No, not another Star Trek thread, just a note on the ages of some of those recently arrested and charged with terrorist activity. Along with the 22-year-old civil servant charged at the weekend, today two men aged 22 and 23 have been charged, in relation to the discovery of a live mortar bomb and launching tube near Lurgan, County Armagh, with possessing an improvised explosive device, possession of articles of use to terrorists and with conspiracy to murder.From the PA …
This is not welcome news for a company that has just landed a lucrative contract with Dublinbus. Darren Leslie Richardson, a factory manager at Wrightbus in Ballymena has been arrested and “charged with the possession of documents likely to be of use to terrorists and possession of a quantity of 9mm ammunition at the Wrightbus plant at Galgorm outside Ballymena, Co Antrim between a date unknown and the 11 April”. Update: See statement from the company below: Wrightbus Limited confirms …
There seems to be some tentative moves between the new partners in government to manage parading issues in-the-round if not on some of the specific block points.Interestingly, Willie Hay of the DUP identifies dissident Republican parades as a source of significant potential disruption: “What I have voiced concern about is that we could have an Assembly and Executive all trying to work for a better future while there are people out on the streets opposing expressions of Protestant and unionist …
As most of the past appears to be in the process of being systematically buried, Greg Harkin tells the complex story of one case that may yet see light, some twenty three years after the killing of Mary Travers outside St Brigid’s Church on the Malone Road in Belfast. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events …
Andy Pollack with a sober and sobre way (subs needed) to spend this Good Friday in Dublin: …the congregation of the Dublin Unitarian Church in St Stephen’s Green reads out the names of the more than 3,500 people who have died as a result of the war there. To anyone’s knowledge this annual act of commemoration on Good Friday, now in its seventh year, is the only religious service of its kind in Ireland. From midday until mid-afternoon, members of …
Spotted by Newshound. A hard hitting polemic from one of the best at the art, Christopher Hitchens at Slate, on the “phony photo-op”. Both Paisley and Adams know very well of things that happened that should never have happened. And both of them, in order to arrive at that smug power-sharing press conference, have had to arrange to seem adequately uninformed about such horrid past events. Both have been photographed carrying coffins at political funerals—funerals that were at one time …
As previously noted, Paul Bew mentioned that “[the British government] believe that the power-sharing structures of the Good Friday Agreement are so strong that [Sinn Féin and the DUP] will have no alternative but to compromise”.. but not everyone agrees. The Guardian’s Peter Preston draws in some points which indicate the insidious nature of the foundations being built upon – the recent Ombudsman’s report and the next announced investigation, although he does miss a few others – in a bleak …
The 14th Independent Monitoring Commission report has been made public – full report here [pdf file], it had been delivered to government on March 1st – UTV report with the Secretary of State for Wales, etc’s comments hereThere some points to note from the report [pdf file], which focuses on the ongoing security normalisation programme. Primarily the security threat assessments and what activities that does, and doesn’t, cover. 3.4 It is important to repeat one point about our assessment of …
I had mentioned that the new head of MI5 has some locally relevant experience, and there’s an outside chance that we might hear some more about that. The Observer reports that Kevin Fulton lawyers are planning to call Jonathan ‘Bob’ Evans to testify in his case against the security service. Fulton’s lawyers claim the security service promised him a pension and a new identity. He already has a number of FRU members who have pledged to give evidence corroborating his …
One of the more interesting aspects of the list of candidates in the forthcoming election is the absence of anyone officially endorsed by the UPRG.. or the ‘good’ UDA. It may be that despite the recent PR work, and the granting of political capital and the previous official imprimatur of both governments, events on the ground have not progressed sufficiently to allow that appearance.. but regardless of how well, or not, PUP candidates perform this time, the indications, together with …
It’s not everyday that a blog gets a mention within the session a legislative house. Last night David Trimble, now Baron Trimble of Lisnagarvey, name checked Slugger several times on the floor of the House. It was during the second reading of Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill. He was drawing attention to the incomplete support by Sinn Fein of the PSNI: H/T Nevin! The noble Baroness also mentioned the McCartney case. I speak from memory—my source on this is …
As we flagged up here on Slugger a few weeks ago, the Human Rights Commission was not happy being restricted from looking into any human rights abuses from the past. Now the Westminster Joint Committee on Human Rights has added its voice, saying that the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill would be a “severe blow” to the work of the organisation by preven. This is the same Bill that downshifts the importance but retains the non jury Diplock Courts. …
This is an interesting encomium to David Ervine from an African American blogger, who has had a long term interest in Irish affairs. But it is interesting less for what he says about Ervine, than how he relates his changing view of the conflict (or what is left of the conflict). Most enlightening is his recounting of a private tour of the former troubled areas, and how the tone changed from one side to the other. The visit took place …
Davy Adams noted in the Irish Times (subs needed) the indignation expressed last week against Ronnie Flanagan. He finds widespread calls for Flanangan’s resignation from Britain’s Inspectorate of Constabulary since he is reported to have co-operated fully with the Office of the Police Ombudsman. He notes that these calls come within the context of a Peace Process(™?), aimed at bringing a previously ruthless killing machine to accept peaceful means (in part at least) by the inclusion of individuals (formerly) of …
Eric Waugh answers his own rhetorical question: “Probably when it’s with the IRA. In a real war, practically anything goes, Geneva Conventions or not. Remember Rwanda or Vietnam; or Oradour-sur- Glane; or Lidice; or Malmedy. But the IRA? Its members went to war only on condition that their human rights would not be infringed, although it might deny those rights to others. In a real war, though, there are no human rights. But it is the IRA kind of war …
Brian Feeney, caustic as ever, nevertheless has a wider frame for the issues arising from Nuala O’Loan’s report into the killing of Raymond McCord junior than most of the reporting. Not least the official stop put in place under the aegis of the Inquiries Act 2005: Will anything ever be done as a result? Nuala O’Loan concluded that in dealing with the Mount Vernon UVF, “the most serious failings are at chief officer level particularly those chief officers who were …
Mark Dukan has used Parliamentary previlege to name three senior officers as having obstructed the Police Ombudsman in her recent investigation. SDLP leader Mark Durkan has named three former heads of Special Branch who he said failed to cooperate with a Police Ombudsman investigation. Using parliamentary privilege he identified them as Chris Albiston, Raymond White and Freddie Hall. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider …
Most of Northern Ireland’s commentariat was in uproar yesterday at the publication of the Police Ombudsman report into the circumstances around the killing of Raymond McCord junior. Yet, as Máirtín Ó Muilleoir has rightly argued on CIF this morning, it was anything but a shock.It should be understood however that this inquiry would never have taken place had it not been for the dogged efforts of McCord’s father (also Raymond). The awkward truth is that no one in the political …
Slugger hears that Mark Haddock, the killer/informer at the heart of the Police Ombudsman’s report yesterday, has been taken into hospital and is under armed guard… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
In the Guardian on Saturday Ghaith Abdul-Ahad reported from the Sunni held areas of Baghdad. Even for those of us with memories of the wild hysteria of early seventies in Northern Ireland, this is of a different order. In areas like Baghdad it seems, the Americans are no longer the enemy. The Shia militia, wound up in their turn by the brutal actions of ‘Al Queda’ death squads, are a constant threat. He also maps the brutality/banality of the war …
