January 20, 2000:  U.S. State Dept. Censorship 

January 21, 2000: More on Marion Price

January 22, 2000: A Stepping Stone? Been there... Done that.

January 25, 2000: Bloody Sunday

----------------------------

British Secretary of State Peter Mandelson today announced the newest in a series of recommendations for re-imaging the RUC, in light of world-wide calls for reform following the brutal murder of civil rights attorney Rosemary Nelson last March 17th. 
No longer called the "NIPs", as the last most recent recommendations had announced; the RUC will now be called "The Police Service for Northern Ireland". Apparently, the name change is a human rights gesture. New recruits will have to take a "Human Rights Oath", whatever that is. Of course, that restriction will not be placed on currently serving members of the RUC--  under investigation, as it happens, for repeated human rights abuses.  And most significantly, we still have the RUC investigating itself for it's role in Rosemary's murder, as well as dozens of others. 

Both of the following items are from The Pat Finucane Center in Derry. 
 
The Irish Freedom Committee/Cumann na Saoirse 
 www.irishfreedomcommittee.net
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Pat Finucane Center
Weds January 19, 2000 - 11:20 am 

Patten Report 

The British Secretary of State, Peter Mandelson, this afternoon announced the implementation in broad terms of the Patten Report into the future of Policing.  Most of the 175 recommendations are to be implemented though some key changes are to be delayed.   

The main points :   

• A new Policing Board will replace the discredited Police Authority.  At local level new District Policing Partnerships are to be set up though parts of this proposal have been put on the long finger.   
  The size of the new service is to be 7500 full time. The Full time Reserve will be disbanded while the Part Time Reserve will be expanded.   
• The recommendations for 50/50 Catholic/ Protestant recruitment from a pool of candidates have been accepted. A new police training college will beset up.   
• The name of the RUC will be changed to the Police Service for Northern Ireland though this change has been delayed.   
  The CID and Special Branch are to be merged.   
• New recruits are set to take a human rights oath though those who have violated human rights, serving officers, will not be required to take the new oath. All officers will be required to undertake human rights training.   
• The discredited Independent Commission into Police Complaints will, as expected, be replaced.    
• An independent individual will be appointed to oversee the proposed changes.   

It would be inappropriate for the PFC to react without looking at the detail of this announcement.  One key issue remains of great concern to us. Throughout his speech Mandelson referred to the need to defer to the Chief Constable and the security situation before certain reforms could be implemented.  There is an inherent contradiction in allowing the Chief Constable, Ronnie Flanagan, to determine the pace of change. Over the past months the CC has issued statements warning of impending security threats which never materialised.  The statements from RUC HQ always appeared to coincide with key moments in the peace process. It is absurd to allow the RUC to determine its own demise through reference to the so called security situation.  For that reason we have argued that the independent individual appointed to oversee changes should have access to all alleged security information. 
 

A second emotional reaction concerns the nature of the debate in the House of Commons. Sitting with a number of people in the offices of the PFC herein the Bogside in Derry we listened to the speech on the radio. The future of policing is central to the peace process in a way that no other issue is. Peter Mandelson, who had probably never even been to Ireland before he was appointed, told us of the sacrifices made by the "RUC family". Within one mile of this office there have been many sacrifices connected with the RUC.  Men, women and children murdered with impunity by members of the RUC, homes wrecked, individuals assaulted and humiliated, sectarian and sexist abuse, funerals attacked, criminally negligent investigations, the list goes on. Meanwhile we are forced to listen while a group of largely English, mostly male, MPs debate the future of policing in this society, on this island. The first speaker to respond to the Secretary of State was Conservative spokesman on the North, Andrew Mc Kay. A more ill-informed, arrogant, pretentious, mealy-mouthed and obnoxious three piece suit it is hard to imagine. not exactly an intellectual response to the Patten report but it is deeply insulting to listen to our future being debated by those who couldn’t really give a damn…the majority of the "honourable" members of the British House of Commons. 

------------------------ 
PFC - Mon January 10, 2000 - 9:47 am 
Rosemary Nelson and the Sunday Times 
 

As anger grows over the decision of the Director of Public Prosecution snot to prosecute those members of the RUC who death threated murdered Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson the Sunday Times reports that the RUC officer who led the original investigation into RUC death threats may now sue for defamation.  The report, whether accurate or not, raises a number of disturbing issues.   

