Shoot to kill at Abbeylara
A Chairde,
Policing reform is needed North and South after the shooting of John Carthy at Abbeylara. I believe the shooting of Carthy in the back is evidence of an Emergency Response Unit shoot-to-kill policy. His family has called for a full and independent inquiry, which would be in the public interest. Among the questions to be answered are:
Does it take a heavily armed unit with automatic weapons to capture one man with a shotgun walking down the road?
Why did the Gardaí not allow Carthy access to his solicitor, Michael Finucane, son of the late Pat Finucane, to whom Carthy had said he would surrender?
We need radical changes in the structure and practices of the Gardaí and the ERU.
A full public inquiry is also needed into the loyalist killing of Donegal Sinn Féin Councillor Eddie Fullerton in light of the current investigation into Garda corruption in the county.
Joe Howley,
Chair, Noble Six Cumann,
Sligo
Cá bhfuil ár TG4?
A Chairde,
We would like to draw attention to the difficulty in getting the Irish language station, TG4, on our screens in the Six Counties. At an Irish language class in Belfast, a show of hands indicated that only one in four of those present were able to tune in to TG4.
When the station (TnaG as it was then) came on air in 1996, 30 percent of people in the Six Counties were able to receive its signal from RTÉ transmission masts in the 26 Counties. Little has changed in the intervening years.
It seems that TG4's hands are tied on this one as it was an Irish government decision that RTE should construct the necessary transmission system. The same lack of reception is true even in some Gaeltacht areas.
TG4 is available on almost all of the cable TV systems operating in the 26 Counties and this ensures reception for people living in the major cities. Why have Ntl not offered the same service to the vibrant and growing Irish language movement in the Six Counties?
We were subjected to massive disruption while cables were laid and now this major company is allowed to cherry-pick what services it provides. What planning permission allowed Ntl to disregard the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement?
It is difficult to understand why TG4, the only channel whose signal extension was specified in the Good Friday Agreement, was not included in Ntl's development.
What progress is being made in this matter?
Noelle Ryan, Des Wilson,
Springhill Community House,
Belfast
Neutrality AGM
A Chairde,
The Peace & Neutrality Alliance AGM will be held on Saturday 25 November 2000, 2.00-5.30pm at the MSF Headquarters, 15 Merrion Square, Dublin 2
The Frank Aiken Memorial Lecture will be given at the Conference by Tony Simpson of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation.
The process of transforming the EU into a nuclear armed superstate where Ireland's right to have an independent foreign polcy will be terminated will take another major step with the adoption of the Nice Treaty.
PANA believes that if all those who support Irish Neutrality and Independence work together we can defeat the Treaty in a referendum.
We urge all those who agree with PANA to attend the AGM.
Roger Cole
Chair
PANA
Examiner bans cross-border floods
A Chairde,
I refer to the coverage of the recent flooding on last Monday's ``Irish Examiner'' (5 November). On page 6, it gave a ru down on the situation in most parts of the country, taking in 26 counties. But why no reports from Counties Derry, Antrim, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone or Armagh?
As well as cross-border Ministerial meetings suspended by David Trimble, has he also banned weather reports from the North appearing in ``The Irish Examiner''? Or is it that the
monsoon-like conditions were stopped at the border by British security for fear of unionism seeing it as another step towards a united Ireland?
Cllr. Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin,
Sinn Féin,
Clonakilty,
Rain-Drenched West Cork
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)