<HTML><PRE>Subj:	Fwd: Irish Times 08 January
Date:	98-01-08 16:18:35 EST
From:	Buni1957
To:	DeeMcA, RedAxe66, Love irela, Connemara7
To:	FenianBoyo, JustaLocal
CC:	sean@cafes.net, haavar75@hotmail.com

Be sure to read the Bernadette Sands McKevitt item
-----------------
Forwarded Message: 
Subj:	 Irish Times 08 January
Date:	98-01-08 06:27:29 EST
From:	paddyn@erols.com (Paddy Newell)
Sender:	owner-ireland_list@email.rutgers.edu
Reply-to:	paddyn@erols.com
To:	ireland_list@email.rutgers.edu

>From The Irish Times 08 January 1998
http://www.irish-times.com/irish-times/paper

************************************************
Talks on language positive, says Sinn Fin
Andrews restates urgent need for talks process
Sister of hunger-striker denounces peace process
************************************************

Talks on language positive, says SF

By Theresa Judge, in Belfast

                 A Sinn Fein delegation has described as
                 "positive" a meeting yesterday with the
                 Northern Education Minister, Mr Tony
                 Worthington, on Irish-language issues.

                 The head of Sinn Fein's cultural affairs
                 department, Mr Micheal Mac Giolla Ghunna, said
                 afterwards that a wide range of issues were
                 raised and that these should be seen as part
                 of the "confidence-building process", as
                 discrimination against the language had
                 contributed to the conflict.

                 Mr Mac Giolla Ghunna said the delegation asked
                 the Minister to look at the British
                 government's overall strategy on the Irish
                 language "with a view to recognising its
                 importance to the nationalist community". He
                 said the Irish language community needed to be
                 serviced by the state "on an equal basis with
                 English-speakers".

                 The issues raised included the official
                 recognition of the language through
                 legislation, and funding and support for
                 Irish-medium education. "People should have
                 the right to use Irish in their dealings with
                 all state bodies," said Mr Mac Giolla Ghunna.

                 Sinn Fein is also demanding that the British
                 government sign the European charter for
                 regional and minority languages and officially
                 recognise Gael Oiliuint, a Northern-based body
                 which coordinates Irish-medium education.
                 State funding for a second-level school in
                 Derry is also being sought.

                 Mr Mac Giolla Ghunna said media- and
                 arts-related issues were raised, including the
                 transmission of Teilifis na Gaeilge and
                 increased funding for the newspaper La.

                 "The Minister said that all of these issues
                 were under active consideration as part of an
                 ongoing review."

                 Sinn Fein's Northern chairman, Mr Gearoid O
                 hEara, also attended the meeting.
_____________________________________________

Andrews restates urgent need for talks progress

By Gerry Moriarty, in Belfast

                 The talks process, which resumes on Monday,
                 must move immediately from the general to the
                 specific, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr
                 Andrews, said yesterday. The recent killings
                 and violence pointed to the urgent necessity
                 for real political progress, he added.

                 Mr Andrews, following an Irish Times report
                 that the British and Irish governments are
                 hoping to establish potential heads of
                 agreement before Monday's resumed talks, said
                 the "time for movement is now".

                 Mr Andrews insisted the talks must be
                 accelerated. "Let me spell it out again. The
                 time for moving from the general to the
                 specific begins next Monday. We are very
                 definitely entering the final lap. We simply
                 cannot afford to wait any longer before
                 serious engagement begins. The time for
                 preliminaries is past," he said.

                 Speaking in west Belfast he said it was hard
                 to visualise a better opportunity for
                 agreement.

                 The slow pace of the talks made him
                 uncomfortable. But despite the difficulties it
                 also had to be acknowledged that last autumn
                 "saw the beginnings of real debate on matters
                 of substance", and moreover most of the
                 parties had a "realistic enough idea of what
                 the broad outlines of a settlement might be".

                 "But these small and tentative steps are not
                 good enough any more," he continued. "If we
                 fail now we will simply be handing the stage
                 over to those who do not share our belief in
                 the primacy of politics. This is precisely
                 what the recent killings have been seeking to
                 achieve.

                 "Can we let these obscenities replace dialogue
                 among democratically-elected representatives?
                 This would be absolutely unthinkable. The time
                 for movement is now."

                 Mr Andrews said that despite the recent
                 violence people must not surrender to despair,
                 or abandon a determination to establish a
                 genuine and lasting peace, "rooted in
                 political agreement".

                 It was only through people and politicians
                 working together to craft a detailed and
                 carefully-balanced settlement that the talks
                 participants would be able to show up the
                 "barrenness" of the critics of the process and
                 to "disprove their nightmare scenarios".

