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24 June 1999 Edition

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Dúirt siad...

Don't fool yourself. This is not about the issue of decommissioning. It is about more than that. It is because they don't want to see a fenian in government.

Martin McGuinness on rejectionist unionists, GMTV, Sunday 20 June.

 


Sinn Féin's ability to manoeuvre in the negotiations will be constrained too by the lurking shadows of Drumcree and continuing attacks on nationalists.

Niall O'Dowd, the Irish Times, Monday 21 June.

 


The proposal to embark on the long march culminating in Portadown as part of the build up to Drumcree is, in present circumstances, nothing short of irresponsible. The organisers of such a march cannot pretend to be unaware of the possible consequences of what they are about. Nor can they wash their hands of those consequences.

The SDLP's Brid Rogers on the loyalists plan for a `long march' to Portadown prior to Drumcree.

 


The failure to fully implement the historic Good Friday Agreement has seriously eroded the hope and confidence in a new era of equality and justice for Northern Ireland. Yet the accord, passed by the vast majority of people in an unprecedented referendum, is still seen as the best political accommodation possible.

Letter from members of the U.S. Congress (over 100 signed it) to British Premier Tony Blair last week.

 


The demand for decommissioning, which the IRA cannot deliver in the absence of real political security for nationalists, is nothing more than a unionist pretext for resistance to change. I'm sure the people of Bombay Street could sleep soundly in their beds at night when the RUC fire into their houses and loyalist petrol bombs rain down, knowing that an editorial in a Dublin newspaper and the political process were there to protect them.

Former Sinn Féin Publicity Director and An Phoblacht editor Danny Morrison writing in last week's Examiner.

 


Families of those who died in the Bloody Sunday shootings have a good reason to believe the might of the British establishment is arraigned against them. Yesterday's High Court ruling in London that 17 former British soldiers who fired live rounds on Bloody Sunday will be allowed to remain anonymous before the Saville Inquiry endorses the worst fears of relatives, who feel the authorities are determined to thwart their right to know the names of those who shot their loved ones.

Editorial in last Friday's Examiner.

 


Within the last 24 hours we have been informed by the Parades Commission of over 25 Orange marches planned for Portadown between June 28 and July 24. This is proof that the Orange Order is not committed to dialogue but rather is embarking upon a course which will lead to confrontation and intimidation.

Garvaghy residents' spokesperson Breandán Mac Cionnaith after talks with the Orange Order broke down.

 


The only way we can defeat those people is by the pro-Agreement parties standing shoulder to shoulder with the vast majority of our people who want to see this agreement work.

Martin McGuinness on GMTV's The Sunday Programme.

 


It's not that orangemen don't like women; it's just that they have a 1950s mindset.

- Orange Order groupie Ruth Dudley Edwards, the Guardian, 21 June, excusing bowler-hatted bigotry.

 


As long as he didn't make himself objectionable to other guests or staff, people like himself are always welcome

Richard Baker, manager of the Grand Hotel in Brighton, where Margaret Thatcher narrowly escaped death in 1984, on Patrick Magee, who was released from Long Kesh this week.

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