A United Ireland - the Way Forward

Dissident republicans are living in a fool's paradise if they think they can reunite Ireland by violence, Martin McGuinness has insisted.

Addressing a traditional republican commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising, the Sinn Fein figurehead said the action of the renegades was futile, stupid and selfish.

Claiming the countdown was on to a united Ireland, Stormont's Deputy First Minister told crowds at Loup, Co Derry that it had to be achieved peacefully and democratically and with unionist support.

He also rejected claims from the extremists that they were the trueIRA.

Mr McGuinness claimed the IRA that existed during the Troubles was not a warmongerer.

"They were a revolutionary force who when an opportunity to advance the struggle for Irish unity through peaceful means was established it removed itself from the political equation," he said.

"The IRA by its nature was of the people and for the people.

"It could not have survived and fought the British state the way it did if it was small and unrepresentative.

"People should be under no illusion, the small factions currently engaging in armed actions are not the IRA and they are not advancing national and democratic objectives by their activities."

He added: "Irish people are united in support of the Good Friday, St Andrews and Hillsborough agreements, attempting to overturn the will of the Irish people is not only futile it is stupid and selfish."

Threats from the I.R.A. - Why Now?

The warning from the Real IRA was read by a masked man at anEaster Rising commemoration in Derry City Cemetery.

Referring to the police, he said: "...those who turn traitor ...are as liable for execution as anyone else regardless of their religion, cultural background or motivation."

It is three weeks since PC Ronan Kerr, a Catholic recruit, was killed by a booby trap bomb planted beneath his car in Omagh.

The group also vowed to ensure the Queen "gets the message" that she is not welcome when she visits Ireland next month.

The statement continued: "The Queen of England is wanted for war crimes in Ireland and not wanted on Irish soil."
The rally was organised by the 32 County Sovereignty Movementto mark the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising.

In a statement, a masked member of the Real IRA told a crowd in a Londonderry cemetery: "Oglaigh na hEireann [the IRA] urge all self-respecting Irishmen and women to resist the upcoming insult that is the visit of a British monarch to Irish soil, the criminal free state government invite is not on behalf of the Irish people but to further the selfish interests of a self-serving elite.

"Despite the best efforts of the media, big business, and other power blocks to portray this visit as acceptable we clearly state that the Irish people will not capitulate. The Queen of England is wanted for war crimes in Ireland and not wanted on Irish soil. we will do our best to ensure she and the gombeen class that act as her cheerleaders get that message."

The Real IRA said police officers would be targeted "regardless of their religion, cultural background or motivation".

"The GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association), Catholic church and constitutional nationalism will be unable to protect those who turn traitor, they are as liable for execution as anyone else regardless of their religion, cultural background or motivation."

Comment

The answer is very simple. The British government and the unionist parties of the UK have no interest in a constitutional settlement in Ireland whereby Ireland becomes a united country and the six counties are reunited with the Republic. This problem has festered for almost 100 years and will not go away until justice and sovereignty are respected and the people of Ireland are finally freed from the tragic legacy of the past and the suffering that their ancestors endured for many generations. 

Plaid in Aberconwy : Heledd

Pendroni: Blog fideo 23.04.11

Heledd Fychan
After years of living either in Dublin or London, I'm finally back in Wales! I was Plaid Cymru's candidate in Montgomeryshire in the 2010 General Election and I'm currently Plaid Cymru's second placed candidate for the North Wales list in the 2011 Assembly election.

Low-Down on the American Economy

Click on the link and turn up the sound.

http://www.stansberryresearch.com/pro/1103PSIEOAVD/MPSIM418/PR?o=330233&s=333001&u=46533947&l=247754&r=Milo

The Long Arm of Karma

ElBaradei Wants War Crimes Probe of Bush Team

NEW YORK — The former chief U.N. nuclear inspector suggests in a new memoir that Bush administration officials should face international criminal investigation for what he says was their "deliberate deception" on weapons of mass destruction leading up to the Iraq invasion.

