Statement issued by James Connolly Society

Wednesday 4^th April 2007

Following consultation with our members and supporters the James Connolly Society, the Edinburgh cuman of Cairde na hÉireann, has decided to end the James Connolly march after 20 years. We have made this decision in the context of

• The changed situation in Ireland
• Our ongoing commitment to eradicating sectarianism in Scotland
• Our willingness to encourage the process of moving away from conflict and towards reconciliation

The James Connolly Society takes this opportunity to thank all those republican flute bands, political groups and individuals who have supported the march since 1986. Throughout the late eighties and early nineties the James Connolly march was the target for systematic attacks from our political opponents. This campaign was determined to deny our community the right to commemorate James Connolly in the city of his birth.

Rather than bow to such pressure our community rallied and defied the best efforts of Edinburgh City Council, Lothian and Borders Police and their Loyalist and fascist allies. We would particularly like to acknowledge the sacrifice of the hundreds of people who defied council bans, and the dozens who were arrested in the process, to honour James Connolly in Edinburgh.

In recent years the Connolly march has grown into one of Scotland’s largest political demonstrations. It is from this position of strength that the JCS have chosen to adopt new tactics to advance Connolly’s legacy. James Connolly is too important to do anything less.

We remain committed to honouring James Connolly in the city of his birth and to this end will seek to develop alternatives to the march which recognise Connolly's relevance in 2007.

CRE Scotland

The Tun
12 Jacksons Entry
off Holyrood Road
Edinburgh EH8 8PJ

Tel:                    0131 524 2000
Fax:                   0131 524 2001
Email:                 scotland@cre.gov.uk

-----------

One Scotland Many Cultures - Unless You're Irish

Organised by the STUC

Cairde na hEireann launch individual memberships

Cairde have launched new membership forms for individuals. Setting out why people should join Cairde na hEireann the leaflet outlines our twin priorities of campaigning for Irish re unification and defending our community's rights in Scotland. Cost of membership is £10 a month (£10 annually for unwaged). For more details and to download the forms vist our website www.cairdenaheireann.com

International Brigades to be honoured

Cairde na hEireann are organising a commemoration for those who died fighting with the International Brigades in Spain. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish civil war. The event including music, speaker and wreath laying ceremony will take place at 11am Saturday 16th September at La Passionara monument Broomielaw, Glasgow.

McGuinness calls for intensification of peace efforts

On 2 September Sinn Féin’s leadership body -- Ard Chomhairle – met in Dublin to deal with a report from the party's negotiations committee in relation to a review of  Sinn Féin participation in the `Hain’ Assembly.
Sinn Féin Chief Negotiator Martin McGuinness said the meeting expressed `serious misgivings’ regarding the approach of two governments. Sinn Féin Assembly members will participate in the Assembly, on the same basis as before the summer recess, he said, but with the sole purpose of `restoring the Good Friday Agreement institutions’ and would `engage only in work that genuinely contributes to that objective.'  Mr McGuinness said progress was still possible, but `only… if  the Irish and British governments play a decisive role… to see major progress made in the time ahead’ and called for `an intensification of efforts.’
He reiterated Sinn Fein’s view that the establishment of an Assembly `with no powers and with a protracted time scale was going to cause difficulties and that has proved to be the case’. 

He added that concern was expressed that the `stringing out of the process’ was `seriously undermining public confidence and reducing the potential for progress’.

He called for the power-sharing institutions to be restored before 24 November deadline.

 On 4 September there was a meeting of the Assembly’s Preparation for Government Committee. Martin McGuinness said Sinn Féin was seeking `urgent meetings’ with the Irish and British governments and was demanding a 12 week `plan of work’ to restore the political institutions. He said if the governments were serious about establishing the political institutions before 24 November that plan of action had to be set out now.

He said the lack of any `mapping out the Irish and British governments plans for what is going to happen over the next twelve weeks’ had to be addressed and plenary meetings in the `Hain’ Assembly were `pointless if they are not part of a schedule for the restoration of the political institutions’.

He added `Sinn Féin are committed to being part of any genuine effort which will see the institutions put back in place’ but said `the one outstanding issue to be resolved remains the DUP attitude to power sharing’.

 Clear IRA `have delivered on commitments’

On 6 September Sinn Féin MP Michelle Gildernew commented on the publication of the IMC report that day, saying it was `patently clear that the IRA had delivered to the word on every commitment it entered into last year and that the time for DUP to engage has long since past’.

Ms Gildernew said: `Well before any pronouncement from the IMC this afternoon it has been patently clear to everyone objectively looking at this situation that the IRA had delivered to the word on every commitment it entered into this time last year.

She added `The IRA have dealt decisively with genuine issues of concern put forward by unionists and it is very clear that the time for the DUP using this issue as an excuse not to engage and move forward has long since past.

`The DUP stand alone as the only party still unwilling to commit to sharing power on the basis laid out in the Good Friday Agreement.’

