Newry Republican

Colin Duffy: ‘It’s the H-Blocks again’

2012-01-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

Lurgan republican Colin Duffy says current conditions on Maghaberry prisons Roe House wing “could be equated to the harshness of what took place in the late 70s and early 80s” in the notorious H-Blocks.

He was speaking exclusively to the Andersonstown News just days after he was acquitted at Antrim Crown Court of the murder of British soldiers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar at Massereene Barracks in March 2009.

Up until his acquittal and subsequent release from Maghaberry, Mr Duffy, 44, had been taking part in the no-wash protest by republicans in the jail’s Roe House wing in protest at the continued use of forced full body strip-searching by prison authorities in defiance of an agreement painstakingly worked out in August 2010.

The agreement, which was reached between the republican prisoners and prison authorities with the help of independent facilitators, was supposed to do away with full body strip-searching in the prison in favour of the BOSS chair scanner and other technology. The agreement also allowed for a gradual reduction of controlled movement for republicans within the Roe House wing.

However, the agreement was to break down after only a month when prison bosses claimed it did not cover strip-searching in the reception area of the facility and after demands from the Northern Ireland Prison Service that the humiliating practice was “essential” for security reasons.

Mr Duffy, who had been held in custody at the prison since 2009, said he was forcibly strip-searched on 76 occasions after the collapse of the Roe House agreement – an agreement which he was instrumental in bringing about as a leading negotiator for republican prisoners.

Speaking to the Andersonstown News in his Lurgan home this week, Mr Duffy described one particular full body strip-search during which guards tried to force a prison-issue jumper on him.

“It was the first strip-search that I got and I remember it quite vividly as I was going out to court,” he said.

“I took my coat off and I remember standing in the cell. They asked me if I was going to strip and I said no, I wasn’t, and that I wasn’t going to offer any resistance to them doing it. Between four and six of them then came in in full riot gear – helmets, shields, padded gear, the whole lot – and welted me against the wall straight away with the shields.

“They didn’t even try to take the top half of my clothing off, they just got the scissors out and cut it off me. They had my wrists in locks and they cut the clothes off me. They then went through the rest of the process, which was stripping me entirely naked. Afterwards they put the bottom half back on but obviously I had no top clothes on as it had just been cut off. This was quite deliberate, as it transpired, because they went and got a prison jumper for me, and we all know what the connotations are for a republican prisoner in relation to the prison uniform and what happened in the blanket, the no-wash and the hunger strike era.

“It was entirely palpable to me, the sense of elation from the people who were putting it on me. I was shouting to them to send over to the wing to get my other clothes over but they were just going ahead and forcing the prison jumper on me. I remember shouting, ‘Get this trash off my back!’ and they were smirking and smiling, as they knew fully the symbolic nature of what was taking place right there and then. They then moved me over to the reception area for me to go to court and took the cuffs off me. I immediately threw off the jumper and hurled it to the ground. I had no top on, so I put the coat on and ended up going to court like that.”

Mr Duffy said the searches are designed to break the prisoners’ will.

“They are physically hard on you straight away and drag you to the ground, put you in all sorts of headlocks, wristlocks and armlocks,” he said.

“They are deliberately inflicting as much pain as possible on you even though you’re shouting throughout, ‘I’m not resisting this, there’s no need for this’ etcetera. It didn’t matter to them, their policy was to go in hard and physically break you. Throughout the actual searches they will be whispering to you that you’re filth, you’re scum and this is all while they are inflicting all sorts of pain and you’re lying there with your genitalia on the floor. They just don’t care. Full body strip-searching is not necessary and it’s designed to humiliate and degrade people. In my opinion there isn’t any need for it.”

He reiterated claims made in the January 14 edition of the Andersonstown News by representatives of the campaign group Family and Friends of Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry that long-serving prison staff members were the main instigators of the strip-searching.

“The guards who are connected to the personal aspect of actually stripping you, some of them are screws that I would have encountered years ago and, in my opinion, the bitterness is just hanging out of them,” he said.

“They can’t disguise it and so they don’t even try to disguise it. Some of them have been there a long time and some of them are new, younger screws going about their business in the old-school way – they aren’t all of the old guard but they are of that mentality.”

Mr Duffy described the current regime in Maghaberry as similar to that at Crumlin Road Gaol at the time of the segregation protests of the early- to mid-nineties.

“I was in Crumlin Road Gaol in that period and also prior to the segregation protests which was around the time you had the bomb exploding in the jail,” he said, referring to the 1992 IRA bomb in the prison canteen that killed two loyalist prisoners.

“I moved down to the H Blocks in 1995/96 and it was relaxed enough at that stage of the game. There’s no parallel to how Maghaberry operates nowadays in comparison to the H-Blocks of that period when you had political status. But when I went back into prison in 2009, into Maghaberry, there wasn’t any continuation to the system that was in the H-Block.

“Now, in fact, you could equate that to the harshness of what took place in the H-Blocks around the time of the late-70s and early-80s, that’s the type of scenario we’re talking about there in Maghaberry.

“When you are coming from that H-Block environment down to Maghaberry now and you see the attitude of the screws and the prison administration now and how they view people who class themselves as political prisoners, you do sort of say to yourself, ‘Here, listen, what happened to all that was won in relation to achieving what was in the H-Blocks?’ They’ve obviously tried to erode it away.”

Speaking about the negotiations on the Roe House agreement in the run-up to August 2010, Mr Duffy said the key issues that the prisoners wanted addressed – strip-searching and controlled movement – were in reality not “major things”.

“We weren’t asking for big, major things and they are not big, major things to resolve,” he said.

“We were quite open to letting them [the prison authorities] phase it all in, even though some of our people wanted it all done there and then. We were reasonable. But within days of the agreement being signed there was a decision taken somewhere to start trying to claw back what had been agreed.

“Even the facilitators to this day say their interpretation of what was agreed is the prisoners’ interpretation. I remember Peter Bunting [Irish Congress of Trade Unions] saying to me, ‘That’s it, you have achieved what you set out to achieve, there will not be another republican prisoner strip-searched anywhere in this jail again.’ But the whole agreement isn’t being implemented and it didn’t even begin to be implemented because of the prison trying to renege on it.”

Mr Duffy believes that more needs to be done politically to resolve the prison issue.

“Some of these people [Sinn Féin MLAs] would have been directly involved in the blanket and no-wash, hunger strike era of the H-Block,” he said.

“As a republican, you do expect that given their more intimate knowledge of what took place then, and what has taken place in Maghaberry now, they could be putting more effort into resolving it.

“We have met delegations from Sinn Féin, the SDLP, the Justice Department, the Justice Committee, and we have impressed upon them each and every time our position in relation to what needs to be done to resolve the situation, but there’s just nothing happening.”

Mr Duffy accepted that support on the streets for the current no-wash protest was significantly lower than for similar protests in previous years. He thinks that’s due to perceptions of the prisoners involved and their affiliations to various groups.

“Obviously the public support is not comparable to the amount of street protest that went on years ago in relation to that protest,” he said.

“But that doesn’t take away from the striking similarities to what is actually taking place in the jail today.

“I don’t think you can divorce what went on in the jails years ago in relation to the criminalisation strategy the British had from the criminalisation policy that’s happening now.

“It might be subtler now, but I think it’s there and it’s behind a lot of the thinking in relation to the decision makers and the people who have the power to resolve this issue.

“It’s a case of them not wanting to accept that there are republican prisoners in jail still to this day when they want to portray the North of Ireland as a done deal.”

Mr Duffy said it was now up to the prisoners to decide if the no-wash protest should be escalated.

“No-one wants to be living in that situation long-term, so tactically they will debate and discuss amongst themselves as to what’s the best way forward,” he said.

“If they agree to bring the BOSS chair into the reception area and agree to withdraw controlled movement gradually, that’s how to resolve it. I don’t think that anyone would agree that locking people up for 23 hours a day is a regime that should be in any jail.”

The Lurgan man added that he now intended to campaign as a free man for the full implementation of the Roe House agreement.

“I’m a republican and a political activist and I don’t intend to stop being that,” he said.

“Obviously there are issues that are still there and still relevant, so I will be involved in the Family and Friends group campaign.

“I’ll be supporting them no matter what.”

"HOODED MEN" declare their support for the Bloody Sunday March.

2012-01-27T05:22:00.000-08:00

1971 Internees

The Hooded Men were a group of internees selected by the British military in 1971 for sensory deprivation experiments so that British forces could develop their methods of psychological torture. Below we carry a statement from several of the surviving Hooded Men on the subject on the 40th anniversary Bloody Sunday march, to take place in Derry on Sunday 29th January.

Forty years ago the Stormont government banned the Civil Rights march scheduled to take place in Derry on January 30th 1972. The ban was unsuccessful, but the British Tory government followed through its counter-insurgency strategy, which began with the introduction of internment in 1971, by shooting down peaceful marchers who came out on the streets in defiance of state terror. Today, another Tory government and its middle-management in Stormont denies human and civil rights by upholding internment while also trying, by some rather desperate means, to prevent people from marching again in defence of these rights. On January 29th, we, as former Long Kesh internees, will join the march that will mark the fortieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Derry. We will march under a banner calling for an end to internment in 2012, and our numbers will include survivors of the ‘hooded treatment’, who were tortured in August 1971. We now call on every ex-internee and ex-prisoner who reads this letter join us and help carry our banner.

People are now being held without trial in the six counties at the whim of an English Secretary of State. This present-day internment is the same in all but name as that introduced in August 1971, and is the same type of repression that people marched against so bravely in January 1972. We oppose internment no matter how the British decide to implement it – whether via the ‘suspension of license’, the denial of pardons, the use of non-jury courts and the gamut of other repressive legislation at their disposal. We will march in defence of human rights, in protest against present-day internment and in opposition to the torture that continues to be practiced by the British state in Ireland and abroad. In doing so, we will salute the memory of the brave men, women and children who once marched for our freedom and who were murdered, wounded and brutalised by the British army on the streets of Derry forty years ago. We will also remember our friends who died prematurely as a result of the torture - Pat Shivers from Toomebridge, Mickey Montgomery from Derry and Seán McKenna from Newry.

The march that took place on January 30th, 1972, was a protest against internment and torture – crimes that were employed by the British state to terrorise the population of the six counties. All of the demands raised by the popular Civil Rights Movement, which the Bloody Sunday massacre was designed to destroy, remain unfulfilled. Today, the right to decent housing and jobs is denied to young people across Ireland, while the uninhibited use of stop and search powers targets not just adults but even children on their way to and from school. Along with widespread PSNI brutality during arrests, raids and other, more ‘routine’ incidences of harassment, these abuses underline the six counties’ enduring status and notoriety as a police state.

The order to commit mass murder was issued in Derry just as it was to deal with every other popular anti-colonial insurgency against British rule. These repressive policies remain central to British state strategy today: internment is still taking place in Ireland, while prisoners in Maghaberry jail are, on a daily basis, subjected to strip-search torture. These human rights abuses do not end here: through their army and intelligence agencies, the British continue to torture prisoners abroad, both in British-occupied territory and on behalf of dictator-clients like Muammar Gadaffi via practices such as ‘rendition’, abduction and outright murder.

Let no individual or political party imagine that they are the exclusive owners of the Bloody Sunday march. The people of Derry mobilised in January 1972 in a courageous, brilliant and popular protest against internment, and in defence of universal human rights. Their bravery continues to inspire people across the world, and their example will always have a truly global resonance; therefore, we believe that the fortieth anniversary Bloody Sunday march should take place, because human rights and civil rights are still being denied by the British state and its agents in Stormont.

We call on everybody who believes in these basic and universal rights to join the march and show their opposition to the continuation of repression, internment and torture, wherever it may occur. In doing so, we will all mark the fortieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday and inspire the world again by declaring that no apology from any British government will ever be acceptable while they and their allies continue to terrorise those who stand up against oppression and believe in freedom. By coming on this march, we will help build a great and enduring monument to the memory of all of those who died protesting against internment and defending all of our civil rights,

Yours Sincerely,

Michael Donnelly, Derry
Gerry McKerr, Lurgan
Patrick McNally, Armagh
Brian Turley, Armagh
Francie McGuigan, Belfast
Kevin Hannaway, Belfast
Joe Clark, Belfast
Jim Auld, Belfast

Colin Duffy Sign Replaced - Clonoe Martyrs 20th Anniversary

2012-01-26T04:40:00.000-08:00

Local Republicans have taken down the "FREE COLIN DUFFY" sign in Derrybeg last night. This sign was erected in 2009 not long after Colin was framed by the British forces (PSNI).

The sign has now been replaced with one commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Clonoe Martyrs which takes place in a few weeks in East Tyrone.

Local republicans were contacted by the organisers, which includes the volunteers families and the East Tyrone Societies, who asked if we would help erect a number of signs highlighting the anniversary. We were only too happy to help.

Volunteer Kevin Barry O Donnell , Volunteer Patrick Vincent, Volunteer Sean O Farrell , Volunteer Peter Clancy were Killed in Action at Clonoe in 1992 , this will be marked by a Weekend of events , 16th - 18th Feb, organised by the Volunteers Families in association with the Eammon Ceannt Society Coalisland Clonoe, & the Thomas Clarke Society Dungannon.

On the 6th February 1992 the SAS launched a deadly ambush on an Active Service Unit of the IRA’s East Tyrone Brigade, killing four Volunteers – one with his hands in the air to surrender. The series of events that led to the slaughter began at 10.30pm on Sunday, 16 February 1992. Two East Tyrone ASUs positioned themselves in the centre of Coalisland to carry out a daring attack on the heavily-fortified RUC barracks in the town.

The unit that would actually carry out the attack was armed with a Russian-made DHSK 12.7mm heavy machine gun and AKM assault rifles. The machine gun was mounted on a tripod on the floor of a flatbed truck. Daringly, the attack unit drove up to the barracks and strafed the main observation post with a sustained burst of tracer fire from the heavy machine gun. Another IRA unit provided cover.

With the attack over, both units withdrew and headed towards the nearby Dernagh Cross before driving to the rendezvous point at St Patrick’s Church in Clonoe, where the weapons were to be checked in prior to being returned to their dumps.

The Volunteers began stripping down the heavy machine gun. After the weapon was immobilised, the SAS, lying in wait, opened fire.

Local people describe firing going on for at least ten minutes, with no fire returned by the Volunteers. An independent eyewitness saw one Volunteer attempting to surrender but cut down by withering SAS fire.

The backup unit, which had split into two cars and was travelling along different routes from Dernagh Crossroads, also came under sustained fire but all the Volunteers managed to escape.

Republicans in Newry will be mobilising for this fitting tribute for four brave IRA volunteers

COLIN DUFFY - FREE AT LAST !!!!!!!!!!!

2012-01-22T04:40:00.000-08:00

Regular readers will know that this blog has been involved in the campaign to free Colin Duffy since he was arrested back in 2009. On Friday he walked out of court a free man after being found not guilty of all charges against him, although he spent 3 years in Maghaberry, interned by remand.

Below is a family members account of Fridays events

Words cannot describe the many emotions we went through today.  When the judge said that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Colie was guilty of all charges we all gasped (not cheered or shouted which was reported by some of the media) and instantly the judge ordered us out of the court and the RUC rushed in and put us out.  We were in total shock if I am honest but after many hugs and some tears of joy our thoughts quickly turned to Brian and we waited anxiously on his verdict. We tried to get back in to the court to give Brian our support but they refused us entry so we waited patiently outside for what seemed like hours.

Then came the devastating news that Brian was not coming home and instantly our joy disappeared. We went from a high to complete devastation.

We then expected Colie, who was with his barrister waiting on Brian's verdict, to appear but there was no sign of him.

Meanwhile the car-park out side was filling up with loyalists who were shouting and jeering. It seemed like forever before one of Colie's legal team came out and told us that they were refusing to release Colie who we now learned was locked in a holding cell with his barrister.  The reason they gave was that Maghaberry Prison refused to accept he was acquitted and wanted confirmation from the judge !!!

Eventually Colie appeared and we left the court to what I can only describe as the most frightening few yards I have ever walked...The loyalists were screaming at us spitting at us, up in our faces threatening us and it was chaotic.  We were all separated by the mob of loyalists and the mob of press and lets not forget the mob of RUC who had allowed them to get right up into our faces. When we eventually got into our cars they surrounded us spitting all over the windows, thumping the car, standing in front of the car and refusing to move and trying to open the car doors. We eventually got out of the car park and began our journey home.

At home in Lurgan Colie was reunited with his wife and children and it would have broke your heart to see the joy on all their faces.

We off course were absolutely over the moon but truth be told none of us were in the mood for a big celebration as Brian and his family were constantly in our thoughts but we are delighted that Colie is home where he belongs with his wife and family and you can be sure he will be striving just as hard on the outside as he did on the inside to get the August agreement implemented.

http://friendsofcolinduffy.com/Freeatlast.aspx

Interview with Family and Friends representatives

2012-01-16T05:39:00.000-08:00

A West Belfast newspaper, the Andersonstown News, has done a four page spread in relation to the current crisis in Maghaberry prison. We fully commend the newspaper for their comprehensive coverage of the prison issue. The following articles are from the newspaper:

SPECIAL REPORT MAGHABERRY PRISON CRISIS

Prisoners staring into the abyss

Former Blanketman Alec McCrory & ex-POW Brendy Conway

By Gráinne Brinkley

THE ongoing protest by republican prisoners in Maghaberry will be stepped up if Justice Minister David Ford does not implement the full terms of the August 2010 Roe House agreement.

Representatives of the support group Family and Friends of Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry were speaking to the Andersonstown News as inmates in the prison’s republican Roe House wing continue their no-wash protest at the continued use of full body strip-searching by prison authorities. The Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) claim the use of full body strip-searching is “essential” for security reasons, an argument dismissed by the prisoners and their supporters, who say the inflammatory practice never guaranteed prison security in the past.

It has also been alleged that some long-serving prison officers are using full body strip-searching as “an opportunity to even old scores” against republicans.

The August 2010 Roe House agreement, which was struck between the republican prisoners and prison authorities with the help of independent facilitators, did away with full body strip-searching in the prison in favour of the non-invasive BOSS chair scanner and other technology-based procedures. The agreement also allowed for a gradual reduction in controlled movement for republicans within Roe House.

However, that agreement was to break down only a month later after prison authorities claimed it did not cover strip-searching in the reception area of Maghaberry Prison as prisoners were leaving and entering the facility.

The ensuing stand-off with the prison authorities over the issue, say supporters and relatives, has led to nearly 200 forced strip-searches on republicans inmates and the beating of prisoners who refuse to submit to strip-searching. It also saw the start of the latest no-wash protest, in May 2011.

Tensions have escalated to such an extent that the prison’s riot squad now permanently mans part of the wing in place of regular prison officers.

Brendy Conway of Family and Friends of Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry, himself a prisoner in Maghaberry at the time of the Roe House agreement and who helped negotiate that agreement on behalf of the prisoners, said the problem has become so bad that prisoners are “looking into the abyss”.

“Nothing has given rise to any hope at this stage that this can be resolved,” said Brendy. “The prisoners believed that they had been given cast-iron guaranteed commitments by the [prison] administration to do away with the strip-searching completely and to relax controlled movement within a given time-frame. It was also the understanding of the facilitators that that was the case. However, the Prison Service have now made it quite clear to the facilitators that the August 12 agreement did not cover strip-searching in the reception area. Had we known that we would never have signed the agreement.

“Since May 5, the protest has increased. We have a situation now where we have prisoners on various forms of protest – some are on dirty protest and some guys are not, due to health reasons and age. We are looking into the abyss.”

Former blanketman Alex McCrory, also of Family and Friends of Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry, said that elements within the prison and the NIPS “began to work against the agreement” immediately after it was agreed upon by the relevant parties.

“Strip-searching was re-introduced after the agreement within a very short time and progress on controlled movement was stalled to a snail’s pace,” said Alex. “The prisoners would refuse to comply with the strip-searching as they said it was in breach of the agreement and this then led to forcible strip-searching. Since August 2010 there have been almost 200 forced strip-searches in the prison, leading to countless injuries to prisoners. These searches are very aggressive, involving four to six screws dressed in riot gear wielding shields and batons. Prisoners are beaten to the ground. They have restraining locks applied to their joints and their clothes are forcibly removed. On at least two occasions clothes have been cut off from their bodies using scissors. Several prisoners have received injuries as a result of that. In relation to controlled movement, in Maghaberry today there is a ratio of three screws to one prisoner and five screws to two prisoners. In Long Kesh you had a ratio of two screws to thirty-plus men on a wing with unrestricted movement. The history of republican wings tells us that prison staff are safe when points of conflict are removed. That is the situation that we find ourselves in at present.”

Alex said the facilitators who helped broker the initial Roe House agreement have told the Friends and Family group that a “a blockage in the system at a very senior level” is preventing the full implementation of the terms agreed in August 2010. He added that long-serving prison guards were the main instigators of the “hassle” the prisoners were getting.

“They [the independent facilitators] said that there are people within the system that are totally opposed to the ending of full body strip-searching for the purposes of security even though there is new technology available that makes a full body strip-search obsolete and unnecessary.

“Certain protestors are singled out, such as Colin Duffy [Lurgan] and Harry Fitzsimons [Ballymurphy], men who have a history going back to Long Kesh. There is a sense that some prison guards are getting their own back now for what happened in the past. They have this old mindset and unfortunately Maghaberry affords them the opportunity to even old scores.”

The current no-wash protest involves some 35 prisoners aligned to different republican groups who are refusing to wash, shave or have their hair cut.

“For example, on the top landing you have ONH [Óglaigh na hÉireann]-aligned and RSF [Republican Sinn Féin]-aligned prisoners who are putting their human waste on the walls,” explained Alex. “On the bottom landing, prisoners aligned to the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and independent prisoners are putting their human waste on to the landing. Although there are differences in tactics, there is a full protest at present.”

Alex added that current conditions for prisoners in Roe House are “extremely harsh” and the atmosphere within the wing is “extremely hostile and tense”.

“The bottom landing, which holds 14 of the protestors, is being run by the prison riot squad in full riot gear so the ordinary screws have effectively been withdrawn,” he said. “The prisoners are searched leaving the cell, outside the cell and on returning to the cell. The screws in the riot squad are trained to be aggressive and in-your-face so there has been an awful lot of hostility and tension which the prisoners live with on a daily basis. There is always potential for a flare-up because of the tense relationship between the prisoners and the riot squad. A few of the prisoners have been in jail before and a sizeable number have been in the Kesh, but for the vast majority of them this is their first time in jail. There are no former blanketmen there, so this would be their first experience of these types of conditions and they find it very, very difficult to cope with, but they are very determined to see the agreement implemented in full.”

NIPS claims that the use of full body strip-searches is essential for security reasons have been rubbished by the Friends and Family group.

“As ex-prisoners, we can tell you that that’s complete nonsense,” said Alex. “A full body strip-search never guaranteed prison security. On the blanket protest we were able to bring in thousands of comms, tobacco, radios and God knows what else despite a full body strip-search and mirror search. The full body strip-search is about control and domination, it’s as simple as that. It’s the first contact that the prisoner has with the system and in the first contact you have with that system you are compelled to remove your clothing and stand naked before three or four grown men. The ironic thing is that the technology that we are proposing probably enhances security rather than compromises security.”

The support group backs the implementation of the recommendations of the recent independent review into the Northern Ireland Prison Service by Dame Anne Owers, in which she found the Prison Service here to be “dysfunctional” and “ineffective”.

“She recommends that the Prison service as a whole gets other forms of search procedures in place other than full body strip-searching,” said Alex.

“She says there are new technologies that would render the full body strip-search absolutely unnecessary and describes the practice as ‘an invasion of privacy and intrusive’. That report was released two months ago but [Justice Minister] David Ford is saying that it could take two years to implement her recommendations.”

The two men say that prisoners feel that they are not getting “the type of support they deserve from former friends and comrades who should know better and who have been through this whole experience before”.

“Sinn Féin have met with the prisoners on several occasions and met with our group on several occasions and we have discussed the issues inside-out,” said Alex.

“They have made numerous public statements calling on David Ford to implement the agreement, but unfortunately that is not enough. We believe there has to be some sort of meaningful political action following on from these statements. The DUP are the main obstacle to the implementation of this agreement so there has to be a counter to that. The Family and Friends group are calling on Sinn Féin to use their political strength in a positive way to counter the DUP on this issue and to bring a speedy resolution to this problem.”

Alex accepts that the lack of outside interest in the protest could be because it involves prisoners from micro-republican groups.

“To a large extent that is the case, but I also think that people don’t like the idea of the past coming back to haunt them,” he said.

“The situation is bad at the moment and it is difficult to see how the protest can be escalated without something drastic coming into play. Obviously that’s not something that’s being talked about by prisoners or the organisations they align to, but we are talking about a situation here where prisoners are living in their own waste. Now I spent two and a half years on the blanket protest and it cannot get any worse than that. They are under enormous pressure in terms of the physical conditions in which they find themselves and because of that, that puts enormous pressure on the men’s families.”

Brendy Conway added that the prisoners “are not looking anything that was not already agreed as far back as August 2010”.

“Going into 2012 we have prisoners still on dirty protest and locked down 23 hours a day and people going through lengthy trials who are being forcibly stripped twice a day, such as Colin Duffy,” said Brendy.

“The ball’s in their court. To quote the facilitators, an hour could sort this out.”

A spokesperson for the NIPS said the service has “consistently maintained that full body searching on entering and exiting any prison is essential to preserve the security of the establishment and the safety of other prisoners, staff and the wider community in line with practice in other jurisdictions throughout Europe”. The spokesperson continued: “A search facility for separated prisoners at Maghaberry, incorporating a BOSS chair, has been operational since November 17, 2010. In line with the August 2010 agreement, there is no longer any requirement for routine rub-down searching within the separated wings, except where a prisoner is being moved out of the wing. However, the BOSS chair cannot detect non-metallic items. NIPS believes that the existing arrangements are consistent with the August agreement and remains committed to the implementation of the agreement. This position was upheld by the courts when it was challenged by judicial review earlier this year.

“In line with Dame Anne Owers’ recommendation that we should seek an alternative to ‘full body searching’ in her review of NIPS, we are currently researching what, if any, other alternative technologies are available. To date, no viable alternative has been identified.”

Asked about the deployment of the prison riot squad at sections of Roe House in place of regular prison guards, the NIPS spokesperson added: “Members of the NIPS Dedicated Search Team are currently deployed to Roe House at Maghaberry prison for operational reasons, but this arrangement is kept under review by the Governor.

“There is a complaints procedure in place, in particular the Prisoner Ombudsman, should any prisoner believe that NIPS staff have behaved inappropriately.”

SPECIAL REPORT MAGHABERRY PRISON CRISIS

The bad faith and broken promises

By Staff Reporter

COUNTDOWN TO CONFLICT

1998: Good Friday Agreement is implemented. Political prisoners are released early on the condition that the groups they are affiliated with are on ceasefire and continue to remain on ceasefire

September 2000: The H-Blocks are closed down. Any republicans arrested after the closure of the H-Blocks are now integrated with ‘ordinary decent criminals’ (ODCs) in Maghaberry prison.

“They were mixed in with loyalists and the likes of paedophiles and so on,” said Brendy Conway, former Maghaberry prisoner and member of the Friends and Family of Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry.

“As the number of republican prisoners increased in Maghaberry over the years they spread them out throughout the prison.”

2002: Republican prisoners in Maghaberry begin forms of no-wash protest. Republican prisoners demand a separate wing in the prison from loyalist prisoners, after several clashes, and from ODCs.

September 2003: Publication of the Steele Report. Following escalations in the no-wash protests at Maghaberry, the British government commissions a review of conditions at the prison conducted by a team headed up by Sir John Steele, a former Director of the Northern Ireland Prison Service. The report recommends “separation by paramilitary affiliation” of prisoners to help provide a safer environment. The report recommendations are adopted. Two new wings are now to be built at Maghaberry Prison – Roe House for republican prisoners and Bush House for loyalists.

“On the basis of the Steele Report’s findings, and as part of the agreement then reached between the prisoners and the prison authorities, the prisoners agreed to come off protest until this new wing was built,” said Brendy.

“It was also agreed that the authorities would recognise prisoner structures – i.e. the prisoners would have representatives to deal with the authorities on education, for instance, or the day-to-day running of the landing.”

March 2004: Roe House is opened and republican prisoners move in. However, in a position statement shown to the Andersonstown News, republican prisoners claim the previous agreement with the authorities was instantly reneged upon when the wing was opened and a “criminalisation regime put in place which was again designed to control, degrade and criminalise republican prisoners”. This is alleged to have included: prisoners searched up to six times a day when moving between cells and recreation area; daily cell searches; “degrading” full body strip-searches; prisoners locked up for up to 22 hours a day; three guards to every prisoner when they left their cells.

2004 to 2008: Prisoners begin protesting again, this time in reaction to deteriorating conditions at Roe House. “There were different token protests by the prisoners to get the authorities to change the ratio of guards to prisoners,” said Brendy.

“This approach worked to some extent – they increased the number of prison officers to five officers for two prisoners but then the maximum number of prisoners allowed out was changed from three to eight.”

2008 to 2009: Talks and debates begin between the republican prisoners to decide how best to move the protest forward and improve the conditions for republican prisoners. “We identified the main areas that we wanted dealt with before we would come off protest,” said Brendy, who was then a prisoner in Roe House.

“These areas were: the controlled movement of prisoners; the full body strip-searching of prisoners; recognition by the Prison Service that republican prisoners were not ordinary prisoners and therefore should be treated differently. Strip-searching and controlled movement were the two main areas that we wanted movement on. I was involved in those negotiations and we came to an agreement on how we were going to do it. The first stage of that took place in April 2010.”

April 4, 2010: The prisoners barricade themselves into the canteen area of Roe House for 36 hours. “We were then forcibly removed from the canteen and returned to our cells,” said Brendy.

“After that the protest inevitably increased through April, May and into June. There were 28 prisoners on the two landings in Roe House and all of them were on full protest, which was throwing our waste on to the landing.

“On one occasion West Belfast man Harry Fitzsimons had a disagreement with an SO [senior officer]. He went out for an hour’s exercise, came back and after lunch a riot squad was sent into his cell and severely beat him. They pulled him off the wing and put him in the SSU (special supervision unit), handcuffed him to a bed, cut his clothes off and strip-searched him. That evening when they took him off the wing all the prisoners wrecked their cells, which signalled the start of the protest escalating.”

The new no-wash protest saw prisoners putting their waste out of their cell doors and windows and refusing to wash.

June 2010: Facilitation between prisoners and the Northern Ireland Prison Service begins. As the stalemate between the prisoners and the prison authorities deepens, the group Family and Friends of Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry is formed outside the prison to raise awareness of the prisoners’ plight. By the end of June a facilitation group made up of Derry community worker Conal McFeely, Peter Bunting from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Dr Ram Manikkalingam from the Dialogue Advisory Group enters the prison to help mediate a deal between the prisoners, the Northern Ireland Prison Service and the Maghaberry prison administration.

“The prisoners debated this [the involvement of the facilitation group] and agreed to it, under certain conditions – that we would speak to them frankly and at all times be in control of what we were doing,” said Brendy.

“A 10-man negotiating team was then set up by the prisoners to speak for them, who then elected two people to speak on their behalf, who were myself and Colin Duffy.”

The prisoners’ two main demands are: an end to strip searching and for more humane and less intrusive methods to be used instead; the end to controlled movement.

“We met facilitators and then met directly with prison governors,” said Brendy.

“The governors said they were willing to look at our demands, but only if the prisoners came off protest, which we refused.”

Negotiations continue.

August 6, 2010: A “final proposal” is offered by the prison that does not address the prisoners’ two main demands. “The facilitators told us there was nothing more that could be done,” said Brendy. “So the prisoners decide to increase the protest in jail, which led to a cessation of visits and an increase in tension in the prison.”

August 11: Facilitators re-enter the prison with a new agreement ending full body strip-searching. “It was supposed to remove the practice entirely from within Maghaberry, except in two circumstances,” said Brendy.

“One was if intelligence-led information suggested that a prisoner was smuggling stuff in and this information could be stood over by a credible third party (video footage etc). Secondly, if the technology we agreed could be used in the new search indicated that there was something there, a full strip-search could be carried out. So we gave them room that they still had an opportunity to carry out strip-searching in certain circumstances.”

The technology the prisoners agreed could be used in place of full body strip-searches includes a BOSS scanner, effectively a metal-detector chair.

“We agreed that if we were leaving the prison to go on visits or go to court we would remove our footwear, belts and outer coats and put them through an airport-type scanner,” said Brendy.

“We would then be given rubdown searches, scanned over with a metal-detector and seated in the Boss chair. We agreed on that and accepted it.

“In terms of controlled movement, we agreed that, on the signing of the agreement and on the end of our protest, the authorities would immediately increase the number of prisoners allowed out at one time. The number of prisoners allowed out on the landing at one time was increased from three to six straight away. It was also agreed by December 2010 that the number of prisoners allowed out would increase again, and by early 2011 we would all have freedom of movement within Roe House and the two landings from 8am in the morning to 8pm at night.

“The prison staff were always concerned that it would go back to a Maze-type scenario where there would only be a small amount of guards on the wing at any time. But we never negotiated for the removal of prison officers from the landing, if there had to be 50 of them we didn’t care as long as it didn’t impede our freedom of movement, i.e. that as prisoners our doors should be opened in the morning and we could move freely about our landings, canteen and yard.”

August 12, 2010: The Roe House agreement is signed. “Within the first few days there were teething problems on controlled movement – which we allowed for – for instance they were not allowing six out at a time as the place was upside down with tradesmen in working etc,” said Brendy.

“But right to this day they have never let six prisoners out as the guards were refusing to let that number out without 15 to 16 staff on the landing.”

September 23, 2010: First forcible full body strip-search since Roe House agreement is carried out on Brendy Conway as he is leaving for court appearance. “I was told to strip but I flatly refused as it was not part of the Roe House agreement,” said Brendy.

“I was told by guards it was part of the agreement as reception was not covered in the agreement. A big argument then started between prison governors and myself and during this I was forcibly removed from the reception area, brought to the punishment unit of the prison where I was pinned to the floor and forcibly strip-searched.”

Prisoners opt not to go back on protest but to inform facilitators of the agreement breach against Brendy Conway. The recently inactive group Family and Friends of Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry is reformed on the outside.

November 17, 2010: New search facility opens adjacent to Roe House. This new search facility contains the aforementioned Boss chair and scanners. Prisoners are now searched leaving and entering Roe House to visit other parts of the prison as well as being strip-searched in the main reception area of Maghaberry when they are leaving and entering the prison site.

On the first day the new search facility at Roe House is used a mouth search is introduced on prisoners which they refuse to cooperate with. This sparks a stand-off between prison staff and prisoners in the run-up to Christmas which leads to the cessation of prison visits. Facilitators are brought in again and it is agreed that conversing between prisoner and guard would be seen as acceptable in place of a mouth search. Visits begin again in the week leading up to Christmas.

Early 2011: Prisoners continue meeting with facilitators and political parties visiting the prison while the Family and Friends group continue their campaign on the outside.

May 5, 2011: Prisoners begin protest again. The Prison Service makes it clear to facilitators that the agreement did not cover strip-searching in reception area.

“The prisoners deemed the agreement as effectively over as authorities were no longer adhering to it,” said Brendy.

“Prisoners then wrecked their cells and began a no-wash protest again. What needs to be made absolutely clear is that as far as the facilitators were concerned their interpretation of the Roe House agreement of August 12, particularly in regards to full body strip-searching, was always in line with the prisoners’ interpretation.”

October 2011: An independent review into the Northern Ireland Prison Service is published. The independent review, commissioned by the Minister for Justice David Ford and headed up by Dame Anne Owers, finds the Prison Service here “dysfunctional” and “ineffective”. One of its key recommendations is the need to do away with full body strip-searching in favour of using other technologies.

The no-wash protest continues.

SPECIAL REPORT MAGHABERRY PRISON CRISIS

Sister speaks of brother’s beating

By Gráinne Brinkley

THE family of a West Belfast man currently on the no-wash protest in Maghaberry prison have vowed to stand by him 100 per cent “no matter what decisions he makes” as fears of a protest escalation mount.

Lilian Fitzsimons, sister of 43-year-old Harry Fitzsimons from Ballymurphy, was speaking to the Andersonstown News as her brother continues on the no-wash protest in the Roe House wing of the County Antrim prison.

Harry’s family say the father-of-four has been severely beaten on two occasions by guards at the prison, with the last attack in May 2011 leaving him with a suspected cracked rib and extensive cuts and bruising to his face and body.

Speaking about the most recent beating, Lilian said her brother was given a 15-minute ultimatum to agree to a strip-search before it was brutally forced upon him in his prison cell.

“When they [the prison guards] came in they got him on the ground,” she said.

“While they were beating him and trailing his clothes off him, one of them was ramming a knuckle into a pressure point below his ear constantly. There were six of them that came in and it lasted about 15 to 20 minutes.”

Lilian said when she heard about the attack and tried to contact the prison, she was told nothing of the injuries that her brother had suffered.

“When I asked about him and said I heard that he was beaten I was told ‘No, no, no. We don’t beat our prisoners. Don’t be silly, we don’t beat our prisoners’,” she said.

“I had a visit the next day with him and when I went up I saw the physical injuries on him and I could see the cuts where they had kicked his glasses into his face when he was lying on the ground.

“You could actually see the other visitors and prisoners that were in the visiting room that day taken aback when they saw Harry. It was awful and it was sad, particularly knowing that you couldn’t do anything about it. Even for me to hug him was hurting him.”

Lilian said a priest at the prison spoke to her about Harry’s injuries.

“He said to me, ‘He’s alive but he didn’t get that bumping into a door.’”

Headaches

The family say it was six days before a doctor examined Harry’s injuries.

“The prison was saying he was refusing to see a doctor. He wasn’t as he was in absolute agony,” said Lilian.

“Harry wears prescription glasses so he wasn’t able to see properly and he also gets terrible headaches when he has no glasses. The reason they gave for the savage beating is that when Harry was throwing his waste out on to the landing after the cell doors were opened some of it got on the prison guards’ shoes and that’s why they entered his cell.”

Lilian said that after the first beating her brother received in April 2010, he was put in the special supervision unit for 14 days.

“They didn’t even let his solicitor in,” she said. “We didn’t know if he was alive or dead or what physical state he was in as they gave him a real physical beating that time too. Families are given such little information and to us it seems these people think it’s their God-given right to beat any republican in the jail. It’s the same administration and regime that’s running the jail as it was pre-hunger strike and I get the impression that they can do what they want. This leaves the family so distressed, it hurts you and it makes you so angry and that’s why people are protesting on the outside as they know it just isn’t right.

“This isn’t normal, if this happened anywhere else in the world there would be such an uproar about it. In this day and age they should not be allowed to get away with stuff like that.”

Lilian added that despite the gruelling conditions her brother has to endure, “he is still very strong in body and mind”.

“No matter what, he stands up for what he believes in and a lot of people will stand by him,” she said.

“Nothing would get him down and this isn’t something that would break him, if anything it would make him determined to carry on.

“As a family we will stand by him 100 per cent no matter what decisions he makes, we will be there for him and we will stand by him.”

SDLP to raise escalating prison row in Assembly

The SDLP are to table a motion in the Assembly on the deepening crisis in Maghaberry prison.

Upper Falls SDLP councillor Tim Attwood said: "The SDLP has made representations to the Department of Justice in relation to the Anne Owers report [a review of the Northern Ireland Prison Service published in October 2011] that states that an alternative needs to be sought to full body searches.

"In these representations the SDLP have asked the department to ensure that an alternative to full body searching is found as quickly as possible as obviously there are alternatives that can be looked at given the developments in technology with airport scanners.

"The SDLP Assembly group has also prepared a motion that will be tabled at the Assembly to try and expediate that matter: The Party has also tabled a motion in relation to the Marian Price situation which will be discussed in due course."

SPECIAL REPORT MAGHABERRY PRISON CRISIS

Concern over disease outbreak

By Gráinne Brinkley

POLITICAL representatives and human rights groups have called on the Northern Ireland Prison Service and the Justice Minister David Ford to implement the full terms of the 2010 Roe House agreement.

A spokesperson for British Irish Rights Watch, which recently successfully lobbied for the transfer of desperately ill West Belfast man Brendan Lillis from Maghaberry to the City Hosptial, said they have “concerns regarding the escalating dirty protest” at the prison.

“We have visited HMP Maghaberry and have spoken to a number of prisoners at Roe House about freedom of association, lockdown, access to legal representation and other matters,” said the spokesperson. “We have observed a number of legal challenges brought by prisoners concerning the regime and we are concerned about possible disease spreading at Roe House, specifically hepatitis. We have made representation to the ECPT [European Convention for the Prevention of Torture] in Strasbourg and the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] in Geneva.”

West Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Jennifer McCann – herself a former political prisoner – who’s a member of the Assembly’s Justice Committee, visited Maghaberry in December with the committee’s Vice Chair, Foyle Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney.

“Prisoners were still being strip-searched and locked up in their cells and it was very clear that there had been no movement on the part of the prison administration to implement the recommendations set out in the agreement reached in August 2010,” said Ms McCann. “We met with representatives of the prison administration immediately afterwards and we once again expressed our concern about the conditions within the jail and the fact that the agreement had still not been implemented. The following day we met with the Prison Ombudsman’s office and requested a meeting with David Ford on the issue. We are very clearly saying that strip-searches are degrading and humiliating and there are other methods of searching that can be, and indeed are already, used within the prison; therefore there is absolutely no reason to strip-search prisoners. During question time in the Assembly that week we called again on David Ford to intervene to resolve the issue by ensuring the agreement is put in place now.”

Responding to calls by the Family and Friends of the Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry for “some sort of meaningful political action” from Sinn Féin, Ms McCann said her party has been “proactive” on the issue.

“We have consistently called on David Ford and the prison administration to implement the agreement and to ensure that the prisoners are treated with dignity and respect,” she said.

“We also raised the issue of the ongoing detention of the two life-sentenced prisoners, Marian Price and Martin Corry, who had their licences revoked, and called for both of them to be released immediately. We hope to have an early meeting with David Ford to raise all these issues again.”

WE SAY... (Andersonstown News Editorial)

Prison protest must be resolved now

Our comprehensive reports this week on the 'dirty' protest in Maghabery Prison will bring back disturbing memories for many of our readers.

And if the deescriptions of prisoners being beaten and the accounts of young men living in their own excrement are reminiscent of similar reports in this paper 30-plus years ago that's because the prison administration is implementing policies which belong to yesteryear.

The recent report by Anne Owers laid out the facts for all to see.

The prison service, she said, was "ineffective" and "dysfunctional".

Justice Minister David Ford, who has had a mixed performance at the helm of our most important ministry, tried to coat that bitter pill for the refusniks within the prison service with the promise of generous redundancy measures as part of the price of reform.

But even he didn't dispute Ms Ower's central thesis: if you allow backwoodsmen in the prison service to dictate policy within the jail then you can expect confrontation.

However, despite the hard-hitting nature of Ms Ower's report and the revelation by the Justice Minister that a majority of serving prison officers were with the service during the dark H-Block era, little has been done to resolve this explosive issue. Indeed the groundbreaking 2010 Roe House Agreement, brokered through the good offices of intermediaries, has been torn to shreds by prison chiefs with their insistence that strip-searching will continue.

While those heading the prisons may parse the full content of that agreement by claiming it covers "this but not that", thier claims will be seen as so much sanctimonious twaddle.

The Roe House Agreement should be honoured in full and that means an end to the punitive strip-searching of prisoners.

It is equally vital that the 'riot squad' be withdrawn from Roe House and efforts made to bring calm to a dangerous and volatile situation.

Readers of this paper know only too well that trouble within the prisons inevitably spills over onto the streets. And of course violence on the streets will serve the interests of two groups who oppose the peace process: dissident elements on the republican side and those within the higher echelons of the Justice Department who remain 'at war' with republicans, mainstream and dissident.

We are told that there exists a "Continuity RUC" within the PSNI. How much more true then is it that there exist a "Continuity warders" within the prison service?

Given the seriousness of the prison stand-off, it's essential that the Stormont Executive intervenes directly to bring these matters to a swift and peaceful resolution.

It is a fact that the majority of the protesting prisoners belong to dissident republican factions which enjoy little support among the nationalist public. Nevertheless, it's equally true that all nationalists support the right of these prisoners to be treated humanely and with respect. An attack on the protesting prisoners by unreconstructed warders and prison bosses will be seen by nationalists as an attack on the peace process.

And those in authority who attack the peace process from within the prisons can expect to be faced down as surely today as they were in 1981.

http://friendsofcolinduffy.com/InterviewwithFamilyandFriendsrepresentatives.aspx

GREATER ARDOYNE RESIDENTS COLLECTIVE (GARC) LATEST

2012-01-13T05:15:00.000-08:00

"GARC is a non-political residents' group that is there to serve and give a voice to all the people of Ardoyne, Mountainview and the Dales in opposing unwanted, bigoted sectarian parades through our community by the Loyal Orders. GARC is committed to peaceful, radical action in order to bring an end to triumphalist parades that are open manisfestations of sectarianism and that result in massive disruption to the lives of people in this community, the militarisation and criminalisation of our community."

On July 12th 2010, GARC staged a dignified sitdown protest against the evening parade by the Orange Order through Greater Ardoyne, exercising our right to protest under the European Convention of Human Rights. The sectarian march was permitted by the discredited Parades Commission, despite the fact that the North and West Belfast Parades Forum (who represent the Loyal Orders) had refused to even discuss their position with the Commission for a significant period of time. This was despite the stated position that the Commission will look favourably on those who 'engage in dialogue.' In comparison, GARC had engaged with the Parades Commission's then Secretary, Ronnie Pedlow and other Commissioners' in Holy Cross Monastery prior to the march. We gave the Commision our and our community's position, which we represented. 'That there NO acceptable Loyal Order parade through the Greater Ardoyne community'. A fact reinforced by an independent survey, where 90% of respondents stated that this was the case.

The sitdown protest of 2010 was forcibly removed by the heavily-armed RUC/PSNI, using fists, batons and sheer force. This was to facilitate a totally unacceptable parade by sectarian Orangemen and their drunk and drugged fuelled followers, many of who had openly admitted on various Social Networks that they had not slept the night before using cocaine and methadrone, so they could taunt Ardoyne residents, before getting taxis back down to the Shankill and other Loyalist areas of the city.

Six months afterwards, almost 30 residents and supporters of GARC received summons informing them that they were to face charges brought by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) namely, 'Illegally obstructing traffic, and/or a legal procession by sitting, standing, or kneeling or other'. These summons were signed half an hour before the six months time limit on issuing such charges had ran out. Two local residents had previously been 'convicted' for their part in the July protest. The trial of the larger number began at the end of October with a 'deal' being offered by the PPS at Laganside Courts. We were told that if we pleaded guilty to, 'not notifying the Parades Commission of our intention to protest', we could go home there and then with a caution. However, as a Collective, each and every one of us rejected the offer. Our position remained that we were right to protest and that we did not have to ask anyone for 'permission' to do so, as is a fundemental human right.

Any members of the public and press who attended the trial will have been shocked at how farcical proceedings were. Time after time, the same videoes were played, with little in the way of identification evidence, except for the testimony of RUC/PSNI members, NONE of who were even present at the sitdown protest. We also had the recently retired Secretary of the Parades Commission, Ronnie Pedlow telling the Court that he did not know of GARC's existence, in spite of the fact that we met with him prior to the protest at Holy Cross. In addition to this, he was unable to say what occurred during the protest all the Parades Commissioners had been pulled out off Ardoyne for their own safety and that, he and the others watched events unfold from the RUC/PSNI Control Rooms inside Castlereagh via their cameras. So much for impartial observers.

The RUC/PSNI man in charge of 'policing' the parade, Chief Inspector, Alan Freeburn also made some astounding statements to the Court. Asked by Defence Barristers, 'how he could be sure that this was not the residents protest which the Parades Commission had 'permitted'. He stated, 'that members of CARA and other Community and Political Representatives had phoned him from a local Club, where they had been enjoying a buffet at the time and asked that the RUC/PSNI Riot-Squad remove the sitdown protesters as soon as possible so that CARA could have their roadside poster-holding protest'. He also said that, 'without the help of local Community and Political Reps, it would have been impossible to identify and bring charges against those involved in the sitdown protest'.

On December 22 2011, 26 GARC Activists and Supporters were found 'Guilty' with 9 also 'convicted' of resisting arrest. Three others were found 'not guilty' , while another was acquitted because a RUC/PSNI woman had, 'misled the Court about she had got her evidence'. Those 'convicted' of obstruction were fined £400.00 with another £200.00 added to the amount for those found guilty of resisting arrest. The vast majority have since filed for appeals of these unfair convictions on the basis that punishing them for peacefully protesting is an infringement of their civil and human rights.

However, this has to be viewed by the Greater Ardoyne community and others as part of a wider picture. This has again highlighted the fact that as Nationalists and/or Republicans, we are seen by the State, RUC/PSNI, PPS and Court Service as second-class citizens who should not be afforded the same rights to protest as Loyalists and Unionists. Since July 12 2010, Loyalists have been involved in a number of illegal protests and rallies. Most notably on the 16, 17 and 18th July 2010 at the ASDA Superstore on the Shore Road to have UVF man, Billy Hunter reinstated after making sectarian remarks to a fellow worker. They also marched illegally to the City Hall in support of the British Armed Forces, where they were addressed by elected Unionist Representatives. Locally on June 16 2011, known UVF men led a protest march to block the Twaddell/Woodvale Road junction angry at the Parades Commission decision to re-route the following night's 'Tour of the North' parade. Most recently, on the 1st and 5th December 2011, masked Loyalist Thugs blocked the road behind the City Hall and shouted death threats against Sinn Fein Councillors and Council Staff. Not one of the those involved in the above protests have faced any charges - Political Policing yet again.

GARC will continue to oppose Loyal Order parades through our community in a peaceful and radical way, the Greater Ardoyne area has quite clearly stated that there is NO such thing as an acceptable Loyal Order march through our area and we exist to give the majority of residents an option to resist them in a dignified and constructive manner, regardless of the efforts of the RUC/PSNI and others to criminalise our proud and resolute community.

Clonoe Martyrs 20th Annivarsary

2012-01-12T15:30:00.000-08:00

The 20th Annivarsary of Volunteer Kevin Barry O Donnell , Volunteer Patrick Vincent, Volunteer Sean O Farrell , Volunteer Peter Clancy Killed in Action at Clonoe in 1992 , will be marked by a Weekend of events , 16th - 18th Feb, organised by the Volunteers Families in association with the Eammon Ceannt Society Coalisland Clonoe & the Thomas Clarke Society Dungannon

Annual Bloody Sunday March - 40th Anniversary

2012-01-10T02:27:00.001-08:00

The British State, their Police and Security Forces (Rab Jackson, éirígí)

2012-01-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

I came across this piece but although it's not recent it's still very valid

The police force within any society acts as a crucial component part of the state apparatus. The state itself is a network of institutions including the armed forces, the judiciary, the civil service, the church and where applicable the monarchy. It is an apparatus which has as its role the maintenance of the social, economic and political interests of the dominant classes. This explains why Fredrick Engle’s once described the state fundamentally as ‘armed bodies of men acting in defense of private property’. And if the state is the instrument of the ruling class, clearly the police force represents its cutting edge.

Much of the focus on the question of special branch is misplaced. From a republican perspective, it matters not whether special branch is amalgamated with crime branch, whether or not there is a reduction in its numbers, whether or not special branch officers are limited to shorter term postings or whether or not district policing commanders are made aware of special branch/MI5 activity in their areas. From a republican perspective, the problem lies with the existence of special branch/MI5 itself, or to be more specific, with the existence of any type of secret British police department and agenda in Ireland whatever it may be called. Palace Barracks is the site for the overseeing and directing of the ‘national interests’ and this is not negotiable.

Again on this question it is necessary to return to the nature of the state and the role of the police perform within it. As explained, the state upholds the interests of the ruling classes, with the police force acting as the cutting edge. Defense of these interests is the fundamental role of the state and its police force. Consequently, the role of a special branch/MI5 type department within or, as suggested now, alongside the police is crucial. In fact it is true to say that special branch/MI5 stands as the most important department within/alongside any police force. It is the department which gathers intelligence about the enemies of the state and acts upon it using a wide range of techniques including physical surveillance, electronic surveillance and, most importantly the recruitment and running of informants. Its role is to weaken revolutionary or subversive organizations through application of this intelligence, resulting in the killing or imprisonment of members of these organizations.

Special branch/MI5 is a secret police department with a very specific role to which the concepts of accountability and control are anathema. Certainly the policing Board itself will never be in the position to control, or be privy to all the activities of special branch/MI5 simply has no constructive role in Ireland from a Republican ideological view point. In fact they represent one of the most destructive and limiting obstacles to Republicanism and should be implacably opposed undermined and removed.

The only change of late has been a cosmetic one. This was a commitment by the then outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in the form of a letter, that the roles of MI5 and PSNI will be distinct. He qualifies this by saying “All necessary interaction between the security services and the PSNI, for example in response to the threat of international terrorism (national security), will, as directed by the chief constable, be by way of liaison”. This essentially means that MI5 is severed except when it needs to interact with the PSNI nor when it needs to use the PSNI to carry out its policies.

A ‘civic’ police force even if it wished to, has no accountability mechanisms or legal power which allows it to refuse the work handed to it by MI5. ‘civic police officers, of course will have to carry out the arrest orders on those the British deem to be desirable and they will be tasked with pushing orange marchers through areas where they’re not welcomed. Republicans who oppose British rule in Ireland and whom the British consider to be running contrary to national interests will feel the full weight of the ‘civic’ police officers. In these circumstances it will be clear that empty promises by British Ministers about the transfer of powers will not be worth the paper they’re not written on.

The implications now and in the future for republicans endorsing the policing structures in the context outlined cannot be underestimated. The conundrum for republicans must be; can you continue to oppose British state in Ireland, whilst at the same time endorsing, working within, and encouraging others to work within the legal framework of that same apparatus? Can you effectively pursue a republican agenda whilst playing by British rules designed to protect British state interests?

If and when the British state becomes threatened in Ireland, as it inevitably will at some point, from a left or republican direction, those working within its cutting edge will be compelled or directed to defend it. This means the PSNI and MI5. They will have no choice but to act thus at that point. Subsequently and tragically, those involved in British policing structures will be implied (as the SDLP have been thus far) every time the state cracks down on its opponents in order to defend the interests of its masters in the British ruling class. Every time a republican is jailed or killed, a strike is broken up, or a public protest is violently dispersed, the representatives of the republican community who support and endorse this institution and who work alongside it will be implicated in its abuses. This is the essential dilemma for republicans on this issue.

http://www.ir-news.n...jackson-eirigi/

éirígí New Year Statement 2012

2012-01-02T15:05:00.000-08:00

éirígí takes the opportunity of the New Year to recognise and pay tribute to all those who supported the struggle for a free Ireland in 2011. As the New Year dawns, éirígí also wishes to restate its commitment to the overthrow of the British occupation of the Six Counties and the capitalist socio-economic system which exists on both sides the border.

For millions of people across Ireland 2011 will be remembered as a year of cutbacks, austerity, unemployment, emigration, poverty and despair. As the global capitalist crisis deepened the ruling class in both states intensified their attacks upon the weakest in society, determining that the many should pay for the greed of the few.

Willing fools in Leinster House and Stormont happily implemented the anti-social dictates of their respective masters in Berlin, Washington and London. By their actions the administrations in both failed statelets have committed a great wrong against the people of Ireland; burdening this and future generations with untold debts and deprivation. And all in order to protect the ruling elite of financiers, property developers, bankers and politicians.

2011 saw the British state attempt to further increase its malign influence in Ireland. In the Six Counties Britain’s paramilitary police continued with their campaign of harassment and intimidation of the nationalist community in general and republican activists in particular. House raids, stop and search, batons and plastic bullets were all used to intimidate and attack those who continue to resist the occupation. These activities by the PSNI provided yet more proof of the irreformable nature of British policing in Ireland. éirígí again calls on those who claimed that such reform was possible to accept the reality of the situation and withdraw their support for Britain’s paramilitary police and Britain’s legal system.

In a year that saw the thirtieth anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike remembered across the world the British government continued to attempt to treat republican political prisoners as criminals, resulting in an entirely predictable and justified protest by those same prisoners. éirígí reaffirms its support for the protesting prisoners in Maghaberrry Jail in 2012 and calls upon the administrations in Stormont and Westminster to grant them full political status immediately.

In the Twenty-Six Counties éirígí was to the fore of organising opposition to the state visit of Elizabeth Windsor. That opposition forced the Dublin government to mount the largest security operation in living memory, including the lock-down of much of Dublin city for up to a week. Despite the hype of the state and corporate media, the parading of Windsor through a sterile ghost city did little but reinforce the very abnormal nature of relations between Britain and Ireland. Those who joined the street protests and wider campaign of opposition to the Windsor visit followed in the footsteps of Connolly and Markievicz, who in their time led opposition to the last visit to Dublin by a British monarch. For their bravery and discipline in the face of ample provocation they are to be commended.

Internationally the struggle against the tyranny of imperialism, the markets and neo-liberalism gained much ground over the last twelve months. Countless millions across the globe took to the streets to challenge their respective ruling elites, providing real hope for the possibility of a global fight back. In the United States, Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere mass demonstrations and industrial action gave a glimpse of the possibilities that a global mass movement for justice could produce. Recognising the need for a global socialist solution to a global capitalist problem, éirígí takes the opportunity to send New Year’s solidarity greetings to all of those who fight against intolerance, discrimination and exploitation.

With Britain in control of the Six Counties and the IMF/EU/ECB in control of the Twenty-Six Counties all of Ireland is now under an effective foreign occupation for the first time in almost a century. What could not be achieved with tanks and guns has now been realised with treaties and bailouts. The agenda of these joint occupations is clear – the creation of a deeply unjust neo-liberal political, social and economic order – an order which will see an ever increasing amount of power and wealth concentrated into the hands of an ever decreasing number of people.

As 2012 begins the need for a reinvigorated Irish revolutionary republican movement has never been greater. The ideas at the core of Irish republicanism are as relevant today as they were when they first emerged in the 1790s. The vision of a free Ireland governed by the people for the people stands in stark contrast to the partitioned, occupied and deeply unequal Ireland of today. A new all-Ireland Democratic Socialist Republic represents the only viable and sustainable alternative to the division, poverty and chaos that the current system has produced.

The building of a popular movement that will deliver such a new republic is already underway. Over the coming twelve months éirígí intends to accelerate that build, by increasing its campaigns of active opposition to the British and IMF/EU/ECB occupations.

éirígí encourages those republicans who have withdrawn from active struggle to reconsider their position as a new year begins. The Irish people have rarely faced greater challenges than those that currently confront them. Your skills, experience and heart are badly needed at this juncture in our history. And to those who have never been active in struggle éirígí extends an invite to join with us in taking a stand against occupation and injustice. Together we can build a revolutionary republican movement capable of creating a new all-Ireland state – one which will genuinely guarantee the political, social and economic rights of all, regardless of their gender, religion or race.

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest020112.html

Annual Bloody Sunday March - 40th Anniversary

2011-12-30T07:13:00.000-08:00

Vol Eddie Grant Remembered by éirígí in Newry

2011-12-24T14:40:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve, éirígí in Newry held a solemn commemorative event in the Derrybeg estate to remember local IRA volunteer Eddie Grant.

While many families are preparing for the festive season local éirígí activists came together, with the family of Eddie Grant, to remember and pay tribute to the supreme sacrifice he made in the fight for liberation.

A wreath was laid on the Derrybeg monument by Eddie’s niece Jacqueline in memory of her uncle.

éirígí Newry area spokesperson Stephen Murney spoke and paid tribute to Eddie.

Stephen said, “Today we remember IRA volunteer Eddie Grant who was killed in action on Christmas Eve 1973 along with his comrade Brendan Quinn from Cloughreagh.

“We are deeply honoured to have Eddie’s family represented at this wreath laying ceremony today.

“Nicknamed ‘Starchy’ by his mates, Eddie was best known in Derrybeg as a raker, always up to devilment. He grew up with a group of friends who also took the same decision to join the ranks of Óglaigh na hÉireann. They went on to become a very effective fighting unit.

“Eddie came from an old republican family. His cousin Paul Smith died at Edentubber and his uncle John McEnerney was a Vice-Commandant of the 4th Northern Division IRA. After attending a few Republican Clubs meetings Eddie made the decision to join the IRA. No task was too great; he was always willing to volunteer for active service.

“On the 24th December 1973, Eddie and his comrade Brendan Quinn were killed in a premature explosion at Clarke’s Bar (Armaghdown) on Monaghan Street. Unfortunately a civilian was also to die with the two Volunteers.”

Murney concluded, “As a new year approaches éirígí remains fully committed to the struggle for a British withdrawal from the occupied Six Counties and the establishment of a 32-county socialist republic.

“éirígí takes this opportunity to thank its members and supporters for the commitment and energy they have displayed throughout 2011. Their sterling work across Ireland has inspired many others to become involved in the struggle for national, economic and social freedom.”

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest241211.html

POW DD McLaughlin released today

2011-12-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

Damien was released this morning from Maghaberry gaol. While he was incarcerated DD wrote detailed accounts of the savage beatings and strip searches some of which are featured on this blog.

Upon his release he was asked to strip and refused.The riot squad were then called for and forcibly strip searched him.

TSG's were waiting outside the gaol and followed before stopping and searching cars that met him at the gates.

I wish DD and his family well, no doubt they will have a great xmas, the lads inside will miss as he was a great comrade and a strong POW.

PSNI Harassment Must Stop

2011-12-20T14:15:00.000-08:00

éirígí in Newry have announced that it’s time to up the ante and vigorously counter PSNI harassment in the area.

This comes after a local republican approached the party having been stopped and searched an astonishing 98 times in little over a year.

éirígí’s Stephen Murney explained, “These particular stop and searches are only those where a search record has been obtained, these don’t include the numerous times when no such record was given to the victim, so it’s fair to say the actual number is much higher, well over 100 in the space of a year.

“Most of these are conducted under Sections 21 & 24 of the draconian British Justice & Security Act, which consists of your personal details and movements being recorded and a humiliating search for ammunition and wireless apparatus.

“It has also been brought to our attention that a number of times school kids as young as 14 have also been stopped and harassed in similar fashion.”

Stephen continued, “This man approached us as a result of this incessant harassment. This is just one man and the amount of search records he has received is unbelievable. There are numerous other republicans, including éirígí members, in this area who are also being stopped and searched on a regular basis.

“We have already held a number of events including protesting at the doorstep of the PSNI at Ardmore barracks, erecting banners and posters across Newry and distributed thousands of leaflets across the district. It’s time republicans in Newry took our campaign to a new level. We can’t sit back any longer and let these thugs get away with this; it’s time to up the ante and resist these thugs.

“In the New Year we will be organising several initiatives to counter this relentless campaign of harassment. One of the first things we will do is to convene a public meeting to discuss a number of issues; PSNI harassment will be a major topic at this event and we urge everyone concerned to attend to tell of their experiences and suggest ideas. We will be publishing the final details in the coming weeks.

“By doing this we can put a viable model in place where we can resist, monitor and expose the PSNI at a new level.”

Murney concluded, “I would urge all victims of similar human rights abuses to publicly come forward and expose the unchanged nature of these British paramilitaries. They should log all incidents with their solicitor and are more than welcome to contact éirígí.”

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest211211.html

Statement/Photos from the Newry/South Armagh Republican Prisoners Support Group

2011-12-19T04:35:00.000-08:00

Sunday December 17 saw upwards of 70 people take to the streets of Newry in a display of solidarity and support for Republican prisoners in Maghaberry.

The independent event, organised by the Newry/South Armagh Republican Prisoners Support Group, brought all shades of republicans together along with community leaders to highlight the serious humanitarian situation with the gaol.

Republican ballads could be heard the length of Monaghan St as the participants, including many young people along with ex-POWs, lined the road with flags, banners and placards detailing various injustices such as strip searching & controlled movement.

Local elected representatives, some of whom were once incarcerated themselves, were notable by their absence despite the event being widely publicised. All who want to see the abolition of this inhumane regime at Maghaberry have a responsibility to speak out on this issue regardless of their political beliefs.

Sarah Murphy read a detailed and harrowing account of what an average day for a republican prisoner entails as hundreds of leaflets were handed out to motorists and members of the public.

Former republican prisoner Joe Harper also spoke and pointed out that 30 years after 10 men died on hunger strike, we have republicans being continually beaten and brutalised while on protest for the same reasons those gallant men gave their lives. Joe also raised concerns about republicans being once again interned by the establishment for their political beliefs.

The notoriously sectarian and thuggish Prison Officers Association is currently setting the agenda in Maghaberry. This situation can no longer be allowed to continue.

The British government needs to recognise that the August 12 agreement of 2010 presents the basis for resolving the conflict in the prison and face down the POA.

It is now more important than ever that the prisoners are accorded their human rights. It is now up to all individuals and organisations to come out publically and support the prisoners.

Like the men of 81, today’s political prisoners will not cooperate with a regime that attempts to rob them of their dignity. Therefore, the struggle for human rights will continue until its successful conclusion.

At present republican prisoners are locked in their cells, and have no access to basic requirements such as washing facilities, exercise, association, education etc. This is a breach of the Geneva Convention on Human Rights.

The Newry/South Armagh republican Prisoners Support Group extends our solidarity to the protesting prisoners in Maghaberry and pledges to continue supporting them until the situation in Maghaberry is resolved. We urge everyone who is opposed to the human rights abuses in Maghaberry to attend any future events which are open to all republicans.

Victory to the Republican Prisoners

Newry white line picket

2011-12-17T03:00:00.001-08:00

Dessie Quinn Memorial Night- Sunday 18th December

2011-12-15T13:21:00.001-08:00

This Sunday 18th December, revolutionary singer/songwriter Pol Mac Adaim will be playing at the Thomas Davis GFC, Corrinshego, Newry. It's a memorial night for Dessie Quinn who died suddenly in the club while playing pool aged just 27.

Dessie was a singer and guitar player in the local rebel band JUSTICE and was well known for his good humour during the gigs

There's a pool competition on that afternoon in the club for the Dessie Quinn shield.

It should be a fitting tribute for Dessie

éirígí honour Newry IRA Volunteers

2011-12-12T14:20:00.001-08:00

12/12/11

éirígí held a wreath laying event in Newry yesterday [December 11] to remember three IRA volunteers, William Canning, John Francis O’Hare and Peter Shields who were killed in the Egyptian arch ambush on the Camlough Road.

This event marked the 91st anniversary of the ambush.

Speaking at the event éirígí’s Newry area representative Stephen Murney paid tribute to the volunteers.

Stephen said, “We are here today to pay our respects to these courageous volunteers and the sacrifice they made on that cold December night 91 years ago. The ambush took place on the 12th December 1920 in the middle of the War of Independence when IRA units throughout the length and breadth of Ireland took on the might of the British Empire, laid ambushes and attacked RIC stations.

“Despite the odds being stacked against them they nonetheless faced the foe with outstanding courage and bravery. The principles by which the organisation stood and for which many of its members paid the ultimate sacrifice remain relevant almost a century later. Sadly their work remains unfinished and it’s now up to us to continue the fight for liberation.”

Stephen concluded, “As 2012 dawns Ireland, more than ever, needs a radical mass movement that will represent one class in society – the working people – and which will adopt but one attitude to the British occupation – that of uncompromising active resistance.”

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest121211.html

éirígí Newry Offers Support and Solidarity to Republican Prisoners

2011-12-12T14:19:00.001-08:00

éirígí would like to offer our solidarity and support to the republican prisoners on protest in Maghaberry.

This time of year is usually difficult enough for republican prisoners and their families but given that the prisoners have been on protest for several months makes it even harder.

23 hour lock up, regular beatings, strip searches and controlled movement are just some of the human rights abuses being inflicted on political prisoners in Maghaberry.

All that could be avoided if the Stormont Justice Minister, David Ford, would implement the agreement that was reached in August 2010.

In contravention of the agreement that was reached in August 2010, prisoners are regularly being subjected to humiliating strip searches and face the threat of beatings and the forced removal of their clothing when they refuse to consent to these searches. The prisoners are subjected to 23-24 hour lock-up and many have been forced to begin a no wash protest.

This is an intolerable situation that goes against not just the August 12 agreement but every notion of humane treatment.

On the outside there are regular protests, pickets and various other activities to raise awareness about the serious situation republican prisoners in Maghaberry find themselves in. In Newry a motion was passed by Newry & Mourne council to send a delegation to Maghaberry but this was blocked by British Minister Ford.

éirígí extends its solidarity to the protesting prisoners in Maghaberry and pledges to continue supporting their struggle and that of their families until political status is secured. All those with an interest in human rights should do likewise.

Whiteline picket/ Leaflet drop

2011-12-09T10:08:00.001-08:00

Below is a leaflet which the Newry/south Armagh Republican Prisoners support group has got printed to highlight the ongoing plight of the Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry gaol, it also gives details of the up coming protest in Newry which takes place on the 17th December in Monaghan St.

5000 of these leaflets have been obtained and the group intend to distribute them to all areas of Newry over the next few nights

PSNI Hold Schoolchildren at Gunpoint

2011-12-05T03:24:00.001-08:00

More news from éirígí Newry

PSNI Hold Schoolchildren at Gunpoint

04/12/11

“Educate that you may be free.” So wrote Thomas Davis in 1846.

Yet today in 2011 we have British forces, namely the PSNI, interfering with the education of our children. This occurred during an early morning house raid in the Parkhead area of Newry on Friday [December 2].

éirígí’s Stephen Murney received a phone call from a concerned member of the public and immediately made his way to the scene accompanied by Independent republican councillor Davy Hyland.

Stephen said, “We went not only to show solidarity and support to the victims of this raid but to also actively confront the PSNI gunmen who were responsible for traumatising this family including young children.

“When we arrived the PSNI had just left and we spoke to the mother of the kids. She explained to us that the PSNI placed them all under house arrest including her two daughters aged 10 and 12. As a result of this the children were unable to go to school and one of them missed her 1st year Christmas exam that she was due to sit that morning.”

Stephen continued, “A concerned neighbour also arrived and said she would take the children from the house and mind them so they wouldn’t be traumatised any further by these thugs. The PSNI refused this and held them in the living room at gunpoint.

“In recent times we have seen numerous quarters commenting on the PSNI coming into schools to talk to the pupils about various topics. Yet on the other hand this force is terrifying school children by kicking their doors in and preventing them from going to school at gunpoint, and in this case forcing a young girl to miss her exam.”

éirígí pledge to continue to expose the British police and their tactics. We urge anyone who is suffering similar treatment to contact éirígí and their solicitor.

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest041211.html

“You Can’t Ride Two Horses with One Arse”

2011-12-05T03:22:00.001-08:00

The latest from the éirígí Newry blog

“You Can’t Ride Two Horses with One Arse”

03/12/11

On Wednesday [November 30] éirígí members in Newry took to the streets with thousands of people in a display of support and solidarity with the working class.

The rally assembled at Daisy Hill hospital and marched through the city centre to the City Hall.

Colourful flags and banners belonging to the various unions were prominent throughout the route along with éirígí flags and our ‘Stormont Isn’t Working’ banner which drew much attention.

The night before the rally, éirígí members were busy in the centre of Newry putting stickers up regarding the cuts on public services. While they were engaging in this legitimate political activity the three activists were stopped & searched by the British forces (PSNI). The reason given for this stop and search was “due to the increased terrorist threat in this area”.

éirígí activists across the North marched with thousands of working class people in protest at the anti-social policies being implemented by the London government and its Stormont administration. Yet éirígí members preparing for this rally were held and harassed by Stormont’s anti-working class police force.

There were several main speakers at the rally, most notably the first speaker made reference to the Six-County elected representatives and brazenly told them, “You can’t ride two horses with one arse!” Her comments were met loud cheers with a rapturous round of applause by the thousands of people at the rally. The only ones who didn’t clap and cheer were the constitutional nationalists and Stormont supporters who stood awkwardly in the crowd not knowing where to look.

Speaking after the rally éirígí’s Stephen Murney said, “The sentiments expressed here today are correct. The Stormont politicians cannot ride two horses at once. They have picked which side they are on. They are on the side of the enemy of the working class and should be treated as such.

“éirígí are of the opinion that Stormont is unsustainable and the continued onslaught on public services is evidence of them dancing to the Tory tune and embracing, what can only be described as, Thatcherite politics with their constant attacks on the working class and our communities. Thatcherism, a theory that amounts to nothing less than social and economic vandalism, is alive and well in the halls of power.”

Stephen continued, “These attacks on public services is yet another example of how ‘Stormont isn’t working’, along with fuel poverty, unemployment, health cuts and benefits cuts all of which are implemented at the behest of the British Tory government.

“The increasingly obvious signal is that a new political, economic and social order is required right across Ireland to bring radical, meaningful and effective improvement to the lives of working class people. Stormont is a clear impediment to that.

“Only by organising in our communities, in our workplaces and on the streets can we build sufficient strength to defeat this attack on the working class.

“The message must be made clear to the British government and those who are prepared to do their dirty work in the Six Counties – they will not get away with what amounts to murder.”

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest031211.html

There's no end in sight for Maghaberry prison dispute- Eamonn McCann

2011-12-03T08:51:00.001-08:00

A decent article by Eamonn McCann. Interestingly he is more outspoken about this serious situation than some !!!!

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Lord Morrow was mightily miffed on Monday that Maghaberry prisoners have cost us a million pounds.

Justice Minister David Ford told the Fermanagh-South Tyrone MLA that: "The total cost of the damage caused by republican separated prisoners during their protest, since it began on Easter Sunday 2010, is £1,007,000." A whole lot of lettuce, right enough.

Of course, if the protest had lasted only a few months, if it had been over and done with by August, the cost would have been far less, and final. This is not a thought likely to mollify the DUP man.

"It's time for a clampdown on costs and those who are controlling this situation from the inside," said Lord Morrow. "If they do not abide by prison rules, such as washing, they should be placed under the same sanctions [as] any other prisoner."

The protest, he suggested, was aimed at recreating the "prisoner-of-war" conditions which obtained in Long Kesh following the hunger strikes of 1980 and 1981.

But what's striking about the Maghaberry protest is the relative modesty of its aims and, consequently, the relative ease with which it might be settled.

Indeed, there was a widespread presumption in August last year that the dispute had been resolved on the basis of an arrangement still available to all sides.

The issue at the heart of the matter is 'full-body searching' of prisoners entering or leaving the separated unit at Roe House within Maghaberry. It was the routine practice of full-body searching which triggered the launch of a 'dirty protest' at Easter last year.

The agreement struck in August, following a 'facilitation process' involving the Prison Service and the prisoners and endorsed by the Justice Department, involved a number of changes to the day-to-day regime and, critically, the replacement of routine full-body searching by an arrangement centred on the installation of a 'Boss chair', designed to detect hidden or banned items on the prisoner's person.

The prisoners accepted that the Prison Service would retain a right to order full-body searches when the Boss chair, or 'intelligence or suspicion', suggested that prohibited items might be concealed on a prisoner's body.

The position of the Justice Department, spelt out to the Telegraph four months ago, is that, "The Prison Service remains fully committed to the full implementation of the August Agreement."

It added, however, that, "We recognise tensions remain in relation to the interpretation of the Agreement." The prisoners and their supporters say that this is code for a refusal by prison staff to put the agreement into practice. They claim, too, that the Justice Department has been unwilling to insist on implementation.

Prisoners' lawyers have suggested that these attitudes can also be seen in a failure by the department to introduce changes in the overall prison regime set out last February in the report of the review team under Dame Ann Owers.

This report called for "a programme of change and transformation of culture, approach and working practices".

Eight months later, the team reported to the department that, "Little has changed in practice, despite . . . a new sense of purpose at the top of the service and support from the Justice Minister. The endemic and systematic problems . . . remain unresolved and public money is being wasted."

The wording can be interpreted as ascribing a share at least of responsibility for the persistence of the "endemic and systematic problems" on rank-and-file elements, as opposed to "the top" of the Prison Service.

Whether the amount of public money identified as having been wasted as a result equals or surpasses the £1m loss exercising Lord Morrow may be a matter of speculation. But it seems likely.

The prisoners enjoy little public sympathy. The actions which they have been convicted or accused of are deeply unpopular.

They may be able, plausibly, to see themselves as the successors, or continuation, of the Provisional and other manifestations of the IRA. But even accepting this designation, they are soldiers who have been deemed surplus to requirements now the war is over.

And former IRA leaders now embedded in constitutional politics, notwithstanding carefully calibrated expressions of concern, have a greater vested interest than most in denying them the legitimacy which they fear might be implied by special prison arrangements. The Maghaberry prisoners have no obvious area of potential support to turn to.

Against this background, irrespective of how obvious a solution might seem when set down on paper, it is difficult to envisage the dispute ending any time soon.

And we all know what the likely next step in escalation will be.

Maghaberry POW Convoy Newry-Dublin

2011-12-01T04:22:00.001-08:00

We are appealing to all organisations/independents to participate in this convoy from Newry to British Embassy in Dublin to demand the full implementation of the 2010 agreement.

All are asked to decorate their vehicles with flags, posters, etc relevant to the convoy theme, "IMPLEMENT THE 2010 AGREEMENT IN FULL". Let the message be loud and clear that we are not going to stand idly by and allow republican prisoners be criminalised.

The convoy will start in Newry and willl pass through Dundalk, Drogheda, Julianstown, Balbriggan, George's Quay, Trinity College and out to British Embassy at Ballsbridge. A one hour protest will take place outside the embassy.

Please forward the word and encourage as many as possible to participate

Volunteers Black and Ryan Remembered in Two Cities

2011-11-30T10:59:00.001-08:00

In this, the 20th anniversary of the deaths of Volunteers Patricia Black and Frankie Ryan, it was a ‘tale of two cities’ with commemorations taking place in both Glasgow and Belfast.

The first of two commemorations organised by the Volunteers Patricia Black and Frankie Ryan Memorial Flute Band (VPBFRMFB) took place in the band’s hometown of Glasgow on Sunday 6 November.

Five bands, representatives of the Black family and upwards of 200 marchers, paraded through Glasgow City Centre in a disciplined fashion, ignoring the provocation posed by loyalist protesters and the inaction of ‘Strathclyde’s finest’.

Culminating in a rallying folk night chaired by the band’s leader, Ian Lynch, the large crowd learned of Patricia and Frankie’s selflessness and sacrifice before being addressed by éirígí’s Six-County Chairperson, John McCusker.

Acknowledging the sterling work of the VPBFRMFB, McCusker commended the discipline and determination of those involved in the commemoration, two traits exemplified by those being remembered.

He said, “The determination and disciplined demonstrated today is not only an echo of that exemplified by Patricia and Frankie, but it is also the bedrock upon which the emerging Socialist Republican movement must and will be built.

“If we are to do any justice to the memory of these courageous volunteers then we must not merely lament the losses our enemies have inflicted upon us but plan for the losses we will inflict upon them and their political and economic systems.

“We must continue their struggle against the occupation of our land and the exploitation of our people.

“We must be guided by the words of another great fighter and organiser of the working class, a Cork woman who met her death in America, ‘Mother’ Mary Jones, who instructed us ‘to remember the dead and fight like hell for the living’. Comrades, it’s time to fight like hell!”

Sunday 20 November witnessed the second of the two commemorations, this time in the Volunteers hometown of Belfast.

The VPBFRMFB, the Black and Ryan families and upwards of 300 republicans assembled in Milltown Cemetery to pay tribute to two of their own. As the sun shone and music strained, the large crowd marched to the graves of the two Volunteers before gathering around the County Antrim Republican plot.

Addressing the gathering was Dublin City Councillor and éirígí activist, Louise Minihan.

“We have gathered here at this historic spot to remember two brave Volunteers with pride. We have gathered to remember their inspirational lives and to rededicate ourselves to the cause for which they died, the cause of Irish national liberation.”

Acknowledging the recent strategic defeats inflicted upon the republican struggle, Louise argued that all had not been lost.

“Despite these setbacks, a vibrant and militant republican movement is in the process of being rebuilt by a new generation who have declared their aim an Irish Socialist Republic.

“Republicanism is back to Connolly and socialist republicanism has emerged as the leading force to challenge British Rule.

“It is the job of each and every one of us, in this graveyard today, to do everything we can to help with the rebuilding of the republican struggle to a point where it can be successfully concluded.”

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest291111.html

PSNI Harassment

2011-11-29T14:48:00.001-08:00

The following was penned by éirígí's Newry spokesperson, Stephen Murney

Tonight myself and 2 fellow éirígi activists were stopped & searched by the British forces (PSNI). The reason given for this stop and search was "due to the increased terrorist threat in this area". Altogether 2 cars and an armoured landrover surrounded us for our henious activitty.

What was our "crime" i hear you ask?

What were we up to to suggest we were involved in "terrorist activity"?

What dodgy activity were we involved in to recieve such attention from our noticably nervous police force.

Well we were involved in putting up highly dangerous stickers regarding the savage cuts being enforced upon the disadvantaged and vulnerable working class in our society. (I've attached one of these dastardly stickers to this note for the readers benefit)

The main thug asked me what was i putting up. I explained i was putting up literature relating to tomorrows public service rally that was taking place. I was then informed that i was going to be stopped and searched under section 21 & 24 of the British Justice and security act and that i would be searched for ammunition and wireless apparatus.

I asked him did he have resonable suspicion that i had those items on my person and he replied no, and that he didn't need to have reasonable suspicion but he was searching me due to the "terrorist threat".

I was then vigorously searched for these invisable items. He took information cards from my pockets, these cards provide information on your rights when you are stopped and searched. I told him he had no right to take any documentation or any personal belongings from me because documents aren't included in section 21 & 24, but he done it anyway.

My 2 comrades suffered the same treatment and were each given a generic white card and told to present ourselves at the barracks.

Tomorrow éirígí activists across the North will march with thousands of working class people in protest at the anti-social policies being implemented by the London government and its Stormont administration. Tonight éirígí members preparing for tomorrows rally were held by Stormonts anti-working class police force.

I'll also add that Last night i posted about a local republican being stopped and searched along with his 15 year old daughter. They were stopped under section 21 and 24 of the justice and security act.

Tonight they were both stopped again, under the same draconian legislation, and held for 20 minutes in the freezing cold. Thats 2 nights in a row this young girl and her father were subjected to abuse and torture from thugs in uniform.

I wonder if any of the local Gaeilgeoirí (Irish speaker) who live amongst us in our very communities brought up the issue of harassment when they were having tea and buns with the PSNI in Newry arts centre tonight? Ironically a few feet away from were tomorows rally will be held.

Victory to the working class

Video - Patricia Black & Frank Ryan Commemoration, 20 November 2011

2011-11-28T07:07:00.001-08:00

A video of éirígí's recent commemoration marking the 20th anniversary of Óglaigh Patricia Black and Frank Ryan

Building for November 30

2011-11-28T06:53:00.001-08:00

Twenty trade unions representing around 175,000 public sector workers in the Six Counties have voted to strike next Wednesday, November 30. They will join million of workers in Britain for what union leaders there believe will be the biggest strike action since 1926.

This mass strike has been declared in response to the assault by the Tory-led government in London on the pensions of workers in the public sector.

This assault has come in a number of ways. The first is that the Tories wish to change the way pensions are adjusted each year for inflation. They want to change the way this is measured from the retail prices index (RPI) to the consumer prices index (CPI), which will cut 15 per cent from the value of public sector pensions.

The second is that the Tories will increase the pension contribution public sector workers make by 3.2 per cent by 2015. This is taken from workers’ wages and amounts to a new tax directly solely at public sector workers. Traditionally pension contributions are agreed through negotiation but in this instance the British government has decided to ram it through unilaterally.

The Stormont executive voted in September to follow the Tory line and introduce this measure to the Six Counties, though its Scottish counterpart has opposed the increase as long as the pay freeze remains in effect in the public sector.

The third measure is that the age of retirement in the public sector will be increased. So, the Tory-Lib Dem plan for the future of pensions is that workers will have to work longer and contribute more for pensions that are worth less.

Attacking the conditions of public sector workers is merely the thin edge of the wedge. The agenda of the Tories is ultimately to attack all public services – health, education, public transport, social welfare, and more – services that are of no use or importance to the millionaire-filled British cabinet and their capitalist masters.

November 30 will see teachers, classroom assistants, lunchladies and principals stepping out of school to join other public sector workers in rallies all over the Six Counties. Marches and rallies will take place in Belfast, Derry, Newry, Ballymena, Cookstown, Downpatrick, Magherafelt, Omagh, Portadown and more.

These rallies will send a strong message, but more will be needed. The trade unions have all voted in favour of further action beyond the strike on November 30. This ongoing campaign will include work-to-rule actions, lunchtime protests and more, with the possibility of more all-out strike action in the future.

In the end, only a concerted effort by public sector workers and the working-class communities who depend on their services will defeat the anti-social policies being implemented by the London government and its Stormont administration.

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest241111.html

Political Policing in Ireland- Ten Years of the RUC/PSNI

2011-11-25T03:14:00.001-08:00

Last night a very successful event was held in Belfast to mark 10 years of the RUC/PSNI. This public meeting was addressed by Chris Donnelly (RC/IRSP), Stephen Murney (éirígí) and Ciaran Murphy (RNU).

The 3 speakers gave their opinions of British policing and told of their experiences at the hands of the PSNI.

Below is the account of éirígí's Stephen Murney from Newry

I want to thank the republican congress for inviting me here to speak of my experiences and the experiences of republicans in Newry with British policing.

Firstly i’d like to talk about my childhood when i was growing up in the 80s and 90s. I come from a republican family in Newry were relatives having their houses raided was a regular occurrence. Family members being stopped & searched, sometimes 4-5 times a day was also a regular thing. Members of my family were beaten and arrested and imprisoned in British prisons for their republican beliefs and activities. When i was being taken to primary school in the mornings my mother would have been stopped and searched daily.

These things happened over 20 years ago, today i’m an adult, and i’m experiencing those exact same things.

Just over 10 years ago the RUC changed its name to the PSNI. Republicans knew at the time that this wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference to the functions and tactics used by the force. This wasn’t the first time this force had a name change. In 1922 It went from being called the RIC to the RUC and in 2001 it changed its name to the PSNI.

It’s ironic that 10 years after this force was given a lick of paint, the PSNI now has access to more repressive legislation than it ever had. It has ignored the European court of human rights in regards to stop & search legislation, it continues to fire lethal plastic bullets at men, women and children, it has introduced tasers, has CS gas at its disposal, and in 2006 it was confirmed that Assistant Chief Constable Judith Gillespie approved the PSNI policy of using children as informants to inform on their own family members. The PSNI also co-operates fully with the British army and MI5, indeed in the past year in Newry the PSNI have searched entire housing estates in joint operations along with the British army placing these areas under siege.

Another example of the link between the British army and the PSNI is that in 2009 the former PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde gave the order for the covert British army unit the Special Reconnaissance Regiment to be deployed in occupied Ireland. This unit has close links with the SAS, where is the accountability there?

The rebranding of the RUC was described as “a new beginning” and was heralded as a “new era”. In 2007 during what was described as the “policing debate” some people made astonishing claims and promises. We were told that the PSNI would be held to account, we were told that manners would be put on the PSNI, we were told that we would control the PSNI and we were told that things would change for the better.

None of that has materialised.

In the Newry area there has been a notable increase in harassment directed towards eirigi members and other republicans in the past few years. Stop & searches happen on an almost daily basis, house raids are a regular occurrence. I have also had my home raided in the early hours by the PSNI using the excuse of searching for firearms and explosives.

Just a few weeks ago the PSNI using a battering ram, forced their way into the home of a member of éirígí under the guise of searching for firearms in Newry’s Derrybeg estate.

For several hours they searched the home, during which time they harassed residents and refused family members access to the victim’s house. Some of those involved in the raid were dressed in white forensic suits and had sniffer dogs with them. When the victim’s family members arrived at the scene they had assault rifles pointed at them and PSNI gunmen pretended to be shooting at them in a petty display of intimidation, assaults and arrests also take place on a regular basis.

It’s now common practice for republicans in Newry to be assaulted and arrested during stop & searches and then the victim finds themselves facing charges and being hauled before British courts. I myself am currently facing a total of 9 charges after being assaulted and arrested during a stop & search operation even though i was handcuffed and then punched and kicked by several members of the PSNI in front of my mother, sister and neighbours.

Several of my friends and comrades in Newry have also experienced the exact same treatment

Numerous times they have placed entire communities under siege which in turn causes riot situations. In recent years we have seen the worst rioting in Newry in over a decade as a result of these tactics used by the PSNI.

Children have also been targeted by the PSNI in Newry. We have cases of children as young as 14 being stopped and searched under draconian acts. A few months ago the PSNI stopped a bus full of kids just a few miles outside Newry. The kids were returning from what should have been an enjoyable day trip to Dublin to celebrate fathers day but were stopped by the PSNI and British army just outside Banbridge.

A few of us from Newry received a phonecall telling us what was happening, we travelled the short distance to where the PSNI and British army were holding the victims but we were prevented from getting anywhere near them by armed PSNI and British army gunmen.

Crying children, as young 4 years of age, were separated from their parents, the kids were then searched for weapons, searched for ammunition, swabbed for explosives, videoed and photographed. One child wet himself with fear and was forced by the PSNI and British army to stand at the side of the road crying, soaked in his own urine.

This is child abuse

Quite a lot of the attention that eirigi activists receive in Newry is completely unwarranted and is a perfect example of how unchanged and unaccountable this force is and how they pursue a strategy of engaging in political policing. A lot of the harassment has occurred when we are involved in political activities such as delivering leaflets, erecting posters and banners and taking part in peaceful protests and pickets. These activities are widely accepted as legitimate political activities but when you partake in this type of activism in occupied Ireland you find yourself being stopped and searched for munitions and wireless apparatus.

If you disagree with the Stormont administration, oppose the British forces, speak out against injustices and human rights abuses that are carried out by the PSNI, and even though you may not currently support armed struggle, you will automatically find yourself labelled as being anti-peace process, a dissident, a conflict junkie and you then find yourself becoming a target of political policing, stop and searches, house raids and harassment.

We could, however, always go for the easy option and support the British police like our former comrades have. If we did that then our lives would be much easier. We wouldn’t get stopped and searched on a regular basis, nor would we have our homes raided. And i’m certain we wouldn’t find ourselves being assaulted and arrested by armed thugs of the British state. But that’s isn’t an option for us because we are Irish republicans

The PSNI and their supporters might try to present the force as a fresh new beginning but they simply follow the same failed anti-republican agenda and strategy of harassment and intimidation they have always used to try and suppress republicanism.

The PSNI cannot be reformed, just like the RUC and the RIC before it could not be reformed. The issue of policing in Ireland will not be resolved until partition and British occupation is ended. Until that happens we will always have two militias operating in two different states to protect the interests of those states. The PSNI is at the frontline of protecting, those in power, the occupation and upholding the British state it serves and protects.

So what has changed since 2001?

Well it’s clear that for republicans nothing has changed

West Belfast DPP Threats....

2011-11-25T03:09:00.001-08:00

The following is an account penned by Martin Óg Meehan regarding a recent DPP meeting.

Last night some 50 plus Republican Activists including myself were present in the Whiterock College to publically oppose the sitting of the District Policing Partnership otherwise known as the DPP....

As we entered the building there were four armoured RUC/PSNI Landrovers present in the carpark, whilst dozens of well-armed personnel were situated throughout the building in a bid to intimidate those of us who had a right to protest at the presence of such a charade in West Belfast. Particularly given the recent brutal mistreatment of an RNU member and his children hours after he his young Wife had tragically died. The RNU member was forcibly trailed from his car and beaten by the same Political Police Force on the Falls Road while en-route to organise his Wife's funeral.....

We took our seats in the hall being used for the meeting with a number of local RNU members situated at the front because they wanted to challenge the RUC/PSNI Area Commander about the above incident and other siminlar breaches of human rights. Initally, the DPP Chairperson and local City Councillor, Tim Attwood approached me asking we intended doing? Not wanting to discuss tactics etc, I informed him that we would be conducting a militant but PEACEFUL protest. He was quite content with my answer and returned to the main table....

Around the same time, a number of senior members of Provisional S/F members also entered the room and positioned themselves close to our seats and were pretty aggressive in doing so. We all ignored their presence, although I happened to say hello to a few former POWs' who I spent time with in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh.

When the RUC/PSNI Commander entered the room, an RNU Activist from Ballymurphy stood in front of him and asked did he want to search him under 'Terrorist Legislation' as that's what his people did day and daily around the area and in front of his kids every time he was seen by the RUC/PSNI. The senior Peeler said; 'No, I don't want to search you...' Every time he tried to speak he was told to stop harassing, intimidating local Republicans and their families and to stop pointing guns into our faces etc. On one occassion, a well-known member of PSF from West Belfast with the initals; J.T. shouted to the RNU member; 'Sit-down you attention seeker'! The protesters completely ignored the comment and continued with the protest.

Tim Attwood asked for comments to be put through the Chair, which was a responsible request but was rejected because of the mistreatment of citizens by the RUC/PSNI on the streets. Cllr. Attwood then asked if the protesters wanted to make a statement instead? One former Ex-POW spoke for everyone opposed to political Policing when he read a prepared statement condemning the last ten years of the so-called changes to the RUC. At the end of his statement, he asked for all those in the hall to leave and let the Peeler; 'sit by himself as he wasn't part of the local community'. A number of Sinn Fein members including one MLA said that we (the protesters) 'weren't part of the community'.

As we were leaving the room, the Belfast Chairperson of PSF who has the initals; B.S. shouted to me; 'That's the end of it and pointed to J.T. and said, he'll be rapping your door later on and take you away'! I asked him was that a threat, to which he replied; 'No it's a promise'! B.S. had been seated all evening beside another Leading PSF man by the name of 'Duckser' who last June had called me a TOUT...However, when I confronted this person and asked for evidence, he had none nor has he since produced anything to substantiate his ridiculous claims.

Later on, last night I spoke to other RNU members and my family and we agreed that the threat and what was said should be made public...I posted the facts on Twitter, Facebook and on Ir.Net and had no response from Provisional S/F the entire night. Today, I challenged the West Belfast MP, Paul Maskey and the Belfast Mayor, Niall O'Donaille on Twitter about the circumstances of last night and what their Party was doing about it? To date, I've had no response from my former comrades in S/F?

Since leaving the Party over its many comromises of core Irish Republican principles, I and many others have been called many erroneous names and have not replied because it proves just how twisted these people are and their facist attitude to anyone who politically opposes them and their strategy. However, the threat last night in the middle of a public meeting was heard by many and forced me to respond.

I guess the only people who are allowed to engage in political activities according to Provisional S/F....Some things NEVER change

End British Torture in Maghaberry

2011-11-23T06:31:00.001-08:00

Theses signs have been erected across Newry and South Armagh over the past few days. One which erected at Edentubber was pulled down by anti-republicans who obviously agree with Irishmen being tortured by the British in Maghaberry. The signs were erected by the Newry/South Armagh Republican Prisoners Support Group

Political Policing in Ireland- Ten Years of the RUC/PSNI

2011-11-21T03:59:00.001-08:00

Dispelling the Myth

To mark the tenth anniversary of the RUC’s cosmetic change to the PSNI and to highlight its daily harassment of Republican activists, the Republican Congress have organised a public meeting to be addressed by:

Chris Donnelly (RC/IRSP)
Stephen Murney (éirígí)
Ciaran Murphy (RNU)

Taking place this Thursday, November 24th at 7pm in the Elmwood Learning and Teaching centre, 216 PCS, Elmwood avenue, Belfast (behind Queen’s Student’s Union).

POW Mural Unveiled

2011-11-21T03:19:00.001-08:00

Yesterday hundreds of republicans gathered in the New Lodge for the unveiling of a mural dedicated to republican prisoners in Maghaberry. The mural depicts the silhouette of a man with his fist raised in an iconic stance of resistance. It also compares Maghaberry concentration camp to the H-Blocks along with the spirit of freedom. Issues such as controlled movement and strip searches are also highlighted in the mural along with quotes from Bobby Sands. The bottom of the mural reads "DAMN YOUR CONCESSIONS ENGLAND IT'S OUR FREEDOM WE WANT"

The main speaker at this event was independent republican councillor for Newry & Mourne, Davy Hyland. One of the few elected reps to stand up for republican prisoners, Davy gave a rousing speech.

The fantastic mural was painted by Damien Walker. Damien was harassed everyday by the crown forces (PSNI) as he was painting the mural. The PSNI told him they would make his life hell for painting the mural.

Fair play to everyone involved in this project as it will bring much needed attention to the human rights abuses being carried out in Maghaberry.

Victory to the POWs

A Day in the life of a Maghaberry POW

2011-11-19T03:56:00.001-08:00

The following was penned by, republican POW, DD McLaughlin. It gives a unique insight to the current situation in Maghaberry and outlines what a basic day for the POWs entails

We near the start of our 7th month on protest which started on May 6th 2011. The following is what a POW has to endure daily and has been doing so for the past few months while on protest.

After a night of so called “body checks” ( and for those of you who don’t know what it is) – It’s a screw going round each cell door, banging it open and shining a torch on the POW inside while he is sleeping. This is designed to minimise sleep during the night. It happens at least 2-4 times between the hours of 10pm and 7am.Then,at 7am, between 20-25 alarm bells go off loudly, each one lasting from 5 seconds up to 2 minutes. Then, between 7.30am and 8.15am your door bursts open and standing glaring at you is one of the riot squad doing another check. Each POW’s door is opened and closed aggressively. The riot squad trying to intimidate us as soon as they come onto our wing on Roe 4 to start their daily shift. They have been on our wing since May.

I get up, start to do some exercise and walk the 5 paces up and down the cell. Outside on the landing I hear the cleaners with their shovels, brushes and the wet/dry Hoovers making that dull droning noise. They’re cleaning up the mess from last night and they’ll be on the wing all day cleaning all day. The time is 8.30am.I walk up and down the cell waiting for the door to open and get my breakfast. You can wait from 9am to 11am depending on whether the Riot Squad have to forcibly strip one of our comrades before he goes to court. My last meal was at 4pm yesterday and I’m hoping I’ll get some warm water for a nice cup of tea. At last the door opens and four Riot Squad are standing around my door. I am handed a box containing two Weetabix, a half pint of milk, and I get my cup filled with water for tea but it’s lukewarm, again! The Riot Squad are dressed in white disposable boiler suits, helmets, boots and belt with baton etc. these are the same people who forcibly strip us, that hand us our breakfast at the cell door.

The cell door opens again. It’s 10:15am. ‘Phone!’ one of the Riot Squad grunts. I lift my gallon jar which we have to fill daily and use for drinking water and step out onto the landing. One of them searches me while the others stand around me, staring. I am surrounded and marched to the phone where I am locked in. After a few minutes they shout “Time’s up!”, and I step out onto the landing again and searched. Remember now, I am the only prisoner on the landing and I was on my own on the phone, being watched all the time by the Riot Squad and a camera in the phone room. I am surrounded again and marched to the cell. Only one prisoner is allowed onto the landing at a time, surrounded by four Riot Squad.

It’s 11:25am, the cell door opens again. “Shower!” the screw grunts. I step out onto the landing. I am searched again while my towel, boxers, socks and bar of soap (these are the only items we are allowed to bring to the showers) are thoroughly searched. I am again surrounded, marched to the showers and locked in. when finished, I have to wait to get out and I am searched again. These searches consist of arms spread out and searched, from the wrist to the shoulders, then around the neck, ribs and down to the waist, legs and ankles. Most time you are grabbed aggressively and searched. My stuff was searched again. I am surrounded and marched back to the cell and locked in. some days you won’t get a shower or phone call, it depends if the Riot Squad let you out for it or not. POWs with children at school only get to talk to them at the weekend for a few minutes.

Locked in the cell now, waiting for 12 noon lunch. The door flies open, I am handed a box and the door slams quickly shut. A slight exaggeration as I see no beef! I only have a few minutes to eat this and the door opens again for exercise. If you haven’t eaten it, too bad, it will have to do until after exercise. I step onto the landing again, searched aggressively again, pulling at my collar and ripping up my trouser leggings, tearing the hairs off my legs as foes this with his latex gloves. Pure sectarian hatred, just staring me in the eyes. I don’t flinch; I just stare straight through him. I am surrounded again and marched out to the exercise yard. The only thing you are allowed to take to the yard is tobacco if you smoke. We get roughly one and a half hours exercise. It’s great to get some fresh air and exercise. We are locked in a cage – it’s like a large birdcage with the roof and sides double layered with a thick wire mesh. This is the only time during the day that we get to talk to each other. Then when the times up, we are brought one at a time out of the yard, searched again, marched back to the cell and locked up again until tomorrow.

Back in the cell, it’s 2:05pm and it is time to start the daily ritual of ‘mixing’ – this is done in a small blue ‘pot’ and you have to stir your urine and excrement until it is in liquid form so it will go out the door easier. The screws have blocked the doors on the outside twice (now with rubber and steel) but where there’s a will, there’s a way. No matter what they do, we always counteract it. So you finish mixing and let it sit brewing. Any rubbish or papers go out the windows. Outside’s a mess, inside’s a mess, cleaners going non-stop all day – cleaning cells, cleaning landings and outside has to be cleaned as well.

It’s 3:20pm and a screw opens the door and says “Duty Governor to see you. Any requests or complaints?” I just stare at them both and he slams the door shut. They get the same from the other 13 lads as well. I do some reading until the dinner comes around. It’s 4:05pm and the door opens - Riot Squad are standing there with a food carton and an apple. I get my cup filled with water, lukewarm again. No words are spoken at the door, and it shuts as quickly as it opens. The food is half cooked sausages, a few spuds, some peas and an oil-like substance – gravy. I balance the carton on my knees and eat while I stare out the window at all the grey mesh and razor-wire. I glance around the cell at the corner where all the rotten bits of food and stuff are lying. No clean knives or forks here, or washing of hands. I haven’t even basic things like a mirror. We are locked in the cells for over 22 hours per day. It’s 4:30 pm and I won’t see anyone else until tomorrow.

It’s 6:40pm now and I look out into the darkness at the high grey razor wire – fences all around me, and I wonder how Marian is getting on? All on her own in isolation, not having anyone to talk to, or go for a walk with. We are lucky here, having each other, when Marian has to go through each day by herself. The only time she sees a friendly face is during her one visit a week – which is only for the guts of an hour. I know she is strong, has been in worse situations before and has beaten it.

As the night creeps in, my mind wanders and I think of my wife, my two wee children and all my family and friends. I know they are 100% behind me just like all the families and friend of all the POWs here on Roe 4. I am in cell 11 where a few months ago, our friend Harry Fitzsimons was brutally beaten and tortured for roughly 20 minutes. We were all locked in our cells during his ordeal. To hear this going on while you are locked behind a door is a terrible feeling. Anger, frustration, and you can’t help or do anything, all the while hoping the person getting the beating will be OK. Then have to sit in a visit and see Harry’s family crying at the shape the Riot Squad had left him…

Then just last week Kevin Murphy came in and wasn’t on our wing one day until he was brought to court and he wasn’t needed at all. Just and excuse to forcibly strip search him. He was pulled by the head up and down the cell by the Riot Squad who forced the clothes off him. That night he said he felt as though he had been in a car crash, his body aching all over. That was his welcome from the screws to Roe 4. At resent between us we have endured over 90 forced strip searches and with trials approaching this will increase rapidly. Colin Duffy’s trial is just over a week away, and with him having to endure 2 strips a day, that’s 10 forced strips per week, and a trial expected to last between 2 - 3 months. Colin could be faced with being forcibly stripped between 80 and 120 times over the duration of his trial. Brendan McConville, John Paul Wootton, Kevin Nolan and Gerard McManus will be facing a similar amount of forced strips as their trials also approach.

With thoughts like these going through your mind, it makes you feel very angry and sad at the suffering POWs have to go through but we are strong, determined and unstoppable in our protest to end strip searching and the criminalisation of Republican prisoners in Maghaberry Gaol.

The following men are making a stand; Kevin Nolan, Gerard McManus, Kevin Murphy, Brian Sheridan, Brian Cavlan, Colin Duffy, Harry Fitzsimons, Dominic Dynes, Joe Barr, Sean McConville, John Paul Wootton, Mark McGuigan, Brendan McConville, and myself, DD McLaughlin.

Victory to the POWs

New low for PSNI Harassment

2011-11-18T04:30:00.001-08:00

In the 80s and 90s the British forces in occupied Ireland regularly targeted grieving families who were mourning their loved ones. Today in 2011 the British forces known as the PSNI are doing the same. This incident is disturbing to read but it's the reality of what is happening. Those who continue to support these animals have a lot to answer for.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends-Martin Luther King

The young wife (36) of a well known Belfast republican died this week in tragic circumstances. At first the rumour mill spread around that she had died by her own hand, that wasnt the case and she has died by accident. The night of her death Monday the PSNI pulled up outside the home of the husband. The PSNI began to beep the horn of their car and when he and his gathered family looked out the window, the PSNI officers in the car began to do hanging actions with there tongues out and laughing at them. The angry family had to restrain him from going out to them.

This morning while trying to organise funeral arrangements, the PSNI stopped his car on the Falls rd and told him to pull his car into the bus lane, He said that he would be blocking the bus lane if he did so ans was there a better place to pull in, at this stage one officer pulled his flick stick out and began to attempt to smash his window, he jumped out and told the cop that he had had enough of them and to leave him to grieve. He was wrestled to the ground and had his head, slammed by the boot of their car leaving a large gash on his head, his elbows and shins were cut also. At this stage as parents of children getting dropped to school at nearby St Louise's jumped out of their cars and came to his assistance. They screamed at the cops to leave him alone and to un-handcuff him as he was suffering a loss. The cops sent for re-enforcements and a local SF rep came over and spoke to one cop and asked him to calm the situation down, He was told to go away and not interfere in the incident. In fairness to him he then began to pull at one cop with the other concerned parents who were now also pushing and pulling at the cops. One female officer shouted hit them with CS gas....A PSNI car arrived and one officer after speaking to the others, de-arrested him and told him that he was being referred to the PPS for charges.

This is another example of an un-reformed and un-accountable force that is still abusing our community and know they are free to carry acts like this free from any recourse!

End The British Show Trials

2011-11-16T16:09:00.001-08:00

Maghaberry 24 hour Fast/Vigil

2011-11-15T03:55:00.001-08:00

The family & Friends support group announce plans for the 24 hour fast/vigil.

Maghaberry 24 hour fast/vigil
Friday 25th Nov 1.00 pm ~ Saturday 26th Nov 1.00 pm.
Maghaberry gaol.

All republicans are asked to attend to show their support for the POWs on protest.
This event needs to have large numbers in attendance if to prove successful and we urge everyone to make the effort to show the POWs that we on the outside support them and their protest.

VICTORY TO THE POWS.

POW Mural Unvieling

2011-11-15T03:54:00.001-08:00

The Family and Friends campaign group will this Sunday 20th November unveil a new mural they have had commisioned in support of the POWs on protest.

We are calling on all republicans to attend and show their support for the POWs on protest.

Family & Friends mural unveiling.
Sunday 20th November @ 2pm
Newlodge ( just of Carlisle Road)
Belfast

VICTORY TO THE POWs.

20th Anniversary of Óglaigh Patricia Black & Frankie Ryan

2011-11-15T03:35:00.001-08:00

Friday night 9.40pm on the 15.11.1991. it was a night when all young folk were having fun on there weekend night out,

But for two young Irish volunteers it was like any other night as on there mind's was freedom, freedom for Ireland but this night they sadly lost there lives on English soil,

They were Vol Patricia Black and Vol Frankie Ryan, like so many Irish they went and fought the war on British soil, but sadly Vol's were to die on English soil and we will never forget them.

Anti-Republicans Remove POW Sign

2011-11-13T10:41:00.001-08:00

A Board erected at Edentubber not far from the Carrickdale hotel in support of Maghaberry POWs was removed between 1-4pm today

This isn't the first time that signs/banners have been stolen by cowards in the Newry/south Armagh area.

Last year a banner calling for an end to torture was erected in Camlough, this was cut down by 2 former republicans. They were exposed for their anti-republican activities when hundreds of leaflets were distributed to homes in the village, this was then followed by a very successful and well attended picket.

A few weeks ago another banner in Meigh mysteriously vanished

Then we had the Colin Duffy slogan in Derrybeg removed. Although this was then replaced with a 24ft mural which is still in place today. Although when the board was erected the electoral rejects in the area attacked the mural online and even ridiculously stated that "The people don't need convincing of the plight of Irish prisoners". Colin and his family have been persecuted relentlessly for the past 20 years and is now currently on trial,

The Newry/South Armagh republican prisoners support group have been working flat out in recent months painting and erecting signs and banners all over Newry, south armagh and south down to highlight the human rights abuses being carried out against republican prisoners in Maghaberry.

It would seem there are some people out there who don't want this issue highlighted. Maybe they are uncomfortable with this issue, maybe it embarrasses them

Some of the signs/banners that have been removed called for an end to the torture of republican prisoners.

The sign that was removed today stated " END BRITISH TORTURE IN MAGHABERRY " with a silhouette of a prison watch tower. What is wrong with that message?

It would seem the cowardly perpetrators disagree with that message. So maybe they agree with republican prisoners being tortured in a British prison?

On one hand they claim to support the human rights aspect of the prisoners protest yet they pull down signs and banners highlighting it.

What are they afraid of?

Ádh mór ORaibh Colin Agus Brian

2011-11-09T02:40:00.000-08:00

Regular readers be know that this blog has been highlighting the persecution of Colin Duffy since he was arrested.

On Monday, after almost 3 years of incarceration, the trial of Colin and Brian began in Antrim court (a non-jury Diplock court i might add). The image of Colin with his long hair and beard, due to months of being on protest, has shocked many people. It has hit home the reality of what the conditions are for republican prisoners in Maghaberry.

This blog would like to wish both men and their families the best of luck with what lies ahead.

I'd also like to state that for obvious reasons the only posts that will be put on this blog during the trial will be official statements issued by Colin's family.

Fan Tréan

Another Day in ‘Normalised’ Newry

2011-11-04T02:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday [October 29] was just a normal day for republicans in Newry’s Derrybeg estate, with a local republican being the target of an early morning raid.

The day began with a convoy of armoured PSNI land rovers arriving at the estate at roughly 7am. Then, using a battering ram, they forced their way into the home of a member of éirígí under the guise of searching for firearms.

For several hours they searched the home, during which time they harassed residents and refused family members access to the victim’s house. Some of those involved in the raid were dressed in white forensic suits and had sniffer dogs with them. When the victim’s family members, who have lived in the estate all their lives, arrived at the scene they had assault rifles pointed at them and PSNI gunmen pretended to be shooting at them in a petty display of intimidation.

éirígí’s Newry spokesperson Stephen Murney, who lives in the estate, was also at the scene.

Stephen said, “Our comrade had his door kicked in, his home ransacked and his personal possessions rifled through by these thugs. They hit the door with the battering ram with such force it almost came off the hinges, the frame has also been badly damaged. Myself and number of other local republicans were prevented from getting anywhere near the house by members of the PSNI armed with assault rifles. Unsurprisingly the PSNI left empty handed after nothing was found.

“I counted no less than ten land rovers and there were dozens of TSG gunmen involved in this attack on our community; as usual the PSNI cheerleaders are nowhere to be seen or heard.”

Murney continued, “The level of harassment being meted out to republicans in Newry is unbelievable. Everyday there is some kind of incident, whether it’s a stop & search, arrest or a house raid. This isn’t the first time that party members in the Derrybeg estate have had their homes raided in such a manner. It hasn’t deterred us in the past and it certainly won’t deter us now. We offer our solidarity and support to our comrade who had to endure this brutal treatment at the hands of this unaccountable militia. He has lived in this area all his life and has suffered this type of treatment before, in recent months he has also found himself being stopped and searched on a regular basis.

“It’s clear that this man is being targeted because of his activities in éirígí and it’s also clear that the crown forces fear us, and fearful they should be.”

éirígí in Newry will be organising a public meeting in the very near future and one of the main topics of discussion will be the harassment and brutality the people of Newry have to constantly endure.

Details of this event will be published in the coming weeks.

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest031111.html

SMASH MAGHABERRY

2011-11-03T08:43:00.000-07:00

Republicans have been busy in Newry with their campaign to highlight the situation in Maghaberry.

A massive sign saying "Smash Maghaberry" was erected on the Newry bypass and stenciled slogans calling for an end to strip searches have appeared in various places.

Family & Friends Maghaberry Camp

2011-10-31T05:53:00.000-07:00

The Family & Friends support group for republican prisoners Maghaberry, are to hold a 24hour vigil/fast on the grounds of the prison on Friday 25^th November until Saturday 26^th November.

The group are using this event to highlight the ongoing protest within Maghaberry by Republican prisoners and the deteriorating situation within Roe house.

The two core issues (strip searching and controlled movement) which had been dealt with within the August 2010 agreement remain unresolved.

On Monday 24^th October a report into Maghaberry by Dame Ann Owers, at the behest of Justice Minister David Ford, made numerous recommendations around all aspects of the prison but in particular she recommends "Full body-searching is a procedure which is intrusive and invades the privacy of all prisoners...if other less intrusive and more effective electronic methods become available they should be piloted and their use considered."

We the family and friends group believe that such technology exists and in fact is in use daily in Maghaberry within the dedicated search facility outside Roe house. This available technology makes strip searches obsolete and we call for an end to the current practice of forced strip searches upon leaving and
entering Maghaberry.

The failure to both implement the original agreement and to deal constructively with the issue of strip searching and controlled movement within the republican landings is clear evidence that the attempted criminalisation policy of republican prisoners adopted in the 70's and 80's is very much at work today.

We urge David Ford to act immediately. This recommendation on full body-searching (strip-searches) gives David Ford a way out of the fixed position he has stated in response to the prisoners on protest.

The Family & Friends support group intend this vigil/fast to be peaceful and dignified and we don't intend to infringe upon any of the family visits that are scheduled on these dates. We call on all republicans to attend the camp and show support for the republican prisoners on protest in Maghaberry.

Martin Rafferty, PRO
Family & Friends support group for republican prisoners Maghaberry.

Maghaberry POW Convoy Newry-Dublin

2011-10-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

First Court Appearance for Newry éirígí Activist

2011-10-27T12:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday [October 26] saw the first court appearance of éirígí’s Newry spokesperson Stephen Murney.
éirígí members and supporters held a protest outside the British courthouse in Newry in solidarity with Stephen and other victims of PSNI harassment.

The protest was met with much support from passing motorists, many of whom sounded their horns in support. The political police also had the peaceful protest and those taking part in it under constant surveillance.

Stephen was arrested and beaten by the PSNI last month during a “security operation” in the Derrybeg estate in which homes were raided, cars searched and residents tormented.

Despite being punched and kicked by PSNI gunmen in front of his family and neighbours he now finds himself facing nine charges.

Rúnaí ginearálta éirígí Breandán Mac Cionnaith said, “The only thing Stephen is guilty of is standing up for his community. The Derrybeg estate was held under siege that day just as it has been countless times over the years. Stephen’s case is not an isolated incident, éirígí are aware of numerous examples of other republicans finding themselves in similar circumstances over the past few months. This is nothing but a relentless campaign of harassment being carried out against republicans in Newry.

“Countless times Stephen has put himself forward and has exposed and highlighted PSNI harassment in Newry and the unchanged ways of this force. Sadly that means that over the past number of years he has become a target for special attention which has culminated in his assault and arrest.

Mac Cionnaith continued, “éirígí in Newry are involved in countless campaigns in the Newry area. Our members are active in engaging with their communities in many shapes and forms, their Different Name, Same Aim campaign has been ongoing since early 2010 and they are also involved in the Stormont Isn’t Working campaign which exposes the inability of the puppet body to solve the economic crisis. As well as those campaigns our Newry activists have also been busy organising pickets, protests and commemorative events throughout the year as well as standing on picket lines with striking workers.

“It’s clear the PSNI and their cheerleaders are deeply worried about the rise of éirígí in Newry and the fact that we are offering an alternative to working class communities in the area. This is the reason our activists are being targeted in such a manner by the crown forces.”

Breandán concluded, “If the PSNI think that dragging republicans before British courts is somehow going to deter éirígí from rebuilding a popular struggle of resistance, not only in Newry but across the country, then they are very much mistaken.”

Stephen’s court case was adjourned until November 23.

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest271011.html

Newry POW Campaign Continues

2011-10-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

Newry Republicans have continued with their campaign to support the POWs in Maghaberry. Even more signs have been erected across Newry recently to highlight the plight of republican prisoners.

There is hardly a street in the centre of Newry which doesn't have a sign highlighting the situation in Maghaberry.

The "Free Colin Duffy" sign in the Derrybeg estate has also been tidied and touched up

VICTORY TO THE POWs

Sinn Féin- A Lesson in Integrity

2011-10-22T09:22:00.001-07:00

Public Meetings......Not Open to the Public???

2011-10-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

Interesting news item this morning regarding a British DPP meeting in Derry.

A protest was organised by local people opposed to British policing. Yet when they arrived for the PUBLIC DPP meeting they found themselves locked out of it.

They were told that there was "no room"

Now that could either be lies or else it means that anti-republicans through fear of being embarrassed put a call out for their people to flock to the meeting to take up all the seats. Thus ensuring the peaceful protesters would then be prevented by armed gunmen (PSNI) from entering the venue.

Now i would find it very hard to believe that these meetings are normally packed to capacity. I have posted a few times regarding the farcical goings on at some of these meetings. Here in Newry for example there were more PSNI members at one particular DPP meeting than members of the general public. At another in a different area only one person turned up and that the local priest.

I also recall a DPP meeting in Derry last year where former Republicans called for stop and search powers to be merely "suspended".

The motion was carried after a private vote in which Provisional Sinn Fein were in favour, the SDLP abstained, Unionists opposed and independents were split.

The RUC/PSNI have so far ignored this motion from the body that is supposedly there to hold them to account, so what does that tell us?

We are often told that these type of meetings give the public an opportunity to scrutinise and hold the PSNI to account by putting questions etc to the PSNI, yet in South Down a senior PSNI member refused to answer questions asked by a constitutional nationalist at the meeting.

It’s obvious that this locally recruited militia remains unchanged and also proves that bodies such as the DPP are useless, toothless talk shops, and the PSNI cheerleaders who participate in them are powerless to do anything about it.

But preventing citizens from peacefully protesting is the lowest of the low. It's a basic human right to protest against something you disagree with, particularly when it's protesting against human rights and child abusers in the British forces.

Why would those who participate in DPP meetings prevent members of the public from protesting against human rights abusers and child abusers?

Annual Seamus Costello Commemoration

2011-10-20T04:35:00.000-07:00

éirígí Remember Volunteer Michael Hughes in Newry

2011-10-19T02:45:00.000-07:00

éirígí in Newry held a wreath-laying event in the Derrybeg estate yesterday [October 18] in memory of IRA volunteer Michael Hughes, who was killed by the British army’s Royal Marine Commandos thirty-seven years ago in October 1974.

The ceremony was attended by local éirígí members, supporters and community leaders from the area, including independent republican councillor Davy Hyland, and a wreath was laid by Derrybeg community activist Anthony Coyle.

Speaking after the event, éirígí’s Stephen Murney said, “Michael was just 16 years old when he was killed by the British army. Despite his young age he stepped up to the mark and joined Óglaigh na hÉireann. The people of Derrybeg have suffered gravely due to the British occupation with five IRA volunteers from this estate giving their lives over the years.

