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Fianna Fail 'will organise in NI'

Fianna Fail are to organise in Northern Ireland, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has confirmed.
It is the first time in the party's 81-year history that efforts have been made to mobilise on an all-Ireland basis.
Mr Ahern said Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern would chair a committee to implement the move.
"This moves reflects the dramatic changes we have seen across the island," the party leader said.
Dermot Ahern said the party did not intend to contest any seats in a Westminster election.
"We wouldn't be interested in going to the House of Commons as a political party. That is for others to do," he said.
"We feel we should have representation in Northern Ireland as a political party."
Earlier on Monday, the SDLP refused to rule out a possible merger with Fianna Fail.
"The SDLP will be ready for the challenge or opportunity of such a future adjustment when it ripens," said a spokeswoman.
Commentators have said that Fianna Fail's plans to organise in Northern Ireland have been spurred on by the setting up of a powering-sharing executive at Stormont, making such a move less politically sensitive.
It has also been suggested that its success against Sinn Fein in the Republic's recent election played a part.

A momentous decision IMO which for the first time could see the real driver for reunification coming from south of the border, although I don't see why all the talk has been about an FF-SDLP takeover. Surely given the recent goings on at the Mahon tribunal and the furore over the Causeway Visitor Centre, the FFers natural bedfellows in the north are the DUP? Still it's heartening to see Bertie backing the SF abstentionist policy in regards foreign parliaments.

While the media have been focusing on Bertie receiving £30k from the owner of his rented house, under the radar is slipping Ian Og Paisley who received bought a posh apartment in Portballintrae from property developer and DUP member Seymour Sweeney. Coincidently DUP Environment Minister Arlene Foster and DUP Economy Minister Nigel Dodds yesterday dropped plans to back the National Trust application to build a Visitor centre at the Giants Causeway, in favour of a private development by 'Seaport Developments', owned by one Seymour Sweeney. Mr Sweeney pictured here with Og and Mor:


denies ever having given "a penny piece" to the DUP. The development in which Mr Paisley now lives was donated to the state for public use and later sold to Sweeney who overcame massive local protests about the development to build his apartment complex. Mr Sweeney also owns a bank of land ringing the Causeway World Heritage site in Paisley's North Antrim constituency. 

Luckily enough I held off on buying a house in Carlingford a while back after some good advice on here. Have now spotted a bungalow in Glenties for a price that seems to good to be true. The question is – is now the best time to buy or will house prices fall further as people dump their holiday homes on the market.

Banks and public sector workers are all enjoying the day off today.

I suppose it was on the cards

RTE saying Pat is making a "major announcement" at 3.30. Speculating he will resign.

The hills are covered in a heavy blanket of fog stretching from White Mountain round to McArts Fort – look amazing set against the clear blue sky.

Growing up black in Belfast
By Tim Brannigan

I was born on 10 May, 1966. I died, apparently, the very same day.
Well, that's what everyone was told. The first year of my life was treated as a death in the family.
"Stillborn," said the hospital staff and with that brutal, clinical fabrication I was taken off to a "home" in east Belfast, while my mum was left to weave an elaborate, tearful lie to her family and friends.
My father was a medical student in Belfast. While he was from Ghana, my mum and her Belfast family were white. The baby was black, and still is.
My story begins in 1965 when Mum started to emerge from the grind of domesticity and the frustrations of an imperfect marriage to find a social life of her own.
At a dance in Belfast, she took exception to some of the girls in her company referring to a "very handsome" black man as a "nigger".


