The Prisons Crisis Group in Derry have published and new pamphlet calling for the immediate release of Marian Price.
The 24 page booklet is the latest initiative in the long running campaign to bring about the immediate release of Marian Price.
Copies of the booklet (launched at the PFC with Paul O'Connor in the Rath Mor Centre in Creggan this morning including Eamonn Mc Cann and Betty Doherty) is now available from the PFC, Free Derry Museum, Tar Abhaile and An Culturlann.
It is also available in Belfast at Na Croisbhealaà workers' co-op. From the WSM in Dublin as well as other outlets will be published soon.
Osama Bin Laden, Junior, who is thought to be hiding on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and is believed to be Bin Laden’s only son by his Saudi wife, has called for the acceleration of the destruction of Britain. Indymedia Ireland have however branded him a CIA asset in article references below.
Bin Laden just before his death, was also exploring the possibility of using Indymedia ireland to persuade the Irish population, sickened by repeated scandals within the Catholic Church, to convert en masse to Islam. Ireland's last census shows, there are now more than 50pc more Muslims in Ireland than in previous census figures, making it the fastest-growing religion in Ireland, which will eventually overtake Catholicism. It is also the world's fastest growing religion. Al-Qaida documents prove that the crisis in the Catholic Church and in Irish media such as Indymedia Ireland has attracted attention from all around the world.
"Al-Mahdi al-Harati: The Next Osama Bin Ladin; Coming to a Town Near You!
CIA’s Hired Global Mercenary Commandos: al-Harati, from Libya to Syria; You Up Next?
July 28th, 2012
NewsRescue- Far from being spontaneous and organized by the locals, the fall of Libya was a strategically organized, thoroughly planed and facilitated covert military operation, with fight foreign commandos, leading almost all fight squads.
For Libyans, the revolution, if there really was any intended was totally highjacked. The elite team of global CIA commandos are not new. It is the old game in the book. The Osama Al Qaeda elite team used against the Soviets in Afghanistan has been publicly recognized as a CIA created machine.
A top director of the new elite command is Al-Mahdi al-Harati, born 1973, an Irish national who lived the last 22 yeas of his life in Ireland before leading the Benghazi armed overthrow of the Libyan regime. Al-Harati is recognized as the new ‘Osama’,- trained, funded and aided to lead covert successful militant campaigns of terror and destabilization in troubled Arab and African nations, that are not in the Wests good books.
Al-Mahdi al-Harati was actively recruited sometime in 2011 and fully funded by the CIA, according to heaping evidence, to lead much of the military Benghazi campaign against Libya’s leadership. Though it is generally understood that he has long been a CIA agent, in active duty and training.
Al-Harati’s CIA employ was verified by intelligence experts, when he was robbed of ‘€200,000 CIA money’ in 2011. It must be noted that these destabilization and overthrow efforts are highly funded and cash based. Mercenaries are hired to fight these wars – made to appear as though the people are fighting, and they are paid tall sums, in hundreds to thousands of dollars per day of fight, on average $500-800/day.
BATTLEZONE: Mahdi al-Harati helped to lead the assault on Tripoli which ultimately resulted in the fall of Sirte. From the Irish newspaper Sundayworld, Wednesday, 9 Nov 2011
A GANG of Irish traveler thieves are in the middle of a holy war – after liberating €200,000 cash destined for Libyan ‘rebels’. In a tale worthy of the John le Carre thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the scam artists from Rathkeale in Co Limerick hit the jackpot when they robbed a home in Dublin’s Firhouse.
As well as a haul of family jewels, they stumbled upon €200,000 in €500 bills hidden in the hot press. But the homeowner was well-known Irish Libyan ‘freedom fighter’ Mahdi al-Harati, who was one of the leaders of the bloody ‘revolt’ against Gaddafi.
The Sunday World asserted al- Harati’s being a CIA asset based on his statements after the robbery of his fat earnings:
Indymedia, Ireland: CIA asset , Mahdi al-Harati
http://www.sundayworld.com/columnists/index.php “[After the robbery], astonished officers made contact with Mahdi al-Harati who told them that he had traveled to France, the United States and Qatar the previous month and that representatives of an American intelligence agency had given him a significant amount of money to help in the efforts to defeat Gaddafi. He said he left two envelopes with his wife in case he was killed and took the rest of the cash with him when he went back to Libya.”
Mahdi al-Harati has been well-known in antiwar and Palestine solidarity circles in Dublin over the years . He had been a passenger in the Challenger 1 ship last year when it attempted to break the seige of Gaza as part of the Free Gaza Flotilla . He was the last Irish member of the flotilla to arrive home after the Israeli raid and was given a hero’s reception at Dublin Airport by members of the IPSC and the IAWM . According to an indymedia comment from last year written by Kev from the IPSC : “Freda Hughes of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign welcomed his safe return and saluted his bravery: “Al Mahdi, like all of the Freedom Flotilla participants, is deserving of our praise for his courage in attempting to break the illegal siege of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged people there. We are all relieved that he is safely back in Ireland. We hope that his family, who we know were extremely worried about his health, can rest easy now and celebrate his return..”’
View link: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/100895
He is noted to have led the siege and capture of Tripoli.
Alqaeda flag above ‘liberated’ Libya Courthouse
The very interesting and confusing aspect of these elite commands is their being not merely the property of the CIA, but also Al Qaeda agents. The two are becoming more and more synonymous, and on some internet fora, Al Qaeda is re-branded, ‘ALL CIA duuh’.
