Subject: INTERNMENT CONTINUES IN FREE STATE

Date: 07 26 01

The Free State internment of Michael McKevitt has been extended a further 2 months, following yesterday's postponement of the ninth scheduled bail hearing in his case, since his arrest on March 26th.

Mr. McKevitt's lawyers are being denied access to what the prosecution claims is a "quite large" book of evidence; purported to contain a statement from paid mole and US citizen David Rupert. The evidence is also being said to contain correspondence, memoranda, thousands of e-mails, and records of Mr Rupert’s dealings with the FBI and British Intelligence.

The prosecution told the court yesterday that it "hoped" to have the material ready for the defense by October.

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Irish Examiner

July 26, 2001

Trial of alleged Real IRA leader not yet fixed

SECURITY agencies from three different countries are currently working on material for the forthcoming trial of the alleged leader of the Real IRA, the Special Criminal Court was told yesterday. 

Michael McKevitt is charged with membership of an illegal organisation and with directing terrorism. Yesterday he was further remanded in custody until October 2nd during a brief appearance in court. 

His counsel Stephen McCann said the defence is still waiting for disclosure of all material before a trial date can be fixed. Mr McCann said there may be legal argument over preliminary issues when the disclosure material is ready.

State counsel Brendan Grehan said the book of evidence has been served on McKevitt but the disclosure material is “quite large.’’ He said it involved three different security agencies from three different jurisdictions. Mr Grehan said while a lot of work has been done on disclosure, it was not yet complete and it was hoped it would be ready by early October.

An earlier court hearing was told the disclosure material includes statements by an FBI agent David Rupert, correspondence, memoranda, 2,140 e-mails and records of Mr Rupert’s dealings with the FBI and British Intelligence.

The court has been told Mr Rupert, who worked for the FBI and British intelligence, was observed by gardaí meeting Michael McKevitt several times. The court also heard he successfully infiltrated the Real IRA leadership and attended their Army Council meetings.

The court also heard McKevitt allegedly met Mr Rupert over a two year period and asked him to acquire equipment for the dissident republicans. 

Michael McKevitt, 51, of Beech Park, Blackrock, Dundalk, Co Louth is charged that between August 29th, 1999 and March 28th, 2001, within the State, he was a member of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise the IRA, otherwise O´glaigh na hE´ireann and he directed the activities of the same organisation.

It is the first prosecution for directing terrorism under new legislation brought in after the 1998 Omagh bombing and anyone convicted of the offence faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

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Subject: STATEMENT FROM IRA POWs - Media Allegations

Date: 07 21 01

The following statement was issued by Republican POWs at Portlaoise, in response to Special Branch fabrications published as fact in the Irish Independent and the Irish News over the past week, which claimed a loss of prisoner morale and a supposed attack by Republican POWs upon a fellow prisoner at Portlaoise.

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Statement from IRA POWs

The following statement has been received from the Oglaigh na hEireann POWs, Portlaoise Gaol.

Allegations have been made in the media recently concerning the morale and cohesion of Republican prisoners in Portlaoise. We would like to take this opportunity to respond to these allegations, and to reiterate our commitment to the struggle for Irish freedom.

Morale among the imprisoned Volunteers here in Portlaoise remains high.

In recent weeks, however, we have been subject to what is clearly an orchestrated media campaign, alleging divisions and despondency among the POWs. We reject all these allegations. Our morale remains high because our analysis has been vindicated by the progress of events- events which have only served to strengthen our determination.

Much has also been made of allegations concerning the treatment by Republican prisoners of a young man arrested recently on a charge of IRA membership. Media reports alleged that, while on remand in Portlaoise, he had been subjected to an attack by Republican POWs. The truth, however, is somewhat different. 

On his arrival at Portlaoise, it was discovered that this young man had been beaten severely during his interrogation by Garda detectives. Much of his body was covered in bruises. The IRA O/C immediately arranged for him to be seen by a doctor at the earliest opportunity. That doctor believed his injuries to be so serious that he had him transferred to Portlaoise hospital for treatment. The young man returned to the wing later that day, and was subsequently released on bail several days later.

The media have been noticeably uncritical in their use of stories emanating from Garda Special Branch. The Republican prisoners would urge caution on reporters utilising this source of information. While the behind such leaks is clear, the veracity of their content must always remain in question.

An Phoblacht Abu!

Oglaigh na hEireann POWs, Portlaoise Goal; July 2001

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Subject: Death of an American - John Helmsworth

Date: 07 07 01

Two years ago today, American citizen John Helmsworth was attacked and severely beaten by a group of uniformed RUC members armed with truncheons as he walked home from a night out at a Belfast social club.

Although he survived the initial attack, which left him with a broken jaw and multiple facial injuries; lingering damage affected Helmsworth's health over the next 5 months, until he suffered "catastrophic" brain hemorrhage and died on January 1, 2000. The subsequent forensic report, written by Professor Derrick J. Pounder of the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Dundee in Scotland, ruled the beating received at the hands of the RUC as the "direct underlying cause of death."

While he would have been entitled to 'risk-free' compensation for his injuries from the Northern Ireland Office had he testified that he was attacked while participating in street riots surrounding the ongoing Orange Order marches, Helmsworth categorically denied that he had been involved with any such protest; and repeatedly told investigators that he was merely making his way home from the pub when he was attacked. To the end, Helmsworth maintained that he was an innocent man who was singled out for a vicious and unprovoked attack at the hands of the British security forces.

An attempt by family and friends of John Helmsworth to obtain an independent inquest into the murder has thus far led to no conclusion for the family. 

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From: Relatives for Justice website

http://www.relativesforjustice.com/casefiles/hemsworth_john.htm

Death of an American

Anthony Neeson

Anthony Neeson speaks to Colette Hemsworth whose husband John was beaten by the RUC in July 1997 and died on New Years Day 1998 More than 3,600 people tragically lost their lives through violent acts between 1966 to the present day. Omitted from that number, in many cases, are those who died as a result of their injuries, their names are not contained among the official list of deaths.

Prematurely many went to their graves having never fully recovered from a gun or bomb attack or a vicious beating. If they were, one could only make a rough estimation as to the true number of deaths from over 30 years of violence. One such death was that of United States national John Hemsworth who died six months after being the victim of a vicious RUC assault on 7 July 1997 as he made his way home through the Clonard area of west Belfast from an evening out at St Galls club. Earlier that day trouble had flared in nationalist districts after the RUC forced an Orange parade along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown after a long stand off. John had walked through Beechmount and Clonard to avoid any trouble on the Falls Road but as he did so he stumbled upon an RUC riot squad and was immediately set upon and beaten by five RUC members.

Over the intervening months John's health deteriorated rapidly and on being admitted to hospital on 27 December, after collapsing at home suffering from respiratory problems, John died from a brain haemorrhage On New Year's Day. He was 39 years-old. Over two years later, in April of this year, the Attorney General ordered an inquiry into John's death in what is seen as an unusual legal intervention, requiring an inquest after the death has been registered. For his wife Colette this new development is seen as a vindication of the family's campaigning over the last three years to highlight John's case and to bring to justice those RUC officers who beat him. 

"When the RUC set upon John in Malcolmson Street John kept telling them that he was an American citizen", said Colette in the Conway Square home she bought alone with John.  

"They said to him that he was a fenian and that would do them and gave him a terrible beating. He came back here in a terrible state, but because of our two year old child Danielle I couldn't go with him to hospital so he went over to the Royal on his own.

"At Dunville Park the RUC got him again and gave him hassle but one officer shouted over from across the street That's my man, I got him earlier and they let John go. When he got to the hospital it was discovered that his jaw was broken in two places and his body was covered in bruising. For the next six weeks he was out of work, and had to go to out-patients and the school of dentistry but he deteriorated over the next couple of months and in November, around his birthday, he went into depression, he didn't shave and wouldn't go out and began losing a terrible lot of weight. He was still going to the dentist up until December getting work done to his teeth. On the evening of 27 December John collapsed with a stroke in the kitchen and was taken to the City Hospital. A brain scan revealed an abnormality and he was taken to intensive care. Then on 1 January he died."

