beano's off on a summer holiday. No more posting for a week or two

I'm off visiting sunny (?) Donegal. Be good while I'm gone.

Jamie Hoggan, a (rather geeky looking) 16 year old, who has declared himself to be a member of the "Scottish Freedom Force" (inspired by Mel Gibson's famous line in the completely historically accurate Braveheart, per chance?) has been convicted of carrying out a petrol bomb attack on Clackmannanshire Council buildings.

It wasn't the most successful petrol bomb attack ever, while trying to burn down the council buildings in Alloa, Hoggan only managed to singe a few shrubs. No doubt he there would be a few other separatists in the UK who wouldn't mind teaching him how its done.

He still denies the charges, although his friend has been freed after admitting his involvement and testifying against him.

Flights into and out of Belfast and Londonderry have been among those hit by delays and cancellations today due to a major security alert at Heathrow. In particular, flights to and from the London airports have been affected, and passengers are being made to check-in their hand-luggage (including ladies' handbags) which will be flown in the hold. The Washington Post reports that the crackdown is in response to a specific terrorist threat to blow up planes crossing the Atlantic from Britain to America and the BBC reports there were plans to commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale", blowing up 9 trans-atlantic flights.

Flight Information
Belfast International Airport have an announcement on their web site, as do Belfast City (George Best) Airport. City of Derry Airport don't have a specific announcement but it may be worth checking their arrivals/departures pages.

The major airlines serving the province FlyBe, easyJet, British Airways, British Midland and Ryanair have announcements on their website with passenger advice.

Conviction: manslaughter, possession of explosives
Sentence: 20 years (reduced from life)
Joined Hunger Strike: 7th(?) June
Suicided: 8th August

Thomas McElwee was born the 5th of 12 siblings to a family in Bellaghy. The previous year McElwee's father Jim became the uncle of Francis Hughes, who would later precede McElwee on hunger strike. Growing up, McElwee was an argumentative type and enjoyed listening to rebel songs and causing grief for his neighbours. Its said that few were surprised when he joined the Fianna Eireann at the age of 14, and later the IRA.

McElwee was arrested on several occasions as the IRA campaign of violence in the south of Co. Londonderry escalated, although they police couldn't manage to gather enough evidence to have him convicted and he never went into hiding as a fugitive like his cousin.

In October 1976, the McElwee family received mass in their home, one evening, from a Roman Catholic priest. The very next day, Thomas and his brother Benedict were out planting a bomb in Ballymena when it exploded prematurely. It was their sister Bernadette's birthday, and that afternoon the family got a call telling them the brothers had been rushed by the British Army to Wavery Hospital in Ballymena following the explosion. Thomas lost an eye in the blast, and his other was only saved following transfer from Ballymena to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for emergency surgery. Even so, he was without sight for 3 weeks.

As well as the bomb that went off prematurely, McElwee was charged over another attack on a shop, the Alley Catz Boutique, also in Ballymena. McElwee was convicted of possession of explosives and the murder of the 26 year old woman, Yvonne Dunlop the owner of Alley Catz, who was killed in that attack, though the murder conviction was reduced to manslaughter on appeal.

In prison he was defiant, and frequently disciplined for his conduct. Having already volunteered for the hunger strike the previous year in 1980, McElwee naturally volunteered a second time in the 1981 hunger strike, but this time he participated. He began refusing food in June and died of self-imposed starvation on 8th August leaving Northern Ireland with one less unapologetic convicted killer able to reoffend.

Conviction: Possession of firearms and explosives, hijacking a car
Sentence: 18 years
Joined Hunger Strike: 22nd May
Suicided: 2nd August

Born in Andersonstown in west Belfast in 1955, Kieran/Ciaran Doherty was the third of 6 children in his family and won a Co. Antrim minor medal for GAA in 1971. Doherty's family had been involved with the IRA long before Kieran was even born, with his uncle, Ned Maguire, part of a rooftop breakout from Crumlin Road prison in Belfast in 1943 and Ned's son (also called Ned) had broken out from Long Kesh when it was an internment camp before being recaptured at Twinbrook. Young Ned's sisters were members of the women's republican paramilitary organisation, Cumann na mBan and were killed by the army in 1971.

That Autumn, Doherty joined na Fianna Eireann (an organisation proscribed to this day under the 2000 Terrorism Act, originally set up in 1902 and later allied with the anti-Treaty IRA in the Irish war of independence) and worked hard to impress, hoping to be recruited by the IRA. It seemed to work.

