Thursday, December 21, 2017 Emma Rogan, whose father Adrian was murdered in the Heights Bar: “Last Christmas, 2016, was the first Christmas since the atrocity whereby we felt that the truth had been set free and allowed to breath. This judgment, which has been delivered four days prior to Christmas Day, has devastated us all. We feel that the truth has again been suffocated. We will study this judgment over Christmas and renew our efforts to defend the inconvenient truth, in the New Year.” Niall Murphy, solicitor for the families of those bereaved states: “This case was premised entirely on procedural grounds. Ronnie Hawthorn and Raymond White, did not challenge a single fact contained in the Police Ombudsman’s report. The facts therefore remain as facts. • It is still a fact that transcripts of the interviews of the suspects, that the RUC did bother to arrest, were then destroyed by police. None of these facts would have seen the light of day, but for the Police Ombudsman’s report, and the families are eternally grateful for the recovery of those facts, which are still facts, notwithstanding this judgement.” “It is a further matter of fact that the report, was delivered in its entirety to the Chief Constable months in advance of publication.

Researchers at Nvidia trained a pair of neural networks to create fictional celebrities.

The Chief Constable, who then has a right to reply, to object to factual errors, did not take issue with the report as it was published, indeed he accepted the report in its entirety, as did the then Prime Minister David Cameron who personally wrote to the families on 12th July 2016, as did the then Secretary of State Theresa Villiers. The office of the Police Ombudsman and specifically the work of its Historic Directorate is held up by the British Government to the European Court of Human Rights in their defence, in respect of found failings in respect of the British Government’s breaches of article 2, the right to life. As such, this judgment will be required to be considered by the Council of Ministers in Strasbourg, and the State’s compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights, considered acutely in that regard.”. There’s a distinctly unpleasant whiff beginning to rise from the PSNI. Yes, there are various surveys and polls indicating levels of satisfaction that the unlamented, discredited RUC could never have attained but there is growing dissatisfaction with critical aspects of policing and no sign they will be addressed. People living in mixed districts and some Nationalist districts are deeply unhappy with the failure of the police to deal with loyalist flags and paraphernalia. The police have completely failed to deal with loyalist paramilitaries who still despoil working-class Unionist districts, prey on businesses and prevent investment.

Download Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition Offline Installer here. The PSNI record on recruiting Catholics has stalled and gone into reverse. There’s more. The reasons and excuses provided are well known but the results never change.

The major aspect which has crystallised dissatisfaction in recent months is failure to deal with the past in ways which obstruct dealing with the past. On December 15, we had a lengthy self-serving epistle from the chief constable explaining why he is going to appeal a High Court order commanding him and his force ‘to expeditiously honour its enforceable public commitment to provide an overarching report into the Glenanne group of cases’.

This to be done independently, expeditiously and with ring-fenced funding. The reason Mr. Justice Treacy issued such an order is that on July 28 he quashed the PSNI decision to abandon the HET inquiry into the notorious Glenanne-based police/UDR murder gang and ordered an independent investigation. However by November the court found that the PSNI had ignored the court’s instruction; had done precisely nothing. Now the Chief Constable, still having done precisely nothing, is appealing the order to the Court of Appeal with your money.

He has no hope of overturning the order but will appeal on esoteric legal grounds. Another year’s delay. In his letter explaining why he has not complied with the order but is appealing, the Chief Constable cites cost. He has conjured a figure of £60 million over five years out of misty Hy-Brasil. The Glenanne cases involve the killing of 120 or more people in the 1970s by a gang composed of RUC, UDR, and UVF. Most had dual membership. The HET was tasked with examining 2,555 cases involving 3,260 killings.

The North’s Criminal Justice Inspection team found in 2013 that the total cost of the HET was £60 million. How come the disparity? How could investigating the Glenanne gang cost so much? Their names are well known. All you have to do is pick up Anne Cadwallader’s book, Lethal Allies and you will find the gang’s whole modus operandi, their weapons, their scenes of crime.

It’s a textbook for anyone pursuing an inquiry. Cadwallader makes a credible case without being paid £60 million. Chief Constable George Hamilton asserts in his letter that there are ‘insufficient detective resources’ in the UK for carrying out an independent investigation. Pull the other one. The HET was able to set up and get under way using retired detectives.

They successfully completed dozens of cases, few as straightforward as the pre-prepared treasure trove sitting waiting for Glenanne investigators. The chief constable asserts that the Historical Investigation Unit recommended in the Stormont House Agreement is the body to investigate the Glenanne gang. That’s just kicking the can down the road. Mr.

Justice Treacy ordered an independent, ring-fenced body. So the non-existence of the HIU is a red herring. Hamilton also takes a swing at ‘the continuing political vacuum’ as a reason for not proceeding. Our useless invisible proconsul [James Brokenshire, NI Secretary of State] could allocate targeted funds for the past immediately. Has Hamilton asked him? Unfortunately the Glenanne case is simply the most egregious example of the PSNI stalling, blocking, redacting, asking for Public Immunity Certificates, losing evidence and so on. Although Hamilton denies it, the inescapable conclusion is that the PSNI is preventing truth emerging but searching for delays and pretexts to protect State interests.

Regardless of motive the result plays to the political position of Unionism, not, altogether now, ‘the political vacuum’. It’s unionists and our proconsul who don’t want appalling conspiracies like the Glenanne RUC/UDR/UVF murder gang investigated.

The consistent failure of the PSNI to proceed proactively supports that position. It smells fishy. Posted by Jim on December 19, 2017 December 19th FDNY TRIATHLON TEAM 2018 SEASON REGISTRATION Join the FDNY Triathlon Team for the 2018 race season. Registration is now open to all Department Members. We urge everyone who is racing triathlons, or who has aspirations to race triathlons, to be a part of the team and represent the Department at races.

We have coaches available to assist with your training and other resources to help you have a successful season. Team Uniform Kit order will be placed in January. Train with the group locally at swim, bike, run sessions & clinics, or join the crew at our multi day camps in Lake Placid and New Paltz in the spring and summer. Reach out to us this week at info@fdnytri.com for registration info.

If you are interested in the FDNY Cycling Team only, reach out to us as well. We have the newly reorganized team doing races and events this season and invite all to join the crew. ANNUAL FDNY SKI RACES The 45th Annual FDNY Firefighters Ski Races at Hunter Mountain will take place on Tuesday, January 30, 2018.

Proceeds will be donated to the NY Firefighters Burn Center Foundation. There will be a plaque dedication honoring FF William Tolley, L 135. Trophies for each 1st, 2nd, 3rd place Ski teams and Snowboard teams will be awarded along with many lottery prizes. “Let’s keep the tradition going.” Register your team online at www.Huntermtn.com ASAP to get the discounted fee. For additional information contact Joe Jove 518-263-4023.

FDNY VS NYPD HOCKEY GAME The 45th Annual FDNY vs NYPD Hockey Game will be played at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, March 24, 2018 at noon. Tickets are available from team members or can be purchased in quantities of eight or more by sending an email to Capt. Tom Reno at FDNYhockey25@gmail.com. FDNY HOCKEY TEAM 2018 KING OF THE ICE HOCKEY TOURNAMENT The 2018 King of the Ice Tournament will be held at the Freeport Rec Center Rink in Freeport, NY from February 26 through March 21. Round robin will be played from February 26 – March 14. Playoffs will be March 19-21. Registration will be available on January 5th at www.FDNYhockey.org.

Space is limited to the first 96 teams, no exceptions. Days and times of tournament are listed on the website.

Any questions please email Frank Heal at frankFDNYhockey@gmail.com. FDNY HOCKEY TEAM 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION The FDNY Hockey Team will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary with a reunion in March of 2018. All Alumni members are asked to send their contact information to Frank Heal at frankFDNYhockey@gmail.com for details. Posted by Jim on December 15, 2017 “All of the participants in 1916 had come to perceive and recoil from what was a constant theme in the assumptions of the imperialist mind: that those dominated in any colony such as Ireland were lesser in human terms, in language, culture and politics.The historical evidence for this view was all around, in the circumstances of housing, hunger, emigration, exclusion and language loss. The cultural freedom allowed was a freedom merely to imitate or ingratiate.” — President Higgins President unveils art installation honoring 1916 rebels Ed Carty.

Friday, December 15, 2017 A new art installation in honor of the 1916 rebels has been unveiled at Aras an Uachtarain as a permanent testament to the journey towards an inclusive Republic. The sculpture, Dearcan na nDaoine – The People’s Acorn, by artist Rachel Joynt, was placed in the grounds of the president’s official residence as part of Easter Rising commemorations. President Michael D Higgins said: “What we sought was an appropriate and permanent tribute to the women and men whose effort and sacrifice contributed so much to Irish freedom and a symbol that would also serve as an inspiration towards realising the promise of a true republic, which remains a challenge for us all.

“I hope that what we have achieved with this commemorative work is a fitting tribute to the memory and vision of the signatories of the Proclamation, and all those who stood with them. It is, I think, both an accolade to our shared past and a beacon for a brighter future.” Among those at the ceremony were some of the relatives of the signatories of the Proclamation and descendants of others who fought and died in the rising. Others at the unveiling included 170 children from seven schools, who contributed their thoughts and wishes for Ireland’s future. Among them were P7 pupils from St Teresa’s Primary School in west Belfast.

Principal Terry Rodgers said St Teresa’s was one of seven schools included in the project and the only one from the north. “For the children to see their names and writings inserted into a time capsule and sculpture in the grounds of the Aras an Uachtarain and to be able to bring their own children to visit the sculpture in years to come – what a wonderful experience,” he said. The artwork is a giant bronze acorn which contains letters and poems while the shell is impressed with text and used pencils. “All of the participants in 1916 had come to perceive and recoil from what was a constant theme in the assumptions of the imperialist mind: that those dominated in any colony such as Ireland were lesser in human terms, in language, culture and politics.

“The historical evidence for this view was all around, in the circumstances of housing, hunger, emigration, exclusion and language loss. The cultural freedom allowed was a freedom merely to imitate or ingratiate,” the president said. Next year Mr Higgins will install an artwork at Aras an Uachtarain commemorating the 1913 Lockout. Posted by Jim on December 14, 2017 December 14th PUTNAM COUNTY CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY BLOOD DRIVE Please give a life sustaining gift. Donate a pint of blood so others might have a chance.

Unfortunately, because of the Christmas and New Year’s Holidays, the blood supply is very low and the demand is high. Please come join Putnam County members at the Daniel O’Brien VFW Hall, 32 Gleneida Ave (Rt.52) Carmel on Friday, December 29th, from 2:00 till 8:00pm. For information please call Paul DeLeo 347-408-6052, Denis Hanrahan 845-225-3048. MEMORIAL MASS On Saturday, January 20, 2018 at 1100 hours, E-46/L-27 will have a Memorial Mass honoring the memory of Lt. Meyran, B-26, Lt. Bellew, L-27 and Lt. DiBernardo, R-3, all of whom made the supreme sacrifice as a result of injuries sustained while operating at Bronx Box 3-3 2997, January 23, 2005.

The mass will take place in quarters, 460 Cross Bronx Expressway, Bronx, NY. All off-duty members and their families are invited to attend.

Members are requested to attend in dress uniform. MEMORIAL MASS On Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at 1000 hours, E-290/L-103 will have a Memorial Mass honoring the memory of Firefighter Richard T. Sclafani, L-103. The mass will commemorate the 13th anniversary of his supreme sacrifice and will take place at St. John’s Church, 479 New Jersey Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. All off-duty members and their families are invited to attend.

Members are requested to attend in dress uniform. PLAQUE DEDICATION On Friday, January 19, 2018 at 1100 hours, a Plaque Dedication will be held honoring the memory of Firefighter Robert F.

DiGiovanni, L-144, who died on January 27, 2017. The dedication will take place in the quarters of E-295 and L-144, 12-49 149th Street, Queens, NY. All off-duty members and their families are invited to attend. Members are requested to attend in dress uniform. PLAQUE DEDICATION On Monday, January 22, 2018 at 1100 hours, a Plaque Dedication will be held honoring the memory of Firefighter Kevin A.

Rooney, E-42, who died on January 22, 2017. The dedication will take place in the quarters of E-42, 1781 Monroe Avenue, Bronx, NY.

All off-duty members and their families are invited to attend. Members are requested to attend in dress uniform. PLAQUE DEDICATION On Monday, January 22, 2018 at 1500 hours, a Plaque Dedication will be held honoring the memory of Firefighter Brian J.

Masterson, M-9, who died on January 22, 2017. The dedication will take place in the quarters of M-9, 305 Front Street, Staten Island Homeport, Staten Island, NY. All off-duty members and their families are invited to attend. Members are requested to attend in dress uniform.

Posted by Jim on IRISH MEP Martina Anderson ripped into Britain over the Brexit deal and said as soon as the deal was done the UK “rubbished the joint report they solemnly signed”. Charlotte Davis.

Wednesday, 13, 2017 Ms. Anderson was furious after David Davis implied in a television interview that the Brexit deal was not legally binding and could be altered. Davis since insisted his words were misrepresented by the media. Davis’ claim caused uproar among the Irish Government, who demanded a concrete promise on there being no hard border in Ireland – with Dublin insisting it considered the agreement bullet proof. Speaking prior to the EU summit, Ms. Anderson said: “The British Government has done it again.

