Apologies for the 24 hour delay in getting the news updates on line this week....we are changing systems. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will continue the updates for this week.
In a statement issued tonight (Tuesday) the IRA has said that it was responsible for the attack on Monday afternoon which ended the de facto IRA ceasefire within the North of Ireland.
At least 30 people were injured following the detonation of two massive car bombs inside the headquarters of the British Army in Lisburn outside Belfast on Monday afternoon (7 Oct.) between 4.30pm and 4.45. At first it was believed that mortars may have been fired from outside the base. It now seems likely that the explosives, of between 250kg and 500kg in weight, were in fact car bombs which has lead to controversy and speculation as to how security could have been breached at Thiepval Barracks, HQ of the British Army and presumably the most secure base in the North. At least 2 of the injured are thought to be seriously ill. Media reports indicate that no warnings were given. The Sinn Fein President , Gerry Adams, has said that it was "regrettable" that people had been injured.This marks the first attack against British targets in the North since the ceasefire of August 1994.
The blasts happened within hearing distance of loyalist UVF prisoners in Long Kesh Prison who were discussing their attitude to their own ceasefire which now appears increasingly in jeopardy.
The logic behind the bombings is difficult to understand. Unionists who have argued that it was impossible to talk to republicans will have gained politically from the bombings. Republicans on the other hand will be blamed by many for provoking a loyalist reaction. The attack has seriously damaged the peace process.
In a press statement issued this week the Pat Finucane Centre revealed that copies of its report "In the Line of Fire" into human rights abuses in Derry in July had recently been presented to President Clinton and UN Secretary General Buttros Gali. Plastic bullets that had been fired in Derry were included in the report. The handover took place during meetings between the two men and Congressman Donald Payne of the Congressional Black Caucus who visited Derry and the PFC in August. During a recent visit to Washington a member of the PFC lobbied various congressional members calling for plastic bullets to be banned. Congressman Payne has demonstrated the real meaning of the word solidarity. A recent fund raiser by the Irish community in New York for burned out black churches in the southern US was a welcome gesture from an Irish community whose own sense of solidarity leaves much to be desired.
The right wing fundamentalist Northern Irish politician and preacher, Ian Paisley, dropped another clanger at the Belfast Forum last week when he compared negotiations with the Irish Government on the arms decommissioning issue as discussing with Hitler "better terms for the annihilation of the Jews". When challenged by the Women's Coalition if this comparison was not objectionable he replied, "The honourable woman must be living in some cuckoo land of her own". Most people in Ireland and Britain are well used to similar outbursts from the Reverend gentleman but the real insult on this occasion is the abuse of the memory of those who died in the holocaust.
Sporadic sectarian attacks have continued over the past week as they have done so since the Drumcree stand-off in July. In Belfast loyalists using high powered catapults have been firing ball bearings across the Westlink motorway into the Catholic working class housing estate of Carrickhill. Windows have been broken and residents fear that children may be seriously injured in the attacks. In another incident an 83 year old man was been on Saturday night by men who ran off into the loyalist Shankill area. A man and 14 year old girl were also attacked in the same area in the past week apparently by loyalist youths.
Meanwhile in Strabane, County Tyrone, a number of farms belonging to local Protestants were attacked by arsonists who set barns and vehicles on fire. Two of the victims are members of the Royal Black Preceptory, one of the Loyal Institutions whose parades led to crisis this summer. Recently a Protestant church was set on fire in Derry in an attack which the PFC said denied a fundamental human right to Protestant people in this town to worship when and where they please.
On Wednesday the High Court in London overturned a murder conviction against former British army press officer Colin Wallace. Wallace had been a senior intelligence, "psyops" psychological operations (dirty tricks) officer in army HQ in the north of Ireland in the early 1970s. He was framed by the intelligence services when he revealed details of a conspiracy within the intelligence community to overthrow the Wilson (lefty!) government in 1974. The Wallace case was later interwoven into the Ken Loach thriller, Hidden Agenda. In addition Wallace revealed that army intelligence was blackmailing senior unionist politicians involved in a child sex abuse ring at the Kincora boys home in Belfast. Information on the reported abuse at the home was passed on to the RUC, British Army and to the Rev. Ian Paisley. No action was taken and Wallace explained that the British Army allowed the abuse to continue in order to exert pressure over loyalist/unionist figures. The full truth of these two scandals has never emerged. Following his dismissal from the army Wallace was framed for the murder of a friend who died in mysterious circumstances. The overturning of the original conviction today marks another murky episode in this affair. It is believed that an MI5 operative was in fact responsible for the murder.