three little dogs

The plight of Aqaba

2012-01-31T23:51:00.001Z

The village of Aqaba in the West Bank has had its share of trouble with the occupying Israeli State.
For years, the Israeli army carried out army "exercises" within the village, often injuring villagers with live bullets.
The present Mayor was himself so injured as a young boy and has since been confined to a wheelchair. An Israeli court eventually stopped this practice within the village but the army exercises continue in the environs.
With international help and financial support (including US support) a kindergarten school was built within the troubled village.

However, demolitions of homes by the Army and the rebuilding of them by villagers became an unwanted pattern of life for the people of Aqaba.

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"A month ago they were here last time," Mayor Haj Sami Sadeq told Gush Shalom, te Israeli Peace and Human Rights group. "They destroyed our access road, which we call 'ThePeace Road'and demolished several houses. When the children who had been thrown out oftheir homes were crying, the soldiers posed for souvenir photos on thebulldozer, smiling and laughing".

An American Human Rights group invited the disabled mayor to a lecture of the US to raise awareness. Following this, the Civil Administration head, Brigadier General Motti Almaz, made an unprecedentedpersonal visit to the village.

"He sat with me at the local council offices. I told him: 'You're destroying our homes and we build them again. What else can we do? This is our village, we have nowhere else to go. I told him that in our village there had never been clashes with the army, neither in the First Intifada nor in the Second one. For years the army carried out training with live ammunition among the village houses, villagers were killed and wounded. I personally, the mayor, was hit at a young age and remain in a wheelchair for life, and yet I feel no bitterness or hatred. I support peace. I just ask that they live us alone. I asked Almaz toapprove a zoning plan for our village so that we can build legally. I asked himto allow us to rebuild the access road to the village - with our own money and labor,just that they don't destroy it. I asked him to let us build a school on 42 dunumsof state land which are in the middle of the village and which we can't use. To allowus to be linked to the water pipe, so that we will no longer need to fetch water by tankers, at twenty Shekelsper cubic meter. I told him that ten years ago, the electricity pylons at theentrance to the village were pulled down, and in 1999 Knesset Members wrote toDefence Minster Ehud Barak and he gave instructions not to touch our electricity- but still, two months ago they came and again pulled down twenty pylons. Iput all problems and issues to Brigadier General Almaz, and for everything Isaid he answered 'We will look into it', 'We will take care of it'. And he wentoff.", the Mayor told Gush Shalom

"What happened next? A few days later there arrived in our village the localrepresentative of the Civil Administration, a man named Yigal (he does not tellhis family name) and started handing out demolition orders.

Demolition orders forhouses, for cattle sheds, even for the tabun bread ovens. Seventeen demolitionorders in total. And he told us, this whole village is illegal, everything mustbe destroyed. Is this the 'looking into it' which the Civil Administration Headpromised us?

Then the Head of the Jenin Area Civil Administration, located atthe Salem Chekpoint,came to our village. I asked him 'Why did you send us Yigal with the demolitionorders?' And he said: 'No, I did not sent him, this did notcome from me'. And then. after another few days Yigal came back with another eightdemolition orders. Demolition orders also for our kindergarten and clinic. A totalof 25 demolition orders for a village which consists of 45 houses in all. Sowhat am I to do now? What can I tell villagers who ask me 'You are talking aboutpeace. Where is your peace?' "

My First Petition on Change.org

2012-01-23T14:33:00.000Z

If you look at Change.org the Petition Site you should find a new petition there with one signature so far. If you agree with it please add yours.

It is for President Barack Obama and reads as follows:

OUTLAW ALL WAR STARTING BY OUTLAWING BOMBING MISSIONS

All war is evil. Countless millions have died and are still dying because of it. Add to that the injured in body and mind, the forced carers of the injured, the bereaved, the families and friends of the bereaved, the warped indoctrinated minds and personalities of its soldiers - and above all the children.

Young people at the age of idealism are coaxed into armies where they are taught to hate and kill fellow human beings.

You are the President of the United States of America which has by far the highest military expenditure in the world

In its short two and a half centuries of existence, the United States has engaged in over 100 wars or military interventions in other countries.

This far exceeds the wars or interventions participated in by other countries
As the chief war-maker, the United States has a responsibility to try to end war globally.

Yours is the only country to have used a nuclear bomb.. The use of any kind of bomb is horrendous, barbaric and outrageous, when you think of the frightened civilians, children and adults who are powerless against this mass murder from the sky.

I am requesting you, as President of a very powerful country, to start to undo the damage of war. You can refuse to declare or participate in any other war. You can withdraw from the arenas of war around the globe.

Right away you can suspend all bombing operations in Afghanistan and never again send pilots to unthinkingly or intentionally murder people indiscriminately from the sky.

YES YOU CAN

Protest at the US Embassy re Guantanamo

2012-01-12T20:46:00.001Z

Yesterday, my friend Colm Roddy and I went to the US Embassy with our placards to protest against Guantanamo.

That obnoxious prison is still open in spite of Barack Obama's election promise to close it.
In the picture, Colm is in the orange suit. His sign reads:

CLOSE GUANTANAMO END 10 YEARS ILLEGAL DETENTION & KILLING of SUSPECTS & INNOCENTS
Colm was on his knees for one hour of our 90 minute protest.

He had seen the Ambassador going to a restaurant across the road with two minders. Later, they returned and, as they did, I stood where he might see my sign. He peered at it as he came closer. It reads

10 YEARS OF ABUSE AND TORTURE INNOCENT PEOPLE ARE STILL IN GUANTANAMO SHAME ON YOU! SHUT DOWN THIS HELL HOLE

Ambassador Dan Rooney stood before me and I said "Mr Rooney, I have a letter here for you", as I took it out of my pocket. He turned his head away while one of his minders reacted slightly. "Will you accept a letter from me?" I asked. Again, he turned away and pointed to a minder saying "Give it to him" , which I did.

The letter and the envelope were handwritten by me on my way to the Embassy.
The letter read:

"We are protesting at the US Embassy today on the tenth anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo prison. President Obama gave a solemn undertaking to close it - why is it still open?
The shame of the Bush era clings to your President and will take many years or decades to undo.
With best personal wishes Justin Morahan"

Malaysian Tribunal finds Bush and Blair guilty of war Crimes

2012-01-03T11:44:00.000Z

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, after two years of investigation by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC), a tribunal consisting of five judges with judicial and academic backgrounds found George W Bush and Tony Blair guilty of crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and genocide as a result of their roles in the Iraq War. The decision was unanimous. (Aljazeera)

The judges gave their verdict after four days of hearing, on 22 November 2011. Both defendants were absent during the proceedings as they had declined an offer to present a defence or send a representative. The court appointed a defence counsel for them in their absence.

Although the verdict was not enforceable in a normal manner associated with a criminal court operating within a sovereign state or as constituted by international agreement, the tribunal nevertheless hopes that its recommendations will have a legal weight expected to extend beyond a moral condemnation of the defendants.

The tribunal added two Orders to its verdict in accordance with the KLWCC Charter that controlled its operating framework:

1) Report the findings of guilt of Bush and Blair to the International Criminal Court in The Hague;

2) Enter the names of George W Bush and Tony Blair in the Register of War Criminals maintained by the KLWCC.

The tribunal and its verdict brings into the public domain once again the idea of "universal jurisdiction" whereby states claim criminal jurisdiction over persons whose alleged crimes were committed outside the boundaries of the prosecuting state.

In the celebrated Filártiga v Pena-Irala case, a US court awarded over $10million to the Filártiga family because of the horrific torture of their son Joelito by Inspector General Americó Pena-Irala in Paraguay. In this case however both the Filártiga plaintiffs and Pena-Irala happened to be in the US jurisdiction at the time the family sued the torturer.

As Bush and Blair were absent from Kuala Lumpur, they may escape punishment but the Tribunal could be a precedent for other such tribunals. At least it's a start.

A few of the bravest and best Palestinians board an Israeli bus

2011-11-15T15:12:00.004Z

FREEDOM RIDERS TRY TO END ISRAELI APARTHEID

History is right now being made in Palestine. A small number (5) of brave Palestinians have boarded a public bus from which they are barred in Israel.

Avaaz reports: "Lacking their own state, Palestinians are forbidden to use buses and roads reserved for non-Arabs - part of a host of race-based rules that US President Jimmy Carter has called "apartheid"." 50 years ago, blacks in the US challenged these rules by simply and non-violently refusing to follow them."

The Palestinians have just now taken the same approach, and their actions are seen livE at the link below (see comment 1)
As Gandhi did in India and Rose Parks did in the US, these non-violent freedom riders are simply on the bus, quietly making their powerful point to the world.

At last viewing one protestor had ben forcibly removed, the bus had stopped, a soldier and settler got off. The Israeli passengers are having to put up with the delay that Palestinians suffer daily. Soldiers are shouting and bullying people telling them to get off.

They are being forcibly removed

(Unpublished) Letter to Times, Independent and Examiner

2011-11-07T18:32:00.003Z

ALAN SHATTER on JUDGES

Putting aside the question as to the veracity of the Moriarty report in its every detail and eschewing entirely the controversy it has engendered, I refer to the statement of Minister for Justice Alan Shatter (http://www.justice.ie/) and the more generalised remarks he makes about the criticism of judges.

The Minister said that "Our judiciary play a crucial role in upholding the constitutional rights of individuals, rich or poor, without fear of or favour to any one individual or the State itself."

As a human rights activist, attending court over the past eight years, my experience has been entirely different. Put the State in court against any litigant and it will require all the might of the legal profession to defeat the State - even when the law of the land is patently against the State's position.

So, in the case of the State versus Clancy and Others (2006), three separate judges attempted to prevent the lawful defence of the five defendants being admitted for the consideration of the jury. Two of these judges had to resign from the case and the third had to re-consider, under powerful pressure from three Barristers, and eventually allow the lawful defence. The jury unanimously acquitted all five defendants.

Put the State against a lay litigant in a similar scenario.. There are now no powerful Barristers around, no independent press, and ninety nine times out of a hundred, the judiciary will not "uphold the constitutional rights of the individual without fear or favour to the State". The situation is even more draconian when a lay litigant takes a case against a judge or vice versa.

The "public confidence in our judiciary and in our courts", that Mr Shatter refers to, must be earned. If that confidence is ever restored, if ever we see a full and open transparency about the workings of the courts, the judiciary and the Courts Service, if a Judicial Council, independent of judges, is ever allowed to come into being in order to monitor judges' activities within their courts, or if arrogance on the bench is replaced with a modicum of humility, it will truly mark a new beginning.

Otherwise, Minister Shatter's vision of the Irish judiciary will remain a pleasant fantasy.

Is Mise

I have this strange feeling

2011-10-16T13:24:00.002Z

I have a strange feeling that there is something very corrupt in the global economic system - but I can't put a finger on it.

Now, maybe if I had a hundred fingers . . . .

Support "Occupy Dame Street"

Support "Occupy Dame Street"

Stop Troy Davis execution

2011-09-20T21:41:00.003Z

Only 24 hours left.

Georgia have turned down Troy's last appeal.

An innocent man goes to his death

Contact the Amnesty link to make a last ditch appeal to stop this cruel injustice.

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=6645049&aid=516533

Vanunu is not an Israeli citizen - let him out, Israel

2011-07-28T18:12:00.002Z

In his letter last May to Eli Yishai, the Interior Minister of Israel, Mordechai Vanunu pointed out that the Knesset had just passed a law that removed the citizenship of anyone convicted of
espionage or treason, and that as he had been so convicted he should be deprived of his citizenship.

Mordechai spent 18 years in prison in Ashkelon, Israel, for blowing the whistle on Israel's nuclear armaments. Since his release he has not been allowed to leave Israel and lives under stringent security.

As of today, Mordechai has not received a reply to his letter.

Because of this delay his lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, went to the High Court in mid July to insist on a response. The Court ruled that Mordechai's petition, now over two months old, must be answered within 30 days, which should be by August 13th.

If you can, please write a letter in support of Mordechai to any local or national paper, media outlet or government member.

And you can email Mordechai at: vanunuvmjc@gmail.com. You may not get an answer but be sure all support will be welcome.

Deserters may be the bravest of soldiers

2011-07-15T19:27:00.011Z

[LETTER SENT TO 3 NEWSPAPERS. PUBLISHED IN IRISH EXAMINER 13 JULY 2011]

A chara

As a pacifist opposed to all killing armies and all wars, I find no difficulty whatever with the pardoning of the Irish deserters. Those who left because they believed that killing humans was wrong should be very proud of themselves. Those who joined the Allied war effort should not be punished. Whether they were killing in an Irish or British Army they should have been free to leave, even to leave one for the other.

For whatever reason young people sometimes get themselves involved in joining armies and fighting wars. Governments pay vast sums of money on advertising, recruitment techniques and propaganda to entice them to do so. Once in, many soldiers regret their decision, but find themselves in a Hobson's choice situation where they must either let down comrades by leaving, or act contrary to their lights and consciences by staying. The full moral and legal force of each and every Army makes them fear leaving.

Some Irish soldiers became convinced that it was better to join a force that was fighting a war in Europe than stay in their own Army at home. Maybe this was again due to propaganda but it became their conviction. When they left they acted on their convictions - according to their lights and consciences.

