September 29, 2003

Election date `crucial' for endgame talks

`Investigation' into murder never took place

Hope and History, by Gerry Adams

Parties set out stalls

Sinn Féin and the Raj

Death of Proinsias Mac Aonghusa

Attacks on schools continue

Edward Said - a fountain of humanity

Ahern worries mount over TD scandals

September 25, 2003

Talks continue to restore Assembly

Protests over policing in Strabane

Finucane 'shot 22 times'

Court hears how PSNI interferes with forensic evidence

Seeking a debate on truth and reconciliation

Colombia, the paranoid state

General recalled as soldiers express Bloody Sunday `elation'

Dublin bin tax row spreads

September 23, 2003

Twelve arrests after huge bin tax protest

Killer British soldier promoted during investigation

Schools targeted for sectarian attack

Interview with Caitriona Ruane

Election tension mounts as talks continue

10-day-old child caught in petrol bomb attack

The Armed Peace

Play the European card

By Fr Des Wilson

It is difficult to see how democratic people can make any further concessions to the British government or its Irish representatives.

September 21, 2003

TD jailed after bin charge protest

An Irish parliamentarian has been jailed for a month over the escalating protests against the bin tax in Dublin.

Soldiers hostile to Bloody Sunday questions

The Bloody Sunday inquiry heard evidence last week from the soldier in command of the unit believed to have been responsible for killing up to eleven people on Bloody Sunday and wounding a further seven.

'Lost decade' for tackling poverty

A new Combat Poverty report published this week by Trinity College Dublin academic Virpi Timonen shows that we have a "low tax, low spend" policy when it comes to tackling poverty and disadvantage in Ireland. It means that the chances of redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor in Ireland are "relatively low".

Keeping their names ever green

Senior republicans joined at the weekend to commemorate one of the most famous events of the conflict, the 1983 escape from the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. On Friday night in Letterkenny, Gerry Kelly, Bobby Storey and Brendan ``Bik'' McFarlane reconstructed Europe's biggest jail break since the second world war in a gathering of over a thousand republicans.

On September 25, 1983, IRA PoWs took over a block in the H-Blocks and held it for nearly two hours, allowing 38 prisoners to escape.

The reconstruction involved video screens, maps and photographs, and anecdotal personal accounts of participants.

In typical republican style, black humour was the order of the day. But the importance of the escape, following the loss of ten republicans in the 1981 humger strikes, was lost on no-one.

There was a particular tribute to those who assisted the escape but who stayed behind and did not participate. ``They are the forgotten ones but they all played a part just as much as we did," said Bobby Storey.

The escape plan depended on the use of a `hobby' shop, where the prisoners were allowed to make harps and other craft items to sell on the outside.

One prisoner was told to make a wooden gun with a wooden silencer. ``Of course, it wooden work,'' said Storey. But the gun did play an important role, he pointed out, as Kelly wielded it to gain control of the van that would be used for the escape.

The planning was ad hoc, he said. Those chosen to escape were not even told until just beforehand. The prisoners identified the wardens who would be on duty on the morning of the escape so the uniforms they took off them would fit. The escape began at a signal from Storey.

``There were 30 of us on the block and only three of them, so that part was easy. We told them they were under arrest and we took it from there,'' he said.

Storey described how the prisoners gained control of a tally lodge just 30ft away from a British Army watchtower. A soldier looked on as the prisoners fought with wardens who had just come on duty.

``He must have been the stupidest of all the Brits they ever sent over here,'' Storey joked. ``He thought we were arguing about a football match or something.''

The screen behind the stage, which had been showing diagrams of the prison, switched to images of farmhouses and rivers as it was explained that although 19 prisoners were immediately recaptured, others escaped across fields.

``We were lying in a drain. Someone had seen us and there were RUC and army everywhere,'' Storey said. ``They were so close we could hear them talking. One said, `If I ever get my hands on Storey, I'll kill him' so it wasn't a great incentive to give myself up.

``Eventually they spotted us and ordered us out. It was the Lagan for God's sake and we couldn't swim so that was the scariest bit of the whole lot.''

Storey was pragmatic about the prisoners' motivation for the escape. ``I would love to say we realised its political significance but really all we were looking for was to get back to the struggle,'' he said.

The trio finished by thanking everyone connected with the escape, and there were presentations to the relatives of those who had died.

Joyful commemoration of famous jail-break

Senior republicans joined at the weekend to commemorate one of the most famous events of the conflict, the 1983 escape from the H-Blocks of Long Kesh.

How high are the flames?

If the images of unionist protest outside Carnmoney cemetery can tell us one thing it's this; anti-Catholic bigotry is not confined to the UDA and UVF paramilitaries. In the Irish News, the photographs show two inoffensive elderly Catholic women, one carrying an offering of flowers, being confronted by unionist protestors.

Speculation mounts on new peace deal

Adams seeks `inclusive' united Ireland

A dramatic political breakthrough in the North could be imminent as Sinn Féin and representatives of the Irish and British governments are engaged in a series of meetings this weekend.

Attorney General calls for Finucane inquiry

The 26-County attorney general, Rory Brady, has told a lawyers' conference in the United States that it would be "inconceivable" if the British government did not institute a public judicial inquiry into the assassination of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.

