Martin Fitzpatrick after the slash attack

Martin Fitzpatrick

A crazed Moroccan mob tried to kill terminally ill teenager Martin Fitzpatrick on the Costa del Sol.

He suffered multiple stab injuries when they knifed him in the kidneys and lung, and tried to slit his throat.

His courageous family rushed to the rescue but now Spanish cops want THEM in the dock. 

And they’ve stuck them on an international ‘WANTED’ list. 

What Martin’s mother Celine now calls ‘the ultimate Holiday from Hell’ was triggered when big Martin, now 19, and who suffers from deadly primary immunodeficiency, was holidaying with his family on a dream trip to Benidorm in the summer of 2012.

The nightmare erupted when Martin, who was 17 at the time, and his brother Daniel Murphy, who was then 24, were jumped by a gang of street thugs from Morocco. 

But Martin, who bravely survived TWO deadly attacks by the gang in the space of 24 hours, still stands proudly defiant today – saying that neither the Moroccan mob murder attempt, nor his terminal illness,will stop him defending the loyal family who came to his aid and saved his life. 

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday World, Martin and his mother Celine told of their family’s ordeal at the hands of the gang leader and the Spanish police.

Now Celine and Martin want questions answered from the Spanish government, who are trying to say that that Daniel, Celine’s husband Michael and her son-in-law John Paul Morgan, who was even attacked while holding his two-year-old son Oisin, were complicit in injuring a police officer. The family now say that is a ‘trumped up’ charge. 

“It was supposed to be a dream family holiday,” said Celine last night.

 “Yet it turned into a two-year nightmare that’s still ongoing.”

What happened on that Saturday afternoon in August 2012, will remain in the minds of the Fitzpatrick, Morgan and Murphy families forever. 

Celine explained: “We’d been out for a big family meal in a local restaurant in Benidorm – one we know and love.

“My sons had organised for some friends we have in Glasgow to come over and surprise me. They call me ‘Big C’, and had t-shirts made with my name on them. It was a great day and I couldn’t get over seeing them again. Everything was just perfect.”

But things quickly changed after the meal as family members and friends started to leave in small groups to go back to their hotels to get ready for a big night out.

At around 7.30p.m., Daniel and Martin said their goodbyes and left to go back to their hotel for a shower. 

However, as Martin explained, a man pestered them to come into a nearby bar for drinks – and that sparked the stabbing row. 

“We didn’t want to go to a bar,” said Martin.

 

 “We just wanted to go back to the hotel. But this guy wouldn’t leave us alone. He was sweating and looked really dodgy. When he put his hands on us that’s when we got into a fight with him.”

 

 He added: “These guys just came out of the woodwork – about seven or eight of them.”

Martin’s brother Daniel recalled: “We were both on the ground, taking kicks to the head. I could see that Martin was on the ground, too. All I wanted to do was protect my wee brother, but every time I tried to get up they just kicked me back down again.”

Unbeknown to Celine and her family and friends, the attack was going on just around the corner from the restaurant.

The first time they knew something was wrong was when Daniel stumbled through the restaurant doors.

 “My face was swollen up like melon,” said Daniel.

 “I managed to get through the door and all could say was: ‘They’ve got Martin!’“

 In a desperate bid to save Martin, family members rushed into the street, dragging him from the beating.

 Daniel went on: “We got one of the gang’s ringleaders in the process. I’m going to be honest – we hit him a few times. 

“At this stage everyone was just in shock at what had happened.”

Little did Celine and her family know, that their ordeal had only just begun.

“The police just seemed to stand back and watch while all this was happening,” she said.

 “But then a man wearing a white robe ran up to the police and started pointing at me, my daughter Carrie, and by son-in-law John, who was holding wee Oisin at the time, and was screaming something in Spanish.

“One of the attackers came up and punched John in the face while he was holding his son. We didn’t know what was going on.”

She added: “The police arrested all of us and threw us in a stinking cell where they held us for two days.”

 While Celine, her husband Michael, John and Daniel were thrown in the cell, Martin was released after 24 hours, because under Spanish law people under the age of 18 can’t be held for longer than that.

Martin explained: “I went back to a restaurant the next day that I knew the rest of our family and friends would be in on the Sunday night. 

But while we were sitting there I noticed the guy who was handing out flyers the day before, and who started the whole thing was standing outside looking in.

“He looked shifty and agitated. All of a sudden the gang came from nowhere and charged at all of us.”

Martin’s sister Carrie, whose husband John was still locked up with her mother and brother, told of her horror when the second attack came.

“We were being hit with chairs but I was trying to calm things down and get Oisin away from it,” she said.

“I saw Martin fighting with one guy in particular, but all of a sudden his face turned grey. “

Martin added: “When I saw the blood I thought I’d just cut myself on smashed plates when the gang threw our dining table over me.”

 It was only when an ambulance turned up to take Martin to hospital that the family realised he’d been the victim of what they say was a precise and calculated murder attempt. 

 Daniel said: “They stabbed him in the kidneys, the lungs and tried to slash his throat. They only had one intention. Then they ran away cheering and holding their hands in the air while my brother lay there, bleeding.”

As Martin lay in hospital recovering, the family’s ordeal took another cruel twist. 

A police officer who claims he was injured during the original attack wanted to press charges against Daniel, John and Michael – and Spanish courts have issued an international and European arrest warrant for the men, who say they weren’t even told that they were wanted by Spanish authorities. 

“Now we have a fight to clear our names,” said Celine. 

“And the man who stabbed Martin, along with his gang, didn’t even turn up in court. They just fled from Spain.

 “We’ve already paid Spanish lawyers and solicitors £15,000. We can’t afford any more. 

 “We can’t even leave the UK or John, Daniel and Michael will be arrested because of the international arrest warrant. And now the Spanish authorities are trying to extradite them.”

“We now feel like we’re prisoners in our own homes – and in our own country,” Martin’s mother said.

Martin McGuinness

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness last night admitted he wasn’t behind bars when the IRA’s Derry brigade, of which he was OC, murdered a father-of-seven and “disappeared” his body in a bog.

The Deputy first minister told RTE’s Marian Finucane in an interview two weeks ago that he was in jail at the time Patrick Duffy was executed.

McGuinness claimed he was behind bars in Portlaoise when the 37-year-old was taken from his wedding anniversary party in Buncrana, and shot multiple times.

McGuinness told RTE that he was outraged upon learning of the atrocity and when he got out of jail he ordered the return of Duffy’s body and the end of the policy of disappearances by the Derry IRA.

But last night the veteran republican leader admitted he got his dates wrong in the interview and was at large at the time his Derry brigade murdered Mr Duffy.

In a statement issued to the Sunday World Mr McGuinness said: “In my interview with Marian Finucane last week, I clearly made a mistake in recollecting a timeline relating to events that happened over 40 years ago.

“The facts are that I served a six-month sentence in Portlaoise jail in 1973 and another in 1974 and during the Marian Finucane interview, I mistakenly recalled that Patrick Duffy was killed and his body secretly buried, while I was in prison.