Contrary to the indoctrination instilled by armies, deserters may be the bravest of their soldiers. Threatened with penalties of ostracism, exile, court martial, imprisonment and execution, yet they desert.

While I would prefer if the Irish deserters had never enlisted in any army, I don't believe that they need anyone's forgiveness for acting according to their lights. However if it would set their minds at rest, the honourable and humane thing for the State and the military to do would be to give them the technical pardon they request.

Is mise

Justin Morahan

Obama in Ireland

2011-05-23T07:58:00.002Z

Dear President Obama

As a human being and therefore a brother I welcome you on your visit to Ireland.

In other circumstances this welcome might have been absolute.

But I object to your appetite for killing other humans. As in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lybia and beyond. I say NO to your acceptance of the torture of other humans, your failure to close down Guantanamo, your U-turn on military tribunals for its inmates, your treatment of whistle-blower Bradley Manning, your proliferation of nuclear weapons and jailing of those who oppose them. It was sickening to watch you in that small room purportedly viewing the killing of Osama bin Laden. Bad enough that you were willing (and promising in your pre-election speeches) to kill him, without trial, evidence, judge or jury, horrible that you gloated over the purported killing itself.

By continuing to use Shannon civilian airport for war you are implicating Ireland and its people in the blood-fest in which you are engaged.

I object too to the lie that your interest in interfering in the Middle East and newly revolutionary countries has anything to do with support for human rights or democracy. Nearly everyone knows it is the oil and wealth of those countries that you covet for the United States. I object to your recently articulated belief that protection of the United States gives you the right to act as you have been acting, to kill as you have been killing, to interfere bloodily in the affairs of other peoples.

Your prevarication with regard to Israel has been pathetic. Talk is cheap and of that you have plenty. You have fiddled with Netanyahu while Palestinians burn.

When you were elected, I hoped that you might be different. I had reservations but I still hoped. You have shattered many dreams by reneging on the good promises you made on the way to the White House.

We need integrity, honesty and humanity in the people who occupy offices such as yours. We do not need orators. Have you not heard that actions speak louder than words.

What I have lost in you is trust .

Still, I wish you and your wife Michelle a safe and happy time in Ireland. Also good wishes to your children.

Your brother

Justin Morahan

FREE BRADLEY MANNING

2011-04-12T15:06:00.001Z

Whistleblower against murder of civilians being held in brutish conditions by USA

There has been a lot of anti-war activity in Dublin over the past weekend to highlight the continued detention of Bradley Manning in brutish conditions bordering on torture.

As I have not been able to join in person in this activity next best thing is to highlight the case of soldier Bradley Manning here.

Collateral Murder - Wikileaks - Iraq

Bradley is a whistle-blower who revealed this video to Wikileaks. It shows his fellow soldiers indiscriminately killing a number of civilians from the sky.

There is also a petition here that you can sign for Bradley's release. Last time I looked the number of signatures was 460,017. Please help them to make it to half a million.

2011-03-28T10:28:00.002Z

The following report was first published on Indymedia Ireland

High Court Judge Rejects Medical Certificates For Ill Lay Litigant as Inadequate

CASES AGAINST THE STATE, GARDAI AND COURTS SERVICE STRUCK OUT IN MAN'S ABSENCE BY PRESIDENT OF THE HIGH COURT

SUMMARY: If the State, in the name of the Irish people, prosecutes you wrongfully or maliciously, and the State loses, you can sue for damages. When you are good and ready to go ahead, the State can send you a letter ordering you to appear in another court where they will ask another judge to strike out your case. The reasons given are usually that your case is "vexatious" or "unlikely to succeed". Or if you fall ill and under doctor's orders, the reason could be "for want of prosecution".
Kevin Tracey's six cases were struck out by the President of the High Court on 4 March last. His doctor's and hospital consultant's certificates were deemed by the Judge to be inadequate. He is allowed to "appeal" to the Supreme Court but as a lay litigant who is still under doctor's orders, the odds are stacked against him to carry through or win such an appeal.

"Even a Man on his Death Bed Would be Able to Write an Affidavit", said President of High Court

In Dublin's Four Courts, on Friday 4th March 2011, a lay litigant, Kevin Tracey, had six of the cases he was taking against the State and Courts Service struck out for want of prosecution by him while he was ill and unable to attend court. The cases taken by Kevin Tracey were related to ten prosecutions of himself by the State. The State had lost all cases except for one which it had withdrawn on the morning on which the case was due to be heard after numerous witnesses from the Courts Service had been sub-poenaed. Kevin Tracey contends that all of the prosecutions are malicious.

On foot of the results of these different and separate cases (which the State had lost or withdrawn) Kevin Tracey had been engaged in suing the State and others for malicious prosecution of him. However, he was suddenly struck down by illness in July 2010 after which he was hospitalized for several weeks. He has been attempting to recuperate since then and remains under doctor's medical care and advice.

The sudden illness and its aftermath prevented him from attending court or engaging in the work of prosecuting any of the six cases. He was hoping to have all six cases heard by a Judge and jury. The courts were kept informed by his wife of his inability to attend because of his continuing illness and the fact that he was under doctor's orders. Hospital and GP certificates were provided to the Court.

The GP's first certificate, dated 2 September 2010, stated that Kevin Tracey would not be able to conduct his affairs for a period of six months.

In the Four Courts, on Friday 4th March, 2011, Justin Morahan, a human rights activist, handed Judge Nicholas Kearns the most recent certificate from Kevin Tracey's GP, dated 23 February 2011. This certificate stated, after outlining his medical condition, that Kevin Tracey would be unable to work or attend court for the next six months.

On Friday 4 March 2011, the State and the Courts Service asked that all of the cases be struck out for want of prosecution basing their case on a Motion and an Affidavit written by Niall O'Shea of the State Solicitors office. They said that there had been an inexcusable and inordinate delay and they had suffered prejudice. The Courts Service contended that court clerk Bernard Neary who was among those being sued by Kevin Tracey, had forgotten the incidents about which he was being sued.

Judge Nicholas Kearns allowed Justin Morahan to make a verbal submission. Justin Morahan said that he had come to court only to explain Kevin Tracey's absence and to hand in his doctor's certificate that had been requested by the Judge. He said that he had no legal training and he was up against eminent barristers and solicitors. He asked that the motion of the State and Courts Service be struck out, so that Kevin Tracey could prosecute his cases when he was in better health. These were cases where the State and its agents had engaged in the most serious wrongdoing against Kevin Tracey. Justin Morahan said that Kevin Tracey, even in the words of the State Solicitor's Affidavit, had "advanced the litigation in an expedient and determined manner" until July 2010, - and that was the exact date of Kevin Tracey's sudden illness and hospitalisation.

It would be a very grave and serious miscarriage of justice, Justin Morahan said, if a man's inability to come to court - an inability vouched for by his GP and Hospital Consultant - were to allow the State and Courts Service to have these prosecutions against them for their own serious wrongdoing struck out before they could be heard by a judge and jury.

The Judge remarked that he would not be accepting Kevin Tracey's Doctor's certificate as adequate.

When Judge Kearns then began to give his verbal judgement, Justin Morahan interjected to say that he had an important point of information that he wished to supply to the court before judgement was entered. Some weeks ago, while Kevin Tracey's first certificate was still valid and Kevin Tracey was unable to attend court, Judge Kearns had proceeded, in Kevin Tracey's absence, to deal with two other of his cases, struck out one of them, and removed the second one from the jury to the non-jury list. These decisions of Judge Kearns were now being appealed to the Supreme Court and as a result, on Kevin Tracey's behalf, he was asking Judge Kearns to recuse himself from this case.

Mr Justice Kearns refused this request.

The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Kearns, in his judgement, rejected the GP's medical report. He said that he had heard nothing to convince him that the delay was not inexcusable and inordinate. Some of the defendants had even forgotten the events. Kevin Tracey should have replied to the State Solicitor's (Niall O'Shea's) recent Affidavit. Even a man on his death bed would be able to write an Affidavit, he said.

The Court, he said, had previously made a specific regulation that a detailed medical report from an appropriate expert was needed by the Court if these cases were to be adjourned again and this regulation had not been met in the certificates handed into the court.

He granted the motion of the State and Courts Service and accordingly struck out all of Kevin Tracey's cases against them

Immediately after the judgement, Justin Morahan asked Mr Justice Kearns as a point of clarification who he (Judge Kearns) would regard as an appropriate medical expert. The Judge replied that he was not used to having the clarity of his judgements questioned but again said that the medical report he had been given did not meet the required standards.

He awarded costs to both the State and the Courts Service. He said that Kevin Tracey had the right of appeal to the Supreme Court.

DIFFERENCE OF OPINION ON CONFIDENTIALITY OF DOCTOR'S CERTIFICATE

Before the case was heard, during the first call, Justin Morahan handed the original copy of the doctor's certificate to Mr Justice Kearns, telling him that, as it was the original copy. Kevin Tracey would need to get it back, as he would need it for other purposes and he (Justin Morahan) would supply the Judge with a copy that he could compare with he original.The detailed information about Kevin Tracey's health that was contained in the certificate was private and confidential. He then gave copies to the representatives of the State and Courts Service after they requested them.

However when Mr Justice Kearns proceeded to read out the contents of the certificate and had succeeded in reading the first ailment mentioned there, Justin Morahan intervened to prevent him from reading the certificate in open court There were press representatives present and Kevin Tracey did not wish his medical condition to become public knowledge, he said.This information was private and confidential. Mr Justice Kearns said that the only reporters present were Court reporters and they could be relied on to keep the information confidential. Justin Morahan said that he thought that he had already pointed out to the Court that the detailed information was private and confidential and Kevin Tracey did not wish to have this information relayed in open court. When Mr Justice Kearns said he had to inform the representatives of the State and Courts Service about the information in the certificate Justin Morahan told him that he had already given them their copies.

In the event, no other part of the medical report was read out by Judge Kearns.

UPDATE

As of today, Kevin Tracey remains ill and under his doctor's orders not to engage in litigation until his health improves.

A Case against War - Again

2011-03-22T14:31:00.004Z

Iraq then, Lybia now. The war-mongers are abroad again. The case against them is the same. "A Case against War" was first published before the war in Iraq.

A Case against War

by

Justin Morahan

In the present heated debate about Iraq there appear to be three broad schools of opinion. Firstly, there are those who support the war, "regardless". Secondly, there is a school that gives its assent to war, only grudgingly. A third body of opinion opposes all war "regardless". In the massive peace marches of 15 February around the world, the latter two groups were present.

As a pacifist, I belong to the third group. I do not subscribe to the notion that "We all are against war,of course, but it is sometimes necessary or sometimes inevitable". I confess to having a passionate detestation of war. I believe that war is pure and unadulterated evil. And such an evil cannot be deemed "necessary" or "inevitable" - ever.

What Happens in an Army

Firstly, war is evil in its conception and in its organisation. A young and usually naive person is lured,or sometimes forced, into the camaraderie of a large social group called an army, where he or she is systematically taught to hate and kill any number of other unknown humans who will be called "the enemy".

The reasons given will be "defence in case of an enemy strike", "loyalty to an ally", or "fear of some dictator who seeks world domination". These reasons are seldom explained in depth to the new recruits - they are only thrown out as asides in the barrack square while the more important work of the army goes ahead. That important work is the thorough indoctrination of the recruit. Society, believing that somehow armies are necessary, allows them to work and train in secret, to demand blind obedience from recruits, to acquire whatever weapons of mass destruction they may fancy, to produce professional killers who are able to kill robotically, to create and foster an ethos in which killing other humans is a reasonable and desirable end. No matter that society generally reviles those religious sects who similarly lure and brainwash young people for their own ends, although they may never train them to kill.

To accomplish this aim of getting the worst out of the human nature entrusted to them, and fostering the darkest emotions of the human spirit, armies have created their own Orwellian language where euphemisms abound. On its own side, trained killers are called "soldiers". Its own atrocities are called "operations". Its own mass killings are spoken of as the "infliction of heavy casualties". Its crass and careless murder of non-combatants is called "collateral damage". Killing of its own allies is "friendly fire".

Similar atrocities committed on the part of the enemy will be called by their rightful name. Other atrocities that the enemy have not committed will be invented and repeated as often as possible to make them more hateful.

So armies and the politicians who put them to work foster a great culture of lies and deceipt that begins even before the first shots are fired.

The Soldier - first Victim of War

Within the army itself, all questioning is taboo, individualism is a sin, rational thinking becomes the greatest crime. You must believe that the other side is evil, and your side is good. No questions asked. Along with the more subtle indoctrination, bullying tactics are used in this closed and oath-bound organisation effectively to produce what one US officer recently described (on a TV Discovery programme) as " a better product"

The indoctrination has become complete - no longer a human being but "a product" castrated of all human emotions except those allowed and nurtured by Big Brother. The more blind and unthinking this "product" the more useful he or she will be as a soldier. "The first duty of a soldier is to obey" - de Gaulle's words have echoed in many a barrack square. Disobedient soldiers, after all, may not be inclined to rip the guts out of a fellow human while roaring in a mad rage (as soldiers are trained to do) or to open their bomb hatches over a densely populated city of sleeping families. In a war situation, a refusal on either score would be regarded as an act of the highest treason demanding a courtmartial and -what else could you expect in this culture of death - execution by a firing squad of more obedient soldiers.

