Top Issue 1-2024

11 March 2004 Edition

Politics of exclusion will not work

11 March 2004

"In my view, the Irish government is actively considering the exclusion of Sinn Féin from the political process in the north as an option," said Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams as he addressed a packed community meeting in Ballymun, Dublin, on Wednesday afternoon. "It is actively considering going back to the old agenda, the failed policies and attitudes of the past," he said. "This, like the current negative politics, the negative campaigning, is wrong. It is destructive and it betrays an absence of real political debate on the part of the establishment. And it is something that Sinn Féin will not engage in. Free article

Unionist Crisis? Blame Republicans!

11 March 2004

The Ulster Unionist Party plunged further into chaos this week with yet another divisive challenge to David Trimble's leadership. The challenge emerged following the submission of a letter, signed by three Ulster Unionists 'unhappy' with Trimble's leadership of the party, which called for a no confidence debate at the forthcoming UUP Annual General Meeting. The AGM is due to be held on 27 March and party rules require the leader to seek re-election annually. Free article

IMC's gross political intervention

11 March 2004

The decision by the International Monitoring Commission (IMC) to make a special report into the Bobby Tohill incident is being seen by republicans as another example of the British and Dublin Government reacting to unionist and PSNI promptings. In a week that has seen an upsurge in attacks on Sinn Féin by politicians North and South, the decision by the IMC to produce a special report on the Tohill incident "smacks of the grossest political intervention", says Sinn Féin's Mitchel McLaughlin. Free article

West Belfast gives racism the red card

11 March 2004

Members of the ethnic minority community received a warm welcome in West Belfast during a special luncheon held at the Cultúrlann this past week. "It doesn't matter if you arrived here 600 years ago or one year ago - you are welcome," Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams told a packed room on Thursday 4 March. The West Belfast MP said the "welcome meeting" sent out a strong message that the people of West Belfast were opposed to racism. Free article

Catholic man left for dead

11 March 2004

A 38-year-old nationalist man from Glenarm in County Antrim is recovering in hospital nearly two weeks after he received a severe beating at the hands of loyalists. Joe Davey had been having a quiet drink in the Schooner public house in Glenarm when sectarian insults were hurled at him by three well known loyalists. Free article

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It's only words

11 March 2004

When historians look back on 2004, they will probably say it marked a turning point in Irish politics, a year when Fianna Fáil realised that Sinn Féin was a threat to their cosy government set-up, and resolved to do something about it. They may also say that it was the year Micheal McDowell, 26-County Justice Minister, lost the run of himself, making a litany of unsubstantiated allegations about everyone, everywhere, neglecting his own portfolio to the detriment of the state's law abiding citizens. Free article

Resistance to change in policing must be overcome

11 March 2004

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams, speaking in Belfast on the eve of a visit to the USA, where he will be attending a series of engagements, including events in Washington on 17 March, said that he expects the US Government will strongly row in behind London and Dublin on the issue of policing. Free article

Murphy demands British helicopters be grounded

11 March 2004

Sinn Féin Assembly member for Newry/Armagh Conor Murphy has called on all crown forces' helicopters in the Six Counties to be grounded following last Saturday's crash-landing of an Army Lynx chopper in Portrush. "In the past number of years there has been a number of incidents where British military helicopters have crash landed," he said. Free article


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