Irish Republican Information Service (no. 77)
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: 23 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. RPAG stage very successful rally in Lurgan
2. Hunger strike commemoration
3. Tribunal findings point to "gross insubordination and indiscipline" within garda ranks
4. Provos support DUP motion on disbandment
5. Provos call for new cross-border bodies
6.  Nationalist family targeted by loyalists
7. Leonard Peltier message to the people of Ireland
8. Daughter calls for 1971 murders to be investigated
9. RUC contest Hamill inquiry decision to publicly identify them
 
 
 

1. RPAG STAGE VERY SUCCESSFUL RALLY IN LURGAN
In spite of a large RUC/PSNI presence a very large crowd turned out to support the five demands of the Republican POWs currently on protest in Maghaberry Gaol. The protest - organised by the Republican Prisoners’ Action Group (RPAG) - took place in the Edward Street area of Lurgan, County Armagh, at 2pm on Saturday, August 19. The weekend also marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Mickey Devine on hunger strike in 1981.
 
A white-line picket took place on Edward Street, followed by a rally nearby. A former Independent Councillor for Fermanagh, Tony McPhillips, chaired the proceedings. He introduced Mrs. McKenna - the mother of one of the protesting prisoners from the Lurgan area - who read a statement on behalf of the POWs. Tony McPhillips then introduced lifelong Republican Des Long from Limerick, who was the main speaker for the occasion.
 
Des Long said that the failed Stormont Agreement is responsible for the current plight of Republican prisoners who are being criminalised by the political Administrations in Dublin, Belfast and London and that the same struggle as the 1981 hunger strikes is now being waged in jails throughout the 32-Counties.  He said that the current crisis in Maghaberry prison could easily be resolved by the granting of political status.
 
"It gives the lie to all those who say that there is no Republican resistance to British rule in Ireland. In every struggle for national liberation it is recognised that the actions of the resistance arise out of the political situation and in Ireland it is no different.
"The sad fact is that ten men died on hunger strike to establish and enshrine the principle of political status and as a member of the National H-Block Committee at the time I have no hesitation in saying that today the same struggle is being waged by true Republicans who are incarcerated in jail.
 
"It is even more tragic for the families of the men who died on hunger strike to realise that their noble sacrifice was sold out during the negotiations for the failed Stormont Agreement - sold out by a discredited and disgraced Provisional leadership who embraced and emboldened British rule in Ireland.
 
"It gives me no pleasure to say this but in the eyes of the Provisional leadership; in the eyes of their political masters in London and Dublin, the men in prison today are regarded as criminals and they are being treated as criminals - however we as true Republicans must never tolerate this treatment and above all we must never accept that true Republican prisoners are criminals - they are resisting British rule in Ireland - and we are proud of them - because like us they know that the failed Stormont Agreement can never bring a real and lasting peace to Ireland.
 
"It is despicable that former comrades in the Provos are to the forefront of attempts to criminalise these men. It is even more disgusting that the Provos continue to condemn the continued resistance to British rule. Calling us ‘micro-groups without support’ may be pleasing their British masters, but the Provos cannot crush the age-old aspiration to national self-determination. Just because they have sold out and taken the Queen’s Shilling does not end the struggle for Irish unity!
 
"The principled actions of the Republican prisoners are aimed at ensuring that they are not treated as criminals - and their demands are in line with the accepted status of political prisoners throughout the world. There are five demands and these five demands will be met - or else there will be a return to the dark days of the 1980’s when Republicans made the ultimate sacrifice in pursuit of political status:
 
