Latest news with #Glenties
Irish Times
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Sexual abuse in schools inquiry
Sir, –This week the Minister for Education Helen McEntee announced the establishment of a Commission of Investigation into sexual abuse in all day and boarding schools. I attended Willow Park and Blackrock College as a boarder in the 1960s. Sadly, I experienced many years of physical and mental abuse. It is very disappointing that the dreadful abuse of corporal punishment, suffered by so many in this country, has not been included in this investigation. Any kind of abuse, be it sexual or otherwise, leaves dreadful lifelong scars, and stays with victims for the rest of their lives. – Yours, etc, BRIAN McDEVITT, READ MORE Glenties, Co Donegal.
Irish Times
04-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Denis Donaldson's family urge inquiry into killing and ‘who may have pulled the strings'
The State's efforts to investigate the murder of Denis Donaldson in Glenties, Co Donegal, in 2006, are 'simply not working' and a statutory inquiry is needed, a spokesman for the family has said. The Donaldsons want a cross-Border process that would identify not just 'who pulled the trigger' but also 'who may have pulled the strings,' said family solicitor Enda McGarrity. Donaldson was a former IRA member who worked in the Sinn Féin Stormont offices. He was shot dead in April 2006 after public disclosure in December 2005 that he had been an informer for 20 years for MI5 and the Police Service of Northern Ireland Special Branch. Former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams last week won a defamation case against the BBC arising from a programme where an anonymous man was quoted as saying the IRA murdered Donaldson and that Mr Adams would have sanctioned the killing, a claim Mr Adams denied. READ MORE The killing occurred nine months after the IRA issued a public statement saying it had instructed its members to cease violent activity and henceforth only engage in peaceful political activity. The Garda investigation into Donaldson's death is ongoing. A coroner's inquest has been adjourned repeatedly because of the ongoing inquiry. The family wants a statutory inquiry with a cross-Border element because they are concerned about not just who killed Donaldson but also why he was not better protected after it had become known he was an informer, said Mr McGarrity. 'At present, as far as the family are aware, the Garda are focused on the individual or individuals who pulled the trigger and not the broader circumstances around who may have pulled the strings. And that is an issue that is inextricably linked to the murder of Denis Donaldson,' he said. The family is concerned about how Donaldson came to be exposed as an agent and the 'divergence' in what happened to him thereafter, when compared with other well-known state agents, he said. 'The family would say Denis Donaldson was thrown to the wolves while Stakeknife was shepherded away,' said Mr McGarrity, referring to the late Fred Scappaticci, a senior IRA member who was moved to Britain after he was exposed as an informer. 'The precise format of how the death and circumstances surrounding the death of Denis Donaldson are to be investigated is up for debate and discussion. What the family are saying is that the current status quo, the Garda investigation and the coroner's inquest, are simply not working,' he said. The State, he said, has a statutory duty to investigate the death and suggested that a statutory inquiry in this jurisdiction could have cross-Border engagement to 'fill any holes' in terms of investigating the circumstances surrounding the murder. Mr McGarrity said the family considers a claim of responsibility made by the so-called Real IRA three years after the murder to be opportunistic and unreliable, and that they had an open mind as to who carried out the murder. Donaldson admitted to Sinn Féin in 2005 that he had been acting as an informer after charges against him and several others for having material that could be of use to terrorists were dropped. The charges arose from a police inquiry into intelligence gathering in Belfast by the IRA. The Garda Press Office, in a statement, said their investigation into the murder was ongoing and asked that anyone with information get in contact with the station in Glenties, or with any Garda station. In a statement, the Department of Justice said: 'Inquiries and/or investigations related to the death of Mr Donaldson have been undertaken both in this jurisdiction and in Northern Ireland. 'With regard to the criminal investigation, the Garda authorities are conducting an ongoing investigation into the killing of Mr Donaldson. Extensive inquiries have been carried out in this regard. That investigation is open and active. The inquest into the death currently stands adjourned to ensure that the criminal proceedings are not compromised by the conduct of an inquest.'
Irish Times
03-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Leaving Cert advice
Sir, – May I give some advice to the many parents of children starting their Leaving Cert. Tell your children that you love them – and often. Tell them that you hope they will do their best but whatever the outcome they can come home and they will be loved just as much as ever. Tell them there is lifelong learning and the Leaving Cert is but one, relatively small, stepping stone along the road of life. And always remember, the ones who do best do not always succeed best in life. I sat my Leaving in 1969, and the pressure was horrific, way over the top. Of course, it did not help that school life in general at that time was a very unhappy experience. READ MORE I survived and learnt very quickly that there was a lot more to life than the Leaving Cert. – Yours, etc, BRIAN McDEVITT, Glenties, Co Donegal.
