Irish Republican Information Service (no. 145)
Irish Republican Information Service (no. 145) Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757; e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie Date: 16 Aibreán / April 2008 Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom http://saoirse.info In this issue: 1. Vindictive screws condemned for lily punishment 2. Reinstatement of low template DNA criticised by RSF 3. MI5 active in Dungannon 4. Hamill case to go ahead in June 5. MI5 head gives inquiry statement 6. Wright inquiry is halted 7. Prisoner killed by LVF inmates over ‘his police co-operation’ 8. Shoukri may spend just four months in prison 9. Controversy over leaked memo on Lisbon Treaty 10. Ordinary workers did not gain from boom, conference told 11. Rossiter death not ‘fully investigated’ 12. World Heritage Day event to launch International Tara appeal 13. 41% of Scots back the break-up of British union 14. Salmond backs Gaelic as 'true national language' 1. VINDICTIVE SCREWS CONDEMNED FOR LILY PUNISHMENT A SPOKESPERSON for Republican Sinn Féin and the Republican Prisoners' Action Group condemned on April 14 the vindictive actions of the prison authorities within the Six Occupied Counties for punishing Republican POWs for wearing the Easter Lily. “Republican prisoners in Maghaberry, who sought to honour Ireland's Patriot Dead by wearing an Easter Lily on Easter Sunday, are currently being kept in solitary confinement for a period of five days each,” said Richard Walsh, National Publicity Officer. “Two or three prisoners are being punished at any one time, and once they have been released back into the segregated population another group of prisoners are made to commence the same punishment. “It remains the case that prison staff and Loyalist prisoners are permitted to wear the British Imperial Poppy, which has been stained by the blood of countless people who sought their country's freedom. And yet anyone who dares honour Ireland's heroic martyrs is punished under Prison Rules. The Easter Lily was created in 1925 by Cumann na mBan to honour those who had died for Ireland, and to raise funds for Republican prisoners and other Republican purposes.” 2. REINSTATEMENT OF LOW TEMPLATE DNA CRITICISED BY RSF THE announcement that Low Copy Number DNA testing is to be reinstated as an evidential tool was criticised on April 15 by Republican Sinn Féin. Director of Publicity, Richard Walsh, said: “Low Template DNA analysis falsely linked a Nottingham schoolboy to the bombing. This notoriously unreliable and utterly discredited technique also identifies trace elements of DNA which may have arrived at a given place for entirely innocuous reasons. As such, its use is rejected almost throughout the world as an evidential tool. “The issues surrounding the use of LCN DNA were never solely related to its handling and storage. It is also unsurprising that the RUC were quick to announce its reinstatement as evidence as a means of removing those whom they oppose from society.” 3. MI5 ACTIVE IN DUNGANNON DUBIA Meats (Dungannon Meats) is a multi-million pound business located at Granville industrial estate on the outskirts of Dungannon. The firm employs over 500 workers, most of them working-class people from both communities in the Six Counties but also a large number of eastern Europeans and operates 24 hours. At the end of March as the security guard at the factory was doing his rounds he came across an identification badge on a string, the type you wear round your neck. The heading on the badge was Intelligence MI5 and there was a picture of a man in his thirties and the name on the tag was Ivor Truesdale. The guard reported his find to those in charge who phoned the RUC/PSNI. When the Crown Forces arrived and inspected the ID they tried to laugh it off, saying it was a fake and that someone was playing a joke. The guard thought differently and said it looked professional and pointed out that no one working at the firm looked or went by this name. The Crown Forces left with the badge and offered no more explanations. Republican Sinn Féin in East Tyrone claim the Crown Forces are white-washing the find and want to know what dirty deeds MI5 have been engaged in the Granville area. A spokesperson for the McKearney/McCaughey Cumann has pointed out that the discovery of the ID points to an MI5 surveillance team operating in the industrial estate. “Republican Sinn Féin wants to know why they were engaged in Surveillance of locals at their place of work. Republican Sinn Féin points out that in the past the Crown Forces have been the eyes and ears of the loyalist death squads who have attacked and murdered innocent nationalists as they went about earning a living for their families. It is pointless to call on MI5 to clarify what they were doing in this area but we see their motives as very sinister and we call on all the workers in the Granville industrial estate to be on their guard.” 4. HAMILL CASE TO GO AHEAD IN JUNE A LEGAL challenge by the family of a man murdered in Portadown, Co Armagh whilst the RUC looked on will go ahead in June. Relatives of Robert Hamill (25) won a judicial review of the British Six-County Secretary’s decision to limit the terms of reference of a inquiry into his death. Nobody has been convicted of the April 1997 murder when the nationalist father-of-two was kicked to death by loyalists in the centre of Portadown, where the British Colonial police in a nearby Land Rover allegedly failed to intervene. A spokeswoman for the inquiry team said: “The judicial review will take place from June 9-11 and the judgment is expected very soon afterwards.” In March, British Six-County Secretary Shaun Woodward refused the family’s request to widen the investigation to include the Six-County Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Lawyers wanted to question DPP staff. But 18 moths after submitting their request Shaun Woodward rejected it after taking detailed legal advice by David Perry QC. There were, he said, no justifiable grounds to extend the terms of reference. Family barristers were in Belfast’s High Court on April 11 for their successful bid for a review of that decision. Even though the first of the oral evidence has yet to start, the inquiry has already cost £13m. Full hearings will not begin before September. The opening was almost three years ago. There are 230 statements on the files, including those of eye-witnesses, civilians and retired and serving members of the RUC/PSNI at the time. 5. MI5 HEAD GIVES INQUIRY STATEMENT THE head of MI5 in the Six Counties is to give evidence to a public inquiry into the murder of Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson. The mother-of-three, 40, died after a booby-trap bomb left by loyalists exploded under her car in March 1999. Retired judge Sir Michael Morland is chairing a three-strong panel examining British state collusion. The solicitor's brother, Eunan Magee, said the family would adopt a “wait and see attitude” to the hearings. He said the family would wait before making any judgement on whether the security forces were cooperating fully with the inquiry. Eunan Magee said the years since the killing had been horrendous. He said: “We lost our father along the way, and I suppose the hardest thing of the whole lot is to sit and watch your parents having lost a child. From that point of view, it is something that we have to do in order to be able to move on with our own lives. I do believe that an awful lot is going to be relived over the next days and months and it is going to be hard to listen to. I do believe that we are just going to have to take a step above it.” Under its remit, the inquiry must determine whether the RUC, the British Northern Ireland Office (NIO), British Army or other British state agency facilitated the murder, or blocked attempts to investigate it. The collusion allegations arose because of Rosemary Nelson's role as the legal representative in a number of high profile cases, including that of the nationalist Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition in Portadown. Last September, a British Police Ombudsman report found that threats made against her months before she was murdered were not properly investigated by the RUC. The inquiry began with an opening statement on the background to the case by counsel to the inquiry, Rory Phillips QC. Rory Phillips said: “It will be our task over the months of these hearings to investigate and probe these and other matters which include very troubling suggestions, at their highest of state involvement in the murder of one of the state's own citizens, in a dispassionate and calm way so that the truth is not itself obscured by emotion, preconception or prejudice.” He said witness statements have been taken from 30 members of the British Colonial police up to the rank of assistant chief constable, 19 members of MI5 and eight senior British army intelligence officers. He revealed the list included the Director and Co-ordinator of British Intelligence in the Six Counties, the head of the RUC/PSNI Special Branch and intelligence officers from across the British Crown forces involved in handling agents. He added: “Suffice to say at this point that the striking and possibly unique feature of her murder was that the fact of it, if not the manner of it, had apparently been so clearly foreshadowed, not least by her. Unsurprisingly, therefore, after her murder there were many who wanted to know whether more could have been done to protect her and whether her murder could have been prevented.” It is understood his statement could take several days to deliver. The inquiry, which opened in 2005 to set out its terms of reference, has already gathered tens of thousands of documents. Established by former British Six-County Secretary of State Paul Murphy in November 2004, the hearings could last for at least two years. The inquiry panel is also comprised of Dame Valerie Strachan, former chairperson of the board of Customs and Excise, and Sir Anthony Burden, former chief constable of South Wales Police. 6. WRIGHT INQUIRY IS HALTED THE Billy Wright Inquiry was dramatically halted on April 14.The request to adjourn proceedings was made by Counsel for the inquiry. It was adjourned after the British Crown Solicitors Office withdrew legal representation from Duncan McLaughlin, the former Governor of Maghaberry Prison. It is understood McLaughlin produced new documentation to his legal representatives on April 13. The information has been described as significant and may lead to the recall of witnesses who have already given evidence. The inquiry chairman Lord MacLean said the new information will be fully investigated. Counsel for the Wright family said the development was outrageous. The hearing resumed on April 16. 7. PRISONER KILLED BY LVF INMATES OVER ‘HIS POLICE CO-OPERATION’ AN inquest into the “horrific and brutal” death of a murder suspect in jail has found he was killed by fellow LVF prisoners who believed he was co-operating with the RUC/PSNI. David Oliver Keys (26) was found strangled in his cell just days after being remanded in custody charged with the killings of Damien Trainor and Philip Allen in Ponytzpass, Co Armagh. Coroner John Leckey said on April 7 he had been “murdered in a particularly brutal and sadistic way”. A postmortem examination revealed that Keys had died from strangulation before being hanged in the LVF wing of Long Kesh on March 15, 1998 in an apparent bid to make his death look like a suicide. Belfast Coroner’s Court also heard that he had been assaulted before being strangled and that his wrists were slit afterwards. John Leckey said the injuries suffered by Keys, from Highfield Gardens in Banbridge, showed “the sheer brutality of the attack”. An investigation by the prison found that the victim had requested to be put on the LVF wing after being charged with the murders of Catholic man Damien Trainor and his Protestant friend Philip Allen. The lifelong friends had been shot dead as they drank together in the Railway bar in Poyntzpass earlier that month. Keys was suspected of being the loyalist killers’ getaway driver. The prison report found that inmates on the block had agreed to the move and there was “nothing to indicate that Keys would have been at risk by entering this wing”. John Middlemiss from the RUC/PSNI Legacy Inquiry Unit told the inquest that letters were sent to 32 people on the wing at the time of the murder requesting them to provide evidence to the inquest. However, he said the vast majority had not replied, while others refused to give evidence or claimed to know nothing about the murder. No former prisoners gave evidence. John Middlemiss said it was his opinion that Keys was murdered by fellow prisoners. He confirmed that after the loyalist had admitted his part in the double murders, he had provided police with information about the investigation, adding that it was “a very fair assumption” that this had led to his death. The jury unanimously found that Keys had been murdered by other prisoners on the LVF wing. John Leckey said it was “one of the most horrific and barbaric murders that occurred in the course of 30 years of violence and what made it more unique was that it occurred in prison”. 8. SHOUKRI MAY SPEND JUST FOUR MONTHS IN PRISON FORMER UDA ‘brigadier’ Ihab Shoukri, is expected to serve less than four months in jail after pleading guilty to membership of the UDA in return for a reduced sentence. A judge ordered all media and members of the public out of Belfast Crown Court on April 8 during the trial of six men charged following a high-profile RUC/PSNI raid on the Alexandra Bar in north Belfast. The following day Shoukri (34), along with associate Gary ‘Jock’ McKenzie, in a dramatic turnaround, pleaded guilty to UDA membership as well as supporting the organisation by arranging a meeting on behalf of it. The north Belfast loyalists were arrested in March 2006 during a dress rehearsal for a paramilitary propaganda stunt due to take place the following evening. Details of the legal arguments that took place while the court was in closed session are not available to the public. However, it is believed that in return for a guilty plea Shoukri is expected to receive a prison sentence of just two years. With 50 per cent remission and time previously served on remand awaiting trial he would have less than four months of a two-year term still to serve. McKenzie (36), a close associate of Ihab Shoukri and his brother Andre, is also expected to receive a reduced sentence in return for his guilty plea. On April 7, another of the six men facing charges in relation to the Alexandra raid, George McHenry (40), pleaded guilty to lesser charges of supporting the UDA. The owner of the Alexandra Bar, John ‘Jackie’ Davis, also entered a guilty plea to aiding and abetting the support of a proscribed organisation. The youngest member of the gang, Alan McClean jnr (21), pleaded guilty to supporting the UDA and is expected to receive a suspended jail term. Only one of the accused, Samuel ‘Robo’ Robinson (39), still denies membership charges. When the RUC/PSNI raided the Alexandra Bar, Shoukri – who was on bail at the time on previous UDA membership charges – was discovered in a stairwell along with a number of men wearing paramilitary-style dress. He was not charged until two months later when a speech in support of the UDA was revealed to have been in Shoukri’s handwriting. In the meantime membership charges, which had arisen following his arrest for the feud-related murder of Alan McCullough in 2003, were dropped after a judge ruled it not in the public interest to proceed. In March last year, Shoukri was arrested again while on bail suspected of handling stolen goods. Sentencing of the men is scheduled to take place in mid-May. 9. CONTROVERSY OVER LEAKED MEMO ON LISBON TREATY IT was reported on April 15 that the 26-County Department of Foreign Affairs was embarrassed by the leaking of a memo which outlines what a senior British diplomat believed to be the 26-County administration’s strategy for the handling of the Lisbon Treaty referendum. The memo stated that European Commission vice-president Margot Wallström told 26-County Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern “that the commission was willing to tone down or delay messages that might be unhelpful” in advance of the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. In the memo a senior official in the 26-County Department of Foreign Affairs Dan Mulhall said the referendum was being held in June rather than October because of “the risk of unhelpful developments during the French presidency - particularly related to EU defence”. In this context French president Nicolas Sarkozy was described as “completely unpredictable”. France takes over the EU presidency from July to December of this year. The memo says the 26-County administration believed: “Most people would not have time to study the text and would go with the politicians they trusted.” As a result, the “aim is to focus the campaign on overall benefits of the EU rather than the treaty itself”. Mulhall also stated that he was concerned about “a World Trade Organisation deal based