The fall of Libya to these Al Qaeda commandos was made obvious to the world as the Al Qaeda flag was the hallmark victory symbol. It was pictured and videoed in on top of the Benghazi courthouse and in the hands of the celebrating victors.
Al Qaeda got its first official country, Libya. Since then, terror has been spreading all over North and sub-Saharan Africa, to Algeria, Mali with the regime deposition and terror rule, and up to Nigeria, where the abundance of Libyan ammunition’s and unlimited freedom, funds, training and support given terrorists by NATO support of terror commandos is leading to an upsurge in state terror.
The fall of Syria is once again being led, not by Syrians, but by the same CIA elite ‘ALL CIA duuh’, mercenaries. Al-Mahdi al-Harati has been seen active in Syria for months and has appeared in numerous videos, organizing and leading attacks against the nations army and people.
In the video below, he was recorded staging terror ops in Syria
—
Few days ago, the German intelligence agency released its findings that terrorists, Al Qaeda was responsible for much of the Syria rebel activity. The Houla massacres, famed for the British BBC usage of a fake photo to distort the happenings, has been blamed on these terrorist elements, who have been in control of Houla.
Ajel news- Anti government forces in Libya, have in the recent Aleppo battle, the so-called battle of all battles, been seen burning corpses of dead comrades. This act of burning corpses is to hide their foreign identities.
Breaking News exclusive source confirmed that militants have burned this dawn 18 terrorists bodies that were killed in Jabal Al-Zawieh and Sarakeb during clashes with Syrian security forces to hide their faces.
Breaking News sources said one of the two groups leader named “Abu Issa” has threatened to kill anyone who turns himself into Syrian security forces and to target his family. Read link: http://breakingnews.sy/en/article/2271.html
The easy flow of these commandos and weapons into and out of Syria is enabled by their neighbor, Turkey, who either for ‘religious’ purpose, Syria being led by the Alawite house, as against Turkey leaderships’ co-called Sunni alliance, which is the more popular in Muslim nations.
Friday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Britain raised his fear over the assault of his commando anti-Syrian government forces, being hammered on in recent Syrian crackdowns. He called on the Arab League, International Security council and and the Arab League to support the armed rebels who use the Turkish territories as their bases and route to infiltrate Syria.
CNN in a recent article, admitted to the presence and active recruitment by al-Harati of Libyans in Syria. Stopping short of admitting the foreign powers actively behind his ability and track record, including his supreme capacity to bring down the Libyan government and now again, his monumental capacities against the Syrian government.
In their report, the mentioned the publicity of Youtube videos exposing him and his commandos in Syria. Obviously, this exposition by the peoples media has prompted a conciliatory admission by the Mainstream.
CNN- Under the command of one of Libya’s most well known rebel commanders, Al-Mahdi al-Harati, more than 30 Libyan fighters have made their way into Syria to support the Free Syrian Army rebels in their war against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Al-Harati, who commanded the Tripoli Revolutionary brigade — which was the first group of rebels to enter the Libyan capital last August — has been in Syria for months leading some of his former men and Syrian military defectors who have joined his “Liwaa al-Umma” or “The Banner of the Nation” brigade.
Recent YouTube videos show at least two different Syrian rebel factions announcing that they are part of the Liwa al-Umma.
Read this: http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/28/world/meast/syria-libya-fighters/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
al-Harati may be coming to your town soon
Mahdi al-Harati {feb17.info}
The consequences of such funded global mercenaries can never be over stated. These paid fighters manipulate peoples minds to gain volunteers, and with special doctrine, developed for them, they brain wash people who have good intentions into believing that such political and capitalistic wars are divine.
In the end, we have people with amazing skill and power, al-Harati, a new Osama, and you end up with trained terror remnants, who in their inactive state, after the fall, this time, of Syria, look for where else to pick up such ‘noble’ causes. As happened in Mali, in Africa, the entire Middle East and the world at large is never going to be safe or the same again with this action against Syrian government.
Al-Harati resigned as deputy leader of the Libyan Military soon after take over and in October 2011, returned to Ireland, where he and his Irish wife have lived for the past 20 years. He is now fully employed and engaged in leading the Syrian anti-government terror campaign. Apparently he is better engaged in commanding global terror ops, than state leadership.
And this growing army of skilled CIA commandos who have a track record of brilliant success, from the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, to hundreds of other wars, and more recently their success against Libya’s government and now Syria, who knows, you could be up next. So be ready, al-Harati may be coming to your town soon.
London 2012 Rock Star Morrissey Pisses on Olympics @ Royals
Rock Star Morrissey blasts the Olympics and the royals. Morrissey, a London native compared his home country England to Nazi Germany. In an open letter Morrissey true to his feelings wrote about London 2012, the royals and the Olympics.
Morrissey writes:
I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism? The “dazzling royals” have, quite naturally, hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press. It is lethal to witness. As London is suddenly promoted as a super-wealth brand, the England outside London shivers beneath cutbacks, tight circumstances and economic disasters. Meanwhile the British media present 24-hour coverage of the “dazzling royals”, laughing as they lavishly spend, as if such coverage is certain to make British society feel fully whole. In 2012, the British public is evidently assumed to be undersized pigmies, scarcely able to formulate thought.
