Quite simple really. 'Love Ulster' is a terror campaign. Not the old kind of terror campaign, mind you but a new political kind aimed at terrifying people into thinking that all those cows are about to stampede north and chew up our passports.

The task 21st century Ireland faces is to become genuinely pluralist, to find a way to see the full complex story of Ireland; of 1914-1918 and 1916, of poppies and Easter lilies, Pearse and visiting princesses, of preserving and restoring monuments to Queen Victoria and buildings associated with the Easter Rising.

In keeping with the intention to make the campaign people-led, it will be launched by faces mainly unknown to the public.

Embedding the plays in the culture that cradled them can teach us all sorts of invaluable things that enhance our understanding of them. But it's hopeless at explaining why the glovemaker's lad from Stratford still captivates audiences on every continent, while the other dazzling dramatists of his day do not.

"It is becoming very clear to nationalists that there is a tolerance of unionist paramilitary violence amongst senior figures within the PSNI. There can be no other explanation for their failure to tackle this campaign or at the very least publicly acknowledge that it is happening at all."

"We do not really study [historical] causes, but what people at the time thought were the causes. And our aim in retrieving their thoughts is not so much to explain how things happened as to understand how they seemed to have happened."

Update: It looks like PA have been doing some further digging on this issue. Stay with us for further developments.

From John Dallat:

Loyalist FM is a radio station broadcasting on the net. It claims on its website to be only about loyalist culture. But just listen to it for a few minutes and you will find out that it glorifies loyalist paramilitaries and their bloody violence.

Some of the lyrics of songs broadcast include:

‘U stands for Ulster

So fuck the IRA’

And -

‘We will fight for dear old Ulster…

Let’s go up the Falls Road.’

And -

“Give my gun

We are men of the UDA.”

And -

“Oh my father said to me

Like our fathers did so many years ago.”

Given the countless massacres that loyalist paramilitaries have been involved in, this is obviously just about incitement to hatred and lawlessness. That is why I am referring this website to the police. If broadcasting this kind of hate is not already illegal, it should be made illegal. I had already made this point to Lord Rooker last week before he went on holidays but still the station broadcasts.

It is all the more shocking to find that people are willing to be associated with this website. In fact, it is publicly sponsored by the Bentley Club in Knocklaughrim Co Derry. Paramilitaries have brought endless suffering to the people of the North and it is sickening that anybody would sponsor a website that openly glorifies them.

There are equally shocking republican websites. For example, www.fiannaeireann.com openly encourages recruitment to the youth wing of Continuity IRA. This is about turning them into child soldiers. It is about child abuse.

It is amazing that nothing is done to shut this website down. If it were about other forms of child abuse, such as sex abuse, every effort would rightly be made to close it. Yet nothing appears to be done to stop the recruitment of child soldiers and encouraging them into a life of violence and danger.

Paramilitaries on both sides have brought endless suffering to thousands on this island. It is deeply worrying that the net is being used not just to glorify them, but to perpetuate this misery into the future.

The way is now cleared for the working out of a scene deeply traditional in Irish history: for when one grouping dares to seek a modus vivendi with the old enemy, as Redmond did over Home Rule in 1912 and as Collins did over the treaty of 1921, as O'Neill attempted in 1965 and Faulkner in 1973, they tend to be outflanked by shriller voices seeking to seize the abandoned ground. Informing these voices is a single quantity; and that quantity is political violence - or the threat of it.

Waugh argues that the root of the problem the government faces in tackling the current Loyalist feud lies deep within the history of the current troubles:

Faced with the sort of nascent revolution that surfaced in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s, Government had two choices: to confront it with matching force or to seek to police it by a mixture of cajolery, bribery and undercover intrigue. Of course the latter was the option chosen. Option one would have enforced the law; but it would also have threatened civil war and major international difficulty. Such was not to be entertained. The flaw lay in the consequent absence of law under option two. Violence, far from being confronted, was rewarded. The most heinous killers were released.

He goes on to argue that the government itself was compromised in it's use of double agents in the Loyalist paramilitaries. He sees it's legacy in the widely percieved inaction of the police in several current scenarios:

The community at large is left with the violent legacy, which includes the revolting, if pathetic, thuggery in Ahoghill. There, as elsewhere, the law is treated with contempt. On the border, security is wound down while extortion and the traffic in smuggled narcotics, which finances the terrorists, waxes beyond control. So the dilemma of the Government is that, of itself, it has destroyed the notion upon which good order subsists; and that notion is that lawlessness brings vengeance.

We all want to see peace prevail in Northern Ireland. But there is a danger that a price of declaring peace has been to turn a blind eye to very nasty things that continue to happen. The paramilitary organisations on both sides have long since been political fronts for gangsterism and racketeering. All of that cannot simply be swept under the carpet in the name of peace.

In 1999, the Sunday World offices in Belfast were fire-bombed. The next day, Mo Mowlam visited the scene. She talked to the staff, thanked them for the necessary and courageous work they were doing and subsequently wrote to them individually. It is impossible not to contrast that response with the almost total official silence that has greeted the current campaign against the paper.

Exposure of Northern Ireland's filthy underbelly does not come without risk. The paper's Northern editor, Jim Campbell, was shot and wounded. In 2001 one of its reporters, Martin O'Hagan, was murdered in Lurgan by the Loyalist Volunteer Force as he walked home from the pub. Not many journalists in "this country" work under these shadows.

Assassinate Chavez, Pat Robertson tells a stunned America
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
Published: 24 August 2005

Pat Robertson, one of the most influential Christian evangelists in the United States, has sparked controversy by calling for the assassination of the left-wing leader of Venezuela.
Mr Robertson, who heads the Christian Coalition and has close links to the White House, said the US should kill President Hugo Chavez because he wanted to turn his Catholic country into "the launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism".
"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Mr Robertson said on the Monday night broadcast of his religious programme The 700 Club. "We don't need another $200bn war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."
Venezuela, whose relationship with the US has become increasingly difficult in recent years, described Mr Robertson's comments as a form of terrorism and called on the White House to condemn them.
Speaking in Caracas, Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel said: "This is a huge hypocrisy to maintain an anti-terrorist line and at the same time have such terrorist statements as these made by Christian preacher Pat Robertson coming from the same country. The ball is in the US court now, after this criminal statement by a citizen of that country."
Mr Chavez, a failed revolutionary who later won power at the ballot boxes, has long been at odds with the US. In 2002 the Bush administration offered support to Mr Chavez's opponents who briefly overthrew him in a coup. The US also provided money to groups which last year organised a recall vote in a failed effort to dislodge the President.
Mr Chavez, who beat the recall vote as the result of his support among Venezuela's poor, has often accused the US of trying to assassinate him - echoing the claims of one of his closest allies, Fidel Castro, who he was yesterday visiting in Cuba. The US has admitted that during the Sixties it initiated several operations to kill the Cuban leader.
The relationship between the US and Venezuela is made more complicated by the Latin American country's role as the world's fifth largest exporter of oil. It is wealth from these sales that has enabled Mr Chavez to invest heavily in social programmes and in establishing schools and clinics in the poorer barrios.
The organisation headed by Mr Robertson, a former presidential candidate, claims to have more than two millions members. During the 2000 presidential primaries the support of the Christian Coalition was vital in helping Mr Bush win the Republican nomination in South Carolina, where he was strongly challenged by Senator John McCain.
A State Department spokesman described Mr Robertson's comments as "inappropriate" and said they were from a private citizen and did not represent the government's position.
A spokeswoman for Mr Robertson said that the evangelist had no further comment at this point.
Robertson on...
FEMINISM
"It encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
9/11
"If they look over the course of 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings."
ISLAM
"It's clear from the teachings of the Koran and also from the history of Islam that it's anything but peaceful."
Pat Robertson, one of the most influential Christian evangelists in the United States, has sparked controversy by calling for the assassination of the left-wing leader of Venezuela.
Mr Robertson, who heads the Christian Coalition and has close links to the White House, said the US should kill President Hugo Chavez because he wanted to turn his Catholic country into "the launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism".
"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Mr Robertson said on the Monday night broadcast of his religious programme The 700 Club. "We don't need another $200bn war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."
Venezuela, whose relationship with the US has become increasingly difficult in recent years, described Mr Robertson's comments as a form of terrorism and called on the White House to condemn them.
Speaking in Caracas, Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel said: "This is a huge hypocrisy to maintain an anti-terrorist line and at the same time have such terrorist statements as these made by Christian preacher Pat Robertson coming from the same country. The ball is in the US court now, after this criminal statement by a citizen of that country."
Mr Chavez, a failed revolutionary who later won power at the ballot boxes, has long been at odds with the US. In 2002 the Bush administration offered support to Mr Chavez's opponents who briefly overthrew him in a coup. The US also provided money to groups which last year organised a recall vote in a failed effort to dislodge the President.
Mr Chavez, who beat the recall vote as the result of his support among Venezuela's poor, has often accused the US of trying to assassinate him - echoing the claims of one of his closest allies, Fidel Castro, who he was yesterday visiting in Cuba. The US has admitted that during the Sixties it initiated several operations to kill the Cuban leader.
The relationship between the US and Venezuela is made more complicated by the Latin American country's role as the world's fifth largest exporter of oil. It is wealth from these sales that has enabled Mr Chavez to invest heavily in social programmes and in establishing schools and clinics in the poorer barrios.
The organisation headed by Mr Robertson, a former presidential candidate, claims to have more than two millions members. During the 2000 presidential primaries the support of the Christian Coalition was vital in helping Mr Bush win the Republican nomination in South Carolina, where he was strongly challenged by Senator John McCain.
A State Department spokesman described Mr Robertson's comments as "inappropriate" and said they were from a private citizen and did not represent the government's position.
A spokeswoman for Mr Robertson said that the evangelist had no further comment at this point.
Robertson on...
FEMINISM
"It encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
9/11
"If they look over the course of 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings."
ISLAM
"It's clear from the teachings of the Koran and also from the history of Islam that it's anything but peaceful."

Oh.. and as Joel also says -

And let me just add, purely for the sake of Google: sex, alien abduction, Oprah, Tom Cruise, Lindsay Lohan, jumbo hooters the size of watermelons, Dick Cheney, Mark of the Beast, Armageddon, free money.

*Ahem*

From the initial recommendation by Hugh Orde that they should close, to the process of a public consultation, and the continued resistance to movement on this issue by, in this example, the DUP MLA Arlene Foster -

"I remain gravely concerned about the closure of other stations," she said.

"Particularly at a time when terrorist and criminal activity is still a serious threat."

It's a resistance echoed by the, frankly, far more sinister comments of the Sinn Féin Member of Parliament Michelle Gildernew.. who equates police stations to spy bases within communities -

"The majority of nationalists do not want these spy bases in their communities."

and both are unchallenged by the acceptance of the compromise by the SDLP MLA Alex Atwood -

"This is the right balance."

All this combines to re-inforce the view of policing as just another political bargaining chip - rather than a required public service to counter criminal activity, being deployed in the most effective manner possible.

Btw, the elevation of the ubiquitous community representatives to the status of a semi-official police force can be seen to be yet another example of the, NIO endorsed, increasing, not decreasing, politicisation of policing.

Apart from the obvious concern of introducing a new designer to collaborate with the winning architect.. I'm disappointed, to say the least, that the opportunity hasn't been taken to open up the decision beyond the narrow confines of the "international panel of experts under the auspices of the Union of International Architects".. not to mention the selection panel[?] for the exhibition and interpretative designer.

Here's an idea.. let the panel of experts pick a short list for the planned Centre from the submissions.. and make the designs available for viewing by the public.. either physically or online.. and get a bit of public reaction before committing to taking it further.. so far, apart from the multi-media downloads avaiable on the DETI website, and some info on the Giant's Causeway on the Environment and Heritage website here, there doesn't seem to be any indication of encouraging public involvement.. beyond the final unveiling that is.

Considering that just over 200 firms, from the 480 who had registered for the competition, submitting plans for the Centre - estimated cost of the new facilities £14million - coming up with a short-list of equally valid and impressive designs shouldn't be too difficult.

That's assuming the DETI have thought about the need to enthuse the public about this project.

If 'On the Run' IRA suspects are allowed home as part of the political deal to restore devolution, then that is a deal between the British Government, the Provos and the Irish Government. So what happens if other governments that have legal treaties with Ireland come knocking on the Dail doors, seeking the extradition of IRA suspects for 'international terrorism' or whatever?

To be honest, I can't think of another example outside Germany at the moment. But unionists might argue that the UK's amnesty for IRA fugitves and the German extradition case illustrate how far Britain and Ireland have been prepared to move to tie up republican loose ends (which I suppose is a bit of a compliment to SF's negotiating skills).

How would Londoners have reacted if the Italisn government had refused to extradite a man wanted in connection with the failed bomb attacks of 21 July?

