Irish Republican Information Service (no. 78)
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: 30 Lúnasa / August 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. Twenty-fifth anniversary commemoration at Bundoran
2. Loyalist parade fly sectarian flags
3. Brits may have masterminded ‘human bomb’ strategy
4. Memorial to Raymond McCreesh vandalised
5. Anger of plan for UDR memorial in Lisburn
6. Assembly member denies making obscene gesture at march
7. Crown Forces are not part of normal Irish society
8. One-in-10 sectarian crimes end in court
9. Meaning of 1916 hidden, school told
10. British had Dublin bombers in custody
11. UVF admits Seawright was member
12. Alleged drug dealer ‘hacked to death’ in loyalist Kilcooley estate
13. McBrearty family threaten legal action
14. Supporters of Miami Five to hold rally in Donegal
15. Group opposes use of 26-County troops
16. Anti-war protest claims support
17. Prison report describes McDowell’s attitude as: ‘frightening and fascist’
18. ‘Serious systemic problems’ in 26-county police
19. Incinerator decision opposed
 
1. TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION AT BUNDORAN
 
THE 25th anniversary of the H-Block hunger strike was commemorated on August 26 in Bundoran, Co Donegal.
 
Led by a colour party carrying the Tricolour, the Starry Plough and the flags of the Four Provinces as well as the Sunburst flag of Na Fianna Éireann and a colour party from Na Fianna, the parade marched through the town. Members of the hunger strikers’ families marched at the front of the parade. Four bands were in attendance, including the Dr Arthurs Accordion Band from north Antrim and the Kevin Lynch Memorial Band from co Derry.
 
A wreath was laid at the Republican Memorial Garden by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President, Republican Sinn Féin. Proceedings were chaired by Joe O’Neill, Bundoran and the keynote address was delivered by Mary Ward, Cork and Donegal, widow of Pat Ward, who died as a result of four hunger strikes in 26-County jails in the 1970s.
 
In the course of her address she said: "We come here today to pay tribute to ten great Irish soldiers. To face death in the heat of battle surrounded by one’s comrades is a heroic thing; but to face death alone in a prison cell, surrounded only by one’s jailers and tormenters takes a supreme courage. That the ten soldiers of Irish Republicanism who died in the cells of Long Kesh in the summer of 1981 possessed that courage no one is in any doubt. Their protest and sacrifice won them the respect and admiration of the whole world.
 
"We not only honour those who died, but also all the other political prisoners who undertook over five years of protest; the Blanket protest, dirt protest and hunger strike and who endured the hell of Long Kesh - the poor food, the harassment, the humiliating mirror and strip searches, and all the suffering so vividly described by Bobby Sands in his book, One Day in My Life. We salute their determination, courage and faith in having defiantly withstood tremendous political and moral pressure to abandon their protest and hunger strike and to accept criminal status; the implications which would have been to accept Britain’s right to rule in Ireland - this they would not do.
 
"The 1980-81 hunger strikes were as important a landmark in Irish revolutionary history as the 1916 Rising in that they politicised and awakened an entire generation of young Irish people. They also focused international attention on the plight of the people of British-occupied Ireland.
 
"With the best will in the world the current process cannot lead to a just and lasting peace because it is based on the wrong agenda. It is founded on the false belief that one can ignore the under-lying realities of the unjust settlement that caused the problem in the first place, the partitioning of Ireland against the will of the majority of Irish people - and then patch up that evil by modifying the different relationships, ie the two statelets imposed on Ireland by partition.
 
"These relationships would not exist at all to begin with if they had not been drawn up and enforced at gunpoint. In the words of Lloyd George: ‘Ireland would be visited with immediate and terrible war’. Their purpose was to distort real democracy and true Irish self-determination.
 
"The Stormont Agreement of 1998 has been shown to be a failure. As Republican Sinn Féin forecast, despite further concessions by the Provisionals, the Stormont Executive is still out of commission. The Provisionals have effectively disbanded their military organisation and handed over all their arms. This was the price demanded of them by the British and 26-County Establishments as well as the unionists before they would be allowed to administer British rule in Ireland.
 
