It’s three years since the discovery of £2.3million in sterling in a bin at his home in Cork and, as noted in this report, two years since the submission of a file to the DPP. Today Ted Cunningham has been arrested again and is reportedly due to be charged with money-laundering. A second man is also facing charges. From the BBC report A garda spokesman said the two men would be facing separate charges, with only one charged with money …
New research has shown the depth of US anger with the British and Irish governments handling of the peace process on the issues of criminality and recognition for policing (Hat tip Nevin). US officials believe that they played the more significant role in SF moving on these issues and thus achieveing a deal acceptable to the DUP. Unsurprisingly it was the 911 attacks that led to the first shift in attitudes towards the republican movement but the Northern Bank robbery …
RTÉ reports that in Belfast Magistrates Court today 25 year-old Chris Ward, who following the dropping of the cases against two other suspects in January this year is the only person to be charged in connection with the Northern Bank robbery that took place in December 2004, was sent for trial on those charges. No date has yet been set for the trial, although the report suggests it will take place early next year.. and there’s still little sign of …
So much of what occured after the Belfast Agreement is so hidden from open scrutiny that it is often a case of paying your money and take your choice of who was responsible for who ultimately collapsed the outworking of that deal. Republicans blame unionists, and vice versa. However, much as it looked as though David Trimble paid the political price at the Assembly election of November 2003, Ed Moloney speculates that last Thursday Sinn Fein may just have antied …
Name’s Morse, Sammy Morse… and today he looks at what has to be Belfast’s most intriguing constituency: South. He is certain that sitting UUP MLA will lose his seat to Chris Stalford. On the Nationalist/Centrist side of the house, it is a little more complex, particularly if Anna Lo can produce a beefy challenge.If, and only if, Lo can take back some of a highly fluctuating Alliance/Women’s Coalition base 6% and 15%, then it might produce problems for Sinn Fein …
So, that Irish Times Poll. The core vote for the parties when the undecided voters are included is: Fianna Fáil 35 per cent (down three points); Fine Gael 19 per cent (down one point); Labour 8 per cent (no change); Sinn Féin 7 per cent (up two points); Green Party 6 per cent (up three points); PDs 1 per cent (down one point); Independents/others 6 per cent (down one point); undecided 18 per cent (up one point). From a Sinn …
So it looks like Northern Ireland is going to get a conditional green light for an early election. Conditional because although Sinn Fein appeared to take a giant step towards agreeing to normal policing, the motion passed by the party’s extraordinary conference was heavily conditional on the DUP keeping to the St Andrews timetable. Of course since the DUP gave its overall approval, that should leave the Secretary of State for Wales, etc. free to fire a belated starting pistol …
Jim Allister has some very plain words on the kinds of policing tests he wants to see imposed before his party gives any committements on the devolution of policing and justice powers to Stormont: – Encouragement to join the PSNI, which can be tested by seeing an upturn in Roman Catholic applications in future recruitment competitions, the next of which does not open until March. – Publicly promoted direct co-operation with the police, demonstrated by a sustained increase in the …
ONE of my favourite stories (as yet unconfirmed!) from 2006 was about the Chief Constable almost having a ringside seat of the Northern Bank robbery. According to a normally-reliable source, while the £26.5 million raid was being carried out, Hugh Orde (and other senior cops and ARA types) were at a Christmas bash in the Apartment bar, less than 100 feet away. Like I said, unconfirmed, but mildly amusing… and strangely plausible! Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Well, it’ll be two years on Wednesday since the Northern Bank heist. In the Sunday Tribune, Suzanne Breen gives a very detailed and explicit account of the robbers, the robbery and the divvying up of the dosh. There probably isn’t much new in what she writes, but I was a bit surprised at how confident she feels in alluding to the alleged bank robber. The Irish Examiner throws a little something new into the mix. They quote Justice Minister Michael …
Our Republican commenters have been adamant that there was and has been no connection between the money lifted in bags out of a garden in Cork, and the Northern Bank robbery. It’s a view that if not exactly confirmed by yesterday’s announcement that there is still no evidential link between them, certainly throws up questions about assertions from ministers (here and here) that there was a connection. Even Noel Conroy was convinced in October last year that a link would …
WHO’DA thunk (apart from Brian Rowan) that the man the police blame for the Northern Bank robbery would now be touring the statelet telling republicans to support the police? Speaking of the Northern job, the Garda Commissioner today revealed how the Irish police linked cash seized in the Irish Republic to the IRA’s £26.5 million raid – forensics and witnesses – although how they are “indicating” that “without doubt” is another question. Just as well the IRA has completely abandoned …
What can Unionism do about loyalist paramilitarism? Unionism has preferred to avoid this issue rather than attempt to resolve it. Nevertheless, it is a problem, which must be addressed as it is barrier to a normal society and harm is being caused to working class communities by its continuing existence. In Part 1, I will examine how Unionism has dealt with this issue during the peace process and argue that the two basic options of engagement on the one hand …
At Balrog, November Rain gives his/her view on the demise of Daily Ireland. As I told the SBP this weekend, the paper’s management believed it could do to the Irish News what SF had done to the SDLP. But product for product, it never matched it’s own lofty ambitions. In the end, as is apparent from NR’s comment, it struggled to get even hard core Republicans to buy it. It also didn’t help that it launched in the turbulent wake …
This is one of several keynote presentations made by politicians at Glencree Centre for Reconciliation‘s Summer School over the last weekend. Sean Farren re-iterates the centrality of the Belfast Agreement, and argues that the blame for vacuum lies squarely at the feet of paramilitaries. The hiatus has claimed lives and distracted politicians attention from key issues like reflating the local economy.By Sean Farren The greatest political challenge for all of us in public life in the North is to recover …
At the time of the Northern Bank robbery, we re-iterated over and over that this story will continue to muddy the political waters for years to come. Although the IRA has denied being involved the tide of evidence appears to moving in the opposite direction. As Pete noted yesterday, the two governments yesterday (including Justice Minister McDowell) were at pains to stress that no criminal activities were now being organised centrally by the IRA. But Conor Lally reports this morning …
Although others have suggested that the DUP was being set up to take pressure over its self declared unwillingness to engage with the largest nationalist political party Sinn Fein, it is the latter that continues to take the political heat this summer. Some of the damage would appear self inflicted. The last two years have seen its previously near faultless PR efforts veer off on several unseemly wobbles (sound file). Not least over the IRA’s (unnecessary?) reaction to the Police …
The NI Affairs Committee’s report on Organised Crime has just been published following a long period of taking evidence, both in public and private, and is available online here – also available as a two part pdf file. It’s a wide-ranging report – summary here – which even touches on the proposed changes to liquor licencing, but it will be the section dealing with paramilitary involvement in organised crime that will, understandably, attract most interest. Update other reports here, and …
No doubt with an eye on Noel McAdams article, the Belfast Telegraph has a look ahead towards that November 24 deadline and assesses the DUP’s apparent new attitude.. and what it could mean for the prospects of successful devolution. One thing that is certain [about the only thing that’s certain – Ed], as Mick pointed out, is the necessary tentativeness of the speculation. From the Belfast Telegraph – If the DUP is convinced that the IRA has abandoned criminality, as …
As the BBC have reported, the Secretary of State for Wales and Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, has made his “the future of Northern Ireland” statement to the House of Commons. Announcing his intention to bring forward an emergency Bill on 20 April, with only a half a dozen clauses, to recall the Assembly on 15 May, as previously announced. He repeatedly references devolution in Scotland and Wales as role-models, but there’s not a great deal of detail so far except …
