Terrorism – Page 4 – Slugger O'Toole

The Taoiseach: “I will ask them the question that the Deputy will not answer.”

Pete Baker on November 1, 2014, 7:54 pm

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There was a clear attempt at political revisionism this week, as the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, TD, sought to, as Anthony McIntyre put it, “claw back lost ground” following an “unprecedented” Leaders’ questions in the Dáil on Wednesday 22 Oct – aided and abetted by interventions from the legal representative of four of those accused, and acquitted, in the Maíria Cahill case. [added in-line link] This is the position the Sinn Fein president attempted to end the week with “I further understand that Peter …

Sinn Féin’s Peadar Tóibín: “I have no doubt that in the IRA modus operandi of the time that people were moved…”

Pete Baker on October 24, 2014, 5:25 pm

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With the out-going MP for Newry and Armagh, Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy, declaring his ignorance of alleged abusers in the republican movement being moved out of Northern Ireland – BBC report “I’ve never heard that in all my life as a republican,” [Conor Murphy] said. …it’s worth extracting from the Fireman’s post some quotes from the interview on Newstalk Breakfast with Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín – who, according to the SF website, is a “current member of the Sinn Féin Ard Comhairle.” Here’s …

Derrylin to host hunger strike commemoration

Turgon on July 20, 2014, 2:46 pm

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The 2014 National Hunger Strike Commemoration has been announced to be in Derrylin Co. Fermanagh this year complete with buses to the event. Diane Woods the niece of local IRA murder victims Thomas and Emily Bullock told the Belfast Telegraph she felt sick at the prospect. From the Belfast Telegraph: A gang of up to six masked men carried out the brutal attack on Mr and Mrs Bullock. They arrived at the isolated farmhouse in Aghalane just outside Derrylin at …

Intercept evidence could convict terrorists, says former SoS Murphy

Brian Walker on July 16, 2014, 6:48 pm

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As a curtain raiser to Lady Justice Heather Hallett’s review of OTRs’ “ administrative scheme” due out tomorrow (Thursday), the mild-mannered former Labour secretary of state Paul Murphy has told the separate inquiry into the affair by the Commons Northern Ireland Select Committee that more convictions might have been obtained if the rules of evidence were changed. “Now my own personal view, which I expressed when I was chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee (at Westminster), was it should …

Gerry Adams: “this can be too easily twisted into a view that since everyone was to blame, nobody was to blame…”

Pete Baker on June 21, 2014, 4:46 pm

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The Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, TD, has been blaming others, again, for the failure to agree a comprehensive package on, among other issues, dealing with the past – in particular, a failure to agree on the holistic approach that could be said to characterise the mechanisms contained in the Haass proposals. But he had some interesting comments to make last weekend on a specific topic from the past elsewhere – [Not here? – Ed] No, there – that could help inform further discussion. Here’s …

NI Police Ombudsman: “It’s very easy to raise allegations – I think the important thing is whether there is any evidence behind it”

Pete Baker on June 19, 2014, 4:52 pm

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Having investigated a complaint from the Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams – following newspapers reports in 2006 which alleged that members of the RUC knew of a 1984 UDA gun attack on Adams in advance, or were themselves involved – the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Michael Maguire, has published his conclusions. Dr Maguire has said he has found no evidence that police knew of, or were involved in away way, in the attack on Mr Adams: “We have talked to all the people involved in the events …

Martin McGuinness: “I mean I remember, I remember, I remember…”

Pete Baker on June 17, 2014, 4:06 pm

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Or not, as the case may be. Faced with evidence to the contrary, the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, has admitted that he was not, as he had claimed in an interview with RTÉ’s Marian Finucane, in Portlaoise prison when “Patrick Duffy was killed and his body secretly buried”. As the News Letter reports In a statement, [Martin McGuinness] said: “The facts are that I served a six-month sentence in Portlaoise jail in 1973 and another in …

For once Northern Ireland may be ahead of England over matters of faith

Brian Walker on June 10, 2014, 12:49 pm

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The affair of the Trojan letter shows secular England struggling to deal with a community whose daily lives are increasingly governed by religion. What Ofsted has exposed as a plot to subvert British values is to its protagonists no more than promoting the good life for the benefit of the overwhelming Moslem majority who attend the four schools in question. And by the way, they furiously deny supporting jihad. Politicians broke away from the anchors of religion long ago. Clearly …

Sinn Féin: “What happened was done with British cabinet approval…”

Pete Baker on May 13, 2014, 6:22 pm

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A few days ago on Eamonn Maillie’s blog, Brian Rowan gravely informed us that, rather than the wild paranoid ramblings of a party desperate to distract attention from their threat to “review” their support for policing if the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, was charged as a result of the investigation into the abduction, murder and secret burial of Jean McConville in 1972, Sinn Féin’s latest outburst is evidence that “we’re not out of the political woods just yet.” The …

DPP: it could be “many many months” before a decision is made on whether or not Gerry Adams will be prosecuted…

Pete Baker on May 10, 2014, 7:06 pm

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As Newton Emerson notes in today’s Irish News – on some of the coverage of the arrest and questioning of Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, in relation to the abduction, murder, and secret burial of Jean McConville in 1972. Mystery surrounds BBC claims that the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) would not be bringing charges against Gerry Adams. The BBC began reporting this on early Monday evening, barely 24 hours after Adams had been released pending a file to the Public Prosecution …

