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| Please use one of the following current mirror sites to this old location:
SAOIRSE32 at Livejournal
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Other relevant links are there on those sites.
Thank you,
micheailin
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| Daily Ireland
Web master to expand satire site
The mastermind behind a satirical Derry-based website yesterday revealed plans to expand it across the North of Ireland.
The purederry.com website has attracted almost 150,000 hits since it was launched last August. It takes a swipe at many peculiar characteristics of life in Derry.
The site has proved hugely popular with people from the city, including many expats, but has also provoked anger from some of the well-known people featured in its columns.
Until today, Pure Derry’s editor has remained hidden behind the pages of the website.
However, Daily Ireland can reveal that the man behind the site is 26-year-old Derry man Ciarán Murray.
Murray said he spends each Sunday updating the site. Content is also provided by a group of contributors.
With a problem page entitled “Dear Majella”, a ream of acidic satire that pokes fun at who's who in Derry and the northwest, and an irreverent disregard for the status quo, Pure Derry is poised to widen its appeal and make some cash in the process.
For Murray, the inspiration for the website came from living away from his home city.
"I was living away from home in Austria," the University of Ulster student told Daily Ireland.
"When I came back I had to deprogramme myself and began to really notice all of the colloquialisms in Derry. Everything just hit me up the face and I decided I would try to build a website.” The result was a hilarious take on the city and its peculiarities.
Murray says he was influenced by the satirical US website The Onion, which takes a wry look at the breaking news stories of the day.
He has tried to keep the appeal of his website wider than just the field of politics.
“The satire is more broad-based and is not just political. On its first day, it received 1,000 hits.
“One thing we didn't want to do was to get tied down to politics. Whatever's been in the news, we managed to find a crazy Derry connection.
“But we now also want to make the humour more universally appealing," Murray says.
Although Pure Derry doesn't recoil from taking potshots at people in the public eye, there are a few figures Murray considers off limits — Derry City soccer legend Liam Coyle and local actor Bronagh Gallagher.
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| Daily Ireland
Rediscovered letters reveal Sinn Fein’s historical roots
An exhibition to commemorate Sinn Féin’s centenary will be launched at the Europa Hotel in Belfast this morning.
The collection of documents, posters and history of the party will go on display before being taken round the country in a travelling road-show.
Among the documents on show will be three letters between Arthur Griffith, the party’s founder, and Cathal Brugha who went on to fight with the anti-treaty forces in the Civil War.
The three letters were uncovered this week by workmen carrying out renovations to SInn Féin’s Dublin Headquarters in Parnell Square.
Dated February 1918 the correspondence took place before the War of Independence which ended in a British withdrawal from 26 counties and partition.
Two of the letters are written in Irish.
Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey says the letters deal with ‘mundane’ issues such as patent rights for street-lamps but show the continuity of Sinn Féin and its contribution to Ireland’s development.
“The uncovering of these letters is very timely with it being our centenary year.
“They show that Sinn Féin members were working on the nitty-gritty issues of public life at what turned out to be a very momentous time in Irish history.
“It helps show the continuity of our party and the pivotal role we have played in Irish history.”
The letters are also significant because both men went on to take different sides in the Civil War in 1921-’23.
Griffith argued that republicans should accept the treaty while Brugha took the side of anti-treaty republicans.
Brugha was head of the civil defence forces during the War of Independence, effectively answerable to the Dáil for IRA actions.
However, he had little day-to-day control over the IRA and his military strategies were often not considered effective by IRA leaders.
He was killed in July 1922 by pro-treaty forces in a shoot-out in Dublin.
Coincidentally Arthur Griffith died a month later through natural causes.
1918 was a pivotal year in modern Irish history.
In that year Sinn Féin won a landslide in the general elections.
The party gained more than 80 per cent of the popular vote, but had their democratic mandate ignored by the British government.
The IRA emerged in the same year to fight a guerilla war against the British army, which the British PM of the day, Lloyd George, called a ‘criminal enterprise’.
