Irish newsbriefs 4/20 a.m. Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit News from the Wire Services Re: Ireland & the Irish OT 04/20/99 07:06 N. Ireland Secretary Confident Over Peace Deal AP 04/20/99 06:02 Mitchell Book Talks Of Peace Fight PA 04/20/99 05:24 Irish Hotels In #240m Merger PA 04/20/99 05:15 Heath Sceptical Over New Bloody Sunday Inquiry PA 04/20/99 04:35 Keep Talking, Mowlam Tells Unionists & Sinn Fein PA 04/20/99 03:13 New Jobs In Ireland ****************************** N. Ireland Secretary Confident Over Peace Deal ... OTC 04/20/99 07:06 LONDON (April 20) XINHUA - Northern Ireland Secretary Marjorie Mowlam said on Tuesday she was confident that a way forward could be found in the peace process, despite the latest setback in breaking the deadlock over decommissioning. Talks on Monday between the British and Irish prime ministers and leading party leaders of the province ended without progress on the crucial issue of paramilitary disarmament and the formation of the province's power-sharing executive. But Mowlam said she was confident that all parties would be working for a solution when talks resume next week. "What I believe is that all sides want the Good Friday Agreement to work," she was quoted by BBC as saying. "They all accept, I think, that there is no clear alternative and that this is the best chance we have for so many years." "What's important is that no one walks, we keep talking and try to find some way forward that both traditions are happy with," she said. Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon, of the Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party, accused both the Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein of trying to hold the peace process to ransom. They were maintaining positions that could "destroy something which can create a totally new way of life for all of us," he said. The Ulster Unionist Party refuses to sit in a coalition structure with Sinn Fein until the Irish Republican Army (IRA) hands in arms but Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing, says the decommissioning was not a precondition of the peace agreement for the party to join the local executive. Enditem 20/04/99 11:07 GMT Copyright 1999 ****************************** Mitchell Book Talks Of Peace Fight APO 04/20/99 06:02 Copyright 1999 The Associated Press By DAVID SHARP Associated Press Writer BANGOR, Maine (AP) -- George Mitchell remains upbeat about the possibility of peace in Northern Ireland despite a stalemate in the formation of a Protestant-Catholic government. Mitchell, who presided over the peace talks for two years, said Monday the important thing is people are talking. "They have to keep the process moving forward. Otherwise it becomes open to violence or disruption of the process," he said. "I think it will be many years before there is genuine reconciliation." The former senator, federal judge and peace negotiator wraps up a two-day swing through his native Maine today to promote a book he wrote about his experience as chairman of the peace talks: "Making Peace." He started the swing Monday at Border's book store in Bangor, where more than 100 people stood in line to have their books signed. He also made stops in Brunswick and Waterville. He travels to Cleveland on Wednesday before wrapping up the week in New York and Washington, D.C. He said the schedule has been as grueling as his old Senate campaigns. Mitchell's 188-page book opens with the final days leading up to the signing of the Good Friday peace agreement in 1998, the culmination of two years he served as chairman of the peace talks in Northern Ireland. Weary from lack of sleep, Mitchell was on pins and needles as he anxiously awaited word whether the last of the parties, David Trimble's Ulster Unionists, would sign the accord. And he wasted no time when he received word Trimble would accept it. Mitchell called a meeting 15 minutes later. "As majority leader of the United States Senate, I had learned that when you've got the votes, you vote. Delay can only hurt," he wrote. Mitchell, 65, admitted Monday that his first draft for editors at Alfred A. Knopf was deemed too detailed. At their suggestion, he added more about his personal sacrifices and cut the length of the book by a third. In the final version, Mitchell recounts some painful experiences, including being unable to attend the funeral of his brother, Robbie. He also writes of the anguish he felt when his wife, Heather, miscarried while he was in Belfast. His wife later became pregnant again and gave birth to their son, Andrew. Mitchell penned the book the old-fashioned way. "I wrote that book entirely in long hand on a yellow legal pad," Mitchell said. "Most of the writing was done in August at Seal Harbor, where my wife and I rented a vacation home." Before signing books, Mitchell held a news conference in which he likened the difficulty of bringing lasting peace to Northern Ireland to other international flashpoints. "What we're seeing is the same as in the Balkans and in the Middle East," Mitchell said. "It's hard to get a peace agreement. It's even harder to implement a peace agreement." ****************************** Irish Hotels In #240m Merger PA 04/20/99 05:24 Copyright 1999 PA News By Chris Parkin, PA News An IR 240 million takeover deal involving Ireland's top two hotel chains was being completed in Dublin today. The transaction will see Jurys Hotels embrace the family-owned Doyle's group to form a new 28-hotel set-up, with premises in Ireland, Britain and the United States. Top hotels in the expanded group include the five-star Berkeley Court, the Westbury, the Burlington and Jurys in Dublin. Under the terms of the deal, the new group will become by far the biggest hotel chain in Ireland and be known as Jurys Doyle Hotels. The Doyle family will make up the largest single shareholding in the company. The takeover plans were first disclosed eight months ago and longer-than-anticipated negotiating since then has concentrated on market valuations of the Doyle group. At present time combined workforce of the two companies is around 2,750, and the move is expected to create new jobs, according to company sources. ****************************** Heath Sceptical Over New Bloody Sunday Inquiry PA 04/20/99 05:15 Copyright 1999 PA News By Chris Parkin, PA News Former premier Sir Edward Heath today underscored his scepticism about new evidence on Londonderry's Bloody Sunday in 1972, when