By Jamie Bryson – Editor@UnionistVoice.com
@JamieBrysonCPNI
A publically funded community worker played a leading role in the armed INLA show of strength, it can be revealed.
The individual, who it is understood works for INLA group Teach Na Faillte, is seen leading the armed balaclava-clad terror gang out of a residential property before spotting mobile phone footage being taken and trying to duck down.
This still image shows the unmasked individual, who can clearly be seen on the video footage playing an organisational role in the armed show of strength.
The Open Doors project is funded to the tune of around £1.4 million by SEUPB and is overseen by Co-Operation Ireland, who also plays a key role in the Fresh Start’s ‘Communities in Transition’ project.
The Open Doors project includes UDA, INLA, Official IRA and UVF ex-prisoners groups, all of whom share in the £1.4 million fund. The core aims of the project are described on the Open Doors website as:
•Promoting re-integration with other sections in the community
•Connecting with the services established to provide for those impacted by the legacy of conflict
•Taking a positive role in the healing of community divisions and the future development of our society
However the Provisional IRA has a separate pot of £1.4 million all to themselves. They receive special treatment and rather than being subjected to the kind of independent scrutiny that is applied to the other ex-prisoners groups involved in the Open Doors project, their project is overseen by the Ashton Trust, a body widely accepted to be a core Sinn Fein arms-length community front. This raises serious questions as to who is independently scrutinising the funding, given the Ashton Trust could never conceivably be deemed to be independent when it comes to Sinn Fein and by extension the IRA.
As yet it appears that SEUPB have not taken any formal action against the Tech Na Faillte group, despite the Open Doors project website making clear that failure to meet the project conditions, targets and objectives can “result in either a reduction in the grant award or the withdrawal of the entire grant”. It is unclear how the INLA linked group, via the medium of Teach Na Faillte, were taking a positive role in healing community divisions by playing an organisational role in an armed show of strength by a proscribed terrorist organisation.
Unionist Voice has contacted the Open Doors Project, SEUPB and Co-Operation Ireland to offer them a right to comment.
You read an analysis of the increased activity of armed republican groups by clicking on the link below: