Historians’ understanding of the development of the Provisional IRA in the 1970‘s and its transition into a smaller, leaner but more politically attuned group - the precursor of the body that endorsed the Republicans’ journey into the peace process - may have to be revised in the light of a recently acquired British military account of a crucial phase in the war between the IRA and the British Army. By Ed Moloney and Bob Mitchell. 

“The Royal Green Jackets (RGJ) Chronicle of 1973”,^[1] a privately circulated journal which includes an account of a tour of West Belfast by the regiment’s 3rd Battalion during the summer and autumn of 1973, challenges a central pillar of the Provisional leadership’s narrative of their own rise to power.

It reveals that the IRA’s re-organization into cells - credited with rescuing the organization from defeat in the late 1970’s - was forced upon the group not because of a destructive ceasefire called by the IRA’s national leadership in Dublin in 1974-75, as the conventional account claims, but because of critical setbacks in Belfast more than a year earlier when Gerry Adams was the city’s commander.

In the North at present there are infrequent attacks by at least three armed Irish Republican insurgent guerrilla 'armies'. 'Dissident' Republicans were responsible for the April 2011 bomb attack in Killyclogher, near Omagh, which killed PSNI member, Ronan Kerr; the Antrim fatal shooting attacks at Massereene Barracks in 2009; a fatal shooting attack in North Armagh, and the Omagh bombing of 1999.

Although full reconciliation is still a long way off in Northern Ireland, the Féile an Phobail community event in Belfast shows that it has come much further than many could have ever imagined. By Vincent Browne.

On Wednesday evening, at St Louise‘s Comprehensive College on the Falls Road in Belfast, a fellow introduced himself as a republican and made an impassioned speech in favour of free speech, disagreeing with earlier comments by the Sinn Féin vice president, Mary Lou McDonald, who had been tentative on the issue.

This took place at a ‘Talk Back’ event at Féile an Phobail on the Falls Road, an annual community event, and certainly by far the biggest such event I have seen.

In the last three weeks, there has been a sequence of unrest in Northern Ireland that has at times felt like a throwback to previous, more harrowing times. The sustained rioting that erupted near the sectarian interface in east Belfast in late June – orchestrated in part by loyalist paramilitaries staking a claim for further public funding – was followed last weekend by disturbances in places as unlikely as the small market town of Ballyclare. As temperatures rise to greet the climax of the Orange marching season today, further trouble is widely anticipated.

There are general and easy readings of Ulster loyalism for which many method actors, as if casting for The Sopranos, write the script that tabloid journalism adores. The appearance of the tattooed sectarian – or, as Fintan O’Toole would have it, ‘an idiocy that comes with a fragmented culture’ - is as obvious as Ireland’s financial plight – although the latter was due to another form of thuggery that employed greater charm.

When the East Belfast riots erupted in late June, few who work in and with working class communities were surprised. We had known for some time that the UVF was recruiting young people and threatening to organise mass riots if its command structures – sorry, that should of course read ‘community workers’ – weren’t guaranteed ongoing funding after EU Peace money runs out in 2012.

There was a time when the more radical sections of the Irish Left were passionately concerned about Northern Ireland/the North/the Six Counties (delete according to preference). Elsewhere, the main lines of division among left-wingers ran between communists and social democrats, Stalinists and Trotskyists, anarchists and Maoists. All of these tendencies could be found on the Irish left-wing scene, but they often seemed less important than concerns about the North and the issues it required people to take a stand on. Partition, ‘armed struggle’ and the H-Blocks campaign provoked bitter controversies that cut across the more exotic divisions on the Left. The Stalinists of the British and Irish Communist Organisation threw their polemical weight behind a version of militant loyalism, while the equally Stalinist Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist) praised the IRA. Trotskyists were just as diverse in their attitudes, with People’s Democracy and the Socialist Workers’ Movement urging ‘critical support’ for the Provos and the Militant Tendency staunch in its opposition to the IRA campaign.

The challenge that faces political actors in Northern Ireland is to offer real choices to ordinary people and to provide the leadership and encouragement that will enable these choices to be realised. The priority, in other words, has to be building a shared future based on tolerance and mutual respect instead of propagating division and segregation.

For the last 40 years, political leaders of whatever hue in Northern Ireland have pursued and implemented policies that have reinforced division and have thereby fanned the flames of conflict. In the absence of mutual knowledge and in the context of conflict, it has been possible for people to dehumanise one another to the point where it becomes easy to hate and to regard violence as legitimate and unremarkable.

