“It was apparent from the commencement of the visit, that Ms Dakota’s interest and focus was with the account of the prison authorities, rather than that of the complainant Róisín McAliskey. Ms Dakota accepted without question the Prison Governor’s account of Róisín’s treatment and similarly the advice of the Senior Medical Officer that she spend only ten minutes “because she has so many visits and they really tire her”. Róisín has been waiting for months for this visit and had invested much hope in its outcome.

“Ms Dakota spent the stipulated ten minutes only, during which she did most of the talking. She assured Róisín that she was being well taken care of, especially in the matter of her obstetric care. She failed to recognise the pertinent fact that Wendy Savage is Róisín’s obstetrician because her lawyer, Gareth Pierce has commissioned, and is paying for her medical reports. The Prison Authorities, far from sponsoring the best in obstetric care, have persistently obstructed Wendy Savage’s access to Róisín.

“In preparation for the visit, Róisín had hand-written a ten-page account of her treatment in Castlereagh Interrogation Centre, a task so painful that she doubted she could repeat it. This document was received with little interest by Ms Dakota, whose first suggestion was that it be shown to the Prison Governor, Róisín said that she wished for it to be given to Patricia McKenna, MEP. Ms Dakota replied that, ‘yes, Patricia might be interested.’

“Again Róisín had to say, “you must give this to Patricia.” We have no evidence so far that Ms Dakota read the document. Patricia McKenna, by contrast recognised immediately the importance and urgency of the document and immediately faxed it to Gareth Pierce.

“The most serious criticism of Ms Dakota’s visit was the fact that her briefing was worryingly inadequate and inaccurate. She had only working English and did not have an interpreter, which given the complexities of this case would present major difficulties.

“Her understanding of the case was the Róisín’s family were ‘too poor’ to raise the £300,000 bail surety, a misconception which any person with a popular knowledge of the case would be able to correct. It is outrageous that such inaccuracies and problems should arise at this level of intervention.

“Róisín McAliskey’s summation of the visit was that “It was the worst ten minutes that I have spent in Holloway Prison”. This coming from a young woman who has been subjected to more than 80 strip searches since her detention, is surely an indictment of the attitude of the representative of the European Commission on Human Rights.

“In spite of pleading with her to stay longer and her evident distress and dissatisfaction with the visit, Ms Dakota left abruptly at the directive of the Prison Governor, who advised her that as the press were assembled at the front gate, they had thoughtfully arranged for her to leave discretely from the back.”
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West Belfastman Eugene McKee, who has spent eight years in prison with only one year left of his sentence, spoke to the Andersonstown News in Belfast of the punishments meted out to prisoners by a vengeful British regime following the tunnel discovery. Because he has only one year left of his sentence he was allowed six hours special parole to attend Belfast City Hospital to be treated for torn neck ligaments.

Speaking from his Andersonstown home on Friday, April 11, McKee said that all Provisional prisoners were targeted in the days after the find. Prisoners who refused to be strip-searched during the raids on their cells were stripped and handcuffed before being “thrown on the boards” – prison slang for the punishment block.

“When I refused to be strip-searched, the riot squad dived on top of me, stripped me and put on the handcuffs,” he said. “They then twisted my arms up my back and caught my head and neck in a lock. There was no need for it because I was restrained anyway, but they went ahead anyway. I told them they were going to do damage to my neck, but they kept it up.”

Eugene McKee now has to take powerful doses of morphine to dull the agonising pain in his neck caused by the riot squad assault. McKee claims the same treatment and worse was meted out to Provisional prisoners all over the camp. The medical facilities at Long Kesh are not adequate for treating such injuries.

Over sixty prisoners are now filing claims for personal injury against the British colonial office (NIO) with a Belfast law firm. Thanks to Provisional compromises, the British and their loyalist allies now have the upper hand – the heavy iron hand of tyranny.
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Q. The IRA [Provisionals] has returned to an active campaign. What is the difference between you and them?
A. They are engaged in their campaign as a tactic but it is only a partial campaign. They said: ‘The armed struggle failed – let’s go political.’ But when the 1956-61 campaign failed the IRA said ‘The armed struggle has failed this time, but we will resume it at another time’.

The Provisional leadership are not fighting for ‘Brits out’ – instead they seek ‘parity of esteem’ and a seat at the talks. Young men are being sent out for that.

They are happy to accept the 26-County establishment and Stormont, if it emerges. There is no mention from them of the freedom of Ireland.

Q. Is there any connection between yourselves and the IRA [Provisionals]?
A. There is no co-operation between us of any sort. We know that a lot of their members are unhappy, because we meet them on the ground and they talk to us. What is said publicly and what is said privately are two different things.