So the soldier becomes the first casualty of war. Carried along on the tide, attributing responsibility to superiors - who in turn attribute it to their heads of State - soldiers carry out heinous acts that are wholly contrary to their better nature. Often too late, and when the damage has been done, they rebel against their indoctrination, throw back their medals of honour, and tell the world that war is wrong. So, recently four veterans of the last Gulf War had this to say to the soldiers who have been passing through Shannon, Ireland:

"We are veterans of the United States armed forces. We stand with the majority of humanity, including millions in our own country, in opposition to the United States' all-out war on Iraq. We span many wars and eras, have many political views, and we all agree that this war is wrong. Many of us believed serving in the military was our duty, and our job was to defend this country. Our experiences in the military caused us to question much of what we were taught. Now we see our REAL duty is to encourage you as members of the U.S. armed forces to find out what you are being sent to fight and die for and what the consequences of your actions will be for humanity. We call upon you, the active duty and reservists, to follow your conscience and do the right thing.

In the last Gulf War, as troops, we were ordered to murder from a safe distance. We destroyed much of Iraq from the air, killing hundreds of thousands, including civilians. We remember the road to Basra - the Highway of Death - where we were ordered to kill fleeing Iraqis. We bulldozed trenches, burying people alive. The use of depleted uranium weapons left the battlefields radioactive. Massive use of pesticides, experimental drugs, burning chemical weapons depots, and oil fires combined to create a toxic cocktail affecting both the Iraqi people and Gulf War veterans. Today, one in four Gulf War veterans is disabled."

The Second Victim of War

This brings me to my second reason for believing that war is evil, and that is its end product. How many examples other than those mentioned by the US veterans could be adduced! Witness Hiroshima, Nagasaki, London, Dresden, Chechnya, The Congo, Dublin and Monaghan, Bloody Sunday, Bloody Friday, New York's Twin Towers, Omagh,and ten thousand other places where the bodies of the mutilated and the dying groaned from beneath the bodies of the dead because of an "act of war".

In each and every one of these cases, it was soldiers,indoctrinated with the twin mental poisons of hate and robotic killing-ability, who carried out the atrocity. And, as Che Guevarra reminded us in his Diaries, the art and tactics of the "legitimate" army differ not a whit from the art and tactics of the terrorist.

Would any of those who are in favour of the war against Iraq, however "reluctantly", be willing to place their own baby over a fire and roast the baby alive? Yet, this is what will happen to Iraqi babies if war goes ahead. In the Amariya shelter in Iraq, over 400 women and children were incinerated by what the US military called a "smart bomb". The US suffered its own incineration on Sept 11. John Pilger described what he saw had happened to children in Vietnam ater a bombing raid during the war there: "The children's skin had folded back, like parchment,revealing veins and burnt flesh that seeped blood, while the eyes, intact, stared straight ahead. A small leg had been so contorted by the blast that the foot seemed to be growing from a shoulder. I vomited."

In the certain knowledge that the same will happen again, repeated over and over, in the present war against Iraq or any other country, how can we give our own or our country's assent to such barbaric evil?

No Such thing as a Just War

It is because war itself is evil that the idea of it being just is out of the question. How can evil ever be just? To speak of a just war, in my opinion, is a contradiction in terms.

If we want to attain what we believe to be a just cause, war is never the answer.

Just causes are as plentiful as blackberries in August, but how can any honourably just cause seriously embark on redressing an injustice by an evil means, war, that is itself unjust?

Of those who point to "successes" as a result of war, I would ask: "Have you condoned the roasting of women and children and other humans to achieve your success?"

Because of the short-term and long-term results that war brings with it, all its "successes" are hollow, and all its "victories" are Pyrrhic.

Mary Kelly's conviction overturned

2011-02-25T12:03:00.008Z

Today's good news is that Mary Kelly had her conviction for criminal damage to a US military aircraft (29 January 2003) overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin this morning. This has been revealed by Shannonwatch, the excellent anti-war and human rights group that monitors the foreign military use of Shannon airport.

The original trial was heard in Kilrush and on 4 July 2003 resulted in a hung jury. Subsequently Mary Kelly was tried in Ennis Circuit Court and, on 29 October 2004, she was convicted and sentenced to two years suspended. The appeal against this sentence was heard on 29 July 2008.

It took almost four years for the courts to hear her appeal or facilitate the appeal by producing a full and accurate transcript of her trial.

And it has taken a mere two years and seven months for the three learned judges to deliver their judgement!

What a travesty.

"Justice delayed is justice denied". What excuse is there for this unbelievable delay in giving judgement? For those six and a half years, Mary Kelly has been denied justice .

Yet, having represented herself over all of that time, she sat alone again today to hear the judgement.

That judgement vindicated her. For she has succeeded after a gigantic struggle in forcing the courts to acknowledge that her lone action in Shannon airport on that long night in January 2003 was a good action.

She acted to save lives in Iraq. Our State prosecuted her as a criminal and the State has lost.

Irish Elections - Other Priorities

2011-02-24T10:53:00.007Z

7. Stand up to Europe. Take their cash, not for the toxic banks, but to regenerate the economy.
New Government, new ball game.

8. Bring back the Freedom of Information Act in its original form.
It was neutered after we gave Shannon airport to GW Bush. Nothing to hide, no fear of free information

9. No to a European Army
Goes without saying. Armies are for killing. No Irish Army, no European Army

10. No to stag hunting
Keep cruel sports out of Ireland

11. Whistle blower's Charter
To end corruption at every level and in every sphere whistle-blowers should be encouraged and protected

12. Encourage small home industries
So stopping the dependence on capitalist multi-nationals

13. Tax the rich more and the poor less. Start creating an equal society

14. End the party whip system. Let elected representatives be free to vote according to
their consciences

15. Reform the prison system and then abolish it.
Replace it with a system of restorative justice and probation service

16. Let emigrants vote for first six years of exile
A new emigrant constituency would elect its own quota of TDs depending on the number of emigrants registered in that new constituency.

17. Investigate all psychiatric hospitals and methods used in them and stop all treatments not acceptable to the patients

18. Remove the blasphemy law.
It is a dangerous and ludicrous anachronism

The Irish Elections - What I want from the next Government - No 6 Lower the voting age gradually

2011-02-20T19:26:00.003Z

No 6 Lower the voting age

For years the age at which we were entitled to vote was 21. It is now 18. This means that anyone under 18 has no say whatever in how our country is governed.

Students enter post-primary school at 11 or 12. Who dares to think that the vast majority of those who leave primary school at that age are not mentally capable of a mature decision on how they themselves are governed?

Children's lives are affected by Government decisions. Irish children have been badly served in the past by Irish Governments. Irish children who were abused in institutions had no power to stop the abuse. Irish children have been abused in their own homes. They too had no voice or power. In the words of a glib and dangerous aphorism: Children were supposed to be seen and not heard. Children were battered in State schools by day and night and had no redress. The culture of adults decided and children had no remedy.

Children should be allowed to vote as son as they come to the use of reason.

The sooner the better. There may be difficulties in putting this into practice but no-one better than children themselves to overcome these difficulties.

At the very least the voting age for the next elections, whatever they are, should be reduced to 14. Then to 11. Then to a lower age.

The Irish Elections - What I want from the next Government - No 5 Stop the bullying of children in Irish schools

2011-02-20T18:08:00.004Z

5 Stop the bullying of children in Irish schools

I have the dubious and onerous privilege of knowing more about the extent of bullying in Irish schools than almost any other person in Ireland.

For four years I worked at the coal face in trying to end bullying in one such Irish school.

Through the Box and Interview method I became aware of the vast amount of often unconscious bullying that plagued the lives of vulnerable children.

Through my website http://antibullyingireland.nfshost.com/ I know that bullying is widespread in Ireland and there is almost nothing effective being done to prevent or end it. I believe too that the incidence of bullying here has almost doubled in the past twelve months.

At the late Tony Gregory's funeral I mentioned the subject to Enda Kenny and he agreed with me that the excellent Department Guidelines (1993) should not remain as mere Guidelines to end bullying but should have the force of law.

Some members of the Oireachtas made valiant efforts to get Minister Mary Hanafin to meet me to make a presentation on the method that had been proven to work. They were; Joe Higgins (Socialist Party), Finian McGrath, (Independent) and Jan O'Sullivan (Labour Party).
The Minister did not meet me. She deputed her private assistant to have a look at a printed copy of my submissions. In the Dáil she granted that the Box and Interview method was one that Boards of Management could use.

I am asking the next Government :
1 to make the Department Guidelines (1993) law
2 to recommend the Box and Interview method to schools
3 to seriously tackle the bullying culture with all their might.

Irish Elections - What I want from the new Government - No 4 Stop the US or any other military from using any of our airports for war purposes

2011-02-19T18:19:00.003Z

No 4: Stop the US from using Shannon airport for the purposes of war in Afghanistan

No army personnel should be allowed to travel through Irish airports for the purposes of making war.

Since the Fianna Fáil Government allowed George Bush's army to use Shannon civilian airport to wage war on Iraq, millions of troops have passed through Shannon to kill people in Iraq and Afghanistan, essentially making Ireland a participant in war.

Up to that point we had not been participants in war. On a day of shame we surrendered our neutrality. Those of us who opposed this madness were told that we needed the United States. If we didn't support Bush's evil and immoral killing in Iraq, we would lose untold jobs in Ireland.

Our masters supported Bush but we also lost jobs. Not only that but we have lost our economic independence. We are in a depression. Hundreds of thousands are forced to emigrate, mortgages are gone through the roof, suicides are sadly far too common. The EU and IMF are the new masters of Ireland.

We chose immorality and immorality has let us down.

Now we should choose to do the right thing for once and say to the United States; "You are engaged in an immoral and useless and unjust war in Afghanistan. We are a neutral nation. We will no longer allow you to use our airports to engage in war."

Irish Elections - What I want from the new Government - No 3 Abolish the Army in its present form

2011-02-19T17:42:00.003Z

3. Abolish the Irish Army

Every army that I know of either conscripts or entices young, impressionable and eager people and then teaches them how to kill other humans.

The Irish Army to its credit does not conscript, it merely entices.

But then it teaches its new young soldier members the art of killing other humans. Male and female are taught how to kill. They are trained to obey an order to kill if it comes from a "superior " officer. They are also trained not to feel compunction about such killing of humans.

All of which is, of course, totally immoral and reprehensible.

Abolish the killing army, stop arms deals, get rid of killing weaponry and use the barracks, the facilities and the personnel to form a non-violent defence force that would be pro-active in keeping people safe in their homes and also taking part in rescue and emergency operations.

The Irish Elections - What I want from the next Government - No 2 Take back our natural resources from Shell

2011-02-18T19:19:00.006Z

2. Take back our natural resources

In North West Mayo, Shell are enjoying the protection of the Irish State as they erect and develop a refinery for our offshore gas that has been given to Shell for nothing.

I want the next Government to take back these natural resources from Shell and use the wealth to get us out of our economic crisis.

Is it fair and right that we should do this? Of course it is. The Fianna Fáil Government reversed a law that had been in place to facilitate the giving away of the gas. A Fianna Fáil minister gave it away for nothing . We don't know if he himself was paid a price. Why should the people of any country be deprived of the benefits of the wealth of the country because of the action of one suspect politician? Why should a suspect company like Shell benefit from such a shady deal to the detriment of the nation?

Is it possible to to do this? Yes it is. A new Government can stand up to Shell and take back the ill-gotten goods. They can use the State's human resources - resources which up to now have been used to guarantee Shell's ownership of part of Mayo and its offshore - to take over that area in the name of the State, evict Shell non-violently and compensate them for work done.

Take back our resources in our name. Don't compound and copper-fasten the errors of Fianna Fáil.

The Irish Elections - My List of wants: No 1. Stop the corruption in the Irish Courts

2011-02-16T12:23:00.006Z

No 1 Stop the deep-seated corruption in the Courts, the Judicial system and the Judiciary.

It has been my fate to have seen some of this corruption taking place in court rooms that I have visited as a human rights activist over the past four years. When this corrupt system gets its stranglehold on a victim it doesn't let go. It chokes the victim mercilessly to death.

What happened to the McBrearty family and Frank Shortt in the 1990s is happening now in Dublin to other people to my certain knowledge.

Any Government worth its salt must stop it NOW.

I have placed this at the top of my list because it is a hidden and sinister corruption in one of the two most powerful pillars of the State, namely the Judiciary, the judicial system and all its adjuncts.

I want the next Government and every candidate who stands for election to promise that when the State through its agents, the Garda Síochána, is found to have fraudulently prosecuted an innocent citizen, the same State will not use all of its immense power in the courts to further aggravate the damage it has already done to that innocent citizen or twist the knife within the wound it has so unjustly inflicted on that citizen.

That is what is happening in the Irish judicial system at present. The courts, the Courts Service, the Garda Síochána, members of the legal profession have been used to save the face of the perpetrators of the injustice and relentlessly hammer the innocent citizen who would dare to use the same courts to try to get justice or compensation for the criminal wrongdoing which the State has perpetrated.

All of this is carried out in the name of the tax-payers and the Irish people whom the State represents.

