wildewood

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Dealing with the past in £££!!!

Policing the past will cost criminal justice agencies in Northern Ireland almost £190m during the next five years, a report has said.The Criminal Justice Inspection said dealing with legacy issues was having a negative impact on how police and other agencies dealt with current challenges.It warned this could reduce confidence in the criminal justice system.The report also called for the creation of a special legacy group to deal with the past.The inspection report comes a day afterAttorney General John Larkin said there should be no further police investigations, inquests or inquiries into Troubles' killings before the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.The report estimated that the cost to the police and other agencies would be £187m over the next five years.The Police Service of Northern Ireland accounts for more than £132m of that total, with the Police Ombudsman's office accounting for almost £11m and prisons just over £6m.Chief Criminal Justice Inspector Brendan McGuigan said the police and other agencies, like prisons and the Public Prosecution Service, were struggling to cope."Those are the upfront costs, however, there are unseen costs and clearly the criminal justice agencies are under significant pressure in terms of reducing budgets," he said.Chief Criminal Justice Inspector Brendan McGuigan said the police and other agencies were struggling to cope"They are struggling to find the money to deliver on the legacy issues and, of course, that is not meeting the needs and expectations of victims."The reality is that detectives involved in legacy issues are the same detectives who will be conducting serious crime investigation, child exploitation and the activities of dissident republicans."It all comes out of the same pool and the reality is that it's causing significant delays in dealing with legacy issues - that's causing enormous frustration for victims and their legal representatives."Brendan McGuigan said he hoped talks, being chaired by former US diplomat Dr Richard Haass, may provide a better way forward."The current model isn't meeting the needs and expectations of victims in the way that it should, so there is an opportunity, I think, in the Haass talks to consider how best this should be done," he said.

Shoot to kill MRF Policy

Undercover soldiers 'killed
unarmed civilians in Belfast'
21 November 2013 Last updated at 10:50
Soldiers from an undercover unit used by
the British army in Northern Ireland killed
unarmed civilians, former members have
told BBC One's Panorama.
Speaking publicly for the first time, the ex-
members of the Military Reaction Force (MRF),
which was disbanded in 1973, said they had
been tasked with "hunting down" IRA members
in Belfast.
The former soldiers said they believed the unit
had saved many lives.
The Ministry of Defence said it had referred the
disclosures to police.
The details have emerged a day after Northern
Ireland's attorney general, John Larkin,
suggested ending any prosecutions over
Troubles-related killings that took place before
the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in
1998.
The soldiers appeared on Panorama on condition
their identities were disguised
The proposal has been criticised by groups
representing relatives of victims.
Panorama has been told the MRF consisted of
about 40 men handpicked from across the
British army.
Before it was disbanded 40 years ago, after 18
months, plain-clothes soldiers carried out round-
the-clock patrols of west Belfast - the heartland
of the IRA - in unmarked cars.
Three former members of the unit, who agreed to
be interviewed on condition their identities were
disguised, said they had posed as Belfast City
Council road sweepers, dustmen and even
"meths drinkers", carrying out surveillance from
street gutters.
But surveillance was just one part of their work.
One of the soldiers said they had also fired on
suspected IRA members.
He described their mission as "to draw out the
IRA and to minimise their activities... if they
needed shooting, they'd be shot".
'Targets taken down'
Another former member of the unit said: "We
never wore uniform - very few people knew what
rank anyone was anyway.
"We were hunting down hardcore baby-killers,
terrorists, people that would kill you without even
thinking about it."
A third former MRF soldier said: "If you had a
player who was a well-known shooter who
carried out quite a lot of assassinations... then
he had to be taken out.
"[They were] killers themselves, and they had no
mercy for anybody."
In 1972 there were more than 10,600 shootings in
Northern Ireland. It is not possible to say how
many the unit was involved in.
The MRF's operational records have been
destroyed and its former members refused to
incriminate themselves or their comrades in
specific incidents when interviewed by
Panorama.
But they admitted shooting and killing unarmed
civilians.
When asked if on occasion the MRF would make
an assumption that someone had a weapon,
even if they could not see one, one of the former
soldiers replied "occasionally".
"We didn't go around town blasting, shooting all
over the place like you see on the TV, we were
going down there and finding, looking for our
targets, finding them and taking them down," he
said.
Patricia McVeigh says her father Patrick was
shot in the back as he stopped to talk to men at
a checkpoint
"We may not have seen a weapon, but there
more than likely would have been weapons there
in a vigilante patrol."
Panorama has identified 10 unarmed civilians
shot, according to witnesses, by the MRF:
Brothers John and Gerry Conway, on the
way to their fruit stall in Belfast city centre
on 15 April 1972
Aiden McAloon and Eugene Devlin, in a taxi
taking them home from a disco on 12 May
1972
Joe Smith, Hugh Kenny, Patrick Murray and
Tommy Shaw, on Glen Road on 22 June
1972
Daniel Rooney and Brendan Brennan, on the
Falls Road on 27 September 1972
Patricia McVeigh told the BBC she believed her
father, Patrick McVeigh, had been shot in the
back and killed by plain clothes soldiers on 12
May 1972 and said she wanted justice for him.
"He was an innocent man, he had every right to
be on the street walking home. He didn't deserve
to die like this," she said.
Her solicitor Padraig O'Muirigh said he was
considering civil action against the Ministry of
Defence in light of Panorama's revelations.
The MoD refused to say whether soldiers
involved in specific shootings had been
members of the MRF.
'Pretty gruesome'
It said it had referred allegations that MRF
soldiers shot unarmed men to police in Northern
Ireland.
But the members of the MRF who Panorama
interviewed said their actions had ultimately
helped bring about the IRA's decision to lay
down arms.
Gen Sir Mike Jackson, the former head of the
British army, and a young paratrooper captain in
1972, said he had known little of the unit's
activities at the time, but admired the bravery of
soldiers involved in undercover work.
He said: "That takes a lot of courage and it's a
cold courage. It's not the courage of hot blood
[used by] soldiers in a firefight.
"You know if you are discovered, a pretty
gruesome fate may well await you - torture
followed by murder."
The IRA planted nearly 1,800 bombs - an
average of five a day - in 1972
Col Richard Kemp, who carried out 10 tours of
Northern Ireland between 1979 and 2001, told
BBC Radio 4's Today programme charges could
be brought if there was new evidence unarmed
civilians had been killed.
But he added: "Soldiers often speak with
bravado and I wonder how many of those
soldiers are saying that they themselves shot
and killed unarmed civilians."
Panorama has learnt a Ministry of Defence
review concluded the MRF had "no provision for
detailed command and control".
Forty years later and families and victims are still
looking for answers as to who carried out
shootings.
Former detectives are reviewing all of the deaths
in Northern Ireland during the conflict as part of
the Historical Enquiries Team set up following
the peace process.
Around 11% of the 3,260 deaths being reviewed
were the responsibility of the state.

