4 December 1997 Edition

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McAleese to visit Ardoyne

THE RECENTLY ELECTED President of Ireland, Belfast born Mary McAleese, is to visit Ardoyne in North Belfast on Friday 5 December. And according to sources in the area, close to where McAleese used to live, local republicans are among those officially invited to meet McAleese in the Brookfield Mill.

Local republicans who are to be present during McAleese's two hour visit to the sprawling business complex on the Crumlin Road intend to set up a stall to highlight the conditions of republican prisoners.

Said one, ``we have commissioned murals depicting the plight of Roisin McAliskey who is facing into her second year of imprisonment and her young daughter Loinnir who is to spend her first Christmas in a British jail, as well as the situation of those five republican prisoners who have spent over 22 years in jail''.

It is thought McAleese will visit the home on Belfast's Upper Crumlin Road that was attacked by loyalists in the early 70s and go on a general tour of the North Belfast area.

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