The State prosecutors and their helpers within the courts system are getting away with serious wrongdoing. The judges do not prevent the wrongdoing. They did not prevent it in the McBrearty and Frank Shortt cases. Only a brave woman whistleblower stopped the rot. Without her the judicial system would have continued to fail the wronged McBrearty family and the wronged Frank Shortt. They and their families would be carrying the weight of the criminal framing inflicted on them to this day, if they had managed to live.

A Judicial Council with teeth must be set up immediately to monitor the judiciary and prevent corruption. A forum other than the courts must be set up to deal speedily with the wrongdoings of the courts themselves. Judges should not be selected through patronage however well disguised but elected on merit. Before election they should be knowledgeable, not just in law and logic which should be taken for granted, but also and above all in ethics.

At present, the ethics dimension is apparently lacking, big time, within the judicial system.

I would like a change in the Constitution to allow the people to elect the judges from a panel of candidates put forward by a cluster of citizens, say 100 or so, who have nominated them, as election candidates are nominated.

The Irish Elections - What I want from the next Government

2011-02-11T13:49:00.006Z

The canvassers have not got anywhere near me and I can't talk to them face to face so I am telling them here and now what I want from the newly elected.

My list will not be the expected one. "Job creation" will not be the top priority because everyone knows this already.

The deep malaise that has blighted our little country had been festering for many years.

There was corruption in almost every level of government, local government, administration, planning, agencies of the State, the Judiciary and its own agencies. There was also gross inefficiency and arrogance. And there were false promises on Europe not just from Fianna Fáil but also from Fine Gael and the Labour party..

All of these have contributed in spades to our present impasse.

I want to see an end to this corruption, inefficiency, arrogance and deceit at the same time as I want to see better conditions of living for all of us.

In the following pages I will outline what I want to say at the door to the canvassers

The Irish Elections

2011-02-03T22:44:00.006Z

The 30th Dáil ended with a whimper and a long drawn-out groan.

It drew its last breath on the first day of February, St Brigid's Day, the first of Spring.

The fear expressed on this site at the beginning of the tenure of the Government in place was not just realised, it was surpassed outlandishly.

The Fianna Fáil/Green Party Government bowed to the Banks' demands, rewarded their corruption by bailing them out, brought in the EU and IMF so handing over the fiscal command of our nation to our new masters in the most abject manner.

We are no longer a sovereign nation.

Brian Cowen resigned as leader of Fianna Fáil under internal pressure. He named a day for the elections for 12 March 2011. But when he tried to make new Ministers in his last days of Government the Green Party were outraged and he had to move the date forward to 25 February 2011. He remains Taoiseach although Micheál Martin is the new leader of the party.

A new Finance Bill has been passed into law putting enormous burdens on the poorer and more vulnerable strands of our society - even the blind have been hammered.

The ultra-rich will remain ultra rich when they have paid what to them is a miserable pittance.

Support in the polls for both Fianna Fáil and the Green Party has shrunk significantly. The pundits as of today are forecasting a Fine Gael/Labour Party coalition with Fine Gael having the most seats.

The same pundits are forecasting that Enda Kenny will be the next Taoisech although for a while they were betting on the Labour leader Eamon Gilmore.

Latest state of the parties:

Fine Gael 33%
Labour 24%
Fianna Fáil 15%
Sinn Féin 12%
Green Party 01%

Mairead stands up to Israel

2010-10-11T11:16:00.003Z

Mairead Maguire Nobel Peace Laureate is home safely after her most recent visit to Israel. She had arrived there for a Nobel women's Initiative intended to support people working in Israel and the Occupied Territories, for human rights and justice, - especially women's groups, . But human rights and justice issues are not popular with the Israeli government, particularly where the rights of Palestinians are concerned.

So, having arrived at Ben Gurion airport, she was detained in the airport's detention centre where she was held in solitary confinement for seven days. Earlier, Israeli security guards had attempted to put her on a KLM plane to deport her but, after she reused to comply and sat quietly beside the plane, the pilot refused to allow the guards to force her on to it.

Her lawyer appealed in the District court and in the Supreme court but the appeal was lost.

Not before Mairead made it clear to the court that she loved both Israelis and Palestinians,and she appealed to the Israeli Government "to end Apartheid and Ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people'.

As the "peace talks" stall and stall and stall, Israel continue to defy US President Obama and all of his "peacemakers", continues to violate human rights of Palestinians, continues its illegal occupation of Palestine, continues to besiege Gaza with absolute impunity.

But last week, one woman's voice was raised within Israel, the voice of Mairead Maguire, making a call for justice that world leaders have been afraid to make

Choose Peace - End the Siege of Gaza

2010-07-25T17:39:00.002Z

HERE IS THE TEXT OF MAIREAD MAGUIRE'S OPINION PIECE - removed from Indymedia Ireland around 16 July last - see previous blog.

"Two months have passed since Israel’s attack on a humanitarian aid convoy to Gaza, with very tragic results—including nine deaths and 40 injuries. Yet, as this week’s events quietly reveal, it seems Israel will get away with its blatant disrespect for international law and not be held accountable for this disaster.

It was reported on Monday that an Israeli military commission found “no failure” on the part of the commandos who took part in the attack. And while the UN Security Council and human rights groups called for an independent and “credible” inquiry into the matter, there are no such plans in the works. Israel has deemed such independent efforts as “anti-Israel” and a threat to the existence of the state. The result? The US and indeed the rest of the international community stand on the sidelines, doing nothing.

On June 5, I was aboard the MV Rachel Corrie—a ship named for a young American activist who was bulldozed to death by the Israeli army in 2003—heading to Gaza. Just days earlier, we had heard via satellite phone that Israeli commandos had boarded six ships, including the Turkish MV Mavi Marmara, in international water, and had killed and injured many aboard.

As the seventh ship of the Freedom Flotilla, we now found ourselves in a frighteningly similar scenario.

The 19 crew and activists aboard the MV Rachel Corrie heard that 35 heavily armed Israeli commandos were now preparing to board our ship. We sat down on the deck to await their arrival. Some of us wondered whether we would face the same fate as our colleagues aboard the Mavi Marmara.

The killing of unarmed civilians was devastating news to us all. They were not terrorists—they were human beings. Like me, they believed that Gaza should no longer be a place of suffering and isolation for its inhabitants.

And like me, and all of the other activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla, they believed in peace.

In the 1970s people told me that peace would not come to Northern Ireland, just as they now tell me that peace is not possible in Israel and Palestine. I lost my niece and two nephews and my sister to the violence in Ireland, and it breaks my heart to see the same fate fall upon so many Israeli and Palestinian families. I have hope and believe that peace will come to Palestine and Israel because I have met so many people there on the ground working to make it happen.

And, just as it brought peace to Northern Ireland, nonviolent resistance will bring peace to this war torn region. That is why I keep coming back to Gaza, much to the Israeli government’s dismay. The last time I attempted to deliver humanitarian aid, in June 2009, I was detained for one week.

On this trip, the world was watching. Many, myself included, believed the tragic events of May 31 would finally open the world’s eyes to the even greater tragedy—Israel’s collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians. The violations of international law committed by Israel are well documented by the United Nations and many independent human rights bodies.

Even so, the violations continue under the guise of “national security”, and a policy of isolating Gaza to weaken Hamas.

It is a policy that clearly is not working. Instead, it has turned Gaza into what has rightly been described as the largest open-air prison in the world. The blockade that Israel has imposed on Gaza for the past three years has only punished innocent Palestinians. Lack of access to medical supplies and hospital treatments leads to a loss of life. Bright and eager students are unable to accept spots offered at international universities. Families are unable to rebuild homes destroyed during Israel’s crushing assault on Gaza that killed over 1,400 people in the winter of 2008 and 2009.

And Hamas, Israel’s intended target and the elected representative of the Palestinian people, grows stronger.

Meanwhile, the recent report released by the Israeli military shows that Israel will continue to choose ineffectual policies and violence over peace. In fact, the report went so far as to praise the Israeli commandos who killed nine civilians and injured dozens more, saying they operated “properly, with professionalism, bravery and resourcefulness” and that the use of live fire was justified.

A separate inquiry in Israel is under way, led by a retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice. Given the outcome of this first report, there is no reason to be optimistic that this panel will do anything more than reinforce Israel’s culture of impunity. Nothing less than an independent investigation is acceptable to the families of the victims of the raid and, most importantly, the Palestinian people living in Gaza.

It is about time that we open our eyes. The international community must finally stop allowing Israel to act with blatant disregard for international law and human rights. The partial lifting of the siege shows what international pressure can achieve, but it is not enough.

It is time for Israel to choose peace. It is time for world leaders and the international community to join together and call on Israel to lift the siege of Gaza completely, ending the occupation of Palestine and allowing the Palestinian people their right to self-determination."

(the above is the work of Mairead Maguire, Nobel peace Laureate)

A glitch on Indymedia Ireland?

2010-07-25T17:00:00.003Z

Usually Indymedia Ireland allows people to publish their news and reflections instantaneously online. It's an amazing service and one that I have used extensively over the years as has my friend Mairead Maguire. Mairead is a Nobel Peace Laureate who has done more for peace and justice since she won the Prize than she did before. Unlike many of her fellow Laureates she has not turned her back on the cause.

Recently I helped Mairead who lives in Belfast to post an opinion piece on Indymedia Ireland in the Opinion and Analysis section. Her thoughts were a reflection of her trip on the MV Rachel Corrie to break the siege of Gaza and bring humanitarian aid to the people the stricken area. Shortly after its publication the article was taken down by an editor of Indymedia Ireland. The reason given was that it contained nothing new and had been posted on other places on the Internet. Usually, if this happens an editor will move the piece to the section of Indymedia Ireland called "Other Press". But when I .searched "Other Press", alas I could find no trace.

Disappointed, I decided to ask the editors of Indymedia Ireland to re-publish the article in their "Other Press" section. Meanwhile, I am publishing it on this blog, "three little dogs" (not as widely read of course)

Hopefully, it will follow this blog as Mairead's article in its own right, under her own heading "CHOOSE PEACE_ End the Siege of Gaza"

Israeli Patriot Uri Avnery (86) attacked by Mob at Tel Aviv protest

2010-06-06T11:19:00.005Z

At a demonstration in Tel Aviv, the veteran Israeli peace activist, Uri Avnery (84) was attacked last night and had to be rescued by police.

The demonstration, held in Rabin Square, to protest against the occupation and government policy also protested against the take-over by the IDF of the Gaza Aid boats. Right wingers threw a grenade at protesters.

An e-mail from Israel states:
"The demo last night was attacked by right-wing thugs who even assaulted people sitting in coffee shops for being "complacent" and unpatriotic. The police saved Uri Avneri, who is over 80 years old, from being lynched, by bundling him into a taxi, but no arrests were reported."

Israeli forces Board the Rachel Corrie

2010-06-05T09:59:00.006Z

Israeli forces have boarded the Rachel Corrie.

Of course no-one on board resisted violently.

All on board had already announced this to the whole world.

But the boarding was nevertheless a brazen arrogant and unlawful break and entry into a lawful dwelling.

It was like breaking into someone's home, taking it over, using it as they wished (like robbers do in the night), kidnapping the inhabitants, unlawfully imprisoning them, forcing them to go into a hostile place and preventing them from carrying out their lawful tasks.

Israel is no stranger to this kind of action. The State of Israel does this on a regular basis to the Palestinians whose country they continue to occupy illegally.

The Flotilla to Gaza and Israel's bloody reaction to it over the past days has highlighted the ongoing siege of Gaza and the atrocities of Israel in a way that was hardly expected by that rogue State.

I salute the boarded Rachel Corrie and its passengers

2010-06-05T09:59:00.005Z

I feel very proud of the MV Rachel Corrie and her brave crew. Just now the reports are in that the ship has been boarded and is being towed to Ashdod. That there was no violence on the part of the passengers.

There were 4 calls to the ship, according to the Israeli Defence Forces, ordering them not to proceed to Gaza.

But nearly everyone in Israel knows the calibre of those brave people on board.

They started their journey in order to deliver aid to Gaza and to break the illegal siege
No-one was going to persaude them to divert from those 2 aims. They sped onwards to Gaza, even after the murders on Mavi Marmara, the numerous woundings, the assaults and violent arrests on all of the ships, the assaults on their prisoners after arrest and in detention. They said these horrible events only strengthened their resolve.

Everyone said the siege was wrong but no-one could break it. Not the UN,nor the EU,nor the USA, the "international community".

Concerning the siege, these entities DID nothing. Just as they did nothing, concerning Israel's overweening and incomprehensible arrogance in flaunting the international community re their occupation of Palestine. Only words were spoken. Never was the term "weasel words" more appropriate to the mutterings of those parties. The UN achieved nil and has become a laughing stock. The USA continued to pour billions of dollars into Israel, no strings attached, and now looks like a lapdog of Israel. The EU even made pacts with Israel on trade matters giving Israel special privileges.

