Thai Tims No Surrender at Belfast City Hall.

Irish Republican News

7:08 AM

>>>>>> Unionism in 'identity crisis' as violence expands


 The leaders of the two main unionist parties held urgent meetings on the
 unionist identity tonight following a week of violence and disorder in
 the North of Ireland.

 Loyalists blocked off most of south Belfast's main arterial routes
 tonight, and there was rioting in the Broadway/Village Area of south
 Belfast, as well as in east Belfast near the Short Strand.

 The PSNI said there had been an "attempted murder" against its members
 on the Newtownards Road in east Belfast. In the incident, the window of
 a PSNI vehicle was smashed and a petrol bomb thrown inside.  It took
 place near the Alliance Party offices of local constituency MP Naomi
 Long and, according to the PSNI, involved 19 masked loyalists.

 Violence was ongoing tonight in Armagh, where, in the absence of police,
 loyalists attacked the Cuchulainn bar in the city smashing windows and
 throwing fireworks.

 Stones, rocks, fireworks and some petrol bombs were thrown at the PSNI
 in south Belfast earlier, near the M1 motorway, and there were
 disturbances at the Ormeau Road. Road blocks were also erected by
 loyalists in other locations, including Dundonald, Lisburn, Ballyclare,
 Kilkeel, Ballycastle, Larne, and as far west as Cookstown, Moneymore and
 Limavady.

 The violence began on Monday with the decision of Belfast city council
 to substantially reduce the flying of the British 'Union Jack' flag
 above City Hall.

 An anonymous leafleting campaign which blamed the moderate unionist
 Alliance Party and initially whipped up anger on the issue has been
 linked to the larger unionist parties, chiefly the DUP.  Alliance says
 it was targeted because it holds the balance of power between the main
 nationalist and unionist blocks on Belfast city council, and its votes
 were key to bringing about the change in flag policy.

 While the main loyalist paramilitary organisations, the UDA and UVF,
 have been blamed for organising most of the disturbances this week,
 mainstream unionists have also been accused of involvement, and the
 position of the DUP and the Ulster Unionists remains unclear.

 Opening a debate at Stormont this morning, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness
 said the involvement of the UDA and UVF in the violence "raises many
 serious questions about the future intentions of those who once
 professed to support the peace process".

 The hardline unionist TUV leader Jim Allister blamed Sinn Fein for
 attacking 'unionist culture'.

 "Culture is Sinn Fein's new theatre of war", he declared, adding that
 the 1998 Good Friday Agreement had been "designed to trundle [unionists]
 out of the United Kingdom and to ease and infuse us into a united
 Ireland".

 David Ford, leader of the Alliance Party, said last week had been "a
 horrific and frightening experience". He said the belief that many
 unionist politicians had "more understanding for those targeting the
 houses and premises" of his colleagues, than for those who were
 attacked, had been "palpable".

 Under pressure to clarify their position, further meetings are to take
 place between the leaders of the DUP and the UUP tomorrow. The upcoming
 Westminster by-elections in the North are also expected to be under
 discussion.

 According to a joint statement tonight, Peter Robinson and Mike Nesbitt
 said they had discussed "a wide range of issues relating to Unionist
 culture and identity".

 They said they would "work on a joint basis" with a view to bringing
 forward political proposals to address "widespread concerns" across
 their community.

Most recent

• 

  MP's office attacked in Northern Ireland

  10 Dec 2012: Loyalists have burned a car outside the constituency office of MP Naomi Long as part of a campaign against the Alliance Party

• Martin McGuinness: rioting over union flag removal cannot be excused

  10 Dec 2012: Special motion condemning street violence that left 28 police officers injured is backed across Stormont assembly floor

• Three men charged in Northern Ireland after discovery of new mortar weapon

  8 Dec 2012: Detectives investigating dissident republican activity in Derry charge two 47-year-old men and a 40-year-old man

• Ulster loyalist leader warns flag protests are close to spiralling out of control

  8 Dec 2012: Sectarian violence is building as demonstrators demand union flag must keep flying over City Hall

• Northern Ireland police: paramilitaries behind flag protest violence

  8 Dec 2012: Ulster Unionist party leader calls on loyalists to end attacks and illegal protests after another turbulent night