As I recently drove through Greece I noticed repeated graffiti seemingly everywhere on every available wall. In large blue letters it said WAKE UP WAKE UP. It could almost have been written with the British public in mind, because although the spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain, the 2013 grotesque inevitability of Lord and Lady Beckham (with Sir Jamie Horrible close at heel) is, believe me, a fate worse than life. WAKE UP WAKE UP.
Morrissey has expressed previously his disappointment with how his country is run. In his song Irish Blood, English Heart, his lyrics are as follows: “Irish blood, English heart, this I’m made of| There is no one on earth I’m afraid of, and no regime can buy or sell me| I’ve been dreaming of a time when to be English is not to be baneful| To be standing by the flag not feeling shameful|“
The Royal Family may not be amused but some of their subjects are! )
Buggered if I know what all the fuss is about. In these days of openly-gay bishops, who gives a toss if the Heir to the Throne bonks a butler or has cunnilingus with a corgi? We already know he wants to be re-incarnated as a tampon.
So what's the big deal?
The joke is on US because we put up with the whole Monarchy show. Surely it has now descended to little more than another long-running Soap which should call it a day like Brookside.
Then again, think of the entertainment value! Then again, switch channels. Royality is a dying brand which no longer deserves our loyalty (not that it ever did.)
1. SERIOUS CLASHES OVER INTERNMENT BONFIRES 2. Sinister agenda seen behind Belfast evacuation order 3. Nationalist cities forced to host sectarian festivals 4. UUP inflames nationalists with signs, comments 5. Murder of West Belfast boy to be investigated 6. British soldier's message of hate 7. Feature: Operation Motorman - organised murder 8. Feature: Address to hungerstrike commemoration
A 13-year-old girl was among those arrested after the PSNI attacked nationalist anti-internment bonfires this week.
Bonfires were lit in several areas of Belfast at about 10pm on Wednesday evening to mark the 41st anniversary of the introduction of internment without trial in 1971.
The Six-County government has moved to suppress the bonfires, which have become associated with the ongoing internment of 'dissident' republicans.
Trouble quickly broke out between the PSNI and local youths in a number of locations.
Rioting broke out in Belfast while there were also serious disturbances in Banbridge, County Down.
Some of the worst rioting broke out in the Divis Street area of west Belfast, where petrol bombs were thrown, but there was also trouble in New Lodge in the north of the city and at North Queen Street.
Trouble was also reported in the Stewartstown Road area of west Belfast.
In some locations, burning barricades were set up, while fire crews, tasked to extinguish the fires, also came under attack.
A total of six were arrested in Belfast, and two more arrested in Banbridge. They were charged with obstructing police, rioting, and resisting police.
West Belfast Assembly member Fra McCann condemned the bonfires.
"Young children who collect the wood have been encouraged to do so by older people in the background and these people need to come forward and explain what good the bonfire does for the area and its people,"he said.
"I was interned twice and as a former internee these bonfires certainly do not represent any marking of that time in our history.
"They should stop and the people encouraging them need to explain to the community why they continue to do so."
Fellow Councillor Conor Maskey, who organised the removal of bonfire material from the area a number of times in recent weeks, blamed republican hardliners for the trouble. A banner bearing his name was reportedly hung from an anti-internment bonfire in New Lodge.
"Their only contribution to life in the New Lodge is destruction, facilitating attacks on republican ex prisoners and giving young people criminal records," he said.
"The banner with my name on it has only made me more determined than ever to continue the work of trying to make life better for the people of the New Lodge area."
PROTEST
The following day, the James Connolly republican society in Belfast called a protest against internment on Black mountain, in which a giant 'END INTERNMENT' sign was erected on the mountain overlooking the west of the city. A similar protest, against the royal visit last month, was attacked by a loyalist mob.
"Internment 21st century style is not only still in use, its use is now much more draconian than at any time in the past or in any other country in the world," the group said in a statement.
"The present day English administrator, Owen Paterson, not only deprives Irish citizens of their liberty without recourse to a judicial process. In the cases of Marian Price and Martin Corey this administrator has also over-ruled the decision of two high court judges who decreed that they had no charges to answer and should be released immediately.
"Such injustices can only exist when 'good men and women' do nothing."
>>>>>> Sinister agenda seen behind Belfast evacuation order
Securocrats have been strongly criticised for a ham-fisted attempt to evacuate over a hundred homes in west Belfast last week -- before declaring that a claimed rocket attack on a PSNI police landrover, which prompted the evacuations, had been a hoax.
Residents of the Glen Road area in west Belfast refused to follow PSNI orders to move to evacuation centres, forcing the PSNI to back down.
Most just refused to leave. And hours later, the cordon was lifted and those residents who left were allowed to return.
A gun attack by a breakaway IRA group using the name 'Oglaigh na hEireann' was mounted on the PSNI in the strongly republican area two weeks ago. Almost a week later, a claim was made to a Belfast newspaper that the group had simultaneously launched a rocket attack.
Still images of a video of the alleged attack were published, although the video recording itself never emerged into the public domain.
Over a day after the report came out, there were surprising and conflicting statements from the PSNI, who announced the evacuation of a giant area at the top of the Glen Road. Hundreds of residents were shocked to find they had been ordered to take refuge in a community shelter for three days.
The evacuation was ostensibly ordered to allow an inch-by-inch search for the unexploded rocket -- but it was almost immediately followed by a police announcement that no rocket attack had in fact taken place.
The evacuation was reminiscent of previous episodes of community punishment on nationalist areas in the aftermath of IRA attacks.
Thankfully, most local people refused to pay heed to the PSNI's dire warnings.