"All the while they seek to rewrite history to their own advantage. They tell the Irish people that the struggle was merely for civil rights under British rule and that they have won! In no way would sacrifices such as were made since 1969 be justified simply to reform English rule in this country. The struggle is to get the British government out of Ireland for good and glory and to make the Irish people supreme in their own country - and for nothing else.
 
"Those who reneged on Republicanism and become Stormont parliamentarians tell us that the 1981 hunger strikers were the beginning of their moves to accept the Stormont surrender. Who do these people think they are that they can deceive people into their way of thinking?
 
"No matter how often Gerry Adams and his hangers-on perform the Pontius Pilate manoeuvre and wash their hands in public they will convince nobody that Bobby Sands and his comrades died on hunger strike rather than wear a prison uniform no more than he died on hunger strike in order that young men and women could join the RUC/PSNI and wear a peeler’s uniform.
 
"Participation in a partition parliament attempts to deny the sovereignty of the Irish people. Sovereignty is unalienable and cannot be voted away no matter how great the majority.
 
"The referendum which purports to withdraw the claim to the Six Counties is invalid because the Six Counties are an integral part of the ancient Irish nation. The Six Counties are as much part of Críoch Fodhla as any other county.
 
"True Republicans will not support English rule in the Six Counties or collaborate with it through the Establishment south of the Border. We will not be co-opted. Rather do we adhere to the Proclamation of 1916 which "declares the right of the Irish people to the ownership of Ireland … to be sovereign and indefeasible". It further states that this right "cannot be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people". This has not come about nor will it ever."
 
Mrs O’Connor, Belfast, mother of Republican prisoner Joe O’Connor, read a statement from the Republican prisoners on protest in Maghaberry, outlining the serious conditions in the jail and asking for support for the struggle to regain the political status won by the sacrifice of the H-Block hunger strikers in 1981, sold out under the terms of the Stormont Agreement of 1998.
 
2. LOYALIST PARADE FLY SECTARIAN FLAGS
 
THIRTY-five bands, and more than 1,000 supporters, marched through the predominantly nationalist village of Rasharkin, Co Antrim on Friday August 18. The march was organised by the Ballymaconnely Sons of Conquerors Flute Band. Many of the bands carried the flags of the UDA, UVF, UFF, YCV and UYM. One band had a flag commemorating a UDA member killed by his own pipe bomb and another remembered a UVF man.
 
The name of the organisers - Sons of Conquerors - gives a clear indication of the mindset of the people involved in the parade and their attitude to the nationalist people of Rasharkin. The residents are in the process of collating information on the intimidation by the loyalists and the RUC/PSNI during the parade. One [nationalist] resident said that when she started filming the parade one of the men gave her ‘the fingers’ while another exposed himself. Residents have also criticised the DUP for turning a blind eye to UDA and UVF involvement in Orange parades.
 
3. BRITS MAY HAVE MASTERMINDED ‘HUMAN BOMB’ STRATEGY
 
IT was reported on August 28 that Britain’s intelligence services may have masterminded a Provisional human bomb strategy which killed soldiers and civilians in the Six Counties in 1990, a lobby group claimed today.
 
The British Irish Rights Watch (BIRW) said counter-terrorism agencies may have been behind the lethal strategy, which saw six soldiers and one civilian die after civilians linked to the British Crown Forces were made to drive explosives into British army facilities.
 
The pressure group sent a dossier to the RUC/PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team about the October 1990 bombing of three British army installations and checkpoints, two of which exploded.
 
An official report from BIRW said: "It is known that at least two security force agents (sic) were involved in these bombings and allegations have been made that the human bomb strategy was the brainchild of British intelligence.
 
"Questions arise as to whether the RUC, An Garda Síochána and the [British] army’s Force Research Unit had prior and/or subsequent intelligence about the bombings.
 