Gerry Adams in Jerusalem

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams was in Jerusalem on 5 September as part of a two day peace mission to the Middle East, at the invitation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Addressing a press conference, Gerry Adams said the purpose of the visit was to `encourage the search for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli - Palestinian conflict’. He said Sinn Fein’s view was that it was `imperative that genuine negotiation and dialogue between the representatives of the Palestinian and Israeli people commences as quickly as possible’.
Thanking President Abbas for the invitation, he also said he would be the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli peace activists. He said he had intended to visit for `some time’ and had had `a long standing invitation from Abu Ammar President Arafat, which I regret very much not being able to take up while he was alive’.
He said Sinn Féin had `no special magic formula to resolve the problems here’ but he believed they could be resolved.
He added: `The Anglo-Irish conflict was once labelled as intractable. Talk of peace and of peace processes was dismissed as nonsense, as fantasy. But we proved the pessimists and cynics wrong. Irish republicans are internationalists. We take a close interest in events outside of Ireland and we are always willing to learn and to share our experience with others seeking to build peaceful alternatives to conflict. “Political will and courage in seeking peaceful alternatives to conflict is essential’.
He said there was `an enormous responsibility on political leaders and especially on governments to find peaceful alternatives’ adding `That is the big challenge facing the Israeli government’.
He said: `In my view the future security, strategic interests, freedom and rights of the people of Israel are locked into an acceptance, respect, recognition and defence by Israel of the rights, freedom and prospects of the people of Palestine. War is not the only option.’
`Building a political alternative, constructing a peace process which can deal with the causes of a conflict, and which can provide stability, justice and democracy, is an option also and one which would have the support of right thinking people world wide. Of course the difficulties here are enormous. The conflict affects every aspect of peoples daily lives in Palestine and in Israel.’
`The hostile reaction of the Israeli government, of the EU and of the United States to the election results earlier this year have compounded these difficulties. The withdrawal of financial support to the Palestinian government and the increase in violence is entirely counter productive.
He added `What is required is inclusive dialogue based on equality and parity of esteem. It is patently obvious after decades of conflict that there can be no military solution to what is essentially a political problem.
`Irish republicans do not assume that what has worked in Ireland is relevant to every other situation. But we have learned that there are key principles which are applicable in any process of conflict resolution. These include; inclusive dialogue
recognising democratic mandates; and upholding human rights’.
 He said the role of the International Community and United Nations was `crucial in all of this. So too is the role of the US government. The US, as a strong ally of Israel, has a key role to play. In the Irish Peace Process the U.S. played a positive and encouraging role, recognising all of the democratic mandates of the participants, supporting dialogue, and dealing with everyone on the basis of equality. I would strongly urge a similar approach in respect of any efforts to rebuild the peace process here.

He concluded: `What is clearly required is a comprehensive and inclusive settlement. Such a settlement must be rooted on the rights of the people of Palestine and the people of Israel to live in mutual respect, security and peaceful co-existence and co-operation. Israelis and Palestinians have more to gain from peace than continuing conflict.’


Hamill Tribunal being `deliberately delayed’ by former RUC men

On 4 September the public hearings in the Robert Hamill Tribunal were scheduled to take place. However, Sinn Féin Assembly member for Upper Bann John O’Dowd said that it was a `disgrace that attempts by former members of the RUC to continue their culture of concealment and cover up had allowed the Tribunal to be delayed’.

Mr O’Dowd said the attempts by former members of the RUC to get anonymity at the Robert Hamill Tribunal `despite all of them appearing publicly at a previous court hearing’ had resulted in today’s the delaye.

He said those former members of the RUC `cannot throw off the culture of concealment and cover-up which became a by-word for the force in which they served’. He added that the case was `not about anonymity, these individuals have already appeared publicly in a court case associated with the murder of Robert Hamill.’ He concluded `this case is about obstructing and delaying the work of the Tribunal and delaying further the search for the truth in this sectarian murder.’

DUP must explain party link to right wing neo nazi group

On 5 September Sinn Féin Assembly member for North Antrim Philip McGuigan  demanded the DUP proved an explanation for one of their recently formed ‘Kick the Pope’ flute bands being listed to appear alongside a right wing neo-nazi organisation, the British Ulster Alliance, at a loyalist parade planned for the Whitewell area of North Belfast.

Mr McGuigan said `Since the formation of two ‘Kick the Pope’ flute bands bearing the DUP name and logo, one in South Down the other in Upper Bann, the DUP leadership have consistently refused to answer questions as to exactly why a political party sees the need to sponsor such organisations. Both bands have regularly appeared on contentious parades across the six counties alongside bands carrying UDA and UVF flags’.

He added: `Now it has emerged that the South Down DUP band is listed to appear alongside an organisation called the British Ulster Alliance at a loyalist parade in the Whitewell area of North Belfast in the coming weeks. This area has recently seen a marked increase in sectarian attacks on Catholic homes including a recent attempt to murder a 12 week old baby in an arson attack.’

He said `The British Ulster Alliance has been widely reported in the media over recent years as being a right wing neo nazi type grouping. The British Ulster Alliance describe themselves as ‘anti-Peace Process’ and comprised of ‘loyalists, patriots and British Nationalists‘. The DUP leadership owe people an explanation. If the DUP are serious about nationalists and republicans entering into a power sharing arrangement with them then they need to tell us what are their links to right wing groupings like this and what action they intend to take regarding their bands appearance alongside right wing neo nazi organisations.