And isn't it strangely coincidental that Scotland Yard were involved in all this, at this particular time? You'd almost get the impression that someone was pissed off over the Three Amigos making their own way home...!

Sunday Tribune (front page) Sun 21 August - extracts

Private polls predict election disaster for Fianna Fáil.

Fianna Fáil could lose up to 15 seats in the next general election, according to private polls carried out recently for the party.
The secret constituency polls are understood to be worse than the most recent TNS-MRBI national opinion poll, which put Fianna Fáil at a low of 32%.

Informed sources described the private poll findings as “pretty Grim”

It is understood the private polls do not show any one party benefiting from Fianna Fáil’s current difficulties. They do point to a bounce in support for Fine Gael and strong support in certain areas for Sinn Féin (my emphasis)

However, some senior party figures are said to be privately resigned to a spell in opposition after the next election.

Scotland on Sunday reports:

In 1999, the Sunday World offices in Belfast were fire-bombed. The next day, Mo Mowlam visited the scene. She talked to the staff, thanked them for the necessary and courageous work they were doing and subsequently wrote to them individually. It is impossible not to contrast that response with the almost total official silence that has greeted the current campaign against the paper.

The Observer also takes a look at the changing face of Belfast today.

Remember to have a search on the Chavtown site to get an update on the spide situation in your neighbourhood.

It would be unfair not to note that there have also been many odd instances of alleged LVF members facing serious charges in court, only for those charges to be mysteriously dropped by the DPP without explanation.

The idea of informers and agents is to garner information to save lives. But because useful informers are sometimes up to their necks in it or career criminals - and yet are protected by the State - it can lead to the situation we have in Belfast today - loyalist Stakeknives.

At what point does the information provided by a covert source no longer outweigh the level of terrorist or criminal activity he is engaged in? What should the State's response be when a source may be causing more lives to be lost than saved? Is it really in the public interest that the State protects career criminals and multiple murderers?

The spectre of hundreds of UVF supporters recently occupying an east Belfast estate while the PSNI stood and watched - ironically, opposite the police training college - makes you wonder what lesson the post-Patten recruits will really learn about who really runs the streets, and what the Government regards as an acceptable level of loyalist violence and intimidation.

David Ervine recently admitted that the PUP has no power to intervene and stop the loyalist feud. You might think that with no political restraint on the UVF whatsoever, that it might be the right time for the Government to make a move and treat the situation more seriously than it currently is doing. It might well be convenient for some if certain loyalists took a few secrets to their grave, but the problem for the rest of us is that uninvolved people get caught in the crossfire causing families unbearable misery.

Why is the freedom of a UVF serial killer more important to the State than the lives of his 13 victims?

Who exactly is in charge around here?

From yesterday's Irish News:

Will to prosecute UVF has been sapped from the top
18/08/2005
Opinion
By Eye of Newt

Permanently.

On a more personal level, Mo was very likeable. On the few occasions I met her, she took the time to talk, and was chatty, personable and down to earth. She could be blunt too. Her first official visit as SoS was to Ballymena, and she was very well received. I have little doubt about what she would say if she were able to go back there today.

She was very human, but that means she made mistakes, just like the rest of us. After the murder of Charles Bennett by the IRA, she defined it as 'internal housekeeping', rather than the breach of a ceasefire. The legacy of that throwaway comment is still with us today, as loyalists slaughter each other, while the Government stands idly by and watches.

Talking to Mo wasn't like talking to a politician. Some people who had meetings with her thought it was more like talking to a rather vulgar child, and I recall being told by one politician how she used to take off her wig and twirl it round her fingers when she had heard enough. Appalled by her brazenness and scared of her popularity, she was heavily briefed against when she fell out of favour.

Mo had little time for airs and graces, and she was widely regarded by the public as 'one of us', a regular person (though maybe a wee bit too rude and touchy-feely for a rather conservative place like NI), the child of an alcoholic father who battled bravely against illness, and brought a more human face to politics here.

In her own words, "a tough old boot".

ADDS: There's a good backgrounder on her illness and wig here.

In claiming to have a personal commitment from Bertie Ahern on speaking rights in the Dáil for Northern Ireland's MPs and MEPs, Gerry Adams deliberately raised suspicions of secret deals having been done in advance of the IRA statement. This led to questions being asked regarding the nature and, indeed, the purpose of a series of private meetings involving Adams and Ahern. By the time a Sinn Féin spokesman belatedly acknowledged that the Taoiseach was correct in his denials, the ground had been laid for the next, far more serious, assault on Bertie Ahern's integrity.

It's worth looking Pete's recent post on Ahern's more than two year old commitment to look at the issue in the context of Seanad reform. He also argues that the return of the Columbia Three has put the Republic in diplomatic hot water with President Bush. Althou

Nevertheless, PA reported that a DUP spokesman said his party was treating Gerry Kelly's comments "with contempt", given his background.

"Sinn Fein/IRA has terrorised the community for 35 years spreading violence and criminality," the spokesman said.

"The DUP position on all attacks is clear. Our representatives have condemned wholeheartedly all such attacks and have asked anyone with information to help the police."

The position is so clear that we had photographs in the Press of Councillor Robin Sterling of the DUP's 'spiritual wing' standing beside someone waving a UDA flag the other night at a loyalist protest against a republican parade in Ballymena.

Perhaps the DUP is afraid of losing support in its terrorist-supporting fanbase.

So even when Paisley finally did speak out against the widespread campaign of loyalist intimidation against his constituents, it rang somewhat hollow.

Paisley said: "Last week when the mayor (of Ballymena, DUP councillor Tommy Nicholl) unreservedly condemned any and all such attacks, he spoke with the authority of my party and it goes without saying that I too condemn these attacks and call for them to end."

It most certainly does not "go without saying" that Mr Paisley condemns loyalist attacks, since his words have contributed to them happening in the past. On holiday or not, there's little doubt Mr Paisley should have had plenty to say about a low-level terrorist campaign in his adopted home town.

Equally, when the PSNI officer responsible for policing Ahoghill - where many of the loyalist attacks have taken place recently - remarks that "[t]here`s no doubt that there`s an element of sectarianism, but also an element of people just not getting on with each other", one wonders what exactly churches and schools have to do with any disputes between individuals.

Such attacks on identifibly 'Catholic' targets are naked sectarianism, and while they may not have the sanction of any organisation (or even if they do), it does not absolve the PSNI of the fact that they are policing a very small village with next to nothing to show for their investigation.

When Will We Hear The UVF’s Real Plan?

By Danny Morrison
www.dannymorrison.com
First published in Daily Ireland

Ian Paisley is on his holidays. The four entirely independent members of the Independent Monitoring Commission are on holidays. Peter Hain is the Secretary of State for Wales. Sir Hugh Orde is damned elusive. Where are all the ‘peace’ groups and those politicians opposed to paramilitary violence, drug-pushers and criminality?
Where are the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) leaders, Billy Hutchinson and David Ervine?
Must be on holiday as well.
Remember how often over the past thirty years we were told that loyalist paramilitary violence was solely a response to the activities of the IRA? We heard that mantra ad nauseam from unionist politicians and loyalist spokespersons alike. It was echoed in police press statements and in the tenor of early media reporting describing the murders of Catholics as “tit-for-tat” or “retaliatory” killings. They told us that if there was no IRA or IRA activity there would be no loyalist paramilitaries or loyalist violence. It was a perverted logic that allowed unionists to spuriously claim that the IRA was thus responsible for all 3,500 deaths.
But it is obvious from the history of Ulster unionism, including the illegal activities of the first UVF and its subsequent co-option into the state forces, that there has always been a dependant relationship between unionism and the use or threat of extra-parliamentary violence.
That loyalist paramilitaries today represent something corrupt, uncontrollable and embarrassing does not gainsay the case that the paramilitaries in the past played their part on behalf of the unionist cause, and could do so again in the future.
Ian Paisley’s Ulster Protestant Volunteers were to the fore in the counter-demonstrations which attempted to smash the Civil Rights Movement. Loyalist gangs joined with the RUC and B Specials to burn Catholics out of their homes in 1969. William Craig’s Vanguard Movement was paramilitary at heart and, of course, the muscle for the Ulster Workers Council strike in 1974 came from the UDA and the UVF. Paisley joined with the UDA/UFF in the second strike in 1977. Then there was the penchant for wearing berets, marching in military formation, saluting flags and the swearing of solemn and binding oaths (the Carson Trail rallies, the Ulster Clubs and Ulster Resistance) which perpetuated a culture of unionist tolerance towards extra-parliamentary activity.
In recent years the IRA has not only engaged with the International Decommissioning Commission but also verifiably put a large number of weapons beyond use. Whilst during the IRA cessation some IRA activity continued, the graph of activity has shown a prominent decline until the IRA announcement last month of the formal end of its armed struggle.
Yet, loyalist violence, both sectarian and intra-community, has continued. The LVF emerged to support both a drugs empire and Orange Order demands to get marching through the Catholic Garvaghy Road. There have been internal UDA feuding, UVF Vs UFF feuding and UVF Vs LVF feuding resulting in the loss of dozens of lives.
When Billy Hutchinson announced a few years ago that he did not believe the UVF would decommission its weapons (even were the IRA to do so) both the UUP and the DUP were unexercised by his statement, because, according to them, the IRA is the real problem, not the loyalists: further proof of the duplicitous attitude of the unionist parties.
Catholic homes, schools and chapels have been systematically attacked. Over the summer there were attempts to drive Catholics out of various streets and villages around the North. There were gun attacks, pipe and petrol bombings.
The UVF has also been the driving force behind the most recent feud with the LVF which has resulted in the loss of several lives and a number of individuals being seriously wounded. The LVF, made up of former members of the UVF, has, in turn, attempted to kill its rivals.
In July up to 300 UVF men – who made no bones about being UVF members – occupied the Garnerville Estate in East Belfast and, in front of the PSNI and the British army, drove out a number of families with alleged LVF connections. Unionist politicians were measured in their criticism: in comparison to the passion with which within days they were to demonstrate in condemning the return of the Colombia Three to Ireland.
Indeed, Ulster Unionist Party leader, Sir Reg Empey, called for ‘mediation’ between the feuding sides. Could one ever have envisaged him giving the same vocational advice and wide berth to feuding republicans? His colleague, Michael McGimpsey, also spoke very softly when he described members of both proscribed organisations as ‘Volunteers’.
Many of the anti-Catholic attacks have occurred in the heartland of the North Antrim constituency of Ian Paisley. No doubt he will eventually issue – or be forced to issue - some statement of condemnation from his place of retreat. But the abiding perception is one of indifference - in direct contrast to the actions of several other Presbyterian ministers who went to Harryville and physically washed away the paint which had desecrated the Catholic Church.
Reading between the lines of the various statements of the mainstream unionist parties (when they can be found), and the spin put out by PUP spokespersons (when they can be found), there is clearly an attempt to paint the UVF as being somehow more virtuous and upright than the LVF. That is, that the UVF might merely be doing a bit of ‘house-keeping’ within loyalist working class areas (indeed, the purge of the LVF in Garnerville appears to have been fairly ‘popular’).
The UVF remains a dangerous and active sectarian organisation. It now appears increasingly likely that its members were behind the fatal stabbing of fifteen-year-old Catholic Thomas Devlin in North Belfast last week. It has also been disillusioned with the peace process, the Belfast Agreement and the failure of its political representatives in the PUP to establish a firm electoral base.
So, perhaps there is more to its feud with the LVF than driving out drug barons and ‘liberating’ Protestant areas. Is the UVF champing at the bit to resume full-scale activity? Isn’t it about time that we heard from Billy Hutchinson and David Ervine what the real plan is? Will they be honest enough to admit that the threat from the UVF is not related to the IRA or IRA activity but to the prospects of political progress and peace with justice?

As David Gordon notes in the article -

"Lord Rooker is the Government's Northern Ireland spokesman in the Lords, as well as being Minister for Agriculture, Environment, Finance and Personnel and the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM).

A further responsibility was recently added to his portfolio with his appointment as Minister for Children, which comes under the OFMDFM umbrella."

and of that umbrella he said -

"Every week, I find something new I am responsible for. I'm the women's minister, for starters. That takes a bit of explaining."

Indeed.

He also had this to say about being the Labour Party's spokesman on NI in the House of Lords

"The Lords Ministers work harder than the Commons Ministers - you may quote me on that by the way," he says.

Rooker, old chap, you're being quoted on everything.. as I'm sure the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland [and Wales], Peter Hain, will remind you.

And David Gordon ends the interview with -

Lord Rooker says: "I'm not envisaging that I'm here for the long-term."

Opinion might be divided on whether that's a good thing...