on agricultural concessions that could lead the powerful farming association to withdraw its support” for the treaty. “The Government position on the reform treaty has been outlined in detail and in public by the Taoiseach, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, and the Minister with responsibility for European Affairs, Dick Roche,” he added. Campaigners against the Lisbon Treaty reacted angrily to the newspaper report and called on the 26-County Administration to clarify what it had told the British government about its referendum campaign. In a statement the Vice-President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton said: “The leaked email to a British diplomat revealing that the Dublin Administration intends to fool people into voting for the Lisbon Treaty by engaging in a campaign of misinformation should not come as any surprise. “Colluding with the EU political elite to deceive the electorate displays the contempt of the 26-County administration for the Irish people. The reference to the risk of ‘unhelpful developments’ in relation to ‘EU defence’ during the French Presidency of the EU in the memo undermines the argument that the Lisbon Treaty has no implications for neutrality. It instead further underlines the fact that the Lisbon Treaty paves the way for a militarised EU superstate. “The memo reveals the mindset of a political establishment determined to foist an EU Constitution – already rejected by the French and Dutch people in 2005 – upon the Irish people at any cost and by any means. Such tactics must not be allowed to distract people from the central issues, the Lisbon Treaty represents an attack on democracy, sovereignty and neutrality.” Munster MEP Kathy Sinnott said she was “not surprised” by the leaked information, which showed the Government had been assured that inconvenient legislation from Brussels would be shelved until after the referendum. “I consider it unfortunate and indicative of what we can expect for democracy once the Lisbon Treaty comes into force,” she said. Below is the text of the e-mail, published in the Irish Times newspaper on April 16, which refers to a briefing by Dan Mulhall, director of the EU division in the Department of Foreign Affairs about the Lisbon Treaty referendum: “The draft, largely incomprehensible to the lay reader, had been agreed following lengthy consultation with government lawyers and with the political parties. “The bill would enter parliament in the second week of April and it would probably take two weeks to go through and be passed around 22 April. The minister for the environment would thus be entitled to set an order naming the date for the referendum between 30 to 90 days of the order being made. Technically, the Taoiseach and Ahern saw a slight advantage in keeping the no campaign guessing. 29 May was the assumed date in working plans. “Mulhall said a date in October would have been easier from a procedural point of view, but the risk of unhelpful developments during the French presidency - particularly related to EU defence - were just too great. Sarkozy was completely unpredictable. “The only other unhelpful event the Irish thought might impact on the May vote would be a WTO deal based on agricultural concessions that could lead the powerful farming association to withdraw its support. “I ran through the UK parliamentary ratification timetable and noted that the referendum vote on 5 March would be a particularly sensitive moment. Mulhall remarked that the media had been relatively quiet on the ratification process so far. We would need to remain in close touch given the media crossover. “Mulhall said other partners - including the commission - were playing a helpful, low-profile role. Vice-president Margot Wallstrom, who had been in Dublin yesterday and today, had told Dermot Ahern that the commission was willing to tone down or delay messages that might be unhelpful. “??? ??? ???...so Irish thought treaty was taken for granted. . . David Miliband not going. Most people would not have time to study the text and would go with the politicians they trusted.” 10. ORDINARY WORKERS DID NOT GAIN FROM BOOM, CONFERENCE TOLD ORDINARY working people should not be faced with pay cuts because they did not benefit from the huge economic growth of the past two years, a SIPTU conference was told by SIPTU'S head of research, Manus O'Riordan on April 14. The conference voted to allow SIPTU to enter ‘Partnership’ talks with the 26-County administration on a new pay agreement. “The people who made the profits, the people who made the super incomes, are the people who should accept the adjustments, not ordinary working people, and we'll be delivering that message to Government.” He highlighted the increased use of agency workers and said employers were not using these workers for benevolent reasons. “It is a very deliberate attempt to exploit those people, to undermine the pay and conditions of workers in this country and they are being used specifically to batter down and keep down wages and to undermine what we've achieved.” Manus O'Riordan, told the meeting that real pay and living standards were basically frozen when inflation and mortgage payments were taken into account. “Higher inflation has wiped out any real wage gains,” he said, while average pay had fallen by 1.2 per cent in the 27 months of Towards 2016. The meeting also heard a call for the scrapping of benchmarking by shop steward Kieran Allen. He said workers must enter into new partnership talks but must do so “with a very very different spirit”. Kieran Allen said the recession was caused by financial speculators “who've gone around the world, treated the world like a global casino. They're now bringing the world economy down to its knees.” Workers would not “carry the can” for them, and he warned that incoming Taoiseach Brian Cowen “is not going to bully the trade union movement”. Workers were not responsible for higher interest rates, higher fuel and food prices, he said. Michelle Monaghan from the health professionals’ branch said the partnership talks were “the only game in town” and it would be a “disaster” to negotiate pay increases individually. Paul Hansard from the Dublin construction branch said conditions on construction sites were now “actually worse than they were before the agreement came into play”. Large firms were removing direct employees and workers were being let go if they queried any practices, he said. 11. ROSSITER DEATH NOT ‘FULLY INVESTIGATED’ THE inquiry into the arrest and detention of 14-year-old Clonmel schoolboy Brian Rossiter found that his detention was unlawful and not in accordance with the Criminal Justice Act 1984. Hugh Hartnett was critical of the Garda investigation of Brian Rossiter's death, saying that all the circumstances were not fully investigated and all witnesses were not interviewed. He noted that were it to happen now, the investigation would be by an independent body. “The documentation produced in the course of the investigation into the death of Brian Rossiter and the evidence heard at this inquiry does not show any indication of there being any real investigation in relation to the possibility of Brian Rossiter having been assaulted or his having received a fatal injury while in custody,” he noted. Irish Council for Civil Liberties director Mark Kelly said Hugh Hartnett's report clearly showed a violation by gardaí of Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights due to the absence of an effective Garda investigation. “The Irish Council for Civil Liberties trusts that, were such tragic events ever to recur, they would be investigated by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission in a way which is fully compliant with Ireland's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.” The report concluded it was “not satisfied” that the youth was assaulted by gardaí either during his arrest or subsequent detention in Clonmel Garda station. The inquiry by senior counsel Hugh Hartnett considered evidence from 99 witnesses, including a man and a woman who testified that they saw Brian Rossiter being assaulted by gardaí when they arrested him for an alleged public order offence in Clonmel on September 10th 2002. However, the inquiry noted that the man said he saw the assault take place as the youth was being arrested on Marystone Mall, whereas the arrest did not take place there. It also said the woman's evidence was “unclear and, at times, contradictory”. The evidence of a man arrested by gardaí and in custody in Clonmel that night, identified as Mr C, that he had seen Brian Rossiter