Disparate republican militant groups have announced a coming together under a single leadership that has breathed new life into the IRA, promising to bring murder, anarchy and terrorism back to Northern Ireland. Here’s my illustration. Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/
Interesting quote from AP’s veteran in the field, Shawn Pogatchnik, about how Gerry Adams handles accusations that he was directly involved in any action the IRA’s: He shrugs it off. He has a wonderful Teflon quality about all these things. And the fact is, that when you have been a senior figure in the provisional IRA, or really any sophisticated paramilitary group in Northern Ireland, nothing can be proven because you never got your hands dirty. It was always the …
This month’s An Phoblacht has also ran with the Relatives for Justice story about the 10 July 1972 memo of a security meeting chaired by NI Secretary of State William Whitelaw that has already been discussed on here and elsewhere. Close scrutiny of the details of the memo suggests that this is an even more significant document than was first noted. Much of the coverage of the memo focussed on the statement that: “The Army should not be inhibited in its …
I don’t think that Susan McKay’s forensically detailed piece for the Irish Times on the search for the disappeared is absolutely the best piece published today, but it’s got to be pretty close. Her eye for telling detail is extraordinarily precise and in the process of throwing a powerful light on the long, painstaking and expensive task of recovering the bodies of the disappeared, she pulls no punches: Knupfer, chief investigator with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ …
The News Letter yesterday had an article quoting (and interviewing Ian Bothwell of the Crossfire Trust in Darkley). He suggests that some Republicans he has spoken to are “seeking forgiveness for their past.” From the News letter: He says he knows several former IRA members who would like closure on the deeds they have committed in the past. “We are talking about a number of republicans who have engaged in front-line activity,” he told the News Letter. “They would like …
Eamonn McCann gives an absorbing analysis in Counterpunch, co- edited by Alexander Cockburn the Independent’s highly critical reporter of “the war on terror,” of the linkages between the Omagh bomb and the Boston College tapes. A key figure is former Chief Superintendent Norman Baxter, who is now one of a number of former RUC and PSNI officers working for Col Tim Collins’ New Century security consultancy in Afghanistan. Others will know much more about Baxter than I. Since his retirement …
Almost any date in Northern Ireland is the anniversary of a death from the Troubles. Often the less iconic are forgotten about. As such marking one event may be unfair to the relatives of the less well known about deaths. Sometimes, however, the anniversary is such that is should be marked. This is the 20th anniversary of the Teebane murders. 20 years ago this evening a group of workmen were returning home from working on Lisanelly army base in Omagh: …
As Garibaldy notes, Dublin High Court has dismissed the US application for the extradition of former Irish Workers’ Party president, Sean Garland, in the long-running saga of the counterfeit ‘super-dollars’. From the Irish Times report Authorities in America had sought the extradition of Mr Garland (76), of Beldonstown, Brownstown, Navan, Co Meath, to face charges relating to the production of high-quality counterfeit US dollars. The operation was allegedly carried out with the collusion of the government of North Korea. In a …
The Belfast Telegraph and BBC are reporting the results of the HET enquiry into the Loughgall ambush in 1987 where eight members of the IRA’s est Tyrone brigade and an innocent passer-by were killed. For those who do not remember the incident the IRA gang attacked the small RUC station in the village of Loughgall; this attack being part of a pattern of attacking small rural RUC stations (previously Ballygawley and the Birches had been attacked). The terrorists arrived in …
Hard ball interviews are vastly over rated in political journalism. A good example of the fruits of a ‘slow ball’ delivery is David McKittrick’s interview in today’s London Independent with Martin McGuinness. In particular this section: The conflict in the city was bitter, he says, with a lot of people killed on all sides. “I lost a lot of friends at the hands of the British Army,” he says. “The person who actually introduced me to my wife, Colm Keenan, …