JUNE 2005
2nd June - Blast bombs thrown at two homes in Ahorey, Richill in a racist attack on Eastern
European workers.
3rd June - Loyalist feud erupts in violence inside the Belfast court complex.
4th June - Two catholic owned cars set on fire and sectarian slogans daubed in East Belfast
4th June - 7 catholic homes in Coleraine attacked.
5th June - Names of Sinn Féin election workers posted on walls in Coleraine.
5th June - Pipe Bombs thrown at the homes of migrant workers in racist attack in Loughgall.
6th June - 27 year old attacked by masked gang wielding baseball bats in his Ballyclare home.
6th June - Car set on fire in racist attack in Loughgall.
7th June - Catholic homes and a car petrol bombed in Coleraine.
10th June - 56 year old woman attacked in her Ballymoney home and given 24 hours to leave.
16th June - 28 year old shot in Greenland Park, Lurgan.
16th June - Four masked men attack a man at his home in Ballyree Drive, Bangor.
17th June - Elderly catholic woman left hospitalised after attack on her Kerrera Street home
in Ardoyne.
19th June - Two nationalists assaulted by loyalist mob in Ballymena
20th June - Three Catholic homes at Old Throne Park, North Belfast destroyed after sectarian
arson attack. Eight children including a small baby lucky to escape alive.
22nd June - Ballymena man jailed after UVF gun running plot exposed.
23rd June - Arson attack on St. John’s Catholic Church in Portadown.
28th June - 20 year old shot in the legs in Bangor.
28th June - Loyalist flags erected outside PSNI barracks in mixed Dunmurray village.
29th June - Loyalist flags erected in mixed Lisburn Road area.
29th June - Petrol bomb attack the home of a 19 year old woman, Braeside Grove, Castlereagh.
29th June - 17 year old shot, Carrickmannin Gardens, Bangor.

JULY 2005
1st July - Loyalist mob led by PUP member Billy McCaughey disrupt DPP meeting in Clough,
Co.Antrim. SDLP Councillor force to be escorted from the meeting by the PSNI.
1st July - Jameson Lockhart shot dead by UVF, Newtownards Road, East Belfast.
5th July - Catholic homes on Mountpottinger Road Attacked by loyalist gang.
6th July - 30 year old shot, Carlingford Street, Creaggh Road.
9th July - Catholic home on the Crumlin Road firebombed.
10th July - Gun attack linked to the LVF on a home in the Silverstream Road area of North
Belfast.
11th July - Craig McCausland shot dead by the UVF, Dhu Varren, North Belfast.
11th July - Man forced to flee home in Woodvale Pass as masked and armed gang burst in.
11th July Man shot and seriously injured on the Crumlin Road in an attacked linked to the LVF.
11th July - Catholic woman forced to flee her Ahoghill home after 50 years due to attacks.
11th July - Catholic taxi driver and passengers attacked in Blacks Road area of West Belfast.
11th July - PSNI patrol attacked in East Belfast and weapon stolen.
11th July - Business premises on Creaggh Road burned down in arson attack.
11th July - UVF firing party appear at Belfast City Council backed bonfire on the Newtownards
Road.
11th July - UDA firing party appear at bonfire in the Westlands area.
11th July - Harryville Church in Ballymena daubed with sectarian slogans.
11th July - Attempt to abduct nationalist in Portstewart.
12th July - UVF and UDA figures join Orange Parade through Ardoyne, Mountainview and the
Dales in North Belfast.
12th July - Loyalist protest outside St. Matthews Catholic Church, East Belfast.
12th Nationalist residents in Lower Ormeau attacked by stone throwing loyalists taking part in
12th parade.
13th July - Catholic homes in Clandeboye Gardens in the Short Strand area attacked.
15th July - Sinn Féin member in Coleraine told of threat to his life.
15th July - Four nationalists in Coleraine told of unionist paramilitary threat to their lives
16th July - Petrol Bomb attack on the Diamond Bar, Ahoghill, Co. Antrim
16th July - Blast bomb explodes inside Catholic woman‚s home, Mountainview Gardens.
16th July - Catholic homes in the Short Strand once again come under attack.
17th July - Blast bomb thrown into a house at Schomberg Court, Carrickfergus.
17th July - Three nationalist homes in Coleraine attacked
18th July - UVF carry out gun attack on house at Victoria Road, East Belfast.
20th July - Shots fired at house in Avonorr Drive, East Belfast.
20th July - Woman in Coleraine has home petrol bombed
21st July - Petrol Bomb attack on Half Way House bar in Broughshane, Co.Antrim
23rd July - Sectarian slogans daubed on Catholic properties in Garvagh, Co.Derry.
23rd July - Several nationalists in Dunloy Co. Antrim visited by the PSNI and warned that they
are under threat from unionist paramilitaries.
23rd July - Holy Cross Church in Ardoyne petrol bombed.
23rd July - Device left on Dublin rail line to disrupt travel to the GAA Ulster Final in Dublin.
24th July - Man in his 40s shot in the Shankill Road area.
25th July - Hundreds of UVF members invade Garnerville estate in the East Belfast and force
LVF linked families to flee in full view of the PSNI and British Army.
25th July - Taxi Depot in the Ballysillan area destroyed in arson attack linked to loyalist feud.
25th July - Leading republican Martin Meehan advised by the PSNI that his life is under threat
from unionist paramilitaries.
25th July - Another paint bomb attack on Harryville Church in Ballymena.
25th July - Two men shot in Tynedale Grove in North Belfast.
26th July - Two Catholic churches in Ballymena attacked.
26th July - Catholic owned bar in Martinstown, Co. Antrim firebombed.
26th July - Catholic owned bar in Rasharkin, Co. Antrim firebombed.
26th July - 10 shots fired at a house in Station Road, Newtownabby.
26th July - A woman and two children escape after petrol bomb attack on their home in
Silverstream Gardens.
27th July - Nationalist home in Coleraine has windows broken
30th July - Stephen Paul shot dead by the UVF Wheatfield Crescent, North Belfast.
31st July - UDA linked to the shooting of a 38 year old in the Westland area.

AUGUST 2005
1st August - PSNI Attacked by loyalist gang Palmer Street in the Woodvale area.
1st August - Bomb left outside home in Knockeen Crescent, Ballymena.
1st August - Shots fired into a house in Randalstown, Co. Antrim.
1st August - Petrol bomb attack on Catholic home in Laurel Park, Ahoghill.
2nd August - Petrol Bomb attack on home at Redwood, Dunmurry.
4th August - Loyalist paramilitaries orchestrate riot on the Crumlin Road in North Belfast.
5th August - Further rioting on the Crumlin Road.
6th August - Catholic man attacked in Coleraine shop
7th August - Man shot seriously injured Glenside Park. Victim believed to be leading LVF figure.
7th August - Device left at Brookfield Mill, North Belfast
8th August - Three houses in Cloughmills, Co.Antrim attacked with pipe bombs
9th August - Fire Blankets issues to Catholic families in Ahoghill, Co. Antrim
9th August - The Banbridge Home of Sinn Féin Councillor Dessie Ward petrol bombed.
9th August - Harryville Catholic Church in Ballymena paint bombed.
9th August - Catholic home in Ballymena has windows smashed.
9th August - Masked loyalist protesters are joined by DUP politicians for illegal protest in
Ballymena.
10th August - St. Patrick‚s Catholic Church in Lisburn daubed with sectarian slogans
10th August - 15 year old Thomas Devlin murdered in North Belfast attack, attributed in the
media to the UVF.
12th August - Catholic homes in the Waterside area of Derry attacked.
12th August - Leading LVF figure Gordon Hutchinson shot and seriously injured in Lurgan.
12th August - Two flats in Rathcoole come under pipe bomb attack
12 August - Pipe bomb left outside republican home in Beechmount Ave, West Belfast
13th August - 30 year old shot in the legs in Newtownabby
14th August - Newsagents shop on the Antrim Road in Belfast set fire in arson attack.
14th August - 15 year old tied to a lamp post and covered in paint on the Donegal Road
15th August - Catholic home in Kilrea attacked
15th August - Catholic home in Ahoghill, Co.Antrim paint bombed
15th August - Michael Greene an LVF associate shot dead in the Sandy Row area of South Belfast
16th August - St. Josephs Catholic Primary School, Ahoghill paint bombed
16th August - St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Ahoghill paint bombed
16th August - Pipe bomb left outside home, Windslow, Carrickfergus

Hitler Beats Blair In Leadership Poll

Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler has beaten Tony Blair in a new poll as one of the greatest leaders of all time.A firm asked 1,000 business leaders who they rated as as the most impressive leaders of men throughout history.The German fuehrer came 20th in the list while the Prime Minister could only manage 25th.

Top of the list is Hitler's nemisis Winston Churchill. Gandhi, the man who led India to independence, is second.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela is third.

Ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - dubbed The Iron Lady - came in at number eight.

Top sportsman was Lance Armstrong, the cycling legend who beat cancer and went on to claim a record number of Tour de France wins.

Some dictators made it into the top poll for leadership skills other than Hitler.

Mao-Tse-Tung, who led the Chinese communist revolution, came in at 31.

Veteran Cuban leader Fidel Castro was 41st.

The list was complied ahead of a conference of business leaders to be held in London in October.

Organiser Rosalind Oxley said: "Bob Geldof just about makes it into our Top 50.

"But it is slightly disturbing to see him beaten by Hitler, who also ranks higher than the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa."

Belfast Telegraph Home > News

Islamic cleric says Ireland is a 'legitimate target'

By Mick McCaffrey
17 August 2005

A notorious British-based Islamic extremist has said Ireland is a "legitimate" target for al-Qa'ida terror attacks.

Anjem Choudary, who has close links to the infamous hate preacher, Omar Bakri Mohammed, said the use of Shannon Airport as a stop-off for US warplanes justifies Ireland being attacked.

The solicitor (38) said: "If your government wants to support the atrocities in Afghanistan they can expect some repercussions," and added that Ireland had "opened itself" to attacks from radical Muslims linked to al-Qa'ida.

Choudary even said that terrorists have the right to kill indiscriminately since American bombers did not pick and choose military targets in Iraq.

CONDEMNING

He said he was "not in the business" of condemning terrorist attacks in Britain and Ireland and added: "What you need to do is you need to be responsible and you need to look after your national security.

"If people slipped into Ireland from Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere, where the Irish are standing side by side with the butcher of Baghdad, George Bush, then they would have a legitimacy for that type of thing.

"That's not my personal opinion but your asking me what it says in the Koran."

Choudary believes that Ireland has risked being targeted by opening up Shannon to planes transporting US troops to Iraq.

"Obviously if Ireland is allowing their land to be used for planes to fly and to bomb Muslims, then those Muslims will obviously have a right to retaliate, it goes without saying."

He also criticises Irish Muslims, saying they've been "stripped of their Islamic personality through secular education. On the one hand they're not willing to speak up and on the other hand they're intimidated into being docile."

Choudary joined Omar Bakri Mohammed's al-Muhajiroun extremists in the late 1990s and became the cleric's spokesperson and advisor. He hailed the September 11 attacks as a "towering day in history" and hailed the hijackers as "magnificent martyrs".

Among the targets that the extremist believes are legitimate include hospitals, women and children.

"So this is the nature of war, people don't make love in war do they? They'll kill each other. If you fire a nuclear weapon they will fire a nuclear weapon back."

Bookworm Bush's holiday reading

Jamie Wilson in Washington
Wednesday August 17, 2005
The Guardian

George Bush: all booked up. Photo: PA
 
George Bush has never had a reputation as a bookworm, but for a man derided by his critics as an intellectual lightweight the president's holiday reading list packs a punch.

As well as brush cutting, mountain biking and fishing, the president will also be tucking into Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky during his five-week summer sojourn on his Texas ranch. The other tomes are reported to be Alexander II: the Last Great Tsar by Edvard Radzinsky and The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M Barry.

Article continues
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"There's nothing on that list that is a beach read, or even a busman's holiday," Peter Osnos, of the PublicAffairs publishing house, told the Los Angeles Times. "It's a fair bet that George Bush is the only person in the entire US who chose those three books to read on vacation."

Kurlansky, whose book charts the rise and fall of what was once seen as the world's most strategic commodity, said he was surprised Mr Bush had taken his 484-page book to the ranch. "My first reaction was, 'Oh, he reads books?'"

The president, who has often been ridiculed for his occasional mangling of the English language, has gone out of his way to let people know he does read books and newspapers.

But that has not stopped some advisers from highlighting his literary deficiencies. He is "often uncurious and as a result ill-informed", his former speechwriter David Frum wrote in his memoir, adding that "conspicuous intelligence seemed actively unwelcome in the Bush White House".

Earlier this year his wife, Laura, told the White House Correspondents Association dinner: "George and I were just meant to be ... I was the librarian who spent 12 hours a day in the library, yet somehow I met George."

