Irish Republican Info Svc #200 6/10/97 =========== 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. 200 Teach Daithi O Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: 872 9757 e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie Republican Sinn Fein homepage: http://indigo.ie/~saoirse View our SAOIRSE homepage: http://iol.ie/~saoirse In this issue: 1. Move of prisoner from hospital to jail condemned 2. Wolfe Tone commemoration, Sunday, June 15, 1997 3. Change of administration in 26-County assembly 4. Family forced out in loyalist terror attack 5. Loyalist explosion of bigotry at Harryville 6. McAliskey outlines police threats to baby 7. Continuity IRA and LVF 'banned' by British Government 8. Loyalist Attack on Larne nationalist home 1. MOVE OF PRISONER FROM HOSPITAL TO JAIL CONDEMNED REPUBLICAN Sinn Fein prisoners' spokesperson Peig King condemned on Saturday, June 7 the removal of seriously-ill Republican prisoner Josephine Hayden from Limerick Regional Hospital back to Limerick prison, seven days after she suffered a heart attack. "Josephine is the only woman political prisoner in the 26 Counties. She suffered a heart attack at 7.30am on Friday, May 30 last. She had to get out of her bed and walk to the door to ring the alarm bell. At 8.30am she was admitted to the Intensive Care unit of Limerick Regional Hospital. "The decision to move her back to Limerick prison so soon after a serious heart attack is deplorable. Her cell is on the third floor and she will have to walk up and down those stairs. The expert medical advice given by the cardiologist in Limerick Regional Hospital was that climbing stairs would be very bad for her and she needed to be on the ground floor. "The weakness of her condition is indicated by the fact that Josephine cannot have a necessary angiogram for four weeks, in order to allow her to build up her strength sufficiently. "Republican Sinn Fein repeats its call for the release of Josephine Hayden on humanitarian grounds. In the meantime she should be allowed a period of convalescence in hospital. Instead she has been rushed back to prison ahead of her complete recovery." URGENT ACTION CALL: All concerned individuals and groups outside of the 26 counties should protest to the embassies and consuls of the 26-County State and call for the immediate release, on humanitarian grounds, of Josephine Hayden. Please contact her by writing to her at the following address: Josephine Hayden, Republican Prisoner, Limerick Prison, Mulgrave Street, Limerick, Ireland. Within the 26 Counties protests should be made to public representatives to call on the Dublin administration to release Josephine. Posters and leaflets are now available from the Republican Sinn Fein POW Department, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1. 2. WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION, SUNDAY, JUNE 15, 1997 FERMANAGH man Michael McManus will be Republican Sinn Fein's keynote speaker at the Wolfe Tone commemoration in Bodenstown, Co Kildare, which takes place on Sunday next, June 15. Contingents will attend from throughout the 32 Counties. Organised annually under the auspices of the National Commemoration Committee, the ceremony will begin at 2.30pm with a parade of marchers, bands and banners from Sallins Village to Bodenstown Churchyard. The oration at the grave of Wolfe Tone, the founder of Irish Republicanism, will be delivered by former Republican prisoner from Fermanagh, Michael McManus. He is a native of Lisnaskea. 3. CHANGE OF ADMINISTRATION IN 26-COUNTY ASSEMBLY THE Fine Gael/Labour/Democratic Left coalition lost its majority in the 26-County general election on June 6. The Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrats coalition fell three seats short of a majority, ie 83 seats. Of the first preference votes Fianna Fail won 39.33% of the vote (0.22% increase on 1992 election), Fine Gael 27.95% (3.48%), Labour 10.40% (-9.91%), Progressive Democrats 4.68% (no change), Democratic Left 2.51% (-0.27%), The Worker's party 0.44% (-0.23%), Green Party 2.76% (1.36%), Provisionals 2.55% (0.94%) and others 9.39% (3.42%). Of the 166-seat Leinster House assembly Fianna Fail won 77 seats, Fine Gael 54, Labour 17, Progressive Democrats 4, Democratic Left 4, Green Party 2, Provisionals 1, Socialist Party 1, Independents 6. The Leinster House assembly is due to reconvene on Thursday, June 26 next. 4. FAMILY FORCED OUT IN LOYALIST TERROR ATTACK MOTHER-OF-FOUR Catherine Ramsey, whose home in Parkend Street in north Belfast came under attack from a fascist Orange mob six weeks previously was quietly listening to music with her partner Patrick McGuinness when a loyalist gang wielding iron bars attempted to break the living-room windows at 2am on Sunday, June 8. Catherine Ramsey said the assault on her home took place within a few minutes of a Crown Forces (RUC) Land-Rover being sighted in the area. She said she dashed from her living-room to the hallway to telephone the RUC while McGuinness ran to the front door in order to prevent the gang from gaining entry. "We were about to get the bedroom window fixed after the previous attack. I can't believe it has happened again," Catherine Ramsey said. "I'm so frightened and disgusted. If Patrick hadn't pulled the drop-bars across the front door, I daren't think what could have happened. I don't feel safe living here anymore. While I don't want to leave this house, I love it, I have to think of my children's safety." 5. LOYALIST EXPLOSION OF BIGOTRY AT HARRYVILLE SATURDAY, June 7 saw a further escalation of Orange violence as a parade of over 60 loyalists band approached the catholic church at Harryville in Ballymena and attacked the church breaking two 12ft by 3ft windows and setting a notice-board and porch on fire. British paramilitary police managed to force the rioters away from the building, firing plastic bullets into the air. Thus began four hours of clashes between the rioters and the paramilitary police spreading to the Wakehurst and Antrim Road areas. The Crown Forces estimated that 27 of their members were injured in the foray as loyalists hurled petrol bombs, stones and other missiles at them. A car was hijacked and a garage damaged during the riots. There were no reports of loyalist injuries in contrast to RUC treatment of nationalist demonstrators. 