Workmen at a building site near the scene of the security operation, which included a bomb disposal robot, continued as normal, as did a nearby summer scheme.
Residents could be seen out and about walking dogs and chatting with neighbours. Some householders, living just 200 yards from where police were centring their operation, just sat outside their homes.
There was a widespread suspicion that a British security agenda, not public safety, was responsible for the evacuation order.
One resident, who did not want to be named, criticised the police and their request for householders to vacate homes for three days.
"They can't force us to go. I don't think there's any reason for it," she said.
Some recalled the British 'psy ops' (psychological operations) and other bizarre actions of British military intelligence which were common at the height of the conflict.
Another resident, who also did not want to be identified, said she was refusing to leave the home she shares with her father, who has dementia, disabled brother and two dogs.
The woman, who described the PSNI's handling of the situation as "diabolical", said they planned to keep her pets "in a van for three days'.
She and her family said: "If they were that worried, why didn't they do something about it yesterday and not this morning, all of a sudden?"
>>>>>> Nationalist cities forced to host sectarian festivals
Concerns have been expressed over major Protestant marching season events planned for the overwhelmingly nationalist cities of Derry and Newry this month.
Residents of Derry are already leaving in droves ahead of the year's largest loyalist parade, which is forced on the city every August.
An anticipated 15,000 members of the Apprentice Boys organisation -- accompanied by 140 'kick the Pope' bands -- are expected in the city tomorrow [Saturday] for an event which is detested by locals.
Every year, residents criticise the effective closure of the city as a result of the parade. Dressed in red, white and blue, or in suits and bowler hats, the marchers walk through and around Derry to mark a medieval Protestant battle victory, 'the siege of Derry'.
However, unlike the openly sectarian Orange Order, the Apprentice Boys organisation has broadly engaged in talks with nationalist groups, and serious disorder has been avoided in recent years.
THREE DAYS OF MARCHES
In Newry, another sectarian "show of strength" is planned, with three days of unionist marches at the end of this month.
From Friday 24th August until Sunday 26th August, a total of five unionist parades will take place with over 3,000 participants and 50 bands taking over the streets of Newry.
Thousands of unionist bandsmen and supporters will be bussed into the County Armagh city from across the Six Counties for what eirgi said was "triumphalism" and "a sectarian coat-trailing exercise".
Stephen Murney, the local spokesperson for the socialist republican party, said, "Just last month we had thousands of unionists accompanied by dozens of bands descending on Newry leaving the area a virtual ghost town.
"Band members and participants shouted insults at local people observing and even rushed to attack a local photographer.
"A massive security operation sealed Newry off and most people couldn't go about their daily business. I have no doubt that this upcoming sectarian ritual will mean the same for the nationalist people of Newry."
Murney continued, "Before and after the 12th of July our party were inundated with complains from local people who are sick and tired of this happening time and time again. The fact that this next disruptive demonstration will take place over a three day period will mean that many nationalist people in Newry will have to endure an entire weekend of sectarian intimidation and bigotry."
TOURISTS SAY NO
Meanwhile, the Sinn Fein mayor of Limavady in County Derry has said there had been no unionist reciprocation to the removal of tricolour flags in the town earlier this year, which was facilitated by his party.
Mayor Cathal McLaughlin said there were too many unionist flags and Orange parades in the town, and that it was affecting tourism.
Most recent figures have pointed to a decline in overseas visitor numbers to the North of 5%. The decline comes despite the spending of five million pounds on an advertising campaign.
"The proliferation of unionist flags is a disgrace," he said. "This sends out a menacing signal to tourists whom we are actively trying to attract."
>>>>>> UUP inflames nationalists with signs, comments
"Welcome to Northern Ireland" road signs have been provocatively raised in border areas of the North by the Ulster Unionist minister for regional development, Danny Kennedy.
Kennedy, who has frequently desribed himself as a moderate unionist, denied the move was intended to be inflammatory.
At least twelve signs were erected this week by the North's road service, acting under instrution from the Minister.
The development runs counter to peace process efforts to eliminate obvious indicators of the border between the British-ruled North and the 26 County state in the South, and may mark a new hardline stance by the UUP.
Locals have now destroyed at least three of the signs, which Mr Kennedy claimed were "a point of information".
Referring to those which had been destroyed, Mr Kennedy said: "I'm sure all political representatives will join me in condemning what is an illegal act".
Sinn Fein Assembly member Phil Flanagan called on the UUP man to order the removal of the remaining signs "as soon as possible".
"The erection of these signs has angered many living in border communities who suffer the negative impact of partitlon on a daily basis and a large proportion of them are completely opposed to the unnatural division of Ireland," Mr Flanagan said.
But in a hardening of the unionist position, former UUP leader Tom Elliott was reported as saying the only 'real victims' of the conflict were those killed by the IRA.
The comments, which were reported in a weekly newspaper, provoked an angry response from SDLP Assembly member Patsy McGlone who called them "crass and insenstive" and asked that they be withdrawn immediately.
"Tom Elliott's remarks are so abhorrent as to be breathtak ing and he has d isgraced his office as a public representative, but more grievously than that, he has dishonoured the memory of over 3,000 men, women and children on all sides of our society whose lives were lost in the Troubles.
"He must withdraw his comments immediately and apologise to the families of all those he publicly dismissed as, in effect, worthless."