RIGHT TO FREE ASSOCIATION
END TO CONTROLLED MOVEMENT
RIGHT TO FULL TIME EDUCATION
SEPARATE VISITING FACILITY
RIGHT TO ORGANISE THEIR OWN LANDINGS
The facts:
* Thirty-eight Republican Prisoners are currently imprisoned in Maghaberry Gaol.
* "Controlled movement" is imposed on Republican landings with only three prisoners permitted out of their cells on the landing at any one time with each prisoner accompanied by two prison warders. Free Association on landings completely removed.
* Legislation introduced by the British government following the Stormont Agreement removed the right of Republican prisoners to organise themselves on their own landings and removed the right of Republican prisoners to spend their time in prison constructively.
* Prisoners made to choose between daily exercise or education. Prisoners denied educational facilities to enable them to organise their own education.
* Easter Lilies banned in the prison. Other Republican handicrafts confiscated and destroyed by prison warders.
* RUC/PSNI approval required before prisoners permitted on Republican landing.
* Republican prisoners’ parole entitlement has been reduced to half that of other prisoners.
* Denial of compassionate parole for family and religious occasions. Parole for funerals of immediate family members often restricted to six hours or less.
* Constant use of strip-searching to humiliate prisoners contrary to international law. One prisoner received 31 strip-searches and 1,135 rub-down searches in a six-month period.
* Prisoners locked in their cells alternately for 21/23 hours per day.
* Abuse of the sniffer dogs in an attempt to criminalise political prisoners.
* Families and prisoners are wrongly accused of smuggling drugs into the prison. Families are forced to have closed family visits which take place through Perspex screen while prisoners returning from parole are placed in solitary confinement for 48 hours.
* Family visitors exposed to Loyalist visitors while visiting prison. Prisoners exposed to Loyalists going to and from legal visits.
* The power of the Governor to punish a prisoner by taking away remission was reintroduced specifically for Republican prisoners after it was banned by the European Court of Human Rights in 2002.
* Access to a doctor available only once a week.
* Interference with correspondence.
* Irish language and cultural items including handicrafts made relating to hunger strikes confiscated or destroyed by prison officers.
 
"Political status remained a right and was never a privilege," concluded Des Long.
Tony McPhillips concluded the meeting by saying that "those who do not support the prisoners do not support Republicanism and they should be treated like the traitors that they are." The proceedings closed with Brendan Magill of Lurgan singing the National Anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann.
 
The British colonial police harassed many of the protesters that had turned out for the event. A car was stopped by an unmarked RUC vehicle in the Church Place area of Lurgan shortly before the protest was due to begin, holding the driver for approximately 20 minutes and asking how concerned people knew him. A minibus returning from the parade was also stopped under the Road Traffic Order, with the occupants subsequently being questioned under Britain’s so-called "Terrorism Act". Backup units from the RUC’s DMSU (Divisional Mobile Support Unit) also arrived on the scene.
The RPAG will not be swayed by this harassment, however, and will continue to highlight the plight of the Republican POWs in Maghaberry Gaol.
 
2. HUNGER STRIKE COMMEMORATION
 
On Saturday August 26, the annual commemoration of the 1981 hunger strikes will take place in Bundoran, Co Donegal at 3pm. Mary Ward of Republican Sinn Fein will give the keynote address. Mary is the widow of Pat Ward, from Burtonport, Co Donegal, who died prematurely in 1988 as a direct result of a series of hunger strikes whilst he was a Republican prisoner in the 1970s. This year the event marks the 25th anniversary of the deaths of Bobby Sands and his nine comrades in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh.
 
The event is organised each year by the Bundoran H-Block Commemoration Committee and though not part of the organising committee, a Republican Sinn Fein representative has spoken there since the first commemoration. Members of the families of the hunger strikers of the 1970s and 1980s also attend the commemoration annually.
 
The commemoration will assemble at the East End in Bundoran at 3pm; from there it will parade to the Promenade. Enroute a wreath will be laid at the gates of the Republican Garden in the West End.
 

3. TRIBUNAL FINDINGS POINT TO "GROSS INSUBORDINATION AND INDISCIPLINE" WITHIN GARDA RANKS
 
The Morris tribunal into Garda wrongdoing in Co Donegal, found that "gross insubordination" and "indiscipline" existed within the 26-County police.
Three reports of the tribunal were launched on August 17. Retired judge Fredrick Morris said there was a "small but disproportionately influential core of mischief-making members who will nor obey orders, who will not follow procedures, who will not tell the truth and who have no respect for their officers".
 