She stuck two fingers up to the bigots by asking him to dance during "ladies' choice". His name was Michael.
"I never thought someone like him, with his background and education and breeding, would be interested in someone like me," she told me years later. Soon after they met, she was pregnant.
She agonised over what to do all through her pregnancy and was petrified of the reaction of her devoutly Catholic and much-respected parents, and so the family was told I had died in the delivery room.
'Not for adoption'
The lengthy official registration ledger at the home, which I saw in 2006, had only one notable detail about my arrival: "Not for adoption" was Mum's instruction.
A year later she took me home, thereby saving me from a life of institutional care as black babies were never chosen for adoption.
All of her family and friends believed I would make up for the child Mum had "lost".
My father, meanwhile, had retreated back to his own wife and family in south Belfast and we never had any contact.
He eventually left Northern Ireland in the early years of the Troubles but all through my life and particularly in the year before her death in 2004, Mum urged me to find him.

I grew up in a republican family and, even when little, I was subjected to racist hostility and abuse from the endless British army patrols.
One of my earliest memories of the "Brits" was a foot patrol of Scottish soldiers shouting terrible racist insults at me with considerable ferocity as I stood in the back garden of my home.
Given that I was about six years old at the time, it was nothing short of child abuse.
A woman soldier with blonde hair shouted at them to "stop it". She made an apologetic gesture to me as her patrol headed on their way. Her decency made me smile then and still does.
In an almost exclusively white city, the only black people I ever saw were nervous-looking black soldiers.
I too was nervous, as their brothers-in-arms used to make racist jokes the second they saw me - the "weak link" in a hostile community.
Irish people, using the same "weak link" rationale, called the black soldiers "nigger" or "coon".
Even my Irish accent made me a target for the Brits. Often they would ask me my name or simply just order me to "say something" to confirm that I had an Irish accent.

If I spoke, it became a source of great hilarity for the Brits and considerable humiliation for me.
They physically assaulted me on numerous occasions when I was a teenager and they called a girl I was seeing a "nigger lover".
For her part, Mum scrupulously made sure I did nothing to confirm the prevalent racist stereotypes.
When I was three years old, she trailed me into the house by the arm after catching me urinating by our garden gate in case neighbours assumed that black people knew no better.
As a teenager she stopped me going back to work in a club because they had me mopping the men's toilets, exposing me to more "jokes" from the drunken clubbers.
I decided to study politics at Liverpool Polytechnic. It would expose me to a city with a large black population and I could enjoy the electrifying sight of John Barnes, Liverpool's first black signing, dazzle the Kop.

In reality Liverpool, like Belfast, was a segregated city, with black people almost invisible. They rarely ventured beyond the Toxteth area.
I, meanwhile, began to emphasise my Irishness as the war at home went through one of its more surreally violent phases beginning with the IRA being undone by the SAS in Gibraltar.
I graduated in July 1990 and returned to Belfast for a break.
While I was home alone one evening, two IRA men knocked on the door. They were looking to leave some weapons on our property overnight before moving them on. An informer tipped off the police and I ended up in jail.
Blacks have not played a major part in the history of the republican struggle. While serving a seven-year sentence for possession of guns and explosives, I was the only black man in the H-Blocks among several hundred IRA men.
Transformed atmosphere
Racism was hardly an issue as it was the most left-wing environment I've ever been in - and I studied at Liverpool Polytechnic.
My release came a year into the IRA ceasefire in 1994 and I decided to capitalise on the transformed atmosphere by aiming for a career in the media. I didn't expect to get very far.
I enrolled in a basic training course and was stunned to find myself reporting local news for GMTV's Northern Ireland bureau only months after my release.
My first story was about the Belfast reaction to the IRA bomb at Canary Wharf. A few years later, a stint at a local newspaper earned me a Best New Journalist of the Year award.
My success meant Mum was keener than ever for me to find my father, although I was still reluctant as I was proud of my Irish family and identity. Mum died in 2004 after a year-long battle with cancer.
By 2006, a chance to realise her last wish became too good to ignore. Working with BBC Radio 4, I began to search for my father.
Mum's foresight in the 1960s paid off for me. She gave me my father's surname as my middle name and she somehow got his name onto my birth certificate, even though in those days it was illegal to have the father's name included unless the parents were married.
We met in Ghana in July and got on famously under African skies. Further meetings are likely. I wish Mum was around to hear about it, but I'm telling her now, I suppose.
It's My Story: Where Are You Really From? will be broadcast on Thursday 16 August at 2000 BST on BBC Radio 4.

