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Date Posted: Tue, Oct 13 2009, 12:21:33 PDT
Author: IRISH REPUBLICAN NEWS
Subject: DISARMING DENIED etc

IRISH REPUBLICAN NEWS
http://republican-news.org

Friday-Monday, 9-12 October, 2009

1. CONFUSION OVER INLA STATEMENT
2. Unionist anger at Brady funeral display
3. 'Official IRA' arms report denied
4. Dismay as Greens vote to stay in power
5. Clinton lauds political process
6. Sinn Fein responds to victims plan
7. Feature: 'John didn't kill himself'
8. Analysis: There was no deal

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>>>>> CONFUSION OVER INLA STATEMENT

A decision by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) to formally
draw its armed campaign to a close has been welcomed by the political
parties in the North but has caused considerable surprise to its own
supporters.

On Sunday, a statement was read to the annual Seamus Costello
commemoration on behalf of the leadership of the Irish Republican
Socialist Movement (RSM), which includes the INLA.

It stated: "The RSM has been informed by the INLA that following a
process of serious debate, consultation and analysis, it has concluded
that the armed struggle is over and the objective of a 32 County
Socialist Republic will be best achieved through exclusively peaceful
political struggle.

"The RSM agree with this analysis and are fully supportive of the move
to build a left wing party that has a clear objective of a 32 County
Socialist Republic based on the principles of equality, justice,
inclusion, human rights and dignity."

The announcement was made in Bray, County Wicklow, by Martin McMonagle,
from Derry, a member of the organisation's executive.

He went on to say that "the future struggles are political" and urged
all members and supporters "to join the political struggle ahead with
the same vigour, commitment and courage that was evident in our armed
struggle against the British state."

Mr McMonagle said the group would continue to oppose the 1998 Good
Friday Agreement but would do so via peaceful means.

Nevertheless, the move took many RSM members and most of its supporters
by surprise. The statement sharply contradicts previous policy
documents published by the organisation, which disavow parliamentary
activity as 'reformist' and doomed to failure.

Most voiced support and encouragement for the new political direction.
However, media reports that the INLA would soon decommission their
weapons provoked the greatest dismay.

McMonagle denied on Monday that the organisation has any plans to
disarm.

"In our discussions with the INLA over the last number of years
decommissioning has not been mentioned," he said.

The INLA's 35-year campaign was notorious for being both unpredictable
and ruthless. In its deadliest attack, it killed eleven British
soldiers and six civilians in December 1982.

However, many if its targets were republicans themselves, and the
organisation at one point became synonymous with bloody internecine
feuding.

British Direct Ruler Shaun Woodward welcomed the statement but said the
INLA needed to hand in its weapons.

A member of the RSM executive, Willie Gallagher, would not comment on
the subject of weapons. He claimed there had been "a lot of internal
consultation over quite some time" -- an element of which was the
"raison d'etre of the INLA".

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams welcomed the announcement but said:
"Given the history of the INLA there will undoubtedly be some
scepticism about today's statement.

"However, if it is followed by the actions that are necessary this is a
welcome development."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>>>>> Unionist anger at Brady funeral display

Unionists have condemned the republican funeral for Volunteer John Brady
as "obscene".

Mr Brady's death is currently the subject of an investigation by the The
Strabane man died while in the custody of the PSNI police in Derry last
week. His family have questioned claims that he took his own life.

Three masked and uniformed men fired several volleys over his coffin on
Thursday. A fourth man, also dressed in a combat outfit, shouted orders
to the gunmen.

The large crowd applauded before forming the funeral cortege behind a
substantial colour party, dressed in white shirts and black ties.

The PSNI monitored events from a distance while a Crown force helicopter
flew overhead.

Mourners attending Brady's funeral were told a full disclosure of
details surrounding his death must be provided.

Strabane priest, Fr Declan Boland said: "It was Jesus who said that the
truth would set us free and it is my wish that the full truth of his
sudden and unexpected death will be available to his family as quickly
as possible.

