Terrorism – Page 13 – Slugger O'Toole

Gerry Kelly: “we’re not living in the past, we’re not living in the past”

Pete Baker on April 29, 2011, 12:37 pm

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The Belfast Telegraph has a transcript of what happened when BBC NI’s Martina Purdy asked Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly about his party’s recent “mixed messages”. [Another ‘stupid’ question? – Ed] Indeed. From the Belfast Telegraph report Ms Purdy ‘tweeted’ after the interview that Mr Kelly had been “exceptionally annoyed” with her, but did not want to comment further yesterday. A Sinn Fein spokesperson said: “Martina Purdy chose to take this opportunity to insult Ireland’s patriot dead as republicans across the …

MoD apply for improved security at MI5’s NI headquarters

Pete Baker on April 28, 2011, 2:02 pm

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Increased security measures are already in place at potential terrorist targets in Londonderry. The BBC are now reporting that the Ministry of Defence have applied for planning permission to improve security measures at the entrance to Palace Barracks in Holywood – site of MI5’s Northern Ireland headquarters. From the BBC report The application, filed earlier this month, is for a security building, the reconfiguration of site access and road layout and a search bay. Palace Barracks houses MI5’s Northern Ireland …

“No act of violence will advance the cause of reunification by one millimetre”

Pete Baker on April 26, 2011, 6:28 pm

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In a reported speech on Sunday Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness ducked the opportunity to tell his former comrades-in-arms that he was in the wrong too, preferring instead to stick to his new party approved script. “But we believe that we are in the countdown to a united Ireland.” [Added quote from a Mid Ulster Observer report] It’s an improvement on his stated view at the time… During Martin McGuinness’s early days as head of the IRA’s Derry Brigade in the early 1970s, he …

“Members of the group are described as experienced Provisional militants.”

Pete Baker on April 22, 2011, 5:09 pm

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There were earlier reports that “a group of disgruntled republicans recently believed to have defected” from the Provisional IRA “mainstream IRA” could have been responsible for the recent murder of Constable Ronan Kerr. Although I can’t find the link, I seem to recall Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness denying any such recent “leakage”. Today, various newsites are reporting a Belfast Telegraph exclusive that a “newly-formed dissident Republican group” have admitted to the murder. The BBC have a response from DUP leader, Peter Robinson. From the breakingnews.ie …

Increased security measures for Londonderry courthouse

Pete Baker on April 18, 2011, 9:38 pm

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Following last month’s attempted car bomb at the courthouse in Londonderry, the BBC reports Increased security measures are to be installed at the courthouse in Londonderry after an attempted bomb attack on the building last month. More than 120 bollards will be placed on the footpath outside the court, stretching from the city walls to St. Columb’s Court. Similar measures have already been put in place at the Strand Road police station in the city. Road closures have been ordered …

Arrest in Denis Donaldson murder probe?

Pete Baker on April 12, 2011, 11:16 pm

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Previously adjourned, for the fifth time, in August last year, the inquest into the 2006 death of former senior Sinn Féin figure Denis Donaldson was adjourned again in January ahead of a further pre-inquest hearing on May 5. Now the BBC are reporting that a 70-year-old man has been arrested and is being questioned in Letterkenny Garda station, County Donegal. As RTÉ notes, the man is being detained “on suspicion of withholding information”. He can be held for three days. Responsibility for Donaldson’s murder was claimed …

“the specialist detectives will probe crimes dating back to the 1980s and 1990s…”

Pete Baker on April 11, 2011, 3:45 pm

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This is worth flagging up again, just in case you missed the late Friday afternoon media briefing by “high-ranking security sources”… The PSNI have set up a “specialist team of detectives” to re-examine “specific” crimes, “dating back to the 1980s and 1990s” as well as “a series of incidents around the turn of the 21st century”, which “detectives believe may have involved present-day dissidents.” [added link] From the breakingnews.ie report In a further development, it has emerged that, just 24 hours …

“Adams and the forces of the British Crown in Ireland are entirely united…”

Pete Baker on April 11, 2011, 1:47 pm

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Whilst Malachi’s article was mostly directed at the northern incarnation of Sinn Féin, in the Scotsman Kevin Toolis focuses on the southern version. As far as the Sinn Féin leadership is concerned, Ireland’s Troubles are old news from another country that they hope everyone else will forget about. Skeletons that should remain in the closet. Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, newly minted as a deputy at the head of a substantial bloc in the new Irish parliament, is intent on …

“Now he must tell the dissidents that he was in the wrong, too”

Pete Baker on April 10, 2011, 2:53 pm

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With the PSNI setting up a specialist team of detectives to examine “specific crimes”, “dating back to the 1980s and 1990s”, which they believe “may have involved present-day dissidents”, Malachi O’Doherty has some timely advice for Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness et al. From the Belfast Telegraph article History is letting the Provos off lightly in not plunging them into their own civil war. On balance, McGuinness must surely see that this is not as hard as facing into failure would be. …

“there has been no diminution of activity…”

Pete Baker on April 8, 2011, 5:30 pm

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I’m not entirely sure that it’s ‘news’ as such, given what we already know, but the BBC reports Police sources have said the community response and appeals to dissidents to end their violence have had no impact. A source said intelligence information suggested dissidents have continued to target officers since Mr Kerr was killed on Saturday. “There is nothing to suggest a lessening of operational tempo, there has been no diminution of activity,” the source said. Meanwhile, a “long and complex operation” …