"These questions in turn lead to concerns about whether these attacks could have been prevented and why no-one has been brought to justice."
 
A worker at a Derry British army base, Patsy Gillespie, was used by the Provisionals as the first human bomb and forced to drive a large explosive device to a British military checkpoint at Coshquin near Derry, where it exploded.
 
The bomb was set off while he was still in the driver’s seat, killing him and five British soldiers - Stephen Burrows, Stephen Beacham, Vincent Scott, David Sweeney and Paul Worral.
 
Another British soldier, Ranger Cyril Smith, was killed the same night in a similar attack on a permanent checkpoint at Killeen near Newry. Civilian James McEvoy, 68, was injured after being ordered to drive the van and its deadly cargo or see his two sons shot.
 
An attempt to bomb Lisanelly British army barracks in Omagh, Co Tyrone, was foiled when explosives failed to ignite.
 
The claims may be linked to allegations made by an unknown British army agent, who said the RUC’s Special Branch had three Provisional agents involved in three separate attacks in south Down in 1989 and 1990.
 
4. MEMORIAL TO RAYMOND McCREESH VANDALISED
 
VANDALS have destroyed a monument erected to the memory of the 1981 hunger striker Raymond McCreesh near his former home in south Armagh.  The monument at Camloch was broken into several pieces in an attack carried out early on August 26. Former neighbours and friends of the hunger striker erected the monument 15 years ago.
 
5. ANGER OF PLAN FOR UDR MEMORIAL IN LISBURN
 
A REPORT on August 28 said that the elderly father of a victim of British State collusion with loyalist paramilitaries met with the mayor of Lisburn to oppose plans to erect an Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) memorial in the city.
 
Michael Power (75) believes that the British army’s UDR colluded with the UDA/UFF in his son Michael Jnr’s murder and strongly opposes plans for a memorial in Lisburn city centre.
He says that he finds it appalling that the council will allow their land to be used for a memorial to a regiment that colluded with loyalist death squads.  He travelled to Lisburn council on Friday for his meeting with Alliance lord mayor, Trevor Lunn.
 
Robert McClenaghan, spokesperson for victims’ campaign group An Fhírinne, also attended the meeting to voice his concerns about the monument.  During the meeting Michael recounted the painful details of his son’s murder. Michael Junior was murdered on August, 23, 1987 on Dunmurry Lane as he made his way to mass with his young family. Several days before his murder, the 30-year-old was stopped by a UDR patrol and was threatened that he would be killed.
 
On the morning of Michael Power Jnr’s murder, the UDR maintained a checkpoint for a number of hours just yards from where he was killed. Ten minutes before loyalists shot Michael dead the UDR checkpoint was lifted.
 
A monument is set to be erected by the regimental association of the UDR in Lisburn city centre on council land to commemorate those in the British army regiment who lost their lives during the conflict. The monument recently received the backing of Lisburn City Council, including Trevor Lunn, despite protests from nationalists on the council.
 
During the meeting the mayor discussed the case with Michael Power and discussed the broader issue of collusion and the establishment of a forum for truth and reconciliation in the Six Counties.
 
Michael Power Snr said during the meeting that he hoped the mayor could use his influence to change the council’s decision on the monument.
 
"My son didn’t stand a chance against the gunmen," said Michael. "I think the UDR set him up. My son wasn’t sectarian - he lived a good life.
"There was most definitely collusion in Michael’s murder. We want justice and we want the truth about his murder to come out," he added.
 
Robert McClenaghan from An Fhírinne said at the meeting that the issue of the UDR monument had caused a lot of concern.
 
"When the issue of the monument came to our attention, it caused an awful lot of trauma with the families. The UDR was a sectarian anti-Catholic organisation and the monument is offensive and insensitive."
 
Speaking after the meeting, Trevor Lunn said he hoped Michael would find out the truth about his son’s murder.
 
"I had absolutely no problem in meeting with Michael Power. I could not refuse to meet somebody who has lost their son," he added.
 