This is the Chief Inspector who, according to the Independent Commission for Police Complaints report, advised officers that statements could be prepared in advance of interviews, undermining hopes of full answers.  This same officer, according to the ICPC supervising member, made "a number o fassertions which constitute judgements on the moral character of Mrs Nelson and others." As far back as March 21 1999 the Sunday Times was reporting that not enough evidence had been found to prosecute RUC officers involved in death threating Rosemary Nelson. Surprise surprise!   

Fact. Rosemary Nelson received a number of death threats from members of the RUC. 

Fact. The officer who investigated these threats was unable, for reasons unknown, to provide evidence with which to prosecute his colleagues. His investigation was seriously flawed. 

Does he really intend to sue or is the intention to intimidate members of the ICPC and those acting on their behalf from producing reports critical of the RUC? 

According to the Sunday Times report (see below) the Chief Inspector does not wish to be named. Should the case ever reach a court of law, which must be doubted, his name will become public knowledge. It is Chief Inspector Day. 
------------------------- 
Sunday Times (DATE T.C.) 

AN RUC chief inspector may sue members of the Independent Commission for Police Complaints (ICPC) for defamation over claims he did not properly investigate threats against Rosemary Nelson, the solicitor murdered by loyalists last year. He has also made a formal complaint to Peter Mandelson, the Northern Ireland secretary. It emerged yesterday that the director of public prosecutions has decided not to prosecute any police officers over claims that they threatened Nelson before her death. Sinn Fein and Nelson's husband, Paul, who have demanded a judicial inquiry into the murder, condemned the DPP's decision. 
No final decision has been taken, but RUC sources say it is unlikely any internal action will be taken. "There is little in the file submitted tothe DPP that could sustain disciplinary action," one source said. 

The RUC officer who conducted the inquiry into Nelson's original allegations said he had been "completely vindicated" by the DPP's decision. The officer, who does not want to be named, has made a formal complaint to the Northern Ireland Office about the behaviour of the ICPC, which supervised his investigation.
----------------------------------------
© The Irish Freedom Committee NewsList - IFC Updates 
Permission to re-publish any article from this post is granted provided author credit is attached and the active link back to this site is included.

Date: Jan 20 2000 18:29:40 EST
Subject: U.S. State Dept. Censorship
----------------------------------------------
The U.S Government has determined that Irish Americans are better off kept in the dark about the real level of grassroots opposition in Ireland to the current Treaty with Britain.  Thus, Republican spokeswoman and ex-hunger striker Marion Price has today been denied entry into the U.S., where she was due to speak next weekend at the National Testimonial Dinner for the Irish Freedom Committee in New York.  

Below are the statements issued by Republican Sinn Fein in Dublin, and The Irish Freedom Committee in the U.S., to this latest attempt at sheltering Americans from the ugly truth:  There is no "peace" in the Agreement, except the bigger "piece" of Ireland the British Government now has a right to claim.
 
For more information on the IFC Michael Flannery Testimonial Dinner go to:
 http://www.freespeech.org/IRWAC/Newspaper/IFC_full_page_ad.htm
 
Deirdre Fennessy
National Secretary
Irish Freedom Committee/Cumann na Saoirse
P.O. Box 11417
Chicago, IL 60611
deemail@msn.com  

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Saoirse 

Thursday 1/20/2000  11:28 am

Republican Sinn Féin protests visa denial of Marian Price

Republican Sinn Féin criticises today's denial of a US visa to former hunger striker Marian Price, Belfast, as an attempt to prevent the full truth of post-Stormont Agreement Ireland from being disclosed in the United States.Marian Price traveled to the US in 1993 and obtained the necessary waiver from the US authorities to do so. This morning (January 20) she received a telephone call from the US consulate in Belfast informing her that her visa had been denied by the US  State Department. She intended to travel to New York shortly to address the Annual Michael Flannery Memorial Testimonial Dinner on January 29 next. The event is organised by the Irish Freedom Committee and the proceeds will go to support Irish Republican prisoners who support the All-Ireland Republic.

Responding to the denial Marian Price said: "The circumstances of this denial and the fact that I obtained a waiver to travel to the US several years ago proves that this action has been taken because of my opposition as an Irish Republican to the Stormont Agreement and the current partition process." She said she was disappointed that she would not have the opportunity to personally thank those people in the United States who supported her family when she was a Republican prisoner and who continue to support Republican prisoners' families today.

The influential Irish American newspaper the Irish Echo, in an editorial on December 22 last, called for a visa for Marian Price to allow Americans to hear her case. The editorial said: "This newspaper has always stood for the right of people from all sides of the argument in the North to be given a hearing in the US.  The case of Price is no different from that of [Gerry] Adams when he was being denied entry."

