Lord Trimble amongst The Dead

Lord Trimble,  arch Unionist, intellectual Loyalist and convinced  Brexiteer, was laid to rest.

An Orangeman, a man of fascist-type Vanguard rallies, whose leaders worked with Loyalist paramilitaries and called for Catholics to be exterminated. A man who supported the reactionary Loyalist Workers Strike. A man who participated in  the Orange Order Siege of Drumcree and the  Garvaghy Road stand-off which was linked to the death of 3 children.

British, Unionist, anti-Catholic, anti-Irish  to his finger-tips.

An unpleasant character, by all reports. Rude, cold, arrogant, easy to anger.

Ostensibly, a man of peace, authority and caution, far-seeing, percipient, worthy recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the run-up to the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement Lord Trimble insisted his  people must not linger on in the past but embrace the present.

Yet he did exactly the opposite.

Lately he supported Brexit,  hindering any move forward on the Northern Irish Protocol (NIP), contradicting judicial  findings  that the NIP breached the 1801 Act of Union  and supporting Unionist refusal to accept a SF First Minister in Northern Ireland.

He ultimately encouraged a tribute to the past, the supremacist  past of Unionism that lives on in present Unionist  parties.

Comment: RIP Let the dead bury the dead

Lord Trimble acquiesced to  the 1998 (Belfast/Good Friday) Agreement because

 a) he had no other choice. The British, Irish  and USA governments offered no alternatives to Sunningdale Mark 2, except Joint Sovreignty with the Irish Republic. A fate worse than death for Unionists/Loyalists.

 b) the IRA/SF were already on board pursuing peace. Being off-side and left out, was not a good look for the Unionist/Loyalist image and

c) the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement secured another 25 and counting years of Unionist hegemony in Northern Ireland.

Queries: What was there  not to like?

A mere quibble about power-sharing for slow learners?

 Lord Trimble knew Unionist/Loyalist  hard-liners were not slow learners.

A long, long time ago they had learnt  how to wield slogans in their favour.

   “No Surrender” and “Never, Never, Never”  guaranteed their place in Northern Ireland and  Westminster, particularly when  the Conservative Party needed to be make up numbers  to form a government.

NB: The Conservative party in England were comparatively slow learners in this regard.

“Brexit is Brexit” and “Take Back Control” came much later.

Unionists/Loyalists had no intention of, nor are they ever  going to, share power with the IRA/SF.

Parity of esteem is a foreign (EU?)  concept to them.

Since 1998, the Stormont Assembly has staggered from one debacle and collapse to to the next.

Unionists  forever walk in smaller “No No No” circles, a minority in the “wee pravince”  they once dominated.

After the latest elections the DUP refuse to participate in the Stormont Assembly, thus blocking everything.

Ostensibly because they do not like the NIP which the British government they supported negotiatiated, ratified and attempted to implement to a certain extent.

Ostensibly because they will not play “bridesmaid” to a SF First Minister.

Comment: Unionists/Loyalists and Westminster are not yet sick of Ireland, not yet sick of being where their supremacism is  unwanted.

Remember: Unionist/Loyalist  attraction to Northern Ireland  is not rooted in love of place and people but in their desire to control the people and impose their will upon everybody living there

Today Unionism/Loyalism/The Loyal Orders are shadows of a past, flickering in a world in which the living and the dead meet, haunted in these summer months by the legacy of 10 dead IRA Hunger Strikers.  

The Stormont Assembly  music has stopped.

Unionists/Loyalists will not permit the Assembly to function unless they get what they demand.

The rest of the parties and MLAs gather at the door, coats on, ready to leave if the DUP gets what it wants. 

If not, what are all the conversations about a “New /Shared Ireland about?

The Past Is Always With Us in Larne and Belfast

For those of you who can’t access the latest “can’t miss” programmes about ulster, northern ireland, are wee pravince, the occupied 6, or whatever you want to call it – here they are!

Today in Larne  – Protestant fundamentalism lives on,  car hoots of animosity and an award for the  best loos in the neighbourhood 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04mpnwq/true-north-series-3-2-i-love-larne

The Past in Belfast – A rebellious heart – Spotlight and Mairia Cahill

The Republican Movement’s handling of sexual abuse allegations against a suspected IRA member,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04lgrlx/spotlight-14102014

The programme raises questions about “kangaroo” courts and for those that remember, Catholic women who were tarred and feathered for socialising with British soldiers, kneecappings, banishment, dead bodies (touts?) along NI country roadsides  and the Disappeared

In 30+ years of the troubles, at least 2,149 people are estimated to have undergone punishment shootings, 1328 punishment beatings and 114 died as a result of attacks. Between 1994 and 1996 about 453 people were subjected to PIRA expulsion/banishment orders.

PS For access to the BBC programmes you may need to install http://hola.org/

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1665&dat=19711110&id=LxsaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RSQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5185,854545
http://books.google.it/books?id=2U-4AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA94&lpg=PA94&dq=PIRA+punishments&source=bl&ots=nVKiNugktp&sig=rF6HPybJyiS8SlBjoVDs5_hqFjk&hl=it&sa=X&ei=-fhHVOfMOoLZavvUgKAN&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAQ#v=onep

In Belfast the UVF, PUP and Orange Order are one and the same thing

Peter Robinson replied to what Mr Mc Guinness said
“The Deputy First Minister shows a visceral hatred of the Orange Institution in his interview.

While the DUP will always take its own decisions on political matters it deliberately invited a representative of the Orange Order to be part of the Haass Talks. I defy Martin McGuinness to deny that Mervyn Gibson’s contribution was anything other than instructive and positive. It is not a revelation to say that there is a link between the PUP and the UVF. Nor is there any news in the suggestion that just as the Orange has within its membership people who are in the DUP, UUP and TUV so too it includes members of the PUP”
Comment: The UVF’s political wing are the PUP. They appear regularly on podiums together with DUP politicians and Orange Order leaders.

An Orange Order spokesman remarked
“tired old mantra from a convicted terrorist, entirely without substance. Sinn Fein are masters of propaganda and one of their big tricks is to tell a big lie and keep on repeating it. We condemned terrorism when Mr McGuinness and his cohorts were actively involved in the IRA and continue to unreservedly oppose it today”.

Queries: What has that to do with links between the Orange Order, the PUP and the UVF? Or with lack of agreement of flags, parades, the past etc?

“The Orange Institution have always stood firm against attacks from the republican movement. During the height of the Troubles these attacks included the brutal murder of over 300 of our members and over 300 arson attacks on Orange halls. Where physical violence failed in the past, so too will verbal attacks fail now.”

Queries: How many people were murdered by members of the Orange Order during the Troubles? How many members of Loyalist paramilitaries were also in the Orange Order?

He added: “The Orange Institution takes its own decisions, applies its own decisions and stands by its own decisions. We will continue to speak out and act for what we believe is in the best interests of the Protestant and pro-Union community in Northern Ireland.”

Queries::Why is the Orange Order involved in politics?
Shouldn’t politicians work for the common goood of all the people, not just “The Protestant People of Ulster”.
Who is going to deal with the Conflict of Interest vis-à-vis Orange order members who are MPs at Westminster amd MLAs in the Stormont Assembly?

Same old, same old, Auld Orange Flute

The flute would play only “The Protestant Boys“.

When he tried it again, it played “Croppies Lie Down!”

“Kick the Pope” and “Boyne Water” it freely would sound
But one Papish squeak and it couldn’t be found.