“I now know that these events occurred in August 1973, in the brief period when I was ‘on the run’, between these two prison sentences.

“I think it is understandable that after a period of four decades my recollection of the exact detail of dates and times was not accurate. However, I reject any accusation that I ‘lied’ about this or about my opposition to the disappearance of Patrick Duffy’s remains. 

“The truth is that I voiced my strong opposition to Patrick Duffy’s disappearance and that very soon afterwards his body was returned.”

McGuinness was forced into the u-turn after a campaigner for the disappeared questioned his version of events.

Anthony McIntyre, who worked on the Boston Tapes project that led to the questioning of Gerry Adams over the murder of Jean McConville, has accused the Sinn Fein politician of lying on his online blog.

In his blog this week Anthony McIntyre wrote: “Patrick Duffy was disappeared, not in 1974, as McGuinness claimed but on the 9th August 1973 when McGuinness was free but on the run in the South. 

“He had served a six month sentence in Portlaoise jail earlier in 1973 after he and another member of the IRA were arrested after abandoning a red Cortina containing explosives and ammunition in the South on New Year’s Eve 1972 but he was released on the 16th May, 1973, three months or so before Patrick Duffy was killed and disappeared.

“He didn’t see the inside of a prison cell again until 11th February 1974 when he was sentenced to 12 months for membership of a proscribed organisation and three months concurrent for withholding information, again in Portlaoise jail. 

“That was six months or more after Patrick Duffy was killed. His claim to Marian Finucane that he was in jail at the time of Duffy’s disappearance is therefore simply unsupported by the verifiable facts. 

“Far from being inside a prison cell at the time of Patrick Duffy’s killing and disappearance, Martin McGuinness was actually on the run and living in his grandmother’s house in Illies outside Buncrana, Co. Donegal. 

“It was there that he received a note carried by the wife of one of the republican internees from Derry informing him that if the body wasn’t returned to the family then they would condemn Duffy’s disappearance.” 

McGuinness was interviewed two weeks ago by Finucane about his role in the cases of the disappeared and the north’s Deputy First Minister referred to the Duffy case without mentioning his name. 

Finucane asked McGuinness how the execution of informers developed into a campaign of disappearing the bodies.

McGuinness replied: “Well, only the people who took the decision can answer that question. I mean I remember, I remember, I remember being in Portlaoise prison, in 1974 I think it was, and a man from Derry had been shot and the story was that he had been disappeared and had been buried somewhere or wherever and I was absolutely furious about it.

“And it was actually when I got out of prison I met with local republicans and voiced my opposition and criticism of what happened and very soon afterwards that man’s body was returned”.

McGuinness, claimed that when he came out of Portlaoise he ensured the body was returned and that ‘for me there was no rationale, it was absolutely unforgivable’. 

Hardline republican Mickey Donnelly told the Sunday World this week: “I recruited Martin to the cause and I can tell you 

no-one else could have ordered Duffy’s execution.

“It is true that he stopped any further disappearances but only after he was told to by the internees in Long Kesh and the women in the community who thought it an unacceptable practice.”

Duffy was drinking with his wife in a pub in Buncrana when he left to get some fish and chips and was never seen alive again. 

His family and those around knew what had happened and his widow was hand delivered a typed note explaining his death by the IRA a week after he was taken out and shot. 

There was consternation in the community at the killing and in particular among the internees in Long Kesh and soon they had made their feelings known. 

It had come in 1973 about eight months after the scandal of Jean McConville and her abduction, murder and secret burial. 

“His widow knew what happened and knew he was dead. She was a good woman and a respected republican and people saw her having a wake without a body. It was wrong,the women said,” Donnelly said.

“There was only one man who could order Duffy’s execution. It was the OC in Derry. And that was McGuinness and he was in Buncrana on the run living with his Granny. He was the OC, he was on the spot.”

Donnelly was a member of the IRA in Derry at the outbreak of the Troubles in the north. And he was one of 13 men who were tortured by the British Army and the RUC when internment was introduced in 1971. 

The case, which went to the European Court of Human Rights, became known as the ‘Hooded Men Torture Case’.

The body was placed on the border and it was found in a brand new coffin in a Ford Cortina estate. The Inquest confirmed that the body was immersed in peat and water and found that it was dusted with lime to prevent the smell of decomposition. 

“As McGuinness told Finucane he ordered the end of the practice and there was nothing to say. That was because he was the OC. He was the boss. Who else could have ordered the killing, the burial and then the exhumation?” Donnelly said.

The banners at Glenluce Drive on Tuesday

An African man has said he can't move into his new Housing Executive home after banner-carrying protesters gathered outside his front door on the day he was due to move in.

34-year-old Michael Abiona found banners reading "Local Houses 4 Local People" hanging from the fence and front door of what was due to be his new east Belfast home on Tuesday.

 Mr Abiona, who has been living in Northern Ireland for the last four years and is actively involved in race relations, said he would not go back to the property for the safety of his son.

 He said: "The safety of my son comes first. His mother told me she would not allow him to come and visit me there.

 

"My son comes first so I'm not going to go back to the premises."

Michael, who had gone to the property to meet someone from the Housing Executive regarding getting a boiler repaired, said: "I was met by about five people, three or four ladies and one man, sitting in front of the premises.

"One of them told me have I not heard about it, that they were protesting concerning the premises that they only want locals to live in the place, that there are lots of local people who have been on the waiting list for more than nine years - how did I get it? What's my grounds?"

He added: "I'm local as well, I've been in Belfast four years now. It's shameful, really awful. It's discrimination."

East Belfast Alliance MLA Naomi Long said: "This sort of behaviour has no place in our community."

"Any right-thinking person will condemn this blatantly racist behaviour and I have no doubt the vast majority of residents in the area will be sickened by it."

Tommy Kirkham

Two young children have been left traumatised after witnessing a UDA gun attack.

The lads, aged 10 and 11, are said to be in shock after masked man strafed a car with gunfire in Newtownabbey.

Said one source: “The wee boys, aged just ten and 11, were out playing in the street when the gun attack happened.

“Masked men got out of a car. They fired shots into a car parked outside a house. 

“The so-called ‘motive’ for the attack was that the owner had spoken out about the SEA Brigade thugs dealing drugs in the area.

“The two schoolboys are now almost traumatised. They fear that the gunmen will come back for them – even though they couldn’t identify the gunmen anyway, as they were wearing balaclavas. 

 

“But you can imagine the horrific effect seeing guns fired in the open, in the street, would have on two innocent youngsters any way.”

Another source who came to this newspaper said: “These hoods and criminals masquerading under the name of the UDA now think they are ‘The Untouchables’.

“And certainly, if Tommy Kirkham is in charge of a so-called ‘peace project’ pulling in hundreds of thousands of pounds from European peace initiative funds, he’s saying nothing. 

“He hasn’t spoken out about this latest gun attack. And it was also noticeable that he kept his gob tightly shut during the mob attacks in Larne and Carrick a few weeks back.

