June/July 1999 Connolly Association: campaigning for a united and independent Ireland ISSN 0021-1125 60p From Cable St Light shed on off the to the i'JV United stent' Garvaghy Rd Englishmen Celts Page 3 Page 7 Page 12 LOYALIST VIOLENCE THREATENS PEACE PROCESS including arson and bomb attacks, have become daily occurrences for Catholic Democrat reporter families and businesses in the area, the full THE DRAMATIC increase in loyalist details of which are comprehensively attacks over the last year, the unresolved recorded by the Garvaghy Road situation at Drumcree and the impasse Resident's Coalition on their website. over implementing key elements of the (http://members.aol.com/garvaghy/) Good Friday agreement are proving to be Speaking at the launch of a new painful reminders of the many obstacles support group for the Garvaghy Road that remain on the road to a peaceful and Resident's Coalition in London recently, lasting settlement in Ireland. residents' spokesperson Brendan Mac Questions about RUC collusion with Cionnaith stressed that all the nationalist loyalist paramilitaries have also come to community in Portadown wanted was "the the fore again recently, linked to growing right to be treated equally in their own pressure for independent inquiries into the tow n and their own country". deaths of six-county solicitors Rosemary Portadown was like a microsm of the Nelson and Pat Finucane. and the mx counties three decades ago. he said: "It Portadown nationalist Robert Hamill. is a unionist-controlled area which has a Concerns intensified after it became substantial nationalist minority, which is clear in mid-May that the RUC had discriminated against; which is not treated withheld information for around three equally under the law; which is months from 150 nationalists and continually harassed, and which is republicans, whose names appeared on a constantly surpressed by the supremacism loyalist death list. The list, which of the Orange Order." originally came into the police's While some of the most serious possession in late February, also contained incidents of loyalist violence in the North details of addresses, dates of birth and car have been claimed so-called 'splinter registration numbers. groups', such as the Orange Volunteers Longstanding, and well-founded, fears and the Red Hand Defenders, there is of RUC and security-force collusion with evidence to suggest that these shadowy loyalist paramilitaries ensured that police organisations are little more a cover for As Liz Curtis's photograph of this Belfast mural demonstrates, there Is growing recognition among Irish nationalists of the explanations for the delay were met by elements from within mainstream loyalist similarities between the twin curses of sectarianism and racism. Yet, while the outcome of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry nationalists and republicans with a groups, particularly the UDA and the LVF, looks set to bring about major changes, the refusal to hold an independent inquiry into the death of Robert Hamill shows mixture of deep scepticism and outright both of which claim to be observing a that the British authorities are not yet prepared to give the same priority to the problem of institutional sectarianism disbelief. ceasefire. Recently released figures have shown As the Irish Democrat went to press, that loyalists have been responsible for ten British security sources claimed to have murders; 30 grenade and blast-bomb uncovered evidence linking the LVF to the Hamill campaign boost attacks, 19 shooting incidents; II death killing of Rosemary Nelson. threats, five attempted abductions, 48 The LVF is also believed to be FRIENDS AND relatives of the murdered price £15. physical assaults, 276 families intimidated responsible for a wave of pipe-bomb Portadown man Robert Hamill have been • "I AM not black, I do not live in Alabama ROBERT and 231 attacks on churches, schools and attacks in early June, one of which stepping up their campaign for an and the year is not 1962, but you tell the homes between April 1998' and April resulted in the death of Elizabeth O'Neill independent inquiry. difference," said Diane Hamill, giving HAMILL 1999. in Portadown. The London branch of the Robert Hamill testimony to the US Congress' House The figures do not include the majority So long as this state ot affairs is Campaign has published a new leaflet on International Relations Committee on 22 of incidents from in and around allowed to continue unchecked jr, worse Roberts's case and is asking people to write April. 