Sinn Féin present UDR dossier to Equality Commission

On 6 September Sinn Fein representative for Lagan Valley Cllr. Paul Butler led a party delegation to meet the Equality Commission, where they will present a dossier detailing the activities of the UDR and ask the Commission to investigate the equality implications of the decision taken by unionist dominated Lisburn Council to provide land in the city centre for a monument to the UDR.

Speaking before the meeting Cllr, Butler said the dossier gave a number of instances where the UDR were both `directly and indirectly involved in the murder of nationalists, republicans and catholics’ and said they were `little more than a British State funded unionist militia’.

He added, `The decision taken by the unionist dominated Lisburn Council to provide land in the city centre for a monument to this militia has caused widespread anger and resentment amongst nationalists in the Borough. Indeed the simple fact remains that many nationalists will simply refuse to shop in a town centre containing such an offensive memorial and will take their business elsewhere’.

He said he would be asking the Equality Commission `to undertake an investigation into the equality impact of the decision to place this monument in what is supposed to be a shared space in the centre of the main shopping area in Lisburn’. He said `The clear purpose of erecting this memorial is to cause offence and to mark out Lisburn City centre as a no go area for Catholics.’ Full details of the dossier are available from www.sinnfein.ie

The Lasting Joy of a Great Friendship

By Danny Morrison

Like most people I have made many friends throughout my life. However, there are only a few rare individuals in whose company one feels absolutely at ease to the extent that you are prepared to bare your soul, comfortable that you will not be compromised, ridiculed, humiliated or betrayed. Of such relationships are lasting love and great friendships made.

            One such friend of mine was Jimmy Quigley, an IRA Volunteer, who was killed in action at the age of 18, when confronting the British army in 1972. From the beginning it almost felt as if I and Jimmy - who I think about every day - were destined to meet.

West Belfast might not be that huge a place though it sprawls from Divis Street towards Twinbrook. But its large population is such that one might never come across for years, if at all, old school friends or former neighbours, who still live somewhere in the area. Thus one might not necessarily cross paths with a potential soul mate, despite their proximity.

In 1982 five members of Sinn Fein were elected on an abstentionist ticket to the Northern Ireland Assembly. I represented Mid-Ulster, did my constituency work driving around alone in a second-hand Vauxhall Cavalier, and got a taste of the harassment that Sinn Fein MP Owen Carron had been experiencing.

After Gerry Adams and several others, including the late Sean Keenan, were shot coming from Belfast Magistrates Court in 1984 the Movement insisted that republican representatives had to be accompanied by drivers/bodyguards.

And that’s how I met Kevin Brady. He and two others were assigned to me throughout the duration of the European election in which I was a candidate. After the election Kevin remained on as my driver and was the best company one could have wished for.

At that time he was about 26 years-of-age and lived with his mother, Brid. She was a native Irish speaker from Anagaire in Donegal. Kevin’s father, Liam, from Belfast, another language enthusiast, had met her in the 1940s. They married and after a few years moved to the North but could only find a house in Bangor. The eldest two children went to school there but could not speak a word of English. Later, the Bradys moved to Mooreland Park in Andersonstown, where Kevin was born. Mrs Brady was widowed in 1971 when Kevin, her youngest, was just 13.

Kevin was handsome, of slim build with sandy, gingerish hair. He was self-confident but without vanity and had some of the great humility of his mother. He picked me up in the mornings to head off to the constituency. Several nights a week we would stay in the area. Our ‘billet’ was in the home of Sally and Francie Hurson (brother of Martin Hurson who died on hunger strike), just outside Carrickmore.

In our Carrickmore office I would be on the phone with the Housing Executive or the DHSS and Kevin would be sitting quietly in the corner writing letters to his imprisoned comrades, just as, ironically, years later his mother would be writing to me in prison.

With the resurgence in the Irish language in the North in the 1980s, particularly boosted and influenced by prisoners coming out of the ‘jailtachts’, Kevin legally changed his name to Caoimhin MacBradaigh around 1987.

We were harassed day and night, held at checkpoints, and abused by the Brits and the RUC. When Kevin gave his name in Irish the RUC refused to accept it and demanded he spell it out in English. Kevin said they may whistle for it. So we all sat stuck at the side of the road, Kevin joking about the numbers of Brits and cops he was personally tying down for hours on end!

On our drives we would discuss everything from pop music to world politics. Sometimes, as he drove, I would look over to him and think, Kevin Brady you are one lovely person, a good guy. (I later learnt that he was sponsoring the education of a child in an African orphanage.)

We would often socialise together in West Belfast and had great craic. He and his girlfriend Jackie took my two sons to Funderland every October. Where it was held I couldn’t go for fear of assassination.

After I left Mid-Ulster Kevin reported back to the IRA for active service though we continued to see each other. In the Belfast Brigade he had known and worked with Dan McCann. On March 6, 1988, Dan and his comrades, Mairead Farrell and Sean Savage were shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar. Their remains were returned to Ireland via Dublin. I spoke to Kevin at Kennedy Roundabout in Andersonstown on the cold night we waited with about a thousand others for the return of their bodies, only to discover that the RUC had hijacked and diverted the hearses. The following day West Belfast was in trepidation of a huge confrontation with the RUC who had a policy of besieging republican funerals.

