VICTIMS' GROUP VISITS CENOTAPH

Newtownstewart-based victims' group, West Tyrone Voice, has just returned from another memorable trip to London, specifically for the Remembrance commemorations at the Cenotaph in Whitehall.

Under the leadership of group Director, Dr J. E. Hazlett Lynch, the eleven-strong party visited the Palace of Westminster, and were given an informative and humorous guided tour by the Lord Laird of Artigarvan.  He then hosted evening dinner for the group and was presented with a copy of the group's book on Irish history, written by West Tyrone Voice's former training and education officer, Rev Gary McMurray.  A copy of the book was also presented to Dr Ian McBride, formerly from Keady, Co Armagh, and senior lecturer in British and Irish history at King's College, London.  West Tyrone Voice is grateful to Lord Laird for the interest he has shown in the working of the group, and for his unstinting support of what they are doing.

Also organised as part of the tour was a visit to the chapel in which the founder of Methodism, Rev John Wesley, ministered for the last twelve years of his ministry.  This stirred the hearts of those who stepped into this honoured sanctuary.  They visited Bunhill Fields, the famous non-conformist cemetery, just opposite the Wesley chapel and museum.  Here were buried some 123,000 people, including spiritual and theological giants such as Isaac Watts, John Bunyan, John Owen, and Dr Williams, founder of the evangelical library in London; the mother of the Wesleys, Susanna, is also buried there.  Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, and poet William Blake were also laid to rest here.  John Wesley is buried in the graveyard to the rear of the chapel.

The group then visited the London Transport Museum at Covent Garden, and later shared dinner with Allan Robertson, chairman of the London Swinton Circle, and James Annett, formerly of Co. Down.

Free time was scheduled into the trip for the tourists to see some sights and visit places of personal interest to them.  During this time Dr Lynch had a working dinner with other contacts in London, including Christopher Luke who takes a particular interest in Northern Ireland.

Remembrance Sunday was a particularly poignant time for the group, when they were present at the Cenotaph to witness and participate in the act of remembrance of those who lives were taken violently in the two world wars, and the various wars that followed these. 

It was also a poignant reminder to these victims of those close relatives who were murdered in the terrorist campaign by PIRA et al in Northern Ireland. 

While the Royal Family played a prominent role in the wreath-laying element of the ceremony, senior politicians also laid wreaths at the Cenotaph. 

The incongruity of our First Minister laying a wreath in remembrance of those who were murdered by terrorists in the past 40+ years was noticed, given his party's permission to PIRA/SF to gain access to the very heart of government, and occupy the positions of joint First Minister, and joint victims' ministers.  Some found this grossly insulting and offensive.

After visiting and paying their own tributes to their family members at Westminster Abbey, they returned to Northern Ireland, having experienced something unforgettable.  Members said that had it not been for WTV organising this trip, they would never have had that wonderful opportunity.

What this trip was designed to do was to give victims good memories to replace the many bad memories that they have, thus making their recovery that little bit more complete.

 

EMAIL TO OWEN PATERSON MP, SHADOW SEC. OF STATE FOR NI

Hi Owen

I came across this statement just today: To quote Section 22 of the 1979 Conservative General Election Manifesto, drafted by Former UUP Leader Jim (now Lord) Molyneaux and later adopted by the then Leader of the Conservative Party (Margaret Thatcher) and the then Shadow Northern Ireland Office Team (the late Airey Neave, the late Sir John Biggs-Davison and the late Ian Gow), i.e., "in the absence of devolved government [in Northern Ireland], we will seek to establish one or more regional councils with a wide range of powers over local services".

 

Thursday 27th November 2008

TERRORISM UNLEASHED ON INDIA

The Indian sub-continent has been subjected to a vicious terrorist attack, resulting in at least 101 Indian people being murdered, and many more injured.  The attacks were focussed on the financial area of the city of Mumbai (Bombay), which is reminiscent of PIRA's attacks on London some years ago.

The Indian Prime Minister has stated that he will take action against those who carried out these attacks.

