Irish Republican Information Service (no. 72)
Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757; e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie
Date: 12 Iúil / July 2006
Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom
Irish Republican Information Service
THE body styling itself ‘Limerick Republican Information Service’ is not connected with the Irish Republican Information Service (IRIS), 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, email
saoirse@iol.ie and has not been authorised either by IRIS or by the body that sponsors IRIS, Republican Sinn Fein. Therefore it is totally unauthorised and should be regarded as such.
In this issue:
1. Provos attack Bogside youth
2. Sectarian flag hung within hospital property
3. Loyalist flags erected in Derry’s Waterside
4. Ear-severing attack ’sectarian’
5. Sectarian hatred in Co Antrim
6. Loyalist vandals in school attack
7. UVF force mother to flee Ulster
8. 1970s bombing victims complain of official neglect
9. 26-County State to be allowed to use troops without Leinster House approval
PROVOS ATTACK BOGSIDE YOUTH
IT was reported on July 12 that Provisional police protecting a loyalist bonfire in the Fountain estate in Derry turned on young people from the Bogside. A Provo from Creggan attacked a 16-year-old, leaving him unconscious and with serious head injuries. As a number of young people went to the youth’s aid they were confronted with members of the political wing of the Provisionals who spirited the well-known thug out of the area. Local residents were enraged and demanded to know how members of the Provos, some of whom so-called community leaders could protect and lash out on behalf of a child-beater. Feelings in the Bogside were running very high as a number of complaints have been made in the past about this individual.
2. SECTARIAN FLAG HUNG WITHIN HOSPITAL PROPERTY
A LOYALIST gang that covered the entrance to one of the Six Counties’ biggest hospitals in loyalist flags returned to the complex on July 7 to erect even more.
Union Jacks and Red Hand of Ulster flags were hung from scaffolding in the grounds of Belfast City hospital, which thousands of people visit each day.
The same gang placed six loyalist flags around the Donegall Road entrance to the complex.
Builders who removed some of the flags were threatened by gang members, who have also turned disused land at the hospital gates into a bonfire dumping site. Loyalists spent the last two days sitting on old sofas at the site playing sectarian flute tunes.
Bosses at the hospital were criticised yesterday for refusing to remove the flags.
Health chiefs claimed that because the flags were not attached to hospital property, they had no power to take them down.
However, this attitude changed when they saw the loyalist flags flying on the scaffold in the grounds of the hospital.
A hospital spokeswoman said it had asked the construction firms which owns the scaffold to remove the flags.
Meanwhile, in another case of intimidation the mother of a young child was forced to flee Antrim town after loyalists built a bonfire next to her home.
The nationalist woman, who is too frightened to be identified, is now staying with her mother in the village of Crumlin.
Last week loyalists began dumping bonfire material at the rear of the 24-year-old’s home in the Greystone estate.
Over the last year nationalist residents in the religiously mixed area have been subject to sectarian attacks.
Fearing she could be next the woman and her asthmatic four-year-old son have fled Antrim.
"The loyalists who have been building the bonfire outside my daughter’s home are not even from the Greystone area," said the frightened woman’s mother.
3. LOYALIST FLAGS ERECTED IN DERRY’S WATERSIDE
NATIONALIST residents in Derry’s Waterside expressed concern over the erection of loyalist flags on lampposts along one of the main arterial routes into the city.
They claim flags - including UVF flags - were erected at Glendermott Road close to Irish Street over the weekend.
But the British police, the RUC/PSNI, said all flags in the area were legal and the UVF flags may not be those of the banned paramilitary organisation but may be commemorating the UVF of 1912.
A resident from the Knightsbridge area of Derry who contacted a Belfast newspaper on July 6 said nationalists felt intimidated by flags in the Waterside.
The nationalist man, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was faced with a "sea of flags" whenever he left home.
"I live in a mixed area and I wouldn’t dream of putting out an Irish tricolour on St Patrick’s Day," he said.
The caller said many of his neighbours were upset by the flags which he said were erected in full view of Crescent Link RUC barracks.
4. EAR-SEVERING ATTACK ‘SECTARIAN’
A NATIONALIST Derryman, Jim Norris (36) had to have seven staples inserted in his head following a sectarian beating on Ferryquay Street in Derry on July 8. He had been attending a wedding at a city centre hotel. Part of his ear was severed in the assault.
Jim Norris said he was walking home from a wedding at a hotel when he was chased by a gang shouting sectarian slogans. He said he took refuge in a bar, but only remembered waking up in hospital.
"While I was in the bar, they were kicking the shutters, trying to get in," he said.
"We waited until we thought they were gone, but I don’t remember anything after I left the bar. I just remember waking up in hospital on Saturday morning, getting staples in my head and my ear sewn back on."
5. SECTARIAN HATRED IN CO ANTRIM
IT was reported on July 12 that at an ‘Eleventh’ night bonfire a Tricolour flag was placed on the bonfire in Ahoghill, Co Antrim with the words ‘Fuck Mickey Bo’, a reference to murdered Ballymena teenager Michael McIlveen.