"Without this they will not be able to engage with their grief or cope
with their tragedy."

Following Requiem Mass in Strabane Mr Brady was laid to rest at
Doneyloop cemetery where his father is buried.

Former Donegal Sinn Fein councillor Liam McElhinney delivered a
graveside oration in which he also called for the details surrounding Mr
Brady's death to be made public.

Ulster Unionist assembly member, David McClarty said Mr Brady's funeral
was "disgraceful" and a "public display of hatred".

"This was an unlawful act and the PSNI should take swift action," said
DUP West Tyrone Assembly member Allan Bresland.

Jim Allister of Traditional Unionist Voice also expressed outrage,
insisting there was a relationship between the Provisional IRA and the
breakaway republican groups.

"It has long been my belief that there are clear connections between
those whose political proxies partner pro-agreement unionists in
government and so-called dissidents," he said.

Meanwhile, the Police Ombudsman's Office has said it has seized all PSNI
camera footage relating to the death.

It claimed its investigators attended the scene immediately on being
notified, and had gathered all forensic and witness evidence and had
also interviewed all the relevant members of the PSNI.

The Brady family and their solicitors are understood to have raised a
number of issues with the ombudsman.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>>>>> 'Official IRA' arms report denied

The organisation once known as the 'Official IRA' has begun
decommissioning talks with the IICD arms body, it has been claimed.

Although the group, which split from the Provisional IRA in 1970, has
been on ceasefire for more than 37 years, it never formally handed over
its weapons.

While the group called an end to their armed struggle in 1972, the
'Officials' are said to have stored a number of rifles and handguns.

The remnants of the group, once linked to the small Workers Party
(formerly 'Official Sinn Fein') has sporadically used weapons during
internal republican disputes or for so-called punishment attacks. Some
of these have latterly described themselves as members of the 'Official
Republican Movement'.

In 1997, it was blamed for shooting two Sinn Fein members during a
dispute with the Provisional IRA in Newry. Local disputes between
criminal elements claiming the mantle of the organisation and the
Provisional IRA took place intermittently in Belfast in recent years.

In October 2005 the organisation's former leader, Sean Garland, was
arrested at a Workers Party conference in Belfast after the FBI asked
for his extradition to the US for questioning about a
multimillion-dollar international counterfeiting operation.

Garland, who is 75 years of age, was released on bail for medical
treatment in the 26 Counties but failed to reappear in court.

The reported decision to begin talks with the IICD has caused some
surprise, as the group had never been mentioned in any of the
commission's 19 reports. It is widely considered to have ceased to
exist in any meaningful sense.

An IICD spokesman last night refused to confirm or deny that the
commission was in discussions with the 'Official IRA'.

"IICD doesn't comment on its work," he said. "However, the IICD is to
open to all organisations on ceasefire until the end of its mandate next
February."

Republican sources have alleged that 'Official IRA' decommissioning is
spurious and part of a media campaign to encourage other arms groups to
decommission before the February 'deadline'.

The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), which has now ended its armed
campaign according to a statement on Sunday, is currently under intense
pressure to hand in its weaponry to the arms body.

John Lowry of the Workers Party, which had links to the Official IRA,
said he was unaware of any decommissioning talks.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>>>>> Dismay as Greens vote to stay in power

Green Party members have set the scene for massive political upheaval in
the 26 Counties this winter afer they voted to stay in government and
support a programme of unprecedented budget cutbacks in tandem with the
gigantic NAMA bailout for bank shareholders and developers.

The special convention on Saturday voted by 84 per cent to 16 per cent
in favour of continuing in government, comfortably exceeding the
two-thirds majority required by the party's constitution.

A revised programme for government emerged on Friday evening following a
theatrical and apparently choreographed negotiations process between the
two coalition parties, Fianna Fail and the Greens. It concluded in time
for evening news shows, with negotiators from both parties claiming to
have achieved a historic breakthrough.

