ARCHIVE 2003 No. 2 |
The Irish American Information Service
News from IAIS 2003-03-30 17:36:00 EST McGUINNESS CONFIRMS PROGRESS IN TALKS Sinn Fein chief negotiator Mr Martin McGuinness today confirmed progress on efforts to put the Northern Ireland peace process back on track. But he said at his party's national convention in Dublin that a final deal had still to emerge from on-going talks with the two governments and other political leaders. Mr McGuinness, speaking at one of the final sessions of the three-day meeting also issued a strong rallying call to his party ahead of May's elections for a new Northern Ireland Assembly. 2003-03-28 13:21:00 EST TIME RUNNING OUT SAYS TRIMBLE Time is running short in efforts to strike a deal in the Northern Ireland peace process, Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble tonight warned. Mr Trimble accused Sinn Féin of delaying recent negotiations and called on the party to give clear signals at its conference this weekend. 2003-03-20 08:09:00 EST MAN CONVICTED OF McGOLDRICK MURDER A County Armagh man has been convicted of the murder of Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick in 1996. Clifford McKeown, 44, from Craigavon was said to have confessed to a journalist that he shot the father-of-two. It took place at the height of the Drumcree stand-off over an Orange Order March in July 1996. 2003-03-18 11:02:00 EST ORDE ON BORDER SHOOTING A bitter split in the IRA's ranks led to the murder of a man in south Armagh, Chief Constable Hugh Orde claimed today. Further bloodshed could follow the shooting of Keith Rogers close to the Irish border, he warned. Mr Orde confirmed his detectives were prepared for revenge strikes as the violent feud in a staunchly republican border area intensified. He said: "It clearly was a fall-out between two factions of the Provisional IRA. That sends a very worrying message to us." 2003-03-14 18:56:00 EST IRAQ WILL NOT DISTRACT BLAIR - ADAMS Sinn Féin leader Mr Gerry Adams said tonight that the confrontation with Iraq is unlikely to distract British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair from his involvement in the peace process. "Even last week Mr Blair came to Ireland and was involved in 36 hours of solid negotiations regarding the Irish process. His commitment to the process is not distracted by his focus on Iraq and I presume that would be the case in the future," Mr Adams said. 2003-03-13 11:52:00 EST NORTH'S LEADERS ATTEND WHITE HOUSE CELEBRATIONS US President George Bush today pledged to do all he could to help the Northern Ireland peace process during an early St Patrick's Day celebration in Washington. Mr Bush praised the `tireless` efforts of the British and Irish leaders in working for a lasting settlement as he met Irish premier Bertie Ahern at the White House. 2003-03-08 21:17:00 EST ADAMS SLAMS SANCTIONS PLAN Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams hit out again today at Irish government backing for plans to impose sanctions on parties that contravene the Good Friday agreement. Speaking in the face of an overnight defence of Dublin`s position by Irish premier Bertie Ahern, Mr Adams also criticised moves to delay elections for a new Northern Ireland assembly. 2003-03-05 14:29:00 EST ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS POSPONED UNTIL MAY 29 Northern Ireland Assembly elections scheduled for 1 May have been postponed until 29 May to allow time for more negotiations. The talks ended late last night with the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister announcing elections would be put back by four weeks to allow parties to consult their members. However, the Ulster Unionist leader said he would not bring any document to members until the IRA moved to disarm. 2003-03-03 05:19:00 EST PREMIERS SEEK TO CLOSE A DEAL IN BELFAST British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish taoiseach Bertie Ahern were flying into Northern Ireland today to attempt to resuscitate the North's flagging peace process. The two premiers will meet all the pro-agreement parties at Hillsborough Castle in Co Down as part of frantic efforts to restore devolution before proposed Assembly elections on May 1. 2003-02-27 14:30:00 EST TRIMBLE 'WEAK' IN DEFENSE OF AGREEMENT Mr Bill Flynn, chairman of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, said in Belfast that his organisation was disappointed by Mr Trimble's handling of the peace process since receiving the prize in 1998 along with former SDLP leader Mr John Hume. See Positions in Peace Process 2003-02-27 09:34:00 EST WE CAN'T WAIT FOREVER - AHERN The Irish premier, Bertie Ahern, has reported progress in his talks with British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, on the Northern Ireland peace process. Speaking to reporters outside Downing Street this afternoon, Mr Ahern said there were still a shortlist of outstanding issues to be resolved. However, he said he was confident progress would be made between now and Monday when both leaders travel to the North. 