Nationalists disagree over lawyer's forum nomination.
From IRISH NEWS September 27th, 2000
By Anne Madden
A NATIONALIST spokesman last night attacked the first minister's selection
of Drumcree protester Richard Monteith to the new Civic Forum. The prominent
Lurgan solicitor spent a week behind bars on remand after taking part in
a roadblock. Mr Trimble chose the outspoken Orange Order activist alongside
UDP leader Gary McMichael and Betty McClurg, chairwoman of the Southern
Education and Library Board. But Garvaghy Road Residents spokesman Breandan
Mac Cionnaith said the first minister had "a duty to act on behalf of all citizens". "According to the Good Friday agreement he has to look after the interests of all the people of the north. He should have borne that in mind in making those appointments and had a more balanced mix of representatives, " said Mr Mac Cionnaith. However, SDLP minister and Upper Bann assembly
member Brid Rodgers argued that extremists had to be accommodated in the
civic forum. "There are many people in Northern Ireland who have extremely diverse views and who are at extreme ends of the spectrum, but we will never get anywhere unless we recognise the need to include all of those in our dialogue, " Mrs Rodgers said. "I think it would be impossible to have an inclusive Civic Forum in a place like Northern Ireland without having people who would be objected to by one side or the other." She argued that the alternative would be an "exclusive forum with the great and the good". Mr
Monteith (42) was fined £250 in July 1998 for his part in obstructing traffic
in Lurgan after he and nine other Drumcree protesters dragged a tree across
a road. Earlier this year Mr Monteith, a specialist in criminal law, told
a jury he had a conviction for "foolishly" taking part in the Orange Order
protest over Drumcree. He made the admission at a high court libel action
in London, in which documentary maker Sean McPhilemy successfully brought
an action against The Sunday Times which had made allegations about his
Channel 4 film The Committee. Mr Monteith, a member of the Northern Ireland
Law Society's Human Rights Committee, was accused in the programme of being
a member of the shadowy loyalist body - an allegation over which he successfully
sued. During The Sunday Times libel trial in March, Mr Monteith admitted
attending the funeral of his client Robin 'The Jackal' Jackson. Jackson
is understood to have been responsible for the Dublin and Monaghan bombings
in which 33 people were killed; the Miami Showband massacre, and numerous
other bombings and shootings. The solicitor has acted in many other notorious
cases including that of Norman Coopey, the loyalist killer of Catholic schoolboy
James Morgan. He also represented one of the five men charged with killing
Robert Hamill, the Catholic father-of-three who was kicked to death in Portadown
in 1997. More recently Mr Monteith met the Parades Commission on behalf
of Portadown Orangemen and even rowed with the prime minister over the Drumcree
crisis. NATIONALISTS yesterday insisted there was no place for the Orange
Order on the Civic Forum. A row broke out after the order claimed it should
have been represented on the new body, set up under the Good Friday agreement.
Members of the order reacted angrily when no seats were offered to them.
Grand Lodge of Ireland Grand Secretary Denis Watson, above, said: "We find it incredible that one of our members was appointed to the forum but told that he cannot speak for the Orange institution. We represent the biggest strand of Protestantism and contain elements which are both pro and anti-agreement. The feeling of the order is we have a very important part to play within civic life in Northern Ireland." But Sinn Féin's Dara O'Hagan rejected the
demands. The Upper Bann assembly member said: "It is essential that political point scoring or harking back to the special privileges of yesteryear is avoided. The Orange Order spent the summer outraging civic society in their attempts to bring the north of Ireland to a standstill and blackmail nationalists into accepting their demands." The SDLP's Alban Maginness said the order
had missed its opportunity. "At no time during the discussions of the composition was there any discussion about a nomination for the Orange Order." Bimpe Fatogun |
