Issue 086, Saoirse : Irish Freedom (June, 1994)

              irish uimh 86 meitheamh - june 1994 50p usa 75c ritish army death list in an obvious attempt to place the personal details of more than 200 belfast residents into the hands of british-backed death squads british army intelligence files were dropped along a main road in the west of the city during may a short time later local people saw a well-known loyalist death squad member acting suspiciously close to the scene where the files had already been spotted and picked up by a member of the public who then handed them over to republican sinn fein 383,500 unemployed despite the spate of new jobs announcements throughout the 32 counties timed to coincide with the ec elections on june 9 the official jobless figures remain as dire as ever 99,000 in the six counties and 284,500 in the 26 counties 200-250 jobs are to be axed in killarney alone with the decision by pretty polly to cut its workforce by half the dossier provides fresh evidence of collusion between british forces and loyalist death squads as well as additional written proof of a british army shoot-to-kill policy the documents consisting of a total of 1 6 plastic-covered pages were found by an alert member of the public near the westlink motorway turn-off at the foot of the falls road the quick-thinking passer-by immediately alerted the organisation and handed over the files the dossier contains the personal details of 214 individuals mostly from west belfast included in the list are provisional sinn fein president gerry adams falls councillor tom hartley and several other members of that organisation also listed separately are over 20 members of the falls taxi association it is extremely sinister that this special section on the black taxi drivers is quite detailed and up to date given the current loyalist onslaught against fta members . thefta has paidaterrible price forproviding an invaluable service to the nationalist people of belfast and republican sinn fein salutes the courage of the drivers and their families in the face of such terror a couple of days after the discovery of the files a nephew of one of the men named in it was shot dead in ardoyne north belfast by the uda uff british-backed death squad martin bradley 23 ) was shot dead in his aunt s home in crumlin road on may 12 as he cradled his one-year-old nephew in his arms the uda/uff admitted afterwards that its intended target was someone else shoot-to-kill hi a statement the mckelvey/steele cumann republican sinn fein belfast said we accuse cont on page 2 wolfe tone commemoration bodenstown june 12 1994 sallins co kildare 2.30pm speaker tommy mckearney tyrone dublin bus leaves virgin megasiore aston qusy l.tfiptv 3 return 214 names in collusion dossier leaked british intelligence files - divided into different pages according to colour of car driven by individuals no all-ireland referendum - spring dick spring dublin minister for foreign affairs told an irish times correspondent at the conference on stability in europe in paris on may 26 last that if there is a satisfactory agreement which is acceptable to both the people of the north and the people of the south then you seek validation of that agreement by referendum north and south.//1 won t be an all-ireland referendum since the island is divided british direct ruler patrick mayhew had the same message inhisnewyork speech of april 12 last the decision in the six-county referendum would be the decisive one he said both dublin and london have plainly agreed in the downing street declaration that the unionist veto remains and that the british presence remains in a two-state divided ireland the last all-ireland referendum was in 1 9 1 8 when 70 per cent of the people of the 32 counties voted for the all-ireland republic hi 1 973 when the border poll was taken in the six counties alone bothrepublican sinn fein and the sdlp called for a boycott the result of the poll was that 57.5 per cent of the electorate in the six counties supported the british presence the sdlp at the time said that the result proved nothing since everyone knew that there was a loyalist majority in the six counties hi 1 994 john hume and the sdlp are trying to tell the irish people that a partitionist referenda of the two parts of ireland is democratic when they dismissed the very same exercise as a con trick in 1973 republicans are more consistent than mr hume hi the easter statement 1994 from the leadership of republican sinn fein it was stated that we reject separate six and 26-county referenda with the britishremaining inlrelandand we give notice that we shall not abide by the results of such a charade equally the 1 91 6 proclamation stated in its second last paragraph until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent national government representative of the whole people of ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women the provisional government hereby constituted will administer the civil and military affairs of the republic in trust for the people accepting the game according to the downing streetdeclarationrulesmeansplayingwithmarked cards britainhasnorighttobeinlrelandandnever can have in the future as james connolly said the british-backed death squads and their political backers are clear on where they stand hi the uvf interview with the sunday tribune may 29 it was stated that a halt to the armed campaign by nationalists is not enough to secure a cessation by loyalists there must also be no future threat to the union . . the near-repetition of the carnage of the 1 974 dublin bombings almost 20 years to the day later by the uvf at the widow scallans pub in pearse street shows that the loyalist blackmail and violence in use since 1 9 1 2 is being repeated once again the bravery ofmartin doherty in tackling the uvf death squad as they primed their bomb certainly saved the lives of hundreds of people the best wishes of the vast majority of irish people would also be extended to the injured man paddy burke for a speedy recovery hi his first interview on rte since section 3 1 was suspended last january ruairi 6 bradaigh republican sinnfein president spokeof howthe joyalists admitted to him in discussions that if the british withdrew from ireland in spite of them their choice for a solution after independence would be the four-province federal solution it would allow them the most autonomy in an all ireland context this is the road to follow to full self determination for the irish people with the british pledged to leave the lesson of irish history over eighty years and the lesson of recent months in south africa is that the threats from any armed minority in the nation must not be conceded to if we are to have any realistic prospect of a just and lasting settlement for all the irish people