BBC
9 Feb 2010

Irish police have seized cash, drugs and a number of suspected imitation guns during a major operation targeting dissident republican paramilitaries.

Since early on Tuesday morning, about 60 Garda detectives have been searching homes and business premises in Cork city and in the north of the county.

The 'fake' guns will be sent for examination. No arrests have been made.

The operation follows a claim from the Real IRA that it shot dead a convicted drug dealer in Cork on 20 January.

It is understood the Garda are keeping an open mind about whether the Real IRA was responsible for the murder of Gerard Stanton outside his home.

A leaflet was circulated last weekend by dissident republicans warning the Real IRA had a list of alleged drug dealers who they had "marked for execution".

By David Gordon
Belfast Telegraph
Tuesday, 9 February 2010

A direct lobbying link between Peter Robinson and the developer who stumped up £25,000 for his politician wife has been uncovered by the Belfast Telegraph.

Government papers show the top DUP couple became involved in 2006 over a planning application tabled by builder Ken Campbell.

A meeting with a direct rule minister was at one stage sought by the two MPs over the Comber scheme, located outside Mr Robinson's constituency.

When the application was subsequently progressed, Iris Robinson wrote a thank-you letter to a planning official.

Two years later, she obtained £25,000 from Mr Campbell for the cafe business of her teenage lover Kirk McCambley.

New details have also emerged of Mrs Robinson's lobbying for another of the businessman's housing developments in 2008 — around the same as he supplied the cafe funding.

The official papers have been provided to this newspaper by the Department of the Environment (DoE) following a freedom of information request.

Mr Campbell is a friend of the DUP couple, and also sold them a property in Newtownards in 2007 that became Mrs Robinson's constituency office base.

Land Registry documentation on this sale cited a figure of £1, but the politicians and builder have emphasised that a full price of some £200,000 was paid.

The £1 reference was explained as referring to a “trust arrangement” in place at that time. No further details of this trust have been made public to date.

The DoE documents show that in June 2006 officials deliberated over a request from Mr and Mrs Robinson for a meeting with the then direct rule Environment Minister David Cairns.

It concerned an application from one of Ken Campbell's firms for a housing development in Comber.

Mr Cairns agreed to the meeting request, but it was then cancelled on the basis of an undertaking given to the two MPs.

The Campbell plans were brought before Ards Council for approval in July 2006, with the formal approval notice issued two months later.

In 2008, the MP was back lobbying for another of Mr Campbell's business schemes, this time involving a proposed housing development site in Newtownards.

In May that year, she hosted a meeting in her constituency office on the proposal, attended by the developer himself. Also present were Planning and Roads Service officials.

In early July, Mrs Robinson wrote to Planning Service “as Member of Parliament for the area” to express her support for the development.

Mrs Robinson also contacted Ards Council about the scheme. It was eventually approved, despite objections from the local community.

In September 2008, the MP wrote to Planning Service again, copying notes that had been given to her by two objectors. “Perhaps you could allay some of the concerns they have,” she stated.

Mr Campbell also confirmed being a past DUP donor, involving a one-off sum of £4,000-£5,000.

Background

Lobbying on planning applications is a normal part of politics for councillors, MLAs and MPs.

The planning system here can often resemble a tug-of-war contest, and applicants large and small will naturally turn to elected representatives for support.

But it can become more complicated — and potentially risky — for politicians if they also become involved in private business transactions with the people they are lobbying for.

That's why the £50,000 obtained by Iris Robinson from two developers in 2008 has created such controversy. Full disclosure is of vital importance in this area, as detailed in the Assembly register of interests.

Belfast Telegraph
Tuesday, 9 February 2010

Sinn Fein MLA Raymond McCartney, whose murder conviction was quashed, has lost his appeal for compensation.

Journalist Eamonn MacDermott also failed in the same appeal. Both men were ordered to pay the costs of bringing their latest legal challenge.

Mr McCartney and Mr MacDermott were cleared of murder in February 2007 after judges declared unease about the safety of guilty verdicts.