“So much for transforming criminals ‘from conflict to hope’ – and us, the taxpayer, lining the likes of Kirkham’s pocket allegedly do so.”

It is understood the car riddled with bullets belonged to a local resident in the Lacken area of Newtownabbey. 

The attack was allegedly carried out ‘in revenge’ for the concerned resident speaking out about the SEA Brigade’s drugs-running rackets.

Local sources say the resident has since had to abandon their home and leave the area.

The rebel UDA mob fronted up by their mouthpiece ex-politician, Tommy ‘Millions’ Kirkham, is on the rampage again with the gun attack this week. 

And the gunmen from the renegade South East Antrim UDA Brigade are doing it at YOUR expense – again. 

Kirkham, who attempt to present a respectable front, even welcoming then Irish President Mary McAleese to The People’s Museum Fairhill House in the Glencairn area of North Belfast in 2003. 

The Sunday World has repeatedly exposed how a paramilitary-related quango run by Kirkham has raked in over £626,000 of taxpayers’ money. 

It has been handed to the South East Antrim Researching from Conflict to Hope, or SEARCH for short. 

It’s fronted up by ‘Millions’ Kirkham, a former deputy mayor of Newtownabbey Council before he was unceremoniously dumped by the electorate. 

Kirkham is the so-called Project Co-ordinator of the quango, and pockets a salary of almost thirty grand a year. 

But it is widely known and accepted in the South East Antrim area – and Kirkham admitted it on an official website – that SEARCH is directly linked to the rebel South East Antrim Brigade. 

Top cops openly pinned the blame for the mob violence and terror wreaked in Larne and Carrick in April on the Gary Fisher-led SEA Brigade.

Christine Sharkey

This is the retired civil servant who harassed a woman by questioning who her father was by leaving copies of her birth certificate all over town!

Christine Sharkey, who’s 65 and from Ardmore Drive Omagh, pleaded guilty to a bizarre case of harassment this week.

She had left copies of the dismayed girl’s birth certificate across the Co. Tyrone town including at a Catholic Church and a café.

A judge said that her bizarre actions had made the woman’s life, “an absolute misery” before warning her she viewed the case so seriously she was considering sending her to jail when she comes before the court for sentencing at a later date.

 

At the town’s magistrates court the wound-up grandmother admitted approaching another woman at work in a shop in mid-afternoon, and saying in front of others: “Did you know that [a named man] is your father?” 

Sharkey then shouted that the woman’s mother had had an affair with Sharkey’s ex-husband. 

The prosecution lawyer said that Sharkey was also pleading guilty to harassing the woman’s mother. This harassment occurred over a four-year period. 

Sharkey had left copies of the woman’s birth certificate at various locations round the town, including a Catholic Church and a café. 

A defence lawyer told the Court that Sharkey was a mother of four, “with a clear record and a good character. She wishes to apologise to the injured parties.” 

Sharkey had worked as a Civil Servant for 32 years, “with an unblemished record.”

Judge Bernie Kelly told the Court Sharkey had made the woman’s life an “absolute misery.” 

She had read psychiatric and probation reports, and did not believe Sharkey had accepted her “full culpability.” This was despite pleading guilty. 

This is someone who has taken absolutely no responsibility for her own actions,” Judge Kelly said. 

She pointed out that Sharkey had been involved in divorce proceedings with her husband since 2006. 

The Judge said she was concerned at an update to a pre-sentence report that expressed concerns Sharkey could act “impulsively” when dealing with life’s stressors.

Judge Kelly instructed Sharkey to finalise her divorce by the next court hearing, as the proceedings were causing her stress. 

She also told Sharkey to restart “a relationship with your children and build a relationship with your grandchild.” 

The judge said: “If a police officer has cause even to speak to you between now and the seventh of October, that will hand in the balance,” Judge Kelly said. “In the end of the day, if I have to send you to prison, I will.”

steven.moore@sundayworld.com

Belfast Crown Court

A female victim of an alleged pervert pensioner who subjected two young girls to years of sexual abuse and cruelty, including allegedly forcing them to drink his urine and eat his faeces, told a court this week how she tried to kill him.

The jury in Belfast Crown Court at Laganside heard the woman, now in her 50s, recall how she tried to get justice by attacking the man who she said had first stolen her innocence when she was just seven years of age.

The attacks began, the court was told, 35 years ago, as the youngster prepared to make her First Holy Communion.

She is the second witness to testify against the now 75-year-old former market trader, who stands accused of some of the most heinous sex and cruelty crimes to come before the courts.

Last week, the court heard how the defendant waged a war of attrition, lasting many years, against two vulnerable young girls who had been abandoned by their parents, subjecting them to almost daily sexual attacks coupled with extreme violence and cruelty.

The alleged perpetrator cannot be named at this stage to protect the anonymity of his victims.

However, he faces a catalogue of 35 related sex and cruelty crimes, including charges of rape, buggery, indecent assault, common assault, and ill treatment of a child.

The court heard how one of the alleged victims may have been attacked as many as 1,500 times, while the other girl – her younger sister – was sexually assaulted on hundreds of occasions. The defendant denies all charges before the court.

All of the alleged attacks, the court heard, took place in the man’s Belfast home and he was in his 20s when the abuse first began. The girls were sexually abused in a number of rooms in the large terraced house, although the vast majority of the attacks took place in his attic bedroom.

“We called him; ‘The bastard in the attic’,” the second witness told the court this week.

And she also told how, fuelled with alcohol and armed with a knife and pair of scissors, she plotted revenge for the years of sexual abuse and cruelty he had forced her and her sister to endure.

The witness recalled how on one occasion a number of years ago, she approached the man’s home late at night. 

She told the court: “I was screaming for him to come down and face me. He looked out the window and he saw me.

“I walked up the steps with a knife and a pair of scissors. When he came to the door, I went for him with the knife. He grabbed my wrists. I was shouting. I called him a paedophile. He said : ‘I never touched you’.

‘You’re nothing but a whore, like you’re Ma’, the witness claimed the man shouted back at her.

As the struggle continued in the narrow hallway of the house, other people, alerted by the noise, began to arrive and they tried to pull the pair apart. The witness told the court how her the knife and scissors fell to the floor after they were were forced from her hands.

However, she managed to wrestle her hands free and, spotting the scissors on the floor, she lifted them and tried to launch a second attack.

She testified: “I grabbed the scissors, but he managed to jump into the parlour and he held the door shut with him back against it.”

The said she continued to scream at the man, again accusing him of sex abuse and telling him that at some stage in the future: ‘The shit will hit the fan.’

told the court the defendant allegedly told her no one would believe her above him.

She went on to say how she tried to block out the nightmare of sex abuse and cruelty by consuming alcohol.

“I thought my problems would go away through the end of a bottle. I would go on benders, drinking for three and four days at a time,” she said.