troops shot dead 14 unarmed civilians after a civil rights march. The new investigation into the shootings marked an attempt to "break up the whole show", said Sir Edward, who was Prime Minister at the time of the shooting and appointed Lord Widgery to conduct the first official inquiry. He also firmly rejected charges that fears over the propaganda effect had influenced the original inquiry. Allegations about the failings of the Widgery investigation were "all such superficial arguments by people who are trying to break up the whole show, still trying to break it up", Sir Edward told Irish radio. "The IRA want to see this busted, and so do the politicians -- they are the ones who are pressing for it all," he said. Asked which politicians he was referring to, Sir Edward replied: "The Irish politicians." The politicians and the victims' families wanted to make their political case, that they were wronged, he said, adding: "That's what they want. "The reason they want to ask the questions is to damage the whole situation -- no doubt about it whatever. "I am not going to discuss the motives of the Taoiseach and his colleagues, because I respect them, but this is 26 years afterwards." About new evidence of where the shots were fired on Bloody Sunday, Sir Edward declared: "Forgive me and a lot of other people for being somewhat sceptical about this. "It is very remarkable that 25 years afterwards you suddenly get fresh evidence. "It makes it questionable, put it that way. If this evidence was there, why was it not brought forward long ago." From his point of view he had appointed "the best possible judge," in Lord Widgery, to conduct the original inquiry. It was "absolute nonsense" to suggest his government had attempted to rush through the investigation because of fears about the propaganda effect of unearthing the true facts, Sir Edward said, adding: "If somebody had got the true facts, they were perfectly free to unleash them." But he added: "Who can deny the IRA throughout was carrying out a propaganda war?" On the day, the Army had opened fire in Londonderry because they believed they were being fired on. "If this further inquiry is held, it is up to them to find out and say what they think about it. I have not got any facts to give them, none whatever." On the same radio programme, Tony Doherty, whose father Patrick was one of the Bloody Sunday dead, said Sir Edward represented "the sheer dogmatism that existed within the British establishment". He thought the former premier should and would be called to give evidence to the new inquiry. ****************************** Keep Talking, Mowlam Tells Unionists And Sinn Fein PA 04/20/99 04:35 Copyright 1999 PA News By Rosie Cowan, PA News Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein must keep talking until they reach an accommodation which suits both traditions, Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam said today. Decommissioning must take place -- but it was an obligation, not a pre-condition -- while the formation of the new power- sharing executive was also crucial to the peace process, she said. "What's important is that they keep talking and find an accommodation they can both live with," the Northern Ireland Secretary said. She insisted there was no question of "parking" the process, as the same difficulties would remain to be dealt with, and the only way to build necessary trust was to keep talking. But she conceded that there was no new deadline as the parties needed "space and time to work out between themselves a way forward". Five hours of talks yesterday at Downing Street between Prime Minister Tony Blair, his Irish counterpart, Bertie Ahern, and representatives of Ulster Unionists, Sinn Fein and the SDLP showed little outward sign of progress. The talks are due to resume next week, but tensions continued to rise in Northern Ireland with the latest in a series of attacks by dissident loyalist group, the Red Hand Defenders. The RHD, which has claimed responsibility for the murder of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson, left an explosive device outside a house in Greencastle, on the outskirts of north Belfast. The bomb did not explode. Sinn Fein Assembly member Gerry Kelly condemned the attack, saying there had now been 100 or so similar attacks on Catholic families in recent months. Ms Mowlam insisted that talks must go on, saying: "It's about building confidence and trust between the two sides to allow both sides to move. People want it to work. We shouldn't forget that." There were ideas in the Blair/Ahern Hillsborough Declaration and ideas from other parties which could help. Sinn Fein has rejected the Hillsborough Declaration, which calls for "some arms to be put beyond use". Ms Mowlam said she was quite willing to trigger the formation of the Province's new ruling executive, but only if the parties believed progress could be made as a result. Senior Ulster Unionist Dermot Nesbitt said his party's position remained the same -- it was not willing to share power with a party inextricably linked to an armed paramilitary group. But he denied this was a blanket attempt to exclude Sinn Fein from government. "The Ulster Unionist party wishes to see as inclusive a form of government as possible", said Mr Nesbitt. "The more inclusive it is, the more likelihood it has of succeeding." But UK Unionist leader Bob McCartney said that much as he opposed the Good Friday Agreement, he would do his best to make it work if paramilitaries disarmed. "If all the parties were on a level playing field, much as I'm not in favour of the arrangements, I would do my very best to make it work, but I just cannot see that happening," he said. ****************************** New Jobs In Ireland PA 04/20/99 03:13 Copyright 1999 PA News By Chris Parkin, PA News More than 265 new high-tech jobs are to be created in the Irish Republic's neighbouring western seaboard counties of Galway and Mayo through a total IR 14 million investment by two American- owned companies. The Delta Dental group will create 150 jobs in Claremorris, County Mayo, while Transactions Optical is to increase its workforce in Tuam, County Galway, by 115. Making the announcement, Irish deputy premier and Enterprise and Employment Minister Mary Harney said more than 3,000 new high- tech jobs had been created in 35 separate projects in the region over the past two years. ------- 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-04.24.99-12:51:59-11016