Irish AM Newsbriefs 4/25 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit News from the Wire Services Re: Ireland & the Irish PA 04/25/99 08:15 Don't Put Peace Process On Hold, Sinn Fein Warns PA 04/25/99 04:48 Hill Walker Found Dead PA 04/25/99 01:08 Lord Protector Was Posthumously Beheaded PA 04/25/99 01:07 Ex-RUC Officer Quizzed Over Collusion Claims ****************************** Don't Put Peace Process On Hold, Sinn Fein Warns PA 04/25/99 08:15 Copyright 1999 PA News By Ian Graham, PA News Sinn Fein warned today that there will be no Good Friday Agreement to return to if the Northern Ireland peace process is "parked" for the summer. Mitchel McLaughlin, chairman of Sinn Fein, said the peace process was already in "very deep crisis" and every day there was a failure to find agreement on the establishment of political institutions the crisis deepened. If that agreement is not reached within the next couple of weeks the British and Irish governments will have to decide what to do. The parties return to Stormont tomorrow for yet another attempt to break the arms deadlock which is holding up the establishment of a governmental Executive and threatening the whole peace process. Unionists refuse to contemplate sharing power with Sinn Fein in government until the IRA beings to disarm. Sinn Fein insists it is not something it can deliver. A series of bilateral and round table talks is planned for the first few days of the week and Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern are on standby to join the talks later in the week if there are signs they can push the discussions towards success. One option, which no party is keen on, is putting the peace process on hold -- "parking" it -- until the tensions of the European elections in June and the summer loyalist marching season is over. But Mr McLaughlin warned: "Our view is if you park the peace process there will be no Good Friday Agreement to come back to. It will be gone. There will be nothing to come back to. "We know what the loyalists are going to do this marching season, everybody knows. There could be members of this assembly dead by the time this summer is over as a result of the activities of those people. "You can't afford, even to consider for a moment, parking the peace process," he said on BBC 1's On the Record. Sir Reg Empey, a senior member of the Ulster Unionist assembly team expressed fears such warnings could deepen the crisis. "Lets not talk ourselves into a problem. But I do agree that in my view the sooner it is resolved the better. I think we all feel that it might be more difficult if it is left, which is why we are trying to get it resolved now." Sir Reg told the programme if people were genuinely committed to peace there was no alternative to talking. "Therefore to put all these messages out of gloom and threat -- we see them as code for `If you don't do what we want you to do, we'll return to bombing and shooting', that is why the matter must be resolved." Liz O'Donnell, the Irish Foreign Affairs junior minister who has been deeply involved in the talks process, said the next two or three weeks was going to be "a critical period of fundamental reflection". She said the parties had to "consider the cost of failure, they have to realise there is no alternative". Ms O'Donnell added: "I don't think we have the luxury of parking this process, I feel we have to continue. Certainly parking in the absence of dialogue is out of the question." But she said: "There may well be a period when parties need more time for this fundamental reflection." Mr McLaughlin warned the Government not to agree to Unionist calls for a suspension of the prisoner early release scheme because of the continued impasse in the peace process. It would be a "deal breaker", he said. "In terms of prisoners if there was any attempt of political interference or to suspend, remove or break the commitments given in that particular section of the agreement that would be a deal breaker for Sinn Fein." But Sir Reg said he believed there was a "very strong case" for halting the releases "because at the present moment you could very clearly argue that people have not honoured their commitments". There was enormous disquiet in the Unionist community about the release issue, he said. A proposal put by SDLP leader John Hume to the Unionists and Republicans in a bid to break the arms deadlock appears to be a non-runner. He said on Saturday he had suggested that parties such as Sinn Fein give a pledge of non-violence and agree to self-expulsion from government should there be a return to violence by the IRA. But Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, while saying his party was looking at the proposal, said: "There is no question of us getting involved in any self-expulsion." And Sir Reg questioned whether Sinn Fein would be prepared to make such an agreement -- and whether they could be trusted to keep it if they did. He said Sinn Fein always insisted they and