Turgon – Page 15 – Slugger O'Toole

Ex UVF prisoner joins DUP

Turgon on December 7, 2010, 2:00 pm

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An interesting press release from the DUP is doing the rounds: Tommy Sandford ex PUP councillor (and ex loyalist prisoner) has joined the DUP. I will reproduce the press release below: The Democratic Unionist Party has announced today that well known East Belfast community representative Tommy Sandford has joined the Party. Mr Sandford is a spokesman for the Cregagh Community Association and was a PUP Councillor for the Castlereagh Central area between 2001 and 2005. Speaking today Mr Sandford said, …

Jackie McDonald demands recognition for UDA

Turgon on December 6, 2010, 10:02 pm

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Jackie McDonald one of the UDA’s self styled “Brigadiers” has been speaking to the Belfast Telegraph. McDonald’s ire seems largely directed at Tom Elliott, who unlike McDonald did actually defend Ulster as part of the UDR: McDonald preferred being a leader of the yabba dabba doo any taig will do UDA. It seems that Mr. McDonald is vexed that Tom Elliott did not mention the UDA in his leader’s speech: “When they (unionist political leaders) don’t speak about us, they …

Colin Howell should be released by 2014?

Turgon on December 5, 2010, 3:42 pm

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The story of Colin Howell had all the necessary ingredients to excite those with an interest in crime stories. The villain was a successful, respectable member of the community; a religious man, a family man who went on to commit what looked like a perfect murder. The police were apparently a bit suspicious about the double suicide of Trevor Buchanan and Lesley Howell but even a non lawyer can see that trying to prosecute Howell when there was an apparently …

Truffles of power cause Ford indigestion

Turgon on December 1, 2010, 11:31 am

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David Ford was on television last night denouncing the third mistaken prisoner release. Last month two people were released mistakenly. After the first mistaken release Ford ordered an enquiry. After the second release UUP leader Tom Elliott told Mr Ford: “Would the minister accept that in other places senior civil servants and indeed ministers have had to resign for much less?” Now there has been a third mistaken release Lord Morrow the chairman of the justice committee at Stormont has …

Tom Elliott’s non U turn

Turgon on November 25, 2010, 11:29 pm

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I took HMS Vanguard to work for the first time today (normally Elenwe drives what is now referred to as new Gordon). I managed to turn off the sat nav and the automated heater. However, I was completely unable to change the tuning on the radio: as such I was stuck with Radio Ulster rather than Radio 4. As such I heard the interview between Mark Carruthers and Tom Elliott. This came after the News Letter ran an article detailing …

Alex Kane on terrorist rebranding

Turgon on November 21, 2010, 9:00 pm

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I discussed the police response to dissident republicanism below. Alex Kane’s latest News Letter column sees him analysing the whole approach to terrorism. He points to Dr Martyn Frampton, of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation’s recent extensive report on the dissidents (mentioned previously by Pete Baker) Frampton concluded: “If the British state wishes to defend and preserve the peace process in Northern Ireland it must accept that the dissidents will not be joining that process. Consequently, to …

Thoughts on Policing

Turgon on November 19, 2010, 8:36 pm

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The grenade attack on the police last week created considerable concern and then faded relatively quickly. Stephen Nolan was extremely exercised for a number of days and one senior police officer suggested that the “manner in which they do business” will change as a result. The problems for police dealing with terrorists was again highlighted with the suggestion that republican dissidents were willing to shoot at the (unarmed) Gardai. The problem for police forces dealing with terrorists is extremely complex …

Buying cars rather than attending the TUV conference: a confession

Turgon on November 16, 2010, 10:49 pm

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I do not do humour often (I am in the TUV) but here goes: The TUV conference was on Saturday and I am afraid I was not there. However, this was in no way due to my falling out with the TUV, but rather due to a minor family drama. Our cars have been named by our children after Thomas the Tank engine trains. Gordon, the family estate car has done over 200,000 miles (Emily, the smaller car is little …

Fred Cobain on the UUP / Tory link

Turgon on November 5, 2010, 4:20 pm

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Sam McBride, the political editor of the News Letter has an interesting article covering an interview with UUP Chief Whip Fred Cobain. Cobain is a trade unionist and a former member of the NI Labour Party which might sort of make him a civic unionist of a generation or more ago. In his interview, however, he suggests that the UUP should break the link with the Conservative Party unless they help change the St Andrew’s legislation to ensure that the …

No goat about the place

Turgon on November 4, 2010, 7:07 pm

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The BBC and Belfast Telegraph have a story about a lady called Maya Dunthorpe from East Belfast who has walked her goat in the grounds of Stormont for the past few months. Apparently in the past the security guards have not minded but now Ms. Dunthorpe and her goat (Stan) have been told that they are no longer welcome on the estate. It seems that if Stan attacked someone or caused an accident, there’d be no insurance and only dogs …

