Irish News 6/12-13/99 Election Covg Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit IRISH NEWS ROUND-UP http://irlnet.com/rmlist/ Friday/Saturday, 11/12 June, 1999 1. SINN FEIN BREAKTHROUGH IN LOCAL ELECTIONS 2. Garvaghy survives mini-twelfth 3. RUC 'lies and conspiracy' 4. Analysis: Are Fianna Fail playing the long game? 5. History: General amnesty 1917 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>> SINN FEIN BREAKTHROUGH IN LOCAL ELECTIONS In local and European elections held in the 26 Counties on Friday and being counted this weekend, the general position of the parties remained unchanged with the notable exception of a breakthrough performance by Sinn Fein. Counting was only getting underway early Sunday in the European elections, with tallies indicating no change in the party make up for the 26 County's 15 European seats. Sinn Fein appeared to have almost doubled its European vote. But the tallies were strongly criticised as highly inaccurate, and there were suggestions that independent candidate Dana could have a remote chance of taking Fine Gael's seat in Connacht/Ulster, while late tallies indicated that both Labour and the Green Party are in jeopardy, while the Green Party seat in Leinster was also under threat. But it was the lcoal elections and the indications they give for national elections that proved to be of the greatest interest, and Sinn Fein's performance drew the most attention. The party won six seats in Dublin and Monaghan and gathered county and town council seats across the country in a performance which will put the party in a greatly improved position for future elections despite years of censorship and state repression. The minor parties had eagerly awaited the local elections, which had not been held for almost nine years as various governments concluded they could retain their seats by merely postponing the vote. But Sinn Fein succeeded more than others in remaining concentrated on the task, particularly in Dublin where the party has long represented the working poor and unemployed in under-funded and drugs-ravaged areas. With counting still underway, there were confirmed successes for Sinn Fein on town and county councils in Dublin, Monaghan, Cavan, Leitrim, Louth, Cork, Donegal, Sligo, Kerry, Meath with others considered likely in Wexford, Mayo, Clare, Kildare and possibilities in Wicklow, Laois, Offaly, Limerick and Tipperary. As Labour and the other parties, particularly Mary Harney's Progressive Democrats, licked their wounds on Saturday evening, Shinners began celebrating early at the Dublin count centre with the news that well-travelled Republican Dessie Ellis, known for his lengthy fight against extradition, had been elected on the first count in Finglas with a poll-topping performance. Long-standing councillor Christy Burke from Dublin's inner city will also be joined on the new Dublin City Council by Larry O'Toole from Artane, remembered as the target of a gun attack by a drugs dealer last year, and Nicky Kehoe, an anti-drugs activist from Cabra. The SF 'gang of four' is set to hold a pivotal position on the council between the Fianna Fail and Labour/Fine Gael blocks on Dublin City Council. Meanwhile, Euro candidate Sean Crowe and Mark Daly dramatically won seats on South Dublin County Council for the first time, Sean 'Jack' Crowe beating the Labour Party's sitting TD Pat Rabbitte while bringing in a party colleague in the Tallaght Central ward. In an otherwise lacklustre election, Sinn Fein's performance was the main topic of conversation at the Royal Dublin Showgrounds at Ballsbridge, familiar to Republicans as the typical home of Sinn Fein's annual Ard Fheis. Party activists and leading party official Martin McGuinness organised an impromptu a cavalcade more often seen after Six County elections, and set off across the city, accompanied by a bag-piper and scores of cheering and flag-waving supporters. Almost two years after Caoimghin O Caolain's historic breakthrough to win a Leinster House seat, the Sinn Fein dynasty in Monaghan was confirmed with the election of local candidates in all parts of the county. Three romped home in north Monaghan to make a total of six on the county council. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael share the other seats to leave the three parties almost equally divided on the county council. This historic result is sure to provide an interesting political paradigm for the main political parties as they contemplate sharing power with Sinn Fein. Local TD Caoimhghin O Caolain brought in Brenda McAnespie and Brian McKenna in Monaghan, while the other successes were Noel Keelan in Carrickmacross, Jackie Crowe in Castleblaney and Brian McQuaid in Clones amid numerous victories on Clones and north Monaghan urban district councils. Next door, there were two new seats for Sinn Fein on Cavan County Council with Pauline Tully winning in Ballyjamesduff and Charlie Boylan in Cavan town. There were also two narrow victories in Leitrim, with Liam McGirl and Martin Colreavey squeezing between Fianna Fail candidates for seats on the county Council in a familiar pattern. Sinn Fein treasurer Joe Reilly topped the poll for Navan Urban District Council and appeared likely to bring in colleague Tony Cantwell on Navan UDC as well as securing for himself a seat on Meath County Council. Euro Candidate Martin Ferris was elected on the first count to Kerry County Council in Tralee, and narrowly missed out on bringing in a colleague in Listowel ward. A similar battle was underway in Louth, where Euro candidate Arthur Morgan coasted into a seat on the county council in Carlingford but was looking to bring a colleague in Dundalk South. In Sligo, the Connacht/Ulster candidate Sean MacManus was elected to the County Council and his son Chris was set to win a seat on the town council. Down in deepest Cork, Martin Hallinan massively topped the poll for Sinn Fein on Youghal UDC with enough votes for at least one other There were unconfirmed seats also on town councils for Tom Hanlon in Passage West, Cionnaith O Suilleabhain in Clonakilty and Kieran McCarthy in Cobh, with battles still continuing for seats on the Cork county and city councils. The performance of Sinn Fein stumped Irish television's election pundits, whose warnings the party would suffer reverses as a result of the coverage of the search for missing remains proved to be off the mark. The main parties were forced for the first time to consider the threat posed by the party's strong community activism and demands for local democracy. Government Minister Noel Dempsey, the Fianna Fail director of elections told Irish television that Sinn Fein's performance was "a very significant feature of the election". He claimed it showed that Sinn Fein was "becoming a constitutional party". "That can only be good for everybody, and I welcome it," he added. In an early comment on Sinn Fein's performance, Martin McGuinness said he was very pleased but not at all surprised at the news. "We have been predicting an increase in our vote and in our number of seats at local level," he said. Commenting on the still in-coming results, party President Gerry Adams declared: "Our gains indicate an increasing support for our radical republican labour policies, and I am confident this is only the start of greater progress in the time ahead." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>> Garvaghy survives mini-twelfth Thousands of Orangemen gathered this weekend in Portadown for rallies and marches, including one on the Corcrain Road in Portadown near the boarded-up house of the O'Neill family where grandmother Elizabeth O'Neill was killed. Mrs O'Neill was killed in a bomb attack on her home last week for having married a Catholic, but there was little reference to the murder. Portadown District spokesman David Jones called on several hundred loyalists at Corcrain to support the so-called 'Long March' from Derry to Portadown on June 24 to back Drumcree. Speaking just a few hundred yards from the O'Neill home, he said was not asking for further violence and pipe-bomb attacks were "not needed". He called on Orangemen to "hit the British Government where it hurts, in the pocket," referring to the large RUC and British Army presence around the marches. But loyalists later rioted at a number of points around the nationalist enclave, including on Park Road at the bottom of the nationalist Garvaghy Road and at Drumcree Road, the route the Protestant Orange Order want to take into the Catholic area on their highly contentious march next month. Several injuries were reported as loyaliss once again sought to force their way past barricades and riot police. Thousands of Orangemen took part in mini-12th rallies and accompanying rioting in the County Armagh town. At Drumcree Church, Portadown District Master Harold Gracey told his audience the Government would have to rethink its strategy regarding the proximity talks set up to try and resolve the dispute. He claimed professional mediator Frank Blair, who chaired the talks two weeks ago, did not understand the situation. Garvaghy Road residents spokesman Breandan MacCionnaith said the Orange parades did nothing to help the atmosphere between the Protestants and Catholic communities in Portadown. "The atmosphere is very tense," he said. "I would appeal for calm." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>>> Lies and conspiracy -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The head of the RUC, Ronnie Flanagan, has claimed that he was unaware of specific threats against the life of Rosemary Nelson. He has also denied he knew of requests to have her included on the key persons protection scheme, denials that fly in the face of the available evidence. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- At a meeting with the 'Police Authority of Northern Ireland' in April of this year, RUC Chief Constable Ronnnie Flanagan claimed that prior to her murder in March, the RUC had no specific information to suggest that Rosemary Nelson was the subject of a specific threat. Despite the mountain of available evidence to the contrary, Flanagan, it seems, made the deliberate choice to stand firm against the many criticisms being made against the RUC and the calls for an investigation into Rosemary's death that was totally independent of the RUC. These calls were not without foundation. Over the years, Rosemary Nelson had been subjected to verbal and physical abuse from RUC members. As head of the RUC, Flanagan was well aware of the specific threats made by serving RUC officers against Rosemary Nelson. He would have seen the Independent Commmission for Police Complaints (ICPC) report compiled by Geralyn McNally and which was eventually released on March 22, seven days after Rosemary was killed. McNally made "consistent" criticisms of the RUC officers she was questioning, saying they showed by their "behaviour and attitude" a total disregard for Rosemary Nelson. McNally also expressed "serious concern" at how individual RUC members obstructed her inquiry. She raised this with both Mo Mowlam and Flanagan in July last year. One RUC officer turned up late to an interview with McNally and smelling of drink. As a result of the criticisms raised by McNally and the mounting evidence against the RUC, the ICPC for the first time ever invited an English policeman, Niall Mulvihill, to the North to investigate complaints against the RUC and the threats against Rosemary Nelson. In September 1998, a British minister informed the Committee for the Administration of Justice that evidence of loyalist death threats had been passed on to Flanagan's office, so he should again have been well aware, eight months before Nelson's death, of specific loyalist death threats. The details of the threats against Rosemary Nelson and the efforts made by concerned individuals on both sides of the Atlantic to have the Britisih government protect her life are contained in correspondence compiled by Ed Lynch of the American-based Lawyers Alliance for Justice. The correspondence from Lynch, of the U.S.-based Lawyers Alliance for Justice in Ireland, includes letters to the RUC including RUC assistant Chief Constables Gamble and Day who oversaw the ICPC investigation, Louis Blom-Cooper, chair of the Independent Commission for Holding Centres, the Independent Commission for Police Complaints (ICPC), British Home Secretary Jack Straw, Six-County British minister Adam Ingram, the NIO police division, and British Metropolitan Police Commander Mulvihill. Taken with the statements of clients of Rosemary Nelson through whom the RUC delivered their threats and two reports from the UN special rappatour Data Param Cumaraswamy, the available evidence shows the very real threat to Rosemary Nelson's life. Ronnie Flanagan would have been aware of the bulk of this information. In March 1997, Lynch wrote to Blom-Cooper about the death threats against Nelson eminating from Gough barracks in Armagh and the behaviour and attitudes of RUC personel shown to people held in custody towards Nelson. The ICPC replied on March 24 1997 that it had passed details of the complaint onto the RUC. On April 4 RUC Chief Inspecter Gamble replied to Lynch that he had been appointed to the investigation and two days later the ICPC confirmed that it would supervise the investigation. As early as June 30 1997, nearly two years before Rosemary Nelson's murder, Lynch warned the ICPC that unless "prompt and responsible action" was taken Nelson may suffer the same fate as Patrick Finucane. UN special Rappateur Data Param Cumaraswamy's report into the Independence of Judges and Lawyers highlighted that there was "prima facie" evidence of collusion between the crown forces and loyalist death squads in the murder of Pat Finucane and that lawyers defending nationalists and republicans were subjected to threats by the RUC. On 7 April 1998, the RUC informed Lynch that the file about the RUC death threats would be placed before Flanagan. On February 12, 1999 the Lawyers Alliance met Flanagan and raised the issue of death threats against Nelson. Ed Lynch and five colleages spent two hours with Flanagan on 27 February, Lynch said they "asked him directly what he was doing regarding the threats against Rosemary". Just over two weeks later, the lawyer who had been subjected to threats from the RUC and who had been assaulted by the RUC and who had received two specific death threats from loyalists, was dead. Responding to Flanagan's false claims that he knew nothing of death threats or the application for Nelson's protection, close friend