2003-02-22 14:21:00 EST UDA ANNOUNCES 12 MONTH 'PERIOD OF INACTIVITY' The Ulster Freedom Fighters and Ulster Defence Association today announced an end to paramilitary activity for the next 12 months. The outlawed group said in a statement that its units "have begun to observe a 12-month period of military inactivity". British security sources say the UDA is heavily involved in drug dealing and racketeering, and have blamed it for the killing of a number of Catholics in recent years. The organisation declared a ceasefire in 1994 in response to the IRA's ceasefire a few months earlier. But in late 2001, it was ruled the ceasefire had broken down after the UDA were accused of being behind a wave of pipe bomb attacks on Catholic homes. Ulster Political Research Group member Mr Tommy Kirkham said the UDA's military cessation for a year was absolute. He said the move was motivated by the organisation's desire to go down a political path. 2003-02-20 12:54:00 EST LOYALISTS UNDER PRESSURE TO DISARM Loyalist paramilitaries faced new demands tonight to hand over all their pipe bombs. Even though the Ulster Defence Association in west Belfast dumped a consignment of explosives yesterday, nationalist politicians urged them to end a campaign of bombings which has terrified thousands of Catholics. 2003-02-18 10:53:00 EST GOOD FRIDAY DEAL POSSIBLE SAYS DURKAN Ulster Unionists and republicans must commit themselves fully to the Good Friday Agreement if devolution is to return to Northern Ireland in the next two weeks, it was claimed tonight. During a visit to Omagh in west Tyrone, nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan said he believed a deal could be struck restoring devolution in the next two weeks. 2003-02-17 12:54:00 EST DONALDSON LAUNCHES UNIONIST UNITY PRINCIPLES Unionists in Northern Ireland need to look beyond the next elections and unite around a common approach, they were told tonight. At the launch of six Stormont Principles for unionist unity, Ulster Unionist MP Jeffery Donaldson said unionists of all backgrounds would be foolish to ignore the demand for a common strategy. See Positions in Peace Process DUP Assembly member, Ian Paisley Junior today responded cynically to the launch of the Stormont Principles, asking why prominent Ulster Unionists were launching them so close to Assembly elections scheduled for May 1. 2003-02-13 13:33:00 EST McLAUGHLIN ON STATE OF PEACE PROCESS Sinn Fein's Mitchel McLaughlin today outlined his party's position following yesterday's summit between the British and Irish governments and the pro-Agreement parties in Belfast. See Positions in Peace Process "In the almost five years since Good Friday 1998, the political institutions, in a clear breach of the Agreement, have been functioning for less than half of that time. On four separate occasions, at the behest of the UUP leadership, the British government has suspended them," said McLaughlin. 2003-02-12 13:45:00 EST NO CONCLUSIONS AT BELFAST SUMMIT The Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minster Tony Blair have hosted a round of talks with pro-Belfast Agreement parties at Hillsborough Castle in an effort to re-establish the North's power-sharing institutions. The two leaders said tonight they were hoping to see progress by March 3rd to overcome the stalling peace process. The two leaders said they would meet again in less than three weeks' time to finalise a possible agreement between the parties. A primary goal for the talks was to salvage the Stormont assembly and power-sharing executive, which was suspended last October 14th, plunging the 1998 Belfast Agreement into crisis. 2003-02-07 08:21:00 EST WHITE VOWES TO RUTURN TO NORTHERN IRELAND Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair's closest associate today vowed to defy the loyalist paramilitaries who drove him out of Belfast and return to Northern Ireland. "I`ll be back when I consider it appropriate," declared John White who fled to Scotland after being warned he would be shot. 2003-02-06 14:48:00 EST MURPHY CONFIDENT DEVOLUTION WILL BE RESTORED Northern Ireland is within reach of new era of peace and stability, the Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy said tonight. As Irish and British officials continued to work on a formula for breaking the political deadlock, Mr Murphy told the Dublin Chamber of Commerce he was "confident" the Assembly and power-sharing institutions could be restored. 2003-02-06 11:05:00 EST ADAIR SUPPORTERS FLEE TO SCOTLAND The jailed loyalist paramilitary leader Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair was left isolated today after his family and supporters were driven out of Belfast in a bitter paramilitary feud. Adair was told his wife Gina and close associate Mr John White were among a group who fled to Scotland after homes were attacked at his former powerbase in the city's Lower Shankill area. Read the full stories at The Irish American Information Service |
