Foster and Gillespie, Paisley and McCrea, Beattie and Poots jailed at weekly intervals
(Report from ‘The Burning Bush’ of February 1988)
On Tuesday 12th January at 10.15am Rev Ivan Foster was arrested at his church and taken to Belfast Prison on the Crumlin Road. The following day, Ald Roy Gillespie from Ahoghill, Co Antrim was likewise incarcerated.
Because they came in on different days they did not meet up with each other until Thursday afternoon. They shared a cell for their last night in prison.
Alderman Gillespie was glad to be in the more respectable (only just) company of Rev Foster as he had spent the previous night with two provos who had been arrested for possession of explosives.
Having been in the Crumlin Road prison on three previous occasions Mr Foster was quite familiar with the routine.
They were both released on Friday 15th after getting maximum time off their 7 day sentence for good behaviour.
Rev Foster greeted upon his release by (L to R) his sons Stephen and Andrew,
Nigel Dodds (now Lord Dodds) and then Councillor Bert Johnston.
MORE EFFORT NEEDED
Dr Paisley, Rev William McCrea, Rev William Beattie and Mr Charles Poots (father of Mr Edwin Poots – The Editor) were also arrested during the month of January and likewise served three days in prison.
Opposition to the Anglo/Irish agreement has not declined. But then neither has the Government’s determination to stick with the agreement. If the agreement is to be defeated it is going to take more than a few men going to jail for three days. It is going to take a willingness to endure any hardship in order to defat this conspiracy to compel us to accept joint rule by Dublin. Let Ulster Protestants ever bear in mind while they are being asked to concede more and more to republican demands the killing goes on unremittingly.
STALKER AFFAIR
Of late we have witnessed an example of what the Roman Catholic church does with consummate skill . . . . manipulates public opinion. The pressure is mounting for a full surrender in what has become known as the “Stalker Affair”. Rome is anxious to trace the senior officers who may or may not be guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice. Stalker himself is on record as saying he did not find evidence of a ‘shoot to kill’ policy. However, this has little impact on the Church which spawned the vicious killers of the IRA.
REMEMBER ENNISKILLEN
Rome has not shown the same anxiety to support an inquiry into the use of her property for the planting of the bomb in Enniskillen which killed 11 Protestants nor, indeed the killing by her offspring of scores of other Protestants in Fermanagh and South Tyrone for whom no one has been apprehended. Rome sees no inconsistency in denouncing the IRA one day and the next, joining them in their anti-police campaign. She is the first to complain whenever an IRA gunman is shot by the security forces.
Until Ulster Protestants see the deceptions of ecumenical Protestantism and its treacherous alignment with popery then they will neither recognise the danger that threatens them nor be able to formulate the means to resist the danger. An accurate diagnosis is necessary for the prescribing of right medicine.
ANTICHRIST
Ulster is losing the Bible’s view of Rome. To many she is not the ‘System of Antichrist”. Such blindness spells disaster. Various ecumenical exercises are designed to persuade the Protestant that wrong has been done to Rome in the past. Rome, it is claimed, is not ‘the big bad wolf’ she may have been. That is basically the message of Ecumenisms.
BRIBES AND BLACKMAIL
Ecumenists are being aided in the spread of this message by Government funds such as those made available by Dr Brian Mawhinney, Education and Community Relations Minister. Under the scheme, ‘Education for Mutual Understanding’, primary and secondary schools are being urged to establish permanent links with schools from the ‘other community’ and so qualify for grand-aid.
In a day of severe cut-backs in education spending, it is nothing less than bribery and blackmail. EMU has got the full support of the Roman Catholic Church. She sees no threat to the ethos of her schools, something she guards jealously. That being so it is fair to reason that there is a serious threat to Protestant children. Here in the West, Rome already controls her own schools and the Controlled Sector by virtue of her dominance of the Western Area Education and Library Board. She is not content with controlling her own schools but is cleverly endeavouring to take over all schools by duping Protestants into handing them over to her.
POLITICALLY, RELIGIOUSLY,
EDUCATIONALLY,
ROME IS ON THE MARCH
PROTESTANTS OF ULSTER AWAKE!
YOUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE
IS BEING PLUNDERED
NO LONGER HEED THE FALSEHOODS
OF ECUMENISM BUT RETURN TO THE
PATHS OF BIBLICAL TRUTH
Jeremiah 6:16.