and Garvaghy Road spokesperson Breandan MacCionnaith retorted that "Flanagan knows the truth of the matter. "He is aware of the threats because some of them emanated directly from senior [RUC] officers. The Committee for the Administration of Justice (CAJ), which had independently taken some of the initial witness statements against the RUC, has also insisted that it sent details of written death threats made against Nelson to the NIO eight months before her murder; one a posted note that threatened to "teach her a lesson" and ended "RIP" and the second a leaflet circulating in Portadown that included Nelson's office address and telephone number. In a letter from British minister Adam Ingram's private secretary dated 24 September 1998, the CAJ was told that the NIO "passed the documents immediately to the Chief Constable's office for investigation. They would obviously, given the nature of the material, assess the security risk against Ms. Nelson". Meanwhile, RUC Federation chairman Les Rodgers' claim that there is an "evil conspiracy" against the RUC, aided and abetted "wittingly or unwittingly" by lawyers, amongst others, shows a willingness to accept that lawyers representing nationalists are legitimate targets. Speaking in Newcastle on Tuesday, 8 June, Rodgers claimed Sinn Fein is coordinating an "evil conspiracy" in an attempt to vilify and destroy the RUC and that "an international collection of politicians and human rights spokespeople" and "lawyers and academics" are all part of this plan. Sinn Fein policing spokesperson, Assembly member Bairbre de Brun said: "It says a lot for the RUC members' representative in the Police Federation that they think implementing the Good Friday Agreement is an evil conspiracy and they are mounting a rearguard action against it. "Mr. Rodgers' comments represent a rearguard action by those who want to prevent change. Over the years, the RUC have discredited themselves by their own actions." Also commenting on Rodgers remarks, Ed Lynch said: "This type of language... demonising lawyers who have had the courage to speak out... is almost giving an implied approval to take physical action to harm people who criticise the RUC." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>> Analysis: Are Fianna Fail playing the long game? BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN Everyone has something at stake in the European Parliament and local government elections in the 26 Counties. Could it be the case though, that Fianna Fail has more riding on the poll than the other parties? One conspiracy theory that holds water is that any sort of a decent showing for the Soldiers of Destiny could prompt Bertie Ahern to prepare the troops for an autumn Leinster House poll. Last week's MRBI poll figures will have concentrated minds at their Mount Street headquarters. Here was a party in trouble. Here was a party leader with explaining still to do for 'Joe Public' on just how did the did the #30,000 cheque to cash signed by him end up in Charlie Haughey's bank account. Add to this the upcoming tribunal forays into the affairs of Tom Gilmartin and the ongoing tooing and froing on just how much money Ray Burke got from whom and when. This should have been an opinion poll that showed Fianna Fail reeling and Bertie Ahern's popularity falling. Instead, it registered the opposite. Ahern's popularity was rising again and Fianna Fail would not only hold the seven Euro seats they won in 1994 but could plausibly add an eighth seat. Also high on the good news agenda for Fianna Fail is the 15% plus increase in Exchequer returns for 1999. The coffers are swelling and this is even before you count in the money that will be raised from the sale of Telecom and Cablelink. Fianna Fail could come to the polls with a serious platform of spending promises. What makes this theory seem all the more plausible is the failure of Fianna Fail to publish their National Development Plan. This plan contains the programme for distributing the EU structural and cohesion funds as well as other Dublin government capital investment projects. It will amount to billions of punts of spending, spread liberally around the state. There will be just the right amount of flagship projects to catch the public interest. There will be bypasses and information superhighways for every backwater and byroad. It would make, if you think about it long enough, a very good Leinster House election manifesto! What other explanation is there for it not being a more public part of the Fianna Fail EU election campaign to date? Even if they do belatedly launch the development plan next week, it will still have plenty of steam left in it for another snap election campaign. The fact that the development plan should have received a more public airing and not been just the spoils of central government is neither here nor there. Certainly the plan should have been produced by local communities and processed through local government structures in a bottom-up participatory democracy sort of way. But none of this matters when you have an election to win and five more years of government, possibly with Ruairi Quinn as Tanaiste. The other reasoning behind calling a general election is that it is one way for Fianna Fail to stop the drip feed of scandal about the Haughey days seeping into the media. An endorsement at the polls for Ahern can put him in the clear so that no matter what happens at the Moriarty and Flood tribunals he will still be above the Dublin Castle deliberations. Ahern is already developing the kind of political Teflon shown to date only by Bill Clinton. The only fly in the ointment is what to do with the Progressive Democrats. Standing idly by seems to be the right prescription and one that suits Fianna Fail just fine. The PDs have already spurned participation in the Euro poll. Was it only five years ago that they were proclaiming themselves to be "simply the best"? A bad performance in the locals could sound the final death knell for Harney. Her Leinster House seat is also under threat. So it seems that it will be a long summer for Ahern. The stakes are high but the payoff is high too. If he comes back with an increased Fianna Fail representation at Leinster House, better still for Ahern. He will be unassailable as party leader for the long-term. He will also have broken the Haughey Hoodoo. The sad thing is that this also amounts to fiddling while Rome burns. If Ahern has time on his hands to play politics, he should be standing up to Trimble and the British government. The worst case scenario is that petty 26-County politics will supercede the ailing peace process. We deserve better Bertie. It's up to you to decide how you should really be remembered. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>> History: General amnesty 1917 In June 1917, just 14 months after the Easter Rising and with the political climate throughout Ireland dramatically changed, the last of the sentenced republican prisoners in jail in England arrived home to an enthusiastic reception. During May 1916, following the end of the Rising, almost 2,000 republicans from all over Ireland, including five women, were deported to internment camps and jails in Wales and England. In August, 1,136 internees in Frongoch Internment Camp in North Wales were released and the remaining 600 internees were freed the following December. However, over 100 sentenced political prisoners, including Countess Markievicz, remained in jails throughout England. During the early months of 1917, the recently-released internees set about reorganising the Volunteers and Sinn Fein and began a major campaign for the unconditional release of all the sentenced political prisoners. Faced with mounting demands for the prisoners' release, and the fear of another prisoner being nominated for the forthcoming East Clare by-election following the election of Joe McGuinness as MP for South Longford the previous month, Lloyd George, the British prime minister, announced a general amnesty for all republican prisoners in English jails. There was rejoicing all through the night before the arrival from England on the mail-boat from Holyhead of more than 100 political prisoners. Huge crowds gathered to greet them. By the time the ex-prisoners arrived at Westland Row Station (now Pearse Station) from Dun Laoghaire, a milling, pressing crowd, stewarded by the Volunteers, was waiting for them. Members of Dublin Corporation welcomed them on behalf of the people who, delirious with enthusiasm, carried the prisoners to cars to be driven in triumph through the streets. The events were repeated when Countess Markievicz, released from Aylesbury Prison, returned on the evening boat. The people were looking for leadership and the duty of leadership now fell on the ex-prisoners. Within two years they would organise the people in a devastating guerrilla war against the British forces of occupation. The last of the republican prisoners imprisoned in England since the Rising arrived in Ireland in June 1917, 82 years ago this month. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- RM DISTRIBUTION SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION Annual subscription fees: Regular: US$25 (IR15, Stg15) Unemployed/Student: US$20 (IR12, Stg12) Sustaining: US$35 (IR25, Stg25) Sponsoring: US$50 (IR35, Stg35) ____________________________________________ Payment may be made in the following ways: * Reply to this e-mail with your credit card info using the form below, or fax or phone in your details to the number at the end of this message. or * Use the online payment form at http://www.irlnet.com/rmlist/ (Press `Other Commands', then `Pay Fee'). 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