I'm loathed to reference a story from the Irish News when it's not clear for how long it will remain freely available online [edit: it's gone], but this one's quite revealing. I earlier mentioned that the cowards of the Real IRA shot two off-duty police officers last November. While looking for a report I could link to on that topic I came across a more recent one which claims that the guns used in those attacks came from "loyalist" drug-dealers linked to the Shoukri brothers (formerly of the UDA).

An unlikely partnership between the paramilitary groups dates back to 2003 when loyalists transported a massive haul of weapons for the Real IRA using routes used to bring drugs into the north.

It is understood the haul included 20 rocket launchers and 12 AK47 assault rifles as well as handguns and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

A haulage firm used as a cover to bring in drugs for the loyalist gang who have links to the Shoukri brothers was paid to safely transport the weapons into Northern Ireland.

"Loyalists gave RIRA guns to shoot cops"
Allison Morris, Irish News, 16/01/08

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The republican splinter-group the Real IRA has an objective to get soldiers re-deployed on the streets of Northern Ireland.

With more attacks on the RUC/PSNI we believe we can reach the stage where British soldiers are brought back onto the streets to bolster the cops. This will shatter the facade that the British presence has gone and normality reigns.
Real IRA

After getting over the immense hypocrisy of a so-called separatist group actually attempting to have the "crown forces" deployed on their streets I dismissed the statement as (possibly drunken) wishful thinking on the part of the Real IRA and sensationalism on the part of the Sunday Tribune who carried the article, however the PSNI are taking the threat of dissident republicans relatively seriously and are increasing their activity, including additional vehicle checkpoints.

It remains to be seen whether or not this fringe grouping prove to be any real threat. Last November they shot and tried (but thankfully failed) to kill two off-duty police officers, including a Catholic officer shot outside a school in Londonderry where he'd just dropped his child off.

The question I keep coming back to is this: as a society we have already endorsed and rewarded one terrorist campaign by putting its participants in highly-paid government jobs, so how do we go about tackling a fresh one with a bit more of a backbone?

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez recently called for governments to recognise Colombian terrorists (and friends of the IRA) FARC to be recognised as "an army". Sound familiar?

Today Colombians will take to the streets to march in protest against FARC following a call to action which began on Facebook.

No Mas Secuestros / No More Kidnapping
No Mas Mentiras / No More Lies
No Mas Muerte / No More Death
No Mas FARC / No More FARC

I can only wish them well.

Health Minister Michael McGimpsey has announced that the 4 regional health-boards will be merged into a single Northern Ireland health board as part of plans to save "more than £53 million by April 2011" and reduce the number of staff by about 1,700, including reductions in the Minister's department.

The HSS trusts have already been merged following recommendations in the Review of Public Administration, resulting in a reduction in number from 18 to 5 and McGimpsey has gone further than the RPA recommended on Local Commissioning Groups; the RPA recommended 7 (co-terminus with the new super councils). Instead there will be 5, mapping onto the boundaries of the health trusts.

There's no doubt (in my mind, certainly) that the public sector here is bloated. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of that situation.

Update: Apparently redundancy payments will cost in the region of £70m. I would assume that this is included in the £53m savings, but that is not made explicit.

While I recently mentioned that Everything Ulster had hit the big time, it came as something of a surprise to find that the site has been nominated for Best Political Blog in the 2008 Irish Blog Awards.

Being up against the likes of Slugger O'Toole, the Mac Daddy of Northern Irish (and probably Irish) blogs, the odds of actually winning are about equivalent to those on Limavady Utd. winning the premier league this year, but it's an honour just to make the long-list, so thanks to whoever saw fit to nominate this little site of mine.

The Irish Blog Awards 'ceremony' will take place on 1st March at the Alexander Hotel in Dublin.

Apparently there was some kind of sporting event in Dublin today, but that was overshadowed by the events at Windsor Park where Crusaders were robbed of the CIS Cup by a mediocre Linfield team.