She told the court how she began consuming large quantities of alcohol from 14 years years of age.The abuse, insisted the witness, also affected her personality: “I became rebellious, cheeky and nasty. If there were riots, I’d be there.”

Later the woman told the court how, 11 years ago, she plucked up the courage to tell the man’s family what had happened. She said she had decided to make the move after learning the man was supervising other young children. She attended a meeting where a number of members of the man’s family were present.

“I went into the house and the family were all there.”

The witness recalled how some members of her alleged attacker’s family had difficulty believing what she was telling them, while another demanded to know why she was making the accusations at this time.

“I was crying and I said: ‘When is there a good time?’”

And as the family meeting went on she insisted: ‘He sexually abused me, he mentally abused me and he physically abused me.”

The witness told the court there was an agreement not to mention the matter again as long as the alleged abuser was no longer left in charge of children.

“We made a pact,” she said.

A barrister for the defence accused the witness of making the whole thing up, but she insisted she was telling the truth.

The court also heard from a number of witnesses, who confirmed attending the meeting, although two of them insisted they wanted the matter referred to the police immediately.

On Friday, a police officer from the PSNI giving evidence, recalled how two years ago, he was called to a disturbance outside a Belfast city centre bar. There he found a blonde-haired woman and an elderly man, the accused, with blood on his face. The officer said the man declined to explain his injuries to the officer or assist him with his inquiries.

He later arrested the man on suspicion of rape, he told the court.

The trial continues tomorrow, when it is expected the defendant will take the stand to give evidence

William Parkinson

This is the senior Orangeman who’s ‘on his knees’ begging to keep his job as a prison officer after being convicted for his part in a loyalist riot.

Veteran warden William Parkinson is fighting to save his 34-year Prison Service career after he pleaded guilty to disorderly behaviour following a loyalist protest which ended in serious violence last year.

Parkinson, who’s also a former Worshipful Master of the Royal Black Preceptory as well as a leading figure in the Orange Order, was at a loyalist protest on August 9 in Belfast City Centre aimed at stopping a republican anti-internment parade from marching down Royal Avenue.

Twenty-six police officers and two members of the public were injured during the prolonged violence which continued long into the night.

On the day in question rioting erupted just after 6 pm in Royal Avenue when several thousand loyalists blocked the road and attacked police lines with missiles, smoke bombs and fireworks.

As a result, police stopped the republican parade in North Queen Street before it headed to Royal Avenue.

Parkinson is one of dozens of loyalists who were arrested in connection with the disorder including UVF boss Colin ‘Meerkat’ Fulton, who was scooped on night itself.

The 57-year-old was suspended from the Prison Service – on full pay – when he was arrested after being identified earlier this year by officers involved in ‘Operation Titan’ – which has been using video footage to identify trouble makers at various loyalist protests.

On March 21 this year at Belfast Magistrates Court Parkinson pleaded guilty to using, “disorderly behaviour in a public place, namely at or about Royal Avenue, Belfast, contrary to Article 18(1)(a) of the Public Order (Northern Ireland) Order 1987.”

He was fined £500 and ordered to pay a £15 offender’s levy.

The Sunday World understands Parkinson was informed last week by the senior governor of Maghaberry Prison, along with the jail’s security director, that he was to be dismissed following his conviction.

However we understand he has appealed the decision and has engaged the support of the Prison Officer’s Association (POA) to help win his case.

Last night a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said Parkinson had not been sacked.

 

They said: “In regards the Prison Officer you have asked about, internal disciplinary proceedings are still ongoing.”

Parkinson was due to retire this year and is fighting desperately to save himself from the sack as it is likely to affect the financial terms of his departure.

It’s not clear exactly what consequences being officially sacked could have on his pension.

Parkinson joined the service in 1980 had a very respected job within Maghaberry Prison – working as a supervisor of the metal fabrication unit inside the jail.

One of their roles was to collect old wheelchairs and other disability aids from the local hospitals and then prisoners would refurbish them so they could be sent out to Africa to be used again.

“Parkinson has been really stupid,” said a prison source. “He was all ready to ride out into the sunset with 34-years’ service behind him and then he goes and gets himself involved in this.

 

“For a prison officer to be involved in something like this is terrible. The Prison Service expects the highest of standards from its officers and they take a serious dim view of anyone caught up in trouble like this.

 

“And it harms other prison officers who are trying their best to make the Prison Service look like it has moved on from the Troubles.

 

“He held several positions of trust within the Prison Service over the years including treasurer of the POA in the old Belfast Prison.

 

“But he would have been seen at Drumcree protests in the past and he wasn’t exactly everyone’s favourite prison officer.

 

“Put it this way – there are plenty of people who wouldn’t lose a lot of sleep if he does get sacked.”

On August 9 police forced loyalist protesters back up Peters Hill and into the Shankill using water cannon before the republicans marched past the flashpoint area.

Loyalists claimed it was “victory over terrorism” as republicans were not allowed to march down Royal Avenue.

PSNI resources were stretched to the limit as loyalists and republicans converged from many parts of the city looking for trouble.

At one point officers were caught in the middle of a street battle between rival loyalist and republican factions in what was one of the worst nights of violence ever seen in the city centre.

The PSNI riot squad used water cannon to push loyalist protesters up the Shankill Road but as they retreated they wreaked havoc as they went, attacking shops and pubs at random.

In other parts of the city centre, republican crowds gathered in Castle Street, Kent Street and Library Street, not far from where up to 2,000 loyalists are holding a protest and refusing to move from the street.

Reacting to the violence, on the night North Belfast DUP MLA Nelson McCausland commented: “The march by a dissident republican rabble was designed to provoke a violent loyalist reaction and it succeeded.”

Corrinna Pauley with her daughter Demi-Leigh

Mum-of-six Corrinna Pauley just wants her children to see her walk.

The Omagh woman is bedridden with agonising back pain, taking 40 pills a day to control it.

Corrinna hoped a complicated back operation in January 2013 would finally give her back her life.

But screws inserted along her vertebrae have come loose and she has been on an emergency surgery list since last November.

Another op last month was cancelled minutes before she was due to go into theatre and now it will be months before she even has a provisional place on a surgery list.

The 35-year-old says going public about her plight is a last resort, but she’s desperate to end the agony which has meant her youngest children have never seen her walk.

A litany of lost files, infection and a shortage of high dependency beds have left her unable to move and with no option but to plead for help.

The last time she tried to leave her home with devoted husband Charlie, anxious not to miss her son in his first school play it was such a disaster it still causes her regret.

“I had to be wheeled out three times in the first few minutes to be sick because of the pain. I couldn’t miss my son’s first speaking part in a play, but I felt like I’d shown my children up,” says Corrinna.

 

“My seven-year-old doesn’t remember me walking. She has asked me ‘mummy did you ever walk’. I just hope it’s not too late to fix me.”

Corrinna was a busy mum who had found happiness again with Charlie after being widowed at just 23 with three children, Courtney, now 15, Dylan, 14 and 12 year old Leah.

