Loughinisland suspect pictured helping to erect UUP election posters

Ronald Hawthorne (left) pictured holding the ladder helping put up election posters

A man who narrowly escaped death in the Loughinisland massacre has asked to meet with a UUP council candidate after a suspect in the loyalist atrocity was pictured helping put up his election posters.

Ulster Unionist Alan Lewis said he did “not wish to comment” on the photograph of Ronnie Hawthorn, who was named by a major documentary in connection with the 1994 attack, erecting his posters close to the south Down village.

A former member of Ukip, Mr Lewis is running as a candidate in the Slieve Croob area of Newry, Mourne and Down council in next month’s local government elections.

Hawthorn was named in No Stone Unturned as a suspected member of the UVF gang said to have been responsible for the attack on the Heights Bar in Loughinisland, when six men were shot dead while watching a World Cup match.

He has described the allegations in the film as “unfounded” and said it represented “a speculative, reckless, and irresponsible attempt at an expose, which now is the subject of a police investigation”.

Hawthorn was pictured erecting posters in support of Mr Lewis in a move described as a “distressing and hurtful” by one of the survivors of the Loughinisland attack.

Aidan O’Toole, who was seriously injured while working behind the bar, said he was “saddened” when he heard the news.

“This is such a small community and when something like this happens news gets around very quickly. I’ve spoken to other victims’ families who are just as devastated as I am by this news,” he said.

“Does Alan Lewis realise how insensitive this is and how retraumatising it is for us as victims?

“I still have my good days and bad days – things like this can be a real set back for us all.

“I wonder has Mr Lewis even bothered to watch No Stone Unturned, and would he maybe like to take the time to meet the families so we can explain to him at first hand the hurt his association with Hawthorn is causing us all.”

When contacted by The Irish News, Mr Lewis – who describes himself as a ‘Victims Advocacy Officer’ – said he had put his own posters up along with his wife, before saying he “didn’t want to comment”.

The Irish News also contacted Ronnie Hawthorn and the UUP for comment but they did not respond.

Two journalists, Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey, were arrested by police in relation to documents used in the making No Stone Unturned, which named a number of suspects including Hawthorn.

With many thanks to: The Irish News and Allison Morris for the original story 

Why the BBC won’t be airing the No Stone Unturned documentary which was on RTÉ this week | JOE is the voice of Irish people at home and abroad

https://www.joe.ie/movies-tv/bbc-wont-airing-no-stone-unturned-documentary-rte-week-683690

RTE1 have been the first Television station to commit to show No Stone Unturned on October 2nd at 9.35pm

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js“>http://<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>RTÉ is the first public broadcaster in the world to commit to showing “No Stone Unturned” feature documentary by <a href=”https://twitter.com/alexgibneyfilm?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@alexgibneyfilm</a&gt; and Belfast journalists <a href=”https://twitter.com/trevorbirney?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@trevorbirney</a&gt; and Barry McCaffrey on the Loughinisland Massacre. Watch <a href=”https://twitter.com/RTEOne?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@RTEOne</a&gt; Wednesday 2 October 9.35pm <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/TruthMatters?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#TruthMatters</a&gt; <a href=”https://t.co/96QqDunF2W”>pic.twitter.com/96QqDunF2W</a></p>&mdash; RTÉ Press Office (@RTEPress) <a href=”https://twitter.com/RTEPress/status/1174689592571760640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>September 19, 2019</a></blockquote> https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Two men arrested in England over theft of documents relating to the ‘Loughinisland Massacre’

Police said the sensitive material was held by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland.

Six innocent people were murdered including the oldest man ever murdered in the Troubles by terrorists in the Loughinisland massacre

Two men have been arrested over the suspected theft of confidential documents relating to the Loughinisland massacre.

The material, which police say featured in a documentary about the 1994 murders, had been in the possession of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI).

A police spokesman has claimed the theft of the documents “potentially puts lives at risk”.

PONI officers reported the theft to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

The PSNI then asked Durham Police to conduct an independent investigation into the theft.

The men, aged 51 and 48, were arrested by officers from the Durham force.

The arrests came on Friday morning after detectives, supported by PSNI officers, searched three properties in the Belfast area.

Six men were shot dead (murdered) inside the bar while watching Ireland play Italy during a World Cup football match

These included two residential properties and a business premises.

A number of documents and computer equipment seized during the raids will be examined by specialist officers.

The men are being questioned at Musgrave Police Station in Belfast.

A spokesman for Durham Constabulary described the investigation as “complex”.

“This morning’s arrests are a significant development in what has been a complex investigation,” he said.

“The terms of reference given to our inquiry were clear in that the investigation is solely into the alleged theft of material from PONI.

“The theft of these documents potentially puts lives at risk and we will follow the evidence wherever it leads us.”

Six people were murdered on June 18th 1994 when loyalist gunman (colluding with British death squads) burst into the bar in Loughinisland, Co Down, and opened fire on it’s customers

The UVF terrorists struck as football fans watched the Republic of Ireland team play in the 1994 Fifa World Cup.

In 2011, the Police Ombudsman found there had been major failings in the police investigation following the shootings, but said there was no evidence that police had colluded with the UVF.

However in 2016, a new Ombudsman report found there had been collusion, and the police investigation had been undermined by a desire to protect informers.

In 2017, a documentary, No Stone Unturned, named the main suspects, who were all leading members of the British Security Services

With many thanks to the: Belfast Telegraph for the original story.

Loughinisland judge previously represented police officer in ombudsman challenge

High Court judge Mr Justice Bernard McCloskey, who had a conflict of interest in the Loughinisland case

Mr Justice McCloskey is expected to deliver his final ruling in the Loughinisland challenge on Friday at the Royal Courts of Justice

High Court Loughinisland massacre Mr Justice McCloskey
A landmark judgment in a case taken against the Police Ombudsman by retired officers is expected to be appealed as it emerged the judge previously represented one of the officers in a similar case.

Mr Justice Bernard McCloskey held last month that the ombudsman went beyond his statutory powers in reaching conclusions on the Loughinisland atrocity which are unsustainable in law.

