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Showing posts with label PSNI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PSNI. Show all posts
Tommy McKearney ☭ It has often been said that the nature of a country is reflected in the state of its prisons. We should add to that by including the nature of policing in any society.


Think, for example, of the Six Counties before the Good Friday Agreement and its police, the RUC, a force that epitomised the essence of the political entity it served: heavily armed, aggressive, and determined above all else to maintain unionist ascendancy, rather than a commitment to civil justice, an organisation well suited to the Northern Ireland state that had created it.

The successor to the RUC offers a similar insight into the condition of the North’s body politic, although from a somewhat different angle. The PSNI’s current casebook is reading more like a recurring soap opera than a coherent account of law and order in the field. And yet it would be unwise not to put this latest episode in the context of an armed organisation answerable to a failing political entity.

Let’s briefly recap.

In April this year PSNI documents that included a rough itinerary of President Joe Biden’s visit to Belfast were found lying in a street in the city. At the time a police spokesperson said an investigation into the breach was under way. Just so, you might say. Nevertheless, a mere two months after that a laptop and documents containing sensitive information about two hundred PSNI personnel were stolen from a parked car belonging to a senior member of the force.

Then, of course, came the spectacular accidental disclosure of ten thousand police names in early August. This gaff was followed by the news that yet another senior officer had blundered by setting a laptop and files on the rooftop of his car before driving off, scattering computer and documents across the M2 motorway.

Nevertheless, and in spite of this series of unsettling setbacks, the surefooted and steady chief constable, Simon Byrne, knew exactly what to do. Unselfishly cutting short his family holiday, he flew back to Belfast and immediately took advice from his PR consultants. Using the old stage magician’s stratagem of diverting attention from the core matter, Simon quickly gave a press conference and altered the focus. Rather than offering a credible explanation for the utter incompetence of his organisation, he solemnly informed his listeners that the leaked information was in the hands of those awful “dissidents.”

Fortunately for the chief constable, he was not left to shoulder all the responsibility alone. The cross-community, all-party body charged with supervising the activities of the PSNI and its management, the Policing Board, met and reaffirmed its confidence in the chief constable and his senior staff.

Worryingly, though, this farce is far from comical. The PSNI is a several thousand-strong armed body with a sometimes questionable record. While not nearly as toxic as its predecessor, there remain concerns relating to its impartiality as well as its competence.

Over a five-year period, 2016–2020, close to twice as many Catholics as Protestants were arrested and charged—and that was according to the PSNI’s own statistics.¹ As a spokesperson for the human rights group Committee on the Administration of Justice said at the time, the figures showed a stark disparity on the basis of community background.

Then there was the ominous disparity between the treatment of different protesting groups. In June 2020 seventy fines were handed out to Black Lives Matter demonstrators for allegedly breaching covid-19 containment regulations.² Six days later a Save Our Monuments protest in Belfast organised by British army veterans and loyalists passed off without the police issuing any fines.

It would be wrong, however, to view the practice of policing in the Six Counties as an aberration of itself, because this latest policing mess is not something out of keeping with how the administration of the Six Counties is functioning, or malfunctioning, to be more exact.

For starters, the devolved administration at Stormont is once again in lock-down, this time as a result of the DUP’s objections to the well-forecast and detailed implementation of Brexit. This was—difficult though it may now be to believe—a deal the party greatly favoured. Not only did it financially assist the leave campaign but thereafter it supported the Tory government’s “Get Brexit done.” Yet, as a recent article in the Financial Times put it, “the UK’s Brexiters pursued a form of Brexit and made promises that could only result in weakening Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom.”³

Let that sink in. The DUP, the largest unionist party in the North and supposedly a staunch advocate of the sovereignty of the British Parliament over Northern Ireland’s affairs, now stubbornly refusing to accept the House of Commons’ overwhelming vote in favour of the Windsor framework; a unionist party dedicated to maintaining the constitutional position of the Six Counties within the United Kingdom while in effect undermining this very objective.

The latest episode in the DUP’s continuing drama has echoes of the one affecting the PSNI. Recently the communiqué of the party leader, Jeffrey Donaldson, to his members was leaked to the media. Though probably leaked deliberately, it showed an organisation in deep disarray and one without a clear, agreed strategy on how to break out of its self-inflicted cul-de-sac.

All very amusing for those of us who don’t vote DUP, but only up to a point. The North now appears to many on the outside to be settled and peaceful almost to the point of being boring. Appearances, however, can be deceptive, and especially so in a contested space such as the Six Counties.

