The DUP intends to ask the chief of the arms-decommissioning body how old the IRA weapons he saw put beyond use were, party leader Ian Paisley has said.He is to meet General John de Chastelain over his report that the IRA has now decommissioned all its weapons.
Archive for September, 2005
BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Hain to challenge loyalist groups
The secretary of state is expected to issue a strongly worded challenge to loyalist paramilitaries.Peter Hain is also expected to announce a series of measures aimed at addressing the problem of alienation in loyalist working class areas.In response to rioting in unionist areas, he will warn paramilitaries they face the full force of the law if they do not abandon violence.
BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Masked man attacks Bradley in bar
The vice-chairman of the Policing Board, Dennis Bradley, is in hospital with a head injury after being attacked in a bar in Londonderry.He was set upon by a hooded man with a type of baseball bat as he watched a football match with his son on Tuesday. He was not seriously injured. Continue reading ‘Masked man attacks Bradley in bar’
Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.
- Josh Billings
It might also be the 30ft fences
News Letter - Don’t Hold Police Back
“We are fast losing that capability in the over-eager search for the Holy Grail of normalisation. “Closing police stations is gradually increasing the distance in every way between the community and their police service.
Daily Ireland
The department’s research was carried out last year by Deloitte MCS. It found that Catholics are much more likely than Protestants to live in areas with weak community infrastructure.
Catholics make up 57 per cent of the population of such areas even though they account for just 44 per cent of the North’s population.
Protestants comprise 41 per cent of residents in areas with weak infrastructure but make up 53 per cent of the North’s overall population.
British government statistics have consistently demonstrated that Catholics, particularly Catholic women, are at least twice as likely as Protestants to suffer unemployment.
That statistic remains virtually unchanged despite three decades of various anti-discrimination laws.
According to the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, Catholic children are also more likely to have jobless parents, gain no qualifications, suffer long-term unemployment and earn less.
These findings cast serious doubt on unionist claims that social and economic problems contribute to loyalist violence, especially when the findings are combined with the Noble Index of Deprivation, which confirms that the majority of deprived areas in the North are Catholic.
“Of course, nationalists suffer from a lack of funding and resources. What I’m saying is that unionists have the same problems too,� said Mr Cobain.
Daily IrelandDemocratic Unionist Party MP, Nigel Dodds, has been taken to task over comments he made following nationalist rioting in Ardoyne in comparison to the comments he made in the wake of this week’s loyalist violence.
After serious trouble in Ardoyne following a July 12 Orange Order parade Mr Dodds described rioters as “deplorable�.
He said: “The scenes of intense violence which has left so many police officers and members of the press injured are a scandal and a disgrace.
Mr Dodds also said the throwing of blast bombs by the Continuity IRA “clearly demonstrates premeditated, organised violence on the part of republican paramilitaries�.
During the riot in Ardoyne nine explosive devices were thrown at the PSNI along with scores of petrol bombs.
Recent loyalist violence saw paramilitaries open fire on the PSNI, throw hundreds of blast, pipe and petrol bombs and hijack scores of vehicles.
Although condemning the violence Mr Dodds did not make specific reference to loyalist paramilitaries.
The North Belfast MP said: “Having endured so much at the hands of republicans over a very sustained period, the community does not deserve to have this type of violence inflicted upon it from within.
“I would urge people not to become involved in street violence since it is leaving in its wake a trail of destruction, putting local people in fear and setting back the regeneration of the area.�
North Belfast Sinn Féin councillor Margaret McCleneghan said Mr Dodds’ comments highlighted unionist double standards.
She said: “It is time that all unionist political leaders, Ian Paisley, Reg Empey, Nigel Dodds, began to show leadership on the issue of loyalist violence.
“The public message seems to be that there is an acceptable level of loyalist violence, particularly if it is only nationalists and working class Protestant communities that are suffering.�
Ciarán Barnes
Feel good story amidst all the mayhem
Belfast Telegraph
THE Ukrainian woman who had her legs amputated after suffering frostbite sleeping rough on Ulster streets has made astonishing progress - only six months after learning how to walk again, it can be revealed today.And in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Oksana Sukhanova told how she was enjoying life again - and had made big plans for her future in the province including taking driving lessons and getting a job.
The brave 27-year-old also revealed that she is preparing for an emotional reunion with younger brother Vitaly whom she has not seen since her arrival in Northern Ireland a year and a half ago.
Daily Ireland
Reports show that in areas such as community infrastructure, employment opportunities and education, Catholics still fare much worse than ProtestantsOfficial statistics compiled by a range of agencies over the past year challenge the assertions of unionist politicians that the recent outbreak of loyalist violence can be attributed to inequality in Protestant areas.
Reports by the Department for Social Development (DSD), Equality Commission and Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) reveal Catholic areas still suffer more deprivation than their Protestant counterparts
BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Device sent to home of DPP member
Army bomb experts have made safe a device sent to a member of a district policing partnership in County Down.SDLP councillor Michael Carr became suspicious after the device was posted to his home in Warrenpoint.
“I am very annoyed and angry - there are children in this house who could have opened the package,”
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