In June last year Dr Michael Maguire said there had been collusion between some officers and the UVF gunmen who opened fire in a Co Down pub in June 1994.

The victims of the Loughinisland massacre

Adrian Rogan (34), Malcolm Jenkinson (53), Barney Green (87), Daniel McCreanor (59), Patrick O’Hare (35), and 39-year-old Eamon Byrne were killed.

Retired policemen Raymond White and Thomas Hawthorne challenged the ombudsman’s report and Mr Justice McCloskey ruled that none of the officers subjected to “destructive and withering condemnations” of collusion had the protection of due process.

Mr White is a former RUC assistant chief constable and senior Special Branch officer.

Tomorrow Mr Justice McCloskey is expected to say whether the report should be quashed.

The case sparked calls for the resignation of Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire and has ramifications for future investigations in legacy cases.

DUP MP Ian Paisley also called for an inquiry into all previous reports alleging collusion.

The ombudsman has indicated that it intends to appeal the Loughinisland ruling.

The Irish News understands that among potential grounds are questions over whether the judge should have recused himself from the High Court case, having formerly represented one of the officers in a challenge against the ombudsman’s office.

In 2001 former ombudsman Nuala O’Loan ruled there had been failings by the RUC during the investigation into the Omagh bombing.

Her report was unsuccessfully challenged by former chief constable Ronnie Flanagan and Raymond White, with Bernard McCloskey QC representing the policemen.

He was appointed a High Court judge in 2008.

Guidelines issued to judges by the Lord Chief Justice state: “Past professional association with a party as a client need not in itself be a reason for disqualification, but the judge must assess whether the particular circumstances, and in particular any prior knowledge relevant to the case, could create an appearance of bias.”

A declaration in such circumstances is at the discretion of the judge.

When asked if Mr Justice McCloskey had declared previously representing Mr White as a possible perceived conflict of interest, a spokesperson for Sir Declan Morgan’s office said: “The Statement of Ethics for the Judiciary in Northern Ireland provides guidance to judges on when it may be appropriate for them to recuse themselves.

“This will generally be when there is an actual, potential or perceived conflict of interest or where there is the potential for an appearance of bias to be created.

“Judges who are aware of any such conflict or who are asked to recuse themselves will make an assessment based on the circumstances of the individual case.

“There was no such awareness or request in the present case.”

With many thanks to: The Irish News for the origional story

COLLLUSION IS NOT AN ILLUSION”

WE THINK IT’S NOW TIME AL HUTCHINSON FOR YOU TO RESIGN ” COLLLUSION IS NOT AN ILLUSION”

 
 
 
 
 
CIPR Specialist Website of the Year 2011
Investigations & Analysis – Northern Ireland
 
 
The aftermath of the Loughinisland massacre in 1994
 

BY BARRY McCAFFREY

 

THE Detail can today reveal the conclusions of the Police Ombudsman on the Loughinisland massacre: that the failure by police to secure convictions afterwards was down to incompetence and a lack of commitment – but not collusion.

The final report also leaves unanswered a key question of the families of the six men killed at The Heights bar 17 years ago: what the role of Special Branch was either before or after the attack.

More >

 
The six men killed in the Loughinisland massacre
 

Where was Special Branch in Loughinisland massacre?

BY BARRY MCCAFFREY

IF the Police Ombudsman’s report into the McGurk’s Bar atrocity highlighted his reluctance to grapple with collusion, his report into Loughinisland is startling by its absence of another crucial piece of the picture: the role of Special Branch both before and after the massacre.Mr Hutchinson states that he studied all “available intelligence” connected to the killings but important intelligence-related aspects of the case are not even mentioned in the report, raising questions over just how deep his investigation went in this case and, again, drawing attention to a “civil war” within his own office.More >

Inquests will be “front and centre” in dealing with the past – Attorney General

THE Attorney General John Larkin has confirmed that the inquest system here shall have a role “front and centre” in how Northern Ireland deals with the past.

 

Collusion in Loughinisland

 By Barry McCaffrey (for The Detail)


 If the Police Ombudsman’s report into the McGurk’s Bar attrocity
 highlighted his reluctance to grapple with collusion, his report into
 Loughinisland is startling by its absence of another crucial piece of
 the picture: the role of Special Branch both before and after the
 massacre.

 Mr Hutchinson states that he studied all “available intelligence”
 connected to the killings but important intelligence-related aspects of
 the case are not even mentioned in the report, raising questions over
 just how deep his investigation went in this case and, again, drawing
 attention to a “civil war” within his own office.

 One example is the sightings of the killers’ car in the south Down area
 in the weeks before the attack – clearly the domain of Special Branch,
 clearly a critical avenue for Mr Hutchinson to explore; but there is not
 a single reference to this: the context of the sighting; whether or how
 the information about it was dissipated within police circles; and
 whether it provided leads for the investigation.

 Also, more than 10 years ago police told the families that they had
 recovered a hair follicle on one of the killers’ balaclavas.

 The families were assured that police would be able to bring the killers
 to justice if just one bead of sweat was recovered from the balaclavas
 and boiler suits recovered.

 But despite the hair follicle appearing to be one of the most important
 forensic lines of inquiry there is no mention of it anywhere in the
 ombudsman’s report.

 The 56 page report – surprisingly only 26 pages of which is devoted to a
 five year-long investigation – provides no clarity on the Police
 Ombudsman’s relationship with Special Branch and the level of access he
 has achieved into Special Branch during this investigation; a pronounced
 contrast to the work of Nuala O’Loan on Omagh and the Mount Vernon UVF,
 which majored on the role of Special Branch in murders in which it was
 alleged that informers were protected from prosecution.

 Omagh and the Mount Vernon cases spanned the period of 1993 – 1998 and
 the Police Ombudsman found Special Branch activities in that era
 protected killers. Loughinisland occurred within the same timescale:
 June 1994 – yet still the role – or not – of Special Branch remains
 unexplored anywhere in this investigation.

 What is public knowledge, although unacknowledged in the Loughinisland
 report is that:

 *      in September 1994 there were 814 officers in RUC Special Branch;

 *      that by 1994 Special Branch had heavily penetrated both loyalist
 and republican groups, including the UVF in East Belfast;

 *      that the Loughinisland attack was mounted by the East Belfast UVF;

 *      in Omagh and Mount Vernon UVF cases and the murders of Pat
 Finucane, and Rosemary Nelson that Special Branch withheld information
 from the CID murder investigations.

