In Brief

Carol Ann Kelly

Carol Anne Kelly, the 12-year-old girl shot dead by a British soldier with a plastic bullet in Twinbrook on 22 May 1981 was commemorated in Belfast on Friday, 12 May. Kelly from the Twinbrook state, west Belfast, died in hospital on 22 May two days after being struck by a plastic bullet fired by a member of the British Army's Royal Fusiliers, on 19 May 1981.

UDR tribute slammed

Sinn Féin councillor Paul Butler has slammed a decision by unionist dominated Lisburn council to honour the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) by erecting statues in the city's main thoroughfare.

Butler said the decision, voted through on Tuesday night 9 May is, "highly insensitive, coming as it does, just a week after revelations in the media that this sectarian regiment was involved in the systematic killing of Catholics, in collusion with loyalist death squads and of providing loyalists with weapons. It shows the contempt the DUP has for Nationalists."

McCaughey remembered in Ardoyne mural

North Belfast Republicans gathered in Ardoyne on Thursday 11 May for the unveiling of a mural dedicated to former hunger striker and IRA chief of staff Seán McCaughey who died in Portlaoise Prison in 1946.

Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly, himself a former hunger striker, told the assembled crowd that McCaughey was sentenced to death in 1941 after being falsely convicted at Dublin's Criminal Court. The sentence was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment.

McCaughey and eight other republican prisoners embarked on protest against the Free State government's refusal to recognise them as political prisoners and spent four-and-a-half years in wearing only a blanket.

McCaughey is buried in Milltown Cemetery.

Coiste youth camp

The annual Coiste na n-Iarchimí youth camp will be held at Sliabh Beagh, County Monaghan, Friday 23 and Saturday 24 June. Proceedings will be opened by Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD.

The first evening will be themed around Che Guevara, Cuba and Ireland. A film on Che will be followed by a discussion chaired by former prisoner Jim McVeigh. Stephen McCluskey of the Ireland-Cuba solidarity organisation will address the delegates.

The second day will be themed around Hunger Striker Kieran Doherty and his election as TD for Cavan/Monaghan during the 1981 Hunger Strike.

The aim of the weekend is to stimulate debate among republican youth from across the country. There will be entertainment and the idea is to have fun as well learn.

• Booking forms can be obtained from Dominic Adams Tel: 028 90200770 or [email protected]