At first the RUC denied being in the area on the night John was attacked, then on his death the Independent Commission on Police Complaints, with whom the initial complaint was lodged, closed the file on the case as the family were left to grieve the loss of John. Unhappy with the official response to his death they eventually contacted Relatives For Justice who liaised with Amnesty International. John's medical history and autopsy findings were sent to pathologist Derek Pounder, a professor at Dundee University who concluded that John died as a result of the beating he received in Malcolmson Street which delayed the triggering of a nerve connected to the jaw which was in turn responsible for the haemorrhage.

This finding, plus constant campaigning on John's behalf, has led to an inquest into his death to take place, although no date has yet been fixed.

The family has also learned that British soldiers, who were in the area at the time of the RUC attack on John, and are now based in Germany, are being questioned on the matter. John was born in New Jersey and came to Belfast with his family when he was a year and a half, explains Colette.

"When he was 20 he returned to the States, this time California where he worked for six years and when he came back I met him and we married. We had one child, Danielle, who still remembers her daddy and talks about him constantly even though she was only two when he died. She remembers little things and wants to know why her daddy had to die and says that she wants him back. It's very hard when I hear that and it's difficult to explain to her what actually happened to him without frightening her. After the beating he just wasn't himself. He thought the world was on top of him and thought nothing was going right for him, he couldn't explain it. He just changed completely.

"He worked as a plumbing and heating engineer but after the RUC beat him had to take six weeks off. For the first week he couldn't eat and had to take liquids or drink through a straw, but over the next few months he was always sick and wouldn't go out. He couldn't believe that it had happened to him. There was trouble at the time because of Drumcree but he hadn't involved in it, he was just trying to get home to me and Danielle.

"When he got out of hospital he got in touch with the American Consul to complain about what had happened to him. I never thought for one minute that he was going to die. That morning I was staying in a wee ward in intensive care and they came in and said that John was brain dead. We just sat around his bed and then at nine minutes past four John died. I was left without a husband and Danielle was left without her daddy.

"What I want is for the five RUC men who beat John to be brought to court and answer for what they did. I want answers to the questions that I have and when Danielle asks me why her daddy died I want to be able to tell her why. There are times when you'd be waiting on him coming home and then he doesn't. I go and visit his parents, but whereas before I used to go with him, I'm now going on my own.  His mummy still doesn't like coming over to this house because he isn't here, it's hard for her. Everyone's devastated by his death, and his father writes to senators and MPs just trying to highlight his case, it's absolutely heart breaking. Last week Colette and her brother Kevin accompanied a delegation from Relatives For Justice where they met Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin and pressed him on their concerns that the British government were watering down reforms on policing in the North. Colette presented the Taoiseach with a file on John's case and says he was sympathetic to her plight. 

"I'm determined to see this through", says Colette. And after all this time determined to see justice finally done for John.

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Irish Echo

October 13-19, 1999

American Citizen Murdered by RUC

Jack Holland

The family of an American citizen who was allegedly beaten by the Royal Ulster Constabulary is bringing a civil suit against the police backed by an independent forensic report showing that he died as a direct result of his injuries six months after the incident.

The man, 40-year-old John Hemsworth, who was born in Kearney, N.J., alleged that the attack took

place in the early hours of July 7, 1997 in Belfast, when he said he was beaten about the face and head after a police patrol had stopped him as he made his way home from a night out with friends.

In November of that year, Hemsworth suffered a minor stroke. He was hospitalized on Dec. 27, 1997, complaining of severe headaches, and died on Jan. 1 1998 of a "catastrophic" stroke. The forensic report, written by Professor Derrick J. Pounder of the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Dundee in Scotland, concluded that the alleged assault was the sole "direct underlying cause of death."

Though Hemsworth was alone at the time of the incident, the family's lawyer has obtained the names of several eyewitnesses to the attack, which it is alleged was unprovoked.

On the night of Hemsworth's death there had been widespread rioting in Northern Ireland. On the Falls Road in West Belfast, what was described as a "localized" riot briefly flared late on the night of July 6. According to Hemsworth's widow, Colette, John was on his way home from St. Gall's Social Club.

"He had tried to get a black taxi but couldn't, so he walked," she said. To avoid the disturbances he stayed away from the main road. 

"On my way home about 1 a.m. I was walking down Malcomson Street," Hemsworth related in his statement, made to his lawyer on July 10. "A crowd of fellas were running down Malcomson Street. They were on the other side of the road from me. They disappeared into Waterford Street. Police jeeps drove up Malcomson Street chasing these boys.

