IRSP offices raided by British colonial police

[PRC-UTE]

"]PSNI-RUC RAIDS TODAY


More that 20 homes and offices connected to alleged members of the IRSP and Teach na Failte were raided today in a concerted campaign by the British establishment in Ireland to disrupt the good work of both organisations. They haven't succeeded in thirty years of assassination and dirty tricks and they will not succeed in this instance. Up the Irps! Here's an IRSP response to the raids:

Belfast IRSP Press Statement 26th October 2005

The IRSP condemn without reservation the totally unwarranted searches of Teach na Failte and Republican Socialist offices and homes of our workers in Belfast and Strabane.

These searches are little more than a politically motivated fishing exercise and an attempt by the PSNI/RUC to blacken the good name of Teach na Failte, a well respected former prisoners association whose work is mostly welfare based, plus a conflict transformation and resolution project for ex-prisoners and their families.

IRSP spokesperson Paul Little said;

"The nature of these searches by the PSNI was aggressive with doors being smashed down and a disabled TnF project officer Eddie McGarrigle from Strabane who is confined to a wheelchair was thrown out of it by the PSNI and left lying on the floor.

There is absolutely no justification for these raids or their violent nature. The PSNI have demonstrated once again that they are not a new beginning to policing but rather a new politically motivated paramilitarist force, that excels in all the bad traits of the RUC.

New uniform, same old story

STATEMENT ENDS

[bcbm]

Bastards. Keep on fighting!

Is there anything you can do to challenge this shit? What was the pretext for the raids?

[PRC-UTE]

Just keep exposing the colonial nature of the six county state, and support your comrades as much as you can.

This is a disgusting attack on people who work for reconciliation and peace. They claim that we're "gangsters" to justify the attack, yet don't have a shred of evidence to support that. Would almost be funny if it wasn't so destructive.

[bcbm]

As liberal and awful as this sounds, is there anyone we can email or write letters to in complaint?

[The Grey Blur]

In one word: Pathetic

Thi is designed to cast aspersions on the republican community. I'm certain that this is in conjunction with the ARA raids carried out in Manchester on Dermot Craven who is accused of paramilitary money-laundering. I wouldn't be surprised if any charges are dropped quietly after a week, with officials explaining it away as 'routine'...Don't let them do this! The IRSP should take the PSNI to court in the same manner that Dermot Craven has in England; an aggressive stance on this is required.

Here is an article written by Gerry Adams on the supposedly IRA-linked raids, this also applies to these raids.

[font=Optima]Have you read the one about the senior IRA activist – apparently a good friend of mine – who is now into picking up prostitutes at the back of Belfast City Hall? Or what about my relative who has allegedly turned his back on republicanism over the recent initiatives by the IRA? Or what about the republican women who used to undress in front of their bed room windows to distract British soldiers on foot patrol who were then easily shot by IRA snipers? Or how about the alleged relationship during the Good Friday Agreement negotiations between Gerry Kelly and George Mitchell's colleague Martha Pope?

New or old, what have all of these and countless other similar stories over the past 30 years got in common? Well to begin with they're not true, more importantly, they have been published or broadcast at one time or another as fact.

The recent story briefed by the Assets Recovery Agency in the north, aided by the Criminal Assets Bureau in the south, is a case in point. A Sunday newspaper – obviously tipped off in advance – produces a story about IRA assets in property in Manchester. A statement is then released following a number of raids in Manchester in connection with property worth approximately £30 million. No one is named. No finger is pointed at any organisation. But then there is the 'off-the-record, unattributable briefing' which names Tom Murphy from South Armagh as the man in control of 250 premises worth £30 million in Manchester. This story is then carried as fact. No sourcing of the allegation. No independent verification. No balance.

The story was spread across the front pages of most newspapers and carried by the broadcast media as fact. Grainy photos of Tom Murphy -–who we were constantly told is nicknamed 'Slab' – were used, along with a photograph of a farm which it was claimed is at the centre of a smuggling empire run by 'Slab' Murphy.