Marian Price Guilty Plea

Old Bailey bomber Marian McGlinchey has admitted to providing a mobile phone linked to the Real IRA killing of two soldiers at the Massereene army barracks. McGlinchey, also known as Marian Price, admitted providing property for the purposes of terrorism.
The 59-year old also pleaded guilty to helping out at an Easter commemoration on April 25 last year in Londonderry. During the Derry event, McGlinchey was pictured holding up a statement for a masked man.
McGlinchey, from Stockman's Avenue in west Belfast, was released on continuing bail, to be sentenced next month.
Belfast Crown Court Judge Gordon Kerr QC told McGlinchey that the fact she was being released was "no indication" of how she would eventually be dealt with.
McGlinchey was already on trial accused of buying the pay-as-you-go mobile phone.
However, on Thursday morning, her defence QC Frank O'Donogohue asked for her to re-arraigned on the charge of providing money or property for the purposes of terrorism.
The lawyer also asked that she be arraigned on a separate charge of aiding and abetting the commemoration in Derry. McGlinchey was due to have gone on trial, accused of aiding and abetting, counselling and procuring the address made to encourage support for the IRA, or to further its activities.
Her original trial, which began on Monday, heard that she had links to "dissident republican activity" and must have known that the mobile she'd bought was to be used to make the call claiming the attack on the Massereene base.
Soldiers Sappers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar were gunned down as they collected a pizza delivery at the front of the army barracks on March 7, 2009. The pizza delivery man was also wounded in the attack.
Two men accused of the murders were subsequently tried and acquitted.
Prosecutor Tessa Kitson told the court that the day after the fatal attack, an unknown male made a number of telephone calls to media outlets including UTV as well as the Samaritans claiming responsibility for the attack on behalf of the Real IRA.
Ms Kitson said that on March 8, 2009 a woman was caught on CCTV purchasing the pay-as- you-go mobile from the Tesco store in Newtownabbey, adding it was the Crown's case that the woman seen purchasing the phone was McGlinchey.
The court heard that the phone was first used to claim responsibility an hour and five minutes after it was bought.
The prosecution claimed it had been purchased "solely" for this purpose McGlinchey, from Stockman's Avenue in Belfast, was questioned about the purchase of the mobile phone in November of that year.
Ms Kitson said the accused "declined to make any comment in relation to these circumstances and she didn't identify the person or persons to whom she must have passed this telephone to."
Ms Kitson told Judge Gordon Kerr QC that given McGlinchey's "background and involvement in dissident republican activity", it was unlikely she was unaware that the phone would be used to "promote the objectives and aims of a terrorist organisation, in that it would be used to claim responsibility for a terrorist attack."
She also said the timing of the events were important in the case against the accused, saying the phone was purchased the day after the attack and the first call was made just 24 minutes after the phone was topped up with credit.
Ms Kitson added that no other calls were made to or from the phone, other than those claiming responsibility.
The court also heard that despite various police interviews, McGlinchey never provided a reason for the purchase of the phone.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Att general calls 4 amnesty