The Provisionals are not too happy about our existence, but we don’t want any friction with them. When we were re-organised in 1986, there were threats made against us.

Q. What is your opinion of the IRA [Provisionals] strategy in the summer of last year?
A. In Derry the ‘hard men’ stood in the middle to prevent any trouble. On the Friday before the [Apprentice Boys] parade there was talk of major protest meetings; in the afternoon they sent their people out to say there would be none.

They would have been satisfied to let the Apprentice Boys march around the city walls. They did this without listening to the local people, and they didn’t come out of it well.

We don’t need excuses like ‘Drumcree’ or anything else. We are not a ‘defence committee’; what we want is a campaign against the English. Our targets are the British army, the RUC and the RIR. Before major marches, the RUC and the British army use physical force on local people and it is possible to attack them then. But other matters come into it also – we would be opposed to any civilian casualities.

In cases such as Drumcree the right approach for guerrillas is to encourage the local community to defend itself.

Q. Are you willing to talk to loyalists?
A. We have talked to them previously and we have talks with them at the moment but their representatives do not want their names to be mentioned. They are Irish people and their future is in this country. They said to us that if the English pulled out they would be for an independent Six Counties but that if that did not work the ÉIRE NUA plan would be their second choice.

We want – (1) a public declaration of intent by the English that they are leaving; (2) an amnesty for all political prisoners; (3) a new Ireland negotiated by the Irish people themselves.

Q. Are you targeting members of the RUC, RIR and RUC Reserve?
A. Our struggle is against the British Crown Forces. The British police (RUC) are always armed and always on duty.

Q. The IRA [Provisionals] says that after 25 years the struggle cannot continue because people are exhausted?
A. The people were prepared to continue the war but they have to see that what the sacrifices were endured for is realised. When the Provisionals changed their objectives, perhaps people saw that the sacrifices were not worth it for those objectives.

If the campaign cannot be kept going it should not be ended for all time. Instead, as was done in 1923 and again in the 1940s and the 1950s, arms should be kept. It was the 1940s men who trained the 1950s men and it was the 1950s men who went to Belfast and Derry in 1969-70.

The Provisional leadership is tired and now they are seeking personal advancement. If it was not for us their campaign would have finished before the 1990s.

Q. Do you intend to have a campaign in England?
A. Any place in the world where the British army is located!

Q. Will you be intensifying your campaign?
A. That is our aim, but it is not easy. We have units now in every area where the united IRA (pre-1986) was organised.

In 1996 we planted bombs in Belfast and Derry – you cannot place explosive devices in places unless you have Volunteers there on the ground.

We have prisoners in every jail but those in Long Kesh (H-Blocks) say ‘we support you but we have to live with the Provisionals’. We have to vet people carefully. We also have young people with us who have no previous involvement in any organisation.
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Bernard McGinn (40), Castleblayney, County Monaghan, Micheál Caraher (30), Cullyhanna, County Armagh and Martin Mines (28), Crossmaglen, County Armagh were among seven men arrested on April 10 during British Crown Forces raids in South Armagh. Two rifles, one a Barrett Light 50 sniping rifles were seized during the raids.

Three of the seven men were released after seven days interrogation and a fourth was flown to England, where he was charged on April 19 in connection with the February 9, 1996 Docklands explosion in London. He was named as Seamus McArdle (29), whose parents are natives of Crossmaglen. Another south Armaghman, Patrick McKinley (32), from Mullaghbawn has already been charged in connection with the Docklands explosion, which ended the Provisionals unilateral and unconditional ceasefire.

The men arrested in the Cullyhana/Crossmaglen area of South Armagh were taken to the notorious Gough Barracks interrogation centre in Armagh on April 10. It has been revealed that all were badly beaten by British Crown Forces at the time of their arrest and later in custody. At the court hearing on April 17 details were given in the cases of Caraher, McGinn and Mines.

Micheal Caraher’s lawyer, Gerry Trainor, said that his client was taken to Craigavon Area Hospital twice since his arrest because of injuries to his hand, chest and head. Caraher was in “extremely poor health” as a result of gunshot injuries inflicted by British marines in December 1990 when his brother Fergal was shot dead in Cullyhana in a shoot-to-kill incident. He lost part of his lung in the attack.

The same lawyer acted on behalf of Bernard McGinn who appeared in court with his hands handcuffed behind his back. McGinn was also brought to Craigavon Area Hospital after his arrest with a long list of injuries. These included: extensive haematoma in both eyes, lacerations to the nose, injuries to the right ear requiring stitches, injuries to the head requiring staples, lacerations in the shoulders, injuries to the arm caused by puncture wounds by rifle barrels and injuries to the lower back and knees. McGinn was in such pain in Gough Barracks that he had difficulty holding a pen. At this stage in the court the British judge told the RUC to remove the handcuffs from Bernard McGinn.