 The apparent removal of this dimension from the Hutchinson approach has
 caused a deep split within the Police Ombudsman’s office – referred to
 recently by the ” Committee on the Administration of Justice “(CAJ)
 report.

 The Loughinisland investigation, in particular, has been known to be a
 source of anxiety internally, with some senior staff distancing
 themselves from the ombudsman’s perceived loss of independence.

 It also ties in with broader developments in investigations into the
 past: The Rosemary Nelson Inquiry reported back four weeks ago and the
 word “collusion” was not mentioned, allowing the Secretary of State,
 Owen Paterson to say that it therefore had not happened.

 Nationalists, led by the SDLP, have protested at the transfer of
 Northern Ireland Office personnel into senior positions within key
 agencies within the criminal justice system following the devolution of
 justice last year – and claims that a new agenda is playing out, aimed
 at shutting down sensitive areas of enquiry, particularly in the
 security sphere.

 So where does all this leave the relatives of the six men who died in
 The Heights Bar 17 years ago and who went to the Police Ombudsman’s
 office back in 2006 as their last hope for answers?

 One of the key questions they wanted addressed was: “the suspicion that
 collusion pervaded the circumstances of the attack … and the subsequent
 police investigation”. After an investigation lasting six years, has
 this fundamental question been answered?

 Tomorrow a political row is likely to play out on what turned out to be
 the focus of the report: the actual investigation by CID and Mr
 Hutchinson’s conclusions that it lacked leadership and commitment and
 failed to properly investigate all available lines of inquiry to bring
 the killers to justice. There’s little doubt that the quality of the
 Ombudsman’s investigation will itself become the focus of intention.

 Will anyone be satisfied with Mr Hutchinson’s final verdict on the
 subject of collusion in Loughinisland and his certainty that it didn’t
 happen in this case?

Dublin
Image by Paul Watson via Flickr

 Collusion in the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings

The Following is a Statement by Former RUC Sergent John Weir :

Weir worked in Co Armagh in a Specialist anti-terroiest unit ( SPG ) Special Patrol Group.

He was part of a Paramiltry Group made up of the RUC, UDR and other Loyalists wo carried

out a bomb and gun attack at the Rock Bar near Keady but that the bomb failed to go off.

Weir said he’d learnt that a farmhouse owened by an RUC Reservist  at Glenanne called

James Mitchell had been used for many of the attacks. He also stated that a UDR intelligence

Officer had provided the explosives for the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

A gang known as the Glenanne gang had carried out the murders of two men returning from

a GAA match in Dublin. They also carried out a bomb and gun attack on Donnelly’s Bar at

Silverbridge killing two men and a teenage boy and on the same night it carried out a bomb

attack in Dundalk which killed two men.

Also in 1976 it carried out an attack on the Reavey family home killing three brothers

John 24, Brain 22 and left thinking they had also killed Anthony 17 but he survied being

left for dead. On the same night it carried out a gun attack on the O’Dowd family home

were three were shot dead and one was seriously injured this was latter to be claimed

by the ( RHC ) Red Hand Commdandos.

Also another loyalist group known as ( DOW ) Down Orange Welfare was manufacturing

weapons at the farmhouse in Glenanne and that they were sold onto the UVF.

In 1977 Sergent Weir and Constable Billy McCaughey and two other notorious UVF

men carried out an attack known as the ” The Good Samaritan Murder; William Strathearn

ran a grocery store in Ahoghill and lived with his wife and seven childern above the shop.

He was awoken in the early hours with someone knocking on the door downstairs and

called out the window to ask what the person wanted. The man said he needed some aspirin

for a sick child. They shot him dead on his doorstep. The gang seemed to injoy attacking

large catholic familys,

Mc Caughey and Weir both received life sentences after admitting to their part.

Mr Justice Henry Barron in 2003 and 2006 also.

This also was held up by the European Court of Human Rights in 2008.

Ballistics evidence from all the attacks emeraged a complex and sinister web that showed

the same weapons turning up again and again in the killings.

They also found that arms found on RUC Reservists James Mittchells farm belonged to

the UVF and he was convicted of storing arms and sentenced.

Justice Barron also found that the farm owned by James  Mitchell was the hub of a loyalist

gang which consisted of members of both the RUC and the UDR, and that the gang was

involved in multiple murders including the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and that the

security forces in Northern Ireland knew all about the Mitchells farm from as far back as

1976.  HE WAS NEVER CONVICTED OF ANY MURDERS !

Pat Finucane murder: a scary admission by the state

Hearing ‘state collusion in murder’ acknowledged from the dispatch box is a sobering experience. The fact that it is rare only serves to make it more so.

Owen Paterson delivers a statement in the House of Commons

The Northern Ireland secretary, Owen Paterson, makes a statement in the Commons on the killing of Pat Finucane. Photograph: PA Wire/PA

State collusion in murder is routinely alleged, often on flimsy evidence that doesn’t stand up to daylight. The public admission of “state collusion in murder” by a member of the cabinet is a rare event, to put it mildly.

It happened on Wednesday a few minutes after most MPs filed out of the Commons chamber after prime minister’s questions, leaving the Northern Ireland secretary, Owen Paterson, to utter the chilling words.

Yes, we are talking about the killing of Pat Finucane, the republican solicitor who was gunned by down by a hitman in front of his family during Sunday dinner at home in Belfast in February 1989.

A loyalist, Ken Barrett, was later sentenced to 22 years for the crime, but how did it happen? Who knew? Who did/didn’t do what?

As was pointed out during the Commons exchanges, many shocking things were done on both sides in the 30-year Troubles, during which3,500 people were killed. But the killing of Finucane was one of the most bitterly contested, not least because lawyers were regarded as untouchables under the informal rules of the conflict, also because a then minister, Douglas Hogg, of later “moat-cleaning” fame, made highly prejudicial remarks about the victim.