victims groups have criticised a suggestion that there should be an end to prosecutions for Troubles killings.NI's Attorney General John Larkin said there should be an end to investigations into killings before the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.Prime Minister David Cameron said such a move would be "rather dangerous".None of Northern Ireland's main political parties have supported the idea.Mr Larkin had said there should be no further police investigations, inquests or inquiries into any relevant killings that took place before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.That means all deaths caused by paramilitaries, police or the Army.Mr Larkin said his proposal was not a formal amnesty, but was a logical consequence of the agreement.His comments came as former US diplomat Richard Haass tries to broker a political agreement over how to deal with the legacy of Northern Ireland's past, as well as controversial parades and the flying of flags.Relatives of Troubles victims have criticised Mr Larkin's suggestion.Patrick Corrigan from Amnesty International called Mr Larkin's proposals "an utter betrayal of victims' fundamental right to access justice".Stephen Gault, whose father Samuel was killed in the 1987 IRA Poppy Day bombing in Enniskillen, said: "How dare he airbrush the innocent people who were murdered at the hands of terrorists to move things forward. I just think it's totally disgusting."Kate Nash, whose brother was shot dead by the Army on Bloody Sunday in 1972, said: "I'm absolutely incensed by what the attorney general is saying - my brother didn't matter, my brother was murdered almost 42 years ago."'Rather dangerous'Speaking during Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Cameron said: "We are all democrats who believe in the rule of law, who believe in the independence of the police and prosecuting authorities, and they should if they are able to, be able to bring cases."I think it's rather dangerous to think that you can put some sort of block on that."But of course we are all interested in ways in which people can reconcile and come to terms with the bloody past, so that they can build a viable future and a shared future for Northern Ireland."Northern Ireland's Justice Minister David Ford said: "I don't agree at all with the suggestion made by the attorney general that the criminal justice system should no longer have a role in dealing with the past."We need a process that includes justice, truth and reconciliation - I don't believe that we will get any one of these without the other."The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the largest political party in Northern Ireland, said the attorney general had not consulted the Stormont Executive about his proposals before making them public.The party's Jeffery Donaldson said: "There is no nation in the free world today where murder is not a crime, you cannot say that murder is not a crime - it is."There are 3,000 unsolved murders in Northern Ireland and those families are entitled to the right to pursue justice."'Cause of real concern'Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly said: "There's many different views of what you do with the truth or post-truth, but the one thing that we've all agreed to, is the truth needs to get out."Now if what John Larkin is doing is drawing a line in the sand and closing down the ability to bring out truth, then I would fundamentally disagree."The nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) said the attorney general's remarks were a "cause of real concern".SDLP justice spokesperson Alban Maginness said victims and survivors of state and paramilitary violence were "entitled to justice irrespective of the lapse of time".Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt said he was deeply suspicious about the timing of Mr Larkin's comments."I am shocked at the lack of consultation particularly with victims, never mind the executive," he said. "I can't believe he didn't understand the hurt and pain he would cause amongst victims."'Very few prosecutions'More than 3,500 people were killed during three decades of conflict in Northern Ireland.The attorney general, who is the chief legal adviser to the Stormont Executive for civil and criminal matters, said the proposal was a logical consequence of the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.Mr Larkin told the BBC: "More than 15 years have passed since the Belfast Agreement, there have been very few prosecutions, and every competent criminal lawyer will tell you the prospects of conviction diminish, perhaps exponentially, with each passing year, so we are in a position now where I think we have to take stock."It strikes me that the time has come to think about putting a line, set at Good Friday 1998, with respect to prosecutions, inquests and other inquiries."Commenting on the remarks, Northern Ireland's Chief Constable Matt Baggott said: "It is well documented that the cost of policing the past has a massive impact on how we deal with the present and the future."Whilst we are committed to meeting our current legislative responsibilities, dealing with legacy issues continues to place significant pressure on our organisation and financial resources."New inquest into killingsIf adopted, in addition to the end to all criminal prosecutions and coroners' inquests, Mr Larkin's proposals would result in the abolition of the Historical Enquiries Team (HET), the body set up to review killings during the period known as the Troubles.Meanwhile, Mr Larkin has ordered a new inquest into the killings of two people when loyalists, including rogue members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and Ulster Defence Regiment, attacked a bar in the village of Keady, south Armagh in 1976, according to the Belfast-based solicitor Kevin Winters, who is representing the families.The attack was allegedly carried out by a group known at the Glenanne Gang.The fresh coroner's court probe followed a report by the HET, which according to Mr Winters, pointed to one of the most notorious examples of collusion involving the security forces.

