IRISH REPUBLICAN INFORMATION SERVICE (no. 17)
Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757; e-mail: [email protected]
Date: 16 Bealtaine / May 2005

Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom

http://saoirse.rr.nu

In this issue:
1. Man escapes injury in Armagh pipe-bomb attack
2. Major radioactive leak at Sellafield
3. Junior soccer team stoned by loyalist mo
4. The most sectarian place in the north
5. Masked men at loyalist parade in Short Styrand
6. ASBO Concerns To Be Raised With UN
7. Provos Have No Right To Use Sinn Féin Name

1. MAN ESCAPES INJURY IN ARMAGH PIPE-BOMB ATTACK
A 32-year-old man escaped injury in a pipe-bomb attack on his flat in Armagh on May 11. The device exploded on the windowsill of the flat in Tyross Gardens shortly after 10.30pm and caused substantial damage to the building. The occupant of the flat was inside at the time, but was not hurt in the blast. Up to three masked men were seen in the area just prior to the attack.

2. MAJOR RADIOACTIVE LEAK AT SELLAFIELD
DESPITE claims by the 26-County's Radiological Institute of Ireland that a massive leak which occurred at the notorious Sellafield nuclear processing plant has no implications for the people of Ireland it has lead to the closure of Sellafield's €3 Bn Thorp plant.

The leak, which was first detected on April 18, amounted to 83 cubic metres of plutonium and uranium dissolved in nitric acid. The concrete chamber within which it is contained is regarded as too dangerous for workers to enter. No plan has been devised but it may involve the use of robots or other remote controlled machinery.

Claims that the incident was "less than one" on the seven-step International Nuclear Event Scale, by officials at Sellafield were contradicted by the Director of the RPII Tony Colgan. "They listed it as a class zero event. Class 1 is probably more correct", he said, given it involved a significant amount of material even if there was no release.

The leak and closure which the RPII was notified of on April 21 and the 26-County Department of the Environment the following day, which despite claims that it will be only for some weeks by officials at Sellafield, Tony Colgan estimates will be for up to six months, is a major blow for the British Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. They took over ownership of Sellafield from British Nuclear Fuels on April 1. Thorp's €1.4 million a day income is supposed to finance clean up costs at other British nuclear plants.

3. JUNIOR SOCCER TEAM STONED BY LOYALIST MOB
IT WAS reported on May 9 that a junior soccer team have decided to pull out of their football league after a sectarian attack on their minibus in the Co Antrim left four boys with cuts and bruises.

The under-16 team from Carnlough, Co Antrim, were leaving after a match with Ballykeel in Ballymena on Saturday when their minibus was stoned by a crowd of up to 30 loyalists, who perceived the players to be nationalist. It was the latest incident in the town where young people playing junior soccer had been subjected to sectarian thuggery.

Martin McKinley, the assistant team manager who was driving the bus, said the children were shocked. "They were screaming, 'Drive off, drive off, quickly!' and I couldn't get on to the main road because there were cars coming." He said the club was now leaving the league.

4. THE MOST SECTARIAN PLACE IN THE NORTH?
IT WAS reported in a Belfast newspaper on May 12 that sectarian attacks have earned the tiny village of Newbuildings on the outskirts of Derry the unenviable title of the Six-County's most sectarian place.

The Catholic priest in Newbuildings had to move out, the Catholic church is regularly attacked and passing GAA and Derry City soccer fans are routinely stoned.

The paper featured a four-page examination of why there is such bigotry in Newbuildings and community worker Alison Wallace blamed the "siege mentality" of a small loyalist community in nationalist Derry for the attacks, but defended the village as the only place she would live.

Father Aiden Mullan detailed one of the most recent sectarian attack where his church was stoned during Mass.

"I said Mass out there in January and rocks were thrown on the roof . It's a tin roof. You can imagine what that sounded like. It was like thunder."

Recalling an incident in December 2003 Fr Mullan said: "The church was broken into and the altar tipped up, the tabernacle pulled from the wall and some of the Stations of the Cross broken."

On another occasion, someone put a hose down the chimney of the church's central heating system and left the tap running, flooding the system and destroying the heating boiler. But perhaps the worst incident, in December 1997, involved Fr Mullan shortly after he had moved to the parish.

"I was praying in the oratory that night before Mass, it was a Friday night," he said. "They just came in wearing ski masks and they had sticks or baseball bats. They didn't say a word. They were surprised to see me, they didn't expect me to be there. I said nothing."

Despite his presence the attackers proceeded to break a number of statutes in the church. The priest said he had also been frequently insulted while leaving the church.

5. MASKED MEN AT LOYALIST PARADE IN SHORT STYRAND
RESIDENTS of the nationalist enclave of the Short Strand in Belfast criticised the PSNI over a UVF loyalist death squad parade on the night of May 13 in which around 30 men with hooded faces
were to be seen following the bands.