To our amazement the RUC did not come near the funeral. Given what we now know about collusion it is obvious that the Special Branch were involved in clearing the way for Michael Stone in his attempt to assassinate Sinn Fein leaders.

Kevin left home around eleven o’clock on Wednesday, 16 March, to go to the funerals. At around seven o’clock that same day he came home in a coffin. He and John Murray and Thomas McErlean were killed by Stone as they defended the mourners, especially the women and children. Had they not deflected Stone many others would certainly have died.

Kevin had many girlfriends, including Lisa whom he was going out with at the time of his death in March 1988. But he had a special relationship, a close bond with his mother. I cannot think about him without thinking about her and her goodness, her faith, the life she led, her selflessness, her simplicity. After a battle with cancer Mrs Brady died in 1999.

As we carried Kevin’s coffin along the Andersonstown Road, a Volkswagen Passat car containing two plain-clothes British soldiers sped towards the cortege, spreading fear and panic. Everyone thought it was a repeat loyalist attack on a republican funeral. One of the British soldiers who drove into the cortege produced a gun and fired a shot before he and his companion were overpowered and, a short time later, shot dead by the IRA.

In Milltown, before I gave my oration, Brid Brady stepped forward to say a few prayers in Irish. She said: “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we pray to you today to remove the British from our country so that we may have peace.” She added: “May the Lord have mercy on the soul of my son and of all the dead no matter who they are.”

Last Saturday, in Anagaire, where Kevin lived between 1978 and 1981 when he worked for the IRA’s Southern Command, a memorial was unveiled in his memory. There was a huge turnout. That night there was a celebration of his life in Teach Leo’s. Photographs of him in childhood, adolescence and adulthood were displayed. His nieces and nephews played and sang traditional Irish music. Relatives had travelled from afar to be there.

   Feile Scotland

PRESENTS

Ar An Phluid  

A short but powerful play of Young Irish Republicans who served their time clad only in blankets in the H-Blocks.  Blanket leader, Kieran Nugent defied Britain’s criminalization policy within the stinking tombs of the H-Blocks.  This play is dedicated to Kieran’s memory.

“The victorious emergence of blanket leader Kieran Nugent from the H-Block tombs last week showed the British Government and the world that Republican Prisoners-of-War will not be ‘criminalized’.  Britain’s continued imposition of cellular confinement, no exercise, no fresh air, forcible bathing, shearing and beatings upon naked prisoners in the H-Blocks is increasingly shown to be futile.”

Presented by the Irish Cultural Assocition

Performed by Brian Milligan

Followed by Live Music

Saturday 29^th July 7.30pm

CAPPAGH

Edward Martin Hurson was born on September 13th, 1956, in the townland of Aughnaskea, Cappagh, near Dungannon, the eighth of nine children: six girls and three boys.

Both of his parents, John, aged 74, a small hill farmer, and Mary Ann (whose maiden name was Gillespie) who died in April 1970 after a short illness, came from the Cappagh district, and the whole of their family - including Martin - were born into the white washed farmhouse perched precipitously on top of the thirty hilly acres of rough land that make up the Hurson farm.

The Cappagh district is a wholly nationalist area of County Tyrone, composed mainly of farmers, and comprising between two and three hundred closely knit families. The land is infertile, lowland hills, good only for grazing cattle and rearing a few pigs, yet the roots of families like the Hursons stretch back maybe two or three hundred years. The land may not be much but it is theirs.

Over by Donaghmore, a few miles away, where the fields are bigger and the grass more lush, most of the farmers are loyalists.

Martin was close to the land as he grew up. Although he went first to Crosscavanagh school in Galbally, and then to St. Patrick's intermediate in Dungannon, when he was not at school he was more often than not helping out about the farm, driving a tractor, helping to rear 'croppy pigs' or looking after cattle.

A 'typical' country lad in many ways, part of a very close and good humoured family, Martin was a quiet, very religious, and easy going young man, who nevertheless, before his arrest, enjoyed social pursuits such as dancing and going to the cinema, and enjoyed the company of other people, among whom he had a well-earned reputation for being a practical joker and a bit of a comedian.

Like many others, he was capable of being very outgoing and talkative on occasions, while remaining essentially a rather shy and quiet personality.

Perhaps because he was one of the youngest of the family, Martin was particularly close to his mother, whose premature death in 1970 when he was only thirteen, came as a deep shock to him.

It was Martin who returned home one day to find his mother taken seriously ill and who ran to a neighbouring farm to ring a doctor. That day, a Saturday, Mrs. Hurson was taken to Omagh hospital, and from there to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast where she died the following Thursday, April 30th.

Martin was so shocked by the tragedy that he lost his memory completely for a week, only regaining it when a tractor he was driving up a steep slope, with his father, overturned, throwing the pair to the ground, this fresh shock dramatically restoring his memory.

That period of his life was also the time when 'the troubles' began to have an impact.