The men had argued that substantial compensation was due for time spent in prison.

Mr McCartney served more than 17 years for killing industrialist Jeff Agate and Special Branch detective Patrick McNulty in Derry in 1977.

Mr MacDermott, now a Derry-based journalist, spent 15 years behind bars for constable McNulty's murder.

Both men denied involvement and said police fabricated confessions. After their cases were referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission judges ruled the convictions should be quashed.

But dismissing their appeals, Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan said: “The new evidence was sufficient to give rise to unease about the safety of the conviction, but this is a case in which at its height it can only be said that the appellants might not have been convicted.”

He added: “Accordingly the claims for compensation cannot succeed.”

By Brian Rowan
Belfast Telegraphl
Tuesday, 9 February 2010

The voice on the other end of my phone was one I hadn’t heard for a while — for a number of years now.

That was the last time the IRA’s ‘P O’Neill’ called.

When that organisation left its war stage in 2005 its leadership spokesman went quiet.

That was until yesterday, when he called and asked me to meet him in west Belfast.

It was a familiar routine.

We had coffee at a quiet table, and he read a briefing note to me, which I copied onto three pages.

In the past I met this man many times.

He delivered and dictated IRA statements to me, including when that organisation formally ended its armed campaign in July 2005 and then decommissioned two months later.

The IRA has now gone — its structures dismantled.

So, the man I met yesterday no longer functions as P O’Neill, but he still speaks with all the authority of the republican leadership.

The purpose of this meeting was very specific.

It was matter-of-fact and it was about the disappearance of Joe Lynskey in 1972 — “executed and buried” by the IRA.

Like ghosts the Disappeared still haunt that organisation.

They are a reminder of an ugly, ruthless and violent past.

This particular story goes back almost four decades when the many different wars were at their height, when one killing was followed by another and people got lost as statistics in a mounting death toll.

Those wars may well now be over, but there are questions that relate to the past that still demand answers. Some of those questions were answered in that briefing yesterday — others were not.

We now know the IRA killed Joe Lynskey and disappeared his body — as other bodies were disappeared in that period.

But we don’t know anything about the unmarked grave in which he was buried.

The first time the IRA spoke to me about ‘the Disappeared’ was in 1999, when there was a different P O’Neill.

On that night the IRA leadership said: “We believe we have established the whereabouts of the graves of nine people, some of whom were members of Oglaigh na hEireann who were executed for activities which put other Oglaigh na hEireann personnel at risk, or jeopardised the struggle.”

Some bodies were found — others were not, and the searches go on.

The story of the Disappeared will not go away.

And, yesterday, another page was turned and Joe Lynskey’s name added to a chapter in this conflict that has no end.

By Brian Rowan
Belfast Telegraph
Tuesday, 9 February 2010

Almost 40 years after the disappearance of Belfast man Joe Lynskey, republicans have finally admitted he was “executed and buried” by the IRA.

Confirmation came yesterday in a briefing conducted by a man who once operated as the IRA’s ‘P O’Neill’ — the organisation’s leadership spokesman.

That man still speaks with the authority of the republican leadership.

In a detailed briefing the source revealed:

In 1972 the IRA executed and buried Joe Lynskey;

He was an IRA volunteer in Belfast at that time;

Lynskey was summoned to a meeting outside Belfast by the then leadership;

He wasn’t aware that he was under (IRA) investigation at that stage;

He was arrested by the IRA;

He was court-martialled for breaches of IRA standing orders;

He was subsequently executed and buried in an unmarked grave.

Yesterday, the senior republican who conducted the briefing told the Belfast Telegraph: “Members of Joe Lynskey’s family approached the IRA some time ago seeking information about his disappearance, and for obvious reasons there has been a prolonged investigation. These events occurred almost 40 years ago.”

He said 1972 was a period when the conflict was “at its height” — there had been “multiple operations”.

The republican investigation had been complicated because of “the passage of time, (and) the deaths of many of those directly involved”. Others approached for information had displayed “open hostility” towards republicans involved in the investigation.

