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-Lurid Crime Tales-

Ted Kennedy to receive knighthood

2009-03-04

"I dub thee Sir Rhosis!" Veteran US senator Ted Kennedy, 77, is to be awarded an honorary knighthood. The Queen has agreed the honour for the brother of former US president John F Kennedy for services to the US-UK relationship and to Northern Ireland. Gordon Brown is to formally announce the award during his address to both houses of Congress on Wednesday. The prime minister's speech comes on the second full day of his visit to which featured brief talks with President Obama on Tuesday. Mr Kennedy, who has been a senator for his home state of Massachusetts for more than 46 years, is being treated for a brain tumour. The most senior living member of the famous Irish-American political dynasty, he was diagnosed with brain cancer in May last year after being rushed to hospital with stroke-like symptoms. He has since had chemotherapy and radiation to treat the malignant glioma, an aggressive type of brain tumour. The father-of-five was elected to the US Senate as a Democrat in 1962 following the election of his brother as president. Apart from his famous family connections, he is probably best known in the UK for his work on the Northern Ireland peace process. He has been intricately involved in politics there, meeting Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and other politicians during and beyond the Good Friday agreement. He famously snubbed Adams during the latter's St Patrick's Day trip to the US in 2005 following the brutal killing of Robert McCartney. The IRA, closely allied to Sinn Fein, was accused of involvement in his murder. Mr Kennedy joins a select band of overseas nationals given an honorary knighthood. Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, former president George Bush senior, former mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani and the film director Steven Spielberg have also received the honour. I am sure he will do just swimmingly in that crowd.

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Europe

Adams finds US snub is a bitter pill to swallow

2006-03-19

It has proved to be a very expensive St Patrick’s Day for Gerry Adams. A ban on fund-raising, imposed as a visa condition for his trip to the US, has forced Sinn Fein to repay $100,000 (£57,000) in ticket sales for a gala breakfast he attended in Washington. The Sinn Fein president is clearly bitter about what he described as a “partisan” decision by President Bush’s Administration which, he said, took no account of the IRA’s renunciation of armed struggle and the progress made on decommissioning. “I don’t understand why I’m allowed to go to London for fundraising but not come here,” he told The Times at a subsequent event for the American Ireland Fund. Maybe because we don't quite believe you? The US, where up to 45 million people claim Irish descent, has always been regarded as the (Irish) Republicans’ cash cow and for more than a decade Mr Adams had enjoyed being fêted on his high-profile annual trip to the White House. But last year he was removed from the invitation list for the President’s shamrock ceremony because Mr Bush was angry over the IRA’s involvement in the Northern Bank robbery and the continued paramilitary violence that led to the murder of Robert McCartney. This year, the Sinn Fein leader was allowed back into the White House. But he was not asked to a private, more intimate, meeting with Mr Bush. Instead, the President once again chose to spend time with Mr McCartney’s sister, Catherine, and other victims of IRA violence. These included Esther Rafferty whose brother, Joseph, was allegedly murdered last April, and Alan McBride, whose wife was killed in the Shankill bombings a decade ago. Bush has a tendency to keep accounts. If he makes a move like this it seldom is for transient show ... Mr Adams sought to make light of the $100,000 bill for his trip and the frosty reception he had received from the President. “At least I got a free breakfast,” he said. “Look here, Washington comes and Washington goes — but the Irish-Americans have remained constant and they have kept their faith in us.” A woman in my neighborhood has a '26 + 6 = 1' bumper sticker. I'm hoping she's not as gullible as she once was. But the income that Sinn Fein receives from the Irish-American lobby has fallen to less than $1 million a year. Donations to the respectable and charitable American Ireland Fund dropped by more than a quarter in 2004. I'm sure 'unofficial donations' are still high. Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary who also travelled to Washington for St Patrick’s Day, believes that the mood — even on “green emotion” days such as this — shifted irrevocably because of the September 11, 2001, attacks. “What has changed is terror and that has changed minds, he said. “Sinn Fein had been treated as heroes on Capitol Hill for years with republicanism intertwined is some minds with the American War of Independence.” Although he did not want to be drawn into the row over Mr Adams’s right to raise money in the US, he suggested that last year’s St Patrick’s Day snub for Sinn Fein had a profound effect. Mr Hain has held talks with Mr Bush, as well as Mitchell Reiss, the President’s special envoy on Northern Ireland, and Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, over plans due to be unveiled next month for restoring powers to the devolved Stormont Assembly, which was suspended in 2002. Ian Paisley’s Democratic Ulster Unionists still want to delay, he said, while the nationalists “want to jump back in; we need to find a bridge between them”. A proposal for phased reintroduction appears most likely. “We’re now entering the most important period since the Good Friday agreement in terms of people having to make their minds up,” he said. But Mr Hain also emphasised that the US remained a central component in the peace process. rest at the link

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Britain

Reputed IRA Vet Arraigned on Murder Charge

2005-06-05

A reputed Irish Republican Army veteran was arraigned Saturday on a charge he murdered a Catholic man, a killing that has overshadowed Northern Ireland's peace process and fueled an exceptional public campaign by the victim's sisters. Amid heavy police security, Terence "Jock" Davison, 49, offered no plea as prosecutors accused him of killing Robert McCartney, who was stabbed in the neck and stomach and bludgeoned with iron bars outside a Belfast pub on Jan. 30. McCartney's five sisters, who led a four-month international campaign highlighting the IRA's alleged destruction of evidence and intimidation of witnesses, sat in the public gallery not far from the family and friends of Davison. One of Davison's alleged IRA accomplices, 36-year-old James McCormick, was charged with the attempted murder of McCartney's friend Brendan Devine. McCormick, who also offered no plea, had been arrested Wednesday in Birmingham in England. Detective Chief Inspector Kevin Dunwoody testified that both men denied the charges while in custody Friday night. But Dunwoody said he was confident that two witness statements against both men, as well as forensic evidence against McCormick, would help to connect both to the charges. The judge, Harry McKibbin, ordered Davison and McCormick imprisoned without bail until their next scheduled court date, July 1.

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Britain

Two Belfast Men Charged in IRA Killing

2005-06-03

Two Belfast men were charged Friday in the IRA-linked knife slaying of a Catholic man and the injury of his friend outside a pub earlier this year, the first breakthrough in a case that has overshadowed Northern Ireland's peace process for months. A 49-year-old man will face a charge of murdering Robert McCartney, while a 36-year-old man will be charged with the attempted murder of Brendan Devine, police said. The arraignment was set for Saturday in Belfast Crown Court. McCartney's sisters — who have taken their campaign to the White House and the European Parliament — said they were stunned by the news — but emphasized that their mission for justice still had a long way to go. "We hope it will lead to further arrests, because there were more than two people involved. We still have a long way to go in terms of a trial and convictions," said Catherine McCartney. "We are happy this has happened, but we know it is by no means over." The Irish Republican Army initially denied involvement, then admitted its members committed the attack after facing public pressure from McCartney's five sisters and fiancee. Since then members of the IRA and its allied Sinn Fein party have faced criticism internationally for allegedly covering up evidence and refusing to cooperate with the police investigation.

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Britain

IRA Said to Threaten Slain Man's Family

2005-05-22

Members of the outlawed Irish Republican Army are threatening to attack a Belfast family that has been focusing international attention on the IRA's killing of a Catholic man, sisters of the victim said Friday. The five sisters and fiancee of Robert McCartney, who was fatally stabbed and clubbed by IRA members outside a Belfast pub Jan. 30, have spent the past four months campaigning to bring his killers to justice. While the McCartney family's efforts have won praise and support from the European Parliament and White House, back home in their hard-line neighborhood, witnesses to the attack have either been afraid or unwilling to give evidence to police. One of the sisters, Catherine McCartney, said Friday detectives had told the family of a threat from the IRA. "This threat implies that (Irish) republican elements are going to take action against the McCartney family if they continue to discredit the (Sinn Fein-IRA) republican movement," Catherine McCartney said. Way too late for that, I'd say.

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Europe

McCartney murderers 'being protected'

2005-04-17

The family of murdered Belfast man Robert McCartney have said Republicans are still shielding the IRA men who murdered him. As hundreds of supporters attended a prayer vigil in memory of the father-of-two, his sisters alleged the top Provisional suspected of ordering the killing has not been thrown out of the organisation. Paula McCartney said: "The fact that people are still not arrested, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that they are being protected. "On the street where it really matters... what is visible is that he is still in the same position and holding the same authority he held 10 weeks ago." It was the first time all five of the murder victim's sisters and fiancee, Bridgeen Hagans, had returned to the Belfast city centre scene of the killing. Amid calls from party president Gerry Adams for any witnesses to the pub brawl to reveal what they know to Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan, a number of Sinn Fein members have been suspended. The IRA has also expelled three of its men in a bid to halt the damage to its reputation. But the family, who disclosed they have had fresh contact with Sinn Fein in the last 48 hours, insisted it has still not done enough. Paula McCartney, who said she was overwhelmed by the level of public support, added: "This is a clear message to me that the people have had enough. "They know who did this to Robert, this is the street they did it in, the police know who did it, the IRA know who did it, the IRA have admitted who did it. "We believe Sinn Fein and the IRA have the power to deliver these people to justice. Until that is done, we don't believe Sinn Fein has done all it can to help this family."

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Britain

Sinn Fein-IRA rallies across Ireland

2005-03-28

Leaders of the Sinn Fein-IRA movement have staged rallies across Ireland in memory of a failed 1916 rebellion - and in anger that their organisation today stands accused of covering up a Belfast killing. Trying to repair a bit of the political damage, are we? Could it be possible that the world has changed enough so that not only Rantburg habitues have lost patience with the antics of the world's Masked Marauders of any stripe? At three mass rallies on Sunday in Dublin and the two major cities in Northern Ireland, Belfast and Londonderry, Sinn Fein leaders said the killers of Robert McCartney were being cowards by refusing to admit their crime. They emphasised that the failure to bring anybody to justice for McCartney's 30 January slaying outside a Belfast pub was fuelling widespread criticism of Sinn Fein, which represents most Catholics in Northern Ireland. McCartney's sisters, whose campaign has gained worldwide attention, say the IRA has intimidated witnesses while Sinn Fein has discouraged people from giving evidence to police. Detectives have charged nobody with the killing, even though the attack on McCartney began inside a pub crowded with Sinn Fein and IRA members. Sinn Fein has suspended seven people allegedly involved, while the IRA - which initially denied any involvement - says it has expelled three members. But the McCartney sisters say those supposedly expelled figures are still socialising publicly with other Sinn Fein and IRA figures in their Belfast neighbourhood.

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Britain

Sinn Fein Leader Wants Victims Family to Shaddup!

2005-03-15

A Sinn Fein leader publicly criticized the family of a Catholic man killed by IRA members, warning Monday that their relentless campaign for an arrest in his death could diminish donations for his terrorist buddies support for their cause. Better shut up, or the boyos might beat them to death... The comments from Sinn Fein's deputy leader, Martin McGuinness, came as the party admitted that another of its candidates was in the pub where Irish Republican Army members launched the fatal assault on Robert McCartney. A campaign by McCartney's five sisters to have his killers brought to justice has focused attention on the outlawed IRA's continued grip on hard-line Catholic parts of Belfast, where telling police about IRA activities can mean a death sentence. Catherine McCartney, one of the sisters, on Monday accused Sinn Fein of continually trying to conceal and downplay its members' role in the attack. "I find it hard to believe that we've been campaigning for six weeks and still not a single person has been charged with Robert's murder," she said in an interview in her sister Paula's home in Short Strand, an IRA power base that is home to several of the IRA figures who allegedly attacked their brother. Though the party has offered to shoot the guys... But McGuinness, an alleged IRA commander, said in what were Sinn Fein's first publicly critical comments of the family: "The McCartneys need to be very careful. To step over that line, which is a very important line, into the world of party-political politics can do a huge disservice to their campaign." "Dey could end up dead!" He said if they continued to make direct challenges to Sinn Fein, which is the largest Catholic-backed party in Northern Ireland, they would sleep wit da fishes "dismay and disillusion an awful lot of people, tens of thousands of people who support them in their just demands." "So youse better button yer lip!"