“While we remember Michael, we must not forget that the British forces who killed him are still occupying Ireland, with thousands of British combat troops garrisoned here today including sinister covert forces like the SRR who are well skilled in the practices of murder and collusion. In 2005, an SRR gang was caught red-handed by Iraqi police in Basra carrying a bomb in what appeared to be a classic covert British dirty tricks operation.

“The fact that the SRR is a companion regiment to the notorious SAS will not be lost upon the Irish people. Nor will the fact that the SRR was at least partially-formed from the discredited 14th Intelligence Company which was itself one of the lead British Army units responsible for controlling the unionist death squads.”

Stephen continued, “We constantly see attempts to normalise the occupying British forces with regular ‘homecoming’ events and recruitment stalls taking place. éirígí have continually resisted these and during one event éirígí members boarded a Royal Marine warship, the same regiment that murdered Michael Hughes, and protested against the event.

“éirígí has consistently opposed the British occupation from the party’s formation and we will continue to do so while at the same time remembering the sacrifice made by republicans like Michael Hughes.”

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest191011.html

A Sign of the Times

2011-10-18T01:54:00.000-07:00

éirígí in Newry have upped their Different Name, Same Aim campaign in the area in direct response to an upsurge in Crown Force brutality and harassment in recent weeks. A new addition to this campaign will include the erection of a number of signs in working class areas across the district.

éirígí’s Newry representative Stephen Murney explained, “We have started to erect a number of signs in the Newry area to highlight the unchanged nature of this force. The first signs were erected in the Derrybeg estate in direct response to the recent attack on the community by the PSNI in which homes were raided, residents tormented and I was assaulted and arrested.

“I have been a community activist in the Derrybeg estate for several years and from engaging with people from this estate on a daily basis it’s clear that they haven’t been fooled by the lick of paint approach, nor are they happy with the ham-fisted tactics the British police use when they have the Derrybeg community in their sights.

“Whilst some amongst us would rather remain silent and engage in selective condemnation when it suits their agenda, we in éirígí pledge to oppose and resist all forms of PSNI harassment and stand by all victims of human rights abuses.”

Murney added, “In the coming days and weeks more of these signs will also be erected in other working class areas of Newry to spread the message that, despite what Crown Force cheerleaders say, the only obvious change in this force is the name of it. We also have several other initiatives in the pipeline for this campaign.

“éirígí will not be found wanting when it comes to resisting and opposing the political police.”

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest171011.html

Latest éirígí stickers hit the streets

2011-10-16T05:08:00.000-07:00

Tá an beart is déanaí de ghreamaitheoirí éirígí ag bualadh sráideanna, cuaillí lampa agus pé dreach eile atá ar fáil le cúpla lá anuas. Tagraíonn na greamaitheoirí daite agus deartha go cliste do réimse leathan cheisteanna, mar shampla an tríochadú bliain ó chinn stailc ocrais 1981, cáin tí na Sé Chondae Fichead agus cearta cimí polaitiúla. Is féidir na dearaí go léir a íoslódáil i leagan PDF thíos.

The latest batch of éirígí stickers hit the streets, lampposts and other available surfaces of Ireland in recent days. The colourful and cleverly-designed stickers address a wide range of issues including the thirtieth anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike, the Twenty-Six County home tax and the rights of political prisoners. All of the designs can be downloaded in PDF format below.

Newry éirígí Activist Arrested & Beaten

2011-09-29T09:22:00.000-07:00

Rúnaí ginearálta éirígí Breandán Mac Cionnaith has said yesterday’s [Wednesday] assault and arrest of a party member in Newry is the culmination of a long campaign against republicans in the area by the PSNI.
Stephen Murney, éirígí’s Newry area representative, was held for seven hours and charged with a string of offences after he intervened to check on the welfare of a neighbour who was having his car searched by the PSNI.

Mac Cionnaith said: “Republicans in Newry, including éirígí activists and supporters, have been suffering incessant harassment at the hands of the PSNI for some time now. This harassment has included assaults, arrests, house searches and constant stop and searches. In the last number of weeks, the PSNI has decided to add to this list the policy of harassing parents outside schools when they are dropping their children off or picking them up.
“Yesterday, the PSNI began yet another day by raiding homes on the Derrybeg estate and, later, searching cars in the area. éirígí representative Stephen Murney was present in both instances to offer solidarity to the affected residents. However, the PSNI decided to take exception to his presence and moved to arrest him, punching, kicking and threatening him with further violence in the process.

“After seven hours in custody in Armagh barracks, in the course of which the political police demanded unsuccessfully that he document political activities in Derrybeg, Stephen was charged with a string of spurious offences. We will be challenging these charges and are confident they can be beaten.”
The charges are:

Two counts of assaulting PSNI officers
Two counts of resisting arrest
Two counts of disorderly behaviour
Two counts of obstruction
One count of fraud, as the date of birth on his provisional driving license was wrong

Mac Cionnaith added: “There is no longer any doubt that the PSNI is both incapable and unwilling to transform itself into a civic police service. The force is nothing more than a sectarian unionist militia, dedicated to protecting the British occupation.

“While incidents like yesterday’s are habitually greeted with silence and indifference by the PSNI’s nationalist cheerleaders on the Six County Policing Board, people in working class communities are increasingly willing to stand up to these thugs in uniform. This was witnessed in Derrybeg yesterday when many residents left their homes to challenge the PSNI when they were assaulting and arresting Stephen.

“éirígí will not take the mistreatment of its membership by state forces lying down. The PSNI should be aware that the party will not be deterred by any amount of harassment or beatings. Anyone who is suffering similar behaviour at the hands of the PSNI should contact their solicitor or éirígí.”

Below is Stephen Murney’s account of yesterday’s arrest.

“At roughly 9am, a large convoy of armoured landrovers and cars descended on the Derrybeg estate. They raided a home in the area and took the usual from the house, including a child’s X Box. I visited the victims during the raid to see how they were and to see if they needed anything.

“At 12pm, I was in Main Avenue, Derrybeg when I observed a neighbour getting his car searched by the PSNI. A small crowd of residents had gathered to watch and I went over and asked my neighbour if he was okay.

“The cops came straight over and told me to “Fuck off up the street” and mind my own business. I told them I was concerned at the treatment my neighbour was receiving as well as them tormenting the residents of Derrybeg on a regular basis and that I would stay to observe what was happening.

“I was then grabbed by both arms by two of the thugs, who then assaulted me. They took me over to a wall and pushed me into it with such force one of the coping stones came off. They twisted my arms up my back and placed the handcuffs on me. I was then punched in the ribs several times and kicked in the legs while I was handcuffed. On two occasions, one of the officers told me he was going to break my jaw.

“This happened in full view of numerous residents, including my mother and sister, who were all disgusted with the cops and challenged them. The PSNI then aggressively pushed and shoved them out of the way.
The residents of Derrybeg should be commended for challenging them.

“I was then taken to Armagh barracks where I was photographed and had my fingerprints and DNA taken.

“At the barracks, a doctor examined me and noted cuts, marks and swelling to my wrists and arms and bruised and sore ribs. I was held for roughly seven hours, during which time the PSNI attempted unsuccessfully to conduct an “intelligence interview” with me. I was then released on bail to appear in court on October 26.”

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest290911.html

Irish Republican Socialist Congress

2011-09-27T04:28:00.000-07:00

The Peace and Neutrality Alliance presents "Imperialism Kills: Libya; Iraq; Afghanistan; Ireland.", a public meeting on the role of British and American imperialism.

The meeting will be addressed by:

Roger Cole (PANA)
Philli Mc Nally (Republican Congress)
Barbara Muldoon (Belfast Anti War Movement)
Saeb Shaath (Palestinian Aid)
Patricia Campbell (Independent Workers Union).

The meeting will take place this Wednesday (September 28th) at 7pm as the Elmwood Learning and Teaching Centre, Elmwood Avenue, Belfast. This building is besdie the Students Union.

Martin Rafferty: “they will not break us”

2011-09-18T02:57:00.000-07:00

Interview with Martin Rafferty

Martin Rafferty, 32Csm, speaks openly on the internment of Marian Price. A timetravel inside the Republican Movement and what prospect for a united Ireland

How’s Marian Price?

Gerry – Marian’s husband – was visiting yesterday, and said her spirits are high, but he could see strain on her. Given the fact the all studies show how solitary confinement is the worse form of torture within jail, this is not surprising. But Marian is strong and an inspiration to us all and we know no matter what they try they will not break her.

Republicans took to the streets all over Ireland with passion and dignified protests. What are the next initiative to support the immediate release of Marian Price?

At the moment a lot of our energies have been putting into wider protest within Maghaberry but we plant to incorporate the protest for Marian within her framework. Obviously we do not want to go into much detail. But along with the white line pickets and poster campaigns, we will be embarking on other actions.

The only female detainee in a male prison in Europe. Is there any jurisprudential action to bring her case to the international European human rights court (EcthR) ?

Giving the response from Hillary Clinton, the British administrations and Church leaders to the incarceration of an Iranian woman in an all male jail in Iran, last year, you would think that morally, never mind legally, the case would be won, meaning that is totally wrong to have any woman held in these conditions. But Marian’s legal team are exploring the legality of the British actions. Not just holding her in an all males jail, but also the circumstances of her arrest and the revoking of her license.

Marian has declared that “the ongoing policy of criminalization of the republican struggle has intensified in the last few years; as it is always the case, the republican prisoners in Maghaberry jail being at the coal face of this; well tried but failed policy’’ (see letter on the picture). How would you comment?
In 1981 Thatcher tried a criminalization policy implying that all republican actions where deemed to be a crime and all us republicans where nothing more than criminals.
The policy failed then, and today the Brits feel that if they get former comrades to criminalize the republican struggle today, they may somehow succeed where Thatcher failed. No matter who is pronouncing the words: Thatcher, Cameron, Ford, McGuinness or Kelly; Republicans never were criminals and today it remains the same. As long as there is an occupied part of Ireland there will be Republicans willing to oppose it and given that 75% of Irish people voted for a United Ireland and the British responded by creating a Six Counties State, it is not surprising that today there are still republicans willing to stand and defend the right of Irish people to self-determination.

Her license immediately revoked despite a pardon conferred in the 1981. Can you see the possibility that the pardon she received for her offences prior to 1974 could be restored during next month hearing?

The toll the British State is using at the moment is one of fear and intimidation against all republicans, active and no-active; the no-active republicans, most of whom have life sentences hanging over their heads, in the form licenses, have been warned not to re-engage in any form of republican activity or they too will have their license suspended. In this context the British will do everything in their power to keep Marian in jail. Not because she is a threat to society or is engaging in any activity to justify the treatment she’s receiving, but as a warning to others to keep their heads down.

Interned, marginalized and criminalized. How far is the battle in order to restore the political status?

As it happened in 1981, the British have miscalculated the mood of Republican community. In ‘81 they were told by constitutional nationalists and securocrats that the republican movement was on its knees and almost defeated. At that time they thought the criminalization policy would defeat the republican movement: they were wrong then, and today, as in ’81, the Brits have been told that the Republican Movement is almost defeated and they are again trying to roll out the policy of criminalization inside and outside the jail. But instead to having the effect of demoralizing and breaking the Republican Movement, it has once again galvanized and spurred the Republican Movement on.

During a recent commemoration of Brendan Hughes in County Louth, Martin Galvin prayed Republicans, all Republicans today, to forge a unity and strategy which can break through once more, and get the struggle back on the path of the united and free Ireland which “unrepentant Fenians and so many others sacrificed for and so much to win for us”. Can you see today that opportunity for a shared or a single platform with Republican Network for Unity?

Throughout history of Ireland, and further afield, the British have engaged in a tactic of “divide and conquer”, and today a lot of energy has been put into this tactic. In 1974, during the Sinn Fein split, there were running battle in the streets between former comrades and lives were lost. The Brits and their agents, have been trying to create a similar situation today by releasing misinformation and trying to foment confrontation between different groups. We all acknowledge we are struggling for the same goal and we will not be manipulated by anyone, British or former comrades, into any kind of confrontation with each other. Today we see the hemorrhaging of Sinn Fein and understandably a lot of the people leaving the party do not feel confortable joining with other groupings just yet. We understand and respect this but we are able to have a working relationship with them on matters relating to the jails and other issues. We also have a good working relationship with Republican Network for Unity and we have learnt that if you impose people to accept your interpretation and position on issues, then we will always be divided.

Do you believe in a referendum? And in the perspective of a referendum on national unity, how will the Irish Republican strategies change?

In my view we cannot trust either the British or Government in the free State regarding any form of referendum at the moment. Giving the Irish Government attitude to the Maastricht treaty, when they held the referendum and did not get the answer they wanted the first time, subsequently engaged in an vicious campaign of lies and threats in order to achieve they outcome they wanted. I do not think they have any credibility in organizing a referendum that would remove them from well paid jobs and powerful influences.

Some republicans are asking the “equality of arrests” in regard to the case of recent riots in loyalists and republican areas as well as the use of plastic bullets in England, in line with the “50/50 formula” that can be considered the dorsal spine of nationalist revisionism. Dup’s Nigel Dodds, in the aftermath of Ardoyne ‘s riots, called the people opposing the Orange Order parade through the district as Republicans, while Sinn Fein called them “thugs”.

How do you see the issue in the wider Republican Movement and what are the differences today between being a Republican and a Nationalist and when does it become a thug?

Regarding the recent events of the marching season, and the actions of the police, it is a fact that no matter how hard they try to paper over the cracks, the cracks will always come through. James Connolly said that until the constitutional question has been addressed there will never be equality. Be it in housing, employment, administration of justice, or any other area of a “normal society”, the things will never be dealt with until the outside interference has been removed. In the Six Counties, sectarianism, equality and injustice are all symptoms of the problem and not the problem itself. People tend to forget that the police role here is to uphold the State and we expect nothing else from them but what we have seen over the marching season. As regarding Kelly and Dodds, as long as there will be Republicans, there will also be people trying to criminalize them. Michael Collins said of the De Valera that he was an illegitimate republican, De Valera said the same of Tom Barry and Gerry Kelly says it of today Republicans. In order to hide the fact that Sinn Fein has now become a constitutional nationalist party, they have to try and discredit Republicans who are engaged to opposing the British presence, be it in Westminster or Stormont.

Sometimes it seems a war under the pillows with Republicans absolutely protagonists over their divisions. “An Irish disease” has been called this chronically split. Unrolled by intelligence and counterintelligence, it appears that the only defeated are Republicans themselves. Are “dossieraggio” and agitprop activities influencing this moment in time of the Irish Question?

The British have always used the tool of informers not only to gather intelligence but also to lead the republican movement in the direction of their liking. As can be seen today through the cases of Stakeknife and Denis Donaldson, they have perfected this art and they are continuing with this strategy. The recent building of the new MI5 headquarters just outside Belfast (Holywood) shows their intent. It is estimated that have hundreds of plain-clothes agents working flat out trying to recruit informers into the ranks. I myself have been approached three times in the recent past with offers of money or threats to my life and my family to make me become an informer. I am more than confident that this practice is widespread and unfortunately some people are giving in to the threats. I spent three years in jail due to a paid informer who engaged in the activities of the State provocateur.

Pearse said- “If we today are fighting for something either greater than or less than the thing our fathers fought for, either our fathers did not fight for freedom at all or we are not fighting for freedom”.

Martin Rafferty, who owns today that inheritance?

Today Republicans, from wherever organization or grouping, are Republicans. We all identified that the problem is the same today as it was seven hundred years ago and until the foreign interference has been removed from our country all the other problems cannot be addressed. As a republican, if you believe this, then it doesn’t matter who holds the mantra as long as the ideal stays the same.

http://thefivedemands.org/2011/08/22...-not-break-us/

Newry & Mourne District Council Maghaberry Delegation Refused

2011-09-14T05:26:00.000-07:00

éirígí in Newry have expressed their deep disappointment and anger at the decision by the British prison service to decline a request by Newry & Mourne District Council to send a delegation to visit republican prisoners currently on protest.

In July the council unanimously agreed to send a delegation to Maghaberry to investigate the prisoners’ concerns, the instigator of the successful motion was Independent republican Councillor Davy Hyland who has expressed his disappointment at the decision.

Davy said “It’s disgraceful that the NIPS, under the auspices of the so-called “Justice” minister, have refused the councils request with no reason being given. It would have been an important opportunity for councillors and council officials to hear at first hand what republican prisoners have to endure. I will continue to highlight the situation in Maghaberry and promise to do everything in my power to make people aware of the human rights abuses being carried out against republican prisoners in the gaol on a daily basis”

His sentiments were echoed by éirígí’s Newry spokesperson Stephen Murney.

“When it was first announced that Davy’s motion was passed we, and the families of the prisoners, were jubilant, and were of the opinion that this would bring more attention to the issue as well as more pressure on British minister Ford. However it soon became clear that David Fords office were dragging their heels on the issue and didn’t want the council delegation to go to Maghaberry.”

“The British prison service didn’t even give a reason for refusing the councils request. I would personally like to commend Councillor Davy Hyland and also former Councillor Martin Connolly who both raised the issue in the chamber. If it wasn’t for them it would most likely have never been mentioned in the council chamber”Stephen said.

Stephen concluded “éirígí extends its solidarity to the protesting prisoners in Maghaberry and pledges to continue supporting their struggle and that of their families until political status is secured. All those with an interest in human rights should do likewise.”