<HTML><PRE>Subj:	 RMD971020 Irish news for Monday 20 October
Date:	97-10-20 15:25:39 EDT
From:	rmlist-reply@irlnet.com (RM_Distribution)
To:	rmlist-reply@irlnet.com (Multiple recipients of RM_Distribution - Sent by)

     IRISH NEWS ROUND-UP
     Monday, 20 October, 1997


1.   'Dirty tricks' aimed at peace process
2.   Call for removal of spy posts
3.   UN to investigate harassment of lawyers
4.   RUC plot to 'set up' Belfast Republican
5.   Analysis: Genocide as halftime entertainment in California


_________________________________________________________


>>>> 'Dirty tricks' aimed at peace process


The furore over secret Irish government documents on converations
with presidential candidate Professor Mary McAleese dragged on
today, overshadowing peace negotiations at Stormont Castle in
Belfast.

The South's presidential election campaign has become dominated
by noisy and confused reaction to the leaks.

The memos recount conversations by a Dublin official with
McAleese while she was actively involved in a peace initiative
led by the Redemptorist priests in Belfast.  Apparently working
to build a consensus between the North's two nationalist parties
prior to the Six County elections this year, the documents reveal
McAleese regularly met Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams and SDLP
leader John Hume.

But her meetings with Mr Adams, coupled with the statement by the
Dublin official that McAleese was pleased with the Sinn Fein's
increased electoral support,  have been seized upon by unionists
to create a controversy over the prospect of an Irish President
with "ties" to Sinn Fein.

And in a highly unusual intervention, the small unionist Alliance
Party of Northern Ireland has called on Ms McAleese to withdraw
from the 26 County election, claiming the notes by the Dublin
Department of Foreign Affairs of conversations with McAleese were
a "distraction" and her candidacy was "divisive".

The comments by the Alliance Party leader Lord Alderdice have
been described as "regrettable" by Irish Prime Minister Bertie
Ahern, leader of the Fianna Fail party.

Comment-hungry journalists became incensed last night after Prof
McAleese declined to make any further comment on the controversy
beyond her remarks on Irish television talk shows last week.
After a fracas in Galway city centre in the west of Ireland
yesterday evening, Prof McAleese was today pursued by the media
from Galway out to the isolated Aran islands off the west of
Ireland.

Faced with the increasing clamour for a response, McAleese today
asserted: "I am not and I have never been a supporter of Sinn
Fein, and I am strongly opposed to the use of violence. The fact
that I talked to Sinn Fein does not make me a member or a
supporter - any more than talking to Her Majesty The Queen made
me a Unionist."

North and south of the border, unionists, reactionaries, and
their traditional allies in the media have railed against Prof
McAleese, and by extension, Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein, and
nationalists in general.

But there has been also been a surge of public support for Prof
McAleese, who is being seen as challenging the same northern
taboos that the former President Mary Robinson sought to
overcome.

Many believe the controversy is the work of the main opposition
party in the 26 Counties, Fine Gael, working with media
spin-doctors and handlers. The inheritors of Ireland's civil war
anti-Republican tradition, the party is hoping their candidate,
Mary Banotti, can win enough vote transfers in the proportianal
representation electoral system to overhaul front-runner
McAleese.  Defeat in the election could pose major problems for
the exisiting minority government led by Fianna Fail.

Other documents -- said to be much more damaging to the peace
process than the documents concerning Prof McAleease -- have also
been leaked, but not published.

Sinn Fein's Chief Negotiator Martin McGuinness said the leaks
showed anti-Republican and anti-Nationalist elements, possibly
part of the previous Irish government, were attempting to
undermine key figures in the northern peace process to their own
ends.

Mr McGuinness said: "We think some very sinister forces are
behind all this. I have an open mind ... but I think there are
people who were part of the previous government who are now
leading the charge in attacking the key players in the peace
process."

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams today again confirmed
his personal preference for the government presidential
candidate. But he insisted that his all-Ireland party, which is
not running a candidate, was not formally endorsing any of the
five runners in the October 30 election. And he directed strong
criticism at former Irish Prime Minister John Bruton, now leader
of Fine Gael.

The West Belfast MP first indicated his backing for Ms McAleese
on an Irish radio phone-in last week. Today he returned to the
same show to confirm his opinion had not changed. He said: "I
have no regrets about anything I said. I did not mean to do any
harm to Mary McAleese - that was certainly not my intention. I
gave a personal opinion about where my vote would go - if I had a
vote."

His original comments had been made without knowing about the
dirty tricks tactics surrounding the campaign, he said.

"I think it has only marginally to do with this election
campaign, and has more to do with trying to undermine the
potential for a truly democratic peace settlement."

He accused Mr Bruton and his colleagues of indulging "in the
politics of innuendo and McCarthyism," adding, "It is McCarthyism
to suggest that because someone comes from the north or has a
nationalist view of the world, that person is not worthy of
expressing an opinion or being elected to office."

Mr Adams said the opposition leader was following "a very narrow
agenda which seeks to uphold the status quo.  It has got to do
with undermining the efforts to establish a peace settlement
which may be outside the vision of those espousing this dirty
tricks campaign."


WALK-OUT

* Ulster Unionists today walked out and later rejoined the peace
talks in Belfast today following a clash with the Irish
government.

The party withdrew from the north-south strand two of
negotiations to push its demand for the removal the South's
territorial claim over the Six Counties, as expressed in the
Irish Constitution.

Mr David Trimble and his team left the room because the Irish
foreign affairs minister, David Andrews, had failed to give a
commitment to begin a process to change Articles Two and Three of
the Irish constitution as a "confidence-building measure" in
advance of an overall settltement.

But Mr Andrews said afterwards: "We can make no commitment until
we get down to the nitty-gritty of negotiations." But he added:
"Of course Articles Two and Three will be discussed during the
substantive element of these talks."



_________________________________________________________



>>>> Call for removal of spy posts


Up to a thousand people from both sides of the border took part
yesterday in a march and rally in south Armagh to highlight the
campaign against British army hilltop spy towers.

The massive constructions in nationalist areas bristle with
electronic surveillance equipment and are a constant source of
British military traffic by air and road. The landscape-scarring
spy posts are detested by residents as intimidatory, dangerous
and invasions of their privacy.

Yesterday's rally was organised by the South Armagh Farmers' and
Residents Committee - a newly formed group representing a
cross-section of community interests. Speakers included
representatives of Sinn Fein, SDLP, Fianna Fail, farming and
sporitng organisations.

Chairman Declan Fearon said the rally was the result of the
concern and anger in the community over the fact that since the
ceasefires, the only sign of peace in South Armagh was the
cessation called by the IRA.

He said the community could not understand why the activities of
the Crown forces were stepped up with more helicopter flights and
an increased volume of military activity on the ground.

Speakers pointed out there is no reason for the continued
existence of the hilltop spy posts, which carry high-energy
surveillance equipment believed to pose a serious health hazard.
Both people and livestock have become mysteriously ill in the
vicinity of these posts, a situation possibly exacerbated by the
stress of living in the shadow of these towers.



_________________________________________________________



>>>> UN to investigate harassment of lawyers



Dr Param Cumaraswamy has arrived in Belfast this morning from the
UN Commission on Human Rights. He will investigate abuses
suffered by defence lawyers acting for persons charged with
republican activity.

In a week where a solicitor was called a "Provo bastard" by an
RUC detective in the presence of an official of the Independent
Commission for Holding Centres in Armagh's Gough Barracks and
Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson was twice a victim of
harassment, the UN lawyer will launch an investigation into the
range of RUC police misconduct issuses over the past 10 years.

Mr Cumaraswamy has told the British government he wants to cover
not just the abuses of defence lawyers but also RUC denial of a
solicitor's presence during interrogation and the absence of
video or audio recordings in holding centres. He also wants look
at the way the right to silence works in the Six Counties, and
how emergency laws have been abused.

The UN lawyer will also investigate the murder of Pat Finucane by
a loyalist death-squad in 1989, weeks after a British minister
complained to the House of Commons that some lawyers in the six
counties were close to 'terrorist' organisations.

His law partner, Peter Madden of Madden & Finucane, said that
intimidation by RUC officers was widespread.

Mr Madden says he has been demanding an independent investigation
into solicitors' claims of verbal abuse and death threats for the
past ten years.

"It's very widespread and has been going on for some considerable
time," he said. "Lawyers are threatened when they come to the
holding centre to see their client. There have also been
threatening phone calls in the middle of the night.

"There were very serious threats made to Pat shortly before he
was shot and one of those said he would be, and should be shot by
loyalists." Pearse MacDermott of the Solicitors' Criminal Bar
Association said: "We work in an adversarial system but it
shouldn't involve naked aggression.

"Lawyers have been reluctant to put their heads above the parapet
in case it exacerbates things. They tend to take their own
security precautions and keep their heads down."

Mr Cumaraswamy's findings will be published in a report to the
Human Rights Commission in Geneva.


_________________________________________________________


>>>> RUC plot to 'set up' Belfast Republican


The RUC offered a #5,000 bribe and said they would overlook a
driving offence if a West Belfast man agreed to "set up" a named
senior republican. "I knew rightly what they meant by set up,"
said Gerard Scott. "They wanted me to tell them what houses he
went into, what cars he drove, what people he associated with and
dates, times and places. I have no doubt that the information
would be used to assassinate him."

38-year-old Gerard Scott, from Poleglass, was at Woodbourne RUC
barracks following a drink driving incident when he was told
there were two men at Grosvenor Road barracks who wanted to speak
to him. "I thought they wanted to breathalyse me," said Scott. At
Grosvenor Road, Scott was taken to an interview room by two
plainclothes men, one of whom spoke with an English accent. The
two men questioned him about a well known West Belfast
republican. "I told them I'd heard of him but didn't know him but
they said I must do and told me they would give me #5,000 for
setting him up." Frightened and "eager to get home", Gerard
"agreed wholeheartedly", promising to return the following day to
discuss the matter further.

