James Larkin Commemoration 2007

Leading unionist says Irish unity is not "unthinkable"

The former head of the "Northern Ireland Civil Service", Ken Bloomfield, has said some form of Irish unity is not unthinkable in principle. The former Victims Commissioner, currently involved with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains, said Irish unity should be thought of as a possible or potential contract between distinct groups of people "with all the cards on the table." It would not be a single step but a process with a "modest beginning and no predetermined end," he told the gathering of the 40th anniversary Merriman summer school.

"So it is that I do not find the idea of some form of Irish unity or closer association - almost certainly after my time - in any way unthinkable in principle," Sir Kenneth, who was secretary to the 1974 Sunningdale power-sharing government, said. "But what is conceivably acceptable in principle would have to be mutually acceptable in practice. As I grow older, I care less which flag is flown and which anthem is played where I live."

He said he would find it difficult to bear "with any sense of self respect" any relapse into a period of " that parody of democratic government, direct rule". "Far sighted politicians, economists and academics will have to think long and hard about the true nature, cost, ethos and dynamics of a new orientation of affairs," he added.

Sinn Féin MLA Willie Clarke welcomed the comments saying, "No one should doubt that when an old-school unionist such as Ken Bloomfield can recognise the political dynamic of Irish re-unification that he is reflecting the much broader political realities. "The new thinking displayed by Ken Bloomfield is a welcome contribution to what should be a healthy and positive debate on the future constitutional position on the Island of Ireland. While I would dispute the timeframe indicated by him I would encourage further open discussion of the shape of the new Ireland that is evolving. "The arrangements now in place threaten no ones political aspirations. Indeed they provide for the first time a common space to discuss and debate our futures on the basis of equality and respect. "I believe that there is an unstoppable momentum towards Irish unity. This is reflected across all sections of our society and even privately many unionists recognise this reality. It is a question of how we manage this transition."

British Military operation prevented political progress

Sinn Féin North Belfast MLA Gerry Kelly has said that when the British Army arrived on the streets in 1969 that it quickly became clear that it would be an oppressive force and was going to be used against one section of the community to maintain British rule.

Mr Kelly said: "When the British Army arrived in the north in 1969 it quickly became clear that it would be an oppressive force and would be used against the nationalist community to maintain British rule. While the so-called Operation Banner had been in response to the Loyalist pogroms against the nationalist community, that had been supported the B-Specials and RUC, the brutalisation of nationalists across the north caused huge suffering."

"The British military was part of the security response to a situation that was political. It was a response that included torture, shoot-to-kill and collusion with Loyalist death squads. The security response failed. The tactics used by the British Army here are the same as the ones being deployed in Iraq today and the consequences can be seen by everyone."

"It was only when republicans forced the British government to admit that the conflict would only be resolved through political negotiations that progress was achieved."

From today's Guardian...

Detention lessons
Post-charge questioning might have saved the Guildford Four from badly miscarried justice

Duncan Campbell
Monday July 30, 2007
The Guardian

Just over 30 years ago, the convictions of four young men for the IRA bombing of a pub in Guildford were broadly welcomed, the police applauded for their diligence and the government encouraged to proceed with yet more stringent measures to combat terrorism. With the spectre of bombs on the London underground and reports of many men and women eagerly volunteering to risk their lives for the IRA, politicians and commentators queued up to suggest ever more muscular methods of dealing with the threats the country faced.

Eight days after his conviction, one of the four, Gerard Conlon, facing life in jail, made a prison "confession" that contained supposed details of IRA members. It was worthless, the product of the panic of an innocent man whose equally innocent father, Guiseppe, had by now been caught up in the frenzy of the time and was to later die in jail before his name could be cleared. Years afterwards the confession was revealed to contain much that could easily have been shown to be wrong at the time.

It is easy to forget what the political climate was like in those days, now we are living in a time when ex-IRA men and their former UDA enemies can sit down together for a pint and a reminiscence in a Belfast pub. It took 15 long years before Conlon and his co-defendants were cleared and freed, but it seems the lessons of those days have been almost forgotten.

The government seems determined to at least double the time people can be detained, arguing that in the complex world of international terrorism more time is needed to analyse computer data and phone records. This is the main argument they have put forward to move to at least 56 days of detention without trial. The civil rights group Liberty opposes any extension and has suggested, as an alternative, the idea of post-charge questioning, whereby police could continue interviewing someone in prison after they had been charged with an offence. At present, except in designated circumstances, the police cannot carry on interviewing once a charge has been made.