They have pulled of a spectacular piece of theatre over the last week or so. Martina Anderson said Britain are opposing the rights they signed up to The UK Government has been making promises to Irish people for years and then refusing to fulfil them “Only a statement of intents says David Davis. We are coming to a gentleman’s agreement with David Davis who thinks nothing of misleading his own parliament.

“But its no surprise, it’s the way they do things. They create drama through late night and last minute negotiations. They flush out bottom line of those they are negotiating with.” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed on Friday enough progress has been made on key Brexit issues in order to move on to trade talks. Anderson claimed Britain makes promises to get others to move things forward and then it “negotiates compromises downwards”. She said: “They use ambiguity to confuse and disorientate their opponents.

“And then when they don’t like what the final compromise is they simply ignore it and don’t implement it. “No one knows them better than us. The British Government has been making promises to Irish people for years and then refusing to fulfil them. Even today they are negating to implement the Good Friday Agreement.” Ms.

Anderson demanded the Brexit deal become legally binding. She said once the resolution is turned to legal action there can be “no more ambiguity, no more contradictions, no more taking the British Government as their word”.

Posted by Jim on December 9, 2017 By Sinn Fein MP Elisha McCallion The people in the north of Ireland voted to remain in the EU. Yet on 29 March Theresa May signalled to the European Council the British Government’s intention to leave the EU and drag us out. The first phase of a two-year negotiation on Brexit started in June and prioritised the British Government’s “divorce bill”, the rights of EU citizens and how Brexit will impact Ireland. The EU made clear this Brexit process must safeguard the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts, the rights of citizens and north-south cooperation – including no hardening of the border. When finally the British and the EU appeared to agree on a solution on Monday, the DUP vetoed it in their own narrow sectorial interest. The putative agreement between Theresa May and the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, appears to have been derailed by them. In effect, when attempts were made to cater for the unique position of the north of Ireland and to protect citizens’ rights, our economy, and the Good Friday Agreement, the DUP went out of their way to block this.

Last week the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, visited Dublin. He said if the British Government’s offer on the border is unacceptable for Ireland, then it will also be unacceptable for the EU. This is a welcome approach which needs to be maintained. The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, should continue to stand up for the Irish people – north and south – against the British Government, DUP and the right-wing press. The DUP are Theresa May’s partners in this sorry mess. But the DUP do not speak for the cross-community majority here who voted Remain.

They, like their Tory partners, represent only a tiny section of the Brexit-at-any-cost British establishment. No one, least of all the DUP, has made a credible case that the north of Ireland will be better off outside the EU. They cannot tell us how we will maintain essential cross-border services such as the all-Ireland cancer centre in Derry or the freedom to travel and trade across the EU. In Ireland, Brexit would mean economic damage on an unquantifiable scale due to trade tariffs and regulatory divergence.

All of this is occurring against a backdrop of relentless, DUP-driven Tory austerity, severe cuts to public services and investment. The solution to Britain’s Brexit crisis in Ireland is clear. The north of Ireland should have Designated Special Status within the EU, ensuring that we remain within the customs union and the single market. That is the only guarantee of stability and certainty which will deliver the full protection of the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts; including Irish citizenship and the benefits of EU citizenship. This is a common sense, practical, and achievable proposal and does not change the constitutional position of the north. We are told Brexit is happening and we must accept it. Sinn Fein and citizens across the island of Ireland reject this as an abdication of political leadership.

We are at a crucial juncture in the process. The Irish Government have the responsibility and the leverage to ensure clarity and certainty from the British Government.

The DUP’s determination to deliver Brexit regardless of the cost to the people of Ireland, north and south, including large swathes of their own electorate, is clear. But they represent a minority of people in the north, a minority in Ireland, a tiny minority on these islands and a minuscule minority in Europe. The relationship between the people of Britain and the European Union is entirely a matter for the people of Britain. But the people of Ireland cannot be collateral damage in process that is driven by Brextremists in the DUP and the Tory Party.

Defending the economic security and future of Ireland must be the priority for the Taoiseach in the immediate time ahead. Posted by Jim on During the War of Independence, Cork was one of the main centres of resistance to British rule. In one of the worst atrocities committed during the War of Independence, British forces deliberately set fire to several blocks of buildings along the east and south sides of Saint Patrick’s Street during Saturday and Sunday 11/12 December 1920. Five acres of the city was torched, 300 homes destroyed as well as 40 businesses, leading to the loss of 2,000 jobs. The City Hall and the Carnegie Library were also completely destroyed by fire. A look back at those events, 97 years ago this week.

In the aftermath of an IRA ambush at Dillon’s Cross in which one British auxiliary was killed and a number injured, Cork City went through a period of terror the extent of which had never before been experienced. Some time after the ambush, a large group of Black and Tans opened fire on civilians without the slightest warning or provocation near the corner of King Street (now MacCurtain Street) and Summerhill North. The shooting was totally indiscriminate. Women and children huddled in doorways or ran for shelter.

The streets soon became deserted. Some panic-stricken people took refuge at the railway station, and could hear rifle and revolver fire continue for more than twenty minutes. However, the worst was yet to come. Huston, the Superintendent of the Cork city fire brigade, ordered the ambulance from Grattan Street fire station to Dillon’s Cross in case there were casualties from a fire which was raging. (A number of houses in the vacinity of Dillon’s Cross had been set alight by irate British forces). As the ambulance was travelling through Patrick Street the firemen came upon a fire at Grant and Co., a department store at the southern end of Patrick Street.

The driver of the ambulance described an encounter they then had – “On reaching the comer of Patrick Street, I, who was driving, saw forty or fifty men walking in a body in the centre of Patrick Street, coming towards us in very mixed dress – some with khaki coats, some with khaki trousers, and some wore glengarry caps”. At 10.30 pm Captain Huston received a report of the fire in Grant’s. He found that ‘the fire had gained considerable headway and the flames were coming through the roof’.

The fire brigade was successful in containing this fire. If it had spread to the English Market, which was located to the rear of Grant’s, a major conflagration could have occurred. While the fire in Grant’s was being fought, Captain Huston received word from the town clerk that the Munster Arcade and Cash’s department store were on fire. It was now about 11.30p.m. These two buildings were situated on the eastern side of Patrick Street.

All available units of the fire brigade were immediately sent to fight these fires, which were spreading rapidly. Despite the best efforts of the fire brigade, the fires spread to adjoining buildings and caused extensive damage. The blaze in the Munster Arcade spread to the following establishments – Egan’s Jewellers, Sunner’s, Forrest’s, the Dartry Dye Co., Saxone Shoe Co., Burton’s Tailors, Thompson’s and Cudmore’s. The fire from Cash’s spread to the Lee Cinema, Roche’s Stores, Lee Boot Co., Connell & Co., Scully’s, Wolfe’s and O’Sullivan’s. All of these buildings were totally destroyed. Shortly before dawn, two of Cork city’s historic buildings would also be destroyed by flames.

On Sunday 12 December Captain Huston received word that both City Hall and the nearby Carnegie Library had been put to the torch. Seven members of the fire brigade tried in vain to fight the flames and, like the buildings in Patrick Street, both places were completely destroyed. As they fought the flames the members of the fire brigade were subject to continuous harassment from crown forces, who fired on them, turned off hydrants and slashed hoses with their bayonets. In his report to the Lord Mayor, Captain Huston wrote; “I have no hesitation in stating I believe all the above fires were incendiary fires and that a considerable amount of petrol or some such inflammable spirit was used in one and all of them.

In some cases explosives were also used and persons were seen to go into and come out of the structures after breaking an entrance into same, and in some cases I have attended the people have been brought out of their houses and detained in by-lanes until the fire gained great headway”. Widespread looting also occurred throughout the night. A young girl who lived at Clankittane, near Victoria Barracks, recalled seeing a lorry-load of Auxiliaries returning to the barracks in the early hours of Sunday, December 12th. The lorry, which was full of stolen goods, stopped outside Hennessy’s public house. Some drunken Auxiliaries dismounted and banged on the door of the pub, shouting for the owner.

When someone put their head out of an upstairs window, an Auxiliary made a threatening gesture with a revolver and demanded that the doors be opened and drink served. As to the question of who actually started the fires, many witnesses gave statements that groups of armed men, some in uniform, others in civilian clothes, were responsible for the destruction wreaked upon the city. From his office in Victoria Barracks Major F. Eastwood, the brigade major of the 17th Infantry Brigade, compiled the following report: Official Military report on the state of Cork City for the period from 10 p.m. On Saturday, December 11, 1920, to 5.30 a.m.

On Sunday, December 12, 1920, during which period the city was in complete control of the military. (1) Three arrests were made. (2) At 22.00 hours, Grant & Co., Patrick Street, was found to be on fire. Warning was sent to all fire brigades. (3) At about 00.30 hours, Cash & Co.

And the Munster Arcade were reported on fire. (4) At 05.30 hours the majority of the troops were withdrawn, and the remainder at 08.00 hours.

(5) Explosions were heard at 00.15 hours, but were not located. No shots were fired by the troops. Eastwood, Brigade Major, 17th Infantry Brigade.

The fact that the burning of Cork occurred while the city was, as Major Eastwood stated, ‘in complete control of the military’ is in itself a damning indictment of the British forces then in occupation of Victoria Barracks. Writing about the burning of Cork, Florence O’Donoghue, intelligence officer of Cork No. 1 IRA Brigade at the time of the atrocity, stated; “It is difficult to say with certainty whether or not Cork would have been burned on that night if there had not been an ambush at Dillon’s Cross. What appears more probable is that the ambush provided the excuse for an act which was long premeditated and for which all arrangements had been made.

The rapidity with which the supplies of petrol and Verey lights were brought from Cork barracks to the centre of the city, and the deliberate manner in which the work of firing the premises was divided amongst groups under the control of officers, gives evidence of organisation and pre-arrangement. Moreover, the selection of certain premises for destruction and the attempt made by an Auxiliary officer to prevent the looting of one shop by Black and Tans: ‘You are in the wrong shop; that man is a Loyalist,’ and the reply, ‘We don’t give a damn; this is the shop that was pointed out to us’, is additional proof that the matter had been carefully planned beforehand”. The action of the British Crown forces in Cork on the night of 11/12 December brought widespread condemnation upon the officers and men who garrisoned Victoria Barracks.

Whatever remaining goodwill some citizens of Cork may have had for the British forces was now gone. Posted by Jim on A decision to halt the prosecution of a former RUC man and two other on charges linked to the loyalist mob killing of Catholic man Robert Hamill is to be quashed, High Court judges has ruled.

They ordered a new hearing to determine if the trio should face trial for an alleged attempt to obstruct the course of justice. The verdict came in a legal bid by the murder victim’s mother, Jessica Hamill, to have charges reinstated.

Her 25-year-old son was attacked in Portadown, County Armagh in 1997. He never regained consciousness and died in hospital. Members of the PSNI (then RUC) in the area at the time watched while the murderous assault on Mr Hamill took place, but did not intervene.

As evidence of collusion mounted, RUC man Robert Atkinson and his wife were charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by tipping off loyalists involved in the murder. In September 2014 a judge at Craigavon Magistrates’ Court refused to return the trio for trial, ruling that a key prosecution witness was “unreliable” and “unconvincing”. It had been alleged that a phone call was made from Atkinson’s house to the home of a suspect in the killing, with advice given to destroy his clothing. Mr Atkinson denied making the call and claimed his phone was used by another man.

That man’s ex-wife, Andrea Jones, later gave evidence to contradict this. She said she had been asked by her former partner to make a false statement about the incident.

Jones subsequently pleaded guilty to carrying out an act tending to pervert the course of justice. But the prosecution against the Atkinsons and a third suspect was stopped for a second time on the basis of insufficient evidence against them. That decision was based solely on a district judge’s assessment of the credibility of Jones’ evidence. Mrs Hamill’s legal team challenged his determination, arguing that it was irrational. They claimed the District Judge failed to consider all of the evidence against the defendants and neglected to take into account issues supporting Jones’ claims of a conspiracy involving the three defendants.

The conviction of Jones should have been treated as corroborating evidence, it was contended. Ruling on the challenge, Justice Stephens held that there was not insufficient evidence, and quashed the 2014 decision. McCANN CASE REACHES COURT Meanwhile, two former British soldiers charged with murdering an Official IRA man in Belfast 45 years ago are mounting a legal bid to have the case thrown out before it reaches trial. The former paratroopers are also seeking anonymity.

The defendants, known only as Soldier A and Soldier C, are facing prosecution for the cold-blooded killing in April 1972 of of Joe McCann. Neither were present as proceedings got underway at Belfast Magistrates’ Court. In a statement Joe McCann’s widow, Anne, said: “There are three incontrovertible facts about this incident; Joe was unarmed, he as running away, and he was shot in the back.”. Posted by Jim on A tsunami of spin and dissembling on the Irish border has scraped the British government into a second round of negotiations with the European Union over its departure, but at the expense of any confidence in the negotiations process. The draft agreement was upended on Monday by a last minute ultimatum issued by the hardliners of the DUP, spooked by the premature cheering of the Dublin establishment. In the document published on Friday, Britain conceded on the rights of EU citizens with little protest, but the section on Ireland and the border is an inoperable mass of contradictions.

