BBC
Friday, 9 May 2008 23:41 UK

Army technical officers have found a partially detonated device at a toy store in County Tyrone.

It followed a phone call to a media organisation on Friday evening that incendiary devices had been left at two businesses in Cookstown.

The device was found hidden within a fast food container in the Toymaster store.

A supermarket in the town was also evacuated. Police remain at the scene of both alerts.

A PSNI spokesman said "investigations into the exact nature of the object are continuing".

"Police in Cookstown would urge members of the public to be vigilant. If they come across any suspicious packages, or any boxes or packages with a suspicious object inside, to contact them immediately."

George McCartney
Derry Journal
09 May 2008

A former republican prisoner from Derry has called on the British Government to admit that it tested a notorious nerve gas on Long Kesh prisoners.

Gerry McCartney, who has suffered from respiratory illness COPD for the last decade, believes his health problems are direct result of being exposed to CR gas during a prison riot in 1974.

It's understood that quite a number of those allegedly exposed to the nerve agent have developed serious illnesses, including cancer patient, Belfast man John McMullan who has called on the British Government to reveal the contents of the gas.

In October of 1974, Mr. McCartney was among a group of prisoners - which included Belfast man John McMullan - who tried to burn the Long Kesh internment camp in a dispute over prison visits. It's long been claimed by republicans that British army helicopters dropped dozens of canisters of CR gas on to the prisoners.

"It was nothing like CS gas, which the British Government claimed they had used. With the CR gas our eyes nearly popped out of our heads, we couldn't breath at all. Every prisoner dropped to the ground, everyone was choking. The effects were unbelievably horrendous."

He explained that the incident took place on the morning after the fire when the prisoners were "exhausted and enclosed within the prison football pitch".

"The battle was over and they had regained control of the prison - therefore it was no longer an operational type but a testing type operation.

"In 1999 John Spellar (then Armed Forces Minister) said that British Army had never used CR gas in an operational capacity and later reaffirmed that. However, he later admitted that some hand-held canisters of CR gas were available to troops in Long Kesh. Spellar also said in 1999 that samples were being held because it proved to be effective in a test situation, in an anti terrorist situation. Where were they tested then, well the logical place was Long Kesh and it's about time the British Government admitted what they did there."

It's long been claimed that in the days following the riot army doctors took blood samples from republican and loyalist prisoners, although the British Government still deny that.

"There's massive cover up of the use of CR gas and that can only be due to its after effects. Myself and quite a number of prisoners there at the time suffer from respiratory illnesses and other diseases such as cancer. Even my four children have asthma," he added.

Mr. McCartney, who was the last Derry internee released on the final day of Internment in 1975, is now calling on former British soldiers and prison officers present on the day to ensure the truth comes out.

"I saw quite a few without masks and I would say some of them have also suffered from the effects."

By Katherine Donnelly
Independent.ie
Saturday May 10 2008

THE terror and isolation endured by families in marginalised, crime-ridden communities in Limerick is graphically outlined in a new report.

There is a lot of unresolved anger and intimidation around "revenge killings", which have become a feature of life in neighbourhoods caught up in a drugs and crime spiral.

A sense of powerlessness has engulfed many young people, who feel "marooned" and with no way out, according to the 'Men on the Margins' study from the University of Limerick (UL).

The dismal depiction of life inside communities fractured by poverty, drugs and social exclusion comes from young men who have been personally affected by events, including two whose fathers were murdered, one whose father committed suicide and one whose father died tragically in an accident.

Prisoners

The study, carried out by the Institute for Study of Knowledge and Society (ISKS), found a multitude of factors including neighbourhood violence, traumatic loss of friends and relatives, social and emotional difficulties, combined with educational deficits, were contributing to their difficulties.

It reports that control in the communities is exercised by a small number of families involved in the distribution of drugs and other criminal activity, making their neighbours virtual prisoners.

Anti-social behaviour is starting in children as young as 10, with boys graduating from street drinking to stealing, joyriding and prison as they emulate others, who, in turn, see crime bosses as heroes.

"Control over communities is exercised by fear and intimidation. If intimidation does not work, a family can have their house burned down, family members beaten or shot and forced to leave the area."

"A murder, automatic fire or the burning down of a house are high-profile activities. There is, however, low-level everyday violence and intimidation that creates fear and anxiety," the report states.

However, there is still a strong sense of place and only two of the 18 interviewees would like to move out of the area in which they live.

Most of the 18 young men, aged from 18-33, were disaffected from school at an early age. They encountered difficulties in managing the school environment, and in some cases, many left without basic reading and writing skills. Lack of qualifications compromises their ability to find work, adding to their sense of hopelessness.

The study will be discussed shortly with representatives of the Limerick Regeneration Agencies. Among its key recommendations are a need for greater links between gardai and the local community, with a stated desire for more gardai 'on the beat', rather than patrolling in cars.

On the revenge killings issue, the study found that people began to believe that their loved one, who had been killed, was of no value.

Co-author Carmel Kelleher said bereavement and anger could "manifest in inter-generational feuding which needs to be addressed."

- Katherine Donnelly

RTÉ
Saturday, 10 May 2008

The journalist and author Nuala O'Faolain has died. She was 66.

Nuala O'Faolain became internationally well-known for her two volumes of memoirs, Are You Somebody? and Almost There; a novel, My Dream of You, and a history with commentary, The Story of Chicago May.

She was educated at University College, Dublin, University of Hull, and Oxford University.

She taught for a time at Morley College, and worked as television producer for RTÉ and for the BBC.

In 1985, she won a Jacob's Award as producer of the RTÉ programme, Plain Times, and The Story of Chicago May was awarded the Prix Femina in 2006.

Her father was also a well-known journalist, writing the Dubliners Diary social column under the pen-name Terry O'Sullivan for the Evening Press.

Ms O'Faolain never married. In Are You Somebody?, she speaks openly about her thirteen-year relationship with the journalist Nell McCafferty, who published her own memoir, Nell.

After being diagnosed with metastatic cancer, Nuala O'Faolain was interviewed on the Marian Finucane radio show on RTÉ Radio One about her terminal illness.

She said 'I don't want more time. As soon as I heard I was going to die, the goodness went from life.'
*

BBC

Strabane councillor and Sinn Fein representative Ivan Barr has died after a short illness.


Ivan Barr died after a short illness

Mr Barr had been involved in politics for over 40 years and was a former chairman of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.

While chairman of Strabane District Council in 2001, he was central to a political storm after shaking hands with DUP colleague Thomas Kerrigan.

Mr Barr's party colleague Brian McMahon said he was "irreplaceable".

He is survived by his wife Judy and seven children in Strabane.