There are bollards at the bottom of the street, so the police stopped. They got out. They were in front of me. One turned and came toward me. I said: 'I'm just going home. I'm an American citizen.' At that, he hit me in the face with his truncheon. I fell to the ground. He called me a Fenian bastard. I was lying on the ground. Another one was shouting, 'Move, move you Fenian bastard.' He kicked me on the left side of the jaw. I started to get up. Another one hit me on the back with a truncheon. I got up and walked to my wife's house."

"I heard him crying as he came in," Mrs. Hemsworth remembers. "The peelers [police] beat me," she said he told her. "They broke my jaw." His wife says he "looked like the Elephant man -- all swollen and bruised." Hemsworth set out for the nearby Royal Victoria Hospital alone as his wife had to remain at home to take care of their 2 1/2- year-old daughter. His statement continues:

"I saw the army and police at the gate of Dunville Park. There were stones being thrown at them. I explained I was going to hospital. One of them said, 'Hi, boy.' I jumped back. He said, 'That's my man.' I went to the RVH and had X-rays taken."

Records show Hemsworth was examined in the hospital at 2:21 a.m. Mrs. Hemsworth got a telephone call at 4 a.m. from a nurse informing her that her husband would have to stay in overnight. His jaw was broken and the side of his face and back were bruised. The notes made by the emergency medical officer on duty that morning refer to the injuries being consistent with being beaten with a stick, according to reliable sources. 

Hemsworth was released later that day. Three days later, he made the statement to his lawyer containing the allegations against the RUC. His lawyer believes that the fact that he did this lends credibility to his client's story.

"If he had been assaulted in the course of a riot, he could have claimed criminal injury from the Northern Ireland Office," explained Brendan Blaney, the family lawyer. "It was risk free. But no, John said he was clear about his course" -- and the RUC involvement.

A changed man

Mrs. Hemsworth said that her husband's personality changed over the course of the six months before his death.

"He wasn't the same man after the beating," she said. "At the beginning of November he began to have breakdowns. He thought the world was against him. He was depressed and began crying a lot." The doctor prescribed anti-depressant drugs.

Hemsworth, who was a heating engineer and had worked in California for several years in the 1980s, had been discussing with his wife the prospect of returning there to live. In 1997, he got an offer from a friend in California of an apartment and was seriously considering moving there in 1998. Two days before Christmas a strange blotch appeared on his face and he went to the doctor. On Dec. 27, he complained of severe headaches. He suffered a stroke and was hospitalized. John Hemsworth died five days later.

On Jan. 7, 1998, the RUC received a complaint by telephone from the Hemsworth's family solicitor, followed by a letter on Jan. 8. The Independent Commission on Police Complaints was called in to supervise the police inquiry into the alleged assault.

The inquiry lasted just over a year. On Feb. 2 1999, the ICPC sent a four-sentence letter to Hemsworth's solicitor saying that the lack of certain pieces of information made the investigation currently impracticable. The police had been unable to obtain the statement John Hemsworth made to his solicitor on July 10, 1997 alleging the assault. The RUC also said it was unable to reach Mrs. Hemsworth, the widow to interview her.

The solicitor involved in the case, Brendan Blaney, says lawyers are often reluctant to share information with the ICPC knowing that it will be shared with the police and crown counsel, and is in conflict with their primary duty to their clients.

Colette Hemsworth says that the RUC has not contacted her, though she is at the same address as when her husband was alive. She is puzzled as to why they have failed to reach her since she is also contactable through John's father, Michael.

Amnesty probe

Three month's after receiving the ICPC's letter, the family contacted Amnesty International asking for help in obtaining an independent forensic opinion on the cause of John Hemsworth's death. As a result of the request, Professor Pounder of the University of Dundee undertook an investigation, based on "the death certificate, neuropathology report, and autopsy report."

In a report dated Aug. 4, 1999 Pounder states that "the immediate cause of death is clear and beyond dispute. Mr. Hemsworth died of a cerebral infarction [stroke] brought about by a blood clot obstructing one of the major arteries passing between the neck and the brain . . . " The report also says that it is clear that "the cause of the blood clot in the artery was damage to the wall of the artery...and further that this damage to the wall of the artery pre-dated the formation of the blood clot."