Nazi posters spread fear in a quiet village
Garvagh targeted by fascist group

By Linda McKee
16 August 2005

A sinister right-wing group is targeting homes and property in a Co Londonderry village with a poster campaign, it was last night warned.

SDLP Assembly member John Dallat said residents of Garvagh had complained that notices announcing the return of the ultra-right wing Combat 18 had been pasted around the village.

The East Londonderry MLA said Combat 18 was linked to loyalist elements in the Coleraine and Bushmills areas.

"Catholic homes and businesses have been specifically targeted, but these sinister stickers have also appeared on traffic islands and are similar to others which were erected in areas of Coleraine last year where black people are known to work," he said.

"Recently, a nurse from the Philippines fled the village of Garvagh after her flat was broken into and money stolen."

Mr Dallat said he had alerted the PSNI to what was a sinister form of racism and intimidation.

"While I don't regard those involved as having any support among the intelligent population I do believe the Hate Crime laws should be applied and those involved prosecuted," he said.

"We need to be very mindful that there is a sizeable population of people from many parts of the world now living and working in this area.

"While there isn't a pattern of racist attacks it is important that no opportunities are afforded to anyone who would want to reintroduce Combat 18 or any other corrupt elements bent on causing division and distrust."

A Police spokesman said they took such incidents extremely seriously, and added: "The PSNI would appeal to anyone who is aware of such hate literature or knows of anyone distributing such literature to contact their local police station immediately."

Alan Erwin wrote:

A detective from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Internal Investigation Branch has spent six months on the case.

But his career is now in the balance as he faces the possibility of tough disciplinary action.

(Remind me to unlock this thread's comments when the case is over.)

A question for the NIO spokesperson -

Who are these community leaders in loyalism that NIO officials are in close contact with?.. and, indeed, who are the leaders in the gangsterism masquerading as loyalism? i.e. the people the Secretary of State Peter Hain holds responsible for the violence.. just to clarify the situation, you understand.

Full text of latest NIO statement -

Tuesday 16 August 2005 NIO condemns loyalist violence

The Northern Ireland Office has condemned the ongoing murders and violent attacks. An NIO spokesperson said: "The Secretary of State has made clear from the outset of this outbreak of violent killing that this is gangsterism masquerading as loyalism.

"What is important at this time is to bring an end to this violence and intimidation through effective policing and the PSNI deserve the support of the whole community, especially in loyalist areas at this time.

"The PSNI have already arrested 20 people, charged ten of those arrested and conducted over 90 searches. Anyone with information about any violent attacks or murders should make it known to the Police immediately.

"NIO officials continue to be in close contact with community leaders in loyalism to try to bring this ongoing violence to an end. Ministers also remain in close contact with PSNI and security officials."

Last Updated: Monday, 15 August 2005, 21:58 GMT 22:58 UK

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NI priest to stand trial in Kenya

A priest from County Fermanagh is to stand trial in Kenya after he organised a land rights protest.

Fr Gabriel Dolan, who comes from Derrygonnelly, was arrested at the weekend in the rural town of Kitale after a demonstration.

He was put in prison but released on bail on Monday.

Fr Dolan is an outspoken critic of the Kenyan government's land policies and has been involved in campaigning for the rights of the poor.

Men are now 'unemployable sperm donors', says Buerk

Claire Cozens and agencies
Tuesday August 16, 2005

Former BBC newsreader Michael Buerk has risked provoking the ire of his bosses by claiming that that the "shift in the balance of power between the sexes" has gone too far, and men are now little more than "sperm donors".

Buerk cited women in the top jobs in BBC broadcasting as an example, saying "these are the people who decide what we see and hear", and said society needs to admit there is a problem.

"Life is now being lived according to women's rules", he told the Radio Times. "The traits that have traditionally been associated with men - reticence, stoicism, single-mindedness - have been marginalised.

"The result is that men are becoming more like women. Look at the men who are being held up as sporting icons - David Beckham and, God forbid, Tim Henman."

The former Nine O'Clock News presenter said some changes have been for the good, but asked: "What are the men left with?"

"Men gauge themselves in terms of their career, but many of those have disappeared. All they are is sperm donors, and most women aren't going to want an unemployable sperm donor loafing around and making the house look untidy. They are choosing not to have a male in the household."

Buerk, whose views will also be screened in a Five series on personal hobbyhorses, Don't Get Me Started!, this week, said that when he started making the programme he "came across what I considered a very personal example of the changes that have taken place". "Almost all the big jobs in broadcasting were held by women - the controllers of BBC1 television and Radio 4 for example. These are the people who decide what we see and hear."

The BBC1 controller, Lorraine Heggessey, has since left the BBC and been replaced by a man, Peter Fincham, while BBC4 is still run by Janice Hadlow.

Recently one of the BBC's most influential former director generals, Alasdair Milne, sparked a furious response when he accused the corporation of producing "terrible" programmes and laid the bla

Firstly she argues:

...if northern Sinn Fein activists are not the evil monsters of the usual rants, neither are they just like me. A sdie issue of the Colombia Three affair brings home how far apart south and north are, after decades of separate development, in one crucial aspect. We lie differently.

She goes on:

Gerry Adams looks us in the face and denies he was ever on the Army Council of the IRA. And similarly, Sinn Fein knows nothing about where the bodies of the disappeared are, and their people did not rob the Northern Bank and so on and so forth. The fact is we're going to have to live with people to whom telling the truth has long since been subsumed to other aims.

In south, she argues, lying is also the poltlical weapon of choice. But she contrasts the relatively trivial nature of political spin around the changing of licensing laws and the shooting of red deer.

Looking forward she imagines:

There will be a certain comedy in watching the two cultures learn each other's ways. But there's a lot of fear there, too. Northern Sinn Fein is a creature of far more extreme conditions than we have ever known. Nobody knows whether it will turn out to be better at, or a scourge to, the habits of dishonesty of this peaceful Republic. Either way, here comes trouble.

From Tim O'Brien in the Irish Times -

Mr Kenny said there was an extraordinary tolerance of Sinn Féin activity by the media and the Government. He said if he or any other party leader had been involved with the "Colombia Three" they would be probably subjected to extraordinary scrutiny.

Mr Kenny said he had deliberately chosen the eve of the seventh anniversary of the Omagh bombing to make his remarks and he called on the Taoiseach to reposition his government's attitude to Sinn Féin.

"In dealing with Sinn Féin, the Taoiseach is acting in the name of the Irish people, not simply as leader of Fianna Fáil.

"No holder of the office of Taoiseach should put themselves in the position where they can be held to ransom by the claims of an organisation that could lie for Ireland, and with a tenuous grasp not just on the truth but on sincerity."

The text from the Fine Gael website shows that Enda Kenny was also highly critical of both Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams.. and the media treatment of him -

Gerry Adams gave his usual performance on RTÉ last week on the apparition of the so-called Colombia Three, proving once again, that this particular artist favours politics by pronouncement: no interruption, no contradiction, no questions, no analysis would be, could be, tolerated. It was the word according to Sinn Féin. And it went unchallenged.

But would it not have been appropriate, as the leader of a democratic party, to have asked Gerry Adams if Sinn Féin was involved in the repatriation? Why wasn’t he quizzed as to the men’s current whereabouts? Or whether, this time, they crossed borders as themselves or someone else?

If it were my party that were involved I would be subject to extraordinary media scrutiny. As would Pat Rabbitte or Trevor Sargent or Bertie Ahern. And rightly so. Yet we had a repeat of this reticence when James Monaghan intimated, again to RTÉ, that when you’re involved in a peace process, like he was, it can somehow be better to break the law and travel on a false passport. Why the exception and exemption clause for Sinn Féin, even on issues of such international importance?

Whatever about the media, it’s a pity that our Government haven’t given Gerry Adams a few pronouncements of their own. I’m glad to say that as leader of the opposition, as leader of the Party that founded this State, and the democratic institutions of this State, I don’t share their reticence with regard to the Sinn Féin leader and his increasingly insincere and predatory approach to Irish politics.

He continued in his criticism of the Irish Government -

Regrettably, the current government has compromised its integrity to such a degree on so many fronts, not least on the reprehensible deal to release the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe that you begin to suspect that another deal, even on the Holy of Holies that is Northern Ireland, could become just one more episode of serial compromise. The Tánaiste and the Progressive Democrats may bleat all they like. But, they are the Government. They do the deals every bit as much as Fianna Fáil.

Compromised as they are then, the two parties may tolerate Sinn Féin bullying, they may put up with Sinn Féin’s deceit and abject insincerity. But they need to remember that if they do, they do it in the name of the Irish people.

and concluded with this challenge to Bertie Ahern -

This is a most serious juncture in politics and democracy on this island. Today, on the eve of the seventh anniversary of the Omagh Bomb, I’m saying clearly to the Taoiseach, that it’s time, now, for him to leave his political comfort zone. It’s time to stand not by the republicans. But, by the Republic.

She believes latest events a distraction for the Republican heartland constituency:

First, they make some sort of vague commitment that gets maximum publicity, then send General John de Chastelain back to Canada empty handed. Soon they're standing around with placards watching the watchtowers come down in west Belfast and south Armagh. Next they claim that speaking rights in the Dail for Sinn Fein's Westminster MPs are somehow in the offing. Finally they produce the proverbial rabbit out of the hat with the Colombia Three.

She sees them as:

...morale-boosting stunts to a movement which knows at heart that the game is up. The IRA statement may have been less historic or definitive than it was portrayed by the media, but the IRA still ate dirt that day, hedged about as it may have been with rhetorical provisos and fancy language extolling the struggle.

She's scathing about the import of such activity:

The IRA didn't even battle it out honourably for a score draw. They lost, which is why they're still subjects of Her Majesty the Queen - the ending of which status was the single objective with which they started out - and destined to remain that way for decades and decades, under constant probation, with every descent into criminality only extending their UK residency.

CD launch for Bill Clinton tunes

Former US President Bill Clinton has often spoken of his love for music

A compilation CD featuring some of former US President Bill Clinton's favourite rock 'n' roll, jazz and gospel songs is to be released.

The Bill Clinton Collection: Selections from the Clinton Music Room will be the first in a series of CDs of the former president's favourite tunes.

Artists featured on the albums include John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Nina Simone and Judy Collins.

The 11-track CD will go on sale at the Clinton Museum Store in Arkansas.

Clinton's tunes

My One and Only Love - John Coltrane
Harlem Nocturne - David Sandborn
My Funny Valentine - Miles Davis
The Town I Loved So Well - Phil Coulter
Summertime - Zoot Sims
Chelsea Morning - Judy Collins

Connie Fails, who runs the shop near the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, said Clinton heard the CD for the first time last week.

She said: "I wanted to make sure his CD was going on when he came into the store.

"Not six foot in the door, he stopped, looked at me and said: 'What is that?' He took the demo and by the time he got to the golf course, all the windows of his car were down and he was blasting it."

The CD is the latest joint venture for the museum and shop.

The museum is running a temporary exhibit until the end of the year on Clinton's love for music, including a replica of the music room built for him at the White House.

The Clinton Presidential Foundation has been working for months to acquire licensing rights to certain tracks.

The CD is expected to go on sale in four to five weeks.

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Belfast Telegraph Home > News

Ulster's own airline set for take-off next year

By Nigel Tilson
15 August 2005

A group of Ulster entrepreneurs is hatching plans to launch a new airline that will be based in Northern Ireland, The Belfast Telegraph has learned.

Sources close to the group said it has secured financial backing for the project and its services will take off next summer.

It is understood the airline will offer flights from both Belfast and Dublin to destinations throughout Europe.

The group is believed to have signed a memorandum of understanding with an aircraft company for the provision of aircraft.

Sources said the individual entrepreneurs involved have signed a confidentiality agreement which does not allow any of them to go public on the group's plans until schedules are firmed up.

It is understood the airline will pitch its services at the no-frills market which is currently dominated by easyJet in Northern Ireland.

EasyJet now has five aircraft based at Belfast International Airport where it currently operates nine scheduled services to Britain and 10 to destinations on the continent.

Sources said the airline would be based in Belfast, but the entrepreneurs have not decided which of Belfast's two airports will be its home.

It is likely to be based at Belfast International, which has embraced no-frills services, rather than Belfast City, which largely concentrates on full service flights.

However, Belfast City is the base for low cost airline Flybe, which last week revealed that 111,529 passengers flew with it to and from the city in June.

Belfast International seems a more likely destination for its home at present because the City Airport is currently subject to stiff traffic restrictions, including a passenger limit of 1.5 million outbound and 1.5 million inbound, although this is currently under review.