“Initial inquiries following the approach by the Lynskey family uncovered a lot of rumour, but no hard information,” the senior republican told this newspaper.

But he then revealed the sequence of events — involving two shootings, which ended in Lynskey’s “execution” by the IRA.

“IRA suspicions were raised when a republican supporter was shot and seriously injured at the home of a relative in west Belfast.

“A short time after that shooting there was another incident, which arose as a direct result of the previous shooting and a man was killed,” the senior republican said. “An IRA investigation revealed that Joe Lynskey had ordered another IRA volunteer to shoot the first man.

“Joe Lynskey was having an affair with that man’s wife.”

The Lynskey “execution” dating back into the early 70s is expected to be detailed in a book written by the journalist Ed Moloney and due for publication soon.

Yesterday, the senior republican who briefed this newspaper said the IRA had not identified Lynskey’s “unmarked grave”.

Information was to be passed to the family and the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains.

Yesterday’s briefing means that Joe Lynskey’s name will now be added to the official list of ‘the Disappeared’.

Belfast Telegraphl
Tuesday, 9 February 2010

Detectives are interviewing two men and a woman over the murder last March of a policeman in Co Armagh.

Pc Stephen Carroll, 48, was gunned down as he answered a call-out in Craigavon.

A holiday snap of Kate and Stephen Carroll together

The Continuity IRA later claimed responsibility for his death.

Detectives from the PSNI's serious crime branch said they had detained a 40-year-old man in Lurgan, Co Armagh and a 36-year-old man and 37-year-old woman in Craigavon.

Pc Carroll was killed two days after the Real IRA shot dead two soldiers outside Massereene Barracks in Antrim.

A teenager and a 38-year-old man have previously been remanded in custody charged with the killing.

BBC
8 Feb 2010
**Video onsite

The Irish National Liberation Army has confirmed it has disposed of its weapons.

A spokesman for the republican terror group, Martin McMonagle, made the announcement at a press conference in Belfast on Monday morning.

"We make no apology for our part in the conflict," he said.

It was also announced on Monday that two other paramilitary groups, the Official IRA and the South East Antrim UDA, have decommissioned their weapons.

Announcing the INLA move, Mr McMonagle said: "We believe conditions have now changed in such a way that other options are open to revolutionaries to pursue and ultimately achieve our objectives.

"We can also confirm that the INLA has disarmed through a joint facilitation group consisting of local, a national and an international organisation.

"This was done in a process in accordance with international standards."

"We hope that this will further enhance the primacy of politics and that it will in time unite and advance the working class struggle in Ireland."

The facilitation group included Irish trade union leaders and an academic, who worked with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD).

The trade unionists confirmed they had witnessed the destruction of a substantial amount of weaponry.

In 1993 Mr McMonagle was sentenced to 23 years in jail for his part in an INLA plot to launch a bombing campaign in England. He was released early under the Good Friday Agreement.

Legislation

A statement is also expected by General John de Chastelain, head of the international decommissioning body (IIDC).

The legislation that enables the commission to carry out its work is due to expire on Tuesday.

Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said General de Chastelain had confirmed to him that over the last few days he and his colleagues had completed the decommissioning of INLA arms.

"These events are further positive developments as we look to finally close the last chapter of the conflict and ensure a peaceful future for all the people of Northern Ireland," he said.

The INLA move was also welcomed by Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly, who called for "other small militarist factions" to do the same.

"There is no support for, or appetite for, armed actions within the republican community," he said.

"The INLA has recognised this by engaging with the IICD in this action."

Arsenal

The INLA, whose murder victims included Tory MP Airey Neave, is believed to have disposed of its arsenal in recent weeks.

A small, ruthless group which killed more than 120 people, it announced in October that it intended to pursue its aims by exclusively peaceful means.

The republican paramilitary body is believed to have been responsible for 111 murders from its formation in 1975 until its ceasefire in 1998, but it is also thought to have been involved in a number of murders since then.

