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The funeral took place today (Sunday) of sectarian murder victim Robert Hamill, a 25 year Catholic father of two who died on Thursday May 8 following an attack in the centre of Portadown on April 27. The death has led to a major controversy as details emerged of the circumstances surrounding the attack by a 30 strong gang of loyalists.(See update 27 April) Originally the RUC claimed that "Two youths have been detained in hospital with head injuries following a clash between rival factions in Portadown around 1 45 am this morning. Police moved in to separate the groups who encountered each other at the junction of Thomas St and Market St. Bottles were thrown during the hostilities and police themselves came under attack by a section of the crowd. Order was restored around 3 am."

It has now been confirmed that Robert Hamill was walking home with another man and two women when they observed an RUC landrover at the junction where they normally cross to enter the Catholic part of Portadown. Catholics in the area have to take extreme caution while walking in the centre of the Co Armagh town. Believing that it was safe to cross the four were attacked by a group of some 30 loyalists and both men were beaten unconscious. Some of the gang jumped up and down on Robert Hamill's head shouting "die you fenian bastard die". Meanwhile five heavily armed RUC officers sat on the opposite side of the road and refused to leave their landrover until an ambulance arrived some time later despite screams for help from the two women who lay on top of the unconscious men to shield them during the repeated kicks to the head. Solicitors for the dead man's family are now to sue the RUC for negligence. The family solicitor, Rosemary Nelson, has instructed that proceedings be initiated in the High Court. Robert Hamill's cousin Siobhan Girvan told how she had "screamed to the police for help and threw myself on top of Robert and Joanne threw herself on top of Gregory. The police jeep was sitting at the top of Woodhouse St.....No one came to help. We would have been safer if we had been four dogs. We would have been taken to the vet quickly."

Following news of the death the Centre contacted the RUC Press Office and asked for a copy of the RUC statement issued immediately after the attack. No news organisation had retained a copy. When the statement was eventually faxed to us it confirmed suspicions that a totally misleading account of the incident had been issued by the RUC. No 'rival factions' had clashed. The RUC had not moved in 'to separate the groups' and to claim that they had 'restored order by 3 am' following an attack that lasted a matter of minutes around 1 45 was disingenuous to say the least. We then issued a press statement to that effect.

Since details of the incident have emerged an investigation has been announced led by the Independent Commission on Police Complaints, a government appointed body which failed to uphold a single compliant arising out of the use of emergency legislation in seven years. Both the SDLP and Sinn Fein have demanded an independent inquiry. Five men are to be charged in connection with the attack at a special court today. For some reason the RUC was unable to charge anyone for over two weeks until Robert Hamill died and a major row erupted.

Portadown, where the infamous Drumcree Orange parade takes place, has a long history of sectarian attacks mostly directed at the Catholic minority. The town centre is a 'no go' area for Catholics at night. In the 1980s Martin McConville was beaten to death and thrown into the river Bann which runs through the town. Recently another man was attacked and according to friends is now a "vegetable confined to a wheelchair". Three security guards at the local High Street Mall are facing charges relating to assaults on Catholics while on duty.

Robert Hamill's partner, Caroline Maguire, has two children and is expecting a third child in July.

INLA Attack

The INLA has claimed responsibility for the murder of an off duty RUC man shot on Friday night (May 9) in the Parliament bar in the centre of Belfast. Ulster Unionist MP John Taylor has tried to link the shooting with criticism of the RUC following the death of Robert Hamill (see above). The dead man has been named as 24 year old Darren Bradshaw and is the first member of the RUC to be killed since the 1994 cease-fires. The president of the Gay Rights Association deplored the killing which took place in one of Belfast's gay bars.

Derry Sectarian Attack

A nineteen year old Protestant man from the Clooney Estate in Derry's Waterside is on a life support system in hospital with serious internal bleeding to the brain following a brutal sectarian attack in the Spencer Rd of the Waterside on Friday night (May 9). The man, Ivan Hetherington, was walking home when attacked by a number of men who, according to the victims sister, "tried to beat the life out of him".

