Kevin Hannaway Speaks…….

I started to watch these but once he told me he had been kicked out of the lorry, I started to cry and could watch no more. The poor man!

The Broken Elbow's avatarThe Broken Elbow

Thanks to a German reader for sending these YouTube links to a talk given by Kevin Hannaway, at a conference in Derry hosted by Éirigi last year to mark the anniversary of the 1971 internment swoop. As the reader commented, it is clear that he has been a member of the ‘dissident universe’ for some while. Getting arrested, allegedly for that sympathy, puts things on a different level however.

Here are the three videos. Enjoy:

View original post

Handshake

It is said that it originated as a way of showing that you were unarmed.

English barristers do not shake hands because as ‘ learned friends’ that have no need of this display.

There have been many famous handshakes. Hitler/Chamberlin, Nixon/Mao, Sadat/Begin, Rabin/Arafat, McGuinness/ Elizabeth Saxe- Coburg-Gotha.

These have been ground breaking moments.

So why did  George Hamilton , stolid, NIO Gopher, go to West Belfast and shake the hand of  McGuinness, terrorist, gunman, murderer of policemen and others, member of PIRA Northern Command, and sometime member of PIRA Army Council?

What was the hidden agenda? What was the purpose? McGuinness confessed to having been momentarily in  PIRA, like Clinton confessed to smoking dope but not inhaling.

Is there a clue in what was said?

Hamilton  said ” there were serious problems with policing in the past”.

McGuinness said “tonight is another act of reconciliation”.

Leaving aside the  Relate-like language of these two almost former lovers [you don’t bring me flowers anymore], on whose behalf does Hamilton speak? Certainly not those officers killed, maimed or still living daily with their scars.

Certainly not on behalf of my parents, whom he refers to as a “legacy issue”.

Perhaps on behalf of Bryan Harold Harris or Anne Harris? The brother and mother of his deputy, whose father was killed by PIRA on 8 October 1989, on the orders of McGuinness?

Will he look his deputy in the eye on Monday morning?

Is the message from the PSNI that there will be no more arrests of senior Provos? Their head of intelligence Bobby Storey shared the platform. Hamilton had no issue with that.

And what of the other branches of government? Who knows what messages are being whispered into the ears of the judges in the back corridor?

The Secretary of State may not be able to fix welfare reform but there is a lot more on the republican agenda that we don’t see and which can be attended to.

Not all landmark handshakes survive. Hitler, Arafat…maybe we can add Marty and Liz to that list?

But wait! the most famous modern handshake of all! Blair and Gadafy! I’m coming for you soon Tony!

Jim Gamble, an open letter

Dear Jim

You have devoted yourself for many years to combatting sexual abuse.

I wonder what your view is on the Hart Inquiry in Banbridge and the wider issue of anonymous hackers posting allegations against alleged abusers?

The Hart inquiry forbids the publishing of names of people who have been named by alleged victims, if that alleged perpetrator has no criminal record. So, an MLA has so far not been named. The same criteria would have allowed Jimmy Saville to go unnamed. Are you happy with that?

It also is inhibited by statute from any investigation into non devolved matters. What is your view on that?

I know one high profile victim of Kincora. He is an intelligent and deeply damaged man.

The proclivities that drive men to carry out abuse are extant. Where do they get their release now and what are we doing about it?

You know that one of the tools of investigators is to have a name published so that other victims can come forward.

Another worrying issue, nationally, is that many famous people are not named until they are dead. It suggests that the state is complicit in this.

Do you depend for much of your work from the public purse and, if so ,  do you feel that you are in  any way inhibited by this? I refer to your recent quoted criticism of anonymous hackers.

Best wishes

Peter

Derry INLA parade, an update

Detectives from the Serious Crime Branch have taken time out from investigating murders to review video evidence form the O’Hara funeral.

Looking at footage from a Landrover some thirty metres away , Sgt Andrew Windsor said “The guy in the third row , right, looks like someone I arrested five years ago. It’s his belly I recognise”

Constable Nelson Wellington said “many of these people appear to have a leg deformity, preventing them from marching properly. I shall be reviewing the DLA records in Londonderry to see if they have claimed.”

Meanwhile, in an astonishing development, it was revealed that a PSNI drone had been deployed at the march to look for tattoos. It captured twenty two tattoos [ not easy to say] and police are visiting parlours to see if tattooists can identify anyone who has had “FUCK THE PSNI” tattooed recently.

In another twist , Chief Inspector William Boyne said that a female marcher was wearing a size 22 white blouse and that he was confident that he could pin point this person as having bought it in Primark.

Asked if arrests were expected soon the Divisional commander smiled.

