Derry court bomb was substantial

Security alert at the Diamond in LondonderryA substantial bomb has caused a security alert in Londonderry

The police in Northern Ireland have described a bomb at the centre of a security alert in Londonderry as a “substantial viable device”.

District Commander, Stephen Martin, said it could have caused death or serious injury.

Dozens of elderly residents were moved from a sheltered housing development due to the alert.

Fifteen choirboys, some of them as young as seven, were told to get out of the nearby St Columb’s Cathedral.

The alert followed a telephone bomb warning which was received at about 1845 BST on Sunday.

District Commander Martin said that the police would try to return the area to normal as soon as possible, but they would be “cautious”.

“A device like this would have caused considerable devastation”

Stephen Martin PSNI District Commander

“If a bomb such as this had gone off it would have killed or seriously injured people,” he said.

“It would have caused substantial damage to nearby property; to the courthouse, to the Masonic Hall, to the Deanery, to other residents.

“It would have probably damaged the residential home, Alexander House.

“It’s just a highly built up residential part of the city within the walls and a device this size would have caused considerable devastation.”

He also said that police patrols had been increased in response to a perceived increase in the risk of violence.

“It’s two years since the threat in Northern Ireland has been escalated to severe and acts like this are a strong possibility,” he said.

“They can come at any time without warning.”

Dean William Morton of St Columb’s Cathedral described the incident as a “logistical nightmare”.

He contacted parents of choirboys who were at the Cathedral for a rehearsal for the opera, Tosca.

“It’s achieving absolutely nothing other than galvanising the resolve on the part of the huge majority of people here to move ahead,” he said.

“I am sure it will all be cleared and life will continue.”

Sinn Fein MLA, Martina Anderson, said the device was out of step with the views of the vast majority of the people of the city.

“We are all of the view that an attack on any place in this city is an attack on us all.”

SDLP representative Pat Ramsey said the residents who had to leave Alexander House, were “distressed, angry and frustrated” at what had happened.

“Even with people who have not been evacuated there is a sense of confusion, because in the city centre there are a lot of residential areas in and around this particular area,” he added.

The DUP’s William Hay appealed for whatever resources were necessary in dealing with the threat of violence to be made available to the PSNI.

“There’s no doubt about it,” he said, “where it was placed it was to cause maximum damage to property and lives.”

The UUP Councillor, Mary Hamilton, condemned the bomb.

“We are trying to move on and look towards a city of culture and this is certainly not helping.”

Community worker, Charlie McMenamin, helped to transport the residents to another sheltered housing facility.

“Obviously being elderly they’re upset,” he said.

“They’re not used to this situation where they’re being moved around without any sort of notice.

He said one woman had told him, “I am sorry I moved to Derry.”

The security alert is ongoing, with traffic being diverted away from the Bishop Street area.

Court hearings at the courthouse on Monday have been moved to other courts.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

One, two, three…

Embankment in LondonOne, two, three, four…

The number of protesters in London on Saturday has been estimated anywhere from 250,000 to 500,000. So is it possible to count?

No one knows exactly how many people joined the march and rally against spending cuts.

As the march finished in Hyde Park, the Trades Union Congress, which organised the event, estimated there was about 250,000.

On the following day, they were saying it was between 400,000 and 500,000. So how do they count?

“It’s an inexact science, which is why we’re not making any very, very accurate claims,” says Nigel Stanley, head of TUC campaigns.

“We have been piecing together information from yesterday and think we’re close to half a million people.”

The answerMeasuring capacity of streets where crowds assemble and applying formula according to how densely packed it isAllowing for the dynamic nature of a march by working out how long it takes to pass different pointsThe police get an idea simply from experience

There are two ways of estimating numbers, he says. One is drawn from having a rough idea in advance of the capacity of streets in the area where people gathered for the start of the march.