The question is, how did this damage come about? Pounder considers the two options: disease or trauma. "If the cause is natural disease then similar changes are to be anticipated in other arteries of the body. Examination of the corresponding left carotoid artery showed it to be entirely normal and examination of the arteries of the body generally [as indicated in the autopsy report] disclosed no natural disease."

Considering trauma as a possible cause of the arterial damage, Pounder found that "to produce such damage would require a significant impact to the right side of the neck in the area immediately adjacent to the angle of the jaw.

"There is a history of trauma resulting from an alleged assault, with a medical record of a fracture to the right side of the jaw."

However, the problem was the considerable lapse of time that occurred between the alleged assault and Hemsworth's death. Pounder points out that though there was what he calls a "minor transient stroke" in November, the final "catastrophic stroke" did not take place until Dec. 27, and death not until five days later, six months after the alleged assault.

Pounder's report acknowledges that while "delayed clotting . . . within an artery following trauma is well recognized," it typically takes place within days, not months. However, his report observes that such long delays while "uncommon" are recognized as "possible both from the perspective of our theoretical understanding of the mechanism involved and also from anecdotal case material."

The report's conclusion is unequivocal:

"It is in my view highly likely that the trauma [i.e. alleged assault] was the sole direct underlying cause of death."

The ICPC is aware of Professor Pounder's conclusions but says that evidence is still insufficient to proceed with the case. 

Amnesty International, meanwhile, intends to highlight the case in its upcoming report on Northern Ireland.

The dead man's father, Michael Hemsworth, is bitter about the lack of response he has had from U.S. authorities and politicians to whom he has written.

"He was proud to be an American and an Irish American, but, sadly, the politicians have let him  down," said Michael Hemsworth, who described his son as "deploring hatred and bigotry." 

In the meantime, Mrs. Hemsworth is pursuing a civil case against the police for the death of her husband, possibly the only American to die in Northern Ireland as a result of the Troubles. 

"He thought as an American citizen he was safe," she said.

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Subject: Build-up to Drumcree

Date: 07 04 01

Thousands of residents have fled the Occupied North in recent days as Sunday's Drumcree march, banned on Tuesday from entering the Nationalist Garvaghy Road community, fast approaches.

Results of an appeal to the Parades Commission ruling, overturned at the 11th hour in past years; will be announced later today.

Nationalist communities laying in the path of Orange Order marches have endured a state of siege in recent weeks, with pipe bomb attacks continuing on a nightly basis; bullets and death threats sent by post to residents in Armagh; and the threat of random sectarian murder made real with the assassination of civilian teenager Ciaran Cummings early Wednesday morning as he waited for a lift to work.

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Thousand Flee To Escape Drumcree

PA 07/06/01 05:30

Copyright 2001 PA News

By Gary Kelly, Political Correspondent, PA News

Drumcree Sunday, the Orange Order gathering in Portadown, and which is now in its seventh year of conflict, has become hugely symbolic to loyalists who claim their right to walk the Queen's Highway is being eroded by a Government intent on appeasing nationalists.

It is synonymous with violent protests, intolerance and division and explains why the departure lounges at airports and ferry ports were packed today as thousands headed for mainland Britain and the Mediterranean sunshine to escape the madness on the streets.

Drumcree sends shivers down the country's spine. There can be nowhere more depressing than Northern Ireland in early July and the tourists who returned in their thousands in the immediate aftermath of the first IRA ceasefire in August l994 give it a wide berth.

The scenic north Antrim coastline and the peace of the lakes of Fermanagh can have enormous drawing powers, but so too does the razor wire, concrete defences and ugly ditches which turn a tiny corner of picturesque County Armagh landscape into something resembling the First World War.

It is blackly appropriate as the service in the parish church is held in the first Sunday of July to commemorate the thousands of Ulstermen who fell in the battle of the Somme.

It was in 1995 when Northern Ireland was seemingly enjoying a hot summer of peace that Drumcree first became part of the litany of notorious place names on the map.

Although the parade had been contentious in previous years, this was the first time that the security forces had moved in to block the route.

A stand-off began, as trouble erupted throughout the Province. 