Although the family did not discuss politics, and internment did not affect anyone from the Cappagh area, it was impossible not to be keenly aware of British oppression so close to Dungannon which - spearheading the civil rights campaign through the late sixties - had fostered such a strong current of republicanism in the process.

However, Martin's personal resistance to that British repression and his subsequent intense suffering at the hands of it were not to occur for several years. In his teens his great delight was to play practical jokes on his family and neighbours, particularly on April Fool's Day and on Hallowe'en.

JOKE

"He liked a joke and a laugh" remembers a long-time friend of Martin's. "Him and Peter Kane were a comical match". Or, as his brother Francis remembers with a laugh, "If he thought it would make you mad he would do it".

Like the time he ran breathless to Paddy Donnelly's to tell him that Sylvie Kane's cows had toppled his milkchurns and the milk was going everywhere. And as Paddy dashed down to save his milk, Martin called out, "Hey Paddy, April Fool" before disappearing through a gap in the hedge.

Leaving school, Martin started work as an apprentice fitter welder at Findlay's, and after a stint there he went across to England for a while, living in Manchester with his brother Francis and his wife, and working for McAlpine's. But not long after Francis and his wife returned to Tyrone, Martin too returned when the particular job he was working on had finished at Christmas in 1974, rather than move to another job.

He had spent almost a year-and-a half in England but wasn't particular about it, a view confirmed early on after his arrival, when he was forced to spend two weeks in hospital having been struck by one of McAlpine's mechanical diggers!

Back in the farmhouse at Cappagh, Martin bought himself a car on hire purchase and got himself a job in Dungannon at Powerscreen International. He paid for the car within a year, having always had a gift for scraping money together.

As a child, whenever he managed to get hold of a penny or a shilling, here or there, instead of spending it he would take it to a nearby farmer and family friend who put it into a box for him until he had enough to buy, once, a white cob, or a pig to rear. He was 'old fashioned'' in that way, his brother Francis recalls.

He also loved to work and was a "great riser" in the morning, his father says, never missing a day's work until his arrest.

BERNADETTE

Late in 1975, he met and started going out with Bernadette Donnelly, at the wedding of her sister Mary Rose to a cousin of Martin's, at which he was best man.

Bernadette, aged twenty-three, comes from Pomeroy: she was extremely active in the hunger strike campaign, along with members of Martin's family, appearing on rally platforms and taking part in marches and pickets all over the country.

Before his arrest, Martin and Bernadette were often both behind the practical jokes he loved playing. His brother Francis was often the victim.

On one occasion, Francis, his wife, and their two children, were asleep in a caravan in the Donegal resort of Bundoran. They awoke however to find themselves not on the caravan site but on an adjacent road, Martin and Bernadette having towed it off-site during the night.

On another occasion the pair borrowed Francis' almost new cine-camera to film the wedding of a friend, Seamus McGuire, in Donegal. Somewhere along the route back from Donegal they found out they'd lost the camera and lost it remained.

Afraid to tell Francis, they kept quiet about the camera for several weeks, before Francis remembered to ask for it back. Instead of owning-up, Martin gave Francis an almost identical replacement hoping he wouldn't notice. But when he did, Martin, not lost for words, just explained: "I left it into a shop for fixing, but they said it wasn't worth fixing."

RUC

But those relatively light-hearted and easy-going days were coming to an end.

East Tyrone, like many other areas in the North, was a centre of highly proficient republican operations against the enemy forces.

To combat the level of republican military activity, deputy chief constable of the RUC Kenneth Newman (shortly to be promoted to chief constable), was one of those behind the restructuring of the RUC in early 1976, which led to the setting up of what were called Regional Crime Squads.

Their primary function was to ensure convictions for all 'unsolved' republican activity by extracting signed statements, in effect to 'clear the books' of an embarrassing list of unattributable republican operations.

Under the torturer Newman, and the then direct-ruler Roy Mason, the Regional Crime Squads only responsibility was to 'get results' (a guarantee of promotion) without undue regard to the methods they employed. One method they did employ was torture.

TORTURE

Martin was arrested and taken to Omagh RUC barracks on November 11th, 1976, along with the six others arrested that day and two days previously.

He was badly, and professionally tortured in Omagh for two days, beaten about the head, back and testicles, spread-eagled against a wall and across a table, slapped, punched and kicked. He heard Rafferty's screams as he was tortured in the adjoining room.

To escape the torture Martin signed statements admitting involvement in republican activity.

He was then transferred to Cookstown barracks, but as soon as he arrived he made a formal complaint of ill-treatment. Back in Omagh barracks, chief inspector Farr, realising this could prejudice the admissibility of Martin's statements at his trial, got the Cookstown detectives to re-interrogate Martin and extract the same statements, which they did by threatening to 'send him back to Omagh'.

On Saturday night, November 13th, Martin was charged, along with Kevin O'Brien and Peter Kane. Dermot Boyle and Pat Joe O'Neill had been charged the day before.

Martin was charged with a landmine explosion at Galbally in November 1975. This charge was later dropped, but he was then further charged with IRA membership, possession of the Galbally landmine, conspiracy to kill members of the enemy forces, causing an explosion at Cappagh in September 1975, and possession of a landmine at Reclain in February 1976 which exploded near a passing UDR landrover.

