THE SEEDS OF A POLICE STATE .......There is substantial evidence that a major crime was perpetrated within the Garda Siochana five years ago .
The evidence for this crime has certainly been available to senior Gardai ever since then , but no enquiry whatsoever has taken place , let alone any Garda being disciplined in connection with that crime .
By Vincent Browne and Derek Dunne .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , September 1983 .
Dr. Sean O' Cleirigh , the independent medical witness , examined Nicky Kelly at Dublin's Mountjoy Jail at 7.30pm on Thursday , the 8th of April , 1976 : Dr. O' Cleirigh said in evidence -
" He had bruising over the left arm covering approximately the upper three quarters of the left arm and he had a similar type of bruising over approximately the middle two-thirds of the right arm - from the tip of the shoulders to about three-quarters way down the arm. There was also a large area of bruising , I call it 'ecchemosis' , that was an area approximately six inches over the left shoulder , at the back of the left shoulder on the back of the trunk ... "
Dr. O' Cleirigh said there was discolouration over the arms - "...a black blue discolouration . " He said - " The whole area was black blue . Over the back, there were areas where the discolouration was much fainter , and he also had bruising over both buttocks . I want to describe the area where it was - it was below the crest of the illium - the crest of the illium is what we would normally call the hips . It was on the upper crest of the pelvic bone , and this extended down for about two inches. It was right across the back . I called it 'linear bruising' because there were little lines through it . It was a slatey blue colour .
Over the left thigh , there was an area of slight bruising , where the discolouration was very slight , and this was approximately two inches by four inches . It extended from the tuborsity - the prominence at the top of the hip bone - the tuborsity , to the femor - the bone between the hip joint and the knee , and this was tender. By what I mean , when I palpitated it , there was pain present . It was roughly triangular in shape . The base was roughly two inches and the sides were roughly four inches . " Another detailed list of injuries was to follow.......
(MORE LATER).
BEYOND BREAKOUTS AND SUPERGRASSES .From 'FORTNIGHT' magazine , October 1983 .
In the middle of September it looked as if this was turning out to be the authorities' (sic- ie by which the author means those paid , placed and/or 'authorised' by Westminster) best year in the fight against the Provisional IRA since Roy Mason's time , largely thanks to the emergence of the 'supergrass' phenomenon : a high point had been reached with the revelation that the RUC's latest 'converted terrorist' , Robert Lean , had allowed them , for the first time since the 'supergrasses' started to emerge at the end of 1981, to penetrate the West Belfast heartland of the IRA leadership.
Everyone was expecting some spectacular IRA action to rally the morale of its battered troops , but the stroke the Provisionals pulled was a particularly unexpected and humiliating one for the British government - in an operation of military-style precision and planning , 38 prisoners got out of the Maze Prison , trumpted as the highest security prison in these islands . It was the largest escape in British prison history , and at the time of writing 19 of the escapers are still free .
The reaction among Loyalists was interesting : while Ian Paisley and his ilk predictably screamed for Jim Prior's head and made unsubstantiated allegations about Irish Republican 'moles' inside the prison , some loyalist paramilitary leaders were the first to admit that the ability to pull off such spectacular strokes was one of the things that gave the IRA their credibility , both within the nationalist working class and among a growing number of politicians and media people in Britain , Europe and America.......
(MORE LATER).
THE PROVOS AT THE BALLOT BOX .......By Michael Farrell .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1983 .
Sinn Fein have five advice centres or political clinics in West Belfast , four in Derry and one in Strabane , five in Mid-Ulster , four in Fermanagh-South Tyrone and three in Armagh-Newry .
Most of the city ones and at least one in each of the rural areas are open full-time ; the rural constituencies have a hard-core of four or five full-time workers each , as well as the Stormont Assembly members - West Belfast and Derry have about 15 full-time workers each , all of whom deal with arrests , raids , prisoners' welfare and other traditional Republican concerns , but they also deal with complaints about repairs to 'Housing Executive' houses , social security benefits and even roads and agricultural grants .
In West Belfast they have set up specialised housing and welfare departments , with full-time staff , to get to know the regulations inside out . In some areas , instead of waiting for complaints to come in ,they have gone round the doors with a check-list of possible repairs or benefits - like beds , blankets or rent rebates - to which the people might be entitled . Then they have submitted the claims en bloc to the 'Housing Executive' or the (Six County) Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS), already broken down into the various categories used by the Department itself .
Gerry Adams claims this has forced the 'Housing Executive' and the DHSS to increase their staff in West Belfast and to issue new instructions to their officials to be more co-operative and less aggressive towards claimants.......
(MORE LATER).
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