On the day before the Twelfth, the biggest day of the Orange marching season, a compromise was reached and Portadown Orangemen marched silently past angry nationalists The residents, furious at a dance of celebration by Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley and Ulster Unionist MP David Trimble at the end of the march, vowed never again to allow a parade down the road.

But the following year, in the midst of the worst violence seen yet, including the murder of Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick, the then RUC Chief Constable Sir Hugh Annesley reversed a decision banning the parade.

Nationalist protesters were cleared off the road by an RUC riot squad, leading to furious violence in Catholic areas throughout the Province.

The last time the Orangemen have been permitted to follow their traditional route home was l997 when the Secretary of State Mo Mowlam decided that the march should go ahead. Garvaghy Road has never forgiven her.

Police and troops descended, sealing off the area, again igniting nationalist anger.

Since 1998, the Orange Order has kept a presence "on the hill" in protest at being prevented from parading. On July 12, three young children were burned to death after their house was petrol- bombed in Ballymoney Co Antrim. 

Despite the murders being linked by the security forces to protests surrounding Drumcree, the Orange Order refused to give up its protest.

The formation of the Parades Commission to act as an "honest broker" in the annual dispute has failed to resolve the issue. 

The Orange Order has steadfastly refused to talk to the Commission or the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition. 

This weekend, the community will once again hold its collective breath, hoping that good sense will prevail and the violence of past years will not materialise.

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The Irish News

Friday, July 06, 2001

Groups that have kept the violence up

By Sharon O’Neill

SHOW OF STRENGTH: The Orange Volunteers claim they could mount a 10-year campaign of violence 

THE Red Hand Defenders (RHD), one of the groups which claimed responsibility for the murder, has maintained a high level of activity across Northern Ireland since it was formed during the Drumcree crisis nearly three years ago.

The dissident loyalist organisation – widely believed to comprise UFF and LVF members – has carried out several killings and pipe-bomb attacks. 

It claimed responsibility for the murder of Catholic Brian Service in 1998 and solicitor Rosemary Nelson a year later. 

In January this year it also admitted responsibility for a gun attack on the home of a son of prominent Sinn Fein member Martin Meehan. No-one was injured.

The renegade group has also been linked to recent violence in north Belfast. Last week Gary Smith, a close associate of UFF chief Johnny Adair, was charged with RHD membership. 

Earlier this year the Orange Volunteers, which also claimed yesterday’s murder, believed to have close links with the RHD, warned in its statement ‘Back to War’ that it had the guns and explosives to mount a 10-year campaign. 

Last December two University of Ulster students were among four men jailed for offences linked to the Orange Volunteers.  The men were arrested after a police chase through Antrim. A loaded AK47 assault rifle was found in the car they were travelling in. 

The court was told that all four men had joined the Stoneyford Orange Lodge in sympathy for the events at Drumcree. Police raided the Co Antrim hall and found documents with the personal details of hundreds of republicans.While both organisations continue to increase their activity claims persists that the RHD is merely a cover name for the on-ceasefire UDA/UFF.

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Subject: MCKEVITT INTERNMENT CONTINUES

Date: 07 06 01

Free State "Internment by Remand" continues for Michael McKevitt, as a seventh bail hearing in his case was postponed earlier today for yet another two weeks.

At today's hearing, Mr. McKevitt's lawyers were denied access to documents purporting to detail a 'relationship' with paid government witness and US citizen David Rupert. The discovery request was refused on the grounds that such disclosure was "premature".

The defense had sought access to written correspondence, financial documents, telephone and laptop records, and thousands of emails held by the State's Prosecution; detailing the relationship between the State's witness, the FBI, and British Intelligence.

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Irish Times

McKevitt application premature, says court

06-07-01, 16:24

The Special Criminal Court today ruled an application for full disclosure of documentation concerning Mr Michael McKevitt's 'relationship' with an FBI agent was "premature".

Mr McKevitt (51) of Beech Park, Blackrock, Dundalk, Co Louth, is charged with directing the activities of an unlawful organisation between August 29th, 1999 and March 28th, 2001.

Lawyers for Mr McKevitt had sought full disclosure of documents held by the prosecution relating to Mr David Rupert, arguing that it was necessary before a bail application could be made.

The defence had written to the State seeking Mr Rupert's statements, correspondence, memoranda, 2,140 e-mails and records of his dealings with the FBI and British intelligence ahead of a bail application.

