“He also called a local solicitor and the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MP MLA..”
So the Northern Ireland Executive semi-detached polit-bureau are ready for the responsibility of devolved policing and justice powers, are they? [new link] Máirtín has what he describes as a “disturbing statement” from the lobby group Relatives for Justice. And I agree. It is a disturbing statement. But not necessarily for the reasons Máirtín thinks. From the RFJ statement
Mr. Mallon, concerned for the welfare of Mr. Sherry, locked the car and remained inside with Mr. Sherry making a number of calls to alert people as to what was happening. He also called a local solicitor and the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MP MLA – both of whom immediately contacted the PSNI including an Assistant Chief Constable to express their complaint and to end the situation. [added emphasis]
Adds Misleading Irish News report headline [new link] – “Victims’ campaigner contacts McGuinness after police search”. After?
Pete, don’t tell anyone but apparently Big Gerry was hiding in the boot of the car along with Shergar and the rest of the Northern Bank money.
http://www.relativesforjustice.com/roseanne-mallon.htm
“The weapons used in the killing were part of the haul brought to Ireland from South Africa in 1988 with the help of British intelligence agents.”
Speaking of terrorists in government the DUP/Ulster Resistance are pretty much the only organisation not to hand over their guns, or in this case hand back their guns.
Its a tough one to answer Pete, at the moment P&J is in the hands of the people who supplied the weapons, and soon its going to be handed over to the people who pulled the triggers
Sinn Fein hope to have the same type of relationship with the police that existed between the local sheriff and politicians in the deep south of the USA during the 60s. Not so much putting “manners on them” rather putting them in their pockets.
P&J should be kept well out of their corrupting hands, perhaps a barge pole length away?
The humour of the situation is that it was Republicans who blubbed for years about the RUC being the Unionist politicians’ militia, seems like that fantasy is now the wet dream of Republicans.
Disturbing that these sorts of things are still happening. This area isn’t far from where Aidan McAnespie was brutally murdered by a British soldier. Start by civilising yourselves…
yeah Mirko and within the same distance the IRA murdered dozens, so skip the what aboutery, not sure what Petes point is and why the Police have once again taken an interest in Mr Mallon, but it gave me a chance to look at the RFJ website, the most fasinating section of which is the display of Victims, divided into 4 groups the first 2 state and loyalist victims list hundreds, the third section Rupublican Victims lists Zilch, Zero, Nill, Nothing, None.
Maybe they are goning to update it soon…. be interesting reading then.
DR,
I think his point is that prima facae this looks like political interference in what is by democratic convention an operational for the police…
Not a great signal for what’s likely to come…
Sorry, that was me.
ah gettin the point now, going to an ACC is a bit OTT, the ACC reaction is possibly the critical factor here, hopefully Martin was politely told go through the proper channels, which reading between the lines seems to have been the case.
However I think this needs to be looked at before P&J are devolved, there probably need to be some way politician can express thier view directly without interfering.
Hopefully…
So the issue is that Martin made a call? Rather than the fact that two men were harassed by police?
Well, if the latter is true, then that is a problem. But Martin can’t handle matters the hands-on way he did at education.
That amounts to political direction of the Police; which is pretty much everything the party’s been standing against for years.
….or been itching to get at for years….?
Not a case of whataboutery and certainly not an apology for anything committed by the IRA. More a timely reminder of the behaviour of those currently in charge of the administration of policing and justice.
Mick
To be fair, we only have the RFJ version of events.
I mean, considering that any attempted political intervention doesn’t appear to have affected the actual stop-and-search operation, the phone call from McGuinness might have gone like this -
“I’ve just had my ear bent by those ******* at RFJ. What’s going on?”
“Huh huh”
“Huh huh”
“Right.”
“Let me know what you find.”
Perhaps Republicans should paint a large green cross on their homes, cars etc? A Provo Passover would direct the police to leave them alone to get on with whatever nefarious activity they chose.
I’m sure Sinn Fein must have some spare green paint lying around from all that recent postbox redecoration.
What do youse ones expect of a British police force in Ireland? Plus ca change ……Do you remember the time that the cunningly secreted british mercenaries watched while the daring british mercenaries? did their best to wipe out Bernadette Devlin (ban)and her family.What posessed them to come to her aid? Humanity? Orders?
“I’ve just had my ear bent by those ******* at RFJ. What’s going on?”
“Huh huh”
“Huh huh”
“Right.”
“Let me know what you find.”
Hilarious, Pete. I nearly split my sides laughing. Nearly, but not quite.
I did say “might have gone” ;op
Pete,
Can you make up a sentence including the following words-
‘short-lived, foray, comedy, bad, idea, sorry’?
If you have an actual transcript of the phone-call feel free to share.
What a load of bull from the Martian….what planet does this looney live on? He would be better looking at who killed the soldiers near Ballygawlye whilst on bus making their way back to Omagh from Belfast International airport.
Updated original post to add link to Mick’s post.
The “for justice” organisations are proxy for various frons. Examination of thier case loads shows them to be totally biased in their particular direction
RFJ eg how many prod cases er none
FAT how many mick cases er none
disgraces all
“…this looks like political interference in what is by democratic convention an operational for the police… ”
Not unlike the DUP councillor who was in the thick of it at the recent Banbridge flag incident?
And surely all representatives do the “ringing up the police to give out on behalf of constituents” thing?
Misleading Irish News report headline – “Victims’ campaigner contacts McGuinness after police search”. After?
Banshee, you really want to think before opening your mouth.
RFJ have worked estensively with Raymond McCord and the McIlwaine and Robb families from Portadown.
They’ve also worked closely with the mother of murdered UDA boss John Gregg, who was convicted of trying to kill Gerry Adams.
Today’s article in the Irish News is interesting for a number of reasons. Mr mallon said “Martin McGuinness would certainly not vouch for me if I was any sort of dissident republican.” This reminds me of the argument S.F. used to make about about Father Faul, Jim Canning and others, that they only sought to help those they knew were not connected to the IRA. The implication being that they were,de facto, working for the state.
Mr Mallon seems less than enamoured by S.F’s pro psni stance and I can’t help feeling there is a bit of a barb in his call to McGuiness, like, ‘Here you fool, these are the boyos you are asking me to support.’
I’m not a student of police procedure, but it would seem to me that if no arrests were made then the police overstepped their mark by confiscating personal property such as notebooks, phones and maybe even the car itself.
I cannot see this being allowed in the US. A search and seizure based on a proper court issued search warrant yes, but not just stopping someone as they drive along the road and then confiscating whatever property the police want. On the face of it, seems bad (and perhaps illegal) police practice to me.