Sinn Fein's prodding on flags only heightens fear

By Ed Curran, Belfast Telegraph

When Alex Maskey became the first Sinn Fein Lord Mayor of Belfast, he invited me to lunch.
On my way down Royal Avenue, I met a friend from South Africa and we walked together towards the City Hall. As he caught sight of the Union flag fluttering over the building, my friend expressed surprise: "I thought you told me the Lord Mayor was from Sinn Fein?"
"That's right," I replied. "The fact that the flag is still there and a Shinner is in the Lord Mayor's parlour tells you how far politics have travelled."
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Two men are being held by police in connection with the murder of prison officer David Black in Northern Ireland - one of them a well-known republican. Colin Duffy, 44, and another man, aged 31, were arrested in the Lurgan area early this morning and have been taken to Antrim Serious Crime suite for questioning, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said. Mr Black, 52, was gunned down on the M1 motorway early on Thursday as he drove to work at the top security Maghaberry jail near Lisburn, County Antrim. The father-of-two's car veered off the road and into a drainage ditch after the shots were fired. He was on a stretch of the motorway between Portadown and Lurgan - a dissident republican stronghold in County Armagh. ...

Two children are thought to have been stabbed by their father before he took his own life, the BBC understands.

Police believe the man was Michael Pedersen, from Surrey, who was found in Newton Stacey, Hampshire, with his children Ben, seven, and Freya, six. The children had already been found dead before their mother reported them missing on Sunday evening, police said.

Mr Pedersen, 51, was an ex-serviceman who survived an IRA attack in London, a former colleague has told the BBC.
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Three men have appeared in court in Dublin charged with membership of an illegal organisation known as the Real IRA. They were arrested as part of an investigation into the funeral of leading Real IRA man Alan Ryan on Saturday 8 September. Ryan was shot dead in north Dublin on 3 September. Shots were fired over his coffin during the funeral and masked men and women were present. Fourteen other people who were arrested were released without charge. In court were 33-year-old Nathan Kinsella of Matt Talbot Court in Dublin, Darragh Evans, 23, of Grange Park Rise in Raheny and 22-year-old Vincent Ryan of Grange Avenue Drive in Donaghmede. They were remanded in custody to appear again before the court on Friday, 21 September. The Garda (police) staged a major operation around the funeral, but made no arrests over it on the day. ...

Slain Real IRA terrorist Alan Ryan was under investigation in relation to serious crime on both sides of the border, it emerged last night. Police are linking him to incidents, including a murder, that are believed to have been organised by the Real IRA faction in Londonderry. Ryan is believed to have developed strong links with several dissident activists in the north west after his release from Portlaoise jail in the middle of the last decade. And he maintained a close relationship between his Dublin-based gang and the leadership of the Derry faction, particularly after being involved in a major row with the terrorists' 'commander' in Dublin. Ryan was thought to have used his 'muscle' to help the Derry terrorists with some of their operations. Within hours of his murder on a Dublin street, the Derry branch of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, alleged to be the political wing of the dissident group, paid tribute to Ryan on a website. ...

Northern Ireland, in case you hadn't noticed, is a weird place. Most of the time, I love its colourful oddity.

For instance, I was thrilled when I heard that Edwin Poots, our arch-creationist health minister, had fired a shotgun out of his bedroom window, to warn off intruders.

I have the most exquisite image of Mr Poots in my mind, clad in a pair of paisley-print pyjamas, buttoned right up to the neck, of course, blasting two shots into the still night air. Things like that just don't happen anywhere else. Except, perhaps, in Alabama.
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Republican figurehead Danny Morrison tells of his revulsion at atrocity and admits claims that police ignored bomb warnings were unfounded. Forty years after the horror of Bloody Friday, a one-time senior republican has described his feelings of personal shame. July 21, 1972 is remembered for the carnage of an IRA bomb blitz across Belfast in which nine people were killed and more than 100 seriously injured. Those who remember it recall a day of sheer terror and fear — one of those horrific news days that in the words of veteran journalist Robin Walsh showed “the real effects of terrorism”. A number of unionists have used the anniversary to call on the Sinn Fein leadership to tell the full story about what happened on Bloody Friday and for the PSNI to launch a new investigation, as they have pledged to do for Londonderry’s Bloody Sunday. ...