It’s all a long time ago and the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir John (now Lord) Stevens, investigated the crime between 1999 and 2003, took 9,256 witness statements and created an archive with 1m pages.

Stevens concluded there was collusion with “rogue elements” of the state – a handy phrase sometimes is “rogue elements” – which placed the trigger man where he was. So did Canadian judge, Peter Cory (appointed by London and Dublin) in 2004, the year Tony Blair’s government promised the Finucane family a public inquiry.

It was never held because terms of reference acceptable to all sides could never be agreed.

Memories are long in Northern Ireland – the Battle of the Boyne (1690) was only yesterday – and what strikes English voters as history, best forgotten as life moves on, still matters to those directly involved.

Loyalists are just as intransigent as the republican side though they feel – said so again yesterday – that the IRA, its leadership (no names please!) and allies have got favoured treatment during the peace process.

What has brought it back into the news – though there’s been little coverage on this side of the Irish Sea – is that David Cameron invited Finucane’s widow and family to Downing Street on Tuesday to apologise in person and offer a way out of the impasse.

The nationalist (non-violent) SDLP’s leader, Margaret Ritchie, asked him about it towards the end of PMQs on Wednesday. He can read the exchange here along with Owen Paterson’s statement.

What Paterson proposed on Cameron’s behalf was a formula which the Finucanes had rejected 24 hours earlier, as the Guardian reported here. Here’s a BBC Northern Ireland backgrounder to the case which, as you’d expect, got plenty of coverage this week in the province.

What the coalition proposes to do is get Sir Desmond de Silva QC, a veteran of UN war crime prosecutions in Sierra Leone and other challenging briefs like the Gaza flotilla controversy, to “carry out an independent review to produce a full public account of any state involvement” by – Paterson’s own words – “the army, the [then] Royal Ulster Constabulary, the security service or other UK government body”.

You can probably see the government’s problem. Truth is the great healer, as Cameron told MPs on Wednesday, and sunshine – open evidence – is a great disinfectant too.

But the Saville inquiry into Bloody Sunday dragged on for years and cost £200m, a sum many may not feel was good value. Truth also has consequences, sometimes for institutions (see how the British army’s generally honourable record has been damaged by abuse in Iraq), sometimes for people whose own safety is threatened by their willingness to testify about what they know.

Don’t believe me? This is what Tom Watson, the Labour MP who has driven the backbench campaign against excesses by the Murdoch empire, told Paterson: “The former intelligence officer and private investigator Philip Campbell Smith has admitted to hacking the computer of another intelligence officer on behalf of Alex Marunchak of News International.

“Campbell Smith was arrested for witness intimidation of the very same intelligence officer, who was supposedly the only officer from the intelligence community co-operating with the Stevens inquiry into the death of Pat Finucane.

“It is alleged that when he was interviewed by the police he admitted that a special branch officer working on the Stevens investigation gave that personal information.

“I welcome the secretary of state’s commitment to allowing Sir Desmond access, presumably, to the police statement that was given, but if Sir Desmond wants to interview that special branch officer and that officer refuses, what powers will Sir Desmond have to get to the truth?”

Paterson’s answer was polite, if unsatisfactory. Such issues would be for the QC to resolve, but the MP should not imagine that Stevens and similar public inquiries – there have been several — got all the answers: Ian Paisley was once fined £5,000 for not turning up to give evidence he clearly didn’t want to give.

So Whitehall has come up with a rational solution: De Silva is a serious and experienced lawyer, who will spend the next year or so – his deadline is December 2012 – sifting the evidence, interviewing people and balancing the interests of the state, the Finucane family and the rest of us with a report that (with luck) satisfies everyone.

Does that formula satisfy them this week? As you can imagine, Tory and Unionist MPs endorsed the plan, the SDLP – Sinn Féin MPs don’t attend Westminster, they just draw the salaries and any expenses due from the hated British state – and Labour MPs argued that progress in the province is always made by consensus. If the Finucanes – and the Dublin government (which has its own police collusion murder probe under way) – won’t accept it, then it won’t work.

Even the saintly Paul Murphy, ex-secretary of state and a notably decent man, concluded ministers have made a mistake. Don’t forget that Cameron has generally done well over Northern Ireland – the tone of his apology for Bloody Sunday was well received in Catholic Derry.

But don’t forget either that assorted breakaway IRA men are restless – there was a bomb attack overnight on the City of Culture office in Derry – while Stormont’s deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness (now his career would make an interesting public inquiry!), is on a sabbatical standing for the presidency of Ireland. Just because the situation is currently manageable doesn’t mean it will remain so. Public spending cuts will hit Northern Ireland hard too.

We’ll see what happens next. But hearing “state collusion in murder” acknowledged from the dispatch box is a sobering experience. The fact that it is rare only serves to make it more so.

IRISH REPUBLICAN NEWS SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

 Thursday-Monday, 23-27 June, 2011
1.  POLICE OMBUDSMAN MUST GO
2.  Talks due on sectarian marches
3.  Ireland’s rich grow richer on bailout money
4.  Pressure mounts for release of Brendan Lillis
5.  Irish ship joins Gaza mission
6.  Derry bridge ‘is peace symbol’
7.  Feature: Charles Stuart Parnell
8.  Analysis: Where was Special Branch in Loughinisland massacre?
———————————————————————
>>>>>> POLICE OMBUDSMAN MUST GO
 Nationalists have united behind calls for the Police Ombudsman to quit
 amid outrage over a report in which he denied that the PSNI (then RUC)
 police had not colluded in the Loughinisland massacre.

 Six nationalists were shot dead at point blank range by the unionist
 paramilitary UVF in the County Down village in 1994. The men died when
 two gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons in the packed bar as the
 Ireland soccer team played an opening game in the World Cup. The eldest
 was 87-year-old Barney Green.

 Despite at least one member of the murder gang being in the pay of the
 RUC’s Special Branch, and an admission that the RUC destroyed a car
 containing forensic evidence which could have led to prosecutions, the
 Ombudsman failed to blame the RUC for anything other than “failings” in
 their so-called investigation.