In early June 2011, the official website of the Northern Ireland Assembly reported that the Minister for Social Development, Nelson McCausland of the DUP, had visited the region’s first 'virtual' street. The Executive Minister was in Dungannon’s Perry Street to inspect what the website described as a ‘Virtual Window Scheme’ that involved painting derelict properties and installing pictorial scenes into boarded-up window openings to create a 'living' appearance and street scene. Mr McCausland was impressed and in the course of his address said that his ‘Department intends to include similar schemes, where appropriate, in its list of options for town centre regeneration initiatives across the Province.’

Although not of her making, Irish disregard for the significance of May 17 in Dublin drags Queen Elizabeth into the insult, writes Vincent Browne

Unwittingly, as she arrived in Ireland yesterday morning, Elizabeth was complicit in a belittlement of Irish people; or rather she was compounding a belittlement of Irish people perpetrated by Irish governments and by most of the Irish people themselves.

At some stage in the preparation of the visit of Elizabeth to Ireland, somebody must have adverted to the coincidence of the proposed date of her arrival here with the anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of May 17th, 1974. Or maybe nobody adverted to this coincidence until plans were already so far advanced that it was impractical to change the date of arrival.

The murder of Ronan Kerr was killing for killing’s sake, Alan Shatter told the Dail, in a speech that was moving but pulled no punches. 

Ronan Kerr was a young Catholic man whose only wish was to serve his community – that he chose to do so by joining the Police Service of Northern Ireland is a sign of how far the people of Northern Ireland have embraced hope. That he now lies dead is a sign of the despair into which these criminal terrorists wish to drag us.

The Real IRA has declared UK banks and bankers as legitimate targets in its campaign of terrorism to achieve a united Ireland. In written answers to questions by the Guardian newspaper, the Real IRA branded bankers as "criminals [who]... serve in financing Britain's colonial and capital system".

The Guardian article published today (15 September 2010) says the Real IRA "stressed" that future attacks would be planned around military, political and economic targets. The article also says that Real IRA (RIRA) leaders promised to "intensify the group's terror campaign on all fronts". The RIRA says it has "regrouped and reorganised".

A narrow definition of collusion leads McLean to reject alleged involvement of prison officers in Wright murder. By Malachy Browne

The McLean inquiry into the murder of loyalist paramilitary Billy Wright has found "no evidence of collusion by state agencies or of any deliberate wrongdoing". Lord McLean said in a statement today that any failings of prison officers leading up to the murder "were the result of negligence rather than of deliberate acts". The Inquiry also found "nothing sinister" in the destruction of files on Maze prisoners.

[Report embedded below]

Billy Wright was murdered in the Maze prison two days after Christmas Day 1997. The notorious paramilitary was shot while sitting in a van awaiting transport to the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) visiting area in the Maze. The 37 year old was accompanied in the van by two prison guards when it was ambushed by three INLA prisoners, two of them armed. The assassins climbed through a hole in an "undetected and unobserved section of security fencing" between the prisoners' yard and a low roof. They crossed the roof onto the forecourt where the van stood. One man held the driver hostage while another opened fire on Wright inside the van.

January 1972 began with hopes of a new year and a new beginning in Northern Ireland. Newspapers and religious authorities were optimistic, as was a clairvoyant who we might consider amusing in his ineptitude were it not for the grim reality of the year that followed.

Because 1972 was, simply, one of the the worst years of the Troubles. Within the first hour of January eight bombs went off in Belfast. There would be a further 379 bombings in the same month alone, setting the tone for a vicious year of violence.

January concluded, of course, with Bloody Sunday. Civil rights demonstrators gathered in the Bishop Field District of the Creggan estate outside Derry. There was a carnival atmosphere. As the march made its way through the streets it encountered a number of barricades.

Former Northern Ireland First Minister Rev. Ian Paisley has announced that he will not seek re-election in forthcoming general election. He announced his decision today in his local constituency paper, the Ballymena Guardian.

The decision of the 83 year old founder and former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) opens the way for his son, Ian Paisley Jr., to contest the election as the DUP's candidate in the North Antrim constituency.

Public opinion in Israel and Palestine suggests that a two-state solution to the conflict should be easier to achieve than power sharing in Northern Ireland, a British academic says. Polling also shows that most people living in the Middle East want peace. By Malachy Browne

For the past fifteen months, a team of researchers headed by Dr Colin Irwin of the University of Liverpool has been measuring public opinion in the Middle East on issues deemed to be at the heart of the conflict. Questionnaires were framed based on  the main issues (and solutions) identified by politicians and people living in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

Below is the liveblog for the Tonight with Vincent Browne show for the 11th of January 2010
Topic: The Iris Robinson affair
Panelists: Eunan O'Halpin, Fergus Finlay and Suzanne Breen

The most extraordinary revelation of last Thursday night’s BBC Spotlight programme on Iris and Peter Robinson was the conduct of Peter Robinson hours after, according to him, his wife threatened to kill herself.