Rumours abound that Bertie is to use one of his Taoiseach's picks to appoint Eoghan Harris to the Senate.

This story was carried in the Tribune yesterday but is missing from the online version, instead being replaced by a story of British soldiers dreaming up ways to shave of the Beard.



Ulster troop's websites a "bloody disgrace"...
Robert Carry writing in today's Metro Eireann (ie the Dublin edition of the paper) follows the story of some of the Bebo photos dug up on Aughavey's thread on the satirical march in Basra by members of the Irish Guards. A lot of what was displayed there went well beyond the bounds of satire.
By Robert Carry
BRITISH soldiers from Northern Ireland currently serving in Iraq have been using the internet social networking service Bebo to display a host of shocking images in which
they abuse Iraqi civilians and appear to mock the hanging of Saddam Hussein, Metro
Eireann can exclusively reveal. The soldiers are believed to belong to the 1st Battalion Irish Guards – a regiment of the British Army known for its large number of recruits from
Northern Ireland. Some of the soldiers have also posted images showing support for loyalist paramilitary terror groups and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
The first images came to light after a Co Antrim soldier (Soldier A) posted onto his Bebo page a number of pictures showing a 12 July Orange Order-style march involving a group of troops, held in their barracks in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
Further examination of the soldier's Bebo page revealed that Soldier A had also posted images in support of loyalist gangs responsible for sectarian attacks – one depicting what looked to be a loyalist gunman with an Ulster flag behind him.
Among his other pictures was a soldier smiling with his head tilted inside a hangman's noose, in what resembled a re-enactment of the hanging of Saddam Hussein.
The Bebo pages of some of Soldier A's colleagues serving in the Irish Guards revealed racist, homophobic, sexist and sectarian symbols and statements, as well as images and comments abusive to Iraqi citizens.
A second soldier (Soldier B) displayed a photo of a group of Iraqi children with the caption "gimps" on his webpage, alongside a logo representing the banned loyalist terror group, the Ulster Volunteer Soldier B had another picture of what appeared to be a British soldier getting an Iraqi civilian to hold a sign saying: "I f**k sheep when I'm not busy mortaring the base".
A third Northern Ireland-born British soldier serving in Iraq (Soldier C) stated on his page that he is happiest when "drinking with the lads or when I have pulled and killing dirty ragheads". Soldier C also prominently displayed a statement which read: "It isnt Rape if you shout Suprise. its only suprise sex haha." In a list of his dislikes he stated: "gays fuckn poofs need a 9mm round to the back of the head."
One of the photos on Soldier C's page showed him sitting in full uniform, fully armed, with the caption "don't run – you'll only die tired" underneath. He also displayed a photo of a group of KKK members and further loyalist paramilitary related another alarming series of pictures which appeared to show a group of soldiers tying a distressed-looking fellow solider to a post with bright orange tape.
A fourth soldier (Soldier D) decorated his personal webpage by daubing swastikas with the Neo-Nazi slogan "Blood and Honour". In the introduction to his page he wrote: "alrite im 27 and in iraq on a 7 month tour of this beautiful country the people are lovely and would do anything for ya im just bull shittin they are a shower of c**ts."
A fifth soldier (Soldier E), who served in Northern Ireland as well as in Iraq, displayed a photo in which he posed in full uniform under a billboard of the 10 republican prisoners who died on hunger strike in 1981, which he labelled "Kill All Taigs" ('Taigs' meaning Irish Catholics). He also had various other loyalist imagery displayed.
A sixth soldier (Soldier F) had the phrase "Kill all Taigs and Arabs" displayed prominently on his page and had a photograph of a dead body, believed to be of a murdered South American gang member, among his pictures.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) instructed the 1st Battalion Irish Guards regiment in Basra to conduct an immediate investigation into the scandal after Metro Eireann informed them of the content.
A spokesperson initially requested that Metro Eireann "withhold publication". Later, Lt Col Nick Richardson told Metro Eireann through the MOD press office that the
British army "has a policy of zero tolerance towards all kinds of prejudice, sectarianism, harassment and bullying and absolutely does not condone any such behaviour of any kind."
He continued: "We are aware of the comments that have been placed on this website, appropriate measures have already been taken and an investigation is underway – it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."
Metro Eireann understands that the investigation will be headed by the military police. However, despite the fact that the MOD was informed of the material displayed on the soldiers' web pages on 18 July, at which time the organisation stated that it was to take "immediate" action, most of the shocking images and statements were still available to view four days later.
During the time it took the MOD to take action, a seventh soldier had copied the image of an armed British soldier attempting to humiliate an Iraqi civilian by getting him to have his photo taken while holding a derogatory sign, and posted it on his Bebo page.
Metro Eireann gained access to the Bebo pages of a total of 11 serving British soldiers from Northern Ireland, most of whom were linked as 'friends' on the website - just four had no such content. Sources in the British army have described the actions of the men as "appalling" and a "bloody disgrace".

