Ulster-Scots DVD & Events Reviews

How Turks eased hunger of our Famine

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:01:50 +0000

How Turks eased hunger of our Famine
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/how-turks-eased-hunger-of-our-famine-2996544.html
independent.ieKen Sweeney EntertainmentJanuary 23rd, 2012view original
A TURKISH film that tells of how the Ottoman Empire sent food aid to Ireland at the height of the Famine will begin shooting here this July.

'Hunger' is based on events during 1847, when -- moved by stories of the humanitarian disaster in Ireland -- the Sultan of the Ottoman empire, Abdul Majid, sent £1,000 and three ships laden with food to Drogheda, Co Louth.

"It's a little-known but inspiring story," writer and director Omer Sarikaya told the Irish Independent.

The filmmaker will travel to Ireland in three weeks time to audition Irish actors for the project, which will be filmed in both Turkey and Ireland.

"Our film tells an incredible story, but also the meeting of a Turkish sailor called Fatih, and an Irish woman called Mary.

"This is a story of two countries coming together during sadness and a love affair between two people from different countries," Mr Sarikaya said.

Legend has it that the Sultan Abdul Majid had intended to pledge £10,000 to Irish farmers but that Queen Victoria requested that he send only £1,000, because she herself had only donated £2,000.

But apparently the sultan, after agreeing to the change, secretly sent three ships to Ireland laden with food.

The Turkish generosity is remembered by a plaque which was unveiled at the West Court Hotel in West Street, Drogheda, in 1995.

Former president Mary McAleese referred to the episode when she addressed guests at a state dinner in Ankara in 2010.

- Ken Sweeney Entertainment Editor

Irish Independent

Warm ‘Irish’ welcome for Duke of Gloucester at the annual celebration of the life of Columbanus

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:57:40 +0000

Warm ‘Irish’ welcome for Duke of Gloucester at the annual celebration of the life of Columbanus
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/warm_irish_welcome_for_duke_of_gloucester_1_3275957

HRH The Duke of Gloucester with Lord Bannside (Rev Ian Paisley) and Dr Ian Adamson, President of Ullans Academy, at the annual celebration of the life of Columbanus at the Clarion Hotel Carrickgergus, hosted by The Ullans (Ulster Scots) Academy. Photo by Aaron McCracken/Harrisons

Published on Thursday 24 November 2011 08:21

FOR the second time this year, a member of the Royal Family yesterday received a traditional warm Irish welcome when visiting these shores.

The Duke of Gloucester — a cousin of the Queen — was greeted in Gaelic as he attended an Ulster-Scots event in Carrickfergus.

Speaking in Irish, Ruari O Bleine offered Prince Richard “cead mile failte” — one hundred thousand welcomes — as the Ullans Academy marked the annual celebration of the life of missionary, St Columbanus.

In May, Her Majesty received a similar greeting from then Irish president Mary McAleese during her historic state visit to the Republic.

During the same state banquet in Dublin Castle, the Queen also opened her landmark speech with a sentence in Irish, much to the amazement of Mrs McAleese and assembled guests.

Making his own address yesterday, the Duke of Gloucester — who is currently 20th in the line of succession to the British throne — praised the work of the Ullans Academy.

Set up in 1992, the organisation aims to promote Ulster-Scots and Ulster Gaelic heritage, culture and language through community and education programmes and initiatives.

The Duke told guests —including Lord Bannside and senior loyalist Jackie McDonald — he was “delighted” to learn more about the work of the cross-community organisation.

“As we approach the 21st century it is clearly important that we look to the future rather than the past,” said the Duke of Gloucester.

“If there is one thing that history teaches us it is that we can achieve a great deal more in any given group than in separating and bearing past grudges.”

Yesterday’s celebratory lunch at the Clarion Hotel included a speech by Lord Bannside, paying tribute to Columbanus.

The Duke also attended the Battle of the Somme anniversary dinner at Belfast City Hall last night.

The Co Meath-born missionary left Bangor in the sixth century and played a pivotal role in revitalising Christianity throughout Europe, founding a number of monasteries on the continent.

The Scots boys who left for Hudson Bay

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:50:08 +0000

23 November 2011 Last updated at 12:47
The Scots boys who left for Hudson Bay
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-15853349
By Giancarlo Rinaldi
South Scotland reporter, BBC Scotland news website

Some of the men who left Scotland to work for the Hudson's Bay Company ended up settling permanently in the Canadian Arctic

Most of us, at one time or another, may have thought about starting a new life in another part of the world.

Very few, however, would consider the frozen extremes of the Canadian Arctic as their ideal destination.

Yet it was to that testing location that young men left Scotland from the 1960s to 1980s to take up work for the Hudson's Bay Company.

And, even when the fur trade they were involved in collapsed, many of them chose to remain.

Their story is being told in a new BBC Scotland documentary, The Hudson's Bay Boys, to be screened next week.

The men were posted to some of the most remote parts of the region
Among their number was John Graham who left the family farm - Sunnycroft, Lindean near Selkirk - in 1976.

"I went to Frobisher Bay in the North West Territories which at that time had a population of about 1,700," he said.

"By virtue of living on the farm, that was the biggest town I had ever lived in in my life.

"I think the fact that I grew up on the farm and was used to a hard day's work made it a lot easier."

He said he did not find it difficult to fit in to his new surroundings.

"Scottish people adapt to a situation like that exceptionally well," he said.

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I was wearing a Scottish tweed jacket, a white rain coat and it was about -17C on the ice - so I wasn't exactly dressed for it”

Neil Greig
Hudson's Bay Boy
"When you are 18 years of age and you are off on an adventure like that you don't see people as any different from yourself really and I have always lived that way."

He ended up marrying an Inuit woman and they have five children - well aware of their Scottish roots.

"All of them have been over in recent years and visited the old homestead down in the Borders," he said.

John Todd, originally from St Andrews, left in search of employment.

"In 1965/66 there was big mass outward migration to Australia or Canada and I had seen an advert in the Dundee Courier saying 'Adventure in the north for young men'," he said.

He proved to be a hugely successful businessman and also pursued a career in politics and rose to the post of finance minister in the North West Territories legislature.

It was about the same time that Jim Deyell left Shetland and ended up working for the Hudson's Bay Company and its successor, The North West Bay Company, until he retired three years ago.

The Scots who went to the Arctic were originally employed in the fur trade
He ran general stores in outposts across the area but his duties were often much wider than any ordinary shopkeeper.

They included delivering four babies, pulling teeth and giving rabies injections.

Another Bay Boy was Neil Greig who left Edinburgh for a remote community on the edge of the Arctic Circle as a teenager in 1967.

"I was wearing a Scottish tweed jacket, a white rain coat and it was about -17C on the ice - so I wasn't exactly dressed for it," he recalls.

However, he adapted quickly and went on to manage a fish processing plant and help set up airlines in the area.

One of the last Scots to leave for the Arctic was Donald Mearns from Aberdeenshire.

With no work on the family farm he set off in 1981 and also settled quickly and married a local woman and started a family.

He also maintains some strong Scottish traditions in the area by playing the bagpipes at weddings across the Arctic and an annual Burns Supper.

These pioneering men recently came together for a hunting trip reunion to recall their adventures.

And it is surely a story a little more remarkable than your average relocation tale.

The Hudson's Bay Boys is on BBC2 Scotland at 21:00 on 30 November.

Belfast Telegraph Titanic centenary calendar 2012

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:20:08 +0000

Belfast Telegraph Titanic centenary calendar 2012
Worldwide shipping - order today!
Tuesday, 22 November 2011

The Belfast Telegraph 2012 calendar commemorates the centenary of the launch of RMS Titanic from Belfast in 1912.

Click here to order your calendar
We have brought together a collection of 12 iconic photos of the legendary ship, following the construction of Titanic at Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast through to arrival in Southampton prior to her fatal maiden voyage. Also included are photos of the men who worked on the ship and how Belfast looked at the time.

The calendar makes a excellent souvenir for the 100th anniversary of Titanic's launch or a great gift for family and friends overseas. It will be supplied with a cardboard envelope so that you can post on to friends and family.

Costs include postage & packaging:

UK £8.00

Europe (including ROI) £8.60

Rest of World £10.50

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/nostalgia/belfast-telegraph-titanic-centenary-calendar-2012-16081014.html#ixzz1eYPDd1E6

New book reveals what Orange Order really thinks

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:18:02 +0000

New book reveals what Orange Order really thinks
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/new_book_reveals_what_orange_order_really_thinks_1_3267060

Published on Monday 21 November 2011 08:34

ORANGE Order members’ private views on the peace process, Parades Commission and even abortion have all been laid bare in a new book written with the institution’s full cooperation.

In the first-ever survey of what really makes the Brethren tick, ‘Loyal To the Core?: Orangeism and Britishness in Northern Ireland’ is written based entirely on the inner thoughts of both the ordinary members and office holders.

Although the book reinforces many stereotypes, it also provides a valuable insight into an organisation with a membership – 40,000 – numerically greater than all of the main political parties in Northern Ireland combined.

Among the main issues dividing the Brethren are abortion and parading restrictions.

The candid survey responses – with 1,500 members sampled in total – revealed that less than 60 per cent of Brethren felt they had the right to march anywhere in Northern Ireland without restrictions. The book’s authors described the figure of 58 per cent as “not overwhelming”.

Perhaps surprisingly, almost one-in-five lodge members said they were opposed to marches going where the local residents were unsupportive.

However, despite showing signs of conciliatory thinking on many issues, some opinions expressed will undoubtedly be seized upon by the Order’s critics.

Almost two-thirds agreed with the contention that “most Roman Catholics are IRA sympathisers” with only 26 per cent disagreeing, while nine in every ten members said that, in general, Protestants are being discriminated against in 21st century Northern Ireland.

Tampering with tradition is always likely to cause heated debate within lodge circles and attempts to broaden the appeal of the Order’s celebrations through the Orangefest initiative have proved particularly divisive.

Despite Grand Lodge enthusiasm, a small number of lodges have refused to acknowledge Orangefest.

One member interviewed by the authors said he supported the “sensible aim” of Orangefest but added: “We have to remember that we have a certain basic understanding of what the Orange institution is and what it’s about.

“We can’t lose that, simply to be cavorting about, trying to entertain the public. We’re not here to entertain the public, at least I’m not.”

In conclusion, the authors contend that the Orange Order will “surely be redundant without a significant religious role” and talk of the Order’s internal debate over the rise of the “political Protestant” at the expense of the “religious Protestant”.

The authors note: “The challenge for the remainder of the 21st century will be to make either type of membership relevant.”

The book also highlights the “extraordinarily difficult” issue of how to change the mindset of critics who perceive the Orange Order as a predominantly anti-Catholic organisation “rather than view it as a benign, charitable, Christian and cultural institution which merely opposes doctrinal aspects of the Roman Catholic Church”.

Loyal to the Core? is published by the Irish Academic Press and is available from booksellers priced £14.99.

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New book charts the history of Coleraine Congregational Church

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:50:52 +0000

New book charts the history of Coleraine Congregational Church
http://www.colerainetimes.co.uk/news/local/new_book_charts_the_history_of_coleraine_congregational_church_1_3252219

Published on Wednesday 16 November 2011 12:15

COLERAINE Congregational Church is currently celebrating its 175th anniversary.

To mark the milestone, a history of the church has just been released, compiled by the current minister, Rev Philip Campbell.

Entitled “Independent - But Never Alone’ can be obtained for a minimum donation of £3 by contacting the church or Rev Campbell on 028 7035 2885.

Profits will go the SOON ministeries who send evangelistic newspapers to West Africa, India and Europe.

Left - GREAT READ...Rev Philip Campbell accompanied by his wife, Mrs Catherine Campbell, holds a copy of his book ‘Independent - But Never Alone’. CR46-120s

BBC iPlayer Spotlight: Examining the controversy surrounding an Orange Order complaint against UUP leader

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:15:59 +0000

BBC iPlayer Spotlight: Examining the controversy surrounding an Orange Order complaint against UUP leader attending mass http://goo.gl/i2jRc

Documentary marks anniversary of Aaron McCormick's death

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:50:00 +0000

You can watch this on the BBC iPlayer at:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01772j0/Remembering_Aaron/

12 November 2011 Last updated at 09:46
Documentary marks anniversary of Aaron McCormick's death
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-15700981

Aaron's parents, Lesley and Margaret McCormick
Ranger Aaron McCormick was killed in Afghanistan a year ago when he was only 22 years old.

A new BBC Northern Ireland documentary, Remembering Aaron, which will be shown on Remembrance Sunday, will mark the anniversary of his death.

It tells how the private grief of a family for a son connects them with the grief of a town in remembrance of this young soldier and of those killed across different wars and generations.

Aaron, from Macosquin, County Londonderry, serving with First Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment, was killed in Helmand, on Remembrance Sunday, 2010.

In the 90-minute documentary, the soldier's parents, Margaret and Lesley, his girlfriend Becky, and his brother and sisters tell of their own intimate memories of Aaron.

Continue reading the main story
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I wanted to find out who Aaron actually was and to get to know his family to try to understand what they went through, and continue to go through. ”

Henry Singer
Director of Rembering Aaron
They also recall the last time they saw him alive, how they got news of his death and how they now live with his memory.

