August 31, 2004

Trouble in north Belfast

Olympic hero and villain

Kerry opposes contract for controversial colonel

Gaelic fans attacked

TEN YEARS ON: NO JUSTICE

Some Mother’s Son

British policy perpetuates inequality

The edited text of the address by Sinn Féin chairman Mitchel McLaughlin to the Michael Gaughan Commemoration on Sunday.

A Quarter Of A Century Ago

Twenty-five years on, our day is as far away as ever.

August 27, 2004

Protestants leave Torrens estate

Ten Protestant families have left an estate in north Belfast, blaming intimidation on republicans from neighbouring areas.

COURT BATTLE FOR RIOT FOOTAGE

The PSNI are attempting mass prosecutions in connection with rioting after a loyalist parade was forced through a republican north Belfast community on July 12.

Take it down from the lamp-post - SF

East Derry Sinn Féin assembly member Francie Brolly has called for the removal of Irish tricolours from lamp-posts in the Six Counties.

Michael Gaughan (1950-1974)

This weekend marks the 30th Anniversary of the death of IRA Volunteer Michael Gaughan, who died while on Hunger Strike in Parkhurst Prison.

Mother taken from child in mass deportation

An Irish-born baby was left behind as the baby’s mother was one of 25 Nigerians deported on a chartered aircraft in a mass late-night expulsion of asylum-seekers.

Clintons back strong US role in North talks

Former US president Bill Clinton has promised that Senator John Kerry would be a powerful ally for peace in the North if elected to the White House.

‘Vindictive’ arrest of former porter

A former porter at the Stormont Assembly buildings, who had faced charges in connection with an alleged “IRA spy ring” that brought down the power sharing institutions, has been arrested in controversial circumstances.

Not only the DUP want Sinn Féin kept out

By Brian Feeney (for the Irish News)

Have you been following the saga of the longest cabinet reshuffle in history? It’s been going on now since June and is set to continue until some time in September. It’s a make-or-break reshuffle for Fianna Fail.

August 24, 2004

Hate on tour in Rasharkin

A young woman was struck on the head during a loyalist band “parade” which was nothing more than a frightening display of anti-Catholic hatred.

PSNI chief praises Kelly intervention

PSNI chief Hugh Orde has publicly praised senior republican figures for intervening between rioting nationalist youths and British forces in north Belfast last month.

Fullerton case reopened

The Garda police in Donegal have reopened the investigation into the 1991 murder of Sinn Féin councillor Eddie Fullerton. They plan to interview a key witness who claims that the British security forces in Derry helped cover up the killing.

SAS CARRIED OUT AMBUSH

British forces have finally admitted the deadly SAS were called in to wipe out an IRA active service unit in an ambush that became known as the Loughgall massacre.

The Loughgall massacre

On May 8, 1987 eight members of the east Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional IRA were gunned down in highly suspicious circumstances by members of the notorious British Army SAS Regiment in the small Co Armagh village of Loughgall.

DUP raises new demand

Ian Paisley’s DUP has set down a marker against any prospective Sinn Féin Minister for Justice in a revived Belfast executive.

Kerry campaign works Ireland

Irish supporters of the US Democratic party have signed up hundreds of postal voters in a bid to win the US presidential election for their candidate, John Kerry.

Put failure behind us

by Martin McGuinness MP

This month marks the tenth anniversary of the historic IRA cessation in 1994, an initiative which helped transform politics on this island.

August 20, 2004

Over a thousand a month detained by British

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Human Rights, Caitriona Ruane, was stopped and harassed by the Crown forces in a week in which figures were released showing some 15,000 others suffered a similar fate in the past 12 months.

IRA denies Rathenraw allegations

The Provisional IRA has denied allegations that it issued death threats against members of a County Antrim community association.

Intimidation of nationalists in Derry, Antrim

The Catholic owned ‘Clock Bar’ has closed in a County Derry village after a series of unchecked attacks on staff, customers and property by a unionist gang.

ANOTHER LIFE LOST TO PLASTIC BULLETS

Plastic bullets have claimed another victim after a west Belfast man’s death was linked to the serious injuries he suffered after being struck by one 23 years ago.

‘Frame-up’ fails as charges dropped

Charges against Belfast republican Bobby Tohill were dropped today as he accused British forces of framing him for failing to testify against other republicans.

Call that justice?

(for the Irish Post)

Lawyers in England have condemned a decision to deny three Irishmen wrongly convicted of murder thousands of pounds in compensation -- because of the money they saved while locked away.

Attack on republican graves

The Republican plot in a graveyard in Newry has been destroyed in an overnight attack.

August 17, 2004

Repression in Rathenraw

To many of us who live in Belfast, the Rathenraw Estate in Antrim town for long conjured up the image of a drugs bazaar where various substances were bought and sold on the open market.

Furore over hospital organ sales

Six hospitals have admitted they secretly sold organs from the bodies of deceased children to pharmaceutical firms.

Marches pass off without incident

Saturday’s Apprentice Boys’ parades passed off without major violence following an order against one parade in north Belfast.

SF FACE HIGH HURDLES

Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party has said it it is willing to work with Sinn Féin in a Six-County power-sharing executive, but only if it supports the police, and the IRA ends its activities and and disarms in a convincing fashion.

35 years of British military presence

By Gerry Coleman (Irish Northern Aid)

On the 14th of August 1969, thirty five years ago today, British troops were deployed on Irish soil for the first time in the current phase of the fight for Irish freedom.

Bombay Street remembered

The people of Clonard in west Belfast commemorated the thirty-fifth anniversary of the burning of Bombay Street on August 15, 1969 at the weekend.

Attack blamed on feuding UDA

An internal feud in the unionist paramilitary UDA appears to have resurfaced with an attack on a car owned by a relative of a murder victim.

