Irish Republican Information Service (no. 86)
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: 16 Samhain / November 2006
 
Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom
 
 

In this issue:
1. RSF Ard Fheis takes place in Dublin 2. RUC barracks attacked in Co Armagh
3. Bomb found in search operation
4. Senior RUC member implicated in loyalist death squad collusion
5. Shell protest escalates
6. House raided by Crown Forces in Derry
7. Hamill Inquiry challenges RUC anonymity
8. An Fhírinne call for immediate action following collusion inquiry
9. Poverty level in 26-County state remain high according to UN report
 
1. RSF ARD-FHEIS TAKES PLACE IN DUBLIN
 
ON the weekend on November 11 and 12 Republican Sinn Féin held it 102th Ard-Fheis in Dublin. The Ard-Fheis was attended by delegates and visitor from throughout Ireland, Scotland and the US, as well as visitors from two Welsh republican independence groups as well as the Ireland Information Group in Sweden.
 
The Ard Fheis was addressed by Seán Harrington, brother of Máire Harrington, one of the leaders of the Shell to Sea campaign in Ros Dumhach, Co Mayo, who informed the Ard-Fheis about the on-going campaign. Joel Hogberg of the Ireland Information Group in Sweden as well as Simon Foster of the Welsh Republican Party also addressed the Ard-Fheis. Dan Keating, the 104 year-old patron of Republican Sinn Féin, the last and faithful survivor of the Tan war also addressed the delegates and visitors. On Sunday November 12 Briege O’Connor, whose son Joe is currently a political prisoner in Maghaberry prison in the Six Counties spoke about the conditions in Maghaberry and the campaign for political status.
On Sunday, November 12 in his Presidential Address covered in a number of the print and broadcast media, including RTE and TG4, Ruaíri Ó Brádaigh said: “The St Andrews Agreement between the British and the 26-County governments. It was described officially as the ‘basis for an agreement’ and ‘a formula to restore Stormont’. Ireland was initially partitioned by the Government of Ireland Act 1920 of the British parliament. The undoing of Partition and of English rule in our country thus required a decision of Westminster. Far from evolving towards Irish national independence, subsequent legislation of the British Parliament put additional locks on any movement in that direction.
“By the Ireland Act 1949, passed in Westminster, a decision by Stormont as well as by the British parliament was made necessary. Then the enactment by Westminster of the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1998, embodying the Stormont Agreement, enshrined the Veto on a free and united Ireland in the artificial and local Unionist majority in the Six Occupied Counties. In this manner was the triple lock on progress towards Irish Independence put in position.
“Now following on the St Andrews Agreement between London and Dublin, Paisley was able to announce that there was a “DUP Veto” on the much-vaunted cross-border bodies. A Westminster Veto, a Stormont Veto, a Unionist Veto and the latest a DUP Veto. So much for evolution or the gradual working out or development over 85 years in the direction of an end to British rule. It has, in truth, been the reverse. Further it has to be borne in mind that in the end of the day, the British Cabinet is master and has power to overcome all vetoes.
“In 1986, 20 years ago, we were told that the Provos would “never, never, never” enter Stormont or Westminster. Now, having, so far as was in their power, stopped the war of national liberation and destroyed all arms under their control, they propose to accept and join the British police in Ireland. Some commentators, while admitting that Republican Sinn Féin forecast all of this, really doubted that we could have seen how far they would go at St Andrews.
“We could and did. And they will go even further. When they don the Black-and-Tan uniform and take up the Black-and-Tan gun and point it at us, and at the nationalist population generally, does anyone think they will hesitate if ordered by their British masters to shoot? The sheer logic of the situation demands such an outcome. They will protect their ill-gotten gains, just as history teaches us.
“This is the stark reality behind Gerry Adams’s words when he tells a meeting in Belfast that he ‘accepts policing’. We all accept policing but not British policing in Ireland. This is the harsh actuality behind the Provo Ard-Chomhairle’s ‘qualified acceptance’ of the St Andrews proposals. Let no one say that they were not told the plain unvarnished truth of the matter.
“But history also teaches us that there is no final settlement short of British disengagement from Ireland. No matter what Blair and Hain, Ahern and Kenny, Adams and Paisley tell us, that is the situation. While the British government remains in Ireland, the historic Irish Question continues to be unsettled with all the consequences of that position.
“Those who ignore such realities have blinded themselves as to the way forward. The best hope in the wake of British disengagement lies in a nine-county Ulster, as part of a new four-province federation, with power and decision making shared naturally – not artificially – according to local majorities.”
 