As the flames rose around it, you could hear a strange noise
‘Twas the Old Flute still a-whistlin’ “The Protestant Boys“.

http://www.mydup.com/news/article/robinson-unhelpful-and-irrational-comments-by-martin-mcguinness
http://www.grandorangelodge.co.uk/news.aspx?id=100485#.UtlxadJ5NA1
http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/flute-band
http://goireland.about.com/od/countydonegal/ig/Rossnowlagh-Orange-Order-Parade/The-Auld-Orange-Flute.htm
http://www.demotix.com/news/30876/bowler-hats-sashes-and-banners-orange-order-northern-ireland#media-30868

Acht na Gaeilge: The Non-Appearance of the Irish Language Act

Case report
An Irish language speaker, Caoimhin Mac Giolla Cathain, a member of the Shaws Road Gaeltacht in west Belfast, was informed that his application in Irish for a drinks licence could not be considered.

Court staff said the reason was that the Administration of Justice (Language) Act of 1737 stipulated that “all proceedings in courts of justice within this kingdom shall be in the English language”.


Mr Justice Treacy dismissed Mr Cathain’s contention that the 1737 Act was incompatible with the European Charter for Regional and Minorities Language and secondly that the Act was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Solicitor Michael Flanagan said “We find it difficult to accept that legislation created in 1773 is still fit for purpose in a modern and diverse society and especially so in the light of the Good Friday Agreement’s commitment to promoting minority and regional languages.”

Historian Dr Eamon Phoenix concluded: “The 1737 Act can be viewed as a piece of discriminatory legislation directed at the mother tongue of the mass of the Irish population at that time.It is therefore the cultural equivalent of the penal laws.”

“On the contrary” said Dr McBride, King’s College, London. He stated: “I cannot find any evidence to suggest that the Act was ever regarded as part of the ‘penal laws,’ that it was intended as (an) anti-Catholic measure, or that it was intended to weaken the position of the Irish language in Ireland.”
According to the Judgment approved by the Court for handing down

“The 1737 Act was intended to prevent people being misled or in the language of Section 1 “ensnared” by writs and formal documents formulated in Latin, French or other foreign languages. It was a statute intended to reform the then prevailing antiquated and linguistically cumbersome court procedures to remove some of the procedural complexities arising from ancient writs and procedures formulated in legal language no longer comprehensible to ordinary litigants. There is nothing to suggest that those who could only speak Irish were prevented from giving their evidence in Irish subject to translation. English was the common working language of the higher courts in Ireland, a consequence of the imposition of English common law on Ireland. Whatever may be said of the adverse consequence of that linguistic policy to the Irish language the present position is that English is not merely the working language of the courts. It is now clearly the working language of nearly the entire population”

How many people in Northern Ireland understand spoken Irish?

An average of 1% can understand complicated spoken sentences and radio or TV programmes in Irish. A mean of 1% use Irish at home, conversing with family or housemates, on a daily basis and 3% occasionally(7% Catholics vs <0.5% Protestants). Another 2% understand a simple conversation in Irish. A further 3% can understand simple spoken sentences or phrases, e.g. ‘It’s half past three’
Another 4% can understand single spoken words or simple phrases, e.g. ‘Hello’ or ‘How are you?’

Age, health status, level of deprivation of the area they live in and if they live in an urban or rural location are all related to the likelihood of having knowledge of Irish. More Catholics know Irish than Protestants (29% and 2% respectively). Overall, 18% of the population in Northern Ireland are interested in learning more about Irish (29% Catholics and 8% Protestants).

According to Article 8 of the 1937 Constitution of Ireland (Irish: Bunreacht na hÉireann) Irish is the first language of the country, with English – in theory – enjoying a supplementary function.
Article 8 of the Constitution of Ireland
1. Ós í an Ghaeilge an teanga náisiúnta is í an phríomhtheanga oifigiúil í. 2. Glactar leis an Sacs-Bhéarla mar theanga oifigiúil eile. (‘1. Because Irish is the national language, it is the main official language. 2. English is accepted as another official language’, translation RH).
Despite this constitutional support, English is in effect the language of public life and around 99% of Ireland’s four million people speak it as a native language. Nonetheless, Irish has a special status in Ireland.
The St Andrews Agreement
In October 2006, in Appendix B
Both governments agreed the UK Government would introduce an Irish Language Act and work with the incoming Executive to enhance and protect the development of the Irish Language.