 Other “failings” included a refusal to gather DNA from key suspects, and
 ignoring the provenance of the rifle used to spray the bar with more
 than 200 rounds of ammunition.  The rifle had previously been purchased
 in South Africa by British army agent Brian Nelson.

 SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie called on the Ombudsman to resign and said
 he has “repeatedly failed to measure up”.

 “Despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary he has concluded that
 there was no collusion,” she said. “He has failed to investigate the
 role of informers and Special Branch.”

 She said Mr Hutchinson had “done a great disservice to the families of
 those murdered”.

 Sinn Fein assembly member Caitriona Ruane said collusion “is the only
 conclusion which can be reached” and Mr Hutchinson “needs to explain”
 why he did not find any”.

 The families of those murdered accused Hutchinson of performing “factual
 gymnastics” to avoid finding collusion in the case.

 They were joined by survivors of the 1994 at a press conference in a
 Belfast hotel on Friday to respond to the findings of the probe, which
 they say “redefined the definition of collusion”.

 Among those present yesterday to support the Loughinisland families were
 campaigner Raymond McCord, whose son was murdered by the UVF, and Paul
 McIlwaine whose son David was stabbed to death by loyalists in 2000.

 Niall Murphy of Kevin Winters solicitors, who represents the families,
 said the omission of any reference to the RUC Special Branch in Mr
 Hutchinson’s report was “a case of ‘hear no evil, see no evil, report no
 evil'”.

 “The fact that Special Branch does not appear in the report is an insult
 to the intelligence of the families,” he said. “The Ombudsman had an
 opportunity to find the truth and report on it and he didn’t. He has
 done factual gymnastics to rewrite the definition of collusion.”

 Barman Aidan O’Toole, who was injured but narrowly survived the
 atrocity, described the report as a “whitewash” and an “insult”.

 “The only thing is we are united and determined to keep going until we
 get the truth,” he said.

 “Police told us more than 10 years ago that they had found a hair
 follicle on one of the killer’s balaclavas they recovered.

 “We were told they would catch the killers if there was even one bead of
 sweat on the clothes they recovered.

 “Well there have been huge forensic developments in the past 17 years
 and yet the PSNI can’t even identify one of the killers.

 “We would question why there is no mention whatsoever of this fact in
 the ombudsman’s report.”

 The Ombudsman’s office was also strongly criticised by a human rights
 group last week over a report that the office is staffed by former
 Direct Rule officials pursuing their own pro-British ‘securocrat’
 agenda.

 In the report, Hutchinson dug in behind a narrower definition of
 collusion than previous inquiries, defining police collusion only as “an
 intentional, conscious or deliberate act.” This departed from a
 definition used by former ombudsman Baroness O’Loan, which included not
 just those acts committed by police,but also those they omitted. Judge
 Peter Cory, who also investigated collusion in the North, warned that
 security forces “must not act collusively by ignoring or turning a blind
 eye to the wrongful acts of their servants or agents”.

 In his carefully worded report, Mr Hutchinson said only that RUC Special
 Branch had “no direct involvement” in the Loughinisland case.

 He refused to confirm or deny whether anyone linked to the massacre was
 an informer but said: “I examined all the intelligence related to any
 individuals and I am satisfied that none of the suspects were afforded
 any protection.”

 Mr Hutchinson’s report also revealed the original senior investigating
 officer in the case refused to cooperate with the investigation. He said
 the retired officer’s decision was “unfortunate” and hampered his
 investigation but he had no power to compel the officer to cooperate.

 Asked whether some intelligence was not given to him, Mr Hutchinson said
 that he could “never give a 100 per cent guarantee”.

 Nationalists in the North fear that if the truth behind Britain’s ‘Dirty
 War’ is not uncovered, there is no guarantee that lives will mot
 continue to be lost at the hands of sectarianism and collusion by the
 police.
———————————————————————
>>>>>> Talks due on sectarian marches
 The body that rules on contentious marches in the Six Counties is to
 meet the North’s First Minister and Deputy First Minister at Stormont
 tomorrow [Tuesday] in advance of the climax of the Protestant sectarian
 marching season.

 The talks between the Parades Commission and Peter Robinson and Martin
 McGuinness are expected to include discussion about last week’s mass
 loyalist assault on the nationalist Short Strand, which rocked the area
 for two consecutive nights and resulted in the shooting of three people
 and left one resident in a coma with a fractured skull.

 The attempt to burn down the isolated Catholic enclave was described as
 the worst conflict in the area in at least ten years.

 Loyalist community representatives said that tensions boiled over
 because the British government had not handed out enough money, angering
 the powerful local UVF chief known in the media as the ‘Beast of the
 East’.

 The British government has since announced it will review the level of
 grants issued to loyalist community groups in the area.

 Saturday’s annual Whiterock parade by the Orange Order in northwest
 Belfast, which sparked serious trouble in previous years, passed off
 quietly in the presence of a small, peaceful protest by nationalists.

 Further sensitive parades are looming, including this Friday’s ‘mini
 Twelfth’ in east Belfast, and the Drumcree parade in Portadown, County
 Armagh, as well as ‘the Twelfth’ itself, the anniversary of a famous
 17th century battle victory in County Meath by the Protestant William of
 Orange.

 There had been fears that a loyalist march that passed close to the Short
 Strand on Friday night might spark fresh violence.

 However, the march appeared to have passed off relatively peacefully as
 community “stewards” in high-visibility jackets attempted to keep the
 area calm.
———————————————————————
>>>>>> Ireland’s rich grow richer on bailout money
 Cash from the EU/IMF bailout loans are being used to fund the
 extravagant lifestyles of the 26-County state’s wealthy elite,
 according to reports from a number of quarters.

 News that the chief executive of the ailing Dublin Airport Authority
 (DAA) Declan Collier had appropriated, with the approval of the DAA
 board, a six-figure sum as a “bonus” captured headlines this week and
 forced a public showdown with the Minister for Transport, Leo
 Varadkar.

 Although Collier backed down, the rising salaries and perks being
 funnelled to the top of the public service and semi-state bodies has
 created headaches for the Fine Gael/Labour coalition government and its
 ‘hands off’ management of the economic crisis.