Rapidly changing demographics—as evidenced by the latest census, a Sinn Féin first minister elect, a British public and its government indifferent to Northern Irish affairs—are unsettling factors for a significant section of unionism, a section of the community agitated by such mundane happenings as bilingual road signage or GAA matches being broadcast on the BBC.

Consider, then, how much more disturbing for these people it would be if the first minister and her party’s reasonable request for a border poll were to be granted. Consider, then, the prospect of the armed PSNI under the command of its current management and supervised by the Northern Ireland Policing Board dealing with a situation such as that.

1/ Maybe now you can see why policing is still no laughing matter in the North. Rory Winters, “Almost twice the number of Catholics than Protestants arrested by PSNI,” Irish Times, 10 December 2021.
2 Julian O’Neill, “PSNI chief ‘sorry’ over policing at Black Lives Matter protests,” BBC News, 22 December 2020.
3/ Stephen Bush, “British neglect risks Northern Ireland’s future,” Financial Times, 16 August 2023.


Tommy McKearney is a left wing and trade union activist. 
Follow on Twitter @Tommymckearney 

Policing No Laughing Matter In The North

Kate Yo ✍with a piece based on a Crime World podcast from Nicola Tallant.

County Lines is where illegal drugs are transported from one area to another, often across police and local authority boundaries (although not exclusively), usually by children or vulnerable people who are coerced into it by gangs - National Crime Agency

A boy is missing. He had told his mum that he was going to meet some friends at Cavehill.

He was a compliant child with a strong relationship with his mother. He always kept in touch with her when out. As the day wore on with no word from him, his mother Fiona Donohoe went and got a friend to come with her to look for him in the Cavehill area at 7pm on Sunday 18 June 2020. It happened to be Father's Day but Fiona was a single parent and this is thought to be of no consequence to Noah's investigation. 

At 8pm mom Fiona called the police to report her boy missing. To their credit the PSNI already had a car in the area and were able to respond within minutes. On the Monday the child's bike is found and an investigation began. The police were treating this as a missing person case. They looked at CCTV of him leaving his Fitzroy Avenue home, on his bike with his bag on his back. He's seen again in the Queens Quarter coming out of one street without his bag. There is CCTV footage of him where - instead of going his usual route - he takes a detour. He is seen again in the Tigers Bay and Northwood Road area. This is not an area where young Catholic boys would be found. It's noted that a young boy, naked - abandoning his bike on a Sunday afternoon - and no calls were reported to police. A peculiarity of the north of Ireland as communities here are still hesitant to call the police. Old scars run deep.

On Monday the 18th his bike is found. The police in the CCTV could see that he was not followed, and didn't have a hunted look about him: they are still treating this as a missing person case. In fact they offer the bike to the family but they refuse to take it back, seeing it as evidence. The police then left the bike outside the police station in pouring rain, losing any forensics on it. At one junction the boy is seen to fall off his bike. The trauma of the fall hitting his head led to speculation about the possibility of mental health issues. The helmet he was wearing was not dusted for prints or forensically treated either. Donal MacIntyre has seen this helmet, and also knew that the mother had reported him being a bit out of sorts in the few days leading up to his disappearance. But there were no mental health issues before this. Interestingly one expert found that people who run away during a mental health episode usually travel in a flat or downward position. Part of Noah's journey was uphill. This suggests that Noah was going somewhere by request.


In Norwood Road one person reported that Noah was seen taking off his top. His clothes were found in one area but scattered over a few houses. One person picked them up and placed them outside one house. Even at this stage the PSNI are still treating this as a missing person case and stored the clothes in an open bag at the police station where any officer could walk to look or rummage through them, again leading to a loss of any forensic value. Donal MacIntyre says it is unforgivable that a naked child abandons his bike on a Sunday afternoon and the PSNI did not have the wit to bag the clothes and put them away for forensic examination. According to police this naked very slim boy then dashed behind houses where there was a storm drain with a heavy lock, and opened it to get inside.

The child's body does not support this. Except for some minor scratches on his knees and feet, Noah's body was in a pristine condition. This drain was like a tunnel underground going all the way down under Crusaders football ground and then down the Shore Road toward Belfast Lough. In the upper part of the drain the water was pure mountain water but as it went downward it became contaminated from sewage overflow. Noah's death is recorded as drowning, but no water was taken from where he was found to compare with the water in his lungs. A high ranking officer was photographed by a journalist with a long lens looking down a manhole two days before Noah was found nearby, leading to a theory the police were running a shadow investigation. However the police said that this officer was only there to encourage the troops.

