Irish Republican Info Svc 214 9/16/97 id KAA01920; Tue, 16 Sep 1997 10:30:53 -0400 =========== Posted to multiple newsgroups and lists =========== ===== Redistribute *only* with full header and signature! ===== Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit IRISH REPUBLICAN INFORMATION SERVICE (no. 214) Teach Daithi O Conaill 223 Parnell Street Dublin 1, Ireland Phone: +353-1-872-9747; FAX: +353-1-872-9757; e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie September 15, 1997 Republican Sinn Fein: http://iol.ie/~saoirse/rsf SAOIRSE Online: http://iol.ie/~saoirse Release Josephine Hayden: http://iol.ie/~saoirse/hayden 1798 Ireland: http://iol.ie/~fagann/1798/ In this issue: 1. Congratulations to the Scottish people 2. Sunningdale the model for Stormont talks--not 1921 3. British troops assault Limavady residents 4. School-bus attacked in Lisburn 5. RUC attack Ballymena men 6. Dunloy parade blocked 7. RUC shoot loyalist 8. Nationalist family forced to leave home of 33 years 9. British spy-post discovered near Border 10. British MP backs Colin Duffy 1. CONGRATULATIONS TO THE SCOTTISH PEOPLE In a message to the Scottish Nationalist Party and the Scottish Republican Socialist Party, Republican Sinn Fein congratulated the Scottish people on their resounding vote on September 11 for a Scottish Parliament. The statement went on: "We look forward not only to a further victory in Wales but also to future co-operation formalised in a Celtic League embracing the independent nations of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany. "The idea of such a Celtic League in the future has been Republican policy since 1976 and was re-endorsed by the Ard-Fheis of Republican Sinn Fein ten years ago. "Again, felicitations to our Celtic cousins." A huge majority of 74.3% of voters approved the establishment of a Scottish parliament while 63.5% agreed that the parliament should have the power to raise taxes. The overall turnout was 60.2%. The Edinburgh parliament will not come into being until the year 2000, with the first elections expected to take place in May 1999. The historic vote took place 700 years to the day after William Wallace (the hero of the recent 'Braveheart' film) defeated the English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. Scotland has not had a parliament since the Act of Union almost 300 years ago. The Unionist MP for East Derry, William Ross, predicted independence for Scotland following the referendum result and said it would signal the breakup of the 'United Kingdom'. The people of Wales vote on September 18 for their own assembly, called a Senedd, but without the powers to raise taxes. 2. SUNNINGDALE THE MODEL FOR STORMONT TALKS -- NOT 1921 In a statement issued on September 15, the first day of the Stormont talks, Ruairi O Bradaigh, President, Republican Sinn Fein, said: "It is not correct historically speaking to say that the Stormont talks which open today are the most important talks since the Treaty negotiations of 1921. Rather are they on the lines of the Sunningdale Conference of 1973. "In 1921, and again in 1972 and 1975, a bilateral truce was first negotiated between the British government and the Irish Republican Army. The political talks which followed in all three cases had one item and one item only on the agenda: the question of British disengagement from Ireland. "The Stormont talks on the other hand preclude British withdrawal from Ireland. They follow a unilateral and unconditional ceasefire by the Provisionals. The Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, the Downing Street Declaration 1993 and the Framework Documents of 1995 together with Mr Major's famous "triple lock" effectively rule out British withdrawal before the talks even start. "Sunningdale was about a power-sharing executive at Stormont and an "Irish Dimension". The current talks centre on a power-sharing Stormont (under British rule of course) and cross-Border boards. "The parallel is clearly with Sunningdale in 1973 and not with the 1921 negotiations." 3. BRITISH TROOPS ASSAULT LIMAVADY RESIDENTS BRITISH soldiers subjected Limavady residents to a night of intimidation and terror at a social club in September 1996. Two of the Crown bully-boys involved in what was described as a "drunken melee" appeared at Limavady (Co Derry) magistrates court on September 9. Andrew Peter Hawkins (18) and Daniel James Widdison of Shackleton Barracks, Ballykelly were charged with disorderly behaviour following an altercation between them and some locals. Apparently the Brits who had arrived at the night club in large numbers tried on several occasions to provoke the locals into reacting. As Hawkins was leaving the club, he noticed some of his mates involved in a disturbance with Limavady residents and as one of the locals lost his footing, Hawkins kicked him. A solicitor for Widdison said his client admitted hitting someone inside the club. They were both fined #200. At the same court an RIR British soldier who punched a man in the face was given a conditional discharge. Julian Lee Whiteside (25), whose address was given as Ballykelly Barracks was drinking with a friend who was wearing a Glasgow Rangers football jersey. When someone commented about it, Whiteside struck out, punching his victim in the face. Resident magistrate Bernie Kelly ordered him to pay #250 compensation to his victim and gave him a conditional discharge for 18 months. 