being assaulted by gardaí in the station was found to be “thoroughly unreliable and lacking in credibility”. The inquiry treated as unreliable the evidence of two boys detained along with Brian Rossiter who claimed to have been assaulted in the station. One of them claimed Brian Rossiter had told him from his cell that he had been beaten by gardaí, saying “Yeah, they killed me, too.” The inquiry found that medical evidence on injuries noted at the youth's post mortem by State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy was complicated by the fact that he had suffered injuries during an assault by Noel Hannigan on September 9th - over 36 hours before his arrest. Hugh Hartnett said forensic pathologist for the inquiry, Prof Anthony Busuttil and forensic pathologist for the Rossiters, Prof Christopher Milroy, both believed an extradural haematoma to Brian Rossiter's head had most likely been caused about the time of his arrest. However, Mr Hartnett noted that Dr Cassidy thought it was not possible to date the time of the injury on the basis of the forensic material available. He said the inquiry was also of the view that “the rarity of such occurrences must be seen in the light of the well-established fact that Brian Rossiter had been severely assaulted in the area of the head on 9th of September 2002”. The inquiry also noted that the injury could have been caused by trauma other than assault and noted that Prof Milroy agreed that it could have been the result of his falling to the ground or falling from the window sill on which he was sitting. The inquiry is of the view that the medical evidence does not establish that the injury which caused the extradural haematoma in Brian Rossiter was caused by an assault in the course of his arrest or during the course of his detention but only that it is statistically more likely to have occurred during this period," said Hugh Hartnett. 12. WORLD HERITAGE DAY EVENT TO LAUNCH INTERNATIONAL TARA APPEAL THE Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Trinity College Dublin will mark World Heritage Day, Friday, April 18, 2008, with a World Heritage forum. ICOMOS - The International Council on Monuments and Sites, is hosting International Day for Monuments and Sites 2008. The theme for this year is “Religious Heritage and Sacred Places” - which is particularly appropriate for the Hill of Tara. The purpose of the TCD event is to launch a fresh international appeal, calling on ICOMOS International to insist that the M3 motorway be rerouted away from the Hill of Tara complex, before it is nominated to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A number of high profile speakers will address the announcement by John Gormley, 26-County Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, on April 11 that he had retained a member of ICOMOS to review the Tara site, for purposes of nomination to the UNESCO list, despite the fact that the M3 is being built through the centre of it. Invited guests include Séamus Heaney, Minister for the Environment, World Monuments Fund, Professor George Eogan, and ICOMOS Ireland. The event is free to the public, in the Swift Theatre, Trinity College Dublin, from 4:00 to 6:00pm. Dr Sarah Alyn-Stacey, of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies said: “We hope to use this celebration of world heritage, to launch a petition to ICOMOS International, to condemn nominating Tara to be a UNESCO site, and approving a motorway through it.” 13. FORTY-ONE PER CENT OF SCOTS BACK THE BREAK-UP OF BRITISH UNION INDEPENDENCE has taken a dramatic lead in a new opinion poll on Scotland's constitutional future. An exclusive TNS System Three poll has found that 41% of Scots want the SNP government to negotiate an independence settlement, compared to 40% who are opposed to breaking up the UK. The poll results mark one of the few occasions in which independence has outpolled support for the British union. Scottish First minister Alex Salmond said the result showed Scots were now ready to vote for a separate Scottish state in a referendum. The Scottish government last year laid out its plans in a white paper for a referendum on independence. TNS System Three has since conducted a tracker poll based on the SNP administration's favoured referendum question, namely whether “The Scottish government should negotiate a settlement with the government of the United Kingdom so that Scotland becomes an independent state.” The latest findings, which were gathered between March 26 and April 4, show that 41% of the 977 respondents agreed that the Scottish government should negotiate an independence settlement. This contrasts with 40% of people who did not agree with the SNP's number one priority, while 19% said they did not know how they would vote in a referendum. TNS's first poll on the SNP government's question, in August, revealed that 50% of Scots were opposed to independence, compared to 35% of respondents who were in favour. The polling firm's next snapshot of opinion, in November, revealed the gap had narrowed to four points, with opposition at 44% and support at 40%. Support for a negotiated independence settlement has risen by 6% since August, while opposition to separation has dropped by 10% over the same period. The number of "don't knows" has increased by 4% in eight months. The results are broadly in line with polling data published last week by Scottish Opinion, which found that 41% of respondents approved of independence, with 43% disapproving. The lead for independence will fuel calls by the Nationalist administration for MSPs to back a constitutional referendum. Salmond has made a poll in 2010 the key plank of his administration. The referendum policy recently received a boost after entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter called for a plebiscite on independence. The increased support for independence comes on the eve of Salmond taking his government's “national conversation” to Brussels later this month. First minister Alex Salmond said: “The poll is further and dramatic evidence that as the SNP delivers good government in the devolved areas, so support for Scotland to be governed equally well in all areas with independence is surging. “And the poll clearly indicates that Westminster attempts to bully Scotland and the Scottish government are also boosting support for equality for Scotland, and a parliament with full powers. “People want a government that will speak up for Scotland - not shut up for London. It is a tremendous boost for the SNP in the run up to our conference next week -- it will have our opponents choking on their cornflakes.” On April 3, Alex Salmond warned that relations between the Scottish and UK governments are in danger of collapsing because of a “campaign of aggression” being waged by Labour ministers at Westminster. He accused Gordon Brown and his cabinet colleagues of seeking to “bully” their counterparts at Holyrood and of treating Scotland like an imperial outpost. Salmond says he has been subjected to intolerable interference and “unreasonable behaviour” from Westminster over plans to introduce a local income tax and replace public private partnerships (PPPs) for large-scale government projects with public bonds. He predicts that the prime minister's tactics will backfire and that he will only convince an increasing number of voters of the merits of independence. “The New Labour project in Scotland is in its death throes. With a dithering leadership in London and an incoherent approach in Scotland, Labour is trying and failing to exert the iron grip it once had, and took for granted - and is totally uncomprehending of the loss of power and the new political reality it finds itself in,” he said. 14. SALMOND BACKS GAELIC AS 'TRUE NATIONAL LANGUAGE' GAELIC is a true national language and Scotland must create the economic and cultural opportunities for it to thrive, Alex Salmond, Scottish First Minister, claimed on April 13 when he officially opened an £8 million centre at the Gaelic-medium college in Skye and announced £260,000 of government funding for it. Fàs -- Gaelic for growth -- is the centre for the creative and cultural industries, and aims to attract and support small and medium-sized cultural enterprises. Alex Salmond said £200,000 of the money will provide digital TV production and post-production equipment, and £60,000 will support the college's plans for a Gaelic historical dictionary. He said: “There can be no doubt that Gaelic truly is a national language. What we must do is create the economic and cultural opportunities for Scotland's Gaelic speakers - and the language - to thrive.” ENDS
