Hain - and his terrist connections - past and present.

Talkspace reveals a very distant but nonetheless interesting bit of Hain family history dated Feb 13th 2007.

The Minister for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain was born to South African parents who were anti-apartheid activists in the South African Liberal Party, for which they were made "banned persons", briefly jailed, and prevented from working. Friends of the Hain family formed a small resistance group, the Armed Resistance Movement.

The Armed Resistance Movement (ARM) was an terrorist group whose members were mainly white, and friends of Peter Hain's family were involved.

ARM came into being at the time of the arrest of the major ANC leadership. It succeeded in several bombing operations. However, a bombing in Johannesburg station in July 1964 led to the death of an elderly woman.

One of the ARM's operatives (John Harris, a school teacher) was subsequently arrested, convicted, sentenced to death, and executed.

Harris was a friend of Peter Hain's family, and Harris' wife, Ann, and their young son, David, went to live with the Hains in the run-up to the trial. The 15-year-old Peter Hain delivered the eulogy at the service for Harris after his execution by the South African government for planting the bombs that killed and wounded people in the blast.

Another site has a related part of the story which is best visited to fully understand ..

My grandmother . . . born and bred in England . . . ( Ethel Rhys) died one month after being
blown up on Johannesburg station (july 24th 1964) and it was thought that I would too.

Which might explain how well he understood the NI terrists and gangstas he had to deal with and meet their demands at the St Andrews summmit.

Or the embarassing case of his appointment of Mrs Bertha McDougall as Interim Commissioner for Victims and Survivors of the Troubles On 24 October 2005.

Mr Justice Girvan was tasked to review this curious appointment and taking the role of Solomon, said the appointment of Bertha McDougall by Mr Peter Hain, was in breach of "the accepted merit norms concerning public appointments" and he also called for a high-level inquiry.

Mr Justice Girvan held that Mr Hain had been motivated by an improper political purpose, namely a confidence-building gesture to the DUP.

Bertha is the widow of a police reservist killed by the INLA (Dirty Catholic bastards) in 1981 and her appointment and the method of appointment was challenged by Brenda Downes, whose husband Sean was killed by an RUC (Dirty Prod bastards) plastic bullet in west Belfast in 1984.

Interestingly, in a Judgement delivered on January 15, 2007 Lord Justice Girvan held that the post of IVC formally came to an end on 5th December 2006 by operation of Contract, as a result her report was issued as a personal report... and ..er ... Mr Hain's misdeeds.. er...swept... er... under the carpet. Forgotten .. but not by everybody.