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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0105/breaking4.htm
EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY and PATSY MCGARRY
The late Cardinal Cahal Daly was a “transforming figure at a time of immense” historical change in Ireland, mourners at his funeral were told today.
Several hundred people, including political leaders and dignitaries from North and South, attended the ceremony in Armagh city.
The Catholic primate, Cardinal Seán Brady, was the chief celebrant in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, for the requiem Mass for Cardinal Daly, who died last Thursday, aged 92.
Pope Benedict XVI had nominated Cardinal Brady to celebrate the Mass and to be his personal representative at the ceremony.
Cardinal Brady described Cardinal Daly as "a prophetic, renewing and transforming figure in a time of immense change in the history of this island".
"But his mission would be misunderstood, his legacy misrepresented if it focused solely, or indeed principally on the social and political aspects of his work,” he said.
“Cardinal Cahal Daly was first and foremost a man of faith, a man of prayer, a man of God."
In his homily, Cardinal Brady also referred to the recent abuse scandals that have beset the church, saying “the abuse of children and its shameful mismanagement by those charged by God to protect his ‘little ones’, have wrought such damage on those who were abused.
"It has caused such justified anger and outrage on the part of the faithful and damaged trust so profoundly in the integrity of the leaders of the Church," he said. "No one can doubt the Catholic Church in Ireland is now at a defining moment in its history."
Cardinal Daly was buried on the cathedral grounds close to the grave of his predecessor cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich.
President Mary McAleese, her husband Martin, Taoiseach Brian Cowen, representatives from the main Protestant churches and members of Cardinal Daly’s family, including his brother Patrick and sister Rosaleen were among the mourners.
The funeral was attended by Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward, Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams. Sammy Wilson and Arlene Foster of the DUP visited Cardinal Brady before the Mass to convey their sympathies. DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson did not attend.
The Ulster Unionist Party was represented by Lady Sylvia Hermon, while Alliance Party leader David Forde also attended, as did SDLP leader Mark Durkan, who was accompanied by deputy leader Alasdair McDonnell and former party leader and Nobel Laureate John Hume.
Mourners also included former taoisigh Albert Reynolds and John Bruton, Secretary to the Taoiseach Dermot McCarthy and Fine Gael TD Frank Feehan, who was representing his party leader Enda Kenny.
Former Northern Ireland police ombudsman Nuala O’Loan, former UUP MP Lord Maginnis, former MP and TD Austin Currie and Justin Kilcullen of Trócaire were among the mourners.
Cardinal Daly was appointed as archbishop of Armagh and primate of all-Ireland on December 16th, 1990, and served until his retirement, at the age of 79, when he was succeeded by the then-archbishop Brady on October 1st, 1996. He was created a cardinal by the late Pope John Paul II on June 28th, 1991.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0105/northpolitics.html
Tuesday, 5 January 2010 15:21
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin is scheduled to meet with British Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward to discuss the devolution impasse in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Féin wants to see immediate progress on the transfer of justice and policing powers, but the DUP intends to ensure the finances and community confidence are in place.
The Irish and British governments are keen to secure progress, amid fears that the future of the Stormont Executive could be jeopardised by the stalemate.
Today's meeting follows talks between Taoiseach Brian Cowen and the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown before Christmas.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/letters/condemnation-of-china-looks-like-hypocrisy
The condemnation of the Chinese government by British prime minister Gordon Brown over the execution of British national Akmal Shaikh sparked a row between London and Beijing.
Claims by Mr Brown that China had failed in its human rights responsibilities are somewhat hypocritical. Akmal Shaikh was found guilty in a court of being in breach of China's policy on drug-smuggling and sentenced accordingly.
No doubt Mr Brown will hope that Chinese officials will not have read the confidential files released from the Public Records Office in Belfast under the 30 years' rule, proposing to allow British security forces shoot IRA detainees caught attempting to escape.
This proposal amounted to the summary execution of prisoners. These prisoners were tried in non-jury single judge Diplock Courts which were condemned by Amnesty International, British-Irish Rights Watch and many human rights groups worldwide.
Further evidence of human rights abuses by the British Government emerged from the John Stalker inquiry. Then, retired Canadian Judge Peter Cory found evidence of state collusion in the murders of solicitors Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson. Cory recommended the "immediate establishment" of public inquiries.
