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Bloody Sunday Relatives meet Taoiseach

The Irish Government has condemned the 1972 Widgery Inquiry into the events known as Bloody Sunday as being a "deliberate and quite cunning cover-up ." These remarks were made during a meeting between Irish Government officials in Dublin and relatives of those killed on Wednesday (28 May). It has also been revealed that the Irish Government has uncovered a further 100 eyewitness accounts of the massacre of civilians which took place in Derry on 30 January 1972 by members of the British Army.

During the meeting with Taoiseach John Bruton, Tánaiste Dick Spring and Minister for Social Welfare Prionsias De Rossa, relatives were told the newly- discovered eyewitness accounts were presented to the Irish Government in 1972 by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association which had organised the anti- internment march. The new evidence will be included in a file of evidence that will be handed over to the British Government within the next two weeks. According to John Bruton the evidence "shows very clearly that a grave injustice was done to the families concerned>"

During their visit to Dublin relatives also met the Fianna Fáil leader, Bertie Ahern and the leader of the Progressive Democrats Mary Harney. Relatives also me President Mary Robinson in a visit to Aras an Uachtaraín. Amongst those relatives introduced to the President were some of those who were detained by the Gardaí over three years ago after they had held a short vigil outside of Aras an Uachtaraín following the refusal of the President to meet with them.

The relatives are planning to make a visit to London shortly to hand in to 10, Downing Street the tens of thousands of signatures which have been collected, mainly in Derry, calling for a new inquiry into Bloody Sunday. They also plan to meet with Labour MPs and to lay a wreath in memory of those killed at Westminster Abbey.

Róisín and Lionnir are doing fine

Bernadette McAliskey, mother of Róisín and grandmother of Lionnir, has called on the British authorities to grant her daughter unconditional bail once she has been released from hospital. She has also reported that both Róisín and Lionnir are in good health after a difficult birth in Whittington Hospital on Monday, 26 May. Bernadette, speaking on Tuesday, said that the pair would remain under police custody in hospital until they were medically fit to leave but doctors had not said when that would be.

Bernadette also reiterated her praise for hospital staff and the " unobtrusive" police presence in the hospital, which she said was in contrast to the conditions at Holloway. She said that in prison Róisín had been denied sanitary towels as a security risk and that baby clothes were put in a black plastic bag outside her cell. However in hospital there had been no physical contact between officers and her daughter and there was no uniformed officers on the maternity ward. Bernadette also criticised the comment in the British newspaper the Daily Mail which had claimed that the birth had cost British taxpayers £50,000. "Had she been granted bail it would have cost nothing," she said.

Petition calls for suspension of RUC officers

A petition calling on the RUC to suspend the RUC officers who were present when Portadown man Robert Hamill was attacked by a loyalist gang has been launched in the North of Ireland this week. It is being distributed by the Pat Finucane Centre in Derry. The petition states that RUC officers were present at the time that Mr Hamill was assaulted but that they failed to intervene. Robert Hamill subsequently died of his injuries and a number of young men have been charged with his murder. The petition is being organised at the request of the Hamill family. The petition also calls for a "truthful and independent inquiry."

Decision shortly on Casement Three Case

The three appeal judges, Lord Justices McCollum, Campbell and Kerr, have reserved their judgement in the case of Patrick Kane, one of the Casement Three serving life sentences for their part in the events that led to the deaths of two British army corporals in Belfast in 1988. Kane was convicted along with Sean Kelly and Michael Timmons in 1990. They are known as the Casement Three because they were convicted of offences which took place in Casement Park GAA ground in Belfast where the two soldiers were beaten and stripped before being bundled into a black taxi, driven away and then shot by the IRA.

After the initial trial the three lost their appeals but Patrick Kane's case has been referred back to the Appeal court by the then Secretary of State Patrick Mayhew. Doubts have been expressed about the quality of the confession evidence obtained from Kane because he has the mental age of a child.

Lord Justice McCollum is reported as having said during the Appeal that he had difficulty in accepting the crown's submission that a person who merely contemplated the murders could be held to be guilty of aiding and abetting, which is what Kane has been convicted of.

The appeal court also granted as admissible the evidence of Dr Gisli Gudjonsson, a forensic psychologist from Norway which had not been allowed at the original trial. Dy Gudjonsson said that he examined Kane in prison in February 1990, and found that in terms of numeracy and reading he had the ability of a child of nine. He also said that Kane suffered from a high ;level of nervous anxiety which could lead to him making a false confession in order to get out of a police station. He said that Kane was embarrassed by his illiteracy and knowing that he have to sign a statement, even though he did not write it, would exacerbate his level of anxiety and make him even more apprehensive.

Bellaghy Parade Crisis

Residents of the south Derry village of Bellaghy have vowed to protest at plans by the Orange Order to parade through the village on June 22. The route of the Orange march would pass the home of the murdered GAA man, Sean Brown, murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in May. (see updates) The resident's group has emphasised however that this is not the reason for their protest. Spokesperson Jim Hasson said, "Although we are obviously concerned at the insensitivity of the route, we have been opposing Orange Order parades in Bellaghy for the last four years." The residents have made clear that they have no wish to be seen to be "using Mr Brown's death as an excuse." An attempted parade by the smallest of the loyal orders, the Royal Black Preceptory, led to a 20 hour stand-off in the village last year.

Loyalist Volunteer Force

The breakaway Loyalist paramilitary group, the LVF, are thought to be behind threats made this weekend to members of the prison service warning of 'trouble on the streets' if a number of their prisoners are not moved into a new wing for LVF prisoners in Long Kesh prison. The jailed loyalist leader from Portadown, Billy Wright, also known as King Rat, has attracted a number of loyalists who are disenchanted with the their political leadership. These prisoners are gradually building a power base in the prison. Last weekend the LVF claimed responsibility for a bomb attack across the border in Dundalk and a bomb warning which closed Dublin airport for several hours. The same group was also responsible for the kidnap and murder of Sean Brown in Bellaghy. Meanwhile in Derry a young mother was forced to flee her home in the Waterside following a sectarian attack on her Heron Way home in the night of Sunday 25. Speaking to the Derry Journal the woman told how two masked men carrying batons had forced their way into the house shouting"Get out, fenian scum." The victim, Sharon Ferguson, who said she was targeted simply because she was Catholic, has found temporary accommodation at another location.

Scots Guards

As reported in last week's update, solicitors for two British soldiers convicted of murder attempted this week to win early release for the men in the Belfast high court. Justice Girvan agreed to allow a judicial review of the decision not to refer the cases of the men to the Life Sentence Review Board until October. Cases are not normally reviewed by the Life Sentence Review Board until at least eight to ten years of a life sentence has been served. The judicial review will take place on June 13. The two soldiers, who remain members of the British Army while convicted of murder, shot 19 year old Peter Mc Bride in the back as he ran away from an army foot patrol in the New Lodge area of Belfast. The British right wing press and the military establishment have led a campaign calling the release of the men who have served less than five years of a sentence. A full fact file on the case is available on our main web page.