Marian Price, donna simbolo della lotta repubblicana, è stata arrestata questa mattina nell’ambito delle indagini sulla strage di Massereene del 7 marzo scorso

Marian Price, portavoce del 32 County Sovereignty Movement, è  stata arrestata stamattina a West Belfast. Oltre a lei, prelevato dalla PSNI anche un uomo, trentanovenne, originario di Tyrone.
L’arresto è avvenuto alle 7.30 di ieri mattina. Mentre la PSNI era impegnata nella perquisizione della sua abitazione in Stockman Avenue, nei pressi della M1, a bordo di una Land Rover è arrivata una squadra di agenti armati fino ai denti con indosso giubbetti antiproiettile, che ha prelevato la donna.
Marion Price e l’uomo, di cui non si conoscono ancora le generalità, sono ora trattenuti nella caserma di Antrim per essere sottoposti ad interrogatorio.
Marian Price è una figura di spicco del movimento repubblicano in Irlanda. Fu accusata e incarcerata per l’attentato all’Old Bailey di Londra, insieme all’attuale esponente dello Sinn Fein, Gerry Kelly. Nella strage trovò la morte un uomo e 200 furono i feriti.
Al tempo dell’Accordo del Venerdì Santo ha guidato il gruppo scissionista dello Sinn Fein, andando a formare poi il gruppo del 32csm, ritenuto collegato al Real IRA, gruppo paramilitare repubblicano che ha rivendicato l’attentato di Massereene.
Sono 14 le persone fino ad ora arrestate in connessione all’attentato alla base militare di Massereene. In carcere fino ad ora solo Colin Duffy e Brian Shivers. Quest’ultimo si trova agli arresti domiciliari a causa delle precarie condizioni di salute. L’uomo è infatti affetto da fibrosi cistica.

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Old Bailey bomber arrested over soldiers murders (U TV)
Leading republican Marian Price has been arrested by detectives investigating the murders of two soldiers outside Massereene barracks in Antrim.
Heavily armed police raided her home in the Andersonstown area of west Belfast and she was taken away for questioning about the Real IRA killings last March.
Price, 55, was arrested along with a 39-year-old man, who was detained 40 miles away in Coalisland, Co Tyrone.
It is understood that police began the search of her semi-detached red brick house in Stockman’s Avenue, a quiet cul de sac close to the M1 motorway, when heavily armed police wearing flak jackets arrived in cars and Land Rovers at around 7.30am on Monday.
The arrested pair are being held in Antrim for questioning.
A total of 14 people have now been arrested in connection with the murders of Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, and Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham at the military base.
Only two men have been charged so far, prominent Co Armagh republican Colin Duffy, 41, and Brian Shivers, 44, from Magherafelt, Co Londonderry.
Price and her sister Dolores were among those convicted over the 1973 bombing outside the Old Bailey in which one person was killed and around 200 others injured.
The Price sisters were transferred to a Northern Ireland prison after going on hunger strike.
The episode secured their position as high-profile members of the republican movement at the time.
Marian Price has since been a vocal critic of the decision of the mainstream republican movement to decommission weapons and back the political process.
She is a leading member of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, considered to be the Real IRA’s political wing.IRA bomber held over base murders (BBC News Northern Ireland)
A former IRA woman who was jailed for bombing the Old Bailey in London, has been arrested in connection with the shooting of two soldiers in Antrim.
Marian Price, who is 55, was arrested in west Belfast on Tuesday.
She is being held in connection with the Real IRA murders of two soldiers at Massereene Army base in March.
A 39-year-old man was also arrested in County Tyrone. A total of 12 people have been arrested in connection with the shooting, with two charged.
A police spokesperson said the arrests, made on Tuesday morning, were part of an on-going search operation.
The pair have been taken to Antrim police station for questioning, the spokesperson added.
Ms Price and her sister Dolours were among those convicted for the 1973 bombing outside the Old Bailey in which one person was killed and almost 200 others were injured.
‘Treason’
She went on hunger strike in prison and was highly regarded by people in the republican movement.
She split with the mainstream republicans of Sinn Fein around the time of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
In 2001 she told the BBC that Sinn Fein had committed “treason and treachery” and “sold out on all republican principles and core values”.
She is now a spokesperson for the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, considered to be the Real IRA’s political wing.
Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21 and Mark Quinsey, 23, were shot dead outside Massereene barracks.
Two men, prominent republican Colin Duffy, 41, and Brian Shivers, 44, from Sperrin Mews in Magherafelt, have been charged with the murders.

Giovani provenienti dai punti ‘caldi’ di Belfast si sono riuniti oggi per celebrare il ventennale della caduta del muro di Berlino

John Peacock,  responsabile delle relazioni comunitare del Youth Link, ha affermato come i giovani debbano essere maggiormente coinvolti nella soluzione del conflitto in Irlanda del Nord.
Giovani provenienti dalle areee più ‘calde’ di Belfast si sono dati appuntamento oggi al cancello della peaceline di Lanark Way, West Belfast, in occasione del 20° anniversario della caduta del muro di Berlino.
Peacock sostiene che il difficile non sarà tanto l’abbattere i muri della peaceline, quanto invece abbattere le barriere nelle menti delle persone.
Di parere confuso invece i giovani, alcuni dei quali sostengono che la peaceline possa essere abbattuta nel breve termine e chi invece sostiene possa avvenire nell’arco di una generazione.
I ragazzi hanno avuto occasione di giocare a basket con i Peace Players, alla presenza di Patricia Lewsley, membro del Congresso degli USA e commissario del Children and Young People.
L’obiettivo finale è quello di dare voce ai ragazzi e di coinvolgerli in una conversazione sul futuro.

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Young people urged to help end interface conflict in Northern Ireland (Belfast Telegraph)
Young people need to become more involved in solving Northern Ireland’s interface conflict, a Belfast community worker said today.
Peace walls need to come down alongside the divisions in people’s minds, John Peacock added.
A group of youths from flashpoint areas across Belfast gathered today at the gates of the peaceline on Lanark Way, west Belfast, to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Mr Peacock said: “Personally we will want the walls to come down. The barriers in people’s minds are the bigger issue rather than the physical issue.”
They played basketball with the Peace Players, who met former US President George Bush in Belfast in 2008, and carried out a drumming workshop. US congressmen, Commissioner for Children and Young People Patricia Lewsley attended.
Mr Peacock, community relations manager at Youth Link, said young people were divided about when the walls should come down, with some saying now and others in a generation.
“The ultimate aim of the group is to give the young people a voice on the issue, it is about engaging them in conversation about the future,” he added.
The children were also due to meet Belfast Lord Mayor Naomi Long at the city hall.

Il nome di Peter Wilson si aggiunge alla lista dei Disappeared

L’Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains ha rivelato l’inizio delle indagini sulla scomparsa di Peter Wilson, sparito nei primi anni ‘70 dalla sua casa sita nell’area St James a West Belfast.
La convinzione è che sia stato rapito ed assassinato dall’IRA.
E’ stato il portavoce della commissione a confermare di aver ricevuto la segnalazione di questo altro caso, che porta il numero dei Disappeared a 14.
Con il termine ‘Disappeared’ (o Troubles’ Disappeared) si identificano persone improvvisamente scomparse, usualmente rapite e uccise principalmente dall’Irish Republican Army (IRA), in Irlanda del Nord tra il 1972 e il 1986. Nel 1999 fu lo stesso gruppo paramilitare repubblicano a confermare la responsabilità di 9 delle sparizioni.
Le ricerche del corpo di Peter Wilson sono solo nella loro fase iniziale.

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Man may be among the Disappeared (BBC News Northern Ireland)
The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains is investigating the disappearance of another man in the early 1970s.
Peter Wilson went missing from his west Belfast home and it is reported that he may have been abducted and murdered by the IRA.
A spokesman for the commission has confirmed that it has received a report of another case.
It is believed the commission has met with Mr Wilson’s family.
Friday’s Irish News said Mr Wilson had been 21 when he went missing from his home in the St James area in the west of the city.
It is understood that the investigation is in its very early stages.
The inclusion of Mr Wilson on the list of the Disappeared would bring to 14 the number of people abducted and murdered in secret by republicans, all but one of them by the IRA.
That organisation has publicly said it was involved in nine of the killings, but has not admitted its role in the others.

 

Allerta bomba nel Fermangh

La PSNI nella contea di Fermanagh sta indagando a seguito di numerose segnalazioni telefoniche di un dispositivo abbandonato in Wattlebridge Road, nei pressi di Newtownbutler.
Nessuna via di comunicazione è stata attualmente chiusa, ma la polizia ha raccomandato alla comunità di agire con cautela evitando di venire in contatto con oggetti sospetti.

Attacco in stile paramilitare a West Belfast

Un ventottenne è rimasto vittima di un attacco in stile paramilitare avvenuto in un appartamento in Lenadoon Avenue, a West Belfast, verso le 20 di questa sera.
Le condizioni dell’uomo colpito ad una mano, allo stomaco e ad una gamba, sono state giudicate stabili.
Paul Maskey, del Sinn Fein, ha affermato: “La comunità locale dell’area di West Belfast, semplicemente non vuole che qualcuno effettui questi attacchi per loro conto”.

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Vigilance urged over bomb claim (BBC News Northern Ireland)
Police in County Fermanagh are investigating reports of a device being left near the village of Newtownbutler.
A number of telephone calls have been made claiming that a device has been left somewhere along the Wattlebridge Road.
Police have urged people to be vigilant and not touch anything suspicious. No roads have been closed at present.

Man shot in west Belfast (U TV)
A man has been taken to hospital with multiple gun shot wounds after a paramilitary style attack in west Belfast.
The 28-year-old was shot in the stomach, hand and leg in the incident in a flat in Lenadoon Avenue shortly after 8pm on Wednesday.
His injuries are not understood to be life threatening.
Sinn Fein MLA for the area Paul Maskey told UTV: “The local community in west Belfast simply does not want anybody to carry out these attacks on their behalf.

Arrestato un quarantreenne di West Belfast

Ha 43 anni l’uomo arrestato quest’oggi a West Belfast e trattenuto in custodia presso la sez. crimini gravi della stazione di polizia di Antrim.
Oltre a rispondere dell’omicidio di Patrick Azimkar e Mark Quinsey, dovrà rispondere anche del tentato omicidio di altre 5 persone rimaste coinvolte nell’attentato.
Sempre oggi, il ventiduenne arrestato per l’omicidio dell’ufficiale della PSNI Stephen Carroll è stato rilasciato e ne verrà rilasciato un rapporto al Public Prosecution Service.
Solo Colin Duffy è attualmente in carcere per la strage di Massereene, dopo che Brian Shivers (anch’egli accusato dell’attentato) è stato rilasciato su cauzione causa l’aggravarsi delle sue condizioni di salute (fibrosi cistica).

Update!
L’uomo è stato rilasciato.

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Arrest over Massereene murders (U TV)
A man was arrested on Tuesday by police investigating the Real IRA murders of two soldiers at the gates of Massereene army base earlier this year.
The 43-year-old was detained in west Belfast and taken to the police service’s serious crime suite in Antrim.
He is being questioned about the murders of Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, and Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, who were gunned down in March.
He is also being questioned about the attempted murder of five people in the same gun attack, two of them drivers delivering pizza to a soldier who was about to head off for a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan.
Leading dissident republican Colin Duffy, 41, from Lurgan, Co Armagh, has already been charged with the murder.
A second man, cystic fibrosis sufferer Brian Shivers, 44, from Magherafelt, Co Londonderry, has also been charged with the killings. He was granted bail because of his condition.
The soldiers were the first to be murdered in Northern Ireland in 12 years, and their deaths were followed two days later by the Continuity IRA murder of Pc Stephen Carroll in Craigavon. He was the first policeman to be murdered in Northern Ireland since 1998.
A 22-year-old man being questioned about the policeman’s murder was released today pending a report being sent by police to the Public Prosecution Service.
On Saturday, relatives of Patrick Azimkar, and Mark Quinsey wept as their regiment returned to the base from their tour in Afghanistan.
The sister of Mark Quinsey, Jaime, also spoke about her pain at seeing the spot where her brother was gunned down.

Lanciata una petizione on line dai familiari delle vittime del massacro di Ballymurphy alla ricerca di giustizia

Resterà aperta fino al 01 ottobre 2010 la petizione lanciata dai familiari delle  vittime uccise nelle strade di West Belfast, in quello che viene chiamato il ‘Massacro di Ballymurphy‘. Undici persone, tra cui una madre di otto e un prete cattolico, vennero uccisi dall’esercito britannico nei giorni seguenti l’introduzione dell’internamento preventivo avvenuto lunedì 9 agosto 1971, a cui seguirono giorni di violenza.
Il Ballymurphy Massacre Group, supportato da Relatives for Justice (RFJ), ha lanciato ieri la petizione nella speranza di ottenere una pubblica inchiesta sulle morti dei loro cari periti sotto ai colpi del Reggimento Paracadutisti tra il 9 e l’11 agosto 1971.
Andree Murphy, vice direttore del RFJ ha dichiarato: “Le famiglie hanno disperatamente bisogno e meritano la verità e solo un’indagine indipendente può  accertare, nella loro completezza, i fatti che circondano il le uccisioni e il loro successivo insabbiamento.”
Per chi volesse dare il proprio appoggio, ecco i links alla petizione:

Petition 1
Petition 2

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Ballymurphy massacre families launch petition (The Irish News)
The families of 11 people killed on the streets of west Belfast in the aftermath of internment have intensified their campaign for justice by launching an online petition on the British Prime Minister’s official website.
The Ballymurphy Massacre Group, supported by Relatives for Justice (RFJ), opened the petition yesterday in the hope of securing a public inquiry into the deaths in August 1971.
The petition states: “We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to initiate a fully independent and human rights compliant investigation into the 11 killings of civilians in Ballymurphy, Belfast between 9th and 11th August 1971 by the Parachute Regiment”.
It will remain open until October 1 2010.
Eleven people, including a mother-of-eight and a Catholic priest, were shot and killed by the British army in the days following the introduction of internment on Monday August 9 1971 when widespread violence ensued.
Andree Murphy, deputy director of RFJ, encouraged the public to “lend their voices” to the campaign.
“The families have suffered egregiously since those fateful days in August 1971,” she said.
“The families desperately need and deserve the truth and only an independent investigation will establish the full facts surrounding the deaths and their subsequent cover-up.”

La parata di Whiterock a West Belfast è stata interrotta per circa un’ora a casa dopo il ritrovamento di alcuni dispositivi sospetti ritrovati dagli artificeri in un bidone e in un’autorimessa dei bus nelle aree di Springfield and West Circular roads.
Il gruppo di 50 orangisti è stato autorizzato ad attraversare il cancello di Workman Avenue ed a passare nella nazionalista Springfield Road.
Un certo numero di bottiglie di plastica e di razzi sono stati gettati contro Orangemen, ma nessuno è stato ferito.
Nigel Dodds del DUP ha sostenuto che la parata è stata attaccata senza che ne fossero provenute delle provocazioni. “Ancora una volta abbiamo visto il vero volto del repubblicanesimo in mostra qui a West Belfast”.
Fra McCann, Sinn Fein, ha dichiarato che i residenti avrebbero voluto una protesta pacifica accusando dei disordini dei ragazzetti di 11 o 12 anni.
La parata ha sempre incontrato grosse difficoltà negli scorsi anni, tranne quello scorso in cui si era svolta pacificamente.

Hoax devices disrupt Orange march (BBC News Northern Ireland)
An Orange Order parade in west Belfast was held up for about an hour following the discovery of suspicious devices. They were left on the Springfield and West Circular roads, near the route of the Whiterock parade, but later declared “elaborate hoaxes”. Fifty Orangemen were allowed through the Workman Avenue gate and onto the mainly nationalist Springfield Road. A number of plastic bottles and other missiles were thrown at the Orangemen. No-one was injured. The suspicious objects were found by Army technical officers, one in a bin, one at a bus shelter. After the missiles were thrown, Orange Order leaders encouraged their members to ignore the missiles and continue walking. The rest of the march was peaceful. Nigel Dodds of the DUP said the marchers had been attacked without provocation. “The bomb hoaxes and devices that were left here is clearly an attack on Orange culture. It is absolutely disgraceful,” he said. “Once again we have seen the true face of republicanism on show here in west Belfast.” Sinn Fein MLA Fra McCann said the residents had wanted a peaceful protest. “The longer the thing went on the more, the more possibilities there was of some type of trouble breaking out, but again only because of the good work of local residents and local stewarts that they were able to keep that at bay,” he said. “Bottles and stones don’t serve any purpose at all. There were children at 11 and 12 years of age were doing that.” There has been considerable trouble at the parade in previous years, but last year’s march passed off peacefully. On Thursday, DUP North MP Nigel Dodds urged calm and restraint to again be shown at this year’s parade. He was speaking after a delegation of senior DUP figures met the police to discuss the parade.

Un pullman di turisti è stato oggi bersaglio di una sassaiola in Divis Street nell’area repubblicana di Falls Road, a West Belfast.
Una pietra a infranto un finestrino, ma fortunatamente nessuno dei passeggeri, provenienti da più parti del mondo, è rimasto ferito. Solo un forte stato di shock e poi il tour è proseguito.
Ben Allen, responsabile della società a cui appartiene il mezzo, ha dichiarato: “Sono arrabbiato, sono disgustato. I turisti vengono quì per divertirsi, per dare uno sguardo in giro ed invece ottengono questo: follia, completa follia”.
I lanci di pietre e sassi sono stati eventi piuttosto consueti durante il periodo dei Troubles, ma non recentemente.
Il PSNI e il conducente del pullman hanno confermato che i responsabili dell’attacco sono stati  5 ragazzi incappucciati, il più giovane dei quali dovrebbe avere circa 13 anni mentre il più vecchio, tra i 18 ed i 19 anni.

Tourist bus stoned in Belfast (Belfast Telegraph)
An open top bus full of tourists had a window smashed when it was stoned by youths in west Belfast today. None of the 40 tourists from around the world were injured, but the operator of Allen’s Tours said they were left in a state of shock. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said a number of youths wearing hooded tops were seen running away after the attack in Divis Street which runs into the nationalist Falls Road. Tour company boss Ben Allen said he was furious about the stoning. “A group of thugs came out of a side entry and started stoning the bus and one of the windows was smashed. Thankfully no one was injured but they were in shock. “I am angry, I am disgusted. Tourists are here to have a good time and have a look around and they get this, its madness, complete madness. “We had people from Canada, Australia and even a couple from Norway on board. “They didn’t want to abandon the trip, they all wanted to go ahead with the tour,” said Mr Allen. Stoning of buses was a daily occurrence during the troubles but less so recently. Mr Allen said: “This was a bit too realistic, a bit too close for comfort. One of the tourists asked me if this was a big deal. I said it used to happen all the time but not now.” He said his driver said there were five in the group of youths who attacked the bus. “He said the youngest looked about 13 and the oldest about 18 or 19.” He said he was going to make a decision about dropping the area from the tour route of his seven buses, but the drivers had told him they were happy to continue. “We are not going to be intimidated”, he said. It was the first time such an attack had been mounted on one of his vehicles. “A few weeks ago someone threw a brick from a building site – the sort of thing kids do – but this was different.” Open top bus tours of Belfast have become ever more popular with the increasing number of tourists visiting the city – taking in the republican and loyalist murals of east and west Belfast as well as the Harland and Wolff shipyard where the Titanic was built and where her tender, the SS Nomadic has recently returned to become a tourist attraction.