Two and a half years later the police release to the family lawyers information that they have footage of Noah leaving his home around 3am and was gone for thirty five minutes. He left home wearing M&S flip flops and earphones but returned home without them. Obviously this has been known to the police very early on when Noah had first gone missing. Why then was there not a public appeal at that time?

There are questions also to be asked about the Coroner. He came out in August 2020 and said there was no evidence of a third party, and we may never know what happened resulting in it being recorded as death by misadventure. In 2020 the coroner commissioned an Oxford university expert for a psychological assessment of this. But he did not include this new evidence of Noah leaving home. This in turn disenfranchised the expert report. Did the coroner leave out this primary evidence knowingly, or was it also not released to him?

One police officer that was involved in the Stephen Lawrence case said that this kind of policing does not inspire trust and opens the door to conspiracy theorists. Chris Driscoll went on to say if you cannot tell the family something due to operational reasons then tell the family that. This is what he did with the Lawrences and they understood that. Tell them - they will find out in due course. This is the kind of policing that inspires trust. Surely due to the history of the PSNI you would think they'd rather have this kind of policing - open and transparent - but they failed to do even basic police work. The family had nothing to do with this child's death so why hide this evidence from them for over two and a half years?

Donal MacIntyre says that he has no doubt the PSNI will try to ambush the inquest with more evidence that will upset the family. The result of all of this is that Noah did not get the investigation he deserved. Journalists will bring expert eyes on this and be able to investigate the investigation.

"Journalists can make a difference" - Donal Macintyre.

⏩Kate Yo is a Belfast book lover.

Did The PSNI Run A Shadow Investigation?

Anthony McIntyre ☠ The attempt on the life of a senior PSNI figure in Omagh has prompted a spurt in public discourse.

It was of a type we are familiar with from the era when there were endless crises in the peace process, most of them manufactured for political advantage. The process was too big a gravy train to be allowed to come off the rails. Crises just led to more gravy for more snouts to slurp around in. There was no serious existential threat to the process. Nor is there today.

In the aftermath of the Omagh shooting politicians and the media have fed into a moral panic not seen in the wake of a range of killings in the North, including a number that were investigated by the seriously injured cop: Natalie McNally, Mark Lovell, Shane Whitla and Ryan McNab. Abhorrence amplification notwithstanding, the fallout from the shooting of John Caldwell will be no more destabilising than the killings he had investigated. Northern society nor its peace is going to fall apart.

Every which way, this makes the attack on John Caldwell all the more purposeless. It has not advanced the ostensible republican goals of the people responsible one inch. All it has achieved is a reaffirmation from society that physical force republicanism is deeply unpopular; that whatever the wrongs of Northern society, killing is not the way to make things right.  

Whatever the demerits of the Provisional IRA guerrilla war against the British state - too numerous to mention - it could at least lay claim to some measure of popular support and legitimacy. There is no guerilla war being fought by republicans today. Just a reminder every so often that they haven’t gone away, and that every now and then they will attempt to kill someone for an end not discernible to anyone, perhaps not even themselves. 

The shooting of John Caldwell is as unpopular as the killing in Drogheda of the teenager Keane Mulready Woods. It brought similar sentiment onto the streets in protest. Claiming political motivation does not justify an attack or make it any more acceptable than an attack carried out for other reasons. It merely explains or worse excuses why it was done. A failure to understand why the bulk of others do not understand the logic of killing people is a sure indication of having lost the plot while retreating into a self referential tenebrous vault. The ideology of the cave cult and not that of the Cave Hill where traditional republicans sometimes trace their lineage to.  

Everybody who wants to shoot somebody else whether in a gangland way or out of fidelity to a homicidal ideology will rummage around for some sort of justification. It was said somewhere online today that as long as Britain remains in Ireland there will be armed resistance. That makes as much sense as claiming that while there are shops in Ireland there will be shoplifters. 

It requires a particular hatred to gun down somebody in front of their own child and the children of others. Everybody at the scene was targeted in some way. Ideological hatred, like its theological soulmate, is to be abjured.

A republicanism that does not have as a priority the preservation of life contributes nothing more to society than gangland. John Caldwell was gunned down while doing something useful by people doing something harmful. It is not hard to figure out where the sympathy vote will go.