4. SCHOOL-BUS ATTACKED IN LISBURN A NATIONALIST teenager needed nine stitches when a brick thrown through the window of a school-bus hit him between the eyes on September 11. The 15-year-old boy was one of more than 30 children travelling home from St Patrick's High School in Lisburn, Co Antrim when their bus was attacked by a group of youths. The youths were shouting sectarian slogans and some were wearing Glasgow Rangers club scarves, a mother of one of the children on the bus said. The youths cheered when they saw that someone was hit and bleeding, she said. "This isn't the first time that they tried this but they missed every other day. All the kids are badly shaken and some of them are now even frightened to go to school," she said. The teenager who was injured was sitting next to the window when the brick came through. He was taken to Lagan Valley Hospital where he received eight stitches to his nose and one to the ridge of his nose before being referred to the Ear, Nose and Throat unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital. There were two more attacks on school-buses containing nationalist schoolchildren in Belfast on September 12. Eighteen schoolgirls were injured when their school-bus was stoned in the Ballysillan area of north Belfast. The girls, pupils of Our Lady of Mercy School, received various injuries, mainly cuts and bruises. Six windows on the girls' bus were also broken when it was attacked at the junction of Bilston Road and Ballysillan Road at 3.50pm. In a separate incident a schoolboy was injured when he was hit by a piece of metal as a bus was attacked on the Ormeau Road. All of the incidents are believed to have been sectarian. 5. RUC ATTACK BALLYMENA MEN THREE nationalist men in their early twenties claim they were attacked by up to six British police (RUC) members in Ballymena, Co Antrim on September 11. "We had been walking up the street [Broughshane Street] when two cars pulled up quickly beside us," said one of the men, a 22-year-old university student. "Before we knew what was going on, about six RUC men jumped out and ran towards us. They were trailing us along the ground and kicking and punching us," he said. "I was shouting at them to tell me what was going on, but they wouldn't say. They never even asked us what our names were. They never tried to arrest us," he added. He said it was only when he recognised one of the RUC members and identified him that the RUC left the scene. The RUC refused to make any comment on the allegations. 6. DUNLOY PARADE BLOCKED BRITISH police (RUC) blocked an Orange march through the nationalist village of Dunloy, Co Antrim on September 14. Nationalists staged a protest in the village at the march. However, the 200-strong Orange contingent was stopped at RUC lines a mile outside the village. The Orangemen held a ten-minute protest before singing 'God save the Queen' and dispersing. Meanwhile the loyalist picket outside Our Lady's Catholic Church in Harryville, Ballymena, Co Antrim, was postponed on September 13. The loyalists are believed to have postponed the picket to see the outcome of the nearby Dunloy Orange march. It is now expected to resume on September 20. 7. RUC SHOOT LOYALIST BRITISH police (RUC) opened fire and injured a man in Belfast on September 8. The RUC claimed three men ran from a house in Lecale Street in the Village area of south Belfast shortly after 3am. Three men, at least one armed with a handgun, ran from the building, with a fourth detained in the house, the RUC said. The RUC opened fire, injuring Wayne Hindes (21) who received a leg wound. The man's father accused the RUC of heavy-handed tactics and denied any of the individuals were armed. After the shooting posters went up in the loyalist Village area accusing the RUC of "bully-boy tactics". Hindes has since been charged with handling stolen goods by the RUC. 8. NATIONALIST FAMILY FORCED TO LEAVE HOME OF 33 YEARS TWO nationalist homes were petrol-bombed in Ballymena, Co Antrim on September 9. The O'Kane family, who have lived in the house on the Ballykeel Estate for 33 years moved out after the attack. The attack on the O'Kane family occurred at 4am when Kevin and Anna O'Kane heard a thud and ran downstairs. "We thought the house was being stoned