Monday, January 28, 2002

O'Loan to probe suspicious UDA death Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan is to look into the events surrounding the death of a UDA member who had information on the sectarian killing of Catholic postal worker Daniel McColgan. 7:07:09 AM

AP/RN sales crash in Belfast THE Provisionals have admitted that sales of their newspaper AP/RN have crashed in their own heartland of the Falls Road in west Belfast. 7:03:51 AM

Disarm Redundant Weapons Now Paul A. Fitzsimmons 21/1/2002 To my mind - and against the background of Mr. Breandan O Muirthile's recent article [OE]Strategic Republicanism: Neither Strategic Nor Republican' - the republican battle was, for scores of years leading up to Good Friday 1998, one for Irish republicans (and most particularly those local to the issue) to wage or not, as they saw fit. Personally, I have always been strongly against the politically-motivated violence employed by them and others - which is why I tried to further a perhaps tolerable alternative thereto (see, e.g., http://lark.phoblacht.net/independence.html) -but it has long been clear why republican violence took place, just as it has been clear why loyalist violence took place, at various points in the twentieth century. 7:02:16 AM

Barron to probe Blayney bombing and John Francis Green killing Sinn Fein TD Caoimhghin O Caolain has received a letter from the Taoiseach confirming that the 1976 bombing of Castleblayney in which Patrick Mone was murdered and the assassination in 1975 of John Francis Green will be addressed in the Report of the inquiry of Judge Barron. 7:00:02 AM

Membership charges amount to internment 'THE use of IRA membership charges, which will presumably be based on the unsupported 'opinion' of a police chief superintendent, is tantamount to internment without trial', said Ruairi O Bradaigh, President of Republican Sinn Fein following the appearance at the Special Non-Jury Court in Dublin of eight men arrested at a Republican Sinn Fein meeting in a house in Limerick on December 17. 6:57:25 AM

Off With Their Beards Brendan Hughes 17/01.2002 We learned this week that the Yanks had shaved off the beards of their Taliban prisoners. Not a new tactic. The Brits did it with us in the H-Blocks in 1978. Why? The blanket protest, no-wash, no shaving was a way in which we could highlight our case to the wider world that we were not criminals. We lay unwashed, we grew long beards, we put our own shit on the walls of the cells. These extraordinary lengths we went to in order to make ourselves heard over and above the British imposed silence - we were not criminals. When that was not enough we went further and ten men died, bringing the attention of the world to Ireland and shattering the British myth. 6:55:45 AM

Omagh: Missing files and 'recreated' statements RUC detectives investigating the Omagh bombing 'recreated' 357 important documents, possibly including witness statements, which were 'lost' or 'inadvertently destroyed' during the first 18 months of the inquiry. 6:54:00 AM

Making Meaning of the Past Anthony McIntyre Other View Winter 2001 As a child, the Ulster Museum situated at the back of Botanic Gardens in Belfast, held a great fascination for me. Ever since my mother took me to see 'the mummy woman' I made a habit of frequenting the building anytime I was up playing in the 'Tanny Gardens'. In teenage years other things intervened in my life. And with one thing or another such as imprisonment keeping me away from the museum there was a gap of about twenty years before I ventured back there with my two children who were eager to view the dinosaur exhibition. 6:52:40 AM

Informer shot to cover-up collusion THE shooting dead of British agent, Billy Stobie, on December 12 -- the day that the O[base ']Loan Report on the RUC was made public [~] removed another link connecting British forces to the murder of Irish nationalists. 6:50:06 AM

Thousands at anti-sectarian rallies ... with some notable exceptions Last Friday, tens of thousands of people braved the rain to attend an ICTU-organised anti-sectarian rally in the wake of the UDA killing of postal worker Dabniel McColgan. 6:47:42 AM

Ardoyne Erupts Again Hundreds of nationalists took to the streets of Ardoyne in north Belfast on January 9 following attacks on parents collecting their children from Holy Cross Girls Primary School. The loyalists resumed their blockade and campaign of terror against the school and for the first time the building itself was attacked and was forced to close for the following day. 6:45:45 AM

If only Uncle Sam would stop bullying little nations Tommy Gorman Irish News Letters Page January 26 â02 It seems most editors within the popular press are beginning to distance themselves from the goings on at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Some are forthright in their condemnation of U.S. treatment of the Afghan Prisoners of War while others equivocate, typically with Î it is regretful the US has left the moral high ground and departed from the standard of behaviour we all expect from the worldâs leading democratic powerâ. I find the latter attitude intriguing. People adapting this point of view usually point to the American constitution as an indicator of the health of human rights in the U.S. and of American intentions abroad. 6:42:46 AM

Bringing Irish unity demand to Westminster Adams tackles Blair on loyalist attacks By Fern Lane Sinn F/in MPs Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Michelle Gildernew and Pat Doherty arrived at Westminster on Monday afternoon to take possession of their new office space within the House of Commons buildings. In doing so, however, they made it clear that they would never take their seats in the Commons, even if the oath of allegiance to the British crown, which all members are obliged to swear before they can sit as MPs in the debating chamber, is abolished. 6:39:54 AM

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