Terrorism – Page 11 – Slugger O'Toole

Charity distances itself from commemoration of IRA terrorist

Turgon on August 10, 2011, 11:30 am

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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 …

Oxford academic decries loss of terrorist murals

Turgon on August 7, 2011, 11:10 pm

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There have over the last number of years been serious attempts as part of the Re-Imaging Communities Project to remove the sectarian murals in Belfast and replace them with more positive images highlighting the areas’ cultural and history. The Titanic murals also on the Lower Newtownards Road would be an example: unfortunately since the assembly election two new murals depicting loyalist terrorists have been created. Overall, however, according to the Belfast Telegraph there are fewer sectarian murals now than there …

Republican Facebook site publishes police officers’ pictures

Turgon on August 4, 2011, 11:47 am

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The BBC are reporting that a Facebook page has been set up by dissident republicans which is encouraging members to post images and details of police operations from across Northern Ireland. Terry Spence form the Police Federation said: “This is a very serious matter and I have been in touch with the chief constable’s office this morning.” “I have explained our great concern and asked him to immediately close down the Facebook page and to take immediate action against those …

A poem for the day – The Pipe-bomber

Martin Mooney on August 3, 2011, 10:00 am

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This is another one from the late 90s, that I think is a response to or expression of a sense of depression at the low-level post-ceasefires violence from loyalist organisations that didn’t ‘get it’ or see anything in the ‘process’ for themselves or were just too plain sectarian to care (delete as applicable). Though I hope there’s more going on in the poem than just a middle-class whinge – in fact, maybe it’s a satire on the middle-class whinge as …

“every discussion of the experience of west Belfast there is going to be blinkered”

Pete Baker on July 29, 2011, 8:57 pm

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In the Belfast Telegraph, Malachi O’Doherty takes a critical look at that “plenty for all” Feile. From the Belfast Telegraph article The story of what west Belfast experienced through the Troubles is complex and amazing, but it is filtered at the Feile through a determination to defend the reputation of the IRA, the organisation that brought much of that grief upon the people and to write out of history the pain and horror suffered by those – and we know them – …

Norwegian PM’s response: “more democracy, more openness”

Pete Baker on July 27, 2011, 4:49 pm

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The Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, has said that his country will “not be intimidated or threatened” by the attack by Anders Breivik on the Labour Party youth camp on Utoeya, which left at least 76 dead. From the BBC report Mr Stoltenberg said it was an attack on Norway’s “fundamental values” – democracy and openness – and that the response would be “more democracy, more openness”. He said he expected people to participate more broadly in politics. He added it …

“those people that believe the use of guns and bombs brings solutions to problems”

Pete Baker on July 26, 2011, 9:56 pm

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In a major search operation across Northern Ireland five men have been arrested for questioning in connection with the murder of PSNI officer Ronan Kerr. UTV has an interesting response from Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, MP, MLA. Speaking in the wake of the arrests, and of a pipe bomb attack in his home city, the Deputy First Minister spoke out against what he called “the disgraceful ongoing activities of those people that believe the use of guns and bombs brings solutions to …

We, the Norwegian society, will strike back

Patrick Corrigan on July 26, 2011, 4:58 pm

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Saw this comment on the Amnesty International Norge Facebook page: We, the Norwegian society, will strike back. We will strike back by giving the defendant a fair trial, we will strike back by giving him decent treatment. This way we will demonstrate to him, to ourselves and to the rest of the world that our basic values, such as the belief in justice, liberty, democracy and human rights, has not, despite his insane efforts to break them, moved an inch …

“Paramilitarism is now deemed more legitimate…”

Pete Baker on July 15, 2011, 2:41 pm

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In a Guardian report which features a Continuity IRA member’s description of Sinn Féin as “British ministers in a puppet government”, Robin Wilson makes an important point. Now that “the guerillas” are the people in power… From the Guardian report “In theory, the ‘peace process’ culminating in the 1998 Belfast agreement was meant by the inclusion in the political arena of representatives of paramilitary organisations, principally the IRA, to lay the basis for a peaceful region in which all significant political forces, …

“encouraged by a small number of people opposed to the peace process…”

Pete Baker on July 13, 2011, 8:00 pm

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Twenty-six people were arrested during last night’s rioting in nationalist areas of north and south Belfast and Londonderry. There were also reports of public disorder in Armagh, and the Dunclug estate in Ballymena. RTÉ lists Strabane, Newry, Ballymena and Armagh city, as well as Belfast and Londonderry. In Londonderry, we are told Sinn Féin Foyle MLA Martina Anderson said the violence was “orchestrated” and described it as “an orgy of destruction”. “Let’s be clear the vandalism and wanton destruction in …

“The decision to bury hard facts about our troubled past cannot be taken on the nod”

Pete Baker on July 8, 2011, 7:25 pm

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In the Belfast Telegraph Liam Clarke argues that the British and Irish Governments’ refusal to request and publish the IICD’s inventory of decommissioned weapons “tells us a great deal about their commitment to truth-recovery”. From the Belfast Telegraph article This is information which the governments commissioned and paid for on our behalf. If they decline to get it and publish it, that will send the clearest possible signal that the secrets of the Troubles, or at least any which can cause …

US Department of Justice: “Journalism is a protected activity; academic research is not.”

