Aghadrumsee primary school in Co Fermanagh, scene of a unionist-backed sectarian picket during September.
Evidence of Garda collusion with the British colonial police (RUC) came to light earlier this year when Paul Hosking, an eye witness to the slaying of Séamus Ludlow down a lane near his Mount Pleasant home in May 1976 told how members of the British Army’s Ulster Defence Regiment (now the RIR) had driven across the border from the Six Counties and were allowed free passage through several checkpoints by showing their UDR passes to the 26-County forces.
These UDR members had links with the pro-British death-squad, the Red Hand Commandos. In February 1998 four men were detained in Castlereagh interrogation centre Belfast in relation to the murder. One of the men had been taken from his home in England. All have been released without charge.
It has recently come to the attention of Séamus Ludlow’s relatives that files on the men under suspicion had been prepared by the 26-County police over 20 years ago. A spokesperson for the family said that this information came from a source within the police.
This, despite the fact that down through the years the 26-County police had consistently told the family and the media that the IRA had been responsible for Séamus’ death.
The Dublin authorities have been claiming since that Séamus was killed because he was an informer and several books have been written from the mid-seventies onwards claiming to detail Séamus’ involvement as an informer, based presumably on briefings by the 26-County police.
This smear campaign by the Dublin authorities acting in collusion with Crown Forces has only served to enervate the family to search for the truth and clear Séamus Ludlow’s name. Séamus’s brother Kevin, speaking on September 4, related how he and a nephew had gone to see a member of the original investigation team who is now retired.
Upon seeing Ludlow’s identification, the man reacted in a most hostile fashion threatening them with Garda action. He then walked away abruptly. The names of suspects in the murder have been in 26-County police files since 1979 with no action taken.
The eye witness, Paul Hosking, revealed that he had been drinking in a Cumber, Co Down bar with three Red Hand Commandos — two of them UDR men — when they decided to head across the border into Co Louth and abducted Séamus Ludlow as he walked home.
Hosking said he got out of the car to go to the toilet when he heard three bangs. He turned to see one of the men firing a gun into the car. The death squad then dragged Séamus’s body out of the car and onto a bank where it was discovered by his family the next day. There is speculation that he was mistaken for a Republican who bore a striking resemblance to him.
The man at the centre of the murder probe is loyalist Samuel ‘Mambo’ Carroll who has been living in England for the past ten years. Speaking from his Staffordshire home on September 19, Carroll said: “It’s a well known that I’m closely associated with the Red Hand Commandos.
“But I had nothing to do with that case on the border.”
Carroll — one of the four arrested over the murder of the Dundalk bachelor — claimed he thought he had been arrested over the murder of Republican Sinn Féin Vice-President Máire Drumm in a Belfast Hospital in 1976 when the British Colonial police (RUC) swooped in February .
“I’d been lifted for that before, but that was on the word of a supergrass”, Carroll said.
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Hugh Frazer, Director of the Agency, said that CPA would be looking for a more socially inclusive budget this year, particularly considering the current boom in the economy.
“While last year’s budget included a number of welcome measures to promote social inclusion, given the very favourable public finances and economic projections, it fell far short of the reform needed to radically alter the lives of those who live in poverty,” he said.
“This year, economic projections are being surpassed again. The time is right to share the benefits of our positive economic position. We’re urging the government to give practical commitment to tackling poverty in the December budget by ensuring that people in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods and in isolated rural communities benefit most from the budget, in the same way that last year’s budget benefited the better-off.
Despite the economic growth over the past decade, the Agency stressed that high levels of poverty still exist. Up to one-third of the population of the 26 Counties is at risk of poverty and 9-15% is in persistent poverty. The 26 Counties also has the second highest national level of child poverty in the EU.
The Agency welcomed the recent government decision to adopt poverty-proofing by which government departments, local authorities and state agencies will assess policies and programmes at design and review stage in relation to the likely impact that they will have on poverty and inequalities. “This initiative is a step in the right direction towards achieving the NAPS’ goal to reduce poverty levels by half by the year 2007,” Mr Frazer said.
The CPA Annual Report noted other challenges to the full implementation of the NAPS. It stated that additional resources are required to implement policies to substantially reduce poverty. This may involve the re-prioritisation of budget allocations and public spending.