Total passenger numbers at Belfast International were 4.5 million last year and are

York celebrates its famous son (the one who tried to blow up Parliament)
Ian Herbert North of England Correspondent
Published: 15 August 2005

The delicate issue of how to commemorate the 400th anniversary of a terror plot conceived by religious extremists has caused a House of Commons firework display and an ITV documentary to be abandoned in the past few months. The city of York is, however, less coy about its most notorious son's part in the plot.
This week the city begins a three-month festival to mark Guy Fawkes' attempt to blow up the House of Parliament in 1605. The city's Guy Fawkes 400 event will explore the way that England's large, disgruntled minority of Catholics spawned a bomb plot.
Included in the city's celebrations are a permanent Guy Fawkes trail and a Plotters' Ball, which is already sold out at Fawkes' old school, St Peter's - where the burning of Fawkes' effigy has always been considered inappropriate.
There will also a concert of 16th-century music entitled "Ye Traitors All" and fireworks by the Derbyshire firm that is said to have made the gunpowder Fawkes planned to set off.
London has been less inclined to "Remember, remember the 5th of November". The House of Commons commission, chaired by the Speaker, Michael Martin, a Catholic, rejected a suggestion for a fireworks display to mark the anniversary, despite an offer from a pyrotechnics firm to put on a privately financed event to supplement an exhibition that is going ahead.
The Commission declared that planning for the exhibition had "been careful to avoid associating the event with any notion of celebration" since "even after 400 years there are sensitivities to be taken into account (and sadly, perhaps especially in today's international climate) so the approach will be dispassionate and educational".
There were also plans to make an ITV programme about the plot, hosted by the Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond, in which a full-scale Jacobean House of Lords, filled with crash test dummies to represent those who would have frequented it, was to have been blown sky high. These are on hold. The best London seems to have managed is the small exhibition in the Palace of Westminster and a small display at Shakespeare's Globe in Southwark.
York has always been far more comfortable about Fawkes, whose father, Edward, worked as a notary of the ecclesiastical courts and an advocate of the court of the Archbishop of York and whose mother, Edith, was from the eminent Harrington family, merchants and aldermen of York.
Although the son of middle-class Protestants, Fawkes' conversion to Catholicism is believed to have been influenced by one of his tutors at St Peter's, John Pulleyn. His fellow pupils, among whom were the brothers John and Christopher Wright (later part of the Gunpowder Plot conspiracy) may also have played a role. The conversion was cemented when his father died and his mother remarried a Catholic.
He enlisted in the Spanish army and from afar became deeply disillusioned with the way in which the highly materialistic, highly commercial and highly nationalistic culture of his native country was leading further away from the embrace of the Roman Catholicism that represented for him the ideal of heaven on earth.
Fawkes' concern for the plight of Catholics in England led him to seek support for a Spanish invasion of England. This mission failed, but he soon met Thomas Wintour, another fellow conspirator, who may have recruited him as one of the Gunpowder Plotters.
York's events will be supplemented by an exhibition at Coughton Court, near Alcester, Warwickshire, the estate of the the Throckmortons, descendants of Robert Catesby, the bomb plot mastermind. Clare Throckmorton said it was not a celebration of the plot. "They were terrorists, no different to the terrorists we see now," she said. "Most of the Throckmortons did not agree with it."
The delicate issue of how to commemorate the 400th anniversary of a terror plot conceived by religious extremists has caused a House of Commons firework display and an ITV documentary to be abandoned in the past few months. The city of York is, however, less coy about its most notorious son's part in the plot.
This week the city begins a three-month festival to mark Guy Fawkes' attempt to blow up the House of Parliament in 1605. The city's Guy Fawkes 400 event will explore the way that England's large, disgruntled minority of Catholics spawned a bomb plot.
Included in the city's celebrations are a permanent Guy Fawkes trail and a Plotters' Ball, which is already sold out at Fawkes' old school, St Peter's - where the burning of Fawkes' effigy has always been considered inappropriate.
There will also a concert of 16th-century music entitled "Ye Traitors All" and fireworks by the Derbyshire firm that is said to have made the gunpowder Fawkes planned to set off.
London has been less inclined to "Remember, remember the 5th of November". The House of Commons commission, chaired by the Speaker, Michael Martin, a Catholic, rejected a suggestion for a fireworks display to mark the anniversary, despite an offer from a pyrotechnics firm to put on a privately financed event to supplement an exhibition that is going ahead.
The Commission declared that planning for the exhibition had "been careful to avoid associating the event with any notion of celebration" since "even after 400 years there are sensitivities to be taken into account (and sadly, perhaps especially in today's international climate) so the approach will be dispassionate and educational".
There were also plans to make an ITV programme about the plot, hosted by the Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond, in which a full-scale Jacobean House of Lords, filled with crash test dummies to represent those who would have frequented it, was to have been blown sky high. These are on hold. The best London seems to have managed is the small exhibition in the Palace of Westminster and a small display at Shakespeare's Globe in Southwark.
York has always been far more comfortable about Fawkes, whose father, Edward, worked as a notary of the ecclesiastical courts and an advocate of the court of the Archbishop of York and whose mother, Edith, was from the eminent Harrington family, merchants and aldermen of York.
Although the son of middle-class Protestants, Fawkes' conversion to Catholicism is believed to have been influenced by one of his tutors at St Peter's, John Pulleyn. His fellow pupils, among whom were the brothers John and Christopher Wright (later part of the Gunpowder Plot conspiracy) may also have played a role. The conversion was cemented when his father died and his mother remarried a Catholic.
He enlisted in the Spanish army and from afar became deeply disillusioned with the way in which the highly materialistic, highly commercial and highly nationalistic culture of his native country was leading further away from the embrace of the Roman Catholicism that represented for him the ideal of heaven on earth.
Fawkes' concern for the plight of Catholics in England led him to seek support for a Spanish invasion of England. This mission failed, but he soon met Thomas Wintour, another fellow conspirator, who may have recruited him as one of the Gunpowder Plotters.
York's events will be supplemented by an exhibition at Coughton Court, near Alcester, Warwickshire, the estate of the the Throckmortons, descendants of Robert Catesby, the bomb plot mastermind. Clare Throckmorton said it was not a celebration of the plot. "They were terrorists, no different to the terrorists we see now," she said. "Most of the Throckmortons did not agree with it."

Majority of MPs 'support pub smoking ban'

Have your say in the government's consultation

Matthew Tempest and agencies
Monday August 15, 2005

More than two-thirds of MPs want the government to go further than its planned anti-smoking legislation and ban smoking in all pubs, a survey found today.

The government is consulting on legislation to outlaw smoking in all licensed premises which serve food, leaving private members' clubs and those pubs serving just peanuts and crisps unaffected.

However, according to a poll of MPs conducted for the anti-smoking groups Cancer Research UK and Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), there is a cross-party consensus for a complete ban, similar to those introduced in New York and Ireland and soon to be brought in in Scotland. Doctors and anti-smoking campaigners are hoping that ministers will change their minds and opt for an outright ban.

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The survey of 140 MPs from all parties found that 69% would support a smoke-free law covering all workplaces - including pubs - without the exemptions currently proposed.

More than three-quarters (77%) agreed that a widespread smoke-free law would make it more pleasant to visit public places.

And 75% believed that smoking in workplaces ought to be prohibited to prevent people acting in a way that might harm others.

Some 91% agreed that the government had a responsibility to try to make people's lives healthier by actively discouraging smoking.

The survey found that support for a smoke-free law had risen sharply since the last parliament, with just 51% of MPs surveyed last year in favour.

The survey included 80 Labour MPs, 45 Conservatives, 22 Liberal Democrats and six MPs from smaller parties in order to reflects the make-up of the Commons.

Campaigners now believe that the vast majority of responses to the government's consultation, which ends on September 5, will back a comprehensive ban, dropping the current exemptions.

Jean King, Cancer Research UK's director of tobacco control, said: "Support for comprehensive smoke-free legislation is strong among MPs, and continues to grow.

"Many recent opinion polls have shown high public support for the measure, and it has been popular in Ireland.

"The government cannot ignore the majority voice of people and politicians. Introducing legislation with exemptions and loopholes would deny protection to the many thousands of workers in the hospitality industry who are currently exposed to high levels of second-hand smoke."

Deborah Arnott, director of Ash, said it was clear from the survey that most MPs - along with most members of the public - now wanted a comprehensive smokefree law.

"This is a critical and overdue public health reform," she said.

"It will protect the health of workers and members of the public in currently smoke-filled workplaces. It will encourage many smokers to quit their lethal habit. It will save thousands of lives.

"Patricia Hewitt must find the political will to follow the Scottish and Irish example.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "The proposal in the white paper to make smoke-free bars and pubs that prepare and serve food was based on many factors.

"Public opinion was crucial to the decision that was made and showed that the public were far less supportive of measures to make all bars and pubs smoke-free.

"We are currently consulting on the proposals in the white paper before legislation goes to parliament, and we will look carefully at all the evidence put forward."

Forest, the smokers' lobby group, have launched a public awareness campaign aimed at rejecting a statutory ban in favour of more no-smoking zones and better ventilation, which they say it the public's preferred choice.

According to the government, smoking causes more than 100,000 deaths in the UK each year while treating smoking-related diseases costs the NHS about £1.7bn annually.

From the Irish Independent -

However, they said they do not believe it had any links to the recent IRA statement ordering its members to dump arms.

A boy playing with his dog near a river bank at Tonevane close to the Tralee Bay coastline on Tuesday found boxes of ammunition that had become exposed. There were more than 2,500 rounds. Gardai searched the immediate area and removed the boxes.

One senior garda said the ammunition had been there "for several years" and was "buried into the bank of the river".

"It was hidden, not dumped," he said.

He believed the recent long spell of dry weather led to its exposure on the river bank.

The ammunition was suitable for AK-47 rifles and was in good condition. No weapons were found in the hual.

Gardai were keeping an open mind as to its provenance and whether it was linked to paramilitary activity. Several arms finds have been made in the past in Kerry, which has pockets of republican sympathisers, particularly in the Tralee and north county areas.

Millar picks out some of the comments from the article, in particular -

He does not see the present process providing a smooth transition to a "normal" democracy. "I think in about 15 or so years we will see the unification of Ireland. And it will be like Sicily.

"Already conventional crime in Belfast is lower than it is in cities like Leeds, but self-policing by a Mafia-type organisation such as the IRA tells another story - a most unpleasant one," he said.

And also points to this quote, from the interview in the Yorkshire Evening Post with Colin Cramphorn, on future organised criminal activity -

"Neither is the IRA about to go away, it won't be abandoning its organised criminal activity. This is the most sophisticated, politically strategic organisation I know. It's a global business, it runs like clockwork – and it has pensions to pay to loyal volunteers and operatives who have given long service. Pensions are promised, they are in the contracts. These people are looked after and they are looked after well. This is not the end of the IRA, it is the beginning of another new era of it."

The Irish Examiner report also notes -

..Mr de Chastelain has returned to Canada and the other monitors are on holiday for most of the month. It could be next month before the [decommissioning] process begins.

Mo Mowlam transferred to hospice

Ex-cabinet minister Mo Mowlam is widely popular

Critically ill former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam has been moved from hospital to a hospice in Kent to be closer to her family.

Ms Mowlam, 55, was taken to hospital in London two weeks ago. Hospital officials say her condition is still "critical but stable".

She has now been transferred from King's College Hospital in London to Pilgrim Hospice in Canterbury,

No details of her illness have been given by her doctors.

The hospital has refused to say whether or not it is connected to her previous brain tumour.

Jail talks

Ms Mowlam, Labour MP for Redcar between 1987-2001, oversaw the talks which led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.

In 1998, as Northern Ireland secretary, she went inside the Maze Prison when it became clear that the peace process would only succeed with the backing of the prisoners. The loyalist UDA/UFF prisoners had previously withdrawn their support for the process.

She spoke to the prisoners face-to-face for 60 minutes, and two hours later the paramilitaries' political representatives announced they were being allowed to rejoin the talks.

In 1999 she was replaced as Northern Ireland secretary by Peter Mandelson, and became Tony Blair's Cabinet Office "enforcer".

She subsequently stood down as an MP and in recent years has pursued a career in the media.

