Irish Republican Info Svc #204 7/8/97 id EAA00719; Wed, 23 Jul 1997 04:27:03 -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. 204) 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; Republican Sinn Fein homepage: http://indigo.ie/~saoirse >>>Web sites maintained by SAOIRSE -- Irish Freedom SAOIRSE -- Irish Freedom http://iol.ie/~saoirse Republican Sinn Fein http://indigo.ie/~saoirse NEW: Release Josephine Hayden http://iol.ie/~saoirse/hayden NEW: 1798 Ireland http://iol.ie/~fagann/1798/ 1. Six Counties erupt as British force Orange parade through Garvaghy Road 2. Republican youth conference in Derry 3. British police `run amok' in Bellaghy 4. North Belfast community suffer loyalist attacks 5. McBride family's anger over British killers of son 6. LVF threatens civilians in 26 Counties 7. Man charged with British police deaths denied bail 8. British Minister has Orange past 9. Six Irishmen jailed in England 10. McNamee case: `British legal system same as it was then' 1. SIX COUNTIES ERUPT AS BRITISH FORCE ORANGE PARADE THROUGH GARVAGHY ROAD FORTY-eight hours of resistance on the streets of the towns and villages of the Six Occupied Counties has followed the expected British decision on Sunday, Jul 6 to force the Orange Order parade from Drumcree Church along the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown, County Armagh for the third year in a row. British Direct Ruler Mo Mowlam's highly-publicised proximity talks between Orangemen and nationalist residents before the march were exposed as duplicitous on July 8 when Irish newspapers published a leaked British 'Northern Ireland Office' confidential document which showed that the British had decided at least by June 20 last to force the Orange parade down the Garvaghy Road as the line of least resistance. Reacting to the decision, Republican Sinn Fein President Ruairi O Bradaigh said that it was "an abject surrender to loyalist violence and threat of violence as has happened in 1996, 1974 and as far back as 1912-14." The British banning of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition "Feile na mBothar" (Street Festival) on Wednesday, July 2 (all but ignored by the media) showed the early bias of the English Establishment very clearly. The decision meant that future prospects for the current process have been shown to be built on sand with the new British Labour Government yielding to violence much more easily than the Major-Mayhew Tory administration, he added. In the aftermath of the British capitulation, aided by David Trimble's threat to pull out of the Stormont talks and the Loyalist Volunteer Force's threats against 26-County civilians, disturbances erupted throughout the Six Counties, and nationalists took over areas of Belfast and Derry. The British Crown Forces have fired more 1,600 plastic bullets at nationalists, including one 14-year-old boy, Gary Lawlor, from Lenadoon in Belfast who was shot in the back of the head by a plastic bullet. He remains in a critical condition in the Royal Victoria Hospital. His family want the British soldier involved charged with attempted murder and called for the banning of plastic bullets. More than 550 attacks have been made on the British Crown Forces, there have been over 700 bombings, mostly petrol bombs, 57 civilians and 46 RUC paramilitary police have been injured and there have been more than 600 call-outs by the fire and ambulance services. At 3.30am on Sunday, July 6 the British Crown Forces moved on to the Garvaghy Road and forcibly removed nationalist protesters, causing many injuries to men, women and children. Residents were called "Fenian scum" and "Fenian bastards". Major rioting broke out all along the half-mile long road and more than 300 Crown Forces Land Rovers were deployed to overwhelm the local population. Unrest spread to other nationalist areas as news spread of the events in Portadown. In Derry youths ignored the Provisionals martin McGuinness and Mitchel McLaughlin who attempted to stop them attacking the British Crown Forces before midnight on July 6. The attacks commenced after young Republicans burned the Union Jack at Butcher's Gate. The Provisionals and their supporters in the residents group were trying to 'police' the area all day to little avail. In areas of west Belfast such as Twinbrook and Poleglass, they hunted youths from the streets and ordered no attacks on the British Crown Forces. On the following night, (Monday, July 7) the body of a UDA loyalist death squad member was found at Dunmurry on the outskirts of Belfast. A pipe bomb he was handling had exploded prematurely in the loyalist Seymour Hill area. The Provisionals held a meeting in Belfast where they announced that public buildings and roads would be blocked over the coming days, just as the loyalists did during However, the treatment of any such nationalist blockades by the Crown Forces would be of a totally different order to the protection given to loyalist protesters last year. An RUC British policeman was shot and injured on the Garvaghy Road early on Tuesday morning, July 8. Hundreds of youths were on the streets of Derry as rioting continued. 