The book by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Mohamed ElBaradei, titled "The Age of Deception," will go on sale next Tuesday.

ElBaradei accuses the Bush team of "grotesque distortion" in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, when then-President George W. Bush and his lieutenants claimed Iraq possessed doomsday weapons despite contrary evidence collected by U.N. arms inspectors inside Iraq.

ElBaradei calls the invasion "aggression where there was no imminent threat," and suggests that international courts investigate it as a possible war crime.

© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Scotland Shows the Way

‘Once again Wales has been outplayed by Scotland’ 

• by Martin Shipton, Western Mail
• Apr 23 2011

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FINANCE Minister Jane Hutt has been accused of “sleeping on the job” after the head of Wales’ leading think tank claimed the Scottish Government had managed to fend off Treasury cuts totalling hundreds of millions of pounds that are hitting Wales.

The Assembly Government has lost £385m after Chancellor George Osborne and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander decided to end the arrangement under which unspent cash could be carried forward into the next financial year.

In Scotland, however, the amount lost has been restricted to £23m.

John Osmond, director of the Institute of Welsh Affairs think tank, revealed the discrepancy.

But last night Welsh Labour accused him of getting his figures wrong and maintained that the blame for Wales’ loss lay entirely with the Westminster coalition.

Mr Osmond said: “I’ve learned that once again Wales has been outplayed by Scotland.

“In the case of Scotland the loss of what is termed ‘accumulated end of year flexibility’ was limited to just £23m. How could this have happened given the much higher level of public funding, about double, that Scotland receives compared with Wales?

“The sad truth is that the Scottish Government has proved much more agile and streetwise when dealing with the Treasury and safeguarding Scottish interests.”

Over the course of the 2008-09 to 2010-11 Comprehensive Spending Review years John Swinney, the SNP’s Scottish Finance Minister, did a deal with the Treasury that reduced most of the £850m end of year flexibility stock that had existed at the start of the period.

Thanks to this initiative Scotland ended up losing only £23m when the Treasury clawed back the outstanding cash at the time of the 2011 UK Budget in March.

By the time of the beginning of the 2010-11 financial year Mr Swinney had whittled the Scottish accumulated end of year stock down from the original £850m to around £150m.

He then did a further deal with the Treasury to change the size of the Scottish Budget in 2010-11 to allow him to carry over most of the unspent resources into the current financial year. The result was to cushion the Scottish Budget against the spending cuts.

Mr Swinney finessed his deal in collaboration with Michael Moore, the Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland.

In a written answer on March 15, Mr Moore told the Westminster Parliament that the UK Government was allowing Scotland to carry forward £130m of agreed underspend from the 2010-11 financial year into the current one.

He said: “In recognition of the unique situation of the devolved administrations, the Government have allowed Scotland to carry forward £130m of agreed under spend from this year into next.”

Mr Osmond writes in a blog posting on the IWA’s website: “Note Michael Moore’s use of the plural when he referred to the devolved administrations. However, only Scotland was allowed to carry forward this spending.

“Why did the same not apply to Wales? Where were the negotiations between Welsh Finance Minister Jane Hutt and the Welsh Conservative Secretary of State Cheryl Gillan that could have led to Wales being given the same favourable treatment as Scotland?

“The answer must be that the Welsh case was not put, or if it was, ineffectively.”

On February 10 this year Ms Hutt put out a statement saying she was “extremely unhappy” that Mr Alexander was proceeding with plans to write off the Welsh Government’s £385m of unspent money.

Ms Hutt said in her statement: “This is our money voted by Parliament for Wales. It should be used to support investment in public services and in supporting the economic recovery, rather than retained by the Treasury.”

“We will continue to oppose the UK Government’s plans to take away our end of year flexibility stocks and stand up for the interests of the people of Wales.”

Mr Osmond said: “The problem with this, of course, is that Jane Hutt was attempting to close the barn door after the horse had long gone.