The Manchester business people got themselves some decent legal representation and fought back. And then the briefings started to come unstuck. Tom Murphy owned no property in Manchester. There were no 250 premises. There was no £30 million. His brother Frank has an interest in seven pieces of property worth two or three hundred thousand and according, to the business people involved, all transactions were carried out through banks and lawyers, with the last transaction going back two years.

Tom Murphy denied any involvement in any of this. His statement points out that the photograph of the farm reproduced everywhere isn't even his.

So, what can we deduce from all of this? Firstly, there have been spooks and spies and spin doctors and securocrats telling lies about republicans and nationalists for decades. Most in the north but some in the south also. These lies have been designed to cover up torture, beatings, murder, shoot-to-kill operations and the deaths of hundreds of civilians through collusion between British security agencies and unionist paramilitary death squads. They lied about the Dublin Monaghan bombings, about Bloody Sunday, about the killing of Pat Finucane, about the killing of Eddie Fullerton. And these people are still telling lies. And sections of the media continue to reproduce these lies as fact.

None of these people would be able to ply their trade if sections of the media were not eager to follow this agenda. If there weren't some journalists, editors, managers and owners who share some of the same political goals as the securocrats or who simply will do anything to sell papers or up the ratings.

Naked bodies and celebrity scandals sell papers. So do lurid and fictitious stories about republicans. So as the IRA exits stage left, a stream of increasingly hysterical stories about Irish republicans is now the name of the game, even if there isn't a shred of evidence to back any of it up.

So why don't republicans sue? That is a course of action I have considered many times. It still remains an option for me and I look forward to the possibility, some day, of taking on those who vilify me on a regular basis. I look forward to making them pay for their slurs. But it takes a lot of money to go up against the media giants. Remember Albert Reynold's famous case in which he won the court action, was awarded one penny, but ended up with a huge bill? The appeal which he won was a costly affair. And then think of a republican ex-prisoner or well known republican activist and ask yourself what chance have they to pay for taking such a case, never mind the possibilities of winning it.

So, effectively, sections of the media treat republicans like dead people - they cannot be libelled. Republicans have limited options open to fight back. With that knowledge, unscrupulous people will invent stories, exaggerate stories and link named republicans to all sorts of outrageous behaviour.

Of course, the media have a difficult job. There is a duty to inform the public on all these issues. If there is wrong doing by republicans, government or anyone else, this should be exposed. But trial by media is no substitute for good old hard-nosed factual reporting.[/font]

[PRC-UTE]

Daily Ireland
28 October 2005

Former Prisoners' Anger After Support Group Raids
By Connla Young

Former republican prisoners have reacted with anger after the offices
of a support group was raided by the PSNI yesterday.

The offices of Teach na Failte in Strabane, Co Tyrone, and on the
Falls Road in Belfast were searched and documents were removed during
a series of raids carried out across the North yesterday morning which
saw 20 homes and businesses targeted.

Set up almost ten years ago, Teach na Failte works with former Irish
National Liberation Army prisoners.

A Teach na Failte spokesperson said a number of homes belonging to
Teach na Failte employees were also raided by several heavily armed
PSNI units.

A leading figure in the ex-prisoners' group Eddie McGarrigle hit out
at the PSNI after he was tossed from his wheelchair by a PSNI man
attempting to pull the shutters down outside the group's Strabane office.

"At a time when Teach na Failte is getting its doors sledgehammered
open Bertie Ahern met with political representatives of a group that
has killed 28 people since its ceasefire," said Mr McGarrigle.

"What is Bertie Ahern going to say about these raids?

"Two years ago he spoke about his support of Teach na Failte and the
Republican Socialist Movement and the direction they are taking.

"The mood of the Republican Socialist Movement and former INLA
prisoners is one of absolute anger.

"They have taken away all our funding documents and put a lot of
people out of employment.

"For over ten years we have been peace building and working towards
conflict resolution and this work can all be verified.

"People should be aware that the offices of the IRSP were not raided
and with the exception of two people who are members of the IRSP the
majority of raids were carried out at the homes of non-political
people. They are simply employees at Teach na Failte.