Also, actions cited as social inclusion measures will have to be carefully defined, as not all so-called social inclusion measures will prevent or reduce poverty, it stated.
“The development and implementation of NAPS is of the utmost importance for Ireland,” Hugh Frazer said.
“However, there are a number of challenges to its full implementation which we are urging the government and all the social partners to address now. Otherwise, NAPS will not work with the net effect of widening the gap still further between the rich and the poor.”
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Aghadrumsee primary school in Co Fermanagh, scene of a unionist-backed sectarian picket during September. |
The women were appointed on merit by the British appointed Western Education and Library Board. Aghadrumsee school cater for the mainly Protestant townland but the school canteen also provides dinners for two other primary schools in the area, both of which are predominantly attended by Catholic pupils.
The head cook at the school is a Catholic and recently appointed, but was not refused entry. The two retired Protestant workers have been recalled to provide cover for their two Catholic replacements. Unionist Councillor Harold Andrews claimed the two newly-appointed women are “not from the area” but it is believed they are from the nearby village of Maguiresbrigde . The picket was lifted to allow talks to take place between the school board and the WELB, but Cllr Andrews said they would resume if they were not happy with the outcome.
His fellow UUP Councillor Cecil Noble also backed the picket. Noble was recently nominated to the board of the British-run Housing Executive in the Six Counties by the Unionist-dominated ‘Northern Ireland Housing Council’. All three nominees of this body to the 10-member Housing Executive Board are Unionists and will almost definitely take up their positions.
Ironically, Noble is also a member of the Western Education and Library Board which appointed the Catholic cooks.
Meanwhile, the Irish News on September 10 reported that another school cook in a Belfast primary school had been forced out of her job earlier this year by loyalist threats. Geraldine McGuigan had been employed for 13 years as a cook and supervisor at the Wheatfield Primary School in Alliance Road, Belfast. She received a threatening call from a person claiming to be from the UVF on March 4 this year.
The caller said: “This is a Protestant area, you are a Taig. We know your address. Get out of this area.” The UVF caller told her where she lived. She has been off work since then suffering from depression and stress.
Her husband, Daniel, told the
Irish News:
“I think it’s disgusting. My wife felt a part of that school, she knew the children going through the school, she knew their families. Pupils came back to see her. Then suddenly she was singled out because of her religion.”
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“I’m a friend of Ruairí Óg’s, the man exclaimed, “can we talk”?. Pat McDonnell suggested a local pub, the man said he preferred to go to a burger bar opposite, where they sat down for tea.
“How can I put this, I’m not a friend of Ruairí’s” the man began, “but I need your help”.
“Who do you represent”, Pat enquired, but he did not get an answer. Instead he pestered him with questions such as “did he think the ceasefire of Provo dissidents was genuine?
After eventually saying his name was ‘Pete’, the man stressed on three seperate occasions that: “It will not be in your interests to tell anyone, solicitor, people in Ireland or the media of our meeting” as “nobody will believe you, you are already tainted by talking to me now”, an obvious threat to set him up and blackmail him into co-operating.
Pete suggested several meetings beginning on September 1 and gave Pat a phone number. On that date he was approached again by the same man who once again escorted him to a cafe where this time he produced an ID card which had a white shield-shaped badge on one side and the words:
“The holder of this card is a member of the Security Services (MI5)”, printed on the obverse side. He offered him financial and other rewards. Other members of Cumainn in England have received similar attention.
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Several hundred people had gathered at the GPO for Republican Sinn Féin’s established annual rally on the eve of the all-Ireland football final, which has always been organised in an orderly and peaceful manner.
As the speakers began to address the crowd the police under the direction of a Superintendent attempted to force people off the street. Blows were struck at members of the crowd, including two civil rights association representatives who were observing the rally at the invitation of the organisers. Two youths were arrested and charged under the Public Order Act.
The meeting continued despite this heavy-handed attempt at provoking the crowd. Republicans from Galway, Kildare and Donegal spoke and a letter was read out from Josephine Hayden, a Republican prisoner in Limerick prison, regarding the appalling conditions endured by the 15 women prisoners in C Wing of the jail.
