Rusty Nail

George Brock reviews Ed Moloney’s new book Paisley, Steve Bruce’s new book Paisley along with the second edition of Ed Moloney’s Secret History of the IRA while also looking at Kenneth Bloomfield’s A Tragedy of Errors, and concludes the real thanks for peace go to the spooks and spies that made it possible. It’s a fascinating read. By 1987, when Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness were already in secret, deniable communication with London, the securocrats were well enough informed to …

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Brendan Hughes, the leader of the 1980 hunger strike, died in hospital last night. Here are some quotes from Brendan. He will be missed by those who loved him. “In 1969 we had a naive enthusiasm about what we wanted. Now in 1999 we have no enthusiasm. And it is not because people are war weary – they are politics weary. The same old lies regurgitated week in week out. With the war politics had some substance. Now it has …

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Founding member of the Provisional IRA and former Sinn Féin assemblyman John Kelly has died after a long illness. Born in Belfast, he joined the IRA in the early 1950s. He was leader of the Provisional IRA during the 1970 Arms Trial which implicated senior members of the Irish Government. Mr Kelly, former taoiseach Charles Haughey, Capt James Kelly, and Belgian businessman Albert Luykx were acquitted of conspiring to import arms illegally into the Republic for use in Northern Ireland. …

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How far will they go for the truth? Thus far and no further. Love the quote about questioning motives. “SINN Fein last night described as “baseless” suggestions that another senior party figure was a police informer at the height of the Troubles. Yesterday a Sinn Fein spokesman accused [Upper Bann MP David] Simpson of lacking “moral courage” by “hiding behind parliamentary privilege”. “You wouldn’t judge the allegations. You would judge David Simpson and I would question his motivation in all …

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Robert Fisk in today’s Belfast Telegraph complains about censorship and reckons that’s why newspapers are losing out to blogs who show no fear (and sometimes, admittedly, little sense): No wonder the bloggers are winning as gutless newspapers edit the truth. Rusty Nail

It’s no coincidence that Adams publicly met with PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde in Ballymurphy, known as a hotspot of the Troubles and where Adams’ Provisional career began. The symbolism of that shouldn’t escape anyone. Hot on the heels of the release of Operation Banner, the British Army’s take on how they neutralised the IRA, Conor Murphy, MP, is calling for the PSNI to crackdown on crime in Crossmaglen. It appears the choreography of Sinn Fein endorsement of the police …

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Just as you thought demilitarisation was the name of the game, the Royal Navy is sending a warship into Belfast…for this weekend’s Maritime Festival. Seven Tall Ships are also sailing into port. Get your fill of fresh seafood, too, at the Odyssey’s fish & food festival. Rusty Nail

This little tidbit from the New York Post (scroll down and continue to second page) has thrown up some interesting speculation in regards to the recent Irish Echo/Belfast Media Group deal. Sean Finlay, the former owner of the Irish Echo, who sold a stake of it to Peter Quinn & Mairtin O Muilleoir’s Belfast Media Group, was in court recently for non-payment of child support. His lawyer is Grant Lally, of Irish American Republicans. Grant Lally was recently given a …

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So the rumours were true. Mairtin O Muilleoir’s Belfast Media Group (formerly the Andersonstown News Group) has bought a stake in the Irish Echo, with sources close to the deal quoting $4 million as the size of the investment. Peter Quinn, recently made chairman of TG4, is being pushed forward as the face of the consortium, which is hoped to have between 5 – 10 investors, but not everyone has committed their money yet, and some of those involved in …

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An article in today’s LA Times about the arrest of an anti-gun activist for gun-running has thrown up some similarities to policing problems here. Corruption is the same the world over, eh? Former 18th Street gang member Hector “Weasel” Marroquin for years was celebrated and rewarded for having turned his life around. He founded the anti-gang organization NO GUNS and received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the city for his efforts to help steer Latino youths away from a …

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Says Gerry Adams on RTE’s This Week, by making sure the super-rich get taxed. Sinn Fein would stop public money going into ‘privateers and speculators’, he says, by stopping tax incentives, “tax give-aways in terms of the privatisation of the health service”, and that “all of the loopholes that are being exploited by the super rich would be closed”. Corporation tax in the south would not be increased; Adams says that SF wants to harmonise it right across the island …

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Wikipedia doesn’t seem to know, and has locked Gerry Adams’ entry until they figure it out. Apparently the brouhaha was started by Gaillimh, whose wiki userpage sports the Sinn Fein logo, over the use of Sean O’Callaghan and Michael McDowell, specifically, as sources for the claims of Adams’ IRA membership. Other users, notably One Night In Hackney, have pointed out that the claims have been made by more than O’Callaghan and McDowell, citing Peter Taylor, Ed Moloney, Jack Holland and …

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One has to admire the chutzpah of The Sunday Independent. In today’s edition, Jim Cusack questions why the Irish media would be so quick to trust the right-wing, historically anti-Irish, British Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday. He damns Frank Connolly by association, claiming Connolly is the one behind Bertie’s recent troubles. It’s an interesting article, the more so because it employs tactics most often seen used against the Independent and its stable of writers: “Nevermind the content, said journalist is anti-Irish, …

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The latest IMC report is now online. Rusty Nail

What exactly are former IRA volunteers to do when it comes to the Historic Enquiries Team (HET), asks Brian McFadden in today’s Irish News. His query is straightforward: “As an ex-IRA volunteer, I would like to ask Martin McGuinness – British MP, future second minister for the occupied six counties and ex-IRA volunteer – and P O’Neill IRA, are they asking all ex-IRA volunteers to give their full cooperation to the RUC/PSNI? “Should we provide the historical crime unit with …

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Is your rubbish getting collected? Is there a strike on no one knows about? Anyone know why the rubbish is getting left uncollected in Belfast since Easter? Is Belfast in the running for the “City of Rubbish”? Did all the lorries break-down at the same time? Is the city really that incompetent?UPDATE: Day 19, 3 days after the bins were due to be picked up, and the bins are still out. The bins have now been collected. We almost made …

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Raymond McCord Jr, the Belfast Telegraph is reporting, has been rejected as a candidate for the Victims Commissioner post, because he isn’t good at PR and doesn’t haven’t knowledge of the Troubles. He was not interviewed for the position. A total of 46 people have applied and that has been shortlisted to 13 who have been interviewed. One would have thought he would have been a strong contender. It seems rattling the establishment is not a qualification that is being …

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Greg Harkin is doing the spade-work on unearthing the dirty secrets of the world of IRA informers, as seen in his weekly series currently running in the Sunday Life. This week, he looks at the Sandy Lynch case, which sentenced Danny Morrison to jail for eight years. He reveals the farce of two informers interrogating a third informer. What makes this week’s article different from previous allegations (see below) is this: “Three separate, reliable sources – none of them known …

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The Irish News is today reporting that Breandan Mac Cionnaith, of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, has left Sinn Fein, describing it as “something of a political shock” (Senior adviser in surprise resignation from Sinn Fein). Interestingly, Calton Radio scooped the Irish News on the story, claiming policing was an issue but both SF & Mac Cionnaith agreed to hush up his departure prior to the election (here, and here). John O’Dowd claims Mac Cionnaith is “still a friend to …

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“… a change management group”. Brian Rowan on the transformation of the IRA. We don’t see the Army Council meeting, but if we care to look, we can see the change in its thinking and its doing. All we have to do is open our eyes and our minds. The conflict is over, and the IRA is being ordered away by those it will listen to – those who led it in war and then into a developing peace. The …

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