STATEMENTS

Even though the alleged speciality of the East Tyrone active service unit operating around Cappagh was explosives, the RUC offered not one shred of forensic evidence, against any of the five men, merely signed statements extracted by torture.

These statements, however, were good enough for Judge Rowland at the trial of the five men in November 1977, after a year on remand in Crumlin Road and in the remand H-Block of Long Kesh.

Admitting as evidence the statements Martin made in Omagh, and dismissing doctor's evidence about the extent of Martin's injuries, Judge Rowland sentenced Martin to twenty years for possession of landmines and conspiracy, as well as two other sentences of fifteen and five years respectively, the sentences to run concurrently.

The other four men received sentences ranging from fifteen to twenty years.

Martin appealed his conviction on the grounds that the judge had ignored medical evidence about his ill-treatment. The appeal was dismissed but he was granted a retrial.

At the four-day trial in September 1979, before Judge Munray, the Omagh statements were ruled inadmissible, but instead of Martin walking free the judge went on to accept the admissibility of the Cookstown statements, themselves extracted under threat of renewed torture.

One of the consequences of the retrial was the further postponement of the enquiry into James Rafferty's allegations of brutality in Omagh, on the grounds that it might prejudice the retrial (to the RUC's detriment!).

The enquiry had been reluctantly acceded to by the RUC Police Authority following the persistent endeavours of Authority member, independent Dungannon councillor, Jack Hassard. He, however, later resigned from the Authority, describing it as being "as independent as a sausage without a skin" when the tribunal which was set up failed to begin its enquiries. The tribunal finally collapsed earlier this year when the RUC detectives from Omagh refused to give evidence to it on the grounds that they might incriminate themselves!

Subsequently, four of the detectives who tortured James Rafferty, Martin Hurson and the others at Omagh that November: chief inspector Harold Colgan, and constables Michael O Neil, Kenneth Hassan, and Robert McAdore were charged with assaulting Rafferty.

Those four torturers, however, are only convenient scape-goats representing the tip of the iceberg in what was an orchestrated and widespread attempt during the Roy Mason era to jail republicans on the flimsiest of pretexts by means of torture extracted statements. Such men make up a substantial proportion of those political prisoners in Britain's Northern and English jails today.

Martin Hurson went straight on the blanket after his first trial, and following his retrial he appealed once again against conviction, challenging the admissibility of the Cookstown statements, but his appeal was disallowed in June 1980.

HUNGER STRIKE

On May 29th, this year, Martin joined the hunger strike, replacing South Derryman Brendan McLoughlin who was forced to drop out because of a burst stomach ulcer.

In the Free State general election in June, Martin was a candidate in Longford/Westmeath, and although missing election, obtained almost four-and-a-half thousand first preference votes, and over a thousand transfers, before being eliminated at the end of the sixth count, outlasting two Labour candidates and a Fine Gael contender.

Barely one month after election the Free State government's bolstering of Britain's barbaric intransigence led to the death of Martin Hurson, the sixth hunger striker, at that stage, to die.

Having seriously deteriorated after forty days on hunger strike, he was unable to hold down water and died a horrifically agonising death after only forty-four days on hunger strike, at 4.30 a m. on Monday, July 13th.

Justice For Peter McBride March

Saturday15th July

Assemble 12.30

Coat Street, Coatbridge

Murder Victim Peter McBride

CONVICTED MURDERERS STILL IN THE BRITISH ARMY

Convicted murderers
Scots Guardsmen Wright and Fisher

In Belfast on 4th September 1992 the British Army stopped 18-year-old father of two Peter McBride. An identity check showed that he was not wanted and a body search found him unarmed. Peter McBride panicked and ran away from the soldiers. Scots Guardsmen Mark Wright and James Fisher chased him, shot him in the back and killed him.

“These guys presumably didn't think they were going to go out and kill on that day.
It doesn't indicate that they are pathological killers.
They committed murder, but in a particular set of circumstances.”
British Ministry of Defence spokesperson - www.irelandclick.com 26/04/04

The Murder Scene

In February 1995 the two soldiers were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. They remained in the British Army even while in jail. In September 1998 they were released from prison under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. On 3rd November 1998 a British Army Board, including General Mike Jackson (of Bloody Sunday notoriety) and John Spellar (ex-British six county Minister responsible for human rights) decided they could continue to serve in the British Army under an “exceptional reasons” clause. This was justified by the British Army Board coming to the conclusion that the Scots Guardsmen had committed an “error of judgement”.

General Sir Michael Jackson

Ex-Northern Minister
John Spellar

Other members of Her Majesty’s Crown Forces found guilty of crimes such as football related violence, public order offences, drug abuse and cheating on television game shows have been dismissed from the British Army. Since 1995 (the year that Mark Wright and James Fisher were convicted of the murder of Peter McBride) approximately 1,500 British Army soldiers have been dismissed for failing random drug tests. It seems that Tony Blair and the British Armed Forces don’t place the judicially proven murder of a young Irish father of two on their list of ‘dismissible offences’.

If you are concerned that convicted murderers should be allowed to continue to serve in the British Army, please take action.