Body found in hunt for Peter Wilson

Turgon on November 2, 2010, 4:37 pm

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Another body has been found in the saga of the hunt for the disappeared. This time it may be Peter Wilson whom the IRA murdered in 1973 and appear to have buried on the beach at Waterfoot in the Glens of Antrim. The horrible mixture of hope, regret and bereavement will no doubt be repeated for Mr. Wilson’s family. It seems strange that the information about the whereabouts of these murdered people comes out in drips and drabs: whether this …

The PUP, the UVF and bridges

Turgon on October 30, 2010, 7:17 pm

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During and after the last Ice Age it is suggested that mainland GB was not an island but was linked to continental Europe by a vast land bridge called Doggerland. Brian Ervine the recently installed leader of the Progressive Unionist Party has tried to suggest that the link between the PUP and the UVF was a “bridge” and that the UVF and PUP were related in a very limited way. (Pete has a blog on one of his recent interviews …

Call for Inquiry into Enniskillen Poppy Day Murders

Turgon on October 25, 2010, 12:18 pm

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The twenty third anniversary of Northern Ireland’s second Bloody Sunday is fast approaching, when, on 8th November 1987, the IRA murdered 13 people (Ronnie Hill died after 13 years in a coma following the bomb) by detonating a bomb in Enniskillen’s Catholic Church reading rooms. The News Letter is reporting that the Historical Enquiries Team is poised to present its report on the murders. Stephen Gault, the son of one of those murdered, who is also leading the campaign to …

Tory candidate wants left wing politics: Trevor Ringland’s volte face

Turgon on October 17, 2010, 2:15 pm

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Trevor Ringland was one of the shiny new non sectarian, politically right of centre, civic unionist, UCUNF members who was going to take the Tory whip when elected to Westminster. Then unfortunately the story went a bit wrong. Instead he was humiliatingly defeated, managing to take the UUP from second to third, loosing them over 2,000 votes and 10% of the electorate in the process. After his humiliation Ringland memorably demanded the new UUP leader Tom Elliott make a political …

Trevor Ringland to resign from UUP

Turgon on October 4, 2010, 3:19 pm

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The BBC are reporting that Trevor Ringland is to resign from the UUP. He apparently told Talkback that he “had taken the decision reluctantly to resign from the party”. Ringland had apparently had discussions with the party leader and said (of Tom Elliott): “I think that we both want the same things for the people of Northern Ireland, it is just how to bring that about is the challenge.” Previously Ringland had said that Elliott was “…taking the party in …

Parading, the Hillsborough Agreement and the return of the Clever Device

Turgon on September 28, 2010, 10:53 pm

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The Hillsborough Agreement seems much longer than seven months ago. For months the DUP had stalled in accepting the devolution of policing and justice and Lord Morrow and Gregory Campbell gloated over Sinn Fein suggesting that P&J would not be devolved in the lifetime of the current assembly and that it might take six years. Then despite the rows behind closed doors and the supposed threatened resignations the DUP accepted P&J devolution. At the time in the wake of the …

Arrest over murder at Mid Ulster Hospital

Turgon on September 27, 2010, 12:07 pm

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The BBC are reporting that a 54 year old man from Swatragh has been arrested over the 1981 murder of John Proctor who was murdered in the Mid Ulster Hospital car park after visiting his wife and newborn son. There have been arrests over previous terrorist murders in the past without prosecutions necessarily following from it: notably over the Claudy murders in 2005. However, the fact that the police seem to be willing to arrest someone at least gives hope …

Thoughts on the UUP leadership

Turgon on September 26, 2010, 11:58 pm

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One of the less kind texters to Good Morning Ulster on the day after Tom Elliott’s election described him as a non entity leader. It calls to mind that Churchill is reported to have said of Clement Attlee (though he denied it vehemently): “An empty taxi drew up outside 10 Downing Street and Clement Attlee got out of it.” Tom Elliott seems a modest man, again a denied Churchill quote about Attlee: “A modest man, but then he has so …

IMC report on Bobby Moffett’s murder

Turgon on September 15, 2010, 11:37 am

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The Belfast Telegraph is reporting that the Independent Monitoring Commission’s investigation into the murder of Bobby Moffett has concluded that his murder was sanctioned by the UVF leadership. From The Belfast Telegraph: The IMC has found that the UVF leadership decided Moffett should be shot to eliminate the threat he posed to individual members of the organisation and to send a wider message to the loyalist community that the UVF would not tolerate its authority being flouted. If anyone hoped …

Fermanagh South Tyrone election reaches court

Turgon on September 13, 2010, 1:41 pm

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The ongoing row over Michelle Gildernew’s election as Fermanagh / South Tyrone MP is due to reach the courts today. Rodney Connor is claiming there were breaches of the statutory rules and is seeking a scrutiny of the votes, a recount and a determination that Ms Gildernew was not duly elected. The victorious Sinn Fein candidate insists, however, that she was properly returned last month by the people of Fermanagh and South Tyrone as their MP. Connor claims to have …