• Riots erupt in Belfast hours after Hillary Clinton condemns violence

  7 Dec 2012: Two police officers injured as loyalists gather in city despite appeals from visiting US secretary of state

• Northern Ireland: Hillary Clinton attacks loyalist violence over union flag

  7 Dec 2012: US secretary of state also condemns republican dissident terrorists as she visits Stormont assembly

• Northern Ireland: Hillary Clinton flies into fallout from union flag riots

  7 Dec 2012: 
  

  Clinton arrives as four suspected republican dissidents arrested over IED find and policeman recovers from loyalist riot injuries

• Hillary Clinton due in Belfast amid growing sectarian tensions

  7 Dec 2012: Visit could mark one of last foreign trips as secretary of state as she shows support for peace brokered by her husband

• If only saying nothing were an option for William Hague of the FO

  6 Dec 2012: Simon Jenkins: As Northern Ireland goes up in flames, our foreign minister still lectures other states on nation-building. How dare he?282 comments

• Northern Ireland's union flag row 'could undermine ceasefires'

  6 Dec 2012: Progressive loyalism being undermined by riots and intimidation of Alliance party politicians, warns Professor Peter Shirlow

• Economic reality puts Belfast union flag row into perspective

  6 Dec 2012: Some unionists see the row over flying the UK flag as an existential threat, but the real story is south of the border

• Northern Ireland: paramilitaries playing role in violence, say police

  6 Dec 2012: Members of Ulster Volunteer Force had key part in protests in Belfast, Carrickfergus and Bangor

• Alliance minister accuses loyalist attackers of endangering child's life

  6 Dec 2012: Stephen Farry says attack on party members' home put toddler at risk, as violence over Northern Ireland flag vote continues

• Northern Ireland police injured trying to defend office from rioters

  6 Dec 2012: Unrest in Carrickfergus as unionists try to storm Alliance party office over Belfast city council union flag decision

Challenging Counterrevolutionary Censorship In Ireland

 international | anti-war | opinion/analysis  Monday December 10, 2012 03:23 by BrianClarkeNUJ - AllVoices 

What Peace Process ?

The censored peace cry of traditional Irish republicans, has long been 'peace with justice' while Mahatma Gandhi himself said that injustice must be made visible for a real peace. Which politicians are actively working for justice in the island of Ireland, as opposed to those pontificating about it for political gain, ought to be a priority of all Irish people who genuinely love peace with justice. Peter Robinson and the DUP are not the only hypocrites collecting large salaries, while 'ruling by fooling' in Ireland. But we will always get the politicians we deserve in Ireland because of our lazy censored ignorance and unintelligent shortsighted greed in Ireland.

norange

Injustice exists in British Occupied Ireland where a Government representing the billionaire class of the industrial war complex, who by by force of arms and undemocratic bribery with secrecy, impose its violence will on a small vulnerable part of the island of Ireland. The abused and captured people are violently prevented from protecting their moral, legal and human rights, with secret trials, covert political internment and British Lawlessness. The covert political internment of Marian Price and Martin Corey are but two of the latest examples, meant to be an example.

The British Government's occupation, in a corner of Ireland, on the basis of a sectarian headcount and mentored sectarian privilege, is an injustice, that underpins most of the political violence in Ireland. The current social injustice in all of Ireland, underpins the violence and murder we read about in the Irish Times, almost on daily basis, in all parts of Ireland currently. That and laws akin to prohibition, that creates open gang warfare on our streets, in matters that should be decided by informed adult choice, in the privacy of our own homes are matters of priority for anyone seriously interested in Irish peace.

The British Government is not alone in trying to fool the international community, that it is pursuing a 'peace process' in Ireland. All are engaged in social control coupled with political dishonesty, well short of government of the people, by the people, for the people.A British Prime Minister who has just led British arms manufacturers on a Middle-east campaign, to sell weaponry for petro-dollars, to an already, over-armed area of the world, while preparing to invade yet another country there, with fighting troops used like cannon fodder, to interfere like they have already in Ireland.

The banking barons of the City of London and Frankfurt, have been allowed to take control and manipulate all financial matters in both parts of Ireland, again inflicting most pain and economic violence on the most vulnerable part of the population. Economic manipulation and blackmail are being used to control every area of human existence in Ireland because banking barons, not the people's government, dictate how ordinary people and the people of no property are allowed to exist and die. Banking barons, gambling on no consequence, self-regulated, often un-regulated property and derivative frauds, are sucking draconian tax-raising puppet, bribed and blackmailed, Governments, in both London and Dublin, to fill their mirage of 'fiscal cliffs' or 'black holes' of billions of pounds with ordinary peoples' own money.

