Thomas Kelly (41) of Kinlough, County Leitrim should be immediately released from prison, the organisation said on August 17. He was arrested early on Tuesday, August 13 and brought to Mountjoy jail for non-payment of two £250 fines imposed by a Leitrim Court on September 18 last.

The first fine related to damaging a Union Jack flag in Manorhamilton in March 1995. The second was under Section 6 of the Public Order Act for "intimidating" Special Branch detectives who stopped Thomas Kelly and another Republican, Declan Curneen, as they were traveling from the commemoration ceremony for Seán Mac Diarmada, the signatory of the 1916 Proclamation, on May 7, 1995.

In fact Thomas Kelly was attempting to take photographs of what was purely an exercise in harassment by the 26-County Special Branch. The sweeping provisions of Section 6 of the Public Order Act were used against both Thomas Kelly and Declan Curneen in relation to this incident.

When Thomas Kelly arrived at Mountjoy jail on Tuesday, August 13 at around 6pm a T-shirt and a sweatshirt were confiscated because of the words ‘Brits Out’ being printed on them.

When he protested his clothes were removed and he was placed in a punishment cell where his food was served to him on the wet floor. He went on hunger and thirst strike in protest at this treatment and as a political prisoner sought to be transferred to Limerick jail to join the nine other Republican prisoners there.

His hunger and thirst strike continued until Friday evening, August 16, when his T-shirt and sweatshirt were returned to him.

It was another seven days before he got a pen and paper to write with. A radio left at the jail for him was not given to him either for ten days. He was eventually released on August 27.

In the statement Republican Sinn Féin said that "his treatment stands in marked contrast to the ‘revolving door’ in operation for the drug barons and crime lords who constitute a real danger to the public. Instead of tackling the crime problem, Leinster House politicians and their servants engage in Republican-bashing and the continued harassment of those who dare to call for a British withdrawal from Ireland."
(See following article)
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He also said that when I get out, "if you ever do, you are going to be done for everything you can be done for, even things you never heard of before". He said I should have paid the fines or get SAOIRSE to pay them "that rag you sell outside the church".
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A writ issued by Mrs Finucane claims that Nelson was involved in the murder of her husband. She is claiming damages against Nelson and the British Ministry of Defence. The writ alleges that the shooting of her husband was at the instigation or connivance of Nelson and other British army agents working with the death squads. It also alleges that the MoD and Nelson were negligent in the "gathering, recording and keeping safe" of material concerning Pat Finucane.

Nelson, a former British soldier in the Black Watch, infiltrated the UDA/UFF death squad in 1987. The British say that while he was in the British-backed death squad he was passing information to them about UDA/UFF activities. The reality seems to be that he was passing knowledge gained in the British army to the UDA/UFF.

At his trial in 1992 Nelson admitted conspiring to murder five nationalists and was jailed for 10 years. He was also given concurrent sentences for possessing and collecting information and having a sub-machine gun.

Two charges of murder, of Terence McDaid and Gerald Slane, were dropped when Nelson threatened to reveal the true role he played on behalf of the British. It was recently revealed that he was released in February of this year.
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The years Smyth spent in jail in the US fighting extradition will not be taken into account in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh and he is expected to spend at least five more years behind bars. In the statement issued on August 21 Republican Sinn Féin said:

"Clinton pledged in 1992 that there would be no more extraditions of Irish political prisoners and that Visas would be available to all Irish spokespersons.

"During his period of office from 1993 to date two such extraditions have taken place (Jimmy Smyth and Joe Doherty) and despite a consistent lobby inside and outside Congress he continues to deny Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President of Republican Sinn Féin, a visa to put the Éire Nua policy before the US representatives, media and general public.

"During July the American AOH National Convention called for a visa for Ó Brádaigh. Last year both the Irish Echo and Irish Voice newspapers made the same call editorially.

"The Irish-American community should bear in mind President Clinton’s reneging on solemn electoral promises publicly entered into when the November presidential elections comes about."
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The drunken bandsmen stayed in the mainly nationalist village after parading through. They came out of a pub around 11.30am and began looking for Catholics. The first person they came across was 19-year-old Martin Finnegan.

"They surrounded him and knocked him to the ground and kept kicking him even after he stopped moving," said Lynne Campbell, who tried to rescue him. "It was the most shocking sight I ever saw and I ran up screaming at them to stop. But before I could do anything they turned on me. "They started beating me with bandsticks. One of them shouted 'kill the Fenian bitch' and the next thing I could feel was the shards of a broken bottle piercing my neck. I thought I was going to die," she said. The attack ended when a local man ran up and dragged Campbell away from the loyalists. Finnegan was released from hospital on September 1 with 14 staples in his head, a chipped bone in his neck and severe facial bruising. Two other youths were also attacked by the bandsmen but didn’t need to go to hospital.