The renegotiated Programme for Government contains a reversal of some
education cutbacks and the end of stag hunting and fur farming, as well
as other measures geared to the Green constituency.

Green Party members arriving at the convention at the RDS in Dublin were
greeted with shouts of "Greens out", and an alternative version of We
Will Rock You: ''We Will Sack You."

Protesters including the People Before Profit Alliance, the Socialist
Workers Party and Shell to Sea had gathered with placards and banners,
megaphones and microphones to voice noisy opposition to the party's vote
on Nama and a new Programme for Government.

Nora Boyle, a disenchanted former member who had previously campaigned
with Niall O'Brolchain, a former Green mayor of Galway, said the party
now had "too much of a middle-class agenda".

"Where is the eco-socialism the Greens stood for?", she asked.

"The leadership has turned its back on the whole ethos of community and
grass roots democracy."

But party leader John Gormley told the convention: "Very, very hard
decisions have to be made. We are willing to make those decisions, but
we do so in the context of a document which is transformational in
nature, which is going to deal with the problems that beset this country
for many decades."

The result means that the prospect of an imminent general election now
recedes. It will come as a huge relief for 26-County Taoiseach Brian
Cowen, whose administration has stabilised in recent weeks, first
following the result of the Lisbon referendum and now the vote of
confidence from the Green membership.

Mr Cowen said he was confident the document was "a vibrant, pragmatic
and comprehensive programme" and "a blueprint to meet the challenges we
now face".

"The Government partners have a good relationship based on trust,
pragmatism and a shared desire to do what is best for the country in
economic, social and environmental terms. This programme reflects this."

The main opposition party, Fine Gael, criticised the deal, with
enterprise spokesman Leo Varadkar saying it was "quite astonishing that
Minister Gormley, when questioned... was unable to say how much the
renegotiated Programme for Government is going to cost".

Water charges are to be part of a new system for financing local
government. Confirmation of the plan lead Joe Higgins MEP to predict a
"water war".

"Just as happened in the 1990s, there will be a massive boycott, with
people power coming directly into play to defeat plans to introduce a
water tax," he said.

"It was such a campaign in the 1990s that forced the Fine Gael/Labour
Party government to abolish water charges for the whole country in
December, 1996."

Sinn Fein's Caoimhghin O Caolain said the Green Party was "obviously
terrified of the prospect of a general election.

"They had the opportunity today to do the right thing by the Irish
people and turf Fianna Fail out of Government. Instead they missed that
opportunity and acted in their own selfish interests.

"They are now set to join with Fianna Fail in imposing savage cutbacks
that will hit the less well off the hardest while the parasites who
caused the economic crisis are bailed out by NAMA."

* The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) staged "tractorcades" in the 29
county areas where it organises. Tractors gathered outside the towns on
Monday morning and drove slowly through the different centres.

Protests were held in towns and cities such as Limerick, Kilkenny,
Sligo, Ennis, Tralee, Carlow, Loughrea, Clonmel, Tullamore, Cavan,
Monaghan, and Swords in Dublin.

IFA president Padraig Walshe, who led the protest in Portlaoise, called
on the Dublin government to take immediate action to assist farmers.
"Almost every town throughout rural Ireland is dependent on agriculture,
and the income collapse will lead to significant downturn in business
across the rural economy," he said.

Mr Walshe said farm incomes were expected to fall this year by up to 25
per cent and 35 per cent over a two-year period. He said the average
farm income was below 15,000 Euro this year.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>>>>> Clinton lauds political process

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged the North's political
leaders to "complete" the process of devolution during a one-day visit
to Belfast on Monday.

Mrs Clinton, who met with assembly members, business and civic leaders,
emphasized the US administration's commitment to the peace process.