With Charlie, a digger driver, she is also mum to seven year old Billy Joe, Cameron, 5, and Demi-Leigh, 4.

In 2009 Corrinna discovered she’d been born with spina bifida, and a year later she began to suffer from severe and debilitating back pain.

After being prescribed increasingly heavy doses of painkillers the couple paid privately for an MRI scan in Sligo which showed three slipped discs.

The Royal Victoria Hospital received the results of the €275 scan, but then lost them.

Corrinna attended a pain clinic, and received a painkilling injection into her spine, but that wore off within three months. 

Charlie had already had to give up his job of 17 years to care for their children because his wife was in so much pain.

The couple paid again for a €600 3D scan in a Dublin sports injury clinic which showed the deterioration of her spine, and sent a copy to the RVH. 

Two months later the young mum made the painful journey to the Belfast hospital for an appointment for a similar scan, despite her insistence that it was unnecessary because she had already supplied an MRI. At the last minute the hospital agreed, meaning she’d made the 140 miles round trip for nothing.

In January 2013 she eventually had surgery at Musgrave Park Hospital when two rods and four screws were inserted in her back. 

Corrinna was told to expect a 12 month recovery, and had high hopes that she would soon be back on her feet, but within three weeks she developed an infection and had to return to have the surgery site reopened and flushed out.

She went home after a week and within a few months the young mum was able to walk to her kitchen on a Zimmer frame. But by last summer she knew something was wrong when the agonising pain returned. 

An X-ray showed nothing was wrong, but when she insisted on further investigation an MRI showed the screws in her back had come loose. 

“In November I was put on an emergency surgery list, and waited until May. How long do you wait if you’re not an emergency,” she says.

 

“We were told the delay was because there are only six high dependency beds so they can only operate on so many people.

 

“I was ready to go into surgery in May – a nurse came and told me it would only be a few minutes. Then they told me my white cell count was too high and I couldn’t have the operation that day. 

 

“The last three or four times I’ve been up to the hospital it’s been by ambulance. I don’t know if they understand how difficult it is for me to go anywhere.

 

“The next date is for August, but that’s not definite and who knows whether that will go ahead.”

Corrinna’s painkiller intake has already affected her bladder and she requires a catheter, as well as daily visits from a nurse, which helps keep her spirits up.

But the most heart-breaking toll has been on her children.

“My five-year-old says to me when you get your back fixed will you come on your bike with me. They come up to the window so I can see them on their bikes. 

“It’s so, so hard. My youngest is epileptic and if she had a fit in front of me I couldn’t move to help her.

“If I had the Health Minister in front of me I’d just ask him to get the hospitals sorted because this is the effect it has on people's lives,” says Corrinna.

Ulster Unionist Councillor Bert Wilson, who has been supporting the family, says urgent action needs to be taken to help Corrinna

“I have known this family for years and I know she has been working with the medical staff. 

“Charlie has had to give up his job after 17 years. If this is how urgent cases are dealt with it’s just not good enough,” says Councillor Wilson.

In a comment the Belfast Trust said it cannot duscuss any patient’s past or future treatment.

“However we regret if this patient feels let down in any way by the care she has received and we would be happy to speak to her directly to discuss any concerns. 

All surgery carries a degree of risk and all likely outcomes and risks are discussed beforehand. Even with successful spinal surgery there can be no guarantee that it will provide complete pain relief and there is a risk that pain will remain afterwards. 

Following spinal surgery some patients may require follow up surgery and this is also made clear ahead of their procedure,” it says.

Ashleigh Coyle

Former Miss Ireland Rebecca Maguire has backed model mate Ashleigh Coyle to be a Big Brother champ.

Rebecca, now helping to organise the all-Ireland beauty competition, says her Derry pal would be by her side at the Belfast heat next week, if she wasn’t taking part in the Channel 5 show.

The pair met when they started their modelling careers together and have been firm friends since.

And Belfast girl Rebecca says the Derry model will show the other housemates how to keep cool.

“Ashleigh was Miss Derry when I was Miss Ireland and we were friends before that,” says Rebecca.

 

“We used to get booked for jobs together when clients wanted a blonde and a brunette so were our own wee double act.”

This year’s show has already attracted hundreds of complaints from viewers when all hell broke loose after nominations were announced on the fourth day, but the Derry teen has steered clear of the conflict.

“I was really looking out for her and giving her advice, and I know she will do everyone proud on Big Brother,” says pal Rebecca.

“There have been a lot of fights on the show and she hadn’t been involved in any of them. 

“She’s very wise she has a very level head. Ashleigh is only 18 but she is very mature for her age.”

Rebecca is keeping an eye on her friend’s progress from Belfast, where she’s putting the finishing touches to the Belfast heat of Miss Ireland in El Divino next Wednesday.

After winning the competition in 2012 she jumped at the chance to take the behind-the-scenes role.

“I have always worked very closely with Miss Ireland since I handed over the title last year. They approached me and said we trust you with doing this.

The former winner reckons she’s also perfectly placed to show hopefuls the ropes.

Rebecca Maguire

Even the controversy over her Miss Ireland win, when the original winner was disqualified for being over the age limit, and the title passed to runner up Rebecca, is a positive.

“I’m not asking any of the girls to do anything I haven’t done myself.

“That’s what I’m saying to them – if you want to know anything just ask me because I have done it all.

The 22-year-old also has to make sure all her commitments fit around her pharmacy degree at Queens.

Rebecca is in the third year of a four year course which has to take priority.

“I really enjoy the course and I’m hoping to get a pharmacy job. I don’t know how I find the time for it all, but you just have to.

Matthew Bateman who was last seen in Botanic Gardens

The son of Northern Irish best-selling author Colin Bateman has been found after his father launched an appeal to find him.

Matthew Bateman was reported missing after he was last seen in the Botanic Gardens area of Belfast on Friday evening. 

Colin Bateman took to social media on Wednesday to appeal to those who may have seen his son.

He wrote: "Our son Matthew has gone missing. He was last seen in the Botanic area of Belfast last Friday, June 13.

 

 "Although he is 18, he has been unwell recently and we're very concerned about him. If you know anything at all about his whereabouts please let me know, or contact the Police."

The 18-year-old was found in the Malone Road area on Thursday and is thought to be unharmed.

Mark Haddock

Mark Haddock has dropped his court case to gag the Sunday World from revealing where he lives.

The 45-year-old was jailed for 12 years earlier this month for his attack on Terry Fairfield outside a pub in Newport Bagnell, Buckinghamshire, in January.

Fairfield needed 27 stitches to his face and neck after the attack. 

However, in the high court on Friday, his barrister, Mark Farrell, said: "The injunction and action are no longer sustainable in law due to a change in the plaintiff's circumstances."

The judge, Mr Justice Deeny, said: "I will strike out the action and vacate the order of August 27, 2011."

 Terry Fairfield after Haddock attacked him

Haddock was once the head of a ferocious UVF unit which operated out of Mount Vernon.

He is alleged to have been involved in up to 12 murders.