Trevor Lunn voted in favour of the UDR memorial before he became mayor.
 
6. ASSEMBLY MEMBER DENIES MAKING OBSCENE GESTURE AT MARCH
 
IT was claimed on August 27 that an assembly member for the area made obscene gestures to nationalists during a Royal Black Preceptory parade on August 26.
 
Ulster Unionist Party MLA Derek Hussey dismissed claims that he gave nationalists the middle finger during a parade in Castlederg during the parade. He also laughed off accusations that he used obscene language during a verbal altercation with nationalist protesters.
 
The UUP man accused protesters of breaching a determination issued by the Parades Commission. The UUP man, who is also a member of the Royal Black Preceptory, commended the behaviour of those taking part in the disputed parade.
 
The Castlederg Young Loyalist Flute Band stopped and played The Sash as hard and as loud as they could at the entrance to Priest’s Lane. Derek Hussey was said to have stood beside the band while they put on this provocative display and then went on to shout obscenities and made obscene gestures.
 
Hangers-on came through the Priest’s Lane in contravention of the Parades Commission determination and a Young Citizens’ Volunteer banner - junior wing of the UVF - was carried.
 
7. CROWN FORCES ARE NOT PART OF NORMAL IRISH SOCIETY
 
IN A statement on August 30 Vice-President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton said that the decision to stage a match between St Brigid’s GAA club from Belfast and the RUC\PSNI on August 31 was simply part and parcel of the ongoing campaign by the political establishment in both the Six and 26-Counties to normalise British rule in Ireland.
 
The statement continued: "The comments by Joe Brolly that this game is ‘just a Gaelic match’ do not reflect the harsh political reality. By hosting such games the GAA are sending out a signal that the British Colonial military and police are a normal part of Irish society.
 
"This is certainly not the case.
 
"The British military and policing presence in Ireland is abnormal and the root cause of conflict in our country. Joe Brolly makes an analogy with South Africa, which is misleading. In the case of South Africa the Apartheid system was removed completely, unlike the Six Counties where British rule has simply been reformed not removed.
 
"These games are an attempt to encourage young Irish people to join the forces of the British crown in Ireland by instilling in them the notion that the RUC\PSNI are a normal police force, policing a normal society. The fact is it is a foreign colonial police force policing British rule in Ireland. Removing the illegal British policing and military occupation from Ireland is an essential first step in bring about a just and lasting settlement in Ireland."
 
8. ONE-IN-10 SECTARIAN CRIMES END IN COURT
 
IT was reported on August 24 that fewer than one-in-10 sectarian crimes reported to the RUC/PSNI are brought before the courts, it can be revealed.  Sectarian incidents, after an increase last year, are now running at an average of five a day.
 
The British colonial police are under pressure to bring perpetrators to justice amid claims the force is ineffective in catching sectarian thugs.
 
A report in the Irish News (Belfast) said that less than a tenth of the 1,470 sectarian crimes recorded by the RUC/PSNI in the 12 months to March 2006 - just 142 - resulted in a charge or court summons.  Another 69 cases were deemed ‘cleared’ for other reasons, such as the dropping of a complaint. From April to July this year, just 30 out of 559 reported sectarian crimes were brought to court.
 
A nationalist mother, who was nursing her six-day-old son four weeks ago when a loyalist mob brandishing cross-bows, baseball bats and iron bars tried to smash their way into her north Belfast home, said on August 22 that she had no confidence in the RUC catching those responsible.
 
"When have they ever been caught? They [the British police] have failed us. They know who did it but aren’t doing anything about it," she claimed.
 
9. MEANING OF 1916 HIDDEN, SCHOOL TOLD
 
MUCH of the history of 1916 has failed to properly engage with its anti-imperial dimension and, in the name of "national security"; the British Empire’s image has been carefully managed through sustained propaganda, the 18th annual
 Desmond Greaves Summer School in Dublin heard over the weekend of August 26\27.
 