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Gunned Down In Omagh

Mick Collins ✒ A small village in the heart of the Sperrin Mountains has become the centre of international attention because of a Canadian/US multination gold mining finance companies attempts to extract gold from the Sperrin Mountains near Greencastle. 

A planning inquiry is due to take place sometime in 2022 to examine the pros and cons of an intensive gold mine and processing factory near Greencastle. It is considered that should the planning inquiry and the Stormont Executive give the green light to the project near Greencastle then many more gold mines could be developed both north and south of Ireland. It is conceivable that up to twelve mines could be developed in County Tyrone, County Derry, County Cavan, County Monaghan and County Donegal.

The North of Ireland sits in a strange constitutional conundrum, the European/British EU protocol places Northern Ireland in a separate trading state, it is an agreement between Britain and Europe that raises serious and difficult questions as to the constitutional nature of the state. One particular area in relation to the governance of the North is policing. Policing has always been a contentious issue in the governance of the North since the creation of the Northern Ireland government in 1922. The Good Friday Agreement included arrangements to deal with policing. Many assume that policing of the North of Ireland is a devolved matter. This is far from the case. Policing Northern Ireland is tightly controlled by unelected civil servants in the Northern Ireland Office. The North of Ireland is considered by the Westminster government to be an ultra sensitive area deserving of special constructs and it is considered sacrosanct. As far as Westminster is concerned, policing will never be devolved where there are critical areas of national interest to be maintained and protected. This maintenance and protection comes at a cost in terms of democracy and what many citizens in European civil society take for granted. The North of Ireland throws up a distinctly undemocratic approach to policing.

In the Spring of 2017 a consignment of 15.000 tonnes of gold ore was sent by ship from the Port of Derry to the State of Washington USA and then on to a processing plant in Canada. It was the gold laden ore from an exploratory mine belonging to Dalradian Gold of Canada. The gold ore was extracted from an exploratory mine on the Camcosey Road near Greencastle, County Tyrone. It is believed by local residents opposed to gold mining in the area that the return on the gold ore consignment was very disappointing for Dalradian Gold. The company had trumpeted the potential reserves as world class. 

Policing costs bit hard into the profits on the gold ore consignment. An invoice was issued by the Police Service of Northern Ireland of approximately ₤435,000 for escort duties for blasting at the exploratory mine. During the ‘troubles’ there was no opportunity to use explosives at any potential gold deposits. The post Good Friday arrangements allowed for less paramilitary aggression against explosive escorts. The problem for Dalradian Gold was that escort costs were impinging deeply into any potential profits. Intensive gold mining offers marginal profit and it is the large scale intensive mining and processing that offers the opportunity to maximise profit. Another gold mining company Galantas Gold who mine about 12 miles from Greencastle were charged ₤150,000 for police escorts for blasting at its development at Cavanacaw. In April 2017 the share price of Galantas gold nearly collapsed because the PSNI stated that it could only offer escort duties twice a week at two hours per day. This was according to the PSNI because of restricted budgets and competing resources.

It was discovered in 2021 that after the gold mine companies challenged the escort charges the PSNI changed its policy and returned ₤150,000 to Galantas Gold. Dalradian Gold had never paid the ₤430,000 - the invoice was withdrawn by the PSNI. Galantas Gold who stated that it was uneconomic to mine with such high police charges were able to resume planned mining activities. In effect the change of policy from the PSNI created a subsidy for the mining companies. It is estimated that if the Dalradian project is given planning permission it will cost the PSNI several million pounds to provide escort duties for blasting. Other gold mines are earmarked across the north, the potential costs to the PSNI could exceed ₤50 million over the life of the mines or even more if full scale mining becomes endemic in the Northern Ireland.

How did the change of policy come about ? The responsibility for escorting explosives is not the statutory authority of the PSNI, it is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Office and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. There is then a very strong line of authority into the Cabinet Office at Whitehall in London. Locals opposed to the gold mine development at Greencastle believe that a private deal was brokered at the highest political levels to facilitate free police escorts for Canadian gold mining companies. Many believe that the Canadian government could have influenced the decision. Mining interests, it is believed, have a direct and unimpeded line into the present Tory administration in London. Subsidising off-shore gold mine companies could have fallen foul of subsidy directives from the EU. Since Brexit these directives are not applicable in the UK. 

If an arrangement to facilitate free escorts for blasting in gold mines develops further it will put considerable strain on already limited policing budgets. The community of the North of Ireland will suffer reduced resources in other key areas of policing. Given the restrictions on spending from Whitehall it is highly unlikely that the Northern Ireland Office or the Whitehall based Cabinet Office will underwrite the free policing policy. If it can be argued that profits from mining can be severely impacted by policing costs then it follows that government is subsidising multi-national shareholders of mining companies and financiers. 