It has also emerged that two powerful explosions were heard from the Nariman House building which houses Mumbai's Chabad House, in India, where at least five Islamist terrorists are still holed up. It is believed that five Israelis are being held hostage.

Anglicans Friends of Israel stated:
"Sky News is reporting that hundreds of commandos have surrounded the building and have already killed one terrorist, but five others are still believed to be hiding in the building. Unconfirmed reports said that another terrorist at the nearby Taj Mahal Hotel may have been caught alive.




Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were both reported unconscious, as were several of the Israelis, according to a babysitter who managed to escape and called the family shortly after the siege began. The Foreign Ministry reported that between 10 and 15 Israelis believed to be in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, have not been reached and their whereabouts and condition are still unknown.

Local police previously secured the release of the couple's one and a
half-year-old son Moshe, but both parents were still being held captive.


A previously unknown Muslim terrorist group linked to the international Al Qaeda terrorist organization calling itself the Deccan Mujahedin claimed responsibility for the massive multi-site terror attack carried out late Wednesday night in the city formerly known as Bombay. Mumbai is home to some 15 million people and is India's largest city.

The terrorists struck two luxury hotels frequented by Americans and
British nationals, the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Oberoi Hotel as well as
the city's largest train station, a movie theatre and the Cama Hospital
with automatic weapons and grenades. Intelligence sources said the level of sophisticated training and weapons employed by the terrorists made it clear that they were not local criminals. The terrorists were armed with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades.

Also among the nine sites struck by the group throughout "the city that never sleeps" was the Chabad House, a popular stop for Israeli tourists passing through the area who are provided with kosher food and Jewish programmes there.

Three top police officials were among at least 101 dead in the attacks, including Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) Chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar, reported IBN News, which said  Karkare had received death threats in phone calls at his home within the past several days.

The terrorists have demanded that India release "all mujahedins," and that "only after that will we release the people," as they told a local television station. Several other Israelis have maintained telephone contact from their eighth-floor hotel rooms. The Chabad website reported that "the situation is grim."

American and British nationals were reportedly being separated out from among other foreigners and held as hostages, according to one British citizen who told Sky News television that he had watched as a gunman asked a group of some 40 hostages for their country of origin. Those who were from Italy, he said, were released, but British and American citizens were held. 

British European Parliament Member Sajjad Karim told the television
network before his cell phone went dead that he was barricaded in a
darkened restaurant in the basement of the Oberoi Hotel. "We are now in the dark in this room and we have barricaded all the doors. It's really bad," he said. Some 200 people were reported being held hostage at the Oberoi Hotel.

It is also estimated that there are still between 45 to 50 hostages
being held by the terrorists at the Taj Mahal Hotel. Five terrorists
were reported dead and 14 police officers were killed as well in the
exchange of gunfire at the hotel, where thick black smoke billowed from the windows on the upper floors.

NDTV reported that Indian security officials believe the terrorists may
have infiltrated into the city by sea. There is little regulation in the
Bombay Harbor, noted the journalist in his report. Nariman House is
located in the southern part of the city, along the water."


COMMENT
Given that British and American citizens were taken hostage by the terrorists, one cannot help but think that Al Qaeda is taking its war against the UK and USA to India, and perhaps to other locations. To resolve this dreadful situation in India, no one should be surprised to hear the London government, supported by Washington, suggesting that India has talks with Al Qaeda with a view to facilitating its move into the government of that nation. 


On our recent visit to the Houses of Parliament in November, we were given a guided tour of the Palace of Westminster by Lord Laird of Artigarvan. In his talk, he told us that the Palace of Westminster was at the severe end of severe so far as an immanent attack on it was concerned.  One would not be too far from the truth to conclude that Al Qaeda was the prime suspect.

Its seems clear that UK and USA nationals were specifically singled out and taken hostage by these ruthless terrorists.

If no other argument is needed, then what has happened in Mumbai (India's largest city) ought to convince right-thinking people of the fundamental error of welcoming terrorists into the very government of the land they are trying to destroy.  While the bombs and bullets are transparent attacks on democracy, putting them into the very heart of government is not less so.   