Dr Angus Mitchell, of the University of Limerick, told the school the use of State secrecy and control of archives obstructs a clearer anti-imperial context of the 1916 rising. He said the involvement of Roger Casement particularly "alters the parameters of its meaning from a national outbreak into an anti-colonial struggle".
 
The summer school, held in the Irish Labour History Museum at Beggar’s Bush Barracks, also heard criticism of commemorations of the 1914-18 war. Manus O’Riordan, Siptu’s head of research, said that as one who had a relative killed at the Somme, he had no objection to those who wished to commemorate such war dead without any hidden political agenda.
 
However, he said what was now being inserted was a celebration of British imperialism’s infamous war. Irish workers had been offered up in a blood sacrifice by John Redmond through his support for what James Connolly designated Britain’s "War upon the German nation", he said.
 
Other contributors to the school included the historians Brian P Murphy and Ruan O’Donnell, Professor Luke Gibbons, University of Notre Dame, USA and Dr Shelia Breathneach-Lynch, curator of Irish Paintings, National Gallery of Ireland.
 
The school was attended by amongst others Republican veterans Séamus Murphy and Richard Behal, the historian Fr Anthony Gaughan, Ulick O Connor as well as the Vice President of Republican Sinn Fein Des Dalton.
 
10. BRITISH HAD DUBLIN BOMBERS IN CUSTODY
 
IT was reported in a Belfast newspaper on August 30 that some of the families of victims of the Dublin/Monaghan bombings demanded a public apology on August 28 after it emerged that the British government had known the bombers’ identities but failed to bring them to justice.
 
Thirty-three people were killed and 258 others injured in May 1974 when the UVF planted four no-warning car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan. It was the single biggest loss of life on one day during the Troubles, though no-one was ever charged with the murders.
 
The Irish News obtained a [British] Six-County Office memo confirming that the British government knew the identities of the killers within four months of the attack. The secret British government papers, marked confidential, relate to a meeting between British and 2q6-County government officials in September 1974.
 
British prime minister Harold Wilson, Secretary of State Merlyn Rees and 26-County ministers Dr Garret FitzGerald and Jim Tully were all present.
 
In what is thought to be the first official recognition that the British knew the identities of the UVF gang, the memo states: "The Secretary of State [Merlyn Rees] said he was able to inform the Irish ministers, in confidence, that the 25 ICOs [internment orders] he had signed during the UWC [Ulster Workers Council] Strike strike included the persons he believed to be responsible for the Dublin bombing."
 
The memo adds: "He was unable to state this in public because of the nature of the evidence."
 
The meeting was referred to in the Dublin government-sponsored Barron report, which probed the handling of the case, though neither the document nor its contents were ever made public.
 
Margaret Urwin, a spokeswoman for the Dublin/Monaghan victims’ families, called on the British government to explain why the bombers escaped justice.
 
"The outgoing British ambassador in Ireland, Stewart Eldon, recently claimed his government had failed to cooperate with the Dublin/Monaghan inquiries because of national security issues. We have now asked the Taoiseach to raise this issue with Tony Blair," she said.
 
11. UVF ADMITS SEAWRIGHT WAS MEMBER
 
THE UVF has admitted that a former hard-line unionist councillor and a former member of Ian Paisley’s DUP, shot dead in 1987, was one of its members.
 
George Seawright (36) was shot in 1987 by the Irish People’s Liberation Organisation, which had split from the Irish National Liberation Army. He was recently named by the UVF in a publication which details its members killed during the current conflict.
 
George Seawright once suggested that Belfast City Council should buy an incinerator "to burn Roman Catholics and their priests", a remark similar to one made to Belfast Education and Library Board. His comments forced the DUP to expel him.
 
He appeared in court a number of times and was jailed for six months in 1987 for disorderly behaviour.
 
12. ALLEGED DRUG DEALER ‘HACKED TO DEATH’ IN LOYALIST KILCOOLEY ESTATE
 
A LOYALIST death squad are thought to have been responsible for an alleged drug dealer being "hacked to death in the street".
 