"Many of these people work with us on the New Deal programme.

"I believe this action has been carried out to provoke a response."

Earlier this month Mr McGarrigle called on anti-Agreement republicans
not on ceasefire to bring their campaigns to an end.

Belfast-based IRSP man Paul Little said the raids were politically
motivated.

"The PSNI have demonstrated once again that they are not a new
beginning to policing but rather a new politically motivated
paramilitarist force, that excels in all the bad traits of the RUC."

A spokesperson for the PSNI said the 20 raids were carried out by
their Organised Crime Squad.

The PSNI claimed the raids formed part of an ongoing criminal
investigation.

[PRC-UTE]

Irish News
28 October 2005

'Political Fishing Exercise' Criticised Following Raids
By Bimpe Fatogun

More than 20 homes and business premises in Co Tyrone and Belfast have
been raided by police investigating a suspected republican criminal
network.

The bulk of the searches by officers from the PSNI's Organised Crime
Squad were in Strabane.

Police said they were part of an "ongoing investigation into an
organised criminal network operating in the town".

It is understood the operation was linked to suspected
money-laundering activities.

The premises raided in-cluded the head office of Teach na Failte, an
ex-prisoners organisation linked to the INLA.

Another Teach na Failte office on the Falls Road in Belfast was also
raided, along with around eight homes of people employed by the group.

There were also searches in Castlederg in Co Tyrone.

The first raids began at around 11am yesterday morning and were
continuing last night.

There were no arrests, although officers seized cash and cigarettes,
computer equipment and "a large amount of documentation" for further
examination.

Paul Little, spokesman for the INLA-linked Irish Republican Socialist
Party (IRSP), said it condemned the "totally unwarranted searches" of
party and Teach na Failte offices and homes.

"These searches are little more than a politically-motivated fishing
exercise and an attempt by the PSNI/RUC to blacken the good name of
Teach na Failte, a well-respected former prisoners association whose
work is mostly welfare-based," he said.

Teach na Failte project manager Eddie McGarrigle, whose home was one
of those raided, said the searches were not confined to the homes of
members of the organisation.

"There seems to have been 25 houses searched and eight of them have
some connection to Teach na Failte or the IRSP, the rest have no
connection whatsoever," he said.

"None of the houses connected to Teach na Failte or IRSP had any
criminal papers taken from them. Most of those questioned had nothing
to do with the IRSP."

Mr McGarrigle also said he believed the searches were politically
motivated.

"Three weeks ago I called for dissident republicans to call a
cessation to their armed campaign," he said.

"Since then I have been stopped every day going to work.

"I have been out of jail for 18 years and my house hasn't been
searched for 18 years. Now the police have come bursting through the door.

"It is as if they want to try and get some response from the INLA.
People on the ground here are furious."

[Wanted Man]

"Rage Against the Machine", nobody is interested to hear from IRA, a group that has assassinated IRSP members and leaders.

Anyway, this is terrible news, justice to the irps!

[Sir Aunty Christ]

Originally posted by OglachMcGlinchey@Oct 27 2005, 09:49 PM
"The nature of these searches by the PSNI was aggressive with doors being smashed down and a disabled TnF project officer Eddie McGarrigle from Strabane who is confined to a wheelchair was thrown out of it by the PSNI and left lying on the floor.

Bastards!

[bulrog]

Originally posted by Matthijs@Oct 29 2005, 04:51 PM
"Rage Against the Machine", nobody is interested to hear from IRA, a group that has assassinated IRSP members and leaders.

Anyway, this is terrible news, justice to the irps!

If you had really researched this you will know, and Oglach cannot deny, that the IRA saved the Irps a whole lot of bother when they were feuding with the IPLO, it was the PIRA who stepped in and put an end to the IPLO and wiped them off the face of Belfast in virtually one night, Halloween 1992.

And, INLA prisoners stood side by side with IRA prisoners in the 1981 Hungerstrike in which ten men, 3 of whom were Irps and 7 provos died.