Former Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan stated in a 2007 report that Haddock and his cohorts were working as Special Branch agents and that the police had colluded with them to protect them from prosecution.  

Luis Suarez. He's a happy guy.

It looks like England have kicked their last ball over the crossbar in their 2014 World Cup campaign in Brazil.

 Now, only a week of freakish results from their Group D counterparts will see them progress to the knockout stages of the competition.

 Hearts were broken in the 'Home of Football' last night as Liverpool and Uruguay's Luis Suarez took a final bite out of the Three Lions' hopes of progression.

At least having waited for years to play football like current World Cup champions Spain, they can finally say they do.

Here's a few of the internet's finest Uruguay vs England memes to enjoy before you watch today's games.....

Captain Cassillas and Steevie G taking an early holiday

Smells like team spirit

"Yeah, I can see Stevie's forehead in the windscreen."

He took the red pill

Not quite sure what this means, but Kaley Cuoco is in it

Presuming this guy will vote 'Yes'

Mario sees the funny side

Her Maj doesn't

 Any better ones? Link them up below....

The Queen and Prince Philip will arrive in Northern Ireland today for a three day visit.

The pair will stay at their official residence in Northern Ireland, Hillsborough Castle.

 There, they will meet with First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

Later in the week they will visit Titanic Studios, where Game of Thrones is being filmed, meeting some of the cast of the hit US show.

They will also visit Crumlin Road Gaol and St George's Market.

The market will be hosting a special one-off event called the Best of Belfast for the Royal visit.

The Queen and Prince Philip haven't visited Belfast since 2012 when they were celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Back then the Queen historically shook hands with ex-IRA commander McGuinness in Belfast's Lyric Theatre.

In April of this year, McGuinness shook the Queen's hand again at a special event in Windsor Castle during a state visit by the Irish president.

McGuinness will meet with the Queen for the third time this evening in a private meeting with Peter Robinson.

Ahead of her visit, Peter Robinson said: "This three-day visit by Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh is a great honour for Northern Ireland. 

 

"Her Majesty the Queen is held with great affection throughout Northern Ireland. As soon as the announcement was made my mind turned to the spectacular scenes in Stormont Estate in 2012. No one will ever forget that Royal occasion.

"It is a sign of changed times that the logistics of this visit could be announced before Her Majesty the Queen's arrival. There was a time when a Royal visit could not be reported in advance due to security concerns.

"I trust that lots of people will have the opportunity to greet Her Majesty the Queen over the next few days and express their gratitude for the wonderful leadership she has shown throughout her reign."

Sex scene in the video

Drum 'n' bass DJ Wilkinson

The altar at the Good Shepherd church

An historical Belfast church has been ‘desecrated’ after actors were filmed having sex on the blessed altar for a scene in a seedy music video.

The Sunday World can reveal clergy at the Good Shepherd Catholic Church on the Ormeau Road were alerted to the obscene footage by a member of their congregation after the video went viral.

Resident priests looked on in horror as they viewed the music movie on the internet. It was promotional video for a song released by world-renowned DJ Mark Wilkinson, and featured a couple acting out sexual intercourse on the altar where religious sermons are delivered and Holy Communion is prepared.

The movie, which lasted over six minutes, was shot in Belfast early this year and featured several sex scenes, including a couple appearing to have sex in a nightclub cupboard.

However it was the sex scenes that were shot in the sanctity of the Good Shepherd chapel that caused great hurt and distress.

But parishioners and the clergy’s worst fears were confirmed as the camera panned away from the writhing couple capturing Holy relics and pictures that hang from Good Shepherd’s walls.

Those involved in shooting the footage had no permission to be on the religious premises – violating the parish church in the most dishonourable and sickening way imaginable.

They debased the house of worship with no thought to the priests and nuns who have dedicated their lives to the Catholic Church and its substantial and devout congregation.

The Sunday World can reveal the disgusted and heartbroken priests immediately contacted their lawyers who approached Wilkinson’s record label Ram Records demanding the offending material be removed and destroyed.

Speaking to the Sunday World last night chief media officer for the Down and Conor Diocese Edward McGee confirmed the incident had taken place and spoke of the Church’s sense of hurt, anger and disgust.

“No permission was either sought or granted to film the interior of the parish church within the context of any conduct or activities that were not relating to prayer or homage and in accordance with the sanctity of the Church.

 

“The behaviour in the video was a desecration of the Church and caused most grievous distress to the parish priest and if viewed by the parishioners would cause severe hurt and distress to the wider parish community.

 

“For these reasons, to protect the Church and its parishioners, the Diocese of Down and Conor immediately brought these concerns to the attention of the distributors and creators of the material which was unlawfully obtained by deception and trespass. 

 

“The originators / creators and distributors gave us an undertaking that the unlawful material would be removed from circulation and destroyed,” Edward McGee told the Sunday World.

Last night the offensive images appeared to have been removed, much to the relief of Parish Priest Fr Fulton who will face his congregation this morning to offer words of comfort in the aftermath of their house of prayer being defiled in the name of ‘art’.

 Fr Fulton

London-born world-renowned DJ and producer Wilkinson, now signed to Ram Records/Virgin EMI, is being touted as of the one of the brightest new stars in dance music. Following his club hits ‘Tonight’, ‘Take You Higher’, ‘Need To Know’ and ‘Heartbeat’, Wilkinson released ‘Afterglow’ which became a top 5 hit on the UK Chart, selling 300,000 copies with over 12 million Youtube views. 

His album ‘Lazers Not Included’ went to number 1 on the iTunes Dance Chart and his tour schedule takes him across the globe from LA to Sydney. Summer 2014 see’s him perform at Glastonbury, Wireless, SW4, Reading, Leeds, T In The Park, Ibiza Rocks and a run of dates at Amnesia in Ibiza. 

Having remixed and collaborated with the likes of Chase & Status, Naughty Boy, Wretch 32, Katy B, Example and Nero, he recently scooped ‘Best Single’, ‘Best Album’, ‘Best Video’ and ‘Best Producer’ at the 2014 Drum & Bass Awards.

The controversial movie was shot for the release of his new ‘Lazers Not Included 2.0’ will be released in August.

Yesterday, the Sunday World contacted Ram Records.

We explained the context and background to our story.

A spokesperson there said there was ‘no comment on this matter’.

Pastor James McConnell during his offensive rant

Pastor of hate James McConnell has done it again.

Earlier this month he was in the mouth of a storm after labelling Islam as the ‘spawn of the Devil’ during a sermon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in north Belfast.

First Minister Peter Robinson, who with wife Iris was a parishoner, sprang to his defence. 

But now, we can reveal that the gay community in Ulster have gone gunning for McConnell. 

For they have discovered that one of his taped and videoed Hellfire and brimstone sermons brands them as ‘perverse’.

And now they want an apology...just like he and Peter Robinson gave after the ‘Satanic’ remarks from the pulpit about Islam. 

We can now reveal that the controversial Pastor brands gay families as “unseemly and against nature.”

