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McDowell accuses Sinn F?in over Bellenaboy violence The Minister for Justice has said Sinn F?in is playing a significant role in prompting trouble at the Shell gas terminal site in Co Mayo. Speaking after this morning's violence at Bellanaboy, Michael McDowell said the garda? there have his full backing. He hit out at key figures in Sinn F?in saying: "I want to say to Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness and Caoimhin O?Caolain that this tactic of confronting the Garda? and of breaking the law to achieve political notoriety won?t succeed. "We've gone through all forms of due process and we?ve...

Omagh bombing trial gets started DNA evidence links man to 1998 massacre, court is told By Jonathan McCambridge 25 September 2006 The trial of the man accused of murdering 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bomb massacre finally got under way today. Belfast Crown Court was told that DNA and fibre evidence could connect 37-year-old Sean Hoey to the no-warning Real IRA explosion and a number of other dissident republican attacks. Hoey, from Molly Rd, Jonesborough, who denies a total of 58 terrorist offences, sat in the dock in Court 12, guarded by two court officials, as the Diplock trial...

Sinn Fein accuse McDowell of 'posing' as tough on crime Sinn Féin spokesperson Aengus O Snodaigh TD today accused Minister for Justice Michael McDowell of "headline grabbing" and posing by adopting a tough stance on crime. In his statement Mr O Snodaigh supported suggestions that overcrowding at Mountjoy contributed to the death of Gary Douch in July adding: "More prisons and bigger prisons is not the answer." The Dublin south-central TD said: “After the tragic death of Gary Douch in Mountjoy Prison at the end of July, the Irish Prison Service rejected suggestions that Mountjoy was overcrowded, or that overcrowding...

Around 50 petrol bombs were thrown at police on patrol in Londonderry last night as sectarian tensions rose ahead of one of the main events of the marching season. Two cars were stolen in the disturbances, one of which was forcibly hijacked. They were both later found burnt out in the nationalist neighbourhood of Bogside. It is estimated that around 10,000 members of the Protestant group the Apprentice Boys will be participating in a parade in the city of Derry today with other smaller processions taking place elsewhere in Northern Ireland. Despite the trouble that stretched into the early hours...

The dissident republican Real IRA has claimed responsibility for the firebomb attacks on stores in Newry this week. Firebombs destroyed JJB Sports and CarpetRight stores in the town whilst a TK Maxx store and MFI outlet were among those badly damaged on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the cross-border railway line between Newry and Dundalk has been closed while police carry out a search. It follows the Real IRA's warning in its statement that there may be unexploded devices on the line. The firebomb attacks earlier this week are estimated to have caused damage worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Newry's SDLP mayor...

IRA 'has ceased its criminality' The IRA is no longer involved in any centrally organised criminality, the British and Irish governments believe. Speaking after meeting Irish ministers, NI Secretary Peter Hain said cross-border intelligence indicated the IRA was living up to its commitments. Mr Hain said individual IRA members may still be involved in criminal activities, but that should not prevent political progress from being made. However, the DUP's Nigel Dodds said Mr Hain was "living in fantasy land". "This latest assessment from the secretary of state lacks credibility and will be treated by the vast majority of people in...

IRA murdered mother 'not an informer' 07/07/2006 - 12:34:40 A mother of 10 who was abducted and shot dead by the IRA nearly 34 years ago was officially cleared today of allegations that she was an informer. Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan said her investigators had found no evidence Jean McConville passed information to the security services. The IRA claimed Mrs McConville, who was seized as she went to the aid of a fatally wounded British soldier outside her front door in December 1972, worked for the intelligence’s agencies. Public pressure forced them into making an apology for the...

Man jailed for five years for IRA membership 28/06/2006 - 13:50:34 A Dublin man who a top garda said had been a member of the IRA since he was 15 years old, has been jailed for five years at the Special Criminal Court. Vincent Kelly, who was arrested wearing an Oglaigh na hEireann t-shirt, was found guilty by the three-judge court earlier this month of being a member of the IRA on June 7 last year. Kelly, who is now 21, of Empress Place, Ballybough, Dublin was arrested when gardaí found a handgun hidden inside a van on the Malahide...