Thomas Tiernan, lawyer for Martin Mines, asked for an outline of the evidence against his client but the RUC British policemen did not provide it. He said his client had made a written complaint that he was physically assaulted and sustained injuries to his head and body during detention.

The use of the seven-day detention by the British Crown Forces allows them to assault persons in custody during the initial 24 hours and allow the remaining time to lessen the visible signs of injury before they appear in court. Despite this, McGinn’s face was clearly bruised in court.

He was charged with the deaths of two British soldiers in 1997 and 1993 and a former British soldier in 1978, and Michael Caraher was charged with injuring a British policeman in a gun attack on March 29 last. All three were charged with possession of weapons and ammunition, with “conspiracy to murder a person or persons unknown on April 10” and with membership of the Provisionals military organisation. They were remanded in custody to appear at the Maze court on May 7 next.

Seamus McArdle was remanded in custody in London on April 19 to appear at Belmarsh Magistrates Court on May 14 next.
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The County Donegal town has been twinned with eleven other towns in the EU since 1991, but this was the first time that the Irish have hosted the conference, which seeks to improve co-operation between the 12 members of “Douzelage”.

When the matter came up for discussion, five of the six councillors present at the vote agreed that the flag should be flown during the Conference — with the exception of Councillor O’Neill.

Councillor O’Neill said that he had no objection to the flying of the town flag from the particular town in England with which Bundoran is twinned, but as a matter of principle, he would not accept the flying of the Union Jack in the resort.

He said that the solution should have been to fly the town flags of the towns twinned with Bundoran, but he wanted no Union Jack flying in Bundoran “until Ireland is free”.

He added that he had no objection to the delegates from the English town of Sherborne coming to the town for the Conference.

The reasons why he did not want the Union Jack displayed were simple, he said.

“They are occupying our country; the way they treated the people of Bloody Sunday; the fact that they were part of the Dublin bombing; the way they are treating Róisín McAliskey and the way that they have treated all Irish prisoners over the years and the that they have treated this country over the years.”

He added that it made no difference that the flag was being flown in conjunction with other EU member States.

Asked would he ever accept the flying of the Union Jack in the town, he replied: “If we had a free country, I would have no problem at all and I still have no objection to any ordinary English visitor coming to our town”.
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Ciarán Delaney (23) from Bawnmore Park in Newtownabbey was waiting with a friend for a lift to work when a death squad gunman struck, wounding him in the neck on Wednesday, April 9. His mother Margaret Delaney recounted what her son’s friend said about the attack. “He said they had been sitting together when this postman came along. They noticed he was a bit funny looking. He came right up to them and started waving a gun from one to the other. “He was panicking afterwards . . . he thought Ciarán had been shot in the shoulder because when he fell he was clutching his shoulder.” Ciarán Delaney was left bleeding on the road near the Abbey Centre shopping complex as the British-backed gunman made his getaway in a silver Ford Sierra later found burned out in the loyalist Rathcoole Estate. The north Belfastman had escaped a similar attempt on his life two weeks previously. He had complained to the British police (RUC) who accused him of being “paranoid”.

The nationalist enclave of Bawnmore in north Belfast is bounded by the loyalist Rathcoole, Shore Crescent/Graymount estates. It has borne the brunt of the sectarian terror that accompanies British imperialism. British-backed death squads have killed 25 people from the area in as many years.

On April 16 it was announced that Ciarán Delaney's condition had improved and he had been taken out of intensive care.
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The accused, Gareth Malachy Doris, lay on top of his bed with a severe gunshot wound to his stomach and a collapsed lung which was being inflated by air from a tube at his bedside as charges of attempted murder of British forces and maliciously causing an explosion at the RUC barracks in Coalisland, County Tyrone, were read out. Doris, whose hospital ward is guarded by the British paramilitary police (RUC), was denied bail and was remanded in custody to appear at Belfast magistrates Court on April 29.

His lawyer Patrick Mallon said his client is “vigorously contesting the charges and that he is innocent of the charges”.

Meanwhile, a second man who is alleged to have been shot in the SAS operation was discharged from Louth County Hospital on Tuesday night, April 1 and immediately arrested for 24 hours of interrogation by the 26-County police in Dundalk.

Unnamed 26-County police told the media that the 18-year-old man was being treated for a groin wound and would be “kept under observation”.

Unionists have demanded that the man be extradited to Occupied Ireland for interrogation by the British Crown Forces. The man was expected back at the hospital but did not turn up. His family in Coalisland have said they were unaware of his whereabouts.
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