The RUC\PSNI are keeping an open mind on the murder of Mark Christie (36), in the Kilcooley estate in Bangor, Co Down.
 
He was chased by a group of men through the estate late on August 22 before being brutally attacked in the street. He died at the scene from horrific injuries.
 
His murder came shortly after he avoided a custodial sentence after a court appearance on an assault charge.
 
According to the British colonial police, Mark Christie was at the rear of a house at Millisle Gardens in the estate at about 11.15pm on August 22. He was chased by a number of men with weapons who caught him at the Own Roe Drive area a short distance away.
 
It is believed the gang of men went to the area with the intention of hunting down their victim.
 
Kilcooley is one of the largest estates in the Six Counties with a population of some 4.000 and is said to be under the control of the UDA.
 
The body was found at the side of the road. The scene was closed off on August 23 for forensic examination.
 
At one stage two women and two men, thought to be relatives, were allowed through the cordon.
 
13. McBREARTY FAMILY THREATEN LEGAL ACTION
 
FRANK McBrearty Jnr has threatened to sue the 26-County administration unless he is granted a public hearing before the Leinster House Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights.
 
Frank McBrearty and members of his family were the subject of the Morris Tribunal into allegations of misconduct against the Garda in Co Donegal. The tribunal found in favour of the McBrearty’s and against the Gardaí. It found that the gardaí failed to investigate the apparent hit-and-run of Richie Barron (a cattle dealer from Raphoe, Donegal) and instead attempted to frame Frank McBrearty and his cousin Mark O’Connell for murder. It found that gardaí forged evidence and intimidated people.
 
Even so, on August 24 Frank McBrearty said that he believed that the inquiry by Judge Frederick Morris had sought to protect the Garda Commissioner, the 26-County minister for justice and senior gardaí who he said were implicated in covering up an attempt to frame members of his family for murder. He also said that the inquiry had not disclosed anything new and had failed to call over 300 witnesses who had given important evidence to the family’s legal team. One witness against the McBrearty family was a police informer ‘paid by the Department of Justice and the Minister had serious questions to answer over his role’ said Frank McBrearty. 
 
14. SUPPORTERS OF MIAMI FIVE TO HOLD RALLY IN DONEGAL
 
A RALLY in support of the five Cuban men imprisoned in Miami for the last eight years, will take place in Donegal from the 15-17 September, according to Village magazine The campaign organisers will erect a "Camp Havana" beside Glencolmcille and information will be available to the public on the men who, campaigners allege, were arrested while attempting to infiltrate groups who have killed over 3,5000 Cuban civilians. Campaigners also claim that the men have been tortured in while in custody in the United States.
 
15. GROUP OPPOSES USE OF 26-COUNTY TROOPS
 
AN Irish anti-war group has come out in opposition to plans to send a contingent of 26-County troops to Lebanon "to police an ambiguous United Nations resolution".
The Anti-War Network, a coalition of six different organisations, warns that 26-County troops "might be used to demand the impossible disarmament of Hezbollah and to justify future Israeli military aggression".
 
If the conflict escalated into a wider war between the US and Israel, on the one hand, and Syria or Iran on the other, then "UN forces, including Irish (sic) troops, would find themselves hopelessly embroiled in the conflict".
 
However, the 26-Couties could play a "valuable role" and the statement urged the 26-County administration to take the following steps:
1. Engage in diplomatic initiatives to promote peace between Israel and Lebanon, to urge Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territories and to discourage states including the United States and Iran from engaging in proxy wars in the region.
2. Prohibit the use of Irish territory, including Shannon and Baldonnel airports for military purposes, including the transport of troops and arms to the Middle East.
3. Discourage and restrict Irish-based companies’ production of armaments, including hardware and software systems for export to Israel.
4. Call for Israel to make reparations for the death and destruction that its army has inflicted in Lebanon, and make preparations to prosecute decision-makers for war crimes in the event that they arrive on Irish territory.
 