Israel laughs at weasel words. They are a violently Machiavellian State. They devastated Gaza eighteen months ago, murdering 1400 including hundreds of children, then prevented its rebuilding. They treat Palestinians as if they were dirt. They scoffed at Obama when he went to Egypt. They scoffed at George Mitchell and at Hillary Clinton when they went to Israel. They scoffed at the International Atomic Energy Agency when they went to inspect Dimona Nuclear Plant - and Dimona has never been inspected. Mitchell and Clinton have not been allowed to visit Gaza. The State of Israel has driven Palestinians from their lands and homes and settled extremist American Zionists on the robbed land, even while pretending to talk about "wanting peace". Decent Israelis and Jewish people from many countries are just as angry and even angrier about these crimes than I am.

But now Israel cannot afford to laugh at the Rachel Corrie and her non-violent passengers. The Rachel Corrie went straight into the face of danger saying: "What you are doing is wrong and we oppose it with our bodies and souls and lives." Just like the American girl Rachel Corrie did when she stood in front of an Israeli bulldozer that was demolishing one of the aforementioned Palestinian homes - and they mowed her down.

Now, as the brave prisoners are beng escorted to an Israeli port, Ashdod, as they face imprisonment and hate in the country that imprisons them, as they face deportation from the country that has forced them to enter it, I salute each and every one of them.

The Irish participant on this brave expedition are: Nobel Peace laureate Maireád Corrigan-Maguire, former UN assistant secretary general Denis Halliday, film maker Fiona Thompson, and husband and wife Derek and Jenny Graham.

I salute all the other members equally though not by name. The reason is that I don't yet know them

This night a crime was perpetrated by Israel

2010-05-31T12:47:00.005Z

Press Release 05/31/2010

Uri Avnery: This night a crime was perpetrated in the middle of the sea, by order of the government of Israel and the IDF Command

A warlike attack against aid ships and deadly shooting at peace and humanitarian aid activists
It is a crazy thing that only a government that crossed all red lines can do

"Only a crazy government that has lost all restraint and all connection to reality could something like that - consider ships carrying humanitarian aid and peace activists from around the world as an enemy and send massive military force to international waters to attack them, shoot and kill.

"Noone in the world will believe the lies and excuses which the government and army spokesmen come up with," said former Knesset member Uri Avnery of the Gush Shalom movement. Gush Shalom activists together with activists of other organizations are to depart at 11:00 from Tel Aviv to protest in front of the prepared detention facility where the international peace activists will be brought.

Greta Berlin, the spokeswoman for the flotilla organizers located in Cyprus, told Gush Shalom activists that the Israeli commandos landed by helicopter on the boats and immediately opened fire.

This is a day of disgrace to the State of Israel, a day of anxiety in which we discover that our future was entrusted to a bunch of trigger-happy people without any responsibility. This day is a day of disgrace and madness and stupidity without limit, the day the Israeli government took care to blacken the name of the country in the world, adding convincing evidence of aggressiveness and brutality to Israel's already bad international image, discouraging and distancing the few remaining friends.

Indeed, today a provocation took place off the coast of Gaza - but the provocateurs were not the peace activists invited by the Palestinians and seeking to reach Gaza. The provocation was carried out by Navy ships commandos at the bidding of the Israeli government, blocking the way of the aid boats and using deadly force.

It is time to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip, which causes severe suffering to its residents. Today the Israeli government ripped the mask of its face with its own hands and exposed the fact that Israel did not "disengage" from Gaza. Real disengagement from the area does not go together with blocking the access to it or sending soldiers to shoot and kill and wound those who try to get there.

The State of Israel promised in the Oslo Accords 17 years ago to enable and encourage the establishment of a deep water port in Gaza, through which Palestinians could import and export freely to develop their economy. It's time to realize this commitment and open the Port of Gaza. Only after the Gaza port will be open to free and undisturbed movement, just like the Ashdod and Haifa ports, will Israel really have disengaged from the Gaza Strip. Until then, the world will continue - and rightly so - to consider the Gaza Strip under Israeli occupation and the State of Israel as responsible for the fate of the people living there.

Israel murders passengers on board Peace Flotilla

2010-05-31T08:04:00.004Z

Reports are coming in of an unknown number of killings of passengers aboard the Peace Flotilla that is carrying aid to Gaza.

It appears that shortly after 3 a.m. a ship was boarded by the IDF. Irish national radio reported 16 dead and dozens injured. In fact no person on board any of the vessels has made open contact since around 3 a.m. when a spokesperson said that all passengers of one ship were being called to the inside after 2 people had been killed.

In the absence of any contact with the ships since then I presume the following scenario:

All mobile phones, radio and video equipment on board the ship of the massacre have been confiscated by the IDF to stop first hand accounts of the killings, so allowing Israeli army defence people and fellow travellers to give their own propaganda version of events to the world.

And indeed, the Israeli propaganda and lies have sprung into action with an Israeli Army man calling the Peace Flotilla "an armada" organised by terrorists, and trying desparately to justify the atrocity.

Zion Evrony, the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland, after churning out barefaced lies on the Pat Kenny Show, has been called in by Mícheál Martin, our Minister for Foreign Affairs, this afternoon. Not that that will make any differnece. No matter what new atrocity Israel commits, Mr Evrony will speak from a well-rehearsed script and our boys and girls are just not up to the job of dealing with him. The lying script has been used so often that they can recite it by heart.

Just now, I had to speak to a machine in Zion Evrony's office (2309400) to protest the atrocity and his litany of lies. I don't think they care whether or not we know they are lying, whether or not we know they are murderers, whether or not we know they are using the USA, Russia, the EU and the UN to pull the wool over our eyes. They are armed. They get money from the USA for arms. They show the same contempt for Obama as they do for peace activists.

They refuse to leave the Occupied Territories. They use the Bible when it suits them. They say their mandate to own Israel comes from the Bible, maybe 3000 years ago, but with regard to the Palestinians they ask plaintively: What people would use land rights going back to 1946 to claim those lands in 2010?

The State of Israel appears to specialise in this type of chutzpah (in the Hebrew sense), arrogance, effrontery, boorishness, droch-mheas (in the Irish sense), contempt, as they wipe aside others' opinions and scorn all and every criticism no matter what atrocity they carry out, no matter what massacre, no matter what holocaust.

Israel's Lie re soldier Gilad Shalit exposed

2010-05-30T11:09:00.009Z

THIS IS THE DISGRACEFUL LIE:

"A group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators sailing toward Gaza with humanitarian supplies on Thursday have refused a request by the father of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to deliver a package and letter to his son.

Activists rejected Noam Shalit's offer to mediate on their behalf with the government, which has vowed to block the flotilla's entry to Gaza, if they agreed to his request."

-Published as news in Haaretz and other Israeli newspapers

THIS IS THE IMMEDIATE RESPONSE:

According to Arafat Madi, spokesperson of ECESG, no one rejected the offer of Noam Shalit to send a letter to solider Gilad Shalit.

Madi told the the Palestine Telegraph that ECESG is ready to carry the letter to captive Gilad Shalit. He also added that no one from the organizers were contacted to explore the possibilities of taking that letter.

“We are shocked by the claims published on Haaretz. The newspaper said that Gaza aid convoy refuses to deliver a letter to Gilad Shalit. This is mere Israeli propaganda. We are ready to send this message or package. In return, we ask Israelis to allow Palestinian families to visit their 8.000 prisoners. We seek a commitment from the Israeli government to allow Palestinians to send letters too” said Madi

THE REASONS FOR THE LIE

It appears that the idea of lying about their own soldier who is captive in Gaza came from a meeting of some of the Israeli top brass. Aparently they were brainstorming ways and means of countering the bad publicity expected by their using force against the non-violent Flotilla. Ehud Barak came up with the idea. Another idea was to gather and display all the used rockets used by Hamas over the years and display them for the passengers on landing.

To lie about their own prisoner and his family, raising hopes that would be unfounded, was low and disgraceful. Israel had already made up its mind that they would not allow such a letter or message to be delivered by the boats but the lie would be published before the Flotilla knew of the request. The lie would arouse anger in Israel.

Threatened by Israel as they bring hope and aid to Gaza and Palestine

2010-05-30T02:36:00.003Z

T
Make-shift prison in Ashdod - Arabs48

The Flotilla bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza has been threatened with a violent confrontation by Israel. Israeli sources, quoted by Associated Press, reported that "the navy had concluded all preparations to take over the Freedom Flotilla, by force in needed, in an attempt to prevent it from reaching the Gaza coast to break the four-year long ongoing siege". A report in Ma'ariv, an Israeli tabloid,says the Israeli military fear that there could be "terror activists", explosives and weapons on board the humanitarian ships. Greta Berlin of Free Gaza denied this, saying every item on board each ship had been inspected by port authorities and manifests issued. "Yet the Israelis are coming towards us armed to the teeth."

They plan to use force to board the ships and bring the flotilla to Ashdod, arrest all the aid carriers and imprison them in the above camp, order all of them to sign their own papers of deportation, deport those who sign and send the rest for medical examination before handing them over to the Nashon brigade who will imprison them in Be'er Sheva and other prisons in Israel. That is the threat.

Meanwhile Israel is working secretly on other fronts to stop the flotilla from getting to Gaza. Cyprus has reneged shamefully on a promise it had made that some "high-profile" passengers and members of Parliament would board from Cyprus with no media coverage.Free Gaza would take small boats out to their ships and board beyond the 12-mile territorial limit. But when the time came, Cypriot authorities prohibited that and also forbade them, "if they boarded small boats anywhere in Greek Cyprus from any port", from travelling outside their territorial limits to go to Gaza.

Two boats have been damaged mysteriously, Challenger 1 and Challenger 2. But "there is Gaza fever on board", says Greta Berlin. The flotilla is moving onwards to Gaza on Sunday 30 May.

There has been little recent news of the MV Rachel Corrie, the Irish ship that is part of the Flotilla carrying aid. On board are Denis Halliday (Dublin), Caoimhe Butterly (Dublin/Cork), Chris Andrews TD (Dublin), Fintan Lane (Cork/Dublin), Mairead Maguire (Belfast), Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD (Dublin), Senator Mark Daly (Kerry) and Fiachra Ó Luain (Donegal). The Irish crew members on the MV Rachel Corrie are Derek Graham (Mayo), Jenny Graham (Mayo) and Shane Dillon (Dublin). Ireland should be proud of them.

While the ships sail to Gaza and Israel uses all the propaganda it can muster to frighten, cajole and threaten the international volunteers who hope to bring aid to a devastated part of Palestine, the tales of Israeli atrocities continue
apace in the other part, the West Bank. In Bilin, on Friday, the usual attacks on peaceful demonstrators against the Wall included the firing of long distance tear gas cannisters, rubber bullets, sound bombs and arrests resulting in two being wounded. In Nabi Saleh, three injured, a girl hit by a sound bomb as she watched with her family from the safety of her flat roof , head injured, later hospitalised, a man hit in the back by a tear gas cannister, a boy's finger broken. Weekly, sometimes, night raids in various villages around the West Bank and in East Jerusalem where residents are terrorised, houses shot into. Random and planned burning and destruction of olive trees on which Palestinians survive through the oil harvested.

And all this while the USA, the EU, the UN and Russia give uncritical aid and support to the rogue State that devastated Gaza in Operation Cast Lead.

While we sit and get on with our own affairs, a Flotilla of wonderful people heads for Gaza. Those who are on the ships and boats have again raised awareness of all that is happening to Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories. For that they deserve our eternal gratitude.

Executions in Iran -Third letter to Iranian Ambassador

2010-05-26T21:14:00.007Z

19 May 2010

Dear Ambassador

Below is the third letter I have e-mailed to you concerning human rights in Iran and so far you have not responded.
I am now re-sending the letter below to assure you that I will continue to cry out against such outrages with every fibre of my being and I call on you again to stop all executions and all torture in your country.

Dear Ambassador

Again I write to you in dismay and unbelief, also in strongest protest, at the executions, hangings, shootings and torturing of my brothers and sisters in Iran. News of the latest examples of these horrors have come to me through a Nobel Peace Laureate who is also horrified beyond belief at these callous outrages against members of our human family.

Ali Heydariyan, Farhad Vakili, Farzad Kamangar, Mehdi Eslami and Shirin Alam Hooli, all of whose sacred lives you have violated and destroyed for so-called "enmity against God", - all denied the "crimes" with which you have charged them. I believe their word rather than yours. It is reported that they were tortured in an effort to gain "confessions" and I believe this to be true since the practice of torture is so common in Iran according to credible Human Rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Yours is a regime that has executed young gays for being homosexual. You declare the expression of the most noble and tender emotion of human love to be a "crime" punishable by death if the two people expressing it are of the same sex. You charge and murder them for loving one another as if love were a crime.

Yet you see nothing wrong with your hangmen violating the body of a woman, thrusting a rope around her neck and choking her until she is dead. You see nothing wrong either with men violating the bodies of other men by similarly dressing them up for choking and then hanging them until they too are murdered by your regime. How can anyone call himself a man and be responsible for such vile acts against human beings?

The evil involved in these acts must be exterminated in Iran. The darkness that envelopes your country is sending out messages to all reasonable people that your regime is to be opposed for its actions just as a similar message emanates from the State of Israel for its crimes against our Palestinian sisters and brothers. You and Israel are sowing seeds of hate against yourselves.

Stop this culture of torture, executions and extreme cruelty in your country. Put an end to this horrible nightmare. Let the light shine again on Iran. "The moon will not always be hidden behind the clouds".