Irish Republican Information Service (no. 145) Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757; e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie Date: 16 Aibreán / April 2008 Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom http://saoirse.info In this issue: 1. Vindictive screws condemned for lily punishment 2. Reinstatement of low template DNA criticised by RSF 3. MI5 active in Dungannon 4. Hamill case to go ahead in June 5. MI5 head gives inquiry statement 6. Wright inquiry is halted 7. Prisoner killed by LVF inmates over ‘his police co-operation’ 8. Shoukri may spend just four months in prison 9. Controversy over leaked memo on Lisbon Treaty 10. Ordinary workers did not gain from boom, conference told 11. Rossiter death not ‘fully investigated’ 12. World Heritage Day event to launch International Tara appeal 13. 41% of Scots back the break-up of British union 14. Salmond backs Gaelic as 'true national language' 1. VINDICTIVE SCREWS CONDEMNED FOR LILY PUNISHMENT A SPOKESPERSON for Republican Sinn Féin and the Republican Prisoners' Action Group condemned on April 14 the vindictive actions of the prison authorities within the Six Occupied Counties for punishing Republican POWs for wearing the Easter Lily. “Republican prisoners in Maghaberry, who sought to honour Ireland's Patriot Dead by wearing an Easter Lily on Easter Sunday, are currently being kept in solitary confinement for a period of five days each,” said Richard Walsh, National Publicity Officer. “Two or three prisoners are being punished at any one time, and once they have been released back into the segregated population another group of prisoners are made to commence the same punishment. “It remains the case that prison staff and Loyalist prisoners are permitted to wear the British Imperial Poppy, which has been stained by the blood of countless people who sought their country's freedom. And yet anyone who dares honour Ireland's heroic martyrs is punished under Prison Rules. The Easter Lily was created in 1925 by Cumann na mBan to honour those who had died for Ireland, and to raise funds for Republican prisoners and other Republican purposes.” 2. REINSTATEMENT OF LOW TEMPLATE DNA CRITICISED BY RSF THE announcement that Low Copy Number DNA testing is to be reinstated as an evidential tool was criticised on April 15 by Republican Sinn Féin. Director of Publicity, Richard Walsh, said: “Low Template DNA analysis falsely linked a Nottingham schoolboy to the bombing. This notoriously unreliable and utterly discredited technique also identifies trace elements of DNA which may have arrived at a given place for entirely innocuous reasons. As such, its use is rejected almost throughout the world as an evidential tool. “The issues surrounding the use of LCN DNA were never solely related to its handling and storage. It is also unsurprising that the RUC were quick to announce its reinstatement as evidence as a means of removing those whom they oppose from society.” 3. MI5 ACTIVE IN DUNGANNON DUBIA Meats (Dungannon Meats) is a multi-million pound business located at Granville industrial estate on the outskirts of Dungannon. The firm employs over 500 workers, most of them working-class people from both communities in the Six Counties but also a large number of eastern Europeans and operates 24 hours. At the end of March as the security guard at the factory was doing his rounds he came across an identification badge on a string, the type you wear round your neck. The heading on the badge was Intelligence MI5 and there was a picture of a man in his thirties and the name on the tag was Ivor Truesdale. The guard reported his find to those in charge who phoned the RUC/PSNI. When the Crown Forces arrived and inspected the ID they tried to laugh it off, saying it was a fake and that someone was playing a joke. The guard thought differently and said it looked professional and pointed out that no one working at the firm looked or went by this name. The Crown Forces left with the badge and offered no more explanations. Republican Sinn Féin in East Tyrone claim the Crown Forces are white-washing the find and want to know what dirty deeds MI5 have been engaged in the Granville area. A spokesperson for the McKearney/McCaughey Cumann has pointed out that the discovery of the ID points to an MI5 surveillance team operating in the industrial estate. “Republican Sinn Féin wants to know why they were engaged in Surveillance of locals at their place of work. Republican Sinn Féin points out that in the past the Crown Forces have been the eyes and ears of the loyalist death squads who have attacked and murdered innocent nationalists as they went about earning a living for their families. It is pointless to call on MI5 to clarify what they were doing in this area but we see their motives as very sinister and we call on all the workers in the Granville industrial estate to be on their guard.” 4. HAMILL CASE TO GO AHEAD IN JUNE A LEGAL challenge by the family of a man murdered in Portadown, Co Armagh whilst the RUC looked on will go ahead in June. Relatives of Robert Hamill (25) won a judicial review of the British Six-County Secretary’s decision to limit the terms of reference of a inquiry into his death. Nobody has been convicted of the April 1997 murder when the nationalist father-of-two was kicked to death by loyalists in the centre of Portadown, where the British Colonial police in a nearby Land Rover allegedly failed to intervene. A spokeswoman for the inquiry team said: “The judicial review will take place from June 9-11 and the judgment is expected very soon afterwards.” In March, British Six-County Secretary Shaun Woodward refused the family’s request to widen the investigation to include the Six-County Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Lawyers wanted to question DPP staff. But 18 moths after submitting their request Shaun Woodward rejected it after taking detailed legal advice by David Perry QC. There were, he said, no justifiable grounds to extend the terms of reference. Family barristers were in Belfast’s High Court on April 11 for their successful bid for a review of that decision. Even though the first of the oral evidence has yet to start, the inquiry has already cost £13m. Full hearings will not begin before September. The opening was almost three years ago. There are 230 statements on the files, including those of eye-witnesses, civilians and retired and serving members of the RUC/PSNI at the time. 5. MI5 HEAD GIVES INQUIRY STATEMENT THE head of MI5 in the Six Counties is to give evidence to a public inquiry into the murder of Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson. The mother-of-three, 40, died after a booby-trap bomb left by loyalists exploded under her car in March 1999. Retired judge Sir Michael Morland is chairing a three-strong panel examining British state collusion. The solicitor's brother, Eunan Magee, said the family would adopt a “wait and see attitude” to the hearings. He said the family would wait before making any judgement on whether the security forces were cooperating fully with the inquiry. Eunan Magee said the years since the killing had been horrendous. He said: “We lost our father along the way, and I suppose the hardest thing of the whole lot is to sit and watch your parents having lost a child. From that point of view, it is something that we have to do in order to be able to move on with our own lives. I do believe that an awful lot is going to be relived over the next days and months and it is going to be hard to listen to. I do believe that we are just going to have to take a step above it.” Under its remit, the inquiry must determine whether the RUC, the British Northern Ireland Office (NIO), British Army or other British state agency facilitated the murder, or blocked attempts to investigate it. The collusion allegations arose because of Rosemary Nelson's role as the legal representative in a number of high profile cases, including that of the nationalist Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition in Portadown. Last September, a British Police Ombudsman report found that threats made against her months before she was murdered were not properly investigated by the RUC. The inquiry began with an opening statement on the background to the case by counsel to the inquiry, Rory Phillips QC. Rory Phillips said: “It will be our task over the months of these hearings to investigate and probe these and other matters which include very troubling suggestions, at their highest of state involvement in the murder of one of the state's own citizens, in