Clarification was badly needed, and unionists extracted six strongly pro-union declarations from the British Prime Minister Theresa May to assuage any fears of abandonment by the Tories. Nationalists, meanwhile, saw a promise of special status for the north of Ireland, ‘leaked’ by Irish media last weekend, evaporate into a guarantee only to uphold the relatively minor cross-border bodies of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. The glue for the deal was a promise that, in the event of no overall deal being reached, Britain (and the north of Ireland) would maintain “full alignment” with some elements of the European Union’s single market and customs union. But there was no indication of how, in the absence of an overall Brexit deal, such a promise could be implemented through the battered and collapsed structures of the Good Friday Agreement. In Dublin, a new multi-million pound Department of Spin wheeled into operation with serious effect. The Tory promise of ‘no hard border’ — still without any detail on the promised ‘frictionless’ technology — was blared out through every medium, to cheers from establishment figures.

It produced a hysterical ‘be-happy-don’t-worry’ response in both the mainstream and social media. The result, clearly intended, is that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his Fine Gael party will have extremely strong support in the event of an early general election. Claims that Varadkar had steered the chaotic Tory government towards a ‘soft Brexit’ – some form of membership of the European Union single market – were particularly exaggerated, and could be exposed very quickly.

Nobody thought to tell Theresa May, as among her careening statements was a concisely stated determination to pull out of the European Union in its entirety, and bring the north of Ireland with it. She has now written to the people of the Six Counties in a letter that is to be delivered to every household. In it, she describes herself a British Prime Minister “who hugely values Northern Ireland’s position within our United Kingdom”. She outlines six Brexit commitments: “First, we will always uphold and support Northern Ireland’s status as an integral part of the United Kingdom, consistent with the principle of consent.

“Second, we will fully protect and maintain Northern Ireland’s position within the single market of the United Kingdom. “Third, there will be no new borders within the United Kingdom. “Fourth, the whole of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, will leave the EU customs union and the EU single market. “Fifth, we will uphold the commitments and safeguards set out in the Belfast Agreement regarding north-south cooperation. This will continue to require cross-community support.” Finally, she declared that people in Britain and the north of Ireland would no longer have recourse to the European Court of Justice. Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams said he gave a “cautious and qualified” welcome to the agreement, but said that many questions remained unanswered.

“Brexit is the greatest threat to the economies of this island in generations,” he said in Dublin. “Today’s communique does not set the final deal on Brexit. “The communique sets out broad principles. These have been assessed by the Irish government as sufficient progress to allow the Brexit process to move into the next phase of negotiations on trade. “While the communique recognises the unique and special circumstances surrounding the issue of the Irish peace process, the Good Friday Agreement and the border, it does not address key areas of concern for many citizens – especially nationalists living in the north and citizens in the border region. “The insistence by the British that Britain and the north must leave the customs union and the single market presents a real and live danger which cannot be understated.

“This also contradicts the British Prime Minister’s claim that there will not be a hard economic border. Mr Adams said he also had concern at the statement that the Six Counties would no longer be subject the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. He added: “While today’s communique represents some progress there are many unanswered questions around key issues and the Irish government must remain focused and vigilant. “Sinn Fein is also very mindful that this Brexit process is a work in progress. Our experience through years of agreements with Britain is that the devil is in the detail.” In their statement, Republican Sinn Fein said that the discussions highlighted “once more” that those living in the Six Counties are “little more than pawns in the game” for the English elite.

The Tories have a long history of playing the ‘orange card’ for their own advantage, they said, and called again for a federal solution to the Irish constitutional question, in order to protect the interests of all four provinces. “Unionists should be aware from the experience of history, that the Westminster government will look after England first with jobs, infrastructure and investment; all other areas will be well down the pecking order,” they said. “It is time for a mature, honest debate on how the people of all of Ireland can move forward as a sovereign unit, with the interests of the people being paramount. Time for a new and United Ireland.”. The first point to make is that despite the huge odium they have incurred, the very personal humiliation they inflicted on Theresa May and the international embarrassment and ignominy they heaped on Britain, the DUP got nothing. Leo Varadkar was being generous when he said what changes there were since Monday were ‘stylistic’. ‘Cosmetic’ would have been more accurate. Foster’s ‘six substantive changes’ are, in fact, six statements of the bleeding obvious spelt out for DUP dummies.

For example, the paragraph beginning: ‘Both Parties [EU and UK] recognise the need to respect the provisions of the 1998 Agreement regarding the constitutional status of Northern Ireland and the principle of consent.’ As if before yesterday they didn’t? You might like to notice in passing that the DUP never accepted the Good Friday Agreement, never mind respected its provisions but also that their fig leaf, the St Andrews Agreement, is not mentioned at all. Don’t forget, Foster left the UUP because of her opposition to the Good Friday Agreement.

The other changes to please the DUP are equally anodyne. They pledge ‘unfettered access’ for The North’s businesses to the UK internal market and the integrity of The North’s place in the UK’s market.

None of that was ever in question except in the paranoid politics of the DUP Brextremists. The Irish government never wanted a sea border. Why would they, given the billions of euros of goods they send across Britain as a land bridge to the EU? Varadkar completely outfoxed the British and DUP on that. Yet, Arlene’s MPs (who kept her well away from the negotiations in her Fermanagh fastness) told her they weren’t entirely satisfied but they ran out of time and agreed only ‘in the national interest’.

The British press say Theresa May just had to face them down because the EU had given her an absolute deadline and nothing was more important than getting to Phase 2, trade talks. So in the absence of other solutions there will remain ‘full alignment’ with the rules of the customs union and single market ‘which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation, the all-island economy and the protection of the 1998 Agreement’. Exactly what DUP Brextremists like Depooty Dawds [Deputy Dodds] didn’t want and resisted on Monday.

As a result, the DUP has threatened to vote against the final agreement despite their explicit support for Brexit legislation being written into their dirty deal with the Conservatives. Aside from the cross Border aspects of yesterday’s agreement, there are vital provisions for maintaining the rights of EU citizens in The North enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement, including European Convention on Human Rights and importantly, healthcare in other EU states. As the Taoiseach said: ‘We have achieved everything we wanted to achieve.’ The Republic with the EU26 [the other countries in the EU] behind it easily outweighed the UK, a lesson for Brexiteers. Sadly, despite the British government being in flagrant breach of their GFA obligation to be ‘rigorously impartial on behalf of all the people’ here, after having just spent a week placating one party to the exclusion of all others, the Taoiseach in typical Fine Gael style went out of his way in several paragraphs to address Unionists’ concerns ‘in particular’. By contrast, in his statement running to 1,000 words he had 55 words for Nationalists in The North who Enda Kenny left swinging in the wind for six years. Long past time for Varadkar to start respecting northern Nationalists’ representatives. Still, as someone tweeted yesterday, if the Good Friday Agreement was Sunningdale for slow learners, Friday’s agreement was Monday’s agreement for the DUP slow learners.

Henry Porter. Vanity Fair.Wednesday, December 6, 2017 The United Kingdom, whose long slide into irrelevance was hastened by the arrogance of Brexit, is now moving rapidly toward dissolution over the terms of its self-imposed estrangement. On Monday, Theresa May made a terse statement announcing that negotiations with the European Union had been suspended because of disagreements over the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, uniting two issues—Europe and Ireland—that have obsessed the British political establishment for more than half a century. The Irish question, perhaps better than any other issue, underscores the chaotic nature of the U.K. Government’s approach to Brexit, and the enfeebled state of the country since voting to cut ties with Europe. What has happened this week looks like karma on a grand scale. But the predicament over the border is also a sign of the rapid retreat from reason that characterizes the plan to leave the E.U.

May’s government has long promised a “hard Brexit” from Europe, leaving both the Customs Union and the Single Market, while maintaining a soft border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland—a devoted member of the European Union. Not even the head-banging Brexit extremists on May’s backbenches want a return to the border patrols and watchtowers of the Troubles. But May’s policy is dizzy with cognitive dissonance. It makes no sense whatsoever to withdraw from the E.U.

And keep an open border through which goods can pass without standard customs procedures. The formula—drafted late last weekend and, crucially, not shared with the Democratic Unionists on whom May relies for support in the House of Commons—meant that Northern Ireland would have a special customs status and therefore remain more attached to the E.U. Than the rest of the U.K. May be suffering a kind of institutional mental breakdown, but the processing speeds of politicians are as yet undimmed.

Leaders in Scotland, Wales, and London quickly began to ask why they couldn’t be granted the same exception. Members of the Northern Irish D.U.P., meanwhile, were appalled to realize that the move would also make Northern Ireland more Irish. A border with Britain, drawn across the Irish Sea, would represent a significant step toward eventual unification of the north and south of the island. So the ardently unionist D.U.P. Pulled its support and called a halt to the draft agreement needed for the Brexit negotiations to progress. Brussels’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, told member states on Wednesday that if May’s government cannot reach an agreement in 48 hours, talks could be delayed until March, accelerating the exodus of businesses from the U.K.

There is a desperate, suicidal urgency about the U.K. Government’s behavior, and it is reasonable to wonder if some spooky determinism is at work—payback for centuries of domination in Ireland and a more recent record of exceptionalism in Europe. A hundred years ago Britain’s influence extended across five continents and, despite the huge cost of World War I, most of the trappings of empire were intact. At that time, the idea that Britain’s plans could be frustrated by Ireland would have been laughable.

Today, it is a hard reality because the Irish—like all E.U. Member states—have a veto in the negotiations. As the Irish writer Fintan O’Toole asked this week, “If, for the first time in 800 years, Ireland is proving to be in a much stronger political position than Britain, what does that say about what Brexit is doing to Britain’s strength?” The answer is a humiliating one for the British, or, more precisely, the English, who dominated the history of the British Isles and empire before supporting Brexit by a majority. (Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the E.U.) It is the English who, if they were more self-aware, would feel the full force of the ignominy of the events of this week. But we are not living in a reasonable age and the London press—strongly biased in favor of Brexit—immediately heaped blame on the Irish government for what is essentially an English problem. Does it have to be this way? Is the possible breakup of the United Kingdom and certain decline of its component parts simply the final stage of a cycle as old as history itself, the rise and fall of empires?

You can argue that there are strong psychological reasons for what is going on in the English, who have had difficulty accommodating both the evidence of decline and the need for cooperation with neighboring states. Yet it would be wrong to generalize because very large numbers of English—particularly on the left and in the major cities—voted to remain in the E.U. What is happening appalls them as much as it does the Remainers in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Britain’s membership in the E.U. Did, for a time, mitigate the forces of decline. With people on both sides of the Irish border becoming citizens of the same political union in the 1990s, the sectarian and national differences began to matter less, culminating in the Good Friday Agreement under Tony Blair that ended the Troubles. Britain could function as a moderately successful economy and allow expression of its many skills in, for example, finance, scientific research, and the creative arts within Europe.

While there were, admittedly, problems with immigration, the benign dissolution of borders had millions of supporters who saw in the E.U. A place for Britain as a modest, successful, post-imperial nation. That future now seems unlikely as May’s government stumbles toward a settlement that would sever Britain from the world it once ruled. Some sort of fudged solution will no doubt be hastily applied in Ireland so that the U.K. And exasperated Brussels officials can move on and Brexiters can achieve their ambition of leaving Europe.

But the truth is that the patch probably won’t work, and it certainly won’t mask the destructive reality of English nationalism and its hard-line allies in Northern Ireland. I keep on writing in these columns that it is very hard to know where this is all going to end. But that is true for every member of the government and Britain’s entire civil service. As we learned on Wednesday, David Davis, the man in charge of Brexit negotiations, never commissioned the studies on Brexit’s economic impact that he said had been ordered. I cannot think of an act of greater negligence or dishonesty in post-war government. His airy assertion that the usefulness of such studies would be near zero, because of the magnitude of the change, is hardly reassuring. Next year will be one of huge national anxiety.

We may see a collapse of the May government, another general election, and even a second referendum. But, right now, things are so desperate and delusional. It’s as if we are all cramped in an elevator that is in free fall, vaguely hoping that if we all jump at the same time when it hits the ground we will be saved. Posted by Jim on As a draft deal on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union was being parsed today, unionists appeared to have won dramatic changes, heavily eroding a previous commitment to no regulatory divergence along the Irish border and adding clear guarantees of no regulatory barriers between the north of Ireland and Britain. All sides involved in the talks spoke of having achieved their desired goals.

DUP leader Arlene Foster said her party had won “six substantive changes” to the text on the Irish border in overnight talks, ensuring there would be “no red line down the Irish Sea”. Despite major contradictions in the text, Brussels officials and the governments in Dublin and London proclaimed themselves satisfied with the outcome, which permits negotiations to move forward to the specifics of trade agreements. DUP spokesman Sammy Wilson said the agreement ensured the north of Ireland would leave the European Union, its customs union and single market “along with the rest of the United Kingdom”, and that there would be no customs or trade barrier between the north of Ireland and Britain. He also claimed his party had defeated Sinn Fein’s call for designated special status for the north of Ireland, which would not be separated “constitutionally, politically, economically or regulatory from the rest of the United Kingdom”. The text makes copious references to the “1998 [Good Friday] Agreement” and the principle of consent — the requirement of a majority of citizens in the Six Counties to support any future constitutional change — even though voters in the north of Ireland soundly rejected Brexit and, polls indicate, continue to do so.