September 18, 2003

Unionist paramilitaries intensify attacks

In the wake of the UDA campaign to drive Catholic residents from the Deerpark Road in North Belfast, unionist paramilitary activity has increased across the Six Counties. A group calling itself the Loyalist Action Force issued a death threat against Glengormley priest Fr Dan Whyte. The group is more than likely a bogus cover name for the UDA.

Seanad reform proposals debated

The upper house of the Dublin parliament is undemocratic and elitist, according to Sinn Fein's leader in the Dail [the parliament's lower house] has claimed.

Human Rights Commission crisis puts investment at risk

Sinn Fein spokesperson on Equality and Human Rights, Bairbre de Brun, has expressed concern that the approach of the Human Rights Commission to fair employment and parity of esteem could put future investment in the North at risk.

Elections failure `could signal end for agreement'

Failure to hold elections soon in the Six Counties could spell the end of the Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness warned today. As he prepared for a meeting in Dublin with Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, the Mid Ulster MP insisted the Government must set a date for an Assembly election this year if efforts to restore power-sharing were to succeed.

Unionist paramilitaries intensify attacks

In the wake of the UDA campaign to drive Catholic residents from the Deerpark Road in North Belfast, unionist paramilitary activity has increased across the Six Counties.

Ex-prisoners dismiss Donaldson criticism

In his attempts to be seen as the most hardline of hardline unionists, Ulster Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson has gone on the offensive over this coming Friday's commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 1983 H Block in Donegal.

Dissidents arrested over police board intimidation

Four men and a woman were arrested early this morning in Strabane, County Tyrone, in connection with attacks against nationalist members of local policing boards.

British govenment to defy document ruling

The British government and the PSNI police are set to defy a coroner's ruling that they hand over unedited documentation relating to the killings of ten County Tyrone nationalists during the 1990s. After a delay of two years and 12 preliminary hearings, when the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the PSNI refused to produce all relevant material, coroner Roger McLernon has now ordered the MoD and PSNI to produce all intelligence documents relevant to the killings within 21 days so the inquests of Roseanne Mallon, Jack and Kevin McKearney and of seven IRA Volunteers can go ahead.

Direct rule a disaster

Direct Rule is a disaster - we have part time Direct Rule Ministers with remits over multiple departmental responsibilities and have neither the time, even if they possessed the hunger, to bring forward major initiatives to better the lot of people here. Apart from attempting to use the absence of the Assembly to push Water Charges and other revenue raising measures for the Exchequer, no one can be in any doubt that the Direct Rule Ministers are merely going through the motions.

September 15, 2003

US support sought as Colombia 3 ruling awaited

The Colombia Three ordeal may be brought to a close this month, with a verdict from the trial judge due any day now.

Talks intensify for deal to restore peace process

The Irish Prime Minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, meets the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, for talks today in the latest round of talks aimed at rescuing the peace process and the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Police board threats blamed on dissidents

Sinn Fein has dismissed suggestions that mainstream republicans are behind threats against nationalist district policing board members.

MI5 takeover bodes badly for policing

Speculation that `intelligence gathering'in the Six Counties will, in the near future, be handed over by the PSNI Special Branch to their superiors in MI5 offers no assurance that the policy of collusion that has operated in the state for the last two decades - and been sanctioned at the highest levels - will be abandoned.

H-Block escape event criticised

A historic event to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1983 H-Block escape has become the subject of controversy today.

Govt popularity falls, Sinn Fein support surges

A poll in Saturday's Irish Independent has show that the current Irish Government's popularity is and that Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams is now the most popular party leader in the 26 Counties.

Mourners attacked at church service

A mob of up to 200 loyalists disrupted a Catholic church service at a cemetery on the outskirts of Belfast on Sunday afternoon and later threw bricks and stones at service-goers.

September 13, 2003

Robert Emmet - Enigmatic revolutionary

Historian RUAN O'DONNELL assesses the real significance of one of Ireland's most iconic and misunderstood national heroes, the United Irishman Robert Emmet, who was executed 200 years ago in the wake of the failure of the 1803 Rising

McGuinness refutes Bloody Sunday allegations

Sinn Fein negotiator Martin Mc Guinness has again refuted allegations regarding IRA activity on Bloody Sunday following claims directed towards him personally.

Loyalists bomb pensioner over testimony

Loyalist paramilitaries bombed a pensioner's home in County Antrim in an attempt to frighten a key witness out of testifying at a court trial.

Govt `dozing' as 1,000 jobs go East

3Com in Dublin, which currently employs 700, is to close its manufacturing facility and retain just 50 jobs in research and development.

RUC questioned over Rosemary Nelson killing

Two former RUC police members have been questioned over allegations that they threatened the life of the Lurgan defence lawyer Rosemary Nelson and may have colluded in her death.

Catholic man survives sectarian hatchet attack

A Catholic man was left for dead after being struck on the head with a hatchet by a gang of Shankill Road loyalists, as he walked home along Carrick Hill in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Business as Usual

The Laffoy resignation is symptomatic of a widespread malaise in the tribunals - that of corruption, arrogance and unresponsiveness - writes PAUL O'CONNOR.

British Army General forced to make new statement

As the Bloody Sunday Inquiry resumed at the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster this week, it emerged that the British Army's most senior officer, General Sir Mike Jackson, has had to make a new statement to the Bloody Sunday inquiry.

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