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Britain

IRA should dissolve, White House declares

2005-03-10

The Bush administration told the Irish Republican Army on Wednesday that it should disband following the outlawed group's offer to shoot four men responsible for killing a Catholic civilian. The statement was the administration's bluntest criticism yet of the IRA. The call from the U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, came a week ahead of St. Patrick's Day when, for the first time in a decade, leaders of the IRA's Sinn Fein party will not be guests of the White House. This year the invitations are going elsewhere — to the five sisters of the IRA's most recent victim, Robert McCartney, a 33-year-old forklift operator and nightclub bouncer. "It's time for the IRA to go out of business. And it's time for Sinn Fein to be able to say that explicitly, without ambiguity, without ambivalence, that criminality will not be tolerated," Reiss said. He particularly questioned Sinn Fein's claim that most IRA activities — including robbing banks and shooting petty criminals in the limbs — should not be considered crimes. He said that Sinn Fein should begin cooperating with the Northern Ireland police, a mostly Protestant force that once suffered heavily from IRA attacks, and today is being substantially reshaped with support from moderate Catholics. The IRA, which killed about 1,800 people from 1970 until its 1997 cease-fire, relied on support from its Roman Catholic base as it mounted attacks on businesses, British troops and the predominantly Protestant police force. The group ensured its control of the toughest Catholic quarters by attacking petty criminals and killing people accused of helping the police. In some cases people were attacked for honing in on IRA criminal rackets or insulting IRA figures.

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Britain

IRA offered to shoot McCartney killers

2005-03-08

The IRA has revealed that it .offered to shoot the men blamed for murdering the Belfast man Robert McCartney Anybody else you need gone, ma'am? The provisionals also gave details of their own investigation into the killing - admitting some of their members were involved after a five-and-a-half hour meeting with his family. All questioning in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, of course. But the McCartneys made it abundantly clear that they did not want any physical action taken. It remains to be seen how the statement will be received in a community almost universally revulsed by the killing. I doubt the church bells will be ringing. For a republican movement struggling for respectability, You've got to be kidding! it is the most extraorindary tactic, an open statement from the IRA threatening to shoot those involved in the murder of Robert McCartney. We'll kill anybody for respectability. That's why we wear bowlers and carry umbrellas. Robert McCartney was stabbed at a bar in central Belfast in January. Eyewitnesses claim IRA members carried out the murder -with a ruthless cover-up and intimidation of witnesses. Now that's a surprising MO It is a case that has spawned an unprecedented grassroots rebellion in a Belfast republican heartland. The family of the dead man have led the campaign, all the time calling for Mr McCartney's killers to be tried in court. They will have reacted with horror when IRA chiefs visited them last month and offered to shoot those involved. The IRA statement issued today says: "The IRA representative detailed the outcome of the internal discplinary proceedings thus far and stated in clear terms that the IRA was prepared to shoot people directly involved in the killing of Robert McCartney." The bereaved were no doubt deeply touched by the sentiment. One wonders why they consented to the meeting, or if they were given a choice. "The family made it clear that they did not want physical action taken against those involved. They stated that they wanted those individuals to give full account of their actions in court." One of Robert McCartney's relations described the IRA offer of summary justice as "highly insensitive". Doncha love that British understatement?