Sinn Fein has played down newspaper reports that the former leadership of the IRA could be preparing to offer an unequivocal apology to the terror group’s victims.
The party’s chairman Declan Kearney said he doubted whether reports in the Sunday Business Post had been founded on any firm investigative basis. He added that the IRA had “left the stage” seven years ago. Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness also played down reports of a fresh apology while speaking to RTE’s Miriam O’Callaghan on Saturday night. He said reconciliation was vital, but required efforts by all sides in the conflict to deal with the legacy of the past. During the live show, the Sinn Fein politician also revealed details of his private meeting with the Queen on her visit to Belfast on Wednesday. That included the acknowledging of the IRA murder of the Queen’s cousin Lord Mountbatten in 1979. ...

When the Queen visits Northern Ireland tomorrow, we will be a witness to history in the making. Her visit will be like none other that has gone before.
The handshake with Martin McGuinness will grab the international headlines. While no one should underestimate the significance of this mutual gesture between a British monarch and a former IRA leader, there is more to the new Northern Ireland than a handshake.

The Queen's visit could not come at a better time. She will see for herself, from Belfast in the east to Enniskillen in the west, how far our society has progressed. She will find a Northern Ireland more at ease with itself than at any time in her 60-year reign.
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Sinn Fein is milking Westminster to claim £460,000 a year for its constituency offices in Northern Ireland — despite none of its MPs taking their seats.

And its TDs are breaking parliamentary rules in the Republic by paying activists out of cash claimed for travel expenses.

Sinn Fein said people voted for its abstentionist MPs and that it used the money to provide “first-class constituency services”.
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The mother of an 11-year-old boy is angry that children at a Gaelic Athletic Club football blitz at the weekend were given medals bearing the picture of a dead IRA man. The medals given to the Under-12 boys at Galbally Pearses Club in Tyrone featured Martin McCaughey. He and IRA man Dessie Grew were shot dead by the SAS in October 1990. "It was outrageous. My son was asking what the hero did," said the mother who did not want to be named. "We had no warning that the medals would be dedicated to a dead IRA man." "I think we should have at least been told what the medals would have on them and given a chance to decide whether we wanted our children to take part or not." A press officer for Tyrone Gaelic Athletic Association said: "If the mother has a comment, she should make it to Tyrone County offices, they would obviously look at it." A spokesman for the GAA's Ulster Council said: "The Ulster Council has no comment to make until we receive official notification from the individual involved." ...

A Londonderry man has claimed that republican vigilantes told him to go to anger management classes or get shot. The Republican Actions Against Drugs (RAAD) has been behind paramilitary-style shootings against those guilty of so-called "anti-social behaviour". But Hugh Brady, a community volunteer, said he was surprised by the claim. He had never heard about anyone being ordered to go on an anger management course by RAAD, he said. Mr Brady is a volunteer adviser at the Rosemount Resource Centre which acts as an intermediary between RAAD and those threatened by the group. ...

Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness was involved in authorising the IRA murder of two RUC officers in 1989, according to evidence given to the Smithwick Tribunal. Former British intelligence officer Ian Hurst - also known as Martin Ingram - claimed the murders were "authorised by Northern Command" and "Mr McGuinness was OC Northern Command". Sinn Fein said Mr McGuinness totally rejected the allegations, saying they were "more lies from an individual with a highly dubious track record". The spokesman added: "Judge Smithwick has already been critical of the quality and nature of the evidence provided to his tribunal by the British state. "This individual, who uses a variety of names including Martin Ingram, has no credibility. By his own admission he is part of a British security apparatus which played a very negative and malign role in the conflict. ...

A man has been arrested in England by detectives investigating a sectarian murder in Northern Ireland almost 40 years ago. The 62-year-old was detained in Blackpool by officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Serious Crime Branch, with the assistance of officers from Lancashire Police and the North West Counter Terrorism Unit. He was held following a review by the Historical Enquiries Team into the shooting of John Huddleston in Durham Street, West Belfast, on March 24 1973. Factory worker Mr Huddleston, a 28-year-old Catholic, was shot a number of times on his own doorstep by loyalist paramilitaries as he returned from a night out. His brother was wounded in the attack. ...

The Orange Order has received a grant of almost £900,000 from the European Union to help address the legacy of the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Communities at sectarian interfaces and border areas which suffered disproportionately during the Troubles will benefit, the organisation said. The Stepping Towards Reconciliation in Positive Engagement (Stripe) project will be based in Lurgan, Co Armagh.

Drew Nelson, chairman of the Orange Community Network, said: "The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland believes there is an imbalance of weak community infrastructure, low confidence and low levels of participation within the Protestant community, particularly
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