One man has been shot dead and five men have been arrested in a series of raids by the British police on alleged IRA safe houses in London, Sussex and S. Yorkshire which began after 4.30 am this morning. Information about the raids is still sparse though the official line is that a gun battle took place during which a man was shot dead. There is no independent verification of the claim that there was an exchange of fire. There is as yet no information as to the identities of the dead man or the arrested men. There is media speculation that the dead man was English of Irish parents though this is still a rumour.
In a statement Scotland Yard have said that ten tons of homemade explosives, undercar boobytraps, several rifles and handguns and a number of vehicles were confiscated during the searches. It appears at this stage that the explosives were found in North London while the men were arrrested in South London, several miles away. The British security services claim that an IRA bomb attack was "imminent". If true the raids are a serious setback for the IRA in Britain. However more cautious observers point to the repeated ability of the IRA in Britain to reorganise.
Judgement is awaited on the appeal of Lurgan man Colin Duffy who was convicted of murder on the evidence of a gun runner for the right wing paramilitary UVF. (See update of 16.9.96)
The Crown (ie the state prosecutor) announced that they would no longer rely on the crucial evidence of Lindsay Robb, the UVF witness and the defence argued that the evidence "was polluted". Former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds was in court in response to an invitation from Colin's family and hopes are high that Colin will be freed. The appeal was also attended by observers from Amnesty International, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, the US based Lawyers Alliance for Justice and Voice of the Innocent, also based in the US.
As reported in the last update an independent public inquiry was held last week in Aghyaran, Co Tyrone into the death of Patrick Shanaghan near Castlederg in 1991. Family and friends have consistently alleged that there was security forces collusion with right wing paramilitaries in Patrick's death. One witness told the inquiry that the RUC had boasted that they were involved in the murder. RUC detectives made the claim while the man was being held in the Caslereagh Interrogation Centre last November. At the earlier state inquest an RUC constable gave evidence that he had been informed of a "serious shooting incident" when he came on duty at 8am despite the fact that this was a full twenty minutes before the murder had taken place. Patrick had been informed on two occasions by the RUC that his life was in danger because his security file had allegedly fallen out the back of a British Army landrover. Two months before the murder Patrick's cousin was also warned by the RUC that "Patrick would never see his next birthday".
Paul Mc Geehan of the Belfast based Committee on the Administration of Justice testified to the inquiry that the legal system in the North falls far short of international guidelines regarding how controversial deaths should be dealt with. The inquest system is "stacked in favour of the state" he continued.
Solicitors for the coroner, British Army and RUC are funded by the state while families must pay for their own representation. Security Force members are often granted anonymity and in inquests into controversial killings there is wide use of so called "Public Interest Immunity Certificates", the Orwellian name for gagging orders.
The family withdrew from the state inquest in April and decided to organise their own inquiry. The inquiry, which lasted three days, was headed by retired US judge Andrew Somers.
Protests by right wing fundamentalists continued this weekend outside a number of catholic chapels in Co Antrim. The protests have the support of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party and are intended to intimidate the Catholic minority in the area who have objected to parades through nationalist areas by the "Loyal Orders", the Orange Order, Apprentice Boys of Derry and the Royal Black Preceptory. Protests were held in Ballymena, Dervock and Bushmills, home of Bushmills Whisky. Protesters jeered and shouted sectarian insults at massgoers. A local priest, Fr Frank Mullan, described the intimidation as "naked savagery". The North Antrim SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour Party) politician, Sean Farren has claimed that right wing UVF paramilitaries are involved in the protests. A meeting between local clergy, the DUP and the SDLP aimed at ending the protests failed to resolve the issue.
The Unionist mayor of Derry, Richard Dallas, has lost a court case against Derry City Council's decision to strip him of his mayoral trappings following his participation in blockades of the Craigavon bridge in Derry during the Drumcree stand-off in July. Following widespread disruption, blockades and intimidation the SDLP dominated council moved to impose sanctions on the Mayor. Sinn Fein supported the SDLP move against Dallas whose election as Mayor was only possible with SDLP support. At the time the Pat Finucane Centre criticised the SDLP and Sinn Fein arguing that while Richard Dallas was certainly wrong it was hypocritical for the SDLP to talk of power sharing in the city council if power was only to be shared with those who followed the SDLP line. We argued that anger over the British Government's handling of Drumcree should be directed first and foremost at British ministers.
The Guardian newspaper, bastion of liberialism in Britian, has come in for criticism from the Irish in Britain Representation Group (IBRG) following an article on Gaelic games which describes Gaelic football as a "thinly disguised excuse for a punch-up". A spokesperson for IBRG described the article as "deeply offensive and insulting, racist and stereotypical". Meanwhile Ulster Television (UTV) sailed into a storm following its decision not to broadcast live the All Ireland Gaelic Football finals on September 15. The UTV decision meant that GAA fans in those areas of the North unable to receive RTE coverage from Dublin missed the game. The most important game in the GAA calendar could be watched live from Melbourne to New York while some fans on the island of Ireland had to content themselves with radio coverage. A UTV spokeswoman explained to the Pat Finucane Centre that Glasgow Rangers supporters had also complained that their game had not been covered....Work that one out!
And now for the story that everybody is talking about "off the record" ....except the media.
Following the withdrawal of the SDLP from the Forum, set up by the |British Government as a non legislative talking shop, it would appear that the two largest Unionist parties, the Ulster Unionists and the Democratic Unionists have turned their unwanted attentions to the fringe loyalist parties and the Women's Coalition. An unprecedented campaign of verbal, physical, psychological and, in the case of the Women's Coalition, sexual harrassment, has been directed at the smaller fringe loyalist parties (PUP and UDP) and the Women's Coalition. Delegates have had doors slammed in their faces and have been pushed up against walls in corridors and "eyeballed" by delegates from the UUP and the DUP. Dialogue has taken the form of surrounding opponents when on their own and attempting to provoke them by poking and elbowing the individual.In the debating chamber contributions from the floor are sneered at or met with comments such as, "Shut up woman and sit down". The Forum, boycotted as irrelevant by both the SDLP and Sinn Fein, resembles a "boy's playground" more than a political talking shop according to one participant. The situation has become so serious that the chairman of the other talks process at Stormont, former US Senator George Mitchell, has been approached recently and told that if the harrassment is not sorted out "something" will happen.
The larger unionist parties are known to resent the fringe parties due to their fear that they could erode their electoral base within the unionist "family". Over the years these larger parties were content to use fear of loyalist paramilitaries as a political weapon against any form of compromise with nationalists. Their role was on the streets killing Catholics. Deniable but useful. The loyalist transition into political parties that actually challenge the unionist status quo would appear to have unleashed its own "carnival of reaction" amongst the larger unionist parties.