RTE in grip of peace process consensus?

Finucane’s abduction prompts Eoghan Harris to question why RTE chose to drop any mention of the matter during the week, and focus instead on the apparent escape of the Colombia Three. Harris, who might share Anthony McIntyre’s self description as a hostile witness when it comes to Sinn Fein, nevertheless raises some important questions about the nature of the national media, and how editorial decisions are arrived at: How did RTE reach these two editorial conclusions: to play down the …

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Charter debate: lessons from Northern Ireland

Brice Dickson was a key speaker at the Seminar in Cork on Saturday. His presentation looked at three things: lessons to be learned from the Bill of Rights debate in Northern Ireland; what quality of relationship might exist between a future charter and a future Bill of Rights; and some concluding thoughts on the challenges it might throw up. He was speaking in a purely personal capacity, and no way reflects the official thinking of the Human Rights Commission. Note: …

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Barrett’s guilt is not enough…

Rosie Cowan returns briefly to matters Northern Ireland with words from Pat Finucane’s son Michael, who suggests Ken Barrett’s admission that he killed his father is less his concern than discovering the nature of the command and control mechanism behind the murder.

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Barrett's guilt is not enough…

Rosie Cowan returns briefly to matters Northern Ireland with words from Pat Finucane’s son Michael, who suggests Ken Barrett’s admission that he killed his father is less his concern than discovering the nature of the command and control mechanism behind the murder.

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

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Stevens inquiry extended

Detectives inquiring into the death of solicitor Pat Finucane have announced that their inquiry, headed by Sir John Stevens, will be extended to include MI5.

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Monday, June 24, 2002

Ahern and Blair are to call a meeting of all the Pro-agreement parties next week. The Stevens enquiry rumbles on in the Guardian, whilst the Independent emphasises that MI5 actively obstructed the investigation of the Finucane case. Neil McKay in the Sunday Herald went as far as to suggest that Margaret Thatcher was the one who first ordered such collusion. Meanwhile Kevin Myers calls for a quid pro quo if there is to be a long term continuation of inquiries.

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Thursday, June 20, 2002

Trimble continues to apply pressure with the threat of leaving his post. Wrapped in similar metaphors, Nationalist commentator Maurice Hayes calls it marching, whilst Unionist columnist Steven King sees it as walking. This discussion explores some aspects of the two competing Unionist agendas. Some musing from Paul Fitzsimmons on the long term effect of extreme views clashing. The SDLP take on Sinn Fein over proliferation of flags in the streets. On the other side following the screening of the first …

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Friday, June 14, 2002

The forthcoming report by Metropolitan police commissioner Sir John Stevens into the Finucane murder finds collusion between the RUC and Loyalist paramiltaries and is causing it’s first rumbles today. Meanwhile leading Unionists claim that links between the Columbian leftist paramilitary group FARC and the IRA, indicate that Provisionals may have been over there testing new weapons. The Daily Telegraph suggests this is a breach of the IRA ceasefire. Perhaps the unseasonably early runctions on the streets of Belfast may mean …

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