He had a wonderfully dry sense of humour and had built a life for himself in a new place and was liked and admired by a wide circle of people.”Mr Flannigan was laid to rest in the Dryfesdale Cemetery beside his brother and close to the memorial and mass grave which holds many of the people killed in the Lockerbie disaster.. Siamese twins born in Manchester could be made wards of court if their parents attempt to take up an offer of sanctuary in Italy to escape an order to save one by letting the other die, lawyers said yesterday. Siamese twins born in Manchester could be made wards of court if their parents attempt to take up an offer of sanctuary in Italy to escape an order to save one by letting the other die, lawyers said yesterday.
A Roman Catholic Italian cardinal made the offer of a “safe haven” after he was contacted by the ProLife Alliance, saying he wanted to provide an “ethical alternative” to Friday’s High Court ruling that the twins should be separated, against their parents’ wishes.His intervention came as the Official Solicitor, Jim Baker, representing Mary, the weaker twin who would die as a result of separation, considered whether to appeal against the court’s ruling. Mr Baker’s decision is expected either today or tomorrow but if he decides against an appeal, surgery is expected to go ahead very soon.The issue could become even more complicated if the parents, who are Catholics from a remote Mediterranean island, decide to accept the Cardinal’s offer. Legal sources said doctors at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester couldapply for the girls to be made wards of court, preventing them from travelling abroad without the court’s permission.After Friday’s ruling the ProLife Alliance, a political party which fielded 55 candidates at the last election, contacted Cardinal Ersilio Tonini, Archbishop Emeritus of Ravenna, in north-east Italy, over what it termed the “legalised murder” of one twin. He immediately offered them an apartment in an Italian hospital as well as “indefinite and completely free medical services” as soon as they wish.Bruno Quintavalle, the director of the alliance, said: “The alliance believes that the family should be offered the possibility to avail themselves of help from a European country which respects their wishes. We have not spoken to the parents but the offer is on the table and it is a safe haven from the pressure of separation.”They do not want one of their children to be killed and going to Italy would give them the opportunity for their wishes to be respected.”We are particularly worried that this family came here to get help from a country where facilities [to look after the children] do not exist and now they have been ordered to kill one of their children.”Mr Quintavalle said if Mary, who relies on her sister Jodie for heart and lung function and is alive only because they are attached to each other, died of natural causes, the separation of the two girls could go ahead without any ethical dilemma.Sources at St Mary’s said both girls would die in between three and six months if they were not separated.

The chances of Mary dying naturally and allowing doctors to separate the babies successfully at that point were almost non-existent “They will both die simultaneously. If one dies there is no chance that the other would not die within hours because there is only one heart.”The legal battle began after their birth on 8 August when it was realised that they shared a heart and lungs. Jodie, who is bright and alert, is essentially a life support machine for Mary.Their parents flew to Manchester on 16 May after consultation between their island’s government and Britain. Doctors approached the courts seeking permission to separate the girls after their parents said that enabling one to live at the expense of the other was not “God’s will”.On Friday, in written evidence, they said they could not contemplate the death of one child to allow the survival of the other. Mr Justice Johnson overruled them saying: “For Jodie, a separation means the expectation of a normal life; for Mary it means death.”The grandmother of the two girls, who is living with the couple, said that the family had been shocked when pregnancy scans revealed Siamese twins but that abortion was illegal. She said: “We didn’t know what to do but there was never any question of an abortion It is God’s will.”. The Northern Ireland Parades Commission found itself in an even more uncomfortable position than usual at the end of this month after it faxed, in error, a list containing the names of 39 Protestant bandsmen to a member of Sinn Fein.

In Ulster’s highly charged atmosphere, it was the sort of slip that the commission’s new chairman, Tony Holland, could do without. The Northern Ireland Parades Commission found itself in an even more uncomfortable position than usual at the end of this month after it faxed, in error, a list containing the names of 39 Protestant bandsmen to a member of Sinn Fein. In Ulster’s highly charged atmosphere, it was the sort of slip that the commission’s new chairman, Tony Holland, could do without.
Predictably, there were calls for Mr Holland, the English solicitor newly appointed as head of the commission, to go. But with his renowned unflappability, he apologised for the error while declining to hand over a resignation letter.Ministers at Westminster and in the Northern Ireland Office must have heaved a relieved sigh. The Government had been recruiting since October 1999 to replace the first chairman, Sir Alistair Graham. By the end of December, no candidate of sufficient calibre had been found.

That is, until they approached Mr Holland, the former senior partner of Plymouth-based Foot & Bowden and one-time president of the Law Society of England & Wales.At the time Mr Holland was seeing out the dying days of the Personal Investment Authority where he had been principal ombudsman since 1997. The PIA was about to be swallowed up by the new Financial Services Authority “superombudsman”. Mr Holland was rumoured to have been slightly miffed that he hadn’t bagged the new post – which went to another solicitor, the former Insurance Ombudsman Walter Merricks – and he was clearly looking for a high-profile posting.But when the headhunters came knocking with the suggestion of the Parades Commission job, he was initially dubious. “I thought I didn’t have much to offer in Northern Ireland,” recalls Mr Holland.In many ways, the 61-year-old can be seen as an ideal candidate for the Parades Commission chair. Being English, Mr Holland is an outsider – or a “blow-in” in the parlance of the province – with no sectarian baggage. He is discreet about his own religious background, describing himself as being a Christian and nothing more.That level of discretion is wise in a man who holds a position which must be one of the hottest spots in the cauldron of UK society and politics. And there is no hotter time in Northern Ireland than during the summer marching season when the Parades Commission receives some 3,600 applications.