The British and the Irish Governments actually agreed that?

The agreement is between the British Government and the Irish
Government and not the Belfast Government in Stormont

The unionist political parties issued public statements stating their intention to veto any Irish language legislation

Democratic Unionist Party Ministers for Culture, Arts and Leisure at the NI Assembly have stated publicly that they will not enact the Irish Language Act.

16th October 2007: Minister Edwin Poots

stated that he ‘was not persuaded of the need for Irish Language legislation.’

4th December 2008: Minister Gregory Campbell

in response to the question
‘When does the Minister intend to introduce an Irish language Act, so that there is parity
between Wales, Scotland and the North of Ireland?’ stated, ‘I do not intend to do so.’
Minister Nelson McCausland,

made a number of negative comments about the Irish Language Act and he stated that he would continue to implement the same approach as his predecessors.

David McNarry (originally UUP, now UKIP) Past Assistant Grand Master Orange Order,

reaffirmed the unionist will to veto an Irish language act.

Not being satisfied with attempting to stymie the proposed act, he now essentially seeks to ban the Irish language from Stormont,

as it offends Unionist bigoted sensibilities.
The same hostility towards the Irish language persists in other Departments and throughout some of the structures of the devolved institutions. Peter Quinn, Chairman of Irish broadcaster TG4, accused senior NI civil servants of bias against the Irish language.
Since 2007 international bodies have noted the intolerance and sectarianism
prevalent in discussions at Assembly level around the Irish language

The Council of Europe Committee of Experts on the European Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages (2010) raises the issue of the resistance of some unionists.
‘as things currently stand, legislation on the protection and promotion of the Irish language is unlikely to be made by the NI Assembly. It could however be made by the UK Parliament under its parallel competence.’
The Experts urge the UK authorities, ‘to provide an appropriate legislative base for the protection and promotion of Irish in NI’.

Calling all Unionists!

Does this frighten you?

As a native English speaker does this terrify you? If so, care to explain why?

PS For all further info about the status of the Irish language please see the expert: http://ansionnachfionn.com/

Click to access Aighneacht-POBAL-Gaeilge.pdf

Click to access POBAL-submission-English.pdf

Click to access irish_language_chs_2011-12_bulletin.pdf

Click to access irish_language_speech.pdf

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/high-court-challenge-over-irish-language-ban-fails-28486155.html
http://www.courtsni.gov.uk/en-GB/Judicial%20Decisions/PublishedByYear/Documents/2010/2010%20NICA%2024/j_j_GIR7778Final.htm
https://www.uni-due.de/DI/OfficialStatus.htm
http://www.lastfm.fr/forum/5/_/2047305/3
http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/1704-Penal-Codes0
http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/3260974/hahahaha/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1262504/4-guilty-1-75m-Heathrow-heist-trial-jury.html
http://www.whenredmeansgo.com/2011/07/almost-famous-love-letter-to-anonymous.html
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2013/12/04/is-canada-failing-the-grade-at-math/
http://www.raywenderlich.com/36341/paintcode-tutorial-dynamic-buttons
http://lgbtlibdemsni.wordpress.com/tag/edwin-poots/
http://politicalscrapbook.net/2011/05/edwin-poots-creationism-evolution/
http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest111007.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7453109.stm
http://www.davidmcnarry.com/new_profile.htm

The British Army Military Reconaissance Force (MRF) and The New Lodge 6

You watched the Pamorama programme
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/britains-secret-terror-force/
Some people have been putting 2 and 2 together,

coming up with the same answer as families of the New Lodge 6 victims.

