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Dev's grandson says republicans would be in favour of joining Commonwealth

by Denis Lehane
and Liam O'Neill
THE grandson of Eamon de Valera last night backed the idea of rejoining the British Commonwealth.
Eamon O Cuiv, the Galway West Fianna Fáil TD, who is known in his constituency as Dev O´g, said he was a committed republican but that, if it would be likely to give comfort to unionists, he would have no difficulty with the idea.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was quoted in a British newspaper interview as saying he expected the Government would debate joining the Commonwealth. He said yesterday he was not trying to initiate a debate on the issue but was in no way curtailing other people expressing a view.
"I welcome people making their views known. If anything comes of it or what the outcome is, is another matter", he said.
Two of his party colleagues — understood to be Minister for Sport Jim McDaid and Junior Minister O Cuiv — had also expressed their views on the issue to him.
In the past few months a number of people in the Northern parties had informally expressed strongly to him that this was an issue that should at least be discussed.
He said there had also been public statements about it by former President Mary Robinson and by President Nelson Mandela, who had pointed out that of the 54 states in the Commonwealth, 33 were republics.
Last night, Mr O Cuiv said he had no doctrinal republican problems in rejoining the Commonwealth and felt that, when it was properly understood, all Irish republicans would back the return.
"The Good Friday Agreement has led to an entire change and if it was of importance to the unionists I would favour it as a gesture of goodwill," he said.
"I come from one of the most republican traditions in the country, I think it is fair to say, and I am a committed republican in favour of a sovereign independent 32-county republic but I see no objection to doing this."
Deputy O Cuiv said the return of South Africa to the British Commonwealth pointed a way for Ireland to return, too.
President Mandela was a man from a strong anti-colonial tradition but that, as the first leader of an independent black anti-colonial majority state, he was able to make the move.
"The British Commonwealth has changed in the past 50 years. It is only a loose association of previous British colonies," he said.
Deputy O Cuiv discounted the chances that any attempt to rejoin the Commonwealth would be divisive amongst those who revered the separatist tradition of the War of Independence and before.
The Irish civil war was precipitated in January 1922 by a vote on the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty on the issue of Ireland joining the British Commonwealth with Queen Elizabeth's grandfather, King George V, at its head.
The Dáil majority believed there was no significance in Ireland being part of the Commonwealth while the minority believed it was a fundamental denial of national sovereignty.
Eamon de Valera fought against the idea in the civil war. However, when he came to power in 1932 he took no step to withdraw from the Commonwealth and it was the Fine Gael Taoiseach John A Costello who took Ireland out in 1949.

Blair and Ahern advance NI deal

by Liam O'Neill
Political Editor
A MAJOR breakthrough in setting up the North-South bodies, outlined in the Good Friday Agreement, is expected within days.
The move comes in the wake of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's historic address to the Dáil yesterday.
"It is important that we crack on with this, get the North-South bodies and the Departments agreed and that we are able to make real progress and measure it in days rather than weeks or months", Mr. Blair said.
The two leaders paved the way for a resolution of the difficulties over North-South bodies when they agreed that at least one of the six institutions set up to implement cross-border co-operation must be given responsibility in a major economic area.
The Taoiseach said they had made more progress in the task of agreeing implementation bodies and hopefully, in the next week, they would see work on agreeing an Executive being moved on.
Mr Blair announced a new intensive process of co-operation. He will meet the Taoiseach early next year in London to give this the necessary impetus and thereafter will meet at least once a year to review progress.
The thorny issue of decommissioning was something that both leaders seemed reluctant to deal with at a press conference following the meeting. It had obviously been discussed but neither wanted to make much comment on it. It was only one part of the agreement, they pointed.
The Taoiseach said it was essential every single aspect of the agreement was moved on. "Decommissioning is important and ultimately it will have to be resolved like every other issue and the sooner the better," he said.

