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Scots Guards and Peter Mc Bride

Following a request from our centre the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern (the Irish Prime Minister) has agreed to meet the Mc Bride family accompanied by representatives of the centre and a solicitor from Madden and Finucane. The meeting will take place on Friday December 18 at Parliament buildings in Dublin and will focus on the controversial decision by the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) to allow two members of the Scots Guards Regiment, convicted of the 1992 murder of 18 year old Peter Mc Bride, to rejoin the British Army following their early release from prison. We are determined to pursue this case to the European Court if necessary. We have also asked the Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Doug Henderson, for a meeting. Senior legal counsel are presently studying the latest reply from the MOD to Madden and Finucane solicitors. We would again appeal to supporters to raise this issue within NGOs, and at local and national level wherever they live. Resolutions could be passed condemning the decision which should then be forwarded to us.

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No Nobel prize on the Garvaghy Rd

The august surroundings of the Nobel prize giving in Oslo yesterday, which saw the peace prize awarded to SDLP leader John Hume and Unionist leader David Trimble, could not have contrasted more with the daily reality on the Garvaghy Rd in the middle of Trimble's constituency. Trimble's hardline acceptance speech, which focused on the demand that the IRA begin the decommissioning process, made no reference to the fact that thousands of his own constituents have been living in fear since the Drumcree orange parade was rerouted in July. Serious disturbances broke out near the area last week when over a thousand orangemen gathered and attacked the RUC with stones and rockets. Supporters of the Drumcree orangemen have promised more protests in the run up to Christmas and residents are quite literally living in fear of their lives. David Trimble, the MP for the area, has refused to meet residents representatives or condemn forcefully the ongoing siege of this small community. Meanwhile there are reports that the British PM Tony Blair has intervened in advance of the planned orange parade in Portadown this coming Saturday. According to various media reports an advisor to the PM will attempt to hold proximity talks later this week involving the residents and the Orange Order.

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Apprentice Boys Parade

The Apprentice Boys of Derry, one of the smaller loyal orders, paraded through the centre of Derry on Saturday December 12 to commemorate the Shutting of the (city) Gates during the siege in 1688. The Parades Commission had rerouted the return leg of the parade away from the city centre and the Bogside Residents Group announced that they would not hold a protest. Trouble broke out early in the afternoon in the Diamond area and spread throughout the city centre with vehicles being hijacked. At least one vehicle was burnt in Guildhall Square. On a number of occasions the RUC rescued defeat from the jaws of victory….as the situation calmed down riot squads were sent running down city streets for no apparent reason. Contrary to press reports no plastic bullets were fired. This must be welcomed since the centre has always argued that the use of plastic bullets serves to heighten tension not reduce it. There were also a number of incidents involving the RUC and supporters of the Apprentice Boys in the Waterside area and at the city end of the bridge. The Apprentice Boys have announced protests later this month in support of the Drumcree orangemen. A second Apprentice Boys parade which was due to parade through a nationalist area in Belfast on Saturday was rerouted by the organisers.

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Policing Commission

The members of the Independent Commission into Policing, including the chairman Chris Patton, spent some two hours here at the centre last week discussing our submission on policing and related issues. We found the encounter useful and instructive for both sides. The commision agreed to our proposal that we organise a further meeting between commisioners and young people in the city. We also took the opportunity to invite the relatives of a number of local people who lost loved ones at the hands of the British Army/RUC to meet the commission. Relatives of Sammy Devenny, beaten to death by the RUC in 1969, the brother of 11 year old Stephen Mc Conomy and the father of 15 year old Paul Whitters, both killed by plastic bullets, attended a private meeting with commission members.

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Book Reviews

New Publications

A number of new reports and books have recently been published which may be of interest to subscribers.

Fr Raymond Murray of Relatives for Justice has this week published State Violence, an examination of the legacy of 30 years of RUC/British Army violence. The book deals with issues including immunity, the implications for the future of policing and the possibility of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission being established. (Mercier Press, 9.99 pounds)

Neil Jarman and Dominic Bryan of the Centre for the Study of Conflict at the University of Ulster have recently published From Riots to Rights, Nationalist Parades in the North of Ireland. The authors focus on an often ignored facet of the conflict, the history of nationalist parades and the resultant conflict with the state and unionism. The report explores parading traditions, demographic changes and the contentious issue of the right to parade over the past 300 years. (Centre for the Study of Conflict, 7.50 pounds)

Also to be recommended is : Rethinking Northern Ireland, edited by David Miller
According to the publishers, Rethinking Northern Ireland provides a coherent and critical alternative account of the Northern Ireland conflict. While most writing on northern Ireland is informed by British propaganda, unionist ideology or the currently popular 'ethnic conflict' paradigm which allows the analyst to wallow in a fascination with tribal loyalty, Rethinking Northern Ireland sets the record straight by re-embedding the conflict in Ireland in the history of and literature on imperialism and colonialism.
It includes material on neglected topics such as the role of Britain in the conflict, on gender, on sectarianism and on culture in Northern Ireland. The book presents a formidable challenge to the shibboleths of contemporary debate on Northern Ireland. A just and lasting peace necessitates thorough re-evaluation and Rethinking Northern Ireland provides a stimulus to that urgent task.

Key features:

• Provides a comprehensive alternative to current commentary on Northern Ireland
• Includes contributions from leading authors based in Ireland (North and South), Scotland and England
• Chapters focus on settler-colonialism, Ulster unionism, Irish nationalism, British strategy and policy, economics, political spaces, racism and sectarianism, gender, culture and representation and the role of academics in the conflict

Part one Explanations, Ideologies and Strategies: David Miller on academics and the troubles; Pamela Clayton on religion and ethnicity as explanations for the conflict; Joseph Ruane and Jennifer Todd on Irish nationalism; Liam O'Dowd on the 'new' unionists; Mike Tomlinson on British strategy in Ireland.

Part two Spaces, Structures and Struggles: James Anderson on rethinking borders; Ronnie Munck and Douglas Hamilton on economics and peace; Carol Coulter on feminism and nationalism; Robbie McVeigh on Racism and Sectarianism.

Part three Culture, Conflict and Representation: Ronan Bennett on culture in Northern Ireland; Sarah Edge on representations of gender and national identity; Des Bell on the heritage industry; Bill Rolston on the problems of multiculturalism.

Essential reading for students of Irish Studies and Irish Politics and for those taking options on Northern Ireland society and culture in sociology, media and communication studies, anthropology, European Studies and politics degrees.
0 582 30287 0 344pp £14.99
Publishing November 1998
David Miller is author of Don't mention the War: Northern Ireland, Propaganda and the Media (Pluto, 1994) and editor (with Bill Rolston) of War and Words: The Northern Ireland Media Reader (Beyond the Pale, 1996).

Copies of the above titles may be obtained from Bookworm Bookshop in Derry at bookworm@icom-web.com Contact Bookworm for details on international post and packaging.

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