In another apparent contradiction, Dublin said the final wording of the agreement preserves the promise of “full regulatory alignment” between the North and South of Ireland. It pointed to a section of the text which declared that in the absence of an overall agreement, “the United Kingdom will maintain full alignment with those rules which support North-South cooperation, the all-island economy and the protection of the 1998 Agreement.” However, that statement appears to be a significant dilution of the situation earlier this week. The deal also goes on, in the next paragraph, to spell out the opposite case — “the United Kingdom will ensure that no new regulatory barriers develop between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom unless, consistent with the 1998 Agreement, the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly agree that distinct arrangements are appropriate for Northern Ireland.” This appears to provide an extraordinary veto on trade deals to the devolved Stormont Assembly and Executive, which collapsed in January, despite there being no indication that they will return. The agreement also specifies that a separate strand of the negotiations in phase two will be concerned with Irish issues. It says this work will also address issues arising from “Ireland’s unique geographical situation”, including the transit of Irish goods through Britain and Ireland to markets in mainland Europe. British Prime Minister May said the deal would ensure “no hard border” in Ireland and added the deal was a “significant improvement”. A Dublin government spokesman said the negotiations had preserved the Common Travel Area, the Good Friday Agreement “and crucially obtaining a guarantee that there will be no hard border.” Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said it was a “significant day” for Ireland.

“We have achieved all that we set out to achieve in phase one of these negotiations,” he told a press conference in Government Buildings in Dublin. “I am satisfied that sufficient progress has now been made on Irish issues, the parameters have now been set and they are good.” He said Ireland’s focus would now move to phase two of the negotiations.

Mr Varadkar said his government would remain “fully engaged and vigilant” throughout the process. “This is not the end but it is the end of the beginning,” he added.

Posted by Jim on The full text of a draft agreement released this morning (in reference to Ireland) in negotiations on Britain’s withdrawal from the EU. Ireland and Northern Ireland 42. Both Parties affirm that the achievements, benefits and commitments of the peace process will remain of paramount importance to peace, stability and reconciliation. They agree that the Good Friday or Belfast Agreement reached on 10 April 1998 by the United Kingdom Government, the Irish Government and the other participants in the multi-party negotiations (the ‘1998 Agreement’) must be protected in all its parts, and that this extends to the practical application of the 1998 Agreement on the island of Ireland and to the totality of the relationships set out in the Agreement. The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union presents a significant and unique challenge in relation to the island of Ireland. The United Kingdom recalls its commitment to protecting the operation of the 1998 Agreement, including its subsequent implementation agreements and arrangements, and to the effective operation of each of the institutions and bodies established under them. The United Kingdom also recalls its commitment to the avoidance of a hard border, including any physical infrastructure or related checks and controls.

Both Parties recognise the need to respect the provisions of the 1998 Agreement regarding the constitutional status of Northern Ireland and the principle of consent. The commitments set out in this joint report are and must remain fully consistent with these provisions. The United Kingdom continues to respect and support fully Northern Ireland’s position as an integral part of the United Kingdom, consistent with the principle of consent. The United Kingdom respects Ireland’s ongoing membership of the European Union and all of the corresponding rights and obligations that entails, in particular Ireland’s place in the Internal Market and the Customs Union. The United Kingdom also recalls its commitment to preserving the integrity of its internal market and Northern Ireland’s place within it, as the United Kingdom leaves the European Union’s Internal Market and Customs Union. The commitments and principles outlined in this joint report will not pre-determine the outcome of wider discussions on the future relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom and are, as necessary, specific to the unique circumstances on the island of Ireland. They are made and must be upheld in all circumstances, irrespective of the nature of any future agreement between the European Union and United Kingdom.

Cooperation between Ireland and Northern Ireland is a central part of the 1998 Agreement and is essential for achieving reconciliation and the normalisation of relationships on the island of Ireland. In this regard, both Parties recall the roles, functions and safeguards of the Northern Ireland Executive, the Northern Ireland Assembly, and the North-South Ministerial Council (including its cross-community provisions) as set out in the 1998 Agreement. The two Parties have carried out a mapping exercise, which shows that North-South cooperation relies to a significant extent on a common European Union legal and policy framework. Therefore, the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union gives rise to substantial challenges to the maintenance and development of North-South cooperation. The United Kingdom remains committed to protecting and supporting continued North-South and East-West cooperation across the full range of political, economic, security, societal and agricultural contexts and frameworks of cooperation, including the continued operation of the North-South implementation bodies.

The United Kingdom remains committed to protecting North-South cooperation and to its guarantee of avoiding a hard border. Any future arrangements must be compatible with these overarching requirements.

The United Kingdom’s intention is to achieve these objectives through the overall EU-UK relationship. Should this not be possible, the United Kingdom will propose specific solutions to address the unique circumstances of the island of Ireland. In the absence of agreed solutions, the United Kingdom will maintain full alignment with those rules of the Internal Market and the Customs Union which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation, the all-island economy and the protection of the 1998 Agreement. In the absence of agreed solutions, as set out in the previous paragraph, the United Kingdom will ensure that no new regulatory barriers develop between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, unless, consistent with the 1998 Agreement, the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly agree that distinct arrangements are appropriate for Northern Ireland. In all circumstances, the United Kingdom will continue to ensure the same unfettered access for Northern Ireland’s businesses to the whole of the United Kingdom internal market. Both Parties will establish mechanisms to ensure the implementation and oversight of any specific arrangement to safeguard the integrity of the EU Internal Market and the Customs Union.

Both Parties acknowledge that the 1998 Agreement recognises the birth right of all the people of Northern Ireland to choose to be Irish or British or both and be accepted as such. The people of Northern Ireland who are Irish citizens will continue to enjoy rights as EU citizens, including where they reside in Northern Ireland. Both Parties therefore agree that the Withdrawal Agreement should respect and be without prejudice to the rights, opportunities and identity that come with European Union citizenship for such people and, in the next phase of negotiations, will examine arrangements required to give effect to the ongoing exercise of, and access to, their EU rights, opportunities and benefits. The 1998 Agreement also includes important provisions on Rights, Safeguards and Equality of Opportunity for which EU law and practice has provided a supporting framework in Northern Ireland and across the island of Ireland. The United Kingdom commits to ensuring that no diminution of rights is caused by its departure from the European Union, including in the area of protection against forms of discrimination enshrined in EU law.

The United Kingdom commits to facilitating the related work of the institutions and bodies, established by the 1998 Agreement, in upholding human rights and equality standards. Both Parties recognise that the United Kingdom and Ireland may continue to make arrangements between themselves relating to the movement of persons between their territories (Common Travel Area), while fully respecting the rights of natural persons conferred by Union law.

The United Kingdom confirms and accepts that the Common Travel Area and associated rights and privileges can continue to operate without affecting Ireland’s obligations under Union law, in particular with respect to free movement for EU citizens. Both Parties will honour their commitments to the PEACE and INTERREG funding programmes under the current multi-annual financial framework. Possibilities for future support will be examined favourably. Given the specific nature of issues related to Ireland and Northern Ireland, and on the basis of the principles and commitments set out above, both Parties agree that in the next phase work will continue in a distinct strand of the negotiations on the detailed arrangements required to give them effect. Such work will also address issues arising from Ireland’s unique geographic situation, including the transit of goods (to and from Ireland via the United Kingdom), in line with the approach established by the European Council Guidelines of 29 April 2017. Posted by Jim on November 18, 2017 ——————————————————– Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney exposes the collusion which shielded the perpetrators of the 1994 Loughinisland massacre from justice. The shocking No Stone Unturned finally names the chief suspects while revealing the RUC’s deliberate mishandling of the multiple murder inquiry.

Review by David Roy (for Irish News) ————————————————————- The Alex Gibney written and directed No Stone Unturned is a powerful, profoundly disturbing documentary exposing the collusion which fatally tainted the RUC investigation into one of the most notorious incidents of the Troubles. On, six men were gunned down at The Heights Bar in Loughinisland as they watched the Republic of Ireland play Italy in the World Cup. Although police quickly recovered the getaway car, along with weapons and items of clothing used in the attack, no-one was ever charged in connection with the atrocity. Featuring interviews with former police officers, veteran journalists, Police Ombudsman investigators and the legal team representing the victims and their families, the film places the killings in the tit-for-tat context of the times. Oscar-winner Gibney painstakingly reveals how RUC Special Branch officers apparently knew of the attack 24 hours beforehand, then interfered with the investigation by obstructing inquiries, destroying evidence (the getaway car was actually crushed), withholding crucial information and even warning suspects in advance that they were about to be arrested. While collusion between paramilitary killers and some members of the security forces during the Troubles is hardly news at this point, it’s still deeply shocking to have the often comically brazen mechanics of such perversions of justice repeatedly laid bare here.

For years, south Down locals have suspected that the Loughinisland killers were prominent members of a notorious UVF cell operating in the area. No Stone Unturned presents compelling evidence that this is correct – and furthermore that one or more of those involved in the Loughinisland attack were actually Special Branch informers who were also involved in other sectarian murders of the era. Even the VZ58 assault rifle used in the Heights Bar attack is traced back to a shipment of arms believed to have been smuggled into the north with the aid of notorious British Army ‘supergrass’ and UDA man Brian Nelson. This gripping documentary begins with a reconstruction of the attack, interwoven with grisly crime scene photographs of the blood-saturated aftermath and the harrowing recollections of Aidan O’Toole, who survived being shot while working behind the bar, and relatives of the six patrons who perished.

We learn that No Stone Unturned is named for words spoken to Clare Rogan by an RUC officer attending the wake for her husband, Adrian, who was murdered in the attack. “We will leave no stone unturned until we get the perpetrators,” she was told. Ironically, it has taken an outsider to fully excavate the facts of the Loughinisland murders. Gibney’s film names the four people police identified as the chief suspects at the time of the Loughinisland attack: the gang leader still lives in south Down and is eventually captured on camera. Their names were included in a leaked Police Ombudsman-produced draft document dating back to 2008, but redacted for Al Hutchinson’s Police Ombudsman’s Report published in 2011 – which also ruled out collusion in the Loughinisland case. However, the 2011 report was quashed last year by Dr Michael Maguire’s new Police Ombudsman report, which confirmed that RUC/UVF collusion had indeed been a key factor in the failure to apprehend the killers.

We see the emotional moment when Dr Maguire first presents his verdict to the families of the Loughinisland victims. “That’s all we ever wanted to know,” responds Adrian Rogan’s tearful daughter, Emma, now Sinn Fein MLA for south Down. The 2008 draft document also named the RUC’s senior investigating officer. Gibney reveals that he took several weeks’ holiday leave immediately after taking charge of the murders and later retired abroad, refusing to co-operate with the Ombudsman’s investigation. It’s almost worth seeing this film just to hear ex-Irish News journalist Barry McCaffery’s story of tracking the ex-cop down to a small village in France and presenting him with the leaked Loughinisland info. Beyond the multitude of damning evidence implicating members of the security forces presented by No Stone Unturned, one of its most incredible revelations is that the wife of the notorious alleged UVF killer who led the Loughinisland attack repeatedly attempted to turn him in after discovering that he was having an affair.

On one occasion, she phoned the RUC to ‘anonymously’ report her husband and his accomplices. Unfortunately, having previously been employed in the canteen of an RUC station, officers recognised her voice and promptly had her arrested. However, despite also writing a letter naming the killers and admitting her own role in the planning of the killings, the woman was then released without charge. It’s all pretty damning, depressing stuff, especially as Gibney suggests that justice for the Loughinisland victims and their families may have been deliberately sacrificed by the British government in order to safeguard the 1994 IRA and UVF ceasefires which paved the way for the Good Friday Agreement. He also reminds us that even if the suspected multiple murderers are now successfully re-investigated and prosecuted, they will only serve a maximum of two years in prison under the terms of the 1998 accord. Made for an international audience, some minor stylistic choices are likely to grate on local eyes and ears (especially those sensitive to the sound of mournful flutes), but these in no way undermine one of the most powerful documentaries you will see this year. * No Stone Unturned is currently showing at QFT Belfast and cinemas across Ireland and in London.

See for more details. Posted by Jim on The prospect of a Sinn Fein Tanaiste serving under a Fine Gael or Fianna Fail Taoiseach is closer after a controversial vote at Sinn Fein’s annual conference in Dublin this weekend. The decision to allow it to enter negotiations on forming a government as a a junior coalition party is seen as a potential landmark in Sinn Fein’s journey to the corridors of power in Dublin. In recent years, Sinn Fein has been incrementally opening its policy on coalition with the two main right-wing parties, moving from outright opposition to one embracing the possibility of propping up a left-right government. Despite a number of reservations expressed by delegates, the party confirmed on Friday evening it was willing to consider entering coalition as a minority party when some 75% or 80% of hands were raised in support of motion eleven. This came despite the knowledge that no junior party has survived propping up a Fine Gael or Fianna Fail government unscathed, and two of them — the Progressive Democrats and Democratic Left — have disappeared entirely from the political stage.