Unfortunately for Doherty the army had noticed his activities, and they eventually came to arrest him in October 1972, however they had to release him when it was proved he was under 17 (by 10 days). When the army lay in wait for him on his 17th birthday, he had already been warned and transported across the border and down to Limerick until early in 1973 when he returned to Belfast, eager to get "back into action".

A week after returning he was arrested and interned for 2½ years at Long Kesh, and was released when the government abandoned internment. On his release in November 1975 he immediately reported back to the IRA and was involved in a series of attacks on the army and was chased by them once while transporting weapons, but managed to evade arrest.

His "heavy involvement" with the IRA meant he had little time for his girlfriend, Geraldine, even when he wasn't in prison. This "heavy involvement" would later ensure he had even less time with Geraldine. In August 1976 he was part of a group of IRA members carrying out a bomb attack near Balmoral Avenue in Belfast. As the police were chasing the van he got out, leaving his 'comrades', and stole a car, abandoning it a number of streets away. His accomplices were arrested following the chase and Doherty was picked up a mile and a half away.

He was charged and convicted of stealing the car and possession of firearms and explosives, which earned him a total of 22 years in prison (4 for hijacking the car, 18 for possession). Once in prison, Doherty was often punished for his insolence towards the warders. He joined the hunger strike on 22nd May (replacing Raymond McCreesh) the day before INLA member Kevin Lynch, and was to finally die the day after – a total of 73 days, making Kieran Doherty the most successful (or least efficient) of his batch of hunger strikers.

Sentence: 10 years
Joined Hunger Strike: 23rd May
Suicided: 1st August

Born in Park, near Dungiven, Co. Londonderry in 1956, Lynch was the youngest of 8 children. He grew up well known for his strong desire to win and while a good sportsman (particularly fond of Gaelic football and hurling), he was frequently found to be the source of "devilment" in his school until he left at the age of 15.

After spending some time in Bedford (England), Lynch returned home to Dungiven in 1976 (still an apprentice brick layer) and almost immediately joined the INLA because of his "national awareness" and "cultural love of Irish sport." Three months later, at 20 years old, Lynch was arrested by the police following an ambush in which a police officer was injured. He was charged on 4th December with (among other things) conspiracy to disarm members of the security forces, involvement in a shooting and stealing shotguns.

In 1977 Kevin Lynch was sentenced to 10 years in prison. While there he sought and failed to get elected to the Dublin parliament as a Deputy for Waterford, before joining the hunger strike on 23rd May 1981 and eventually escaping prison, like only a hunger striker can, on 1st August.

It seemed like a good idea at the time I started reading the book to post a review of it on Everything Ulster, being that it's content is relevant to the situation here in Northern Ireland and all. Of course on finishing the book I remembered I hadn't a clue about literature - d'oh!! Well here goes anyway.

Nick Curtis's "Faith and Duty: The True Story of a Soldier's War in Northern Ireland" (available online from Amazon) tells the story of the author, a British soldier sent to Northern Ireland in the late 60s. It's very easy to look at a soldier and see just a soldier, but one of the most striking things about this book is that as Curtis describes what's going through his mind as he faces that mob in the streets of Ardoyne, roofslates flying at his head, or as he wonders if he's been sussed in a Republican bar in Armagh, it reminds the reader that these are just people like everyone else, who often act act just like anyone else would.

Curtis, raised a Catholic, came into Northern Ireland feeling a lot of sympathy with the demands for civil rights. What he saw here though, would bring him to question that faith in a way he surely couldn't have predicted. The point is that this is not a book written by a willing servant of some colonial overlord, but of a man trying to do a difficult job - that of keeping two warring tribes apart. Even though he empathised with his co-religionists in their demands for civil rights, Curtis tells how he was to be shocked by the callousness of the republican movement. Early in the book Curtis describes a small group of men directing youths as they rioted in Ardoyne, others setting of bangers hoping the soldiers would 'return' fire and maybe even (if they were lucky) injure someone. Later he would describe finding the body of a man beaten and tortured by the IRA, almost beyond recognition.

Yet in the midst of the carnage he somehow manages to keep his sense of humour (something many of those who have lived through the worst of the troubles seem to do quite well), not least when he describes being locked in a closet enduring the sound of a drunken, fat couple having sex. It's these brief light interludes in the otherwise disturbing descriptions of life here that keep the reader from becoming too bogged down, and maybe that's why it's so hard to put down.