But today Mr Justice Joseph Matthews, delivering the judgment of the three judges, said it was the court's view that there was no general right in law for an applicant to have full disclosure as a preliminary to conducting a bail application.

The court was told at an earlier hearing that Mr Rupert, who worked for the FBI and British intelligence, was observed by gardaí meeting Mr McKevitt on a number of occasions.

The court also heard that he successfully infiltrated the Real IRA leadership and attended their Army Council meetings. 

It is the first such prosecution under new legislation brought in after the 1998 Omagh bombing and anyone convicted of the offence faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Mr McKevitt was remanded in custody until July 25th.

PA

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Subject: Nationalist Youth Shot Dead

Date: 07 04 01

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BBC News

Wednesday July 4, 2001

Loyalists blamed for roadside murder 

The man was shot at Greystone Roundabout in Antrim Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid has condemned the murder of a 19-year-old Catholic man in Antrim.

Ciaran Cummings was waiting for a lift to work near the Greystone Roundabout in the town when he was shot dead at about 0715 BST on Wednesday.

The police said he was approached by two men on a black motorcycle and was shot several times. He died at the scene.

A person claiming to be from the Red Hand Defenders said the dissident loyalist paramilitary group carried out the shooting. 

Several loyalist groups, most notably the Loyalist Volunteer Force, have used the title of the Red Hand Defenders as a cover name.

RUC Assistant Chief Constable Alan McQuillan said the police believe paramilitaries were involved because it was such a "well organised and coolly carried out attack". 

He said the police have not ruled out a sectarian motive, but could not yet say which paramilitary group was involved.

Local nationalist and unionist political representatives have said they believe it was a sectarian murder by loyalists.

'Spur to peace'

Meanwhile, Dr Reid said the murder should act as a "spur" to complete the peace process. 

"We want to put all paramilitary weapons beyond use, republican and loyalist," he said. "I hope this acts a spur to all of us to see that this is achieved."

Speaking in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned the murder, which he said was "a tragic and terrible event".

A friend of Mr Cummings' family, Mary Matthews, said they are "devastated".

"They just cannot take it in. He was a normal 19-year-old with plenty of friends from both sides of the community," she said.

'Sectarian murder'

Antrim Sinn Fein councillor Martin McManus, who knew Mr Cummings said: "This is the sectarian murder of a young man, shot on his way to work simply because he was a Catholic."

Mr McManus said a number of the victim's colleagues at FG Wilson Engineering, who were also waiting at the roundabout for a lift to work, saw him being shot. 

The councillor added: "He was a very hard working and likeable young fellow, who mixed with people on both sides of the community." 

He said in the past week threats had been made to Mr Cummings and "at least 20 others" by dissident loyalists in the town. 

Another Sinn Fein councillor, Martin Meehan, said they were "verbal threats from the LVF". 

'Father distraught'

Ken Wilkinson, a local representative from the Progressive Unionist Party, which is linked to the loyalist paramilitary UVF, said Mr Cummings' distraught father visited him shortly after the murder to see if he could find out any information about it.

Mr Wilkinson said he "utterly condemned the murder" which he said was "a big set-back for the area which would only heighten tensions".

The police believe that after the shooting the attackers made their way up the Greystone Road in the direction of the M2 motorway and have appealed for information.

Ulster Unionist councillor and former Mayor of Antrim Paddy Marks said: "We have had a quiet period in Antrim. But now this seems to have started up again.

"I hope it has nothing to do with Drumcree, but I fear it could be an attempt to drive the community apart."

Alliance assembly member David Ford said: "It is very worrying that some people are trying to drag us back to the dark days of the 1970s and 80s."

SDLP assembly member Donovan McClelland appealed to community representatives to try to calm tensions following the murder. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/northern_ireland/newsid_1421000/1421629.stm

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Subject: Drumcree Banned

Date: 07 03 01

The Parades Commission has ruled today that Sunday's Drumcree Parade be prevented from marching through the Nationalist town, following an Orange Order service at Drumcree Parish Church.

The parade will be banned from the town's Obins Street, which has seen increased violence by Loyalists in recent weeks, including the detonation of a large blast bomb on June 26th.

Residents are being warned to remain vigilant for further violence following the ruling.