“If it turns out that the explosives found were Semtex…”

Pete Baker on April 7, 2011, 4:34 pm

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In a major police operation on the eve of Constable Ronan Kerr’s funeral the PSNI seized a quantity of weapons and explosives in Coalisland, County Tyrone – which they have described as “the most significant in recent years”. Which was interesting timing… There have been two arrests in connection with Constable Kerr’s murder and further searches in the north Dublin area. From the BBC report The arms found were: • Four Kalashnikov rifles • Six loaded ammunition magazines • Timer power …

“Due to constraints on the nature of the funding…”

Pete Baker on April 6, 2011, 4:20 pm

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The News Letter reports that Sinn Féin have been forced to change the venue for a commemoration in Enniskillen of Provisional IRA hunger striker, Bobby Sands, after their original choice [reportedly] checked the conditions of their EU funding. Their original choice being the Clinton Centre, which was built on the site of a Provisional IRA bomb attack on Remembrance Day 1987 in which 11 people were killed and 63 injured – a twelfth victim died after 13 years in a coma. From the News …

McGeough sentenced to 20 years for attempted murder

Pete Baker on April 6, 2011, 12:36 pm

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The BBC reports on the sentencing of Gerry McGeough – who was found guilty in February of the attempted murder of an off-duty UDR soldier, then working as a postman, now DUP councillor Sammy Brush, in 1981. From the BBC report Former IRA man Gerry McGeough has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for the attempted murder of an off-duty UDR soldier 30 years ago. McGeough, 52, shot Sammy Brush, now a DUP councillor, in Aughnacloy in June 1981. He was arrested in …

“somehow it still fails to address or secure the foundations of a quite different future…”

Pete Baker on April 4, 2011, 10:32 pm

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Despite the statements by the ‘great and the good’, as the BBC reports Police officers have come under petrol bomb attack during disturbances in Lurgan, County Armagh. The police said there were also reports of a firearm being seen during trouble in the Bell’s Row area of the town. Several attempts were made to hijack cars and one hijacked vehicle was later recovered. The officers were attacked while carrying out searches in relation to a hoax object in Victoria Street. …

“There’s nothing impossible about such progress”

Pete Baker on April 4, 2011, 12:01 pm

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In the Guardian, Peter Preston, with echoes of a point he made in 2007, identifies the limits of the “politics of peace” – and our current ‘indigenous’ arrangements. From Peter Preston at Comment is Free Yet this commonsensical chorus only takes you so far. It clears the bloody detritus of the past; it provides a suitably united response to the murderers who remain; but somehow it still fails to address or secure the foundations of a quite different future. Nationalism (as chronicled …

The response to Con. Kerr’s murder must be measured yet decisive

Turgon on April 3, 2011, 11:27 am

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So we have another murder of a police officer here in Northern Ireland: Ronan Kerr’s name is added to the list of people killed, not taking part in military activities, for police officers are assuredly civilians, not soldiers; but in his case it seems getting into his own private car. In a time of supposed peace, a young man involved in a peaceful occupation, who was not even working was treated as that most appalling and indeed perverse of euphemisms …

Device explodes under car in Omagh

Pete Baker on April 2, 2011, 4:39 pm

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Few details at present. Expect updates to the BBC report. UTV report here. Police say they are responding to the incident in the Highfield Close area of Gortin Road on Saturday afternoon. UTV’s News Editor Chris Hagan wrote on Twitter: “Residents in Highfield area off Gortin Rd in Omagh report hearing a loud blast. Suspected under-car booby trap bomb attack.” Update From the updated BBC report A 25-year-old police officer has been killed after a bomb exploded under his car in Omagh, County …

NI Executive member supplies reference for McGeough

Pete Baker on April 1, 2011, 2:32 pm

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The BBC reports from the pre-sentencing hearing of Gerry McGeough – who was found guilty in February of the attempted murder of an off-duty UDR soldier, then working as a postman, now DUP councillor Sammy Brush, in 1981. From the BBC report An unnamed member of the Northern Ireland Executive has supplied a reference for Gerry McGeough ahead of his sentencing. The former IRA member was found guilty in February of the attempted murder of an off-duty UDR soldier 30 years ago. Sammy Brush, …

A quick round-up…

Pete Baker on March 28, 2011, 5:34 pm

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Londonderry courthouse is the target of a car-bomb consisting of 50kg of home-made explosives packed into a beer keg and described as a “substantial viable device”. British Army technical officers carried out a number of controlled explosions on the device during Sunday night. They’ve also carried out a controlled explosion on a small suspicious object found behind a west Belfast GAA club on Monday afternoon after a claim that a device had been left in the area. [Adds – now described …

Unionist Pacts: yet again

Turgon on March 21, 2011, 12:59 pm

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There have long been discussions and suggestions regarding the possibility of a unionist pact: the suggestion seems to be as old as the splits within unionism. Indeed although some “liberal” or “progressive” unionists deride the idea, the reality is that the suggestion has very significant popularity throughout the unionist electorate. In the past I have suggested that unionist civility rather than unionist unity would be a good idea. Now, however, there seems to be the possibility of the opposite: unionist …