“She should have been following the course set by her counterpart in Scotland and begun running down the Welsh Government’s end of year stocks by diverting them into a capital fund at the start of the Comprehensive Funding Spending review period three years ago.

“Jane Hutt should also have ensured that the Wales Office and [Secretary of State for Wales] Cheryl Gillan were on side and arguing the Welsh case as strongly as was the Secretary of State for Scotland. Or is this just another example of the ineffectiveness of the Wales Office?

“As for Jane Hutt, rather than ‘standing up for the interests of the people of Wales, was she sleeping on the job?”

A Welsh Labour spokesman said: “John Osmond’s article is based on a number of assumptions that are simply incorrect. The idea that Scotland has been afforded a special deal in the handling of end of year flexibility is just not right. He has conflated EYF with the issue of in-year carry forward.”

He added: “The notion that Scotland have been somehow preparing for an EYF smash and grab from the UK Government this spring is nonsensical.” He accused the Government of “pocketing money which has been allocated to the devolved nations” and said it was unprecedented and unjustifiable.

He said: “Wales particularly is underfunded, as clearly identified by the Holtham Commission, and the removal of EYF is indeed harsh.”

A Treasury spokesman said: “The Government’s priority is to deal with the deficit, the nation’s credit card. The End Year Flexibility system led to accumulated stocks of around £20bn which would further increase the deficit if they were spent.”

Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/04/23/once-again-wales-has-been-outplayed-by-scotland-hutt-slated-over-treasury-cuts-91466-28570373/#ixzz1KLTu5KeY

Failing to Uphold the Interests of Ireland

Campaign for a United Ireland

 

http://aunitedireland.org

 From Gerry Adams

 

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The Dublin Monaghan Bombs and the British

 

Yesterday this blog questioned the Taoiseach about his meeting on Monday with the British Prime Minister and asked him whether he had raised the Dublin Monaghan Bombings in which 34 Irish citizens were killed and hundreds more injured?

Specifically I asked the Taoiseach if he had raised directly with the British Prime Minister the Dáil request from July 2008 for the British government to hand over all files and other information in relation to the bomb attacks on May 17th 1974 and other atrocities inquired into by Justice Barron and for these files to be opened to independent, international scrutiny.

The Taoiseach was evasive in his response. But the only conclusion to be drawn from what he said is that he didn’t.

This failure to act in Irish national interests or in the interests of Irish citizens is characteristic of the submissive attitude of Irish governments to British governments over the years.

The colonization and occupation of Ireland over many centuries by Britain has left a bitter legacy. Part of this is an inability on the part of Irish governments to stand up for Irish interests when dealing with British governments.

The Taoiseach described the relationship between the two states as one based on mutual respect and trust.

How much respect has a British government for an Irish government and for Ireland when it hides the truth of its involvement in collusion and murder, and refuses to hand over vital information on this issue?

How much self-respect does an Irish government have if it refuses to challenge that British government?

The citizens who died in the Dublin Monaghan bombings were not the first to die as a result of collusion, nor the last.

Five years ago an Independent International Panel on Collusion into Sectarian Killings produced a detailed 109-page report. It followed a careful examination of 25 cases of unionist paramilitary violence between 1972 and 1977 in which 76 people were killed. The Panel found that in 24 cases involving 74 killings there was evidence of RUC and UDR collusion.

This included the Dublin Monaghan bombs and the bomb attack in December 1975 in which two Dundalk men Jack Rooney and Hugh Watters were killed.

The report revealed that the British Government knew of the collusion between the RUC, British army and unionist death squads as far back as the early 1970s.

Sometimes official state forces donned masks and carried out the killings themselves. At other times they simply passed the weaponry, know how and information onto surrogate unionist paramilitaries.

Launching the report in 2006 Douglas Cassel, a human rights professor from the American University of Notre Dame, said he had been shocked at the extent of state collusion in the killings the team had investigated.