There is no accountability to the work of the public protection unit at the Northern Ireland Office. It took several months of freedom of information requests to the PSNI to extract what one anti-mine activist called ‘confusing and evasive answers to genuine areas of concern’ . It would appear that what is happening in the North of Ireland is a far cry from the much heralded reforms instigated by Chris Patten, the architect of the new policing service for Northern Ireland. 

It would appear that multi-national gold mining companies have much more influence in the North of Ireland than its political representatives or citizens the reforms were purported to advance. Civil society has not benefitted from policing reforms which were essentially cosmetic. Policing in the North of Ireland is in the control of unelected and unaccountable units within the Northern Ireland Office. It is to the detriment of the citizens of the North that these bodies are hostages to the whims of profiteers and shareholders outside the state.

⏩Mick Collins is a Tyrone based trade unionist with a passionate interest in the environment.

Policing The North's New Gold Rush

The Detail ✒ The police monitor and produce internal reports on the social media activity of the Northern Ireland public – including our politicians, journalists and ordinary citizens.

THE DETAIL

By Luke Butterly, Rory Winters, 
05-February-2021

A spokesperson for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) also admitted that if people were to know the police were treating their social media activity in this way, it could negatively affect their mental and physical health.

In October 2020, using Freedom of Information (FoI) legislation, The Detail sought all social media monitoring reports that the PSNI's Strategic Communication and Engagement Department produced in a one-year-period.

We were provided with hundreds of pages of heavily redacted material, with many pages entirely blacked out. In addition, over 165 pages were not released at all.

The PSNI redacted all posts, made by members of the public on social media, from the documentation released to The Detail.

The only posts shown in the material were made by official PSNI social media accounts and occasionally by established media outlets or public bodies.

We were, however, provided with the police’s internal comments on both the redacted and unredacted social media posts – though many of these comments were also redacted, to varying degrees.

Continue reading @ The Detail.

PSNI Monitor And Report On Public’s Social Media Activity

Fra Hughes ✒ Why we need international oversight of the PSNI


We have a National Health Service

We have a National Education Service

We have a Regional Police Service

If a hospital fails to discharge its duties in full compliance with national guidelines, or falls below a national standard level acceptable to the Mandarins in the health service and the local population, then it is brought under Administration.

There are people from outside of the local or regional organisation brought in to oversee its return to compatible acceptable functionality.

If a school fails to meet its obligated standards, is run poorly or dysfunctionally, the head of the school and its senior managers can be relieved of position and others put in charge, to turn around the failing school, which has been detrimental to the education of the children and the community. New ideas, independent and progressive can be brought to bear.

The regional Police Service of Northern Ireland is just another governmental body, like the Education Boards and the Health Boards.

With the rank and file members, managers and CEO’s, such as the Chief Constable.

The Patton Reforms which saw the disbandment of the Royal Ulster Constabulary have failed.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland became operational on November 4, 2001.

Its function was to replace a colonial, partisan, pro-British, sectarian police force, which was unacceptable to the Nationalist and Republican community, with a new Police service. A service which was more representative of the community at large and had an opportunity to begin again with buy-in from both communities.

It could be argued that the historic chance of creating a force representative of and reflective of, the whole of society here, has been thrown away.

The actions of the Police Service of Northern Ireland from its very inception can be claimed to be flawed.

After the initial 50/50 recruitment drive to rebalance the force was rolled out, many former members of the now-discredited RUC were re-enlisted.

It appears the reforms promised were either an exercise in public relations or propaganda.

It also appears that those in charge stayed in charged and it has been dysfunctional from the start.

The initial success of recruiting a more representative force has stumbled.

Many Catholics who joined the service left.

The 50/50 recruitment drive ended.

In one of the latest recruitment drives, Catholics who make up 50% of more of the population, less than 21% joined the new recruits in 2019.

Catholic officers made up less than 11% of senior posts in the PSNI in 2019.

Where does that leave us?

We have under-representation of the Catholic/Nationalist community in this regional police force.

Calls to reintroduce 50/50 recruitment will not change 100 years of colonial policing, as the last 20 years have proven.

We have Catholic police officers of the PSNI claiming there are senior officers actively resisting the changes that are required to see Patton’s reforms met.