again," Kevin O'Kane said. "I opened the livingroom door and it was ablaze. I had to close the door immediately  the smoke was overpowering. I started to choke. I wasn't able to save anything," said Kevin O'Kane. The couple went outside and stood on the street waiting for the fire brigade. The petrol bomb gutted the entire downstairs part of the house. Another nationalist family on the estate was also petrol-bombed on September 9. A couple and their two young sons narrowly escaped injury when a petrol bomb was hurled into the livingroom of their Inchkeith Road home minutes after the attack on the O'Kanes. Nearly every nationalist family who has moved into Ballykeel Estate has been forced out  the O'Kanes next-door neighbours left after being petrol-bombed two years ago. "This estate is 98% Protestant," said Kevin O'Kane. "It will be 99% Protestant when we go." Writing in the 'Irish Times' (September 10), Suzanne Breen wrote: "Ballykeel is staunchly loyalist. The kerbstones are painted red-white-and-blue. Sectarian graffiti scar the walls. Nearly every house boasts a flag-pole for the Union Jack. "Their religion meant that life in Ballykeel was never easy for the O'Kanes but at first the trouble was tolerable. A brick through their window on the Twelfth; bottles hurled by a mob after a Saturday night's drinking. Last Christmas, a man stood outside the house and screamed: 'Get out, you Fenian bastards . . ....' "Anna said her neighbours are 'great' and she blamed the attack on 'outsiders'. But it was noticeable that most of Ballykeel yesterday seemed to go about their daily business as normal, ignoring the O'Kanes' plight." In both attacks firemen said the fact that both families had installed smoke alarms helped save lives. Locals say a number of nationalist families have fled the Ballykeel area following a series of sectarian attacks over the last year. 9. BRITISH SPY-POST DISCOVERED NEAR BORDER AN EXTREMELY sophisticated and well-supplied spy-bunker was accidentally uncovered by workmen in Clonalig, South Armagh in the early days of September. An old dwelling has fallen into dereliction after the elderly owner had died some years ago. However when Louth man Peter Brady moved in with his mechanical digger to clear some rubble he was astonished to discover a trap-door carefully hidden under the floor inside the building which led directly to the specially constructed underground base. "There were no soldiers inside but huge coils of TV closed circuit cabling as well as a range of monitors were fitted which would have enabled complete camera coverage of a huge stretch of the Border area including the Dundalk-Castleblaney Road which runs through a section of the north," Peter Brady said. The subterranean network also had accommodation facilities which included four military style bunk-beds, a fitted wall mirror and a wash area with toilet facilities. "Empty Tartan beer cans and containers for emergency rations were also piled inside." The digger driver who lives a short distance from the Clonalig farm inside the 26 Counties, said a further search with his machine uncovered huge lines of wiring underneath nearby fields. The base itself also contained an emergency hatch leading to a tunnel which would have enabled Crown Forces to escape on discovery. It has also been claimed that sophisticated listening devices were found in the hide. 10. BRITISH MP BACKS COLIN DUFFY BRITISH MP Chris Mullin has demanded a meeting with British direct-ruler in the Six Counties, Marjorie Mowlam, to discuss the case of Colin Duffy. In his letter to Mowlam, Mullin expressed concern over the way police have treated Duffy's solicitor, Rosemary Nelson, and witnesses. He said although there were 12 alibi witnesses, the RUC appeared to be relying on a single witness of proven unreliability. A member of the witness's family has provided a written statement to police saying she is of limited intelligence and has "always lived in fairyland" since she was a child. Copies of the letter have been sent to 'Lord Chief Justice' Carswell, RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan and Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble. Rosemary Nelson welcomed Chris Mullin's support. "He has joined a growing line of people who have expressed grave concern about the investigation," she said. "I've had the gravest of concerns even from the initial interview and detention. Two solicitors from my practice have had occasion to lodge complaints relating to the police conduct during the investigation while many witnesses have indicated that they were harassed rather than interviewed by police." -end- Please circulate the information in IRIS and credit us if reprinting. We welcome your comments and ideas. Send them to saoirse@iol.ie ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-09.16.97-10:30:57-19004