We asked retired prosecutor Peter Swiftone if there was a chance of convictions in the case. He said ” I haven’t seen a decent file come out of Derry since Martin McGuinness was prosecuted.”

We pointed out that he ultimately wasn’t.

Swiftone, took his glass of red wine from his lips and said “precisely”.

Squadron Leader Goodale

Many years ago, when I was young and callow, I was a manager in Short Brothers.

I had, for a period of time Brian Goodale in my department.

Unfailingly courteous and good at his job , Brian came and went without fuss.

It fell to someone else to tell me that he was the radio operator on G for George.

He was still tall and thin, [he had the nickname “concave” when he was with 617 Squadron].

It is impossible for a cosseted boy born after the war , to understand what these men did. But if you want a taste, go sit in a  Lancaster cockpit, the equivalent of the front seats in a Morris Minor and imagine yourself at ten thousand feet , in flak, over Bremen.

Equally , imagine yourself in a ME109 in France in 1945, being hunted down by the Allies.

We have sent endless numbers of young men to their deaths since, in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, whilst saying “never again” and to no effect.

Let the nations of the Middle East solve their own problems. The killing of one or one thousand  Islamist fighters there makes no difference to the security of the UK.

I still remember Brian with fondness and respect. He died in Bury St Edmunds and he is buried in All Saints Church Hawstead , Suffolk.

The Inquisition returns

Observers were astonished to discover that the Inquisition had been re-established in a quiet , leafy avenue in North Belfast.

Under the innocuous title of “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” the comings and goings at the large detached house on Somerton Road, owned by a lawyer, aroused local interest.

The arrival of a van which appeared to deliver gym equipment was noted by a neighbour.

“I asked the driver were my neighbours setting up a personal gym”, said Ben Avron.

“Not unless you liked to be stretched”, said Sammy of Sammy’s Removals.

Rachel Avron said , “my suspicions were aroused when I saw several members of the Alliance party going in but not Ford or the ginger girl”.

We attempted to contact the Congregation’s headquarters but nobody was available.Their website lists Torquemada and the last Pope among their Old Boys.

Our reporter finally managed to speak to Father Tom Beetroot. He said “It’s time the Holy Mother Church had a new hero. Someone who will die for the Church. A line has been crossed by these perverts.”

Ignoring the obvious retort, our intrepid reporter asked him , over the noise of torture, if he really wanted an Alliance MLA to die in opposition to same sex marriage.

“Yes”, he said, ” if it was good enough for someone in 1535, well before the Boyne, it’s good enough today.”

A spokesman for the Alliance party said that at present they were “mentally reserving”.

A victim

Much is said about victims. We have a Commissioner for them. She has an office and staff. This costs us about £1,000,000 each year. I have never sought help from them. Why, I hear you say Dear Reader, am I blogging about this, especially on an Ulster summer day? For this reason. Occasionally in the battle for compensation from Libya, a battle won for their citizens by the USA, Italy,France and Germany but disgracefully lost by Perfidious Albion.I have found myself writing about “victims” as if I am one. Also, more than one person has said “you’re forever portraying yourself as a victim”. So I’ve decided to think about what I am. To begin. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about my parents. I’m sure I’m not alone in that. I’m a citizen of the United Kingdom. That gives me rights and responsibilities. I contend that the murders of my parents didn’t take place in a vacuum. They happened when the State had so penetrated the terrorists and so perverted justice that not only did one arm know who killed my parents but at a meeting on the Shankill Road another arm, the RUC , gave the UDA a name and the UFF set out to kill him the night my mother died. He was Sean Keenan, a well known Republican from Riverdale Park South. He survived, as he did when he was shot in 1984, along with Adams. So perhaps I am a vengeful angry citizen. I represented the Crown in court for twenty five years. How many times did the state deceive me and the court? But wait! In some respects I am a victim and I shouldn’t shy away. I’m a victim of people who should have been at my parents’ funeral and weren’t, I’m thinking of a particular grandson. I’m a victim of a spouse whose only solution was to hand me a glass of wine so that she was not bothered by my problems. I’m a victim of the Bar Library which never enquired into my well being for twenty five years until I got into trouble , then briefed Frazer Elliott , that icy cold , presbyterian, paragon of virtue to prosecute me. Not unexpected in that cold house for unionists. I’m a victim of senior police officers who continue to lie to me about what intelligence exists. I’m a victim of the many people who tell me to “get over it” or that it is “a legacy issue” or that “we need to move on”. I’m a victim of those erstwhile friends and colleagues who say “the grief has got to him” and pass by on the other side of the street.I’m a victim of the State which is just passing time until I , and others like me, pass on. So here I stand. A victim. But that is different from victimhood. My daughter criticises me for “not taking responsibility for myself” . An interesting accusation. Instead I’ve taken the responsibility of the fight for justice. I don’t regret that, nor what it has cost me [ my career, my house my family] , nor what the future holds. I can now go several days without seeing or talking to a soul. At the last I hope , though, that some will see me as a son who tried his best for his parents.   Franz Schubert said:” Every night when I go to bed , I hope that I may never wake again and every morning renews my grief.”

