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25 March 1999 Edition

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Dúirt siad...

Several hundred Orangemen gathered at Corcain Orange Hall and aimed to provoke the nationalist community, coming less than 48 hours after the murder of Rosemary Nelson and on the night before her funeral. The RUC smashed a baton into my face and smashed my glasses straight into my eyes.

Breandán Mac Cionnaith accusing Orangmen of whipping up tensions on the eve of the funeral of Rosemary Nelson.

 


I think Rosemary would find it ironic and perhaps even insulting to her memory that another English police officer is to investigate her murder.

Breandán Mac Cionnaith on the announcement last week that an Englsih police chief is to head her murder inquiry.

 


Mr Trimble specifically said that the effect of the murder was so favourable to republicans that it might have been carried out with the aid of the Provisional IRA. Some strange things have happened over the last 30 years, but this speculation indicated what could be viewed as an alarming sense of paranoia on the part of the first minister. He also ran the risk of adding to the distress of the grieving Nelson family.

Editorial in the Irish News, Thursday 18 March.

 


I had a cordial meeting with David Trimble - but he showed no sign of changing his tack. He seems to be refusing to be part of any political institutions.

Gerry Adams after his St Patrick's Day meeting with David Trimble.

 


No I don't think they have taken a blow [human rights workers in the Six Counties]. I think that maybe her blood is going to, as it were, rise like a phoenix, because she has been prepared to face death and in the end did die in that cause.

London-based barrister Michael Mansfield at the funeral of Rosemary Nelson.

 


May I say, in conclusion, that the republican community should be seen to use its influence in the Lurgan/Portadown area to dissuade the petrol bombers from their attacks on Orange halls. Apart from the sectarianism of such behaviour; it detracts from the significance of Rosemary Nelson's death and the importance of eradicating the causes of it - police collusion with loyalist paramilitarism.

Tim Pat Coogan, Ireland On Sunday, 21 March .

 


If you don't have the Department of Justice card and you go to the post office and they turn you back, the children are left hungry... Children are being subjected to hunger and yet you call them Irish. These children are Irish.

Dayo, tellig his family's plight as a refugee in Ireland. Ireland On Sunday, 21 March.

 


The Ulster Unionists have shown no indication at all of moving away from an absolutist position which is based against the spirit and the terms of the agreement.

Gerry Adams, Irish News, 22 March.


 


Not a single political prisoner suggested that there should be a gesture on decommissioning. They feel republicans have gone as far as they can.

Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly after meeting with republican POWs in Long Kesh last Monday.

 


As a Catholic living under British rule for the entirety of my life I am under no illusion that the murder of Rosemary Nelson was planned political assassination of a powerful, determined and respected woman who was committed to the defence of the rights of those who are denied the right to life and the right to live free from sectarian harassment on a daily basis in the Six Counties.

Letter in Tuesday's Irish News signed `Disgusted Yes Voter'. 23 March.

An Phoblacht
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