£54,893 Éire Nua Building Fund Belfast / Derry Republican Sinn Féin has secured a premises at 229 Falls Road, Belfast as the organisation’s public office in the city. This excellent location near the city centre will give a much-needed focus and morale boost to our growing membership in Belfast and throughout Ulster. The initial cost of the office was £60,000 (punts) and since it was acquired major refurbishment has been carried out on the building. Added to that is the cost of security to protect it and those using it from the British Crown Forces, loyalist death squads and others who would threaten true Republicans. This,and currency fluctuations. have added another £15,000 (punts) to the cost. Over £20,000 has been contributed to the fund to date and the committee is very grateful for the valuable support of members and supporters. The debt is now reduced to £54,893. Contributions, which will be gratefully acknowledged, can be made: To the following: Mary Ward, Co Donegal; Frank McCarry, Co Antrim; Jimmy McElhinney, Co Tyrone; Geraldine Taylor, Belfast; Michael McGonigle, Co Derry; Joe O'Neill, Co Donegal; Mick McManus, Co Fermanagh; Larry McMahon, Co Monaghan By sending a donation to: Ard Oifig, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1 or to 229 Falls Road, Belfast. or send a donation to: Éire Nua Building Fund, Bank of Ireland, Main Street, Limavady, Co Derry, a/c number 49431733, quoting the Branch code 90-50-96 or donate by Standing Order.

PRICE INCREASE From this month the price of SAOIRSE increases to 60p. See bottom of page for new annual subscription rates.

Portadown searches heighten tension The Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British army’s Royal Irish Regiment raided homes and property in the Obins Street area of Portadown in the early hours of Thursday May 25. A large force of RUC and RIR descended on the area at 5.10am and spent several hours engaged in searches of the district. Many local people were harassed by the RIR as they passed through a cordon which had been setup to ring the Obins Street/Parkside/Park Road area off. The raids were the second successive day that Crown Forces have carried out searches in nationalist areas of Portadown.

SAOIRSE - Irish Freedom The Voice of the Republican Movement
Issue number 158 June, 2000 NOOSE TIGHTENS ON TRIMBLE	http://saoirse.rr.nu

Republican Sinn Féin, 223 Parnell St, Dublin 1 Tel Dublin 872 9747 Fax: 872 9757 e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie 229 Falls Road, Belfast Tel Belfast 319 004 Fax: 319 863

TOURS OF HISTORIC GRAVES GLASNEVIN CEMETERY DUBLIN Sundays in June July, August Meet at Main Gate 11.30am Organised by National Graves Association * * * * NATIONAL GRAVES ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND KERRY TOUR OF REPUBLICAN PLOTS/MEMORIALS AUGUST 2000 Inquiries about Kerry NGA tours: Phone 01-862 1928 066-976 4584 * * * * TOM CONCANNON COMMEMORATION SUNDAY, JUNE 18 Assemble: 3pm, Main gates Bohernabreena Cemetery Co Dublin Bus: 49a * * * * BALLAD NIGHT SATURDAY, JUNE 24 BRANNIGAN’S BAR MULGRAVE STREET LIMERICK 9.30pm Music: The Limerickmen Táille: £3 Organised by the Manchester Martyrs Commemoration Committee * * * * TRANSFORMING THE UNITED NATIONS SATURDAY, JULY 8 ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS 123 ST STEPHEN’S GREEN, DUBLIN 9.45am -- 5.30pm Speakers include Denis Hallifday, former Asst-Sec General UN Details: Tel Dublin 280 6878 * * * *

RepublicanSF Republican news and information by e-mail. To subscribe send an empty e-mail (no message or subject heading) to: RepublicanSF- subscribe @onelist.com You can also subscribe on the web by going to: Any queries to RepublicanSF-owner @onelist.com or saoirse@iol.ie.

Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill A chairde The Dáithí Ó Conaill Memorial Committee wish to announce that the outstanding debt on the Head Office premises of £1,753 has finally been cleared. It was made possible by our faithful Republican comrades and supporters in general who have kept the donations coming on a regular basis, and in particular by the generosity of an anonymous benefactor who has helped to pay off the final sum. We intend to keep the Dáithí Ó Conaill Memorial Fund open and appeal to all Republicans and friends to make occasional donations so that some time in the future a further memorial, perhaps in the form of a scholarship, may be realised. Sincere and heartfelt thanks are extended to all who have made this enormous achievement possible. Is mise Cathleen Knowles McGuirk Cisteoir Dáithí Ó Conaill Memorial Building Fund

No change in jobs bias Nationalists make up the greater proportion of the long-term unemployed and are twice as likely to find themselves jobless according to British government figures released on May 18. Despite being better qualified, the survey found that the number of nationalists out of work who had been seeking a job for one year or more runs at 50% compared with 37% for loyalists. The report showed that loyalists make up 63% of people working in clerical or secretarial occupations. Loyalists also make up the higher number employed in agriculture, hunting and forestry (67%) while nationalist representation is highest in the more dangerous and often low paid construction industry at 51%.

A BBC documentary on May 31 provided further details of collusion between British intelligence and loyalist death squads.

Speaking to Peter Taylor for the Brits documentary series on the role of British intelligence forces in the Six Counties, Brian Nelson’s former handler revealed that Nelson was encouraged to pass information to the UDA death squad.

The handler, known only as Geoff, described Nelson as the “jewel in the Crown” of the British intelligence war. Nelson, a former British soldier, was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in 1992 for five counts of conspiracy to murder. He was the UDA’s chief of intelligence and also an agent for the British Force Research Unit who provided him with information on nationalists to be targeted by death squads.

‘Geoff’ revealed that Nelson was encouraged to “stray outside the law” at the behest of British intelligence. “Straying outside the law” involved setting nationalists up to be killed by the loyalist death-squad.

At Nelson’s trial in 1992 he was initially charged with the murders of two nationalists, Terence McDaid and Gerard Slane in separate attacks in 1988. These charges were dropped and Nelson pleaded guilty to five conspiracy to murder charges, substantially reducing the length of the trial and any evidence which Nelson may have given in his defence.


» Terror attack on Belfast taxi driver
» Sacrifices will not be in vain Republican Sinn Féin sent greetings to the O’Hara family, Derry on the occasion of the anniversary of the death on Hunger Strike on May 21, 1981 of their son and brother Patsy and of Ray McCreesh of South Armagh . . .
» Will Adams recruit for a British police force in Ireland? When is a British police force not a British police force? Gerry Adams said on May 21 that “there is no way at this time” that he can “recommend to nationalists or republicans that they should consider joining or supporting a police force as described in the Policing Bill” now before the British parliament . . .
» Collusion fear as Brits target office Republican Sinn Féin in Belfast have voiced concern over what is believed to be a British intelligence or Special Branch surveillance of their Belfast office on the Falls Road . . .
» A question to the International Inspectors In a statement on May 18 the Ard-Chomhairle of Republican Sinn Féin at its recent meeting in its new Belfast office on the Falls Road expressed concern at the number of weapons and explosives still held by British-backed loyalist groupings as a real threat to nationalist communities . . .
» Loyalist arms in UVF prisoners’ office
» Paras shot wounded men The Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday heard a first aid worker tell on May 30 how a British soldier fired shots into the back of an army vehicle which contained three wounded civilians . . .
» ‘The Fenians’ CD released A NEW CD of Republican songs, ballads and tunes has just been released by well-known Donegal Republican Joe O’Neill of Bundoran and his group The Fenians. Price £12, plus post and packing, from Irish Freedom Press, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1 . . .
» Ex-Provisionals block workshop to CIRA prisoners A group of political prisoners in Portlaoise comprised of dissidents who left the Provisionals in 1997 and recognise the institutions of the 26-County State, have denied access to the jails craft workshop to five Continuity IRA prisoners since mid-May . . .
» Political status protest at Belfast hunger strike march On Sunday, May 7 Republican Sinn Féin organised a protest outside their Belfast office on the Falls Road as the Provisional’s hunger strike march passed by . . .
» Plastic bullet inquiry call by mother The fact that the British occupation forces “are still using this weapon to kill or maim young children is beyond belief”, the grieving mother of a west Belfast schoolgirl killed by a plastic bullet 19 years ago has said . . .
» RSF in brown envelope hand-out Republican Sinn Féin held a picket outside Leinster House in Kildare Street, Dublin on May 25 to point out the corruption in the heavily centralised 26-County State and to highlight the Republican alternative of a federal, democratic, socialist republic free from British rule (ÉIRE NUA). The picketers carried a banner reading “ÉIRE NUA – A New Democracy” As part of the demonstration Republican Sinn Féin members handed out brown envelopes to everyone passing by -- the envelopes of course contained nothing more serious than a leaflet calling for a decentralised system of government. The brown envelopes were generally received in good humour, with only one or two exceptions: Eoin Ryan (Fianna Fáil), for example, took an envelope but then came back and verbally abused the picketers . . .
» No action against RUC for Nelson threats Once again the family of Rosemary Nelson have to deal with the emotional strain of trying to break through the brick wall of imperial intransigence following a decision by the British-appointment Independent Commission for Police Complaints (ICPC) that no disciplinary action would be taken against RUC officers who threatened the lawyer . . .
» RUC men jailed over sectarian conspiracy Two RUC men who beat up a nationalist man in February 1998 and threatened to have him shot by the LVF were jailed on May 10 after an RUC ‘whistle-blower’ informed on his colleagues . . .
» A salute to George Harrison George Harrison, the noted Irish-American activist and Patron of Republican Sinn Féin had an 85th birthday celebration in New York city held in his honour on May 2 last. Organised by his comrades in the socialist and international liberation movements in the city George heard tributes from the Cuban Consul General in New York, a representative of the Puerto Rican independence movement, Bernadette McAliskey, journalist Jack Holland, the Committees of Correspondence, lawyer Frank Durkan and a veteran of the Lincoln International Brigade who fought in the Spanish Civil War . . .
» Community groups unite to reject waste plan Six community groups in Galway City and County united on May 30 to call for the rejection of the Connacht Draft Waste Management Plan. The Galway Safe Waste Alliance includes action groups from all of the areas in the county with existing or proposed landfill sites, and the two groups campaigning against incinerators in the county. The Alliance is calling on Galway County and City Councillors to reject the Connacht Draft Waste Management Plan at the earliest opportunity, and is proposing a partnership approach with the local authorities to developing an alternative plan, based on recycling and non-burn alternatives . . .
» Incinerator dioxins are cancer-causing A new US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report has concluded that the dioxins produced by Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators are “human carcinogens” . . .
» Waste battles in the Six Counties Plans for two incinerators in Belfast Harbour have been opposed by environmentalists and local people for the past three years . . .
» Orange parade forced down Garvaghy Road Crown Forces swamped the Garvaghy Road area in a 20-hour long operation to enable the Orange Order to bully their way through a nationalist neighbourhood on May 27 . . .
» RUC fail to prevent Orange terror The Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, in a statement on May 23 said that “the latest Orange Order sectarian attack, coupled with the failure of the Royal Ulster Constabulary to intervene has fuelled tension dramatically in Portadown. On the night of May 16 around 200 Orangemen and supporters held an illegal assembly at Craigwell Avenue, a small Catholic street in Portadown . . .
» High Court ruling discriminates against women and nationalists The Belfast High Court on May 11, 2000 dismissed a legal challenge of the make-up of the new Parades Commission, the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition said. “Although the move is not surprising, it has once again highlighted why nationalist residents of Portadown can have no faith in the Northern judicial system . . .
Review: » Three murders in Dublin Castle 1920. Publisher: 1916/1921 Club. Price: £1.00.

