cúisle mo chroí

A message from the Bloody Sunday Families and wounded:
To our supporters everywhere
On 30th January 1972, a dark cloud descended upon this beautiful city. It stayed until last Tuesday, 15th June 2010 – over 38 years of a journey. It has now been lifted.
It has been a long journey from the beginning of the Bloody Sunday [...]

From Relatives for Justice:
Speaking in response to the DUP’s motion concerning the re-definition of a victim of the conflict Relatives for Justice Chairperson Clara Reilly issued the following statement;
‘Jeffrey Donaldson, and the DUP, are pandering to a very small constituency of people bereaved that are not representative of the broader community of those affected by [...]

It was interesting to see the story on the BBC yesterday about the increase in vigilante justice in the north of Ireland. Now, I’m not surprised to hear that paramilitary-style attacks are on the rise, given the recent activities of dissident republican groups, but I am particularly interested in these types of reports because [...]

The following is a video taken by Relatives for Justice at yesterday’s British Army/Royal Irish Regiment March of Shame and the sectarian abuse and attack by unionists/loyalists on victims of British state violence during their peaceful counterdemonstration.  Towards the end of the video are short comments from Mark Thompson, Bairbre de Brún and Gerry Adams.  [...]

Went to hear Jeremy Scahill speak at UM the day before Halloween.  I thought this would be a suitable post for the holiday, seeing as how *actually* terrifying the subject is, but I am only getting around to it now.  I have yet to read his book, Blackwater: The Rise of America’s Most Powerful Mercenary [...]

Here’s an article from last week’s Irish Voice (15 October) by Cahir O’Doherty.  The quotes from me are a combination of a phone interview and a press release.  You can really tell which ones are more put together–but I really think there were some phrases that were struck from some of the comments that I [...]

The following action alert was issued by the Pat Finucane Centre in remembrance of the anniversary of Peter McBride’s murder:
Peter Mc Bride Anniversary Action Alert-Lobby Barack Obama
Last year a supporter of the PFC in the US contacted Senator Barack Obama regarding the controversial Pentagon contract with LT Col Spicer, the former Scots Guards officer whose [...]

The following statement was just released by Relatives for Justice:
British paratrooper Lee Clegg was convicted of the 1990 murder of West Belfast teenager Karen Reilly, an incident that also claimed the life of Martin Peake and the wounding of a teenage girl -Markievitz Gorman - when a joint British army RUC patrol fired upon a [...]

Article by David Granville from the Irish Democrat:
THE MOTHER of the Peter McBride, the Belfast teenager murdered by two Scots Guardsmen on 4 September 1992, has appealed to the Iraqi government to cancel the contracts of private security firm Aegis Defence Services and to expel it from the country.
Jean McBride’s appeal follows a decision [...]

From David McKittrick’s article in today’s Independent, “Staying on one side or the other makes life less complicated”:
Their widely differing takes on the Troubles were starkly illustrated by a poll that showed 86 per cent of Protestants approved of the police using plastic bullets while 87 per cent of Catholics disapproved.
The gulf in these mindsets [...]