2. RUC BARRACKS ATTACKED IN CO ARMAGH
 
IT was reported on November 9 that shots were fired outside the RUC/PSNI barracks in Keady, County Armagh. Ulster Television said that bullet holes were visible in the security fence and wall. A local person living across from the barracks said that an explosion rocked his house just before the gunfire and he said a helicopter was out all night but no members of the British Crown Forces landed until morning. UTV also said that two of the British colonial police were in the barrack yard when the shooting started and hid in the barracks. They later phoned nearby residents to ask what had happened and could they see anything.
 
3.  BOMB FOUND IN SEARCH OPERATION
 
IT was reported on November 9 that a bomb had been found during an RUC/PSNI search operation in County Fermanagh. It was discovered on the Clough Road near Rosslea following reports that the Continuity IRA had abandoned a landmine in the area.
 
In a statement the Continuity IRA said it had abandoned a landmine near the border village of Roslea.  A caller using a recognised codeword phoned a newspaper in Enniskillen to say the device had been left on the Clough Road. The caller said that the main charge failed to detonate and after assessing the situation the bomb was abandoned.
 
4. SENIOR RUC MEMBER IMPLICATED IN LOYALIST DEATH SQUAD COLLUSION
 
A FORMER member of the British colonial police has said he is prepared to give sensational evidence to the 26-County Smithwick Tribunal which implicates RUC chief superintendent Harry Breen, the highest ranking member of the RUC to be killed in the current phase of the conflict in Ireland, with the activities of loyalist death squads.
 
John Weir served in the RUC from 1970 to 1980 before being convicted of the 1977 killing of a nationalist shopkeeper in Ahoghill, Co Antrim. He claims that Breen had been aware of RUC members being involved with loyalist death squads since the early 1970s.
 
Breen and his RUC colleague Robert Buchanan were shot dead in a Provisional ambush in south Armagh on March 20, 1989, after attending a meeting with senior members of the 26-County police at Dundalk garda barracks.
 
The Smithwick Tribunal is investigating whether the Provisionals received a tip-off from some one in the 26-County police.
 
Weir, who now lives in Nigeria, told the Sunday Business Post in November that Breen was present when meetings with loyalist death squads took place and that collusion with loyalists was “laughed and joked about”.
 
“Breen had connections with loyalism when I knew him,” said Weir. “Breen knew of his cops running around with loyalists. He took no action.
 
“He was there when sub-machine guns were handed over to loyalists - it was the done thing at the time. He was only one of many, many people who knew about it,” according to John Weir.
 
The loyalist death squad of which Weir was a member-and which he says, Breen approved of-is believed to be responsible for the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, as well as a string of other murders in the Six Counties, including the 1975 Miami Showband massacre.
 
If Weir’s claims are true, it points to further evidence of British state collusion in the worst single atrocity of the conflict to date.
 
An independent panel of international jurors on November 6 found “strong and credible” evidence of RUC and British army collusion in 24 out of 25 murder cases it investigated involving the deaths of 76 people.
 
Weir claims that Brian Fitzsimmons, who was head of the RUC Special Branch in the early 1970s and was based in Newry, Co Down, was aware of the extent of RUC collusion but did nothing to curb it.
 
Fitzsimmons was killed in the 1994 Chinook helicopter crash off the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland which also claimed the lives of 24 other senior British intelligence figures.
 