ENDS
****************************************
PRESS RELEASE
The Irish Freedom Committee/Cumann Na Saoirse
To:  All Media Outlets
January 18, 2000 


Marion Price has been denied the right to speak in New York City at the annual Michael Flannery Memorial Dinner Dance.  The US Government's policy of censorship by visa denial is still in effect. 


Ms. Price, a former hunger striker, has been denied the right to enter the US on the grounds that she has a "criminal record".  Last week, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, who have similar records, were permitted to speak. In fact, Mr. Adams has been a guest at the White House.
 
 
Our country has, on a regular basis, permitted former Nazis, dictators, and other war criminals to enter the country, often stressing the importance of the First Amendment to our Constitution. This begs the question, Is free speech only to be granted to those with whom our government is in agreement?
 

Responding to the denial Marian Price said: "The circumstances of this denial and the fact that I obtained a waiver to travel to the US several years ago proves that this action has been taken because of my opposition as an Irish Republican to the Stormont Agreement and the current partition process." She said she was disappointed that she would not have the opportunity to personally thank those people in the United States who supported her family when she was a Republican prisoner and who
continue to support Republican prisoners' families today.
 
The American people have the right to all points of view.   
 
Our government has a responsibility to protect that right, not to deny it.
 
(ENDS)
********************************************
The Irish Echo
Vol. 72 No. 52  
December 22-28, 1999  


Editorial:  When the Price is Not Right 
 
Irish republicans have long been familiar with censorship. For years, they accused the federal authorities, aided and abetted by the Irish and British governments, of pursuing a policy of censorship by visa denial -- blocking the visits to the U.S. of spokespersons for the Provisional IRA under exclusionary rules that linked them to terrorist activity or its promotion.     
 
Many Irish Americans were justifiably angered by what they saw as interference with their right to hear the republican side of the story about what was actually going on in the North. They suspected that the authorities' policy of banning Irish republican speakers was not so much to stop them from raising money for terrorism but, rather, to prevent the full truth from being disclosed.      
 
There was general welcome when that policy was overturned in January 1994 with the admission into the country of Gerry Adams.     
 
Now, Marion Price, a former IRA member, is threatened with visa denial to stop her from attending an event in Yonkers on Jan. 29. The event, the Michael Flannery Commemoration Dinner, is being organized by republicans who oppose the current peace settlement as embodied in the Good Friday agreement. Price supports their cause.     
 
This newspaper has always stood for the right of people from all sides of the argument in the North to be given a hearing in the U.S. The case of Price is no different from that of Adams when he was being denied entry. Indeed, what she is saying is more or less what her former fellow Provisionals were saying for years concerning the "right" to use physical
force to drive Britain out of Ireland.      
 
For most of this century, that has been the view of an extreme minority. It may well be that the argument is even more unacceptable in many quarters, both here and in Ireland, than ever before, as should be the case. But Americans still have a right to hear it.      
 
Price should be given her visa and allowed to state her case.

********************************************

Date: Jan 21 2000 13:42:00 EST
Subject: More on Marian Price
------------------------------
For more information on the Michael Flannery Dinner next weekend:
http://www.freespeech.org/IRWAC/Newspaper/IFC_full_page_ad.htm
 
**************************************
The London Times 
January 21 2000      
IRA bomber denied visa for US visit 
BY CHRISTOPHER WALKER  


THE former IRA hunger striker and Old Bailey bomber Marian Price was yesterday denied a US visa for a trip later this month to New York to address a fundraising function for IRA dissidents. 
 
British officials expressed satisfaction at the US decision, which is understood to be part of a deal discussed between Tony Blair and President Clinton. Under it, the US will refuse entry to active supporters of dissident republicans intent on planning a new campaign of violence against the Good Friday peace agreement. 
 
Ms Price and her elder sister, Dolours, who later married the actor Stephen Rea, became international symbols of IRA militancy in 1973 when they helped to plant four bombs in London, two of which exploded, killing one person and wounding 180. 
 
Despite that conviction, Ms Price, who lives in staunchly republican West Belfast, was granted a waiver to visit the US in 1993. Her attempts to secure a second visa, in an application made in December, were ended by a call yesterday from the US Consulate in Belfast, informing her that it would not be granted. 
 
A consulate spokesman said that Ms Price had been interviewed on January 4 and her waiver application later discussed by a US inter-agency panel, including representatives of the Departments of State and Justice, who had decided to reject the application. 
 