Fredrick Morris said: Those who are charged with upholding the good order of society are not to be dragged into looking at their vocation as just another way of making money or, worse, of lazing about and making mischief. It is wrong to suggest that the people of Ireland are getting value from every Garda employed by them."
 
Advocating a new system of discipline, Fredrick Morris said: "Without a swift method of disposing of those who are real problems through indiscipline and not working, and of correcting those who can be corrected, a terrible and costly waste of talent will occur."
 
Reacting to the publication of the reports the director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Mark Kelly, said the reports highlighted the need for comprehensive, human- rights based reform of the 26-County police: "disciplinary reforms must go hand-in-hand with action to ensure that An Garda becomes a fully accountable, and human rights compliant police service."
 
Writing in The Irish Times on August 21 solicitor Michael Finucane, son of Pat Finucane, the Belfast solicitor murdered by a British-backed loyalist death-squad, commented: "It has been happening to us for long enough: the Kerry babies case 30 years ago, the heavy gang and the framing of innocent men for the Sallins mail train robbery. Severe beatings in custody go utterly unpunished, such as Derek Fairbrother in Dublin in the 1980s. In the 1990s, we saw Dean Lyons and the Grangegorman murders, the prosecution of Nora Wall, the killing of John Carthy in Abbeylara, the deaths of Brian Rossiter and Terence Wheellock in Garda custody. All of this without even mentioning Donegal."
 
He also wrote: "It is clear that An Garda Siochana has become a police force where success is measured by how well one can scheme, manipulate the system to your own ends, get away with, if not murder, certainly not investigating one when it is supposed to have happened, and successfully blame others for the failures and wrongdoing when there is any chance of being caught."
 
He went on to write: "This is the force we now have in Ireland. It is why there must be fundamental reform starting from the top down, the bottom up and every other conceivable manner until the cancer exposed by Morris has been eradicated permanently."
 

4. PROVOS  SUPPORT DUP MOTION ON DISBANDMENT
 
All ‘paramilitary groups’ in the Occupied Six Counties should disband immediately, a cross-party agreement concluded. Political parties including the provos have approved a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) motion calling for the standing down of armed groups. Representatives were meeting at Stormont near Belfast on Friday August 18 at the Preparation for Government committee ahead of the November 24 deadline for restoration of devolution.
 
The motion approved by all five parties stated: "That all parties support the standing down of all paramilitary organisations with immediate effect as the most important step towards achieving a shared future."
 
5. PROVOS CALL FOR NEW CROSS-BORDER BODIES
 
Instead of calling for the removal of the British imposed Border, the Provos have called for the creation of nine new cross-border bodies and an expansion of existing organisations. They would be in addition to the six all-Ireland bodies set up by the Stormont agreement. They want extra bodies to cover justice, policing, social economy, energy, rural development, pollution control and mental health. It has also called for
communications and higher and further education bodies to be established.
 
6. NATIONALIST FAMILY TARGETED BY LOYALISTS
 
A young nationalist family is considering moving out of their new north Belfast home after it was targeted by loyalists in an arson attack. A loyalist gang from the White City area tried to burn down the Old Throne Park home of Mickey Magennis on Aubust 20.
His girlfriend, Juanita Magennis, and 12-week-old baby daughter Mollie narrowly escaped injury in the blaze that left the house in the Whitewell district, extensively damaged. Mickey Magennis said that his family is lucky to be alive and are now considering moving out of the area.
 
"We only moved into the house in February," said the 27-year-old father of one. "We have a mortgage and are trying to make a life, and then something like this happens.This could have been much worse. My girlfriend woke up when she heard the window smashing. If she had not got up both her and the baby would have burned to death."
 
Mickey Magennis said he was considering asking the Six County Housing Executive to buy the house under the Special Purchase of Evicted Dwellings (SPED) scheme. A number of his neighbours, who have also been the victims of loyalist attacks, have had similar requests turned down by the Six County Housing Executive.
 