There was a wall of ‘criticism’ (simmering outrage might be a better description) in the southern papers… In the midst of it all buried within a suite of articles on the torture and killing of IRA informer Frank Hegarty there’s an interesting snippet worthy of further consideration. Upsetting detail aside there’s an apparent contradiction in Martin McGuinness’ own account of what happened: ‘I said to that member that if Frank Hegarty was guilty of being a British agent, then my …
The News Letter is reporting controversy surrounding an event to remember an IRA terrorist who accidentally blew himself up when the mortars he was taking to Pomeroy RUC station for an attack on it exploded prematurely. The event (a tug of war tournament) in Seamus Woods’ honour is to be held at Pomeroy Plunketts GAC. Posters advertising it claimed that proceeds from the event would go to the Marie Curie Cancer Foundation. The charity has, however, distanced itself from the …
It’s taken a while, but four men have finally been charged in connection with the sophisticated counterfeiting operation and underground bunker uncovered in a joint operation by Europol and gardaí in Ballybrophy, Borris-in-Ossory, County Laois, in May last year. From the Irish Times report A former leading member of the Provisional IRA and prison escaper was one of four men who appeared at the Special Criminal Court yesterday, charged with possessing equipment to make counterfeit money. Anthony Sloan was arrested last year …
Anne Travers the sister of Mary Travers who was murdered by the IRA outside St. Bridget’s Church on Derryvolgie made a telling intervention in April this year. On that occasion she demolished Pat Cusick of Sinn Fein on RTE’s Liveline (covered by Mick here). Then she was polite, controlled and brilliant as an advocate for victims. Today she has again made her point in the same quiet, powerful and eloquent fashion. This time it was following the news that one …
The News Letter is reporting that Martin McGuinness may be about to be interviewed by the Historical Enquiries Team regarding the 1981 murder of census worker Joanne Mathers. From the News letter: On Monday, MP Gregory Campbell referred to the fact obliquely when he raised a point of order in the assembly. Addressing assembly speaker Willie Hay, Mr Campbell (DUP) said: “If it transpires — my understanding is that it will — that the deputy first minister’s name will be …
In numerous books on the history of republicanism it has been claimed the provisional IRA curtailed operations when Sinn Fein were engaged in electoral contests. The ‘starting pistol’ for our current Council and Assembly elections was fired on 25th March 2011 Since then there seems to have been a sustained increase in failed bombings and hoaxes that mainly affect nationalist areas – those that will have a real republican option not SF; Derry Oldpark Andersonstown Lower Falls The list grows …
The call by Lowry Mathers for further investigation of his wife’s murder (which I covered on Wednesday) may or may not achieve justice for them and their son. Whilst the precedents for success are not good, his comments, after 30 years of dignified silence, seem to have struck something of a chord. It is worth noting that this story came back into the public consciousness due to the work of Londonderry Sentinel journalist Eamon Sweeney whose comments are here. The …
This year is census year and is the thirtieth anniversary of the murder of Joanne Mathers. She was collecting the census returns in Londonderry when she was murdered by the IRA. The 29 year old mother of an infant son had taken the part-time job to earn some extra money. On April 7, she had just gone to a house on Anderson Crescent in Derry when a man ran up to her, grabbed her clipboard with one hand, put a …
Carál Ní Chuilín, MLA and Gerry Kelly, MLA are both open and proud on their previous membership of a now defunct branch of Óglaigh na hÉireann. Both served prison sentences for bombing campaigns in areas mainly used by ‘civilians’ on behalf of that IRA. When the most recent in a long line of British ‘Chief Constables’ controlling policing in the north of Ireland needed a comparative for the recent extended disruption on the Antrim Road, he choose the Omagh bomb. …
One of the Ireland related Wikileaks revelations reveal a briefing from a Garda source to the effect that: While the IRA had been proficient in smuggling, robbery, and racketeering since the 1970s, the Celtic Tiger economic boom of the 1990s had prompted the IRA to diversify into more sophisticated business enterprises. Perhaps Lord Blackheath knows something about this? Interestingly he recently claimed in the Lords that: The IRA had five companies completely ruined. They had built the companies up as …
