News in Brief

Tourism increase result of all-Ireland Bodies

The marketing of Ireland as a united tourist product has made a significant contribution to the tourism industry in the North, Sinn Féin's Philip McGuigan said this week.

The North Antrim MLA said that Tourism Ireland, set up as part of the Good Friday Agreement, had obviously brought benefits to the industry, but a more integrated approach to tourism on an All-Ireland basis would bring even more benefits to the economy. He urged Direct Rule Minister Barry Gardiner to implement the Tourist Masterplan on the North Coast, a document which holds great potential for the indigenous tourist industry in areas like the Glens and Ballycastle, and called for Tourism Ireland's remit to be widened.

Green Fuel Strategy needed

Sinn Féin MP and MLA Michelle Gildernew has said the recent surge in oil costs demands a greater urgency in the development of a Green Fuel Strategy.

In September, crude oil surpassed $50 a barrel — a 75% increase in the price of oil in the past year and it looks like prices at the petrol pump and home heating oil are set to go up and up. Gildernew pointed to Denmark, which got caught in 1974 by the oil crisis and developed a strategy to avoid it ever happening again, and said Ireland needed to do the same. She added that she had signed up with Eco Energy, a new supply company offering electricity produced by environmentally sound methods such as wind farms, and called on others to follow suit.

Good wishes for McAleese

Following the re-appointment of Irish President Mary McAleese for another term, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams wished her well and said she had been a superb ambassador for Ireland on the world stage over the past seven years.

Adams said that McAleese has been a vocal supporter of the Peace Process and, along with her husband Martin, has been involved in an important engagement with both the nationalist and the unionist communities in the North.

He added, however, that it was his hope that when the time comes to elect the next Irish President, citizens living in the Six Counties would be able to participate.

No incinerator here

Sinn Féin TD Arthur Morgan, Dublin City Councillor Daithí Doolan and the party representative for Terenure/ Rathfarnham Sorcha Nic Chormaic addressed an anti-incineration meeting in Ringsend, Dublin, last Thursday 30 September. Despite an invitation, new 26-County Minister for the Environment Dick Roche chose not to attend.

The Poolbeg Penisula, which is adjacent to Ringsend, is still the proposed site for a controversial hazardous waste incinerator, despite having been recently re-zoned, as a result of a Sinn Féin motion being passed by Dublin City Council, to prevent an incinerator being built there.

Doolan used the meeting to call on Roche to obey the democratic decision of the council.

Drogheda Sinn Féin backs skateboard park

A proposal for the construction of a skateboard park in Drogheda will be put forward by Sinn Féin Councillors Matthew Coogan and Dom Wilton at Drogheda Borough Council meeting on Monday night. The councillors say that recreational facilities for young people are essential in all communities, and while playgrounds are being provided for younger children in Drogheda, it is essential that there are also facilities for older children and teenagers.

Coogan added that at the moment teenagers in the city are using makeshift ramps in public areas and are a danger to both themselves and other members of the public.

Racist attackers petrol bomb Eastern European family

An Eastern European family, believed to be Lithuanian, have been driven from their County Armagh home after racist thugs attacked it with petrol bombs. The attack happened at around 8pm on Tuesday 5 October.

The two men and one woman escaped serious injury when the front window of their Alexander Park home was smashed and two petrol bombs thrown inside.

One device caused scorch damage to the living room, while the other failed to ignite.

The family are believed to have moved into the house, which is in a mixed religion housing estate, off the Dungannon Road, within the past few months.

Anti-Chinese unionist campaign

A unionist campaign to prevent the Chinese Welfare Association from building a community facility in Donegal Pass in South Belfast has been "inspired by racism and paranoia", according to Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey.

Elements of the unionist community in Donegal Pass and the nearby Sandy Row and Village have been engaged in a vicious campaign of sectarian and racist violence against both ethnic minority communities and Catholics and nationalists for over a year. On Wednesday, Maskey lashed out at unionist political leaders for acting as cheerleaders for this campaign.

"The DUP's Ruth Patterson has been particularly prominent in voicing these disgraceful sentiments," he said. "This in itself sends a very strong message to those of us trying to establish whether or not the DUP has come to a position where it can accept the rights and entitlements of others."

Ruane slams decision to allow Ballynahinch UDA parade

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Equality, Human Rights and Women, Caitríona Ruane MLA, has slammed the organisers of last Friday night's loyalist band parade in Ballynahinch. Ruane was one of a number of Sinn Féin observers who joined local residents in a protest at the decision by the Parades Commission to allow the march to take place.

"Friday's night parade was nothing more than a UDA show of strength and should never not have been permitted to take place," she said.

Despite assurances by the Ballynahinch Regener-ation Committee, who had discussed the parade with members of the Ulster Political Research Group, a mouthpiece for the UDA, a number of bands carried flags representing unionist paramilitary organisations, including the UDA and Red Hand Commando, and on a number of occasions marchers chanted UDA slogans as they passed nationalist residents.

The PSNI maintained a heavy presence at the march and displayed an extremely aggressive attitude towards the nationalist protestors, while at the same time ignoring loyalist marchers and their supporters.

"It was clear they were intent on trying to provoke a response from the people protesting, who I wish to commend for not reacting to the provocative display of the bands and the belligerent attitude of the PSNI," said Ruane.

She called on DUP Assembly member Jim Wells, who observed the parade, to speak out against the displays of unionist paramilitary flags and the behaviour of the marchers.

Ruane told An Phoblacht that the recommendation that the parade take place was to appease the UDA, who are competing for control of the town with the UVF.