Two others, the Labour party and the Green Party, have been decimated to a tiny fraction of their previous support. However, Sinn Fein’s finance spokesman Pearse Doherty argued the case in a forceful speech. He insisted Sinn Fein must look at any proposal for government and judge each one on its merits. This is not about power but change, he said, adding a final decision would be made by the members of the party at a further special convention. Sligo/Leitrim TD Martin Kenny said Sinn Fein was right to be cautious about entering a coalition but it must make itself “uncomfortable” and “take risks” to ensure the party had a voice in government. “We must ensure we do nothing to give our opponents an excuse to beat us,” referring to previous criticism by the other parties of Sinn Fein’s failure to enter negotiations on forming a government after the last election.

The party’s deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald confirmed the vote meant Sinn Fein was willing to go into coalition with either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael after the next election. “This is not about signing up to say we want to be a junior party, this is us saying we believe that we are ready,” she said. “We have made it clear we will talk to anybody after the election.

I do not think it is fundamentally democratic to think they have a divine right to discount others.” A final decision on entering a coalition will still have to be taken by a special Ard Fheis, convened for that purpose, although it would be expected to certainly endorse the leadership position. Despite the collapse of power-sharing in the North and upheaval in Sinn Fein over allegations of bullying and ‘whisper campaigns’ by party management, this year’s annual conference has again seen no protest by party grassroots against the leadership. However, control of the party is now in a degree of flux, with an old guard bring edged out to make way for a new, more career-minded leadership. Martin McGuinness, whose death this year which accelerated this process, was remembered fondly in tributes over the weekend.

Party leader Gerry Adams is this evening expected to signal that his 34 years as Sinn Fein President will come to an end. One of his own advisers was quoted in the media urging him to go as his leadership “caps our potential growth”. Mr Adams’s full presidential address will be carried here later. Posted by Jim on Rulings that the murder of 11-year-old British Army victim Francis Rowntree was ‘not justified’ and that the rubber bullets fired at him were lethal have been widely welcomed, although 45 years late and following the recent death of his mother. Theresa Rowntree, who had long campaigned for the truth to be revealed about her young son’s death in 1972, died in a Belfast nursing home in March – just months before this week’s verdict. Francis, a pupil at St Finian’s Primary School, was shot in the head by a rubber bullet on while walking through the Divis Flats complex close to the Falls Road in west Belfast, and died two days later.

His wounds included skull fractures and lacerations of the brain, in preliminary inquest findings revealed this week. The soldier who fired the rubber bullet used “excessive force”, coroner Brian Sherrard said.

Eye witnesses, including a British Army officer instructing the soldiers, told the court that a crowd gathered around a vehicle carrying a number of soldiers which stopped in the area. A number of children had come to watch the disturbance out of curiosity. The court also heard that two rounds of rubber bullets were fired by a soldier to “disperse” the crowd, and that one of the bullets hit the boy’s head. No warning was given before the shots were fired. The Coroner noted the soldier was not given any training in the use of the bullets or made aware they were potentially lethal.

However, Francis’s death did not alter or diminish British strategy in their efforts to control nationalist areas using rubber and plastic bullets. Over the next 17 years, the weapons were responsible for another 16 deaths. Eight of the fatalities, including Francis – a primary school pupil in west Belfast – were children, ranging in age from 15 to ten. This week’s ruling could have implications for the families of the other victims.

His older brother Jim said his family had finally got “a bit of closure” after 45 years. “This is the first time that they have decided this gun was lethal. The government had denied it but now it’s down in black and white,” he said. “It’s an awful thing that my mother couldn’t have seen it. She died in March.

She knew she was right. She’s looking down on us now – her and Frank.” Mr Rowntree said he now wanted an official apology from the British Ministry of Defence. The family later issued a statement through their lawyer, Padraig O Muirigh. “Many young children were killed and maimed by the rubber bullet and its successor, the plastic bullet,” the statement said. “Their use, free from regulation and training, amounted to a systemic abuse of human rights.

“These findings are not only a legal victory for the Rowntree family but for all those who campaigned for many years for these lethal weapons to be banned.”. Posted by Jim on November 13, 2017 Sinn Fein has said talks with unionists to restore the Six County Executive are over after it was confirmed that the British government is pushing a ‘Northern Ireland’ budget bill through all stages of the Westminster parliament, a key step towards the return of full Direct Rule of the north of Ireland from London. Sinn Fein said it had ended talks with the DUP and have called for “joint British-Irish partnership arrangements” for the north of Ireland. Sinn Fein’s Northern leader Michelle O’Neill said that by moving to bring in a budget for the north of Ireland from Westminster, the British government was acknowledging that “an agreement hasn’t been possible”. She said Sinn Fein met the DUP this morning and told them of its decision to end the negotiations, without setting a date for their resumption.

“This phase of the talks are over,” said Ms O’Neill. She accused British prime minister Theresa May of prioritising “her own electoral survival by the Tory-DUP pact over the interests of all the people here in the North”. Ms O’Neill said in the absence of an Executive and Assembly, responsibility to move on issues such as an Irish language act and other equality issues lies with the British and Irish governments. She called for Dublin and London to convene a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference to address issues which were blocking the return of devolved power-sharing. Ms O’Neill said that full Direct Rule from Westminster was “not an option”. She also referred to a period in 2006 where there were discussions on joint British-Irish government structures. “Clearly there is a mechanism within the Good Friday agreement in the intergovernmental conference that would allow work to be done across the British-Irish governments.

That is what we are asking for,” she said. “We have sought urgent meetings with the Taoiseach and the two governments,” added Ms O’Neill. “The way forward now is for the two governments to fulfil their responsibilities as co-guarantors of the Good Friday agreement and the St Andrews Agreement to honour outstanding commitments and to deliver rights for everyone that are enjoyed by everyone else elsewhere on these islands.

“This in itself would pave the way for the Executive to be restored.” Ms O’Neill said difficulties were compounded by Brexit and the DUP’s “refusal to accept the vote in the North to reject Brexit”. There has been no effective devolved government since the late Martin McGuinness stood down as Deputy First Minister in January in a row with DUP leader Arlene Foster amid concerns about corruption and the integrity of the northern institutions. Ms O’Neill did not say when or if talks with the DUP might resume. “The issues aren’t going to go away,” she said at a Sinn Fein press conference attended by senior party figures including party president Gerry Adams. “So, whether we deal with them now, or deal with them in one month, two months, three months they have to be resolved in order to restore these institutions and to allow people to have confidence in these institutions,” she added. Posted by Jim on November 11, 2017 Hundreds of people are being forced from their homes every year by loyalist paramilitaries, according to figures released this week. They show that a total of 477 people presented as homeless to the Housing Executive because of paramilitary intimidation, and increase of ten per cent over last year.

The most high profile of these cases took place recently when the east Belfast UVF forced out Catholic families living in the ‘shared space’ of Cantrell Close, and the separate burning out of Catholics living in Derry’s Waterside. Racist attacks have been reported by loyalists against Bangladeshi, Syrian and Belgian families, with bricks thrown at their homes in north and east Belfast, as well as arson attacks against their cars. Examples of hate crimes and the day-to-day level of harassment and intimidation of Catholics were again visible this week, with a new `Taigs Out’ sign in the County Down village of Clough. Clough is just a few miles from Loughinisland which has been in the headlines due to the release of a documentary about state collusion in a loyalist atrocity in 1994. The PSNI said they were treating the graffiti as a hate crime. However, locals noted there had been no action to remove it for almost a week. “It’s disappointing that five days after the sign was notified to the police, it is still there intact, continuing to intimidate a section of the community as it was designed to do,” said Amnesty International’s Patrick Corrigan.

“If the authorities can’t take action to remove a sign, then how are people meant to feel safe?” Sinn Fein assembly member Sinead Ennis also said she had contacted police about the sign. “The erection of this sign was a clear attempt of sectarian intimidation,” she said. “I reported it as a hate crime to the PSNI on Friday night and asked for it to be removed. The sign caused great upset to people in the area and those passing by it.” Separately, a sectarian sticker which included the slogan ‘Kick a fenian in the head’, was discovered at a recycling centre in Banbridge, County Down. Sinn Fein councillor Kevin Savage reported it to the PSNI He said the sticker was a “veiled reference to the brutal sectarian murder of Robert Hamill in Portadown in 1997”. Mr Hamill, a Catholic, was beaten to death by loyalists as PSNI members watched in April 1997. ‘Fenians Out’ messages have also appeared in Derry’s Waterside recently.

Sinn Fein Councillor Christopher Jackson, believes the graffiti was designed to intimidate Catholic users of the council-run sports complex and nearby St Columb’s Park. He said: “It is disappointing to see this but it is not surprising. The message we need to get out is that all council facilities are open to everybody and there is no place for sectarianism anywhere.

“We must ensure people feel safe and comfortable using Foyle Arena and St Columbs Park, and that there are no ‘no go’ areas in the city, despite what some people might want to create.”. Posted by Jim on By Jude Collins (judecollins.com) When I hear what the EU negotiators are telling the UK, I invariably feel a jolt of pleasure. It’s like the playground bully – he’s been condescending and brutal with you for so long, it’s a thrill to see the school principal give him a bone-crunching kick in the rear-end. So whatever reservations I have about the EU, and I have quite a few, their stance on a post-Brexit border here invariably makes me want to punch the air. This firm attitude is displayed most recently in an internal EU paper which makes it clear yet again to the semi-deaf Brits that if they want to avoid a hard border in Ireland, then our North-East Nest will have to remain in the single market and customs union.

The rules must be the same on both sides if our currently invisible border is to continue. This internal paper is just a working document from the EU Brexit Task Force under Michel Barnier; it’s not a finalized EU position. But it makes clear the direction in which EU thinking is going. We’ve been fed a diet which caricatures countries like France, Germany and Italy, but it’s clear that in terms of the border in Ireland, the EU are the hard-headed, logical ones, not the Brits.

If you’re going to have two totally separate economic systems north and south, you’re going to have to build a border to show the dividing line. Best of all, of course, is the fact that the British can’t park this matter in a side road and move on to matters of future trade between the EU and the UK. The EU is insistent that the matter of a border in Ireland must be resolved before the talks between them and the UK move to a new phase. It’s truly refreshing to see the EU take its commitment to the Good Friday Agreement seriously. The British and the southern Irish government could learn a lot from them. And they’d better learn fast.

Posted by Jim on The PSNI is being ordered by a High Court judge to finalise and publish an all-encompassing report into suspected British state collusion with a loyalist unit behind more than 100 murders. The judge, who has already ruled that the PSNI unlawfully frustrated any chance of an effective investigation, insisted on the completion of a thematic report into the so-called Glenanne Gang’s onslaught against nationalists throughout the 1970s. Lawyers for the families of victims brought the action as it emerged that Mr Justice Treacy’s original verdict is set to be appealed. Earlier this year the judge ruled that bereaved relatives were denied in their legitimate expectation that the result of an overarching investigation would be published. In the High Court in Belfast on Tuesday, he said he would grant what is called “an order of mandamus” that compels the PSNI Chief to conduct a lawful investigation, and complete and publish the comprehensive thematic report.

He also said witnesses and those bereaved by the gang were dying without achieving any closure on suspected state collusion. “The very sad inescapable fact is that while these debates rage on at huge public expense, the victims’ families languish with no end in sight and the ever increasing realisation that nothing much may happen in their lifetime,” he said. Judicial review proceedings were brought in the name of Edward Barnard. Mr Barnard’s 13-year-old brother Patrick was among four people killed in a St Patrick’s Day bomb attack on the Hillcrest Bar in Dungannon in March, 1976. Up to 120 murders in nearly 90 incidents in Mid Ulster and border areas are under scrutiny.

They include outrages such as the 1975 Miami Showband Massacre, the Step Inn pub bombing in Keady, and the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings. Before drafting the terms of his order, the judge has given the PSNI a week to confirm that there are no minutes or documents about the decision not to complete the HET investigation.

Referring to the collusion allegations, he said: “I have no doubt that for some families their confidence has been undermined by delays which they believe are inimical to addressing their principal unresolved concerns. “In the meantime witnesses or potential witnesses are lost and family members of the deceased die without any closure or resolution.” The judge added: “Furthermore, the anxiety of the surviving family members is not only undimmed but exacerbated by the delays of a system that appears powerless to stop it.” Sinn Fein’s Linda Dillon said it was a “hugely pivotal day” but criticised the PSNI for their legal blocking efforts. “These kind of actions are undermining the confidence levels in the PSNI and new policing dispensation in the north,” she said. “I am calling on the PSNI to comply with the judgement and provide the necessary resources and facilitate an effective and independent investigation so that the families can get access to truth and justice.” Lawyer Darragh Mackin said it was a “landmark decision for the families of the Glenanne gang in their pursuit of justice”. “Not only has the court confirmed that the decision not to investigate was unlawful but it has gone further to compel that such an investigation is now conducted in line with our clients’ expectation,” he said. “We now urge the chief constable to put in place the mechanisms for such an independent investigation without any further delay.” Eugene Reavey, whose three brothers were murdered by the Glenanne Gang in south Armagh in January 1976, said it was a “big day for us” and “a big help to all the legacy cases, not just Glenanne”.

Posted by Jim on A prominent Armagh republican, Gabriel Mackle, has been interned on the orders of the British Direct Ruler James Brokenshire. From Tandragee, he was imprisoned in April 2014 on IRA charges at the high security Maghaberry jail, where he was assaulted while resisting the punitive prison regime.