No turning back, says Blair

by Mark Hennessy
Political Correspondent
THE Northern Ireland peace process is at a difficult junction, but progress is being made slowly, Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday told the Houses of the Oireacthas in an historic address by a British leader.
"There is an impasse over the establishment of the Executive; an impasse over decommissioning. But I have been optimistic the whole way through," he told the country's TDs and Senators, led by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
"And I am optimistic now. Let us not underestimate how far we have come; and let us agree we have come too far to go back. Politics is replacing violence as the way people do business. The Good Friday Agreement ... holds out the prospect of a peaceful long-term future.
"The deal is not a simple one, but advances have been made in the effort to set up an Assembly, an NI Executive, a North-South Ministerial Council and the British-Irish Council, along with a Human Rights Commission.
"None of this is easy. I get many letters from the victims asking why we are freeing terrorist prisoners. It is a tough question but my answer is clear — the Agreement would never have come about if we had not tackled the issue.
"That Agreement heralds the prospect of an end to violence and a peaceful future for Northern Ireland. Our duty is to carry it out. That is a duty I feel more strongly than ever, having seen for myself the horror of Omagh.
"That was not the first such atrocity. But with all of my being, I will it to be the last. I will never forget meeting with Bill Clinton, with survivors, and relatives of those who died. Their suffering and courage was an inspiration.
"They will never forget their loved ones. Nor must we. We owe it to them above all to build a lasting peace, when we have the best opportunity in a generation to do so," he said, to sustained applause from the chamber.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's contribution has been immense. "I pay tribute to his tireless dedication. I value his friendship. I also salute the courage of our predecessors, Albert Reynolds, John Bruton and John Major. I also salute Dick Spring, whose role in the process goes back a long way."
The Republic has lived up to its side of the bargain entered into on Good Friday, particularly by ending the territorial claim on Northern Ireland: "It is time now for all the parties to live up to all their commitments."
It was now time for the creation of North-South bodies, the establishment of the Executive: "Time, too, for the gun and the threat of the gun to be taken out of politics once and for all.
"I am not asking anyone to surrender. I am asking everyone to declare the victory of peace," said Mr Blair, adding that his sense of urgency and mission comes from the children of Northern Ireland who have grown up in fear, who have lost loved ones.
"I reflect on those who, though untouched directly by violence, are nonetheless victims, victims of mistrust and misunderstanding. I reflect on the sheer waste of children taught to hate when I believe passionately children should be taught to think," he went on.
"Don't believe anyone who says the British people don't care about the peace process. People in my country care deeply, are willing it to work.
"No-one should ignore the injustices of the past, or lessons of history. Too often between us, one person's history has been another person's myth. We need not be prisoners of our history.
"My generation in Britain sees Ireland differently today." The future for the peace process would require vision, but no more than the vision that has transformed Ireland.
"The old ways are changing between Dublin and London. And this can spur the change and healing in Northern Ireland too.
"The old notions of Unionist supremacy and/or narrow nationalism are gradually having their fingers prised from their grip of the future. Different traditions have to understand each other. Just as we must understand your yearning for a United Ireland, so, too, must you understand what the best of Unionism is about. They are good and decent people, just like you.
"They want to remain part of the UK — and I have made it clear that I value that wish. They feel threatened. Threatened by the terrorism with which they have had to live for so long. Threatened, until the Good Friday Agreement, that they would be forced into a united Ireland against their will. Now, they realise consent is guaranteed: It is all about belonging. The wish of Unionists to belong to the UK. The wish of Nationalists to belong to Ireland.
"Both traditions are reasonable. There are no absolutes. The beginning of understanding is to realise that."

