Category: Ireland Political

Looking North.

In the aftermath of the british election, the conservative party (uk) have chosen to ally themselves with their “friends and allies” in the north’s Dup (Democratic unionist party as they call themselves). The Dup expect to receive more than £1 billion(in the next two years) in extra funding for the north for their support of the minority conservative government in confidence votes. brexit negotiations and so on. The prospect of a border poll is also ruled out during the tenure of this tory government, hardily surprising considering the Dup and its ” klu klux klan” associations. One wonders what sort of trouble is coming due to the conservative/dup link up  but with sectarian marching season in the north nearly upon us, you are quiet likely to find out.

At least one item gets the “bin” and that’s the british pretence of being “honest brokers” or any idea of them being “impartial” in the goings on of the north. Otherwise the Dup’s “billion” doesn’t sound like that much especially as it is over two years which is £500 million/year despite all the cuts made by the “Tories”. The only question how does the Tory/Dup linkup last, brexit negotiations will be over in two years time, there is a possibility of a referendum/election being called at that stage or will the Tories/ Dup last until 2022 ?

One has to wait at this stage.

here’s a link to what the Tories/Dup have made public.

 

National Maternity Hospital II.

Just a quick note on the national maternity hospital and its situation of the government “gifting” a €300 million facility to the sisters of charity  as “sole owners”. The religious order in question has relented and has decided to quit their role as owners and setup a charity to run the facility instead. Its a improvement on the situation where we would have the nuns as sole owners but who owns the charity ? This charity which will now control the hospital. Its still receiving quite alot of taxpayers money and it (the hospital) can still be sold without the taxpayer having any say. More will still have to be done.

 

Donegal Hotelier flies the Union Jack.

In the news recently is the flying of the union jack by a Donegal hotelier Brendan Rohan who owns Dunfanaghy Holiday Village in Co Donegal. Apparently he gets a lot of business from English people and flies their flag as a form of welcome, he seemingly has forgotten our history and the disrespect shown by loyalists for the Irish flag and hatred shown on their eleventh night bonfires. Don’t believe the flying of the union jack is a good idea and the making guests feel welcome isn’t sufficient reason for it to be flown in the republic. The hotelier in question doesn’t fit the profile for being a anglophile formerly being a officer in the Irish army and all. The hotelier is contactable on facebook if one wants to get his side of the story. One wonders how it will end. Incidentally I rate below as being incitement to hatred at the very minimum.

Stakeknife Investigation & Cover up.

The man responsible for the new “stakeknife” investigation chief constable Jon Boutcher has appealed for witnesses to come forward to his inquiry. According to Boutcher potential witnesses will be treated sympathetically. However no mention is made of “stakeknife” role as British intelligence informer and it is not clear if British army intelligence section or MI5 will be called to give evidence. The case is already in the public arena with the book “stakeknife” published for many years and the fact that the British police are actually providing  Freddie Scappaticci with refuge. Will British security services end up with a murder rap or will the entire matter be thrown at the door of the IRA. A cover-up of “stakeknife” is highly likely.

Stakeknife

Here is a name we heard of before Freddie Scappaticci aka Stakeknife. (though he denies it), if you haven’t you sure to hear of it due to a new investigation being underway headed by English police Bedfordshire chief constable Jon Boutcher.

A international team has been drawn up to investigate the up to fifty killings performed by stakeknife. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have seemingly passed the matter on. Scappaticci is alleged to have been a  “walk in ”  he volunteered to work for the British’s army intelligence section -Force Research unit/ FRU-in the late seventies and received payments of up to £80,000 st/year. He was regarded as quite a catch for British intelligence as he headed up the IRA’s internal security unit or “nutting squad” consequently the IRA had no internal security and the material he passed to his handlers was of high grade.

The book “stakeknife” makes for grisly reading as it details the “running” of agents their recruitment (recruitment rate usually one in twenty approaches was rated as a success , normally recruited for small sums of money i.e £200/month ) the decision to kill people being made by  intelligence handlers, people who had been set up, petty touts being killed to protect bigger touts or sacrificed in a matter of fact . The book details very high levels of infiltration of PIRA and that of loyalist paras but the FRU/ british army wholly campaigns against the IRA with little or no smokescreen present with loyalist paramilitary. The idea was to place the “security forces ” as a honest broker or disinterested third party despite the level of penetration estimated to be at over 70% of its (IRA) operations.

The exact toll of “stakeknife” were logged with the PSNI and the stevens inquiry and the british police are the ones providing stakeknife with refuge. It will be interesting to see if the legality of FRU’s operations stand up or will they get a murder rap for them most unlikely to happen. Only time will tell if another cover up happens.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/stakeknife-investigator-uncovers-significant-new-evidence-1.2829929

 

Back Blogging again

Decided to give this blogging lark another go, hopefully will get good results this time.