2. REPUBLICAN YOUTH CONFERENCE IN DERRY A LARGE attendance of republican youth from all over Ireland attended the Republican Sinn Fein youth conference in Derry city on Saturday, July 5, on the eve of the Drumcree capitulation. Delegates expressed their support for people who opposed sectarian and triumphalist marches and said they were "let down" by certain existing organisations involved in negotiations. They passed resolutions supporting a British withdrawal and opposing taking seats in Westminster, Stormont or Leinster House and said participation in these assemblies could not advance the cause of a united Ireland. They also expressed their support for the release of Josephine Hayden, Republican woman POW in Limerick jail. 3. BRITISH POLICE `RUN AMOK' IN BELLAGHY THE Bellaghy Residents Association accused the British police (RUC) of `running amok' in the County Derry town early on July 6. An initial report by the RUC claimed that one of its members was detained in hospital with facial fractures after he was attacked along with two other members at William Court at 3am. The RUC went on to claim that the three were "forced" to fire one shot when they were confronted by a crowd of people who came out from a nearby house. The RUC said there were no civilian injuries. However, it later emerged that seven people were treated in hospital in what locals later described as a "ferocious" attack by the RUC. A man who lives near the scene of the attack said: "I never witnessed RUC behaviour like it in my life." The shooting incident arose when an RUC member stripped off his riot gear and challenged nationalists to a fight. When nationalists moved forward, a live round was fired at them. A man was arrested and charged with assaulting an RUC member and riotous behaviour. 4. NORTH BELFAST COMMUNITY SUFFER LOYALIST ATTACKS NATIONALISTS living in the Clifton Park Avenue area of Belfast came under a series of sustained attacks on their homes which began at 8pm on Wednesday night, July 2 and lasted until 6am the following morning. Trouble flared when loyalist youths from the Lower Old Park area began taunting and throwing stones at nationalist youths. When the nationalist youths retaliated, community leaders managed to persuade them to stop and received assurances from the British Colonial police (RUC) that the loyalists would be pushed back to the Lower Old Park area. The paramilitary police of course did not consider such promises worth keeping and the rioting continued. Girdwood British army barracks is right in the middle of this sensitive area and security cameras would have witnessed the loyalist onslaught on the nationalist community yet the British colonial police failed to respond for eight hours. The loyalists were free to go on a rampage of destruction. Two flats (apartments) were burnt out, windows in other houses and a car was smashed and a local community centre came under a sustained assault from the fuming Orange mob. Catriona Allsop, who had a front window of her home smashed on Thursday morning said she "would not be staying in the house tonight . . . What have we done to deserve this? We haven't done anything." Community activist, Paul Little, who had been instrumental in stopping nationalist retaliation expressed dismay at the loyalist attacks and the failure of the British Crown Forces to respond. "People haven't done anything here, there's been no attacks on that community over there (Lower Old Park), so they're asking `why are we getting this?' " Paul Little claimed that he had been trying to establish dialogue with the loyalist community for the past two years but with no success. Last year Orange attacks on the area continued for over ten hours and many residents have been forced to leave since. 5. McBRIDE FAMILY'S ANGER OVER BRITISH KILLERS OF SON THE High Court in Belfast ruled on July 2 that Six-County direct-ruler Marjorie Mowlam can reconsider early release of the two British soldiers convicted of killing Peter McBride in Belfast in 1992. The two Scots Guards soldiers, James Fisher (27) and Mark Wright (22) were convicted in February 1995 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Their lawyers applied for a judicial review of former Six-County direct-ruler Patrick Mayhew's decision not to refer their case to the Life Sentence Review Board until October. By then, the two soldiers will have served five years in prison, including time on remand, which they are claiming is too harsh. Peter McBride's father, also called Peter, said: "I thought the criteria for early release was that you had to show remorse which is something these people have never done . . . They sat and laughed throughout the trial and I hope the Life Sentence Review Board takes that into account . . . We are not asking that the men who murdered my son should stay in jail forever. They must be released sometime . . . But we want them treated life every other prisoner serving a life sentence for murder. "When you get life it should mean at least 12 or 15 years. That's what other people, not soldiers, have to serve and I am talking about both communities . . . I got the impression that the judge wanted to release them there and then if he had the power." 