Weir denied media reports in recent weeks which stated that he had been questioned by Paddy McEntee SC, as part of his investigation into the Garda’s handling of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
 
It is understood that McEntee declined to interview Weir in Ireland earlier this year; because it was felt that Weir’s evidence was outside the remit of his investigation.
 
5. SHELL PROTEST ESCALATES
 
On November 10 the Shell to Sea group held a ‘day of action’, which was described as the most violent since protests over the Corrib project began, involved more than 100 local people and an additional 80 to 100 supporters.
 
Shell to Sea spokesman Dr Mark Garavan said that the campaign was “very disappointed” that a middle ground solution, involving a compromise proposal for a commission of inquiry into the optimum site for the terminal, had been rejected so quickly by the 26-County Marine Minister on November 6.
 
As the second of two such ‘action days’ since Shell resumed work at the terminal, it was planned to mark the 11th anniversary of the execution of Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight Ogoni activists who were opposed to Shell’s presence on their lands.
 
Leaflets had been prepared emphasising that the protest was to be peaceful. Despite this, as supporters of the Rossport and Glengad communities travelled to Mayo on November 9, gardaí were erecting roadblocks on all access routes to the terminal site. It was at one such roadblock at about 7am on November 10 that the first in a series on confrontations began.
 
At this point, some 130 gardaí had been deployed and the so-called ‘public order unit’ or riot squad was on standby.
 
School principal Maura Harrington who had been injured at the site in October, began driving her mini-van towards a line of gardaí and blowing her horn. Her vehicle was pushed through the Garda barriers, and two gardaí used truncheons to smash the side windows and pull her out. Her van was taken away for so-called “technical examination”.
 
Several small groups of demonstrators passed the checkpoints some dispersing into the bog, followed by gardai, and others making their way on to the main road. Among this latter group of about 40 people was Willie Corduff of the Rossport Five.
 
As before, many of the 200 demonstrators were local people in an age range from mid-30s to late 70s, with between 80 and 100 from Dublin, Cork, Galway among other areas.
 
People among the group of 40 on the main road say they had expected to be lifted off rather than have truncheons deployed.
 
Many sustained bruises on legs and arms, some were thrown into a ditch with a drop of about 10ft. Clothes and uniforms were torn and insults exchanged in the melee.
 
One local man was taken to hospital after a garda pushed him into a water-filled ditch and was pulled in after him.
 
There were further serious injuries later when, several miles away, protesters began picketing several suppliers to the Shell terminal site. Gardaí removed protesters from an access road linking the Lennon quarries, and then proceeded to Barrett’s builders’ providers to break up another group there.
 
One local man sustained fractured ribs, while another protester had his nose broken. Two people were arrested.
 
“I believe someone will be killed, given the violence by the state and the low number of trained police,” Micheál Ó Seighín, one of the Rossport Five, said afterwards.
 
“If Bertie Ahern had an ounce of cop-on, he’d come down and see for himself what’s happening,” said Glenamoy farmer and Shell to Sea supporter P J Moran. “We’re not asking for anything, only for our safety.” The protesters said the actions of the gardaí had strengthened their resolve to continue even more.
 
Meanwhile Pat O’Donnell of the Erris Inshore Fisherman’s Association (EIFA) said local fishermen had agreed at a meeting on November 7 to prevent Shell’s plans to locate an effluent out pipe in Broadhaven Bay, by using their fishing vessels to blockade Broadhaven Bay.
 
The fishermen are concerned about an out pipe which will pump effluent into the sea close to a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and damage marine life. A marine licence vetting committee report has already raised concerns about the out pipe and the pollutants it will discharge.
 
Shell said the outfall would be at a point “several kilometres north of Broadhaven Bay”, but the fishermen said the Atlantic swell with south-westerly prevailing winds would bring the effluent back into Broadhaven Bay.
 
“There are over 100 people dependent on fishing for a livelihood in the Erris area, and deep sea angling is also a tourist industry in Belmullet. We are not going to let Shell pollute our bay, which has been a huge asset to the community down through the centuries. The Irish (sic) Navy will have to be called in to deal with a blockade,” Pat O’Donnell said.
 