Graffiti in supporto di estremisti fascisti del Combat 18, sono sono comparsi nel sezione repubblicana del cimitero di Milltown a West Belfast.
Due monumenti sono stati deturpati da scritte fasciste. Uno di questi è in commemorazione di repubblicani irlandesi che hanno combattuto per la fazione anti fascista nella guerra civile spagnola e l’altro è in memoria di coloro “che hanno lottato e sono morti per la creazione di una repubblica socialista guidata dal partito dei lavoratori”.
Condanne sono pervenute dal mondo politico.
Paul Maskey, del Sinn Fein, ha dichiarato che alcune tombe sono state gravemente danneggiate.
Jim Rodgers, consigliere dell’Ulster Unionist, ha affermato: “Tutto ciò è assolutamente deplorevole. E’ già abbastanza grave attaccare un qualsiasi bene, ma quando si tratta di un cimitero, è vergognoso, spaventoso e terribile. La morte dovrebbe poter riposare in pace. Non importa dove si verificano i comportamenti anti sociali. Sono sempre sbagliati”.

IRA graves daubed with fascist graffiti (Belfast Telegraph)
Graffiti in support of fascist extremists Combat 18 has been daubed on republican monuments in a cemetery in west Belfast. Vandals painted slogans in support of the hardline group in the republican plot at Milltown cemetery on Wednesday night. Two monuments were yesterday afternoon still emblazoned with ‘C18’. Sinn Fein Assembly member Paul Maskey said: “Overnight, racist and sectarian slogans, along with Combat 18 graffiti, were daubed on the republican plot in the cemetery. A considerable amount of damage has been done to the graves.” One of the monuments commemorates Irish republicans who fought on the anti-fascist side in the Spanish civil war and the other those “who struggled and died for the establishment of a socialist republic by the Workers Party”. Ulster Unionist councillor Jim Rodgers condemned the graffiti. “This is absolutely deplorable. It’s bad enough attacking any property, but whenever it’s a cemetery, its disgraceful, appalling and sickening,” he said. “The dead should be able to rest in peace. I am angry at hearing that this has happened in Milltown cemetery. “It doesn’t matter where anti-social behaviour is happening — it is always wrong.” Police said the vandalism had not been reported to them but said they would follow up any details they were given.

Continuano gli attacchi in stile paramilitari portati a segno dai dissidenti.
Altri due vittime a West Belfast, che insieme a quelle della scorsa settimana e all’attacco incendiario all’abitazione di Conor Murphy sono testimonianza  di una campagna di violenza volta a dimostrare una seria minaccia per il processo di pace e per le forze di sicurezza.
I funzionari continuano a ribadire che tali atti criminosi non riusciranno a scalfire il processo di pace attualmente in corso, e considerato molto solido.
Alex Attwood, del Social Democratic and Labour Party, ha dichiarato che i dissidenti ‘cercano di controllare l’intera comunità ponendosi come protettori della comunità stessa, ma non per questo cadremo di nuovo”.

Two shot in new attacks by dissident republicans (The Independent)
Two men have been shot in the ankles as dissident republicans in Northern Ireland maintain a campaign of violence designed to demonstrate that they remain a menace to the peace process and the security forces.
Their latest acts of violence have this week included “punishment” attacks in which two men were shot in west Belfast, together with an arson attack at the home of a Sinn Fein MP in South Armagh. The incidents are seen as an attempt by a series of small dissident groups to register their continuing existence, despite recent arrests and clampdowns by police.
The official view is that such groups pose a potent threat, but do not represent any unravelling of the overall peace process, which is seen as robust. They are not seen as capable of sustained high-level campaigns of violence.
On Thursday night in west Belfast a gang shot a 34-year-old man in the ankles and wrists – a tactic designed to cause maximum pain – at around 11pm. A man in his twenties received similar treatment on Tuesday in the stairwell of a block of flats. That was claimed by “ONH”, a republican renegade group which emerged last year. Sinn Fein’s Paul Maskey condemned the incidents, saying: “This type of attack is outdated and has no place in our society.”
Alex Attwood of the moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party said of the dissidents: “They seek to control the whole community by posing as protectors but the community will not fall for this again.”

L’auto di Bobby Storey, è stata danneggiata dal lancio di vernice nera.
Come affermato da Storey, questo si è trattato dell’ultimo di una serie di attacchi ai membri ed ai simboli del Sinn Fein.  Tra gli obiettivi egli ha ricordato la Connolly House, le sedi di Falls Road e Turf Lodge, Mitchel McLaughlin e la sua famiglia, la targa Roll of Honour, il mural in ricordo di Gibilterra e dei martiri di Milltown.
L’uomo di Andersonstown, ha tenuto a ribadire che questi atti violenti non scoraggeranno i repubblicani nel loro lavoro. I responsabili non hanno  “alcun sostegno popolare, non hanno strategie e programmi che possano garantire il raggiungimento dell’obiettivo repubblicano quale è l’unità d’Irlanda”. Le loro azioni sono attacchi contro il popolo di West Belfast. Le uniche persone che condividono questi obiettivi hanno il desiderio di distruggere il processo di pace e di compromettere la strategia del Sinn Fein per conseguire un’Irlanda Unita. I repubblicani non permetteranno che ciò accada”.

Attacks on Sinn Fein ‘lack popular support’ (Irish News)
A leading Belfast republican has criticised those responsible for throwing black paint over his car, which he claimed was “the latest in a series of attacks on Sinn Fein members”.
Bobby Storey, chairman of Belfast Sinn Fein, said those who attacked the silver Volkswagen in Andersonstown and had taken part in other acts of vandalism against the party had “no popular support”.
The Maze Prison escapee, said the offices of Sinn Fein and republican memorials had been targeted in recent weeks.
“Our Connolly House, Falls Road and Turf Lodge advice centres have been paint bombed in recent weeks and our Falls Road office was targeted in a hoax bomb attack,” he said.
“The home of my party colleague Mitchel McLaughlin and his family was targeted with petrol bombs in an attempted murder and leading members of Sinn Fein have had their lives threatened by these groups.
“A Roll of Honour plaque was smashed to pieces, a sign with the face of Countess Markievicz was destroyed, paint was smeared all over the ground and the flagpole in the Turf Lodge republican memorial garden, and a mural in memory of the Gibraltar and Milltown Martyrs at the top of Monagh Road had the initials RIRA sprayed on it.”
The Andersonstown man said such attacks would not deter republicans from their work.
He said those responsible had “no popular support, no strategies and no programmes which can in any way advance the republican goal of a United Ireland.
“Their actions are attacks on the people of west Belfast,” Mr Storey said.
“The only objectives these people share are a desire to destroy the peace process and undermine the Sinn Fein strategy to achieve a United Ireland.
“Republicans will not allow this to happen.”