On Thursday night, he was seized by the PSNI at his home and brought to Banbridge PSNI base before being brought back to Maghaberry. His ‘release licence’ has been terminated by the British government for reasons not yet disclosed. Last weekend, Mr Mackle took part in the annual Edentubber commemoration organised by Republican Sinn Fein in County Louth where he delivered an oration. His lawyer Fearghal Shiels said he intends to fight his detention. “He strenuously denies having breached any conditions of his license and his return to custody shall be vigorously challenged through the courts,” he said.

RSF president Des Dalton described Mackle’s reincarceration as politically-motivated internment. He called for his immediate release. “Gabriel Mackle is being interned for no other reason than his adherence to his republican beliefs,” he said. “The British government are once more using internment to silence opposition to their continued occupation and partition of Ireland.” 600 DAYS BEHIND BARS Meanwhile, there have been calls for the release of another internee, Derry man Tony Taylor, as he reached the 600th day of his detention without trial. His wife has spoken of how her family have been “living in a nightmare” since her husband’s arrest 600 days ago last Tuesday. Lorraine Taylor reiterated calls for her husband to be released or given a fair hearing.

Mrs Taylor has also appealed to the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, to intervene in light of his government taking action to help secure the release of another Irish citizen, Ibrahim Halawa, in a separate case in Egypt. A ‘closed hearing’ was held in May this year, which included ‘secret evidence’ from MI5, after which a decision was again taken to refuse Mr Taylor’s release. No fresh charges have been put to him in a case which Sinn Fein has branded “an affront to human rights.” Lorraine Taylor said: “600 days now and we are coming up to another Christmas and it’s not fair. My children need their daddy home. A family should all be together at Christmas time. “Every day we are living a nightmare.

He is missing out on so much. He has missed the wain’s formal. We love him and we miss him every day. “It is 600 days and all we are asking for is a fair trial; a fair hearing in an open court so Tony can prove his innocence.” Mr Taylor’s family and supporters are currently awaiting the results of an appeal against a decision not to award him Legal Aid in respect of a Judicial Review. Mrs Taylor said that she wanted to thank the people of Derry and all those from right across the political and campaigning spectrum who have helped highlight her husband’s case and raised human rights concerns over his continued detention. “The support we have received has been amazing from the people of Derry and all the different groups. They cannot all be wrong,” she said.

She also said Mr Varadkar could help put pressure over her husband’s case. Representatives from the ‘Free Tony Taylor’ campaign earlier this month handed over a letter to Mr Varadkar welcoming Mr Halawa’s release and urging him to raise Mr Taylor’s case, while the Taoiseach was visiting Derry. “We welcome the release of Ibrahim Halawa and we are asking if he can do the same for Tony.”. Posted by Jim on November 9, 2017 The Hibernian He or She is proudly an Hibernian He or She proudly wears the green Like his or her father did before. He or she is proud to let it be seen. For whether he or she is young or old Irish born or of descent When the pride takes hold It’s Ireland, proud to represent.

They call it the land of winter But to him/her it’s full of warmth For each visit it gets better Full of the Craic and the charm. It’s the heart of an Irish Nation That history made borderless With The Famine and Starvation Emigration and British oppress. But its heart, it is still beating More proudly and stronger than ever And at the hall of the Hibernian meeting declares ‘Ireland Free,Pro-Life and Gaelic Forever’. Martin Corey Proud Hibernian. Gerry Adams has said the DUP is struggling to reach a compromise with his party because unionist leaders once boasted of having “a Protestant parliament for a Protestant state”. Speaking in Armagh last night, the Sinn Fein president insisted his party was committed to making the ongoing negotiations work and to restoring power-sharing at Stormont. But he claimed the British Government had “no investment” in the talks process and “no affinity with it”.

He also accused Taoiseach Leo Varadkar of trying to “wash his hands of the North” and said it felt like “John Bruton was back in office”. Mr Adams claimed he didn’t know if the current talks would succeed but he stressed that his party’s Northern leader Michelle O’Neill was committed to making them work. The Sinn Fein president said the political impasse could be overcome only by the DUP and his party working together. “That will present many challenges for us. It also presents problems for the DUP leadership,” he said. “What we need to do collectively is to accept that a rights-based society is in everyone’s interest.

Moving to that position given that their leaders used to boast that they had a Protestant parliament and a Protestant state, is very difficult for political unionism. “But on the other hand it is self-evident that this is no longer a Protestant state. And the notion of a Protestant parliament should never have been acceptable. No thoughtful unionist really believes that this would ever be acceptable in these modern times.” Mr Adams added that Arlene Foster’s party must recognise “that they can only be in political office on the basis of a modern political dispensation bedded in equality and fairness”. He continued: “In other words, they have to treat the rest of us as equals and we have to treat them as equals. Is the DUP leadership up for this?

We will know soon enough.” Turning to London, Mr Adams said: “For their part, this British Government has no investment in the process, and no affinity with it. It is beset with its own difficulties and is only in power with DUP support.” He claimed Secretary of State James Brokenshire had been “less than helpful”. Brexit was “a disaster” for everyone in Ireland including “unionist business people and farmers who must be appalled by the DUP leadership’s attitude and their disrespect for the vote of the people”. With Leo Varadkar increasingly attacking his party in the Dail, Mr Adams said the Taoiseach shouldn’t think rivalry between Fine Gael and Sinn Fein was more important than the process to restore devolution. He must rise above this. It is crucial that he makes the North a priority, not just because of Brexit but because of the obligations and responsibilities of his office,” the Sinn Fein president said. He maintained that Mr Varadkar could play a meaningful role in efforts to restore the institutions.

“If he has the political will, he clearly has the ability and will get huge public support for efforts to persuade the British to fulfil their obligations,” he said. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein MP Elisha McCallion has slammed Mr Brokenshire for refusing to meet the Joint Oireachtas Good Friday Implementation Committee several times. “This comes alongside his refusal to meet with groups from the Irish language sector. Mr Brokenshire has no such problems when meeting groups like the Orange Order,” she said. “The failure by the British Government to act with rigorous impartiality as required by the Good Friday Agreement has contributed to the current political crisis.” The Northern Ireland Office didn’t respond to a request for comment. Posted by Jim on October 28, 2017 Dublin refuses to recognise Catalonia’s independence The 26 County state has said it will not recognise Catalonia’s declaration of independence from Spain, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin. “The resolution of the current crisis needs to be within Spain’s constitutional framework and through Spain’s democratic institutions,” it said.

However, in Scotland, the Cabinet Secretary for External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop said the people of Catalonia “must have the ability to determine their own future.” Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams TD described the declaration of independence as a “historic step” towards Catalan statehood, and expressed his solidarity with the people. “The right to self-determination is a corner stone of international law and this declaration must be respected,” he said. “I believe it is now incumbent on the Spanish government to agree an internationally mediated process on the way forward. That is what the Catalan government have offered. That goodwill must be reciprocated. “It is time for the Spanish government to seize the opportunity for dialogue. I would encourage the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to urgently press for this process with the Spanish Prime Minister.” However, neither the Taoiseach nor the Irish President, Michael D.

Higgins, have issued statements on the situation. In dramatic scenes yesterday, a motion to declare independence was approved by the 135-member Catalan parliament, with 70 votes in favor. Opposition lawmakers walked out of the chamber in protest ahead of the vote. After the vote officials and lawmakers cried “Llibertat! An emotional President of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont called on his people to remain peaceful.

“In the days ahead we must keep to our values of pacifism and dignity. It’s in our, in your hands, to build the republic,” he said.

Outside parliament, thousands who had gathered cheered the news, some dancing and raising a toast. In Barcelona, people crowded around TV sets to watch the historic events unfold. The Sant Jaume Square outside the government office was packed with thousands of people celebrating. Many were draped with the “Estelada” flag that adds a blue triangle to the red and yellow Catalan flag and has become a symbol of the separatist struggle. “I feel so emotional after the huge fight we went through, we finally got it,” said Rosalina Cordera Torelles. Another woman said she was relieved.

“Now we are Catalan at last,” said Rita Carboneras. “We can be ourselves.” But despite the referendum and declaration of independence, the government in Madrid still claims to still rule over Catalonia. Both it and Spain’s Constitutional Court have insisted the declaration is “illegal” under Spanish law. Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy said it was a move that “not only goes against the law but is a criminal act.” He declared he was “sacking” the head of the Catalan regional police and shutting down the Catalan government’s overseas offices. A spokesman for Spain’s prosecutor’s office said it would bring charges of “rebellion” against prominent Catalans. In Ireland, a variety of protests and events are being organised in support of Catalania, with the involvement of Sinn Fein, the 1916 Societies and People before Profit. People before Profit said it would be submitting a motion to Dublin City Council calling for recognition.

Ahead of Friday’s declaration, republican members of Derry City and Strabane District Council united to formally back Catalan independence. A proposal by Sinn Fein Councillor Caoimhe McKnight that the council writes to the British and Irish governments asking them to formally recognise the democratic outcome of the Catalan independence referendum, was backed by all republican councillors. Independent republican councillor Paul Gallagher, wearing a T-shirt bearing the Estelada flag, hailed the Catalan people’s discipline and courage and expressed concern Spain might move to establish “tyranny” in the region in defiance of the democratic wishes of the people there. Cllr McKnight said the motion demonstrated solidarity with the people of Catalonia, who in turning out to vote in their independence referendum, in spite of a “full-frontal attack by the Spanish authorities”, had been “inspirational”.

Posted by Jim on October 26, 2017 Jim Gibney. Wednesday, HOW do you spot sectarianism, I asked myself as I read Sinn Féin’s One Community document which the party will debate at its Ard Fheis in a few weeks’ time and its campaign literature on the same theme #SUAS (Stand Up Against Sectarianism), which it launched a few weeks ago? I remember a few years ago coming out of the lift on the top floor of the assembly and bumping into the north’s deputy first minster, Martin McGuinness, who was red in the face and clearly in a reflective and rushed mood. I asked him how he was. He said it is difficult when you are dealing with bigots as he disappeared into the lift. He had just left a meeting with the DUP.

I stood beneath the large chimney pot towering over the yard of ‘C’ and ‘D’ wings in Crumlin Road jail. It was the spring of 1977. I watched lads in their late teens and early twenties ‘bouling round the yard’, chattering away and animated, as young men are when they are together. You would think they were on a social outing.

In fact, many were walking a tightrope: balancing very grave matters indeed. Many of them would spend the best years of their young lives in jail – on the basis of forced statements usually composed by their RUC assailants. Judges, educated in some of Ireland and Britain’s most prestigious universities, with trained minds to spot police brutality and injustice, dished out cruel justice that ruined lives. I was in competition with another 16-year-old for a plum job as an apprentice electrician.

It was touch and go. I was asked what school I went to. The other lad, a Protestant, got the job. In the mid-1970s the Workers’ Party ran a poster campaign: ‘Sectarianism Kills Workers’. In May 1975 I stood in Richard ‘Oatesy’ McErlean’s parlour in Thompson Street in Belfast’s Short Strand/Ballymacarrett area. Two of his sons, John and Thomas, lay in the parlour side-by-side in their coffins. They had been killed by the UVF as they played cards in the loyalist Mount Vernon estate having been lured to their death by a work colleague.

In a rally of thousands in the mid-1990s outside Belfast City Hall, organised by trade unionists, I shouted with scores of others, at the platform party for failing to mention the sectarian killing of Catholics by loyalists. The march was against sectarianism.

The northern State was set up on the basis of a crude sectarian head-count. How many Protestants were needed to keep Catholics and their united Ireland aspiration at bay? Historically the English administration fostered political sectarianism using Protestant colonists from Scotland and England to hold Ireland for the Crown. You can usually see racism based on skin colour. You can see homophobia and misogyny because specific groups – gays and women – are the target.

Sectarianism in the north is insidious because it was a cornerstone of the state. It was state practised and all classes played their part in ‘keeping Catholics in their place’. State-sponsored sectarianism is visible and invisible, crude, sophisticated and divisive. It dictated employment, education, housing and voting rights. It demeans, demoralises and disempowers its victims.

That is why in Sinn Féin’s One Community document it argues for it to be defined legally as a ‘hate crime’. Opposition to it is driven by the principles of equality and parity of esteem – the bedrock of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA). This is the only acceptable basis on which the north’s administration can exist in the all-Ireland framework of the GFA.

The document argues for the all-Ireland institutions of the GFA and the councils to drive opposition to sectarianism and for sectarian awareness training for the police, trade unions, public sector workers and for children to be educated about it also. It calls on the GAA, rugby, soccer and boxing organisations to promote anti- sectarianism similar to the high-profile campaigns they ran against racism and homophobia. Important anti-sectarian work is ongoing in local communities, civic organisations, education, business, sport and faith groups and with foreign nationals. Sectarianism not only kills, it poisons the mind and the society that tolerates it or pretends it does not exist. It does exist but there is no acceptable level of sectarianism permissible. Allison Morris. Irish News. Thursday, October19, 2017 The collapse of the Gary Haggarty ‘supergrass’ trial was a depressing end to a process that cost millions of pounds and caused an immeasurable amount of pain and suffering to the families of those murdered and targeted by the loyalist and his cohorts.