6. HOUSE RAIDED BY CROWN FORCES IN DERRY
 
ON November 8 the home of teenage mother Nuala Kivlehan (19) was raided by members of the British colonial police. Nothing was found at the Kivlehan home in Sheelin Park, Derry when the RUC/PSNI searched it room by room.
 
Nuala Kivlehan (19) was at home with her one-year-old son when the RUC/PSNI arrived in four vehicles and produced a search warrant at her front door shortly before noon. They told her the search followed on from an anonymous phone call.
 
The British police later broke down the door of her next door neighbour John Lindsay who was preparing for the funeral of his father in Edinburgh and was out of the house at the time.
The RUC/PSNI admitted on November 9 that there was nothing suspicious found at either property.
 
According to Nuala Kivlehan’s father James, it is the third time the RUC/PSNI have raided the house. On a previous occasion, he said the RUC/PSNI produced a warrant for a contraband search, but again found nothing.
 
Nuala Kivlehan said she was “shocked” by the incident. “I saw police pulling up at around 11.30am and I thought they were going into the shop, but then around four of them came to the door and handed me a search warrant for firearms in suspicious circumstances.
 
“I was told they’d got a phone call to say someone had been seen in our front room with a gun. At this point I was so shocked that I almost laughed and an officer told me they took this very seriously. They were very quick. They took about half an hour and went through all the rooms with me. I was a bit scared being here alone with the wee boy and all these men going through our stuff, but then my brother and my father came home.”
 
James Kivlehan said he was angry when he arrived at the house. “They were civil, but I was pretty angry at that stage because my daughter had to deal with this on her own. We’ve been in touch with our local councillor and are thinking about taking it further with the Ombudsman.”
 
7. HAMILL INQUIRY CHALLENGES RUC ANONYMITY
 
THE Hamill Inquiry said on November 9 that it is to appeal a decision granting anonymity to members of the RUC giving evidence in the case of Robert Hamill, from Portadown, who was beaten to death by loyalists.
 
Sir Edwin Jowitt’s panel wants the retired RUC men to give evidence openly about their role after Robert Hamill, 25, was battered to death by a mob in Portadown, Co Armagh, in 1997.
 
It was claimed that four RUC men witnessed the killing. A spokesman for the tribunal said: “A notice of appeal is to be lodged on behalf of the Robert Hamill Inquiry against the judgment of Mr Justice Morgan sitting in the High Court of Northern Ireland (sic) on judicial review.
 
“The judgment ruled against the Inquiry’s decision to refuse the applications for anonymity made by a number of serving and former police officers.”
 
The victim was set upon by a large group in the centre of the town and beaten to death.
His inquiry is determining whether any wrongful act or omission was made by the RUC that may have facilitated the killing.
 
It is also probing whether there were any attempts to obstruct the murder investigation as well as whether it was carried out with due diligence.
 
Justice Morgan held that the inquiry’s approach to Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights - the right to life - was flawed.
 
The judge upheld an application at the High Court in Belfast for judicial review brought by a former RUC member on behalf of 20 colleagues who have been called as witnesses.
 
RUC representatives have argued that identifying them would expose them to threat. Lawyers for Robert Hamill’s relatives have called for full transparency.
 
8. AN FHÍRINNE CALL FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION FOLLOWING COLLUSION INQUIRY
 
THE British government were called to account for the findings of a damning report released this week which confirmed there was evidence of collusion in the deaths of scores of nationalists during the conflict.
 
A report carried out by an independent panel of inquiry, headed by Professor Douglas Cassel of the renowned Notre Dame Law School in Indiana, discovered that in 24 of 25 incidents in the early 1970s, evidence strongly suggested collusion by members of the British Crown Forces.
 
The findings implicate the RUC and UDR in 74 deaths on both sides of the border.
One passage of the report said that evidence indicates that members of “the RUC were aware of their sectarian crimes, yet failed to act to prevent, investigate or punish them.
 
“On the contrary, they allegedly made statements that appeared to condone participation in these crimes.”
 