The documentary also focuses on the public grief of an English town, Wootton Bassett, and how the people there reached out to the McCormick family and brought them together in their shared remembrance.

For more than four years, news bulletins have beamed images across the world of the repatriation of fallen soldiers through its main street and the dignified respect shown by the townspeople.

However, the images could not tell viewers that many of those faces in the crowd were also grieving for loved ones lost in war.

Director Henry Singer explained how the film came about.

Understanding
"I filmed the repatriation of Ranger Aaron McCormick back in November 2010," he said.

"After doing that, I realised I wanted to find out who Aaron actually was and to get to know his family to try to understand what they went through, and continue to go through.

"They are a remarkable family."

In Remembering Aaron, Mr Singer gives viewers the opportunity to get to know one of those repatriated to ensure that this particular soldier's story is told and not forgotten.

In doing so, that story - of a life, a family and friends - could be a reflection of the lives of all those other dead troops who passed through the town.

The documentary explores how the McCormick family's grief mirrors that felt by some of those who stand in respect on Wootton Bassett's main street and the connection between those who have lost loved ones in war.

While they may come from different generations, different wars in different parts of the world, their stories of grief and remembrance unite them.

Remembering Aaron is on BBC Two Northern Ireland on Remembrance Sunday, 13 November at 9pm.

‘Books of Honour’ commemorate fallen

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:18:33 +0000

‘Books of Honour’ commemorate fallen
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/books_of_honour_commemorate_fallen_1_3231222

Published on Thursday 10 November 2011 08:16

AN online archive of the Great War dead from both the North Down and Ards council areas has been collated into book form by a local historian.

Bangor man Barry Niblock has worked tirelessly on the project which provides biographical details and photographs of soldiers, seamen, airmen and nurses who died on active service between 1914 and 1918.

Mr Niblock describes his work as a “labour of love” and said it is intended as a fitting tribute to those who died.

“Among the examples of how cruelly the war devastated families is the story of John, James and Samuel Donaldson — three brothers from Comber who went over the top on the first day of the Somme offensive and died side-by-side along with thousands of other young men,” he said.

The author of the two separate books — produced following an overwhelming response to his News Letter appeal for information last year — says the names on traditional war memorials only tell part of a very important story.

“For me, when you look at lists of the dead on war memorials it’s very poignant, and it does tell you about the large numbers of men that died, but what it doesn’t do is tell you about the personal tragedy behind the name,” he said.

“The chap who made the supreme sacrifice died, but then it had a tragic impact on families as well, so I’ve also tried to bring the story of those tragedies out.”

Mr Niblock said the tragic story of the Donaldson brothers was, unfortunately, not unique.

“Three Doggart brothers from Holywood were also killed during the war, one of them falling on the first of July at the Somme in 1916 along with the three Donaldsons.

“The second one was killed on August 16, 1917 and the third Doggart brother was killed on December 22, 1917.

“While the Donaldson family was decimated in one day, the Doggart family was equally decimated, bit by bit, over a period of 18 months.”

The books are designed with research in mind and include, where the information is available, photographs and burial place details.

Both books are being launched at the Somme Heritage Centre near Newtownards tomorrow in the presence of a large number of relatives of the service personnel featured in the book.

Initially available from the respective council offices and local museums, the North Down book of honour (440 pages) is priced £12.99 and the Ards book (770 pages) £14.99.

The author will also be signing copies of the books all day Saturday at the Bloomfield shopping centre in Bangor.

Inspirational tale of hero Neil and his amazing dogs

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:11:11 +0000

Inspirational tale of hero Neil and his amazing dogs
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/lifestyle/features/inspirational_tale_of_hero_neil_and_his_amazing_dogs_1_3180851
Neil Powell with two of his dogs Flo and Lucky

Published on Wednesday 26 October 2011 09:00

Dog lovers all over the province should prepare to shed a tear or two when they open the pages of a compelling new book about one man and his dogs. Author of Search Dogs and Me Neil Powell talks to LAURA MURPHY about the particular breed of bravery displayed by the animals who have come to be his best friend

AMIDST the wreckage, and the overpowering stench of jet fuel, it was, bizarrely, the presence of a red, size six, high-heeled shoe, dug out and carried to Neil Powell by his faithful rescue dog Pepper, that brought home to him the extent of the human carnage and utter tragedy around him.

“I wondered what the young lady looked like?” he recalls in his book, Search Dogs and Me.

“Had she suffered much before she died? Did she have a family at home waiting anxiously for news that she had somehow miraculously survived? I stood stock still for ages....until eventually Pepper nudged me, his shining brown eyes seeming to say, Come on Dad. Let’s get on with it.’

“He was right of course - it was time to get a grip and put thoughts like that firmly behind the large steel shutter I had learned to create in my mind.”

It was Christmas 1988, and Neil, together with two fellow dog handlers from Northern Ireland, had been sent, as part of the Search and Rescue Dog Association (Ireland North), to Lockerbie in Scotland, where they spend four days hunting for bodies and pieces of wreckage, after the doomed Pan Am flight 103 was blown to pieces by a terrorist bomb en route to the USA, killing 270 people on board and on the ground below.

Indeed, it was this time spent at the Scottish town that Neil describes as a “watershed” in his dog handling career: “All of a sudden you grow up from being somebody who tiddles around the mountains...but you are not really confronted with the reality of the total destruction of a human body in the way we were at Lockerbie. From that point of view it was a ‘before’ and ‘after’.”

His harrowing experience at Lockerbie is just one of many which are recounted in his new book, Search Dogs and Me, released last month.

Born in Co Cork and now living at the foothills of the Mourne mountains in Newcastle, Neil trained Ireland’s first mountain rescue dog in the early 1970s, and since then has spent 40 years working with dogs in mountain search and rescue, drowned victim recovery, collapsed structure searching, and drug detection.

It is a role that has taken him from the west of Ireland and the Lake District to more far flung regions in Turkey and Algeria; he and his dogs, as part of various rescue operations, travelled to the industrialised town of Izmit in western Turkey in August 1999, when it was hit by an earthquake, and to the city of Bolu just three months later when this area was also impacted. During this second operation, one of Neil’s most trusty canines, golden retriever Dylan, located two people buried alive in the rubble. In May 2003, the call to help at a national disaster came again, when an earthquake struck an area just west of the Algerian capital of Algiers.

But it is only now that Neil, who is married to Kate and has two daughters, Clair and Emma, decided to put pen to paper and record his gripping, touching - and at times death-defying - experiences.

Why?