CONTACT:

Your own MP at:
The House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA
Telephone via the House of Commons switchboard:
+44 (0)20 7219 3000
Fax by E-mail via: www.faxyourmp.com

A full list of MP addresses can be found at:
www.parliament.uk/directories/directories31.cfm

Tony Blair's E-mail is:
remote-printer.Hon_Tony_Blair@441718399044.iddd.tpc.int

Bertie Ahern's E-mail is:
webmaster@taoiseach.gov.ie

Let the British Army know how you feel:

The Army Personnel Centre
Room 5109
Kintigern House
65 Brown Street
Glasgow G2 8EX
Tel: +44 (0)141 224 3509 /10/ 11/ 12/ 13/ 14/ 15

and

The Army Recruiting Group
FREEPOST 4335
Bristol
BS1 3YX

Concern at Jail Conditions

Sinn Féin Assembly member for Foyle Raymond McCartney has expressed his concern at the conditions being experienced by those prisoners being held in the segregated wing in Maghaberry. Mr McCartney's remarks come after protest action was mounted by those currently being held on the republican wing in the prison.

Mr McCartney said:

"In August 2003 Sinn Féin made it clear to the British government that the practice of forced integration which they were attempting to operate within Maghaberry was flawed and doomed to failure. Shortly after this the British government did introduce a segregated section within Maghaberry to house republican prisoners in the face of opposition from the Prison Officers Association.

"Unfortunately it appears that the regime being imposed on those being held in the segregated wing differs greatly from the other parts of the prison. Sinn Féin have been contacted by a number of families of those being held in Maghaberry concerned about the repressive nature of the regime in operation in the segregated wing and problems arising on visits especially with the use of a sniffer dog which has led to a number of visits being cancelled as they were about to commence.

"I have been given numerous accounts of persistent strip searching, petty regulations and difficulties accessing adequate education facilities. There is a firm belief that the men being held there are pawns in a wider battle between the prison administration, the NIO and the Prison Officers Association, the latter of which certainly resists prisoners held in segregated conditions being given equal and fair treatment.

"The prisoners being held in the segregated wing have now embarked upon a series of protests to highlight their case.

"There must be a realisation that all prisoners have the right to be treated in a humane fashion regardless of their political or religious affiliation and that conflict within the prison system is in nobody's interest."

Hansen's 'Orangefest' More Like 'Bigotfest'

Sinn Féin Assembly member Upper Bann John O'Dowd today accused the British government of funding anti-Catholic bigotry and sectarianism. Mr Kelly comments come after David Hansen handed the Orange Order over £100,000 to promote their anti-Catholic parades in Belfast.

Mr O'Dowd said:

"The Orange Order is an anti-Catholic sectarian organisation. This is an undisputable fact. Year after year they seek to march through nationalist areas without the consent of the host community. In the past they have been involved in widespread violence and intimidation as witnessed in Belfast last summer. No matter how much money David Hansen throws at the Orange Order he cannot alter these facts.

"The Twelfth of July parades are not tourist attractions and they never will be. David Hansen would be better facing up to the reality that his proposed 'Orangefest' will be seen as little more than 'bigotfest' in the eyes of the vast majority of people not connected to the Orange Order, many of whom annually flee from the north during July.

"David Hansen and his department have for sometime been raising very serious concerns amongst nationalists about the sectarian allocation of funds. Last week well over £100,000 was removed from successful inclusive community festivals in North and West Belfast. It is unacceptable that the British government have now decided to allocate taxpayers money to fund sectarianism, bigotry, prejudice and domination."

Sinn Fein Welcomes Basque Dialogue

Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness has today welcomed the announcement by the Spanish premier, Jose Luis Zapatero, to open direct negotiations with ETA. The announcement, made yesterday opens the way for both direct dialogue between ETA and the Spanish government and the commencement of all party talks involving political parties in the Basque Country.

Speaking today McGuinness said:

"Sinn Féin welcomes the announcement by Prime Minister Zapatero yesterday to open direct negotiations with ETA.

"We also welcome the fact that he acknowledged the Basque Country's right to decide its own future.

"Sinn Fein has long argued that both through dialogue and the recognition of the right to self determination the causes of conflict in the Basque Country could be resolved.

"It is now incumbent on all concerned to do everything in their power to move this process forward. There is no reason for any delay in the commencement of all party talks."

Connolly rally faces poster bill

From Edinburgh Evening News

Republican parade organisers face being ordered to pay a bond of up to £10,000 before staging their annual march in the Capital following complaints about flyposting.

The move comes after hundreds of posters were pasted around the city centre advertising the James Connolly march earlier this month. Senior councillors and city officials now want organisations planning major events with a track record of flyposting problems to pay a deposit.

The cash will returned if there are no problems - or used to cover the council's clear-up costs.

Scotland's largest republican group, the James Connolly Society, stages the parade in Edinburgh every summer.

It commemorates the birth in the Cowgate of Connolly, the Republican and socialist who took part in the Easter Rising of 1916 and was executed for his part in the attempt to end British rule in Ireland.

More than 3000 people took part in the latest protest, which passed off peacefully amid a large police presence on June 3.

However, the event - which featured a march along King Stables Road, Grassmarket, Cowgate and Guthrie Street - was advertised all over the city on hundreds of illegal posters.