6. McALISKEY OUTLINES POLICE THREATS TO BABY IN A letter written by Roisin McAliskey and handed to Dutch MEP Hedy D'Ancona, chair of the European Parliament's Human Rights Committee during a visit to Holloway prison on April 15, 1997, Roisin described her experiences of being under arrest by the British police (RUC). Roisin McAliskey was arrested at her home in Coalisland, Co Tyrone on November 20, 1996 and taken to Castlereagh Interrogation Centre in Belfast. "Although I was cautioned about the organising and directing of acts of terrorism, I was not then questioned about any involvement," Roisin McAliskey wrote. "Abusive remarks were made about my mother [Bernadette Devlin McAliskey], hoping she would have a heart attack at the news of my arrest. Police had also arrested a 60-year-old mother that week and they said they regretted not to be able to arrest my mother, but that I was the next best thing. Detectives came through the next six days to look at me and they congratulated each other on having me there; some commented on the 'good luck' of the detectives who were interrogating me in having 'drawn me', saying what 'good fun' it would be to have 'a crack at Bernie's daughter': most remarked how I resembled my mother in looks and asked was I as 'evil', 'twisted', 'sick' and 'bitter' as she was. They all laughed and commented about my mother and father having being shot [by a loyalist death squad in Coalisland in 1981] and what a pity it was they survived, but that it could be managed again . . . " "[One Officer] said that Republicans were breeding like rats, that too many Republican men had been released from prison and that he intended to see to it that the women were locked up . . . At one point when I became visibly distressed [the officer] screamed at the two detectives not to 'lose me' like they had [more deleted] -- a woman who had been arrested after the birth of her second daughter. After several days in Castlereagh she was released on medical grounds. [One officer] described to me in detail how she began to haemorrhage during an interview . . . "One individual was the most threatening about my pregnancy and said it only took one punch in the right place. Enough to cause a deformity but not a miscarriage, because if I miscarried they would have to release me and that on no account would they let me leave Castlereagh without being charged with something. "On one occasion, at night, [one officer] came to interrogate me who had very obviously been drinking and said that my mother and the Rev Ian Paisley were responsible for every murder in the last 25 years. This officer said that it would be a career highlight to lock me up . . . "I was repeatedly told by detectives that if I would make a statement saying I organised and directed terrorism, that they would release other people and that they would make sure I got bail and a short sentence. They said that if I did not make a statement to that effect, that they would arrest my partner, Sean, my family, my friends and keep arresting people until one of them would sign a statement implicating me . . . "[One officer] said . . . the statement was the 'lesser of two evils: that [they] could arrange for me to spend the next five years going from country to country until they found something to charge me with' . . . [one officer] seemed to take particular delight in relating the treatment of pregnant women [by German interrogators] during World War II, saying it would be arranged that my child would be taken into care at birth, that Sean [Roisin's partner] would be arrested and that, because he has a previous conviction, they would not have to charge him with anything. I was repeatedly told that if I signed the statement I would not have to go to Germany. I refused to sign." 7. CONTINUITY IRA AND LVF 'BANNED' BY BRITISH GOVERNMENT THE British secretary Marjorie Mowlam 'banned' the IRA led by the Continuity Army Council and the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) from midnight on June 3. Under the Emergency Provisions Act (EPA) the British direct-ruler in the Six Counties can add to the list of proscribed organisations by simply signing an order. It must then be approved within 40 days of the signing by both houses of the British parliament. Under the EPA a conviction of membership of a 'prescribed organisation' carries a sentence of six years imprisonment. In its statements the Continuity IRA has said that its objectives are British withdrawal from Ireland and Irish national independence. In an interview with the Irish language newspaper Foinse on March 30 last two representatives of the Continuity IRA said that its struggle was against the British Crown Forces. On May 22 the Irish News in Belfast reported that a member of the Continuity IRA had been abducted and interrogated by the Provisionals military organisation. Republican Sinn Fein asked Gerry Adams publicly on May 22 "if the Provos are getting ready to act in support of the British forces, as the new Broy Harriers, against members of their own community?" In a statement on June 4, Ruairi O Bradaigh, President, Republican Sinn Fein said; "The banning by the British government of the Irish Republican Army led by the Continuity Army Council is meaningless since the IRA was already proscribed by British law as far back as 1922 under the Special Powers Act. "How can what has already been banned for 75 years be banned now? "Yesterday's (Tuesday, June 3) pronouncement by Marjorie Mowlam is merely a political balancing exercise in view of the banning at the same time of the Loyalist Volunteer Force. "It is so much political window-dressing in an attempt to placate the Unionists in keeping with Tony Blair's Belfast speech of May 16 last." 8. LOYALIST ATTACK ON LARNE NATIONALIST HOME BREEZE blocks were hurled through the front window of a flat occupied by a nationalist family in Linn Road, Larne, Co Antrim at around 1am on Sunday, June 8. The owner of the flat, Roseanne Rogers, died in hospital at the same time as the loyalists were attacking her home. She was suffering from a stroke and had been ill for some time. Her 20-year-old son was in the flat at the time and received a wound to his arm in the attack. -end- Please circulate the information in IRIS and credit us if reprinting. We welcome your comments and ideas. 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