William Moore, 60 anni, uno dei capi della sanguinaria banda degli “Shankill Butchers“, è stato rinvenuto morto nel suo appartamento a North Belfast. I funzionari di polizia sono stati chiamati presso la sua abitazione, nel quartiere lealista di Mount Vernon, alle 7:45 di ieri. Le circostanze del suo decesso sono oggetto di indagine, tuttavia pare non ci siano elementi sospetti.
Moore avrebbe dovuto essere interrogato dall’Historical Enquiries Team circa l’omicidio di un uomo di West Belfast nel 1974, un anno prima che gli ‘Shankill Butchers’ iniziasse ufficialmente la serie di omicidi settari. La vittima fu John Crawford (52), di Andersonstown, rapito e picchiato prima di essere ucciso da una banda dell’UVF nei pressi del Milltown Cemetery. L’interrogatorio che avrebbe dovuto aver luogo, era volto far luce sul ruolo che Moore possa aver avuto in quell’assassinio. Nel 1979 Moore venne condannato a 14 ergastoli per il suo coinvolgimento in 19 omicidi, 11 dei quali ammessi.
William Moore è stato scarcerato dal Maze nel 1998 sulla base del Good Friday Agreement, nonostante il giudice avesse raccomandato non fosse rilasciato, non prima comunque di aver scontato 35 anni della sua pena.
Questi i commenti del giudice nel momento della sentenza: “Lei si è dichiarato colpevole di 11 omicidi eseguiti in un modo così crudele e rivoltante, da essere al di là della comprensione di un normale essere umano.
Sono convinto che, senza di lei, molti degli omicidi non sarebbero stati commessi … non vedo alcun motivo, oltre a una malattia in fase terminale, per il quale lei possa essere mai rilasciato.”
Moore era in possesso di coltelli e mannaie utilizzati negli efferati delitti, che prevedevano il rapimento casuale di cattolici, poi torturati, uccisi e mutilati. Egli è sospettato di aver personalmente tagliato la gola di una vittima, e di averne presa a calci un’altra, fino alla morte.
Si mise anche alla guida di un taxi nero alla ricerca di cattolici da uccidere. Alcuni furono intercettati solo perchè intenti a camminare in direzione di quartieri cattolici.
Moore prese il comando degli “Shankill Butchers” nel 1976, dopo l’arresto di Lenny Murphy, che ordinò il proseguimento degli omicidi per sviare i sospetti da lui. Murphy venne poi ucciso nel 1982 dall’IRA, anche se si ipotizza un coinvolgimento dell’UVF.
La fine degli ‘Shankill Butchers’ fu segnata dalla fuga di una vittima. Molti dei membri della banda confessarono, ma erano troppo terrorizzati per coinvolgere Murphy.
Durante il processo, venne riferito al giudice che Moore costrinse i suoi ‘adepti’ a proseguire nelle torture delle vittime, minacciando di tagliare la gola a sè stesso.
Sembra che negli ultimi anni William Moore fosse implicato in attività criminali, compreso lo spaccio di droga, fungendo da anello di congiunzione con una banda scozzese.

!!!

Shankill Butcher William Moore found dead in flat was due to face questioning (Belfast Telegraph)
Police were today investigating the sudden death of one of the leaders of the notorious Shankill Butchers gang, which carried out a series of savage sectarian murders of Catholics in the 1970s.
Serial killer William Moore (60), who was jailed for life in 1979 for his part in the gang’s sadistic killings, was found dead in his north Belfast home yesterday.
Officers were called to his flat in the loyalist Mount Vernon estate at 7.45am yesterday. The circumstances surrounding his death are being investigated, however his death is not thought to be suspicious.
Moore was due to be questioned by the Historical Enquiries Team about the murder of a west Belfast man in 1974, one year before the Shankill Butchers officially began their killing spree.
John Crawford (52), from Andersonstown, was abducted and beaten before being shot dead by a UVF gang close to Milltown Cemetery. Historical Enquiries Team detectives were to quizz Moore about his role in the killing.
In 1979 Moore was given 14 life sentences for his involvement in 19 murders, 11 of which he admitted.
He was released from the Maze Prison in 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, despite a judge’s recommendation that he should never be freed.
The trial judge, Mr Justice O’Donnell told him: “You pleaded guilty to 11 murders carried out in a manner so cruel and revolting as to be beyond the comprehension of any normal human being.
“I’m satisfied that, without you, many of the murders would not have been committed… I see no reason whatsoever, apart from terminal illness, why you should ever be released.”
The judge added that if Moore was ever released it should not be for at least 35 years.
Moore, a butcher by trade, supplied an assortment of knives and cleavers used by the gang to carry out random abductions of Catholics who were then tortured, mutilated and killed. He is alleged to have personally slit the throat of one victim, and kicked another to death.
Moore also drove a black taxi used by the gang to cruise the streets of Belfast seeking Catholics to kill. Some were intercepted merely because they were walking “in the wrong direction” towards Catholic parts of the city.
The gang also killed several rival loyalists as a result of petty feuds.
Moore became leader of the Shankill gang, taking over from Lenny Murphy who was jailed in 1976 and subsequently convicted of firearms offences. To divert suspicion from himself Murphy ordered the Butcher slayings to continue. Murphy was shot dead in 1982 after his release from jail. The assassination was carried out by the IRA, but it was strongly suspected that it had been set up by fellow members of the UVF.
After a victim escaped alive, the Shankill Butchers were rounded up by police and most of them broke down and confessed, although they were too terrified to implicate Lenny Murphy. They stood trial in February 1979.
During his trial the court was told that Moore committed the throat cuttings himself, encouraging the rest of the gang to torture the victims.
In recent years Moore was reportedly involved in many types of criminality, including drug dealing. He is believed to have been running a drugs ring with the help of a drugs gang in Scotland.

“Where They Went,” by Diane Daniel, published April 12, 2009, in the Boston Globe

Trish Gannon (left) and Jean Mello with Paddy, Black Taxi Tour driver in Belfast

WHO: Trish Gannon, 43, of Winchester, and Jean Mello, 43, of Dublin.

WHERE: Northern Ireland.

WHEN: Three days in October.

WHY: Gannon took the opportunity to visit Mello while Mello was living in Dublin as part of her job for a Boston-area bank. The two have been friends since attending College of the Holy Cross in Worcester.

GIANT STEPS: Because the weather was nice when Gannon arrived in Dublin, they decided to head right away to Northern Ireland, where one of their prime destinations was Giant’s Causeway, a lunar landscape of interlocking basalt columns and the country’s top tourist destination.