>>>>>> Murder of West Belfast boy to be investigated
The brother of a Ballymurphy boy who was shot in the back by a British Army sniper 35 years ago has appealed for witnesses to come forward as the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) looks into his death. Paul 'Jason' McWilliams was just 16 years old and on temporary release from St Patrick's Training School on the Glen Road to attend his grandmother's funeral when he was killed near Corry's timber yard close to his home in Springhill Avenue on August 9, 1977 - the week of Queen Elizabeth's silver jubilee.
The circumstances of young Paul's death sparked controversy at the time. A statement issued by the British Army shortly after the killing claimed he had been throwing petrol bombs near Corry's timber tard during serious rioting and that he was shot after being warned twice by British soldiers. That's a claim strongly denied by the McWilliams family.
In response to that statement, Sinn Fein claimed they had two eyewitnesses who said there had been no "serious rioting" in the area at the time of Paul's death and that the teenager had been shot in the back as he tried to get through a gap in a fence while attempting to escape British Army bullets. The eyewitnesses also claim that, contrary to the statement issued by the army, no warnings were ever given to Paul before he was shot in the back.
Speaking this week about his brother's killing, Thomas McWilliams, who was only 10 when Paul was killed, appealed for anyone with information on the murder to come forward.
"Paul's nickname was Jason, and he was a very popular lad and well liked in the area where we lived," recalls Thomas, one of 11 children in the McWilliams family.
"Ballymurphy in the 1970s was dominated by army bases and fortifications. There were constant armed foot patrols and raids on people's homes. Like a lot of young people there at that time, Paul was always being stopped, searched and abused by British soldiers, so that's why he joined the IRA. A year before his death he was arrested for rioting and convicted of riotous behaviour and was placed in St Patrick's Training School."
On the death of his grandmother in early August 1977, Paul was given temporary release from the training centre to attend her funeral, but stayed out an extra day to take part in the annual commemoration events to mark the introduction of internment.
"He had been due to go back to St Pat's on August 8," said Thomas, "but he stayed out an extra day. In those days the commemoration usually began with the lighting of bonfires followed by the banging of binlids and the blowing of whistles at the stroke of 4am. The protestors would then march to the army fortifications and street violence usually erupted between the soldiers and local youths."
After the post-protest rioting had subsided, Paul was making his way back to the family's Springhill Avenue home with his brother Christopher.
"As they were walking a single shot rang out from a soldier from the Light Infantry Regiment positioned in Corry's timber yard, hitting Paul in the back," said Thomas.
"When the ambulance arrived to take Paul to the Royal it was stopped at the bottom of the Whiterock Road by a party of RUC members and army officers who checked the vehicle, delaying it for several minutes. Paul died before he got to hospital."
Thomas said he can still hear his mother's scream when she was told her son was dead.
"It's a memory I will take to my grave," he said. "I can just remember the feeling of pure and utter sadness. Our father had just died the year before from lung cancer. My mother had just buried her mother so she was finding it difficult enough to cope with my father's death and now she had to bury her mother and son. She was never the same after he died and she often blamed herself for it happening - she used to say if only she had made him go back to St Pat's on August 8 he would never have been killed. She suffered greatly at the hands of the British, even before Paul died, as she had four sons and a daughter interned without trial."
The 1979 inquest into Paul's death returned an open verdict.
"None of the soldiers involved in the death attended the inquest, a military representative just read out statements from them," said Thomas.
"None of the clothes Paul was wearing when he was killed were ever returned to us, nor were his possessions, despite our requests."
Around a decade later, the family's emotional wounds were reopened with the publication of a book recalling the experiences of British Army personnel during the conflict in the North.
In the 1998 book, 'Brits Speak Out', a former member of the Light Infantry Regimen, Bob Harker, who was stationed in Ballymurphy at the time of Paul's death, referred to the teenager's murder in his contribution to the book.
"He [Bob Harker] revealed the scene inside the barracks after Paul was shot," said Thomas. "He said a British soldier who was a member of his section had been shot dead on the same morning as Paul in retaliation for his death.
"The regimental colonel visited the barracks shortly afterwards and was wearing full ceremonial uniform as the Queen was to the visit that week as part of her silver jubilee tour and they were toasting her arrival. Bob said the colonel's opening remarks to the soldiers were, 'Well, chaps, it's a sad thing we have lost one of our soldiers today, but we had a good kill this morning.'"
Since last September, Thomas has been engaging with the HET in its reinvestigation of his brother's killing.
"It has been a very emotional and tiring process," said Thomas.
"Paul was shot on the last jubilee visit of the Queen in August 1977 - 35 years ago this week - and he was shot in the back with his hands in the air, according to his post mortem records. The Ministry of Defence and the British Army claimed he was throwing petrol bombs yet not one shred of evidence links Paul to any petrol bombing.
"He was just five feet two inches tall and seven stone in weight when he was killed, so anyone with eyes in their head could clearly see they were looking at a boy and not a man."
Thomas said nothing would give his family more satisfaction than to see the soldier responsible for the shooting of Paul brought to justice.
"We've been able to see the inquest records and the statements given by eight soldiers at the time of the inquest and they all sound like they come from the same person," said Thomas.
"It turns my stomach that they have been able to hide behind the Ministry of Defence for 35 years for what they have done, with no proper action taken against them.
"Currently the HET is re-interviewing seven of the soldiers involved, but the solicitor for the one who pulled the trigger has stated he is not medically fit to give a statement. The HET will challenge this."
The SDLP has said a serving British soldier has desecrated the memory of those who died on Bloody Sunday by posting an offensive slogan on the internet.
The Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) soldier's Facebook page - which has since been removed - included a Parachute Regiment emblem with the words: "F*** Bloody Sunday' above it.
SDLP victims spokesperson Colum Eastwood says the serving soldier - who he named - should be dismissed from the British Army "without delay."
The Foyle Assembly member, who is a member of the Bloody Sunday Trust, said: "I have seen photographs of this man's Facebook page and the disgusting banner he has put across the top as a 'cover image'.
"Prime Minister David Cameron has described the actions of forces on Bloody Sunday as 'unjustified and unjustifiable' and I regard this image in the same vein.
"To trample on the memory of those who were shot dead while trying to protect civil rights for all, and to do so in such an offensive and craven manner is, frankly, abhorrent, and makes me sick to my stomach.
"This cannot even be called thoughtlessness as posting anything on your Facebook page requires a conscious decision.
"The families of Bloody Sunday at the very least deserve a full and unequivocal apology and I hope that will be forthcoming immediately.
"However, if the Ministry of Defence want to prove that they agree with David Cameron's assessment of the forces' actions on Bloody Sunday, they should dismiss this man from the army without delay."
In a statement, a spokesman for the British government said: "The views expressed by this individual are categorically not those of the Army nor the Ministry of Defence."
In March of this year, a Protestant teenager in Derry created a controversy after he posted an equally shocking Facebook comment about Bloody Sunday.
After Derry City's soccer defeated their Linfield rivals, Christopher Middleton wrote; "They my have won tonight but we can take concilation in the fact the Paras beat them 13-0 on a Sunday many years ago ;-)"
Middleton, who's from the nationalist cityside, said he had been forced to leave his home over the controversy, but later apologised for the comment.
July 31 2012 marked the 40th anniversary of Operation Motorman, the British army's invasion of the "no-go" areas in Derry and Belfast.
The trigger for the mass invasion - the largest mobilisation of British troops since Suez - is widely believed to have been the Bloody Friday bombings by the IRA in Belfast 10 days earlier, which killed nine people and injured over 100.
However, the no-go areas - in particular Free Derry, which had been in place since 1969 - had long been a source of embarrassment to the British government.
Operation Motorman began six months almost to the day after Bloody Sunday which saw members of the Parachute Regiment murder 14 unarmed civilians during a civil rights march on January 30.
It has been suggested that Bloody Sunday was an earlier abortive attempt to retake the nationalist areas of the Bogside, Brandywell and Creggan.
In the days before July 30, about 4,000 extra troops were brought into Northern Ireland. Involved were almost 22,000 soldiers - including 27 infantry and two armoured battalions - aided by 5,300 soldiers from the local Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR).
Bulldozers and Centurion tanks were deployed on the streets of Derry to smash through the barricades, and in an extraordinary move Royal Navy battleships were moored off the coast of Donegal ready to shell the Bogside.
The operation began at about 4am on July 31 and lasted for several hours. Two people - an innocent teenage civilian and an unarmed Provisional IRA volunteer - were shot dead.
The teenager was 15-year-old Daniel Hegarty. He was shot along with his two cousins as they walked along Creggan Heights in Derry.
The boys had gone out to see the tanks and watch the operation unfold. Daniel was shot twice in the head from close range by a member of the Royal Scots Regiment and was killed outright.
One of his cousins, Christopher Hegarty, survived being struck in the head by a bullet.
Nineteen-year-old Provisional IRA member Seamus Bradley was shot, according to the military account, as he stood on the bough of a tree in Bishop's Field close to Central Drive.
The soldier who shot him claimed that Bradley had been armed at the time. But when a group of soldiers arrived to arrest him no weapon was found.
Bradley was taken away in a Saracen armoured personnel carrier and apparently bled to death in custody. It is alleged that he may have been tortured. An autopsy found that Bradley had been shot "at least four times."
On the day Hegarty and Bradley were killed, cabinet secretary Sir Burke Trend wrote to prime minister Edward Heath stating that "no more than 32 rounds were fired by the army during the operation. Five gunmen were seen to be hit and two killed, and two wounded bodies were recovered."
In the House of Lords the same day, secretary of state for defence Lord Carrington stated: "The information I have about the two that were killed is that one was 19 and the other 16 (sic), and that one was apparently in possession of arms while the other is suspected of being a gunman."
This clearly labels Hegarty as a gunman and the smear was compounded in June 2007, 35 years later, when the Ministry of Defence (MoD) released a document that described Hegarty as a "terrorist" and claimed that he was armed.
Following pressure from campaigners and the Hegarty family, the MoD withdrew the claim and apologised for the document, accepting that "Daniel was innocent and that the reference to him as a terrorist was inaccurate."
No-one has ever been charged with the killing of Hegarty. An initial inquest in 1973 recorded an open verdict.
However, a new inquest was ordered in 2009 after a review of the case by the historical inquiries team found that the original Royal Ulster Constabulary investigation had been hopelessly inadequate and dreadful."
In December 2011 an inquest jury unanimously found that the 15-year-old had posed no risk when he was shot and that none of the soldiers involved attempted to "approach the injured youths to either search them or provide medical assistance."
>>>>>> Feature: Address to hungerstrike commemoration
------------------------------------------------------------------- The full text of the address by Sinn Fein Assembly member Michelle O'Neill at the party's annual hunger strike commemoration in Dungiven, County Derry, last weekend. -------------------------------------------------------------------
A chairde agus a chomradaithe,
It is difficult to express in words the immense honour, pride and privilege that I feel today, being asked to speak at this commemoration.