Release Martin Corey

SPOTLIGHT ON BRITISH OVER MARTIN COREY INTERNMENTStatement from Release Martin Corey Campaign The Spotlight Programme screened on Tuesday, November 12 was, in part, concerned with the case of political internee Martin Corey. Ciaran Tracey, Journalist for the BBC, visited Martin in Maghaberry prison, Co Antrim and conducted an interview with him. During the course of this interview Martin stated that he believed that he was in jail because he refused to become an informer, he stated he had been approached prior to his incarceration and told that he should co-operate with the security forces or else he would find himself in jail. And that is where Martin Corey found himself, in Maghaberry Jail, he has been there for over three-and-half-years. He faces no charge and no trial, he has no release date, his release had previously been directed by the courts but then overturned by the British secretary of state. Three British secretaries of state have allowed Martin's internment to continue with secret evidence quoted as justification for this. This blatant disregard for the judicial system exposes the true nature of British rule in Ireland and how it serves to persecute political dissenters. It is now time that Martin Corey is released once and for all with no interference from un-elected British officials who seek to protect those who recruit informers and put Irish citizen’s lives in danger on a daily basis. On Monday, November 11 and Tuesday, November 12, the Release Marin Corey Campaign loosely organised an attempt to highlight Martins case on social networking site Twitter. The result was overwhelming and exceeded expectations throughout the course of those two days. Republicans and human rights defenders continuously tweeted #releasemartincorey and due to their hard work this trended at number two on Monday (November 11) and number 1 on Tuesday (November 12) in Ireland. The committee would like to thank all those who took part and congratulate you on your success. We are weeks away from knowing the outcome of Martin's case but we must not now sit back think that here is no more to done, we must keep the pressure on. In September Human rights organisation, Justice Watch Ireland released a report on their findings into the incarceration of Martin Corey. A full copy of this report has now been published on www.releasemartincorey.com
The Release Martin Corey Campaign once again reiterates its demand for the release of Martin Corey, who is in jail solely for his political views. The British Government and their security must not be allowed to continue down this path of political persecution unchallenged.

Release Martin Corey Committee

5 Tyrone men in isolation

A HUMAN rights group co-founded by one of the ‘Guildford Four’ has called for five Tyrone men to be granted requests to be moved from an isolated section of Maghaberry Prison into a designated republican wing.Gavin Coyle (36) of Culmore Park in Omagh, Thomas Hamill (41), Mark McGillowway (41) and Desmond Hamill (39), all from Dungannon, are currently being held in 23 hour lock up along with 49-year-old Austin Creggan from Pomeroy.Charged in connection with a republican arms find in east Tyrone, Gavin Coyle has been remanded in Maghaberry’s Care and Supervision Unit (CSU) since April 2011. The other four, who have all been sentenced for offences linked to dissident republican activity in Tyrone, have been held in the unit since 2012.Justice Watch Ireland (JWI) was set up in January by among others Gerry Conlon, who served 15 years after he was wrongly convicted of involvement in an IRA bombing campaign in England. The group have described Maghaberry’s CSU as “a short stay punishment facility”, stating it is “reminiscent of a Victorian prison regime” and not fit for long term confinement.Separated wings for republican and loyalist prisoners were established in Maghaberry’s Roe House in 2003 following the Steele report. Prisoners seeking to be housed there typically sign a separation compact.In a report issued on Friday, JWI states that despite requests to be housed in Roe House, Gavin Coyle was sent straight to CSU in 2011, with prison authorities informing him his life was under threat from republicans. “The republicans housed in Roe have denied Gavin is under threat and repeatedly asked that Gavin be housed on the wing,” states the report.The group also claim that MI5 and the PSNI made “numerous” attempts to recruit Coyle while in the unit.Issuing a number of recommendations, JWI has called for any prisoner who asks for and meets the criteria for separation be separated. It has also recommended no prisoner be housed for longer than three months in CSU confinement and no prisoner be subject to the advances of any state agency, without the presence of their legal representatives.JWI has also called for the end of “the degrading process of strip searching”.“To refuse them the right of separation, may be legally construed as an act of discrimination,” states the group. “The continuing confinement of the five prisoners in the CSU, indefinitely, may be in breach of International and domestic law and UK prison guidelines.“The long term isolation of prisoners from each other without meaningful activities, such as education and exercise and little access to natural sunlight, is reminiscent of a Victorian prison regime, not one that exists in the 21st century.”