                 "I firmly believe that the single greatest
                 obstacle we face is fear - above all, fear
                 that a reasonable settlement could be
                 represented, by extreme voices on one's own
                 side, as a sell-out. Both governments have
                 repeatedly tried to allay this fear, to point
                 to the well-defined principles which we know
                 must form the basis of agreement," he said.

                 Politicians' first priority was to ensure that
                 Northern Ireland was not plunged back into
                 serious violence.

                 "We must not and, under the Mitchell
                 Principles, cannot support or condone the use
                 of violence for any political purpose. When we
                 disagree, as inevitably we will if our
                 discussions are to be honest, we should do so
                 in a mutually respectful and reasoned way.
                 This alone would help to calm fears and
                 encourage serious dialogue.

                 "But it is not enough merely to disagree
                 peacefully or politely. We must do our utmost
                 to agree, and quickly. This is both a
                 political and a moral obligation," he added.
_________________________________________

Sister of hunger-striker denounces peace process

By Suzanne Breen, in Belfast

               The sister of the dead hunger-striker, Bobby
               Sands, has said her brother and other IRA
               members did not die for a peace settlement
               based on cross-Border bodies with executive
               powers but for a British withdrawal and Irish
               unity.

               In her most stinging criticism of the peace
               process so far, Ms Bernadette Sands McKevitt,
               vice-chairwoman of the dissident republican
               group, the 32-County Sovereignty Committee,
               called on Sinn Fein to withdraw from the
               Stormont talks immediately. She said many
               grassroots republicans shared her
               disillusionment.

               In an interview in Magill, published today, she
               said the talks could not secure republican
               goals. "Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness can
               stand up, wrap the green flag around themselves
               and sing A Nation Once Again at the top of
               their voices but it will do no good."

               Any settlement which failed to end partition
               was anti-republican, she said: "Bobby did not
               die for cross-Border bodies with executive
               powers. He did not die for nationalists to be
               equal British citizens within the Northern
               Ireland state."

               Although Ms Sands McKevitt refrained from
               directly attacking Sinn Fein, she was very
               critical of key phrases it has championed:
               "Words such as 'independence' and 'freedom' do
               not seem to be used by any party on this island
               today.

               "Instead, we have the inphrases, nice cosy
               terms like 'equal citizenship' and 'parity of
               esteem'. Well, the last two IRA volunteers to
               die on active service - Ed O'Brien and Diarmuid
               O'Neill - did not die for parity of esteem and
               equal citzenship. They died for freedom.

               "Throughout this conflict, men did not give up
               their lives and liberty, families did not
               suffer terribly, and there was not all this
               heartbreak and sacrifice for what is on the
               table now. The campaign was for an end to
               British rule, not a rejuvenated partition."

               When asked about the morality of IRA violence,
               she said: "The Irish people have the right to
               assert their independence by every means at
               their command. I'd prefer if the British
               listened to argument but they haven't so far.
               They are the aggressors."

               She expressed "grave reservations" about the
               first IRA ceasefire of September 1994 and would
               like to have seen a British declaration to
               withdraw first. Although she did not name Sinn
               Fein leaders, she said: "False hope was
               generated by some people. The message sent out
               was that there was light at the end of the
               tunnel for republicans . . . But that wasn't
               true."

               The 32-County Sovereignty Committee was formed
               last month following a meeting of some 150
               republican activists in Dublin. It aims to
               "uphold the 1919 Declaration of
               Independence"(made by the first Dail) and
               oppose any settlement emerging from the talks
               which falls short of Irish unity.

               It is seeking a meeting with the Government to
               discuss any potential changes in Articles 2 and
               3. In the interview Ms Sands McKevitt, who now
               lives in Dundalk, spoke of her early life in
               Belfast, her relationship with her brother and
               the 1981 hunger-strike. It is her first
               detailed media interview.

               She said she was a "very private person" who
               had come forward only because she felt "so
               strongly about what is happening". There had
               been media reports that one of those who
               recently resigned from the IRA was the sister
               of a dead hunger-striker.

               She said she was taking legal action against
               some media and had never been a member of the
               IRA. However, she said her feelings were
               representative of many grassroots republicans.
               "My position is not a maverick or isolated one.

               "Many people see what is going on but until now
               have been afraid to say, 'The emperor has no
               clothes'. A lot of people have been deceived
               and a lot of lies told. There has been a lack
               of debate in the republican movement, but that
               is starting to change."

<FONT  COLOR="#0f0f0f" BACK="#fffffe" SIZE=3>

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Date: Thu, 08 Jan 1998 06:33:18 +0000
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