However, she avoided talks with the Protestant marching orders and
political hardliners and focussed on boosting the North's stalled
power-sharing institutions.

She said that the transfer of policing and justice powers from London
to Belfast was an issue for the Six-County Assembly and urged the
parties to work together to overcome the obstacles.

"I encourage you to move forward now with that same unstoppable spirit
of grit and resolve. And I pledge that the United States will be behind
you all the way, as you work towards peace and stability that will
last."

At the end of her speech to the Belfast Assembly, hardline DUP members
Gregory Campbell and Willie McCrea left the chamber as she was being
accorded a standing ovation.

Earlier, Mrs Clinton praised the peace progress, saying it should be
held up as a global template for peace: "Today Northern Ireland stands
as an example to the world of how even the staunchest adversaries can
overcome differences to work together for the common and greater good."

"There have been moments in Northern Ireland's peace journey when
progress seemed difficult, when every route forward was blocked and
there seemed to be no way to go. But you have always found a way," Mrs
Clinton said.

The First Minister, Peter Robinson of the DUP, welcomed Mrs Clinton's
visit and also pointed to the progress made here: "Of course there are
difficulties, but I believe we are committed to making it work,
committed to the long haul, to overcoming the problems we face."

Sinn Fein's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who also addressed
the gathered media, said this was not a time for complacency: "This is
a time for recognising the great achievements, but facing into the
challenges that clearly face us."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been involved in recent
negotiations to resolve the policing and justice issue and on Monday he
handed the DUP and Sinn Fein a document detailing his financial
blueprint for the process.

However, the main objections to the move by the DUP are understood to
include the list of demands detailed by the party in a ten-page dossier
revealed during the talks last week.

The DUP demands have effectively stalled the process, and come in the
face of hard-line unionist opposition both inside and outside the
party.

Martin McGuinness has already said he will ask Sinn Fein to endorse the
financial aspects of the deal, a move which could place further
pressure on the DUP.

Mrs Clinton also travelled Dublin to meet political leaders from the 26
Counties.

"The step of devolution for policing and justice is an absolutely
essential milestone," she said there.

"Clearly there are questions and some apprehensions but I believe that
due to the concerted effort of the British government, Irish government
and support of friends like us in the US, that the parties understand
this is a step they must take together.

"It will take the leaders of both communities working together to
continue not only the devolution but then to make day-to-day governing
a reality, and I'm confident that that is within reach."

"We are going to continue to work with the parties, with the Irish and
the British Governments, and the appointment of a special economic
envoy is a very tangible signal that we want to invest in the peace
dividends that will come with the final devolution of power and
authority and the full acceptance of responsibility with the people of
Northern Ireland themselves."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>>>>> Sinn Fein responds to victims plan

Republicans should cooperate with a commission to establish the truth
about the conflict but only if it is independent and organised by an
international body, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said this week.

Mr Adams made the call during the launch of his party's submission to
proposals made nine months ago by Britain's 'truth panel'.

He said a body such as the United Nations should get involved and form a
truth commission for the Six Counties.

Mr Adams said if that happened he would then encourage republicans to
play a full role in the process.

In its 69-page document, Sinn Fein detailed responses to each of the
recommendations being considered by the Dublin and London governments.

Mr Adams rejected the proposal of a legacy commission, saying he "would
not cooperate with it" because it would not be independent and
international.

"What we need is a thing that will work that we can get to the core of
what caused conflict and the detail of all the events and the killings,"
he said.

"The core of it all is to ensure that by having independence and best
practice you will get the maximum involvement of everyone."

Mr Adams said 'Lord' Robin Eames and Denis Bradley, who comprised the
so-called 'Consultative Group on the Past', made "some good, solid
recommendations".

"However, no-one would accept Sinn Fein setting up a truth commission so
no-one should accept the British government setting up a truth
commission," he said.

"Let's bring in those who are not partisan who can share best practice
from other places."

