Due to 'staff' (!) shortages here at '1169...' - because of some football matches or other , this Blog will only be updated every second day , for the next few weeks . In short , I have been abandoned by all but this machine ! Sharon . (PS : the exams are over , but now 'Junior' is distracted by the football . What next - girls knocking on the door ... ? ) 
THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT : INSIDE THE NORTHERN IRELAND (sic) PEACE TALKS (sic).......From 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1997 .
By Fionnuala O' Connor .
The 'Ulster Unionist Party' were challenged on their 'sloppy' paper-work ; they shrugged and replied - " You know us , always late ... " - however , some suspect the real reason is dread of 'position papers' leaking to Ian Paisley (DUP) or worse , falling under the forensic knife of one-time UUP member and longtime foe , barrister Bob McCartney .
One delegate stated , in language echoed by several others - " It's the absence of McCartney that's made this place more relaxed . When he was there it was like a school with a great big bully and you never knew if it was you that was in for the ritual humiliation . You hoped it would be someone else . Almost everyone felt it , but he hated the UUP worst ; you could see the relief on their faces when McCartney turned on the British government instead of them . " A disloyal colleague said - " David's still looking over his shoulder at Bob , even though he's not there . "
By comparison , the ageing Paisley's thunder has lost some of its intimidatory charge : yet , in the absence of Paisley and Robert McCartney , who between them won 43 per cent of the unionist vote in 1996's Forum Election , the UUP can only claim to speak for a narrow majority of unionists with the support of the tiny loyalist parties , not the most comfortable position for a party which shuns (P) Sinn Fein as indistinguishable from the IRA.......
(MORE LATER).
THE ROMAN REICH....... ? Following the disbandment of the Dublin-based grouping , the NSIWP , a new right-wing organisation , believed to be linked with right-wing Catholic groups , has been formed . COLM KEENA reports .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , 1 October 1987.
In July of last year (1986) , 'In Dublin' magazine published an article on the National Socialist Irish Workers Party (following which the magazine received a number of threatening letters , and even a fish's head!) which revealed that the owner of the house in Eugene Street , Dublin 8 , which was being used as a postal address for rascist and anti-semitic material distributed in Ireland and abroad , was a Hazel Etherington , married name Deevy , who lives in Stamer Street , Dublin 8 : M/S Deevy told 'In Dublin' that she was not a member of the NSIWP , and that she simply rented the house to them .
That property has since been put up for sale , as has another property on Daniel Street , Dublin , which is also used by members of the same right-wing organisation . The NSIWP has now been 'absorbed' into a similiar group called the National Socialist Party (NSP) , whose leader is an Allen G. Glenhill , who lives in Warrenpoint , County Down : the NSP says there is 'no love lost' between themselves and the 'Social Action Initiative' , the group which publishes the 'Ar Aghaidh' bulletin , and say they are looking forward to see who will 'win out in the end' , when the 'Social Action Initiative' goes public in 1988 .
Both the NSP and the SAI have political lines which are anti-multinationals , anti-communist , pro-nationalism , and anti-non-EEC foreign nationals : the alternatives to capitalist democratic slavery and world communist tyranny is national socialist liberation , they believe .
[END of 'THE ROMAN REICH']
(Next : ' SHOOT TO KILL ' - from 1983.)
THE RIGHT TO SILENCE.......Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act has just been renewed for another year by State Communications Minister Jim Mitchell , despite increasing protests and lobbying by the NUJ .
HELEN O'CONNOR examines the results of a recent NIHE survey of the attitudes of Dublin people on the issue and GERRY LAVERY looks back to the roots of Section 31 .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , February 1987 .
A new RTE Authority was appointed and on 16 November 1974 , the 'Irish Press' newspaper commented : ' Since it took up office the present Authority has been asserting itself in an area of management which previous authorities left to the administrative and executive employees of RTE . It has insisted on being represented on interview boards for example , and its tentacles have reached down deeper and deeper into the day by day decision making areas and programme making areas of the organisation . '
In 1976 Conor Cruise O' Brien introduced the Broadcasting Authority (Amendment) which stated - 'Where the Minister is of the opinion that the broadcasting of a particular matter or any matter of a particular class which would be likely to promote , or incite to crime , or would tend to undermine the authority of the state , he may by order direct the Authority to refrain from broadcasting the matter or any matter of the particular class , and the Authority shall comply with the order . ' That amendment included the controversial and highly ambiguous phrase '...tend to undermine the authority of the state..' .
And just in case he had'nt made himself clear , in 1977 O' Brien issued a directive to RTE in which he spelled out exactly what organisations were to be banned from the airways.......
(MORE LATER).
