Top Issue 1-2024

27 August 2009 Edition

Sinn Féin launches fight against education cuts

27 August 2009

"We will not tolerate any cutbacks in the education sector. We will not stand idly by while the Government foolishly destroys our education infrastructure," pledged Senator Pearse Doherty as he launched the party's fight against cuts that are set to severely damage the education of children in the 26 Counties. Speaking at the launch of the campaign entitled 'Leave our Schools Alone' Senator Doherty said the education budget should be exempt from Government cutbacks as it is crucial to our long-term economic recovery. Free article

Teenage convictions set to be overturned

27 August 2009

HUNDREDS of convictions of teenagers secured in non-jury Diplock courts at the height of the conflict are set to be overturned following a series of landmark rulings. Recently the Court of Appeal has overturned a number of convictions of juvenile defendants who pleaded guilty in no jury courts after signing so called 'confessions' during interrogation. According to the court, confessions extracted from juveniles while unaccompanied by either a parent or solicitor should have been deemed inadmissible. A number of people have already had their convictions quashed and many more have applied for the right to appeal. Free article

Incident recalls murder of Roseanne Mallon

27 August 2009

Belfast Based human rights organisation Relatives for Justice (RFJ) have hit out at the PSNI over the harassment of one of its directors Martin Mallon. Mallon was stopped near the Ballygalwley roundabout, County Tyrone by the PSNI on Thursday 20 August. His car was searched and his mobile phone, personal diary, and paperwork relating to his business were seized. Free article

Ballymurphy families slam HET 'whitewash' intervention

27 August 2009

Ballymurphy families have been forced to go public urging eye-witnesses to the massacre of their relatives by the British Army in 1971 to be "mindful not to undermine their efforts for independent investigation" by engaging with the PSNI's Historical Enquiries Team (HET). The HET made direct contact with a number of eyewitnesses to the killings of 11 unarmed civilians over three days during the imposition of internment from 9 to 11 August 1971 by the British Army's Parachute Regiment. This HET intervention prompted the families' spokesperson Briege Voyle, whose mother Joan Connolly was one of those deliberately shot dead, to issue a letter setting out the families' case for a full independent international investigation. Free article

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Loyalist triumphalism in Rasharkin

27 August 2009

Rasharkin is a small predominantly nationalist village in the heart of County Antrim that became the venue for a Nuremburg style rally last Friday night 21 August. 41 loyalist bands strutted along the village's main street beating out their message with the venom of Aryans letting those they deem to be sub-human know who is the master race. That this so-called band parade was allowed go ahead by the Parades Commission, with no restrictions, added to the sense of injustice and frustration that Antrim nationalists feel. Free article

Port premises occupied as 700 march for Dublin dockers

27 August 2009

THE control room of Dublin Docks cargo handling company Marine Terminals Ltd was seized by striking dockers' supporters on Monday when several hundred marchers converged on the site from three separate points along the River Liffey. As the Dublin depot was being occupied, members of the FNV union occupied the head offices of Peel Ports' BG Freight subsidiary at Bondgenoten, in the Netherlands, for three hours. Prominent among the marchers were support groups from the local communities of East Wall on the northside of the Liffey and Ringsend on the southside. Two dozen members of Dublin Sinn Féin turned out to bolster the march and take part in the occupation. Free article

Pat Cox challenged to declare interests

27 August 2009

Following the intervention of multinational corporation Intel on the 'Yes' side in the Lisbon referendum it has been confirmed that there is no legal limit to the amount of money big business can spend in the campaign. Last week the head of Intel in Ireland, Jim O'Hara, called for a 'Yes' vote and his company took out hugely expensive full-page ads in broadsheet newspapers. O'Hara confirmed that Intel would be spending many thousands of euros on the campaign but declined to give a precise figure. Free article


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