“We know that the whole of Victoria Embankment was full but backing up to Lower Thames Street and people were in all adjacent roads and across the bridges,” says Stanley

This advance planning involves studying very precise maps with measurements of streets, and then multiplying the width by the length to get the area, he says. Then you apply a rule of thumb that three people per square metre is comfortable and four is like a rock concert. On Saturday, it was probably about 3.5 per square metre, organisers estimate.

This calculation, helped by having a TUC representative in the police control room looking at CCTV, prompted the early and more modest estimates, says Stanley.

But then a second stage of calculations is required, to allow for the fact this is a moving group, with many people joining the march late. This requires some knowledge of how long the march takes to pass a particular point in the road.

“We know it took more than four hours to pass any point, and that the crowd was quite dense. A combination of these two ways, plus conversations with the police and others experienced in this, led us to revise the figure from 250,000 to nearer 500,000.”

WHO, WHAT, WHY?

Question mark

A part of BBC News Magazine, Who, What, Why? aims to answer questions behind the headlines

It would be better to always supply a caveat of a 20% margin of error but the media demand for accurate numbers is an impossible one to meet, he adds.

Of course, organisers of any demonstration are always open to accusations they inflate the numbers for their own ends.

That’s why the police sometimes estimate numbers too. At a demonstration in London in 2003 against the Iraq War, organisers said nearly two million people took part, although police put the figure at 750,000.

At the weekend, the police were not making any claims about numbers because they were happy with those being supplied by the TUC.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said the force only does so when it disagrees with the figures being given by those organising an event, and their counting methods rely on experience more than science.

“We don’t normally give out numbers and would point people to organisers, it’s their march. But we do know what certain areas can hold in terms of people. For example, on New Year’s Eve, we know the strip along the Embankment by the London Eye holds a certain number.

“We can’t be that accurate unless we stand there counting but with those kinds of numbers, you can’t do that. Experienced officers get an accurate idea of what they are looking at but we wouldn’t usually go on the record with it.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

American dream

Sylvia Boyd

Sylvia Boyd, a housewife from California who became a Tupperware hostess and millionaire, talks about what the American Dream means to her.

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A sense of fulfilment and personal and financial success are factors often associated with the American Dream. For Sylvia Boyd, success came in the shape of the airtight, plastic storage boxes that made her a Tupperware millionaire.

“I can’t even begin to imagine what life would have been without it, without any part of it, the people, the success, the product, the money we made. I mean every area of our life is impacted,” says Sylvia Boyd.

In the 1950s she was a housewife, living in California. A former child actress, she had left high school, married her husband Jon, a Los Angeles city fireman, and had two children. However that life of domestic devotion soon became frustrating.

“I was home all day, kind of bored, just talking baby talk most of the day,” she said. “Jon was gone 24 hours on, 24 hours off.”

“There was no question that we [women] had a niche – in the kitchen, in the house,” she said.

“Most of us did not have a car in the daytime and in the night-time we didn’t go out anyway. If we did it was with our husband and generally that was only on the weekend.

“We didn’t get babysitters very much… it could be a very stagnating kind of an atmosphere to live in.”

However one day Sylvia was invited to a party that would change her life.

“We lived in a typical post-war neighbourhood with California bungalows and everybody was young and everybody had babies and was having babies.

“I went to the [Tupperware] party, watched the girl that was putting on the party and I thought, I know I could do that.”

Lifting the lid on Tupperware

Women gather at a Tupperware home party in 1958

Invented by Earl Tupper, Tupperware was first introduced to the consumer in 1946At first customers did not understand how the new airtight seals worked and the products did not sell well in retail storesThe first Tupperware party was hosted in 1948 in order to demonstrate the range within the homeThe parties proved a popular career choice for women as a flexible way to earn money after World War IIBy the 1990s “Rush Hour” and “Office” parties were created for those in a hurryIn the 21st Century, new sales opportunities arrived in the shape of the internet and shopping mall demonstrations

Sylvia became a Tupperware hostess in 1956, holding parties three times a week in which women would gather together to be shown and then sold various lines from the polyethylene range.

“We’d show the features and the benefits of the product and talk about the lifetime guarantee,” said Sylvia. “I mean what can you buy for 49 cents that 15 years later if it cracks we’ll give you a brand new one, no questions asked.”

The Tupperware parties were known for their fun, flamboyant atmosphere. When releasing a new product range, Sylvia’s husband Jon would often attend the party dressed up as a “Tupperlady” in a long yellow wig, thong, pinafore and holding a feather duster.

However there was a strict dress code for the real Tupperware ladies. Skirts and tights had to be worn at all times – never trousers or bare legs – and white gloves often accompanied the outfit.

Sylvia would use a technique called “carrot calling” to help book the parties:

“We would go door to door in a neighbourhood and say ‘I would love for you to run an experiment for me’. I have a bunch of carrots with me and a Tupperware container and I’d like to leave it with you today if you’ll allow me.

“Put this carrot in anything that you would ordinarily leave it in and let’s put this one in Tupperware. I’d show her how to seal it… and then we’d come back and inevitably we’d date a party because they’d be so amazed.”

A richer life

Four years on, in 1960, Sylvia and her husband were offered their own distributorship in Indiana. Her husband gave up his job as a fireman and the move was a gamble:

“We had $5,000 to our name. That was from selling our house and all of our furniture. The only thing we kept was a mattress that we put in the back of our station wagon.

Sylvia and Jon BoydWith their financial success, Sylvia and Jon Boyd were able to live more comfortably

“The kids laid on it all the way from California to Fort Wayne, Indiana.”

The business grew 500% in the first year and became one of the top 25 distributorships in America in the second year. But after three years the family were given the chance to move their business back home to Los Angeles.

The success continued and in 1983 Sylvia was appointed to Tupperware staff, becoming only the third female regional vice president in the company’s history.

Although Tupperware made Sylvia a millionaire, she believes the American Dream is more than just achieving financial security, It is also having the opportunity to fulfil your own potential no matter what your start in life.

“Tupperware was the first dream that ever came to me and to all the people that I worked with, and that definitely said to us it doesn’t matter how much money you have, we will help you get started.

“We will provide the product and you know you can make as much as you’re willing to work at.”

“So Tupperware was just like it dropped out of heaven.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Internet pioneer Paul Baran dies

Paul Baran, APMr Baran was recognised for his work in 2007 when he was awarded a National Medal of Technology
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US scientist Paul Baran, whose work in the 1960s helped pave the way for the internet, has died aged 84.

Mr Baran thought up the idea of making communication networks resilient to attack or traffic surges by splitting the data sent over them into chunks.

His pioneering work was carried out in connection with Cold War military research.

It would later form the basis of the academic network Arpanet which eventually led to the internet.

Mr Baran first put forward the idea of slicing data into “message blocks” and using a distributed system of nodes to pass them on when working at the Rand Corporation in the mid-1960s.

In his initial conception, Mr Baran said the system would operate by what he called “hot-potato routing”.

The work was done as part of a project to keep telecommunications networks operating even if a large part of them was knocked out by a first strike nuclear attack.

The system would be better able to withstand an attack because it lacked a central hub through which all data or messages passed.

This work found new relevance during the early days of the Arpanet, a network designed to aid US scientists communicate and which laid the foundations of the modern-day internet.

Contributions from British scientist Donald Davies led to Mr Baran’s ideas being adapted into a technology known as packet switching. This cuts data up into small chunks that are then despatched around the network.

“Paul wasn’t afraid to go in directions counter to what everyone else thought was the right or only thing to do,” Vinton Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet and a longtime friend of Baran, told the New York Times.

Mr Baran died at home in Palo Alto, California from complications caused by lung cancer.

“He was a man of infinite patience,” said his son David Baran.

He added that his father had recently shown him a paper written in 1966 which speculated about what people would do with the telecommunication networks in the future.

“It spelled out this idea that by the year 2000 that people would be using online networks for shopping and news,” he said. “It was an absolute lunatic fringe idea.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Seeing yellow

Parking ticket

Most people who get a parking ticket seethe with anger, pay up and get on with life. But thousands of motorists now become amateur sleuths, chronicling confusing “signs and lines” in a battle against the authorities, writes Neil Bennett.

Some people might bracket parking tickets with death and taxes as one of life’s inevitabilities.

But what if you parked on double yellows long worn away or missed a sign covered with ivy, or failed to spot the notice 100 yards away suspending your usual parking spot?

Thousands of motorists every year challenge councils over tickets and when those appeals are refused they can end up at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, the independent body which covers 250 local councils in England and Wales. It is based in Manchester but arranges personal hearings around the country.

The not-free car park

The logistics officerfrom Hatfield in Hertfordshire left his car to go on holiday in what had been a free car park for years.

When he came back he found new notices up indicating that this was now a paying car park.

And, naturally, there was a parking ticket on his windscreen.

Welwyn Hatfield Council wouldn’t listen to his argument that the signs had gone up after he had parked.

The tribunal did. Ticket cancelled.

A startling 60% of appeals are successful, with many uncontested by councils. But a day spent at the tribunal suggests that it is worthwhile to get out a digital camera and gather evidence the next time you get an unfair ticket.

The Chief Adjudicator for England and Wales, Caroline Sheppard, is a jolly, no-nonsense barrister, who designed the appeal system more than 10 years ago. She seems to understand the daily frustrations of life in the controlled parking zone, and dealing with unbending officials at the town hall.

“The government and local authorities perceive parking as a form of anti-social behaviour,” she says. “Councils should be more considerate in the way they deal with people and not adopt a zero-tolerance approach. You do look at some appeals and ask how could the council have rejected that.”

So what of the tribunal’s approach?

Fiona Allen, 50, head of human resources for a consultancy group, got a parking ticket in a council car park in Milton Keynes. She had paid but the council said she was in the “red zone” and had only paid the rate for the “purple zone”. Mrs Allen says that it was impossible to distinguish between the two and produced the photographs to prove it.

“I completely agree,” Chief Adjudicator Sheppard told her. “I will instruct Milton Keynes council to cancel the ticket.”

Yellow linesMany drivers feel wrongfully ticketed but do nothing

Mrs Allen felt vindicated. “I feel really strongly about this. The ticket was inherently unfair – just a money earner for Milton Keynes. They rely on you giving in and just paying.”

It’s natural that a solicitor would do their evidential homework. Lawyer Keith Whitehorn, 54, tried to pay for two hours parking outside the county court in Watford. The ticket machine wouldn’t accept his coins.

Although he reported the fault immediately and left a message on the council’s voicemail offering to pay by other means, a ticket was waiting for him.

The council insisted that when their engineer checked, the machine was working. Mr Whitehorn’s research uncovered the council’s log which showed that this is the outcome in 25% of cases where the public report faults.

“Councils appear to dismiss every submission,” says Mr Whitehorn, “on the slavish principle that unless their engineer finds a fault, then we must be at fault.” Appeal allowed.

Ali Shah’s case shows the lengths that some motorists will go to to challenge a council. The 38-year-old security manager had travelled with his wife and two-year-old daughter from Ilford in Essex to Northampton to start looking for a new house.

Spotting a flaw

Tiko Rawlinson-Winder, a 36-year-old lawyer, caught Reading council out on a technicality.

His car was filmed in the bus lane in Wokingham Road, Reading.

But when the evidence arrived in the post, the camera was listed as being located in London Road.

So, Mr Rawlinson-Winder asked, where was the proof that the contravention was actually committed where the council said it was?

Adjudicator Sheppard thanked him for “an extremely learned dissertation on the subject of CCTV evidence” and allowed his appeal.

While they went into McDonald’s, having paid to park, they got a ticket because they were in a loading bay. The council noted that there was a sign indicating this but admitted that the lines on the road weren’t clear.

“They have been wholly unreasonable,” the adjudicator tells him. “They should not have troubled you any further. I shall instruct them to cancel the ticket and explain to me why they shouldn’t pay for your expenses.”

These amounted to a £7.40 travel card and £10 for every letter he had written to the council.

“It does make me really angry,” Mr Shah says outside the hearing. “This is the third time I have appealed successfully against parking tickets but I have had to come in here on a day off.”

And that is the nub of the issue. Many of the people who appeal against parking tickets are making a principled stand. Even if they win, the cancelling of the ticket will not compensate them for the time and energy they’ve lost.

The tribunal4,035,555 parking tickets issued in England and Wales0.31% rate of appeal34% of appeals not contested by council29% allowed by adjudicator35% refused14% of complaints over pay and display ticketsAnother 14% over signs and linesAppeals to tribunal allowed by post and phone

But councils are resistant to the notion that they put up Byzantine walls of bureaucracy to stop motorists getting their tickets cancelled.

They point that out of the four million parking tickets issued in Wales in 2008-2009, only 12,500 people complained to the tribunal.

“In more than 99% of cases there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that parking fines have been issued incorrectly,” says Councillor Peter Box, chairman of the Local Government Association’s Economy and Transport Board.

“The fact that only a tiny minority of fines were appealed against last year proves that, on the whole, parking officers are getting it right. We know parking restrictions are never going to popular but these restrictions are in place to keep people safe.”

But for the ordinary people who have to take a day off to become experts on parking regulations, there’s a suspicion that councils could often resolve things earlier.

“We think that not enough local authorities are taking these local challenges seriously,” says Jo Abbott, from the RAC Foundation.

“In the back office, these challenges should be dealt with by experienced people who have the discretion to use their common sense.”

Additional reporting by Jon Kelly.



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Leeds Met to charge £8,500 fees

Graduates wearing mortarboard hatsUniversities are allowed to charge up to £9,000 under the new rules

Leeds Metropolitan has become the first of the newer, less selective group of universities to officially announce its new fee level.

The former polytechnic and member of Million+ group of newer universities has said it will charge £8,500 for all full-time undergraduates from 2012.

The government has said universities would only be able to charge higher fees in exceptional circumstances.

Leeds Met said it faced tough choices and huge cuts in funding.

Announcing the fee level, the chair of the board at Leeds Metropolitan University, Lord Woolmer of Leeds, said: “We are totally committed to providing a high quality student experience.

“In the face of huge cuts in government funding we face difficult and tough choices.

“We shall continue to secure cost savings but it is essential that we remain able to invest in high quality university education and facilities for our students.

“We have a proud history of widening participating and will continue to support access into higher education and ensure that our students are successful at university and after they graduate.”

Like all universities, Leeds Met will have to seek approval for its fee level of £8,500 for all full-time undergraduate courses, together with a package of widening participation measures from the Office for Fair Access.

It has only been a university since 1992 but has provided education in the city of Leeds in a range of predecessor institutions since 1824.

So far, the universities of Oxford, Imperial College, Durham, Exeter, Essex, Surrey, Manchester, Warwick, Aston, Birmingham, Lancaster, Cambridge and University College London have said they want to charge the maximum yearly tuition fee.

But most of these are the more selective, research-based universities.

Only a few universities have said they will charge below the maximum.

This is significant because the Department for Business Innovation and Skills has based its funding of universities under the new fees regime on the assumption that universities will charge an average of £7,500.

It has warned that if universities tend to go higher than that then funds will be lost from the teaching.

However, Bishop Grosseteste University College in Lincoln has said it wants to charge £7,500 for most courses.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “What we are seeing at the moment feels like the beginning of a trend as universities struggle to deal with the impact of the heavy cuts and how to price up their degrees to compensate.

“Our own research shows that all English universities institutions will have to charge more than £6,000 just to break even following devastating funding cuts with many worried about their reputation if don’t charge close to the maximum.”



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36. FlashMagski

About time too!Do you really think that the British taxpayer should pay the University fees for you……..the answer is simple No! Your parents or indeed yourselves should foot the bill, if you ask how can we pay, get up a few hours early and get a job.Well done Leeds Uni.

34. blackquadrat

The elite Universities will loose some of their most able prospective students to companies like National Grid and BT who are offering jobs,training and qualifications straight after A levels.My own son who would have been an Oxbridge prospect is more than tempted by the offers on the table from prospective employers.

19. Identity25

I’m a current student about to graduate and I’m greatly against the rise in tuition fees. I couldn’t have afforded to go if I was to start 2012. However with the way universities are charging, I now need my university to charge maximum tuition fees otherwise the value of my degree will significantly reduce. Its clear good universities will charge maximum while lower quality ones will charge less!

14. Scarletstar

This is just confirmation of the idea that you expect to pay a high price for a good quality product in some sectors. If any University charges less than close to the top of the banding for their products/services then it is as if they are saying “My product isn’t as good”. They are unintentionally signalling that they are offering an inferior quality product. Not always necessarily true I know.

8. johnmcaulay13

I first studied for my Undergraduate degree between 1998 and 2001, costing me approximately £2,000 per year. The degree was worse than useless! I just had to accept it, people need to think about what doors will be opened after their degrees, not solely focussing on the cost.

 

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VIDEO: UK Space Agency launches in Swindon

Britain is going back to the final frontier, with the official launch of the UK Space Agency in Swindon

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Apple iPhones hit by alarm glitch

iPhone alarm screenThe problem appears to have affected alarms set in the iPhone’s calendar application
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Some iPhone owners were heading in to work late on Monday after a glitch caused their alarms to malfunction.

Users found their wake-up alert coming one hour late, one hour early or not at all.

The problem, related to the clocks going forward for British Summer Time, does not appear to have affected everyone.

Apple has yet to comment on what caused it, but similar problems have previously hit iPhones in the US.

Many of those whose alarms went wrong turned to social networking sites to vent their fury. One Twitter user wrote: “iPhone alarm failed twice. 1) went off at 5.45 instead of 6.45. 2) Didn’t go off at all when I reset it. Time to update software.”

Another unimpressed owner wrote: “Thanks iPhone. I didn’t really want that alarm to go off anyway.”

According to user reports, the glitch has affected non-recurring alarms set within the iPhone’s calendar application, rather than its dedicated alarm clock.

The problem first came to light in the United States last November during the switch to Daylight Savings Time.

Despite promises from Apple to correct it, a similar issue hit iPhones on 1 January 2011.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

VIDEO: Chefs crack down on fussy New Yorkers

Customers who are fussy with their food and like ordering off-menu might need to avoid a trip to New York.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Unmasked

Broadgate, Coventry, following IRA bomb attackBroadgate in Coventry was bombed by the IRA in August 1939

Newly released documents suggest that the man who helped found the Irish Free State, Eamon de Valera, covertly co-operated with Britain to crush the IRA.

The papers reveal that De Valera, whose entire cabinet in the late 1930s were former IRA members, asked London to help smear the organisation’s chief of staff as a communist agent.

Tensions came to a head when the IRA began bombing Britain in early 1939.

Under what was called the Sabotage or S-Plan, British cities including London, Manchester, Birmingham and Coventry were targeted by IRA explosive teams.

In one attack on Coventry five people died and 70 more were injured.

Dublin, which is recorded as being “seriously disturbed” by the IRA bombings, reacted even more forcefully than London.

Eamon de Valera

Eamon De Valera

Born in 1882 in New York and sent to live in Ireland aged two, after death of his fatherPlayed leading role in 1916 Easter Rising against Britain, for which he was imprisonedLeft Sinn Fein in 1926 to set up Fianna Fail partyHead of government from 1932 to 1948 – and for two more stints in the 1950sOversaw Ireland’s policy of neutrality in WWII

De Valera’s government regarded IRA attacks against Britain as a threat to the Irish state itself.

With war looking likely, De Valera was determined that Ireland should remain neutral.

He knew that a hard rump of Republicans would never countenance being allied to the “old enemy” Britain, and such an alliance could push Ireland into another bloody civil war.

But he also knew that, if his country was seen as a threat, London might decide to invade.

It seems hard to believe that this was the same militant Republican who had been at the forefront of the Easter Rising against British rule in 1916.

After becoming prime minister of the Irish Free State, he outlawed the IRA in 1936, and his commitment to pursuing Irish unification by constitutional means led him to part company with many of his former comrades-in-arms.

Yet few would have guessed that he would soon be accepting British help to crush them.

In 1939, as the documents show, De Valera’s government asked for assistance from London in smearing IRA chief of staff Sean Russell as a communist agent:

Document

Document addressed to British

Newly released British secret memo

“It is believed that some 10 or 12 years ago, he was in Soviet pay as an agitator; If there is any information which could be made available to show that this was the case, or that at the present time he is in receipt of pay from foreign sources, it would be of the greatest possible assistance to the Dublin authorities in dealing with him since it would practically eliminate the risk of him being treated as a patriotic martyr….”

Dublin also called on London to consult them on sentences imposed on IRA members convicted of the bombings in Britain.

De Valera was worried that those executed at British hands might become martyrs at home. But he had no such qualms over those convicted of bombings in Ireland.

In fact, De Valera’s government executed more IRA members than Britain and even borrowed the UK’s most famous executioner, Albert Pierrepoint, to hang one of them.

During the war, Dublin went on to intern more than 1,500 IRA suspects, and several died while on hunger strike in Irish jails.

As a result, the IRA began to look to Nazi Germany for help.

Not long after the first bombs had gone off in Britain, Sean Russell and IRA head of explosives Jim O’Donovan, went to Berlin for a meeting with German military intelligence, the Abwehr.

Jim O'Donovan in 1941Jim O’Donovan made several trips to Germany

At that point, Hitler refused to fund their S-Plan bombing campaign because of fears of provoking conflict with Britain. But, once war had broken out, he did agree to send money, transmitters and spies to Ireland.

Many of the latter proved somewhat inept.

In July 1940, three German spies – one of them an Indian national – capsized before landing in Ireland.

Two of them could not speak English and the Indian agent stood out in rural Ireland. After finally making it ashore, one asked a policeman if they were anywhere near Cork.

All three were promptly arrested.

Yet despite all this, Jim O’Donovan was falling under Hitler’s spell. In fact, during the early years of the war, he became increasingly interested in Nazi ideology and visited Germany three times.

Speaking for the first time about his father’s work with the Nazis, Gerard O’Donovan – who was a young boy during the conflict – told me how he still remembers one regular wartime visitor to their home in Dublin:

“There was a room off the dining room where there was a radio transmitter. A man used to come every Saturday and send messages to Germany on that radio… and we children used to call (him) Mr Saturday Night.”

Jim O’Donovan died in 1979 without, according to those who knew him, any regrets about his involvement with the Nazis.

Sean Russell, who cared little for Nazi ideology, died aboard a German U-boat bound for Ireland in August 1940.

The S-Plan was ultimately a failure.

“What, one wonders, might the consequences have been for Eamon De Valera, had his people known then what has come out now? ”

After just over a year, it ground to a halt, largely due to a string of botched attacks, lack of funds and the crackdowns against the IRA in London and Dublin.

Some in Ireland may well have suspected at that time that their government was secretly co-operating closely with Britain, a country many still considered their enemy.

Yet only now can such suspicions be confirmed.

What, one wonders, might the consequences have been for Eamon De Valera, had his people known then what has come out now?

Donnacha Obeachain is a lecturer in Politics at Dublin City University and the author of a book on Fianna Fail and Irish Republicanism:

“It certainly would have undermined De Valera’s image of being the pristine Republican leader who had heroically and unstintingly challenged the British. I think it would have been difficult for him to present that image, and it’s something that he treasured.

“The publicity of such co-operation would be very detrimental to De Valera’s image and therefore his electoral prospects.”

As it was, Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Eamon De Valera continued a long and successful career in Irish politics.

He won eight elections over the period of the 1930s, 40s and 50s and ended his career as president of Ireland between 1959 and 1973, when – at the age of 90 – he was the oldest head of state in the world.

As for the IRA, it was a spent force for the next 20 years until it came back with another bombing campaign – this time targeted at Northern Ireland.

Document will be broadcast on Monday 28 March at 2000 BST on BBC Radio 4 and will also be available via the BBC iPlayer .

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Adele equals Madonna album record

AdeleAdele has now held the top two positions in the album chart for three of the last five weeks
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Adele has matched Madonna’s record with nine weeks at number one in the UK album chart – the longest for a female solo artist.

Her second album, 21, has now spent the same length of time at the top spot as Madonna’s first greatest hits record, The Immaculate Collection, in 1990.

The Londoner’s debut album, 19, remained at number two.

Meanwhile in the singles chart, the singer’s track Someone Like You climbed back up to number one.

Last week the song was toppled by Nicole Scherzinger’s Don’t Hold Your Breath after previously spending four weeks at the top of the chart.

Adele still has two other singles in the top 40 – Rolling in the Deep at number nine and Make You Feel My Love at 36, the Official Charts Company said.

The singer-songwriter is also enjoying continued success in the US, where 21 also regained the number one spot in the Billboard album chart last week.

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See the UK Top 40 singles chart See the UK Top 40 albums chart BBC Radio 1’s Official Chart Show

Earlier in the year she became the first living artist since the Beatles to have two top five hits in the UK single and album charts simultaneously.

Elsewhere in the singles chart, Just Can’t Get Enough by Black Eyed Peas rose 12 places to three, while Comic Relief single Gold Forever by The Wanted and former number one Price Tag by Jessie J fell each fell one to four and five respectively.

The highest new entry was Peter Kay and Susan Boyle’s Comic Relief single, I Know Him So Well at 11.

In the album chart, The Strokes scored the highest new entry at three with Angels, while When Ronan Met Burt by Ronan Keating and Burt Bacharach went in at number five.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Khmer Rouge jailer begins appeal

Comrade Duch at war crimes tribunal Phnom Penh, Cambodia 28 March 2011.Comrade Duch argues the Khmer Rouge tribunal should not be judging him

A UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia is hearing the appeal of a former Khmer Rouge member who was convicted of crimes against humanity.

Kaing Guek Eav was in charge of a detention centre in the late 1970s and oversaw the deaths of around 15,000 people.

But now the man best known as Comrade Duch is arguing he should not have been tried at all.

The Khmer Rouge tribunal has a strictly defined role.

That is to bring to justice the surviving senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge and the people most responsible for the worst crimes committed during the four years Pol Pot’s government controlled Cambodia.

Comrade Duch claims he falls into neither category.

He has admitted that he ran the notorious S-21 detention centre in Phnom Penh.

During the public phase of his trial he even apologised to relatives of the people who died there.

But he insisted that he was only following orders and that he and his family might have been killed if he had not done as he was told.

The trial chamber rejected his arguments and passed a sentence of 35 years for crimes against humanity, torture and pre-meditated murder.

Youk Chhang is the director of the Documentation Centre which investigated the events at S-21.

He says Cambodians would be baffled by Duch’s appeal.

“It’s difficult for the public in general to understand the court procedure – they’re not lawyers,” he said.

“And it’s because Duch himself has said all these things during the hearing already: ‘Well, I admit it; now I don’t’. And then people find that crazy.”

The appeal hearing should be followed within months by the long-awaited second trial at the tribunal.

Four senior surviving Khmer Rouge leaders are facing charges of genocide for creating the policies which led to the deaths of around 2m people.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.