Have you ever started reading something and, after a couple of paragraphs, wondered if it was a wind-up? Happened this week to me. Anthony McIntyre’s site – The Pensive Quill, posted a contribution from a group called – I’m not making this up – ‘No Royal Beacons at McArts Fort Cavehill Campaign Group’. (What a mouthful).
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Patricia Lundy’s research interests are in the study of post-conflict transition, ‘dealing with the past’, contested memories and the legacy of human rights abuses. She has studied unofficial community-based ‘story’/ ‘truth recovery processes and official police-led historical enquiries.
She is particularly interested in ‘truth’ recovery and ‘bottom-up’ participatory approaches. In collaboration with Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT), she co-authored a Northern Ireland wide survey on ‘Attitudes Towards a Truth Commission for NI’ (2006) Her most recent research is an in-depth study of the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI).The HET is an innovative police-led initiative which breaks new ground in transitional justice and offers lessons internationally.
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At the ‘ACT Initiative’ Justice Conference, held at the Ramada Encore, Belfast,21/04/2012, one of the guest speakers was Brian Gormally. Brian is the Director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, Northern Ireland’s leading Human Rights NGO. For over a decade before that, he was an independent consultant working mainly in the community and voluntary sector – specialising in Justice, Human Rights and Equality issues. He was Deputy Director of NIACRO for 25 years until 2000 – working with communities, alienated young people, ex-offenders and prisoners’ families.
He has published and presented extensively on Justice, Community Policing and conflict resolution issues – particularly on politically motivated prisoner releases, victims of terrorism, dealing with the past and restorative justice. He has been involved in international peace-related work in South Africa, Israel/Palestine, the Basque Country, Italy and, more recently, Colombia. He has also worked on a number of projects on equality and human rights with the trade union movement and on the Bill of rights with the NI Human Rights Commission.
Below is a copy of his presentation to the conference.
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THE RELUCTANT CARDINAL
The controversy rumbles on and there remains a possibility that it will become even more protracted. Cardinal Sean Brady remains resolute in his refusal to resign in the wake of damning revelations relating to his involvement in the cover up of the abuse allegations against former fellow priest Father Brendan Smyth, in 1975. At that time Brady was part of a Catholic Church investigation team sent to interview 14 year old Brendan Boland who had accused Brendan Smyth of systematically abusing him. Brady asserts that he was only there as a “note taker” to the main investigator Monsignor Francis Donnelly. However in light of a recent BBC documentary it has emerged that he was much more than a note taker and that in fact he withheld valuable information that allowed not only Brendan Smyth to continue in his side line of paedophilia, but many other clerics to operate unhindered in a similar fashion.
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THIS WEEK IN THE PAPERS 4
What planet do these Judges we have here live on or are they all the same wherever you go? This week provided a couple of examples of how these guys are totally detached form the real world. Justice Weir, in Belfast last week, told the PSNI to stand on their ‘own two feet’ and ignore advice from community reps. He was deliberating over a bail application by two Belfast men and when prosecution lawyers informed the court that the PSNI had relayed details of community concerns if these men were released – he ‘took a blue one’. Is listening to communities more not one of the building blocks of a new form of Policing? Weird! Also, Barney McElholm jailed a guy for three months after he had said he would like to blow Barney up! There must be thousands of these types of threats issued by drunks every weekend – and nobody ends up in Jail over it. Come on guys chill out!
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THIS WEEK IN THE PAPERS 3 – 29/4/12
Some interesting stuff in the papers this week – from Johnny Evans to Denis Donaldson, Stephen Nolan to Martin McGuiness – all good stuff. There were a few stories that made me smile – I’m sure you did as well – if you read them. Let me start with Stephen Nolan. Nolan’s new weekly TV show started this week – in my opinion it wasn’t a great start – the guy looks likes two guys and he seemed quite nervous. But it was Friday’s Belfast Telegraph review by Joe Nawaz that had me smiling. Joe called Nolan ‘the cake loving Mother Teresa of chat’ – some would say this is a great description – and said he watched the show in ‘extra wide-angled awe!’ – Brilliant. Funny enough the result of a poll conducted by the show found that 57% of respondents agreed that punishment attacks were, sometimes, acceptable – quite a shock to Nolan – I think he’s now searching for a different ‘pulse of the people’ – the one he thought he had has let him down.
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I t has emerged recently that the former Commander
of UK Land Forces Sir John Wilsey, confirmed that Freddie Scappiticci was indeed working for British Intelligence before he was unmasked in 2003. Sir John was duped into giving up this information when he received a telephone call from whistleblower Ian Hurst who was masquerading as a Channel Four researcher working under the name of Jeremy Chiles. He revealed that Scap had been recruited as far back as 1976 and such was his importance that he was considered to be a “Golden Egg “by his controllers.
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Isn’t this a wonderful wee country? Just recently,
the horrendous images of an RUC man literally shovelling up half a torso of one of the many victims of the Bloody Friday explosions was on our screens again. Horrible. The volunteers who carried out the bombing, their comrades and their family and friends I’m sure remember that day vividly – those of them still alive, that is. Fast forward 40 years and the images of Belfast today could not contrast more with those horrible times. The Shankill, Falls, Sandy Row and the Lower Ormeau every week now see people from the ‘other side’ travelling in and out – not just selling and buying dope, though this is still a big problem – no, cross-community romance is in the air! Get out the fiddles and flutes! It’s great.
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