This appears to be a perfectly reasonable suggestion. If fresh evidence crops up, why shouldn't the police interview a suspect? Some prisoners against whom there is substantial evidence might even welcome the chance to make further statements in anticipation of a lighter sentence. And Liberty says it would only back this initiative if the additional questioning was authorised by a judge and, crucially, provided that suspects were not charged on spurious minor grounds in the first place.

But there is a danger that the government will decide to opt for not only the extension of the time limits but also the post-charge questioning that Liberty was offering only as an alternative. The events of July 7 and other recent thwarted plots may have given the government the impression that any measures it suggests will be adopted.
The "ricin plot" was an example of a case where some of the defendants were arrested on what turned out to be the flimsiest of grounds. The defendants were fortunate they had a jury that was prepared to analyse the evidence and acquit. In a different climate, with a different jury, that might not be the case. The lesson of the Guildford Four case was that desperate isolated people held in prison, reviled by guards and inmates alike, may make desperate statements. The longer they are detained, the easier it is to lock them up, and a miscarriage of justice is likelier than ever.

It may be that, in 30 years' time, people will look back at this period and wonder why the country was panicked into moving towards the equivalent of detention without trial. Memories should not be shorter than the jail terms being handed out to those convicted.

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Sinn Féin call for publication of Stalker Report on shoot-to-kill cases

Sinn Féin Policing Spokesperson, South Belfast MLA Alex Maskey has called for the full publication of the Stalker Report and the immediate publication for all other enquiries relating the policy of shoot-to-kill after the Police Ombudsman confirmed that she had been asked to re-open files on the killing of Gervaise McKerr, Sean Burns and Eugene Toman in North Armagh 1982 in by the RUC.

Mr Maskey said 'The hard facts about the killing of Gervaise McKerr, Sean Burns and Eugene Toman in North Armagh 1982 are clear. There was a policy of shoot-to-kill operated by the RUC in this area.

The families not just in this case but the relatives of others killed as a result of the shot-to-kill policy, including 17-year-old Michael Tighe, deserve the truth.
The European Court demanded a proper investigation into the circumstances of these killings and other state murders.

Europe has already laid the finger of blame at the door of number 10. Now we need to see the full publication of the Stalker Report and the immediate publication for all other enquiries relating the policy of shoot-to-kill.'

Irish Labour considers its role in the North

Jeremy Corbyn MP was invited to speak at the Irish Labour Party's Tom Johnson Summer School at the weekend, to talk on the subject "21st Century Socialism: What does it look like and how can we get it?" he was joined on the platform by Irish Labour TD and former Workers Party TD Eamon Gilmore. Corbyn's presence on the platform to discuss the way forward for the left is a welcome step by the leadership of the Irish Labour Party given his role as the leading Parliamentarian opposing the US imperialist interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, but also his long-standing solidarity with Cuba and more recently with Venezuela.

However he was not asked to speak on the British occupation of the north of Ireland, given his differing views from the current Irish Labour Party project and it is interesting to note the platform on the "way forward for the left in the north of Ireland". The Chair of the Northern Ireland Labour Forum, Mark Langhammer, who was also co-opted on to the Irish Labour Party NEC in 2005, was the main speaker while another was the SWP member and candidate in the recent north's Assembly elections, Sean Mitchell.
Unfortunately the north's largest left party, Sinn Fein was not invited to send a representative and perhaps more surprisingly, neither was Irish Labour's sister party, the SDLP. The inclusion of the SWP gave the event some useful left cover but failed to engage with the mass force of the left in the north.

Langhammer's role is interesting. He is Chair of the Northern Ireland Labour Forum and is quoted on the Irish Labour Party's website as stating "We will be bringing a resolution to Labour's Wexford Conference. The resolution will task the party with registering with the Electoral Commission as a political party in Northern Ireland" in order to contest - in the short term - local elections.

Langhammer played a leading role in drawing up the Irish Labour Party's 2006 statement on the north of Ireland that included "that In accordance with our view that our society is not and never will be exclusively British or Irish, we take the view that Northern Ireland should be part of both the UK and Ireland and that political structures should be established accordingly...In any future referendum on the border issue, as envisaged by the Belfast Agreement, in addition to the highly divisive and mutually exclusive British or Irish options, we will actively seek to have a third 'part of both' option included."

As part of this project, the statement also says that "The NI Labour Forum is also seeking a formal structural relationship with the British Labour Party, in the spirit of the proposal below." The inability of Irish Labour to challenge the role of British colonialism in the north of Ireland risks any candidates they see falling between the cracks and failing to make any advances for the left in Ireland. Their refusal to engage with other major left forces, whilst tokenistically using hard-left cover, is the surest sign of the failing of their policy.