There are an ethos and history of partisan policing here which discriminates against the indigenous Irish and others.

They may have changed the uniform but they have not changed the colonial mindset of the police service.

The RUC was created to defend the newly created state of N. Ireland in, 1922. They were a colonial police force for a colonial outpost of British imperialism in Ireland. Their purpose was to defend Northern Ireland’s position with in the United Kingdom. They were and are an armed paramilitary wing of the state,

An almost exclusively, pro-British, anti-Irish, constabulary, whose raison d’etre was never to police with consent and fight criminality but to oppress, spy on, marginalise and imprison the Nationalist community, its leaders and advocates for Irish reunification.

The three days of rioting in Derry between the RUC and the local community is a testament that we have had a partisan local armed militia in charge of policing here, from the beginning of the history of partition in Ireland and before.

20 years have failed to see a fundamental change in the method or practices of the Police Service here.

Special Branch still runs the show and its network of paid paramilitary informers with their get out of jail cards.

MI5 now has priority over-policing here, putting its anti-nationalist, anti-republican agenda at the top of operational decisions, while it continues to run its network of paid paramilitary informers, with their get out of jail cards and undercover agents involved in exactly what, we do not know? They operate in our name but their actions are above, as well as outside of the law.

If it’s not working let us fix it.

When the RUC failed the population at large it was disbanded.

A new force instigated.

That force has failed too.

If it is not fit for purpose we should disband it.

Prior to either full reform or full disbandment of the RUC in new clothes the PSNI, it must be treated just like the education service, health service or any other failing public body and taken under administration.

Experienced, outside leaders of policing must be brought in, to end the colonial, sectarian policies, ethos and practices of the PSNI.

Why We Need International Oversight Of The Police Service Of Northern Ireland

Thomas Dixie Elliot ➤ This is a comment I made regarding Emmet Doyle's blog post on policing and the brutal treatment of an autistic child and the aftermath...

Excellent post Emmet. You are correct that there was a ground swell of anger at how the PSNI brutalized an autistic child in his own home with a raiding team we'd expect to see kicking down the door of a leading drug lord in any normal society.

Let's not forget that the PSNI were never reformed as was claimed but were merely given new uniforms and a new name and still retained at its core the RUC.

Drew Harris who was formally with the RUC and had links to MI5 is a prime example of this.

For years we listened to the SDLP getting abuse for sitting on the policing boards, then those handing it out joined them with strong promises of holding the PSNI/RUC to account, even making claims of hiring and firing chief constables.

The fact is, this was all waffle to open the doors to joining the policing boards and in fact, ever since then neither the SDLP nor Sinn Féin have held any member of that force to account.

Clearly policing is geared towards harassing Republicans and their families at every opportunity. This makes a mockery of the claim to be a police service especially at a time when drugs are destroying lives and leading to increased criminality which is overlooked.

This is why it is a police force. In any normal society people would be taking to the streets in protest at the brutal treatment of children which is reminiscent of the RUC.

What I fail to understand is, why was this ground swell of anger undermined by the mad actions of hijacking and destroying the livelihoods of local men. This without doubt turned the anger towards Republicans, especially when it happened during John Hume's wake.

It gave the PSNI the propaganda they so badly needed and let the politicians off the hook over their silence regarding the brutal treatment of a child.

Did no one sit back and think this out? Did they not realise that burning vans which were not owned, as claimed, by multi-national companies but leased out by Derry men who have families to feed and mortgages to pay? Add to that the loss of income until the vans are replaced again.

Many people in this city are angry at the treatment of this child but now as many are angry at the destroying of livelihoods of local men.

Where does this leave Republicans in the future who need the support of the people?


Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman.

Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie    

Brutal Treatment And Bonehead Reaction

Martin Galvin in a letter to the Irish News in the week past responds to Trevor Ringland - "We should stop moaning about Northern Ireland and enjoy its beauty" - February 18, 2020. 

A Chara,

Trevor Ringland offers a simple plan for getting nationalists to join the constabulary. Just "stop moaning", forget about British Army or Royal Ulster Constabulary "mistakes that sometimes had tragic consequences" and don constabulary uniforms. It would be easier to get past such "mistakes", if the new constabulary seemed more interested in uncovering truth about "mistakes" such as shoot-to-kill or collusion in murders.

Mr. Ringland writes wistfully of a Royal Ulster Constabulary where "religion was not an issue," virtual bystanders as "society descended into violence". Nationalists may remember the RUC differently as it enforced British rule and the Orange State, helped by the infamous B-Specials. The RUC dealt with civil rights by violence at Duke Street, or Burntollet Bridge, or with the fatal beating of Sammy Devenny and the "Battle of the Bogside".