February 2003: Positions in Peace Process
Mr Bill Flynn, chairman of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (2003-02-27):
The Northern Ireland 2001 Census
The raw, unadjusted data for the 2001 census shows the Protestant/Catholic breakdown to be approximately 46% to 40%. This 6% spread is in stark contrast to the 1991 census which showed a 58% Protestant population and a 42% Catholic population. The overall religious balance is recorded as 43.76% Catholic and 53.13% Protestant and other related Christian denominations. The remainder is made up of 0.39% who belong to "other religions and philosophies" and 2.72% who cannot be allocated. In the 2001 census, 14 per cent of respondents did not state their religion or said they had none. However, the census officials have adjusted the raw data to try to indicate which community these 14% came from, taking indicators such as addresses into account. Following their adjustments, the Census officials have ascribed between seven and eight percentage points to the Protestant community while Catholics increased by between three and four points. If the adjustments are accurate, this would mean that the Protestant/Catholic breakdown would be at 53/44%, a difference of 9% as opposed to a difference of 6% in the unadjusted data. Nice Referendum '02
Saturday, October 19, 2002: FINAL RESULTS: YES: 62.89 per cent
NO: 37.11 per cent. DEVOLUTION SUSPENDED
Monday, October 14, 2002: The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland suspended the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Executive with effect from midnight on 14 October, 2002. The Secretary of State, assisted by his team of Northern Ireland Office Ministers has assumed responsibility for the direction and control of the Northern Ireland Departments. Speech by Tony Blair, British Prime Minister, at the Harbour Commisssioners' Offices in Belfast, 17 October 2002. Read the full text. References in English
Irish Proclamation of Freedom Read by Patrick Pearse from the Steps of the General Post Office, Dublin, Ireland on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916 The Irish Government, June 1997:
Full text of the Good Friday Agreement, April 10, 1998. Investigation into the human rights in Northern Ireland, September 29, 1998
Nobel Peace Price Award, December 11, 1998:
George Mitchell's Peace Principles, November 1999:
Suspension of Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive. February 2000:
Peace process resumed. May 2000
Abortion Referendum March 7, 2002 IRA Statement on Decommissioning April 8, 2002 Speech by Tony Blair, British Prime Minister, at the Harbour Commisssioners' Offices in Belfast, 17 October 2002.
An Irish bookshop: Read Ireland
Wesley Johnston's History of Ireland
The CAIN Project (The Northern Ireland Conflict)
Danish Irish Society
Sinn Féin Homepage
The Irish Times
I started reading about Ireland and about its history in order to understand just a bit of the Irish paradoxes. Although I started from the very beginning the matter was still incomprehensible. I therefore began to write down the headlines in Danish.
In 1998 when I got my own website I wondered what to put there. My family, my career or my garden could not attract much attention. But my Danish survey of the history of Ireland would be different from most other websites, so I uploaded the whole story.
I considered my web-project to be complete by then. However the beginning of 1998 was to become a turning point in the history of Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement created optimism and a new hope of lasting peace. I therefore added new chapters on the peace agreement and on the ups and downs since then. Obviously there is still a way to go before a real peace has been achieved and right now I can't see the end of my project.
A lot of people wrote to me asking for details or references. This has proved the need for a brief Danish version of the history of Ireland. In 2001 more than 50 persons on the average have been visiting my website every day.
However about 10 % of the visitors on my website are non-Scandinavians. I have added this page in order to serve these people with some information about my project and with some of the important references.
I considered reference documents and speeches most interesting in the original English language. I also have to admit that a proper translation of the documents to Danish is not that simple. On the other hand the number of visitors to the reference pages in English has been very limited. Therefore all information in English will be concentrated in this English section of my website together with selected news.
I have no intention of making an English version of the whole story. I have neither the ability nor the capacity to write in English and several excellent sites already offer that sort of information.
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