Mr Adams said a truth commission would have to be independent of Britain
so that it could also look at the state's role in the conflict.

"The proposed legacy commission is not an independent, international
truth-recovery process," he said.

"For a truth-recovery process to be successful and to deliver for
bereaved families and survivors, it needs to have maximum participation.

"I would call on republicans to participate and play a full role in an
independent, international truth commission."

Mr Adams said the two governments should authorise a "reputable body,
such as the UN to devise and implement a process which will guarantee
independence and ensure confidence and participation in any future truth
commission".

Asked whether he would take part in such a commission, Mr Adams said he
would be there.

"If I'm not you can come back and remind me," he said.

The paper dismissed as "breathtaking in its political bias" a
recommendation that political parties and paramilitary groups should
sign a declaration never to kill or injure again on political grounds.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>>>>> Feature: 'John didn't kill himself'

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Republican prisoner John Brady had a row with his brother-in-law while
on weekend parole. He ended up hanging from his laces in a PSNI cell.
His family don't believe it was suicide. A report by Suzanne Breen
for the Sunday Tribune.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

We're in the living room of a terraced house in Strabane. Upstairs,
Margaret's son John lies in a coffin. He's wearing a football shirt -
his beloved Liverpool. But the emblems of his other passion are all
around. A Tricolour drapes the body. His black gloves and beret sit on
top.

John Brady was found hanging by his laces in Derry's Strand Road police
station last weekend. He was 40 years old. He'd spent almost half his
life in jail. The early years were for republican offences, including
the murder of a policeman. The last five years were effectively
internment, his family say. Brady had been convicted of nothing.

A small group of supporters had fought a long campaign, with no
mainstream political support, to have him freed. Finally, they
succeeded. Brady was to be released permanently next month. He had
started weekend parole.

Then on Friday 2 October, he was arrested. He was questioned about
assaulting and threatening to kill his brother-in-law earlier that day,
which he denied. Police held him overnight and were about to charge him.
So could John Brady not face another long stretch in prison or did
something more sinister happen last Saturday in Strand Road barracks?

At the wake, nobody believes Brady killed himself. "Suicide would have
been alien to him," says close friend Paddy Brown.

The house is overflowing with mourners. Not just Northerners:
republicans from Dublin, Cork, Kildare, Limerick, and Monaghan are
there. Around 100 people queue outside on a bitterly cold night to enter
the wake house. Women serve them sandwiches and tea.

'I waited so long for him to come home'

"Come upstairs," someone tells the Sunday Tribune. We pass a dozen men
and women in white shirts, black ties and trousers in the hall and
landing. "Wait here a minute sir," our photographer is asked. And then
we enter the bedroom where Brady lies, a crucifix above the coffin, a
Tricolour harp-shaped wreath at the side.

Four men in balaclavas, combat jackets, black trousers and boots stand
guard. Two hold .32 handguns; one an AK47. The room says so much about
the North's complexities. The harsh paramilitary world softened by the
humanity of a republican's everyday life - the Liverpool curtains and
light-shade Brady bought while on parole. Amidst the burning candles and
red roses, Margaret has placed cards her son sent from prison. One shows
a picture of a bear. 'Missing you, just can't bear it when we're apart,'
it says.

Margaret starts crying: "I waited so long for him to come home but not
in a coffin. Had John been killed on active service, I wouldn't have
complained. To die in a police station when he'd done nothing wrong is
different."

They're a strongly republican family, John Brady's sister Lorna says.
"My father was an IRA prisoner in Portlaoise in the 1980s. Growing up,
John was like a daddy to me. When I was six, he took me to see Santa.
Not many 14-year-old boys would do that for their kid sister."

Brady joined the IRA at 16, his mother recalls: "He said to me, 'If you
love me, you'll let me'. And I did. Republicanism is born into you."
Brady was jailed for life for murdering RUC man David Black in 1989. His
brother Ben and his mother were charged with withholding information.

