Push for Army parade in Belfast gathers pace

Demands for a homecoming parade in Belfast to recognise soldiers returning from Afghanistan are intensifying.
The City Council is expected to hold a meeting next week to propose inviting the Ministry of Defence to stage an event for the Royal Irish Regiment and Irish Guards who return from Helmand province in the coming weeks.

The motion will be proposed by Ian Crozier, chairman of Belfast City Council’s policy and resources committee. “The people of Northern Ireland want to see a homecoming parade in their capital city, there is no doubt about that,” he said.
“Defence Secretary Liam Fox has made clear his support for a parade in Belfast, but in recent days some ambiguity has emerged about what needs to happen so that a parade is actually organised.
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Tributes have been paid to a Royal Irish Regiment soldier from Banbridge who was killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday. L/Cpl Stephen McKee, 27, was taking part in an operation in Helmand province when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb. His wife Carley said he was a hero and the best husband anyone could have. The Ministry of Defence said he was a "fine soldier, trustworthy and courageous". Tributes have also been paid by NI First Minister Peter Robinson, Danny Kennedy MLA, who is a friend of the McKee family and the Orange Order, of which L/Cpl McKee was a member. As well as his wife, he leaves behind parents Heather and Bobby, brothers Michael, Gareth and Robert and sisters Kelly and Rebecca. His two-day-old daughter passed away last year. The dead soldier's brothers, father-in-law and cousin have all served with the Royal Irish Regiment. ...

From the Belfast Telegraph.

Healing Through Remembering director Kate Turner spoke with a banner at her side - and on it the words: Whatever you say, say something.

On its own, that short sentence says a lot about the distance we have travelled; a considerable distance from the words that once cautioned: Whatever you say, say nothing.
The Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson was in the audience, as was Alan McBride, who lost his wife and father-in-law in the IRA bomb on the Shankill Road in 1993.
This event, in my hometown of Holywood, was organised by the Sanctus Boscus Reconciliation Group, and I had been asked to say a few words at the end of the talk by Ms Turner.
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A Northern Ireland Veteran is planning to trek to Mount Everest basecamp in aid of Help for Heroes.

"Shaun the Sherpa" who lost his son Phillip in Afghanistan has undertaken the challenge to raise money for the charity who provide help and support for wounded members of our armed forces and their families when they need it most.
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A former soldier who served with the Royal Irish Regiment is selling his Military Cross on auction website eBay.
Ranger Alan Owens was awarded the prestigious honour for work in Afghanistan, developing “a level of empathy with the local population which no amount of fighting could establish”.
Mr Owens, from Portadown, Co Armagh, was presented with the Military Cross in March 2009.
But it, along with other military memorabilia is listed for sale on eBay under the title “real British military cross medal”.

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The Northern Ireland civil rights campaigner and former Westminster MP, Bernadette McAliskey, has been shot by gunmen who burst into her home at Coalisland in County Tyrone. The three men shot Mrs McAliskey, formerly known as Bernadette Devlin, in the chest, arm and thigh as she went to wake up one of her three children. Her husband, Michael, was also shot twice at point blank range. Three men are now being questioned by police. They were arrested by members of the Parachute Regiment, who were on patrol nearby when they heard the shots. The McAliskeys were flown by army helicopter to hospital in Belfast, where their condition is said to be serious, but not life-threatening. ...

From the Belfast Telegraph:

If Northern Ireland didn't descend into Yugoslavia-style ethnic cleansing during the Troubles, it was in spite of republicans not because of them, argues Owen Polley

Is it a shock that Pat Sheehan, convicted IRA bomber-turned-West Belfast MLA, has a warped view of the Troubles? As the latest back-street revolutionary to turn Armani-clad seer and represent Sinn Fein at Stormont, it would be more surprising if he saw republican violence for the futile nihilism it was, rather than as a "probably quite civilised" campaign.

That won't relieve the hurt and revulsion felt by victims of 30 years of IRA 'civility' when they read his comments - made in an interview with David McKittrick.
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Ten Protestant men have been shot dead as they were returning home from work in a mini-bus in Northern Ireland. The attack happened on the Whitecross to Bessbrook Road in South Armagh this evening as the men, all textile workers, returned from a factory six miles from Bessbrook. The mini-bus in which they were travelling was ambushed by up to a dozen attackers. It is believed the massacre was in revenge for the murders of five Catholics in Lurgan and Whitecross last night. Initial reports suggest the passengers were forced to line up outside their vehicle, after which they were systematically gunned down. Detectives found more than 100 spent cartridges at the scene. One survivor remains critically ill in hospital with bullet wounds to his lungs and a further passenger, a Catholic, was ordered away before the shooting. Nine of the dead men were from the village of Bessbrook - the bus driver came from Mount Norris. Johnston Chapman had to identify the bodies of his two nephews, who died in the attack. He said: "They were just lying there like dogs, blood everywhere." ...