Robert McClenaghan, a spokesperson with An Fhírinne, a group who have campaigned to expose British collusion in the murder of nationalists, has called on the British government to respond positively to the latest report by setting up an independent international inquiry.
 
“This report is but the latest to highlight instances of collusion North and South of the border, and particularly in light of similar instances in West Belfast we need an international, independent inquiry into these serious allegations.
 
“The British State can no longer bury its head and refuse to comment as it did earlier this week.
 
“The families of the 74 murdered people demand answers now,” said Robert McClenaghan. He also condemned unionists for not acting on this most serious matter and urged the community to support the ongoing campaign of bereaved families to get justice in cases involving collusion.
 
“The silence of the entire unionist establishment, newspapers, councillors, MPs and MLAs in response to this report has been deafening.
 
“For the families of this collusion it is both frightening and sickening. If these were 74 cases of IRA collusion with, say the Irish (sic) government, these same politicians would be outraged, but they are sitting like sheep afraid to open their mouths because they know that collusion is a reality. If this report had happened in any other country, governments would have collapsed,” he added.
 
“An Fhirinne supports these families in their search for truth and justice. They need support from all right-thinking people North and South in Ireland. The Irish (sic) government should convene a special summit with the British government to discuss this report and the families’ concerns to ensure that it is acted upon and not left to gather dust,” Robert McClenaghan said.
 
9.  POVERTY LEVEL IN 26-COUNTY STATE REMAIN HIGH ACCORDING TO UN REPORT
 
The UN Development Programme’s Human Development Report 2006, published on November 9, put the 26-County state at 17 out of 18 selected high-income OECD states in its human poverty index, with only Italy ranking lower.
 
This index was compiled by calculating life expectancy, adult literacy, long-term unemployment and risk of poverty.
 
Despite a largely positive evaluation that put the 26-County state ahead of states such as Sweden, the US and France as a place to live, several other indices showed the 26-County state faring worse than other highly-placed states.
 
The report said the 26-County state’s public expenditure on education, as a proportion of GDP, fell from 5 per cent in 1991 to 4.3 per cent in 2002-04. This was the lowest of all states in the top 20 of the development index except Japan.
 
On unemployment, the report noted that the proportion of young people without a job was 8.3 per cent; almost double the national total across all age groups.
 
The report also shows that in the 26-County state women tend to earn significantly less than men. Measured in purchasing power parity terms in US dollars, it found that women in the 26-County state earned an estimated average of $26,160 compared to the men’s average of $51,663.
 
On separate “gender empowerment measures” the document places the 26-County state in 17th place, pointing out that the number of seats in the 26-County assembly at Leinster House held by women was only 14.2 per cent of the total, considerably lower than Sweden (45.3 per cent), Finland (37.5 per cent), Iceland (33.3 per cent) and the Netherlands (34.2 per cent).
 
Frank O’Donnell, of the UN Development Programme, said many of the findings reflected previous studies, but some ought to raise concern.
 
“The indices that do cause concern here are also in some manner similarly reflected in other reports, like the OECD’s economic survey of Ireland (sic), which came out earlier this year.
 
“So if we’re to look at these various sources we can say that educational outcomes are broadly in line with the OECD average-this is good but it’s still far below those achieved by the best performers in the OECD.”
 
Investment in education as a percentage of GDP (gross Domestic Product) was “not what it should be”, while there were also notable indications of social inequality.
 
“If you look at social inequality, Ireland (sic) still has a long way to go. It has a way to go in terms of youth unemployment, which is twice the national average.”
 
The report also highlighted an ever-widening development gap between the world’s richest and poorest countries. Sub Saharan Africa, in particular, is stagnating. It calls for urgent action to resolve a growing water and sanitation crisis.
 
Overall, some 1.1 billion people lack safe water and 2.6 billion lack access to sanitation.
 
While Norway is deemed the best place to live, Niger in west Africa is the worst, unchanged from 2005. People in Norway are more than 40 times wealthier than people in Niger.
 

ENDS