 


Monday 24th November 2008

FOUR POLICE OFFICERS DIE IN ROAD CRASH

The tragedy of the seven deaths on our roads this past weekend has affected the entire country and brought considerable sadness and distress to all who knew the people involved and to their families. 

Particularly sad were the deaths of the four police officers in Co. Down in their patrol vehicle in the early hours of Sunday morning.  Our condolences are extended to the families involved, both immediate and wider, and our prayers are offered for God's gracious help for them at this difficult time, and in the days to come.

We are aware that at this time our thoughts must be with these families, and so they are.  We also acknowledge that speculation as to the 'whats' and 'wherefores' of this crash is not helpful.

While our thoughts are with the families concerned in this tragic event, they are also being focused on the circumstances leading up to this tragedy.  Examination of the 'black box data recorder' will reveal what really did happen. 


Friday 21st November 2008

Letter to the Editor of "Hands Across the Irish Sea."

I write to ask for support from your membership and to inform it of what is happening in Northern Ireland.

During the past four decades, our province faced a vicious terrorist campaign in which more than 3600 people were killed, many of them innocent victims.  Up to 1985, democracy resisted terrorism, and from 1985, democracy sought to fraternise with terrorism, and from 1998 to the present, democracy has not only compromised with terrorism, but went so far in the 2006 St Andrews Agreement as to guarantee terrorists a central place in the government of our part of the UK.  We now have politicians who are inextricably linked to terrorist organisations sitting at the very heart of government in Northern Ireland, and sharing as an equal the office of First Minister.

Legislation passed by the government, for example, in the Human Rights, Equality, and Victims Commission Acts, has guaranteed that terrorists and their supporters get more consideration and protection than do the decent people of our country.

Indeed, not one government-sponsored research report of the past decade that I am aware of, is prepared to mention terrorist(s), or terrorism, in any of its documents, unless as part of a direct quotation from respondents who use this accurate but politically incorrect term.  Such a grip has terrorism got on the affairs of Northern Ireland that the governments in London, Belfast and Dublin are following the PIRA/Sinn Fein agenda of re-writing history, with the willing support of democratic parties.

Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the appointment of a victims commission jointly by Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness (the chief victim-maker), a commission that contains, as of right, a woman from a PIRA family.

This has placed genuine victims of terrorism in the position where some of the groups that serve them do not recognise this commission, and will have no dealings with it.  For victims of terrorism to go to a commission that recognises the legitimacy of terrorism as a means of dealing with political differences, is appalling in the extreme.  My organisation, West Tyrone Voice, was advised to go to McGuinness for help by a staff member of a local constituency office.  This is out of the question.

When terrorists are accepted as being morally equivalent with the security forces that sought to protect the entire community that is Northern Ireland - the now official position of the Office of First Minister, as stated by one of the Junior Ministers - then we have gone down a very slippery road indeed.

Our country is now on a very high terrorist threat, again from republicans, the highest in ten years, yet our politicians are still feeding these republican crocodiles, in the hope that they eat them last! 

Our fellow-citizens in other parts of the UK, and further afield, need to be aware of what is going on here, because we cannot depend on our politicians to tell the truth.  We value the interest you have in the Province, and are delighted that you want to be kept informed of the situation.



Thursday 20th November 2008

Darkley Remembered - 25 years on!

As the 25th anniversary of the Darkley massacre is being marked today, Thursday 20th November 2008, I want to offer the following points and reflections.

We lived on the main Keady to Armagh Road, and at about 6:00 pm on Sunday 20th November 1983, we were getting into the car and heading for the church at Armaghbreague, when were heard an ambulance speeding past the avenue.  I remember saying that someone's in trouble, and thought nothing more about it.  R. P. minister, Rev Wallace McCollum, Cullybackey, was preaching for me that evening.  On arriving at the church, two of our elders met me and told me that there had been a shooting in the area.  I said, "It must be someone we know."