Was just on the Setanta site there trying to sort out my viewing while abroad and it seems now that Setanta expect people to subscribe to this without telling them what games that will be broadcast. Away and feck!!

As Central Council seem to be making all of the running on this, all Board members are invited to take part in the poll.

Got a mail today with a preview of a website to be launched soon dealing with the 'Shoot To Kill' incidents in the early 80's. Some of you may remember it through the enquiry headed by John Stalker, which although had it's report suppressed, he later gave us a glimpse in memoirs of how the state police were prepared to murder and collude with murderers in order to hit back at the natives:

http://www.banuanlae.org/

[Nigerian man to be elected as Portlaoise town mayor]

Nigerian man to be elected as Portlaoise town mayor
Thursday, June 28, 2007

Ireland is reportedly set to get its first-ever black mayor today, with a Nigerian man expected to be elected as the head of Portlaoise town council.

Forty-three-year-old Rotimi Adebari arrived in Ireland seven years after fleeing religious persecution in his homeland along with his wife and two children.

He has been a councillor in Portlaoise since 2004 and reports this morning say he is set to be elected as mayor this afternoon under a pact between Fine Gael, Sinn Fein and independent councillors.

Mr Adebari has set up a consultancy company that trains other organisations in cross-cultural awareness and also works for Laois County Council co-ordinating an integration project for local immigrants.

Seem to remember a thread here before. Anyone know the best deals for a two week stay?

[British army to close Bessbrook base]

Counties Armagh and Tyrone now officially Brit free zones. Time now to get the Glocks of the state sanctioned paramilitaries and have Garnerville shut down for good.


British army to close Bessbrook base

Another major milestone in Northern Ireland's return to normality will be reached when the last British soldiers are pulled out of South Armagh today.
The British army is closing down its last base in the border region at Bessbrook.
At the height of the troubles, Bessbrook boasted the busiest heliport in Europe, but the last flight took place at the weekend.
The pretty 19th century model village, which became home to the military, is also where the last solider was killed by the Irish Republican Army.
Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick was shot dead by a sniper while operating a security checkpoint in 1997. He was the last of 763 military personnel to die in Northern Ireland.
The withdrawal from Bessbrook is one of the last high-profile events before the army ends its official role of supporting the police in Northern Ireland on July 31st.
Operation Banner has been the longest single campaign in British military history, stretching back more than 35 years to the early 1970s.
Where once there were more than 30,000 troops in Northern Ireland, there are currently 5,600 army and RAF personnel and that will reduce to no more than 5,000 by the end of next month.
At one point, there were 104 military bases in the country but there are now less than 20 and that too is set to fall further in the coming weeks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/stateofminds/rapidresponsetest.shtml

"Catholic with pleasant. Protestant with unpleasant: 1.231 seconds
Protestant with pleasant. Catholic with unpleasant: 1.103 seconds

By responding more quickly to associating Protestants with pleasant this has indicated you have a preference towards Protestants

Thank you for your participation. Please press Enter to return to the start of the test."