But despite concealing identity being an offence, the RUC/PSNI colonial police did nothing to stop the hooded loyalists accompanying the East Belfast UVF band. A protest was held by residents of the Short Strand who have also protested to the British Parades Commission.

One caller to the Andersonstown News newpaper said the actions of those accompanying the march was "intimidating" whilst "the police did nothing".

"This band had around 30 men with hoods and scarves at the junction of Short Strand. Almost every band was carrying UVF flags. We complained about the men with the East Belfast UVF band to the police and those in charge went over to them and spoke to two of the men. Then they came back and told us they were going to move a wee bit. We couldn't believe it.

"They then moved down near Sirocco works. Another band came down with another 30 men who walked round the back of the garage around to the Sydenham bypass. Then there was one man in his sixties who broke away and wanted to go up the Newtownards Road. The [RUC]PSNI approached Short Strand interface workers and asked them to guarantee his safety. We couldn't believe it. He had broken through the cordon and community workers from Short Strand had to accompany him. It was a recipe for disaster. This was all with two top [RUC]PSNI officers in East Belfast, four authorised officers of the [British] Parades Commission and an observer from the British/Irish Secretariat."

Paddy Murray of Kevin Winters Solicitors, who is representing the residents, witnessed the incident and said it was "a cynical attempt to intimidate Short Strand residents."

"There were in all around 70 mainly young men who were not part of the march. They were marshalled to walk up to the protesters to face them masked. They obviously had been marshalled and ordered to stand there. Once the parade passed they disappeared. They didn't proceed with the bands onward to the city centre, so it was a deliberate attempt to intimidate," he said.

6. ASBO CONCERNS TO BE RAISED WITH UN
CAMPAIGNERS are planning to raise concerns over the 26-County administration's plans to introduce anti social behaviour orders (ASBOs) with a UN committee on children's rights later this year.

Under the UN convention on the Rights of the Child, the 26-County State is obliged to compile progress reports towards implementing the international agreement at six-year intervals. The 26-County administration has finalised its report, which is due to be submitted to a UN committee in Geneva shortly. However ASBOs are not mentioned in the report.

Non-governmental organisations are planning to raise ASBOs as their chief concerns in separate submissions to be sent to the UN in the near future. Members of the Children's Rights Alliance and other NGOs say the controversial measures flout a central provision of the convention, which states that detention should be a measure of last resort.

Irish child law expert Geoffrey Shannon said raising the issue at Geneva could be embarrassing for the 26 County government. "These measures may be popular at domestic level. However Ireland may face sanctions given that the principle of detention as a measure of last resort is at the centre of the convention," he said. "Because Asbos are a front-loaded provision, detention would be seen as measure of first resort rather than last resort."

Aisling Reidy of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties said the introduction of ASBOs "without any child-impact assessment, can only be viewed negatively."

7. PROVOS HAVE NO RIGHT TO USE SINN FÉIN NAME
IN A statement on May 12 Republican Sinn Féin Vice-President Des Dalton said that the continued use by the Provisionals of the honoured and historic Sinn Féin name was an affront to all Republicans.

He went on: "Their attempts to lay claim on its centenary by events such as those organised in Naas on May 14 are to be deplored. The Provisionals, no more than any of the other groups who departed from Sinn Féin over the years, such as Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil or the Worker's Party/Democratic Left, cannot claim any link with the organisation founded at Dublin's Rotunda 100 years ago, to do so flies in the face of historical reality.

"At the 1986 Ard Fheis they breached the constitution of Sinn Féin, which since 1917 upholds the All-Ireland Republic proclaimed in 1916. By accepting the partitionist system, they placed themselves outside of Sinn Féin. In the years since they have been drawn further into the partitionist system to the point where they have sat in a revamped Stormont as British ministers of the crown, administering British rule in Ireland and look set in the near future to sit on the Six County policing boards from where they will help to police British rule on the ground.

"Contrary to the very philosophy upon which Sinn Féin was founded, which was to ensure that the Irish people themselves administered political power in Ireland rather than the British parliament at Westminster, they are have operated offices from Westminster as well as drawing salaries from the British state. Republican Sinn Féin alone can trace an unbroken organisational link with the body founded in 1905, since 1917 we have preserved intact the Republican constitution of our organisation despite a number of attempts to compromise or dilute it.

"This year as we proudly celebrate 100 years of unbroken continuity we call on the Provisionals to desist from laying claim to the proud name of Sinn Féin. As the Worker's Party eventually did in 1982 they should face up to the reality that have no right to use the name of an organisation which in their case they walked away from almost 19 years ago. Events such as those in Naas are an attempt to deny this reality."

ENDS