Republican News 09 November 97 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source Paddy Newell IRISH NEWS ROUND-UP Weekend, 8/9 November, 1997 1. Top loyalist found dead 2. Bellaghy under curfew for march 3. Media exaggerating Louth dispute - Adams FEATURES 4. History: Tragedy on the border 5. Address to Edentubber martyrs 40th commemoration >>>> Top loyalist found dead A man found dead at the scene of a fire in Newry early yesterday morning was a leading member of the loyalist paramilitary UDA. The body of Robert John Kerr, from Portadown, was discovered near a burning boat and trailer outside Newry on the Warrenpoint Road. Rival loyalists are suspected of having killed Kerr as part of an ongoing loyalist feud. The UDA recently pulled out of the loyalist paramilitary umbrella group amid growing tension and feuding among its constituent groups. __________________________________________________________ >>>> Bellaghy under curfew for march The residents of the nationalist village of Bellaghy in County Derry today called off plans to stage a demonstration against a British Legion parade in the village. The controversial Bruces' true blues band -- which has links to the anti-Catholic Orange Order -- led the parade despite objections by villagers. A massive British military presence occupied the village for most of the day, placing a curfew on residents and closing the main road through Bellaghy. Commending the residents for their restraint, group spokesman Jim Hasson said they had waived their right to protest "in the interests of peace and harmony". But he said the group still objected to the band chosen to lead the procession and would be taking the issue up with the British Legion at the highest level. REMEMBRANCE DAY Meanwhile, Remembrance Day services were held across Ireland today. In Belfast history was made when Alban Maginness, the city's first ever Catholic Lord Mayor, joined British governor in Ireland Mo Mowlam and the Duchess of Kent in laying a wreath at the Cenotaph beside City Hall. Irish President-elect Mary McAleese, who is to be inaugurated in Dublin on Tuesday attended a Remembrance Day service in Dublin's St Patrick's Church of Ireland cathedral. In another historic first, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said today he would be accepting an invitation to attend the President's inauguration. Speaking on British radio, Mr Adams also said he hoped there would be "no more Enniskillens" on the tenth anniversary of that tragedy. In a disastrously bungled attack, eleven civilians lost their lives when an IRA bomb exploded during a British Army commemoration in the Fermanagh county town. In a radio interview, Mr Adams said: "I hope there will be no more Enniskillens and I am deeply sorry about what happened in Enniskillen. "But I think we can only have a guarantee of a peaceful future when we tackle the root causes of the conflict and when we resolve them." __________________________________________________________ >>>> Media exaggerating Louth dispute - Sinn Fein Sinn Fein has criticised the media for exaggerating the effect of a walk-out by party activists at a Sinn Fein meeting in County Louth. Following a dispute over party strategy and the lack of progress in peace talks, a number of party members quit. But the majority of members present at the meeting in Dundalk on Thursday reaffirmed their allegiance to the Sinn Fein leadership and their support for its approach to the peace process. Those who resigned from Sinn Fein said they did not intend to join any other party. This was being seen as an opportunity for the differences to be resolved and for them to rejoin the fold at a later date. Sinn Fein was quite a large party, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said today. "Nine people have left, I don't expect a replication of that anywhere else on this island. Maybe one or two people about the place may follow the lead but let's not get it out of sync." "We have little spats like this and what a leadership has to do is to lead." Sinn Fein was a democratic party, he said, and people had a right to do what they wanted: "We are not leading sheep." Republicans have contrasted the media response to the Louth dispute with the lack of coverage of the recent resignation of the entire loyalist leadership and the murder of one of its own members. Mr Adams told BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics that he had been disappointed at people leaving Sinn Fein, but even more disappointed that they had gone to the media before telling their local branch. "I think all of this plays very much to the agenda of those people who have tried to cultivate confusion and dissent, who when they can't get a split try to create the illusion of a split. "Coming at a time when there has been no real movement in the peace process beyond most of the parties actually getting into the same room -- of course all of this is risky, it is dangerous. "But it is always going to be testing, it is always going to be challenging -- the search for peace -- and that is what we have to see our way through." * An IRA statement to a Belfast newspaper on Friday said that recent reports that up to 20 leading members had left the organisation were grossly exaggerated. It also stated that their cessation was holding. "A few people in the recent past have left the IRA but the IRA is totally intact. We want to make the point that the IRA cessation is intact as well," the statement added. The organisation was united and enjoyed the support of its members on the ground, the IRA said. __________________________________________________________ >>>> History: Tragedy on the border --------------- Pat McGinn recounts the story of the Edentubber Martyrs who were killed in a premature explosion during the IRA border campaign forty years ago --------------- Forty years ago, in the early hours of Monday 11 November 1957 five republicans were killed in an explosion which demolished a small cottage at the foot of Edentubber Mountain in County Louth, 300 yards from the Carrickarnon Border post on the main Dundalk/Newry Road. Gardai, who were on the scene shortly after the explosion, found human remains scattered by the blast and it was only after lengthy examination of the remains that it was definitely established that five men had been killed. The Newry Reporter wrote, 'As the early morning mists cleared from the rocky defile abounding in that area, the grim gaunt evidence of the terror of the earlier hours was visible. The blast was heard over 5 miles away. Little remained of the building but a heap of scattered rubble. A small portion of one wall was still standing. Wood splinters and masonry and parts of shattered furniture littered fields up to 150 yards away. Four Thompson sub-machineguns and ammunition were found among the wreckage. The Newry Frontier Sentinel reported, 'The finding of a machine gun strapped to a bicycle led to the belief that the men were starting out on an expedition when a landmine they were handling exploded.' The Dead The owner of the cottage was 54 year old Michael Waters, a forestry worker. Tommy Callan, a farmer, of Deerpark, Ravensdale said that he had called to visit Michael Watters and he asked him to come for a walk, but Michael had declined saying he had a touch of the flu. Paul Smith, 19 years old, was born and lived at the Gardens, Bessbrook. He was the eldest of a family of seven and had three brothers and three sisters. He was educated at the Christian Brothers School in Newry and was an articled architectural apprentice. He had left home six monhs earlier to work in Dublin. His mother identified the remains. His father Bernard, an employee of Bessbrook Spinning Company had been returning from Transport House in London where he had attended an interview in connection with the job as organiser of the ATGWU. Oliver Craven, from Dominic Street, Newry was one of a family of three boys and four girls. He was a labourer and unmarried, and had been away from home for about six months. His body was identified by Daniel Craven, his brother. Patrick Parle was employed as a compositor with a local printing firm and was the son of Mary Parle and the late Murtagh Parle of Wexford. Patrick was a keen GAA player and was a founder member of the Parnell Hurling and football club. It had been reported that he had been absent from home for some time. George Keegan, a baker, was a single man and also had been away from home for some time. His father Patrick Keegan was a Commandant in the North Wexford Brigade IRA during the War of Independence and a member of Enniscorthy UDC until his death five years earlier. The Funerals The remains of all five men were taken form the Blessed Oliver Plunkett home Dundalk, to St. Patricks Cathedral where they were placed in the Mortuary Chapel. Vast crowds accompanied the remains which were draped with tricolours and travelled on one lorry, and all the traffic was at a standstill as the cortege passed through the town. On Thursday 14 November Requiem mass was said, after which the coffins of the Wexford men were taken away on the first stage of their journey south. Throughout the day people from Dundalk, South Down and South Armagh filed past the coffins of the remaining three over which was mounted a guard of honour of Fianna Eireann scouts. In the afternoon the coffins were removed from the Cathedral and placed on a wreath-bedecked lorry and headed for interment in St. Patrick's Cemetery Dundalk. Ahead in processional order marched members of the Fianna Scouts, Cumann na mBan, Sinn Fiin led by the Dundalk Emmet Brass and Lead band playing the sombre strains of the Dead March in Saul. Along the footpaths silent crowds watched the funeral procession pass and then joined in the cortege. At the grave in the Republican Plot a guard of honour and colour party was mounted and then the three coffins borne by relatives of the men were lowered, one on top of the other. John Joe McGirl, Sinn Fiin TD for Sligo and Leitrim, delivered the graveside oration. In the course of it he said: "The tragedy which brought to a sudden end the lives of five great Irishmen is a tragedy of the Irish nation, the tragedy of an Ireland that is unfree and divided. These men came from the North and the South to join together to end the tragedy of our nation and her people. "Michael Watters was symbolic of the mass of the Irish people who have borne the burnt of the struggle for Irish freedom. The road they travelled was the hard road, but its signposts were unmistakable. For 35 years the nationalists in the North looked to their brother Irishmen in the South for a direct lead against British occupation. They were sadly disillusioned by the inept approach to the problem of occupation by their fellow Irishmen in the south. Having examined and employed all peaceful approaches to the unnatural division of our country they once again asserted their God-given right to freedom and have fought side by side with gallant men from the South." Many who attended the funeral complained that whilst going to and coming from the service RUC patrols and 'B' Specials had stopped them and taken notes of cars and occupants before they were allowed to proceed. The Inquest into the events at Edentubber was somewhat harrowing. At the end of it coroner J H Murphy extended his sympathy to