Matt Baggott: “Under the Patten architecture, to which all political parties have signed up…”

Pete Baker on May 6, 2014, 5:39 pm

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PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott has rejected Sinn Fein’s claims of “political policing” in the arrest and questioning of party president Gerry Adams. And in doing so he highlights an inconvenient truth for the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister. From the BBC report In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Baggott said the accusation of a “dark side” within the PSNI was one he refuted. “Under the Patten architecture, to which all political parties have signed up, there are numerous ways …

The peace process sceptics need addressing as the governments prepare to intervene

Brian Walker on May 6, 2014, 7:13 am

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People who had to catch their breath over Gerry Adams’ arrest are now be having second wind. The former Labour secretary of state Shaun Woodward has called for a referendum over the heads of the local parties on what sort of mechanism they want to deal with the legacy of the Troubles. This may be commended as an initiative for jolting what remains the sovereign government and its Dublin partner into exercising their responsibilities in a low intensity existential crisis. But …

Con Politics…

Pete Baker on May 3, 2014, 5:07 pm

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Just saying… [Put… the bunny… back… in the box. – Ed] Pete Baker

Gerry Adams: “I have no recollection of that whatsoever.”

Pete Baker on April 23, 2014, 11:13 pm

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A couple of points to note about the BBC report of the interview with former Provisional IRA member Peter Rogers. From the BBC report An ex-IRA man has made new allegations about Gerry Adams, in which he raises questions about the Sinn Féin leader’s claim to have never been in the IRA. Peter Rogers has alleged that Mr Adams and his Sinn Féin colleague Martin McGuinness ordered him to transport explosives to Great Britain in 1980. Both Sinn Féin men declined interviews …

Belfast City Council: “what happened on Saturday evening is a clear breach of our terms and conditions of hire.”

Pete Baker on April 1, 2014, 4:16 pm

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The News Letter has an updated comment from the spokeswoman for Belfast City Council about the (Provisional) IRA commemoration at Whiterock Leisure Centre on Saturday night. From the News Letter report Belfast City Council says a republican event in one of its leisure centres was clearly in breach of terms and conditions, after critics objected to use of a Sinn Fein banner, replica weapons and paramilitary flags. The event, in Whiterock Leisure Centre on Saturday, was strongly condemned yesterday by …

“Unlike Gerry Adams & Mary Lou McDonald…”

Pete Baker on March 30, 2014, 8:56 pm

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In a follow-up to a previous post on his Broken Elbow blog, as noted here, Ed Moloney has “an answer to Gerry Adams, Mary Lou McDonald and other critics of the Boston archive“. Aside from myself and Anthony McIntyre there is only one other person who has read all of the interviews lodged in the Belfast Project oral history archive at Boston College and that is Judge William Young of the Federal District Court in Boston, Massachusetts. Judge Young got to read …

“when a major political leader tells such an obvious falsehood about a defining part of his life…”

Pete Baker on March 25, 2014, 9:42 pm

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Also for the record, Ed Moloney has responded to Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams’ attack on the Boston College oral history project. From Ed Moloney’s blog I don’t intend to spill a lot of ink responding to Gerry Adams’ recent statement taking yet another swipe at the motives of those who were interviewed and who did the interviewing for the Boston College oral history archive. That is because I have already answered a very similar charge from Mary Lou McDonald. …

Forget ethnic thematics: a straightforward response to Billy Hutchinson

Turgon on March 22, 2014, 8:10 pm

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Billy Hutchinson’s explanation for his sectarian murders has been covered below by David McCann. Unfortunately they degenerate into concepts like “Truth recovery”, “ethnic thematics” and such like. The News Letter have provided somewhat more direct responses. From the News Letter: Kenny Donaldson of Innocent Victims United said that Mr Hutchinson’s attempted justification of his murders “bore all the hallmarks of the same sick delusional thinking that is prevalent within the republican movement”. Referring to the UVF slogan ‘For God and …

Ivor Bell charged in connection with Jean McConville abduction and murder

Pete Baker on March 21, 2014, 8:36 pm

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The BBC are reporting that Ivor Bell, who was arrested earlier this week, has been charged in connection with the abduction and murder of Jean McConville in December 1972. From the BBC report Ivor Bell, 77, who was a senior leader in the Provisional IRA in the 1970s, was arrested at his home in Andersonstown on Tuesday. He has been charged with aiding and abetting murder and membership of the IRA. He is expected to appear in court on Saturday. …

TUV, SDLP and UUP host victims commemoration at Stormont

Turgon on March 11, 2014, 10:47 pm

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Alan has a post on the Alternative Ms. Ulster event hosted by Steven Agnew at Stormont on Sunday complete with the inspiring / daring / indecent, speech/ behaviour by Ms. Park. In contrast yesterday the UUP, SDLP and TUV hosted the third annual day of remembrance for victims of terrorism. 120 people attended and three people spoke: Michelle Nixon who has been caring for her brother since he was seriously injured in 1979 by an IRA bomb in Rosslea; June …