British leader makes
history in Oireachtas

by Jim Morahan
MR Blair's presence in the Oireachtas symbolised the maturing nature and coming of age of the relationship between the two countries, said Ceann Comhairle Séamus Pattison.
"Down through the years I doubt very much if any member of either House envisaged a day when a British Prime Minister would be present among us, addressing both Houses of the Irish parliament," he added.
The two countries' shared history might have been troubled but had left its mark in many positive ways — our public administration owed much of its origin to the British system. Nowhere was it more evident than in our parliament.
We had taken the best but not all of the British system. "We have PR (proportional representation) but we do not have hereditary membership, much to the regret of some members," said Mr Pattison.
We had always shared a unique relationship with Britain, which was evident in many ways, as through the thriving Irish community in Britain and in the wider partnership we shared as EU members.
The Good Friday Agreement was the culmination of almost two years of negotiation. In a wider sense, it was the produce of over two decades of close partnership between the two governments, working together to forge a lasting and peaceful settlement in Northern Ireland.
The occasion of Mr Blair's address was a noble salute to that momentous achievement — which both Mr Blair and his predecessor, the Taoiseach, his predecessors and party leaders, including former party leaders present in the chamber, had played such a crucial role.
Mr Pattison said he was not forgetting the contribution of President Clinton and Senator Mitchell and the parties in Northern Ireland, without whose commitment, determination and vision, there would have been no agreement. The British-Irish Parliamentary Body had also played its part.
"In particular, you can be rightly proud of your own personal contribution to the success of this agreement," Mr Pattison told Mr Blair. "Your leadership, Prime Minister, especially in the final week of the agreement's negotiations, was greatly appreciated by all, not least those in this House."
The huge democratic endorsement of the agreement demonstrated the clear desire of the people of this island for change to a better and brighter future.
Said Mr Pattison: "Prime Minister, by your contribution to peace on this island, hope and history do indeed rhyme as the dark days are hopefully forever in the past, and a new dawn of peace and reconciliation beckons forth, as we go, in the poignant words of Omagh victim young Seán McLaughlin "across the bridge of hope".

New generation urged to leave
age-old hatreds in the past

by Mark Hennessy
Political Correspondent
RELATIONS between the Republic and the UK have now grown up, offering new generations the chance to create a new future, British Prime Minister Tony Blair declared yesterday.
Offering an optimistic picture of modern-day Ireland, he said outsiders see a modern, open economy, the end of emigration, a country which has used EU help wisely and one which has some of the best brains in the business world.
"We see a country that had the courage to elect its first woman President and liked it so much, you did it again, and the politics of Northern Ireland would be better for a few more women in prominent positions too.
"Down through the centuries, Ireland and Britain have inflicted too much pain, each on the other. But now as two modern countries, we can try to put our histories behind us, try to forgive and forget those age-old enmities.
"We have both grown up. A new generation is in power and we now have a real opportunity to put our relations on a completely new footing, not least through working together in Europe.
"Nowhere was this better illustrated than at the remarkable ceremony at Messines earlier this month. Representatives of nationalists and unionists travelled together to Flanders to remember shared suffering.
"Our Army bands played together. Our Heads of State stood together. With our other European neighbours, such a ceremony would be common place. For us it was a first. It shows how far we have come. But it also shows we still have far to go."
Remembering his own childhood, the Prime Minister said: "Ireland, as you know, is in my blood. My mother was born in the flat above her grandmother's hardware shop in the main street of Ballyshannon in Donegal.
"She lived there as a child, started school there and only moved when her father died, her mother remarried and they crossed the water to Glasgow. We spent virtually every childhood summer holiday up to when The Troubles really took hold, usually in Rossnowlagh.
"We would travel in the beautiful countryside of Donegal. It was there in the seas off the Irish coast that I learnt to swim, there that my father took me to my first pub, a remote little house in the country, for a Guinness, a taste I've never forgotten and which it is always a pleasure to repeat."
In his own Westminster constituency of Sedgefield in the North-East of England virtually every community remembers that its roots lie in Irish migration to the mines of Britain.
"So whether we like it or not, we, the British and the Irish, are irredeemably linked.
Turning to the centuries of division, he went on: "Yet it has always been simplistic to portray our differences as simply Irish versus English, or British. There were, after all, many in Britain too, who suffered greatly at the hands of absentee landlords, who were persecuted for their religion, or who were for centuries disenfranchised."