"It's hard as a mother to stand between your two sons in the dock,"
Margaret says. "But John said, 'Hold your head up high mum', and I did
and I was proud of my sons." Ben received four years imprisonment;
Margaret, a two-year suspended sentence.

John Brady was freed on an early release licence under the 1998 Belfast
agreement. He joined Sinn Fein but became disillusioned, accusing the
leadership of "selling-out". He joined the Real IRA.

In 2003, he was arrested with two women by the PSNI near the Donegal
border. Guns were recovered from the car. The trio were charged but the
case was later dropped. The Real IRA claim this was to protect an
informer whose identity they know.

The two women were freed from jail but not Brady. "His early release
licence was revoked," says Lorna. "But his case went before the Life
Sentence Review Commission and it looked very positive. Then, out of the
blue, he was charged on low copy DNA evidence with trying to kill a
soldier in Tyrone in 2002.

"After low copy DNA was discredited in the Omagh bomb trial, the case
against John was dropped. Once again, he faced no charges yet they
wouldn't let him out of Maghaberry jail." He was never depressed, his
mother says: "It wasn't hard visiting him. Other visitors would cry as
they left prisoners who were feeling low. Never us because John was
always smiling."

Frustrated that he remained in jail without charge, Brady asked the
welfare group for Real IRA prisoners to take him off their list. Then,
he requested to be transferred from the republican to the ordinary
criminal wing. "He cut all ties with the republican movement," says
Marian Price of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement. "He'd no other
choice because the authorities were using everything to keep him in
jail. And he understandably wanted to get out and lead a normal life."

For the past five weeks, Brady had been granted weekend parole and was
to be permanently freed next month. "My war is over," he told friends in
Strabane. He remained a political republican but believed 'armed
struggle' wasn't the way forward. Then last weekend, he became entangled
in a family dispute.

Brady's older sister Martina is married to political cartoonist John
Kennedy who has had work published in the Mirror and US publications.
Kennedy is known for his radical politics and some cartoons have been
critical of the PSNI.

Argument

The Kennedys and the Bradys fell out two years ago. Margaret Brady
claims she hadn't been allowed to see her grandchildren. Even presents
and cards were returned.

Around 3pm on Friday 2 October, John Brady was collecting a friend's
children from Strabane's Barrack Street school.

An argument developed with John Kennedy who was collecting his child.
Afterwards, Brady immediately informed those in charge of his prison
pre-release scheme about the incident and offered to return to jail, his
family claim.

He was reportedly told to contact the PSNI with details of the
altercation. Brady's family say he rang police who asked if he wanted to
lodge a complaint about John Kennedy. Brady said no but asked for the
incident to be logged.

At 8.30pm the PSNI arrested Brady. John Kennedy had reportedly made a
complaint. "My brother phoned me twice from the barracks," says Lorna.
"He was in good form. I went to Strand Road on Saturday afternoon with a
change of clothes for him. I sat there for two hours but wasn't allowed
to see him."

Brady's solicitor, John Finucane, arrived at Strand Road at 9.30am. He
found his client was his usual relaxed self. He was wearing a Liverpool
shirt. Being a Man United man, Finucane joked had he known Brady's team,
he'd not have come.

Finucane believed police didn't have the evidence to charge Brady, who
denied assaulting or threatening to kill Kennedy. Brady said he'd three
witnesses supporting his account of the altercation. He gave police
their contact details. Although Brady had been under arrest for almost
20 hours, he was questioned for just 42 minutes.

At 4pm, Finucane was informed his client was to be charged. He didn't
detect any panic in Brady. As a solicitor he'd learned to read, through
changes in their demeanour or expression, if somebody is vulnerable. At
4.35pm, Finucane left Brady in the legal consultation room and went to
talk to police.

He was away 15 minutes, 20 at most. When he returned, he found Brady
hanging by his trainer laces from the window. He called out to police.
Paramedics tried to revive Brady but it was too late.