The inability to deal with the past is one of the great failings of the peace process and the Haggarty case a glaring example of that failing. The de facto amnesty that ran for the early years after the signing of the peace accord made it appear as though the past was an easy issue to manage. So relieved were we all that there was no sustained violence on the streets that for many years those families who never received any help, justice or recognition were forgotten about in the initial warm glow of peace. They suffered quietly, silently and with great dignity. Many have since died of old age or broken hearts.

The emotional battering, the long-term, generational trauma victims’ families have endured should shame all those in authority. Promising people justice when it’s impossible to deliver heaps trauma upon trauma. Leaving victims without answers, using them as a political negotiating tool and making them feel like a financial burden is an immoral way to end any conflict. Haggarty was never going to be the answer to getting justice for the victims of the Mount Vernon UVF. A low-life, murdering criminal of the worst possible character he was a dud witness. However, what the case did do was lay bare the activities of that particular group of loyalists and in turn the police officers that recruited them. The 200 charges he pleaded guilty to, including five murders, and the 300 further offences taken into consideration paint a picture of a man who was involved in weekly and at times daily criminality.

And all while [ Haggarty was] working as an RUC Special Branch informer alongside Mark Haddock, another agent who led the ragtag gang of murderers, almost all of whom were in the pay of the State. To use people like Haggarty as a prosecution witness is madness. Any defense barrister worth his wages would have torn his evidence apart. Investigating murders during the Troubles was no easy job and the RUC detectives tasked with that worked in unique and dangerous circumstances.

But when the killer was sitting in the passenger side of a police officer’s car with his hand out waiting for a brown envelope of cash, well that would have made the job considerably easier and that is what the Haggarty case revealed. Every murder carried out by the Mount Vernon UVF was arguably preventable given how infiltrated they were and completely solvable given how much information was available.

This week The Irish News carried an interview with the Victims Commissioner Judith Thompson, a woman who gets what is needed and who understands the issues and – like those who have lost – is frustrated by how little has been done to help those in need. The people she deals with come from all walks of life, from those killed by members of the security forces in disputed circumstances to the widows of soldiers and police officers, murdered during the conflict. Almost all – and this is important to emphasis in the current misreporting of the past – have been failed and denied justice.

The reality is few have any hope of their day in court. Evidence was not retained and as the Haggarty case demonstrated the only witnesses available are often those who were involved.

What Ms. Thompson did say is the victims she deals with want and need the truth and recognition of hurt, and that doesn’t need to take place in a courtroom. And they deserve that. Whether their loved one was shot dead by loyalists or blown up by the IRA, murdered by a soldier or police officer or executed by a State informer, they all deserve to be given what information is available and apologized to for being failed. Haggarty may have been an appalling witness but he did give thousands of pages of testimony during his time in custody. That testimony could give answers to his victims’ relatives. They deserve to see it and they deserve an apology for this shameful time in our history.

The Ancient Order of Hibernians claim that all Irish Americans are owed an apology. America’s largest Irish group,, has slammed black MSNBC host Joy Reid for what they say were her racist comments about Irish Americans. Reid wrote on Twitter: “Kelly grew up in segregated Boston, in an Irish Catholic neighborhood where women were bullied, not honored, and blacks scorned & rejected.” Reid made the comments about the Boston Irish after Boston native and White House Chief of Staff General John Kelly had criticized African American congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson, who claimed President Trump had insulted the wife of a soldier killed in Niger during what was supposed to be a consoling phone call. Kelly strongly defended the president.

Neil Cosgrave, the chairman of slammed Reid and MSNBC saying, “It is hard to imagine that the scurrilous generalization of ‘Irish Catholic neighborhood(s)where women were bullied, not honored’ would not draw the outrage of MSNBC if the subject was any other than Irish Catholics and the commentator other than MSNBC’s own Joy Reid. General John Kelly. Image: Public Domain.

“We note with grim irony that in years past the Hibernians have drawn to the attention of MSNBC multiple instances of unambiguous bigotry for which no reference to a dictionary is required, merchandise with phrases such as ‘Everyone Loves a Drunk Irish Slut.’ “We wonder if Ms. Reid made such a sweeping disparaging generality replacing ‘Irish Catholic’ with any other ethnicity/religion would she not be immediately taken to task and denounced by MSNBC management. Posted by Jim on An evangelical anti-Catholic and President Donald Trump supporter says is a “cult-like pagan religion” and the religion’s spread is due to “the genius of Satan.” got a massive endorsement for his new book via a twitter ‘shout out’ by the president.

”Great book just out, ‘A Place Called Heaven,’ by Dr. Robert Jeffress – A wonderful man!” Trump’s “wonderful man,” has saved his worst hatred for Catholics. On Catholicism: “This is the Babylonian mystery religion that spread like a cult throughout the entire world.

The high priests of that fake religion, that false religion, the high priests of that religion would wear crowns that resemble the heads of fish, that was in order to worship the fish god Dagon, and on those crowns were written the words, ‘Keeper of the Bridge,’ the bridge between Satan and man. “That phrase ‘Keeper of the Bridge,’ the Roman equivalent of it is Pontifex Maximus. It was a title that was first carried by the caesars and then the emperors and finally by the Bishop of the Rome, Pontifex Maximus, the Keeper of the Bridge. “You can see where we’re going with this. It is that Babylonian mystery religion that infected the early church, one of the churches it infected was the church of Pergamos, which is one of the recipients of the Book of Revelation. And the early church was corrupted by this Babylonian mystery religion, and today the Roman Catholic Church is the result of that corruption.

“Much of what you see in the Catholic Church today doesn’t come from God’s Word, it comes from that cult-like, pagan religion. “And that’s what Satan does with counterfeit religion. Posted by Jim on October 7, 2017 Sinn Fein could be facing a damaging split over its internal party management, according to reports. A number of rows and expulsions in recent months has seen some members already link up in a potential new national structure.

Meetings of those angry at the party over alleged bullying, control and marginalisation are believed to be already underway. Between 30 and 40 people are said to have turned up at one meeting in Waterford to share grievances. The meeting, organised by Melissa O’Neill, a councillor who was expelled from Sinn Fein last December, agreed to form ‘support hubs’ in towns around the country. Meetings have been planned in Athlone, Tipperary and Limerick. The prospect of setting up a rival republican party to Sinn Fein was not ruled out, according to Ms O’Neill. She said dozens of members and former members attended who felt disrespected or disenfranchised from the party. There have long been accusations of a clique in the Sinn Fein leadership expelling or marginalising individual activists using a tactic known as “the big shaft”.

Management processes have been described as dictatorial and intimidating, with the goal of isolating and removing any potential challenge or dissent. There have been not yet been allegations of a political motivation, but some have drawn comparisons to the Provisional IRA’s so-called “nutting squad”, which maintained PIRA discipline during the conflict. Last month, three Wicklow councillors were expelled from Sinn Fein after they challenged the party in a dispute over internal leadership roles. Lisa Marie Sheehy, who was Sinn Fein’s youngest councillor, also resigned from the party last month, claiming she had been “undermined, bullied and humiliated”. Sinn Fein has repeatedly denied that there is a culture of bullying within the party. But internal disputes which previously took place behind closed doors have become more public.

Sinn Fein housing spokesperson Eoin O Broin denied there was a culture of bullying within the party. He said there were “some people who went into the role of elected representatives and found it was much more difficult that they originally thought,” he said. “We also have really good republicans, really long-standing republicans who for very long periods of time were the only Shinner in the village. Now that the party has grown, and there are younger people there, they are finding it difficult to adjust.” But one councillor who left the party in County Cork said that the party had been routinely trying to replace established party figures with more biddable people. Cork East councillor June Murphy said the “reason they pick them so young is because they’re perfect for grooming”. Melissa O’Neill claimed she was aware of hundreds of Sinn Fein people, young and old, who are not happy with the party structures but were fearful of speaking out. “We don’t want anyone to go through what we went through,” she said.

“The sense of the weight of the world off their shoulders, the energy in the room of a psychological sense of relief, after being gagged for so long. The people leaving that room were different to the ones that came in. We all felt it.” Tara Reynor O’Grady, a human rights campaigner who was expelled from Sinn Fein in June, said people felt “emancipated” as a result of the meeting.

“There was a sense of encouragement, and a tremendous conviction that they were justified in their grievance,” she said. The management and control problems have been picked on by Sinn Fein’s opponents recently as a reason to rule out the possibility of a coalition with the party. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has described Sinn Fein as “a cult”, while Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar suggested Sinn Fein politicians were only allowed to deliver pre-prepared texts in parliament.

The party is expected to address the matter at its Ard Fheis [annual conference] in November. Posted by Jim on The PSNI has been forced to admit unionist paramilitaries were behind threats which caused four Catholic families to flee their south Belfast homes.

After coming under pressure over the force’s non-committal response to the intimidation, PSNI chief George Hamilton finally pointed the finger at the UVF murder gang this week. “There are people using the guise of the UVF who we believe are members of that organisation who are threatening people because of their community background, because of their religion, to leave their home – that is not acceptable,” he said. Although Mr Hamilton said was not sure if the threats were supported by the leadership of the UVF, which he described as “chaotic and disorganised”, or if they were made by individual members, when challenged outright if it was the UVF, he finally replied: “Yes.” Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly, the party’s policing spokesman, vowed to pressure the PSNI to bring individuals before the courts. “It is 2017 and the UVF continues to be involved in murder, racketeering, extortion, drug dealing and issuing sectarian threats,” he said. “They have no other purpose than to serve their own ends.” While sectarian intimidation remains common in the north of Ireland — five Catholic families were recently burned out of the mainly Protestant Waterside area of Derry — the Cantrell Close and Global Crescent estates had been promoted as a cross-community ‘shared space’. Despite efforts to hold up the development as an example for shared living, loyalist paramilitaries had always sought to claim them as part of their territory. The attribution of blame by the PSNI comes after mounting pressure on the force to confront unionist paramilitaries.

Their hands-off approach has been sharp contrasted by their harassment of republicans, which has led to protests in nationalist areas. This week, four men and a woman appeared in court charged with holding an “unnotified procession” in connection with an Easter Rising commemoration in Lurgan. There is also little nationalist confidence in a new panel which began work this week to monitor efforts to “stamp out” loyalist paramilitaries and IRA groups. Set up as a result of a 2015 talks agreement, the ‘Independent Reporting Commission’ will report annually on progress to the London and Dublin governments and will take over the role of the former MI5-linked ‘Independent Monitoring Commission’.

The four IRC members are former US special envoy to the North of Ireland Mitchell Reiss, ex-human rights commissioner and political leader Monica McWilliams, lawyer John McBurney and former Irish diplomat Tim O’Connor. Mr Reiss said he was grateful for the opportunity to again play a role in the North of Ireland.

“I hope the commission’s initiatives will help to bring about the continued transformation envisioned by the British and Irish governments, the local political parties and the citizens of the North of Ireland,” he said. Posted by Jim on by Jude Collins (judecollins.com) Oh dear. Was that another crocodile moment? As you probably know by now, the potential First Minister Arlene Foster clashed with the potential Deputy First Minister at the Tory party knees-up. Michelle was asked if an Irish Language Act would make the north less British, to which she replied “The north isn’t British”. Arlene, alert to insult even at breakfast time, quickly told her “I don’t want this to turn into a row, but Northern Ireland is British.” They can’t both be right.

It all depends on what you mean by saying our North-East Nest is British. Arlene is right that this part of Ireland, while it has devolved government, is ultimately controlled by Britain. So if you’re saying “Who wields power in the NEN?” then the answer is Britain. No ifs or buts. They haven’t gone away, you know.

But if you’re talking about the people here (remember how John Hume used to say that the border was about people, not territory?) then while by a small percentage the majority here regard themselves as British, a very large (and growing) minority do not see themselves as British. Never have, never will. Maybe if we apply the criterion offered by poor deluded Maggie Thatcher and ask “Is the north as British as Finchley?” the thing becomes clearer.

Of course we’re not. There are a number of interesting things about the exchange between the two women. As UUP leader Robin Swann noted, Michelle’s comment “sucked the atmosphere out of the room” – that short exchange is what the question-and-answer session was reduced to. And as Swann also pointed out, Michelle’s comment may have been deliberate. It could well have been dangled to see if the DUP leader had shuffled away from her famous and revealing crocodile comment. If that was the case, Arlene certainly took the bait. But the little introductory clause used by Arlene – “I don’t want this to turn into a row” – is perhaps even more significant.

She clearly felt that Michelle shouldn’t have said our NEN wasn’t British, and if she did there could be a row. Say you don’t consider this part of Ireland British and you’re likely to provoke anger or at least heated dispute from unionist politicians. That’s the part that jars with me.

No one is asking Arlene or any unionist politician to deny that our NEN is British. Certainly Michelle wasn’t. What is important is that nationalists and republicans should have the right to express their views on the nature of the north. But if a row is possibly going to break out any time a republican/nationalist expresses the view that our NEN is really part of Ireland, not Britain, we’re back just about where we started. Behind Arlene’s correction lies an implication: taigs may be tolerated about the place these days but they better mind what they say to those who run the colony. Posted by Jim on October 6, 2017 Sunday, October 8th is National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Day.

On this day, it is appropriate to fly your American flag at half-staff from sunrise to sunset. This year at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service, 95 fallen firefighters will be honored. How to properly fly your flag at half-staff. When raising the flag to half-staff on a vertical pole, always raise it briskly to the top of the flagpole for a moment before lowering it. When taking it down for the night, raise it to the top of the flagpole again & lower it to the bottom. With a telescoping flag pole it is acceptable to put the USA flag on the second set of rings instead of the top set.