They have long maintained that the massacre was a joint operation by Loyalist paramilitaries and the British army, acting on the direction of the Military Reconnaisance Force (MRF) later to be known as the Force Research Unit (FRU).

https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/collusion-is-not-an-illusion/
In fact, the tactics described by the MRF men have a chilling similarity to the events surrounding the deaths of the New Lodge Six on February 3rd-4th 1973

What exactly happened?
At 11.00 pm a car sped out of Hallidays Road from Loyalist Tiger’s Bay. Its occupants opened fire with a machine gun

on a group of men standing outside Lynch’s Bar at the junction of the New Lodge Road and Antrim Road. Two men were killed

Volunteers James McCann and James Sloan (19) who had only been married for five weeks, with his wife only finding out she was pregnant after his death.

The weapon used to kill the men was

a sub-machine gun. The car continued down the Antrim Road and fire was directed at a Chinese restaurant injuring others. The car then did a ‘U’ turn and went back to nearby loyalist Tiger’s Bay


Eyewitnesses reported that a British Army Saracen armoured vehicle was parked on the Antrim Road at the time but did nothing to apprehend the occupants of the car or give medical assistance to the injured. As the people of the area gathered on the streets after hearing the shooting,

they soon came under a hail of gunfire from several positions in a huge British Army operation.

The British army was firing from Duncairn Gardens down Edlingham Street and from the top of Templar and Alamein Flats. For the first time they were using their new ‘Nitesights’ with deadly effect. Unarmed Volunteer Tony Campbell was returning from a disco in Newington after celebrating his 19th birthday when he was shot dead by the British army at the junction of Edlingham Street and New Lodge Road.

Brendan Maguire went to help Tony Campbell and was shot dead at the same spot.

Then, John Loughran, a married man with three children and a fourth on the way, came out of his house wearing just a pair of trousers and a vest to help the injured. He too was shot dead beside Tony Campbell and Brendan Maguire.

He was later described by a judge as a “good Samaritan“.By this time, people were taking shelter wherever they could, in doorways, under cars or in the old Circle Club. When there was a lull in the gunfire, Ambrose Hardy emerged from the doorway of the club holding a white cloth

above his head, fearing his concerned mother would come looking for him when she heard the shooting. He was shot in the head by a British Army sniper.

None of the six men was armed when killed. The Ministry of Defence later paid compensation to their families.

Devastating findings of Community Inquiry

No proper inquiry into these killings took place until 30 years later. When it did, it was not organised by the responsible British authorities, but by the local community.An eminent panel of jurists (human-rights solicitor Gareth Peirce: professor Colin Harvey, head of the human rights centre at Leeds University law school: US civil litigator Ed Lynch: solicitor Kate Akester, chair of mental health tribunals, London, and Belfast solicitor Eamann McMenamin), was chaired by Don Mullan. During the 2-day inquiry, jurists remarked on having heard nothing about these deaths at the time

John Finucane:

“As a young student solicitor, I was lucky enough to help and work on the Community Inquiry into killings by the British Army of six unarmed men in the New Lodge on the night of 3rd and 4th February 1973.

“It was truly inspirational to see the international calibre of lawyers and human rights activists gather to forensically examine the actions of the British soldiers that night. 

“At the conclusion of the emotional two-day inquiry, the jurists found that the state had totally failed to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the six victims and the wounding of several others.  

“They  stated  there was “no evidence to indicate that any of the deceased and wounded were armed at the time of their shooting or acting in a manner which might have been interpreted as a potential threat“.

