21 May 1998 Edition
Editor's desk
Has the busy Ballymena DUP councillor, Orangeman and former rugby international, Davy Tweed, taken on yet another onerous responsibility? Is he now a press officer for the LVF?
After a recent council meeting Davy distributed a statement from the Loyalist death squad to assembled journalists.
The statement read: ``This is a statement from the Ballymena LVF. We would like you to print a warning to all of the main players involved in the drugs trade in and around Ballymena. We state they have SEVEN DAYS to pack up their illegal trade.'' The document went on to attack the gang's former associates, ``we sat back and watched and waited to see if `our local heroes in the UVF' would sort out this problem but as everyone knows, it's hard to clean muck off other people's doorsteps if your own is mucky.''
Big Davy hasn't been forthcoming about how the statement came to be in his hands. His party colleague, Ian Paisley Jnr, has recently accused the PUP of being ``guilty by association'' of the soaring drug problem in the town. Bad times in Ballymena.
The Good Friday Agreement may herald good news for an old age pensioner in Manchester who is charged with attempting to pass a Bank of Ireland banknote when he tried to buy a British lottery ticket. He has asked that if he is convicted he wants to serve his sentence in Long Kesh.
Jim Arnison, former northern correspondent of the Morning Star newspaper, was arrested after a Manchester newsagent alerted the police.
Arnison, it was alleged, attempted to buy the tickets using a banknote carrying a picture of Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams. The newsagent ``became suspicious'' reported the Manchester Evening News with all gravity.
In a statement Mr Arnison said that in the event of his being convicted he would request that any sentence he may receive be served in the Six Counties, as ``I understand that there are soon to be vacancies at Long Kesh''.
The DUP on Strabane council are praying that those who have suggested that the council meets in a local convent while their offices on the Derry Road are being refurbished this summer will repent.
The fact that the number of nuns in the nunnery is.....None, has done nothing to alleviate their concerns. Ulster still says No to Nunnery (as well as Popery).
The Convent of Mercy, a 130 year old historic property at Newtownkennedy, was recently sold to a consortium of local businessmen who are seeking to sell or lease it for use by the local community.
DUP councillor Allan Bresland alleged that he had no religious objections to the use of the site but was concerned for his safety. ``I would be reluctant to go there.'' he said.
We always take encouragement from hearing that our enemies are avid readers of our paper. From Ian Paisley to Bob McCartney to Ruth Dudley Edwards, they all include us among their favourite reading. But none can be as enthusiastic as anti-republican academic Henry Patterson who, we learn, waits impatiently each week to read the paper on the Internet. Hope you enjoy it, Henry.
How times change. After Sinn FŽin Dublin North East representative Larry O'Toole was shot by a drug dealer at a Holy Communion ceremony last Saturday the News of the World headline was Drug War Hero Shot In Church. Not so long ago it would have been something like: Children Cheat Death in Provo Drug War Shooting.
After a recent council meeting Davy distributed a statement from the Loyalist death squad to assembled journalists.
The statement read: ``This is a statement from the Ballymena LVF. We would like you to print a warning to all of the main players involved in the drugs trade in and around Ballymena. We state they have SEVEN DAYS to pack up their illegal trade.'' The document went on to attack the gang's former associates, ``we sat back and watched and waited to see if `our local heroes in the UVF' would sort out this problem but as everyone knows, it's hard to clean muck off other people's doorsteps if your own is mucky.''
Big Davy hasn't been forthcoming about how the statement came to be in his hands. His party colleague, Ian Paisley Jnr, has recently accused the PUP of being ``guilty by association'' of the soaring drug problem in the town. Bad times in Ballymena.
The Good Friday Agreement may herald good news for an old age pensioner in Manchester who is charged with attempting to pass a Bank of Ireland banknote when he tried to buy a British lottery ticket. He has asked that if he is convicted he wants to serve his sentence in Long Kesh.
Jim Arnison, former northern correspondent of the Morning Star newspaper, was arrested after a Manchester newsagent alerted the police.
Arnison, it was alleged, attempted to buy the tickets using a banknote carrying a picture of Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams. The newsagent ``became suspicious'' reported the Manchester Evening News with all gravity.
In a statement Mr Arnison said that in the event of his being convicted he would request that any sentence he may receive be served in the Six Counties, as ``I understand that there are soon to be vacancies at Long Kesh''.
The DUP on Strabane council are praying that those who have suggested that the council meets in a local convent while their offices on the Derry Road are being refurbished this summer will repent.
The fact that the number of nuns in the nunnery is.....None, has done nothing to alleviate their concerns. Ulster still says No to Nunnery (as well as Popery).
The Convent of Mercy, a 130 year old historic property at Newtownkennedy, was recently sold to a consortium of local businessmen who are seeking to sell or lease it for use by the local community.
DUP councillor Allan Bresland alleged that he had no religious objections to the use of the site but was concerned for his safety. ``I would be reluctant to go there.'' he said.
We always take encouragement from hearing that our enemies are avid readers of our paper. From Ian Paisley to Bob McCartney to Ruth Dudley Edwards, they all include us among their favourite reading. But none can be as enthusiastic as anti-republican academic Henry Patterson who, we learn, waits impatiently each week to read the paper on the Internet. Hope you enjoy it, Henry.
How times change. After Sinn FŽin Dublin North East representative Larry O'Toole was shot by a drug dealer at a Holy Communion ceremony last Saturday the News of the World headline was Drug War Hero Shot In Church. Not so long ago it would have been something like: Children Cheat Death in Provo Drug War Shooting.