Issue 065, Saoirse : Irish Freedom (September, 1992)

              kjimh 65 mean fomhair - september 1992 40p usa 24 per year unemployed the jobless total in the 26 counties rose by 10,400 at the beginning of august and by 5,826 in the six counties making a total of 400,819 people out of work in the 32 counties in the south 94,410 under 25s are out of work yet the state is blaming the ^ unemployed for the crisis see below danny cassidy unemployed are blamed for jobs crisis ! the month of august has seen a spate of redundancies announced in the 26 counties which will bring the unemployment total up to the 300,000 mark for the first time ever this september in the space of two days at the end of august the following job losses were announced • 67 at coillte the 26-county state forestry firm • 125 at pulse engineering in tuam • 100 at at cross in ballinasloe since reversed • 40 at smith and nephew dublin • 138 at airmotive dublin an aer lingus subsidiary • 100 at wang in limerick earlier waterford glass said they wanted to axe 500 jobs and 1,000 more jobs are at risk in three other firms along with this nose-dive in industrial employment has come a climate of blaming the unemployed for the crisis charlie mccreevy is doing his bit as dublin minister for social welfare to create this climate by announcing that social welfare payments are to be means tested and instructing community welfare officers not to help people with esb or gas bills more than once a year and to restrict any assistance to less than 100 the combat poverty agency state that the cuts in esb and gas bill assistance will affect the most vulnerable people — women rearing children on their own and married couples with children brian hillery chairperson of the leinster house committee on unem ployment hinted at introducing compul sory work for dole payments around the same time all these indicators point to the same thatcherite policy that failed in britain during the 1980s it reveals a state that has no answer to the unemployment crisis except to wait for emigration to pick up again when the recession lifts in britain ger many and the usa in the meantime its find a scapegoat time and the unem ployed will do very nicely thank you fresh evidence of continuing collusion between british crown forces and loyalist death squads came to light on september 1 with the leaking to an antrim newspaper by the uvf of a british army intelligence photo montage of 20 republican suspects which includes the name of a co derry man shot dead last april on the following day it was learned that eight people in the downpat rick kilcoo and castle wellan areas of south down were also named on leaked british intelligence files describing mr cassidy as an innocent man bishop daly said that in the murder of danny cassidy as well as in many other murders here in the north in recent years there is clear evidence that the victim suffered constant cruel and public harassment and humiliation from some units of the police . . . this activity is wrong and unjust and it must stop with the leaking of the photo-montage containing danny cassidy's name and photograph it is clear that loyalist death squads knew he was a british intelligence suspect this incident recalls the killing by the uff/uda of loughlin maginn in rath friland co down on august 25 1989 four days afterwards the loyalist killers showed a bbc reporter a british intell igence photo-montage and a video con taining details on mr maginn files on nationalists began appearing systemat ically all over the north and the uda the antrim guardian received a photo copy of the british army photo-montage dated december 1991 on which has been handwritten kill all taigs and we know ...**. it was sent to the paper by someone claiming to be from the north and south antrim brigade of the uvf and it has been acknowledged as authentic by the british the document bears the names photo graphs and dates of birth of 20 men from the toome south derry and east tyrone areas the fourth name on the list was that of the kilrea man danny cassidy 40 who was shot dead by the uff/uda in his car in kilrea on april 2 1992 his wife emmanuelle cassidy informed the media at the time that her husband had been told by ruc divis ional mobile support unit members less than three hours before he was shot that he would be killed she denied the uff/uda claims that mr cassidy was a commanding officer of the ira in south derry and stated that the ruc were in direct collusion with those who killed her husband a father of four children in the same week before he was killed the ruc divisional mobile support unit had twice stopped her husband in the diamons and threatened his life in the presence of witnesses in the first incident he had his arm twisted up behind his back and was thrown against a pick-up truck cutting his hand one ruc man told him he would leave a hole in his head big enough to put his fist in she said pointed rifle in the second incident he was again told by members of the unit that he would be killed one ruc man stood pointing his rifle at danny's head for jht entire duration of the incident some 20 minutes at danny cassidy's funeral on april 5 bishop edward daly also linked the ruc to the killings saying that the undue attention paid to him by some units of police was a factor even plastered them on walls in belfast inquiry after a file was reported missing from dunmurry ruc barracks an inquiry was set up headed by the english police chief john stevens the result of this inquiry after eight months was a white wash for the british crown forces and the uda double agent brian nelson uncovered in the process was silenced in a plea-bargaining exercise in court last january thus ensuring that embarrassing details of british intelligence operations in collusion with loyalist paramilitaries were saved from the exposure of a long trial can we expect a repeat of the stevens inquiry charade following these latest leaks ? the claim by uda sources sun day press august 16 that british intell igence directed these operations for at least a decade and the revelations about the future research unit see inside page 3 of the british army in the past month merely add to the litany of evidence that the loyalist death squads are hand-in-glove with british crown forces they are the two sides of the one coin — british terror in ireland