Blog Archives
‘UNION MEMBERS DEEPLY UNHAPPY’ AT PRICE MOTION
‘This type of motion can only cause division and is the last thing Nipsa needs - Ross Hussey.
A MOTION calling for the release of prominent republican Marian Price due to come before the Nipsa conference has been criticised by the UUP. West Tyrone MLA and policing board member Ross Hussey said he had been contacted by Nipsa members who were “deeply unhappy” at the motion.
Mr Hussey described it as a “deeply regrettable situation” which could “cause decision”. “I have been contacted by a number of Nipsa members who are deeply unhappy at Motion No 13 in the conference handbook which states ‘Conference demands the immediate release of Marian Price’. “The motion goes on to call for the Nipsa general council ‘to campaign for the immediate release of Marian Price on humanitarian grounds’. “This is deeply regrettable situation. Nipsa is a highly respected trade union which draws its members from right across the province and from all sections of our society. “This type of motion can only cause division and is the last thing which Nipsa needs.” Then secretary of state Owen Paterson revoked her life sentence licence at Easter 2011 after Price was charged over a dissident republican rally in Derry. She is also facing seperate charges of providing a mobile phone for a terrorist purpose in March 2009 shortly before two soldiers were shot dead at Massereene barracks. The 58-year-old has been receiving treatment for depression, arthritis and lung problems, while kept in hospital under armed guard.
With many thanks to : Maeve Connolly, Irish News.
This letter also appeared in the Irish News today Friday May 17 2013.
Two years incarceration and still no justice for Marian.
THIS week marks the entry into the third year Marian Price is interned without trial and is incarcerated on the word of a British Secretary of State. Where is the justice in this maltreatment of a defenceless woman whose health has deterioted to a level thatt she is almost unable to function as a person? Her incarceration in solitary confinement is responsible for this deterioration – firstly in Maghaberry, then Hydebank and now in hospital. Health professionals have revealed home care packages to treat Marian in a humane way and to date the British government has refused to grant her that humanity.
The long, drawn.out process in recent times still has not revealed an outcome. Fifteen years on from signing of the British agreement the treatment of Marian Price and others exposes that the injustice suffered at the hands of the British establishment hasn’t gone away. The analysis of the Irish people throughout our history that there is no British justice in Ireland is epitomised again with this deliberate maltreatment. Marian Price should be released immediately on humanitarian grounds due tonton the state of her health but she should also be released as a right because the spurious charges against her are not proven and innocent until proven guilty has gone out the door. Marian Price is serving a sentence of inhumane treatment for the past two years and yet is not sentenced to a single day in jail. Where is the justice ?
With many thanks to : Francis Mackey, Omagh, Co Tyrone.
Related articles
- Trade union in Marian Price row (newsletter.co.uk)
- Smash Internment Free Marian Price (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)
- Does Amnesty Practice Political Vetting ? (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)
- 10,000 people expected at anti-hunger rally in Belfast on the eve of the G8 summit (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)
- British Interests Best Served by Present Arrangements ! (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)
- The Continued Imprisonment of Marian Price (kclsoc.wordpress.com)
- Enda Kenny to raise peace process concerns (irishtimes.com)
PETER ROBINSON SET TO PUSH OFF
EXCLUSIVE : PARTY SOURCES SAY ROBBO’S READY TO QUIT STORMONT
NORTHERN Ireland’s premier politician Peter RRobinson, may be preparing to pull the plug on a four decade political career, the Sunday World has learned. And the race could soon be on to find a new dynamic leader to lift the mantle of Ulster unionism and wage the Democratic Unionist Party‘s battles at Storming and Westminister.
Speculation is rising within the DUP that the party leader may quit politics altogeather in favour of a new life on the other side of the Atlantic, where he and his wife Iris own a substantail home in Florida. Sources close to the Ian Paisley founded party, say the DUP leader appears to be ” going through the motions ” of holding down the prestigious post of First Minister. The cite Robinson’s recent lack-lustre performance at Westminister, when David Cameron sent him and Martin McGuinness packing with nothing to show for their efrorts to secure a new Corporation Tax for the North of Ireland, as the latest example of the First Minister’s ” mounting disillusionment with politics.” And the recent comments he made concerning an attack on the Irish News in which he called on people ” to stop buying the Irish News “. ” David Cameron swotted Robinson and McGuinness like flies,” said one Stormount source. ” This was supposed to kickstart the North of Ireland’s economy. In the end, they came away with nothing and clearly Robinson and McGuinness had no plan B.” And the source added : ” Peter Robinson is a man whose political career was predicted on his understanding of fiscal matters, but he was caught out badly when Cameron told him there would be no change in Corporation Tax in the North of Ireland until after the referendum on Scottish Independence. Robinson had no answer to that.”