Murder trial makes history
by Angela Sammon, 12 August 2005 edition
            
Legal history is being made in London this week as a British man stands trial for the murder of his Irish secretary in Dublin in 2003.
It is the first time that a person will be tried in a British court for a crime that has taken place in Ireland.
Christopher Newman, (63), is accused of murdering Georgina Eager (29) at a house in Walkinstown in May 2003. Ms Eager worked at the homeopathy practice owned by Mr. Newman, also known as Saph Dean.
She lived in the house next door and on 22 May 2003 she was found dead in a downstairs bedroom. She had been stabbed 30 times.
Mr Newman, a British citizen, was subsequently arrested in London and charged with her murder.
Under a law dating back more than 140 years, a British citizen can be tried in England for a murder in Ireland.
However, the Irish Labour Party has criticised the move that will see almost 40 witnesses – including Ms Eager’s family, gardai and the state pathologist - flown to London over the course of the trial.
The Party believes the accused should have been extradited to Ireland as travelling to the Old Bailey will cause further distress to the victim’s family.
Labour deputy leader and Wicklow TD Liz McManus will also travel in solidarity with the Eager family, who are from Newtownmountkennedy, Co. Wicklow in her constituency.
The Irish Ambassador in London, Dáithí Ó Ceallaigh, is sending an observer to the trial at Ms McManus’s request.
“I am attending the trial in order to demonstrate my solidarity with the family of Georgina Eager, who have been poorly treated and left largely in the dark by the legal authorities in both Britain and Ireland,” Ms McManus said.
“The man accused of Georgina’s murder was arrested in London shortly after her body was discovered in Dublin.
“Contrary to the normal procedure no attempt was made to extradite him to this country and a decision was made to put him on trial in London.”
“It has never been made clear to the family why or by whom this decision was made. They have been told by the police authorities in both jurisdictions that the trial in England, in respect of a murder committed in Ireland is unprecedented. The British police have told them that they do not understand why extradition was not sought by the Irish authorities.
"Clearly holding this trial in Britain will create considerable logistical difficulties, inconvenience and additional cost for the members of Georgina's family who wish to be present.
Ms McManus said she has raised the matter repeatedly with Justice Minister Michael McDowell in the Dáil but he “has been less than helpful”.
“If the Victims’ Charter promulgated by the Department of Justice is to have any meaning, it seems to me that the Eager family is entitled to something more than the unsympathetic disclaimer of responsibility reflected in the minister’s replies,” she added.
The case will also prove a test for the inter-country agreement. The investigation into the murder was carried out by the Gardaí; but police officers interviewed the accused in Britain, where he had just been arrested on a public order offence.
The DPP considered the original investigation file but approved its transfer to the Crown Prosecution Service, and the prosecution team will be entirely British.
 

Irish women take demand for abortions to Europe
By Stephen Castle in Brussels
Published: 12 August 2005

Three Irish women are to challenge their country's strict abortion laws by taking a test case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Backed by the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA), the women will seek to win a ruling that could force the government in Dublin to amend laws barring abortion unless a mother's life is at risk.
None of the three complainants have been named, but all are known to live in Ireland and to have had abortions in the United Kingdom in the past year. The IFPA said that the group lodged its complaint with the Strasbourg court earlier this week. Lawyers will argue before the court that Ireland's restrictions on abortion put the health and welfare of the women at risk, thereby breaching their rights. The case centres on four articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, including one that protects individuals from "inhuman or degrading treatment" and another that affords rights and freedoms without discrimination on any grounds.
Ivana Bacik, spokeswoman for the IFPA campaign to change the abortion laws, said: "The IFPA has provided these women with the legal research support to enable them to take this important case to the European Court.
"It is our assessment that the grounds under which these woman are taking the case are very strong, and we hope that the case will advance quickly through the court, ultimately making a strong recommendation to the government to address what, in our view, is a violation of human rights."
The IFPA says that 6,217 Irish women travelled to the United Kingdom for abortions in 2004 and that most of those who did so were between the ages of 20 and 30.
Although this is a drop of 103 on the previous year's numbers, the association believes that hundreds more women are going further afield, using low-cost airlines to reach centres that perform cheaper abortions in countries including the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain, for which statistics are not collected.
Abortion remains a highly sensitive issue in Ireland, which is a predominantly Roman Catholic country, and the Irish government has said recently that it has no intention of changing the law.
The legal case at Strasbourg is part of a wider political lobbying campaign at home and abroad by campaigners.
Irish women who have had abortions abroad will also take part in hearings on abortion in the European Parliament in October.
Three Irish women are to challenge their country's strict abortion laws by taking a test case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Backed by the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA), the women will seek to win a ruling that could force the government in Dublin to amend laws barring abortion unless a mother's life is at risk.
None of the three complainants have been named, but all are known to live in Ireland and to have had abortions in the United Kingdom in the past year. The IFPA said that the group lodged its complaint with the Strasbourg court earlier this week. Lawyers will argue before the court that Ireland's restrictions on abortion put the health and welfare of the women at risk, thereby breaching their rights. The case centres on four articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, including one that protects individuals from "inhuman or degrading treatment" and another that affords rights and freedoms without discrimination on any grounds.
Ivana Bacik, spokeswoman for the IFPA campaign to change the abortion laws, said: "The IFPA has provided these women with the legal research support to enable them to take this important case to the European Court.
"It is our assessment that the grounds under which these woman are taking the case are very strong, and we hope that the case will advance quickly through the court, ultimately making a strong recommendation to the government to address what, in our view, is a violation of human rights."
The IFPA says that 6,217 Irish women travelled to the United Kingdom for abortions in 2004 and that most of those who did so were between the ages of 20 and 30.
Although this is a drop of 103 on the previous year's numbers, the association believes that hundreds more women are going further afield, using low-cost airlines to reach centres that perform cheaper abortions in countries including the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain, for which statistics are not collected.
Abortion remains a highly sensitive issue in Ireland, which is a predominantly Roman Catholic country, and the Irish government has said recently that it has no intention of changing the law.
The legal case at Strasbourg is part of a wider political lobbying campaign at home and abroad by campaigners.
Irish women who have had abortions abroad will also take part in hearings on abortion in the European Parliament in October.

More on John Banville at The Literary Encyclopedia, which as well as including information that the Irish Times neglected - he was previously the Literary Editor there and in 1999 became their Chief Critic [great job title btw] - also has a couple of noteworthy quotes -

“I feel part of my culture. But it is a personal culture gleaned from bits and pieces of European culture of four thousand years.” Questioning the very notion of national literature – “there is no such thing as Irish national literature, only Irish writers engaged in the practice of writing”

Indeed.

Reidy says that the only Act the men could be charged under is the 1998 amendment to the Offences against the State Act, which brought in directing terrorism as an offence.

However, the men were not found guilty of this in Colombia rather of
training FARC rebels. There is no charge of training terrorists.

Secondly, she also pointed out that Harney should realise that the Supreme Court is likely to throw out any attempt to make this law retrospective and cited its decision that attempts to pass retrospective decisions on nursing home charges was unconstitutional.

Reidy points out that the men can also not be charged with travelling on false passports and only with forgery or possession of forged documents.

They have already served their time for the possession on the outward journey so unless the Gardai have evidence of possession now, no warrant can be issued.

There is also an interview with Harney and her saying the Colombia Three should go and have a chat with the Gardai. She says she thinks they are most certainly looking for them but refused to be drawn on whether Gerry Adams should ask in public for them to call into their local Garda station.

She also refused to be drawn on whether they actually had a case to answer under Irish law.

“They always intensify and come to a head during the marching season.” Ian Stevenson, the deputy mayor of Ballymoney Borough Council, said: “I am not going to make any statements about the motive for the attack until I am in possession of all the facts.”

Democratic Unionist Party councillor Roy Wilson said: “I condemn all attacks, loyalist or republican.”

Maeve Connolly in the Irish News (courtesy of Nuzhound) says the attacks are reminiscent of the 2001 campaign against Catholics carried out by the UDA.

From today's Irish Times editorial -

It is difficult to understand why Mr Adams misrepresented the situation, last week, in an article published in this newspaper. He may have been annoyed by a succession of statements from the Democratic Unionist Party that entering government with Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland represented a long-term option for the party. In that context, raising the prospect of special Sinn Féin access to the Dáil was likely to antagonise loyalists while mollifying republicans. And, of course, the "Colombia Three" were about to reappear on the domestic scene.

The fact that three days were allowed to elapse before Mr Adams, through a spokesman, acknowledged his misunderstanding of the situation suggests an element of political gamesmanship. Last year, when a deal appeared likely, the Taoiseach told the Dáil he was prepared to recommend that Northern MPs should be invited to attend committee meetings when they were discussing matters relating to Northern Ireland or the Belfast Agreement. It would, however, be up to the Oireachtas to make that decision. And there was no question of MPs being given a right to address the Dáil in plenary session.

This matter had been under discussion for years. And there was never any hint that those Sinn Féin MPs who refused to take their seats at Westminster would be granted an automatic audience in the Dáil. There was certainly no question - as Mr Adams had it - of their being given quasi-ministerial licence to speak on controversial issues such as major construction projects, drug abuse and social housing in this State.

Republicans are good at manipulating public opinion. They have demanded many concessions from governments while delivering as little as possible in return. It was instructive, therefore, that the Taoiseach was the one who found difficulty in convincing the public that no special deals had been done in relation to Sinn Féin MPs or in connection with the return of the "Colombia Three". Mr Ahern should regard this development as a cautionary lesson in his future dealings with Sinn Féin.

He should.. whether he will is a different matter.

There is also no mention of the illegal sale of the RU486 pill on the streets of Dublin to the Chinese community especially.

the IFPA is calling for the removal of of Article 40.3.3 from the Constitution and says that abortion is a decision that should be made by a woman in consultation with her medical advisor.

Article 40.3.3 states: "The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right."

RTE reports that the campaign will include seeking meetings with the leaders of each political party to lobby them to change the current laws.

Also, the Association is supporting three Irish women who have had abortions abroad and who are now taking a case to the European Court of Human Rights.

The women say their human rights were breached by not being allowed have an abortion in Ireland.

Anti-abortion group Youth Defence tried to break into the press conference and IFPA's Ivana Bacik, who ran for the European Parliament with Labour, said this is just the latest in a series of aggresive tactics against her and the organisation.

She added that the Transfer of Execution of Sentences Bill 2003, which is currently going through the Dáil, provides for a person to serve in Ireland a sentence imposed in the state from which they fled.

“The question of the three men serving their sentences here in Ireland in the event of extradition proceedings being unsuccessful is one of the issues which the Government has been considering,” she said.

The provisions of the Bill will apply before or after it is signed into law.

Harney also revealed that Garda enquiries into where the men are hiding and whether they breached Irish laws were continuing but that while Colombian police had contacted Gardaí, no extradition request has yet been made.

There are unconfirmed reports that the men have been in Ireland since March.

He goes on to say, on this particular issue -

It would also be consistent with Seanad reform that has been discussed for many years. Most importantly, nothing that I would propose will cut across the architecture of the agreement. It can moreover complement the North-South parliamentary forum under the agreement, which we hope to see established soon.

The British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body is already in existence and thriving. There is also a distinguished history of Northern appointees to the Seanad to build on.

This is ultimately a matter for the Oireachtas and I will make my proposals directly to all of the other party leaders in September.

I'd suggest those proposals will be carefully scrutinised by several parties.

The charity's chief executive, Andrew Dougal, said: "We are looking for proposals from researchers in our hospitals and universities offering the quickest possible benefit for patients."

The Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke Association has also recently appointed a Woman’s Heart Nurse whose job will be to provide health checks, advice and support in the community - particularly in deprived areas.

By Aileen Quinton

Forgive me if I don’t set off poppers in an unrestrained celebration but I do not believe that the IRA is committed to peace. Of course I will be accused of jeopardising the chances of peace. As in Peter Pan if you say that you do not believe in fairies one of them dies. So any return to terrorism will be my fault not the IRA’s.

At the time of the Poppy Day Massacre, all the old clichés were trotted out about how “no stone would be left unturned to bring those responsible to justice” and of course "terrorism does not pay". If only!.
Despite the hype of the Belfast Agreement in1998, the pronouncements that IRA/Sinn Fein were committed to peace, and the proclaimed "seismic shifts " that they apparently keep having, we are still applauding them for words about not murdering.

This is Groundhog day.

Am I meant to be grateful because the IRA says that it is going to stop doing something that it had no right starting? In its statement it justifies its actions. So it will have no compunction in starting up again, when the concessions dry up. Our government shows no sign of stopping this flow at the moment, with moves like watchtowers in border areas being dismantled, the RIR etc. This is not based on an assessment of security requirements but merely because the IRA want it. We also face the prospect of an amnesty for the on-the runs. Even the Belfast Agreement did not include this abomination. Why should my mother’s murder be anyone’s ‘free go’? There have of course been lots of other atrocities as well and not only the IRA will benefit. I draw no comfort from the thought that so called “loyalist” terrorists will have their evil written off too. This does not make the score one all. It makes it two nil to terrorism.

So the IRA are talking about stopping something that was wrong, maintaining it was right and which is entirely reversible. Our Government is intent on doing something wrong and irreversible.

If the IRA are not a threat anymore, why are we having an amnesty anyway. It can only be because of the fear that without it the IRA will continue to murder, so our government is going to pardon people that even it considers a terrorist threat.

Her Majesty’s Government should be in the business of safeguarding victims’ rights to justice, not making a present of it to the murderers.