Speaking afterwards the rally chairperson, Republican Sinn Féin Councillor Joe O’Neill, Bundoran, said this attack on a public meeting was part of the Dublin and London administrations’ attempts to silence political opposition to British interference in Ireland.
He continued: “This was a Beijing-style attempt to stifle the public expression of political opinions which the state disagrees with. Bertie Ahern is attempting to ‘break’ Republican Sinn Féin as he publicly threatened to do on August 18 last.
“He should remember that as an organisation we have our roots deep in Irish history and will continue to exercise our right to work politically on behalf of those who oppose the Stormont Agreement as it attempts to cement English rule in place in the Six Counties.”
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“The Omagh bomb was a gross denial of the human rights of those killed or injured by it. No cause can justify such horror. However the response of the London and Dublin governments to this atrocity also constitutes an attack on human and civil rights.”
He added: “The draconian legislation introduced in both the Six and 26 Counties affects not only those responsible for the Omagh bombing but it is a serious infringement of the human rights of the 6% in the 26 Counties and the 29% in the Six Counties who campaigned against and voted ‘No’ to the ‘Stormont Agreement’.
“This is an attempt to criminalise those who do not believe the ‘Stormont Agreement’ can deliver a just and lasting peace and those who believe in a British withdrawal and a New Free Ireland. Those thousands of people have a right to hold a political opinion and express it.
“On August 18, Bertie Ahern named Republican Sinn Féin as an organisation that he intended to “break.”
“The political organisation which Mr Ahern threatens to “break” has its roots deep in Irish history. Republican Sinn Féin is a political organisation dating from 1917 which since its re-organisation in 1986 has contested four referenda, two sets of local elections as well as Údarás na Gaeltachta elections.
“We pledge here that Republican Sinn Féin will continue to work politically for a British withdrawal from Ireland with maximum devolution of political power to local level. We wish to see an Ireland based on the principles of true political and economic democracy.
“Finally I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the participating counties in tomorrow’s finals every good wish. However you will excuse me if I reserve a special word for my own county.
“It is 63 years since Kildare last took to the field in an All-Ireland Final and 70 years since Bill ‘Squires’ Gannon raised the Sam Maguire Cup.
“In that time many great men have worn the famed white jersey with distinction. Men such as the great Larry Stanley, Jack Higgins and Mick Buckley in the 1920s and 1930s. Séamus Harrison, Larry McCormack and Mick Carolan in the 1950s and 1960s. Pat Dunney, Tommy Carew, Jack Donnelly and Ollie Crinnigan in the 1960s and 1970s.
“Many of these men served Kildare with little or no success.
“So when Glen Ryan leads the present generation of Kildare footballers on to the pitch at Croke Park tomorrow they carry with them the hopes, dreams and aspirations of a County with a long and proud tradition.
“Cill Dara Abú, An Phoblacht Abú!”
Tomás Ó Curraoin, Galway also spoke at the Republican Sinn Féin rally, which was chaired by Councillor Joe O'Neill, Bundoran.
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“Free our sons”, pleaded Anderstown woman, Bridie Kirby whose son Terry, along with two other former IRA members from Belfast, Kevin Barry Artt and Pól Brennan is in prison awaiting extradition to occupied Ireland.
“The British government has released the soldier killers of Peter McBride so there can be no reason now for keeping our sons behind bars when they have committed no crime in America.
She said there’s no reason “why these men who have been so supportive of the peace process should be forced to endure a prison hell.” Despite this, she said the British government is still actively seeking the extradition of “these young men.”
The three Belfastmen took part in the spectacular escape from Long Kesh Concentration Camp in 1983. They soon made their way to the US to rebuild their lives and have been described as models of the community.
The British have doggedly pursued them since. In the early ’90s they were arrested by the FBI and are now being detained in Pleasanton Federal prison in Dublin, California awaiting extradition charges.
“Terence was seventeen when he was interned”, explained Bridie Kirby. “The British came for him, as they promised to do, on his seventeenth birthday. He is now 42 and he’s spent most of the years in between in prison.”
His American born wife Colleen was pregnant when Terry Kirby was arrested in 1994. Saying it is time the British let the issue go and release the men and let them continue to make a life for themselves and their families she asked Clinton to “intercede for Terry, Pól and Kevin Barry.”
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