An Phoblacht/Republican News   ·   Thursday October 26 1995

Irish News sponsors crown forces' recruitment

THE BRITISH ARMY, RIR, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and RUC were recruiting in Newry Sports Centre on Tuesday at an Irish News sponsored careers convention. Their three stalls had a wide selection of glossy brochures and posters and were staffed by serving members of the crown forces. The event was organised by Newry LACE (Links Across Commerce and Education), a previously unknown group of teachers and business people which is funded by the British government's Training and Employment Agency.

Around 30 companies, further education colleges and other employers were represented at the convention which attracted 3,000 young people.

Thirty Sinn Féin members from Newry and Bessbrook picketed the event and disrupted the work of the three crown forces' stalls, handing out their own leaflets to young people. When the senior officer on the British army stall - who boasted of serving in Derry in 1970 - was asked why their literature was "one-sided" and didn't mention their murderous record in Ireland and around the world, he replied that he was "not prepared to discuss politics".

A number of plain-clothes RUC members were patrolling the hall and whenever they stopped, protestors carrying posters with the words 'Boycott the RUC' stood beside them.

One member of Sinn Féin was assaulted by the RUC who tried to block his entry to the hall, but otherwise the protest passed off peacefully.

Tommy Hollywood, a teacher at St Colman's College in Newry and one of the organisers of the convention, gave a terse "no comment" to AP/RN's questions about crown forces' recruitment.

The Irish News' Marketing Manager, Sam Simpson, told AP/RN that they agreed to sponsor the careers convention because "we feel we should put something back into the community that supports us and because the 15-18-year olds it was aimed at are an important market for us."

Asked about their attitude towards British army and RUC involvement, he said, "everyone should be free to choose the career they want and to see all the options". He said he was not aware of any anger among their readership in Newry.

Newry Sinn Féin Councillor Davy Hyland described the crown forces' recruitment as "deliberately provocative" in a 95% nationalist town with one of the highest rates of unemployment in the Six Counties. "It's an absolute disgrace that the Irish News would sponsor this, given the track record of the RUC and British army in this area."

SELECTED WOMEN FESTIVAL

The RUC also had a stall at Newry's Festival of Women on Thursday, 19 October. The one-day festival was the brainchild of Lady Mayhew who opened the event in Newry Town Hall along with journalist Nell McCafferty, who was there to launch a book written by women from South Armagh.

The Town Hall was picketed by 15 members of Roinn na mBan, Newry Sinn Féin's Women's Department, who protested at the presence of the RUC and the lack of NIO funding for Bunscoil an Iúir. They called the event The Festival of Selected Women and said that "the sanitised diet of craft demonstrations and entertainments and the trivial-sounding 'chat-shops' on unspecified 'women's issues' all point to a forgettable festival."

Thay accused the organisers of "ag sodar i ndiaidh na n-uasal" (trotting after the gentry).

Nell McCafferty joined the picket for a brief time and defended her decision to attend the Festival by saying: "If Martin McGuinness can talk to Patrick Mayhew, then I can talk to Mrs Mayhew."

A number of women, including Samantha Lamph, whose brother, Volunteer Colm Marks was shot dead by the RUC in Downpatrick in 1991, held a brief protest inside the hall in front of the RUC stall.

Newry Sinn Féin Councillor Brendan Curran, commenting on crown forces' involvement in the two events, said: "Newry seems to have been picked as a testing ground for introducing British forces into the nationalist community. In the last fourteen months we've been swamped with these publicity events, pseudo-crimebusting initiatives and royal visits, willingly assisted by some SDLP politicians and the fur-coat brigade and now by the Irish News."

BY BRIAN CAMPBELL