COASTING: ”We booked a coach tour that took us up the coast of Antrim and stopped at sights along the way,” said Gannon, whose ancestry is Irish. “We stopped at castles and sea villages. The coastline was really dramatic.” About half the travelers were American, including US soldiers visiting from their post in Germany. “About 2 miles from Giant’s Causeway, our goal, this nice new bus ran out of gas.” Luckily, they were at the crest of a hill and coasted a mile down to Bushmills, home of the 400-year-old Bushmills Distillery. “We went straight to the gas station and filled up,” she said.

Trish at Giant's Causeway, Antrim Coast

MILITARY INTERVENTION: ”Apparently when any vehicle, especially diesel, runs out of gas, it’s hard to start. It turned out one of the military folks was a maintenance guy for Apache helicopters, and he got it going,” Gannon said. “We took a vote on the bus and decided to skip the distillery and head straight to Giant’s Causeway. Luckily we got there before dark. You could walk all over the formations. It was really amazing.”

Trish Gannon at Belfast Botanic Gardens

BANKING ON TOURISM: The friends stayed at the Hilton Belfast in a newly redeveloped waterfront area. Having visited the city briefly a decade earlier, Gannon was impressed with the progress made in Northern Ireland since the peace accord. “It’s officially a tourist destination now. It’s so hopeful and encouraging. They’re even capitalizing on being where the Titanic was built. There are a lot of new hotels and restaurants, but also the city has a lot of beautiful Victorian buildings, including banks converted to hotels and restaurants.” One of their favorites was the Merchant Hotel. “It was so opulent I couldn’t believe it had been a bank.”

TROUBLES SIGNS: They took a Black Taxi Tour to see political murals and other sights around West Belfast, the center of the Troubles, the decades-long conflict between the country’s nationalist (mostly Roman Catholic) and unionist (Protestant) communities. “It was good to see that some of the murals have been painted over with more contemporary political issues. Many of the schools are integrated now, and there’s more integration in the workplace.”

E’ stato illustrato ieri a Castlebar, in occasione della conferenza annuale dellIrish Prison Officers Association (POA), il nuovo regime carcerario  ‘concesso’ ai 48 prigionieri sovversivi attualmente detenuti nel carcere di Portlaoise.
I visitatori dei detenuti del settore repubblicano,  sono esclusi dalle perquisizioni con i cani anti droga . Le concessioni speciali comprendono anche la facoltà d’acquisto di bistecche al di fuori del carcere, un paio di volte all’anno per accrescere la quantità di cibo del menù quotidiano.
Durante la conferenza è stato anche reso noto che i prigionieri hanno dipinto murlas sulle pareti simili a quelle che si trovano a West Belfast.
Concessioni  queste, che non hanno incontrato il parere favorevole dei principali partiti di opposizione.
A Portlaoise è attualmente in corso una no wash/dirty protest dopo che il Ministro della Giustizia Dermot Ahern ha soppresso i permessi TR e CR come conseguenza dell’attentato alla base militare di Massereene.
Eugene Dennehy, segretario generale del POA per la protesta, ha dichiarato che i le telecamere CCTV sono state coperte con dei teli che impediscono agli ufficiali carcerari di vedere cosa stia succedendo.

Dissidents ‘get special treatment in prison’ (Belfast Telegraph)
Dissident republican prisoners are allowed to operate their own regimes within a maximum security prison at Portlaoise in the Republic, it can be revealed.
Members of one renegade terror group, the INLA, now heavily involved in “ordinary” crime, stage daily “military” drills before they are locked up by staff for the night.
Visitors to the republican section are excluded from drug searches by the dog unit as they enter the jail. And the subversives are granted special concessions including the purchase of steak from outside the jail a few times a year to boost their daily food menu.
Details of the regime for the 48 subversive prisoners, currently locked up in Portlaoise, were outlined yesterday at the annual conference of the Irish Prison Officers Association (POA) in Castlebar.
The conference was told that the prisoners also had murals painted on their walls that resembled those found on gable walls in west Belfast.
Both of the Irish main opposition parties condemned the “special treatment” given to republican prisoners. Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan said the reports of prisoners marching and holding parades were “disturbing”.
“It is intolerable that prisoners who have been jailed for subversive activity be allowed to determine their own prison conditions, which is presently the case in Portlaoise,” he said.
And Labour party justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte said there should be no special treatment for prisoners in Portlaoise.
But government sources have dismissed the claims of special treatment as “claptrap”.
They believe they are designed to embarrass prison authorities, who recently moved to eliminate outdated work practices in Portlaoise, which could affect the earnings of prison officers.
A spokesman for Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said the claims by the POA about prisoners marching up and down were “outlandish” during the “white heat of their annual conference”.
The prison is currently experiencing a “dirty” protest, which was launched after Mr Ahern ordered a clamp down on prisoners’ temporary and compassionate release, in the wake of the Real IRA murder of two British Army soldiers at Massereene Barracks. It is being staged by six Real IRA prisoners, attached to the faction formerly led by Liam Campbell. It has been on-going for the past 18 days.
The protest POA deputy general secretary Eugene Dennehy said that staff were now working in appaling conditions in the jail. He pointed out that flaps had been placed on CCTV cameras to prevent officers from watching what was happening on the landings.
Four landings of the prison are occupied by subversive prisoners, comprising 10 members of the Real IRA led by former chief of staff Michael McKevitt, 15 members of the opposing faction formerly led by Liam Campbell, 15 members of either the INLA or non-aligned prisoners, and 8 members of the Continuity IRA.

Things have gone downhill for Ford since the glory days of the Model T Ford. With the global recession and that which has been made worse in the UK by Gordon Brown, it’s not an easy time for the automotive industry or for those who work for it.

It’s difficult not to feel sympathy – and solidarity – with the workers who have been made redundant from Visteon, a supplier of Ford, at the plants in Enfield, Basildon, and Belfast. The workers in the West Belfast plant have shown that they are not going to take this sitting down and are prepared to stand up to their “masters” at Ford:

the workers at the west Belfast factory are staging a sit-in protest after the US-based parent company announced that Visteon UK Ltd was entering into administration.  

Good on the car workers for daring to speak out. It is tragic to see yet another part of the UK’s automotive industry being destroyed by the “destructive destruction” of the Depression caused by politicians’ regulatory ineptitude [as opposed to the creative destruction where economic renewal is enabled]. Instead, it is economic disaster for communities such as those lived in by the tough West Belfast folk who worked for Visteon for generations.

Politicians like Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams, and the former MLA for West Belfast Diane Dodds (a candidate for the European Parliament and the wife of a Stormont Minister, Nigel Dodds) offer a better way forward than the thugs who were out rioting and “burnin’” cars last night.  It is political action that the people of West Belfast need – not a return to the Troubles that shattered many a family in this part of the capital – in order to deal with the chronic unemployment problems there. Good on the workers for highlighting Ford’s sellout.