In this case the top set would be left empty. When the United States flag is flown at half-staff, State & other flags should be removed of flown at half-staff too.

What if you can’t lower your flag? For flags that can’t be lowered, such as those on many homes, the American Legion says that attaching a black ribbon or streamer to the top of the flag is an acceptable alternative.

The ribbon should be the same width as a stripe on the flag and the same length as the flag. Posted by Jim on October 5, 2017 • October 5th ORGAN DONOR ENROLLMENT The Department for Citywide Administrative Services and LiveOnNY have joined forces for Organ Donor Enrollment beginning on. Currently New York has the lowest percentage of residents registered as organ donors in the nation – and every er dies waiting for a life-saving organ transplant.

Help save the lives of 10,000 New Yorkers in need of a transplant every day by signing up for the New York State Donate Life Registry. HISPANIC HERITAGE CELEBRATION On, from to, a Hispanic Heritage Celebration will be held in the Auditorium at 9 Metrotech, hosted by the Hispanic Heritage Society and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. All are welcome to attend. Come celebrate with your fellow employees, enjoy live music and great food! Donations of non-perishable items to the Relief efforts in Mexico and Puerto Rico are welcome.

To RSVP, please email. KING OF THE WHEELS 2017 The 9th annual King of the Wheels Roller Hockey Tournament will be held from November 6th to November 17th, at Skate Safe America in Old Bethpage.

The tournament flyer and application can be found online. All applications must be submitted with payment by October 21 st. The tournament schedule will be posted shortly after the application deadline.

For any further information, or questions please email Derek Kern at:, or call him. Posted by Jim on NEW YORK STATE FREEDOM for ALL IRELAND BULLETIN September 2017 A chairde: FFAI ISSUES UPDATE A-Catholic Families Forced to Flee Belfast Homes- Four Catholic families were forced to flee their homes after being told by the constabulary they were under death threat from loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force paramilitaries.

The families were driven out of the Cantrell Close area in Belfast, a new Housing Executive project aimed at cross-community housing. The IRISH NEWS noted that “if similar threats happened anywhere else in Ireland or Britain or the western world, it would likely make international headlines.” UVF flags had already been draped around this estate since June to mark the area as UVF territory. B-English Protests over British Trooper Prosecutions- Supporters of Dennis Hutchings, a former British trooper charged with shooting dead John Pat Cunningham in Benburb, marched in London protesting prosecutions of any former British troopers for Troubles murders. The victim, then 27 with learning difficulties and a fear of troopers, was shot in the back while running away.

Because of new inquests, and investigations, a few rubberstamped killings by British crown forces are now being seriously investigated for the first time. Troopers fear facing charges. During the protest, speakers expressed outrage that Hutchings at age 75 could be prosecuted for a 1974 killing. The angry protest took place one day after the crown announced it would proceed with charges against Belfast Republican Ivor Bell,80, for a 1972 incident despite Mr. Bell’s severe medical issues.

C- DUP Demands Funds Cutoff for Relatives For Justice Democratic Unionist Party MP Emma Little-Pengelly demanded that the victims’ group have its funding ended because RFJ representatives had attended an anniversary Mass for three Tyrone IRA Volunteers, killed by the SAS twenty-nine years ago. She pointed to an RFJ message that it was “privileged” to be at the Mass for Brian and Gerard Mullin and Martin Harte.RFJ said it would “support all victims and survivors without fear or favor.” Little-Pengelly is the daughter of Noel Little, a member of Ulster Resistance which helped to bring in South African arms for loyalist paramilitaries. D- Orange Order Insulted by Reconciliation Efforts – Rev Mervyn Gibson, the Grand Secretary of the Orange Order branded efforts to persuade Unionists that they would be better off in a united Ireland as “insulting.” Rev. Gibson told the IRISH NEWS, that he “finds it insulting when people even try and convince me of a unionist place in a united Ireland”. He said claims of financial betterment were a “bribe” or “attempt to buy unionists”.

Gibson also said that the Conservative Party-DUP deal might mean restoring Orange Order Parades in Drumcree and other nationalist areas where they had been blocked. NEW YORK FFAI MARK THOMPSON RFJ TOUR DATES SET Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice will be speaking at five New York AOH FFAI events in January, arriving on January 9th,returning to Belfast January 15th. Wednesday January 10th-Suffolk County co-sponsored by Nassau Thursday January 11th-in Manhattan co-sponsored by NY City counties Friday January 12th-Rockland Saturday January 13th-Albany Sunday January 14th-Peekskill Mark is a great speaker who has given truth, hope and a small measure of justice to many families whose loved ones were murdered by the British directly or by their loyalist agents. If we can make this tour a success he is willing to return because he understands the importance of American and AOH pressure on the British! SPECIAL ENVOY WIN Last month we noted that the AOH joined Congressman Crowley and other groups in demanding that a new Special Envoy be appointed for the north. The announced decision not to appoint one has been reversed with AOH support.

Hope to see some of you at the “Spirit of 1916 Awards” Bronx Fundraiser Sunday October 22nd at the Rambling House, Katonah Avenue in Woodlawn 3pm-7pm.In addition to honoring our National Secretary Jere Cole, Past NY County President Thomas Beirne, and Hugh McMorrow, we are honoring MacBride Principles champion, Pat Doherty. (914-589-7105) Please contact me at MGALVINESQ@AOL.COM.

Slan Martin Galvin. Posted by Jim on September 30, 2017 Fresh inquests have been sought into the deaths of two IRA Volunteers in separate incidents in 1972 and 1973 after documents emerged which confirmed that the men were unlawfully killed by British soldiers. Recently uncovered British military archives show that an IRA volunteer shot dead by the British army in 1972 was the victim of a planned ambush. Daniel McAreavey was shot and killed by British soldiers at the junction of Bosnia Street and Plevna Street in the lower Falls area. Local witnesses at the time stated that the 21-year-old was wounded and then executed. The British military claimed that one of their units happened to be passing when they were fired upon by a gunman and that they then engaged with him. However, a classified file from the 2nd Battalion of the Anglian Regiment states that Mr McAreavey was caught in an “area ambush” which is military parlance for a kill zone.

A record for October 6, 1972 read: “Area ambush in Raglan Street – Plevana St – Osman St Daniel McAreavey shot dead and 2 gunmen wounded by SF. (Security Forces). Ciaran MacAirt of the Paper Trail organisation, who found the archives said: “This is an admission by the British Army that Daniel McAreavey was caught and killed in a deliberate British military ambush. This archive completely subverts the British narrative of an accidental patrol that happened upon the scene.” He noted the use the generic term SF or “Security Forces” points to the involvement of another unit, possibly the notorious military assassination unit, the MRF. He also noted the British soldiers called the area of their ambush and kill ‘the Reservation’, “as if this was some sick hunt and the people were animals”. “We can be sure that the British Army’s area ambush was a deliberate plan to trap and kill its targets. There was nothing accidental in the deployment of British troops in the area at that time.” Padraig O Muirigh of O Muirigh Solicitors said the McAreavey family had always held the view that their loved one was killed unlawfully by the British Army.

“In recent years new witness testimony has come to light from two individuals who spoke to the deceased as he lay injured after an initial burst of fire. Their evidence supports the proposition that the deceased had died after sustaining fatal injuries in a second burst of fire as he lay injured on the ground,” he said. “This find by Paper Trail is further evidence of a cover-up in relation to the circumstances of Mr McAreavey’s death. It is clear that there was no adequate RUC investigation at the time. The Royal Military Police took the statement from the soldiers, a derogation by the police to the military of their duty to investigate.

It is also highly unusual that there was no autopsy carried out on the deceased’s body.” COVER-UP A fresh inquest is also being sought into the separate killing of an IRA man in 1973 after documents confirm British soldiers did not follow their own ‘yellow card’ rules of engagement. Brian Smyth was killed after members of the Parachute Regiment opened fire on a group of men in Ardoyne in April 1973. Three other men were wounded in the incident, one of whom suffered permanent brain damage. The British army originally claimed the men were armed but this was disputed by eyewitnesses, including a nun, who maintained the men were not carrying weapons. One of the injured men was later convicted of having a gun during the incident — before being acquitted on a retrial after one of the soldiers involved revealed he was told to lie and claim that they were armed.

The newly uncovered document, which dates from 1977, considered the pros and cons of whether the British government should provide an out-of-court settlement to the injured men and the mother of the dead man, Mary Smyth. Mrs Smyth was herself killed along with her 10-year-old grandson after a loyalist fire bomb attack at her Oldpark Avenue home in 1978. The document confirms that no firearms were found on the men and that there was no forensic evidence to indicate that they were armed. The British army was also worried following the allegations made by the soldier who came forward and the subsequent acquittal that “the evidence given by the soldiers concerned is bound to be suspect” and they they might face prosecution. Mr O Muirigh said that the original RUC investigation “failed to establish the facts of this matter” and that no evidence was taken from civilian witnesses.

“These grave failings in the RUC investigation and subsequent inquest could be remedied by a fresh inquest,” he said. “We would appeal to any of those present with Mr Smyth when he was shot and any other witnesses to the incident to contact our office”. Posted by Jim on Ahead of the October 1 referendum on self-determination, the Spanish government is engaged in a level of political repression in Catalonia not experienced since the days of the Franco dictatorship.

Kate Shea Baird writes for the Independent on the sudden collapse in Spanish democracy. Last week Mariano Rajoy lost control of the narrative on the Catalan question. Appearing before the press after a series of raids and arrests designed to halt a unilateral referendum on independence planned for 1 October, the Spanish Prime Minister trotted out the government’s well-worn arguments in defence of the constitution and the “rights of all Spaniards”. However, Rajoy’s professed defence of the rule of law is increasingly at odds with reality on the ground.

Over recent weeks, judges in Spain have used startlingly loose interpretations of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the referendum’s illegality to issue orders that violate many of the rights they’re charged with upholding. Local police across Catalonia have seized posters and banners related to the 1 October vote, and the Spanish Civil Guard has searched a number of newspaper offices for incriminating materials. These aren’t signs of a state that’s confident in its authority. Significantly, this legal overreach hasn’t been limited to Catalonia, and nor has the popular response to it. Judges in Madrid and Bilbao have ruled public debates on the Catalan question illegal.

While both events eventually went ahead despite the court suspensions, the apparent attempt to use criminal law to suppress political expression recalls some of the darkest moments of Spain’s recent history. The scale of state repression in Catalonia and its extension to the rest of Spain mark a significant shift in the ongoing dispute over the national question.

The conflict is less and less about competing conceptions of democracy and increasingly about the defence of the basic rights like freedom of assembly, speech and the press. As Rajoy addressed the country on Wednesday night, the streets of Barcelona swelled with tens of thousands of people demonstrating outside the Catalan economy ministry, where a junior minister had been arrested earlier that morning. On the other side of the city, protesters gathered outside the headquarters of the pro-independence party “Popular Unity Candidacy”, blocking the entrance of the national police, which had spent the morning attempting to search the offices without a warrant. Is this a revolt with a national current? But there is something else going on, too. Wednesday’s rallies were not the highly organised, disciplined affairs that characterise the annual demonstrations of the independence movement.

Their spirit owed something to the anti-establishment “indignados” movement that occupied the squares of Spain’s major cities in May 2011 and politicised a generation. Protesters alternated between collective renditions of the Catalan national anthem, “Els Segadors” and the libertarian and anti-fascist chants of “the streets will always be ours” and “no passaran”. As night fell, the air was filled with the sound of people banging pots from their balconies in protest, even in neighbourhoods where support for independence is relatively low.

Elsewhere in Spain, emergency solidarity protests were held in more than 20 cities, using the hashtag #CatalunaNoEstasSola, “Catalonia, you’re not alone”. Since the financial crisis in 2008, both the independence and the “indignados” movements have questioned the foundations of the so-called “’78 Regime” in Spain, the constitutional settlement that transitioned the country to democracy after decades of dictatorship. While neither movement on its own has had the strength to pose a serious threat to the established order, united around a common cause, they could create the most formidable grassroots movement in Europe. I apologize to the Democratic Unionist Party. After it did a deal to keep Theresa May in power, I suggested it would eventually be stabbed in the back by its Tory friends.

This has proved to be doubly wrong. It didn’t happen eventually – it has happened already. And it has been stabbed, not in the back, but in the front. Sorry about that.

The DUP’s enthusiastic support for Brexit is largely an exercise in identity politics, a way of expressing an emotional attachment to Britishness. But it has two political imperatives. The DUP’s own voters do not want a hard Border. And they do not want to lose the agricultural subsidies that account for 87 per cent of farm incomes in Northern Ireland. They need their friends in London to swing these two big things for them. Otherwise Arlene Foster will look less like Moses leading her people to the promised land and more like a scout leader who has lost the compass, forgotten the tents and dropped the sandwiches in the bog.

The DUP always acknowledged that a hard frontier is not just undesirable but impossible, a reality made starker by figures showing the Border is crossed 110 million times a year. But it has been pushing a magical solution: technology. Some as-yet-undiscovered technology (vaguely imagined as having something to do with number-plate recognition and data analytics) would allow the frictionless move.