It is especially important for me as a Clonoe woman to be here in the heart of O'Cathain country. And might I add, it is great to see the Derry 'wans' admitting they need to listen to Tyrone now and again!!
But, in all seriousness, the rest of our island could learn a thing or two from the courage and consistency of County Derry down through the generations - the county which gave us five of the ten Hunger Strikers in 1981.
It is especially fitting to be here in the homeland of Kevin Lynch. He was born in Park village, just out the road. He played here as a child, went to school here, learned his skills with a caman, a sliotar and a gaelic ball in these fields. It was here that he grew into manhood and became part of the struggle, before being captured by the Brits. This area, like the homelands of all the Hunger-Strikers, has a special place in Republicanism.
So it is with a spirit of comradeship and a strength of unity that all of us gather here today. I want to particularly welcome the relatives and families of the Hunger-Strikers, and those of all our patriot dead. You were, and are, a constant inspiration to my generation.
I was only four years of age in the summer of 1981. Many of my relatives and friends, and my current colleagues and comrades, were older and active during that time - some on the streets, some on the blanket, some on the run. Within this collective memory rests all our living history as activists for freedom. And we should never, ever forget what we came through.
Fathers carried coffins; mothers battled Brits; sons stood on protests; daughters took batons; uncles drove hearses; aunts gathered communities; cousins wore blankets; marchers faced bullets; friends endured hell; heroes gave their lives.
No role was too big or too small; no one was too old or too young; no part was better or worse; each action was a vital step in our movement's collective march of freedom.
The importance of political prisoners has never been confined to one generation of our freedom struggle. Writing in The Four Glorious Years, David Hogan recalled:
"From 1917 to 1921 the prison struggles gave the people new fortitude. That was particularly so about Terence McSwiney's death. It brought the spirit of Ireland's resistance to the very ends of the earth; an unquenchable devotion to liberty pitted against the perfect war machine of a great Power."
And so it was sixty years later, as hundreds of political prisoners stood in blankets on the frontline of the freedom struggle in Long Kesh and Armagh; where they honed their skill and ingenuity as political activists and thinkers; where some became elected to parliaments; and where the demands for Irish sovereignty were politicised and internationalised as never before.
Hanging on the wall of the Sinn Fein office in Coalisland is a poem that gives voice to that vision of freedom. It looks down on the work that we do every day. Sometimes I take the time to think about its importance. It was written by Bobby Sands and is called the Rythmn of Time.
Its theme is internationalist, egalitarian and universal.
The final verse declares:
It lights the dark of this prison cell, It thunders forth its might, It is the 'undauntable thought', my friend, That thought that says 'I'm right!'
Its strikes me that only something incredibly powerful could have lit up the dark of the prison cells inhabited by our political prisoners during the long decades of war - whether in Ireland, Britain, Europe or America.
Only a flame of freedom with unending reach, with unbending power could have shone any hope onto the darkness of the Blanket Protest and Hunger-Strikes.
Only a beacon of hope with unlimited potential could have motivated our men and women activists to keep turning the pages of history in the bleakest of moments.
Only a torch of history which has been handed down over centuries could ever explain why all of us, at this rally today, still stand ready to deliver the Irish Republic for which our predecessors fought and struggled and died.
Thirty years ago, from the ashes of Britain's failed criminalisation policy rose the phoenix of a risen Republican people, led by Sinn Fein's determination and dedication to achieve freedom in our lifetimes.
Sinn Fein is now the third largest party on this island. We are the only Republican movement. We are the only Republicans with a strategy to bring about Irish unity. We are the only collective of activists carrying the glowing baton of national freedom and national reconciliation based on a framework of human rights, social justice and equality.
And no-one should be under any illusion: it is this generation of struggle which will reach the finish line of freedom - through our sustained focus on direction and strategy, and our relentless exhaustion of political and democratic tactics.
These are the undauntable thoughts, my friends, that lead us in our work today, that fill me with constant determination, and that light the road to our new Republic.
Of course, there remains some distance for us to travel. There are still injustices to right, inequalities to address and a nation's wounds to bind up.
Some of the injustices relate to the north's prison regime, including prisoners who oppose Sinn Fein and the peace process. Sinn Fein representatives have regularly visited the prisons and met some of the prisoners. We will continue to demand that the British government, Dublin government, six-county Department of Justice, and others, should address the issues being raised on humanitarian grounds. In particular, I want to take this opportunity to reiterate Sinn Fein's consistent call for the immediate release of Marian Price, Gerry McGeough and Martin Corey.
It is anyone's right to disagree with Sinn Fein's political and peace strategies, and our practical promotion of the 1916 Proclamation and 1919 Declaration of Independence. I will absolutely defend that political right.
But I will not condone their apolitical actions. They have no Republican strategy and no political programme - and clearly some of them have no politics either. They are united only in their opposition to the Sinn Fein strategy and in their desire to reverse political progress. They fear the onward rise of Sinn Fein and only they can explain why.
Mindless militarism, adventurism and egotism had no place in the Irish freedom struggle in 1916, in 1971, in 1981, and it has no place in this same struggle that we carry forward in Ireland today. Those who engage in such actions define themselves - not as political activists, not as freedom fighters, not as Irish Republicans, but as the late Brian Keenan accurately described them : "mindless gunmen for nationalism".