Friendship the key as leaders launch North/South school link on Internet

by Evelyn Ring
WHEN Taoiseach Bertie Ahern went back to his old school in Dublin yesterday he brought his good friend — British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Both men continually stressed the value of their friendship when launching a North/South schools link on the internet from St Aidan's College in Whitehall.
The two leaders kept on smiling even when it looked like their on-line chat with four schools was turning into a virtual disaster.
The question and answer session with the students continued despite intermittent ear-splitting feedback and link breakage's.
The 500 students at St Aidan's gave the two leaders a huge welcome when they turned up at the school which was festooned with Union Jacks and Tricolours.
In the school hall video pictures of the interacting schools — Loreto Grammar School, Omagh, Limavady Grammar School, Derry, St Aidan's and Carrigaline Community School, Cork, were enlarged on a huge screen.
Mr Ahern pointed out that the seeds of the link were sown in the weeks after the awful Omagh atrocity last August.
A donation by Dell of 100 computers to help the devastated Omagh community sparked the idea of linking schools in Omagh with schools in the Republic.
Mr Ahern said the North/South schools link was hopefully just the start of a special initiative to encourage schools on both sides of the border to use information technology to work together and learn about each other.
Mr Blair stressed the importance of carrying the work already done so far to make the peace process last on the island of Ireland.
The framework was there but the people of Northern Ireland would have to decide their own future, he said.
The Prime Minister described new technology as a tremendous gift.
It allowed people to communicate with each other across countries and appreciate each others problems and points of view, he said.
Students commenting after the launch said they were disappointed with the quality of the internet link but were certainly impressed by the two leaders.
Fifth year student Richard Doherty was particularly impressed by Mr Blair.
"He seems like a nice guy," said Richard.

Hit-and-run garda
used car without permission

by Vinnie Reddin
A DETECTIVE GARDA, who was involved in a hit-and-run accident where a cyclist was killed, was driving an unmarked garda car without the permission of his superiors, an inquest heard, yesterday.
Detective Garda Michael Martin was driving along the Naas dual carriageway in the early hours of the morning on December 22 last when he felt a bang on the windscreen of his Toyota car.
He briefly stopped, but then decided to continue, he told Dublin Coroner's Court.
"I knew I was in trouble, as I was not supposed to have the official car out at the time," Detective Garda Martin added.
The dead cyclist was 37-year-old Gerard O'Neill of Cherrywood Park, Clondalkin, Dublin.
A number of motorists gave evidence of spotting what they thought was a load of rubbish on the side of the dual carriageway in the early hours of the morning.
However, Raymond Buckley said he then realised it was the body of a man and stopped his car, and flagged down another motorist, who rang 999 on his mobile.
An ambulance arrived within minutes, but it was too late, the 37-year-old single man was already dead.
His mountain-type bike was lying about 15 feet away on the hard shoulder of the road near Newlands Cross.
In the witness box, Detective Garda Martin, who is attached to the Serious Crime Squad, said he was 25 years in the force and had been working a week of nights.
"I took the official motorcar to go home with the intention of leaving it at Rathcoole Garda Station and walking home nearby."
He said he must have dozed off at the wheel of the 1991 registered car.
"If I had have known it was a cyclist I hit I would have stayed at the scene. I just panicked when I saw the shattered windscreen of the car." Garda Patrick McCallion, a PSV inspector said that the damage to the garda car was substantial.
The windscreen was shattered and the left front light was smashed.
The 15-year pedal cycle was twisted at the rear.
The Coroner's Court heard that the dead cyclist, although wearing dark clothes, was wearing a yellow reflective body belt.
Under cross-examination by Ms Patricia Ryan BL for the dead man's family, asking the detective if he intended reporting the accident to the gardaí, he said: "I cannot answer that."
It was later that day when local gardaí called to the detective's home that the full details of the accident were revealed.
The dead man, who was a civilian working in the Irish Army at Clancy Barracks in Dublin, died from a fractured skull and spinal injuries.
The jury of five men and two women returned a verdict of accidental death.
City Coroner Dr Brian Farrell said that if it was any consolation to the dead man's family, Gerald would have died instantly.
Last May, Det Garda Martin pleaded guilty to a number of motoring charges, including careless driving and leaving the scene of an accident, in the district court.
He was fined a total of £3,150 and banned from driving for five years.
After the lengthy sitting of the Coroner's Court, yesterday, the deceased's brother, Hugh, read a statement to journalists outside the courthouse.
"People have said that a £3,150 fine and a five-year disqualification from driving was not enough.
"He should have gone to prison for what he did.
"But no matter what sentence would have been given, it will never bring Gerry back.
"He will have to live with the consequences of what he did for the rest of his life.
"My family and I will always have loving memories of Gerry, and if there is a place called heaven, we know Gerry is there," concluded the statement.

