BBC
12 May 2008

First Minister Ian Paisley has said that he would like to see work begin on taking down Northern Ireland's peace walls.


Northern Ireland has more than 40 peace walls

Speaking at ministerial question time Mr Paisley welcomed the Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg's recent call for the structures to be demolished.

However, he said that local communities would ultimately be responsible for making the decision.

"Outsiders pulling down walls will accomplish nothing," said Mr Paisley.

"But when those on both sides of the wall mutually come to agreement and say we are taking down these walls, then we will have won a great victory and I look forward to that victory being sealed over and over again in these areas where there has been great trouble in the past days."

More than 40 so-called peace walls have been erected in sectarian flashpoint areas in Belfast, Derry and other parts of Northern Ireland.

During last week's investment conference Michael Bloomberg said the wall should be removed "in the interests of peace and prosperity".

Belfast Media
South Belfast News
By Scott Jamison

A separate policing unit for Belfast city centre is to be created in order to stop resources being drained away from the south of the city, according to a local MLA.

Michael McGimpsey was speaking after a meeting with Chief Superintendent George Hamilton, Commander of B District, which encompasses South and East Belfast.

Currently, the city centre comes under the South Belfast unit, meaning resources are often stretched in other areas in order to deal with late night revellers.

Mr McGimpsey said although the crime rate in South Belfast has fallen recently, further work was still needed.

“The city centre has been extended now to take in the Odyssey and the docklands, which means residents in South Belfast have police cover effectively removed in order to cope with anti-social behaviour. The police view is that officers need to go where they’re needed, which puts pressure on the rest. To give credit, the current crime levels in South Belfast are much improved, but with figures nearly double other areas in Belfast, it is still much too high.

“A dedicated city centre policing unit, so there is a compliment of officers available who don’t get taken away to deal with issues elsewhere, would improve things further.”

The UUP MLA met last week with Chief Superintendent Hamilton and said the meeting was “productive”, with a number of issues raised.

“It was constructive in that several topics were talked about, namely those that make people feel unsafe.

“Separating South Belfast from the rest of the city centre is an important step and the PSNI should be congratulated on considering the idea.”

Recent city centre incidents include the vicious assault of rugby fan Paul Newton in Bradbury Place and the stabbing of Hugh McNally outside Cosgrove’s Bar in King Street.

Mr McGimpsey said events such as these backed his call for a specialised unit.

“The dreadful crimes that have occurred lately make people feel unsafe, which is unacceptable.

“While it is fair to say progress is being made in tackling those types of crimes, more progress is needed.

“Residents in South Belfast feel the activity in the city centre is creating a focus for attention that makes them feel they are being treated with less weight.

“People in South Belfast must have the cover that is required.”

A PSNI spokesperson confirmed all neighbourhood areas in the city were being reviewed.

“As part of that review, the PSNI is exploring the possibility of making Belfast city centre a designated area, given that it has its own specific needs. Any new designated areas would be within the structures of B District and there will be no new district command units created.”

By Tom McGurk
Sunday Business Post
May 11, 2008

The North needs to examine just what it has to offer its potential foreign investors.

The North has never seen anything like it: some 20 private jets parked at the airports, the cavalcades of yellow corporate coaches ferrying guests between Stormont and the five-star hotels, and finally, on the last night, the sumptuous banquet at Hillsborough.

The Yanks were in town and one Belfast wag compared it to some surreal re-run from World War II when the American troops first arrived in the North, flashing dollar bills and ladies’ nylon stockings at the local population.

The corporate guestlist was a who’s who in anybody’s language with, among others, senior executives from American Express, Accenture, Lehman, Morgan Stanley, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. There was even an announcement that the US global business and financial news provider Bloomberg had opened a bureau in Belfast.

It was the fifth conference since the IRA ceasefire in 1994 that has tried to convince Americans to invest in the North, and there was political muscle everywhere too, with both Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen present, as well as Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness.

But the question is, of course, will it amount to anything? It’s one thing to bring corporate America on a jolly to Belfast; it’s something else to convince them to invest. Nor could the timing be more difficult for the Americans present, given that the US itself is in recession. No wonder, then, that many of the senior executives who were in Belfast didn’t want any publicity.

Beneath this - after all the good wishes and the self-congratulations about the now-peaceful North - lies one crucial question. What does the place have to offer overseas investors that places in Britain don’t? The answer, in fact, is very little. Compared to what the South offers and how it conducts its international business, there is no comparison.

