<HTML><PRE>Subj:	Fwd: Irish News 06 January - Feature
Date:	98-01-06 01:51:23 EST
From:	Buni1957
To:	DeeMcA, RedAxe66, Love irela, Connemara7
To:	FenianBoyo, JustaLocal
CC:	sean@cafes.net


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Forwarded Message: 
Subj:	 Irish News 06 January - Feature
Date:	98-01-05 22:33:31 EST
From:	paddyn@erols.com (Paddy Newell)
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>From The Irish News 06 January 1998
http://www.irishnews.com

**************************************
IRA man held over kidnap murders
Mowlam's plan to kickstart peace talks
Priest condemns unionist leaders
Group launches Bloody Sunday anniversary CD
Congressman's fury at Trimble and Maginnis
Loyalist prisoners issue sparks Trimble meeting
**************************************

IRA man held over kidnap murders

     By Michael O'Toole
     Dublin Correspondent

     MAZE escaper Brendan 'Bic' McFarlane was yesterday being
     questioned in Dundalk over the killings of a Garda and Irish
     soldier more than 14 years ago, the Irish News has learned.

     He was picked up at a Special Branch roadblock as he drove through
     the Co Louth town at around noon.

     Republicans last night expressed their shock at the arrest and
     said the development was "unhelpful" to the shaky peace process.

     Last November McFarlane was pictured shaking hands with President
     Mary McAleese on her first official visit to Belfast.

     Sinn Fein made no comment on the arrest of 46-year-old McFarlane,
     who was Officer Commanding IRA prisoners in the Maze during the
     second hunger strike in 1981 when 10 men died.

     McFarlane was friendly with hunger striker Bobby Sands and is also
     known to be close to Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams.

     He was being questioned last night about the deaths of Garda
     recruit Gary Sheehan (23) and army private Patrick Kelly (35) who
     both died during a gun battle in December 1983 as security forces
     in the Republic freed supermarket executive Don Tidey, kidnapped
     by an IRA gang in November.

     Mr Tidey was freed unharmed but the gang who held him in a dugout
     in a Co Leitrim wood escaped.

     Soon after the kidnap drama, McFarlane, who had escaped from the
     Maze during the IRA jailbreak in late September 1983, was named as
     a key suspect in the kidnapping.

     It was reported that detectives had found forensic evidence to
     link the Ardoyne man to the dugout where Mr Tidy was held.

     He can be held for questioning until at least Wednesday morning.

     McFarlane, who was at one time training for the priesthood, was
     sentenced to life in the 1970s for a gun and bomb attack on the
     Bayardo Bar on Belfast's Shankill Road which killed five
     Protestants.

     After the Maze escape, McFarlane fled to Holland where he fought
     an unsuccessful bid with fellow escaper Gerry Kelly - now a Sinn
     Fein negotiator - to fight extradition to Northern Ireland.

     He was sent back to the north in 1987 and received a five-year
     sentence for his part in the escape.

     He was last released from prison in late 1997.

     Although he kept a fairly low profile after his release, he
     appeared at a Saoirse rally in the centre of Belfast and other
     rallies to demand the release of republican prisoners.

     McFarlane also unveiled a mural in Belfast calling for the release
     of prisoners and exhorting republicans to get behind the Saoirse
     campaign.

     Along with senior Saoirse figure Martin Meehan he also spoke to
     students at Queen's University and told them that the prisoners
     were "100 per cent behind republican strategy".

     McFarlane was still technically a prisoner himself until last
     Christmas on the final stage of a release scheme, and technically
     was really only a free man for a fortnight before his arrest
     yesterday.

     There was a mini-controversy when he was pictured shaking hands
     with President Mary McAleese as she toured the Ardoyne area of
     north Belfast recently.

     A Garda spokesman in Dublin would only say that a man had been
     arrested in Dundalk at 11.50am under section 30 of the Offences
     Against the State Act and was being questioned about firearms
     offences in 1983.
______________________________________

Mowlam's plan to kickstart peace talks

     By William Graham
     Political Correspondent

     NORTHERN IRELAND has "looked over the edge" and people do not want
     a return to the dark days of violence Dr Mo Mowlam said last night
     as she announced plans to kickstart the peace talks.

     The secretary of state was involved in a series of meetings with
     political parties inside and outside the talks process yesterday.

     And at Downing Street Prime Minister Tony Blair had discussions
     with UUP leader David Trimble.

     Mr Trimble, who is due to meet loyalist prisoners in the Maze
     today, had no comment after his meeting with Mr Blair. A Downing
     Street spokesman described the discussions as constructive.

     A question mark remains over whether one of the loyalist parties,
     the PUP, will return to the talks due to re-open at Stormont next
     Monday.