Finger print may help solve murder

HUNDREDS of people are to be fingerprinted by gardaí over the coming weeks as part of the investigations into the death of Galway taxi driver Eileen Costello-O'Shaughnessy – next Monday marks the first anniversary of her brutal murder.
Residents in the area where her body was found at Knockdoemore, between Tuam and Galway, along with people living near her home in Corofin are to have their fingerprints taken in the next few weeks in the hope of a breakthrough in a murder hunt which has baffled gardaí.
At the time of the murder gardaí took several fingerprints from the dead woman's car which was parked along the main Tuam-Galway road on the outskirts of the city.
But while they have accounted for most of the prints lifted, there is one set which gardaí have yet to identify and this may prove crucial to the investigation.
Throughout the investigation, thousands of people have been questioned and eliminated from the inquiry while several other names have been volunteered by members of the public as possibly being connected with the murder
Gardaí are now awaiting permission to interview a man being held in custody at Brixton Prison in London and who was in Galway city at the time of Mrs. Costello-O'Shaughnessy's death.
The man is also being held in connection with the murder of his girlfriend in Scotland – it is thought he came to Galway at the end of last year and spent several months here before returning to England.
A garda spokesman said this man may provide some information about the murder or enable them to eliminate him from their investigations.
Eileen Costello-O'Shaughnessy (47), a mother of two, was murdered on the night of November 30 last. Her badly beaten body was found in a laneway at Knockdoemore the following morning.
Since then detectives have been working full time on the case and despite carrying out a thorough investigation, no one has been arrested in connection with her killing.
Gardaí are anxious in particular to speak to a taxi driver who was seen driving a dark coloured car, near the scene where the body was found, and Galway city at about 8.30 pm on the night of the murder. There was a female passenger in the car.
The gardaí are also trying to trace the blonde-haired woman in her mid-20s who was seen walking along the Tuam road late that evening. It was after the murder had been committed and according to witnesses, she was not wearing clothes conducive to walking at that time of night.
The owner of a large red saloon-type car, which was seen coming out of the lane and turning towards Galway in the early hours of the following morning still has not come forward.
And gardaí also have not traced the woman who approached another taxi driver in Eyre Square some weeks after the murder, saying she had vital information about the killing.
The Garda spokesman said: "Since the murder every possible angle is being investigated."

Further rail strikes put on
hold as unions agree to talks

by Vivion Kilfeather
FEARS of a further rail strike have abated for the time being after rail unions representing the 300 drivers who brought the national train network to a standstill last Tuesday agreed yesterday to direct talks with management.
The negotiations stretch back over two years.
SIPTU's Tony Tobin said this was a positive step by the unions but they would still be demanding that CIE chairman Brian Joyce withdraw his labelling of the train drivers as mavericks.
After a meeting in Maynooth, Co. Kildare, the NBRU and SIPTU issued a joint statement accepting a peace formula put forward by Labour Relations Commission facilitator Kevin Foley which means talks will be resumed at local depot level before discussions take place at a national level, beginning on December 7.
At the centre of the bitter row is management's plans to make £30m savings as part of the £44 CIE plan for the three companies — Irish Rail, Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus.
The drivers are determined to ensure their earnings stay as close to £30,000 per year.
While their basic is only £13,500 a year they have become used to securing significant overtime earnings but have been compelled to work seven day weeks for it.
Management say the latest offer will give many of the train drivers £28,500 per year without overtime but unions claim this will only apply to a handful of train drivers.
All further meetings are to be chaired by Mr Foley.
NBRU's Liam Tobin and SIPTU's Tony Tobin said in their statement the peace plan sets down a period of progressing the discussions within the process without referral to a third party.
CIE chairman Brian Joyce came under sustained fire during the unofficial stoppage this week for his suggestion that Public Service Minister should keep out of industrial relations matters in CIE and also for his description of the drivers actions as that of mavericks. Meanwhile the same two unions in Dublin Bus yesterday accepted a package giving just over 2,000 drivers a 7% pay rise and lump sum payment of £1,350.
The lump sum payments will be paid on December 10 and on January 1 drivers rates of pay will be increased by 5% with retrospection back to August 1; and a further payment of 2% will be paid from April 1. The plan also provides for the recruitment of about 130 drivers and the purchase of 100 new buses.