a dispassionate and calm way so that the truth is not itself obscured by emotion, preconception or prejudice.” He said witness statements have been taken from 30 members of the British Colonial police up to the rank of assistant chief constable, 19 members of MI5 and eight senior British army intelligence officers. He revealed the list included the Director and Co-ordinator of British Intelligence in the Six Counties, the head of the RUC/PSNI Special Branch and intelligence officers from across the British Crown forces involved in handling agents. He added: “Suffice to say at this point that the striking and possibly unique feature of her murder was that the fact of it, if not the manner of it, had apparently been so clearly foreshadowed, not least by her. Unsurprisingly, therefore, after her murder there were many who wanted to know whether more could have been done to protect her and whether her murder could have been prevented.” It is understood his statement could take several days to deliver. The inquiry, which opened in 2005 to set out its terms of reference, has already gathered tens of thousands of documents. Established by former British Six-County Secretary of State Paul Murphy in November 2004, the hearings could last for at least two years. The inquiry panel is also comprised of Dame Valerie Strachan, former chairperson of the board of Customs and Excise, and Sir Anthony Burden, former chief constable of South Wales Police. 6. WRIGHT INQUIRY IS HALTED THE Billy Wright Inquiry was dramatically halted on April 14.The request to adjourn proceedings was made by Counsel for the inquiry. It was adjourned after the British Crown Solicitors Office withdrew legal representation from Duncan McLaughlin, the former Governor of Maghaberry Prison. It is understood McLaughlin produced new documentation to his legal representatives on April 13. The information has been described as significant and may lead to the recall of witnesses who have already given evidence. The inquiry chairman Lord MacLean said the new information will be fully investigated. Counsel for the Wright family said the development was outrageous. The hearing resumed on April 16. 7. PRISONER KILLED BY LVF INMATES OVER ‘HIS POLICE CO-OPERATION’ AN inquest into the “horrific and brutal” death of a murder suspect in jail has found he was killed by fellow LVF prisoners who believed he was co-operating with the RUC/PSNI. David Oliver Keys (26) was found strangled in his cell just days after being remanded in custody charged with the killings of Damien Trainor and Philip Allen in Ponytzpass, Co Armagh. Coroner John Leckey said on April 7 he had been “murdered in a particularly brutal and sadistic way”. A postmortem examination revealed that Keys had died from strangulation before being hanged in the LVF wing of Long Kesh on March 15, 1998 in an apparent bid to make his death look like a suicide. Belfast Coroner’s Court also heard that he had been assaulted before being strangled and that his wrists were slit afterwards. John Leckey said the injuries suffered by Keys, from Highfield Gardens in Banbridge, showed “the sheer brutality of the attack”. An investigation by the prison found that the victim had requested to be put on the LVF wing after being charged with the murders of Catholic man Damien Trainor and his Protestant friend Philip Allen. The lifelong friends had been shot dead as they drank together in the Railway bar in Poyntzpass earlier that month. Keys was suspected of being the loyalist killers’ getaway driver. The prison report found that inmates on the block had agreed to the move and there was “nothing to indicate that Keys would have been at risk by entering this wing”. John Middlemiss from the RUC/PSNI Legacy Inquiry Unit told the inquest that letters were sent to 32 people on the wing at the time of the murder requesting them to provide evidence to the inquest. However, he said the vast majority had not replied, while others refused to give evidence or claimed to know nothing about the murder. No former prisoners gave evidence. John Middlemiss said it was his opinion that Keys was murdered by fellow prisoners. He confirmed that after the loyalist had admitted his part in the double murders, he had provided police with information about the investigation, adding that it was “a very fair assumption” that this had led to his death. The jury unanimously found that Keys had been murdered by other prisoners on the LVF wing. John Leckey said it was “one of the most horrific and barbaric murders that occurred in the course of 30 years of violence and what made it more unique was that it occurred in prison”. 8. SHOUKRI MAY SPEND JUST FOUR MONTHS IN PRISON FORMER UDA ‘brigadier’ Ihab Shoukri, is expected to serve less than four months in jail after pleading guilty to membership of the UDA in return for a reduced sentence. A judge ordered all media and members of the public out of Belfast Crown Court on April 8 during the trial of six men charged following a high-profile RUC/PSNI raid on the Alexandra Bar in north Belfast. The following day Shoukri (34), along with associate Gary ‘Jock’ McKenzie, in a dramatic turnaround, pleaded guilty to UDA membership as well as supporting the organisation by arranging a meeting on behalf of it. The north Belfast loyalists were arrested in March 2006 during a dress rehearsal for a paramilitary propaganda stunt due to take place the following evening. Details of the legal arguments that took place while the court was in closed session are not available to the public. However, it is believed that in return for a guilty plea Shoukri is expected to receive a prison sentence of just two years. With 50 per cent remission and time previously served on remand awaiting trial he would have less than four months of a two-year term still to serve. McKenzie (36), a close associate of Ihab Shoukri and his brother Andre, is also expected to receive a reduced sentence in return for his guilty plea. On April 7, another of the six men facing charges in relation to the Alexandra raid, George McHenry (40), pleaded guilty to lesser charges of supporting the UDA. The owner of the Alexandra Bar, John ‘Jackie’ Davis, also entered a guilty plea to aiding and abetting the support of a proscribed organisation. The youngest member of the gang, Alan McClean jnr (21), pleaded guilty to supporting the UDA and is expected to receive a suspended jail term. Only one of the accused, Samuel ‘Robo’ Robinson (39), still denies membership charges. When the RUC/PSNI raided the Alexandra Bar, Shoukri – who was on bail at the time on previous UDA membership charges – was discovered in a stairwell along with a number of men wearing paramilitary-style dress. He was not charged until two months later when a speech in support of the UDA was revealed to have been in Shoukri’s handwriting. In the meantime membership charges, which had arisen following his arrest for the feud-related murder of Alan McCullough in 2003, were dropped after a judge ruled it not in the public interest to proceed. In March last year, Shoukri was arrested again while on bail suspected of handling stolen goods. Sentencing of the men is scheduled to take place in mid-May. 9. CONTROVERSY OVER LEAKED MEMO ON LISBON TREATY IT was reported on April 15 that the 26-County Department of Foreign Affairs was embarrassed by the leaking of a memo which outlines what a senior British diplomat believed to be the 26-County administration’s strategy for the handling of the Lisbon Treaty referendum. The memo stated that European Commission vice-president Margot Wallström told 26-County Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern “that the commission was willing to tone down or delay messages that might be unhelpful” in advance of the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. In the memo a senior official in the 26-County Department of Foreign Affairs Dan Mulhall said the referendum was being held in June rather than October because of “the risk of unhelpful developments during the French presidency - particularly related to EU defence”. In this context French president Nicolas Sarkozy was described as “completely unpredictable”. France takes over the EU presidency from July to December of this year. The memo says the 26-County administration believed: “Most people would not have time to study the text and would go with the politicians they trusted.” As a result, the “aim is to focus the campaign on overall benefits of the EU rather than the treaty itself”. Mulhall also stated that he was concerned about “a World Trade Organisation deal based on agricultural concessions