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Bogside Residents' close to agreement?

"The Bogside Residents' Group believe that the next few days will be crucial to resolving the issue of the Apprentice Boys' parade in Derry next Saturday (9 August). In an exclusive interview with Irish News Update Charles Lamberton, the chairperson of the Bogside Residents' Group, said that "a statement is expected tomorrow (Monday, 4 August) from the Apprentice Boys' Association in which it is hoped that sufficiently strong public assurances will be given to allow the Bogside Residents' to call off our proposed demonstrations."

The full text of the interview with Charles Lamberton is as follows:

The past week has seen a number of important developments which point to the strong possibility of an accommodation being arrived at between ourselves and the Apprentice Boys'. To understand what has happened it is necessary to go back over a week ago when the Bogside Residents' Group launched a major peace initiative in an attempt to try and resolve the growing crisis in the city over the proposed parades by the Apprentice Boys' in the city next Saturday (9 August). I hinted at this initiative in my interview last week but I could do no more than that because it was important that the Apprentice Boys clearly understood that we were interested in an accommodation not a few newspaper or TV headlines.

"Our initiative involved handing in a letter to the Apprentice Boys' Association in which we outlined to them what we considered to be the basis for an agreement. In the letter to the Apprentice Boys, which was hand delivered by two members of the Pat Finucane Centre to the home of Alistair Simpson, Governor of the Apprentice Boys, I said that I wanted "to put to you on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Bogside Residents' Group a set of ideas and proposals which we believe could form the basis of an honourable accommodation and which would give everybody a breathing space in which to attempt to tackle the problems which divide us."

In essence we were proposing to facilitate both the main parade in the city and the parade around the walls of the city, including the contested part of the walls in return to for "assurances from your Association that there will be no Apprentice Boys' feeder parades in Dunloy, Lower Ormeau Road, Belfast and Bellaghy on 9 August." [Feeder parades are those parades that take place in various parts of the North prior to the Apprentice Boys' getting the bus or train to Derry to take part in the main parade. There are also dispersal parades in the evening.] In the letter I also proposed that we invite the Rev Roy Magee, well known for his role in helping to secure the Loyalist ceasefires and for negotiating an accommodation in Newtownbutler in County Fermanagh, to facilitate an agreement between us. Roy Magee was also known to some of us as he had been a guest of the Pat Finucane Centre at a meeting they had hosted during the Bloody Sunday commemoration. We made this proposal as a serious attempt to try and achieve agreement even though the Apprentice Boys' stated that they were not prepared to meet with us on a face to face basis.

It was against this background that we have had a series of two meetings with the Mayor of Derry (Councillor Martin Bradley) in which various ideas have been proposed and explored. We had hoped to get into proximity talks with the Apprentice Boys' on Friday (1 August) but the Apprentice Boys' at that time were not willing. As things stand today (3 August) it is proposed that proximity talks will take place tomorrow under the aegis of the Mayor and facilitated by Roy Magee. We believe that agreement is close. We know that the Apprentice Boys have had a series of meetings with their members in Bellaghy, Dunloy and Ballynafeigh in south Belfast. Our understanding is that apart from possibly Dunloy the other two clubs are willing to support an accommodation. The only outstanding issue, part from Dunloy, is the flying of the Union flag over the Bogside. We have made it very clear that this is unacceptable, though we have no objection to the crimson flag of the Apprentice Boys' being flown from Walker's plinth."

Methodist minister criticised for Bloody Sunday support

The Methodist minister from East Belfast, Reverend David Cooper, who publicly supported calls for a new inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday has been criticised by some members of his own congregation. At the annual conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland which was held in Derry in July, the Rev David Cooper also defended the Methodist Church's on-going dialogue with Sinn Féin even before the IRA ceasefire. However it appears that not everyone in his congregation supports the minister. In a recent report in the Belfast Telegraph it is claimed that a number of members of the Knock Methodist Church have written to the President and Secretary of the Methodist Conference complaining about the stance taken by the Rev David Cooper. According to David Cooper, however, "I am aware of two letters but individuals are free to express their own opinions as they see fit. No resignations from the church have been received."

Bail rejected for Colin Duffy

Colin Duffy, the Lurgan man who has been charged with the murder of two RUC officers in the town last month, has again been refused bail despite the growing crisis of credibility with the witness whose identification evidence represents the RUC's case against him

The decision to refuse bail was taken despite the fact that there are now at least 12 alibi statements for Colin Duffy which place him well away from the double killings and there are serious doubts as to the credibility of the one witness who claims to have seen him at the scene of the killings.

Colin Duffy has already spent three and half years in prison before being released nine months ago when the appeal court overturned his life sentence for the murder of a former UDR soldier. In that case it was eyewitness identification evidence that was again discredited. In the new case the witness, known as Witness D, is according to defence counsel, an unreliable woman of "limited and low intellectual capacity." The Witness's child, he said, had been taken into care by the social services "because of neglect and it's mother's drinking habit. She told the police her father had abducted the child when in fact it had been taken by the social services because it was in need of care and attention.." Counsel said that a member of Witness D's family was in court and, if called, would testify to her unreliability. It is also believed, according to Rosemary Nelson, Colin Duffy's solicitor that RUC video evidence will also show that witness D could not have been where she says she was. Bail was refused by Lord Justice Higgins on the grounds that there was not "sufficiently substantial change in circumstances" since Colin Duffy's last bail application.
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Birmingham Six seek better compensation

The Birmingham Six may take their case for proper compensation to the European Court following the refusal of the new British Home Secretary, Jack Straw, to meet with the men this week. The six Irishmen served 16 years in prison after having been tortured and then framed by British police for the 1974 IRA bombing of Birmingham. Their case became the most notorious of a series of miscarriages of justice involving Irish people in Britain. Following their release the men were awarded interim settlements of £200,000 each representing £12,500 for each year that they were falsely imprisoned. The initial payments have now been spent and a number of the men are urgently in need of proper compensation.

Peter McBride: some recent developments

There have been a number of developments in the case of two Scottish soldiers, Guardsmen Fisher and Wright, who were convicted of the 1992 murder of Belfast teenager Peter Mc Bride. A high profile campaign for the early release of the two was led by members of the British political and military establishment on the basic premise that British soldiers are only carrying out their duty if they shoot unarmed Irish civilians. Lawyers for the two won a recent judicial review which was aimed at forcing an early release of the two men who remain members of the Scots Guards Regiment despite their convictions for murder. At the time the Pat Finucane Centre wrote to the Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam, on behalf of the Mc Bride family and requested a meeting between the Minister, members of the Mc Bride family and a representative of the Centre. The letter was acknowledged but no meeting was granted. In a surprise move however lawyers for the Secretary of State have now lodged an appeal against the court judgement thus sending a clear signal that the British Government would not support the early release of the two soldiers at this stage. This, at least, has granted a breathing space to the victim's family since no further legal developments are now expected until September. A full briefing on the Peter Mc Bride case is available on this site.