In February 2009, the INLA claimed responsibility for the murder of a drug dealer in Londonderry.

It came to world prominence in 1979 with the murder of Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman Airey Neave by leaving a bomb under his car in the House of Commons car park.

It was behind one of Northern Ireland's worst atrocities when it killed 17 people in a bomb attack on the Droppin' Well pub in Ballykelly, County Londonderry, in 1982.

The group's political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party held a parade in Bray, County Wicklow, four months ago where it announced that the organisation had renounced violence.

At the moment, paramilitaries moving weapons can use a certificate from the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) saying they are moving arms from one cache to another to facilitate decommissioning.

However, after the legislation expires any weapons found can be forensically tested.

Evidence from this could be used in future court cases and possibly help secure convictions.

Belfast Telegraph
Monday, 8 February 2010

A second republican paramilitary group in Northern Ireland announced today that it had decommissioned its weapons.

The so-called Official IRA, a relatively small organisation most active in the 1970s, confirmed it had destroyed its guns.

The declaration was made at a Belfast press conference which came only two hours after a separate republican splinter group, the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), confirmed it had disarmed.

The timing of the separate announcements is thought to be linked to the fact that the legislation which allows illegal groups to decommission weapons without fear of prosecution runs out tomorrow

By Brian Rowan
Belfast Telegraph
Monday, 8 February 2010

Two deadline moves on decommissioning are to be confirmed today — with just 24 hours to go before General de Chastelain and his team end their peace role in Northern Ireland.

The moves involve the INLA and an ‘Official’ republican splinter group.

Background efforts were continuing last week to push the breakaway UDA brigade in south-east Antrim over the decommissioning finish line.

It has made a start to the process but still holds weapons.

The Irish National Liberation Army is expected to reveal that it has destroyed its weapons

A number of statements will be made today with confirmation expected from the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD).

This is the de Chastelain team that has been in place since 1997.

According to one source INLA arms were delivered “conveyor belt” style — INLA to the IICD via witnesses. The Belfast Telegraph understands three witnesses/facilitators were involved, including Brendan Mackin, director of the Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre.

A news conference is being held there this morning at which a “significant statement” by the INLA will be read.

According to a source one of the witnesses is from outside Ireland.

The decommissioning has been described as “substantial”, including rifles, handguns and explosives.

One source said: “The weapons ended up with de Chastelain but the INLA didn’t give them to him.”

The source said “the rationale” for the arms move would be explained in today’s statement.

The role of the IICD ends in Northern Ireland tomorrow.

That is when the mandate, which allows it to operate here, comes to an end.

Its major work has included the IRA decommissioning in 2005 and the destruction of loyalist arms belonging to the UVF, Red Hand Commando and UDA in recent months.

The move by the INLA comes four months after it declared its armed struggle over. There have been many fractures and feuds within the organisation and the weapons and explosives decommissioned will be those under the control of the mainstream group.

In a violent history stretching across several decades, it was behind scores of killings.

Confirmation today of its decommissioning brings to an end another of Northern Ireland’s wars. Later this month, final reports by the IICD will be made to the British and Irish governments.

Belfast Telegraph
Monday, 8 February 2010




Security has been stepped up around Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams after a death threat.

The PSNI has told Mr Adams that the threat level against him is “very high”.

“We are taking these threats very seriously,” a Sinn Fein spokesman said in a statement yesterday.

“However, these death threats will not distract the party or the party president from carrying out their responsibilities and seeking to advance the peace process.”

Police Service of Northern Ireland there to 'uphold British rule', despite devolution of control, say dissident republicans

Henry McDonald
Guardian
Sunday 7 February 2010

Young Catholic recruits to the Police Service of Northern Ireland are "putting themselves in the line of fire," Republican Sinn Fein has warned.

Des Dalton, the recently elected president of the anti-peace-process organisation, told the Observer yesterday that the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Stormont Assembly would make no difference to groups such as the CIRA, Real IRA and Oglaigh na hEireann in their campaigns of violence.