Finucane has serious questions about why Brady was arrested in the first
place. He believes had a complaint been made about anyone else, they
would simply have been asked to visit a police station at an agreed
date, not arrested in that manner. He also believes Brady was being
charged before the investigative process was adequately followed
through. The young solicitor, whose father Pat was murdered in 1989,
broke the news to the Bradys. "John Finucane rang and said he needed to
see me," Lorna says. "I met him in the Asda supermarket carpark and he
told me my brother was dead."

On hearing of her son's death, Margaret Brady took down photographs of
her daughter Martina - John Kennedy's wife - from her home. Although
those of the three Kennedy grandchildren remain on display.

"I'll pray for my daughter every day of my life but I'll never speak to
her again," Margaret says. "In the republican world, you involve the
police only for rape or child abuse. You certainly don't complain about
prisoners on licence. Her father would be turning in his grave."

Margaret asked an intermediary to tell the Kennedys, who live only 100
yards from her, that it would be best if they left Strabane. "It wasn't
vindictiveness. Feelings were running high. I was worried what locals
might do. I'd three grandchildren I love in the house and I wanted them
safe."

The Kennedys have reportedly left the North. The Sunday Tribune
contacted John Kennedy by email for comment but received no reply. But
the main questions concern John Brady's treatment in Strand Road.

The family want to know why he was still wearing his trainers and why
police didn't immediately return him to his cell when Finucane left the
legal consultation room.

Derry republican Gary Donnelly has been questioned many times in Strand
Road: "Every time you're brought in, you must remove your shoes, belt,
and jewellery. I've even been asked to remove the drawstring from
tracksuit bottoms.

"It's standard procedure so a prisoner can't harm themselves or a cop.
Why didn't this happen to John? And it's bizarre that he was left alone
in the legal consultation room, one of the only spots in the barracks
without a camera. Every time my solicitor has left the consultation
room, the cops have thrown me back in a cell."

The PSNI is tougher in Derry, with its strong dissident presence, than
in other parts of the North, Donnelly says. He has been assaulted
several times by police.

Ex-INLA prisoner Willie Gallagher knew Brady well. "I saw John last week
and he was as upbeat as ever. He was hoping to move to Donegal when he
got permanently released because he said the PSNI would never give him
peace in the North. He was planning computer classes. I don't believe he
killed himself. But, even if he did, the PSNI drove him over the edge
and as an organisation, are responsible for his death."

The Bradys have no faith in the Police Ombudsman's investigation into
the matter. While John Brady's war was over, ironically his death has
increased republican feeling.

In the front windows of republican homes in Strabane, the 'Free John
Brady' posters, erected years ago, remain. Now they're joined by black
flags. And on the walls, there's fresh graffiti: 'John Brady is free.
RIP Chara.'

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>>>>> Analysis: There was no deal

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The following is final article by Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams for
the Irish News on the recent controversy over the 1981 hunger strike.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Twenty-eight years ago, 10 Irish republicans died over a seven-month
period on hunger strike, after women in Armagh prison and men in the
H-Blocks (and several men 'on-the-blanket' in Crumlin Road Jail) had
endured five years of British government sanctioned brutality.

The reason for their suffering was that in 1976 the British government
reneged on a 1972 agreement over political/special category status for
prisoners which had actually brought relative peace to the jails.

You would not know from reading Garret FitzGerald's newly-found 'memory'
of 1981 in the recent Irish News series that in his 1991 memoir he
wrote: "My meetings with the relatives came to an end on 6 August when
some of them attempted to 'sit in' in the government anteroom, where I
had met them on such occasions, after a stormy discussion during which I
had once again refused to take the kind of action some of them had been
pressing on me."

This came after a Garda riot squad attacked and hospitalised scores of
prisoner supporters outside the British embassy in Dublin only days
after the death of Joe McDonnell. It is clear from FitzGerald's
interview and from his previous writing that his main concern, before,
during and after 1981, was that the British government might be talking
to republicans and that this should stop.

