Contents

Pat Finucane Centre

Happy new year to all our subscribers! Though the centre has been up and running again for over a week there was no time for updates. We have a number of important documents which we hope to post on the site within the next two weeks including a substantive update on the case of Seamus Ludlow and the complete text of a booklet on loyalism published by the Shankill Think Tank. Watch this space. In the meantime the weekly updates will be posted again as of today.

Return to Contents List.

Finucane Inquiry Appeal

Within the last week an international appeal has been launched calling for a full independent judicial inquiry into the killing of Pat Finucane after whom our centre is named. Any lawyer worldwide is welcome to sign the petition which has been launched by the Finucane family, friends and colleagues, and has been endorsed by all the relevant human rights NGOs. The PFC is acting as clearing house for petitions which may be returned in the post, by fax or by email. No organisations are being asked to sign. Individual lawyers should include a contact address for verification purposes only. The text of the petition, along with the list of signatories will then be published in the Irish and international press on the tenth anniversary of the murder of Pat Finucane, February 12 1999. In 1998 the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers issued a report calling on the UK Government to institute a judicial inquiry into the murder. His report can be accessed here . The petition is available on our website (petition). Please circulate widely.

Return to Contents List.

Garvaghy Road Tension

There was precious little peace and goodwill to all in Portadown over the Christmas period. A series of protest parades by the Orange Order and the Apprentice Boys sought to keep up pressure on the residents of the Garvaghy Road and the Parades Commission. The July 1998 decision by the Parades Commission to reroute the Orange parade away from the nationalist Garvaghy Rd has never been accepted by sections of the unionist/loyalist community and indeed has been interpreted by some as an issue which can be used to undermine the Belfast Agreement. Proximity talks between residents representatives and the Order were convened before Christmas by the chief advisor to PM Blair. As might be expected nothing was actually achieved though there is speculation that the British Government is attempting to blackmail the residents into accepting a parade on the basis that a major investment package for the area would then be approved. This is highly unlikely to succeed. Media references to an 'impasse' over the Drumcree issue are in any case misleading. The 1998 decision was correct and the intimidation of this small community which has followed since July has strengthened the resolve of local people. No Orange parade should ever again be allowed down the Garvaghy Road and unionist representatives, including the MP for the area David Trimble, will have to come to terms with that reality. The Orange Order is itself split over the issue. Despite forecasts of over 20,000 supporters at protests only 2/3000 has turned out on average. The current Orange strategy of keeping up the pressure has, if anything, made it impossible for the Parades Commission to force a parade down the road at a later date. Meanwhile the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition will meet PM Tony Blair in the near future. They intend presenting him with a dossier documenting the campaign of intimidation and threats against local people since last summer.

Return to Contents List.

Loyalist Paramilitary Attacks

The booby trap bomb which exploded at a GAA club in Magherafelt County Derry on January 6 has been attributed to the Orange Volunteers, the latest loyalist group to emerge in the wake of the Belfast Agreement. A workman narrowly escaped death when the device exploded as he was working as a bricklayer on renovations to the O'Donovan Rossa club. This is the second attack on the club within 18 months. In a statement the Orange Volunteers said, "The wider nationalist community now have everything to fear , now the siege of Ulster continues, with the British Government abandoning the loyalist people and the Irish Government standing up for republicans, the Orange Volunteers are ready to defend our people". On December 16 the same group launched a gun and grenade attack on a Catholic family in the Magherafelt area. No-one was injured. Soon after a grenade was thrown at a bar in the town of Crumlin near Belfast. The 12 customers inside escaped injury. At the time the attack was claimed both by the Orange Volunteers and the Red Hand Defenders, the organisation responsible for the murder of Brian Service, a Catholic civilian killed in Belfast in October. Whether these organisations do in fact exist or whether they are merely flags of convenience for renegade members of mainstream loyalist groups is a matter of conjecture. In any case it can be expected that any political movement will be accompanied by an upsurge in loyalist paramilitary activity in areas such as Mid Ulster and Belfast.

Return to Contents List.

Peter Mc Bride Update

The Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Doug Henderson MP, has turned down our request for a meeting with the family of Peter Mc Bride to discuss the controversial Army Board decision to allow the soldiers convicted of the 1992 murder of the young Belfast man to rejoin their regiment. As a result we have again written to the minister outlining our demand that the family and the wider community deserve more than a one page explanation from the Army Board. Legal council is currently considering the most appropriate mechanism in order to challenge the decision to allow Guardsmen Fisher and Wright to remain in the Scots Guards Regiment. Before Christmas the Mc Bride family and a member of the centre met the Irish Prime Minister, the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, at Government Buildings in Dublin. We considered the meeting as very helpful and the Taoiseach promised to raise the case at his next summit with PM Tony Blair.

Return to Contents List.

Bloody Sunday Commemoration 1999

The next news update will include the full programme for the 1999 commemoration from Friday January 29 until Sunday the 31st. The weekend events will kick off on the Friday with the annual commemorative lecture followed by a panel discussion in the Guildhall around the theme of "From Civil Rights to Human Rights". On the Saturday a series of workshops and a plenary session will focus on the central theme of the weekend, "State Violence: State the Truth". The discussion that evening will attempt to follow from this subject of how best to acknowledge the past within the current process. All events on the Saturday will take place in Pilots Row Community Centre on Rossville St. On the Sunday the morning wreath laying ceremony at 11am will be followed by the march which will leave from Creggan Shops at 2.30. Exact details of the programme will be posted next week.

Return to Contents List.