The service started, and was about half-way through, when the front door burst open, and I hear loud, excited voices in the hallway.  I went out, and one of our members told me there had been a massacre at Mountain Lodge church (Darkley), and that several people were dead.  I was stunned into silence, and after gaining my composure, asked if they knew who had been murdered.  Names were given, and I knew that close relatives were in the service, so I went in and got the family concerned, and asked them to go home, after telling them about the shooting.

As the service ended, I went to the front to tell the congregation what had happened, and asked them to go home as quickly as possible.  They did so, and so did we.  When we had left our wives at the manse, Wallace and I went to the homes where two of the Darkley elders lived.  The Brown family was stunned and devastated, and the Wilson family was in shock.  Rodney, David Wilson's son, was in his late teenage years at the tome, and he looked like a man in his thirties, such was the impact on this innocent rural family.  

The Catholic Reaction Force claimed responsibility for the massacre, a terrorist organisation led by Dominic "Mad Dog" McGlinchey, the INLA psychopathic leader.  The revulsion expressed by local people was palpable.  They felt very vulnerable at that time, and people were asking who would be next.

Three had died in this terrorist outrage while Christians were worshipping the Lord, and I think about seven ended up in hospital with injuries of varying degrees.

I remember things, such as, worshipping under the armed protection of police and army for many months thereafter, and the great media interest there was in this area at that time.

I buried two of the three elders - David Wilson in the Temple (1st Keady Presbyterian Church), and Harold Brown in Armaghbreague church.  Harold was to play the role of Santa for us just three weeks after he was so brutally murdered.  His son David stepped into the breech and very graciously did the job.

I preached a series of sermons after the shootings which were later published by Burning Bush Publications, entitled After Darkley.  These sermons and book proved a great encouragement to many people.

There was great tension in the area for ages afterwards.  Our youth work had to stop as parents were unwilling to allow their young children to go to the youth fellowship.  The really positive outcome of this was that those older youths who were actively involved in the youth work went on to serve the Lord in variously capacities.  Clive and Hazel Walker (nee McIlwrath, whose father Bobby was buried on Monday last) went to Bible college and trained to become missionaries with the New Tribes Mission, and have been working in Panama for the past 20+ years.

Others served with Christian organisations in Lima and Hungary, and a third studied at Belfast Bible College for three years.

At times after the Darkley massacre, we found ourselves frightened by noises outside the church hall in Aughnagurgan where we held our Mid Week Fellowship on alternate months and every Wednesday evening.  I can remember one evening in particular when, as I was about to pronounce the benediction, members started spontaneously to sing, "God be with you 'til we meet again."  This was very moving.

What really affected me after the shootings was that Darkley Pentecostal church was deemed to have been the wrong church, and that our church at Armaghbreague Presbyterian was the intended target.  On that evening we had at least two former UDR soldiers in the service, and our church was within sight of the Darkley church, and located, like Darkley church, on a road that lead to the border with the Irish Republic, the chosen safe-haven for republic terrorists.   
Our children, David (5) and Stephen (3), were very young at that time.  Many a time when I had been out visiting members late at night, that we would have been stopped by security checks.  Soldiers and policemen visited our home regularly, and one frequent visitor was Supt Bob Buchanan, who was subsequently murdered by PIRA at Jonesborough, Co. Armagh, a few short years later.
 
I can remember senior unionist politicians coming down and repeating their well-rehearsed mantras, "No stone will be left unturned until the people who did this are brought to justice."  Such hollow words cut little ice! 

The politicians from outside came into the area, and were usually there when the printed and broadcast cameras were present, and gave their usual interviews, promising what they had no intention of delivering.  Republican terrorists were rightly condemned for their wicked deeds, but little did we realise that those who condemned them most severely and loudly would later get 'under the duvet' with them at Stormont.

Even the ecumenical clergymen came and did their bit, showing their superficial unity, and speaking their honeyed words.

After these two discreet groups of professionals left, it was ministers like myself who were left to pick up the pieces.  Yes, they walked behind many such coffins, but one really asks just how genuine they were.  What was their purpose in being there?  What did they hope to achieve?  Less than 25 years later, these same politicians were welcoming the PIRA into government in the country they tried hard to destroy,and which they still hate with a passion. 

And what of the professional churchmen?  Well, the least said, the better.

These were dreadful days, and many more were to come our way before long.  Fear gripped the entire community as reprisals were expected.  No one knew just who would be next!  The republican terrorists who perpetrated this horrendous crime has promised that what they did at Darkley would be like a Sunday picnic compared to what was to follow.  This drove fear and apprehension deep in to the hearts of the people.

As a minister, I got some help with the mechanics of the funeral services, but precious little support from colleagues at that difficult time.  I felt left to my own devices, and expected to get along as best I could.  Had it not been for the grace of God, I would have floundered.

Yet at no time did I ever consider leaving South Armagh.  Indeed, it was not the republican terrorists who brought about my move from there, but terrorists of another ilk altogether. 

I shared in a Reformation service in Second Keady Presbyterian church just three weeks earlier, and Rev Tom Taylor, a retired Anglican minister, was the preacher.  My parents were visiting us and they attended the service.  To see the parade, they went to the monument in Keady, where a number of young men congregated.  My father told me that he heard these youths speaking disparagingly about the marchers, and made menacing promises or forecasts about what would be done to them.  This was frightening at the time, but we thought no more about it.

Then the Darkley shootings put what was said three weeks earlier into context.  Republican terrorists were 'eyeing up' the situation, and I have often wondered since if that Reformation Sunday was the first expressed intention of what was to be visited on a peaceful people just three weeks later.

The close proximity to the border with the Irish Republic was ideal for the terrorists who were engaging in their terrorist work, to return to after carrying out their fiendish attacks.  The 'safe haven' provided for decades by our nearest international neighbour made it impossible for peace-loving unionists to trust that neighbour.  This has been used as a refuge for many terrorist murderers since then, and was such for those who murdered my youngest policeman brother just six years earlier.  These gangsters did their evil deeds under the Irish Tricolour, and to bring about eventual Irish re-unification.  They have failed in their efforts, and unionist people will not be bombed or shot into a regime that in the early seventies supplied funding, training, arms and safety for those who murdered their loved-ones, in addition to political support and rationalisation for their campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing.  I remember thinking in this way, and actually said this to a reporter immediately after the first funeral service in Armaghbreague.

These are some thoughts and reflections of that dreaded time.  Even as I write about these terrible events, I feel myself re-living what was visited on us then.  Trauma does that to people - historic events when re-visited act as triggers of trauma in the present.

Years later, I was to find myself working full-time with the victims of terrorism, which work I have been doing for the past almost 10 years.

 

 

Friday 28th November 2008

 

MAZE SHRINE TO TERRORISM GETS THE GREEN LIGHT!

It has emerged that despite the denials of the Stormont government, the Maze shrine to terrorism is to go ahead, as yet another concession to PIRA/SF terrorism.  For public consumption and public acceptability, it will be called a "Conflict Resolution Centre."

Dr Paisley, when joint First Minister, had agreed to this with the other joint First Minister and PIRA Army Council member, Martin McGuinness, and the current DUP incumbant, when pleaded with to reverse this offensive decision, has refused to do so.

So the innocent victims of PIRA/SF terrorism are being further insulted by the decision of the Executive to allow this development to take place.  The fact that the Executive has voted an increase in funding for the victims sector, while welcome, is of little consequence
since this is but a ploy to offset the permanent position of the PIRA Council at the heart of our government. 

If the Stormont government believes that victims cannot see through this further piece of political deception, it only shows how far removed they are from how victims think! 

 

 

Thursday 11th December 2008.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM THE VICTIMS' COMMISSION

Just this morning (Thursday), we received a copy of the Christmas Newsletter from the new, illegally appointed, victims commission, and it makes very interesting reading.

When they were appointed, we were told by government that the reason for four being appointed, not one, was to remove the need to engage expensive consultants to carry out research into victims' needs.  Now the 'commission' has 'commissioned' new research that will form "the foundation stone for building a solid structure to support victims..."  I suppose that is what a commission does - it commissions things!  Would you say we were lied to again?