Ms Price had agreed to address a dinner on January 29 organised by the Irish Freedom Committee, a group bitterly opposed to the peace policies of Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president. The planned event had been regarded as a severe propaganda blow to the IRA, which is seeing its support from Irish Americans falter as a result of the peace process. Although funds raised in the US notionally go to support Irish republican prisoners who support "the All-Ireland Republic", British security experts believe that much of the cash is used to buy arms for dissident IRA groups, notably the Continuity IRA. 
 
The consulate spokesman said that "decisions on a waiver are made on a person-to-person basis. Persons granted it have supported the peace process and cross-community co-operation, specifically the Good Friday agreement and normally travel to the US to further the peace process." 
 
In recent months, IRA dissidents have been stepping up their fundraising efforts in New York and elsewhere in the US. Although estimated to have around 200 volunteers ready to wage fresh violence, they remain severely short of the funds and weaponry to sustain any long-term campaign. 
 
American backers of Ms Price, who remains among the best-known internationally of the former IRA figures, claim that attempts will be made to broadcast her message to the annual Michael Flannery memorial testimonial dinner by telephone or tape. Last night, Ms Price said: "The circumstances of this denial and the fact I obtained a waiver to travel to the US several years ago proves that this action has been taken because of my opposition, as an Irish republican, to the Stormont agreement and the
current partition process." 

The influential Irish American journal, the Irish Echo, recently called for a visa for Ms Price. "This newspaper has always stood for the right of people from all sides of the argument in the North to be given a hearing in the US. The case of Price is no different from that of (Gerry) Adams when he was being denied entry."
 
**************************************
For the Irish Echo editorial referred to above:
http://www.irishecho.com/news/article.cfm?id=4755

Date: Jan 22 2000 16:19:09 EST 
Subject: A Stepping Stone? Been there... Done that. 
  
Some forgotten lessons from history, brought to you by the Dissenter-- for those of you who have not already had a chance to view last week's edition.

Read the latest in the Dissenter at:
http://www.freespeech.org/IRWAC/dissenter.htm
 


Deirdre Fennessy
National Secretary
Irish Freedom Committee/Cumann na Saoirse
P.O. Box 11417
Chicago, IL 60611
deemail@msn.com 
**********************************************
The Dissenter
Thursday, January 6, 2000 

A Stepping Stone? Been there... Done that.
 
This week as the celebrations were underway in the new Millennium ceremonies, there could be heard an awful lot of dreams and aspirations and in general, a lot of hoopla. 
 
The Free State, 26 county regime's Prime Minister and lackey Bertie Ahern, told the Irish and British news media that he believed that the "current developments in the Northern Ireland peace process could lead to a united Ireland." 

In his New Year's message on the southern Free State controlled radio, Bertie was speaking about how pleased he was that the institutions set up under the 1998 so-called named Good Friday Agreement could now begin to work as he stated that: 
 
"Then, in time, God knows what that will bring. My aspiration would still be in the longer term that we will have a united Ireland." 
 
Of course the real Ahern then entered from his typical Jeckle-and-Hyde act of pretending to be a "republican" as Ahern stated, "I think there is a good chance that it will happen. But we should now concentrate on operating the institutions - there is a huge agenda - and not be too caught up on the aspirations of the future."
 
Ahern quickly changed the focus speaking of the "responsibilities" of those now in the new Stormont cross border body regimes, and turning to the Provos, he stated:
 
"The reality of the situation now is that the republican leadership are part of the government, the Northern Ireland executive - they hold senior portfolios."
 
Ahern was not the only one playing up "aspirations". The Provos have been toting that line for some time now since their acceptance of partition and the British GFA. 
 
There seems to be a lot of dreaming and even speak of "stepping stones", which makes the Dissenter think that perhaps it's time again for everyone to re-look at an obviously unlearned forgotten history lesson.
 
For all  this hope, the dreams of stepping stones and aspirations to a United Ireland currently floating around in Provisional heads, has all happened before without any change. 
 
In fact, as we now have seen that the acceptance of the first British Treaty imposed in 1921 only brought about prolonged suffering, a sectarian based society in the north,  prolonged war, and new Partionist ventures with yet another partionist treaty. 
 
Stepping Stones?  
 
Been there.. Done that.

Reading the latest newspaper headlines, editorials, and boasts from the Free State Prime Minister reminded one of the exact talk, Pro-Treaty-Speak, and Pro-Treaty arguments put forth in January of 1922, only days following the 1921 Treaty was coerced and imposed under duress of a threat by British Prime Minister of "Immediate and terrible war in three days time", had the provisions not been accepted by the plenipotentiaries on December 6, 1921.