IRA were behind 48pc of Troubles murders A UNIVERSITY of Ulster academic yesterday blamed the IRA for the overwhelming majority of murders during the Troubles. Henry Patterson, Professor of History at Jordanstown, challenged the view that the Northern Ireland conflict was a simple "war of liberation" by republicans against colonial interests and said there were key differences between the Troubles in Northern Ireland and struggles in Africa and Latin America. He told the sixth International Conference of The Spanish Association for Irish Studies at the University of Valladolid in Spain that the Provisional IRA was responsible for 48 per cent...

Sinn Féin MP Martin McGuinness has rubbished claims by a number of tabloid newspapers that he is a high-level British spy. The claims were made on Sunday, but Mr McGuinness said today that he was certain no evidence would ever be produced to support the allegations. He also accused the Democratic Unionist Party of being in league with the British spy-handler who was allegedly the source of the allegation. "This is a dirty trick manufactured and constructed by people within the DUP who are now hooked up to others hostile to the [peace] process," he said

Wednesday, May 10, 2006 It’s time to stop the sinister Shinners By: John Cooney THE week-end news story which jumped out of the pages was the revelation that Sinn Fein is linked to a major abuse of the voting register. The Sunday Tribune’s front-page report was based on allegations by Fianna Fail back-bencher Sean Ardagh, one of my local T.D.’s in the Dublin South Central constituency. Sean, who is chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Justice committee, has done a civic service to voters by brining to the Government’s notice the first concrete evidence of electoral fraud that is imputed to...

Provisionals linked to expulsion of family at centre of row after killing The Provisional IRA has been linked to the forcing out of a family at the centre of a dispute in west Belfast following the murder of Gerard Devlin. However, the latest assessment by the IMC said the organisation had not sanctioned the use of violence in relation to the expulsion. Mr Devlin (39), a father-of-six, was stabbed to death on February 3 in Ballymurphy. His killing sparked a wave of attacks. The IMC said that after the murder the IRA "sought to defuse tensions and that despite popular...

Judge throws out Omagh bomb suspect's legal challenge 28/04/2006 - 15:04:46 The trial of the man charged with the Omagh bomb atrocity should go ahead in September, a judge ruled today. Confirmation that Sean Hoey, aged 36, should stand trial came when a judge threw out an application by lawyers acting for the electrician that the charges should be dropped. In a ruling at Belfast Crown Court Mr Justice Weir said he had carefully considered submissions made by both the defence and the Crown during a No Bills Application and had decided there was a case to answer and the...

26 April 2006 IMC report finds IRA committed to 'political and peaceful path' The Independent Monitoring Commission today published its tenth report, revealing that the body set up to monitor paramilitary activity had found the IRA leadership to be committed to "following a political and peaceful path." In the report, the IMC stated that it had also reason to believe that the IRA had reduced its criminal activity and intelligence gathering. They still had reason to believe that some of its senior members were still involved in criminal activity, however. The report also claimed that not all of the organisation's...

IRA suspect convicted of 1989 attack on British base A former member of the IRA was convicted today for his role in a 1989 attack on a British military base in Germany and sentenced to six years in jail. A German state court in Celle found Leonard Joseph Hardy, aged 45, from Antrim, guilty on several counts of attempted murder and of deliberately causing an explosion. Hardy, who was arrested in August in a hotel in the Spanish resort city of Torremolinos and did not fight extradition to Germany in January, has admitted being a member of an IRA “Active...

Closely watched by two police forces, the quiet farmer who calmly looks after the IRA's millions By David McKittrick 07 October 2005 Thomas "Slab" Murphy, the IRA leader suspected of having millions of pounds invested in property in Manchester, has for most of his republican career led a charmed life. He has never been convicted of any offence, despite the fact that for more than two decades every Northern Ireland secretary, every chief constable and every general has spent long hours pondering how to put him behind bars. In his home area of South Armagh and further afield, everyone knows...