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22 October 1998 Edition

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Dúirt siad...

I'd like an apology at least... I was treated like a criminal over there.

Elaine Moore speaking on her return to Dublin after the British government dropped charges against her.

 


It shows you there is no compassion. They don't care about us or what they are putting us through. They don't care for anybody but themselves. It was the same when they marched past the coffins banging their drums when we held the wake in Rasharkin on 13 July.

Spokesperson for the Quinn family after Orangemen refused to heed calls for them to cancel a Drumcree support rally in Ballymoney, scene of the deaths of three young boys last July at the hands of loyalists.


 


A calculated attempt by the Orange Order to trivialise the murder of the Quinn children and exasperate the grief of their family.

Sinn Féin's Dara O'Hagan on the rally.

 


And a government intent on establishing the truth of the current scandal has several options. It could move swiftly, amend the law and allow the Public Accounts Committee compel witnesses and investigate tax liabilities - dealing with any constitutional difficulties as they arise. Alternatively, the office of the Comtroller and Auditor General could be given any additional resources it requires to investigate the AIB/Revenue affair on behalf of the Committee. But has the government the stomach for what is required?

Editorial in the Irish Times on the latest tax/bank scandal. Friday 16 October.

 


Trimble on the other hand, has no such record and is only a few years removed from the ugly pageant of Drumcree Mark One which has sparked so much hate and sorrow since. For Trimble, the award is surely made in hope rather than in recognising extraordinary achievement.

Niall O'Dowd commenting in Ireland On Sunday on the Hume/Trimble Nobel Peace Award.

 


People in Derry are saying that Trimble winning the Nobel Peace Prize is like someone winning the Lotto without buying a ticket.

Eamonn McCann. Sunday 18 October

 


This week again in Toronto, Trimble continued his onslaught on the peace process by stating falsely that, under the Good Friday Agreement, decommissioning is ``an obligation and one that must be fulfilled before the representatives of violent organisations can take their seats at the table of democracy''. As readers will recall I have printed the exact wording of the Good Friday Agreement in this column and it says no such thing.

Tim Pat Coogan. Ireland On Sunday, 18 October.

 


The federal courts in northern California have examined the cases of these men tried in the British Diplock Court system and found all their cases wanting. This should give us pause when we contemplate the 10,000 people who were convicted and sentenced by the Diplock Courts over the past three decades.

John Fogarty, Irish american Unity Conference vice president after the release of the three H-Block escapers Terence Kirby, Pól Brennan and Kevin Barry Artt last Friday.

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