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Britain

Gerry Adams hands names of seven pub brawl murder suspects to the police

2005-03-04

Five working-class women demanding justice for the murder of their brother by the IRA last night wrung an unprecedented concession from its political wing when Gerry Adams announced that he had handed over the names of fellow republicans to a police body. The Sinn Fein president — named in recent weeks by the Irish Government as a member of the Provisional IRA's seven-member ruling Army Council — said that he had passed the names of seven party members to the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland. The move comes after allegations by the sisters of Robert McCartney, 33, that the Roman Catholic father of two children was murdered in a pub by members of the IRA who then warned witnesses to stay silent. The McCartney sisters have refused to be silent, despite their roots in the close-knit republican stronghold of Short Strand, East Belfast, and called publicly on the IRA to give up the killers. On Sunday they staged the first demonstration in the community against the IRA's paramilitary rule of law. The family pressure, widely supported at republican grassroots level, on Sinn Fein and the IRA to take action against members who have been tarnished as common criminals by their actions brought a breakthrough last night: the acceptance of the authority of Northern Ireland's policing arrangements for the first time. Until now that had eluded the best efforts of Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, and even intense political input from the United States. In a statement Mr Adams acknowledged the profound damage to the republican cause wrought by Mr McCartney's murder a month ago. "I am deeply angry about the alleged involvement of a number of republicans in the killing of Robert McCartney," he said. "I believe I am speaking for the broad republican constituency in publicly articulating my outrage and anger at what has happened. All of those involved in this horrific incident must make themselves fully accountable for their actions. Nothing short of this is acceptable." Giving his first full account of the events, he admitted that he had met the dead man's sisters. "At a meeting on Thursday, February 24, the family gave me a list of people who they allege were involved. As party president, I immediately instructed the leadership of Sinn Fein in Belfast to establish if any of those named by the family were members of Sinn Fein. I was informed that seven of those named are members of Sinn Fein. All were immediately suspended from the party. This is on a without-prejudice basis." He added that they would remain suspended "pending the outcome of the legal process". "If any of these seven are found to have been involved in the events surrounding the death of Robert McCartney, or if they do not provide truthful accounts as the McCartney family have requested, Sinn Fein will take further "disciplinary action to expel these individuals," he said. In an address in Dublin last night the Catholic Archbishop Sean Brady paid tribute to the courage and the determination of Mr McCartney's family. He added: "It is not good enough; it is not consistent with the principle of freedom, for people to present this information in a way which cannot be used to secure a conviction. What is certainly becoming clearer every day is that a fundamental shift is taking place in the peace process. The language of constructive ambiguity and moral murk has had its day."

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Europe

IRA expels three after pub brawl killing

2005-02-26

Northern Ireland police are assessing the impact on a murder inquiry of the IRA's announcement that it has expelled three of its members. The family of Robert McCartney accused IRA members of responsibility for his murder and of intimidating witnesses. The IRA said one of those expelled made a statement to a solicitor and called on the others to take responsibility. Mr McCartney's stabbing four weeks ago had "serious consequences" for the IRA, said the BBC's Kevin Connolly. Mr Connolly said: "Sinn Fein and the IRA are, at the moment, feeling the political heat". Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams has said that people have a patriotic duty to support the family of the dead man, who was killed in a traditionally republican area of Belfast. The IRA said two of those it had dismissed were "high-ranking volunteers". The expulsions came after what the IRA called "an investigation" into last month's killing. BBC Northern Ireland security editor Brian Rowan said: "Given the events of recent days there was an inevitability about this latest statement from the IRA. Republicans had been under huge pressure to do something, and in its statement tonight, the IRA said any intimidation or threats made in its name would not be tolerated." Sounds like Bob Hope material. Ulster Unionist Sir Reg Empey said unless the expulsions were accompanied "by the names of the individuals involved in a way that will lead to police prosecution", the statement would be viewed as little other than "a cynical face-saving exercise". The IRA statement comes 24 hours after Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams met the McCartney family. The family had accused republicans of pressuring witnesses not to talk, although they welcomed an earlier IRA statement urging his killers to come forward. Mr Adams described the meeting as "constructive". "There is an onus on us to do everything we can to bring closure to this family," he said. He said that he was told up to 70 people, and up to 21 this week, had already come forward with information about his death. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said that a test of Sinn Fein's stated opposition to criminality would be to turn in the killers. No-one has been charged in connection with the killing, although it is believed there were up to 70 witnesses to the crime.

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