16. ANTI-WAR PROTEST CLAIMS SUPPORT
 
PROTESTERS who staged an anti-war protest at the US-owned Raytheon guided systems plant in Derry early in August say they have been supported by US academic Noam Chomsky and other international activists.
 
The Derry Anti War Coalition, including journalist and trade unionist Éamonn McCann, say they have been "overwhelmed and humbled" by the backing.
Nine protestors from the group occupied Raytheon’s offices in the Springtown area of the city on August 9 claiming that "weapons manufactured by Raytheon were being used by Israel to bomb Lebanon". Others protested with placards outside.
 
The nine appeared in court charged with "unlawful assembly" and "aggravated burglary and were released on bail.
 
Coalition spokesman Dermie McClenaghan spoke on August 24 of the support they received "in relation to the action we took in decommissioning the Raytheon facility at Springtown."
 
It makes the Patriot, Tomahawk, Cruise and Sidewinder missiles. The Derry Anti War Coalition said they had received messages of support from Noam Chomsky. Dermie McClenaghan said the academic had emailed the group saying: "You’re an inspiration to all of us. It’s an honour to have even a remote association with what you are doing."
 
Dermie McClenaghan also said anti-war campaigners in Pakistan have demanded that the charges against them be dropped and instead that "those supplying arms for the killings of Lebanese and Palestinians should be charged for crimes against humanity".
 
16. PRISON REPORT DESCRIBES MCDOWELL’S ATTIDUTE AS: "FRIGHTENING AND FASCIST"
 
THE deaths of two prisoners in a 12-hour period in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, on August 24 have further exacerbated tensions in the 26-County state’s largest prison. One man hanged himself and another died from an overdose.
 
All of this comes as continuing overcrowding in Mountjoy prison was highlighted again in the annual report, published on August 24, of the inspector of prisons, Judge Dermot Kinlen. The report also heavily criticised 26-County justice minister Michael McDowell and his department, accusing them of a "frightening and fascist" attitude to prison reform.
 
In particular, the report cites the 26-County Administration’s failure to deliver on a promise to establish the prison inspectorate as an independent, statutory body. "I have asked in all my three annual reports that the Government (sic) do as it promised. Now it emerges that the Minister has ‘other priorities’. This is outrageous and practically unbelievable."
 
The report also claims that rehabilitation of prisoners is low on the current list of priorities. "The whole system needs a radical, visionary, fundamental change which should be power-driven from the top."
 
Dermot Kinlen repeats a call he made in his 2005 annual report for the immediate closure of St Patrick’s Institution for young offenders, Dublin, which he describes as a "finishing school for bullying and developing criminal skills".
 
Prison warders in riot gear were on standby at Mountjoy late on August 24, in case of any unrest following the deaths and a number of gang related clashes in the jail in the days leading up to the deaths.
 
The latest deaths follow the murder at the jail at the end of July of 21-year-old Gary Douch, from Darndale, Dublin. He was beaten to death in a holding cell by a 23 year-old inmate with a history of psychiatric illness.
 
In the first of the fatalities, Michael Rogers (39), South Circular Road, Dublin, was found hanging in a protection cell on the C2 wing just after 3am. He had been involved in a fight at the prison on August 23 with a number of men, one of whom is serving life for murder.
 
Michael Rogers had asked to be placed in a protection cell for his own safety. He was nearing the end of an 18-month sentence for burglary related offences.
 
Medical officers tried to revive him at the prison. He was then rushed to the Mater hospital where he was pronounced dead at 4.am on August 24.
 
In the second fatal incident, John Wallis (21), from Wexford town fell ill in his cell in the basement area on August 24. It appeared he was under the influence of illicit drugs and efforts were made to revive him. He was taken to the Mater hospital where he was pronounced dead at 4.15pm.
 
John Wallis was serving a nine-month sentence for a series of motoring offences. He was a "trustee prisoner", meaning he was deemed a low-security risk and enjoyed special privileges such as reduced lock-up time.
 