The arguments you are about to read are the same kind of false hopes, that are today being fostered about by the Provos and Free State politicians, only these aspirations came from individuals of the second sitting of Dáil Éireann in 1922, very soon to be replaced a new illegitimate Dáil of the Saor Stat (Free State born December 6, 1922), which replaced the first Dáil Éireann of 1919-- elected after the overwhelming  majority of the population of Ireland voted for the All-Ireland Republic in 1918 through 32 county held elections.
 
"I have no doubt under this business and under these arrangements, and the necessity they will feel for material reasons for union, combined with propaganda, these terms will lead in a comparatively short time to the union of that part of the country (six counties) with the rest of Ireland"
-Ernest Blythe 

"A free independent Republican government of  Ireland" 
-Michael Collins
 
The Treaty gives "freedom to achieve freedom"
-Michael Collins
 
"It will lead very rapidly to goodwill and the entry of the Northeast under the Irish parliament" 
-Michael Collins
 
"Well, what is good enough for Michael Collins is good enough for me because I believe it is the best for Ireland"
-Padraic O' Maille
 
"The fact that the provisions in the treaty are not partition provisions, but they ensure eventual unity in Ireland. But, as a matter of fact, whether there were partition provisions or not, the economic position and the effects on the six counties area is this, that sooner or later isolation from the rest of Ireland would have so much weight on the economic state of these six counties as to compel them to renew their association with the rest of Ireland.  That trend of economic fact will stimulated by the provisions of this Treaty, and the man who asserts that partition is perpetuated in that Treaty is a man who has not read or understands what are the provisions in the Treaty."
-Sean Milroy, Sinn Fein deputy for Fermanagh Tyrone 

The Pro-Treaty forces of 1921-22 were much like today's Pro-Agreement forces. Business interests were obviously  hugely in favor of the Treaty. Unionists  were in favor of the treaty though opposed the Council of Ireland wanting no link with the Dublin parliament. The Catholic Church was in favor of the treaty, but not without much help from the British. The Press was most vocally in favor of the treaty, and was very hard at work trying to get local County councils to lobby and pass resolutions supporting the British Treaty. 
 
Within ten days before the signing of the treaty, the British, through the successful work of the British Under Secretary at Dublin Castle, Alfred Cope, were able to influence public opinion in Dublin, just in time so that when Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins and Barton returned back to Ireland there would be enough resistance in favor of the Treaty.  
 
It was recorded that Cope had already met with the Archbishop of Tuam -reportedly whom was still in his bed in London- and told him to immediately travel to Dublin to put pressure on the Archbishop of Dublin and to also meet with an influential Sinn Fein Treasurer by the name of Fogarty, and then contact the Archbishop Byrne. All this was done as the plenipotentiaries would  return to Ireland. It has been written by one scholar of Irish Republican History, Sean Cronin, that "with the Church against the Republic, its fate was sealed." Cronin states in his doctorate thesis, Irish Nationalism:  "Ulster nationalists who took their political
advice from the Church and not Sinn Fein were for the Treaty".
 
The British also summoned the "Freeman Journal", the long-established voice of Irish constitutional nationalism, to inform them of the "great news", and to support the treaty.  

Today we see essentially the same trends. Businesses interests and institutions of wealth  have flocked to support the GFA, the Catholic Church -which has since its day one in Ireland never really had any love for the aspirations of the Irish people or their freedom- has taken a typical Pro-treaty approach, the media has been going full force to support the GFA and broadcasted all sorts of biased reports; mainly aimed at painting any alternative to the GFA as a vote for war. Republicans were denied any opportunity through radio or television, and hardly much coverage in the newspapers, to put forth their arguments to the public
about to vote on the GFA.
 
When one compares the options given to the Irish people in 1922 with those given in the referendums of 1998, there is little if almost no difference. 
 
It was the British Prime Minster Lloyd George who at the climax of the talks in 1921 forced the decision on the Irish delegation in London offering only two options "the Empire" or "War".
 
Prior to the 1998 north /south referendums, the modern day British Prime Minister Tony Blair, much like his predecessors of 1921 Lloyd George, gave the Irish people essentially the same options of empire  or war,  as he declared to all that there was to be "NO PLAN B". 
 
You either accept the GFA and on our terms, or you will be voting to have continued war and violence, was the message the British were saying. 
 
In the end, a people faced with a choice between war and peace - the people naturally chose peace.  
 