the IRA were separate -- something he said everyone knew was a nonsense -- but could use that to refuse to leave the talks if the IRA returned to violence. ****************************** Hill Walker Found Dead PA 04/25/99 04:48 Copyright 1999 PA News By Ruth O'Reilly, Dublin A hill walker who fell down the side of a mountain in the west of Ireland was found dead by rescuers early today. He was one of six people from Galway city who set out yesterday to climb a mountain near Leenaun. The Shannon-based Marine Rescue helicopter carried the body to Galway University Hospital. The victim's name has not been disclosed by the authorities yet. ****************************** Lord Protector Was Posthumously Beheaded PA 04/25/99 01:08 Copyright 1999 PA News By Brian Farmer, PA News Today marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of Oliver Cromwell. :: Oliver Cromwell was born in Huntingdon on April 25, 1599, and educated at Huntingdon Grammar School, now the Cromwell Museum, and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. :: Born into a landowning family he became MP for Huntingdon in 1628 and MP for Cambridge in 1640. But he did not rise to prominence until 1642 until he became involved in the Civil War and raised troops for Parliament in its fight against the Royalists. :: In 1643 he became Lieutenant General of the Eastern Association Army and two years later Lieutenant General of the Roundheads' New Model Army. :: He commanded Roundhead troops at the key Civil War battles - - Marston Moor (1644), Newbury (1644), Naseby (1645) and Worcester (1651) -- and was never defeated. :: In 1653 he became Lord Protector and and met Protectorate Parliaments in 1654 and 1656. In 1657, he rejected Parliament's offer of the Crown. :: After the execution of Charles I in 1649, he went to Ireland to command the army that crushed Catholic rebellions. He earned a "devilish" reputation for his roles in the massacre of Catholics at Drogheda and Wexford and was quoted as saying: "It is the righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches." :: He also led armies that crushed risings in South Wales and Scotland. :: He died in Whitehall in 1658. :: In 1661 he was exhumed and posthumously beheaded after the monarchy had been restored. :: The last resting place of his remains are a matter of dispute although it is thought that they lie near Marble Arch, London. ****************************** Ex-Ruc Officer Quizzed Over Bombing Collusion Claims PA 04/25/99 01:07 Copyright 1999 PA News By Ruth O'Reilly, Dublin Irish police have confirmed they have interviewed a former RUC officer who claims British security forces were involved in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings which killed 33 people nearly a quarter of a century ago. Officers from the Special Detective Unit in Dublin were examining "all aspects" of the information given to them, said a police spokesman. The group campaigning for relatives of those killed said it was pleased to see movement on the case "at long last" but insisted that any breakthrough in the criminal investigation must not offset demands for a full public inquiry into the atrocity. "While the families are pleased to see some movement there is also a sense that it is new material that we gave to the Gards Irish police officers," said Don Mullan of the Justice for the Forgotten group. "It doesn't detract from demands for a tribunal of inquiry because there are many serious questions to be answered about how various administrations and the Gards handled the case up to now." The loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force admitted responsibility for the bombings long after the attack but allegations of collusion by RUC and British military intelligence have persisted over the years. The source of the new allegations -- believed to be a former RUC constable - claims that his own former colleagues, British military intelligence and the locally recruited Ulster Defence Regiment played a role in the attacks. Earlier this week Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern became the first leader of an Irish government to meet the relatives and he signalled that a public inquiry may finally a possibility. Afterwards the delegation disclosed that Mr Ahern had suggested that they set up a small working committee to engage with a committee from his own department to explore ways forward. It also emerged that the Victims' Commissioner in the Irish Republic, John Wilson - a former Deputy Prime Minister - is currently preparing a report into how the Dublin/Monaghan victims needs can be met. ------- Jay Dooling (jdooling@worldnet.att.net) Irish Aires - 90.1FM KPFT in Houston http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Irish_Aires/homepage.htm Dooling & Mabe, CPA http://www.doolingmabe-cpa.com/ ------------- ================================================================= 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-04.26.99-09:49:29-32209