“It was because I felt that my wee dogs deserved that kind of recognition - and I needed their achievements to be more widely known than they were,” says the former science teacher - he spent his career in the classroom at St Mark’s High School in Warrenpoint.

“I feel that search dogs, generally speaking, work away for seven or eight years of their lives, and nobody knows what they do or how much of the time they save people.

“It was an opportunity to honour them, really - that and the fact that my wife and two daughters kept badgering me to do it!”

And he admits: “I cried my eyes out a few times writing certain parts of it and then I laughed my head off at other times.”

Neil moved from his native Cobh - a seaport town on the south coast of Co Cork - to Rathcoole in Newtownabbey with his family when he was nine years old.

He joined the Mourne mountain rescue team in 1973, having already been a keen mountaineer, enjoying weekend hikes up the Mournes with teaching colleagues.

At that stage, Neil says the team was “very small scale”, and in his book he describes the moment he leapt on the idea of including dogs in the rescue operations: “After one particularly hard night’s searching, a flash of inspiration hit me. Surely life would be much easier if I could train a dog to help with the search work....after all, a dog could fly over the ground, way faster than any of us. And what about his fantastic sense of smell? Darkness and poor visibility would no longer be a problem - all we would have to do would be to follow the dog.”

Kim the German shepherd was the first dog Neil took on to train - with some initial help from RUC dog handler Joe Boyd, and fine tuning from renowned mountaineer Hamish MacInnes.

In terms of actually teaching the animal how to locate missing people he explains: “It was essentially a game of hide and seek. You teach the dog that when he finds his missing person, they will play with him.

“The person you are using to be the ‘body’ will have the dog’s toy, and we’ll toss it from hand to hand to get the dog really agitated.

“Then the dog hears the words ‘find them’, and he runs out to find this character who has nicked his ball. Then the guy will play with him.

“You just extend that over longer periods and then you reach the stage where the dog doesn’t see the person going out, but he already knows now that ‘find them’ means go and look for this person.”

I cannot help but want to press Neil for more of his memories about Lockerbie - but he admits he is reluctant to go down that path, having found that opening up about the experience once more has “dredged up memories that I thought I had buried”.

He describes it as having been “a very steep learning curve because, after that I had to deal with bombs and earthquakes.”

Neil had travelled over to Lockerbie with Andrew Mitchell and Vicky Cameron from Bushmills, and their dogs Duffy and Megan. The trio were transported across by RAF helicopter on Boxing Day 1988, and “as soon as we arrived we set to work”.

He recalls: “There were loads of bodies scattered for miles around, and I was sent to the crater in the middle with a wee dog called Pepper.

“Pepper was just a mountain rescue dog and he had no idea about bodies - but because of the carnage that had happened, it wasn’t too difficult to train him on the spot.

“He switched onto it really, really quickly.”

Needless to say, Pepper also suffered from the effects of what he saw on those four horrific days, and, like his master, experienced the “difficulty of being suddenly confronted with the death of somebody in a really violent and horrible way”.

Neil remembers Pepper discovering “an arm sticking out of a wall where the whole thing had collapsed on this person.”

He says: “He stared at that, looked at me and walked on, and you could see in his whole body language that he was totally shocked by what he was finding.”

More than 10 years on, and Neil still devotes much of his free time to working with his beloved dogs.

He and wife Kate recently moved to a house big enough for their eight furry friends - CJ, the German shepherd, Milo the collie, Fern, a springer-cocker spaniel cross, bloodhound Paddy, labradors Charco, Sammy and Brook, and Portuguese Waterdog Molly.

Neil says he will never forget the dogs no longer with him who were such faithful members of his family and his team; in Search Dogs and Me, he pays particular tribute to two golden retriever brothers, Dylan and Cracker, who won awards and national recognition for their heroic searching skills.

Sadly, they both died last year at the age of 17, says Neil, adding that even though his bones were literally broken with cancer, Cracker still wanted to go out walking with his master.

A year later, Dylan passed away as well.

“I’ve had them both individually cremated in caskets and they never leave me,” says Neil.

He says of the loss of all the dogs he has owned: “It’s just like losing a member of the family to me. All my family are like that. You just invest so much psychological energy in them. They are so much a part of our lives that when they go, there’s just a huge empty space that is very hard to fill.”

n Search Dogs and Me, priced £11.99, is available in the News Letter bookshop (Metro Building, 6-9 Donegall Square South, Belfast).

Irish Poppy

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:15:59 +0000

http://rbl-limerick.webs.com/

Remembering the Fallen - Caring for the Living

The Royal British Legion Republic of Ireland has approved the striking of a special poppy badge to honour and commemorate the memory of all the men and women from across the Island of Ireland who gave their lives in service with British or Allied Forces.

This high quality enamel lapel pin seeks to present an evocative emblem of Irish Remembrance that draws particular attention to the sacrifice of the people of this island in both World Wars. The simple, attractive and distinctively Irish iconography will also allow the wearer to express their Irish identity, origin or decent wherever they may be.

It is also hoped that this badge will promote greater public awareness of the legitimacy of the Remembrance Poppy within an Irish context; particularly during this prelude to the centenary commemorations for the Great War in which so many men from all corners of Ireland served and died together.

PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY AND SUPPORT

THIS WORTHY ALL-IRELAND PROJECT.

Donation €2.50 + €1.50 p&p

(p+p for up to 25 badges)

DOWNLOAD OUR ORDER FORM

Interest in UDR leads to Greenfinches book reprint

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:05:16 +0000

Interest in UDR leads to Greenfinches book reprint
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/interest_in_udr_leads_to_greenfinches_book_reprint_1_3168147

2/6/11 Mandatory Credit Darren Kidd/Presseye.com Former Greenfinch, Barbara Wilson.

Published on Thursday 20 October 2011 08:22

RENEWED interest in the legacy of the Ulster Defence Regiment has led to the reprinting of a book about the regiment’s female soldiers.

Last year former warrant officer Barbara Wilson wrote the book — A Quiet Courage: The Story of a UDR Greenfinch — based on her experiences during 12 years in the regiment.

Now, largely due to the renewed interest in the regiment following the campaign to have a tribute statue erected in Lisburn’s Market Square, Barbara has published a second edition of her book.

Hundreds of women volunteered for service and they soon became a familiar sight on patrol with their male counterparts.

Barbara, who would go on to serve a further 11 years after the UDR was amalgamated into the Royal Irish Regiment, said the first run of the book had quickly sold out within a few months.

“The original foreword by (Lagan Valley MP) Jeffrey Donaldson had mentioned how plans for the statue were progressing and that has now been updated,” Barbara said.

Copies of the book are available from the Royal Irish Fusiliers Museum, Armagh; the PRI Shop Holywood and the DUP office in Lisburn on 92668378, or by emailing barbara-wilson1@hotmail.co.uk. Copies cost £8 (or £10 including p&p).