Linfield were a man up for the duration of the game (I didn't catch the name of this twelfth player, but he didn't seem to have a top of his own yet and had to wear a green one and a whistle instead - this can't be a coincidence) and despite having home advantage (in a cup final, what a joke!) the sides went in at half time with nothing between them after a pretty poor opening 45 minutes.

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A heart-warming act of friendship in Ballymena today as Northern Ireland's First Minister Ian Paisley and the prime minister of the Republic Bertie Ahern got all cozy and loved-up during a visit by the latter to the former's constituency.

Paisley described it as a "Good day for the whole of Ireland" as the two men met at the Galgorm Hotel to discuss the promotion of tourism, an area on which there is a large degree of North-South co-operation.

Former DUP man Roy Gillespie (yes, that Roy Gillespie) wasn't so pleased. He unfurled a Union Jack outside (err.. why?) and sent his wife in apparently to confront Paisley's wife, Eileen.

I'm disappointed in Jim Allister. The man seems to be a useful politician in terms of finding things out and getting things done (or maybe he's just a good opposition politician, he did learn from the best after all). Allister claimed that "spectacle at Galgorm is yet another manifestation of the dramatic intensification in north/southery which is occurring under devolution."

The problem is that the only "spectacle" is the one Roy Gillespie made of himself and, by extension, unionism generally by acting the maggot today. Sometimes co-opertation with the Republic is going to be advantageous. Tourism has the potential (I don't think co-operation here is working at present) to be one area in which this is the case. Simply decrying North-South co-operation in and of itself doesn't help distinguish where it's good and where it's bad, it only serves to allow its proponents to dismiss your criticism even when it's valid.

It also hides the real question raised by today's visit. If Paisley's right to host a visit from the Republic's premier today, why was it appropriate for Paisley to throw snowballs at Sean Lemass's car when then Prime Minister Terence O'Neill invited Lemass to Stormont forty years ago??

Britannia has featured on the tails side of 50-pence piece since the introduction of the coin in 1969.

I was driving home late last night when I heard Stephen Nolan's guests discussing Gordon Brown's public protestations about how he cherishes his Britishness, and the reason, it seems, is that he's approved plans to replace Britannia on the back of the 50p piece. She has occasionally made way for special commemorative editions but the reverse of the fifty-pence coin has been Britannia's home for nearly forty years.

The Daily Mail aren't best pleased, although apparently assurances have been received that Jade Goody will not feature on the new coin and the Royal Mint have promised Britannia will be used again.

I didn't realise that there was a Britannia Coin as well; a gold bullion coin. The image of Britannia on it is a bit more dramatic. I like it.

"Do you support a Bill of Rights which is unique to Northern Ireland, which imposes an array of socio-economic commitments upon the Assembly which are incalculable in scale, incapable of being costed and will require substantial funding which will almost certainly have to be borne by the local taxpayer?"

Ask that question and see if you can get three-quarters of respondents to say "Yes". Alex Kane thinks you'd struggle and I'd say he might be right.

People's responses can be easily shaped using meaningless platitudes some feel-good buzzwords. It's a fact that politicians frequently rely on. Surely you'd have to be a monster to object to something with the word "Rights" in it. You're not a monster, are you?

Kane also points out the fallacy of the arguments used in favour of the Bill of Rights (as well as the proposed Truth Commission): "It worked in South Africa so it is necessary here."

Northern Ireland is not and never was like South Africa or central America. To argue that it was is simply to play along with the Republican propaganda that "justified" a terrorist campaign against a majority population.

Over Christmas the PSNI caught 600 people drink-driving. 2 of those were off-duty PSNI officers.

Unlike Officer Geraldine Donnelly , who was caught before new policy came into effect, these 2 officers "if prosecuted", are likely to lose their jobs. If?! They deserve to lose their jobs on the grounds of gross stupidity to do something so idiotic; especially after the uproar Donnelly caused.