Issue 060, Saoirse : Irish Freedom (April, 1992)

              uimh 60 aibrean - april 1992 40p usa 24 per year nationalists count for nothing a series of murderous attacks and assassin ation attempts on the beleagured nationalist people of the six counties in recent weeks has been accompanied by a callous media indiff erence and a deafening silence from the polit icians and religious leaders who are so vocal when the british occupation forces are attacked the father of one re cent victim of the uvf loyalist death squad strongly criticised the brit ish administration politic ians and clergy in the six occupied counties at the end of march for their attempts to cover up the savage sectarian murder of his daughter anne-marie smyth 26 was taken from the glentoran supp orters club on the castle reagh road to a house in east belfast on the night of february 23 there she was tortured for two hours by up to eleven uvf members before they strangled her after she died her throat was cut and her body dumped on waste ground the media were immed iately given the impression by the british that it was a sexual assault her par ents knew this was untrue because of the patholog ical examination no political party nor church man catholic or protest ant said a word at the time marie's father frank said it took two weeks before any arrests took place and the truth about this sectarian killing be came known even then the politicians and clergy did not condemn it reaction frank smyth pointed to another aspect of the treatment of six-county nationalists when he told the sunday tribune on march 29 that the british nio minister brian maw hinney had said on tele vision that everything that loyalists did was a react ion to what was marie's murder a reaction that's what i'd like to know he said the inspired media will ingly goes along with this reaction line of the brit ish when 43-year-old terry mcconville was shot dead in his bed in port adown co armagh by the uvf on march 29 it was immediately linked by the media to the killing of an ruc member in newry co down the previous day that this was nonsense could be seen from the statement of a neighbour of the dead man who said as far as the uvf was concerned he was a taig that was enough reason for them other attacks on six county nationalists in the recent past were on the other hand almost com pletely ignored by the media the uff smashed their way into two nation alist homes and fired shots in west and north bel fast on the nights of march 22 and 23 last but this was not reported in the west's a wake while british occupation remains the national media since mid-january brit ish troops have been escal ating their harassment and abuse of young people throughout the six count ies large foot patrols of up to 30 british troops beating up nationalist teen agers in parts of belfast and tyrone has likewise not attracted the attention of the media similarly there was min imal attention given to the uff killing of nationalist liam mccartan in ardoyne on march 12 when he answered a knock on his door he was the 558th victim of loyalist british death squads in north belfast in the past 22 years it seems that if the assassination of a six county nationalist cannot be linked up with an attack on the british occ upation forces it will get little or no coverage in the establishment media north or south cabhair west county hotel chapelizod annual testimonial friday 15 may dinner and ceili j y 8pm wear an easter lily honour ireland's dead ! easter lilies now available 17.50 per 1,000 from peig king 29 all saints park raheny dublin 5 dumpim the west march 18 was another black day for the west of ireland with the announcement by the receiv er that the entire workforce of united meat packers - a total of 900 jobs - was being made redundant workers in ump plants at bally haunis ballaghadereen and sligo together with other workers in wexford cork and offaly face the dole-queue joining the other 280,000 unemployed in the 26 counties the eec has aggravated and exacerbated this neg lect of the west over the past 20 years a fact also brought out at the western seminars and this will be accelerated if the maas tricht referendum is passed the implications of being on the periphery of the periphery in a centralised european super state apply to the rest of ireland just as much as the western counties the neg lect and indifference of the west by successive dublin administrations would be replaced by a neglect of the whole 32 counties by a european union with its own mil itary arm for the first time in the western euro pean union weu conscription to a euro pean army fighting re source wars in the third world seems to be the only answer to mass unem ployment in ireland under the maastricht treaty 1992honorees sean o conchuir ulster tommy o neill leinster mossie higgins munster walter fitzgerald connacht jim maunseu usa please book your tickets early available from 13 aston place dublin 2 the developing the west together seminar being organised by the western catholic bishops conference since the end of last year have clearly identified that the key factor in securing jobs in the west is control of industry in the local area and in the hands of the local people news that the irish banks and in particular allied irish banks were not willing to lend money to ump reminded obser vers that the taxpayers had to bail out the aib to the tune of 563 million some years ago with the collapse of the insurance corporation of ireland goodman inter national was similarly giv en around 50 million from the public funds more recently when it was in difficulties the large companies will be saved is the message but the small firms can go to the wall