VARIOUS: NORTHERN IRELAND PEACE TALKS IN THE U.S. SUFFER SETBACKS AS DEATH AND VIOLENCE CONTINUES IN THE TROUBLED PROVINCE

Record ID: 677502

  • Title: VARIOUS: NORTHERN IRELAND PEACE TALKS IN THE U.S. SUFFER SETBACKS AS DEATH AND VIOLENCE CONTINUES IN THE TROUBLED PROVINCE
  • Date: 18th March 1999
  • Summary: WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES (MARCH 17, 1999) (REUTERS) SCU SINN FEIN LEADER GERRY ADAMS WITH SENATORS TED KENNEDY AND CHRIS DODD SCU (SOUNDBITE)(English) ADAMS SAYING "Be assured that Sinn Fein is totally committed to doing that and to seeing every issue as issues that need to be dealt with, to be resolved, to move on, to make, I think, justice, which is the work of peace, a reality for all the people of the island of Ireland. So a very happy Saint Patrick's Day to the senators and to yourselves." SLV DAVID TRIMBLE, FIRST MINISTER OF NORTHERN IRELAND, AT PODIUM SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) TRIMBLE SAYING "We have problems, We have big problems short term, because of the paramilitaries, and the problems have to be resolved. But when I say it's going to work, the main reason why it has to work is because there is no alternative and society doesn't want to go back to where we were before last April." SLV CLINTON, AHERN, KENNEDY AT LUNCHEON FOR IRISH REPRESENTATIVES (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 2nd April 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LURGAN, COUNTY ARMAGH, BELFAST, AND PORTADOWN, NORTHERN IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM/NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAA5EP2O2LUW92PLVTQONU78XFN
  • Story Text: Northern Ireland peace talks in the United States have been set back this week by more deaths and violence in the troubled province.
    Forty-year-old mother of three Rosemary Nelson, who was seen as a leader of Catholic rights, was buried on Thursday after dying in a car bomb attack.
    St.Patrick's day celebrations on Wednesday (March 17) were also marred by the killing of Frankie Curry, an alleged extreme loyalist who was released from prison on Monday.
    The funeral of Rosemary Nelson was held on Thursday (March 18) in Lurgan, Northern Ireland after a sophisticated car bomb went off as she drove away from her home in Ashford Grange on Monday.
    A dissident Protestant guerrilla group posed another new threat to the peace process when it vowed retaliation for the shooting of former guerrilla Frankie Curry on Wednesday.
    Curry, who had been released from prison on Monday, was shot dead when he was approached by three men in Belfast's Shankill district, a stronghold of pro-British Protestant loyalists.
    The Red Hand Defenders, hardline guerrillas who claimed responsibility for Nelson's murder, blamed the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) for killing Curry.
    Several people, including police officers, were hurt and two vehicles were set ablaze in overnight rioting in Portadown.
    Petrol bombs were thrown at police when they tried to break up a clash between Protestants and stone-throwing Catholics enraged by Nelson's murder.A Catholic leader and 38 police officers were injured.
    Brendan MacCionnaith, a local Catholic leader, was injured when he attempted to calm the situation in Portadown.
    He said a member of the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) hit him in the face with a baton and he later spoke to journalists with blood flowing from an eye injury.
    The violence overshadowed peace appeals by U.S.President Bill Clinton and British and Irish politicians, many of whom were in the United States for St Patrick's Day celebrations on Wednesday.
    Northern Ireland's political leaders converged on Capitol Hill for talks with senators and a luncheon with President Bill Clinton.
    Later Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern was given a tour of the Capitol by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, accompanied by Clinton and a team of bagpipers.
    Speaking after a meeting with Democratic Senators Ted Kennedy and Christopher Dodd, Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish Republican Army's political wing Sinn Fein, reassured his American friends that his group was "totally committed" to implementing the peace accord reached last year on Good Friday.
    Northern Ireland's First Minister, and leader of the Ulster Unions, David Trimble said paramilitary forces posed a big short term problem, but the peace process would work because there is no alternative.
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