Robinson – who became DUP leader and First Minister five years ago when the Rev. Ian Paisley stood down – managed to overcome heartache in his personal life, to get his political career back on track after it emerged his wife Iris had had an affair with 19-year-old cafe owner Kirk McCambley. In the wake of the ‘ Iris-gate ‘ crisis, Robinson stood down from front-line politics, while his wife was treated for depression in a private London clinic. He handed over the reigns of leadership to Fermanagh MLA Arlene Foster, who assumed the role of Acting First Minister. However, our sources maintain that if Robinson quits in the short to mid-term, then it is no longer a foregone conclusion that Foster – a former member of the Ulster Unionist Party – would emerge as frount runner for the leader’s job. ” Just because Arlene did such a good job when Peter was on gardening leave it doesen’t automatically mean that she is odds-on to be the next DUP leader. ” For many years, political pundits speculated that Nigel Dodds was the natural successor to Peter Robinson, but despite the rumours – even from within the party – that isn’t going to happen,” said our source.
And the source revealed for the first time that in his opinion, Peter Robinson’s preferred successor is Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson, who quit the UUP shortly before the party, led by David Trimble, signed the Belfast Agreement on Good Friday 1998. It is believed Robinson is impressed by Donaldson’s performance at Westminister, where he sits on various high-powered committees. ” Jeffrey has a great understanding of how Westminister works and although Peter believed Storming caters for good devolved and stable Government in the North of Ireland, he sincerely believed unionism is best served by a strong unionist presence at Westminster,” the source said. And he added : ” If Peter had his way, he would step down tommorrow and allow Jeffrey Donaldson to take over the reigns.” It is understood Peter Robinson’s ego was delt a damaging blow when following the Iris Robinson‘s toy boy sex scandel, voters in East Belfast dumped him as as Westminister MP in favour of the Alliance Party’s Naomi Long. His political star in East Belfast decended even more during the recent Union Flag crisis. While the Alliance Party endured a campaign of vilifcation, Robinson was roundly jeered when he turned up at a meeting on the Lower Newtonards Road to discuss the issue. Our source said it was the current DUP leader’s ambition that the party speak for all shades of unionist opinion.
With many thanks to : Hugh Jordan,Sunday World.
Related articles
- Robinson Slams ‘ Whingers and Whiners Back Home ‘ and Reveals Next Trip !!! (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)
- Six Degrees Of Paramilitary Separation (ansionnachfionn.com)
- DISSIDENTS BLAMED FOR PAINT-BOMB ATTACK ON McGUINNESS’S DERRY HOME (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)
- Luxury Hotel Budget Firmly Under Wraps ! (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)
- Mid-Ulster election exposes impoverished politics (scotsman.com)
- Robinson and Mcguinness to Meet Cameron Over Corporation Tax (belfastdaily.co.uk)
- McCallister resigns from the UUP (bbc.co.uk)
UUP’s ELLIOTT CALLS FOR PROBE INTO 1998 CORPORAL KILLINGS !
” Although IRA men Alex Murphy and Harry Maguire were convicted of the murders, many others were part of the republican mob that lynched these two young men – Tom Elliott.
THE IRA killings of two British corporals in 1998 conflict should be reinvestigated, former Ulster Unionist Party leader Tom Elliott has said. He called for dectives to reopen their inquires on the 25th anniversary of the shooting of Derek Wood and David Howes.
The soldiers, were wearing civilian cloths, were killed after unmarked car drove at high speed towards a Republican cortege in West Belfast. ” Although IRA men Alex Murphy and Harry Magurie were convicted of the murders, many others were part of the republican mob that lynched these two young men,” Mr Elliott said. ” I would appeal to the PSNI to renew their investigation into these murders. ” Irish republicans should provie the police with information so that those responsible can be brought to justice and clear their guilty consciences. ” Some senior members of Sinn Fein may hold the vital key which could help bring more people before the courts.”