Gaddafi donated to Irish terror groups before going into hiding

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:17:39 +0000

Gaddafi donated to Irish terror groups before going into hiding
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/gaddafi-donated-to-irish-terror-groups-before-going-into-hiding-2886890.html
By sean rayment
Sunday September 25 2011
deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi resumed his funding of republican terror groups shortly before he was forced into hiding by Nato bombing raids, it has been claimed.

A Libyan government courier flew into London earlier this year with $2m (€1.48m) in cash during a stopover while en route to the republic, a documentary to be screened on Monday will say.

The cash was said to be on its way to a businessman, believed to be a supporter of one of the dissident republican terror groups responsible for attacks against members of the PSNI.

According to Exposure, a new ITV documentary series, Gaddafi, who sent shiploads of weapons to the IRA in the Seventies, wants to exploit unrest in the North as a means of attacking Britain for supporting the overthrowing of his regime.

A source at the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, told the programme's producers that in June -- at a time when Gaddafi's forces were suffering regular Nato bombing raids, and half of his country was in the hands of rebels -- a Libyan courier flew into London in June carrying a heavy suitcase, inside of which were banknotes wrapped in plastic. It had been packed in Malta, the Mediterranean island where many of Gaddafi's deals were planned.

After arriving in London, the courier allegedly "went to ground" in a property owned by the Gaddafi family in Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge, located behind the Harrods department store.

An MI6 official told the programme: "Security forces fear that the dissidents are growing and gaining support -- and that new cash from Gaddafi would help them restock with more weapons."

The first Libyan arms shipments to the IRA occurred around 1972, following visits by Joe Cahill, the provisional's former Chief of Staff.

The supplies included hundreds of rocket-propelled grenades, automatic rifles, sniper rifles, explosives and heavy machine guns.

Several arms shipments were seized by the Irish Navy. They included the Claudia, stopped off Helvick Head, Waterford, with five tonnes of weapons on board.

The MV Eksund was seized by the French Navy near the Bay of Biscay with 120 tonnes of weapons in its hold, including rocket launchers, Semtex explosives and nearly a million rounds of ammunition.

Although contact between Irish republicans and the Libyan government was broken off in 1976, it was re-established after the US Air Force bombed Tripoli in 1986. Estimates suggest that enough weaponry was sent to the IRA to equip 1,500 terrorists.

The programme has also obtained a copy of a video purporting to show a group of dissident republicans training with AK47 automatic rifles and pistols in the Irish countryside. Dr John Horgan, a terrorist expert who has spent the last two years studying dissident republicans, told the programme that he believed the groups were recruiting young people as well as drawing on the experience of IRA veterans.

He says that his research shows that many dissidents used to belong to the IRA, and adds: "Dissidents look for electricians, they look for people with military experience, they look for people with some experience for weaponry, for example. They certainly have gone a long way, the violent groups, in reaching out to those with connections in the organised crime world to try to procure sophisticated weaponry."

During his decades in power, Gaddafi funded terrorist groups across the world, including the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines, and the Japanese Red Army.

'Exposure' will be screened on ITV1 tomorrow at 10.30pm

- sean rayment

‘Deaf Stories from the Troubles’

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:22:29 +0000

‘Deaf Stories from the Troubles’
http://www.derryjournal.com/community/deaf_stories_from_the_troubles_1_3086272

Published on Friday 23 September 2011 13:40

A powerful new DVD telling the stories of the Troubles as experienced by deaf people has been launched.

“Deaf Stories of The Troubles: Storytelling & Dialogue” was created by the Towards Healing and Understanding (TUH) Project, based at the Junction, in association with Dungiven based charity, Hands That Talk, which provides a wide variety of support services and learning programs to the deaf community throughout Derry and Tyrone.

Over the past year, the two groups developed a solid working relationship, which led to the DVD involving seven people from the deaf community who bravely shared their stories and memories of growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

On Tuesday it was screened at the Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre in Limavady where it was described as having “broken a barrier”.

The DVD includes a variety of experiences, including stories about stops at army and police checkpoints. One participant recalls going home on the bus and being on the Craigavon Bridge in Derry when soldiers boarded the bus. On his own and sitting at the back of the bus, viewers hear how the man signed to a soldier who found his hearing aid. The soldier doesn’t believe him and the situation lasts for several minutes. He recalls how he felt responsible for holding up the bus, adding: “It was awful.””

Another participant recalls being stopped by police and questioned and the negative affect it had on her.

Viewers also hear participants’’ memories and emotions of historic incidents such as the Droppin’ Well bombing and the funeral of hunger striker Kevin Lynch from Dungiven.

Participant James McKernan was “really proud”” to be involved in the project and, “although it took a while to “draw it out of us,” the dialogue had “broken a barrier”.

“I knew all these people and I wasn’t expecting all that came out and it came from the heart,”” he conveyed to those at Tuesday’s launch. “It’s a fantastic project and it’s fantastic to be out and about. It is opportunities like that that make us feel positive about the future.”

TUH training manager Eamonn Baker said with the help of core staff at Hands That Talk, Denise McConnell-Dillon and Pauline Doherty: “We recruited a small group of deaf people who agreed to speak of their unique experience of the Troubles. The challenge was to work in respectful, ethical ways and actively support these participants to share their Troubles stories. The privilege arose from being in the room when the participants shared their stories. The success of this work develops from participants finding ways towards greater mutual understanding and healing.”

Denise McConnell-Dillon said the DVD was a major development for the deaf community which has been isolated in telling their stories of the Troubles. She said it was a proud day and encouraged people to share the experience.

Maureen Hetherington, manager at the Junction said the launch of the DVD gave space, time and an outlet for deaf people to share what their experience has been of the Troubles.

“We are both pleased and moved we had this opportunity to be involved with the deaf community and Hands That Talk,”” she added.

Limavady Mayor, Sinn Fein councilor Sean McGlinchey said he was humbled by the work groups such as Hands That Talk undertake. He praised the project for giving the deaf community the opportunity to tell their stories.

“I thank you for your work and dedication and long may it continue,”” he said.

SDLP councillor Michael Coyle said, for too long, like most people he was wrapped up in his own world and it was good to hear the deaf community express their feelings.

“”It is simple and powerful,”” he said of the DVD, adding he would be taking it to Limavady Borough Council to encourage other councilors to view.

The participants of the DVD featured Eamon and Pauline Doherty, Mandy McKay, James McKernan, Terence McCullough, Eddie McElhinney and Siobhan McKeever.

