'Bereft of justice'

Allison Morris

This morning in the Irish News, journalist Allison Morris discussed the decision by the PPS not to pursue the prosecution of a number of men in relation to the murder of reporter Sunday World Martin O'Hagan in 2001.

 

She ended her analysis by saying: 'Meanwhile, the family of the investigative reporter, who spend his career exposing the nefarious activities of men who later killed him, have been left bereft of justice.'  That final phrase 'bereft of justice' caught my attention.

 

I thought of so many terrible atrocities perpetrated by paramilitary organisations during the Troubles and yet so many remain unresolved, with no one prosecuted, no one convicted and no one held to account - La Mon and Bloody Friday are just two of many such atrocities.

 

Sinn Fein and a number of republican campaigning groups have been to the fore in demanding justice but they have not been to the fore in delivering justice.  They demand  Gerry Adams and many other senior figures in Sinn Fein could deliver justice for many families by telling us what they know about the murders and the atrocities perpetrated by the Provisional IRA.

 

In the meantime, we may not be able to extract the information locked away in the minds of Sinn Fein politicians, but there is one thing we must do and that is prevent them rewriting history.  The carnage perpetrated by the Provisional IRA and encouraged and eulogised by Sinn Fein must not be forgotten.



 

 

 

Dolours Price (2)

Dolours Price came from a thoroughly republican family.  Both her parents were IRA veterans but the greatest influence on her was her mother's sister, Bridget 'Bridie' Dolan.

 

Dolan was born in 1911 into a strongly republican family in Belfast and along with her sisters she joined Cumann na mBan, the women's IRA.  They had their first brush with the authorities when they refused to remove their Easter lilies while returning home from a 1916 Easter Rising commemorative mass in St Patrick's Chapel in Donegall Street.  The group were sentenced to prison terms of between two weeks and one month and they served their sentences in the women's prison in Armagh.

 

Bridie Dolan was badly injured in 1938 when a package of grenades exploded as she was moving them from one IRA dump to another.  Both her hands were blown off, her face was hideously disfigured and she was blinded.  This was the period when the IRA was working, through its Irish-American associates, to prepare for another terrorist campaign and to secure the help of the Nazis.

 

In spite of her injuries she continued to dedicate her life to Irish republicanism and attended republican events throughout the rest of her life.  At the funeral of Joe Cahill on 27 July 2004, Gerry Adams gave an oration and in it he mentioned Bridie Dolan as another one of those who 'came forward' in 1969, giving her support to the Provisional IRA.

 

Bridie Dolan died on 9 February 1975 and she was given a full republican funeral 'with military honours'.  Her name appears in republican publications as Volunteer Bridie Dolan of Cumann na mBan.

 

Much of the above information is copied from a memorial tile in the IRA garden of reflection at Moyard House, home of the Roddy McCorley Club and Irish Republican Museum, in West Belfast.  This tile gives the date of the accidental explosion as the 1940s rather than 1938 but in either case the explosion happened in the period when the IRA was collaborating with the Nazis.

 

There are several things that strike me in the story of Bridie Dolan and her niece Dolours Price.

 

(1) It is interesting to see how many of the leading Provisional IRA activists came from strongly republican families which had been involved in militant IRA republicanism for generations.

 

(2) Bridie Dolan was an example of the fanaticism of militant republicanism.  In spite of the injuries she received in the accidental explosion all those years ago she remained totally dedicated to the cause.  Neither did the explosion deter her two nieces Dolours and Marion Price from joining the IRA.  They had seen at first hand the awful effects of terrorism but they too became committed terrorists.

 

 

Dolours Price (1)

The death of Dolours Price has brought a renewed focus on her statements that Gerry Adams was her commanding officer in the Provisional IRA.  As a result it is damaging to Sinn Fein's attempt to rewrite the history of the Troubles.

 

Dolours and her sister Marian were born into a staunchly republican family in Belfast and were the daughters of Albert Price.  There is an interesting reference to Albert Price in Tim Pat Coogan's book on The IRA:

The Provisionals or Provos as they became generally known, began to group in the Falls area generally.  For instance, the Andersonstown branch of Sinn Fein, the Rodger McCorley Cumann, split from the Official IRA of Cathal Goulding when the section led by Albert Price - father of the Price sisters, Dolores and Marion, who went on hunger strike in Brixton prison after being sentenced for their part in the London bombings - differed from the socialist policy of the rest of the Cumann and reverted to the traditional Republican aim of getting the British out of occupied Ireland.