It was a stampede toward  British rule, British partition, and as many would learn after voting, a British Council of the Isles, and possibly entrance into the British Commonwealth. 

In 1922 Liam Mellows, defending the Republic, stated at the debate in the second Dáil:
 
"...The people are being stampeded...In the people's mind there is only one alternative to this treaty and that is terrible, immediate war... That is not the will of the people, that is the fear of the people. The will of the people was when the people declared for a Republic."

The GFA has been hailed as a chance for the two warring "tribal factions" now to come together and form a relationship of peace. Yet nowhere in the GFA does it recognize that it was the British colonial invasion and occupation which was the root of the conflict, and not a sectarian feud based solely on religious "tribal dispute". Furthermore history has taught one sober lesson, that so long as Britain remains in Ireland, there will be no real peace.  Padraic Pearse made it bluntly clear in his country's
native language: 
 
"Ni Siochtain Go Saoirse!"  - No peace till Freedom!

For with the British and their misrule, they maintain a British tradition which maintains sectarianism, inequality, injustice, and military occupation and all the problems directly associated with that corrupt foreign Military occupation.
 
Sean McEntee, of Belfast in 1922 put forth his own fears of what the Treaty of 1921 meant to him.  Sadly, McEntee's warnings were ignored, but his fears were proved correct.
 
McEntee in his argument against the partition of his country and the
British Boundary Commission described the treaty as contrary to his
comrade's hopes and dreams, "a means not to bring the six counties into
Ireland, but to enable them to remain out of Ireland." 
 

McEntee believing England would find it profitable to subsidize the North
not to join the rest of Ireland stated:
 

"Mark my words, under this Treaty, Ulster will become England's fortress
in Ireland - a fortress as impregnable as Gibraltar, a fortress that shall
dominate and control Ireland as Gibraltar controls the Mediterranean."
 

The Dissenter now asks of our former Provo comrades--
 

Do you seriously think that the GFA designed and worded as it has been
worded; a treaty designed to bring the Provos into the British government;
designed to maintain a sectarian based and structured governing body;
written to give a Unionist veto of all of Ireland's sovereignty; devised
to continue partition between the two statelets which now have more than
ever, a common vested interest in maintaining that separation; a treaty
designed to decommission the Irish Rebel, and divide the Irish Republican
Movement--
 

Are you so foolish as to believe as those in 1922 did, that the GFA can
possibly bring about the United Ireland in 10, 15, or 20 years time? 
 

If so, perhaps you did not read what Sean McEntee has said and maybe his
words bear repeating, because today 78 years later, Irish Republicans are
again stating the exact same warnings.
 

Mark these words, this Treaty will only maintain and strengthen the
separation of Ireland, it shall maintain British rule in the northeast. It
shall be "a stepping stone" only to that of a larger extension of British
rule covering not a "united Ireland", but a partitioned and controlled
neocolonial Ireland, within the dominion and realm of  her Majesty's
British Crown and the British Commonwealth.
© The Dissenter, 2000
------------------------------------------------------------------

© The Irish Freedom Committee NewsList - IFC Updates 
Permission to re-publish any article from this post is granted provided author credit is attached and the active link back to this site is included.

Date: January 25 2000 10:36:42 EST
Subject: Bloody Sunday 
-----------------

“I saw the back of the paratroopers.  Almost all were facing the courtyard besieged on all three sides by the towering flats; the ideal place for a
massacre.  Some were kneeling and aiming, others were standing and aiming,
others yet were darting towards the street in an effort to cut off the
escape route of those few who had been overtaken by the roaring monsters
as they sped in.. . 

A little further on, a boy with short, dark hair, lifted his hand to his
face as he raced past one of the killers.  Should he be shot, he didn’t want to see.  The mercenary let him go past, glanced down at his weapon,
settled something on it with his hand, moved a few steps forward, calmly,
lifted the carbine to his shoulder, pointed with the black barrel at the
back of the fleeing boy, calmly.  Shot, calmly. . . ” 

From “Blood in the Street”, Fulvio Grimaldi 

Recently republished in paperback:
“Blood in the Streets” (Guildhall Press, 1998, ISBN 0-946451-50-8, U.S.$11.95), an eyewitness account of the massacre of Bloody Sunday by Fulvio
Grimaldi, the Italian photographer whose famous images make up most of the
public record of that day.
 
The book is a minute-by-minute account of events as they unfolded, much of
it transcribed from tapes made at the scene, and later in the homes of
some of the victims.
 