[PRC-UTE]

I know, I've acknowledged that they wiped out the IPLO.

Comrade Matthijs was just confused between the PIRA and OIRA. It's easy to do.

That bastard Sean Garland who's being extradited by the USA right now was Chief of Staff of the OIRA when they killed Séamus Costello.

[Andy Bowden]

Any possibility of INLA response to this?

Considering the INLA is on a "no-first strike" basis, could this aggression by the Brits call for a military response?

[bcbm]

Originally posted by Andy Bowden@Oct 29 2005, 01:21 PM
Any possibility of INLA response to this?

Considering the INLA is on a "no-first strike" basis, could this aggression by the Brits call for a military response?

I think such an action would probably play into the Brits' hands right now.

[Tekun]

My support is with u brothers
Honest and good-hearted ppl getting killed, raided, and whatnot....pathetic!

Things are going from bad to worse brothers, universally speaking that is
I think its best if we all kept our guard up and never lost sight of our enemies

[The Grey Blur]

nobody is interested to hear from Sinn Féin

Well "Matthijs", I think quite a few people are interested in hearing from Sinn Féin, especially commenting on the same Unionist/British tactic of raiding innocent homes, businesses and prisoner's groups that Óglach posted about.

a group that has assassinated IRSP members and leaders.

That was the Officials during the INLA/OIRA feud in the 70's not the Provisional movement which has a strong bond with the INLA and IRSP and, as Bulrog pointed out, assisted the INLA in wiping out the splinter group IPLO.

It is extremely difficult to confuse the Provos with the OIRA (especially since I quoted Gerry Adams), thus I contend you are either unknowledgable on the North's political history or just an idiot; edit your mistake.

*I took the liberty of editing "Matthijs'" post from 'IRA' to Sinn Féin as it was Gerry Adams I quoted, not an IRA member .

Any possibility of INLA response to this?

It's doutbful, an INLA response would be foolish; the best way to respond to this would be to challenge the PSNI on grounds of discrimination and false allegations through the Police Ombudsman or through the courts in the manner that Dermot Craven is.

[PRC-UTE]

Originally posted by Andy Bowden@Oct 29 2005, 07:21 PM
Any possibility of INLA response to this?

Considering the INLA is on a "no-first strike" basis, could this aggression by the Brits call for a military response?

I don't expect anything like that. I think the RUC-PSNI would love to provoke that, though. I think the only way we'd see an INLA response would be if there was something like a large Loyalist attack on a republican/nationalist area. The INLA seems to be very well disciplined and under the control of the party these days.

[PRC-UTE]

Originally posted by Rage Against The Machine@Oct 30 2005, 04:01 PM

nobody is interested to hear from Sinn Féin

Well "Matthijs", I think quite a few people are interested in hearing from Sinn Féin, especially commenting on the same Unionist/British tactic of raiding innocent homes, businesses and prisoner's groups that Óglach posted about.

a group that has assassinated IRSP members and leaders.

That was the Officials during the INLA/OIRA feud in the 70's not the Provisional movement which has a strong bond with the INLA and IRSP and, as Bulrog pointed out, assisted the INLA in wiping out the splinter group IPLO.

It is extremely difficult to confuse the Provos with the OIRA (especially since I quoted Gerry Adams), thus I contend you are either unknowledgable on the North's political history or just an idiot; edit your mistake.

*I took the liberty of editing "Matthijs'" post from 'IRA' to Sinn Féin as it was Gerry Adams I quoted, not an IRA member .

Comrade Matthijs isn't from Ireland and so it's natural there would be a confusion. There's about a half-dozen groups calling themselves the IRA it seems like.

[The Grey Blur]

Originally posted by OglachMcGlinchey@Oct 30 2005, 06:52 PM
Comrade Matthijs isn't from Ireland and so it's natural there would be a confusion. There's about a half-dozen groups calling themselves the IRA it seems like.

Aye, fair point but I'm still mystified as to how someone could confuse/equate my posting a statement from Gerry Adams with the OIRA, it would be like confusing Seamus Costello with the IPLO.