Firefighters said the flames were 20 feet high when they arrived. Station Commander Mark Beresford said the Magennis family was fortunate to escape. "I think they were alerted fairly early on. One of the neighbours knocked the door and at the same time, the windows started to smash so the woman and the child were able to get out fairly quickly," he said. "They were fairly lucky, if it had been much longer this could have been a tragedy."
 
Attacks on nationalist homes in the Whitewell have increased in recent weeks. At the beginning of August there was a tense stand off between rival groups amid claims a nationalist man had been assaulted and a Protestant teenager hit by a car. Last year three homes on Old Throne Park suffered severe damage in a sectarian arson attack. Loyalists set light to an oil tank at the rear of a property which spread to neighbouring houses.
 
7. LEONARD PELTIER MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND
 
Leonard Peltier of the American Indian Movement has spent nearly 30 years in United States prisons for a crime he did not commit (two Federal Police Officers were shot dead at a reservation defending itself against unjust practices) Recently representatives and friends of Leonard Peltier were in Dublin, Cork and Belfast with a message of solidarity from him to the Irish people and also to highlight his unjust continued detention. The following is the text of his message:
 
"Again I must say ‘my relatives’ because we are all related in one way or another by natural design of the Creator and by our common concerns for the earth and freedom. I have to acknowledge that another year has passed since my illegal imprisonment; 30 years have gone by while I remain illegally incarcerated.
 
"It seems that this year is one for reflection. Relatives from struggles around the world are stopping to reflect on the lives of friends, comrades, and loved ones who are now gone. During the past 30 years I have seen many people leave my life and journey to the spirit world. I have learned from the many people that have come into my life the true meaning of friendship and solidarity. With that, I must salute and address my friends, brothers and comrades in Ireland. I especially want to express my condolences to the families of the hunger strikers from a quarter of a century ago. I want to salute each of my friends throughout Ireland that have supported me for so many years. I pray that you will continue to lend me your support and consider me your friend.
 
"At this time, my friends and relatives in Ireland are suffering loss, but also celebrating the memories of those from their communities who have now gone to the spirit world. Twenty-five years ago you lost ten young men in the prime of their lives. Men who would have been starting families or graduating from university if they’d been born into a more just society suffered in the most inhumane way possible.
 
"When Bobby Sands died on May 5, 1981, millions of people from around the world joined their voices together to condemn the British government that allowed him to perish. I joined my voice to theirs. I fasted in solidarity with the hunger strikers for 40 days during that dreadful year. Fasting is something that I have done many times, when I was a free man, while participating in our sacred Sun Dance. The sufferings of our relations in Ireland are pains that we as Indian people know all too well. Our suffering, our fasting and our struggling links us together with a common bond. That is why I say to you, there in Ireland, you are my relatives.
 
"As your relative, let me join my thoughts, tears, and prayers with yours as you commemorate your fallen, especially those who died on hunger strike in 1981. My family and your families, my pain and your pains, my peoples struggle and the struggles of your people are all connected. We truly are all related. Thirty-one years ago the Lakota elders asked for help and protection from the ‘goon’ squad that was terrorising the Lakota Nation. I, along with many others, responded to that call. I simply responded to a call to help others protect our lands, culture and traditions. I ask that you not loose focus on the real issue, which is that people suffering extreme hardships need not be.
 
"Even today we see children, women and elders being murdered in Pine Ridge and Belfast, on Big Mountain in Navajo country and in the Basque country in Spain - and all in the name of justice. From Chiapas to El Salvador, and all around this Mother Earth, lands are being taken, cultures are being robbed of their languages, and the extermination of traditions are occurring on a daily basis.
 
"I must share with you that, as the years have passed, every day I hear routinely the sounds of my cell door opening in the morning and closing at night. Yet, I have not forgotten what I was asked to do when I was asked to respond to the call our elders sent - a cry for help. Now I once again must call on you for your help. I ask you to join your voices and efforts with mine.
 