To his packed out Tabernacle on Belfast’s Shore Road, the Pastor said that gay families were perverted and playing “let’s pretend.”

After McConnell made his vitriolic views known on Muslims, First Minister Peter Robinson weighed in to support him. 

Robinson said that he stood by McConnell’s remarks, controversially proclaiming that he’d only trust a Muslim to “go down to the shops for him”.

He later made a clarification regarding his response to McConnell’s remarks, meeting with Muslim leaders and publicly apologising to them.

 The whole episode, coupled with a spate of recent race-related attacks in Belfast, triggered two massive public anti-racism rallies at Belfast City Hall.

 Now that the Pastor’s comments on homosexuality have come to light, he will face more questions over his controversial beliefs and ‘teachings’ at his north Belfast church.

 In the recording of the sermon, which has been posted on Youtube, the Pastor begins a hate-filled rant about the gay and lesbian community.

He lambasted: “Calling a gay couple a ‘family’ doesn’t make it one – that is a perversion.

“Some public schools may even teach that Heather has two mothers, but two lesbians living together are not a family. 

“They are sexual perverts playing ‘let’s pretend’. That’s why God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and that’s why his will destroy this great society.”

He then went on to apparently give God’s opinion on homosexuality.

“Can anything be plainer? God condemns homosexual and lesbian practices,” said McConnell. “It is perverse and in his eyes it is unseemly and it is against nature.”

The Pastor then begins to lament about how believes that homosexuality is a result of the fall of the Garden of Eden.

He preached: “Homosexual orientation can only be a product of the fall in the Garden of Eden. Somewhere along the line, it is the result of sin.”

In the latter half of the video he labels homosexual people “perverts, homosexuals – abusers of themselves with mankind.”

 Finally, he takes a pop at “drunkards and revellers,” labelling them “party boys.”

Speaking on the content of the video, Gavin Boyd, Policy and Advocacy Manager for gay, lesbian and trans Rainbow Project, said: “This is truly disgusting language, used to humiliate and intimidate.”

 

“We have witnessed, over the past number of weeks, Pastor McConnell issuing screeds against followers of Islam and now he has moved on to another vulnerable minority group.

 

“The attitudes espoused by Pastor McConnell have an enormous impact on the mental health of Lesbian Gay Bisexual &Transgender (LGB&T) people, particularly young people who are still questioning their sexual orientation or gender.

 

“The lies that this so-called man of God tells about LGB&T people and their families justifies homophobic and transphobic hate crimes, intimidation, discrimination and the abusive bullying of LGB&T young people. He must, without hesitation, apologise for the harm and fear he has caused.”

LGB&T volunteer, fundraiser and campaigner Laura McKee, 31, from Belfast, described the damage that McConnell’s comment have had.

“Many people in the LGB&T community know about this video,” said Laura, “but the comments Pastor McConnell made about Islam seemed to be big news at the time – and rightly so.

“Both issues are very important. It’s very unhelpful for Pastor McConnell to be saying these things. Lots of LGB&T families have struggled to come out to their own families. 

“There are children of LGB&T families who I think the Pastor’s comments were aimed at.

“His comments about LGB&T couples ‘playing let’s pretend’ were just hurtful comments to make about anyone’s family. A family is not defined about the gender of the people in the family or their sexual orientation.

“A family is built on a group of people who live together and love each other and are bringing up their children. A family is whatever constitutes us on a personal level.

“To go around and berate people for that just fires up tensions. It doesn't help when there’s a lot of hate crime happening. 

 “To have a so-called man of God say things like this more or less tells people that hate crime is OK.

“And what kind of message does it send out to those in his own congregation who may be struggling to come out themselves?”

After the Pastor’s contentious remarks on Islam in May, the PSNI said that they would investigate a “hate crime motive” after complaints were made to them.

He was later questioned by police but released pending further inquiries.

Ciaran Gribben

INXS front man Ciaran Gribbin has teamed up with his Snow Patrol pals in a new music deal.

The Castledawson man has joined Polar Publishing in a deal which reunites him with former college mate Nathan Connolly.

Ciaran and the Snow Patrol guitarist studied music at Bangor Tech together and the singer did backing vocals on their hit Eyes Open album.

They nearly struck a deal on the Ulster man’s massive back catalogue of 250 songs four years ago when Ciaran was approached by Jonny Quinn, but they were both busy and it was put on the back burner until recently.

Ciaran, who supported Snow Patrol, Scissor Sisters and Paolo Nuttini when he was with band Leya, has penned material for artists like Madonna, co-writing her hit Celebration.

But he’s now signed up with his performing pals, opening up the American market.

The 37-year-old is already strutting on the global stage with INXS, which is currently taking a break from touring, and writing for artists in Asia and his adopted home Australia. He moved there with wife Donna to front the band and the couple now have toddler son James.

“I feel the time is right now for me to start focusing more on the USA market and with the team at Polar we are already planning a writing trip in LA and Nashville,” says Ciaran.

 

“Over the next year or so I expect my music to find its way into many areas, from TV to movies, adverts, pop records and games.

 

“I really feel as if I know the Snow Patrol lads well. I know that they’re honest and hard-working and they’ve built a strong team around Polar Publishing.

 

“The guys have always been supportive of me and my career over the years.”

He’s also expecting a buzz around Al Pacino movie Danny Collins, originally titled Imagine, about an ageing rock star of the Beatles era who goes in search of his long lost son. It’s due to be released this year.

Ciaran wrote the song which is Pacino’s character’s biggest hit, and got chills hearing him sing it.

“I was in LA a few months ago for the cast and crew screening and it really was amazing to see the movie. I never thought in my wildest dreams that a legend like Al Pacino would be singing a song I wrote in a movie. 

“It’s the first time he’s sung in a movie and he did an amazing job,” says Ciaran, who also wrote tracks for U2 movie Killing Bono.

Despite the workload of the band and writing for other artists Ciaran says he’s still writing for himself and this year fans will hear a lot more from him.

“I plan to release a lot of music – I’m not sure if there will be another EP or a few singles or an album,” says the artist.

“I shot six music videos recently in Rio and Australia so I’m very excited about getting new music out there again,” he says.

A woman has died after her car ploughed into a canal in Newry.

The crash happened just after 1.30pm on Tuesday afternoon.

The woman was named locally as Patricia Campbell who was from the city.

It happened off the Fathom Line in the city.

Emergency services and specialist rescue teams attended the scene.

The road remains closed in both direction and police are appealing for anyone with any information to come forward.

A man in his 80s has died in a farm accident in Pomeroy.

He is reported to have been working in a field at the time of the accident and may have been hit by a tractor.

The incident happened on the Loughnamarve Road in the Lime Hill area of Pomeroy.

The Health and Safety Executive are investigating the accident.

Local Sinn Fein councillor Cathal Mallaghan said: "This has rocked the entire farming community in Pomeroy.

"This is a busy time of year for farmers trying to prepare for the winter and they are working long hours.

"It's very sad, something you don't want to hear, but farming is a dangerous business and accidents can happen."

Peadar McCann

Gaelic footballers Darren Hughes and Mattie Donnelly are set to become stars of the small screen.

Monaghan skipper Hughes and Tyrone All Star nomination Donnelly are on the brink of PlayStation stardom after featuring on a new computer game developed in Northern Ireland.

All Star Gaelic is the latest attempt to bring Gaelic games to the gaming world, following two failed attempts in 2005 and 2007 to develop a successful computer game.

Local, developer Peadar McMahon has stepped up to the plate filling a much sought after gap in the market. 

The 31-year-old Lurgan man is the founder and lead developer of independent company, MojoPin and he revealed its project that has been 12 years in the making.

“When I was at Queens studying I rang a Japanese company, Konami, to see if I could employ their soccer software as a base for a gaelic game,” he said. “That was 12 years ago and they never came back to me.”

He later developed a prototype and started his business in his spare bedroom.

“I’ve been developing it in my studio in the spare bedroom for the last six months. It has been paid for with my own hard earned cash, but the biggest moment was when we had Darren and Mattie down to Queens for the motion capture. Here we had access to millions of pounds worth of equipment.”

In the movement sensor lab, deep under the swimming pool at Monaghan, full back Darren got into the spirit of things, 

“Darren hit a ball out of Mattie’s hand and it hit one of the cameras, we were all terrified we’d broken some of the really expensive equipment, thankfully we got away with it.”

The Monaghan skipper admitted he was unsure of what he was letting himself in for.

“I got a phone call asking was I interested and I thought, sure I’ll head up for a nosey and see what it’s all about. Mattie and I turned up at Queens and put on the outfits; an all black leotard and those little balls that pick up the movement.”

Darren, who is more at home working on the family farm, had so far managed to keep his potential game fame under wraps.

“The rest of the team don’t know anything about it. Neither does my dad or mum, I didn’t tell anyone!”

With the fun stuff in the bag developer Peadar admits the next six months is going to be the most important, 

“This is an extremely significant time in the process. In the following months we will be able to combine the data captured and the artwork and actually we will have something to show people.” 

The game developer is confident he has a winner on his hands.

“Once the word is spread there will be people hungry for it. The market will be there if I’m looking at 50,000 sales as realistic.”

The timing seems perfect with GAA now reaching a global market thanks to matches being screened live on SKY TV.

“Gaelic is making its way into the mainstream. There are already pockets of it all over the world. 

“For example I was in San Francisco to raise awareness and funding for the game and even there on the West Coast of America there were three Gaelic teams. Now with SKY involved, the game is about to go global.”

So how long do we have to wait? 

“I reckon it will hit the market by Christmas next year, this is completely realistic as long funding comes through in the next 4-6 months.”

So until we can control Mattie and Darren at the flick of a button we’ll have to make do with our annual visit to Croke Park.

'Mucky' Marty Heaney

'Mucky' Marty Heaney

Convicted sex creep ‘Mucky Marty’ Heaney shaved off his hair and beard in a desperate bid to change his appearance, the Sunday World can reveal.

Heaney took drastic action after he became concerned that this newspaper’s revelations had made him too recognisable. 

He also upped sticks and moved south of the border, where he has quickly established himself as a pimp in Dundalk and the picturesque seaside village of Carlingford.

And the self-confessed child abuser – who once used the cover of a ‘Children in Need’ charity to lure two teenage girls into his web of evil – is today exposed as a Facebook fraudster who uses the popular social media site to spy on unsuspecting innocents.

The Sunday World can reveal the podgy pimp – who weighs in at 20 stone plus – uses a number of false Facebook accounts while plotting to procure the services of cash-strapped young women.

We discovered he likes to trawl the internet searching for suitable females. And once a number of targets are singled out, he sends the girls a personal message asking: “Do you want to make an easy £20 for 5 minutes work?”

 

Then a few minutes later, he sends a second message stating: “Sorry! Sent that by mistake lol.”

Heaney uses the technique – a seemingly innocent message sent in error – as a way of luring young females into starting Facebook correspondence with him.

And once he gains the girls’ confidence, he gently pushes the conversation in the direction of sexual preference.

If Heaney meets any opposition, he cuts the conversation short and immediately moves on. 

But if his Facebook ‘friend’ shows any interest at all, the sick sex pervert moves in for the kill.

During a recent Sunday World investigation into ‘Mucky Marty’ Heaney’s latest secret sexploits, we discovered he offered to pay a young woman to urinate over him.

And in another particularly sick case, he promised a girl a substantial amount of cash if she agreed to watch him having sex with a transvestite.

We further discovered Marty Heaney uses a number of other Facebook accounts, including one in which he poses as a young female.

And we are also able to reveal, Heaney uses a range of Facebook accounts to proposition young women to work for him as strippers and at a later stage prostitutes.

“People need to know about this. They need to know how Heaney operates, because he is clearly a serious danger to vulnerable young women,” one concerned mother told us this week,

We recently learnt that in January, Heaney was quizzed by the police over an alleged stalking incident. Officers were following up a complaint from a 19-year-old single mum who had worked for Heaney as a stripper for a short period.

The teenager – anxious to earn a few extra pounds to help raise her child – contacted Heaney though his ‘nistrippers.com’ website. 

She had only performed two strip shows for him when she suddenly quit. It later emerged Heaney was pressurising the youngster to perform ‘extras’. The teenage 

mum refused to have anything more to do with the self-confessed sex pervert.

However, filled with revenge and rage, Heaney began stalking her. He took to sitting in his car, which he parked outside the girl’s home night after night, for hours on end.

Heaney also bombarded the girl with a string of lewd messages sent from his mobile phone. These were shown to the police.

The police told the young woman Heaney was well known to them, however, he wasn’t charged in relation to the complaint.

Two months ago, the Sunday World revealed ‘Mucky Marty’ Heaney was back in the sex-for-sale business, running a sleazy strip-o-gram service and also supplying hookers.

And in an attempt at staving off bad publicity, as well as trying to avoid prying police eyes, Heaney shaved his head and for a while moved into the east Belfast home of ‘Destiny’, one of his website strippers. 

He eventually quit Northern Ireland altogether, although he makes regular trips back to visit his ageing father at his home in Andersonstown.

He has also be sighted regularly in Lurgan, Co. Armagh, driving a range of different cars bearing southern registrations. 

And he recently ran a strip show at a pub in Larne where he used a false name and faked a southern accent in an attempt at fooling the owners of the premises.

The podgy pimp dumped his original ‘Angels2Devils’ website after a string of bad press. 

Last year, Marty Heaney walked free from court despite admitting to performing sick sex acts on two terrified teenage girls. Traumatised by their experience, both his victims attempted suicide.

He was handed a three year probation order and the judge also ordered him to enroll in a sex offenders’ programme. He was first exposed in the Sunday World five years ago.

But, despite this, the sex pervert has continued to operate as a pimp.