that could lead the powerful farming association to withdraw its support” for the treaty. “The Government position on the reform treaty has been outlined in detail and in public by the Taoiseach, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, and the Minister with responsibility for European Affairs, Dick Roche,” he added. Campaigners against the Lisbon Treaty reacted angrily to the newspaper report and called on the 26-County Administration to clarify what it had told the British government about its referendum campaign. In a statement the Vice-President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton said: “The leaked email to a British diplomat revealing that the Dublin Administration intends to fool people into voting for the Lisbon Treaty by engaging in a campaign of misinformation should not come as any surprise. “Colluding with the EU political elite to deceive the electorate displays the contempt of the 26-County administration for the Irish people. The reference to the risk of ‘unhelpful developments’ in relation to ‘EU defence’ during the French Presidency of the EU in the memo undermines the argument that the Lisbon Treaty has no implications for neutrality. It instead further underlines the fact that the Lisbon Treaty paves the way for a militarised EU superstate. “The memo reveals the mindset of a political establishment determined to foist an EU Constitution – already rejected by the French and Dutch people in 2005 – upon the Irish people at any cost and by any means. Such tactics must not be allowed to distract people from the central issues, the Lisbon Treaty represents an attack on democracy, sovereignty and neutrality.” Munster MEP Kathy Sinnott said she was “not surprised” by the leaked information, which showed the Government had been assured that inconvenient legislation from Brussels would be shelved until after the referendum. “I consider it unfortunate and indicative of what we can expect for democracy once the Lisbon Treaty comes into force,” she said. Below is the text of the e-mail, published in the Irish Times newspaper on April 16, which refers to a briefing by Dan Mulhall, director of the EU division in the Department of Foreign Affairs about the Lisbon Treaty referendum: “The draft, largely incomprehensible to the lay reader, had been agreed following lengthy consultation with government lawyers and with the political parties. “The bill would enter parliament in the second week of April and it would probably take two weeks to go through and be passed around 22 April. The minister for the environment would thus be entitled to set an order naming the date for the referendum between 30 to 90 days of the order being made. Technically, the Taoiseach and Ahern saw a slight advantage in keeping the no campaign guessing. 29 May was the assumed date in working plans. “Mulhall said a date in October would have been easier from a procedural point of view, but the risk of unhelpful developments during the French presidency - particularly related to EU defence - were just too great. Sarkozy was completely unpredictable. “The only other unhelpful event the Irish thought might impact on the May vote would be a WTO deal based on agricultural concessions that could lead the powerful farming association to withdraw its support. “I ran through the UK parliamentary ratification timetable and noted that the referendum vote on 5 March would be a particularly sensitive moment. Mulhall remarked that the media had been relatively quiet on the ratification process so far. We would need to remain in close touch given the media crossover. “Mulhall said other partners - including the commission - were playing a helpful, low-profile role. Vice-president Margot Wallstrom, who had been in Dublin yesterday and today, had told Dermot Ahern that the commission was willing to tone down or delay messages that might be unhelpful. “??? ??? ???...so Irish thought treaty was taken for granted. . . David Miliband not going. Most people would not have time to study the text and would go with the politicians they trusted.” 10. ORDINARY WORKERS DID NOT GAIN FROM BOOM, CONFERENCE TOLD ORDINARY working people should not be faced with pay cuts because they did not benefit from the huge economic growth of the past two years, a SIPTU conference was told by SIPTU'S head of research, Manus O'Riordan on April 14. The conference voted to allow SIPTU to enter ‘Partnership’ talks with the 26-County administration on a new pay agreement. “The people who made the profits, the people who made the super incomes, are the people who should accept the adjustments, not ordinary working people, and we'll be delivering that message to Government.” He highlighted the increased use of agency workers and said employers were not using these workers for benevolent reasons. “It is a very deliberate attempt to exploit those people, to undermine the pay and conditions of workers in this country and they are being used specifically to batter down and keep down wages and to undermine what we've achieved.” Manus O'Riordan, told the meeting that real pay and living standards were basically frozen when inflation and mortgage payments were taken into account. “Higher inflation has wiped out any real wage gains,” he said, while average pay had fallen by 1.2 per cent in the 27 months of Towards 2016. The meeting also heard a call for the scrapping of benchmarking by shop steward Kieran Allen. He said workers must enter into new partnership talks but must do so “with a very very different spirit”. Kieran Allen said the recession was caused by financial speculators “who've gone around the world, treated the world like a global casino. They're now bringing the world economy down to its knees.” Workers would not “carry the can” for them, and he warned that incoming Taoiseach Brian Cowen “is not going to bully the trade union movement”. Workers were not responsible for higher interest rates, higher fuel and food prices, he said. Michelle Monaghan from the health professionals’ branch said the partnership talks were “the only game in town” and it would be a “disaster” to negotiate pay increases individually. Paul Hansard from the Dublin construction branch said conditions on construction sites were now “actually worse than they were before the agreement came into play”. Large firms were removing direct employees and workers were being let go if they queried any practices, he said. 11. ROSSITER DEATH NOT ‘FULLY INVESTIGATED’ THE inquiry into the arrest and detention of 14-year-old Clonmel schoolboy Brian Rossiter found that his detention was unlawful and not in accordance with the Criminal Justice Act 1984. Hugh Hartnett was critical of the Garda investigation of Brian Rossiter's death, saying that all the circumstances were not fully investigated and all witnesses were not interviewed. He noted that were it to happen now, the investigation would be by an independent body. “The documentation produced in the course of the investigation into the death of Brian Rossiter and the evidence heard at this inquiry does not show any indication of there being any real investigation in relation to the possibility of Brian Rossiter having been assaulted or his having received a fatal injury while in custody,” he noted. Irish Council for Civil Liberties director Mark Kelly said Hugh Hartnett's report clearly showed a violation by gardaí of Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights due to the absence of an effective Garda investigation. “The Irish Council for Civil Liberties trusts that, were such tragic events ever to recur, they would be investigated by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission in a way which is fully compliant with Ireland's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.” The report concluded it was “not satisfied” that the youth was assaulted by gardaí either during his arrest or subsequent detention in Clonmel Garda station. The inquiry by senior counsel Hugh Hartnett considered evidence from 99 witnesses, including a man and a woman who testified that they saw Brian Rossiter being assaulted by gardaí when they arrested him for an alleged public order offence in Clonmel on September 10th 2002. However, the inquiry noted that the man said he saw the assault take place as the youth was being arrested on Marystone Mall, whereas the arrest did not take place there. It also said the woman's evidence was “unclear and, at times, contradictory”. The evidence of a man arrested by gardaí and in custody in Clonmel that night, identified as Mr C, that he had seen Brian Rossiter being assaulted by gardaí