the relatives of the five killed. Superintendent W. Leen and the jury also joined with the coroner with their sympathies. Gardai-Superintendent Leen Dundalk also stated that a priest ahd been taken to the scene immediately after the explosion by a second gardai car and he had gone among the debris and annointed all the men. At the inquest a body watch belonging to one of those killed had been found. It had stopped at exactly 12.50am. 11 November 1997 will be the fortieth anniversary of the Edentubber Martyrs. There is no trace today of Michael Watters' home, but a monument in the form of a Celtic Cross, unveiled on the first anniversary of the explosion, marks the spot to which republicans have returned each year since. __________________________________________________________ >>>> Address to Edentubber martyrs 40th commemoration ----------- The full text of the address by Mitchel McLaughlin to the Edentubber Martyrs Commemoration today. ----------- In the early hours of November 11th 1957 five Republicans were killed when a land mine exploded prematurely in a house here in Edentubber. They were Paul Smith (19) from Bessbrook, Oliver Craven (19) from Newry, Michael Watters (55) in whose cottage the fatal explosion occurred, George Keegan (29) from Enniscorthy and Paddy Parle (27) from Wexford Town. >From differing social and family backgrounds, they would have expected to live long and productive lives in a normal society, in whatever trade or profession they would have chosen. But as has been the case throughout the troubled history of our country, these brave Irishmen from North and South, like so many before them, opposed the injustice of British occupation of our country and choose the hard but noble road of freedom struggle. They came from a tradition that has borne the brunt of the struggle for Irish freedom. They were Irish Republicans in the tradition of the United Irishmen whose 200th anniversary we will commemorate next year. They like the United Irishmen believed that the root cause of Irelands ills is British occupation and interference in our country. They were not prepared to stand idly by while the Ireland envisioned by the United Irishmen had yet to be realised. They were angered as we are, by the lip service paid to the reunification of Ireland by successive governments in Dublin. They rejected the opportunism of those constitutional Irish political leaders who annually traipsed to the gravesides of Wolfe Tone and other great Irish Patriots and paid public homage to the ideals for which they sacrificed their lives, but did little that was practical to remove the injustice of partition. As with the United Irishmen and Irish Republican revolutionaries in every generation before and since, these brave volunteers tried all available peaceful methods of ending British occupation and repression in Ireland. Had successive Dublin governments and Leinster House politicians exercised their mandated responsibility to assert the right to national self-determination then an inclusive and democratic resolution would have long ago been achieved and many lives saved. The Edentubber Martyrs and the hundreds of men and women volunteers who have since given their lives for Irish Freedom have paved the way for the achievement of the dream of the United Irishmen. An Ireland in which Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter are united under the common name of Irishperson. This generation has the greatest opportunity since partition to finally achieve genuine national self-determination. But if we are to be successful then we must resist those in the media and political establishment who would have us lower our expectations. All of the nationalist parties on this island and the two governments accept that there can be no internal Six-County settlement. They accept that partition has been a failure. They have also agreed that the status quo is not an option. Therefore it is obvious that all attempts to reform the irreformable, to fix the unfixable should also be abandoned. There is a solution to centuries of turmoil and trauma. The present Irish government should be more forceful and unapologetic in the negotiations in promoting its stated preferred option - a united Ireland. Let us agree to end British interference and dismantle the institutions of partition and work together to establish the political institutions and structures of a government of Consensus in Ireland. Our generation have the opportunity, we have the unavoidable responsibility to create a new and agreed Ireland. The United Ireland of our future. The British government must also exercise a crucial responsibility. By its acceptance that there can be no internal Six-County settlement the British government clearly supports a consensus that partition and it's policy on Ireland has failed. The British government should change or re-interpret that policy to one of ending British involvement in our affairs. Tony Blair should use his influence and power to convince the unionist leadership that the future of all of our people lies in a stable, peaceful sovereign Ireland agreed amongst the people of this island. The Unionist leaderships cannot be allowed to prevent - for selfish political reasons - real, meaningful and substantive negotiations. Their schoolboy antics of disruption and non-engagement in the negotiations at Stormont can only succeed if the British government refuses to denounce this behaviour. Tony Blair is in a very powerful position to insist that the Unionist party leaders face up to the fundamental constitutional change that is required if we are to resolve this conflict. Sinn Fein is determined to ensure that the