It was not surprising that time and again at the conference, the question of harmonising the corporation tax rates North and South - currently 28 per cent compared to 12.5 per cent - was raised with Gordon Brown. Each time the answer was no. Even a passionate pleading at the conference from Tony O’Reilly that, after 35 years of the troubles, the North deserved special treatment, failed to move Brown on the tax issue.

As the conference ended and the private jets flew away, perhaps a new political and economic reality was beginning to impinge on the North’s traditional unionist perceptions. The North desperately needs work and investment in a society where almost half the workforce is dependent on the public wage-packet, but where will it come from?

Is it not the case that Brown’s refusal to see the North as any different from any other region - or his refusal to recognise that it might have some claim on a special status - must raise new questions about the traditional unionist presumption and assertion that maintaining the link with Britain was central to the North’s economic survival.

Ironically, is it now - three generations on - that the partitionist economic argument itself begins to fall apart. The economic circumstances that exist in 2008 are diametrically different from what existed in the 1920s, and the economic hinterland in which the six counties now finds itself is utterly changed. The island of Ireland now finds itself geographically and economically placed between the European Union and the US; maximising this is the key to its economic progression.

The contrast between how the two parts of Ireland have set about creating employment and wealth in recent years could not be more graphic. The South, by exercising its political sovereignty, has been able to create economic opportunities unique to its political and social circumstances - it has devised appropriate tax rates, worked EU membership for its own benefit in an unrivalled fashion and it has utilised the global Irish diaspora, especially in the US.

By contrast, the North has seen years of indifferent direct rule from Westminster, leaving it lagging most of Britain in terms of employment and wealth creation. It has continued to be the poor relation, far from any access to the real centres of political or economic power. In fact, had lobbying not occurred on the back of the Dublin government’s reach in Whitehall and Washington, the North’s politicians would still be out in the cold.

(For example, not so long ago there was enormous unionist opposition to St Patrick’s Day being a national holiday in the North - now they are to be found trampling over each other to get on the plane to Washington DC every March 17.)

Surely the most important realisation that the peace process must bring - as the smoke slowly clears - is that the island of Ireland is an economic and political unit. The economic and social requirements in, say, Monaghan and Armagh are so historically and culturally interlinked, that the idea that they belong to different political jurisdictions and different currency areas makes less and less sense.

In Belfast this week at the investment conference, and even earlier in the week down on the banks of the River Boyne, everyone was doing their best to lead unionism gently but firmly into the 21st century.

Unionists seem to have at last come to recognise that Dublin has a role to play in the North’s affairs and that it is actually to their benefit. But if they want to enjoy real political and economic independence in order to create a new and vibrant post-war society - like, for example, having the freedom to set their own corporation tax - isn’t it time they took a closer and critical look at some of their more traditional political assumptions. Like, what’s the economic benefit of the British link now, stupid?

Of course, the big subvention from the treasury continues to pick up the bills in the six counties, but as society south of the border showed over the last decade with the Celtic tiger, we are as good as anyone in the world at making money. And if money were the only problem, then that too can be sorted.

RTÉ
13 May 2008

The court in the civil case brought by six of the Omagh victims' families has heard that potentially contentious questions will be heard when the case returns to the High Court in Belfast.

The hearing has moved to Dublin to take evidence from up to 30 gardaí.

District Court Judge Conal Gibbons briefly handed over to Justice Declan Morgan from Belfast this morning to resolve difficulties over questions that lawyers for the five men being sued considered possibly prejudicial.

Lawyers for the families told the court that they had agreed to set aside the problmatic questions so that Judge Gibbons could continue hearing factual evidence from the gardaí.

Henry McDonald, Belfast correspondent
Guardian
Tuesday May 13 2008

An Irish republican armed group identified by the International Monitoring Commission last week as a major threat to the Northern Ireland peace process was today being blamed for an overnight bomb attack on a police officer.

The off-duty policeman was injured when a booby-trap bomb device exploded under his car in the border village of Spamount, CountyTyrone.

Security sources on both sides of the Irish border told the Guardian today the group, known as Oghlaigh hnaEireann (Army of Ireland), was behind the attempted murder. The officer, a Catholic recruit to the Police Service for Northern Ireland (PSNI), suffered leg injuries but survived the blast.

The organisation behind the attempt had a base in the Strabane and East Tyrone areas of Northern Ireland, the sources said. It was led by a former Provisional IRA prisoner opposed to the peace process, who came from a republican family in the area.

Oghlaigh hna Eireann was behind a series of firebombs and hoax bombs in Cookstown, Co Tyrone at the weekend.

Alan Lyons, an eyewitness to the explosion, which occurred at around 9.30pm BST last night, said he saw a number of local people running to the car and dragging the officer out while it was still on fire.

"They probably saved the officer's life," he said.

The Ulster Unionist councillor for the area, Derek Hussey, praised the passersby who helped the rescue the officer. Councillor Hussey said the policeman was not from the area but had been in Spamount visiting friends.

Sir Hugh Orde, the PSNI chief constable, condemned those responsible for the attack, adding that it would throw neither the police nor the community off course.

"They have not defeated the police service for the last 38 years," he said. "If they seriously think this sort of event will defeat the Police Service of Northern Ireland, they are badly mistaken. I think the communities and the police together can solve this crime."

The Local Sinn Fein MP, Pat Doherty, also condemned the bomb attack, describing it as "an absolute outrage."

breakingnews.ie
13/05/2008

A British judge will rule in an Irish courtroom today as the landmark civil action claim over the Omagh bombing takes another groundbreaking step.

In a third twist in the unprecedented case, Mr Justice Declan Morgan – who has presided over the case at Belfast Crown Court – will sit in Dublin to hear submissions from the defendant’s barristers.

For the first time, the District Court will be transformed into a British court setting for the short hearing.

The action is also the first time a case has been taken against alleged terrorists through the courts and the first time evidence has been heard in a court in the Republic of Ireland for a case in the North.

Mr Justice Morgan must rule on whether senior counsel will be allowed to object to evidence from gardai they deem inadmissible.

Legal argument yesterday delayed the start of the lawsuit when barristers for men alleged to be responsible for the atrocity claimed the names of their clients could be tarnished if they were not permitted to question evidence as it is given.

The action has been taken against Michael McKevitt, the alleged leader of the Real IRA, the man said to be his number two, Liam Campbell, and Colm Murphy, Seamus McKenna and Seamus Daly. All deny any involvement.

Michael O’Higgins, for McKevitt, argued that if a question asked was clearly inadmissible, and an answer given damaging to his client, that answer was likely to be published the length and breadth of the country.

“My client’s good name will be tarnished,” he said.

“It is no good knowing two to three weeks later that he can object back in Belfast.”

Dermot Fee QC, for Daly and Murphy, said the questions had been devised by the plaintiffs and there was a very clear risk of substantial unfairness to the defendants.

District Judge Conal Gibbons said his role was to take the evidence, and previously told the parties that the inadmissibility of evidence would have to be raised in the North.

He later ruled that because of the short time frame between the court in the North requesting the use of the court in the Republic of Ireland and him trying to implement the process there may be difficulties with certain issues between the parties.

He granted Mr Justice Declan Morgan permission to hold his trial court in the Republic of Ireland courtroom tomorrow morning and hear submissions on the issue of inadmissible evidence.

“I believe the questions are the questions of the requesting court,” he said.

“I allow the opportunity to take instructions and go through the questions and have the process of dealing with issues with Mr Justice Morgan here in this court.”

Judge Gibbons also ruled that Brian O’Moore SC could be present at the hearing for each member of the Gardaí on the basis of a watching brief.

“I think the procedure should be in that manner and that if and when issues arise that I may call on you to make submissions on any matter that may arise,” he said.

BBC
13 May 2008

**Video report onsite

Dissident republicans have been blamed for a booby-trap car bomb attack on an off-duty policeman in County Tyrone.

The officer, a Catholic, sustained serious, but not life-threatening, leg injuries in the attack on Monday in Spamount village, near Castlederg.

Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said off-duty officers were being targeted because that was when they were at their "most vulnerable".

He said dissidents knew they were "in their endgame" and were "lashing out".

The explosion happened at Drumnaby Road at about 2130 BST.

"They have not defeated the police service for the last 38 years, if they seriously think this sort of event will defeat the Police Service of Northern Ireland they are badly mistaken - I think the communities and the police together can solve this crime," Sir Hugh added.


A passerby dragged the officer from the car

The officer was rescued by a member of the public who dragged him from the wreckage of the car.

A short time later the vehicle went on fire.

Eye-witness Tommy Sproule said they moved the injured officer a safe distance away from the vehicle.

"If we hadn't moved him, he was only about two metres from the boot of the car, his injuries would have been a lot worse than what they were," he said.

Northern Ireland's First and Deputy First Minister condemned the attack.

Ian Paisley said it was an attack on democracy and that those behind it must be "brought to justice".

"My prayers and thoughts are with the policeman and his family at this very difficult time," he said.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness appealed for anyone with information to assist the police.

"The elements within our society who perpetrated this act have nothing to offer, they are without mandate or strategy and represent no one," he said.

The Sinn Fein MP for the area Pat Doherty described it as an "absolute outrage".

"We have moved on - there is no turning back to the old days," he said.

Police have been warning for some time that dissident groups have been trying to increase their activities and that they were actively targeting police officers.

In November, the Real IRA shot two officers in Londonderry and Dungannon, and in February police mounted a huge security operation across Northern Ireland because of fears that dissidents were planning another shooting or bombing.
*

By Lesley-Anne Henry
Belfast Telegraph
Tuesday 13, May 2008

Convicted terror boss Michael McKevitt was paraded in front of Gardai surveillance officers by an FBI agent who infiltrated the Real IRA, a court heard yesterday.

The Omagh civil action is sitting in Dublin this week to take evidence from more than 50 Gardai heard how informant David Rupert "lured" the RIRA leader into the front garden of a house in Dundalk following an alleged secret RIRA meeting because he knew Gardai would be watching.

Detective sergeant Thomas Finbar Healey told day 18 of the multi-million pound civil trial he believed Rupert had created a rare "opportunity" for the surveillance team tracking McKevitt's movements.

The court was told the alleged meeting took place at a house at Oakland Park, Dundalk on February 18, 2001 three years after the bombing and that in attendance were Michael McKevitt, his son Stephen McKevitt and the US trucker-turned-spy David Rupert.

Detective sergeant Healey said: "It was my understanding it was a clandestine meeting of RIRA members and they wouldn't want this meeting to be observed by gardai. Mr Rupert was very good and lured him (McKevitt) out the door. People don't usually hang around just talking."

Under cross-examination by Ciaran Vaughn QC, Mr Healey said he believed McKevitt was trying to impress Rupert because he had come all the way from America. Alluding to Michael McKevitt's efforts to stay away from the Gardai he said: "Any time you get Michael McKevitt at the meeting it was a good day for it."

He added: "Out of common courtesy and manners he (Rupert) just lured him (McKevitt) out."

Detective Sergeant Healey, a member of the Garda National Surveillance Unit for 25 years, said no photographs or video evidence were taken of the meeting. Instead he said he used a dictaphone to record "snippets of information."

Twenty-nine people, including a woman pregnant with unborn twins, were killed and hundreds more injured when the 500lb car bomb exploded on August 15, 1998.

Families of six victims are suing five men they believe to have been behind the blast in the first civil action of its kind. Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Seamus Daly, Seamus McKenna and Colin Murphy all deny any part in the bombing.

The groundbreaking Omagh civil action made history yesterday as it was the first time a British judge had gone to the Republic on judicial business. Mr Justice Morgan headed a commission assisted by Dublin District Judge Connail Gibbons to take the evidence from Garda officers who are protected under public interest immunity legislation.

The case was due to make another legal first when Mr Justice Morgan was expected to take control and rule on the admissibility of evidence.

The district court in Dublin Four Courts is to be transformed into Belfast High Court to allow the defendants' lawyers to raise concerns about questions being put to the Garda witnesses. Michael O'Higgins SC objected that questions being put to the Garda officers had been drawn up by the plaintiffs' legal representatives.

He said: "If a question is asked and the answer is very damaging that answer is likely to be published the length and breadth of the country. My client's good name will be tarnished. It is little consolation that two or three weeks down the line we can raise objections back in Belfast." Mr Justice Morgan was expected to hear the objections today.

By Victoria O'Hara
Belfast Telegraph
Tuesday 13, May 2008

The trial of the man accused of murdering east Belfast father Robert McCartney is due to begin today after it was adjourned for 24 hours.

The case is scheduled to start at 11am at Belfast Crown Court.

Terence Malachy Davison (51) is accused of murdering the Short Strand father-of-two who was beaten and stabbed to death outside Magennis's bar in Belfast on January 30, 2005. Davison also faces a charge of causing an affray on the same date.

James McCormick (47) has also been charged with causing an affray and a third man, 39-year-old Joseph Gerard Emmanuel Fitzpatrick, is also facing a charge of causing an affray and assaulting Edward Gowdy on the same date.

The case against the three men had been due to be opened by Crown prosecutor Gordon Kerr QC yesterday.

However, an application was made to Lord Justice Higgins by Davison's defence team who requested the opening of the case be deferred until today.

He described the adjournment as "regrettable", but said he had no alternative but to agree to the request. All three accused have denied the charges against them. A High Court order has banned the press from disclosing their addresses.

Mr McCartney's five sisters and fianc£e Bridgeen Hagans attended the hearing.

Belfast Telegraph
Tuesday 13, May 2008

*Aww...excuse me whilst I shed a tear. :-p

Dressed in a blue stone-wash denim jacket, white T-shirt and blue denim jeans, Michael Stone, the former loyalist hitman who is responsible for one of the most notorious atrocities in the history of the Troubles, looked like a shadow of his former self as he hobbled into the dock of Belfast's Crown Court yesterday.

Gone was the bravado of the man who callously pelted grenades during the funerals of three IRA members shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar a few days earlier, killing three people and injuring 60 others at Milltown Cemetery.

Instead, a greying 53-year-old man using a crutch for support limped into the courtroom for the opening proceedings of the five-week trial, where he is accused of trying to assassinate Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness during his failed attempt to storm Parliament Buildings in November 2006.

As the trial got under way, the loyalist paramilitary, who is facing 14 charges in relation to the attack including possession of explosives, knives and an imitation firearm, spoke only to confirm his name and did not show any emotion as Crown prosecutor Charles Adair QC began to list the events of that morning.

He barely batted an eyelid when Mr Adair spoke of how a female security guard had to "knee" him in the groin to remove his imitation fire arm when he tried to force his way through the revolving doors at Stormont, or when Mr Adair told the court that Stone had told police that his sole purpose for being on the grounds that day was to "slit the throats" of the Sinn Fein members.

He remained quiet as the prosecution began to tear into his defence that his actions were "performance art".

The prosecution contended Stone had planned his attack well in advance and even went to the extraordinary length of testing "similar" devices in the lead-up the incident at Stormont.

Mr Adair also revealed that during police interviews Stone told them that he actually planned to give himself up once he completed his mission.

Not one to shy away from the media spotlight, Stone hardly looked over at the two press desks that had been assembled on either side of the courtroom, preferring just to stare blankly ahead as more details of his plan were revealed.

The prosecution emphasised how Stone had repeatedly told police that he was acting alone that morning and was now a "dissident loyalist freelance" and could not "handle" the thought of Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness being part of a power sharing government branding it as a " bastardisation of democracy".

As Mr Justice Deeny adjourned yesterday's packed proceedings, Stone was led away by a male and female prison officer.

Belfast Telegraph
Monday 12, May 2008

The trial of a man charged with the murder of Robert McCartney is to open in Belfast today.

Terence Davison (51), will appear at Belfast Crown Court on a charges of murder and making an affray in relation to the death of the forklift truck driver outside Magennis's Bar on January 30, 2005.

Two other men, James McCormick (39) and Joseph Fitzpatrick (47), are charged with affray while Fitzpatrick is also accused of assaulting another man, Edward Gowdy, on the same date.

Robert McCartney, who was set to marry fiancee Bridgeen Hagans later that year, died after being beaten and stabbed outside the city centre pub following an argument which spiralled out of control.

His friend Brendan Devine, who he had been socialising with throughout the day, sustained severe injuries in the same attack.

It may be more than three years since his death, but Catherine McCartney can still hear her brother Robert's booming laugh ringing in her ears. She remembers the father-of-two as a man who loved making others smile.

Unfortunately for her, that was all too often achieved with a joke at her expense. "He could be a sarcastic so and so when he wanted to be," she recalls.

"He could cut you to the bone with one of his one-liners. But that was Robert, he had a great sense of humour.

"He was just a big, warm-hearted fellow. At the end of the day, he was our brother and he was very special to us."

Like the rest of the McCartney family, vivid memories of 33-year-old Robert will be at the forefront of Catherine's mind today as she steels herself for the first day of the trial of her brother's accused killer.

"We are not looking forward to the trial, it's like a big cloud hanging over us," admits Catherine.

"We know details of what happened to Robert are going to come up and that will be difficult to deal with. But we are determined to go."

Before their brother's death the McCartney sisters lived pretty normal lives. After the killing, normality was something they could only crave.

It was a pivotal time in the Northern Ireland peace process and the Provisional IRA as an organisation faced allegations of involvement not only in the murder, but also in attempts to hinder the subsequent police investigation.

The killing of Robert McCartney, who lived in the republican Short Strand estate, rocked the finely balanced political situation to its foundations.

And for that reason the international spotlight shone intensely on a bereaved family consumed with grief. With Bridgeen concentrating on caring for two young sons robbed of their father, Robert's five sisters stepped forward to face the world's cameras.

Those lens would remain on them for months as they took their relentless quest for justice across Europe and even as far as the White House.

All of a sudden everyone had an opinion on Paula, Catherine, Gemma, Donna and Claire McCartney - some of the most vitriolic from within their own republican community.

Three years on and the sisters' campaign no longer occupies the evening news bulletins, but that period has left its mark.

"Things will never be the same," Catherine said.

"It totally changes you, not just what happened to Robert, but what we went through in our efforts to get justice.

"Living in Northern Ireland, nothing is clear cut when it comes to murder and justice.

"People make judgements on you, sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly, but it exposes you in a way that you never wanted to be.

"Professionally and personally it's been very hard to go back to normal life, or as I call it, become part of the wallpaper again.

"Some of the family don't want to interact with the outside world anymore. They've lost faith in human nature and lost faith in the society they lived in. That's the sort of impact something like this has on you.

"Most people in this world are very good, it just seems to us that bad guys too often win the day. It's hard to live with that."

The political landscape has changed immeasurably in Northern Ireland since the McCartney murder. Indeed Catherine believes a fear of rocking the Stormont boat resulted in the family's story being pushed to the sidelines.

"It's not only us that's left behind, it's other victims," she says.

"The developments that have taken place are welcome but certainly cases like Robert's, they're not seen as important any more, they've gone off the radar.

"But we are relieved it's getting to court, it has taken a long time. Although it does feel like only yesterday since it happened. We are all still in limbo.

"Bridgeen is the same, it's day for day with her, but she's trying her best to get on with life. The boys are doing well (Conlaed (7), and five-year-old Brandon).

"Those children are resilient but as they get older and start asking questions I think it will become more difficult. For some of us this may bring a degree of closure, for others, I'm just not sure."

By Stephen Emerson
Derry Journal
13 May 2008

Derry is on high alert after an off-duty police officer was seriously injured in a suspected dissident republican car bomb in County Tyrone.


The burnt-out shell of the off-duty policeman's car after Monday night's booby trap explosion.

Security for police officers is now under review after a booby trap device exploded underneath the car of an officer who was travelling along the Drumnabey Road in Spamount village near Castlederg on Monday evening.

It is understood that business owners in the city have also been warned by the PSNI to step up security on their premises because of a heightened dissident threat.

The police officer, whose name has not been released, was on his way to start a night shift in Enniskillen when the device exploded.

He suffered serious leg injuries from the attack and is currently recovering in hospital after undergoing surgery.

This week's attack is the second attack on an off-duty police officer in the North West within the space of a year. In November PSNI officer Jim Doherty was shot by dissident republicans as he dropped his child off at school in Bishop Street in the city.

In a visit to Derry yesterday, assistant chief constable Judith Gillespie said the PSNI had been expecting further dissident attacks on the police and on business premises.

"We are at a very early stage and cannot say which particular group we suspect," she said. "Although dissident republican activity is the main line of enquiry. We have been warning for some time that the capacity for dissident attacks on the police and on business premises exists.

"We are talking to various sources who are working closely with us to develop this investigation. We are concerned but we do not want a return to policing from behind barriers. We will not be deterred from providing a proper police service to all of the community."

The assistant chief constable said that security for off-duty police officers would be reviewed in light of the attack.

"We always advise our officers to take sensible precautions when off-duty. We are always reviewing the security situation and that will continue. We will be discussing the implications of this attack at the top level of the PSNI and with the Policing Federation. We will not be deterred by these attacks."

Derry Journal
13 May 2008

A bomb attack on the car of an off-duty police officer in Castlederg on Monday night has been described as "cowardly and despicable" by local politicians.

The PSNI officer, believed to be a Catholic man form Omagh, sustained serious injuries to his legs after a device exploded under the car he was driving on the Drumnabey Road at Spamount, outside Castlederg.

He was travelling to Enniskillen PSNI Station to begin a night shift when the device exploded.

A passerby came to his aid and dragged the off-duty policeman from the burning car.

The attack has been blamed on dissident republicans and comes just a week after the latest report from the Independent Monitoring Commission said dissident republicans continued to be active in the North West and were involved in targetting members of the security forces.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness condemned the car bomb attack and encouraged anyone with information on the incident to go to the police. "The elements within our society who perpetrated this act have nothing to offer, they are without mandate or strategy and represent no-one.

"I would encourage anyone with any knowledge regarding this attack to contact the police immediately and assist them fully in their inquiries. I would also like to commend the selfless actions of the passerby, whose quick thinking saved this police officer's life," he said.

Mr McGuinness slammed the attack coming on the day of the funeral of veteran Strabane Sinn Fein Councillor, Ivan Barr, a "visionary republican" who had fully embraced the peace process.

Sinn Féin West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty also expressed his anger.

"I utterly condemn this attack. It is wrong and such attacks serve no useful purpose. Politics on the island of Ireland have changed absolutely and irreversibly. No single attack or incident such as this is going to drag us backwards," he warned.

Foyle MP Mark Durkan said those behind the bombing had no agenda and no future. "This attack was a cowardly and despicable attempt to intimidate police officers from carrying out their duties to the community. They are also an attempt to intimidate the wider public. These efforts will not succeed. The community is determined in its view that the PSNI is an acceptable and accountable police service – two things which these so called 'republicans' are not," he said.
*

BBC
13 May 2008

Surveillance officers tracking the movements of a man accused of the Omagh bombing have denied consulting together before making statements.


Six families are taking the case

A lawyer for Michael McKevitt claimed gardai failed to keep written notes or photographs of alleged meetings.

A £14m civil action, which moved from Belfast to Dublin on Monday, is being taken by six families against five men.

The barrister said it was obvious officers had memorised undated statements for the hearing.

The statements were said to have been made after Michael McKevitt's arrest for terrorist offences in January 2001.

Unprecedented

McKevitt, the alleged leader of the Real IRA, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy, Seamus McKenna and Seamus Daly, all deny involvement in the explosion which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, in the Tyrone town in August 1998.

On day 19 of the unprecedented case, which has heard four weeks of evidence in Belfast Crown Court, members of the Garda Surveillance Unit said they witnessed McKevitt and FBI agent David Rupert together at a Dundalk housing estate on 18 February 2000.

The accuracy of testimonies given by Detective Garda Fergal O'Brien and Sergeant Seamus Lynch, who maintained they each saw the men in the cul-de-sac before and after a meeting in a house, were questioned by the lawyer.

They told the District Court that at no time did any officer consider video recording or photographing the meeting, did not log times or car registration numbers, or note the clothes McKevitt was wearing.

Earlier on Tuesday, a British judge made history when he temporarily presided in the Dublin courtroom to hear submissions from counsel for the defendants.

FBI spy lured 'Real IRA leader' for garda unit, court told
breakingnews.ie
12/05/2008

The alleged leader of the Real IRA was lured into the eye of a garda surveillance unit by an FBI spy as officers followed his movements in the aftermath of the Omagh bombing, a court heard today.

A landmark civil case over the 1998 atrocity heard convicted terror boss Micheal McKevitt and David Rupert, who infiltrated the group, met at a Dundalk housing estate as officers watched on.

A member of the National Surveillance Unit told the groundbreaking case, which was hearing evidence at a District Court sitting in Dublin, that spotting McKevitt at a possible meeting was a good day’s work.

Detective Sergeant Thomas Finbarr Healey said he saw the pair talk for five minutes in the garden of a house in Oakland Park before bidding their last farewells on February 18 2001.

The garda, the first witness to give evidence since the case moved to the Dublin, said he recorded what he saw on hand-held recorder and copied them to a personal computer, but had not kept a copy of either.

He also told Kieran Vaughan QC, junior counsel for McKevitt, that he did not video or photograph the meeting as it was dark and that although he had 25 years’ experience, had paid no attention to what clothes the suspected terror boss was wearing as he knew his identity.

Mr Vaughan, who disputed the allegation, asked the officer if he had any evidence to support his testimony.

“Any time you got Michael McKevitt at a meeting was a good day’s work,” replied Mr Healey.

“You have my direct evidence, that’s all.”

Mr Healey told the court the men stood in the garden with an unidentified man before a car took the FBI agent away.

He said that looking back, he believed Rupert lured McKevitt outside for the gardaí.

“I think Mr Rupert was being very good and lured them out the door,” he said.

“I often wonder, did he create the opportunity for us? People don’t usually hang around and just talk.”

Mr Healey said that maybe McKevitt was trying to impress the visitor from the US and walked outside out of common courtesy and manners.

“He did lure him out,” he added again.

The bombing, the worst atrocity during the conflict in the north, killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.

Hundreds more were injured when the Real IRA bombed the Co Tyrone town on a busy Saturday afternoon in August 1998.

The action, taken by six of the families affected, moved to Dublin under the Council Regulation (EC) No 1206/2001 of May 28 2001 on cooperation between the courts of the member states in the taking of evidence in civil or commercial matters.

Although nobody has been convicted for the atrocity, named on the lawsuit are McKevitt, the man said to be his number two, Liam Campbell, and Colm Murphy, Seamus McKenna and Seamus Daly.

All deny any involvement.

breakingnews.ie
13/05/2008

The North's police chief today branded those behind a bomb attack which injured one of his men as out of date and out of time.

A booby-trap device exploded under the policeman’s car last night as he drove through the village of Sparmount, near Castlederg, County Tyrone, on his way to start night duty.

Members of the public who dragged the injured officer from his burning car were hailed for their actions and Chief Constable Hugh Orde said he could not thank them enough.

The policeman suffered serious leg injuries but, after undergoing emergency surgery, his condition was said not to be life-threatening.

The finger of blame was pointed at dissident republicans opposed to the peace process – they were responsible for gun attacks against two PSNI officers in the county last November – in Dungannon and Strabane – and a pipe bomb attack on a police station.

Mr Orde said the fingers were pointed in “entirely the right direction”.

The Chief Constable said: “This was another attack by a group trying to unravel everything that has been achieved. They have not defeated the police service for the last 38 years and if they seriously think this sort of event is going to defeat the PSNI they are badly mistaken.”

Mr Orde said the threat from dissidents remained high because they were in their “end game”.

“Very clear messages have been sent out by everybody. Every political party has signed up to policing, everyone wants to move on.

“We had a major investment conference last week – this place is moving in the right direction and I think these people realise that.

“They are out of date, out of time, and they are lashing out at an easy target, an easy target which will give them some sort of publicity.

“It will not put my officers off delivering community policing and it will not deter every member of the community who is in their right mind from working with us to deliver a safer Northern Ireland.”

He appealed for anyone with information about the attack to give it to the police – “To put these people out of business once and for all.”

The injured man had been on his way to start night duty in Enniskillen, Mr Orde said, going to protect the community, and the community had protected him by dragging him from his burning car in his moment of need.

“It shows the public have no time for this sort of activity. The public and the police are determined to work together to make Northern Ireland a safer place.

“They came to his aid very quickly and I commend and thank them for it.”

By Claire Simpson
Irish News
**Via Newshound
12/05/08


Paramilitary insignia: The Pride of Ardoyne flute band – pictured on a Twelfth of July parade in 2004 – marches with a banner bearing an emblem of the UVF’s youth wing

A ‘BLOOD and thunder’ band with links to the youth wing of the UVF is among dozens of loyalist bands to receive funding from the Ulster-Scots Agency and the National Lottery.

Sixty-five flute, accordion and pipe bands were given funds totalling more than £166,100 last year.

More than £4,600 of lottery money went to Pride of Ardoyne, which takes part in a contentious parade past the Ardoyne shops in north Belfast each year.

The funding, administered through the Arts Council, was for new instruments.

The band marches with a banner bearing an emblem of the Young Citizens Volunteers – the UVF’s youth wing – and the names of two former band members, UVF man Sam Rockett, who was killed by the UDA during the 2000 loyalist feud, and William Hanna, killed by the British army in 1978.

A spokesman for the Arts Council said that although it “monitors the artistic quality of applicants and is aware of its obligations under ‘Good Relations’ and Section 75 legislation, we are not proscriptive on grounds of an applicant’s political or religious background”.

“We respect their organisational independence, at the same time actively encouraging applicants to develop and expand their audiences and to break down barriers in society, in line with the aspirations of the Good Friday Agreement,” he said.

Among the bands given funding by the Ulster-Scots Agency was Mourne Young Defenders Flute Band which received £1,800 for musical tuition and a further £1,219 for an ‘Ulster-Scots summer school’ run by its members.

Mourne took part in the 2006 Love Ulster parade in Dublin which ended in clash-es with gardai and republican protesters. The band was set up in memory of Alan Johnston, an Orangeman and UDR member who was killed at

his workplace in Kilkeel, Co Down, by the IRA in 1988.

The Arts Council gave about £102,500 to 24 bands, mostly for musical tuition.

The Ulster-Scots Agency gave about £56,500 to 38 bands for instruments.

The Big Lottery Fund gave £6,980 to three bands under its Awards for All scheme.

The figures were released in response to an assembly question from Sinn Fein MLA Paul Butler.

A spokeswoman for the Ulster-Scots Agency said that to receive funding bands must show that:

- they have good administration and a plan to attract new members

- the project is “financially viable”

- the project has “an Ulster-Scots element”.

A spokeswoman for the Big Lottery Fund said its scheme helped “organisations to run projects which will bring people together and increase community activity”.

“We continue to proactively promote the programme through outreach and development work and continue to target all sections of the Northern Ireland community,” she said.
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