On Saturday, August 31 the Black Preceptory backed down in the face of nationalist protests in Strabane, Co Tyrone and changed their plans to march through the town. The Preceptory had originally planned to march from Derry road through Abercorn Square. On Saturday morning several hundred nationalists gathered at Leeper’s Leap at the entrance to Abercorn Square. The main section of the parade went straight to the County Tyrone parade at Sion Mills, leaving 12 members of the organisation to stage a token protest at Patrick Street.

The small group, equipped with a banner and a bass drum, marched from the Craig Memorial Hall to the end of Patrick Street where the nationalists had blocked the road. The group turned, marched back to the hall where they got into cars and left for Sion Mills.

In Dunloy, County Antrim, also on March 31, the Royal Black Preceptory re-routed its parade away from the nationalist village after 200 residents assembled to prevent the march passing through the village.

Instead of going through the village the ‘Blackmen’ assembled at the Orange Hall on the outskirts and marched away from the village off towards the main road to Ballycastle. Belfast ‘Blackmen’ were re-routed away from the nationalist lower Ormeau Road.

In Pomeroy, also on August 31, the ‘Blackmen’ didn’t get a chance to march anywhere. After a two-hour stand-off with hundreds of nationalist residents who wouldn’t let them through they held a brief prayer service before dispersing.

In Armagh, on August 31, the ‘Blackmen’, accompanied by eight bands marched through the city centre and along the predominantly nationalist lower English street. The march went through after the RUC forcibly removed protesters from the route.

The protesters then held a silent protest with their backs to the marchers as they went through. The ‘Blackmen’ repeated their parade guarded by a large force of British Crown Forces later that evening. More than 200 nationalists protested.

In Newry, Co Down Royal Black Preceptory marches through the town were shortened following protests by local nationalists. The protesters held placards which read "Bigotry is not culture", "Orange Order anti-Catholic" and "Orangemen off our streets".

Apprentice Boys marched through the nationalist town of Keady, South Armagh on September 1. Earlier that day in Castlederg, Co Tyrone a nationalist man was beaten up by about 15 loyalists.
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Joe Lynch said that drug barons use lowly paid crews to act as couriers to ferry cocaine and heroin into Irish ports. The latest seizure of around 50kg of cocaine at Moneypoint, County Clare on August 14 proves that Ireland is being used as a backdoor to Europe.

"There is a growing trend for drug cartels to pay men on ships to smuggle drugs. These ships are owned by companies in Norway and Sweden but sail under flags of convenience from Third World countries. Unskilled crews from some of the world’s poorest countries are hired and they are vulnerable to approaches from drug dealers.

"There have been cases where crews have not been paid a wage but instead work for the drug barons ferrying illegal drugs across the world’s shipping lanes.

"If the Dublin adminis-tration had not scuttled Irish Shipping this problem would not have arisen and no drug ships would be docking at the Moneypoint Power station. The £11 million Irish Spruce was built specially for the coal trade from Colombia but the last Fine Gael/Labour administration sold it off for £3 million when they put Irish Shipping into liquidation. The politicians must bear some of the blame for Ireland being targeted by foreign drug dealers."
(See related article below)
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SAOIRSE spoke to Joe Lynch, Limerick, former employee of Irish Shipping about the chain of exploitation involved in the ‘drugs ships’.

"The MV Front Guider which was carrying the drugs seized on Moneypoint is owned by Front Line of Sweden and crewed by Filipinos. These crews are from some of the poorest countries in the world. They are recruited by shipping agents in Third World countries and have to give these agents up to £1000 for a passport and job.

"They work up to 70 hours per week for about £100 per month with no overtime and very bad conditions and in most cases substandard ships. Most of these flag of convenience ships are owned by capitalist shipowners from Sweden, the US, Norway and all EU countries including Ireland.

The ESB at Money Point and Alzan on the Shannon Estuary charter these ships because of their low running cost. They don’t care what the conditions of the crew are or what amount of drugs they land on our shores as long as they make profit from their cargoes.

Until the owners, the agents and the charters are held responsible for what drugs are brought in on their ships our children and society as a whole will suffer. These Third World seamen are in jails all over the world for drug trafficking while the officers go home to their families with big profits from the shipments that get through.