- See more at: http://ulsterherald.com/2013/11/19/human-rights-group-investigates-tyrone-prisoners-held-in-isolation/#sthash.a7hlpDvd.dpuf
http://ulsterherald.com/2013/11/19/human-rights-group-investigates-tyrone-prisoners-held-in-isolation/

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Is it cold in his shadow

107cowgate

We Only Want The Earth

Is It Cold In His Shadow? – An Appreciation of Vol. Brendan Hughes

By Mark HayesA short time ago I was asked by TAL’s editor if I would consider writing a short piece about Brendan Hughes. As readers of TAL will doubtless be aware Brendan Hughes figures prominently in the narrative of modern Irish Republicanism, and much has already been said and written about him. What else, I pondered, might usefully be added to the wealth of material that already exists? Moreover, there is a sense in which the effort to recollect causes much more pain than pleasure. Why inflict more discomfort by revisiting the past? Perhaps it would be far better to press on without glancing backwards.As it turns out Talman posited the question at precisely the right time because recent events have made remembering an obligation for anyone who claims to profess adherence to the Republican creed. It is not the gradual and insidious elision from principled armed resistance to pragmatic parliamentary politics that has precipitated my desire to comment, although that particular, sorry story is shameful enough – it has been the careless vitriol recently directed toward Brendan himself by people who should know better. The leader of Sinn Fein, not content with presiding over the somnambulant drift of his party into the arms of the British state, recently saw fit to describe Brendan Hughes as a “liar”. Indeed, certain individuals via contributions to social networks and assorted websites (I will not dignify them with a name) have even suggested that Volunteer Brendan Hughes was an informer! A perfect moment, therefore, to reflect on the personality of the man himself.I will not dwell on the biographical detail of Brendan Hughes’ life and the contribution he made in the effort to free Ireland from imperialism and oppression. That information is a matter of fact and public record. Not even the pro-Unionist “Republicans” ensconced safely in Stormont could seriously cast doubt on his credentials as an armed volunteer. The people of west Belfast and across the occupied north were well aware that if even half of the folk-tales were true about Brendan, then he was a volunteer to be reckoned with, and to be remembered in the same breath as Bobby Sands. This is not the substance of my modest intervention. I am writing to tell you something of the man I knew, who stayed in my house, who laughed with us, debated with us, and the man whose coffin I helped carry around the narrow streets of Belfast. I considered the “Dark” a good friend and comrade.Yet we need to be brutally clear and honest in our assessment – Brendan was a man with faults and frailties, and he wrestled with his conscience over decisions that would have destroyed lesser men. He made mistakes too, as all human beings have. The crucial point, however, is that Brendan would have recognised those weaknesses and acknowledged them. It may seem slightly odd to emphasise this observation. Why would I focus upon this aspect of his character, when there are so many tales to be told about fighting “Brits” and attacking the forces of the state? I could recount many, and a few would provide ample evidence to confirm the old aphorism that fact is far stranger than fiction. Many of these incidents and events have been recorded for posterity for the benefit of future generations. So why not make an icon of a man who, as much as anyone, is deserving of retrospective veneration? Why not allow the reputation of Brendan Hughes the IRA Commander to evolve into another cult of the Republican soldier? There are several inter-related reasons why great care should be taken over how his legacy is handled.Firstly, Brendan would not have wanted a celebration of his deeds. He was clearly aware that the manipulation of commemorations could serve a variety of purposes, not all of which would be endorsed by those who were being commemorated. Moreover, turning “the Dark” into a “fallen soldier” to be worshipped as such would seriously diminish and distort the nature of the politics which underpinned his contribution to the Republican struggle.Politics should take priority in any account of Brendan Hughes. “Darkie” was an unreconstructed and unrepentant class warrior, and as such he did not fight for a utopian united Ireland as some kind of mystical national entity which would somehow automatically resolve all social, political and economic contradictions. Che Guevara mattered much more than Cuchalain and “the Dark” had his eyes focused firmly on a further horizon, his vision fixed – the Republic would be egalitarian or it would be lost. People may