 News that a group of 1,000 academics is costing the 26-County state over
 a hundred million euro a year (142 million dollars) in basic salary
 payments baffled the Minister of Education Ruairi Quinn today [Monday],
 who openly admitted he was unaware of the pay rates.  Students are being
 asked to pay increased tuition fees to subsidise the professorial pay
 bonanza.

 Other reports this week have recounted how property speculators and
 ‘bankrupt’ developers can receive a massive state-sponsored windfall if
 they repurchase their own former properties from the state’s first ‘bad
 bank’, the National Assets Management Authority.

 Meanwhile, Ireland’s multi-millionaire judges are resisting a planned
 referendum to cut their half-million euro salaries, which requires an
 amendment to the state’s 1937 constitution.  Top government broadcasters
 are also challenging a cut to their salaries, which reached up to a
 staggering 850,000 euro (1.2 million dollars) in recent years.

 The government has so far only requested that staff in the public
 service earning more than 200,000 euro (285,000 dollars) make a
 voluntary ‘waiver’ of 15 per cent of pay.

 Senior staff in commercial State companies earning more than 250,000
 euro (360,000 dollars) will also be asked by the government to make a
 similar voluntary ‘waiver’.

 It is understood that no-one has yet volunteered for a wage cut, but a
 number have requested fresh ‘bonus’ payments.

 The continuing boom times for the golden circles of Irish society comes
 amid a declining domestic economy.  The 26-County state’s GNP (‘Gross
 National Product’) plunged by 4.3% in the first three months of the year
 alone, while the value of the state’s government-issued bonds has
 continued to fall on international markets to historic lows, matched
 only by Greece in the eurozone.

 In the first quarter, the state shed 67,000 full-time jobs, while the
 ranks of the unemployed grew by 23,500, pointing to an emigration rate
 of about 3,000 per week.

 The government is still tying its fortunes to a reinflation of the
 domestic economy and property prices, despite major imbalances with
 similar economies around Europe.

 Although his Thatcherite ‘trickle-down’ economic policy is clearly
 failing the vast majority of the people of the 26 Counties, Minister for
 Finance Michael Noonan repeated his ‘shut up and shop’ mantra to
 consumers this week.

 “What we really need is for people to go into the shops and start buying
 again,” said Mr Noonan.  He insisted that recovery could come on the
 back of Ireland’s wealthy spending their money as before.

 “If that starts, with tourists visiting our shores stimulating the
 retail side, and is followed by our own ordinary citizens going about
 their shopping and beginning to spend again, then we begin to lift out
 of the crisis,” he said.

 Sinn Fein Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty warned that the austerity
 being imposed on the state’s unemployed and working poor was instead
 strangling growth in the economy.

 “Regressive taxes such as the Universal Social Charge, cuts to public
 spending and failure to invest in job creation are squeezing the
 domestic economy,” he said.

 “Rather than acknowledge this basic fact of economics the government is
 set to increase the pressure on domestic demand. Proposals for a
 household charge, water tax and site valuation charge, combined with
 threatened cuts to social welfare and public spending as well as changes
 to tax bands and credits will further contract the economy, resulting in
 more job losses and financial hardship for thousands of already hard
 pressed families.

 “The government needs to wake up to the fact that pursuing the failed
 economic policies of Fianna Fail and the EU/IMF will do nothing to
 assist economic recovery. We need a major economic and family stimulus,
 to create jobs, boost economic demand and return the domestic economy to
 positive growth.”
———————————————————————
>>>>>> Pressure mounts for release of Brendan Lillis
 A meeting next month of the Parole Commission (formerly the Life
 Sentence Review Commission) has raised hopes for the family and
 supporters of former political prisoner Brendan Lillis, who is gravely
 ill at Maghaberry Prison.

 The Commission (and the then British Direct Ruler Shaun Woodward) were
 responsible for returning Mr Lillis to jail. The Commission ruled that
 his release licence should be revoked as he had become “a danger to the
 public”.

 Mr Lillis suffers from a progressive disease called Ankylosing
 Spondylitis which due to other medical complications has left him unable
 to move from his bed for 14 months and his weight has dropped to a
 perilous 6 stones (84 pounds/38 kilograms).

 Due to a series of serious infections and medication which has
 compromised his immune system, Mr Lillis has been unable to eat, sleep
 or hold down even liquids and is constant agony.  His condition
 continues to decline.

 His partner Roisin, who is his only contact with the outside world,
 fears that he will die in his prison bed.

 ONLINE CAMPAIGN

 Brendan Lillis’s family and supporters have organised a petition,
 letter-writing and online campaign to secure his immediate release.

 The Facebook campaign group is located at:
 <a href=”http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_132734503459781“>
 <a href=”http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_132734503459781http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_132734503459781</a&gt;

 The petition is located at:
 <a href=”http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/releaseBrendylilli/“>
 http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/releaseBrendylilli/</a>

 PRISONER FOUND DEAD

 Meanwhile, a 49-year-old Derry remand prisoner has been found dead amid
 a continuing deterioration in conditions at Maghaberry, the North’s most
 controversial jail.

 Patrick Duffy from Nassau Street in Derry was facing criminal damage and
 assault charges when he was found dead in his cell, an apparent suicide
 victim.

 News of the the death, the most recent of its kind, emerged as the
 North’s prisoner ombudsman Pauline McCabe published a report which said
 the prison system in the Six Counties is “not fit for purpose”.

 She pointed to the long periods of time prisoners were held in their
 cells in Maghaberry, Magilligan and Hydebank Wood prisons.

 “The single biggest issue, and the issue which has caused me most
 concern, is the significant number of lockdowns and periods of
 restricted regime that prisoners have experienced,” she said.

 “The way Northern Ireland’s prisons are run continues to be affected by
 its historical legacy and decades of conflict,” Ms McCabe said.

 “There are fundamental issues to be faced, addressed and overcome before
 we have a service which is fit for purpose.”

 ABUSIVE WARDER

 Also this week, the family of a republican prisoner at Maghaberry,
 Gerard McManus, have complained that a scheduled visit began late and
 was terminated after half an hour by a warder who was drunk and abusive.