With Thatcher he embarked on the most intense round of repression in the
period after 1985. Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty of that year the
Irish government supported an intensification of British efforts to
destroy border crossings and roads and remained mute over evidence of
mounting collusion between British forces and unionist paramilitaries.

The same FitzGerald was portrayed as a great Liberal, yet every
government which he led or on which he served, renewed the broadcasting
censorship of Sinn Fein. This denial of information and closing down of
dialogue subverted the rights of republicans. It also helped prolong the
conflict.

The men who died on hunger strike from the IRA and INLA were not fools.
They had fought the British and knew how bitter and cruel an enemy its
forces could be in the city, in the countryside, in the centres of
interrogation and in the courts.

The Hunger Strike did not arise out of a vacuum but as a consequence of
frustration, a failure of their incredible sacrifices and the activism
of supporters to break the deadlock.

Part of the problem was that the Irish establishment, including the
Dublin government, the SDLP and sections of the Catholic hierarchy had
bought into British strategy.

This was actively supported by sections of the Catholic establishment in
the north including The Irish News.

The prisoners, our comrades, our brothers and sisters, resisted the
British in jail every day, in solitary confinement, when being beaten
during wings shifts, during internal searches and the forced scrubbings.

In December 1980 the republican leadership on the outside was in contact
with the British who claimed they were interested in a settlement. But
before a document outlining a new regime arrived in the jail the hunger
strike was called off by Brendan Hughes to save the life of the late
Sean McKenna. The British, or sections of them, interpreted this as
weakness. The prisoners ended their fast before a formal 'signing off'.

And the British then refused to implement the spirit of the document and
reneged on the integrity of our exchanges.

Their intransigence triggered a second hunger strike in which there was
overwhelming suspicion of British motives among the hunger strikers, the
other political prisoners, and their families and supporters on the
outside.

This was the prisoners' mindset on July 5 1981, after four of their
comrades had already died and when Danny Morrison visited the IRA and
INLA hunger strikers to tell them that contact had been re-established
and that the British were making an offer. While this verbal message
fell well short of their demands they nevertheless wanted an accredited
British official to come in and explain this position to them, which is
entirely understandable given the British government's record.

Six times before the death of Joe McDonnell, the Irish Commission for
Justice and Peace (ICJP), which was engaged in parallel discussions with
the British, asked the British to send an official into the jail to
explain what it was offering, and six times the British refused.

After the death of Joe McDonnell the ICJP condemned the British for
failing to honour undertakings and for "clawing back" concessions.

Richard O'Rawe, who had never met the hunger strikers in the prison
hospital, never met the governor, never met the ICJP or Danny Morrison
during the hunger strike, and who never raised this issue before
serialising his book in that well-known Irish republican propaganda
organ, The Sunday Times, said, in a statement in 1981: "The British
government's hypocrisy and their refusal to act in a responsible manner
are completely to blame for the death of Joe McDonnell."

Republicans involved in the 1981 hunger strike met with the families a
few months ago.

Their emotional distress and ongoing pain was palpable.

They were intimately involved at the time on an hour-by-hour basis and
know exactly where their sons and brothers stood in relation to the
struggle with the British government.

They know who was trying to do their best for them and who was trying to
sell their sacrifices short.

More importantly, they know the mind of their loved ones.

That, for me, is what shone through at that meeting.

The families knew their brothers, husbands, fathers. They knew they
weren't dupes. They knew they weren't stupid. They knew they were brave,
beyond words and they were clear about what was happening.

All of the family members, who spoke, with the exception of Tony O'Hara,
expressed deep anger and frustration at the efforts to denigrate and
defile the memory of their loved ones. In a statement they said: "We are
clear that it was the British government which refused to negotiate and
refused to concede their [the prisoners'] just demands."

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