On the morning of March 1, 2008,he left his wife at home, without medical attention, and in a condition that required her immediate hospitalisation once doctors arrived. He went into the chamber at Stormont and was jocular and relaxed.

Several years ago, in response to a column I had written to do with the Catholic Church, Cahal Daly wrote a letter to me, which I remember as a magnificent put-down.  It was witty, clever and respectful, but a put-down. I responded in a similar vein, acknowledging the put-down, and we corresponded occasionally since then. (Unfortunately, I do not now recall what the point at issue was, nor can I find any of his letters).

Bertie Ahern indeed has done some service to his country and done some service to Fianna Fail. His departure now was not the least of that service.

By Vincent Browne 

Last week one of Sinn Fein's leading figures during the Peace Process was wringing his hands about the ditching of Ian Paisley as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).  Paisley's term as First Minister, wrote Jim Gibney, “has been distinctive for his style and panache. His humour and hearty laughter strikes [sic] a chord with people mesmerised by the change that has come over him in his working relationship with Martin McGuinness”. The pair had given hope to the people, Gibney claimed. “If it was leadership ambition on the part of others then they are shortsighted and confirm by their actions the maxim that for some ‘there is no gratitude in politics' only crass ambition.” By Susan McKay 

The murder of Paul Quinn near the border last October and the officially ordained cover-up of IRA culpability for that murder, illustrates the fatal compromises that the “peace” process has involved. By Catherine McCartney

On 20 October 2007, Paul Quinn a 21- year-old from Cullyhanna, south Armagh drove himself and a friend to a location in Oram, Co Monaghan to do a few hours work clearing a shed for the arrival of cattle. It was a Saturday evening and Paul and his friend were in good spirits as they drove to the location. The prospect of earning a few extra pounds had enticed them to the farm across the border and given that the offer had come through another close friend neither Paul nor his friend suspected anything. As soon as they got out of the car and entered the shed a terrible reality dawned on them. Instead of being met by friends they were met by a gang of men wearing boiler suits, masks and surgical gloves.

Ian Paisley's decision to share power with Sinn Féin is alienating his flock. And as his position for moderator comes up for re-election, the Reverend is in for a rough ride.

THE Government is facing the embarrassing scenario of seeing one of the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe's released on the eve of the General Election, according to The Irish Examiner today (6 March).

As internal dissent plagues the DUP, candidates have been asked to sign contracts of loyalty, with fines for breaching party policy ahead of the Northern Assembly elections on 7 March. Fionola Meredith reports.

Due to traffic diversions from the A5 beside the Ulster-American Folk Park near Omagh, we discovered Gortin Glen by chance.

Moazzam Begg was imprisoned for three years in Bagram and Guantanamo Bay, spending most of his time in solitary confinement. He was never charged with any crime. Fionola Meredith attended his Belfast lecture last month

Moazzam Begg doesn't look or sound like a dangerous man. The US government described the former Guantanamo Bay detainee as “an enemy combatant” and, when he was released without charge in early 2005, the Pentagon, the CIA and the FBI queued up to object, insisting Begg could still be a dangerous terrorist. According to the New York Times, the Pentagon believes Begg to be “a sympathiser, recruiter and financier for terrorists”. But, in person, Begg is far from the cartoonish, wild-eyed jihad-monster that haunts the jittery public imagination.

In the last session of talks between the two governments and Sinn Féin at St Andrews, I proposed to Tony Blair that an Irish-language act be brought forward at Westminster by his government. That last session was a very stormy one – it was about putting together a programme to get the DUP into the powersharing arrangements, as laid out in the Good Friday Agreement.

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The family of US-born John Hemsworth has called for an inquest into his death and for the American government to get involved in his case. By Frank Connolly

Who would ever have thought it? Ian Paisley will be first minister in Stormont come March 2007. He will head up a joint powersharing executive with Sinn Féin, with Martin McGuiness as deputy first minister.

There must remain a scepticism that the powersharing deal involving the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin will actually happen next March. And the essential reason is that for too many on the unionist side, accepting Sinn Fein – the political manifestation of the IRA which murdered so many in their community – is for now a step too far

Ian Paisley faces a delicate political balancing act if devolved government is to be restored in the North, without isolating fundamentalist DUP voters. By Alan Murray 

In the 1970s Peter Hain was the charismatic hero of the anti-apartheid campaign. In 2006, the North's secretary of state has morphed into an ambitious Blairite with his eye on the prize – the Labour leadership. By Colin Murphy

Justine McCarthy talks to Kevin Myers about his memories of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and discovers that the Irish Independent columnist is capable of touching kindness, in private

Academic, feminist, political campaigner and now chairperson of Northern Ireland's Human Rights Commission, Monica McWilliams is used to being jeered by unionists and plugging away at the issues she cares most about. She talks to Fionola Meredith

In the spirit of the pantomime season, here's a warning for the most senior members of Sinn Féin: "Look out, he's behind you".