When Scott failed to keep the appointment, the family was
subjected to a series of telephone calls and a visit by RUC
officers with a sniffer dog. The RUC phoned over 30 times in a 24
hour period. "They just kept ringing. I told them to leave us
alone but they wouldn't go away." The father of five, who is
already recieving medical treatment for depression, now feels
under intense pressure from the RUC. He attempted to take his own
life. Fortunately his suicide attempt was interrupted when his
wife, Julie, returned home unexpectedly.

Sinn Fein Councillor Alex Maskey said Gerard Scott's story was
not an isolated incident. "This is the third time in two months
individuals in West Belfast have been approached by the RUC and
asked to help set up the same republican," Maskey said.

In a further recruitment attempt by the RUC, a 42-year-old father
of three from County Tyrone was approached by the RUC and offered
#1,000 to "uncover an AK47 in Kildress and provide information
about who was involved in Teebane". The man was also offered a
weekly #100 "to keep an eye on" named people.

 
_________________________________________________________


>>>> Analysis: Genocide as halftime entertainment in California

by Christy Mac an Bhaird (for the Irish People)

OK, boys and girls, let's all scamper down to the barn, throw up
a few sheets, turn over a few crates, stack a couple of hay
bales, and have a little fun.

Just like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in the old Andy Hardy
films, the kids just want to put on a knee-slapping parody and
show the old- timers they've got something to say. Something
important.

But what to poke fun at? That's the hard question. What bit of
history deserves attention and can use a bit of humor?

That must have been the big question over at Stanford University
in Palo Alto, California, last week. Just what human tragedy
could the bad boys of the University's band make light of for the
good folks attending the Notre Dame football game's halftime
program?

The band is known for its outrageous "satirical" shows. And at
times they've been called "controversial."

So, with a few thousand supporters of an Irish Catholic
university in the stands, these college-aged clowns opted to make
fun of An Gorta Mor--the Irish famine--the Catholic Church and
Irish people in general, referring to them as "stinking drunks."

Now, you've got to understand that Stanford is one of the elite
universities on the American scene, perhaps on the planet. Bill
Clinton's daughter picked Stanford above Harvard and Yale and,
like all the other children of America's elite, she'll need to
plunk down a cool 20,500 dollars for tuition, 7,300 for room and
board, and another grand for books. That's per year.

Chelsea Clinton has joined the private, coed institution's
population, one which includes 2 percent Native American, 8
percent African American, 11 percent Hispanic, 24 percent Asian,
and 51 percent Caucasian. Boy, what giggles they can all have.

Ted Leland, the athletic director, wasn't too pleased with the
publicity his band received after the tasteless parody. And
that's just what he called it, "tasteless."

So what'd he do? He banned the band. Well, sort of banned them.

These racist "Saturday Night Live"-wannabes are not allowed to
play at any football games between the 16th-ranked Stanford
Cardinals and Notre Dame between now and the year 2000.

That means they'll miss the game in 1999. It also means they'll
not be on the bus when Stanford travels to South Bend, Indiana,
for the game next year or the game in 2000. Leland also said
he'll "review band scripts" in the future.

Sorry guys, that ain't enough.

More than a couple of million persons died in The Great Hunger.
That's millions. An equal number were forced to leave their
country, many dying en route to America and beyond.

In total, some five million Irish--some say it was more--were
affected by the starvation that was the direct result of
England's racist attitudes toward the Irish in the mid-1800s.
This is nothing to laugh about, especially as Irish America marks
the 150th anniversary of this genocide. This just isn't funny, no
way, no how.

One wonders if the band would sometime do a parody of the Jewish
Holocaust. Perhaps some might find it absolutely hysterical to
see band members playing at placing Jewish babies in ovens.

There are other ethnic groups that could be treated to a good
laugh. What about a parody of Mexicans dying in the back of
tractor/trailers while being smuggled across the border? That's
got a particularly California flavor.

And then there's Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That might make the
Asian- American 24 percent on campus laugh until the cows come
home.

Native Americans might take particular delight in a parody of
Wounded Knee. African Americans could be entertained with a mock
assassination of Martin Luther King, or that old funny favorite
of the sophomoric elite, slavery.

And what about one that hits home? Nothing like yucking it up
while watching a puckish play about teenaged fraternity pledges
asphyxiating on their own vomit while making it through Hell Week
at the local frat house.

This goes beyond being politically correct. The actions of the
Stanford band were ghoulish, and heads should roll. The band
should be disbanded. Making light of human tragedy on that scale
shows an absolute disregard for life. These acts should not be
dismissed as mischievous pranks of the maturity-challenged;
theyought to be considered serious offenses that should bar them
from taking part in university functions for the remainder of
their stay.

And many within the Irish-American community find the use of
Notre Dame's leprechaun mascot offensive. It is indeed so. It
should be put in the closet with Caucasians who performed in
"blackface" at minstrel shows, with Atlanta Braves and Cleveland
Indians fans who don "war paint" in support of their teams--and
with college sophomores who think that the death of millions is
half-time entertainment.




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Subject: RMD971020 Irish news for Monday 20 October

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