The two-week cycle of violence that ended in the killings of the two British corporals by the IRA began on March 6 1998 when the SAS aassassinated IRA members Mairead Farrell, Dan McCann and Sean Savage in Gibraltar. At the funerals of the three IRA members in West Belfast‘s Milltown Cemetery 10 days later, loyalist gunman Michael Stone killed three people – John Murry, Thomas McErlean and IRA member Caiomhin Mac Bradaigh. Mac Bradaigh’s funerl was held three days later on Saturday, March 19 – exactly 25 years ago. As the funeral cortege made its way down West Belfast’s Andersontown Road, a car containing the corporals drove towards it and was subseqently cornered by mourers and black taxi drivers. The victims were dragged from the car, after firing shots into the crowd, were attacked, then taken away to be execuited despite pleas from Fr Alex Reid, a key player in the nascent peace process. The corporals were beaten on the nearby Casement Park GAA grounds and transported and shot in a derelict area near the Andersontown Road.
With many thanks to : Michael McHugh, Irish News.
Related articles
- SATURDAY INVESTIGATION: The lynch mob, the man of God and the truth about an atrocity seared on Britain’s psyche… (dailymail.co.uk)
- Inquiry call over corporals’ deaths (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)
- DUP and UUP discussed merger (bbc.co.uk)
- Masked Men Take Cctv Footage From Scene of Shooting (fiannaiochta.wordpress.com)
OPPOSITION TO RENAMING OF BELFAST STREET BY THE DUP !
AN ATTEMPT to name a north Belfast Street in memory of 15 people murdered in a Loyalist bombing which the then RUC claimed was an own goal and accused the McGurk family being personally involved in the bombing is back on the agenda, despite unionist opposition.
Residents of Fisher Court want it renamed McGurks way, after the bombing nearby of Mc Gurks bar in 1971. The move was passed by a Belfast city council Committee, but on a split vote.
DUP councillor Brian Kingston opposed it. ” Is this the route we want to go down, renaming streets in Belfast after atrocities of the troubles, ” he asked.
Related articles
- Sinn Fein set to support Belfast Diamond Jubilee events (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)
- The Siege of New Forge: Unionism’s latest pyrrhic triumph. (sluggerotoole.com)
- New UUP leader rules out electoral pact with DUP (leftfootforward.org)
- On Robinson as leader & the limitations of his ‘slightly conciliatory’ strategy (sluggerotoole.com)
- Talking about Reconciliation … (sluggerotoole.com)
Single victims’ commissioner sought
There had been four commissioners but Mike Nesbitt resigned to pursue a career in politics with the Ulster Unionist party.
The three outgoing commissioners will be free to apply for the new position.
The newspaper advert calls for applications to the post of commissioner/commissioners.
A senior Stormont source said that while there was the potential for appointing two commissioners, the preference was for one. “The intention is to appoint a single commissioner,” said the source. “But we are trying to retain some degree of flexibility.”
WITH MANY THANKS TO : THE BELFAST TELEGRAPH.
Also in this section
Soldiers celebrated IRA death with cake
Security forces kept memorabilia of shot suspects
Northern Ireland: special report
Undercover soldiers in Northern Ireland would celebrate the shooting dead of a terrorist suspect with a cake adorned with the victim’s name in icing, it emerged yesterday.
The BBC released a photograph of one of the cakes, in the shape of a cross, baked to mark the SAS killing of the IRA man William Price, 28, in Ardboe, Co Tyrone, 16 years ago. It was marked RIP, with his name and where he died.
The reporter Peter Taylor discovered it when interviewing members of the security forces for Brits, the BBC2 series on the role of intelligence during the troubles. They often kept memorabilia, including snaps of shot suspects, and the cake photo was no big deal to them, he said.
In tonight’s episode, a member of 14 Intelligence Company, an undercover army unit, denied there was any shoot to kill policy. Soldiers adhered to the yellow card stipulating when they could legitimately open fire, she said. But they would mark the killing of suspected IRA volunteers.
The woman, identified as Anna, said: “We celebrated, if you like, as the IRA would if they had shot somebody. They made no secret of the fact that they celebrate the death of a soldier or a policeman, and they can be highly public about their celebrations. We celebrated in the same way. We went to the bar. We drank quite a lot. The cooks made us a cake.”
She added: “After a shooting occurred, if a terrorist was killed there was a cake made with their name on it, part of the celebration. Some of the cakes were in the form of a cross with RIP on it.”
Asked by Taylor whether she thought that macabre, she replied: “Possibly, but the saying is: Live by the sword and die by the sword.”
Price was shot four times in July 1984 as the IRA planned an incendiary attack on a factory to coincide with the death of the hunger striker Martin Hurson. The SAS was laying in wait.
Two soldiers told the inquest they had opened fire fearing Price was about to shoot. He was hit in the legs and then in the head as he was in a sitting position.