With best personal wishes

Justin Morahan

Human Rights activist and Pacifist

Never ending oppression in the West Bank

2010-05-26T20:26:00.005Z

Yet another harrowing account of sabotage and destruction of Palestinians' lives has come to me from Bil'in in the West Bank. There, weekly protests against Israeli appropriation of land not theirs have been met with violence, tear-gas, arrests, wounding and killing.

Now the Israeli soldiers don't need the pretext of a protest. They come to the village with their guns by day or by night to intimidate, to shoot into homes, to intimidate, to arrest journalists who might witness their vilest actions, - and now to burn down olive trees that are the livelihood of the people whom they persecute.

Below is an account of just the latest crime with an accompanying video taken by a courageous Irish HumanRights defender, Tommy Donnelan of Galway.

"This morning, as is their wont, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) intruded into the village of Bilin. This time there were only three to the forefront with backup behind them when challenged they beat a retreat.

This afternoon, villagers rushed to quench a fire in an olive tree sited close to the Apartheid-Annexation Wall which was deliberately set on fire by the retreating IOF, but which was unable to be saved due to the fire being set in a crevice in the trunk which smouldered throughout the day and it was only in the latter stages that the tell-tale smoke was detected.

This pernicious act of economic warfare has deeply angered the villagers as many are dependent on the sale of the olive oil - 700 to 800 shekels per tree annually - for their livelihoods. To rub salt into their wounds and worse, after the fire was extinguished, the IOF ventured forth from behind the Wall and after detaining three activist-journalists - so as not to record their crimes, subjected the villagers to live fire, tear gas and sound bombs.

Today's destruction of the tree has alarmed the farmers in that phosphorus may have been used to unobtrusively burn the tree and olive groves may follow. So it goes in Bilin, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, ad infinitum, in a vicious world which doesn't care."

Rachel Corrie Anniversary 16 March

2010-03-16T19:59:00.004Z

On the seventh anniversary of the callous mowing down in Gaza, of human rights activist Rachel Corrie while she she protected a Palestinian home from destruction with her own body, a lawsuit is progressing in Haifa in Israel.

Rachel's family are suing Israel for her unlawful killing.

Twenty three year old Rachel stood unarmed, except for her exceptional humanity and bravery in front of the Palestinians' home. The bulldozer that callously and criminally crushed her young body to death was an Israeli Army Caterpillar D9R.

Video recording of the killing had large portions deleted or omitted when it was sent to the Corrie family.

Today Rachel's parents, Cindy and Craig and her sister Sarah are asking friends and supporters around the world to support their campaign to receive justice for Rachel. They are asking us to ring the White House

1 urge that George Mitchell visit Gaza, and

2 demand that the US break the blockade of Gaza by providing immediate humanitarian aid and building materials.

The number to ring is 001 202 456 1111

It's not much for them to ask. If you make the call, today or any day during this week, they would be delighted if you also let them (the family) know on the form provided at http://tinyurl.com/Corrie4Gaza

A Proposal re the Abused Children of Ireland

2009-10-11T11:57:00.004Z

The shocking revelations of the past years of the abuse suffered in various Church/State institutions and the meagre efforts to redress the abuse have prompted the following which I call

A Proposal for the Abused Children of Ireland

1 The State to declare all orphans and others who were abused in Ireland's industrial schools and other places of detention to be Honoured Citizens of Ireland

2. An official certificate to be granted to all such citizens declaring that they are Honoured Citizens of Ireland. The certificate to be signed by the President and Taoiseach of the day and stamped officially.

3. Special privileges, apart from compensation, to be granted permanently to Honoured Citizens. These to include Free Medical Card, free travel, free access to cinema and theatre etc.

4 Existing compensation granted to victims to be quadrupled without further investigations. This payment not to be an obstacle to victims (Honoured Citizens) seeking further and better compensation.

5 Those who should have been but were not heard by Judge Ryan to be heard by a new Tribunal composed solely of victims and their cases decided by that new tribunal in a non-adversarial way.

6. A Park of Remembrance to be created to honour the deceased Honoured Citizens and their families. The Park to contain a building for recreative purposes for all Honoured Citizens and their families.

7. In Seanad Eireann and Dail Eireann the present official prayer to be replaced permanently by a declaration recognising the culpability of the State vis-a-via its Honoured citizens and promising that every effort will be made, starting now, to prevent any such abuse from taking place in future or present times in any place whatever within the State. This declaration to be made daily in both Houses before start of business.

8. All Churches and religious congregations to be equally liable with the State for the financing of the above

9. In all Masses, a special statement admitting guilt against the victims, requesting forgiveness and promising never again to be part of such abuse, to be inserted and read publicly. Similarly for other religions who have been responsible for the abuse of children or other inmates under their care.

(Church people themselves might have some other proposals along with these)

Tales of Ballycumber

2009-10-05T10:20:00.005Z

I was present at a first night pre-view performance - which fact should be taken into account vis-à-vis any adverse comments in the review.

Tales of Ballycumber is a tragedy. The author, Sebastian Barry, has tackled the extremely difficult and harrowing subject of the large number of suicides recently happening among young Irish people, especially young men. For those who have not been touched in real life by being close to such tragedies, the play might be a bitter pill to swallow. For those who have had to swallow a more bitter truth already, in a barn or bedroom maybe, at a moment of awful, sudden and unchangeable realisation, this work and its performance on the Abbey stage will provide at least a little hint of empathy and hopefully a little solace.

The play has been carefully constructed with a mixture of story-telling, bright and dark imagery, rural dialect, farm lore, ghosts, parenting and themes of young love hindered by shades of ever so delicate inter-religious tensions. It begins with the brilliant song, Heartbreak Hotel, made famous by Elvis Presley which sets the scene to follow. Farmer Nicholas Farquhar (Stephen Rea) is 45-ish, his young friend Evans Stafford (Aaron Monaghan) is 17, both are Protestant. The neighbourly Evans has just helped Nicholas to root out a crow's nest from his chimney when the two sit down to tea and chat. Evans has news about Elvis's ancestors coming from the nearby Hacketstown, Nicholas recounts tales of the famous Kennedys. In between, Evans is anxious to talk about the girl with the greeny blue eyes, a Catholic with whom he has fallen in love, whose brother has lately hanged himself. Nicholas counters with recalling the tragedy of a young local girl, "one of the most beautiful wee girls that was ever seen around Ballycumber" who has died of cancer.

However, it is Nicholas's own advice to Evans, summed up in "You couldn't be trusting a girl like that to look after you" , that sows the seeds of the play's own immediate tragedy. Evans leaves a note saying that "Nicholas Farquhar knows" why, when the young lad shoots himself in the stomach. The focus turns on Nicholas. The gentle Andrew Stafford, Evans's father, wants to know, while Evans still struggles for life, what had Nicholas said to his son that caused him to do this. Nicholas's own sister, Tania, also wants to know. She becomes the bearer of bad news that Evans has died. She further wants to know "was there anything amiss" between Nicholas and Evans, recalling a shopkeeper whose wife had to lock up their three sons "so he couldn't get at them". For Nicholas this is too much.

He has ghosts in his head. One is the wee girl who died of cancer. Another is his dead mother to whom he cries in his grief. The wee girl (who sang the Heartbreak Hotel song) comforts him from time to time. Evans becomes another ghost, visiting him with a strange tale of how he was looking for the girl with the greenie blue eyes, found her (now her name was Casey) but just when they were enjoying each other's company, a band of men attacked him, pinned him down and shot him in the stomach.

The cast is star-studded. The writing has a strong hint of Synge. The portrayals, especially of Nicholas and Evans, were memorable. So, I have been asking myself: Why was it not a very satisfying theatre experience for me?

Part of the answer is probably that it was a first night pre-view, some characters were not fully prepared, some sentences were lost, some voices very weak. Another reason may be the denseness of the text, the difficulty of listening to long tales without any action. The cyclorama failed to convey the atmosphere it was intended to convey. The direction (on that first night) may have lacked subtlety. There was little movement on stage. People spoke mostly from a standing or sitting position. The stage itself looked unbelievably small and odd. Most of all I think it was the daffodils (which unnecessarily smothered the stage) that made me uncomfortable.

On the positive side, what a brilliant idea to have the full text of the play published in the official programme. This affords you an opportunity to compare what you heard with what you see and to try to tackle the unanswered questions of the play.

"Offensive" No-to-Lisbon sign - two arrested

2009-09-19T15:37:00.005Z

Among the groups against acceptance are Irish Friends of Palestine Against Lisbon who have created the above poster. The imaginative logo has also, in the form of a boat been sailing on two Irish rivers over the past weeks.

But in Galway a human rights activist, Tommy Donnelan, who was displaying the poster on the public street, was arrested by Gardaí after two Israeli tourists lodged complaints. Yesterday in Dublin, another human rights activist, Seán Clinton was arrested, handcuffed, detained and photographed while in detention, because he had first displayed the poster outside the Israeli Embassy and later, after a compromise with Dublin City Council tried to erect a smaller version of the same poster in its place.

It emerged that the instigator of the complaint this time was the Israeli Embassy in Dublin and both Gardaí and DCC had to bend to the Embassy's will.

It appears that the powerful message on the poster reminding people of the slaughter by Israel of 300 children in Gaza , and the European Union's lack of back-bone in failing to take Israel to task for this atrocity by imposing sanctions, was too much for the Ambassador of Israel to stomach.

It was easier for Ambassador Dr Zion Evrony to stomach the IDF killing of children in Gaza than the poster recalling the killings outside his Embassy in Dublin.

But what can be said of the Irish State that disallows freedom of expression in Ireland in the run-up to a referendum but engages in active repression and arrest of citizens who exercise their right to that freedom? A disgraced State (Ireland) is hell-bent on forcing Lisbon on its citizens whether we like it or not.

(The logo on the poster states: "Israel killed over 300 children in January - yet the EU will not impose sanctions EU policy facilitates Israeli genocide Vote NO to Lisbon"

Niall Harnett jailed for opposing Shell

2009-08-15T21:30:00.008Z

Niall Harnett, an Irish supporter of the campaign to stop Shell from building a refinery on land in Mayo, has been jailed for his non-violent civil disobedience.

In a disgracefully harsh sentence he received two consecutive periods of four months, making a total of eight months, in the squalid and remote Castlerea prison, where he has already spent 16 days.

In Ireland, even for violent offenders, sentences for two or more alleged offences, are almost invariably concurrent, meaning that innumerable sentences are all rolled up in one. Not so for this brave non-violent young man who has challenged the status quo, Shell and the State that sold out its natural resources in Mayo waters to Shell for nothing!

Niall's non-violent stand is too principled for the State to countenance. A Government minister had given away the people's ownership of our natural resources off the Mayo Coast and the people got nothing back in return. Then the Shell consortium proceeded to do what they wished in Mayo until the"Shell to Sea" campaign was set up to oppose them.

Five locals were jailed for contempt and spent 94 days in jail.

Another local, Maura Harrington, has been jailed three times, (see previous post) but this last time received bail. Niall's bail was too severe for him to accept on principle as it would keep him away from the scene of the action.

The Garda Síochána, the police force of the Irish State, often work hand in hand with Shell security police and have sometimes assaulted the protestors. No prosecutions have been made because of these assaults although some were shown on RTE News.

Niall comes to Dublin to appeal against the severity of his bail conditions on Monday, August 17th.

Ezra Nawi to be sentenced tomorrow in Israel

2009-08-15T20:57:00.004Z

On Sunday August 16th, Ezra Nawi will stand trial for his beliefs in Israel. This is not the first time that Ezra Nawi stands trial for his beliefs. But it is the first time that they will probably be able to stop him.

He has been harassed and targeted throughout the years, because, he believes, he embodies three elements which provoke bigotry in the Israeli society: He is a homosexual, he is a Mizrahi Jew, and he devotes all of his time to fighting for the human rights of Arab Palestinians.

In his own words:
I always knew that many people silently supported me, and that if I ever got into trouble they would stand behind me. This moment has come.

Ezra adds: I am a simple person. I did what my heart told me to do. Looking back, I know that what my friends and I have done is changing the harsh reality of the occupation in the whole area of south Hebron. I feel that now the Israeli authorities are punishing me on a personal level.

I would like to believe that my personal adversity will inspire and motivate individuals to actively oppose the occupation.

Tripod Man and lock-on friends stop Shell in its tracks

2009-07-04T21:14:00.003Z

Shell to Sea protestor James Marlow was arrested in Glengad Mayo on Sunday, 28 June, after he had delayed work on a controversial Shell pipe-line for up to six or seven hours. He suspended himself from the ground on a seventeen foot high tripod to protest and to impede Shell's work. Gardaí took three hours to build a scaffold around him.

Work was further delayed on the highly controversial Shell project by a five-member lock-on team, arms bound together with cement sleeves. The total delay time was estimated at 12 hours.

Because the Irish Government gave away the rights of the Mayo oil field for nothing to a Shell led consortium and Shell bull-dozed their way over private property, bird sanctuaries, and through land owned by others, there has been local, national and international protest. A vibrant and heroic Shell-to-Sea protest group have made it difficult at every turn for Shell to realise their pipe dream.

The State and Shell are not happy. As a result of Sunday's action nine people have been charged but even while in prison on remand a Judge Devins put out warrants for the arrests of some of them.