"A young Cheyenne man by the name of Dave Bailey is our Leonard Peltier Defence Committee representative for Ireland and England. I ask that you help him in his efforts to highlight my case, and search for solutions in that part of the world that will eventually mean I never again have to hear the sounds of cell doors opening and closing. I ask you to do all you can to support his efforts, my efforts, and the efforts of all Indian people.
I humbly thank you for the warmth, hospitality, and support that you have shown our people over the years when they have come into your community. As you commemorate your fallen and your dead, remember that our suffering is linked to yours. We mourn with you and pray for you as relatives".
 
8. DAUGHTER CALLS FOR 1971 MURDERS TO BE INVESTIGATED
 
The daughter of one of the men murdered in the 1971 Ballymurphy Massacre has called for the death of her father to be reinvestigated on the 35th anniversary of his death.
 
Janet Donnelly’s father Joseph Murphy (41) was one of 11 people to be murdered in the nationalist area in the three days following the introduction of internment. Janet was just eight years old when her father died, leaving behind him a wife and nine young children.
 
Ten men - one of whom was a priest - and one woman were shot dead by the British army’s Parachute Regiment in the hours that followed the rounding-up of local nationalists. Janet says many of those who were on the crowded streets were only there to look for loved ones who had been lifted earlier that day - as the British government moved to detain nationalists without trial - when the British soldiers came out of the Henry Taggart barracks, firing at passers-by.
 
It is only now that the truth surrounding the horrific incidents of 1971 are emerging, after relatives grouped together to investigate the killings themselves, explains Janet who has also become heavily involved in recording the exact details of the Ballymurphy Massacre.
 
"The British army came out of the Henry Taggart Memorial Hall firing at whoever was there, they did not care who they were shooting at - they were there to murder and they did. Everyone who was shot was totally innocent."
 
In 1998 Janet, along with other relatives, came together to try to find out what happened and discovered from official documents, released by both the RUC and the British Coroner’s Office, that the deaths of these 11 innocent people had not been fully investigated.
"Basically me and some of the other families started doing a bit of digging by sending away for inquest papers and knocking doors in Ballymurphy trying to find out what people had seen at the time. My father was one of four people shot in the Manse Field. He was shot twice in the leg and died two weeks later in hospital but the only investigation into his death has been written in a paragraph on a page, and a lot of the information was inaccurate," she said.
 
The families’ investigation found some details which Janet admits she still struggles to cope with. "The coroner’s report shows that my daddy was beaten after he was shot. By the time he got to hospital he was covered in extensive bruising," says Janet who explained that the British soldiers had emerged from the barracks firing both rifles and hand guns.
 
Having discovered that the same British soldiers were involved in the Bloody Sunday massacre six months later, Janet says she now believes that had the incident been properly investigated at the time it could have saved further tragedy. "The British government didn’t care what happened that day," said Janet, "there were not any television cameras about so really it is remembered only by word of mouth. For many people when they think back to 1971 and internment they remember people being lifted, for us we remember the murder of family members, six months before the same people carried out another massacre in Derry."
 
9. RUC/PSNI CONTEST HAMILL INQUIRY DECISION TO PUBLICLY IDENTIFY THEM
 
The inquiry into the murder of Portadown man Robert Hamill faces a possible delay as about 60 former RUC members took out a court challenge against the inquiry. Robert Hamill was beaten to death in 1997 in the centre of Portadown. He was attacked by a loyalist mob and his family have complained that the RUC saw the attack and failed to intervene.
 
Hearings about the RUC’s handling of the 1997 murder are due to begin within two weeks. But the former RUC members are bringing a High Court challenge against a decision to publicly identify them. The RUC members are to seek leave for a judicial review. They argue that they should remain anonymous because of the potential threat from so-called ‘dissident Republicans’.
 
In early August the inquiry ruled that only one former RUC members should remain anonymous. The inquiry panel’s decision was based on health grounds. The panel said in a statement: "The panel has considered fully all evidence put before it, both oral and written, and has taken into account submissions made by the applicants, all interested parties and counsel to the inquiry."
 
Earlier this year the inquiry panel was given stronger powers under the controversial British Inquiries Act. It gives British ministers greater powers to withhold information, but it also increases powers to compel witnesses to testify.