Dalton said the devolution of policing "had only re-arranged the furniture"; the house remained in Britain.

"The Royal Irish Constabulary became the Royal Ulster Constabulary and they ultimately became the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the PSNI. But while the cap badge might change, the essential point of these forces remain the same. They are there to uphold British rule, they are integral part of the British state forces," Dalton said. "So it is worth remembering all the recent reports of Catholic PSNI officers being unable to live in the communities they came from.

"Our message to young nationalists is that your place is not there in the PSNI. The logic of the situation remains the same – if you join a force that upholds British rule then you are putting yourself in the line of fire."

Last month the Real IRA set off a booby-trap bomb underneath the car of PSNI Constable Peadar Heffron. The prominent Irish-speaking policeman who was captain of the PSNI's gaelic football team, lost a leg in the blast and suffered serious internal injuries. Constable Heffron is the cousin of Sinn Fein's national chairman, Declan Kearney.

News Letter
07 February 2010

The SDLP has today announced Stormont minister Margaret Ritchie as its new leader.

The South Down MLA beat South Belfast MP Alasdair McDonnell in the contest to replace outgoing Mark Durkan as the head of the party.

She is currently Minister for Social Development in the Northern Ireland Assembly Executive.

Foyle MP Mr Durkan announced four months ago that he would step down from the post after nine years.

The result of the vote to select his successor was announced at the final day of the party's conference, today, in Newcastle, Co Down.

BBC
6 Feb 2010

Mark Durkan has delivered his final address to the SDLP as party leader at its annual conference in Newcastle, County Down.

The conference also heard from the two leadership candidates Alasdair McDonnell and Margaret Ritchie.

Mark Durkan has delivered his final address to the SDLP

Mr Durkan will stay on as the MP for Foyle.

He attacked Sinn Fein for agreeing the appointment of a justice minister being made outside d'Hondt system of proportional representation.

"Changing the rules to deny a due outcome, to discriminate against a nationalist party and confer patronage and undue power on a pro-union party used to be called gerrymandering," he said.

He said today Sinn Fein now called it "historic progress," and "the best agreement of all".

Mr Durkan's decision to step down, after eight years as leader, has triggered a contest between the party's only Stormont minister, Mrs Ritchie, and Mr Durkan's deputy leader, Mr McDonnell.

Around 400 delegates are eligible to vote in the leadership election.

Voting began on Friday night and closes 1800 GMT, with the winner expected to be announced at noon on Sunday.

By Vincent Kearney
BBC
6 Feb 2010
**Video onsite

The Irish National Liberation Army has decommissioned its weapons, days before the body overseeing Northern Ireland paramilitary weapons ceases to exist.

The move took place in recent weeks and is expected to be confirmed on Monday by the INLA and General John de Chastelain, head of the IICD.

The INLA has killed more than 120 people over the years

The INLA was a small, ruthless group which killed more than 120 people, including Tory MP Airey Neave in 1979.

In October, it said it would pursue its aims by exclusively peaceful means.

The republican paramilitary group is believed to have been responsible for 111 murders from its formation in 1975 until its ceasefire in 1998, but it is still thought to have been involved in a number of murders since then.

As recently as February 2009, the INLA claimed responsibility for the murder of a drug dealer in Londonderry.

It came to world prominence in 1979 with the murder of Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman Airey Neave by leaving a bomb under his car in the House of Commons car park.

"The INLA is a name that harks back to the darkest days of the troubles"

It was behind one of Northern Ireland's worst atrocities when it killed 17 people in a bomb attack on the Droppin' Well pub in Ballykelly, County Londonderry, in 1982.

The group's political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party held a parade in Bray, County Wicklow, four months ago and announced that the organisation had renounced violence.

At present paramilitaries moving weapons can use a certificate from the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) saying they are moving arms from one cache to another to facilitate decommissioning.

On 9 February, the legislation that allows the IICD to operate ends and any weapons found after that date can be forensically tested.

Evidence from this could be used in future court cases and possibly help secure convictions.