For information contact Towards Understanding and Healing at 71 267519 or email tuh@thejunction-ni-org or Denise McConnell Dillon at hands That Talk on 777 24776 or email denise@handsthattalk.co.uk

See photos on Page 15

The Europa Hotel – Bombs, Bullets and Business As Usual

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:35:27 +0000

BBC iPlayer - The Europa Hotel - Bombs, Bullets and Business as Usual - http://t.co/zoMygZNJ
the IRA blatantly targetting businessmen and businesses to undermine Northern Ireland - and Peter Kings says the IRA never targetted civilians???

The Irish Times - Monday, September 19, 2011
An Irishwoman's Diary
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2011/0919/1224304354516.html

The aftermath of an explosion at the Europa hotel in Belfast in 1972. Each time the hotel picked itself up and reopened.
RENAGH HOLOHAN

THE CITY of Belfast has been changed out of all recognition by 30 years of bombings and by the reconstruction that followed. With a motorway running through its centre and the so-called peace walls dividing its inner city, to me, it has lost its heart and its character.

The majestic railway station on Great Victoria Street that delivered me from Dublin to Belfast, first with my mother when we came up shopping in the 1960s, and later as a reporter for this newspaper, is gone. It has been replaced by a soulless terminal on the eastern perimeter which requires a long walk or a bus to the city centre.

Many of the hotels have also vanished, most notably the Grand Central on Royal Avenue and the International behind City Hall, where I was in residence for several weeks at the end of 1970. But the Europa Hotel, which was built the next year, lives on and is celebrating its 40th birthday this month.

The Europa is so proud of its reputation in its early years as the most bombed hotel in the world that it is delighted with the television documentary on its dramatic story which is due to be broadcast on BBC1 on September 26th. The Hastings Group hosted the premiere in the hotel earlier this month and yours truly, who has a very small scene, more a sentence really, was there along with others who lived through those times. The guests included journalists who frequented the hotel in the 1970s and 1980s and many of the staff who worked there. Others who hung out at the hotel – politicians, paramilitaries and various shady characters – have since moved on and did not feature. In the days before mobile phones and the internet, the Europa, and the bizarrely named Whip and Saddle Bar in particular, was the place to be if you were to be on top of events. Because it was the meeting place for all that happened in Belfast and because of its location on the border of West Belfast, it was an easy target.

Not only was publicity assured but every bomb that went off challenged the determination of the Northern Ireland administration to depict the North as a properly functioning entity.

The Europa Hotel – Bombs, Bullets and Business As Usual has been produced and directed by Richard Weller for Waddell Media. It opens with footage of the huge blasts that resulted from bombs planted by the IRA in the 1970s and 1980s. The sequence is terrifying to view but those of us who were there at the time had become so used to the bombs that we ceased to be amazed. The noise, the smoke, the shattering glass, the sudden darkness and the running people were all caught on camera and reproduced in the programme. What was amazing was that no one was killed and that each time the hotel, and its valiant staff, picked itself up and reopened for business often only a couple of hours after such massive destruction.

This reporter was caught in one such blast. Lunch in the Europa one day in March 1972 was interrupted by a waiter running through the first floor dining room shouting “no need to panic”. We knew the drill. We left with glasses in hand and stood across the street. My car was parked around the corner in Glengall Street and a British soldier allowed me through the barrier, as long as I was quick.

A couple of steps down the street the bomb went off. First there was a bang which seemed to shake the ground and buildings for some time. I was blown off my feet. Showers of glass and debris rained down and looking up I saw whole panes of glass come out and shatter in mid air. Glass and rubble fell on top of me. People screamed. The air went dark with smoke. I picked myself up, wandered round dazed for a while, refused an ambulance and got out my notebook. A couple of hours later my voice went and didn’t return until the next day.

These experiences were commonplace in Belfast in the 1970s. The journalists interviewed on Bombs, Bullets and Business As Usual , most of them now big names in Britain, have similar tales but they also speak of the adrenalin, the camaraderie, and the pranks. We worked hard and played hard. The Europa was part of our lives. The top floor was a nightclub where bunny girls known as the Penthouse Poppets held sway. Many turned up at the premiere to remember those times. The view over the city from its windows was spectacular, and still is.

The documentary pays homage to the manager at that time, Harper Brown, who kept the show on the road despite all the mayhem and who had a great regard for the journalists from the UK as opposed to those from Dublin. He saw the hotel through many years of destruction but retired in 1985, long before it played host to Bill Clinton, George Mitchell, John Major and nearly everyone of note who came to the city. Harper Brown died in 1989. While he would certainly have gloried in the presence of celebrities – he introduced the Poppets to give his hotel international glamour – his thoughts on the fact that one of the guests of honour at the premiere was the Sinn Féin lord mayor of Belfast, Niall Ó Donnghaile, who at 26 admitted he was far too young to have any knowledge of the goings-on of a pervious era, can only be imagined.

Shortly before I left Belfast in September 1973 to become London Editor of The Irish Times , our office actually moved into the Europa Hotel. We had a suite on the third or fourth floor where we set up our telephones, typewriters and telex machine.

The move was necessary after a massive car bomb destroyed our office in Lombard Street. Five of us were in the building when a suspect car was noticed parked in the middle of the road directly outside our first floor office. We rang the RUC. They said hold on. They thought they had evacuated the street. And so they had, but they didn’t know we were upstairs. They would ask the army (British) what to do. In the meantime, take shelter where you can. We fled to the back room, crouched under the table and brought the phones with us. It was eventually decided we should make a dash for it. We ran for our lives, down the stairs, past the car, and up the street where soldiers were urging us on. Ten minutes later the car blew up. It contained 150lbs of explosives. The street was destroyed and we moved to the Europa Hotel.

City offers backdrop for 'IRA Nazi' film

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:20:04 +0000

News Letter
www.newsletter.co.uk

City offers backdrop for 'IRA Nazi' film
BY SAM MCBRIDE

Political Correspondent Sam.mcbride@newsletter.co.uk

SWASTIKAS will be erected in Belfast in the coming days for the filming of a documentary about an IRA man who began fighting Britain, then fought fascism in Spain but ended up working as an adviser to the Nazis.

Frank Ryan, born in Limerick in 1902, was a teenager in the IRA. when Ireland was partitioned in 1921.

But a dramatic - and contradictory - life saw him travel to Spain in 1936 to fight against the fascist forces of Franco.

While in Spain, where he fought in the international battalions, the IRA man came to command the British battalion before having to return to Ireland with a serious injury in 1937.

He returned to Spain the following year, was captured and sentenced to death. However, Franco's government quietly released him to the German intelligence agency and he moved to Berlin in 1940.