The commissioners claim that they want to "make a positive difference to the day-to-day lives of victims..."  This is good, but they must attempt to do that for all innocent victims of terrorism, not just those who are content with tea and bun parties. 

There is one glaring and studied omission from their stated Comprehensive Needs Analysis - which means that it is not comprehensive at all - and that is the refusal to meet the needs of victims who want justice for their murdered and injured loved ones.  How they can claim comprehensiveness for this 'project' is beyond me!

They claim, further, that 2009 is going to be "a big year" for victims...  On what basis do they make this claim, or is it just more hyperbole?  Victims of terrorism have had more than enough of raised expectations from our politicians and their henchmen, only to have them dashed to pieces.  Now they simply do not believe such unstudied exaggerations.

An illustration of this is the promise that, in the new Forum, victims will be "not just heard, but listened to, and even acted upon."  Where have I heard that before?  Answer: Every time a new initiative was launched by government and its quangoes. 

Indeed, the commissioners are anticipating trouble at the Forum meetings.  From whom, I ask?  They say they "will do their best to anticipate and manage every risk before we even call a meeting."  Isn't that very interesting?  They will ensure that only those who are capable of manipulation by, and submission to, government will sit on the Forum, thus excluding those who see things differently.  How and where will their voice be heard, listened to, and acted upon?  This quango has been set up to include provo-lovers, and to exclude the victims of republican, and loyalist, terrorism, so even the membership will be managed by the commission and OFMDFM.  And many victims will be left up the Swanee yet again, deliberately excluded.

I will not comment on the draft strategy, since it is contentless, incoherent and therefore useless.

Story-telling, while it has an important place in the recovery of victims, and acknowledgement, are mere words whose meaning has been removed from them.  The idea seems to be that so long as we provide a vehicle for victims to tell their story, that nothing further is required.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Victims have been denied justice for their relatives and for their injuries, and until that is secured, this commission is just playing games with the feelings of current victims, and insulting the cherished memory of their murdered relatives.

The Living History archive is yet another attempt by government and its appointees to take over the telling of history to younger generations in such a way that the horrors of terrorism will be disinfected out of that story, and a sanitised version of our checkered history passed on to our children.  This will then become the official history of Northern Ireland, a history without terrorist violence, therefore a history without the victims of terrorism.

I suppose when democracy has been undermined, perverted, compromised and in danger of being totally destroyed by the admission of terrorists to the very heart and top of government, nothing else ought to surprise us.   

Having a member of a terrorist-linked family serving as a commissioner for victims, then we have reached the very bottom of indecency and repugnance.  And 'the great and the good,' as well as some victims who now consider those who victimised them as decent enough people who can be trusted with their well-being, think that what we have is brilliant!  I'll leave you to decide.

PRIME MINISTER, LIBYA AND THE APOLOGY

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown MP, has promised PIRA victims who were seeking compensation from Col. Gadhaffi for his role in supplying PIRA with the deadly Semtex, that he would lobby for an "apology and acknowledgement" from Libya. 

This has been hailed as a great success, and again the expectations of victims has been raised.

It is not an apology from Gadhaffi that we demand, but compensation for the irreplaceable loss we have sustained in the murder of our relations, and the injury of our friends.

Again, victims have been sold short by our politicians and by the UK Prime Minister, who is much more concerned about protecting London's City quarter, than getting justice for the UK's loyal citizens.


 
Tuesday 9th December 2008.

STRENGTHENING THE UNION

It is very encouraging to hear David Cameron state publicly his commitment to the union, and that he was "not neutral" on this important issue.  This is a matter of great delight to unionists, and the potential link between the UUP and the Conservative party can only cement the union.  I think he has now to publicly distance himself and the party from those negative statements made by people like former NI Secretary of State, Peter (now Lord) Brooke et al.  They did nothing to strengthen the union, and did an awful lot to encourage the provos in their terrorist campaign.

