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IRA declare new ceasefire

In a statement issued yesterday (19 July), Oglaigh na hEireann (IRA) announced that it was resuming the cessation of armed activity which it had announced in August 1994 and which had been ended in February 1996.

Welcoming the statement members of the Pat Finucane Centre said:

"The Pat Finucane Centre unequivocally welcomes the decision of the IRA to resume its ceasefire. We do so, not because we have any great faith that the Stormont negotiations will produce a new start for the people of Ireland but because we believe that the time is ready for the Republican movement to move away from the tactic of the armed struggle and to develop instead forms of struggle which are unarmed and nonviolent in character. The next few months will be of critical importance for all people who have a legitimate interest in the future of Ireland and its people. We hope that both the British and Irish Governments will not shirk from their responsibilities to take action to establish real parity of esteem and equality within the North. In particular we hope that both Governments will move quickly to enact strong human rights legislation, to repeal emergency laws, to ban the use of plastic bullets, to remove British soldiers from the streets of the North and send them home to Britain, and to act decisively to establish a police service and a legal system which values equally all sections of our community and which will uphold human rights and democratic values. For Republicans we believe that an end to armed struggle should be permanent and that there is a real challenge for us all to develop nonviolent forms of struggle which can empower ordinary people and which can achieve radical and permanent change in Irish society."

Campbell speaks about Bloody Sunday

The Gasyard Wall Féile, the annual festival based in the Bogside and Brandywell communities in Derry, was opened last Monday (14 July) with a seminar on Bloody Sunday. The event which was organised by the Pat Finucane Centre and the Bloody Sunday Trust concerned Protestant attitudes towards the events of Bloody Sunday. The three contributors included Alderman Gregory Campbell, the leader of the Democratic Unionist party on Derry City Council and party spokesperson on security issues. Other speakers included newly elected Ulster Unionist councillor to Derry City Council Andrew Davidson and Olwyn Thompson, Research Officer for ECONI (Evangelical Contribution on Northern Ireland)

During the course of the evening, Gregory Campbell said: "Bloody Sunday doesn't mean an awful lot because of the divisions within our communities, both in Londonderry and in Northern Ireland. What impacts upon one very seldom impacts upon the other, and that is true for Bloody Sunday, as it is for some of the other atrocities. Unionists have very strong views about Northern Ireland. Nationalists have strong views about Bloody Sunday but until nationalism can come to terms with an unapologetic straightforward unionist, we will never have anything like accommodation. I accept that nationalists feel very deeply and strongly about Bloody Sunday. I hope that they will come to terms with the fact that unionists feel very deeply and strongly about Northern Ireland and its survival within the United Kingdom."

At the opening of his speech Gregory Campbell thanked the Pat Finucane Centre for providing him with a platform to speak to nationalists. He said that he accepted that the Pat Finucane Centre did "not claim to be impartial" and he said that he did not view the Centre as impartial. He described the Centre's new pamphlet "For God and Ulster: an alternative guide to the loyal orders" as "biased" but, he added "it is well researched."

Councillor Andrew Davidson in his talk spoke about his unease and difficulty with the issue of Bloody Sunday. He felt unable to commemorate it in January because of the associations which the commemoration had with Sinn Féin.

Olwyn Thompson of ECONI said that he had no memories of Bloody Sun day and that the events of Bloody Sunday, because they had occurred in Derry, had not impacted in the same way as they had in Derry. He spoke about the difficulties his community had with Sinn Féin's involvement in Bloody Sunday commemorations and the fact that events like Enniskillen seemed to get sidelined.

Residents' call for new talks

The leader of the Apprentice Boys' of Derry has re-affirmed that his association will not meet with the Bogside Residents' Group about next month's plans to march around Derry's walls. However Alistair Simpson who is the "Governor" of the Apprentice Boys says that he is maintaining contact with "level headed" people in Derry. However the Bogside Residents' Group has said that dialogue is the only way the issue of contentious parades can be resolved.

RUC disrupt Strabane Festival

The chairman of Strabane District Council, Eugene Mullen of the SDLP, has called for an inquiry into an incident in the early hours of the morning on Saturday (13 July) when RUC members allegedly "ran amok in the town's Ballycolman estate. Local councillors strongly condemned the incident during which residents preparing the estate for a street festival claimed RUC officers wearing balaclavas and boiler suits ran through the estate shouting sectarian abuse and pointing guns at people's heads. The RUC said they were in the area after they had received a report of an "illegal" checkpoint. However local people have told journalists that there was no such checkpoint.

Council chairman, together with Sinn Féin councillor Ivan Barr and Fr Oliver Crilly went to Strabane RUC station to raise the matter with senior RUC officers. A further delegation went to the RUC station when on Sunday (14 July) British soldiers pulled down bunting which had been erected for the festival. Two female residents were injured in the incident and which prompted several hundred local people to march to the RUC station where a letter of protest was handed in.

FAIT receives McCartney donation

The leader of the UK Unionist party Robert McCartney, MP for North Down has donated £10,000 to FAIT (Families against Intimidation and Terror). FAIT, which in the past has received funding from the British Government, campaigns against punishment beatings by paramilitaries and fully supports the RUC. FAIT is no stranger to controversy. One of its founder members, Nancy Gracey, left the organisation after a dispute over expenses for a trip to the USA. FAIT also asked the controversial right-wing Tory MP Lady Olga Maitland to be their patron.

Gays demand parity

The Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association (NIGRA) has called on Northern Irish MPs to support the proposed changes in the law with regard to the age of consent. Within the United Kingdom, the age of consent for heterosexual sex is 16 whereas it is 18 for homosexuals. The current law dates back to February 1994 when none of the MPs from Northern Ireland supported the lowering of the age of consent to 16. In fact 13 of the then MPs voted to retain the legal age for homosexual sex at 21. Only John Hume of the SDLP and John Taylor of the UUP voted in favour of 18 as the age of consent. Joe Hendron (who subsequently lost his West Belfast seat to Gerry Adams) and David Trimble abstained.

In a statement the president of NIGRA P A Mag Lochlainn said: "NIGRA demand that when the House of Commons votes to equalise the age of consent for gay and straight males, our Northern Ireland gay community can be automatically accorded equal rights with their gay sisters and brothers in Britain. All we want is equality - we do not seek special favours. Give us equal rights and allow what we do in private to become once more merely our own business. There is so much talk in Northern Ireland about equality, parity of esteem and civil rights. All we ask is for the same rights to be applied to all citizens including the lesbian ands gay community."

"King Rat" and the RUC

Monday’s issue of the Irish News (14/7) published a photo of an RUC Land Rover policing a Twelfth parade outside of Dunloy. The back of the Land Rover displayed a cartoon of a crowned rat above the caption “King Rat”. This is the nickname of the former Mid-Ulster UVF leader thought to be responsible for a number of sectarian killings in and around the Portadown area. It is alleged that collusion with the security forces may have been a factor in some of these killings. The article which accompanies the photo quotes an RUC spokesman as saying that there was “no intention [for the cartoon] to be offensive to anyone”. It is alleged by the RUC that the reference is to name used by some officers on traffic control.