Old-age pensioners, child benefit cuts, disability home care cuts, health care cuts, etc.must pay for the chronic greed of the banking barons and their gombeen Irish politicians north and south. All of this while people in Occupied Ireland Ireland are forced to contribute to wars of interference in the affairs of nations around the world as in British Occupied Ireland itself, under the cover of a deceptive "peace process" while the media mafia and censorship are filtering this evi, as a just, 'peace process'.

Britain bullies with violence all around the world, starting with it neighbour Ireland. The most vulnerable citizens pay the biggest price in the depths of depravity and degradation, in a system with highly paid, bribed administrators of local politicians, lawyers and even clergy, standing by and pretending we have a genuine "Peace Process.". Utter hypocrisy.

The question this statement poses is:

"How can any right-thinking Protestant or right-thinking Catholic who is aware of the above facts even consider voting for any of the main political parties in both parts Ireland, including those in supposed opposition, who by their silence have enabled the cover-up of shocking affairs since the foundation of both scum states in Ireland with the 'blessing' of the bullying British Government?"

The author would like to acknowledge the considerable contribution of Gerry Rice to this piece.

Related Link: http://irishblog-irelandblog.blogspot.com/

Declaration of Independence to Colonial Countries

Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960 The General Assembly , Mindful of the determination proclaimed by the peoples of the world in the Charter of the United Nations to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, Conscious of the need for the creation of conditions of stability and well-being and peaceful and friendly relations based on respect for the principles of equal rights and self-determination of all peoples, and of universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion, Recognizing the passionate yearning for freedom in all dependent peoples and the decisive role of such peoples in the attainment of their independence,Aware of the increasing conflicts resulting from the denial of or impediments in the way of the freedom of such peoples, which constitute a serious threat to world peace, Considering the important role of the United Nations in assisting the movement for independence in Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories,Recognizing that the peoples of the world ardently desire the end of colonialism in all its manifestations,Convinced that the continued existence of colonialism prevents the development of international economic co-operation, impedes the social, cultural and economic development of dependent peoples and militates against the United Nations ideal of universal peace,Affirming that peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic co-operation, based upon the principle of mutual benefit, and international law, Believing that the process of liberation is irresistible and irreversible and that, in order to avoid serious crises, an end must be put to colonialism and all practices of segregation and discrimination associated therewith,Welcoming the emergence in recent years of a large number of dependent territories into freedom and independence, and recognizing the increasingly powerful trends towards freedom in such territories which have not yet attained independence,Convinced that all peoples have an inalienable right to complete freedom, the exercise of their sovereignty and the integrity of their national territory,Solemnly proclaims the necessity of bringing to a speedy and unconditional end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations; And to this endDeclares that: 1. The subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights, is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and co-operation. 2. All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. 3. Inadequacy of political, economic, social or educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying independence. 4. All armed action or repressive measures of all kinds directed against dependent peoples shall cease in order to enable them to exercise peacefully and freely their right to complete independence, and the integrity of their national territory shall be respected. 5. Immediate steps shall be taken, in Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories or all other territories which have not yet attained independence, to transfer all powers to the peoples of those territories, without any conditions or reservations, in accordance with their freely expressed will and desire, without any distinction as to race, creed or colour, in order to enable them to enjoy complete independence and freedom. 6. Any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. 7. All States shall observe faithfully and strictly the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the present Declaration on the basis of equality, non-interference in the internal affairs of all States, and respect for the sovereign rights of all peoples and their territorial integrity.

Irish Republican Newsflash

Newsflash: Unionist intimidation and violence continue


 Trouble has broken out again in Belfast this evening after more than a
 thousand loyalists, including a number of masked paramilitaries,
 marched to the city centre to demand the Union Jack flag be reinstated
 year-round atop Belfast City Hall.

 The march followed days of violence directed against the offices and
 homes of the Alliance Party and its councillors.  The party's votes on
 Belfast city council were crucial in reducing the flying of the British
 Union flag at City Hall from 365 days a year to 15 royal events and
 other designated days.

