Issue 057, Saoirse : Irish Freedom (January, 1992)

              40p usa 24 per year uimh 57 eanair - january 1992 372,000 unemployed at the beginning of 1992 372,000 people are out o1 work in ireland north and south when we joined the ec in 1973 less than 100,000 people were jobless and fianna fail taoiseach jack lynch said that any governmem that let unemployment go over that figure would de serve to be put out of office radical measures are obviously needed ireland 1992 — periphery or nation ? 	 pages 6-7 	 toll mounts british forcesi withdraw for loyalist death squads 1991 ended and the new year commenced with two sectarian attacks by loyalist death squads in the six counties which claimed the lives of two nationalists and provided further evidence of close co-operation between their killers and the british crown forces on friday evening january 3 the uvf shot dead kevin mckearney 32 seriously injured his 70-year-old uncle jack and wounded a ten-year-old girl in and outside the family butcher shop in moy co tyrone five miles outside armagh the attack took place at around 5pm and local people reported that british crown forces maintained a heavy presence in the town until about 4pm on the friday afternoon the mckearneys are a well-known republican family and have previously lost two sons in the struggle for irish freedom but kevin mckearney was not politically involved a father of four young children he worked each day in his father's shop making him a soft target only the courageous action of his elderly uncle saved from harm other members of the family who were present twelve days before on sunday decem ber 22 the devenish arms pub on finaghy road north belfast was attack ed shortly after 2pm when a uff gun man opened fire on the crowded snooker hall and public bar a 22-year-old man aidan wallace was shot dead and the gunman deliberately singled out an eight-year-old boy christopher lawless and shot him in the face as he lay under devenish arms pub belfast - british checkpoint removed suddenly on the morning uff launched a gun attack killing one man a snooker table he is critically ill in hospital two other men were wounded in the incident disappearance again local people outside the pub complained about the sudden disappear ance of a nearby british crown forces checkpoint from the route out of west belfast used by the escaping uff killers the checkpoint was in operation 24 hours-a-day for three weeks prior to the attack and was only removed on the sunday morning this pattern of collusion by with drawing from an area to allow in loyalist death squads to strike with ease was evident last year in the assassination by the uvf of four men at boyle's pub in cappagh co tyrone on march 3 the killers were confident enough to track | one man down and shoot him outside the | building after having shot three people outside in a car how without being in close collusion with the british crown forces could 1 the loyalist death squads in all these incidents be confident 1 that the patrols and checkpoints were being removed and removed for a sufficient length of time to allow them to act and 2 . that the checkpoints were not being set up a short distance away on the same route intercepting their getaway ? • kevin mckearney