I think this 'merger' must be managed very carefully.  I have my own personal reservations about the Tories, but if their commitment to the union of GB and NI is as Cameron says it is, then it can only be good for the entire United Kingdom.

Academic Trauma Training

Having read the report in today's paper (Newsletter), several issues are raised in my mind.

 

First, on the issues of 'dealing with the past,' will this course provide academically validated training on investigative techniques for the police to 'deal with the past,' or will students be afforded these skills?  We have always been told to leave what has happened in the past to the police, but this course, at least your report on it, would lead one to believe that those who qualify and/or graduate from it will be equipped to do this work.  Am I correct in this understanding, or have I missed something?

 

Second, the fact that Denis Bradley, co-chair of the CGP, is speaking at the official launch of this course would suggest that we can be treated by him, and by course promoters/lecturers, to more dishonesty and deceit, given the fact that I received this email just yesterday from the office of Jim Allister, QC, MEP:

 

"Someone, somewhere is not telling the truth. Recently, following press reports about a draft report being in circulation from the Consultative Group on the Past, I asked the Group for a copy. They replied in unequivocal terms, "I can assure you that no draft report has been circulated".

“Yet, journalistic sources assure me they have had sight of such a draft report and a Junior Minister in OFMDFM has gone on record to claim he has seen it. So, I want to challenge the Consultative Group to stop playing games. If we can't even get the truth about the present existence, or otherwise, of a draft report, how do we ever hope to get the truth about the past? This is not how the public and public representatives should be treated."

 

This is extremely disturbing, if true.  Until we know the veracity or otherwise of this situation, it would not be appropriate for this course to be promoted.  Deception and dishonesty appears to characterise everything that goes on in the upper eschelons of political life, and Northern Ireland is no different.   The CGP is being cynical in its playing life-threatening games with the emotional health and future of the victims of terrorism.

Third, the use of euphemistic language to describe one of the most vicious terrorist campaigns in Western Europe is also worrying.  If the promoters of this course, and its teachers/lecturers/tutors are in any way involved in this deception, then what real and lasting value will it possess for those who take it, and indeed for those who will be at the receiving end of it?

Fourth, if trauma counselling training can be conducted on the basis of linguistic deception, namely, by refusing to call things by their proper name for example, the latter state for those exposed to it will be worse than their former state.

You may not be in a position to answer these concerns, but perhaps you could get answers from the promoters of this dubious approach to training in an area that is fraught with difficulties.

 

 

Wednesday 12th November 2008

Whilst there is an increase in so-called 'dissident' republican activity, the latest IMC report sounds a loud alarm that no one seems to be listening to.  The very language used suggests that republican terrorists are not from the one 'pit,' but the facts are that these troublous people were found protesting at the RIR welcome-home parade., along with their provo-SF partners.  The other fact is that unless the security forces act decisively, these terrorists are going to be successful in their murder attempts.

While an increase in the number of security force personnel would be welcome, proactivity on their part would be preferable.  Empty calls from politicians are good for the ears, but they usually achieve nothing of substance.  Of course, they have to be seen to doing something, hiwever useless.  The government must free up the security forces to do all within their power to eradicate the threat of these terrorist murderers.

Members of the nationalist/republican community must work with the police and other security forces to ensure that these republican terrorists fail in their evil attempts to plunge Northern Ireland into further terrorist violence.

How pathetic it is to hear our politicians use the language of the re-writers of history, and refuse to call what was visited on us here by its proper name - terrorist. Rather , they prefer the 'politically correct' term "conflict" to the more accurate term; they also like to talk about the "troubles," in line with their provo friends - rather than the ferocious campaign of terrorism that it really was.

"The days of harbouring terrorists must be over," they tells us, yet they sit in government with politicians who were/are terrorists, and who are definitely linked to terrorist organisations, and defend them against other democratic politicians.

The serious republican terrorist threat in West Tyrone, Fermanagh and in Mid Ulster is rising steadily, and it is only a matter of time before someone is murdered by these blood-thirsty killers.  Would that our politicians reverted to using accurate language to describe these fiends, and not engage in sanitising their foul deeds by using neutral language instead.