Irish Times
03-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
BBC lawyers seek stay on damages and costs orders in Gerry Adams defamation case
Lawyers for the BBC are seeking a stay on costs and damages orders made in favour of former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams after he won a defamation action against the broadcaster. The stay is being sought to allow time for the BBC to consider whether to appeal last Friday's finding by a High Court jury that it defamed Mr Adams by publishing a claim he had sanctioned the murder of a British agent. The jury awarded Mr Adams €100,000 in damages to vindicate and restore his reputation. Following the verdict, Mr Justice Alexander Owens made costs order in favour of Mr Adams. The amount of costs, which has yet to be decided, has been estimated at up to €3 million for the 21-day action. READ MORE At the High Court on Monday morning, barrister Hugh McDowell, for the BBC, asked Mr Justice Owens to hear the stay application, to be moved by senior counsel Eoin McCullough, later on Monday. The judge said he would hear the matter at 2pm. In his action, Mr Adams claimed the 2016 BBC Spotlight programme and a related article defamed him by falsely accusing him of giving 'the final say' in the murder of MI5 informant Denis Donaldson by dissident republicans at a cottage in Glenties, Co Donegal, in 2006. Mr Adams described the allegation as a 'grievous smear'. The BBC denied defamation. The jury agreed, as Mr Adams had pleaded in his claim, that words published in the programme and article were understood to mean he sanctioned and approved the murder. BBC had argued the claim against Mr Adams was couched as an allegation, but the jury rejected the defence that the publication of the allegation was fair, reasonable and in the public interest.
Irish Times
31-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
BBC faces legal costs bill of more than €3m after jury finds it defamed Gerry Adams
The BBC is facing a legal costs bill of more €3 million after a High Court jury in Dublin found the broadcaster defamed Gerry Adams in a 2016 broadcast and related article, legal sources have said. The former Sinn Féin leader claimed the Spotlight programme and article defamed him by falsely accusing him of giving 'the final say' in the murder of MI5 informant Denis Donaldson at a cottage in Glenties, Co Donegal, in 2006. Mr Adams described the allegation during the trial as a 'grievous smear'. In finding he was defamed, the jury on Friday decided Mr Adams should be awarded €100,000 to vindicate and restore his reputation. Speaking outside court, Mr Adams said he took the case 'to put manners on the British Broadcasting Corporation', which he said 'upholds the ethos of the British state in Ireland'. READ MORE 'In my view, it's out of sync, in many, many fronts, with the Good Friday Agreement,' he said. Mr Adams called on Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan to meet Mr Donaldson's family and he said there was an onus on Irish and British governments to 'deal with these legacy issues as best we can'. He said he was 'very mindful' of the bereaved family during the trial. In a statement following the verdict, Jane Donaldson, daughter of the late Mr Donaldson, said Mr Adams had 'trivialised' her family's tragedy 'by reducing events which damaged our lives to debate about damage to his reputation'. He 'prioritised his own financial and reputational interests over any regard for retraumatising my family', she said. Ms Donaldson called for a public inquiry, with a cross-Border element, into her father's killing. 'We don't know who was involved, but we do need answers,' she said. Adam Smyth, director of BBC Northern Ireland, said the implications of the jury's decision were 'profound'. He thanked the jury, but expressed disappointment with the outcome. 'If the BBC's case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, it's hard to see how anyone's could,' he said. BBC Spotlight reporter Jennifer O'Leary said she had 'nothing to hide, only sources to protect'. The High Court trial lasted for 21 days and the costs must now be paid by the BBC, which is primarily funded by TV licence fee payers in Britain and Northern Ireland. The jury decided the BBC was not entitled to the defence under the defamation law that the material was published in good faith or was fair and reasonable journalism. Austin Stack, whose father Brian Stack was murdered in Dublin by the IRA in the 1980s, said he was 'extremely disappointed' by the jury's decision. 'It makes a mockery of the 1,800 people that the IRA and the republican movement killed. It is a complete mockery. It is like spitting on 1,800 graves, giving that man that money.' Mr Stack's father was shot outside the Boxing Stadium on a street of South Circular Road, Dublin, in 1983, and died 18 months after the shooting. 'The Sinn Féin people will tell you, move on,' he said. 'But they have their commemorations, their memorials. They say everyone should be able to remember their dead, but that's everybody bar the dead that the IRA created.' Mr Stack was one of a number of witnesses the BBC wanted to call but the trial judge, Mr Justice Alexander Owens, decided were not relevant to what the jury had to decide. Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin said 'everybody has a right to their good name, and the allegation that was in the programme was very damaging, as today's verdict shows, for Gerry's reputation, particularly among his peers'. 'But the real issue here is that it highlights the fact that the Donaldson family still have not got the truth,' he said. Democratic Unionist Party leader Gavin Robinson said the BBC had 'significant questions to answer.'