 The change of policy has inflamed the larger unionist parties and
 right-wing elements in Britain. Today's march had clear fascist
 overtones, and culminated with crowds cheering the burning of Irish
 tricolour flags by masked individuals.

 It was supported by the unionist parties, the right-wing UKIP and the
 extreme-right BNP parties, and forced shops and the city's Christmas
 market to close.

 Rioting broke out later as marchers returning to east Belfast burned
 out a car on the Newtownards Road and threw stones at the PSNI police
 near the nationalist Short Strand.

 Last night, there were also serious clashes in the Shaftesbury Square,
 Crumlin Road and Ligoniel Road areas of Belfast, as well as
 disturbances in Newtownabbey, Bangor, and Lisburn. Water cannon were
 deployed to douse burning cars.

 Also last night, the loyalist paramilitary UVF were widely blamed for
 disrupting a large Christmas event in Newtownabbey, north of Belfast,
 after a number of vehicles were set on fire close to Mossley Mill.

 Six hundred people, including many children, were trapped inside
 Newtonabbey council buildings as loyalists burnt cars and rioted.

 The DUP has been widely blamed for motivating the violent protests.
 Today, the party refused to condemn the burning of the Irish flag at
 the protest in Belfast city centre.

 The PSNI has said it accepts that loyalist paramilitary groups have
 been involed in orchestrating the disorder in Belfast and in the nearby
 towns.

 Sinn Fein Assembly member Gerry Kelly has stated that "political
 unionism", meaning the DUP and the Ulster Unionist Party, "must exert
 itself, show leadership and work to end this situation".

 "Political unionism has failed," he said. "It has sent muted words and
 mixed messages which has seen loyalism come on to the streets and a
 continuation of road blocks, riots and intimidation for nearly a week
 now.

 "Within the space of this week we have seen attacks on Belfast City
 Hall and Alliance party members homes and offices, death threats
 against elected representatives and many protests turning violent."

 The north Belfast representative said there was "nothing new" in the
 current scenario.

 "We have seen the orchestration between political unionism and violent
 loyalism many times before when they did not get their way," he said.

 "We saw it in 1969, The Ulster Workers Council strike, the Anglo Irish
 Agreement and Drumcree to name a few occasions.

 "But times have changed. Belfast is a shared city. It needs to
 represent all sections of the community that live in it and not have
 one identity stamped over all others. Unionism needs to accept the need
 for, and the reality of, equality."

 He said that mixed messages from unionists, such as demands for
 increased British flag flying at Stormont, was not showing leadership
 and would not de-escalate the situation.

 "We need to see much more from unionist political leaders at all levels
 of representation across the north.

 "They must exert themselves by standing firmly against the ongoing
 situation and taking real and meaningful steps to end the violence and
 intimidation on our streets."



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The Irish Times of Eamon Kelly

A crime boss who changed with the times

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• 65-year-old career crimina

CONOR LALLY, Crime Correspondent

Eamon Kelly had witnessed the transformation of the underworld – and became a paid consultant to other criminals – before his murder this week

Eamon Kelly, the 65-year-old crime boss and father of nine who was shot dead on Tuesday, lived through changes in the criminal landscape that he couldn’t have imagined as a teenager.

He had come up in the era when hold-up-style bank robberies were common and gun murders infrequent. He survived into the cocaine-fuelled modern era, in which the criminal fraternity has morphed into a macho subculture where guns are commonplace and people are killed if they are even suspected of having wronged their fellow gang members.

Kelly, who had once worked as a labourer, began his crime career in the 1960s. His earliest convictions were for housebreaking and shopbreaking.

After initial brushes with the law he began to project an image of an upwardly mobile young businessman, eager to make his way in legitimate business. He became involved, with his brother Matt Kelly, in the Kelly’s Carpetdrome business, though it collapsed with huge debts in 1981.

At this time, republican bank robberies across the State were regular occurrences, and a heroin “epidemic” was sweeping Dublin, making certain crime families rich. But by the mid 1980s, with his carpet business wound up, as well as a property business he had been involved in, Eamon Kelly had joined his peers in carrying out major cash robberies.

At that time, still in his mid to late 30s, Kelly became known as a man who schooled and advised others engaged in major robberies. One of them was Gerry Hutch, who, like Kelly, was originally from Dublin’s north inner city. Hutch would go on to settle a multimillion-euro case with the Criminal Assets Bureau, which presented evidence in court claiming that he was linked to some of the biggest armed robberies in the State in the 1990s; two of those crimes netted almost £4 million.