His cell-mate, believed by staff to have taken the same drugs, was taken to the Mater hospital as a precaution on August 24.
 
Reinforcements were drafted into Mountjoy on August 24 from Wheatfield and Cloverhill prisons in Dublin. The warders were told to wear breathing apparatus, and fire hoses were at the ready in case some inmates tried to set fire to the jail.
 
The warders were placed on riot standby after a 22-year-old Dublin drug dealer was transferred to the medical unit when he and his associates clashed with another faction.
 
The dealer’s supporters started a petition to have him transferred back to the main jail. However, a leading member of one of Limerick’s feuding gangs warned he would kill anybody who signed the petition.
 
18. ‘SERIOUS SYSTEMIC PROBLEMS’ IN 26-COUNTY POLICE
 
THE Morris tribunal reports suggested "very serious systemic problems" in the 26-County Police, Garda Ombudsman Commission member Conor Brady has said.
 
Conor Brady said the reports suggested that, as well as good and bad members of the force, there was a "great body of people in the middle who are capable of being led either way, and that in this instance it seems as if the people in the middle certainly didn’t support the people on the side of right, and tended if anything to go towards the people who were doing things the wrong way."
 
Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland, Conor Brady said this suggested "very serious systemic problems in an organisation".
 
"Every organisation will throw up its bad ones, but the organisation should be able to withstand that and it should have self-correcting mechanisms to isolate the bad ones.
But it seems that in this case, the Morris tribunal came to the conclusion that that didn’t happen and that in fact the virus spread, as it were".
 
Conor Brady also said that in England and Wales there was a move away from attempting to have members of the police force convicted before juries and towards seeking to have them dismissed instead. "I think that is probably the way things will go here too," he said.
 
"The difficulty of getting convictions from a jury is clear. Juries are very reluctant. You saw it in the May Day protests, where people were seen on television doing unspeakable things and they were acquitted by a jury.
 
"I think that probably the way forward will be by way of a disciplinary system which is close to the normal industrial relations model rather than the traditional police disciplinary model," Conor Brady said.
 
19. INCINERATOR DECISION OPPOSED
 
THE decision by Meath Co Council to grant Indaver Ireland permission to increase by one third the amount of waste it can incinerate at its plant at Carranstown, just outside Drogheda, Co Louth, is to be appealed to An Bord Pleanala.
 
The company confirmed on August 28 it had been notified of the decision. It will now be able to accept up to 200,000 tonnes a year, an increase of 50,000 tonnes on that granted by An Bord Pleanála.
 
The No Incineration Alliance an umbrella group of opponents to incineration indicated they would appeal the decision. They said they were particularly disappointed that the council granted permission as it had been able to consider health, environmental and other concerns in assessing this application, something it was unable to do at the time of the original application due to legislation in force then.
 
The permission is subject to 32 conditions including one that specifies the waste "shall primarily be waste generated and produced in the northeast region area of counties Meath, Louth, Cavan and Monaghan and shall have regard to the proximity principle".
 
The Carranstown site is three miles from Drogheda, Co Louth and the planners in Co Meath were accused by one Louth County Councillor of allowing Carranstown to become "a dumping ground for the rest of the country".
 
"The sad reality now is that the people of the Drogheda area will have to deal with the effects of the burning of not just their own waste, but that of the capital’s too," added Cllr Gerald Nash.
 
A spokesman for the No Incineration Alliance said the site location "is on top of a huge regional aquifer which supplies water to a lot of people in the northeast region". He said it seemed "foolish in the extreme to approve planning for a plant like this in case there is a leak into the water table".
 
The heritage and environment lobby group, Battle for the Boyne forum said: "This is an act of cultural vandalism as the chimney stack will be visible from the World Heritage site at Brú na Bóinne."
 
A spokesman said they also feared the emissions could damage the megalithic art at Knowth. The group is also to appeal the decision.
 
ENDS