In an interview with BBC Radio Foyle a spokesperson for the Centre described "any attack on an individual because of that person's perceived religion as sad and pathetic, there can be justification" The Derry area has witnessed an upsurge in sectarian assaults in the past months in the heated sectarian climate that has resulted from the controversy surrounding orange parades. Groups of Catholic and Protestant youths have clashed in the area repeatedly over the past months. In the city centre Catholics who have moved into flats adjoining the Loyalist Fountain have been assaulted. Young Protestants returning from the Fountain to the Waterside area has also been the victim of brutal late night attacks. Last weekend the home of a Catholic priest in Newbuildings, a village outside the city, was attacked.

In a statement the priest, Fr Coulter, spoke of the sectarianism in the village where over 50 Catholic families have been forced to leave in the past 10 years. This has been denied by local community workers who claim that the families left of their own free will because of the changing demography of the area and in order to get better houses in Catholic areas of Derry. An ongoing dispute concerns the return of busloads of Derry City football fans who are regularly stoned when they pass through the village which lies 3 miles outside the city on the main Derry to Dublin road. However the situation is exasperated by the behaviour of a small number of the fans who, the worst for drink, insist on passing through loyalist Newbuildings waving Irish tricolours and shouting provocative slogans.

Mowlam Hope for Bloody Sunday Families

In a walkabout in Derry city centre on Friday (May 9) the new Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam, appeared to offer fresh hope to the families of those murdered on Bloody Sunday when she said, "Bloody Sunday and what happened to people on Bloody Sunday and what their friends and family have gone through since is a situation which I find totally unacceptable and one that my heart just goes out to them and we're going to have to do something." Dr Mowlam added that she would not allow the sore of Bloody Sunday to continue to "fester" in an apparent criticism of the inaction of previous Tory governments.

RUC Man Charged

One of three RUC men from North Down suspended following their participation in loyalist protests last summer has been charged though the RUC have refused to comment on the nature of the charges. It is believed that he the first RUC man to be charged in connection with widespread loyalist protests which blocked the transport network last summer. In many cases roads were blocked not by the physical presence of small groups of protestors but because the RUC then closed the roads in obvious collusion with loyalists. Meanwhile the Police Authority (PA) has promised to discuss the possibility of a register of RUC officers who are members of the Masonic Lodge.

Last Month the Centre wrote to the PA requesting information on membership of the Loyal Orders and the Masonic Order by PA and RUC members. Our request was denied. It is ironic that the PA, the statutory body which oversees policing, would discuss the issue of the Masons while ignoring the much more contentious problem of membership of the specifically anti- Catholic Loyal Orders. It emerged last summer that a member of the PA was himself involved in the blocking of roads.

Sinn Fein MP to visit Róisín McAlliskey

The new Sinn Fein MP, Martin McGuinness, is to visit Róisín McAlliskey. McGuinness is set to visit Róisín on Tuesday at Holloway prison in London. Róisín who is due to give birth later this month, has been repeatedly refused bail despite medical complications.

In last week's Ireland News Update we referred to an article in the "Sunday Business Post" by Lin Solomon, on the background to Róisín's case. The full text of the article is now available..

Visit PFC's Róisín Page or
Return to Contents List.

Danny McNamee Update

The RTE current affairs programme, Primetime, focused on the miscarriage of justice in the Danny McNamee case this week giving a welcome boost to campaigners and Danny's family. It has been revealed that Danny's case has been placed on a top priority list at the new Criminal Cases Review Board set up to investigate miscarriages of justice in the British legal system. New evidence has been with the Home Office for over three years before the case was passed on to the new Review body. Campaigners are pressing for a swift referral back to the Court of Appeal, de categorisation of Danny from Exceptional Risk A and removal from the Special Secure Unit (SSU). In a recent report Amnesty International has condemned the continued existence of SSUs in British prisons as "inhumane and degrading" and warned of the long term psychological damage done to those held in the units most of whom are Irish political prisoners.

We intend to post more information on SSUs in the next week.

Later: Amnesty International have just published an excellent report Special Security Units: Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment