GEORGE GALLOWAY KMACKERS IRISH WAKE

GEORGE GALLOWAY & MACKERS IRISH WAKE

As this Blog shows, my name is Brian Clarke but as I can personally testify, there is no Saint Brian, so I was christened Bernard and named after my Uncle Brian a priest. However I was censored a few days ago on Facebook and I had to provide identification, after which they changed my name to Bernard, so I hope that has not caused any misunderstanding. 

A few months ago, someone in some technical way, impersonated me on Facebook and sent extremely vulgar messages, to an innocent young woman on an Irish page. The purpose was obvious, political character assassination. The matter was investigated by an independent, trustworthy third party and found to be a matter of impersonation. Anyone who is familiar with me or this blog can come to their own conclusions after that.

I try when it comes to politics, to put principles before personalities but when certain well known, political personalities, portray themselves as freedom fighters, leftists or liberals and then proceed with aping the mainstream corporate media, with rampant fascist censorship, half truths, to silence debate, then it does produce a reaction in me, which I confess, is not always in a progressive direction but we have to stand up for ourselves sometimes and certainly in Ireland. 

Indymedia Ireland, George Galloway, the Pensive Quill, etc.,etc., etc.... to name but a few, are engaged in this activity on a huge scale, when it comes to many Irish people, who try to engage in political debate, in a non secretive way. There is an old saying, that we are as sick as our secrets and this culture of talking out of the side of the mouth, over many centuries, has developed in Ireland, with careful nurturing, by reactionary counter revolutionary forces, such as the British and the Catholic Church. 

Things are starting to change with the Catholic Church after the last Pope was fired and replaced by the new one from Argentina. However the British secret services continue, with both actual assassination and political assassination. There are thousands of Irish victims of this, from people like Parnell, Roger Casement, Daniel O'Connell to many thousands in their graves during the course of Irish history.

In the debate below, it was suggested that I take the matter up with the people concerned in debate.This isnot possible as they are hiding behind censorship, so this is the best best way, that I can explain, while they are skulking behind censorship and afraid of open, honest, debate.



Sheralee Nope still an irrelevant wee man. Fuck off and go back to being a cat.

Bernard Clarke I try not to hate because it has no future but the fascist censorship of Galloway and the Pensive Quill is doing the Brits work for them! Go raibh maith agat Fionnuala

Mairead  He turned his coat to didnt he nuala? Xxx

Mairead  Thsnks nuala xxx

Fionnuala  Mairead he was totally against breaking up the Union, yet he is against other aggressive forms of occupation ? It doesn't really add up x

Mairead  He id a laughing stalk nuala xxx

Bernard Clarke Exactly, the inconsistency of both reveals they are at best chancers!

Tommy  He should be boycotted in Ireland.

  I never liked the man.

Paddy  Fuck off u horriblr little bastard. Even now ur tryin to b noticed instead of crawlin back under rock u came from. Have u no shame?

Fionnuala  Brian he's was forceful in defending a link to a country that is still up its elbows in blood .

Anne  Hes an idiot yet again money talks.

Fionnuala  Tommy I did like him, I thought he was progressive and articulate, especially in relation to Iraq. Now he is singing the praises of the country instrumental in bringing The Iraq war about.

Fionnuala  That's it Anne dosh x

Celtic  He has become a parody of himself sharing a stage with the tories and backing them up was a disgrace

Seamus  mr.Dickhead

Anne  Lol seamus right to the point ha ha

Rebel  The man is a unionist and he did what unionists do he backed the union.

Mary  cant belive it aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

Anne  Hes now proceeding to block everyone from his fb me being one of them lol no loss

Mairead  Let him go and fk anne xxx

Anne  Lol

Mairead  Lol xxx

Bernard Clarke Ego can make the best mad. Himself and the Pensive Quill are two mental masturbators!

Anne  Omg Bernard ha ha

Roisin  Wanker!!!!

Paddy  No sittin on the fence wa u Roisin. Lol xx

Bernard Clarke St. Paddy's Fleas - I'm a wanker 

• 
  

  

  
  
  St. Paddy's Fleas - I'm a wanker
  
  
  Our first rehearsal.

Elizabeth NICE ONE CHARA, TAL, SLAINTE X.


Roisin Sorry uncle Paddy!! Lol I cannot stand hypocrites & he stood shoulder to shoulder with the Tories! I'm now actually thinking I was kind calling him that, he's vermin! Xx

Paddy  U wer bein more than kind lv. Hes a fkin slug! Xx


Frank  love the man


Frank  my hero


Bernard Clarke Love is Blind Frank!


Frank  must be be big shudder

Bernard Clarke  more like the shudders below!

Frank dont tell me ar roisin


Frank  oh well


Frank

Fionnuala Frank it's the contradictions people have the problem with. Maybe you can explain why he wanted a country to remain unified with England, a country that he accused of mass murder in other countries?


Mairead  Hear hear nuala



Sean Bresnahan Fascist censorship of TPQ? There's a new one



Roisin  He's all for Ireland's occupied 6 counties but doesn't want freedom for his own country?? WTF!! He was also quoted once of saying he would bow outta politics if he ever stood side by side with a Tory so bye then ya snake!!!



Fionnuala  Sean, Mackers put up with me, and although it may have been through gritted teeth, he done it all the same.


Sean Bresnahan Exactly Nuala, this clown has a long-standing agenda when it comes to Tony and can fuck right off. Why do you's think this nut-ball has changed his name from Brian to 'Bernard'? I recall a young girl on the Ruairi O'Bradaigh tribute page stating he bombarded her with private messages asking for pictures of her undressed or something very similar. He should not be free to come on here and run the best of good people down the twisted piece of shit


Bernard Clarke It was checked and found to be scurrilous lies and libel. Check with Criostoir! The Quill admits to being a fascist censor as for Galloway his picture says a thousand words.

Bernard Clarke I did not change my name, Facebook changed my name !


Frank  never knew that


Dezie Cannae Scots. Knew full well all you do is replace one tyrant for another and it doesn't make it any better if they are your own they usually end up with thirty pieces of silver and a plumb job in Europe


Sean Bresnahan I've just asked representatives from Republican Sinn Fein and it was never cleared at all according to them



Frank  scotlanmd tried


Frank  thiy were never goanna win


Fionnuala  Frank they didn't entirely lose. Scotland took them to the wire and as we can observe, they were shaken. Galloway toured the country presenting a pro Union case, why?


Bernard Clarke THEPENSIVEQUILL
Censor Offender GET A NEW PAIR OF GLASSES BRESNIHAN


Sean Bresnahan MI5 were all over that count like white on rice as the saying goes. As for this other header on here ranting about Mackers RSF are after telling me he's blocked from everything to do with them as he's a total lunatic


Dezie Listen to the message the tories want a regional federation, it would make the UK more competitive, regions in charge of their own fiscal affairs but being torie you could not stand up and shout it out loud, look at Ireland for cryin out loud a perfect poster boy of obedience and compliance, grandsons and daughters sold out the country for quick gain took 8 billion from the UK and god knows how many billions from Europe, the saying that the righteous shall inherit the earth is so true, met a man from donegal who had a rental property in Dublin his comments rent to any one but irish, "the foreigners just want to work and don't have people coming round all the time " were his words.


Bernard Clarke Top Left of Fascist Quill



Sean Bresnahan The people of Ireland never got or took a penny from Britain - the British establishment bailed out their own banking interests in the Irish Free State as they were overly-exposed to toxic debts of their own making


Anne  Think this is going to far bernard people are trying to have a debate here uve made ur point


Sean Bresnahan It was about propping up British financial interests not only in Ireland but in Britain itself - con-job of the century


Dezie Well the irish banking regulator, some joke,and the Laurel and Hardy tag team, and the irish people keep voting for will I or won't I, I think the best of us got deported to oz two hundred years ago. It's almost hereditary the fear that is handed down from generation to generation, maybe a good period of percicution would tidy up this country



Fionnuala   I once listened to Edwina Curry complaining about how much it was costing the 'mainland' to keep the North afloat. Not a word about the fact, we have the lowest wages, the highest food prices and are excessively taxed through tied trade, and rate very high in the poverty, especially child poverty stakes.
Not a word about, how pre 69 there were people, exclusively Catholics living in dire housing and suffering from diseases only found in so called 'Third World Countries.' To say nothing about being denied votes.
The so called mainland bled us dry through trade and aid, just as they did the world over.
Theft, manipulation and murder runs through Britannia and that's what Galloway encouraged people to vote for!


Mairead  Hear hear nuala well put


Sean Bresnahan Hear hear is right


Bernard Clarke Anne you may be right but traditional Republicans as you well know are fair minded people and if somebody wrote the lies above about you, I am sure you would demand an apology. Genuine Freedom Fighters do not engage in fascist censorship or defend it. Irish republicanism is about Principles before personalities. Some of these people need to read the writings of Terence McSweeney about republican conduct. I've made many mistakes myself but an honourable and fair minded man or woman makes an apology when he realizes it. Galloway and the Quill are fair game because of their obvious public inconsistenties.


Anne  Im sure your right bernard but this is for debate not attacking people.if u want to do this put it on ur own page not Anne Devlin then people really intrested can read and comment directly to you.Our page is not for this.


Dezie Hi p yes all that happened, but there has been plenty of time since to make this nation a great place some how I believe God works in mysterious ways, we had our chance during the tiger we took it and blew it.when will these people get it that there is no such thing as a free lunch borrowing billions to pay every day costs while money bags has you by the neck and while you live like that you'll be anyone's whore.


Fionnuala  Brian I think Anne is concerned, that the debate is straying well off topic.
Sean Bres is the very essence of a fair minded Republican.
Both Sean and myself have written on TPQ for years and we have found Anthony to be a very fair arbiter of our opinions.
Neither of us see a connection between the Quill and Galloway and we would be behaving quite unfairly not to point out our experience as we have found it.


Bernard  I contribute to Fionnnuala's photo who has thus far not censored me. People who read this page can decide for themselves.


Sean  Tony Mackers a fascist... I've heard it all. You're as bad as the scum in Sinn Fein who have put this man down at every opportunity. Your shite as the girls have said has no place here


Anne  Bernard I owe you an apology of sorts as I mistakenly thought we were on anne devlins page.But still stand by what I said about personal attacks


Fionnuala  Hi O Donnell, we did not benefit from the Celtic Tiger, or as Denis O Hearn, rightly labelled it the, 'Celtic Kitten.'
How could we make the North a great nation? It's a state enveloped by restrictive trade and aid legislation?
Are you speaking about the 'Free State'?
Our political prostitutes may have benefited but the people didn't.
I might be a good idea if you clarified, where you are speaking about and stuck to facts.


Mairead  Well said nuala


Anne



Fionnuala  Too right Anne x


Anne  Very apt lol


Bernard Clarke I thank Ms Perry for the the right to say my piece. People can come to their own conclusions themselves. You are an honourable woman Anne. The last thing I want to say is that Censorship and Freedom do not walk hand in hand, the Nazi's made bonefires out of books in Germany. St Paddy's Fleas say the rest!


Anne  God almighty bernard if mackers censored you should you not be taking it up with him .personal grudges are not of interest to us. Good night sir

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NEW EMPIRE BRITAIN Genocidal Imperialism

NEW BRITISH EMPIRE - Evil, Bloody and Genocidal Imperialism

The essential feature of British imperial method: to blame its crimes on others, and rally its colonial victims, such as the Arabs, against the United States. The core of British imperial method has always been to rule through orchestrating conflict and war, made possible by systematically organizing, funding, protecting, and deploying the most irrational and violent, opposing, sides, of each and every important conflict, anywhere in the world.

Home British Genocides British Intelligence British-Israelism British-Massacres British Racism British Terrorism Global Chaos Northern Ireland Prince Philip Satanism

New British Empire - Evil, Bloody and Genocidal Imperialism Commonwealth of Nations with it's British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies The Commonwealth of Nations consists of 53 member states and it is the successor of the British Empire. Queen Elizabeth is the monarch of the Commonwealth of Nations and the Commonwealth realms which consists of 16 member states.  It was once said that "the sun never sets on the British Empire", and the British Overseas Territories still extend to every geographic region of the world, with the Caribbean Overseas Territories in North America, the Falklands in South America, Saint Helena and Dependencies in Africa, Pitcairn in Oceania, Gibraltar in Europe, British Indian Ocean Territory in Asia, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in Antarctica. The 14 British overseas territories are: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Turks and Caicos Islands. The head of state in the overseas territories is the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II.  The Crown Dependencies are possessions of The Crown in Right of the United Kingdom, as opposed to overseas territories or colonies of the United Kingdom. They comprise the Channel Island bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. They are possessions of the British Crown they are not sovereign nations in their own right, and the power to pass legislation affecting the islands rests ultimately with their own legislative assemblies, with the assent of the Crown (Privy Council). (Source: Wikipedia). Now the British Empire today, contrary to what most people are misled to believe, is still an empire, but of a very special form. It's called the Commonwealth. Most people don't know how the British Empire functions. The British Parliament is a joke. It's an adaptation, a reform of the Monarchy. It does not run the Monarchy. The Queen runs from the top down, through a Privy Council. Number One on the Privy Council, after the Queen, is a whole lot of other people, about 500. These 500 people run the British Empire, including the apparatus of its old Colonial Office. The Colonial Office was never disbanded. They call it the Overseas Development Office now. The Crown Agents who ran the colonies still function. They operate whole countries around the world. In the minds of the political, industrial, and intellectual elites of the overwhelming majority of nations of the world today, there exists a deadly dangerous myth: that the British Empire has disappeared from the face of the Earth; and that Great Britain, the United Kingdom, is of little consequence in world affairs. According to this fairy tale, Britain's royal family is a powerless relic of days gone by, collecting its modest pension, fulfilling its ceremonial obligations, and, perhaps, drawing in a few tourist dollars, to justify its upkeep. In the extreme version of this Big Lie, today's Britain is cast in the role of a benign force in world affairs, a "friend of the downtrodden" and "diligent defender of human rights." The authorship of both of these complementary hoaxes - the demise of the British Empire, and its replacement by the U.S.A. as the new "Great Satan" - is traceable to Britain's own vast propaganda and intelligence apparatus, associated with such institutions as British Broadcasting Corp., Reuters News Service, the Hollinger Corp., the Tavistock Institute, the Mont Pelerin Society, Oxford and Cambridge universities, the British Commonwealth, and His Royal Highness Prince Philip's World Wildlife Fund (WWF, now the World Wide Fund for Nature). The British Empire is very much alive and well today. Behind closed doors at such locations as Chatham House, the London headquarters of the Royal Institute for International Affairs (RIIA), blueprints for the consolidation of one-world empire, drawing upon the resources of the British Commonwealth and the United Nations Organization (UNO), have already been drawn up, and construction is under way. The United Kingdom itself has very little to do with the new British Empire. England, Scotland, Wales, and, especially, Northern Ireland, are today little more than slave plantations and social engineering laboratories, serving the needs of a collection of families, numbering no more than 3,000-5,000 people, who live and work in and around the City of London, a one-mile-square financial and corporate district, which represents the greatest concentration of financial power ever assembled in one location. These families constitute a financier oligarchy; they are the power behind the Windsor throne. Among their own ranks, these financier oligarchs refer to themselves as the Club of the Isles, after the original "Prince of the Isles" Edward Albert (King Edward VII), the son of Queen Victoria, who orchestrated the Crimean War, the Opium Wars, the Russo-Japanese War, and World War I, to consolidate Britain as the primus inter pares (first among equals) of the European monarchies and feudal families. The City of London dominates the world's speculative markets. A tightly interlocking group of corporations, involved in raw materials extraction, finance, insurance, transportation, and food production, controls the lion's share of the world market, and exerts virtual "choke point" control over world industry. "Queen Elizabeth II the largest landowner on Earth."  Queen Elizabeth II, head of state of the United Kingdom and of 31 other states and territories, is the legal owner of about 6,600 million acres of land, one sixth of the earth's non ocean surface. She is the only person on earth who owns whole countries, and who owns countries that are not her own domestic territory...The value of her land holding. £17,600,000,000,000 (approx)...This makes her the richest individual on earth...Her holding is based on the laws of the countries she owns and her land title is valid in all the countries she owns. Her main holdings are Canada, the 2nd largest country on earth, with 2,467 million acres, Australia, the 7th largest country on earth with 1,900 million acres, the Papua New Guinea with114 million acres, New Zealand with 66 million acres and the UK with 60 million acres...(Source: Who Owns the World) Queen Elizabeth II is the grand-daughter of Queen Victoria The opium drug wars were Queen Victoria's little wars and here are references about these wars at Wikipedia: Opium Wars First Opium War Second Opium War  Queen's Cayman Islands The islands of the Caribbean have long played a key role in the British Empire's assault against the United States. The Brits set up the offshore banking centers in the Caribbean to pave the way for the explosion of narcotics out of Ibero-America, then used the proceeds from the dope trade to take over the U.S. financial system. The most important of the Caribbean offshore financial centers is the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory run by a royal governor appointed by Queen Elizabeth II. The Caymans are mainly a mail drop and regulation-free zone, a place where hot money is welcome and few questions are asked. Companies register themselves in the Caymans in order to take advantage of the tax breaks, lax regulations, and secrecy provided by the British. It is well known in law enforcement circles that the dope trade would quickly choke on its own cash were not a significant portion of the global financial system devoted to money laundering, and the offshore centers in the Caribbean were set up to facilitate the South American drug trade, and have expanded with it. Overseeing the Caymans financial system are a brace of imperial operatives. The royal governor, Stuart Duncan Jack, is a knighted Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority is run by Timothy Ridley, who was made a knight of the Order of the British Empire. The Center for Economic Growth is run by Richard Rahn, a member of the oligarchic Mont Pelerin Society.

The British use the UK media for mass psychological warfare. The UK media is carefully manipulated and directed in order to create and mold popular opinion. The center of this mass psychological warfare apparatus is based outside London in the Tavistock Institute.

EVE OF DESTRUCTION George Galloway

New York Times appoints BBC's old boss, as new boss !

Mr Thompson has been director general of the BBC since 2004

Continue reading the main story

The New York Times Company has announced that BBC director general Mark Thompson is to become its chief executive and president in November.

The NYT runs national and regional newspapers and websites and said his experience in digital media on a global scale made him the "ideal candidate".

Mr Thompson, 55, said he was "excited" to take on the role.

He took over as director general in 2004 and is responsible for the BBC's TV, radio and online services.

He started his career as a production trainee at the BBC in 1979 before leaving in 2002 to become chief executive of Channel 4 television.

At the beginning of July the BBC announced that George Entwistle would replace Mr Thompson as director general on 17 September.

"Mark is a gifted executive with strong credentials whose leadership at the BBC helped it to extend its trusted brand identity into new digital products and services," said NYT chairmann Arthur Sulzberger in a statement.

For his part, Mr Thompson said it was a "privilege" to take on the role.

"I'm particularly excited to be coming to New York Times Company as it extends its influence digitally and globally," he said.

The company, which owns the New York Times, International Herald Tribune and the Boston Globe newspapers, posted revenues of $2.3bn (£1.47bn) in 2011.

The company has been without a chief executive since Janet Robinson stepped down in December 2011.

MEDIA FREE MARIAN PRICE END INTERNMENT WITHOUT TRIAL

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The 12th, Marian Price, gay issues... George Galloway talks tough in Belfast

By Jane Hardy
Thursday, 9 August 2012

George Galloway

•  ENLARGE

MP George Galloway has said that dissident republican Marian Price should be freed.

The politician was speaking last night at the Belfast Feile.

He told the West Belfast Talks Back session: “The courts freed Marian Price so she should be freed”, adding he did not support her “political line” and if she reoffended she should be charged and brought before the courts.

Mr Galloway then revealed he had just spoken to the 58-year-old prisoner, convicted of bombing the Old Bailey, while talking to her husband Jerry McGlinchey.

“I have just spoken to her on the phone for the first time and she's not a well woman,” he said. “For all the damning with faint praise, and Ruth Dudley Edwards' reference to her ‘remarkable recovery’ (after Price's 1973 hunger strike), the courts decreed she should be released and it's time to free Marian Price.”

Alongside Mr Galloway on the panel was a rainbow coalition of opinion-makers and politicians: DUP MP Gregory Campbell, author Ruth Dudley Edwards and Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly.

The first half of the debate discussed, without resolving, Syria and the Middle East question.

Opinion divided pretty much along sectarian lines, with Galloway and Kelly regarding Western inaction on Syria as hypocrisy and part of a ploy to destabilise Iran.

Gregory Campbell and Ruth Dudley Edwards, in different ways, pointed out the complexity of the situation and the fact that the situation after any Western intervention might not look better than before.

After broadening talk out to Israel and Palestine, Ms Edwards caused some hissing in the audience by suggesting the Feile might introduce an Israeli representative to “hear the other side”.

It then moved on to gay issues which led to some agonising from Mr Campbell, although his statement of concern that marriage between a man and a woman could be undermined by acceptance of the “lifestyle” of the lesbian and gay community received surprising support from George Galloway.

The Respect MP for West Bradford caused amusement by saying you couldn't promote homosexuality — “you either are or you aren't” — and adding that attendance at any number of Pride marches would not change his orientation.

The debate turned to recent trouble over July 12, with a discussion over whether the Orange Order should be banned following a band's misbehaviour and the singing of ‘The Famine Song’ outside a Catholic church.

Discussion was fierce, and intensified later between Messrs Campbell and Kelly over whether the former would ever shake hands with the latter.

You can only hope that these exchanges are in some way cathartic.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/the-12th-marian-price-gay-issues-george-galloway-talks-tough-in-belfast-16195641.html#ixzz23AQvzGTb

Reply to Owen Paterson on Marian Price - 

 Irish Independent  Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Sandy Boyer in a letter takes the North of Ireland's political boss to task over hisGuardian letter which fed disinformation on Marian Price

Owen Paterson, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, has written a letter to the editor of The Guardian (London) attempting to justify imprisoning Marian Price. I’ve included his letter below.

Paterson makes two essential points:

• That Marian Price was released on “license”, parole in American terms, which he had the right to revoke.
• That he does not have the legal right to release her because it can only be done by the Parole Commission.

Unfortunately for Mr. Paterson, neither is true.

He claims she received a royal pardon “the Royal Prerogative of Mercy” for a 20 year sentence related to the Old Bailey bombing but was on license for a life term for the same bombing.

If so, this would have been a strange and meaningless order. Granting a pardon for a 20 year sentence while simultaneously releasing someone on license from a life sentence would have achieved absolutely nothing.

If Mr. Paterson seriously believes the royal pardon doesn’t apply to Marian Price’s life sentence, all he has to do is produce it. Instead he states that the only copy of the pardon has been lost or shredded. Marian Price’s solicitor, Peter Corrigan, says that this is the only time in the entire history of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy that a pardon has gone missing.

Paterson also states that he can’t release Marian Price because “It would be outrageous for any secretary of state to do anything other than adhere strictly to the law.”

But the Life Sentences (NI) Order 2001 proclaimed by “Her Majesty” provides explicitly that “The Secretary of State may at any time release a life prisoner on licence if he is satisfied that exceptional circumstances exist which justify the prisoner’s release on compassionate grounds.”

There could hardly be more “compassionate grounds” for releasing Marian Price. United Nations doctors who examined her in July reported she was “unable to comprehend the allegations being made against her to sufficient degree to inform her defence” and that “she would be unable to follow the evidence in her own hearing as she lacks the ability to attend to detailed evidence”. She is presently hospitalized with pneumonia.

If Owen Paterson is serious about enforcing British law, he should release Marian Price immediately.

Sandy Boyer
Free Marian Price Campaign, US

Owen Paterson letter to The Guardian

You refer in your editorial (Northern Ireland: keep focused, 28 July) to the case of Marian McGlinchey (nee Price). I should be grateful for the opportunity to set out the facts.

Marian McGlinchey received two life sentences in 1973 for her part in the Old Bailey bombing. She was subsequently released on licence in 1980. At the same time she was granted the royal prerogative of mercy (RPM) in respect of a separate conviction which carried a 20-year fixed term sentence. The RPM did not cover her life sentences.

All life sentence prisoners remain on licence for life. They can be recalled at any time if they breach the conditions of their licence or pose a risk of serious harm to the public. A similar system was endorsed by the previous government in the legislation to give effect to the part of the Belfast Agreement that dealt with the early release of prisoners.

Before revoking a prisoner's licence under the Life Sentences (Northern Ireland) Order 2001, however, the secretary of state must first seek a recommendation from the wholly independent parole commissioners. This is what I did in the case of Marian McGlinchey; their recommendation was that she was in breach of her life licence. Consistent with my overriding responsibility in Northern Ireland for public safety, and in accordance with the law, she was returned to prison.

The independent parole commissioners are now reviewing the case in full. If they are satisfied that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that the prisoner should be confined, then they may direct the prisoner's release. The prisoner has full legal representation and can challenge the case made against her; Marian McGlinchey has yet to do this. The decision of the parole commissioners is final and cannot be overruled by the secretary of state.

It would be outrageous for any secretary of state to do anything other than adhere strictly to the law. Yet the clear inference in your editorial is that I should discard due process and interfere politically in this case. That would fatally undermine the rule of law in Northern Ireland. That is not something I am prepared to do.

Owen Paterson MP

Secretary of state for Northern Ireland