Gearrscéalta

On the night of May 19, a caller identifying himself as a spokesperson for the Continuity Irish Republican Army contacted a number of newsrooms in Belfast claiming that bombs and incendiary devices had been planted at various locations in the city. Premises in Bedford Street, Dublin Road and Great Victoria Street had to be evacuated while Crown Forces examined the area.


» Mortar attack in South Armagh

WORLD NEWS

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Postal address: 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1. Letters may also be faxed to Dublin 872 9757 or by e-mail to saoirse@iol.ie.


» Provisionals Accept British Rule
EX-PROVO
Bogside, Derry
» Saddened by Kerryman’s Betrayal
SEÁN Ó RIAIN
Ballyferriter
Co Kerry
» Manchester Martyrs Memorial
NORA LYNCH
Limerick
» Name ‘Dirty Cash’ Banks
JB MOFFATT
Secretary General
Celtic League
» Arms Surrender News
‘Peace with justice’
Sydney
Australia
» Politicians Have Robbed Our Children
ANTHONY COUGHLAN
Secretary
The National Platform
Dublin 9
» Lesson For Revolutionaries
MARTIN CALLIGAN
Kilmurry-McMahon
Co Clare

On Sunday May 14 last, Republicans gathered in Knocknadruce, Co Wicklow for Sinn Féin Poblachtach’s annual Neil Plunkett O’Boyle Commemoration. ‘Plunkett’ O’Boyle, a native of Co Donegal was murdered by Free State forces at Knocknadruce on May 15, 1923.

Jim Meehan, Newbridge, laid a wreath on behalf of the Republican Movement. Kitty Hawkins recited a decade of the Rosary.

Ard Chomhairle member Des Dalton, Athy, said that people such as ‘Plunkett’ O’Boyle died for an Ireland free of British rule. “However the Stormont Agreement copperfastens British rule in Ireland. Former comrades are content to become British Crown Ministers, administering this Rule” Des Dalton said.


» Glasgow Easter commemoration An Irish Republican colour party and a crowd of over 30 people representing numerous Irish organisations attended the annual Easter Commemoration at Pearse Park, Glasgow on Sunday, April 23 . . .

The Annual Seán MacDiarmada commemoration took place in Kiltyclogher, Co Leitrim on Sunday May 7th. Republicans gathered to remember and honour the executed 1916 leader in his home village.

Declan Curneen chaired the event. The national flag was carried by Pat Barry. Wreaths were laid by Jim Mannion, Michael Kennedy and John M Branley.

Thomas Kelly read the 1916 Proclamation. Séamus McGowan recited a decade of the Rosary as Gaeilge. The oration was given by Joe O’Neill, Bundoran.

The family of the late Nora Houlihan, Cahersiveen and the family of Catherine Doherty, Currow, Killarney thank all those who put sympathy notices into SAOIRSE, sent Mass cards, made phone calls and a special thanks to the Republican prisoners in Limerick and Portlaoise prisons who sent Mass cards. A sincere thank you to all those who travelled to both funerals.
» Beannachtaí
» What They Said

SAOIRSE July edition published July 3

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