One protestor received a vicious wound on the hand and arm from a Garda, a note-taker was deprived of note-book, a number were arrested for crossing the road.

Read an exciting account of the whole episode with brilliant pictures here: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92918

Open letter to new US Ambassador to Ireland

2009-07-04T17:52:00.004Z

To: Mr Dan Rooney
United States Ambassador to Ireland

Dear Ambassador Dan Rooney

Welcome to Ireland.

I have been listening to a small bit of the interview you gave to RTE 1 this (Saturday) morning and as you will be hearing from me from time to time, I thought it would be appropriate to begin by saying Céad Míle Fáilte.

There are issues which I wish to raise but let me first say that whether or not President Barack Obama intends to come to Ireland on an official visit is not one of them. Of course, should he come there is no doubt that he would be welcome. But there are more important issues in the world than the US President visiting Ireland.

These are some of these issues:

1. The United States of America under George W Bush has brought itself shame and disgrace in its acceptance of the lie that there were "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq and the ensuing "shock and awe" massacre inflicted on that country's inhabitants. Reparation is overdue.

2. Even before Mr Bush's disastrous Presidency, Bill Clinton's USA administration had caused the deaths of a half million children under five, also in Iraq, through unjust and wholly unnecessary sanctions. Madeline Albright's infamous reply to a question on this matter was that she thought the price was worth it. Reparation is overdue.

3. The sympathy garnered worldwide because of the infamous bombing of the Twin Towers evaporated because of the actions of George W Bush.

4. The present policy of President Obama of "pursuing Osama Bin Laden" by bombing Afghanistan (January 23, June 18 and June 23 as well as several less well reported attacks) and Pakistan is wrong and counter-productive. It is more important to realise that it is wrong. All bombing should end.

5. Ireland's civil Shannon Airport is being used by the US military to wage this war in Afghanistan, which violates Irish neutrality. . On this question, the Irish Government is out of step with the people. 130,000 marched in Dublin against the war in Iraq, yet the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, granted George Bush the use of Shannon for war purposes. A Dublin jury acquitted five peace activists who prevented a plane from going to Iraq (and their decision was unanimous). The US should stop using Shannon as a military conduit now.

6. The US policy towards Israel has been disastrous, giving massive amounts of dollars without strings attached for military aid to a State (Israel)that occupies its neighbour Palestine, a State (Israel) that is guilty of flagrant human rights abuses against the people of Palestine, a State (Israel) that carried out a massacre in Gaza as recently as December/January last, a State (Israel) that violently attacks peaceful demonstrators on a weekly basis in villages like Bil'in and Nil'in, often wounding and sometimes killing unarmed and peaceful demonstrators at these demonstrations.

The US has not opposed Israel's secret nuclear arsenal and its disgraceful lack of inspection by the IAEA, at the same time that israel was denying liberty to speak or to leave Israel to Mordechai Vanunu, the whistle-blower who told the world about Israel's ugly secret. Vanunu spent 17 and a half years in prison, (eleven in solitary confinement), was freed from prison in April 2004 and has been confined to Israel since then under draconian conditions. It is sad that the IAEA were at that very time funking to examine Israel's nuclear stockpile in Dimona but were stalled in Tel Aviv plotting with the Israelis to keep tabs on Vanunu.

As you know, at present, the aid boat for Gaza, Spirit of Humanity, with its 21 international peace activists has been seized by Israel, all the passengers held in prison, including US and Irish citizens.
Among those peace activists, now prisoners, is Irish Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire who was herself, on a previous visit, gassed and wounded by a direct hit from an IDF soldier at a peaceful demonstration against the Wall in Bil'in.

The patent fear of all recent US Presidents to talk straight to Israel was at its peak during the Bush Administration but, in spite of hopes to the contrary, much has not changed since President Obama came to power. Particularly disappointing has been the failure of George Mitchell to enter Gaza and see for himself the devastation that has recently been visited on the people there.

President Obama has rightly spoken out against the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators in Iran but he has not spoken out against the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators in Israel. And isn't it ironic that the demonstrations in Iran were because of an election and election results that may not have been free and fair?

The President's recent speech in Cairo, while broadly welcome and unbiased, had one crucial element missing. It went along with the lie that no free and fair elections had been held in Palestine, that Hamas are not the legitimate rulers of the country since 2006, that Israel should not talk to Hamas not even in conjunction with the Palestinian Authority (Fatah), who were defeated by Hamas in the same elections.

The crucial paragraph in the President's speech was this:

"The Palestinian Authority must develop its capacity to govern, with institutions that serve the needs of its people. Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, recognize Israel's right to exist."

This was a de facto recognition of the Israeli and Bush position that fair and free elections in Palestine were not to be recognized - because of who won them. This is a total abnegation of the rights of a people and an attack on the democratic process. It was saying that Fatah (Israel's choice) rather than Hamas (the people's choice) are the legitimate rulers of Palestine - free and fair election results to the contrary notwithstanding.

It was also a one-sided and biased comment in that it called on Hamas alone to put an end to violence. Israel was not called on to renounce violence, nor Fatah. That was simply endorsing Israeli policy and parroting an Israeli tune.

The comment also ignored the fact that, on many recent occasions, Hamas has asked Israel for peace talks saying that it does recognise Israel's right to exist.

How can the President know of Hamas's point of view, unfiltered by an Israeli presentation of it, without engaging directly with Hamas?

In football parlance, Israel has not been playing according to the rules of the game and the US, as self-appointed referee, is not enforcing those rues, instead turning a blind eye to the Israeli foul play.

Is the United States afraid of Israel and if so, why?

The US should end its present blind policy of support for Israel no matter what heinous crimes she carries out. All military aid should stop and efforts towards peace and justice should be initiated with the full participation of Israel, Hamas and Fatah.

The above are by no means the only issues that concern me but I think you will agree that for the moment they are sufficient.

With best personal wishes for a long, happy and fruitful stay in Ireland

Justin Morahan
Pacifist and Human Rights activist

Mairead in Obamaland

2009-05-28T23:37:00.002Z

PEACE LAUREATE DETAINED BY HOME SECURITY IN USA

On May 15th last my friend Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, was detained by Home Security in the new Obamaland that is the USA

She was returning from Guatemala where she was attending a Women's Conference hosted by women Nobel Laureates.

According to a press release from the Free Gaza Movement, she was pressurized to tick a box that stated she was a criminal! The news came late and I have contacted Mairead for further details.

We have been hoping against hope that President Barack Obama would change the soul of the American administration from the evil ghost it had become under George W Bush and Bill Clinton.

Is hope still alive? Is the President a kind of Pope John XXIII, gagged and hindered from doing what he wants to do by Congress and sinister powers that can control Congress?

Are his disastrous and murderous incursions into Afghanistan a sop to those powers before he feels strong enough to bring all the troops home?

It is a dire prospect that he would gamble with lives and human rights like this.

And this is the better of two terrible scenarios

Maura Harrington Jailed Again

2009-05-20T20:46:00.003Z

Since May 19 2009, Maura Harrington, a charismatic figure in the struggle against Shell concerning Mayo's gas fields, has been incarcerated in Mountjoy prison for the second time in three months. Once again, she was driven on the long road from Belmullet to Dublin to serve a prison sentence, this time for refusing on principle to pay a £300 fine. At short notice an outraged group of Dublin supporters blocked the Garda van for 20 minutes and prevented it from entering Mountjoy prison until Gardai forcibly removed the protestors
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92375

She had already spent 28 days in the notorious prison, a sentence which began on 11 March last. On that occasion, Judge Mary Devins, wife of a Fianna Fail Junior Minister in the Irish Government, ordered that she receive a psychiatric examination.
https://www.indymedia.ie/article/91483

MAURA HARRINGTON story

Wikipedia's entry says: "Maura Harrington (born 15 September 1953) is a spokeswoman for the Shell to Sea campaign, from County Mayo, Ireland. A recently retired school principal, on 9 September 2008 she began a hunger strike in protest at the arrival of the Solitaire, an Allseas pipe-laying ship assisting Royal Dutch Shell's Corrib gas project. The strike took place at the gates of the Shell compound in Glengad in Erris, in her car. It ended after the ship left Ireland for repairs.

"Harrington was previously involved in fundraising for the British Miners' Strike.

"On 11 November 2006, Harrington was hospitalised after a baton-charge by Garda Síochána at Bellanaboy left her with head injuries.

"No-one was charged with the assault.

"She appeared in Belmullet District Court on 8 October 2008 accused of a public order offence related to her "lunging" towards President Mary McAleese at the official opening of a civic centre in Belmullet in April 2007. In March 2009, she was found guilty of this charge. She was also found guilty of assaulting a Garda during a fracas which saw several protesters injured[5]. For this, she was given a sentence of 28 days imprisonment, fined and bound to keep the peace for 12 months, though she refused to pay the fine or sign the bond. The judge in the case, Mary Devins, also directed Harrington to receive a psychiatric assessment due to what she described as her "bizarre" behaviour.

"Harrington denied both charges, and refused to give evidence in protest after Judge Devins refused to allow video evidence of the incident of the assault to be shown".

MATTER RAISED IN SEANAD BY SENATOR DAVID NORRIS

On 12 March 2009, Senator David Norris raised the matter of Maura's imprisonment, and the Judge's comments and order, in the Irish Seanad.

Senator David Norris: "I ask for a debate on the Corrib gas field. I do so in light of my considerable concern at the jailing of Ms Maura Harrington and the process which led to it.

"A former Minister of the Government gave this field away for nothing. The Minister concerned was subsequently jailed in the wake of a corruption scandal. He gave it away to Shell, one of the worst polluters and one of the most avid multinationals. It has been involved in incidents of pollution and was deeply implicated in the judicial murder of Mr. Ken Saro-Wiwa. It literally got away with murder in Kenya and there have been explosions in many other places where it has oil terminals.

"I am concerned about this and would be very sorry if, after the Garda having been enlisted on behalf of a multinational, the courts system would begin to play a role in this matter.

"Judges are above criticism, apparently, and we cannot even ask questions about their remuneration. They are immune from cuts. I am concerned when judges feel free to comment widely on the personality traits of somebody they are sentencing, this is not a judicial matter.

"She then referred Ms. Harrington for psychiatric examination in addition to jailing her for 28 days. Are we returning to eastern Europe? Is it an attempt to use psychiatry to control political expression? This is terribly dangerous territory."

"Anti-Bullying Ireland" has new website

2009-04-12T23:51:00.004Z

The website "Anti-Bullying Ireland" has a new location and a new improved format, courtesy of John Morahan.

You can find it at http://antibullyingireland.nfshost.com/

The host is NFS, standing for "Nearly Free Speech".

Anti-Bullying Ireland offers free help and advice to victims of bullying, to schools and Boards of Management and other bodies responsible for setting up anti-bullying programmes.

It also contains a full description of the Box and Interview Method to Prevent Bullying in Irish schools.

Limited Palestinian autonomy is not enough Mr Benjamin Netanyahu

2009-03-31T23:08:00.003Z

So Benjamin Netanyahu is the newly elected Prime Minister of Israel

Described as a hawk even compared to the trio of Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni - all the architects of the abominable holocaust of Gaza over the Christmas period 2008-2009,- Mr Netanyahu in his first speech to Parliament spoke ambiguously of seeking "full peace" with the Arab and Muslim world but then added "Under the permanent status agreement,the Palestinians will have all the authority to rule themselves".

"Authority" is the important word here, implying a Palestinian Authority but never a Palestinian State.

Stephen Gutkin of AP remarks that his comments appeared to hark back to a decades-old notion that peace could be achieved through limited Palestinian autonomy. Gutkin also dismisses the idea that Mr Netanyahu is redy to soften his position on this issue but rather is saying enough "to curry favour with the West". http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090331/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_politics;_ylt=

Every new Prime Minister needs a short time in which to show his true metal. If this Prime Minister has any idea of the well-spring of animosity against Israel that has sprung up around the world in the wake of the latest atrocities in Gaza, he should be wise to consider the implementation of justice toward the Palestinians.

He should stop the ruthless ongoing robbery of Palestinian land, end the occupation, talk to the elected Parliament of Hamas which he refuses to recognize, squarely face up to all past injustices perpetrated by Israel against Palestinians, settle to their satisfaction the burning question of the right to return and recognize Palestine as a sovereign State.

.

Pat Kenny Quits the Late Late Show

2009-03-27T23:48:00.004Z

Pat Kenny announced on his Show tonight that he will be quitting the Late Late Show at the end of its present term. The announcement came in two stages. First he said that he would be making an announcement that "some of you, not too many I hope" would be pleased with and some would not be pleased with. Later on, he made the announcement itself and received loud and prolonged applause which he stopped by saying "OK, OK, I get the message. I've just changed my mind" after which there was more applause which he again interrupted by saying "Not really".

During his ten year tenure I was present in the audience only on one occasion. Although the content was mediocre there was a buzz in the auditorium helped on by a warm-up that was just too rehearsed. There was also a portion that was to appear on a later show; obviously this part was not live. Afterwards the host was friendly to all comers for a bit of a chat.