I expect a lot more platitudes about the ‘bigger picture’, ‘the common good’ and “yes, this is difficult for the victims”. But it is for the ‘common good’ that we should not allow the Criminal Justice System to be politicised, especially not at the behest of the criminals. Justice is one of the fundamental building blocks of a peaceful and decent society and the latter cannot be bought by giving away the former. That is like selling the television to pay for the licence. As for it being “difficult”, “difficult” does not matter, We have been doing “difficult” for over 30 years, We can handle “difficult” and would be prepared to do “difficult” for real peace, glad to in fact . This is wrong and it should be impossible.

Some will dismiss my opinions as “coloured by her grief”. Well the IRA broke my heart but my intellect and my values are intact. The ultimate victory for terrorism is when we give up on our values. Blair and Hain may have handed theirs over but I’ll be damned if I will.

First published in News Letter on 5th August 2005

From the Irish Times report

Speaking on behalf of committee chairman Congressman Henry Hyde, he said the US hoped the Government had not made a deal with the IRA as the issue "had nothing to do with Northern Ireland" and related to the drug war in the neighbourhood of the US.

More of the statement by the representative of Congressman Hyde -

"The US takes this issue very seriously. We hope the Irish Government honours its agreements and carries out the Interpol warrant for these three Irishmen who are wanted on serious charges by the Colombian government after conviction for helping to facilitate the training of narco-terrorists in our own hemisphere."

Also worth listening to Suzanne Breen on BBC radio's Talkback programme.. on what she describes as the charade around the apparent indecision of Government in regard to the extradition - available online here. [RealPlayer sound file]

Sinn Fein's national director of elections Pat Doherty MP welcomed the consultation paper and its proposals, calling annual registration a ‘complete disaster’.

Looks like it may be back to the Job Centre for Alexandra Ford – the star of the Electoral Commission’s ‘Secure Your Vote – Or Lose It’ campaign

While many rainbow feet followed the extensive route, protesters from the ‘Stop the Parade Coalition’ stood at City Hall. This year, another Christian group – ‘Zero28’ expressed it’s wish for the anti- Pride groups to cancel their protest.

Organisers and Police were pleased that the parade had passed off without incident, but protesters say they will be making an official complaint to the Parade’s Commission, claiming marcher’s shouted abuse at them.

Police in riot gear went to the scene, and 11 baton rounds were fired.

Northern Ireland's criminal justice minister David Hanson condemned the violence:

"Once again it is loyalist paramilitaries who have brought violence into loyalist areas,"

Jim Monaghan confirmed to RTÉ that the men had returned to Ireland in the past few days. However, he would not say how they got here. He said that they had got a 'lot of help from a lot of people' and that he would not endanger them.

A special Garda immigration unit based in Dundalk stopped the people in the first six months while in the same period last year, they refused nearly 194.

The vast majority are from former Soviet States and have come looking for work but aren't entitled to work permits.

The Immigration Border Control Unit was set up last October and has its base in Dundalk as the Belfast to Dublin corridor is regarded as the main route of entry of illegal immigrants.

According to Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy in the Irish Times false passports that state the people are from new EU countries such as Latvia or Estonia are used for entry.

The head of the Dundalk Unit, Sgt O'Connor, said "very few people" are now putting in asylum applications.

Not surprising considering the "safe third country" rule means they are immediately returned to the UK, from whence they came.

Some excerpts from the article -

Whether the judgment is that neither Sinn Féin nor the DUP is genuinely committed to reaching an agreement on power-sharing or, more charitably, that the gulf between them is so wide as to be unbridgeable is largely irrelevant.

With far more pressing matters than Northern Ireland demanding their full attention, the most obvious being the ongoing threat of terrorist attacks in Britain, it seems Tony Blair and his government are no longer prepared to waste precious time, energy and resources on the political equivalence of an irresistible force arm-wrestling with an immovable object.

Besides, from a British perspective the peace process, even as it stands, can only be considered a success. In the absence of a devolved Assembly it hasn't been as successful as it might have been, but with thousands of troops no longer bogged down here and peace of a sort established the situation is light years beyond what it once was. The "armed struggle" is at an end and the activities of militant republicanism now confined to a tiny, hermetically sealed, corner of the UK. With Sinn Féin continuing to expand its political base in the Republic it could even be argued that, in many respects, the problem of how to deal with "a vast criminal and political conspiracy" now rests with the Dublin administration.

And he argues that neither Sinn Féin nor the DUP are, in reality, concerned about reinstating the Assembly..

Despite what they may say, neither Sinn Féin nor the DUP will be too discomfited by the prospect of the Assembly not being reinstated. Not least because the government assessment is right: for completely different reasons neither is interested in sharing power with the other.

Sinn Féin's, and the DUP's, focus will be in other areas, he says -

With or without a working Assembly, Sinn Féin will continue its twin-track policy of creating instability in Northern Ireland while expanding its electoral base in the Republic.

You don't need the IRA or its weaponry to foment trouble around issues such as flags, parades or policing.

In the wake of Seán Kelly's release and the disbanding of the RIR battalions, the DUP, in line with a majority of the unionist electorate, will now be even less inclined, if that is possible, to share executive office with Sinn Féin.

They will content themselves, instead, with politics at Westminster and in Europe.

And for the rest of us it could be a different form of devolution -

Unfortunately, the rest of us will just have to await the long overdue reorganisation of local government in Northern Ireland, with its promise of far fewer but much more powerful local councils, to deliver locally based, representative and accountable, democratic institutions.

..which could also be described as the cantonisation approach.

The IRA move is not just because al-Qaeda has given terrorism a bad name, to put it crudely. That is true, of course. The attacks of September 11 2001 suddenly brought home to ordinary Americans, in particular, that you cannot distinguish between “good” terrorists and “bad” ones. Financial support in the US for Irish republicanism virtually dried up. Ever since, leaders of the IRA and Sinn Féin, their political wing, have been desperate to distance themselves from “global terrorism”.

But their problems go back well before 9/11. They are not just a matter of image. The armed struggle is being abandoned because it has failed in both its fundamental goals: to deliver a united Ireland, regardless of the will of the Protestant majority in northern Ireland; and to protect the Roman Catholic minority in the North from intimidation and discrimination. If anything, IRA terrorism has made matters worse, inviting a brutal backlash from loyalist thugs that has cost many innocent Catholic lives and driving Protestant voters into the extremist arms of the Reverend Ian Paisley and his Democratic Unionist party.

If Irish unification is any nearer today than it was in 1969 it is because of the “Celtic tiger”, the economic boom that has transformed the Irish republic both socially and economically, while the north has stagnated. The European Union has been another factor, since the UK and Ireland joined together in 1973. Higher Roman Catholic than Protestant birth rates are also changing the demographics of the North, where
the anti-unification majority is shrinking. Against such a changing background, IRA terrorism has been utterly counter-productive.

That is what has driven Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Féin/IRA leaders, to espouse the new realism.

Almost a decade ago the IRA announced it was all over but within a few months the murders and criminality were back on its agenda. Yet again they declared a ceasefire but they failed to cease. They have peppered the recent years with promises and carefully crafted statements. Each of their statements was heralded as groundbreaking and historic by governments and the media but after each the IRA always reverted to what it does best. A few days ago another statement made grand claims about the IRA's intentions. Where it was imprecise or vague in its language its friends in government and the press provided a favourable interpretation permitting the IRA to avoid clarifying for itself.

He also notes:

The lack of transparency on arms decommissioning and the absolute silence on criminality will significantly prolong the assessment period the community will demand in order that we can judge whether the IRA's war is over for ever and its criminal empire is closed down.

Time to get ready for another long wait...

He argues that the general feeling "of boredom, scepticism and apathy" that met the statement was in part a result of the overtly choreographed presentation -

So why was the moment, when it came, so anti-climactic? Why, beyond the realms of a media world delighted to have a story to fill space in the silly season, was the general feeling such a sour compound of boredom, scepticism and apathy? Some of the reasons are obvious enough. People know news management when they see it, and the staging of this event has been painfully transparent.

The other part in the reaction, he argues, was the lack of intellectual or moral insight -

More profoundly, however, there is a sense of unacknowledged futility. The decision to wind itself up is accompanied by neither intellectual nor moral insight. There is no recognition that, at the very least, the last 20 years of the IRA's campaign was politically counter-productive, no acceptance that a political settlement based on violent coercion was as unattainable as it would have been unsustainable. There is no remorse, no pity, no shame.

He asks a question that hasn't been raised elsewhere - namely why was the proposed IRA statement, previously published, in December 2004, in Annex C of the Proposals by the British and Irish Governments for a Comprehensive Agreement [pdf file], not used?

That draft included a very carefully calibrated formulation that had obviously been tested and found to be acceptable to both governments and to the other parties in Northern Ireland. It stated that the IRA would accept the "need not to endanger anyone's personal rights or safety".

It was a simple, comprehensive and straightforward phrase and one that must surely be acceptable to any organisation committed to furthering a political goal exclusively through peaceful and democratic means.

And so...

And so, a long history of conspiratorial republicanism comes to an end, not with a bang but with a self-regarding whim. There is nothing eloquent, no sense of grandeur, no epic moment of historical, emotional or moral truth.

And in that at least, the IRA's departure is in keeping with its presence over the last 35 years - a small and sordid rebuke to the vainglorious rhetoric that sustained it.

Morrison said that he "did not want to write an apologia for the IRA" or to "mythologise" them. He wanted to show the "humanity" of people who were "flawed, weak individuals". His Provos are cocky, committed, ruthless torturers and murderers. His British squaddies are bored, cheerful, arrogant and efficient. His RUC Special Branch officers are witty, sarcastic, forensic manipulators of time, facts and people. His women characters are frustrated and impoverished widows-in-waiting. If the audience were expecting the theatrical equivalent of a "show of strength", they were disappointed.

The peace process has fundamentally changed the Northern economic and cultural landscape and economic and educational demographics have produced a new nationalist population with burgeoning economic power and political expectations. In this context, the IRA had increasingly become an anachronism. As unionists this weekend survey the new post-IRA landscape, they might well consider that they have a unique, unfettered opportunity to do a political deal.

He argues:

There must be a law-abiding state provided for a fledgling administration to govern. If the state is lawless, that administration will not survive. But a law-abiding State has as its sine qua non that all its citizens support it, its laws, its institutions and, above all, its constitution for the time being by democracy established.

Sinn Fein must "become comrades of mainstream SDLP, the SNP and Plaid Cymru - until such time as the said republicans become persuasive enough to command a convincing electoral majority within this part of the British state".

This means that, in the meantime, to become "lawful" they must observe its laws; not oppose the armed forces of the State (within whose ranks, after all, previous generations of republicans have served with distinction); they must join its police force; play a full part in Parliament, according to the will of the electorate; and its representatives accord a modicum of courtesy to the head of state and her family on ceremonial occasions.

Finally he argues that if all parties now support the state, the guns become irrelevant. If all parties can find the political will to face down NI's estimated 235 criminal gangs, it will eventually free Northern Ireland of its militarily conflicted past. Anything short of that will simply not work.

By Alex Kane

It really is very hard to work up any enthusiasm for the IRA statement. The organisation is still only half-way to where it should have been in 1998. Instead, it spent the next seven years lining its pockets and bullying from the sidelines. And while this particular statement may lack the torturous semantics of its predecessors, it still adds up to in-your-face guff.

The IRA has lost and lost big time. The prospect of a United Ireland is as far away today as it was in 1970, when the Provisionals first bombed their way into the headlines; or July, 1972, when Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams were flown to London for secret talks with the British government. There is no hope of a United Ireland and thirty-five years of ditches, safe houses, hunger strikes and republican propaganda, has led to nothing more than a formal recognition of partition and the opportunity for IRA members to govern Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom.

The unionist presence is as strong as it has ever been. This is a victory for the entire pro-Union community, who refused to be bombed, blackmailed or bargained out of their beliefs. The IRA may say that the “armed campaign” is finally over, but the truth of the matter is that the end purpose of that campaign---to remove the British from Ireland---was never a serious prospect. That being the case, the IRA is having to settle for the removal of the watch-towers and the return of its on-the-runs. Again, not much to show for thirty-five years of terror.

That is the stark reality underpinning the statement, a reality which seems to have been ignored in the media hoopla and the fatuous response from Tony Blair. Mind you, Blair’s comment that this is “…a step of unparalleled magnitude…” perfectly encapsulates the hypocrisy of the whole thing. It was, after all, the spineless attitude of successive administrations, which encouraged the IRA to believe that its terror campaign could deliver the ultimate dividend of a united Ireland.

But the IRA hasn’t gone away. It hasn’t disbanded. It hasn’t apologised. It hasn’t faced up to political reality. It hasn’t made any concessions to unionism or unionists. It justifies the legitimacy of its terrorism. It hasn’t ruled out another campaign at another time. It hasn’t promised to dismantle the paramilitary apparatus, which allows it to keep whole geographical areas and housing estates under its control. It isn’t handing back the money it has stuffed away in numerous secret accounts. In essence, the statement is the same old baloney of finger-pointing self-righteousness.