Last year someone in Derry started painting the post-boxes green. All year they alternated from green to red and back again. It started me thinking about what a reunited Ireland would look like. Arafat reputedly returned to Gaza after the Oslo Accords saying he wouldn't stop until Palestine had its own direct dialling code. Sovereignty can come down to direct dialling codes and the colour of post-boxes; it should, however, involve much more.

The assertion by General de Chastelain on Monday (26 September): "We believe that the arms decommissioned (by the IRA) represent the totality of the IRA's arsenal".

Seven women dominated the week. Catherine, Claire, Donna, Paula and Gemma McCartney, Bridgeen Hagans and Anne McCabe. All were at the White House for a St Patrick's Day reception. All represented a determination to rid Ireland of paramilitary murder, violence and criminality.

The report of the Independent Monitoring Commission is an irrelevance. An irrelevance even if any independent credibility could be attached to its findings. On Thursday (10 February) it concluded the IRA was responsible for a series of robberies, including the Northern Bank robbery on 10 December and that senior Sinn Féin people, by which it means Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness, approved of these robberies in advance.

As history creaks on its bloody hinge, And the unspeakable is done again

“Mammy…Where's Mammy?” A little girl screamed it through the flames and smoke and the tumbling debris of slates, planks, bits of cars and arms and legs in Market Street, Omagh, moments after the bomb exploded. Mothers, daughters, grandmothers, sons, husbands, fathers and friends lay dead in the rubble. Twenty one people died at the scene. Others were horribly injured. Seven have since died and eight more are, as we go to press, still critically ill. Many people have lost limbs.

Michael McKevitt

Michael McKevitt and his partner, Bernadette Sands-McKevitt, have been the people most prominently identified with the Real IRA. Both have adamantly denied any involvement in the Real IRA and there is no evidence suggesting that they had any involvement in the Omagh bombing.
Michael McKevitt and Bernadette Sands-McKevitt have said they are instituting legal action against several media organisations because of the suggestion of their complicity with the Omagh bomb and also because of the identification of Michael McKevitt as the former IRA quarter-master who has been the key figure in the establishment of the Real IRA.

Read more... 

A chronology of the deaths through the Northern Ireland troubles

January 9, 1971: The IRA murdered six civilians in a land mine explosion at Brougher Mountain, near Trillick, Co Tyrone.

January 30, 1972: The British Army murdered 14 Catholics in Derry on what has become known as “Bloody Sunday”.

IRA                            1760     (53%)
Other Republicans    199       (6%)   
Loyalists                     920       (28%)
Security Force            355       (11%)

Total Killings               3330
(These figures are taken from “An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland 1969-1993” by Malcolm Sutton and all available figures on killings since 1993)

The Humanising of David Trimble.  By Fionnuala O Connor

If the road towards peace becomes straighter and smoother in time, no one looking back can ignore how tragedy reshaped this summer. Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams look strengthened by the outcome of Omagh. The psychology is simpler than the politics: one should feed the other. But an altered David Trimble may still need more than can be given at this point, by the organisation Gerry Adams has helped change in tune with himself and the community he comes from.

Magill has obtained exclusive details of RUC  and Garda estimates of the weapons being  held by terrorists in Ireland. The details form  part of a document which was presented  to the Mitchell Commission  on Decommissioning and are as follows:

The Sinn Fein electoral wagon is slowing down. As a result, the IRA is likely to begin stepping up its war against the Northern state. Gene Kerrigan reports from Belfast and also interviews Sinn Fein's Danny Morrison on the party's recent successes and failures.

The belief that Sinn Fein is approaching its ceiling of votes is likely, according to republican sources to lead to a change in IRA military tactics. This may result in a return to a more intensive bombing of "econoomic targets". Within the Sinn Fein leadership it is now believed that the party is unlikely to out-poll the SDLP in the short term and secure a position as, the main representatives of the nationalist community in the North. The party will this month - after the new ward boundary arrangements are announced - work out its strategy for the 1985 local elections in the Six Counties. Sinn Fein may pered in its aim of maximisin'g its vote by e rule changes brought in by Margaret Thatcher after the electoral victory of Bobby Sands in Fermanagh-South Tyrone in 1981.