6. LVF THREATENS CIVILIANS IN 26 COUNTIES THE pro-British loyalist death squad the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) threatened to kill civilians living in the 26 Counties if the Orange parade from Drumcree was banned from marching on the Garvaghy Road on July 6. The threat was made in a statement telephoned to a Belfast newsroom on July 2., It said: "If the Orange parade does not go down the Garvaghy Road on Sunday, the Irish government may expect civilians to be killed in the Irish republic. This threat will be carried our immediately if the parade is banned." In a statement on July 2 Republican Sinn Fin said: "The outrageous threat made today (Wed) by the LVF to target civilians in the 26 Counties if the Orange march is not forced through the Garvaghy Road on Sunday next is a direct and inescapable challenge to the new British government. "If the British back down in the face of such threats as they did in 1996, in 1974 and as far back as 1912-14 then the point is underscored once more: violence and threats of violence pay and are rewarded as far as the English Establishment is concerned. "In that case the outlook for the future is a grim one indeed." 7. MAN CHARGED WITH BRITISH POLICE DEATHS DENIED BAIL COUNTY Armaghman Colin Duffy, who was released by an appeal court ten months ago after serving three-and-a-half years for the killing of John Lyness in 1993, found himself once again hauled before a British High Court charged with the killing of two British colonial police officers in June of this year. Duffy's lawyer Arthur Harvey said his client had been arrested on the evidence of a single witness who was of "notorious reputation". What the prosecution called "crucial Crown Witness D" was a woman "of limited intelligence who had made false allegations in the last," Duffy's lawyer said. She was regarded as a vulnerable individual who saw life through blurred borders of reality, fantasy and fiction. "There are a number of witnesses who can give evidence that Witness D could not have seen this murder." Refusing bail, Lord Justice Nicholson said he hoped a preliminary enquiry would take place shortly. 8. BRITISH MINISTER HAS ORANGE PAST THE British "security" minister attached to the colonial office in the Six Counties and whose remit is to oversee imperial defence strategy in Occupied Ireland including deciding the fate of Orange parades was once a member of the Orange Order in his home city of Glasgow, Scotland. Labour MP Adam Ingram told the media on July 2 that friends, community and family history had influenced him in donning the sash. In what was felt by many nationalists to be a damage limitation exercise (Irish Republicans in Scotland has suspected it for some time) Ingram assured us it was only a youthful fling. According to the Orange Order, many members of the British Labour Party do not see any conflict between membership of the Labour Party and their role as loyal Orangemen. 9. SIX IRISHMEN JAILED IN ENGLAND SIX Irishmen were sentenced to 35 years imprisonment each in Britain on July 2. The six - Gerard Hanratty (38), John Crawley (40), Robert Morrow (37), Patrick Martin (35), Francis Rafferty (45) and Donald Gannon (34) - were found guilty of conspiracy to cause explosions last summer. Two others, Clive Brampton (36) and Martin Murphy (36),were acquitted. Murphy, who had said in court that he was a member of the Provisionals' military organisation, was later re-arrested and questioned under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The convictions related to an alleged plot to blow up six national-grid electricity sub-stations around London with 37 bombs. No explosives were found and one of the accused said in court that the devices were designed to be hoaxes which would cause the British authorities to turn off the power themselves. 10. McNAMEE CASE: `BRITISH LEGAL SYSTEM SAME AS IT WAS THEN' THE case of Danny McNamee, who was convicted in 1987 of conspiracy to cause explosions including the 1982 Hyde Park bombing in London, has been referred back to the London Court of Appeal. He has spent more than ten years in jail. McNamee was jailed for 25 years but has always maintained his innocence. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in Britain decided to refer the case back after receiving evidence from McNamee's solicitors which had initially been presented to the British Home Office in 1994. Danny's brother Francis said: "The CCRC has only been looking at these cases for the past three months and they have made a decision whereas Michael Howard was looking at them for two-and-a-half years . . . "Michael Howard sat on the case for two-and-a-half years without doing anything and probably never had any intention of doing anything about it. I attended the trial and was there when the first appeal was refused and the British legal system is still the same as it was then. We're very guarded about this." -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-07.23.97-04:27:04-623