TOM COOPER
Cathaoirleach, Irish National Congress, Dublin
46224s/talks-that-reveal-the-war-has-melted-away-14599787.html35.html#ixzz0bl5VTeWe
Whether it happens today or whether it happens soon, loyalists at the most senior political and paramilitary level are now ready to meet a key figure in the IRA’s war and peace.
And meetings such as this are yet another confirmation that that war is now over.
The big decision to meet has been made — and what remains to be settled are the where and when. Martin McGuinness is available today.
When it happens, it won’t be a cosy conversation. These two sides have been in different trenches for too long.
The loyalists have their issues and concerns — the highest level of dissident republican activity in recent years, and the future of the political institutions at Stormont.
And Martin McGuinness will want to talk to the UDA about their continuing activities and what still needs to be done on the issue of arms.
But in meetings at this level you see the war melting away.
There have been other big steps.
Gerry Adams attending the funeral of loyalist leader David Ervine in east Belfast. Jackie McDonald sharing a platform with the republican Sean ‘Spike’ Murray at this year’s West Belfast Festival.
But Martin McGuinness — that man of war and peace — meeting a loyalist delegation that is expected to include senior UDA figures takes this to another level.
We shouldn’t have to wait much longer for the moment.
http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/Daily_Star/arts2010/jan4_Adams_crisis
(John Coulter, Irish Daily Star)
Could the Adams family crisis unearth another high profile Brit spook within Sinn Féin?
How convenient is it that republicanism's First Family decides to air its supposed dirty personal linen in public just as the Irish Catholic Church is imploding over clerical sex abuse revelations?
If squeaky-clean Gerry knew about his abusing da and allegations of sexual abuse by his brother Liam, it stands to reason every British spook in Ireland knew what was going on behind the closed doors of the Adams Family.
Unionists need not crow about linking abuse to the role of the intelligence community – remember Kincora?
William McGrath was a Brit spook, Orange Bible basher, boss of loyalist terror gang, Tara, and later convicted pervert.
At the former Kincora Boys Home in east Belfast and oversaw systematic abuse of young boys by leading unionist and British establishment figures.
My main prediction for 2010 is that another high ranking Brit mole will be unveiled within the republican movement, more influential than the late Denis Donaldson, who ran Sinn Féin's Stormont operation.
With so many key touts already being unmasked within republicanism, it makes you wonder if the whole Sinn Féin party itself was one big spook plan set up by the British in 1905?
It would be some slap in the teeth for republicans if it emerged that Sinn Féin founder and political legend Arthur Griffith actually batted for the British.
This year will also see the clerical sex abuse probes spreading across Ireland, and especially into the North.
Stand by for more resignations as the Catholic hierarchy goes into meltdown.
The DUP will take a real pasting in the Spring General Election, with the party losing six seats in North and South Antrim, North Belfast, Upper Bann, Strangford and East Derry.
Ian Paisley Junior loses daddy's seat, and out will go Nigel Dodds, Gregory Campbell and David Simpson.
The New Force will lose North Down when popular MP Sylvia Hermon runs as an independent and gives her former UUP bosses a bloody nose.
Overall, the Commons poll will see a slim majority for Dandy Dave's Tories.
If the planned round-table talks do not save the Assembly, a Stormont poll will see the Shinners emerge as the largest party, with Jim Allister's TUV holding the balance of power in the unionist family.
The SDLP could start merger talks with Fianna Fail, and end 2010 by creating an effective pan-nationalist front with Northern Shinners.
Republican dissidents will finally pull off an Omagh-style atrocity against the security forces, who in turn will stage a Loughgall-type ambush, killing several leading dissidents.
Jedward will head a new Irish boy band eclipsing Boyzone and Westlife and Germany will win the World Cup beating England in the final.
January 5, 2010
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8439738.stm
The 2009 Northern Ireland marching season was the "most difficult" in recent history, independent security reviewer Robert Whalley has said.
Mr Whalley monitors the operation of the Justice and Security Act (NI) 2007.
He observed the policing and handling of parades and watched CCTV coverage of rioting at Ardoyne in north Belfast.
"Others will have their own views on parading activity this year, but my own judgement is that it has been the most difficult in the recent past," he said.
"The violence which took place in the Ardoyne on the evening of 13 July, and over the succeeding two nights, was the worst seen in Belfast for several years, and there was trouble in Armagh, Lurgan, Rasharkin and Strabane.
"There were also incidents in Londonderry on 8 August.
"But the Ardoyne violence was not on the scale of the violence there in 2004 or the Whiterock disturbances of 2005."
He said that thousands of parades took place without incident and the reflected "great credit" on all those involved.