not be aware that one of Brendan’s bitterest disputes with Sinn Fein was about the pay of building workers in Belfast. The fate of ordinary working class people, Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter, formed the very epicentre of his perspective on the world. Securing a living wage, decent housing and quality healthcare for everyone were the focus of his attention, rather than the misty and maudlin fixations of “mother Ireland”. Portraying Brendan as anything other than a man of the people would be a gross distortion of historical reality, and a sad betrayal of his political legacy. He believed in ordinary people, and he belonged to them alone.Secondly, Brendan Hughes knew that violence should only ever be tactic (not a principle), and the glorification of war is, at best, unseemly. Brendan was a gentle man, despite having a righteous temper, and would only ever countenance the use of an armed strategy in the service of the noblest ideals, against the rich and powerful. He would never have sanctioned the use of violence to intimidate the weak, unlike some who have used the epithet “soldier” or “freedom fighter” to obscure the evil essence of their malevolent misdeeds. Brendan Hughes was not a bully. It might also be added, nevertheless, that Brendan would never have traded the right to resist as a bargaining chip in a tawdry compromise with the bitterest of political enemies. Brendan may have been a reluctant soldier, but he was not a fool.The other related point of identifying and emphasising very clearly Brendan’s own capacity for critical self-reflection is this – he was an honest man. If he made a mistake he was prepared to acknowledge it. In that sense he had the humility of a fallible human being trying, as we all are, to do what is best in onerous circumstances. He also accepted other people as they were, with all their faults, and was hugely generous in giving his time and consideration to others. He was never arrogant or self-obsessed, and incredibly diffident – despite the fact that he had very little to be modest about. Brendan was generous, decent and honourable. This is why the accusation of deliberate duplicity is so utterly grotesque – the very word “liar” as applied to “Darkie” Hughes should choke those who have the temerity to deploy it against him. Men who have compromised, conceded the moral high ground and capitulated to the enemy now make accusations that would never, ever have been made to Brendan’s face. Such accusations are a desperate and despicable ploy to destroy the reputation of a principled political adversary. The suggestion that Brendan’s so-called “demons” somehow invalidate his ideological perspective is not only specious, it is the work of the most unscrupulous gombeens, a cheap and spurious knave’s trick designed to deflect attention from his legitimate critique of Sinn Fein. But the political ideas expressed by Brendan will not be marginalised by the self-serving insinuations of those mercenaries who are now content to administer British rule on behalf of businessmen and bankers. If the firing squad in Kilmainham jail could not silence James Connolly, then the political assassins who now take aim at the reputation of “Darkie” Hughes will have to think again.In many ways now, as the consensus constructed around Sinn Fein’s “peace strategy” begins to crumble, the people who perpetrate this foul calumny are more to be pitied than scorned. Their project is being progressively dismantled. Nevertheless, those people who remain committed to the path of pro-Union constitutionalism should seriously reflect on the nature of a leadership which is willing to do such a wretched dis-service to the memory of a good man. Of course those who have led the strategy have far too much to lose by retracting their vile revisionism. To concede that the calculated character assassination of Hughes is morally reprehensible would cast considerable doubt on the rest of the story they have cynically concocted to justify their discredited political strategy. Feeble men – it must be cold for them, standing there in his shadow.When I think of Brendan I recognise neither the “warrior” icon of Republican mythology, nor the cruel misrepresentations cast by his political opponents. I remember a person of the utmost integrity, but also an activist full of passion for the pursuit of a political ideal that some of us steadfastly refuse to relinquish. His enemies will never be able to degrade his reputation because, to paraphrase Bobby Sands, they can call him whatever they want – the people call him a man!And I would take the opportunity to make one final point to the politically motivated purveyors of half-truth and crass distortion – if you take issue with him, then you take issue with us all. We will not be silent, because the “wee Dark” still walks among us… Mark Hayes - November 9 2013This article was commissioned and originally published by Tal Fanzine. About these ads