Click on 'Group Scores' and type in 'OWC'

http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/

Presumably after five pages, everyone has had their say. Any chance of un-sticking that thread above now (Liverpool United mudslinging and standards in general.), or at least change the title – it's a bit irritating for those of us with no interest in soccer.

The two Chiefs have just arrived up at Stormont. The press coverage is quite amusing at the minute with every sort of clown getting airtime in order to claim the credit for bringing about this "historic" day. On RTE we have McDowell again proclaiming his republican credentials and "bigging up" (as they might say over on OWC) Liz O'Donnell. On BBC there's Brid acclaiming St John Hume and Tony Blair. Over on Slugger, it's Trimble getting the plaudits while on the Nolan show earlier it was Papa Doc.

Personally, I reckon it was the vision of John Hume, Martin Mansergh and Alec Reid that put it together with Gerry Adans putting most on the line to end the conflict with most of the unionists having been dragged along kicking and screaming by Mo Mowlam.

So who do you think deserves most credit?

From the University of Cambridge:

Modern Irish will this week officially become the newest subject available at the University of Cambridge – marking both its establishment as an EU working language, and rising enthusiasm for Irish studies as a whole.

The Irish government is funding new classes in modern Irish at Cambridge to commemorate it becoming the 23rd working language of the EU.

The subject will be launched on Wednesday, May 2nd, in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic (ASNC). The Irish ambassador, Dáithí Ó Ceallaigh, will be among the guests, and the acclaimed Gaelic poet, Dr Louis de Paor, will give a celebratory reading.

The launch means that Cambridge is the first English university to teach both modern and medieval forms of the language. Uniquely, it is also the only university anywhere that allows students to study Irish in its wider context as one of a network of ancient languages and cultures that together define the heritage of the British Isles.

Academics also hope that the classes will help reinforce an understanding of Irish identity not just within Ireland itself, but among the enormous Irish Diaspora beyond its shores. Although the language is spoken in certain regions of the Irish Republic and is a familiar part of the school curriculum, modern Ireland is in a state of cultural change, with new waves of immigrants arriving from countries such as Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Dr Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, senior lecturer in Celtic languages and literature for the University, said: "Ireland is going through an era of rapid cultural change, in which it is particularly easy to lose track of where one comes from. As we move into more of a distinctively European future, the study of Irish has the potential to be a positive aspect of identity.

"Learning Irish need not be related to ethnicity or family background, however. One of the main reasons for setting up classes at Cambridge is to stress that the study of Irish is of value for anyone interested in it for whatever reason."

Increasingly, Irish studies are also seen as having an important part to play in the understanding of European history and culture. In the Middle Ages, Ireland was Christianised at an early stage. Its learned classes also began to produce texts in the vernacular (as opposed to Latin) in the 6th or 7th centuries – hundreds of years before the Germans or French began to write in their own languages. Many of these early scholars also travelled widely in Europe, leaving behind religious texts and legal, literary and historical documents that tell us about European, as well as Irish culture.

The government funding has enabled the University to employ a modern Irish teacher, Dr Kaarina Hollo, who has already begun Irish classes at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels as well as informal Irish conversation sessions for enthusiasts. The course also involves the study of Irish poems, short stories, newspaper articles and Irish-language films and television programmes.

"By giving this grant to ASNC in Cambridge, the Irish government is recognising the long tradition of Irish in the department and elsewhere in Cambridge," Dr Ní Mhaonaigh added. "We have a long history of work in Irish studies and a high degree of interest among the student body.

"In addition, it is sending a message that Irish need not be only for the Irish, but anyone who has an interest in Irish heritage, culture, or a love of the language itself."