INDEPENDENT REVIEWER REPORT
Read the report here
He said that while police managed to control the parading season without the need for Army support "military assets" based in England with public order training were available as a back-up.
He said that the "assessment had not yet this year reached the point where such an option could be totally ruled out".
Mr Whalley said that helicopter flying remained a contentious issue and complaints were up 46% to 124 compared to 85 in 2008.
He said that the low-level training was as essential skill for air crew being sent overseas, mainly to Afghanistan, and that they had "avoid" lists.
"Avoiding causing nuisance is a key consideration for the crew, but it is not the main point of their training, which is to prepare them for the challenges in much more hostile theatres overseas," he said.
He the military should give "further consideration to making available as much advance information as possible about planned helicopter flights".
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/dissidents
A man was being treated in hospital today following a paramilitary-style shooting in west Belfast.
The 47-year-old was shot in the knees and ankles after being targeted by three masked men.
Police said the shooting happened in the Beechmount Parade area shortly after 9pm last night.
This is the latest in a number of paramilitary-style shootings in recent weeks.
Last week a man in his 30s was shot in the left leg in the Glen Vista Road in Londonderry after being chased by three men.
At the start of December two men were injured during a paramilitary-style shooting in an alleyway in Derry’s Creggan estate.
SDLP West Belfast MLA Alex Attwood has said there is “little or no support in the community for this type of crime”.
“Politicians and community leaders need to pull together on this issue,” he added.
The finger of blame is being pointed at dissident republicans who have been stepping up punishment attacks in a bid to assert authority on communities.
Police statistics show from April to November last year 28 people were injured as a result of paramilitary-style shootings by republican groups. In the same period one person was injured during a punishment shooting by loyalists.
Meanwhile, the home of a High Court judge targeted in a dissident republican bomb attack has been sold for £650,000 just weeks after being put on the market.
High Court judge Seamus Treacy was forced to move from his north Belfast home last year when a pipe bomb was found close to the property in September.
Security around members of the judiciary has been upped as the threat from dissident republicans continues to heighten.
During the Troubles the IRA killed five members of the judiciary, as well as a judge’s wife and a judge’s daughter.
http://www.derryjournal.com/journal/Gaza-within-reach-for-Derry.
Published Date: 05 January 2010
By Staff reporter
Five Derry men trying to deliver medical aid to the people of Gaza last night said they were hopeful of finally reaching their destination - almost 9 days after their scheduled arrival.
Jonathon Crockett, Eanna O'Donaghaile, Danny Doyle, Eddie McBride and Derek McChrystal, part of the Viva Palestina convoy of 150 vehicles carrying 500 people, began their trans-continental mercy mission on December 4.
It had been hoped the Derrymen, part of the 500-strong international humanitarian Viva Palestina convoy, would have reached their destination on December 27. But the convoy stalled and were stranded in Jordan after the Egyptian authorities refused the group access to Gaza through the Red Sea.
Instead the convoy was forced to double back some 500kms through Syria before their cargo was ferried to the Egyptian port of Al-Arish on Sunday, only 25kms form Gaza.
Now the Derry campaigners are preparing to join their cargo on the Gaza -Egypt border before finally being allowed in to Gaza.
In a joint statement issued to the 'Journal', the five local men last night said :"Cautious excitement is the mood here, we're ready to explode upon entry to Gaza but we are aware through lots of experience that things can change rapidly.
"But for now, things are looking great, and we are nearing the successful completion of a great journey that we hope will contribute to ending the siege of Gaza. And what an achievement that will be for all the people who took any part in this campaign.
"The 5 of us are in good form here and thanks a lot once again. Almost there!"
Meanwhile, the Derry Anti-War Coalition (DAWC) yesterday called on local political parties and organisations to raise their voices to demand that the Derry’s Gaza 5 and the Viva Palestina convoy be allowed to enter Gaza with the tons of medical aid they have carried from Europe.
A spokesperson for the DAWC said the delay in allowing the five campaigners into Gaza has had serious implications.
"This has meant chartering three ferries and a plane at huge cost. Moreover, our five representatives may have to book new flights home. We are launching an immediate appeal to raise funds to cover this unexpected expense."
The anti war campaign group has also called for support for its 14 members, next due in court on January 11, charged for their occupation of the Raytheon plant at Springtown last January.
http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/arts2010/jan10_Unity__JCollins_Irish-Herald.php
(Jude Collins, Irish Herald)
I had two, what'll I call them, transcendent moments between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The first transcendent moment was life-centred, the second death-centred, but both made me glad to be Irish.
