8 January 1997 Edition
Dúirt siad...
There's not a death that I regret.
Loyalist death squad leader Billy Wright in one of his last interviews with journalist David Sharrock, before being killed in Long Kesh by the INLA.
It was a circuitous justification of the high incidence of atrocities perpetrated against the most vulnerable people, the pregnant mothers and pensioners who have been murdered in this area [Mid-Ulster].
David Sharrock commenting on Billy Wright's justification for sectarian murder.
People are resigned to the fact that, because of their religion, the street in which they live and the pub they visit, they may die at the hands of loyalists. Catholics are nervous. They are looking over their shoulders.
SDLP Councillor in North Belfast after the sectarian killing of Eddie Treanor in the Clifton pub on New Year's Eve by a loyalist death squad.
Can Councillor Davidson explain to the nationalist people what he meant by his assertion on a BBC news programme today that there are two types of violence here, one aggressive and the other defensive?
Derry Sinn Féin Councillor Mary Nelis on the UUP's Andrew Davidson's remarks that loyalist violence was `defensive' and `reactive'.
Some of these [Unionist leaders] seem to be utterly unmoved by the sufferings of the Catholic community. They always qualify their so-called condemnations by implying that the actions of sectarian assassins in their own community are understandable, because they are being `provoked'.
West Belfast priest Father Paddy McCafferty. Tuesday 6 January.
The only list of concessions has been that published by the Ulster Unionist Party as concessions they indicated they had won from the British government in September to return to the talks after the summer.
Women's Coalition's Monica McWilliams on unionist claims of concessions to republican at the Stormont talks. Tuesday 6 January.
...the Ulster Unionist Party is exploiting loyalist fears for their own purposes.
Prisoners in Northern Ireland should face up to one simple truth. The only reason the British government is unwilling to be imaginative on prisons is because the Ulster Unionist Party would cry foul if it did.
The UUP's game is to see the peace process collapse. It is now positioning itself to blame the two governments. The PUP and UDP are playing into David Trimble's hands.
Irish News editorial. Wednesday 7 January.
The lies about concessions, which... if any had been given would be rights, not concessions, have encouraged extreme loyalists to believe their own rights are threatened.
The result is the old, old story. 1997 has been no different from 1966, 1969, 1972, 1975, 1986. In each of those years governments of one kind or another began to address nationalist grievances. Whenever that happens unionist leaders start to bleat about reforms and as night follows day murder gangs start to kill Catholics.
Irish News columnist Brian Feeney. Wednesday 7 January
Loyalist death squad leader Billy Wright in one of his last interviews with journalist David Sharrock, before being killed in Long Kesh by the INLA.
It was a circuitous justification of the high incidence of atrocities perpetrated against the most vulnerable people, the pregnant mothers and pensioners who have been murdered in this area [Mid-Ulster].
David Sharrock commenting on Billy Wright's justification for sectarian murder.
People are resigned to the fact that, because of their religion, the street in which they live and the pub they visit, they may die at the hands of loyalists. Catholics are nervous. They are looking over their shoulders.
SDLP Councillor in North Belfast after the sectarian killing of Eddie Treanor in the Clifton pub on New Year's Eve by a loyalist death squad.
Can Councillor Davidson explain to the nationalist people what he meant by his assertion on a BBC news programme today that there are two types of violence here, one aggressive and the other defensive?
Derry Sinn Féin Councillor Mary Nelis on the UUP's Andrew Davidson's remarks that loyalist violence was `defensive' and `reactive'.
Some of these [Unionist leaders] seem to be utterly unmoved by the sufferings of the Catholic community. They always qualify their so-called condemnations by implying that the actions of sectarian assassins in their own community are understandable, because they are being `provoked'.
West Belfast priest Father Paddy McCafferty. Tuesday 6 January.
The only list of concessions has been that published by the Ulster Unionist Party as concessions they indicated they had won from the British government in September to return to the talks after the summer.
Women's Coalition's Monica McWilliams on unionist claims of concessions to republican at the Stormont talks. Tuesday 6 January.
...the Ulster Unionist Party is exploiting loyalist fears for their own purposes.
Prisoners in Northern Ireland should face up to one simple truth. The only reason the British government is unwilling to be imaginative on prisons is because the Ulster Unionist Party would cry foul if it did.
The UUP's game is to see the peace process collapse. It is now positioning itself to blame the two governments. The PUP and UDP are playing into David Trimble's hands.
Irish News editorial. Wednesday 7 January.
The lies about concessions, which... if any had been given would be rights, not concessions, have encouraged extreme loyalists to believe their own rights are threatened.
The result is the old, old story. 1997 has been no different from 1966, 1969, 1972, 1975, 1986. In each of those years governments of one kind or another began to address nationalist grievances. Whenever that happens unionist leaders start to bleat about reforms and as night follows day murder gangs start to kill Catholics.
Irish News columnist Brian Feeney. Wednesday 7 January