An IRA statement at the time said Price was scouting a way to the factory with another IRA man, adding: “When they got within 20 yards or so of the bushes, three to four figures rose in front of them, and suddenly the whole place lit up with gunfire. William Price fell moaning. The other volunteer crawled back through the long grass to make his escape.
“From the time William Price was shot and wounded to the time the other volunteer got out of the firing line, the shooting never stopped. Some time after that shooting the other volunteers heard the SAS whooping hysterically like Indians in a wild west film. A good three minutes after the firing, there seemed to be one shot and then a burst of shots.”
A private in the parachute regiment said on the programme that he had arrived on the scene after a shootout in Belfast between undercover soldiers and the IRA. It was hard to know who the enemy was. He began dressing the wound of an injured with his own shoulder dressing, reassuring him. The victim was going blue when the private learned he was an IRA man.
The private added: “Without thinking, I took the shoulder dressing off, threw it on the floor, picked up a handful of grass and sod of earth and shoved that where the shoulder dressing had been in his femur, obviously creating a load of pain and alarm.” Asked if he had said anything, he replied: “‘It looks like you’re on the way out, mate,’ and that was it. Thought no more of it.”
• David Trimble‘s plan to return to power sharing with Sinn Fein is to be challenged with alternative proposals by opponents in his Ulster Unionist party. They would be put to the party’s council before Saturday’s crucial vote, said Jeffrey Donaldson, MP for Lagan Valley, and would deal “with the issue of arms and the issue of government.
WITH MANY THANKS TO : John Mullin, Ireland correspondent,guardian.co.uk
Related articles
- Shoot-to-kill” inquest opens after 22 years of lies (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)
- SAS soldier ‘celebrated IRA killings with a beer’ (mirror.co.uk)
- BC subpoenas are legally dumb and dumber (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)
- Suspicions that Kingsmill killer was informer (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)
Commission hears concerns over Armagh band parade
The Parades Commission has been urged to reconsider a ruling which allows a loyalist band to parade through Armagh on St Patrick‘s Day.
The commission heard that St Patrick’s day was vital for tourism in ArmaghCormeen Rising Sons of William have been given permission to hold a procession with 40 other bands and more than 1000 supporters.
The SDLP and Sinn Fein raised concerns about the march taking place on the city’s biggest tourism day of the year.
The parties made representations to the Parades Commission on Tuesday.
The UUP‘s Danny Kennedy MLA and Cllr William Irwin also spoke to the commission, in support of the parade organisers.
The commission is understood to be reviewing its determination and a final decision on the march will be announced later.
WITH MANY THANKS TO : BBC NEWS NI.
Related articles
- Kingsmills parade is restricted (bbc.co.uk)
- St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Conshohocken 3/10/12 (pddv.org)
- St Patricks day. (politics.ie)
- After The Parade (jhasmoments.wordpress.com)
Kingsmills march to be postponed
The march was due to take place this Saturday.
William Frazer of Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (Fair) said the march had been postponed in light of two recent bereavements and at the request of the Kingsmills families.
UUP MLA Danny Kennedy has welcomed the decision.
“The decision was taken in the interests of community relations,” he said.
“I know that this decision was difficult and indeed, painful for many, however, it is a huge gesture of goodwill and I wish to commend the organisers and the Kingsmills families in taking this step,” he added.
“The decision not to march on Saturday does not in any way take away from the need to obtain clear answers as to who carried out the massacre at Kingsmills.
“There is still palpable hurt within the local unionist community.
“The recent report which was undertaken by the Historical Enquiries Team highlighted the need for many questions still to be answered.
“Only by discovering the truth will closure and healing be brought to the families who lost loved ones in this horrific tragedy.”
Mr Frazer said the march would “still take place at a later date”.
The Parades Commission had placed restrictions on the march which was to go through the village of Whitecross.
One of the organisers of the march, Pastor Barry Halliday, who had helped Fair plan the parade, last week claimed that he had been threatened.
WITH MANY THANKS TO : BBC NEWS NI.
Related Stories
- Kingsmills pastor ‘is threatened’ 16 FEBRUARY 2012, NORTHERN IRELAND
- Paterson rejects Kingsmills plea 18 JULY 2011, NORTHERN IRELAND
- IRA ‘responsible for Kingsmills’ 16 JUNE 2011, NORTHERN IRELAND
- Kingsmills families inquiry call 21 JUNE 2011, NORTHERN IRELAND
- 1976: Ten dead in Northern Ireland ambush 21 NOVEMBER 2002, 5