Pete Baker on July 5, 2011, 2:10 pm

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In a contentious conspiracy theory, the History News Network’s Chris Bray helpfully points to the US Department of Justice’s response to the motion by Boston College to quash the federal subpoena requesting the College’s Northern Ireland archive material. From the HNN post quoting the DoJ briefing [HNN added emphasis] In its Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with the United Kingdom, the federal government has traded away the role of the courts, leaving discretion only in the hands of the executive branch: “Notably, the …

“Many will be expecting an inventory to be included in the report.”

Pete Baker on July 4, 2011, 5:18 pm

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Delayed until after the Assembly elections, today, as the BBC reports, the final reports of the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) and the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) were published. On the final IMC report [pdf file] the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, said As the IMC themselves note, whilst the Commission has completed its remit, the security position In Northern Ireland is far from ideal. As the violence in a part of East Belfast recently revealed, there remain those …

Sinn Féin rejects HET findings on Kingsmill massacre

Pete Baker on June 22, 2011, 12:56 pm

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The BBC headline may focus on a different aspect of the statement from Sinn Fein’s Mitchel McLaughlin, but it’s clear from the quotes that Sinn Féin rejects the findings of the Historical Enquiries Team’s (HET) report on the Kingsmill massacre. Specifically, the party rejects the HET finding that the Provisional IRA carried out the “purely sectarian” and “calculated slaughter” of 10 Protestants in south Armagh in 1976. From the BBC report The Historical Enquiries Team (HET) found the IRA was responsible …

HET Report on Kingsmills

Turgon on June 16, 2011, 11:29 am

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The News Letter today has details of the HET report into the Kingsmills massacre, the full report of which will be released to the families today. From the News Letter: On January 5, 1976, a Ford Transit minibus was carrying a mixed workforce of 16 home from work in Glenanne to Bessbrook. Five were Catholics and 11 were Protestants. Four of the Catholics got out at Whitecross, while the remainder continued on the road to Bessbrook. As the bus cleared …

CoI Gazette denounces attempt to resurrect Eames Bradley

Turgon on June 14, 2011, 7:24 pm

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Gladys had a blog on Sunday Sequence’s interview with two former members of the Consultative Group on the Past: Denis Bradley and Rev. Lesley Carroll in which they called for Eames Bradley to be looked at again. My comments on Eames Bradley are posted below. It seems, however, that Gladys and myself are not the only ones to have picked up on the potential appearance of an undead Eames Bradley. The editorial in this weeks Church of Ireland Gazette will …

Eames Bradley: if it is coming back; time to fight it again

Turgon on June 13, 2011, 11:35 am

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When I went trekking in Africa one summer with my sister I remember meeting a game warden with a Kalashnikov assault rifle in the Masai Mara. I enquired whether it was to stop poachers. He said no it was really for crocodiles and explained that if one tries to attack you the only solution is to keep shooting it until it stops moving. Then if there is any sign of life keep firing at it. Gladys has a blog below …

Boston College files motion to quash subpoena

Pete Baker on June 10, 2011, 11:44 am

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According to the New York Times report, Boston College has filed a motion to quash the federal subpoena seeking access to their Northern Ireland archive. Their reported argument is worth noting. From the New York Times report Lawyers for Boston College argue that releasing the interviews would break the I.R.A.’s “code of silence” and could lead to “punishment by death,” according to the filing. “Our position is that the premature release of the tapes could threaten the safety of the participants, …

News Letter interview with Eric Glass

Turgon on June 10, 2011, 11:16 am

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Eric Glass has been a bit of a quiet hero to Fermanagh unionists for years. Like a number of such people they have said little publicly about what happened to them during the IRA’s terrorist campaign. Now, however, Eric has spoken to the News Letter about his remarkable story of courage. Eric Glass was a corporal in the UDR and also worked for Fermanagh District Council and was for quite some time the dog warden. In 1978 he was driving …

Marvin Canning back in court

Pete Baker on June 9, 2011, 2:25 pm

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Marvin Canning, brother-in-law of Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, has been charged with two terrorist offences in connection with a 32 County Sovereignty Movement Easter Monday parade in Londonderry. An unrelated prosecution against Mr Canning was stayed in November last year when late disclosure of “pivotal” statements by prosecutors had “resulted in such potential prejudice as to render any trial unfair”. According to today’s BBC report, Mr Canning, who was arrested on Tuesday, is charged with arranging, managing …