The life-centred one occurred in Greencastle, Co Tyrone, on St Stephen's Day (Dec 26). For twenty-four years now, each Stephen's Day, that small rural community has hosted a 5-mile run. The area didn't have a running club, it had no tradition of such events, but the people spotted a need and built the race. The need is one that burns secretly in many hearts after a couple of days locked in the bosom of the family: 'Get me out of here!' And so each year hundreds of souls respond to the Stephen's Day call of Greencastle and escape from over-heated living rooms,from the debris of wrapping paper and empty boxes, from the cold corpse of a once-warm turkey. They point the noses of their cars towards Greencastle, their hearts light, the tune of Springsteen's Born to Run ringing in their ears.
This year the run had some 800 entriants (you could walk as well as run). Young, old, fat, skinny, peachy-sweet, plug-ugly – we were all represented. At race's end (no of COURSE I DIDN'T WIN) we stumbled from the cold into the warmth of the community hall, where local people told us we were absolutely bloody great and fed us strong tea and sandwiches and buns and cakes, then distributed the prizes to a huge fanfare. Heaven, I suspect, will be a little bit like Greencastle Community Hall on Stephen's Day.
But it wasn't in the hall that I had my moment of, let's call it oneness. It was during the race itself. At the start of the third mile, with the mass of runners struggling up an incline, the fields on either side thick with snow, the only sounds the slap of running shoes, the rasp of breath, the distant call of a sheep, it happened. For an instant I felt as if I, an individual, had ceased to exist. Instead I'd become a constituent, integrated part of this ribbon of humanity, merged into its colour, part of its churning stream of humanity which this dark December afternoon was lighting up a Tyrone hillside. And as we pounded on, it seemed to me we were telling the world that together we were unbeatable and that our energy and unity would somehow, someday break the grip of winter.
The second moment of transcendence happened at a funeral in Lisburn. On the Tuesday before Christmas, Peter O'Hagan, a long-time SDLP councillor in Lisburn and former mayor of that city, attended a council meeting. He then went home and went to bed. When a family member went to waken him the following morning, she found him cold. The funeral was in St Patrick's Catholic Church in Lisburn, on the Sunday after Christmas Day.
Traditionally, Lisburn has been a cold place for Catholics. In 1920, Michael Collins ordered an IRA unit to go there and assassinate RIC District Inspector Oswald Swanzy, who was believed to have been involved in the killing of Collins's close friend Tomas McCurtain, the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork. The unit went and Swanzy was shot dead, not as popular legend has it on the steps of St Patrick's Church, but close to the church. The backlash was ferocious. Many Catholic homes in Lisburn were burnt and more would have been, had it not been for the fear that this might have set fire to adjoining Protestant houses. Some one thousand Catholic families fled to nearby Belfast.
But Catholics returned and today they constitute some 15-20% of Lisburn's population – hence the election of SDLP councillor Peter O'Hagan to the position of mayor. Bigotry, however, remains a core problem within the council. Chairmanship of council committees scrupulously excludes Sinn Féin councillors, and two years ago the council was found to have funded the loyalist Eleventh (of July) Night festival in nearby Stoneyford, even as Catholics were being intimidated from that village.
But on the last Sunday of December 2009, St Patrick's Church was packed. The congregation included SDLP notables such as veterans John Hume and Eddie McGready, as well as the two rivals for the leadership of the party, Alasdair McDonnell and Margaret Ritchie. Others as well – Councillor Paul Butler of Sinn Féin, prominent Protestants and Catholics from Lisburn and beyond, all brought together by memories of one man.
As Peter O'Hagan's coffin, heavy with flowers, was carried from the church, the choir and congregation broke into that old Protestant hymn popularised at Billy Graham crusades, 'How great thou art!' It was a moment of intense emotion. As at Greencastle a few days earlier, I had a sense of being caught up in something beyond the individual, something communal and strong and unbreakable. And the words of Wolfe Tone came to mind, almost as if sung by the choir: 'To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissentions, and to substitue the common name of Irishman in the place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter – these were my means'.
However briefly, howevr flickeringly, that's what Peter O'Hagan did in Lisburn at the end of the decade, five days after the end of his life.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam, agus úr faoi shéan agus faoi mhaise daoibh – May he rest in peace, and may you have a happy and prosperous new year.
January 5, 2010
Updated: 1/18/2010
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