Through the course of the book, Curtis tells of dealing with street battles as a soldier, working undercover as an intelligence operative, an excursion with the SAS, meeting with Bernadette McAlliskey to discuss her safety, being awarded a Military Medal by the Queen and far too much else to list it all here.

As I said, I don't know a lot about literature, but I know a book's good when someone like me who nearly never reads novels keeps telling myself "just one more chapter". Buy it.

When I first saw the headline Sinn Fein anger over B&Q emblem I thought the Sinners had taken offence at the fact that the DIY chain's colour-scheme is Orange, but apparently it's something much more sinister.

Yes folks, B&Q have signed a deal to become official sponsors of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland olympic team until the next summer games in 2008, and to celebrate this have offered staff the option of wearing an alternative uniform which includes the Team GB logo. Shock horror!

It doesn't seem matter to Ms Ruane that nobody's being made to wear the new uniforms, and that staff "have complete freedom of choice" if they wish to continue wearing their regular uniforms. I know that some MLAs must be stuck for something to do with the assembly in suspension, and Ms Ruane may just be trying to detract attention from the real political issues facing Northern Ireland at the moment, but this is taking the piss.

In a stunning rejection of basic democratic principles, NIO Minister David Hanson persuaded the House of Commons to reject amendments to the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill designed to make politics in Ulster more accountable (hat tip Pete Baker).

The first amendment proposed by the Lords would have changed the process of making laws for Northern Ireland. At the minute, most laws for Northern Ireland are passed as Orders In Council rather than full Bills. As Orders in Council are secondary legislation they cannot be amended and Parliament are left with a "take it or leave it" vote, allowing the government a lot of wiggle-room to force through unpopular legislation (education reform anyone?) by using the blackmail inherent to this system. Of course this leaves a great disparity with how laws that only affect England are made, being that they are put to Parliament as Bills which can be fully debated and amended by Parliament instead of being rushed through a committee.

I remember learning of this farcical situation in A-level politics and even as an 17 year old student I could identify how ridiculous it was (especially since the committee voting on Northern Ireland laws, which sits in England unlike similar Scottish/Welsh committes which sit closer to home, only has about 4 of the 16 sitting Northern Irish MPs sitting on it). This has been the way the majority of laws have been made for Northern Ireland under Direct Rule for 30 years. Now, after all this time, it has taken the House of Lords to propose democratic change - which the Commons has now stomped all over. Democratic house, eh? The government have accepted that there needs to be a change to this system, but God forbid they actually do anything before the devolutiond deadline they've imposed.

The second amendment would have ended the ability of parties here to source their funds outside the country. In the rest of the UK, donations from overseas cannot exceed £200 - and with good reason. It's generally a accepted democratic principle that citizens of other countries, or those residing outside a given country shouldn't be allowed to affect politics within it.

Here however nationalist parties, Sinn Fein particularly, source large amounts of funds from the Republic. Nigel Dodds (North Belfast, DUP) said he couldn't understand how the Minister could justify special provisions to allow donations from the Irish Republic when he knew that such donations would disproportionately benefit nationalist parties and Peter Robinson (East Belfast, DUP) claimed the government was doing it simply to benefit their sister-party, the SDLP. The Lords' amendment to plug this loophole and bring Northern Ireland party funding in line with the rest of the UK was also defeated in the Commons, by a large majority.

Unfortunately the Lords failed to stick to their guns and return the Bill to the Commons, and it has already gained Royal Assent.

I normally look for a more reliable source than the Daily Ireland before posting about this, but Google News has failed me I'm afraid. A teenage witness to the Michael McIlveen murder in Ballymena has had to withdraw from school in his GCSE year due to police advise that his life might be in danger.

Christopher Graham's older brother (Paul, 27) was attacked and beaten by loyalists a fortnight ago.

Despite some sick fuckers circulating a video of the attack on Michael McIlveen, and others scrawling "Fuck MickyBo" on a tricolour that was burned on a bonfire, I cannot reiterate enough how disgusted I am (as, I imagine are the vast, vast majority of people in Northern Ireland, nationalist and unionist alike) over the murder and these subsequent events.

Those involved aren't acting as loyalists, they're acting for themselves. They carried out a random, mindless, savage attack which resulted in the death of an innocent child and now they're trying to save their own asses the only way they know how - intimidation. Thankfully Christopher Graham's father has said that they won't be dropping their statements. I'm sure the police will do everything they can to bring the killers to justice, and I just hope it's enough. I can't make this clear enough: the sooner they're in a cold, hard cell the better.