Council officials said despite reassurances there would be no flyposting, they had been left with a "substantial" bill.

The organisers of the event insist they had nothing to do with the flyposting exercise and say it was unfair to saddle them with a potential bill of thousands.

The crackdown proposed by the council would also affect other organisations proposing marches or parades in the city.

Grassmarket councillor Chris Wigglesworth, a member of the council's regulatory committee, which gave the event the go-ahead, said:

"There were hundreds of these posters all over the city and many of them are still there. I don't see why we should allow events like this to go on if this sort of thing happens."

City licensing leader Phil Attridge said:

"Taxpayers are forking out more than £100,000 a year in the city because of this problem, which is a huge amount of money. The whole look of the city was besmirched by these posters for the Connolly parade and they looked really tacky plastered all over the place.

"If organisers of an event had to pay a bond I would bet there would be no problem with flyposting at all."

Jim Slaven, organiser of the James Connolly Society in Edinburgh, said: "We do not like this flyposting either, particularly because of the aesthetic impact it has on the city. We're obviously well aware of the issues involved, but we were not responsible for the flyposting and don't know who was responsible.

"I do believe, however, it is up to the council to come up with a creative solution to the problem, by creating areas where flyposting can be carried out."

Mr Slaven, of Moredun, was one of three men accused of scaling a security barrier and storming the Queen's carriage as it travelled up the Royal Mile before the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. The procurator fiscal's office dropped charges against them.

Let's get a few points clear. The Orange Order has been the cause of civil disorder in Ireland since its foundation.

In 1813 Orangemen caused the first sectarian riot in Belfast. Repeatedly in the 19th century Orangemen forcing their way through Catholic districts resulted in scores of people killed, countless injuries and damage to property, mostly Catholic.

The only reason these consequences of Orange violence didn't occur continually in the 19th century is that the British government banned Orange marches by the Party Processions Act between 1832 and 1844 and 1850 and1872.

A British government commission in 1857 concluded that Orange festivals led to 'violence, outrage, religious animosities, hatred between classes and, too often, bloodshed and loss of life'.

That's the Orange tradition.

This tradition was maintained and improved upon in the 20th century when the north became an Orange state in 1921.

Orangemen instigated violent clashes in every decade – Belfast, Derry, Dungiven, Coalisland, Annalong, Portadown and so on, endlessly.

It's important to make this point because Orangemen and their NIO sympathisers have succeeded in peddling the lie that opposition to Orange marches began with Sinn Féin conspiracies in the 1990s.

Rubbish. There were disturbances in Derry and Belfast and Portadown in the 1970s.

There were huge confrontations in the 1970s on the Springfield Road at Ainsworth Avenue, literally a stone's throw from where the Parades Commission forced the Orangemen into the Catholic district last Saturday.

The Public Order Order (sic) was brought in in 1987 as a result of stand-offs in Portadown when Orangemen refused to abandon their traditional route through the Catholic Tunnel to march along the Garvaghy Road.

Yes folks, 20 years ago Orangemen were REFUSING to march along the Garvaghy Road. They thought there were more Catholics to intimidate in the Tunnel.

Given all this, it's truly sickening to hear Peter Hain say he hoped "people can exercise their traditional and cultural rights".

The logic of that nonsense is that he would support cannibals boiling someone alive in a pot or have widows in India burnt alive along with their husband's body.

Well, it was traditional wasn't it? Doesn't make it right but suttee was their culture.

This balderdash from our proconsul may show he disconnects his brain from his mouth when he's talking about this place. It also shows how successful Orange apologists have been in portraying their antics as 'cultural'.

The reality is anything but. They are the Ku Klux Klan marching through Harlem, the National Front marching along Brick Lane in London, or perhaps our proconsul would be more familiar with the concept of the Broederbond marching through Soweto?

Would he support that?

Then again, he has performed so many somersaults in his diverse political career that he might.

How could you predict which way he'll jump next?

He went so far as to regurgitate the NIO fodder he'd been fed that if 'both sides' were displeased, then the Parades Commission decision was probably right.

Wrong. It's not a matter of conflicting rights, as the British administration have sought to portray Orange marches.

Buried in the Good Friday Agreement is a little sentence guaranteeing 'the right to freedom from sectarian harassment'.

If sectarian harassment doesn't describe an Orange march in a Catholic district, what does?

Here's where the Parades Commission, now devoid of any credibility thanks to our proconsul's manipulation, confirms the cowardice of its decisions.

They begin with the presumption of the right of Orangemen to march, not the right of Catholics to live in peace and quiet, free from men marching past their homes who revere loyalist killers.

The Parades Commission's aim, as the NIO gameplan said in 1997, is to get 'Orange feet' on a Catholic street, in other words to keep the Orange Order happy.

Tradition doesn't enter into it.

The Parades Commission is now licensing marches in parts of Stoneyford where there have never been marches so that Orangemen can disturb the peace of Catholics who have never seen an Orange march and moved out to Stoneyford to get away from Belfast.

You can get away from Belfast, but thanks to the craven Parades Commission you can't get away from Orange intimidation

return to shebeen