Last month the loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Defence Association also decommissioned.

The government had made it clear to the UDA that after the legislation expired that they would be treated as common criminals that the police would actively seek their weapons.

R.S.F. News
saoirse@iol.ie
6 Feb 2010

On February 6, Republican Sinn Fein Vice President Geraldine Taylor said that the agreement at Hillsborough is just a further indication of the depths that Unionised Provisionals will go to uphold British rule in our country.

They have now added the administration of British policing and justice to their already full ‘portfolio’ in administering British rule on Irish people in the Occupied Six Counties.

We as Republicans know only too well the jackboot tactics they will employ against those who oppose British occupation and what we will have to endure in the future - history has show us what to expect.

We call on all Republicans opposed to continued British rule, be it from Westminster or Stormont, to join us in the continuing struggle for Irish unity and self-determination. Republicans especially will be under the eye of those who once opposed occupation and called for self-determination.

Our road will not be an easy road because we will have to endure British law enforced by the Provos, decided on with the Unionists. It’s the same old British boot but with a willing Provo foot.

We cannot forget the sacrifices made by the brave men and women who gave their lives and the many who endured years of imprisonment and torture, and although the signs may not be apparent at the moment this agreement will only extend the continued repression of Republican prisoners.

Geraldine Taylor concluded “be true to yourself, your principles and your country because history has never been kind to those who betrayed all three”.

5 Feb 2010

The REPUBLICAN NETWORK for UNITY (RNU) spokesperson, DANNY MCBREARTY, responding to the concerns of nationalist residents of areas targeted for Orange sectarian parades, asks” whether the DUP has been given ’product’ in the form of changed procedures designed to ease the way for Orange feet to march down nationalist roads.”

“Today’s deal undermines the legal procedures and mechanisms which have blocked Orange marches from trampling on nationalist victims on the Garvaghy Road and other although not all routes. The DUP, advised by the Orange Order, demanded and is apparently satisfied that the new arrangements will deliver product

“Nationalists were told that Sinn Fein was not playing poker and would not pay the price of Orange feet on the Garvaghy Road, or Ardoyne. Residents of those areas now question whether they have been played like poker chips. Has their right to be free of sectarian Orange parades in their areas been bartered away beneath the political cover of a deal that has satisfied the DUP and Orange Order? Have the DUP and Orange been told that such parades could not be granted outright, but would be delivered in the guise of new arrangements designed to yield results to their liking?

“We challenge Republicans to look at how much has been given up to achieve so little. The entitlement of the SDLP to head the ministry was given up and a DUP veto awarded in exchange for this compromised Stormont ministry. Like constabulary boards and partnerships, this watered down ministry will not make the British constabulary accountable but merely made Sinn Fein accomplices.

“RNU will continue to confer with residents in these areas and will support join with other nationalists and Republicans to support them against any attempt to facilitate Orange marches in their streets.”

Guardian
6 Feb 2010



The wreckage of a 1998 car bombing in Newtonhamilton, County Armagh, for which the Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility. (Photograph: John Giles/PA)

A republican paramilitary group which killed more than 120 people during the Troubles in Northern Ireland is set to announce it has decommissioned its weapons.

The move by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) is expected to be confirmed by the body overseeing Northern Ireland's paramilitary weapons decomissioning.

The INLA was responsible for some of the worst attacks of the Troubles, including the killing of Conservative MP Airey Neave in 1979.

A republican source claimed the decommissioning happened in recent weeks. "The announcement is expected on Monday," he said.

Four months ago the INLA said its "armed struggle is over" and vowed to end its 35-year campaign of violence in Northern Ireland.

The group was behind one of Northern Ireland's worst atrocities when it killed 17 people in a bomb attack on the Droppin' Well pub in Ballykelly, County Derry, in 1982.

News Letter
05 February 2010

DEMANDS by the SDLP for the Government to extend the 50/50 recruitment process for the PSNI for up to 15 years has been slammed as "a call for legalised discrimination".