The Fine Gael, Labour government has to bear most of the blame when they scuttled Irish Shipping in 1984 for half of the price it would take to keep it afloat.

This would have kept 900 Irish seamen in work on Irish flagships carrying coal to Moneypoint and Boxite to Alzan with no drugs on board. As long as you have unscrupulous shipowners hiring crews on low wages the drugs barons will win."
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As Republicans we share in the sadness of those families — we know enough about sorrow ourselves.
Yet it is to be hoped that this tragedy will shock Irish people into facing reality. These Japanese pirate vessels are roaming the seas off our coast for 24 hours a day. With a fleet of up to 200-foot vessels at present on the 200 mile EU fishing limit — part of a 200-strong Japanese fishing fleet in the north Atlantic they are able to ransack our waters.

These large factory ships use longline netting gear stretching up to 70 nautical miles, enough to stretch from Dublin to Wexford.

We have become used to slave-minded apologists for the 26-County state — telling us that Ireland has no natural resources yet the Dublin government has surrendered some of the richest fishing grounds in the world.

EU diktats have forced a reduction in the Irish fishing fleet while factory ships from Spain and other EU countries are allowed to come and deplete our stocks. Up to two years ago an Irish albacore-tuna fleet of 20 vessels had been earning something in the region of £3 million on seasonal fishery, until the EU stepped in with more quota restrictions allegedly on environmental grounds while opening the Irish sea-lanes to Spain and other EU members.

Fewer than six Irish boats now fish for tuna. In 1995 the fishermen accused the Dublin minister for the marine, Seán Barrett, of using the 26-County navy to "hound" it, while up to 140 unregulated Spanish flagships continued to fish with EU knowledge.

Irish fishermen are being hounded out of existence by the 26-County naval service while EU fish-barons and Japanese pirates are able to zoom in on this natural treasure.
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Also on August 30 the Lurgan headquarters of the loyalist Royal Black Institution was badly damaged in an arson attack. The blaze broke out soon after 3am and caused extensive damage to the gothic-style building which was built in 1833. There had been a petrol bomb attack on the building earlier in the month.

A Catholic girl’s primary school in north Belfast was petrol-bombed on August 27. The fire was discovered at the Convent of Mercy primary school on the Crumlin Road at 12.30am by the school caretaker who raised the alarm. A petrol bomb had been thrown through the window of a classroom at the rear of the building, causing smoke damage and scorching of chairs and tables.

One of the school vans was damaged and the exterior of a mobile classroom was burned when an attempt was made to throw a petrol bomb through the window. Fire resistant curtains in the classrooms prevented more serious damage.

The bill for damage done to Catholic and Protestant schools in sectarian attacks in Belfast over the summer will be in excess of £1.8 million according to estimates by the Belfast Education and Library Board. Approximately £1 million of damage was caused to two Catholic schools, St Mary’s Star of the Sea primary school at Greencastle and Our Lady of Mercy secondary school on the Ballysillan Road.

The Jaffe Centre on the Cliftonville road had to be demolished after a malicious fire caused an estimated £800,000 damage. The Belfast Model School for girls was also damaged.
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In this eventuality Mitchell would have to leave the chairmanship of the Stormont talks in the Six Counties, which are due to restart in September. Mitchell is being tipped for the post of US Secretary of State, according to "senior Washington sources" quoted in the Sunday Business Post. The intention to appoint Mitchell to this senior cabinet post could be signalled by Bill Clinton in advance of the November election and could even be leaked next month.

The newspaper points out that the current US Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, is 74 and not expected to seek a second term of office in the event of Clinton winning the presidential election.

Mitchell is reported to be increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress in the Stormont talks, which took seven weeks to agree rules of procedure. The unionists are still insisting on the surrender of arms by nationalists and the removal from the talks agenda of any discussion of the constitutional position of the Six Counties.

Mitchell’s departure from the talks by the end of 1996 would constitute a major blow. In a Hot Press magazine interview on August 7 Niall O’Dowd, one of the US brokers of the Provisional 1994 ceasefire, called for Mitchell to be given overriding powers in relation to the talks process in order to "do what Holbrook did in Bosnia". O’Dowd maintained proposals for a solution could be put to a Six-County referendum over the heads of the "squabbling politicians".

The talks mechanism devised by John Major expressly states, however, that there must be 75 per cent party agreement at the Stormont talks before any proposals are put to a referendum. In such a scenario George Mitchell is unlikely to be able to conjure up a "Bosnia" and instead may be counting the days until he can abandon Stormont for the Pentagon.
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