Those opposing the peace process with pointless violence should remember the challenge of James Connolly in 1897: "When you talk of freeing Ireland, do you only mean the chemical elements which compose the soil of Ireland? Or is it the Irish people you mean?"
Gerry Adams, shortly after he became the Sinn Fein president in 1983, developed that theme further when he said: "We cannot free Ireland unless the people of Ireland want to be free."
I want you all to think carefully about that statement: "We cannot free Ireland unless the people of Ireland want to be free."
This places a huge onus on Republicans to address the realities of struggle and society as they exist today. Achieving true freedom will require the involvement of all the people of Ireland in the process, including our Unionist neighbours.
There is now a real, viable and effective democratic and political road to Irish freedom and equality, down which the IRA walked seven years ago. The IRA has left the political stage. I would call on every Republican to follow Sinn Fein and support our political project. Those who are promising young, and sometimes vulnerable, people nothing more than imprisonment, injury or death should desist and disband.
The current phase of the peace process is moving towards a critical moment, where the new dawn of national reconciliation can begin to rise on a hurt society still scarred by the legacy of our conflict.
Our task today as Irish Republicans includes cultivating the rough middle ground to plant the seeds of a healthy and harmonious relationship between the Orange and Green cultures; nurturing a new nation in which all traditions are proudly valued, based on equality, dignity and mutual respect.
This will require us all to be brave and bold; to break new ground, shape new agendas, and explore new thinking. It will demand that each of us becomes willing to hold the type of 'uncomfortable conversations' which Sinn Fein's leadership is currently conducting with members of the Unionist and Loyalist community.
This phase will not be easy. There are many legacy issues. But our generation of Republicans has never been afraid to show leadership, try new tactics, or develop new approaches. The prize of national reconciliation is too important for us to stand back from the opportunity we now have. We must move onto the ground before us, otherwise those who oppose change will enter the arena of debate to try to maintain the old order and sustain the status quo.
There are some within the Unionist political class whose raison d'etre is stopping change. Their system of division, based on inequality and sectarian segregation, remains the cornerstone of partition. Irish Republicanism is founded on the opposite qualities of equality and unity. Let that be our message to our Unionist neighbours in the time ahead as we talk to them about the new nation we are building.
The British government also has a massive role to play. It could start by butting out of our country once and for all! Disband the NIO. Devolve outstanding powers. And take the Spooks back to London!
In the immediate term, the British government, and Irish government must fulfil their outstanding commitments to the peace process. They must prepare for, and become persuaders for Irish unity.
The British must disclose the truth about their dirty war. They must now call an immediate border poll, so that the people of this country can determine their own future. And they must realise that the Agreement's power-sharing, all-Ireland and equality provisions won't be reversed.
More and more Unionists see the good-sense and inevitability of Irish unity. We must, in the time ahead, harness that common-sense to build the policies of unity upon which all of us can rely in a new Ireland.
Across this island, the old establishment's Gombeen greed is leaving legacies of pain. These legacies are punishing the infants of today with the unrivalled political corruption of the Celtic Tiger's gangsters and banksters. In the north, we are faced with fighting against ruthless British Tory economic policy. This island is once again being robbed of our young people through emigration, and those who stay are being robbed of a future by unemployment.
I want to praise the current national campaign of Sinn Fein Republican Youth entitled 'No Jobs, No Future, No Way', and would call on everyone to support it.
Sinn Fein's consistent demand for a new way of doing things and a different solution to old problems is based on Irish citizens having control of our own affairs. This simple logic of self-determination is increasingly winning public support through the 32 counties. To paraphrase the banner of the Irish Citizen Army - in the years to come, 'we must serve neither Britain nor bond-holders - but Ireland'!
For make no mistake, Sinn Fein's rise in the south isn't a passing tide of opposition. Rather, it is an unstoppable sea of change, with more and more citizens motivated by our message, encouraged by our activism, and impressed by our integrity.
We must ensure that these pillars of progress - our message, our activism and our integrity - are strengthened and widened in the time ahead. And if each of us committed to bringing one new member into Sinn Fein in the time ahead - just one new member- then imagine the scale of challenge and speed of change we could unleash against the old order.
So, a chairde, our roadmap is clear. Our destination is certain. Our tactics are set. Our confidence is well-founded on our convictions. Our vision is stoked by our values: independence; justice; peace; equality; a new nation based on authentic national reconciliation between Orange and Green; and the end of the British state's jurisdiction on this island.
And we must never, ever forget that shining over all of these values is the eternal flame of freedom which once lit the dark of the prison cells, endured over three decades ago by Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Tom McElwee, Kieran Doherty and Mickey Devine and their other comrades on Hunger-Strike and hundreds of protesting political prisoners in Armagh and the H-Blocks. And by Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan.
So leaving here today, remember that, with this flame, we will create the new Ireland which all of our children deserve to enjoy.
Under this flame, we will face down those on any side who would seek to drive us back into the tragedy of war or brutality of conflict.
Under this flame, we will stand together, campaign together, march together, organise together, work together, face all-comers together, all bound by an unbreakable spirit of comradeship and unbending strength of unity.
Under this flame, we will ignite "the undauntable thought that says I'm right", that says we're right : right to place equality at our core; right to tackle injustice in our midst; right to build a future with our neighbours; right to raise the banner of justice and peace for all; right to end the outrage of partition; and right to fight - through every political and democratic tactic we have - for the ultimate prize of national freedom and national reconciliation across this wonderful and beautiful island of Ireland.
on Marian Price
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