It was a year in which dissident republicans developed the expertise needed to detonate large-scale car bombs and the government warned of possible attacks in Great Britain.

BBC NI home affairs correspondent Vincent Kearney assesses the threat posed by Northern Ireland's terror groups. It was an easy target. There were no security barriers or checkpoints to negotiate as a car packed with around 250lbs of homemade explosives parked outside Newry courthouse on 22 February this year. A short time later, as police officers were still trying to clear the surrounding area, the bomb exploded. No-one was killed or injured, but the shockwaves could be felt more than 40 miles away in the headquarters of MI5 in Holywood and the PSNI in east Belfast. Two months later, shortly after midnight on 12 April, just minutes after policing and justice powers were transferred to the Stormont Assembly, a similar device exploded outside Palace Barracks, where MI5's huge new offices are located. Those explosions were described by senior security sources as "game-changing events". ...

Increasing police use of stop and question powers is justified because of the Northern Ireland security threat, an independent assessor said. The number of cases rose by a fifth in the last year. That is of concern in nationalist areas where use of the powers is seen as fuelling support for dissident republicans but police see it as a valuable tool for combating terrorism. Independent reviewer Robert Whalley said officers were facing a serious threat from dissident republicans which was not expected to relent. "My own judgment is that the overall increased use of these powers is justified in response to the scale of the challenge from the residual terrorist groups, and in particular the risk to life from firearms and explosives," he said. ...

The sisters of a British soldier killed by the IRA almost 40 years ago placed flowers for the first time yesterday at the spot where a sniper shot him. Lance Corporal Richard Miller (21) was on undercover duty on the streets beside Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital when he was ambushed in August 1973. On what would have been his 58th birthday, the two women from the north east of England stood by themselves on the Falls Road yesterday and quietly remembered their only brother. Mother-of-three Karyn Jackson (51) from the Ashbrooke area of Sunderland, said: “I found it very emotional, but I'm glad I came to see where he died. “I was only 14 at the time and didn’t really understand. I heard and watched my parents’ pain, but there was no bitterness.” ...

Three armed IRA men on the run from police have burst into a flat in central London and taken at least two people hostage.

Officers have now sealed off the corner of Dorset Square and Balcombe Street, in Marylebone, after a car chase through the West End during which shots were fired.
The gunmen are believed to be members of an IRA hit squad which has been behind a number of attacks in the capital and home counties over the past few months.
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They look a sombre and imposing bunch, five senior officers in the Royal Irish Constabulary posing in Musgrave Street Police Station in Belfast as the 19th Century gave way to the 20th.
They form just one photograph out of dozens now on display there. Belfast's brand new state-of-the-art police station had opened in December 1893, some months late, and a little over budget. A mere 117 years later, many of the officers who served in it over the years have been wandering along its endless labyrinth of corridors one last time. The station was manned by officers from two other forces, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The brand new police station for the 21st century is getting its finishing touches a matter of yards away inside the same compound. Once today's officers move in, the older red brick buildings are due for demolition early in 2011, to be replaced by a carpark. In its time the old station saw riots, a police mutiny, and during the Troubles, bombs and grenade attacks. ...

Prince William is to marry long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton next year, Clarence House has said. William, second in line to the throne, will marry in London next spring or summer and live in north Wales where he is serving with the RAF. The couple, who are both 28, became engaged in October during a private holiday in Kenya. They began dating eight years ago while studying at St Andrews University in Fife, where they shared a house. The royal engagement was announced in a brief statement released by Clarence House. It said: "The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton. ...

Two of Northern Ireland's politicians are spitting nails after a trip to visit troops in Afghanistan was called off because they were too portly for Army flak jackets. Lord Ken Maginnis and David Simpson, DUP, had been due to fly out this week to meet soldiers from the Royal Irish and the Irish Guards but the Army couldn't find flak jackets large enough to fit them. "To be told at the last minute that the British Army has not got two flak jackets with a 54" chest was just a bit thick," said Lord Maginnis who weighs in at about 18 stone. "I wanted to go out and meet the troops and made considerable efforts to clear my diary. "So this made me very cross. I am no giant, neither is Davy Simpson. We are both reasonably normal, although we are bigger than most." ...