Il Republican Sinn Fein, braccio politico del Continuity IRA, ha tenuto pochi giorni fa la prima conferenza stampa dopo gli attentati delle ultime settimane.
Netto il rifiuto di condanna degli atti di violenza, anzi, la consapevolezza che seppur spiacevoli, si tratta di ‘inevitabili atti guerra’.
La conferenza stampa è stata incentrata sui raids della polizia e sulle detenzioni preventive dei presunti colpevoli degli attacchi alla base armata di Massereene e Craigavon.
Richard Walsh, del RSF, ha accusato Adams e McGuinness di essere loro i veri traditori del popolo di Irlanda e di essere ormai alla stregua degli unionisti.
Durante la conferenza, hanno fatto la loro apparizione anche tre uomini di Craigavon con il volto coperto, che hanno denunciato aggressioni ed atti intimidatori esercitati dal PSNI.
A sorvegliare la zona ed i partecipanti alla conferenza stampa, un landrover della polizia parcheggiato fuori la sede del Republican Sinn Fein a West Belfast.

Dissidents defend use of violence (BBC News Northern Ireland)
The party generally believed to be the political wing of the Continuity IRA has held its first news conference since the recent killings in N Ireland.
Republican Sinn Féin refused to condemn the attacks describing them as regrettable but inevitable “acts of war”.
Two soldiers and a policeman were shot dead by dissident republicans earlier this month.
The news conference was called to complain about police raids.
The party’s publicity director, Richard Walsh. also used the press conference in Belfast to complain about the detention of suspects at Antrim police station.
Mr Walsh responded to the Deputy First Minister Martin’s McGuinness’s description of those behind the recent killings as “traitors to the people of Ireland. “
He said Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams had been guilty of “severe treachery” and the Provisional IRA were now unionists.
“We have always upheld the rights to the Irish people to use any level of controlled and disciplined force to drive the British out of Ireland. We make no apology for that,” he said.
The party has no plans to run in forthcoming elections and refuses to say how much support it has.
Three young men from Craigavon also appeared at the news conference.
The men, who did not want to be identified, complained that their homes had been raided and one man said the police had taken all his clothes.
One of the people detained by the police in Antrim police station was present in the building whilst the news conference was taking place but declined to be interviewed.
A police landrover parked outside the party’s office in west Belfast kept an eye on those leaving the building after the news conference.
Constable Stephen Carroll was shot dead on 9 March. The Continuity IRA said it killed him. Two men have been charged with his murder.
Sappers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar were shot dead by the Real IRA two days earlier.

Lo scorso fine settimana, un giovane uomo è stato costretto a stazionare in una strada trafficata indossando un cartello con scritto ‘Sono uno scassinatore e un ladro’. Ad Andersonstown Park, si è adunata attorno lui una folla e poi verso mezzogiorno l’uomo è stato allontanato dalla polizia ed il cartello è stato sequestrato.
Si tratterebbe di una forma di giustizia in stile paramilitare, legata all’escalation dell’attività dei dissidenti repubblicani e all’emergere di un nuovo gruppo con base a Belfast, chiamato Oglaigh na hÉireann (ONH).
L’Oglaigh na hÉireann è stato accusato di essere responsabile di 15 attacchi in stile paramilitare, il cui numero si è più che quadruplicato passando dai 7 casi del 2007 ai 27 del 2008.
E’ stato proprio all’inizio di febbraio, che Gerry Adams, leader del Sinn Fein, ha accusato la Continuity IRA, la Real IRA, l’INLA e l’ ONH di essere fortemente coinvolti in atti di estorsione e intimidazioni.

Public humiliation for man with ‘punishment placard’ (The Irish News)
Paramilitary-style justice was back on the streets of west Belfast at the weekend when a young man was forced to stand on a busy road wearing a placard claiming he was a house burglar and a thief.
A crowd gathered at Andersonstown Park, near Casement Park, on Saturday afternoon to watch the man stand on a traffic island wearing the placard with allegations of criminality on it.
The sign worn by the man – who is believed to come from Twinbrook – carried his name and allegations that included ‘house-breaker’ and ‘thief’.
Police were called around noon and the man was removed from public sight. A PSNI spokeswoman said police had received a report of “a male displaying a large placard” on the
Andersonstown Road.
“Upon arriving, a crowd had gathered. He was removed from the area and the placard was seized. Enquiries are continuing,” she said.
It is believed to be the first name-and- shame incident since a similar high-profile episode in the Shankill area of west Belfast last year.
The two men, both in their early twenties, paced the road for almost an hour last January before police intervened and removed the boards which had ‘I’m a thief and a burglar’ written on them.
This followed a similar incident in August 2007, when a man was ‘tarred and feathered’ in a paramilitary-style attack in the loyalist Taughmonagh estate in south Belfast.
“If anyone has evidence on this individual involving breaking into houses, they should give it to the PSNI,” Sinn Fein assembly member Paul Maskey said.
“They have responsibility to ensure this type of crime is stopped.”
Saturday’s incident comes just days after The Irish News revealed that the number of paramilitary-style attacks by republicans had risen to a five-year high.
It is believed the rise is largely down to a rise in dissident republican activity and the emergence of a new Belfast-based group calling itself Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH).
ONH claimed last month that it was responsible for 15 paramilitary-style shooting. The number of paramilitary beatings has also increased four-fold from seven in 2007 to 27 in 2008.
Earlier this month, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams accused the Continuity IRA, Real IRA, INLA and ONH of being heavily involved in extortion and intimidation.
The west Belfast MP had previously said there had been “an increase in criminal actions by a number of organised criminal gangs who claim to be republican organisations”.

Il Sinn Fein ha apertamente accusato bande criminali, definiti di ‘dissidenti’, di applicare una sorta di tassazione sullo spaccio di droga. I dissidenti repubblicani si sono sempre espressi contrari alla spaccio di stupefacenti, ma stando alle dichiarazioni provenienti dal partito repubblicano, essi starebbero imponendo una tassazione di migliaia di sterline a spacciatori che operano in determinate aree. Gli spacciatori, dal loro canto, non possono fare altro che aumentare il prezzo delle droghe.
Lo scorso week end durante un briefing con i giornalisti a West Belfast, è stato affermato che la popolazione delle aeree interessate, è stata invitata a collaborare con le forze di polizia.