During the "Troubles" Mr. Ringland says "the RUC was involved in 52 deaths." Books, documentaries, and court proceedings uncover mounting proof that British crown forces, including the RUC, colluded with loyalist agents in hundreds of state sponsored murders. The Good Friday Agreement, Patten recommendations, new name for the RUC, and new policing boards pledged a new British constabulary, which wanted justice, even where justice showed British troops or the RUC guilty.

Legacy cases tested these pledges. The PSNI seems more active pursuing journalists for naming Loughinisland killers, than in pursuing the killers. It fights the court ordered comprehensive investigation into 120 Glenanne Gang murders, including the Dublin-Monaghan Bombings and "Miami Showband Massacre." It opposes court orders to investigate and identify RUC or MoD officers behind the torture of the "Hooded Men." Stop and Search powers have been used to harass and hassle family members returning home from legacy inquests.

Should young nationalists join a constabulary which appears to deny truth, delay justice and wait as family members of legacy victims die without justice?

It is said that those who fail to learn the lessons of history are condemned to repeat its mistakes. If the PSNI continues its mistake of stalling truth in legacy cases, it will be wedded to the crown's "Troubles" misdeeds.

Slan,

Martin Galvin

Martin Galvin is a US Attorney-At-Law.

Blaming Everyone But Constabulary

Alex McCrory discusses the dirty tricks the British police and security services have been playing at his trial.

Our trail resumes on January 20th. This week completes six years from the time of our arrest in 2013. We served more than two years in Maghaberry and are now approaching four years on restrictive bail. It is easy to imagine the impact this has had on my family life.

We are nearing the end of an admissibility challenge known in legal jargon as a voir dire; a trial within a trial. During the course of a lengthy Section 8, the defence identified a number of serious concerns in the chain of custody of the evidence. In addition to this, there are doubts about the authenticity of the recordings themselves.

The defence has not been afforded the opportunity to scientifically test the evidence because of MI5 refusal to disclose. It has simply pulled down the shutters, invoking national security as a blanket excuse. Moreover, one witness after another refused to answer all questions relating the technical aspects of the case.

A witness refusing to answer a question is in contempt unless there is something before the court allowing it. Up until now the prosecution has not made any PII applications, therefore, all witnesses should be compelled to answer questions without recourse to national security. The judge will have to rule on this point.

Add to this that almost every spook claimed under oath to have destroyed personal notes and dairies that would shed light on the entire process. This is in flagrant breach of evidential guidelines enunciated by the Courts. Investigators are expected to retain a full written record of all work carried out during the course of an investigation.

As well as the above, MI5 admitted to 'cleaning down' the devices so that it is no longer possible to compare the court exhibit with what was originally captured. The exhibit itself is a generated copy of what MI5 claims 'assures' the court was on the original recordings.

It has also been shown that persons unknown accessed the recordings and created files even before they were downloaded onto discs/USB sticks for evidential purposes. Also, at this very early stage, a piece of malware/virus appears on the system that basically operates as a backdoor facilitator allowing for manipulation of the data. The prosecution have so far not been able to explain the origin of the virus through evidence. Of course, all these things are testable with proper access to the equipment. Mention of the malware only came four years into the case.

For four years both the court and the defence were led to believe the evidence traversed a particular pathway; via an MI5's computer system known as Marshbrook. Subsequent to the work being done in this case, that system was decommissioned shortly thereafter. Later, it was suggested the evidence came via a different route without any explanation being provided for the alteration. It is the defence's belief this was done because the state realised the serious gap in the continuity chain of evidence.

Finally, the voice analyst made a fatal error by misattributing two voice in the recordings; one person not even involved in the case. This occurred because the expert was provided with the names and reference samples of three police suspects. He was also given a transcript on which speech attributions were against the names of the said suspects. When the job of the expert is to conduct an independent examination of the recordings, it is wholly unacceptable for the police to prime the expert by identifying suspects even before the voice analysis has been carried out.

This is a succinct synopsis of the court proceedings thus far. It is by no means exhaustive. At the end of the voir dire, the judge will have to rule on the admissibility issue in order to allow the trial to proceed to the next stage.

Watch this space.