North Antrim MLA Ian Paisley Jnr hit out after SDLP Policing Board member Alex Attwood said the 50/50 process needed to run for another 15 years if the PSNI is to be truly representative of the community it serves.

He said: “Patten said one of the key tests of confidence in the police was having a balance of community representation in the police.

“We need to get to 44 per cent to have overall balance on the Catholic side.

“Fifty-fifty would be a key mechanism to bringing that about.”

But Mr Paisley said “no matter how it is spun, support for the extension of a policy which would deny people employment simply because of their religion is sectarianism”.

He said: “People deserve to be employed on the basis of merit and their ability to do a job.

“If that principle is correct in one field then it must be correct everywhere, including the employment of police officers.”

The DUP MLA added: “Anyone who would support this kind of policy abdicates any claim to support equality.

“They can now be clearly seen to support a sectarian and discriminatory policy yet they would seek to impose it upon Northern Ireland for another decade and a half.”

Earlier this week, Security Minister Paul Goggins announced the 50/50 system would end in 2011, when around 30 per cent of police officers will be Catholics.

When it was introduced in 2001, Catholics made up about eight per cent of the PSNI. That has now risen to just over 27 per cent.

Mr Goggins said the 50/50 recruitment process had delivered “significant change”.

He said: “It has been necessary to introduce these temporary provisions in order to deal with the historic imbalance, but of course it is important that as we move forward with confidence in policing we expect applications to come from all communities, continuing to attract people of the highest calibre.

“The record number of applications for the latest recruitment competition to the PSNI underlines the growing support for the PSNI from young men and women across the community.”

Belfast Telegraph
Friday, 5 February 2010

In full, the devolution saving deal on the transfer of policing and justice powers to Stormont in April.

Section 1 - Policing and Justice

Section 2 – Parades

Section 3 – Improving Executive Functions

Section 4 – Outstanding Executive Business

Section 5 – Outstanding St Andrews Review

Download Word document

Download PDF

By Cronan Scanlon
Belfast Telegraph
Friday, 5 February 2010

A reconvened inquest into the death of former senior Sinn Fein member Denis Donaldson in Letterkenny yesterday afternoon heard that gardai were “actively” pursuing new avenues in his murder investigation.

Self-confessed British spy Donaldson (56) was hit by four shotgun blasts at his remote cottage at Cloghercor on Monday, April 3, 2006.

Denis Donaldson

His exposure in 2005 as an informer within the ranks of the IRA sent shockwaves throughout republican circles.

Donaldson was one of three men arrested in a raid on the Sinn Féin offices as part of a high-profile police investigation into an alleged Irish republican spy-ring. In spite of the charges being later dropped, the Stormontgate affair in 2002 brought the Assembly to a shuddering halt for several years while the accusations flew between the various political sides.

Yesterday, Superintendent Michael Finan told Coroner Dr Denis McCauley that he was seeking a nine-month adjournment.

The inquest had been adjourned three times in the past. Supt Finan said avenues were actively being pursued.

The Donaldson family’s solicitor, Ciaran Shiels of Belfast firm Madden and Finucane, confirmed they were happy to have the inquest adjourned.

Mr Shiels said the family has been in correspondence with the Assistant Garda Commissioner in recent months and that they recognised there is an ongoing investigation and it needs time to be explored.

However, Mr Shiels said he would be seeking a six-month adjournment adding that the fourth anniversary of Mr Donaldson’s death was approaching.

“We are mindful of the fact that there is a duty of promptness on the part of the gardai,” Mr Shiels said.

He cited the case of the 1991 murder of Tyrone man Patrick Shanahan by loyalist paramilitaries near Castlederg.

The Shanahan family, he said, had taken their case to the European Court and were awarded compensation against the UK Government as there had been a four-and-a-half year delay in bringing the inquest to a full hearing.

Supt Finan said he was seeking a nine-month adjournment as their investigation was very “technical in detail”.

Dr McCauley said he would adjourn for six months. He adjourned the inquest for mention to August 26.