Teachers forced to
sit at home on £30,000

by Brian Carroll
Security Correspondent
TEN teachers on over £30,000 per annum have been sitting at home on paid leave for the past 10 weeks since the closure of Devoy Barracks in Naas.The teachers were seconded to work with the Department of Defence in the Army Apprentice School at Devoy Barracks. However, the hasty closure of the barracks in September has left the teachers in limbo and the taxpayer footing the bill for their wages.
The Apprentice School was transferred to the Curragh but there are not enough facilities for the remaining apprentices.
From an original capacity of 180 students there are now just 28 apprentices.
As a result it now costs over £100,000 per annum to train each student, but there are no teachers for 18 of the 28.
There are still no plans for apprentice training after the present programme finishes next year.Former Company Commander at Devoy Barracks, Cmdt John Ryan, condemned the speed with which the barracks was closed and the lack of future planning by the Department of Defence.
He told delegates at yesterday's annual conference of the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO) meeting in Galway that no right-thinking member of the organisation would dispute the fact that some of the barracks had to close.
"Reduced strengths dictated this. However, the manner and the method of the closures are to be deplored and unequivocally condemned.
"It appears that even the officers of the general staff were not consulted.
"Barracks and posts were closed with indent haste and without a modicum of planning. "Let me give you a practical example.
"I refer to the barracks at Naas, the home of the army apprentice school for some 40 years, which was vacated at the end of September.
"As of yesterday, our apprentices, now stationed at the Curragh, have been without formal instruction or adequate training facilities for 10 weeks.
"Their civilian teachers, loyal and dedicated professionals, who now sit at home through no fault of their own because again no thought was given to their future.
"The buildings which once housed a vibrant and vital educational institution of the Defence Forces now stand totally empty.
"As I speak there is no known plan for the training of apprentices after the year 2000."The Minister and his Department have much to answer for,'' Cmdt Ryan said.

Flanagan to tell viewers
net is closing on bombers

by Joe Oliver
RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan will tell viewers on prime-time television tonight that the net is slowly closing around the Omagh bombers.
He will appear on LWT's Britain's Most Wanted as part of a 10-minute slot examining the police investigation into the Real IRA atrocity in August.
It follows an emotional plea for public help last week by Chief Supt Eric Anderson, the officer heading the investigation into the atrocity which killed 29 people and injured more than 250 others.
In the programme, Mr Flanagan repeatedly sends out the message that the lasso is tightening on the 'team' responsible. "We're close to knowing the identity of the people who make up this team," he tells the programme. But he stresses that more evidence is needed if the killers are to be brought to justice.
"What we need is evidence to bring those people before the courts. The people in south Armagh and Carrickmacross and Omagh can help us. They can provide the vital evidence that we need to take us a step further.
"In a liberal democracy there must always be a stark difference between the intelligence that a police service has in its possession and the evidence that's necessary to prove an offence before the courts.
"So there will always be that distinction. But we're moving rapidly towards a position of having the necessary evidence, so if people think that up to this point they have escaped or evaded justice, they should take no comfort whatever in that." The programme takes a detailed look at the evidence police have gathered over the past three months.
It reveals that the RUC obtained CCTV camera footage of the red Vauxhall Cavalier car, in which the deadly 300lb bomb was placed, on its way to Omagh. It is not known whether the faces of the driver and any passengers have been identified.
In the programme, cameras home in on police scientists tasked to screed and dust the two phone boxes from which the bomb warnings were made, and the hundreds of coins they held. It is hoped the slightest trace of a print might lead to the bombers being caught.
Britain's Most Wanted producer and director Mike Brennan said: "I think everyone would agree that the Omagh bombers are Britain's Most Wanted. "The programme will go out nationwide and we hope to jog people's memories, to remind them of something they may have forgotten but which could be crucial to the investigation."
The programme will be shown on Ulster Television at 9pm.
Meanwhile, the bomb-scarred town took another step on the road to normality last night when its Christmas lights were switched on.
Several thousand people packed the streets as country singing heart-throb Daniel O'Donnell performed the ceremony.
The Omagh Community Youth Choir sang Across the Bridge of Hope, the song based on the touching poem written by 12-year-old bomb victim Shaun McLaughlin.

Extra Irish news

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