Having their say

Imagine a referendum in which unionists had to explain their concept of ‘Britishness’ to the British people.

August 13, 2004

Blair holds the key

The British government’s failings in the peace process were highlighted today by Sinn Féin today as the party turned its focus away from fruitless exchanges with the hardline unionist DUP.

ARDOYNE DODGE BLOCKED

A reported plan by a Protestant marching group to circumvent a ruling against a coat-trailing parade in nationalist north Belfast has been stopped.

Climbing a mountain

Speaking to a packed hall at the west Belfast festival to deliver the PJ McGrory Memorial Lecture, Geraldine Finucane has described her family’s determination to expose the truth about her husband’s murder.

Death deportation averted

A 38-year-old Nigerian woman, who faced death by stoning if returned to her home country, was yesterday granted a court order restraining any immediate move to deport her from Ireland.

Deformities linked to spy equipment

Emissions from British Army spying equipment has been blamed for gross birth defects in livestock in the South Armagh area.

The day I heard about the ceasefire

Danny Morrison recalls the day ten years ago this month, when the mainstream IRA declared a unilateral, opened cessation of military activity.

US frees Irish wedding guest

Joe Black, a former IRA Volunteer detained in the US for the past five weeks, is to be released tomorrow.

Unionism’s validity is disappearing

By Brian Feeney (for the Irish News)

There has been a flurry of comment on Gerry Adams’s remarks last Thursday, especially the bit where he said that the IRA might have to go out of business in order to remove any excuse from unionists for refusing to negotiate or work the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement.

August 10, 2004

McDowell sending Nigerian woman to her death

Irish Justice minister Michael McDowell will be sending a Nigerian woman to her death if he does not overturn a deportation order against her, it has emerged.

Anger at award of Iraqi contract

A contract awarded to a former British Army officer to help secure post-war Iraq should be revoked, Irish-American lobbyists in Washington said yesterday.

DUP SAYS NO

Ian Paisley’s DUP has cast doubt on the possibility of an agreement including policing in the North of Ireland next month and has again dismissed a statement by Gerry Adams last week that the IRA could be “removed”.

“I Love You Daddy”

Ciaran O’Fearaigh has been in an American jail in Denver, Colorado, for Five Hundred and Forty days, yet has not been charged with a crime.

Crown force assualt

A man was hospitalised late on Saturday night last after he was beaten around the head with rifle butts by members of a British Army/PSNI patrol.

Ireland is Atlantis, says expert

The mythical underwater empire of Atlantis is actually the island of Ireland, according to a new book.

Irish athlete admits doping offence

Irish athlete Cathal Lombard has created a shock after he admitted that he used a banned substance while in training for the Athens Olympics.

Peace process can be advanced

The following is the text of an Irish Times article by Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams today.

August 8, 2004

Parades decision may avert crisis

The North’s Parades Commission has this afternoon decided not to allow an anti-Catholic march by the Apprentice Boys’ organisation past the nationalist Ardyone area of north Belfast.

Irish victims of Mideast conflict

An Irish man was shot dead in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, while an Irish victim of the Iraq war was remembered in Dublin this week.

ADAMS GESTURE ON IRA REBUFFED

Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams has told republicans they need to be prepared to remove the IRA and the issue of weapons as an excuse for unionists to block political progress.

Dismay at Ombudsman’s report on forensic interference

The North’s Police Ombudsman, Mrs Nuala O’Loan, has denied that the PSNI police pressurised a forensic scientist into acting improperly.

Antebellum Antrim Town

To date only Sinn Féin highlight what appears to be an ongoing unionist paramilitary inspired and orchestrated pogrom against Catholics in Antrim town.

Envoy gets message on parades

Comments by US Special Envoy Mitchell Reiss describing Protestant marches through nationalist areas as being designed to provoke, intimidate and champion “superiority” have been welcomed.

Closure ‘not enough’ as incursions continue

A British army helicopter has been seen spying on homes in County Monaghan as an announcement was made that a British army base near the border is to close.

Self-determination for all

The following is an edited address by Sinn Féin Vice President Pat Doherty MP MLA to the second International Conference on Self Determination, the United Nations and International Civil Society, organised by the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities and International Council for Human Rights in Geneva today.

August 3, 2004

SF negotiating ‘in good faith’

Sinn Féin is very focused on making sure the September political negotiations are successful in addressing all of the outstanding issues, the party said yesterday.

‘Stormontgate’ report disputed

The police Ombudsman’s office has clashed with Sinn Féin over a report which rejects accusations that a 2002 raid on Sinn Féin’s Assembly offices was politically motivated.

Racism fuels further violence

Two homes in north Antrim were attacked yesterday by racists thought to be linked to the unionist paramilitary UDA. Meanwhile, a riot in south Belfast at the weekend has been linked to a PSNI bid to prevent racist attacks in the area.

Pipe-bomb attack linked to march tension

A pipe bomb left outside a Catholic home on the Ligoniel Road caused a major security alert in north Belfast today. The device, described as ‘viable’ by the PSNI, was defused.

Harney backs inequality, opposes tax on wealthy

The 26-County Deputy Prime Minister, Tanaiste Mary Harney, has opposed greater taxation of Ireland’s wealthy, and said she hoped they would make charitable donations instead.

OMAGH WITNESS KEPT HIDDEN

An informer said to be wanted for questioning by the PSNI police about the Omagh bombing is living in Britain under a government witness-protection scheme and using a false name, it has been reported.

West Belfast Feile

The highlights of this week’s programme for the annual West Belfast festival

Treating Oppression and Depression

In light of a further spate of suicides among young people in nationalist areas of Belfast, we present a political analysis of the issue of mental illness in the North of Ireland.

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