Yet it is precisely because Mr. Blair has interpreted it as being of “unparalleled magnitude” which leads me to believe that it is unionists, rather than Sinn Fein, who will again be pressurised into delivering more concessions, or remain deprived of devolved and fully democratic institutions of government. The appeasement machine has already been cranked up, showering Sinn Fein with face-saving goodies, while reminding unionists of how fickle and surrender-driven the NIO and Number 10 are likely to be.

The problem, of course, is that the statement, and the reaction of the British, Irish and American governments, causes huge problems for unionism in general and the DUP in particular. In one fell swoop the IRA has been removed from the equation; but without having been removed from the political undergrowth. The DUP will be told that this is as good as it will get and that the statement should be regarded as a final and definitive one. In other words, the issues of disbanding and disappearing are, as far as the governments are concerned, completely off the political agenda.

The DUP has been given a stark choice. Take it or leave it. They will be given another stark choice in a few weeks time---talk to Sinn Fein directly about re-establishing devolution, or forget about devolution for the forseeable future. The DUP has very little room for manoeuvre and it will not be allowed to drag out the process for very much longer. Putting it bluntly, Tony Blair, having found it, is not going to risk losing the Holy Grail of every Prime Minister since 1968, the ending of republican violence.

Sinn Fein, it must be remembered, has problems of its own. P.O’Neill has written of the IRA’s decision to “…advance our republican and democratic objectives, including our goal of a united Ireland. We believe there is now an alternative way to achieve this and to end British rule in our country.” There is no such alternative. The pro-Union majority is not going to be out-bred or out-voted and Northern Ireland is not going to be evicted from the United Kingdom.

Northern Ireland has come a very long way since 1995. It has still a very long way to go. The whole process could move much faster if Sinn Fein and the IRA had the courage to abandon rhetoric and embrace political reality. Unionism, all of it, has accepted the reality of power-sharing and the Irish dimension as the price to be paid for devolution. Are republicans wilfully or psychologically incapable of accepting power-sharing and the British dimension? If so, then the IRA’s statement will, as I suspect, amount to no more than another false dawn in the peace process.

First published in the Newsletter on Saturday July 30th, 2005

There's more to come from the report over the week.. and here's the caveat, from Technorati's Dave Sifry, with these stats -

Tomorrow I'll give an update on posting volume, which is a better statistic to track the growth of blogging. Lots of people who start new blogs are kicking tires and thus the numbers displayed above could be indicative of a fad in progress - but watching the posting volume shows how many people are actually blogging on a day-by-day basis. I think that is a much better indicator that people are making blogging a habit and a part of their daily lives.

I have never been persuaded that Gerry Adams is lying to himself or to his own people. There have certainly been seismic shifts in republican attitudes and strategies. But there is no evidence of a republican willingness to invest in a process would either legitimise or stabilise the British state in Northern Ireland. That is why the DUP is making a huge mistake in thinking that it is only the actions of IRA volunteers (and they haven't gone away, you know) which matter. As Michael McDowell grasped all to well last December, the language is vital too.

Past evidence shows that a deal based on a lie, or capable of being sold to unionists and republicans as wholly different things, will not hold. Which is also why the next negotiation, when it comes, could be infinitely more complex and protracted than the last.

The DUP is demanding that the requirement for a "mandatory" coalition administration underpinned by legislation should be dropped. It wants changes on how the First and Deputy First Ministers are appointed and greater accountability built into a new Assembly format.

Its list of demands also includes "greater balance" in the share-out of public appointments, following recent controversy over the Equality and Human Rights Commissions.

Other stipulations include:

Massive cash injections for inner-city loyalist areas;

"Fair and proper" funding for victims' groups;

Concessions on water charges and increased rates.

Thanks to reader Dave!

“For decades there has been under-investment, which perhaps was understandable when it was hard even to take film crews on location in Northern Ireland, given the situation. But we think the circumstances are there now for investment to go ahead.”

Union representatives were particularly disappointed with recent government cuts to the Arts Council Northern Ireland budget.

“We thought it was a regrettable decision,” said McGarry. “There is so little theatre in Northern Ireland. The Lyric in Belfast had to cut back on productions. There is no theatre in education, virtually no small-scale theatre.

“There is virtually no investment by the BBC or UTV in drama in the province. It’s a cultural desert.”

Refering to some of the Yorkshire based London bombers:

These young murderers were that new phenomenon, terrorist nerds. Night after night, they click on to Islamic websites and live a life of virtual resentment and hatred, burning ever hotter with indignation over what has been or is being done to Muslims in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine and Iraq. Images of horrors perpetrated on one's nation, tribe or community have played a role in stimulating the murderous instincts of would-be combatants for centuries.

In contrast with previous campaigns, the internet makes a crucial difference:

Now, the one who prepares mentally to kill himself and as many of the godless as he can does a crucial part of his training gazing impassively at images of Muslims slaughtered by Americans, British, Indians and Russians, or the sado-porn amateur snaps from Abu Ghraib. What would a community worker, a friend or, for that matter, a mother see but a young man, scrolling through images and text, betraying no emotion? Journalists, who do this for large parts of their day, might understand the phenomenon at least as well as anyone.

John Battle, the MP for Leeds West - his constituency abuts Beeston - used a striking image to describe what happens when people get their information from the web. He said that it was as if a coherent picture had been painted on glass, and the glass then shattered, then some shards of the shattered glass put together in an arbitrary way, according to the dictates of a mind prompted to create an impregnable carapace of grieving hatred.

Pat McArdle, chief economist at Ulster Bank, now part of Royal Bank of Scotland, told this year's annual CBI Northern Ireland lunch that the region looked set to underperform the UK as a whole for the first time for several years, growing at rates closer to the eurozone.

According to some measures, the Northern Ireland economy faces considerable structural issues. The public sector still accounts for close to 30 per cent of employment, a much larger proportion than other UK regions. On the other hand, statistics suggest Northern Ireland consumers spend more on entertainment than most other regions, apart from London and the south-east.

The economy is £22bn in size, only £14bn of which is raised locally by taxes. The government's budgetary subvention is currently worth around £8bn, which is more than any other region receives. The economy has changed dramatically in recent years. Unemployment is at record lows at 4.7 per cent, although it is likely to edge up with redundancies announced at Adria, a lingerie manufacturer.

The more effective that Sinn Fein is as an electoral force, the more impotent it becomes as an ideological one. Every deal it strikes with Tony Blair legitimises the British presence in Northern Ireland. Every concession it secures that advances the economic and social standing of ordinary Roman Catholics in Ulster weakens the argument that it is only through Irish unification that those material interests can be realised. With every step that Ulster takes towards becoming a “normal society”, so what Sinn Fein officially regards as an “interim settlement” becomes more deeply entrenched.

This is the outlook for republicanism. A larger and larger number of nationalists in both the North and the South will vote for Sinn Fein — but more because they regard it as the best vehicle for representing them in a divided Ireland than out of support for a united one. Nor will it make much difference if Catholics finally outbreed Protestants in Ulster. Even at the height of the Troubles a substantial percentage of nationalists preferred the status quo to the upheaval of unification.

That sentiment will only swell if politics is perceived to be working in Northern Ireland.

If there is no moral distinction between Adams and al-Zarqawi, and Adams's objectives are certainly no more honourable or rational than al-Zarqawi's, there is one objective difference: Adams is white. No doubt Tony Blair doesn't consciously think in terms of 'darkies' or Mahometan savages, but the grim and very dangerous truth is that the terrorists he will never negotiate with or give an inch to are Asian by birth or descent and Muslim by religion, whereas the terrorists he propitiates are Catholic, Aryan, white Europeans.

His distinction between good and bad terrorists is not only dishonest, cowardly and hypocritical, it is racist. If millions of embittered youths from Leeds to Basra to Islamabad notice that, should we be surprised?

Predictably the DUP hides its embarrassment at further concessions to Republicans by trying to blame the UUP for this decision. This is lies. Let us not forget that for nearly 2 years the DUP has been the larger Unionist party and promised people that if they voted for them concessions would stop. The last few months have shown this to be a false promise. Apparently Mr Blair didn’t even inform the DUP about this decision.

The Dorrians are Catholics living in a village that is largely Protestant, on the edge of a seaside unionist town that has been relatively untouched by 35 years of incipient civil war. They stress that during that time they were never subjected to abuse or violence, even in the darkest days of the conflict.

Yet, after coming through three decades of sectarian slaughter, Lisa Dorrian has joined the ranks of Ulster's 'disappeared' - those who have been abducted, in some cases tortured, murdered and then buried in the tightest of secrecy by paramilitary groups, mainly the IRA. Lisa's disappearance, however, is different in one crucial sense - she is the first person to be 'disappeared' by loyalist terrorists.

Later, McDonald notes the action being taken by the UVF, a rival to the LVF - the organisation widely suspected of her disappearnence:

Meanwhile, the UVF has set up its own 'inquiry' into Lisa's disappearance, which is running in parallel with the official police investigation. In a macabre twist to the tragedy, and apparently without irony, the UVF has appointed convicted murderer Samuel Cooke to head its 'investigation'. He was one of five loyalists jailed in 1994 for the sectarian murder of 26-year-old Catholic mother Anne Marie Smyth in 1992. Her killers strangled her and cut her throat, after she was lured to a party in east Belfast by a group of UVF men drinking in a local loyalist social club.

Mark Dornan, the PSNI's senior investigating officer on the case, is scathing about the loyalists' self-appointed 'policing' role in the tragedy. 'These gangs have no moral or legal authority and they will end up causing even more crime,' he says. At least 150 officers, ranging from underwater search teams to behavioural analysts, have spent the past four months trying to find Lisa. Yet despite having spoken to nearly 1,200 people, the PSNI is yet to achieve a breakthrough. Although Dornan will not be drawn on the killers' skills in covering their tracks, he - like other detectives - knows that some of those responsible learned their trade in the paramilitaries.

Update to Annex 1 of the Joint Declaration

This paper provides the updated version of the normalisation programme which was promised in the Government’s statement of 28 July.

The steps which will be undertaken in a normalisation programme assuming an enabling environment is created and maintained will be as follows:

Within the first 8 months, in an enabling environment, we would have achieved:

• The vacation and closure of Forkhill Base; the removal of Tower Romeo 12 in South Armagh; and dismantling of the super sangar in Newtownhamilton.  Work has already started and will be completed within a 6-month period.
• The removal of the observation post at Divis Tower in Belfast and the two observation towers at Masonic in Londonderry.  Work is beginning this week and will be completed within a 6-month period.
• The successive removal of two towers in South Armagh G10 (Creevekeeran); G20 (Drummuckavall).  Work will start within a few weeks and be completed within a 6-month period; with the sites restored to Greenfield status as soon as possible.
• The publication of a structured plan for phased reduction in troops to peacetime levels.
• The continuation of the review of the police estate with action taken as agreed with the Policing Board following consultation with District Commanders and local communities, including work to defortify some 24 police stations.

Within the next 12 months, in an enabling environment, we would have achieved:

• Further defortification of police stations.  Progressive development of and extension of varying patrol patterns: e.g. single beat officers, bicycle patrols and opening of police shops.
• The vacation and demolition of the remaining South Armagh towers.  These sites, with the exception of a Blue Light communications site at Crosleive, would be returned to Greenfield status as rapidly as possible thereafter.
• Progressive withdrawal of soldiers from sites where co-located with police in Armagh (Crossmaglen, Newtownhamilton, Middletown) and in Fermanagh and Tyrone.
• The removal of the military base within Maydown police station.
• A reduction in troop numbers in line with the published plan.
• The return of private property on vacated sites.

Within the final 4 months, in an enabling environment, we would have achieved:

• Further implementation of the police estate review, as determined by the Policing Board.
• Additional opportunities for the police to patrol without the use of armoured vehicles.
• The vacation and demolition of the observation post at Rosemount in Derry.
• The vacation, closure and disposal of all military sites to leave no more than 14 core sites.
• The further reduction in Army and other service levels, including the disbandment of the operational brigade headquarters, to a permanent military garrison of no more than 5,000.  The size of the longer-term garrison is likely to fluctuate in response to global demands on the army and its overall complement.
• Repeal of counter terrorist legislation particular to Northern Ireland.

Sir Reg said:

"As you may recall when the deal with Sinn Fein was not completed last December, I said this was outside the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and it was a breach of the principle that the consent of the majority of the people of Northern Ireland would be required before there is any change to our constitutional status.

"When the idea was first mooted two years ago, the UUP opposed it. We told the two governments then and have repeatedly since that if it is pursued by Dublin, we will no longer be obligated to our support for north south institutions."