Originally published in 1972, it has been re-released with an introduction
by Don Mullan, whose own “Eyewitness Bloody Sunday” (Wolfhound Press,1997, ISBN 0-86327-586-9) exposed the officially-denied existence of
British Army snipers, firing from above on Derry’s walls. 

On exhibition at the UCR/California Museum of Photography 
in Riverside, CA:  
“Hidden Truths”, Tricia Ziff’s compilation of photographs and eyewitnessstatements of Bloody Sunday.
 
View the UCR/California Museum of Photography “Hidden Truths” website at:http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/photography/hidden/
 
The 28th anniversary of Bloody Sunday is this weekend.  
 
Deirdre Fennessy
National Secretary
Irish Freedom Committee/Cumann na Saoirse
P.O. Box 11417
Chicago, IL 60611
deemail@msn.com
 

************************************************

"Hidden Truths: Bloody Sunday 1972" will be at the UCR/California Museum of
Photography, 3824 Main St., Riverside. The opening panel discussion is
scheduled for 2-4 p.m. Saturday January 29th with a reception at 7 p.m.
The exhibit runs through March 5.
Regular museum hours 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays.
Admission is free. Information: (909) 787-4787

-------------------------------------------

Unfinished Business
Pat O'Brien, The Press-Enterprise

`Hidden Truths' at the UCR/California Museum of Photography shows a
view of 1972's infamous `Bloody Sunday' clash in Northern Ireland.
 
Trisha Ziff seems an unlikely champion of Irish Catholic victims of a
notorious shooting by British soldiers that became known as Bloody Sunday.

"I'm very much an outsider. I'm English," Ziff said. "I was 13. I don't
even remember the event of Bloody Sunday. I was away at boarding school."
 
But she has spent years gathering the remnants of the victims' lives and
deaths into a gripping exhibit, "Hidden Truths: Bloody Sunday, 1972," which opens
Saturday at UCR/California Museum of Photography in Riverside. The opening 
is on the eve of the 28th anniversary of the January 30, 1972,
confrontation.
 
The exhibit's opening day includes a panel of distinguished speakers who
have varying connections to Bloody Sunday: Watergate chief counsel Sam Dash,
State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), journalist William Rukeyser, as 
well as witnesses of the event.

The timing couldn't be better, Ziff believes, because the peace process in
recent years in Northern Ireland -- seeking to end shootings and bombings
by Catholic and Protestant paramilitary groups -- has resulted in the British
government reopening the official inquiry into a protest march in the town
of Derry that became known as Bloody Sunday. Fourteen died, six of them under
age 18, and as many more were wounded.
 
The action is precedent-setting. The British government has never in its
history re-examined any inquiry it has conducted. The Bloody Sunday inquiry
concluded the marchers were armed and therefore responsible for what
happened.
 
Documents in the exhibit say no weapons were reported by witnesses nor
photographed by news people, who were there from around the world.
Britain's Lord Chief Justice Widgery, who conducted the investigation, is reported to
have read only 15 of 500 eyewitness accounts.
 
"One of the ironies of the situation and an ironic point made by the title
of this exhibition is, all the truths were actually hidden in plain sight.
The international media were in Derry that day," Rukeyser said. "The reason
they were covered up for a couple of decades was the intensity and volume of the
English media machine."
 
The Queen of England even decorated the soldiers for a job well-done.

"What is extraordinary is how photographed that event was. Normally when
people are killed, it's furtive . . . you certainly don't choose to kill
unarmed demonstrators in the middle of the day," Rukeyser said. "The
soldiers committed those acts with such impunity, they didn't care that it
was photographed."
 
Rukeyser and others on the panel are coming, he said, because it's
unfinished business.
 
The keynote speaker will be Dash -- who earned fame during the Watergate
investigation and has a long history of human rights activity, including
interviewing Nelson Mandela when he was in prison. Dash, who is director of
the Institute of Criminal Law and Procedure at Georgetown University,
investigated Bloody Sunday for the International League for Human Rights, a
consultative body with the United Nations, and wrote a report titled
"Justice Denied: A Challenge to Lord Widgery's Opinion on Bloody Sunday."
 
He wrote: "It is not enough to set the record straight, as this report
attempts to do. There remains the unfinished business to see that a full
measure of justice is provided for those who were killed and wounded, as
well as their families. Great Britain and the world cannot walk away 
from Bloody Sunday."
 