     Irish ministers are expected to travel to Belfast to meet the PUP
     tomorrow. Later this week the loyalist party will hold an
     executive meeting to decide whether to return to the Castle
     Buildings process.

     The talks process has been rattled by the effects of recent
     violence and also unrest within the loyalist groupings about what
     they perceive as one-way confidence-building measures towards
     republicans.

     The UDP has decided to stay in the talks although in the
     background there are noises being made about the shakiness of the
     UDA ceasefire.

     At a press briefing last night Dr Mowlam was asked by the Irish
     News if she felt that some people were playing politics with the
     talks process, which could result in playing with people's lives.
     She replied: "It is very difficult to judge. Listening to the
     parties today, I believe there is a seriousness and realisation
     after the past week by everybody that they have looked over the
     edge and what the alternatives are - a return to violence and the
     dark days people have experienced in Northern Ireland.

     "There was a universality in not wanting to go backwards. And with
     that I hope will come the push and the momentum to move forward
     next week."

     She was asked if the governments, come Monday, would put a draft
     agenda to the parties which they could either accept, amend or
     reject.

     "There were a number of suggestions made to us as to ways of
     moving forward.

     "There was a general agreement that moving forward was what was
     needed. We have a number of alternatives put before us, and we
     have to discuss those with George Mitchell and with the Irish
     government.

     "We have to see if we can get a consensus around one way forward.
     The spirit is to move forward with momentum."

     SDLP leader John Hume and his deputy Seamus Mallon yesterday
     pressed for both governments and talks chairman Senator Mitchell
     to bring forward "substantial and definitive lead papers" at the
     talks next week which would be "a starting point" to move forward.

______________________________________

Priest condemns unionist leaders

     By Niall Blaney

     A BELFAST priest has accused leading unionists of being "utterly
     unmoved" by the murders of Catholics.

     Father Paddy McCafferty said several politicians had used a
     "twisted logic" to try and explain the recent murders of Seamus
     Dillon and Eddie Treanor.

     Leading unionists had shown characteristic blindness by "peddling
     the lie" that loyalist violence was reactive, he said.

     "After Mr [Billy] Wright's death, unionist leaders appealed to
     loyalist gunmen 'not to be provoked' and were quoted in the press
     as praising paramilitaries for showing restraint on the day of Mr
     Wright's funeral," said the priest.

     "Some of these leading figures seem to be utterly unmoved by the
     sufferings of the Catholic community. They always qualify their
     so-called condemnations by implying that the actions of sectarian
     assassins in their own community are understandable, because they
     are being 'provoked'."

     This was an astonishing example of self-deception, said Fr
     McCafferty.

     This could only be described as crass hypocrisy and such people
     would be "better remaining silent when Catholics are hurt and
     killed, because their words only add insult to injury".

     Fr McCafferty, who ministers in west Belfast, said loyalist murder
     gangs had "butchered, bombed, massacred, tortured and terrorised
     hundreds and hundreds of people" solely through anti-Catholic
     hatred.

     However Ulster Unionist security spokesman Ken Maginnis said his
     reaction to the recent killings had been "unequivocal".

     He said: "If the only criticism is that the violence was
     reactionary then I would ask him [Fr McCafferty] to disprove it,
     because it was.

     "That is not to say that it is justified. Whatever the
     provocation, the murders were wrong. My condemnation was
     unequivocal but expressed the context in which the murders
     happened."
___________________________________________

Group launches Bloody Sunday anniversary CD

     By Seamus McKinney
     Derry Correspondent

     AN album has been launched to mark the 26th anniversary of Bloody
     Sunday.

     The album, 14:26 by Derry band The Screaming Binlids, was
     officially launched by Derry writer Eamonn McCann at a special
     function in the city at the weekend.

     Taking its name from the fact that 14 people were shot dead and 26
     were injured during Bloody Sunday, the CD consists of four pieces
     of song and verse commemorating the dead and injured.

     The CD is available at outlets throughout Derry and all proceeds
     go towards the campaign for a new inquiry into the 1972 killings.

     The album opens with a song by the Binlids, Running Up Hill, and
     is followed by a moving verse by a young girl who grew up with the
     memory of Bloody Sunday, despite not being born until after the
     killings.

     An interesting background to the verse was created by slowing the
     actual sound of the shots being fired down to the point where they
     sound like a heart beat.

     The same technique was used as a background for The Butcher's
     Dozen, the album's second verse which was first performed by
     Derry's Toxic Theatre Group on the 25th anniversary of Bloody
     Sunday.

     The album is completed by Bloody Sunday, an unaccompanied song
     sung in the tradition of the Irish ballad.

