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October 14, 2007

Pub Attack SF Member is Dismissed

News About Ireland & The Irish

BB 10/14/07 Pub Attack SF Member Is Dismissed
SL 10/14/07 Republican Dissidents In Terror Vow
SL 10/14/07 Claim Dev Torpedoed Unity Twice In WWII

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/7044212.stm

Pub Attack SF Member Is Dismissed

Sinn Fein has dismissed a party member who was one of four
football hooligans jailed last week for an attack on a pub
in Londonderry.

Francis O'Reilly, 29, is serving three months in prison for
trashing the Tavern Bar on the edge of the loyalist
Fountain estate last Monday.

The party says he was "summarily dismissed" after his
involvement in the attack became known.

The trouble came ahead of Derry City's League Cup Final
against Bohemian FC.

In a statement the Dublin club said that it "deplored" all
violence. Derry City went on to win the game 1-0.

On Friday night, Bohemian Football Club supporters held a
collection at their game to go towards damage caused to the
bar.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2007/10/14 16:53:03 GMT
c BBC MMVII

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http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/article3059014.ece

Republican Dissidents In Terror Vow

[Published: Sunday 14, October 2007 - 10:01]
By Stephen Breen

Renegade republicans in Co Armagh last night vowed to
continue their campaign of violence in the area.

A senior member of the Continuity IRA told Sunday Life
recent police successes against the terror group would not
prevent them from attempting to launch more attacks.

The spokesman issued the defiant plea after a massive
police search to find dissident weapons and explosives was
launched in the Brownlow area of Lurgan on Thursday.

A 35-year-old man is to appear at Craigavon Magistrates
Court on terrorism and arms charges.

Of eight other men arrested in the operation seven have
been released without charge, police said.

One other man was released pending a report being submitted
to the Public Prosecution Service.

Although reports earlier this year claimed diehard
republicans were set to call an end to their campaign of
violence, the CIRA spokesman vowed to continue their
campaign.

Said the spokesman: "Security force action against us is
inevitable, but it won't stop us from continuing the fight
against the British presence in this country.

"Contrary to what many people believe, we have strong
support in the north Armagh area, but also from true
republicans in other parts of the Six Counties.

"We have been very unlucky in recent times but it just
takes one of our operations to go according to plan so we
can inflict serious damage on the British establishment.

"The Provos may have abandoned their struggle, but we will
keep fighting to secure a 32-county republic for the people
of this island."

SDLP MLA Dolores Kelly claimed dissident republicans had no
support in the area.

She said: "People in these communities, who are being
tortured by crime and other forms of anti-social behaviour,
have complained about the need for a proper policing
service.

"But the police have been hampered because of the
continuing threat by dissidents. People just want the
dissidents off their backs. They only have support from a
very small group of people."

The CIRA in north Armagh - which has close links with
dissidents in Belfast - have been blamed for a number of
incidents over the past two years, including attacks on
police stations and hoax bomb alerts on the main Belfast-
Dublin railway line.

c Belfast Telegraph

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http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/article3059023.ece

Claim Dev Torpedoed Unity Twice In WWII

[Published: Sunday 14, October 2007 - 10:19]
By Nicola Tallant

Eamon de Valera TWICE rejected offers of Irish unity during
World War II - but in doing so forfeited any chance of a
32-county Ireland.

In spite of his dream of a reunified Ireland, de Valera
(above) rejected the offers because he felt they could not
be delivered and were made without consultation with the
Stormont government.

Now some historians believe his actions - which ensured
Irish neutrality - forged a deeper partition and closed the
door to reunification.

An RTE documentary to be screened this week reveals how one
of the offers came just five hours after the Japanese
bombed Pearl Harbor from Winston Churchill, who was elated
that the US would be joining the war effort.

The telegram seemed to offer him the united Ireland he
craved if he would join the Allied effort to help crush the
Nazis.

But he rejected it as he believed there was no substance to
it, and it wasn't worth taking a chance with Ireland's
neutrality.

Historian Piers Brendon suggests his stance ultimately cost
any chance of reunification.

"The problem was that it reinforced partition and thus made
the prospect of a united Ireland that much more impossible
- it pushed it out the window, really," he argues.

The documentary traces the fraught relationship between
Churchill and de Valera.

"Winston Churchill hated neutrals. He regarded neutrals as
being feeble at best and despicably cowardly at worst.

"The chief hate figure for him during the Second World War
was 'Devil Eire', as he had taken to calling him," adds
Brendon.

The pair clashed repeatedly over partition and the Free
State's refusal to join the fight against Hitler.

The seeds of mistrust were planted during the War of
Independence.

As Secretary of State for War, Churchill defended the
counter-terror tactics of the Black and Tans.

When Churchill hammered out the Treaty with Michael
Collins, in which Britain retained control over three ports
on the west coast of Ireland, de Valera rejected it,
leading to the Civil War.

On September 14 1939, just two weeks after the start of
WWII, Sir Neville Chamberlain urged de Valera to join the
fight against the Nazis, but the Taoiseach cited partition
as the stumbling block.

By May 1940 Hitler invaded France and his U-boats were
talking their grisly toll of convoys in the North Atlantic.

Churchill, now head of an all-party coalition, saw access
to the Irish sea ports as a top priority.

After rejecting an invasion of Ireland, Churchill decided
on diplomacy and sent his minister, Malcolm McDonald, to
Dublin to meet de Valera and ask him if Britain could place
naval units in Ireland's ports to battle the submarine
threat.

De Valera rejected requests for use of ports, but McDonald
returned within days with a dramatic proposal that appeared
to promise reunification.

However, the fact that the offer was only available 'in
principle' provoked strong reservations for de Valera, who,
to Churchill's fury, rejected it.

In the documentary, some historians also criticise de
Valera for his stance at the end of the war when he paid a
visit to the German ambassador in Dublin to express
Ireland's sympathy for Hitler's death.

Although many concede that it was the actions of a neutral
head of state, others say it was a disastrous move.

- Hidden History - Face Off: De Valera v Churchill, RTE
One, Tuesday, 10.15pm.

c Belfast Telegraph

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