Apparatchiks in Norn Iron

Dear Reader

Let’s pause to think about the condition  of the state’s system for handling complaints about the police.

“When I was a lad, I served a term

As an office boy in an Attorney’s Firm

I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor

And I polished up the handle of the big front door

…now I am the Ruler of the Queens’ Navie!”

[Gilbert and Sullivan]

The present Big O is Michael Maguire.

He was appointed in July 2012.

Before that he was Chief Inspector of the Criminal Justice Inspectorate 2008-2012.

Before that he was a partner in consultancy firms including PA and Price Waterhouse. I wonder how many contracts, for which he was paid, depended on state aid?

As Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice in 2011, he was asked to investigate the Ombudsman’s Office. He said that “the ways in which the OPONI deals with the investigation of historic cases ‘ has lead to a lowering of operational independence'”

A year later he was Big O!

Who took over from him?

Why, Brendan McGuigan , who was for 34 years a policeman!

Who is his deputy? James Corrigan. Who worked for a number of years for PA consulting. Does that ring a bell?

John Keanie, Public Appointments Commissioner, has recently expressed concern about the system for appointment  and how it seems to be incestuous. But guess what he did before he was commissioner?

Citizens might wonder how these people, who rise without a trace, from the ranks of the state’s employ, can possibly be regarded as independent?

The Police Ombudsman –progress report II

Back in 2006, when I was an innocent sort of chap, who didn’t think that the state would be complicit in the murders of a retired policeman and his wife , I made a complaint to the Ombudsman about the standard of investigation into their murders.

In 2015, when the scales had fallen from my eyes, I made an entirely different complaint, naming each member of the bomb team and asserting that some, if not all of them were state agents. The Ombudsman, who I shall hereafter call the ‘Big O” has declined to investigate my complaint. The basis for the refusal is that the 2001 regulations “carves out a discretionary exception to these limitations”

I began studying law in 1967 and this phrase is new to me but perhaps I’m just not keeping up.

Nuala O’Loan has said that she came under pressure from the state to  refuse to investigate matters.

Maguire, the present Big O is of course a man who has been a state employee for some time and one wonders about his impartiality. Anyway, I have sought clarification from him.

Who made this decision and what is the precise statutory basis for it?

Students of law and others might be interested in looking at regulation 9 [2] of the 2001 regulations, which “carves out” , if this is the new legal argot, an exception if the new complaint is “not the same or substantially the same as a previous complaint”. My original complaint was that the investigation was inadequate. My new complaint is that the state was complicit. They are different complaints.

Of course, the list of state agents in my letter will have caused panic in the Establishment and has resulted in  a threat from at least one agent.

It’s disappointing that the Big O’s  refusal is so amateurish but that’s what you get in Norn Iron.

So, let’s see what the response is.

Aside from the stupidity of it all, how many people, less advantaged than I am, have been spoofed by the Big O?

The HIA Inquiry

One of the enduring allegations of the last forty years has been that the state’s security agencies  have been complicit in the sexual abuse , and possibly the murder of children.  Kincora is the outstanding example  but maybe  not the only instance. In GB a  major inquiry is about to start. It will not deal with Kincora. So , what next? The inquiry in Banbridge, chaired by Tony Hart, has been lumbering on for months. If you think that it is going to cut a swathe through the state , think again. Allegations have already been made against “prominent members of the community” , his words, not mine. The result? Anonymity  orders. You are not allowed to know who these people are. This , despite social media naming one such person, an elected  public representative,  frequently. What is the point of these King Canute orders? “BP” , who says that she is a victim of this public representative ,  and is badly affected by something, wanted legal aid to pursue her complaint against one of these “prominent members” The court of appeal has refused her assistance. Would the decision have been different if the accused was not a “prominent member of the community” but Fred Bloggs? The smell from this is awful. if you think that there is the remotest chance of the Hart Inquiry getting anywhere near the truth, read sections 10 and 22 of the Act,  which created the Inquiry. The state ensured, before a witness was called that it was protected. Beating up  dead priests is just an obscene sideshow. Shame on all those who are participating in this farce.