1999. Portadown where the local nationalist still, to deteriorate, the promise of the to Prime Minister Tony Blair, urging him to Alluding to the systematic harassment community is under siege. Good Friday agreement, of "the right to establish an independent inquiry. The that nationalist have had to endure in the Since last July over 170 Orange freedom from sectarian harassment", will campaign is also calling for people to write Portadown area, Diane Hamill, drew demonstrations have taken place in remain little more than warm words. to their MPs asking them to support the parrallels between the US Deep South in the Portadown - the overwhelming majority The British government must act demand. A major fundraiser is also planned 1960s, and between the Orange Order and of them illegal - and around another 50 decisively and face down those elements for 19 July at the Jazz Cafc in Camden, the Ku Klux Klan. are planned before the end of the first ranged against the agreement who are London. Acts supporting the benefit includc Campaign leaflet* (right) are available week of July. intent on spreading their creed of bigotry Billy Bragg, Jo Brand, Mark Thomas, from BM Hamill Campaign, London WCIN Intimidation, abuse, violent attacks. and hatred throiughout the North. Robert Newman, Kevin McAleer. Ticket 3XX; email: hamillcaniixiign@hotmail com WHY DID HE DIE? Page III Irish Democrat June/July 1999 Irish Democrat June/July 1999 Page 3 I News News iBish Oemoctuc Diary of violence Founded 1939 Volume 54, Number 3 From Cable Street A sample of the attacks attributed to loyalists in recent months, mostly from Devolution agenda to Garvaghy Road outside the Portadown area The list is not THERE WE have it. Labour has successfully launched phases one intended to be comprehensive: and two of its devolution flagship in Scotland and Wales, though not GOOD FRIDAY EVENT McDonnell. without scraping its New Labour paintwork on the barnacles of Speaking in front of a huge banner March public opinion. Democrat reporters commemorating the Battle of Cable I 'Chocolate bo\' bomb left on The unexpected inroads made by Plaid Cymru into Labour's LAST LONDON'S 1930s struggles Street, Garvaghy Road Residents windowsill of Catholic home in against fascism bore a remarkable Coalition spokesperson Brendan Mac Coalisland: pipe bomb found in former south Wales heartlands, the emphatic vote for deselected similarity to today's siege of the Cionnaith right, gave a graphic account of Dernaghy. south of Belfast. former Labour Party stalwart Denis Canavan and the election of the nationalist community in Portadown by the high-levels of intimidation suffered by 4 home of Catholic woman attacked by Scottish Socialist Alliance's Tommy Sheridan shold have sent alarm Orange and loyalist mobs, a packed east- the nationalist minority in Portadown. pipe bomb, north Belfast (several other attacks in north Belfast, including two of hells ringing all the way down to Millbank Tower. end meeting heard in May. The Orange Order was attempting to z More than 130 people attended the destroy the Good Friday agreement, by | arson, reported in the same week); While greater autonomy for Wales and Scotland is long overdue, event, hosted by the Connolly Association exacerbating sectarian tensions in an „ 9 pipe-bomb attack, Portadown; and there are those who want to go further, the long-term implications and Tower Hamlets Trades Union Council effort to cause mass disturbances in 3j 15 Rosemary Nelson killed in bomb for the future of the British state are, as yet, unclear. In the Prime and opened by London Labour MP John Northern Ireland, he said. attack; firebomb attack on family. Lame: The London labour movement had Callaghan of Belfast Trades Council, called for labour-movement solidarity 23 Catholic businessman injured by a Minister's script, it all leads to a refashioning and 'strengthening' of stopped the British fascists in their tracks pictured left, Angie Birtill of London Irish with the minority community in booby-trap, Castlewellan; the union. But, then, as Mr Blair knows, things don't always go when they had attempted to stage a Women's' Centre, Kate Foley of Labour Portadown. 24 pipe-bomb attack on pub near Lurgan: according to plan. provocative and triumphalist march into Committee on Ireland and Pat Reynolds of 6 A 14-page report of the meeting is 26 bomb left on windowsill of Catholic- A key issue now is whether the Scottish parliament and Welsh the East End, home to large numbers of the Irish in Britain Representation Group. available from Tower Hamlets TUC, 179- family's home, Randalstown, south Jews, in 1936. A paper on the history of the quasi- 181 Whitechapel Road, London El 1DW Antrim; assembly will be able to use their limited powers in a progressive Chairperson Phil Edwards, of Tower fascist Orange Order by the historian and and from the Four Provinces Bookshop, 30 Bomb thrown into the family home of direction to secure both material and cultural benefits for the majority Ahern praises English radicals Hamlets TUC, reminded the audience of writer Peter Berresford Ellis was read out 244 Grays Inn Road, London, Tel. 0171 Moyle Sinn Fein councillor, James of working people. the important role played by Irish dock at the meeting, 833 3022, price 40p (solidarity price £ I).