 

My attention was taken by the name of the Sinn Fein cumann of which Albert Price was a member, the Rodger [sic] McCorley cumann.  So who was Roger McCorley and why did Sinn Fein name the Andersonstown cumann after him?

 

Roddy McCorley was a Presbyterian farmer and a United Irishmen.  He took part in the 1798 rebellion and then afterwards went on the run.  McCorley attempted to emigrate from Ulster to America but was arrested and executed at Toome on 28 February 1800.  Later he was reburied at Duneane Presbyteran churchyard.  He was generaly known as Roddy McCorley but at his trial and execution he was referred to in the press as Roger McCorley.

 

However there was another Roger McCorley and one who had a much closer connection with West Belfast.  This Roger McCorley was a great-grandson of the earlier United Irishman.  He was a member of the Belfast Brigade of the IRA during the Irish War of Independence, 1919-1922.

 

McCorley was commandant of the 1st Battalion and in August 1920 he was one of four IRA men who murdered Detective Inspector Oswald Swanzy, a member of the RIC, as he left Christ Church cathedral in Lisburn.  On 26 January 1921 he was involved in the murder of three men in their beds in the Railway View Hotel in Belfast.  McCorley and another IRA man, Seamus Woods, organised an Active Service Unit to carry out attacks without the approval of the IRA leadership.  He personally led the gang in the murder of three Black and Tans and his men carried on a 'savage underground war'.  In April 1922 he became leader of the IRA in Belfast.  Under his leadership they murdered William J Twaddell MP, a Belfast businessman.  Subsequently he fled south of the border and took the side of the Free State against the Anti-Treaty republicans.

 

In March 1940 Roger McCorley was a founding member of Coras na Poblachta, a political party which sought a United Ireland and economic independence from the United Kingdom.  It also called for greater prominence for the Irish language and took a pro-fascist position during the Second World War.  Also in attendance at the inaugural meeting was Seamus O'Donovan, an IRA leader who was the architect of the IRA bombing campaign in Britain and collaborated with the Nazis.  Such connections between Irish republicans and the Nazis must be a source of embarassment to Sinn Fein!

 

Today the name Roddy or Roger McCorley is best known in West Belfast in connection with the Roddy McCorley Social Club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gerry Adams and 'the past'

Sinn Fein want to rewrite history and to eradicate the IRA's responsibility for so many murders and so much destruction.  They also seek to operate a 'factory of grievances', generating more and more investigations into the actions of others, while refusing to acknowledge the wrong-doing of leaders such as Gerry Adams.

 

Unfortunately for Sinn Fein, the truth keeps coming back to haunt them.  This morning Newton Emerson wrote in his 'look back at this week' in the Irish News:

Sinn Fein has pompously demanded that CNN refer to Gerry Adams by 'his proper title' after the American news network called him 'a former IRA paramilitary commander'.  Cue guffaws of laughter all round.  So what might have caused this unusual lapse in Sinn Fein's media judgment?  Last May, CNN screened a documentary on the Boston College tapes dispute by its international correspondent Nic Robertson, which repeated IRA commander Brendan Hughes's allegation that Mr Adams 'had control' over the murder of disappeared mother-of-10 Jean McConville.  Mr Adams refused to be interviewed for the programme.

Meanwhile Gregory Campbell, the DUP MP for East Londonderry has tabled a motion in the house of commons calling for Chief constable Matt Baggott to ensure that if soldiers are to be questioned regarding Bloody Sunday then republicans should be too.  'If there is to be an investigation now  by the police then it must also look at the role played by senior Provisional IRA personnel including Martin McGuinness in the weeks and moths prior to January 30, 1972,' he said.

Sinn Fein must not be allowed to forget the bloody history which they used to report and eulogise in their 'War News' column in Republican News.  'War News' has gone but Sinn Fein still eulogise those who perpetrated murder and mayhem during the republican terrorist campaign.

I welcome the fact that they now condemn the same actions when they are carried out by dissident republican terrorists but they are inconsistent when they continue to eulogise Provisional IRA terrorists.  The murder of a policeman is wrong today, just as the murder of a policeman or the murder of Jean McConville was wrong in the past.  Murder is always wrong.

 

Moreover, the eulogising of Provisonal IRA terrorists is an encouragement to dissident republican terrorist, who rightly point out that they are only doing what the Provos used to do.