in the station was found to be “thoroughly unreliable and lacking in credibility”. The inquiry treated as unreliable the evidence of two boys detained along with Brian Rossiter who claimed to have been assaulted in the station. One of them claimed Brian Rossiter had told him from his cell that he had been beaten by gardaí, saying “Yeah, they killed me, too.” The inquiry found that medical evidence on injuries noted at the youth's post mortem by State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy was complicated by the fact that he had suffered injuries during an assault by Noel Hannigan on September 9th - over 36 hours before his arrest. Hugh Hartnett said forensic pathologist for the inquiry, Prof Anthony Busuttil and forensic pathologist for the Rossiters, Prof Christopher Milroy, both believed an extradural haematoma to Brian Rossiter's head had most likely been caused about the time of his arrest. However, Mr Hartnett noted that Dr Cassidy thought it was not possible to date the time of the injury on the basis of the forensic material available. He said the inquiry was also of the view that “the rarity of such occurrences must be seen in the light of the well-established fact that Brian Rossiter had been severely assaulted in the area of the head on 9th of September 2002”. The inquiry also noted that the injury could have been caused by trauma other than assault and noted that Prof Milroy agreed that it could have been the result of his falling to the ground or falling from the window sill on which he was sitting. The inquiry is of the view that the medical evidence does not establish that the injury which caused the extradural haematoma in Brian Rossiter was caused by an assault in the course of his arrest or during the course of his detention but only that it is statistically more likely to have occurred during this period," said Hugh Hartnett. 12. WORLD HERITAGE DAY EVENT TO LAUNCH INTERNATIONAL TARA APPEAL THE Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Trinity College Dublin will mark World Heritage Day, Friday, April 18, 2008, with a World Heritage forum. ICOMOS - The International Council on Monuments and Sites, is hosting International Day for Monuments and Sites 2008. The theme for this year is “Religious Heritage and Sacred Places” - which is particularly appropriate for the Hill of Tara. The purpose of the TCD event is to launch a fresh international appeal, calling on ICOMOS International to insist that the M3 motorway be rerouted away from the Hill of Tara complex, before it is nominated to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A number of high profile speakers will address the announcement by John Gormley, 26-County Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, on April 11 that he had retained a member of ICOMOS to review the Tara site, for purposes of nomination to the UNESCO list, despite the fact that the M3 is being built through the centre of it. Invited guests include Séamus Heaney, Minister for the Environment, World Monuments Fund, Professor George Eogan, and ICOMOS Ireland. The event is free to the public, in the Swift Theatre, Trinity College Dublin, from 4:00 to 6:00pm. Dr Sarah Alyn-Stacey, of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies said: “We hope to use this celebration of world heritage, to launch a petition to ICOMOS International, to condemn nominating Tara to be a UNESCO site, and approving a motorway through it.” 13. FORTY-ONE PER CENT OF SCOTS BACK THE BREAK-UP OF BRITISH UNION INDEPENDENCE has taken a dramatic lead in a new opinion poll on Scotland's constitutional future. An exclusive TNS System Three poll has found that 41% of Scots want the SNP government to negotiate an independence settlement, compared to 40% who are opposed to breaking up the UK. The poll results mark one of the few occasions in which independence has outpolled support for the British union. Scottish First minister Alex Salmond said the result showed Scots were now ready to vote for a separate Scottish state in a referendum. The Scottish government last year laid out its plans in a white paper for a referendum on independence. TNS System Three has since conducted a tracker poll based on the SNP administration's favoured referendum question, namely whether “The Scottish government should negotiate a settlement with the government of the United Kingdom so that Scotland becomes an independent state.” The latest findings, which were gathered between March 26 and April 4, show that 41% of the 977 respondents agreed that the Scottish government should negotiate an independence settlement. This contrasts with 40% of people who did not agree with the SNP's number one priority, while 19% said they did not know how they would vote in a referendum. TNS's first poll on the SNP government's question, in August, revealed that 50% of Scots were opposed to independence, compared to 35% of respondents who were in favour. The polling firm's next snapshot of opinion, in November, revealed the gap had narrowed to four points, with opposition at 44% and support at 40%. Support for a negotiated independence settlement has risen by 6% since August, while opposition to separation has dropped by 10% over the same period. The number of "don't knows" has increased by 4% in eight months. The results are broadly in line with polling data published last week by Scottish Opinion, which found that 41% of respondents approved of independence, with 43% disapproving. The lead for independence will fuel calls by the Nationalist administration for MSPs to back a constitutional referendum. Salmond has made a poll in 2010 the key plank of his administration. The referendum policy recently received a boost after entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter called for a plebiscite on independence. The increased support for independence comes on the eve of Salmond taking his government's “national conversation” to Brussels later this month. First minister Alex Salmond said: “The poll is further and dramatic evidence that as the SNP delivers good government in the devolved areas, so support for Scotland to be governed equally well in all areas with independence is surging. “And the poll clearly indicates that Westminster attempts to bully Scotland and the Scottish government are also boosting support for equality for Scotland, and a parliament with full powers. “People want a government that will speak up for Scotland - not shut up for London. It is a tremendous boost for the SNP in the run up to our conference next week -- it will have our opponents choking on their cornflakes.” On April 3, Alex Salmond warned that relations between the Scottish and UK governments are in danger of collapsing because of a “campaign of aggression” being waged by Labour ministers at Westminster. He accused Gordon Brown and his cabinet colleagues of seeking to “bully” their counterparts at Holyrood and of treating Scotland like an imperial outpost. Salmond says he has been subjected to intolerable interference and “unreasonable behaviour” from Westminster over plans to introduce a local income tax and replace public private partnerships (PPPs) for large-scale government projects with public bonds. He predicts that the prime minister's tactics will backfire and that he will only convince an increasing number of voters of the merits of independence. “The New Labour project in Scotland is in its death throes. With a dithering leadership in London and an incoherent approach in Scotland, Labour is trying and failing to exert the iron grip it once had, and took for granted - and is totally uncomprehending of the loss of power and the new political reality it finds itself in,” he said. 14. SALMOND BACKS GAELIC AS 'TRUE NATIONAL LANGUAGE' GAELIC is a true national language and Scotland must create the economic and cultural opportunities for it to thrive, Alex Salmond, Scottish First Minister, claimed on April 13 when he officially opened an £8 million centre at the Gaelic-medium college in Skye and announced £260,000 of government funding for it. Fàs -- Gaelic for growth -- is the centre for the creative and cultural industries, and aims to attract and support small and medium-sized cultural enterprises. Alex Salmond said £200,000 of the money will provide digital TV production and post-production equipment, and £60,000 will support the college's plans for a Gaelic historical dictionary. He said: “There can be no doubt that Gaelic truly is a national language. What we must do is create the economic and cultural opportunities for Scotland's Gaelic speakers - and the language - to thrive.” ENDS