 The guard, referring to the prisoner and their family, said that “he
 wished there were still soldiers like [sectarian serial killers] the
 Shankill Butchers to take care of people like them”, according to the
 McManus family.

 The riot squad was then called to remove the family from the visiting
 area and return Mr McManus to his cell. A prison official later declined
 to register a complaint by the prisoner’s elderly father.
———————————————————————
>>>>>> Irish ship joins Gaza mission
 The Dublin government has been urged to ask the Israeli authorities to
 allow an Irish ship joining an international flotilla to be allowed
 access to the port of Gaza.

 National co-ordinator of the ‘Irish Ship to Gaza’ campaign Fintan Lane
 said yesterday that Israel had no legal or moral right to stop the
 flotilla, which is carrying aid to the blockaded Gaza strip.

 “Threats of violence, we believe, should be condemned by all
 right-thinking people and certainly by governments believing in the rule
 of law,” Mr Lane said.

 Twenty-five passengers and crew sailed on the Irish-owned MV Saoirse
 from its point of departure in the Mediterranean on Saturday and is join
 the flotilla today [Monday].

 Gaza has been described as “a densely packed open-air prison camp” with
 over 40% unemployment and massive poverty. The flotilla aims to bring
 necessary humanitarian aid, such as medicine, to the people of Gaza.

 A similar convoy of ships was attempting to reach Gaza last year when
 Israeli forces massacred 9 activists aboard one of the ships, the Mavi
 Marmara.

 Israeli leaders have said they will block the latest aid bid “while
 exercising restraint to avoid injuries”.

 Ten ships, including Ireland’s MV Saoirse, plan to set sail for Gaza
 Tuesday. Mr Lane said he hoped the Israelis would stand back and reflect
 on what happened last year.

 Mr Lane, who is also a member the flotilla’s international steering
 committee, said they would not allow the Israelis board any ships.

 “We have taken a very definite decision that Israeli troops are not
 welcome on our ships, largely because they killed our colleagues last
 year, but also because they have no legal right to search the ships in
 international waters under those conditions,” he added.

 “We will have the ships searched at the ports of departure by the local
 authorities.”

 The passengers and crew of the MV Saoirse will include former Fianna
 Fail TD Chris Andrews, Dublin Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy, Derry
 Sinn Fein councillor Gerry Mac Lochlainn, former international rugby
 player Trevor Hogan, trade union official Mags O’Brien and skipper Shane
 Dillon.

 Sinn Fein Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Padraig MacLochlainn has sent his
 best wishes to the crew of the ship, which he said should be allowed
 bring aid to the besieged Palestinian people of Gaza.

 “I want to congratulate the organisers of this trip and wish them the
 best of luck. It is an extremely brave thing to do given the murderous
 actions of Israeli forces when they boarded the Mavi Marmara last year
 when the first flotilla attempted to enter Gaza,” he said.

 “This second flotilla should be allowed safe travel and the Government
 here should be speaking to the Israeli authorities to ensure that they
 get it.

 “Furthermore, the Government should be doing all in its power to end
 the siege of Gaza and the suffering of the Palestinian people there
 including calling for an end to the preferential trade agreement
 between the EU and Israel until such time as the siege is lifted.”
———————————————————————
>>>>>> Derry bridge ‘is peace symbol’
 A new bridge in Derry is being described as a symbol of the city’s
 journey out of conflict to a brighter future.

 The 26-County Taoiseach Enda Kenny was joined on Saturday by First
 Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and
 a host of government officials for the open ing of the 15 million pound
 footbridge, which the Dublin government helped to fund.

 Hundreds of people lined both sides of the River Foyle for the
 celebrations, which were marked by schoolchildren singing an anthem
 composed to mark the occasion.

 European Union commissioner for regional policy Johannes Hahn carried
 out the official opening.  He said the bridge would help establish
 lasting prosperity. “It will encourage greater levels of peace and
 reconciliation tor the city,” he said.

 The bridge which links Derry’s Guildhall with the former Ebrington
 British army barracks was built in an S-shape to signify a handshake
 across the river.

 Among the guests at the official opening was former Nobel peace laureate
 John Hume. He said the crowds turning out showed what a great thing the
 bridge was for the city.

 Mr McGuinness said the new bridge was an “iconic” structure and a
 declaration of intent by all the people of Derry.

 “We are seeing the beginning of what is a whole new opportunity for this
 city,” he said.

 Mr Robinson said the bridge and surrounding developments were hugely
 exciting and enabled people to see Derry from a new perspective.

 “This is a bright brand new day for the city and hopefully there will be
 many more of them in the future,” he said.

 Derry mayor Maurice Devenney said the bridge would help bring the city’s
 communities together.

 “The peace bridge reflects the positive way in which our city is moving
 forward as we prepare to celebrate our unique history, culture and
 heritage in preparation for the UK City of Culture 2013,” he said.

———————————————————————
>>>>>> Feature: Charles Stuart Parnell
 ——————————————————————-
 The man known as the ‘Uncrowned King of Ireland’ was born on June 27th,
 1846, 165 years ago today.
 ——————————————————————-
 The Great Famine of 1845 to 1849 left over 1 million dead with a further
 1 million emigrating over the following 10 years. One of the effects of
 the disaster was to demonstrate to ordinary Irish people that the
 English Government had failed them in their time of need and that they
 must seize control of their own destiny.

 Out of the Famine grew several revolutionary movements which culminated
 in the 1916 Easter Rising. In the second half of the nineteenth century
 the main concern of the Irish people was their land and the fact that
 they had no control whatsoever over it ownership.

 Charles Stewart Parnell was the son of a Protestant landowner who
 organised the rural masses into agitation against the ruling Landlord
 class to seek the 3 Fs: Fixity of Tenure, Freedom to Sell and Fair Rent.

 Violence flared in the countryside but Parnell preferred to use
 parliamentary means to achieve his objectives and the result was a
 series of Land Acts which greatly improved the conditions under which
 the Irish agricultural class toiled.

 Parnell’s main ambition was Home Rule for Ireland (local Government) and
 he led the Irish Party, deposing Isaac Butt in the process to achieve
 this aim. He and colleagues such as Joseph Biggar made a science out of
 ‘fillibustering’ and delayed the English parliament by introducing
 amendments to every clause of every Bill and then discussing each aspect
 at length. His popularity in Ireland soared to great heights.