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UTV

MONDAY 02/07/01 19:02:10

Drumcree banned

The Drumcree parade by Portadown Orangemen was again banned tonight from marching down the nationalist Garvaghy Road in the County Armagh town at the weekend.

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The Parades Commission ruled that Sunday's annual parade be stopped, for the fourth year running, from returning to their Orange Hall from a religious service at Drumcree Parish Church by the traditional route. 

The commission said their decision was ''set against a background of continuing local community tension and recognises the real possibility of further damage to community relations and of public disorder should the parade be allowed on its full route''.

The decision was made despite a late plea last week from local MP and Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble for it to be allowed. 

In one of his last duties as First Minister before his weekend resignation he met the commission last Friday. 

Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid appealed for calm and respect for the decision.

Dr Reid said :'' I would hope that the decision is respected by everyone and that everyone shows the maximum restraint - we need cool heads over the next few weeks.''

But British army and police chiefs have already prepared to step up security measures against loyalist protest at the decision.

Some 1600 extra troops were ordered into Northern Ireland at the end of last month ready to cope with the increased tensions of the height of the marching season.

Past bans on the Drumcree parade have resulted in widespread loyalist street disorder, not only in Portadown, but Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland.

The commission insisted that the parade, which is again banned from the town's flashpoint Obins Street, must be conducted in an orderly and lawful manner.

Equally any protest should be exclusively peaceful and lawful, it said, and urged all responsible community, business and political leaders to do all they could to prevent any violent protest.

Commission chairman Tony Holland said earlier in the day he believed there were grounds for optimism that the long running Drumcree dispute could eventually be resolved.

He believes the Orange Order is moving towards lifting its ban on talking to his commission about contentious parades including Drumcree. 

''There is an increasing realisation that to stand on a set position indefinitely is not going to achieve anything, he said.

''I have made no pretence about the fact that the ultimate answer is to engage formally with the commission. I think once we do get some engagement it will be a significant move forward.

''The die hard extremists on both sides are always the problem in these areas. The only way you are going to overcome their enormous influence is by those people who don't share their views becoming more pro-active,'' he said.

Urging them to follow the lead of the Apprentice Boys in Londonderry where engagement has led to agreed parades, he said: ''They must have got some positive sense in seeing what's happened there - they have made enormous progress in relation to their parading culture.''

Mr Holland said there had been significant moves forward since last year's parade was banned.

''I do not believe that the dynamics are the same, I believe there has been movement, all be it imperceptible movement, on behalf of both sides. The Parades Commission's decision was welcomed by SDLP minister Brid Rodgers.

The Upper Bann MLA, in whose constituency Drumcree is situated, said there needed to be face-to-face dialogue between the Orange Order and the Garvaghy Road residents.

The Stormont Agriculture Minister said: ''The entire community is sick of the disruption and despair which the marching season continually visits on the people of Northern Ireland, and people are fed up with the Orange Order's inability to approach the issue constructively. 

''There is only one way for the issue of this march to be resolved once and for all, and that is through dialogue between the local residents and the Orange Order. The north is sick of the word Drumcree.

''The north is sick of the trouble which accompanies the marching season.  The north wants, indeed yearns for, a way out of this annual misery.  Meaningful and continuing dialogue is the only way to reach that point.''

Senior Orangeman and United Unionist Assembly member Denis Watson tonight urged loyalists who did not have the best interests of the Portadown Orangemen at heart to stay away from Drumcree this Sunday.

''The stand has been going on since 1998 and I think Harold Gracey and his colleagues will continue to make that just stand until they get a just and honourable solution to the problem,'' the Upper Bann MLA said.

''As I have said before about the Orange institutions all they seek is a just and lasting solution to the problem.

''If people heed the call from the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland which is abundantly plain (they will see) we do not want any violence or anything associated with that. That does nothing for the good of the institution.

''In fact it besmirches everything that the institution stands for. We can't lose sight of why we go to Drumcree Church on Sunday. We go to worship God which is central to being an Orangeman.''

Mr Watson told reportes while the Orange Order's ban on direct dialogue with nationalist residents groups like the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition remained, they would abide by it.

But he queried whether the residents having secured another ban on the Drumcree march really had any incentive to enter into serious dialogue about a march with Orangemen.

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