In fairness, British loyalists were concerned because a portion of the
town, known as Free Derry, was barricaded and controlled by the Irish Republican
Army at that time. However, many people believe the shooting of civilians
on Bloody Sunday resulted in disillusionment with non-violent protest and
galvanized support for the IRA. The planned demonstration was held to
protest internment camps, where people were being held without trial or
specific charges. The British set up the camps to counter rising levels of
paramilitary violence, but the people rounded up were almost exclusively Catholic.
 
Ziff makes no excuses for the one-sided point of view of this exhibit.

"This show doesn't tell the story from the British government point of
view. My choice was to tell the story from the point of view of the families. The
British point of view can be read about in mainstream media for 30 years,"
she said. "This is about setting the record straight."
 
Ziff, who is married to photographer Pedro Meyer, has curated major
international exhibits and made an award-winning documentary
"Oaxacalifornia."

The exhibit is a collection of news photographs, portraits of the dead,
video and mementos depicting what happened on the streets of Derry.

Among the artifacts is a Mars bar that Michael Kelly handed to his mother
to hold for him while he marched. But he never returned to eat it.
 
"He was wild about Mars. Every Sunday when he was going away, I would put
six Mars in his rucksack. I still have that and his toothbrush and his
aftershave," Kathleen Kelly said in an earlier interview.
 
John Young's mother gave Ziff one of his notebooks.

"You can see where he practiced his signature. It's very tender, and there
are lists of girls' telephone numbers and a quote from a Beatles song,"
Ziff said.
 
Patrick Doherty's well-worn boots have been removed from the exhibit as
evidence to be used in the new inquiry. A photograph shows him before he
died, crawling along an alley, trying to escape tear gas and bullets.
 
"Paddy was a member of the civil rights organization. We said our cheerio.
My sisters were all there, all the women were going together. I just said,
`Cheerio, see you later,' and away he went. That was the last time I saw
him alive," said his wife, Eileen Doherty-Green, in a 1997 interview.
 
When Ziff unloads the crates of artifacts at a new museum -- the show has
been in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Mexico -- she finds it
necessary to welcome them to a new "home."
 
"There's a quality of almost being a custodian of their memory. It feels
very strange," she said.
 
Elaine Brotherton, whose uncle William McKinney was killed, has made it her
responsibility to monitor Bloody Sunday events in the United States since
she moved here in 1987. So when she heard that Ziff had an earlier
exhibit, "No Justice, No Peace," at Track 16 gallery in Santa Monica, she went.
 
"I went to see if it was a fair representation. So many people have
hijacked Bloody Sunday for their own purposes," Brotherton said.
 
Over the years, the dead have become numbers, and their collective images
have been used by many groups to raise funds for various causes.

Brotherton was so pleased that Ziff treated the dead as individuals that
shebegged her to expand the exhibit and tour it.
 
"The reason it is so important that the exhibition is shown is there is a
new inquiry. The first inquiry was a complete whitewash, and the people of
Derry know the truth wasn't told. We want justice," Brotherton said.

Although Ziff doesn't recall the day Bloody Sunday happened, she remembers
well the aftermath, years of increased bloodshed in Northern Ireland and
England.
 
"The events after Bloody Sunday when the IRA took the bombing campaign to
the streets of London, I remember very well. I remember being frightened 
and not understanding."

The interesting thing is what Ziff chose to do about her fear and
confusion.  When she was 20, she took a job in Derry, living in an apartment
overlooking the site of the shootings.
 
A new aspect of the exhibit is a "virtual" Bogside, the district in Derry
where the march and shootings took place. Viewers will be able to take
different perspectives -- a British soldier, a marcher, a victim -- on
re-created streets using British surveillance photographs of that time.
The exhibit opening includes an evening reception with entertainment by the
Los Angeles-based band Finn McCool.

Others on the panel are Peter Pringle, a British journalist who has written
for the London Sunday Times, the New York Times and the Washington Post;
Peter O'Neill, a participant in the march and witness of several deaths;
and Rita O'Hare, Sinn Fein representative to the United States and a negotiator
in the peace process. Also added to the panel by the museum is Rene
Rodriguez, who is on unpaid leave from the Riverside Police Dept. He had
reported racial remarks made by officers after the fatal shooting of Tyisha
Miller by police in 1998.
 
Ziff likens the role of the exhibition and the new inquiry to the truth
commission in South Africa that allowed people to document what they had
experienced during apartheid.
 
"Bloody Sunday was such an open outrage, an indiscriminate killing of
innocent people that a lot of young people felt a peaceful movement wasn't
going to work and they took up the gun," she said. "You can't have peace
without putting the past to rest."
 
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