Ulster's pioneer of peace targeted by Sinn Fein

By Joe Jenkins MONSIGNOR Denis Faul, a leading voice for peace in Ulster since the height of the Troubles, has become the target for a Sinn Fein-inspired campaign to oust him from his parish.
Mgr Faul, who is parish priest of Carrickmore, in Co Tyrone, is a member of his local community and police forum, a body liasing with the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Earlier this month, 30 or 40 republicans, including Sinn Fein assembly member Barry McElduff, stormed into a meeting of the forum held in Omagh and attended by Mgr Faul, three other Catholics and two Protestants.
The forum included two women in their seventies, who complained that they had been intimidated by the protesters, who were calling for the disbanding of the RUC. One man grabbed Mgr Faul's minutes from the meeting.
The disruption was followed by a meeting of Mgr Faul's parishioners in which a petition, calling for his transfer from republican-stronghold Carrickmore — which they said had been divided by the priest's outspokenness on political matters — was signed by about one third of the 200 who attended.
They claimed that the community meetings, organised in association with the RUC, were being held "in secret" and used to plot against the local Catholic community.
But according to friends of the priest, Mgr Faul believes that the row will blow over. "They'll milk it for now, but people will lose interest when they realise they are being manipulated by Sinn Fein," said one.
Mother said: "Hundreds of these meetings are held each year by 150 or so groups. It is ridiculous to suggest they are secret meetings. It was an unpleasant thing to happen, especially as these old ladies were shouted out of town." He added: "Mgr Faul doesn't want to foment bad feeling in the village. But Gerry Adams has called for people in Northern Ireland to work together, across the faiths, and this is what these forums are about."
In the 1970s, Mgr Faul was an ardent critic of police and army "brutalities". He ministered to IRA hunger strikers and once secured the release of a republican informer kidnapped by terrorists. He has since become one of the most outspoken opponents of paramilitary violence, dubbing the IRA and their political wing as "fascists".
The Catholic authorities petitioned by the rebel parishioners have insisted that they will not be intimidated into making a snap decision on Mgr Faul's future.