Irish Republican analysis is presented in the clearest possible terms to all the participants to these negotiations. David Trimble can scuttle in and out and he can run around the Stormont Buildings but he can't hide. Eventually he will have to stop his messing about and face up to the reality of negotiation with Sinn Fein. David, we are not going away you know! If our people, of whatever political opinion, are to arrive at a negotiated democratic settlement that respects every person on this island as human beings in equal standing, then we must negotiate with each other as equals and we must do it now. Irish Republicans today wish to assure the Unionist section of our people that the agreed Ireland that we envisage is not one in which they will have to fear discrimination or second class citizenship. When republicans demand equality we demand it for all the people of this island irrespective of religious or political persuasion, ethnic origin or social standing. We recognise that in social and economic terms there are those of the unionist tradition who have also been treated as second class citizens. David Trimble would be well advised to pay more attention to the wishes of his own people and their desire for a process of real engagement in the search for peace. His scare mongering with his comments on the Louth resignations are a desperate attempt to deflect attention from his negative politics and his schoolboy antics in the Stormont negotiations. I regret both the resignations and the media hype surrounding them. But our door is open for those who wish to reconsider their actions. The unity, vibrancy and continual growth of Sinn Fein frightens David Trimble. He is so afraid of our ability to articulate the logic of our analysis that he cannot yet find the courage to debate our respective analysis face to face. But change will happen anyway. It is already underway and the confidence within republicanism and nationalism is a general reflection of that reality. David Trimble's pronouncements over the past few days about the stability of the IRA cessation and his glee at a small number of resignations from Sinn Fein's is in stark contrast to his deafening silence when the entire CLMC resigned and then killed one of their own members. He was so scared to upset his allies in the loyalist paramilitary parties that he refused to comment. There seems to be no bounds to David Trimble's hypocrisy. I can assure everyone that Sinn Fein is a progressive, united and cohesive political force, confident enough that we can allow those who may differ with our analysis to have their say and then move forward without rancour. Can David Trimble give the same assurance about the Ulster Unionist Party? If he believes he can, then when is he going to show the political courage to face his political opponents, in open and mature debate, about the kind of Ireland we want to bequeath to future generations on this island. If David Trimble cannot do the honourable thing and negotiate in good faith then he should at least stop trying to continually find something or somebody else to blame for his political and leadership inadequacies. In other words he should grow up and enter the real world. Sinn Fein is committed to agreement achieved by peaceful means, but we can only convince our political opponents of our bona fides by face to face discussion and negotiations. Therefore if David Trimble is refusing to take these negotiations seriously, it becomes incumbent on those progressives in positions of influence within the unionist community to encourage him to engage and to support him publicly when and if he does. The search for a resolution cannot of course be left entirely to those involved at Stormont. Each and every individual has their own special part to play. Let us be critical when it is appropriate to do so. Where are all of the campaigners who were so vociferous in their demands for a cessation of the IRA's armed struggle? What are they doing now to ensure that the opportunity that has been presented for the second time in three years is not wasted like the last one? What are these 'Peace Campaigners' doing to bring pressure on the British government to act on confidence building measures around issues such as release of prisoners, cultural rights and equality? Do those who campaigned so vigorously for an IRA cessation realise that the only armed group maintaining a genuine cessation is the IRA? Where are the Peace Trains to South Armagh, West Belfast and County Tyrone as the British Army continues to build and fortify military installations? Where are the demands for a British Army cessation of military operations? Where are the demands for the renewal of the CLMC cease-fire? Until all these issues are addressed we will not have genuine peace on this island. It is important therefore that each and every person seriously interested in a democratic resolution of this conflict become involved in pressure campaigns to demand the release of all political prisoners, demilitarisation, equality and real and substantive negotiations now. I would ask you to leave here today determined to make the best contribution you can to the building of a new Irish democracy in the vision of the United Irishmen, the Edentubber Martyrs and all the other Irish patriot men and women. Together we can build the United Ireland of our future. -------------------------------- -- -- -- From RM_Distribution -- -- an Irish Republican news -- -- and information service. -- -- -- -- http://irlnet.com/rmlist/ -- ================================================================= 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-11.14.97-23:57:40-1329