In 1921 Lloyd George negotiated a peace treaty with Sinn Féin and IRA leaders.
Alex Maskey says he hopes today’s exhibition will allow the wider public to better understand Sinn Féin’s history and development.
“It is a major exhibition covering the history of Sinn Féin right up until the present day,” he said.
“A lot of material has been unearthed by people so it promises to be a very comprehensive history of our party and one that will be accessible.
“Momentous events such as the Hunger Strikes will also be covered.”
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| BreakingNews.ie
**EXACTLY
Adams: Put up or shut up
10/02/2005 - 15:50:36
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams branded the Independent Monitoring Commission report rubbish today and challenged Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to have him arrested in relation to the Northern Bank robbery.
Mr Adams called on Mr Ahern to withdraw his allegations that he had prior knowledge of the December heist or else have him charged with conspiracy to rob and withholding information.
He said: “I think the Taoiseach has crossed the line. It’s time for him to shut up or put up.”
The Sinn Féin leader said there were sinister aspects in the report by the IMC which he described as “three spooks and a lord” and a tool of the Irish and British governments.
He also accused the Irish Government of playing “dirty politics” with the Northern Ireland peace process.
He was speaking outside the Dáil, where an all-party motion was carried last night calling on Sinn Féin and the IRA to abandon violence and embrace democracy.
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| BBC
IMC says Sinn Fein leaders 'backed raids'
More than £26m was stolen from the Northern Bank
Senior Sinn Fein members were involved in sanctioning robberies including the Northern Bank raid, the Independent Monitoring Commission has said.
The four strong commission's report said the party should bear its share of the blame for a series of robberies.
Although it seemed "paltry", it said the government should consider imposing financial sanctions on Sinn Fein.
The IMC backs the police assertion the IRA was behind the £26m raid in Belfast in December - a claim the IRA denies.
Its findings, released on Thursday, are based on intelligence information.
It also blames the paramilitary group for robberies in Belfast and County Tyrone in which several people were abducted.
Although we note Sinn Fein has said it is opposed to criminality of any kind, it appears at times to have its own definition of what constitutes a crime
IMC report
"In our view, Sinn Fein must bear its share of responsibility for the incidents," said the commission.
"Some of its senior members, who are also members of PIRA (Provisional IRA), were involved in sanctioning the series of robberies."
It added: "Although we note Sinn Fein has said it is opposed to criminality of any kind, it appears at times to have its own definition of what constitutes a crime."
The commission said it would have recommended the party's exclusion from office if the assembly was still sitting.
In the absence of devolution, Secretary of State Paul Murphy should consider imposing financial penalties, it said.
It does not specify exactly what those measures should be - Mr Murphy is expected to take some time before announcing his response, probably in a Commons statement later this month.
The IMC said the IRA carried out a robbery at the Makro store in Dunmurry in May last year, the abduction of people and robbery from an Iceland store in Strabane last September and a £2m cigarette robbery and abduction of people in Belfast last October.
"We believe that the Northern Bank robbery and abductions, and the other robberies and abductions... were carried out with the prior knowledge and authorisation of the leadership of PIRA," said the commission.
PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde's belief the IRA was behind the raid was also backed by the Garda Siochana in the Republic of Ireland.
However, the IRA denies the claims and, last week, it withdrew its offer of complete decommissioning.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said he accepted the chief constable's view that the IRA was behind the raid.
Mr Murphy, speaking after the report's publication, said: "I shall now consider carefully the commission's recommendations. I plan to make a further statement to the House in the week of 21 February."
An Irish government spokesman said the IMC's conclusions concurred with the intelligence available to both governments in relation to the Northern Bank robbery and other incidents in Northern Ireland.
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said: "I call on the government to publicly state that if the assembly was sitting and if the assembly failed to pass a motion of exclusion, they would, if necessary use the new statutory powers that they have... to exclude Sinn Fein."
SDLP leader Mark Durkan said: "The SDLP believes the best way forward is not through silly sanctions. It is by showing Sinn Fein - and the DUP - that they don't have a veto on change. We need a process of equals instead."
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