Dissidents accused of ‘drugs tax’ (BBC News Northern Ireland)
Dissident republicans are charging drug dealers a “licence fee” to operate in nationalist areas, Sinn Féin has claimed.
Dissident republicans have said they oppose drug dealing but they stand accused of charging dealers a “tax”.
Senior republican sources say criminal gangs in north and west Belfast who call themselves dissidents are extorting tens of thousands of pounds.
It is claimed dealers are increasing the amount of drugs to pay the “tax”.
One criminal in north Belfast was forced to help the Continuity IRA import 120kgs of drugs from Spain. He was then made to pay a tax of £90,000 to the organisation, republican sources have said.
At a briefing in west Belfast at the weekend, they told journalists that people living in the affected areas were being encouraged to co-operate with the police.

La comunità di lingua irlandese a Belfast, è tornata ad essere forte quanto un centinaio di anni fa. Questo è quanto ha sostenuto Gerry Adams al Culturlann, una chiesa convertita nel cuore di West Belfast, area nota come centro della lingua irlandese con tanto di negozi, ristoranti e librerie, bilingue.
Si tratta di una delle aree più vivaci, linguisticamente parlando, e il leader del Sinn Fein chiede al Ministro della Cultura Gregory Campbell, una legislazione a tutela del gaelico (come previsto dall’accordo di St. Andrews del 2006, n.d.r.), così come sono state tutelate le lingue in  Galles ed in Scozia .
Un censimento mostra che 167.000 persone in Irlanda del Nord, conoscono il gaelico, mentre 4.000 bambini vengono educati attraverso la lingua.
“Ovviamente c’è una grande comunità di lingua irlandese a Dublino, ma oltre a Galway, città dove si può effettivamente sentire la lingua parlata nelle strade, Belfast è uno dei punti di forza al di fuori delle aree  Gaeltacht“.
Il Ministro della Cultura, Gregory Campbell, ha accusato i repubblicani di utilizzare il gaelico come arma e si è impegnato a garantire equità di fondi con la lingua Ulster Scots.
Ma Adams ha controbattuto: “C’è un grande lavoro da fare per convincere gli unionisti che la lingua non è una minaccia. Non è un partito politico … è un meraviglioso patrimonio e il fatto che sia vivo è merito di tutti coloro che lo hanno nutrito e che continuano a utilizzarlo”.

Adams hails strength of Irish language community
Belfast’s Irish language community is as strong as it has been in a hundred years, Gerry Adams said today.
The Sinn Fein President and Irish language enthusiast said the city enjoyed a growing gaelic language scene that was among the most vibrant in Ireland.
He said the tongue had become a living language in the city again and repeated calls for DUP Culture Minister Gregory Campbell to deliver legislation to protect it.
Mr Adams made his comments in the Culturlann – a converted church in the heart of west Belfast housing the city’s best known Irish language centre, complete with bilingual restaurant and book shop.
“The big change in the fortunes of the Irish language in this city, probably in a century, is that it is now a living language,” he said.
“There are people who live their lives through the Irish language and that’s seen in the strength of the gaelscoileanna (Irish medium schools), in the young people being educated through the Irish language.”
Census figures show 167,000 people have knowledge of Irish in Northern Ireland, while 4,000 children are educated through the language.
Mr Adams said there was now growing demand for Irish language services.
“That is what sustains a culturlann. You could build a culturlann and it could be a white elephant,” he said.
“But there is a demand for it. That’s the difference.
“Obviously there is a big Irish language community in Dublin, but apart from Galway city where you can actually hear the language spoken on the streets, Belfast is one of the strong points outside of the formal Gaeltacht areas.”
He added: “It’s going to grow from strength to strength. That is what we have said to the DUP.”
The St Andrews political agreement of 2006, which paved the way for power-sharing government at Stormont, promised an Irish language act for Northern Ireland to protect gaelic through legislation similar to that in place in Wales and Scotland.
But the DUP has blocked the move, with the party’s Stormont Culture Minister Gregory Campbell instead set to deliver a minority languages strategy to the Executive in early 2009.
Mr Adams said unionists had failed to present a strong argument against protecting Irish.
He said of Mr Campbell: “He’s a minister of culture whose avowed aim is to not preside over rights for the native indigenous language.
“So Gregory is an oxymoron in terms of those matters.”
Mr Campbell has accused republicans of using Irish as a political weapon and has pledged to give equal funding to the Ulster Scots tongue.
But Mr Adams said: “There is a big job of work to be done to persuade unionists that the language does not threaten them.
“It’s not party political… it’s a wonderful heritage and the fact that it is alive is to the great credit to all of those people who have nurtured it and who continue to use it.”

My first job today was a press launch for an organisation called Surestart on the White rock Road and good ol’ Santa was there making sure all the kids were happy – and some of the grown ups too – in this case local politician Gerry Adams. The things you can get people to do with a camera (and fair play to him for being such a good sport)!!

Santa's Knee

Una ricerca effettuata dal Centro traumi Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, ha dimostrato come a distanza di 14 anni dalla tregua dichiarata dai principali gruppi paramilitari, ed a 12 anni dal Good Friday Agreement, la gente di Belfast soffra ancora dei traumi causati dai Troubles.
La città porta grandi ferite di quell’epoca, il 40% dei decessi è da imputare alla violenza nel Nord.
Questo studio si è reso necessario per aiutare il personale medico a meglio capire la storia ed i problemi delle persone che si rivolgono al centro lamentando disordini da stress traumatico e le relative problematiche.
Il Centro traumi offre trattamenti multidisciplinari che permettoni ai singoli pazienti di potersi avvalere di un’ampia gamma di terapie tra cui consulenze ed altre terapie complementari.

‘High level’ of Troubles trauma remains in Belfast
People in Belfast are still suffering the trauma of the Troubles 14 years after the main paramilitary groups called their first ceasefires, it was revealed today.
The city suffered terribly, with 40% of the deaths caused by the violence in the North – and 75% of those in the north and the west of the city.
Almost half of the children killed in the Troubles were also residents of north or west Belfast.
The experiences and consequences of the Troubles was the subject of newly-published research carried out by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust’s trauma resource centre.
It was carried out to help staff better understand both the history and the problems of people being referred to the centre with traumatic stress disorder and related difficulties.
Launching the report, Victims Commissioner Brendan Mcallister said: “Fourteen years after the big ceasefires, 12 years after the Good Friday Agreement, a trauma centre in north and west Belfast confirms a high level of trauma is still being suffered across the community.”
He added: “Visiting the trauma centre staff I was encouraged to hear them speak with conviction about the community development approach to their work.
“They also seek to enlist the resources of the local community as partners in the healing process of each individual client.”
Pat McCartan, chairman of the trust, added: “This piece of work will inform practitioners, managers and policy makers of the long term and lingering effects of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and influence service developments.”
The trauma centre uses a multi-disciplinary treatment approach allowing each individual client to receive an holistic range of therapies including counselling and complementary therapies.
The treatment has evolved through various research studies.

a film by Michael Leonard