 Speaking at Ennis on 19 September 1880, Parnell declared : “When a man
 takes a farm from which another had been evicted you must shun him on
 the roadside when you meet him, you must shun him in the streets of the
 town, you must shun him in the shop, you must shun him in the fairgreen
 and in the marketplace, and even in the place of worship, by leaving him
 alone, by putting him in a moral Coventry, by isolating him from the
 rest of his country as if he were the leper of old, you must show your
 detestation of the crime he has committed”.

 This type of “moral Coventry” was used in the cast of Captain Boycott, a
 County Mayo land agent, who was isolated by the local people until his
 nerve broke. This led to a new word entering in to the English language,
 boycotting.

 Trouble loomed for Parnell however, in his private life. He had secretly
 courted a married woman, Kathleen O’Shea, the husband of whom filed for
 divorce, naming Parnell as the co-repsondent. He tried to ignore the
 scandal and continued his public life. Public pressure in Ireland and
 from Gladstone in England eventually brought his downfall and he died
 shortly afterwards, in 1891. The Home Rule Bill that he had forced
 Gladstone into introducing was passed in the House of Commons, but
 defeated in the House of Lords.

 In his last speech in Kilkenny in 1891 he said: ‘I don’t pretend that I
 had not moments of trial and of temptation, but I do claim that never in
 thought, word, or deed, have I been false to the trust which Irishmen
 have confided in me’.

 But perhaps he will be most remembered for the quotation that can be
 found on his statue at the junction of O’Connell Street and Parnell
 Street in Dublin City Centre:

 ‘No man shall have the right to fix the boundary to the march of a
 Nation’.
———————————————————————
>>>>>> Analysis: Where was Special Branch in Loughinisland massacre?
 By Barry McCaffrey (for The Detail)
 If the Police Ombudsman’s report into the McGurk’s Bar attrocity
 highlighted his reluctance to grapple with collusion, his report into
 Loughinisland is startling by its absence of another crucial piece of
 the picture: the role of Special Branch both before and after the
 massacre.

 Mr Hutchinson states that he studied all “available intelligence”
 connected to the killings but important intelligence-related aspects of
 the case are not even mentioned in the report, raising questions over
 just how deep his investigation went in this case and, again, drawing
 attention to a “civil war” within his own office.

 One example is the sightings of the killers’ car in the south Down area
 in the weeks before the attack – clearly the domain of Special Branch,
 clearly a critical avenue for Mr Hutchinson to explore; but there is not
 a single reference to this: the context of the sighting; whether or how
 the information about it was dissipated within police circles; and
 whether it provided leads for the investigation.

 Also, more than 10 years ago police told the families that they had
 recovered a hair follicle on one of the killers’ balaclavas.

 The families were assured that police would be able to bring the killers
 to justice if just one bead of sweat was recovered from the balaclavas
 and boiler suits recovered.

 But despite the hair follicle appearing to be one of the most important
 forensic lines of inquiry there is no mention of it anywhere in the
 ombudsman’s report.

 The 56 page report – surprisingly only 26 pages of which is devoted to a
 five year-long investigation – provides no clarity on the Police
 Ombudsman’s relationship with Special Branch and the level of access he
 has achieved into Special Branch during this investigation; a pronounced
 contrast to the work of Nuala O’Loan on Omagh and the Mount Vernon UVF,
 which majored on the role of Special Branch in murders in which it was
 alleged that informers were protected from prosecution.

 Omagh and the Mount Vernon cases spanned the period of 1993 – 1998 and
 the Police Ombudsman found Special Branch activities in that era
 protected killers. Loughinisland occurred within the same timescale:
 June 1994 – yet still the role – or not – of Special Branch remains
 unexplored anywhere in this investigation.

 What is public knowledge, although unacknowledged in the Loughinisland
 report is that:

 *      in September 1994 there were 814 officers in RUC Special Branch;

 *      that by 1994 Special Branch had heavily penetrated both loyalist
 and republican groups, including the UVF in East Belfast;

 *      that the Loughinisland attack was mounted by the East Belfast UVF;

 *      in Omagh and Mount Vernon UVF cases and the murders of Pat
 Finucane, and Rosemary Nelson that Special Branch withheld information
 from the CID murder investigations.

 The apparent removal of this dimension from the Hutchinson approach has
 caused a deep split within the Police Ombudsman’s office – referred to
 recently by the ” Committee on the Administration of Justice “(CAJ)
 report.

 The Loughinisland investigation, in particular, has been known to be a
 source of anxiety internally, with some senior staff distancing
 themselves from the ombudsman’s perceived loss of independence.

 It also ties in with broader developments in investigations into the
 past: The Rosemary Nelson Inquiry reported back four weeks ago and the
 word “collusion” was not mentioned, allowing the Secretary of State,
 Owen Paterson to say that it therefore had not happened.

 Nationalists, led by the SDLP, have protested at the transfer of
 Northern Ireland Office personnel into senior positions within key
 agencies within the criminal justice system following the devolution of
 justice last year – and claims that a new agenda is playing out, aimed
 at shutting down sensitive areas of enquiry, particularly in the
 security sphere.

 So where does all this leave the relatives of the six men who died in
 The Heights Bar 17 years ago and who went to the Police Ombudsman’s
 office back in 2006 as their last hope for answers?

 One of the key questions they wanted addressed was: “the suspicion that
 collusion pervaded the circumstances of the attack … and the subsequent
 police investigation”. After an investigation lasting six years, has
 this fundamental question been answered?

 Tomorrow a political row is likely to play out on what turned out to be
 the focus of the report: the actual investigation by CID and Mr
 Hutchinson’s conclusions that it lacked leadership and commitment and
 failed to properly investigate all available lines of inquiry to bring
 the killers to justice. There’s little doubt that the quality of the
 Ombudsman’s investigation will itself become the focus of intention.

 Will anyone be satisfied with Mr Hutchinson’s final verdict on the
 subject of collusion in Loughinisland and his certainty that it didn’t
 happen in this case?

—————————————————————-

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