A former editor of the Sinn Fein newspaper An Phoblacht, he began to advise the Nazis on Ireland and was involved in several attempts to use neutral Eire for Nazi purposes.

However, he died in Dresden the year before the war ended.

Now a film about the enigmatic and controversial IRA figure's life is being made, with filming to take place in Belfast in coming days.

The documentary, which is receiving funding from the Irish Language Broadcasting Find of NI Screen, will also be shot in Armagh, Dublin and France.

Professor Des Bell, from Queen's University, is directing the film, which is based on a book by another Queen's academic, Dr Fearghal McGarry

Professor Bell said: "For the second time in a year Nazi insignia will fly over Belfast as a Queen's University film crew stages a reconstruction of wartime Berlin on campus.

"Last year the BBC shot Christopher and his Friends, using the City Hall as a stand-in for Berlin. Now the university's Whitla Hall takes on this filmic role.

"Belfast is an unusual choice of stand-in for wartime Berlin but as the makers of Christopher and his Friends have shown, with the right attention to design and period detail, Belfast with its fine mix of 1940s buildings in neo-classical style can create a believable picture of Berlin of the time.

"So if you spot a swastika-draped building in the university in the coming days don't panic. It's not a neo-Nazi rally of disaffected students but a film crew hard at work on an educational project."

Headcam footage of bomb being defused

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:38:50 +0000

Headcam footage of bomb being defused

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13 September 2011 Last updated at 06:15
For the first time, the Ministry of Defence has allowed the work of specialist bomb disposal teams in Afghanistan to be shown in a new BBC One documentary, The Bomb Squad.

Telling the story of the counter-IED (improvised explosive device) team based in Helmand, the two-part series includes headcam footage filmed by both the "searchers", who find the devices, and by the bomb disposal operators themselves.

In this clip Rod, a high-threat IED disposal operator, and his team deal with a device that has been discovered by some of the searchers.

The first episode of The Bomb Squad will be on BBC One on 13 September 2011 at 22:35 except in Scotland and Wales.

RELIVING THE TRAGIC STORY OF A FORGOTTEN EXODUS

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 01:22:45 +0000

RELIVING THE TRAGIC STORY OF A FORGOTTEN EXODUS
Newsletter Friday, 2, 2011
Joanne Savage (Pages 14 - 15 News Feature)
A stage play by Jonathan Burgess, launched today in book format at the Londonderry Sentinel offices, gives voice to Protestants who fled the West Bank of the River Foyle following the outbreak of the Troubles. The playwright tells Joanne Savage why it's important the Protestant experience of displacement isnt forgotten.

BETWEEN 1969 and 1973, the early years or the Troubles proper, many Protestants fled the west bank of the River Foyle to escape sectarian tensions. Before 1969 there were around 16,000 Protestants living in this area of Londonderry; today that number stands at below 500.

Jonathan Burgess has written a book launched today and just published by Causeway Press based around the recollections of Protestants who fled the west bank of the Foyle during this turbulent era, examining the reasons for their departure how and why they felt they had to flee.

The Exodus is an attempt, says Burgess, to "give representation to Protestant experiences in Londonderry", something the playwright sees as having been sidelined by the historical and political focus on" the injustices perpetrated against the Catholic-nationalist community throughout the-conflict, Bloody Sunday, with justification, will forever be the event that most strongly characterised troubled Londonderry: the actions of a handful of Parachute Regiment soldiers leaving 13 unarmed civil rights marchers dead will most likely remain the most poignant national outrage associated with this locale.

But 1972 impacted on the Protestant community too, heightening sectarian tensions within and without Derry's walls.
For one thing, a dramatic rise in IRA-recruitment and activity caused many to leave their Londonderry homes in fear.
"Protestants left this part of Londonderry for many reasons. Some were intimidated and many were frightened and had good reason to be," says Jonathan, "There are few Protestants here who do not have an exodus story. We're talking about a significant legacy of hurt.

"The Protestant working class have never been given a voice through theatre and this
project hopes to change that."
The impetus to create a work based on a narrative of Protestant displacement is rooted in Burgess's family background. He was three weeks old when, in 1972, his family left their Abercorn Road home on west bank of the Foyle. The family decided to move in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday when, one Sunday afternoon, a British soldier was shot dead outside their front door. "

"My father, Derry Burgess, decided that his son would not. be brought up in an area of such volatility where things like that could happen."

Some might feel that to focus on Protestant displacement like this is to approach Ulster's traumatic past with a jaundiced, sectarian lens. Why focus on the experiences of one side of the "community? Isn't unity better' promoted by art that explores the common experience and the shared ground? Why see only one side? .

After all, tens of thousands of Catholics were also forced to leave their homes throughout the province, burned or intimidated out of once familiar, peaceable streets. Uprooting like this was common to the orange and the green.
The fact that Northern ireland is in places still clearly and tribally divided into areas of unionist-loyalist and nationalist-republican allegiance is simply a depressing fact of our post-conflict society, a lamentable and regrettable hangover from the Troubles, a geographic consequence of bigotry, violence and fear.

But Burgess, who runs theatre company 'Blue Eagle Productions, believes that Protestant experiences of the Troubles have received little coverage or treatment in the arts and this, he insists, is something that ought to be rectified if we are to move towards a thoroughly equal Ulster, a province that will value the orange and the green equally.
The imbalance in the political colouring of the arts, as Burgess and others perceive it, shows a repeated worrying over Irish nationalist preoccupations. "I feel, and I'm not alone in feeling, that Protestant stories have been marginalised or overlooked," says Burgess. "I want to do my bit to rectify this."

To accompany the launch of the project last November, when Burgess was asking for people to come forward and share their experiences of displacement in Londonderry to inspire him in writing his work, he posed beside a mural for a photograph. The mural was simple, white and defiant text stood boldly against a black background. It read: "Londonderry west bank loyalists still under siege", followed by a final and firm "No surrender". It was a combative choice, provocative and one might say retrogressive. It's tone is one most of us would like to move on from in order to embrace more sanguine notions of inclusivity and cross-community co-operation.

Do Protestants in Londonderry still feel 'under siege' from the nationalist majority? And is it helpful to brood again and again over our troubled past, inspecting the old wounds and grievances with such intensity that a future free of ancient prejudices becomes ever more elusive, if not impossible? "Protestants here can still feel resentful, excluded and marginalised," insists Jonathan, "The mindset among many is that though the physical dimension of being under siege has gone, they feel under siege in terms of the mentality that is most dominant. "I feel that working through these old wounds is part of a healing process and that documenting our heritage will ultimately allow us to move forwards."

Quote

The Exodus by Jonathan Burgess is published by Causeway Press. The play opens at the Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen on September 10. Visit www.ardhowentheatre. com or call the box office on (028) 6323233.