 

It is therefore imperative that Sinn Fein are not allowed to rewrite history and that will require determination, perseverance and above all, a coherent strategy.

'On the ground'

One of the phrases that I have heard used in some circles in recent days is 'on the ground'.  And the context of its use is important.  Listening to the media and looking at FaceBook posts some people say that they are 'on the ground' and then go on to say that politicians are not 'on the ground'.

 

But what does that mean and is it true?  Well I can only speak for myself but here is how I see it.

 

I don't live and work on another planet and I am not detached from the community in North Belfast. In the course of my work I meet constituents and talk to them every day.  In the past week, along with party colleagues such as Nigel Dodds, I have met community activists, including a group of protest organisers, and tonight we attended a pan-unionist meeting involving the North & West Belfast Parades Forum and the Loyal Orders.  There are more meetings with constituents, community groups and sports organisations planned for next week.

 

We have four DUP offices in North Belfast and they are open five days a week, with people calling in and phoning in about all sorts of issues.

 

Outside of work I meet people in the constituency every day of the week, whether it be walking round Tesco doing the shopping, or having a cup of coffee in the Abbeycentre, or whatever, including the church hall and the Orange hall.  People do stop to talk and politics is often on the agenda.  I also engage with people by e-mail, my blog and FaceBook and all engagement, whether it be in the course of work or in the course of everyday life is extremely valuable.  I wish I could do more but there are only 24 hours in the day.

 

If that isn't being 'on the ground' I don't know what is and that is how I have always lived.  But just as important as being 'on the ground' is working 'on the ground'. 

 

Moreover it is not simply a matter of hearing the views of others and talking to them.  Time and time again the things that I hear, the concerns, the frustrations, the hopes, the aspirations etc are the same concerns, frustrations, hopes and aspirations that I hold myself.

 

We are all human and we all have our shortcomings but those three things really matter - being 'on the ground', working 'on the ground' and having a passion for Ulster in my heart.

I speak for myself and my party colleagues in the constituency I represent but the same is true for many other politicians.  Last month I was up in Lisburn to see community projects in the Old Warren estate and to provide support for them and it was very clear that the DUP MLAs and councillors have a high level of engagement with the loyalist community in that estate - a good example of good practice.

 

 

 

 

The rather unequal Equality Commission

Last month the Equality Commission published A Profile of the Monitored Northern Ireland Workforce (Monitoring Report No 22), which covers the year 2011. 

 

I have only just read the report but once again the most interesting figures are those for the Equality Commission itself.  This is the body that was set up many years ago to promote equality in the workplace.  So how is it faring in regard to its own workforce?

In 2011 there were 147 staff in the Equality Commission and of these 50 were Protestant, 93 were Roman Catholic and 4 were non-determined.  Setting aside the 4 non-determined, the report gives a breakdown of 65% Roman Catholic and 35% Protestant, which is certainly at odds with a representative workforce.

Back in 2006 the figure was 38% Protestant and 62% Roman Catholic, so instead of improving the balance in its workforce between 2006 and 2011, the Equality Commission has ended up with a more imbalanced workforce.  Once again the Equality Commission has fallen short of the standard it sets or others.

 

It seems that the Equality Commission's approach is 'do as I say, not do as I do'.  Perhaps it is time to rename the organisation the Inequality Commission!

More on the Donegal Daily and Belfast Daily

This series of posts started yesterday morning with the Belfast Daily 'story' that the PSNI had hired in riot squad officers from the Irish Republic.  It then moved on to the Donegal Daily Ltd, which appears to be the parent company of both the Belfast Daily and the Donegal Daily.

I have mentioned already two of the directors but a trawl on the internet reveleaded a third name, Gregory Patrick Harkin, who was secretary for one year from January to December 2011.  Obviously he was long gone before this recent 'story'.

The Donegal Daily is based at the Co-lab building of the Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT).  I came across this institution towards the end of last year as they are one of the partners in a new cross-border North-West Regional Science Park and it seems that the Donegal Daily operates from space rented from them.

 

It would be helpful if the Donegal Daily would acknowledge that they got it wrong and dangerously wrong.

In the Irish News this morning, Justice Minister David Ford confirmed that the Belfast Daily report was 'completely false'.  He then added, 'Simply because somebody posts something on the internet does not make it true.'  David Ford is right that just because something appears on the internet does not make it true.  The same is also true of the printed page.  However we do have a right to expect printed newspapers and online news sites to check their sources.  Even the BBC has learned that lesson.