Fifteen-year-old Michael McIlveen was attacked and beaten by a number of people wielding baseball bats in Ballymena on May 8 this year.
Known to his family and friends as Mickybo, the teenager died in hospital the following day. Six teenagers were charged in connection with the young man’s death.
6. LOYALIST VANDALS IN SCHOOL ATTACK
LOYALISTS were blamed for a wrecking spree at a Catholic primary school which caused thousands of pounds of damage which took place between 3pm last Friday and 10pm on July 8. More than 10 windows were smashed at St Mary’s on the Hill Primary School in Glengormley, outside Belfast, the latest in a series of attacks there.
Local parish priest, Father Dan Whyte, said the school suffered continual sectarian vandalism. Bricks and large blocks were fired at the windows. Local residents believe catapults may have been used. The school is beside St Mary’s on the Hill Church, which has also been targeted by loyalists.
7. UVF FORCE MOTHER TO FLEE ULSTER
BRENDA Officer, a mother of four from Rathgill Link, Bangor claims to be on a loyalist hit-list after agreeing to give evidence against a suspected UVF man.
Earlier this year when she gave the RUC/PSNI the name of the UVF man whom she accused of viciously assaulting her. She fled to Scotland in April after her car was paint-bombed and the windows in her home smashed.
She also claimed that a relative has been attacked by loyalists because of her stance.
The 46-year-old, who was attacked by a UFF gang in 2003 after her son was involved in a row with loyalists, said she will never return to the Six Counties.
8. 1970S BOMBING VICTIMS COMPLAIN OF OFFICIAL NEGLECT
RELATIVES of victims of British-backed Loyalist bombs planted in the 26 Counties during the 1970s complained on July 5that their welfare had been ignored by the 26-County state for 30 years.
They were attending a press conference at which the details of the fourth and final report of the 26-County Independent Commission of Inquiry into allegations of collusion between loyalist and British crown forces in the bombings was published.
The report by Judge Henry Barron into the bombing of Kay’s Tavern in Dundalk, Co Louth, in 1975, in which two people were killed, found that allegations of collusion were impossible to prove or disprove.
The report was published after it was referred to a sub-committee set up by Leinster House chaired by Fianna Fail TD Sean Ardagh. The sub-committee will now consider all four Barron reports along with the continuing investigation into collusion being conducted by Patrick McEntee SC. Public hearings into the findings of all reports will take place in the autumn.
Some of the relatives of the victims who attended the press conference at Leinster House for the publication of the latest report, which refers to a number of other incidents as well as the Dundalk bombing, expressed their angers at the way they had been treated by the 26-County state over the years.
"We have been given so little respect over the past 30 years," said Margaret English, whose father Hugh Waters, was murdered in the Kay’s Tavern bombing. She said that the relatives were told only the day before about the publication of the report and an elderly relative of one of the victims was unable to come to Dublin because no transport was provided. "Why was she not provided with a car? The bombers were treated better than we were", she said.
The Barron report into the Kay’s Tavern bombing concluded that it was carried out by loyalists but was unable to identify those involved. It found an implication that some members of the British crown forces in the Six Counties may or should have known who was responsible for the attacks. It said that without evidence of the identities of those involved it was not possible to disprove or prove allegations of collusion with British crown forces.
The report said that the nature of the explosives used suggested a possible link with the perpetrators of the bombings in Dublin, Monaghan and Castleblayney.
9. 26-COUNTY STATE TO BE ALLOWED TO USE TROOPS WITHOUT LEINSTER HOUSE APPROVAL
THE 26-County state will be able to use troops on foreign so-called "emergency humanitarian missions", reconnaissance and training without approval of the Leinster House assembly under legislation rushed through Leinster House in little over two hours on July 5.
Up to now, the 26-County administration has had to get Leinster House approval before sending more than a dozen soldiers abroad, while the 26-County army have been prevented by law from taking part in military exercises abroad with foreign forces.
Under the 26-County Defence Act (Amendment) Bill 2006, 26-County soldiers will not be posted to United Nations military operations until both the 26-County administration and Leinster House assembly agrees, and a United Nations Security Council resolution is passed. This combination is known as the so-called "triple lock".
However they will be able to join up with 1,500-strong EU battlegroups in training areas before Leinster House has voted on their deployment and before the UN resolution is passed- though the soldiers will be withdrawn if either or both do not agree.
The legislation goes further in that it will change the relationship between the 26-County administration and the assembly at Leinster House on decisions about other deployments abroad of 26-County army personnel for non-United Nations actions.
Section 3 of the legislation said that 26-County soldiers could be sent abroad "with the prior approval of, the Government" to fill posts in international organisations, ceremonial duties, sporting events, to inspect equipment and to take part in exchange visits.
ENDS