Quote

AUTHOR Jonathan Burgess conducted many interviews before writing The Exodus. Here is a series of extracts from those interviews. The full transcripts are printed in the book.

Quote

There would have been the odd altercation between boys on the estate and factory boys. The army and the 'police would have lined the front of the estate. Funny enough, the factory boys never would have ventured into the estate. At night there was maybe ten or twelve boys went into one of the factories for like shift work. At times they would have come' through the estate. Other times they wouldn't have, but there would have been nothing said, coming through, but if anything started, we had nowhere to .go; so we were always stuck in the green in the middle of the estate, I saw altercations at times there.

There was more intimidation, or fear ye know, people's hearts were changing like, as well, sort of scary too ye know because you think of like Bosnia, ye know, ethnic cleansing, but this wasn't ethnic cleansing like Bosnia, this was more like a sort of psychology. Intimidation by words and all, ye know, words, through a process of time. I remember on bloody Sunday and I was standing at the top of the street at the shops and ye automatically came back down the street a bit because the shots were coming from the left hand side. You thought they would be shooting up the street again, so I stood and then somebody said, "The army's shot people in the Bogside" and all this. And then there was more stories coming, so they reinforced the barricades because we knew that that night the Fountain would be attacked again. And whenever we heard what had happened, the whole place was in uproar. Nobody celebrated in the Fountain. Nobody was going, "That's great", or "That's whatever".

* The IRA campaign originally was between them and the British Army, but as time progressed they began bombing businesses on the west bank. Along the Strand Road, Thompson Edwards Motor Works, Craig's Engineering, Heaton's Bakery, Hill's Department Store, Warwick's paint shop, Cloakie's Glassworks, Northern Ireland Electricity. All the way up the Strand Road was targeted. They then started targeting Protestant civilians, under the guise of attacking business men and it became increasingly obvious that anybody who was a Protestant living on the west bank, it wasn't a good place to bring up your family, so a lot of people left.

The biggest problem for anybody living on the west bank of the Foyle and one of the main reasons for the exodus was that anybody with teenagers, especially sons, they could not let those sons out and at night and walk freely around the streets. They couldn't go to the Boys Brigade, they couldn't go to the youth club, they couldn't go to the scouts, they couldn't go anywhere because they would have been assaulted.

When I was much older, my parents told me that there were rumours in the street that a man with a gun was intimidating Protestants on the estate. One day my mother had been visiting a neighbour at the end of the street and was walking back home when she heard footsteps behind her and noticed a man running up towards her. Bearing this rumour in mind she ran up to the front door and banged on the door to be let in. The man followed her up to the door but then revealed he lived down the road and only wanted to warn her of the risk.

For a time after that, my Dad kept a hammer near his bed in case of any trouble! When we moved to Lisnagelvin to a new housing development, many of our old neighbours became our new neighbours. However, this time the demographics were different with 95% of the area Protestant. Up to the age of eight, I had Catholic and Protestant friends. From the age of eight, I had only Protestant friends: As a teenager, the troubles had coloured my attitudes to the "other side".

Five people I knew to speak to were murdered by the IRA on different occasions, one of the was a former policeman neighbour of ours in Belmont, shot dead as he left church with his children, who we used to play with in Belmont. Things were now so different to when we could live together in Belmont without mistrust. There was one occasion when we (a group of teenage friends) intimidated a Catholic family nearby by burning a tricolour outside their house. We still went to school, church and Boys Brigade on the west bank, but no longer to visit friends or relatives as they had all moved to the east bank.

We came out of there in '77 just after April '77. My father was UDR and he was shot dead outside the house. Aye, that's what brought us over here. I remember it was raining, and we were in the Fountain and there had been a lot of trouble that day.

Somebody said that there was a fight at the Memorial Hall - the Memorial Hall was being attacked, so we went down and over London Street because the top of the Fountain was blocked and we went down and Willie King, I remember he was in London Street and there was a lot of other people there. There was maybe ten or twelve people and there was police there and there was noise coming from the Diamond, it wasn't at the Memorial Hall and I remember walking over to the end of the street and the police. The police went down towards The Diamond and there was some people walking up and this time Willie King came walking up, he was looking for his son, Stuarty.

He wanted his son, and he walked out and I saw him walking out, but I turned and went back over London Street towards the Fountain and the next thing I was walking and people were running past me shouting and all this, and Willie King was on the ground and there was about six men and they kicked him and kicked him and kicked him, and they killed him, he was lying on the ground dead.

I was asked if I could drive a lorry and I said ''Aye''. It was just a matter of going to a house. and putting a couple of bits of furniture on and then going to the next house and putting a couple of bits of furniture on. Everything was just getting dumped on and, of course, people were saying, "I want this". "This is sentimental to me". I had to turn round and say there was no sentimentality here. It's a matter of getting out or there'll be big bother. It was heartbreaking 'to bring people out of the houses, when they had been living there all their lives. The older people were standing crying like youngsters in the street because they were losing everything.

The News Letter will publish more extracts from The Exodus in tomorrow's edition

Kilcluney Volunteers DVD 2011

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:16:43 +0000

News Letter Shop

Kilcluney Volunteers DVD

Markethill, 1st Friday in June 2011

Kilcluney Volunteers Flute Band annual band parade and competition is the highlight of the marching season in Northern Ireland. With over 2 hours of coverage featuring all 95 bands marching up the hill in the small County Armagh town, this DVD is a must for all Marching bands followers! The event is covered with 3 cameras and was watched by thousands of spectators. This DVD Features bands from all over the country. Find out what everyone is talking about when they say, The 1st Friday in June.

Price £11.00

To order call the credit/debit card line now on (028) 9089 7700
Lines are open 9am-5pm, Mon-Fri. Alternatively, complete the coupon below and return to:- Music Shop, Marketing Dept, 2 Esky Drive, Cam, Portadown, BT63 5YY

The Exodus by Jonathan Burgess

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:04:51 +0000

News Letter Shop

The Exodus by Jonathan Burgess

A major part of Northern Ireland's troubled past has been the movement of over 90% of the Protestant population from Londonderry's West Bank. "The Exodus" gives it to the reader absolutely straight. The first part of the book is the script of the play by the same name, the second is where eye witness accounts are given of the nature of the intimidation and sectarianism that many Protestants were subjected to which resulted in that movement. Never before has this story appeared in print in this format. This is the story of a modem day forced movement of people.

Price £5.99

To order call the credit/debit card line now on (028) 9089 7700
Lines are open 9am-5pm, Mon-Fri. Alternatively, complete the coupon below and return to:- Music Shop, Marketing Dept, 2 Esky Drive, Cam, Portadown, BT63 5YY