They admitted they were deepy shocked at “the state’s total failure to investigate the killings” and confirmed the official response to the killings including the investigation by the British Forces, the RUC and the inquests amounted to a breach by the British state of  Article 2, European Convention on Human Rights, Right to Life and Rights of All Deceased

They said: “We further find the British state continues to breach the Article 2 rights of the deceased. Despite the passage of almost thirty years since the fatal killings in this case, we hold that it is neither impossible nor impracticable to hold such an investigation and accordingly the breach continues.”
The panel recommends that “the British government take steps to legislatively introduce exemplary and/or punitive damages in cases where the deceased was the victim of arbitrary and unconstitutional actions by the state or its agencies”

They recommended “Legislation which would allow the next of kin of a deceased to “bring libel actions for damages against the media for deliberately of recklessly maligning a deceased person particularly when same is for the purpose of sensationalism and/or profit,”

Aftermath
The British Army confirmed they killed four of the men, but they never admitted the deaths of Mr Sloan or Mr McCann. The British soldiers who killed six unarmed men in the New Lodge in 1973 have been branded “legal trigger men” who’s activities were “deliberately covered up” in order to hide the truth.

In chapter 7 of ‘The Trigger Men’

author Martin Dillon shows clearly that members of the men’s families and campaigners trying to get to the truth behind the men’s deaths have been obstructed at every turn.

Paul O’Neill speaking on behalf of the families said
“We’ve been totally stonewalled and ignored for years. This was an ambush, those men were set up. It was mass murder.

We will speak to anyone who wants to help us get the truth out.”
Sinn Féin MLA Cathy Stanton

said the killings were a mirror image of the events of Bloody Sunday.
“This was a planned operation to murder and maim and was in keeping with British policy at that time. In the period 1969 to 1973 the British state had killed 188 people and what happened here in the New Lodge was part of that pattern.What compounded the grief was that they tried to place the guilt on those who were without guilt. That is, the men they murdered and the families, they ruined. All we have to do to understand this pattern is understand Bloody Sunday in Derry when the world was told these men were nail bombers.”

A former UVF member has publicly confirmed that he worked with British military intelligence to organise and take part in the gun attack which left six men dead.

Update 5/2/2016: 

The British army claimed all of the New Lodge Six killings, four days after police discovered a car allegedly belonging to loyalist assassins in North Belfast.

Archived records accessed by Ciarán MacAirt at Kew National Archives  show   Prime Minister Edward Heath initialled and dated a document claiming the shootings on February 9, 1973, four days after eight bullet casings were found in an abandoned vehicle close to Tennent Street police station.

 A file belonging to the Prime Minister’s office reads: “On Saturday 3 Feb the major violence took place in the New Lodge Road area where between 2345 and 0300 hrs 4 Feb an estimated 189 rounds were fired at SF [Security Forces] who returned 168 rounds and claimed seven hits, six of the hits have been confirmed as bodies are [sic] in the RVH [Royal Victoria Hospital]. Five of the six were known to the SF as members if [sic] the Provisional IRA or Fianna and there is an unconfirmed report of the involvement of the sixth.”

UPDATE 12 February 2021

Brenda King

Attorney General Brenda King has ordered a fresh inquest into the shooting of six Catholic men in the New Lodge area of north Belfast in February 1973.

http://belfastmediagroup.com/panorama-programme-raises-questions-about-new-lodge-six/?
http://www.thenewlodge.com/history/newlodgesix.html
http://www.troopsoutmovement.com/newlodgesix.htm
http://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/22714
http://www.irishdemocrat.co.uk/news/2003/new-lodge-inquiry/
http://paperhatco.com/blog/
http://www.belfastforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,28922.90.html
http://www.armouryinaction.co.uk/sub-machine-guns.php
http://www.gurivenstad.com/Listen-Sandy
http://irishpoliticalephemera.blogspot.it/p/new-lodge-rd.html
http://paper.standartnews.com/en/article.php?d=2010-01-08&article=31677
http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.it/2011/02/canyon-1-josh-moran-0.html
http://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=27379
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-man-waving-surrender-flag-image5979441

http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/48100

http://www..belfast media group.com/new-documents-show-that-british-army-claimed-massacre-killings/

https://www.irishlegal.com/article/fresh-inquest-ordered-into-new-lodge-six-shooting?fbclid=IwAR0nx8SuLBDAF_ic09fZmftTXIfh9zHa5QdE0cVURvFpx2XhaXiPvARVCEU