Like Kelly, Hutch left the poor inner city to settle in a middle-class neighbourhood. He currently lives in Clontarf, less than a kilometre from the home outside which Kelly was shot this week in Killester.

Kelly was associating with figures in the Official IRA in the early 1980s and was jailed after stabbing a man in a row outside the Workers’ Party’s social club on Gardiner Street in Dublin’s north inner city.

Serious criminal 

When he came out of prison in the mid 1980s, Kelly, now a serious criminal with a bodyguard, once again stepped back into a crime scene dominated by IRA-fundraising bank robberies. By then, though, nonparamilitary gangs were finding their feet, despite the stifling influence of the Provisional IRA.

John Gilligan was specialising in robbing factories. Martin Cahill – “the General” – and his gang were proving successful at robbery-based enterprises, and the families that were among the first to corner the Dublin drugs market were continuing with their trade.

As the recession of the 1980s eased and yuppie culture reached Irish shores, Kelly decided to move into the fledgling cocaine market. His plans to develop an almost direct cocaine route from Colombia to Ireland via Miami, using a Cuban female drugs mule, were new to Ireland.

They were met by some equally pioneering Garda tactics. The force modified a van into a surveillance vehicle and used it to uncover Kelly’s plan. When he went to Jurys Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin, in September 1992 to collect £500,000 in smuggled cocaine, he was arrested and later jailed for 14 years.

The details of the case seem almost quaint when set against the hauls of up to €10 million captured in recent years. The technology now at the Garda’s disposal lets gardaí eavesdrop on mobile-phone calls and read text messages without needing physical access to the phones they are monitoring.

The man who led the 1992 investigation was Martin Callinan, then a detective sergeant and now the Garda Commissioner.The links to Cuba and Colombia set out in court were very exotic in the Dublin of the early 1990s, and the trial was heavily covered in the newspapers.

When Kelly emerged from jail for this crime, just over a decade ago, the landscape had changed significantly. The Provisional IRA now had little influence, and the economic boom had fuelled a huge drugs trade.

Members of John Gilligan’s gang had shot dead the journalist Veronica Guerin, resulting in the jailing of key members, the dismantling of the gang’s cannabis network and the setting up of the Criminal Assets Bureau.

The drugs market was now nationwide, and new gangs of young men in parts of Limerick and Cork had cornered much of the regional market.

In Dublin, Brian Rattigan and his enemies were beginning their bloody feud in the suburbs of Crumlin and Drimnagh, and Shane Coates and the Sugg and Glennon brothers – all of whom have since been shot dead – had become the group of Blanchardstown drug dealers and killers known as the Westies.

In Finglas, in north Dublin, Martin Marlo Hyland was running the biggest drugs gang in the State and the Bradley brothers, Alan and Wayne, were emerging as prolific armed robbers.

Scale of death 

The Crumlin and Drimnagh gangs, Hyland’s group, the Westies and the Keane-Collopy and rival McCarthy Dundon gangs in Limerick have all engaged in feuds in which dozens have died – a scale of death unheard of before Kelly was jailed for cocaine offences.

So Kelly – robber, drug dealer, forger and gang mentor – became a sort of paid consultant to many of the new breed in Dublin. Kelly was especially close to Eamon Dunne, who took over the large drugs and robbery gang in Finglas after Marlo Hyland’s murder and who himself would be shot dead in April 2010.

In the end it was that consultancy work that saw Kelly shot dead this week. When the Real IRA in Dublin began trying to extort money from some of the Dublin gangs, a number of the rival groups joined forces to fight off the well-structured dissidents.

The coalition led to the murder of Alan Ryan in September. The Real IRA believed Kelly was central to organising that killing and was also frustrated that Kelly had himself refused to pay up when extortion demands were made of him.

They had tried to kill him two years ago outside his house on Furry Park Road in Killester, north Dublin, but the gun jammed and the gunman ran off.

But with Kelly very much under suspicion for aiding the killers of Alan Ryan, he once again rose to the top of Real IRA’s list of targets. After more than four decades in the thick of organised crime, he was shot dead outside his Dublin home on Tuesday afternoon.