NB. Check list of serious breaches

➽ Devices wiped.
➽ All computers destroyed/decommissioned.
➽ All contemporaneous notes/ records destroyed.
➽ Virus on system.
➽ Break in continuity chain.
➽ Flawed voice analysis.
➽ Wittness refusal to answer revelant questions.
➽ Sudden change in prosecution's presentation narrative.


Alec McCrory is a former republican prisoner and blanketman.

Voir Doir / Voir Dirt


Carrie Twomey writes on the inadmissibility of the Boston College tapes

A point on yesterday's ruling, which some commentary is getting confused. The guarantee of confidentiality is what makes them unreliable, not the bias of the interviewer or interviewee.

The perception of bias was an argument put forth by the defense during the case to illustrate the unreliability of the contents of the tapes.

It is not, however, what undermines the tapes legally or fatally. The guarantee of confidentiality and the structure of the project is what killed the tapes legally.

The judge observed that the promise of withholding the tapes until death gave
"freedom to speak the truth but it also gave freedom to lie, to distort, to exaggerate, to blame and to mislead".
(Application to Exclude the Boston Tapes Evidence, paragraph 37)

"The prosecution simply cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that whether it is true or not the confession was not the consequence of the false guarantee"
(Application to Exclude the Boston Tapes Evidence, paragraph 25)

The false guarantee referred to is the promise of confidentiality until the death of the participant given in the donor agreement, which allowed the interviewee to speak freely.

"I find that the confession is likely to be unreliable in the sense that it may well be unreliable as a direct result of the circumstances in which it was improperly and dishonestly induced by Mr. McIntyre working under the auspices of the Project Director Mr. Moloney in conjunction with Boston College"
(Application to Exclude the Boston Tapes Evidence, paragraph 33)

The donor agreements for the loyalists were the same as the donor agreements for the republicans. All donor agreements had the same flaw: in contrast to Boston College's contract with Ed Moloney, which had the key phrase limiting the confidentiality of the archives 'to the extent of American law' in it, the donor agreements did not.

That is where phrase 'improperly and dishonestly induced' comes in, because the donor agreements stated the donor would have control until death and their interviews would be protected until death which as we all know now – but did not know then – was not true.

The lack of oversight of the project also contributed to the unreliability of the tapes as evidence.

All of this is important to clarify because it means the ruling applies to the Winston Rea case as well as Anthony’s own – it is not because of the interviewer, it is the conditions of the interview that renders them inadmissible as evidence.

A last point. Oral history is not evidence. Oral histories are not "confessions". Oral history is not "sworn testimony", and it is never meant to be.

The PSNI and the PPS have a lot of questions to answer about how they went on this wild goose chase, especially in regards to how much time, money, and resources they wasted in doing so.

Hopefully some journalists have already filed FOIs and/or asked their MPs to find out how much the PPS and PSNI have spent on the international subpoenas, how many detectives and police support staff have been tasked to the cases, and how many man-hours have been dedicated to everything Boston College related. This should be contrasted to the lack of resources the PSNI says it suffers from in its ability to handle legacy cases.

It is a travesty that it took this long – over 8 years – for the courts to confirm what has been obvious and known since the start.

As much as the Boston College tapes can be held up as an example of how not to conduct an oral history project, so too can the pursuit of the tapes by the PSNI and PPS be held up as an example of how not to police the past.

How Not to Police The Past

From the AOH a report of further PSNI encroachment on civil liberties.


Five Derry men were forced to attend Strand Road PSNI base to sign a so-called “terror register” in what Saoradh believes will become a conveyer-belt approach to the imprisonment of their activists. 

New legislation allows targeted individuals to be required to provide a large volume of personal information to police databases, including details of vehicles used by family members, bank accounts and movements across the border. 

It is feared the register may be used to justify imprisonment of activists by non-jury courts, or even to ratchet pressure on some to turn informer. 

This week, PSNI members in Derry attempted to force five republicans to attend individual interviews to complete the register, but activists refused to enter a closed room with PSNI members, resulting in a stand-off. 

Among the items of information demanded were details of foreign travel, passport details, accommodation addresses, national insurance numbers, photographs for facial recognition data and fingerprints.

Continue reading @ AOH.

PSNI (RUC) Building ‘Register’ Of Derry Republicans

Anthony McIntyre considers the possible motives behind the arrest and prosecution of Nuala Perry.

Cereal Offender

IRPWA spokesperson Damhnaic Mac Eochaidh read out the following statement yesterday in front of Féile an Phobail Offices on Belfast's Falls Road.

PSNI At War With Working Class Republican Communities

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