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The UK government always intended to “ditch” the Northern Ireland protocol, Boris Johnson’s former adviser Dominic Cummings has claimed. In a string of tweets, Cummings said the flawed Brexit deal had been a way to get out of the electoral doldrums and “whack [Jeremy] Corbyn”, and “of course” the government should be allowed to “sometimes break deals… like every other state does”. His remarks have caused alarm in Dublin, where the former taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who negotiated the Northern Ireland protocol with Johnson at a meeting in Wirral in October 2019, said that, if true, they showed the government could...

He said Kung Flu. Verbotten. Strenge Verbotten.

The DUP’s Jim Wells has revealed a possible shift in his party’s position on a “Northern Ireland-only backstop” agreement. Should it become official DUP policy, Wells’s revelation would mean the DUP has effectively accepted the backstop agreement. This is something it said it would never do. His revelation came in a pre-recording of Stephen Nolan’s Top Table that goes out on BBC1 this evening, and in response to a statement from the host that “we would be living to EU rules, Jim”. Shocking This is particularly shocking as the DUP has consistently opposed the backstop and “’special status’ for Northern...

National Instruments to Make Instrumentation for E-Cat Plants November 11, 2011 PESWiki is reporting that Andrea Rossi’s Leonardo Corporation has signed an agreement with National Instruments of Austin, Texas for NI to provide all the instrumentation for the E-Cat plants that Leonardo Corp will be manufacturing. Sterling D. Allan of PESN reports that he learned of the agreement during a conference call with Rossi, and that NI’s Director of Physics, Stefano Concezzi confirmed to him (Allan) that Rossi was a customer. National Intstruments is a leading provider of advanced hardware and software that is used in industrial and scientific applications...

While more churches adopt large projection screens and multimedia technology to draw new believers and the unchurched, one church communications specialist points back to the traditional church signs that stand outside sanctuaries for more effective outreach. Related To Hell and Back "It may sound like a line from the 70s, but people will ask, 'What's your sign?' A sign should be a primary ministry touch-point that encourages people to visit your church," said Woody Murray, who has worked for 30 years in communications and marketing in advertising agencies and at a major Christian organization. Bottom line is either get a...

The subject of community cohesion, for understandable reasons, has become prominent in our national conversation over the past few years. But it is a challenge we have faced before: the question of how we live together is as old as humanity itself. Throughout history, there have been periods when Britain has not been entirely comfortable with itself or individual communities within it. Who would now question the contribution made by Jewish people to British society - or even talk about there being a conflict between being British and Jewish? And yet, only 50 years ago, this was exactly the debate...

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...

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...

Councillors to hear proposal for nuclear plant in Derry 20/04/2006 - 11:19:56 Councillors in Derry are due to hear proposals today for the construction of a nuclear power plant in the city. The plan is being put forward by businessman Robert Andrew, who says a 2,000-megawatt plant could generate the same amount of power as 300,000 wind farms. Mr Andrew says the facility would meet all of the North's energy needs and would also create 500 stable jobs. However, local Green Party spokesman Peter Doran is urging councillors to reject the idea, saying it flies in the face of public...

Imminent Ulster car bomb attack foiled by police (Filed: 19/04/2006) Police in Northern Ireland have seized 250lb of home-made explosives, foiling a potentially devastating car bomb attack. Local youths threw petrol bombs at police after the raid A senior policeman said those behind the plot - likely to be dissident republicans - planned to explode the device "as soon as possible". Four men were arrested during the raid on a breaker's yard in Lurgan, Co Armagh. A car was also taken away for forensic examination. Superintendent Alan Todd, Lurgan's police commander, said the police had no knowledge of a specific...

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...