The £1m-hunt for the arts leaders of the future has begun with the aim of plugging
The £1m-hunt for the arts leaders of the future has begun with the aim of plugging a talent gap at the top of Britain’s major institutions. These are the actual graves of many IRA volunteers and Sinn Fein activists killed over the past 30 years. Those responsible for this attack are beyond contempt.”Liam Shannon of the Belfast National Graves Association, which tends republican memorials, said about £8,300 of damage had been caused. I have spoken to a number of families who have loved ones buried in the plot and they are extremely distressed by what has happened.”This is not simply a republican memorial. The republican plot at Milltown is a particularly hallowed place for the IRA and Sinn Fein, as it holds the bodies of Bobby Sands and other activists such as the three IRA members killed at Gibraltar in 1988.A Sinn Fein councillor, Michael Browne, said: “This was an outrageous act of wanton vandalism.
His grave, which is in a cemetery not far from where he was killed, has been attacked twice by loyalists. Just before Christmas the headstone was smashed and photographs and flowers ripped from the grave and scattered around the cemetery.In Monday night’s attack black marble headstones were smashed, presumably with a hammer. In some cases loyalists have been responsible for such attacks, while in others non-political vandals and hooligans have been involved. The grave of the IRA hunger-strike “martyr” Bobby Sands was among more than a dozen republican graves desecrated in an overnight attack at Milltown cemetery in west Belfast. The memorial was previously attacked three years ago.Police investigating the incident sealed off the plot yesterday afternoon after the discovery of a suspicious object, but it proved to be a hoax.Attacks on graves and memorials to activists and victims of the Troubles are a familiar feature in Northern Ireland, where hatreds and animosities persist even after death.One recent example has been the case of Danny McColgan, 20, a Catholic postman who was killed by loyalists a year ago in north Belfast.
The former GP had his prisoner status reduced from “enhanced” to “basic” for general non-compliance with staff, a prison source said.The television in his cell was removed and he had to wear prison uniform instead of casual clothes.. An inquiry into how Soham double murderer Ian Huntley was able to get a job as a school caretaker despite a string of sex allegations in his past was formally opened today. It means taking into account the findings and the recommendations following the death of Fred West.” Last month it emerged that Shipman had been stripped of his privileges at Wakefield because of poor behaviour. You have to balance that against the difficulties of keeping somebody on suicide watch over a long period of time.
