Issue 156, Saoirse: Irish Freedom (April, 2000)

              uimh 156 aibrean — april 2000 wear an easter lily honour ireland's dead easter lilies now available 25.00 per 1,000 easter 1916 ceremonies in ireland england and the us on page 7 inside all areas should send reports and photographs of ceremonies to saoirse immediately after easte y • republican sinn fein president ruairi 6 brddaigh cosmetic justice review proposals in a statement on march 30 ruairi 6 bradaigh president republican sinn fein said that media reports so far on the review of the criminal justice system in the six counties do not indicate what is proposed with regard to the diplock courts there where a single judge without a jury tries political cases under special rules of evidence the statement continued the review is another attempt to ameliorate english rule in ireland and make it more acceptable nationally and internationally like the patten report on the ruc it is part of the modern version of killing home rule with kindness republican sinn fein seeks to eradicate english rule here not to update it already unionist voices are raised against the report of the review with jeffrey donaldson saying it will go the same way as patten indicating that the uuc may well block some of its recommendations changes in symbols will be confined to the courtroom itself with none outside of it british justice will simply continue to be administered to the mere irish with the union jack flying over the courthouses as usual other alterations in the system will be simply cosmetic with the usual token representation of castle catholics such as obtained in all of ireland before 1922 plus qa change . . . the more things change under british rule the more they remain the same he concluded the review published by a british government group as part of the stormont agreement contains some 294 recommendations the pat finucane centre has two main reservations about the review while broadly welcoming the recommendations published today by the criminal justice review group we are concerned that some of the recommendations are not to be implemented until after both the re-establishment of the institutions set up under the good friday agreement and the subsequent devolution of judicial functions this effectively gives a veto to unionists over implementation in addition to this we are concerned that the two month consultation period originally envisaged has now been extended to six months raising the prospect of the recommendations not being made law until some time around the end of next year the suspicion here is that this extension is due again to unionist insistence this time from within the criminal justice system trimble mortally wounded cabhair depeiuiakfo fund wut ckpetetd vimh 2000 itciade kitty o*btu»c wuwtot fled waif 9 2000 & wwtc ty patoy fattd!t & e cwcica££tj feflt ticket 0 • david trimble — his neck is now on the line the result of the ulster unionist council meeting on march 25 inflicted a double blow on the uup leader david trimble which may yet prove fatal he survived the leadership challenge of the rev martin smyth but the 57 to 43 vote has seriously damaged his position at the head of the unionist party the anti stormont agreement unionists greeted the result in belfast's king's hall with undisguised joy and shouts of resign resign in addition trimble's room for political manoeuvre was further limited by the passing of the motion from david burnside linking any resumption of the stormont executive to the retention of the ruc name that trimble is now severely weakened some would say a lame-duck leader is highlighted by the fact that the young unionist vote was wholly opposed to his leadership even his own supporters were suggesting before the vote that if smyth took more than 42 trimble's position would be untenable they were predicting a much lower percentage for the south belfast mp the vote result means that the ground is already being prepared for further leadership challenges by jeffrey donaldson or william ross the unionist tactic of continuously upping the ante to scupper the stormont agreement has been successful once again david trimble warned in his april 5 speech that a political agreement could be postponed for a number years unless the issue of a surrender of arms was resolved in the next few weeks he recognises that the marching season immediately follows the arms deadline of may 22 and particularly the second anniversary of the continuing loyalist siege of the garvaghy road residents outside portadown further down the road elections in the 26 counties and the six counties in the next 1 8 months will seethe unionist and constitutional nationalist parties hardening their positions time is running out for the stormont agreement as well as for david trimble the uup's calls on the british government to slow down the implementation of the patten report until the stormont executive was functioning again is an admission that their leader is in serious trouble the british supremo peter mandelson's move to immediately restart talks between the garvaghy road residents and local orangemen is the british response designed to help the ailing unionist leadership as republicans gather this month to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the 1916 rising we reiterate the position of the men and women of easter week there can be no accommodation with british rule in ireland the alternative to the constitutional nationalism of leinster house and stormont - which failed again in february 2000 - lies in rejecting british rule and the unionist veto and mobilising the people to end english interference in our country and build a new ireland eire nua