The panel had found evidence of collusion with British state forces, primarily the RUC and UDR in 24 of the 25 cases they examined. In most cases the evidence was extremely strong. In some cases they concluded that there was “a prime facia case”.

After the killings came the cover up. Cover up involved state forces covering up their own crimes and the crimes of others, hiding weaponry, failing to pursue investigations and refusing to prosecute despite overwhelming evidence.

In one case, Robin Jackson, a notorious unionist gunman, was identified by the widow of one of his victims but the charges against him were subsequently dropped by order of the DPP. Jackson was later exposed as a Special Branch agent.

The cases investigated included car bombings, grenade attacks and shootings including mass killings as in the Miami Showband attack.

In addition to the activities of the Glenanne Gang British agents, like Brian Nelson, helped procure weapons through Apartheid South African connections in 1988.

These weapons were secured for the use of three unionist paramilitary organisations the UDA, UVF and Ulster Resistance.

The first two have according to the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning have got rid of their weapons. Ulster Resistance has not.

The importation of these weapons with the help of British intelligence led to a dramatic increase in murders by unionist death squads.

In the six years before the arrival of the South African weapons from January 1982 to December 1987 unionist murder gangs killed 71 people. In the six years after the arrival of the arms shipment that number had risen to 229.

The unionist death squads were assisted in all of this by RUC Special Branch and British agencies like FRU and British Military Intelligence and the British Security Services.

Among those murdered were human rights lawyer Pat Finucane. Special Branch and British intelligence agents were involved in every part of his murder, including providing the information, the weapons, carrying out the murder and giving the order.

Over the decades of conflict thousands of files and photos of nationalists and republicans were passed over to unionist death squads, commonly from within the UDR and frequently proper investigations of sectarian murders were not carried out by the RUC.

In 2001 a Commission of Inquiry under Mr. Justice Henry Barron was established by the Irish Government in 2001. Four reports were published and a Sub-Committee of the cross-party Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights conducted an extensive examination of the reports.

The Sub-Committee concluded “that given that we are dealing with acts of international terrorism that were colluded in by the British security forces, the British Government cannot legitimately refuse to co-operate with investigations and attempts to get to the truth.”

Despite this hard hitting conclusion and the mountain of evidence available no Irish government has pursued this issue vigorously.

Enda Kenny promised a different kind of government from Fianna Fáil but if his meeting in Downing Street is an example of how he does business it would appear to be the same old story.

 

Posted by Gerry Adams at 9:52 AM 

SNP out in front in new poll

An Ipsos/MORI poll published today shows the party polling at 45% in the constituency vote, and 42% in the regional list ballot.

21 April 2011 08:54 GMT

• Comment

Out in front: Alex Salmond. Pic: © STV

A poll published today puts the SNP at a significant lead over Scottish Labour in both votes for the Scottish Parliament elections.

The Ipsos/MORI poll, in today’s Times and Scottish Sun newspapers, puts the SNP ahead at 45% for voting intention in the constituency ballot, with Labour at 34%.

For the regional list vote, 42% of those questioned supported the SNP compared to 32% for Labour.

It shows a 5% swing to the SNP since the last Mori poll in February, and is the highest poll rating the party has achieved so far in the campaign.

Meanwhile Labour’s rating has slipped to its lowest since May 2010.

The SNP’s campaign director, Angus Robertson, said the poll was “excellent” news but added: “We are taking nothing for granted, and will contest the remaining two weeks of the campaign as a close two-horse race.

“We will continue working hard to earn the trust and support of the people for the SNP’s record, team and vision for Scotland.”

Labour, meanwhile, said that the poll was "unreliable".

The party's campaign co-ordinator John Park said: "This is a rogue poll because the results suggested are incredibly unlikely and are wildly different from what our canvass returns and other polls show.

"This particular pollster is notoriously unreliable in Scotland, predicting the SNP would win double the number of seats they actually did at the last general election. This poll only takes account of those certain to vote so ignores huge swathes of the electorate.

