Ireland has a long history of resisting foreign oppression. Whether in the war against the conquest of Queen Elizabeth I, or the 1919-1921 War for Independence, the Irish have never accepted foreign rulers. In short, Ireland is like most other places in the world and like most other peoples, the Irish are now fighting against corporate imperialists.
Located 1,150 feet beneath the waves and 40 miles off the cost of County Mayo in west Ireland lies an oil deposit known as the Corrib Gas Field. Since its discovery in 1996, the Corrib Field has sparked a fierce, direct-action ecological resistance, the likes of which the island has not seen in years.
Shell Oil, which owns 45 percent of the rights to the Corrib Field, plans to construct a pipeline to pump untreated gas 40 miles across the sea, through sand dunes and coastal grasslands unique to Ireland and Scotland, and over a bog traveling from North Mayo to neighboring County Galway. Plowing through ocean, coast and land, the pipeline would be dangerous and ecologically devastating.
Putting aside for a moment all that can go wrong with deep-sea drilling, the waste from the project and from its inland refinery will doom many sensitive areas and water systems in County Mayo. For example, Shell plans to reduce Broadhaven Bay to a chemical bath; nickel, mercury, phosphorous, chromium, arsenic and radon are but a sampling of the toxic materials that Shell will vomit onto the marine life.
Contrary to what many Americans assume about European ecosystems, Broadhaven Bay still teems with life. Reports from University College of Cork (UCC) have recorded more than 220 sightings of several species of whales and dolphins, which use the bay as a breeding and rearing area. In addition, researchers have also seen sea turtles and basking sharks. Shell, however, claims that Broadhaven is of no real importance to whales or dolphins. Ironically enough, Shell is the one that commissioned UCC to survey Broadhaven Bay to begin with.
While dolphins and whales try to breed in poison, the mainland won't be doing much better. Carrowmore Lake, which supplies drinking water for the region, is already suffering from pollution caused by a Shell-related civil engineering project. If and when the land refinery at Ballinaboy becomes operational, Carrowmore Lake can expect to be destroyed along with Broadhaven Bay.
These are but two examples of the ecological damage that Ireland would suffer, not even considering the impact from pipeline construction and the heavy equipment, traffic and support apparatus that would be needed to operate an offshore station, pipeline and inland refinery. The pipeline is dangerous as well. Most overland pipelines operate at 16-17 bar pressure; the Corrib Field pipeline would run at 345 bar. In addition to being highly explosive, the pipeline would run right through local communities and past individual homes!
Normally, Ireland would charge a tax rate as high as 50 percent for drilling, with additional six to seven percent royalties. However, corporate pressure has reduced the tax rate to 25 percent, with the option for a 100 percent write-off. The royalties have been waived altogether. Shell Oil has created a nice bed for itself-the Irish give away their natural resources, only to buy them back from Shell. This is not to suggest that if the financial arrangements were more favorable, the sacrifice of Broadhaven Bay and Carrowmore Lake would be justified-it simply adds another footnote to the mountain of criminality that is Shell Oil.
Like the foreign raiders before it, Shell is not welcome in Ireland. This attitude has found expression in the Shell to Sea campaign, with branches in County Mayo, Dublin, Cork, Galway, Belfast and even London, England!
The fight began in County Mayo and has been advanced strongly by five farmers from Rossport-Micheal O'Seighin, Vincent McGrath, Philip McGrath, Brendan Philibin and Willie Corduft. As one would expect, Shell did not view the growing opposition to its $800-million project with good humor and pressured the government into issuing a High Court order allowing for the imprisonment of anyone interfering with pipeline construction, trespassing on Shell property or harming Shell economically (such as by boycotts). The Rossport farmers, who were excelling at all of the above, were soon arrested. The judge offered to release the lads if they promised to not interfere in the future. Given the danger of Shell Oil, the men told the court that they simply could not obey the order. So the judge sent them to Cloverhill Prison to "purge their contempt," and they become known as the Rossport 5.
This action did not put a lid on the opposition; if anything, it had the opposite effect. While the Rossport 5 refused to bow, Shell to Sea began staging actions and rallies all over Ireland.
On September 10, Shell to Sea blockaded a Shell terminal in Dublin, where tanker trucks obtain gasoline for distribution to local gas stations. In Cork, similar actions have taken place with equal success. In Dublin, on September 26,10,000 people marched through the streets in protest of the Corrib pipeline and the imprisonment of the Rossport 5.
All the way in London, activists used a dump truck to deposit a large pile of sand outside Shell headquarters on September 30. They placed signs in the sand reading, "Shell Keep Out" and dropped banners proclaiming, "Stop Shell Hell in NW Ireland." Due to Shell's widespread unpopularity, police made no arrests and did not attempt to stop the dump truck. Three days later, 2,000 people rallied in front of the Irish Parliament building, Leinster House, in Dublin.
Finally, after 94 days in jail, the Rossport 5 were released in order to curtail the controversy. The court still plans to call the Rossport 5 back in order to seek their compliance to the High Court order, but for the time being they remain at large, organizing to send Shell back across the Western Ocean.
The threat posed by this multinational corporation is not confined to Ireland, and Irish organizers are making links to other communities that Shell has devastated. Among the speakers at a rally celebrating the Rossport 5's release was Dr. Owens Wiwa, brother of Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was murdered along with eight others by the government of Nigeria in collusion with Shell Oil in 1995 (see EF!J November-December 2005).
On November 10, the ten-year anniversary of this atrocity, Shell to Sea attempted to deliver a letter of condemnation to Shell's Dublin offices. Ashamed of the blood on its hands, Shell locked the doors. Unable to confront Shell representatives in person, the protesters laid a memorial wreath at Shell's doorstep in honor of the fallen.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people gathered in the rainy weather of County Mayo near the Ballinaboy refinery, where a four-year old Nigerian boy unveiled a large mural in honor of Ken Saro-Wiwa. An African minister led the crowd in prayer. Nine Nigerians seeking asylum in Ireland walked in procession, carrying nine crosses to represent the lives of those who died to protect their people and the Earth. Hangman's nooses were draped over the crosses, which were planted facing the refinery.
County Mayo is also home to a Solidarity Camp, which has scored a number of hits against Shell. From June 18 onward, pickets prevented the delivery of any construction materials to the compound at Rossport. Starting June 30, pickets also closed the Rossport compound and the refinery construction site at Ballinaboy. In August, Shell was forced to cancel the arrival of the Solitaire, one of the world's largest pipelaying ships, due to a planned blockade by fishermen. The Camp is now recruiting for Spring 2006 and beyond.
There are many lessons that can be drawn from our histories, our cultures and resistance across the world. One such lesson is that it does not really matter what culture or country you come from-all that really matters is what side of the battle line you're on. You are either on the side of life and justice-real, not legislated-or you are on the side of the imperialists-evil and death.
A corporation that will conspire to murder in Nigeria will not think twice about poisoning the land and people of Ireland. The people of Mayo and all of Ireland know what they are up against and the kind of evil that they're fighting. Shell will not last long in Ireland, and that pipeline will never be built. The Irish have never accepted the imperialists, and we are not about to start now. Shell to Sea. Saoirse Eire. Saoirse Nigeria.
Updated: 11/5/2009
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