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6 November 1997 Edition

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Dúirt siad...

When we killed men it was as if we were killing cats. We ordered people out or their houses. We stole everything... There was a special room where they tortured... It was like a morgue... We drilled holes in their hands and bodies with an electric drill.

Algerian soldier who was part of a government death squad. Some death squads dressed as Islamic fundamentalists to disguise their activities. Irish Times, Thursday 30 October.

 


It was Carson himself who once stated: ``Only a fool would fight if there is hope of accommodation.'' The place to develop understanding to initiate such understanding is Stormont buildings not the Ulster Hall.

Letter from John Robb of the New Ireland Group on Paisley's and McCartney's absence from the present talks process. Irish Times, Thursday 30 October.


 


Portadown Heroes... Criminalised for defending yourselves against an unprovoked attack.

LVF `newsletter' circulated in areas of the Six Counties with reference to the people being charged with murder of Catholic Robert Hamill in the town.

 


[Fine Gael TD] Jim Mitchell got a rude awakening on Tuesday. ...At 7.52am the telephone rang...Tommy Morris, his close friend and a Fine Gael activist, sounded anxious: ``Jim, I'm in a spot of bother. The police have arrived and want to search my house.''

Report in the Sunday Times on the arrest of Fine Gael's Tommy Morris in connection with leaking 26-County Foreign Affairs papers.

 


It always seemed to me that Michael McDowell's main goal in politics was to get the income tax on his own plentiful supply of dough reduced.

Tim Pat Coogan on ex-PD's TD Michael McDowell. Ireland on Sunday, 2 November.

 


You could call their behaviour childish, except it wouldn't be fair to children.

Sinn Féin source qouted in Ireland On Sunday on the attitudes of the UUP member at the Stormont talks. 2 November.

 


I remeber one current affairs team doing a programme on the Hunger Strikes who were told to `take their line' from Mary McMahon of the SFWP [Sinn Féin the Workers' Party] and John McMichael, who was then the supreme commander of the UDA.

Unnamed RTÉ producer on Eoghan Harris and Sticky influence during his time in RTÉ. Magill, November 1997.

 


People who imagined they had met `all the articulate Provos' are struck by what one called `the sheer intelligence and ability of people I'd never heard of.'

From an article by Fionnuala O'Connor on people's perceptions of Sinn Féin members at the northern talks. Magill, November 1997.

 


I would like to congratulate our fellow citizens in Munster, in Leinster, in Connacht and in Ulster who had the courage to vote for Mary McAleese. I would like to congratulate them for their willingness to not allow themselves to be distracted by smear campaigns initiated by the Fine Gael party and designed to prevent a northern nationalist from becoming President of all Ireland. The people of the south deserve great credit today.

Martin McGuinness. Saturday 1 November

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