"The SNP are now guilty of taking voters for granted, declaring the outcome before a single vote has been cast. Now the Tories are back, Labour is fighting hard for what really matters."

The poll put the Scottish Conservatives in third place, with 10% of voters backing the party in both the constituency ballot and regional list. The Scottish Liberal Democrats polled at 9% in the constituency and 8% in the regional vote.

High Hopes in Scotland for the SNP

From "The Scotsman"

Scottish election - 'Grim reading for Labour and its leader'

Published Date: 20 April 2011

The survey of readers we publish today is no more than a snapshot of voting intentions ahead of May 5, but its key messages are in line with trends seen elsewhere as the Holyrood election looms.

And, taken together, they make grim reading for Scottish Labour and its leader, East Lothian MSP Iain Gray.

As the constituency profile on this page suggests, Gray looks a shoe-in to return to Holyrood himself, but polls have started to suggest he

 will be joined by too few Labour colleagues to take power from the SNP.

The Labour leader's own personality and performance is under scrutiny as a result, though the fact remains that no-one else would have fared better in a direct contest with an Alex Salmond who looks in his comfort zone while campaigning as an incumbent First Minister.

Our panel put the SNP leader comfortably ahead of Gray and his party streets ahead of Labour, especially in the list vote. There, incidentally, is a welcome sign that Margo MacDonald should be comfortably returned to parliament.

But Labour has much to do if it is to repeat its good showing at last year's Westminster election and return to power at Holyrood. One hope for Gray is that our panel makes it clear that the key battlegrounds are the economy and protecting public services, and it is to be hoped voters will have those in mind when they vote, rather than personalities.

Also, the bookies still have Labour as favourites - and they are rarely wrong. But only just . . .

St. Louis Unites for “One” Ireland

In 1876 the City of St. Louis voted to secede from St. Louis County. Since that split over 130 years ago, the city and the county have operated independently. But recently representatives from both the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County found common ground to lend their support to the cause of a “united” Ireland.

The week prior to Saint Patrick’s Day the St. Louis County Council and the St. Louis Board of Aldermen both issued proclamations in support of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) call for “One Island, One Ireland with justice for all.” The proclamations were unanimously supported by all members of both bodies.

The St. Louis legislators called on the English and Irish governments to take immediate steps necessary to bring to “fullness the promises of all institutions called for and envisioned by the Good Friday agreement.”

The County Council resolution was co-sponsored by Councilmen Michael O’Mara and Steven Stenger and Councilwoman Kathleen Burkett. The resolution from the St. Louis Board of Aldermen was introduced by Alderman Stephen Conway and was co-sponsored by Aldermen Stephen Gregali, Fred Wessels, William Waterhouse, Kenneth Ortmann, Joseph Roddy, Matt Villa and Alderwomen Jennifer Florida and Donna Baringer.

Hibernians were present at the reading of both proclamations. Former AOH National President George Clough was invited by the President of the Board of Aldermen Lewis Reed to give the opening prayer at the weekly Board session prior to the presentation of the city’s proclamation.

Spearheading the proclamation effort in St. Louis for the AOH was St. Louis Municipal Court judge, the Honorable James Dailey Wahl, who is also the Freedom for All Ireland Chairman of AOH Division 1, Father Tim Dempsey Division. The St. Louis AOH was assisted in its efforts by the Emerald Society of Missouri Metro St. Louis Chapter and NORAID (St. Louis).

Wahl said that he was extremely pleased by the unanimous support that both bodies gave in support of the effort.

“What was extremely gratifying was the support we received from the aldermen representing some of the other large ethic groups in the city, especially the African-American and Italian-American reps,” said Wahl. “There also there was a great deal of support from the St. Louis Labor Community”

But the effort is not stopping with the City and the County governments. Wahl said that there is growing groundswell of support from numerous cities and municipalities throughout the St. Louis region wanting to endorse the effort for a “united” Ireland.