     Welcoming the launch of the CD, John Kelly, chairman of the Bloody
     Sunday Justice Campaign, said the relatives of the dead and
     wounded were delighted by the production.

     "We believe it is excellent. It is very emotional," Mr Kelly said.

     Deccy McLaughlin of The Screaming Binlids said the inspiration for
     the album came from the group's involvement in Bloody Sunday
     anniversary events in the past.
____________________________________

Congressman's fury at Trimble and Maginnis

     By Peter McVerry

     COMMENTS from Ulster Unionist MPs David Trimble and Ken Maginnis
     on the recent spiral of violence in Northern Ireland have been
     criticised by a senior American congressman.

     Peter King, co-chairman of the congressional ad hoc Committee for
     Irish Affairs, claimed the response of both politicians had been
     inadequate.

     "Trimble and Maginnis should abandon their discredited strategy of
     'not an inch' and face up to their political and moral obligation
     by talking directly to Sinn Fein," he said.

     Last night Mr Maginnis hit back saying that his immediate response
     was to brand Mr King "a damned hypocrite and a whole lot worse".

     Mr King also called on the British government to investigate fully
     whether or not the UDA had any involvement in the recent LVF
     murders of Seamus Dillon and Eddie Treanor.


_____________________________________

Loyalist prisoners issue sparks Trimble meeting

     By Brendan Anderson

     ULSTER Unionist leader David Trimble is to meet loyalist prisoners
     in the Maze this afternoon in a bid to defuse the deteriorating
     security situation.

     It is understood Mr Trimble will lead a unionist delegation to the
     jail for talks with representatives of UDA/UFF prisoners who voted
     at the weekend to withdraw support for the Stormont peace talks.

     He is expected to stress to loyalist prisoners the importance of
     negotiation and urge for a re-focusing of energies on a solution
     to the present impasse.

     The Upper Bann MP will give the same message to the secretary of
     state when he travels to Stormont this morning for the last in Mo
     Mowlam's series of meetings aimed at reassuring parties leaders
     that the talks process could be salvaged.

     The meeting between Ulster Unionists and UDA/UFF prisoners was
     signalled by deputy leader John Taylor yesterday who was in London
     with David Trimble for talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

     "I am keen we should see them, because it's quite clear the whole
     question of paramilitary prisoners is being mishandled by the
     Government.

     "They (loyalist prisoners) are creating an impression of imbalance
     which is breeding discontent and destabilising the political
     process. There is the added problem of the unusual circumstances
     at the Maze which is causing great concern to the Ulster Unionist
     Party and I think it's important we meet with the paramilitaries
     at the earliest opportunity," Mr Taylor said.

     Earlier yesterday, there appeared little comfort for the UDP and
     PUP delegations who both gave gloomy reports of their meetings
     yesterday with the secretary of state.

     PUP negotiator and Belfast councillor Billy Hutchinson said his
     party would give Dr Mowlam one week to come up with a formula
     which would assure loyalists they are not engaged in a one-sided
     process which favoured republicans.

     "She has got until the end of the week to prove she is going to
     make changes. I want the process to work but I want to be an equal
     partner. Not enough has happened today for me to be there next
     Monday. The party can go no longer than the end of this week when
     we'll have to announce a decision, but at this stage I will be
     pushing the executive to vote no."

     The PUP, however, will put off a definite decision on attending
     the talks until after party leaders meet Irish government
     representatives tomorrow.

     Gary McMichael, who also leads a UDP delegation to meet UDA-UFF
     prisoners in the Maze this morning, warned the NIO that lack of
     movement on the prisons issue could lead to "a widening of
     violence".

     Rev Roy Magee, the Presbyterian minister who helped broker the
     loyalist ceasefire, yesterday put forward a plan which he claimed
     would take the heat out of the current situation allowing for the
     phased, gradual release of prisoners.

     Mr Magee said his programme would take the prisons issue out of
     the political equation by setting up a commission composed of
     victims' relatives, prisoners' relatives and security personnel.

     Mr Magee said he had first put forward his proposals three years
     ago but they were not taken up by prison authorities.

     "Their attitude was, it is not the right time," he said.

     Irish Foreign Minister David Andrews said last night he wanted to
     see the issue of loyalist prisoners speeded up.

     Mr Andrews said: "I would like to see that particular issue dealt
     with evenhandedly. It would be a matter really for the British
     government to concern themselves with the loyalist prisoners, and
     I would like to see that issue accelerated."

     Meanwhile a UDP source has revealed that UFF prisoner Johnny
     Adair, serving 16 years on charges of conspiracy to conduct
     terrorism, had contacted the party to deny media reports that he
     had formed an unofficial alliance in the Maze with LVF leader
     Billy Wright, shortly before his murder in the prison last month.


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