Pat Kenny was never able to fill the shoes of Gay Byrne. He could never relax with a guest and was invariably not listening to a reply but focused on his own next question. His nervousness carried over to the interval after a band or singer had performed. The applause for the performance was always cut out with a hand admonishing the audience to be quiet for his next announcement. By contrast, Gay Byrne would sit back smiling in the direction of the performers for as long as the applause lasted, letting them enjoy their moment of glory and adding his own comments of praise when the applause had died down.

On Radio however he is an able performer just as Gay Byrne was and still is. He is also a genial person to talk to. The TV chat show was just not Pat's medium.

There was no explanation given on the Show for his decision to quit except that he and his family had decided that they wanted to spend Friday nights at home.

Coming so soon after John Bowman's announcement that he will no longer present his own Monday night programme "Questions and Answers" on RTE 1, the question that immediately arose was: Were these two presenters pushed in any way or did they really want to go themselves.

We will wait and see.

Three Published letters on Gaza

2009-03-21T11:36:00.000Z

(1)ISRAELI BOMBARDMENT OF GAZA
30 December 2008
(published in the Irish Times)

Madam, - Permit me to express outrage at the inhuman attacks by Israel against Gaza that have resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives and injuries to many hundreds more.

Also please permit me to add my condemnation of the lies emanating from Messrs Olmert, Barak, Ms Levine and other Israeli spokespersons, including the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland, concerning the origin of, and the alleged necessity for, this murderous assault even while they continue to escalate it.

I commend the forthright condemnation of Israel's action by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mícheál Martin. It would be even better if, with the full backing of all Opposition parties, the Government shut down the Israeli Embassy because of this atrocity. - Yours, etc,
Justin Morahan

(2)GAZA ATROCITY WILL HAPPEN AGAIN
(published in the Irish Independent)
20 January 2009

"Dear Editor

Hamas and Israel have agreed to a truce that may allow children to sleep in Israel and Gaza. In Israel, there will be no need to run to shelters.

In Gaza, parents can collect the tangled bodies, blasted heads and torn-apart limbs of their own little ones from the hospitals without fear of being themselves blown to similar pieces there, or along the way.

We should be grateful for small mercies. Only the cynical will be unhappy. Only the cynical will be afraid.

And only the cynical will know that this respite is not out of mercy or feelings of humanity but timed accurately by a rogue state that appears to have gone mad with power and patronage.

The cynical know of this because some brave citizens of that rogue state, to whom we should be forever grateful, have spoken openly against its disgraceful treatment of Palestinians in general and in particular of its war crimes these past horrendous weeks in the tiny strip of Gaza.

Israel's now disgraced leaders rush their last troops from Gaza, hours before the demise of the reviled Presidency of George W Bush sets in, two continents away from the awful action.

There is no doubt about it: a holocaust has been perpetrated on the population of the caged-in population of Gaza and no-one was able to prevent it.

There is also little doubt that a state which has perpetrated such a holocaust weeks before an election in Israel, if it gets away with it now, will repeat the process whenever it feels that it is necessary.

No major international power, neither the EU nor the UN or USA, was willing or able to take any serious action, or even disapprove.

Our own country has so far not seen fit to expel the Israeli ambassador who has been allowed, all through this sad and sorry period, to use the Irish media to express his opinions, repeatedly, ad nauseam, mostly unchallenged and usually in defiance of facts.

I again request our government to take that step.

Justin Morahan"

(3)ISRAELI OFFENSIVE AGAINST GAZA
29 January 2009
(Published in the Irish Times)

Madam, – The letter of January 22nd from Katrina Goldstone and seven others, Jewish or of Jewish descent, was welcome as it was courageous. The recent Israeli attack on Gaza – they accurately describe as a massacre – cannot be justified by Israel’s alleged “security concerns”.

It has long been particularly difficult for Jewish people or people of Jewish extraction to criticise the state of Israel. The point was made tellingly by the (Jewish) president of the Centre for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner, on January 23rd.

In blaming himself and other Jews in the US for having remained silent on Gaza, he remarked: “Some of our hesitation to act results from the condemnation and opprobrium anyone, but especially Jews, encounter with even mild criticisms of Israel”

We have listened for four weeks to the outpouring of that opprobrium and condemnation against Irish citizens. – Yours, etc,

JUSTIN MORAHAN

NOTE: The last letter above was curtailed by the Editor. The full version is here:

Madam

The letter by Katrina Goldstone and seven of her fellows, Jews or of Jewish descent in Ireland, was welcome as it was courageous. (IT 23 January 2009) The recent attack on Gaza by the State of Israel which they accurately describe as a "massacre" can never be justified, and it is not justified by Israel's alleged "security concerns".

It is refreshing and reassuring to find these eight humane people give the lie to much of the Israeli spin that has been woven without intermission throughout that shocking and shameful episode and beyond.

It appears that for long it has been particularly difficult for Jewish people or people of Jewish extraction to criticise the State of Israel. The point was made tellingly by the (Jewish) President of the Centre for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner, on 23 January last.

Mr Ratner, in blaming himself and other Jews in the USA for having until then remained silent on Gaza, remarks: "Some of our hesitation to act results from the condemnation and opprobrium anyone, but especially Jews, encounter with even mild criticisms of Israel"
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2009/01/23/michael-ratner-on-gaza/.

We have listened for four weeks to the outpouring of that opprobrium and condemnation against Irish citizens and, inevitably, Ms Goldstone and friends were confronted by Drs David Abrahamson, Leonard W Abrahamson and Mr Stephen Molins. (IT, 26January and 27 January.)
The latter two of these eminent gentlemen in particular are able to leap-frog over three weeks of cynical and barbaric killing by Israel in Gaza, giving us patronising lectures instead about their "concern" re media fairness and, outrage of all outrages, how Hamas is to blame for the massacre carried out by Israel in Gaza.

Against such cynicism, the humane Katrina Goldstone and her fellows can, I presume, only gnash their teeth in disbelief

Yours etc
Justin Morahan

Protest in Senator Tom Harkin's office re Gaza Atrocity

2009-03-04T22:21:00.005Z

LETTER TO THE SENATOR SUPPORTING PROTESTORS

The following letter was sent to Senator Harkin via e-mail but I got a notice two days later saying that it had not been delivered. Here's hoping that the Senator might be able to read this slightly edited version now.
Story of the occupation and video at:
http://www.desmoinescatholicworker.org/harkinoccupation2.09.html

TO: Senator Tom Harkin, Des Moines, Iowa, USA

Dear Senator

I support the action of the protestors who occupied your office lately in gentle and prayerful protest at your silence on the massacre of so many human beings in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces and the many other atrocities perpetrated by Israel on the Palestinian people over more than forty years of occupation with massive help from the US.

Why is the US media hiding the truth about Israel, Gaza and the West Bank from the American people?

From being a victim during the Holocaust years , the Israeli State has turned its own people there into aggressors who use unbelievable cruelty towards Palestinians.

Many in Israel now believe that they are a master race just as in Hitler's Germany Arians were made to believe that they were superior.

Only last year outside Dublin's GPO, when I noticed an altercation between a pro-Palestinian group and a lone young Israeli who had pulled the table cloth from under their leaflets, I heard him say as he walked away: "That's all you can do - abuse people, not engage in dialogue."

As he passed by me I said to him quietly "I will engage in dialogue with you"

He then told me that he had been in the IDF, had killed "Arabs", was proud of it and was going back to kill more. He said that God and Abraham had given all of Israel to his people. When I countered some of these points, he stood back and said;

"I am superior to you because I am a Jew and you are only a Gentile"

At least 1330 Palestinians were murdered from the sky and on the ground in the tiny cage of Gaza since Christmas Day. Uri Avnery, an Israeli patriot and former member of the Israeli Knesset believes that this time was chosen, partly because George W Bush was still in power, partly because Western politicians were on holidays and they would not interrupt their holidays for Gaza.

GAZA - I fear that you may not even know what has been happening there. I was struck by the words of one of your protestors who said that her money had paid for what had happened to the children who were murdered.

GAZA - the word will always remind you of the protest in your office but the word will in future years ring out as a damning condemnation of all who were in power in the USA at this time and did not lift a finger to prevent this massacre.

GAZA - PLEASE REMEMBER THAT PEOPLE ARE STILL SUFFERING THERE. The US fiddles while Gaza burns.

Also remember that it is a slander to pretend, as some of your supporters have been doing, that these pacifist protestors are supporters of the violence of Hamas.

It is important not to shirk the truth that, whether you or others like it or not, HAMAS is the elected Government of the Palestinian people, elected in democratic elections. For any solution to the problem of Palestine and Israel, HAMAS must be a player.

That does not mean that those of us who say this are supporters of terror. I am a pacifist and abhor terror. I am not a supporter of HAMAS but a supporter of human rights and an advocate against all violence and injustice.

But you support Israel, and I must ask do you also support, either purposely or through default, the continual State terror of that political and military establishment?

With best personal wishes

Justin Morahan
Dublin, Ireland

Vanunu Rejects Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize Award

2009-03-02T10:47:00.003Z

As the fifth anniversary of his "release" from an Israeli prison approaches, Mordechai Vanunu rejects a nomination for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize and writes of his decision to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in Oslo.

Mordechai, the nuclear whistle blower, spent seventeen and a half years in Ashkelon prison and was released on 21 April 2004. However, he was immediately served with crippling conditions including a ban on speaking to foreigners and a ban on all travel outside the borders of Israel.
As about 100 international supporters were outside the gates of Ashkelon to greet him he was going to have to break the ban on speaking to foreigners on that very first day, which he did.
I was among the supporters and wrote an account of that memorable day and night on Indymedia Ireland. See https://www.indymedia.ie/article/64579.

The State of Israel has continued to harass him in the following five years and has consistently refused calls from many quarters to allow him to leave Israel as he wishes to do and be truly free. In this they are in direct and open conflict with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 13 and 19. But, as with the recent invasion of Gaza, Israel appears to be a law unto itself and cares not a jot for what the UN, the EU, the USA or any others within the International community demands of it. These bodies continue to cosset Israel without receiving anything from Israel in return.

Below is a copy of Mordechai's letter

Dear Nobel Peace Prize Committee in Oslo,

I am Vanunu Mordechai, who has been nominated several times to Nobel Peace Prize, also this year’s 2009 award.
I am asking the committee to remove my name from the list for this year’s list of nominations.
My main reason for this is that I cannot be part of a list of laureates that includes Shimon Peres. He is the man who was behind all the Israeli atomic policy.

Peres established and developed the atomic weapon program in Dimona in Israel. Exactly like Dr. Khan did in Pakistan, Peres was the man behind the atomic weapon proliferation to South Africa and other states. He was also, for instance, behind the nuclear weapon test in South Africa in 1978.

Peres was the man who ordered the kidnapping of me in Italy Rome, Sept. 30, 1986, and for the secret trial and sentencing of me as a spy and traitor for 18 years in isolation in prison in Israel.

Until now he continues to oppose my freedom and release, in spite of my serving full sentence 18 years.

From all these reasons I don’t want be nominated and will not accept this nomination. I say
No to any nomination as long as I am not free, that is, as long as I am still forced to be in Israel.

FREEDOM AND ONLY FREEDOM IS WHAT I WANT .

Thank you

VMJC

--
FREEDOM AND ONLY FREEDOM I NEED NOW
Email. vanunuvmjc@gmail.com
http:/www.vanunu.com
VANUNU MORDECHAI J C.
KIDNAPPED IN ROME SEP' 30 TH'-1986.
AFTER 18 YEARS IN ISRAEL PRISON.
Waiting In East Jerusalem.To Be Free,To Leave.
Mobile ( 9 7 2 ) 0 5 2 3 7 4 4 5 6 9.

Israeli Elections - Peas in a Pod

2009-02-11T00:50:00.002Z

THEY MURDERED IN GAZA BECAUSE OF THIS ELECTION BUT LITTLE HAS CHANGED

Exit polls from Israel show that Ehud Barak and his Labour party may not have gained the votes he expected from the massacre he carried out in Gaza. His Labour Party may have lost up to seven seats.

Tzipi Livni's macho support for, and ultimate responsibility for, that massacre may have boosted her chances of retaining power as her party, Kadima, leads the predicted seat count with 29 seats and 80% of the votes counted. There is no change in her party's' situation.

Ultra hawk, Benjamin Netyanyahu's Likud Party may have gained sixteen, leaving him in second place with 28 seats

Avigdor Leiberman's Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Homeland) Party may have gained five seats bringing his total to 16 while Shas may lose one seat to still hold 11.

Gil (The Pensioners Party) appears to be losing heavily and may not retain any of its seven seats.

Other parties, including the Arab United Front remain more or less the same. The Greens have not made a breakthrough.

Despite Barak's losses, the eighteenth Knesset will not differ greatly from the seventeenth. The old Parliament had a coalition powered by Kadima (Livni) and Labour (Barak). No matter what array of parties forms the new Government of Israel, Kadima and Labour or Likud, Yisrael Beitienu and Shas?) it will still be composed largely of parties and people who perpetrated, supported, incited and excused the recent holocaust in Gaza.

They are like blood-soaked peas in a pod.

Will any party or individual break the cycle of arrogance and violence that characterizes the present Knesset in Israel?

"The reason they do it (Gaza massacre) now is because of the elections (within) two months and our so-called leaders want to guarantee themselves more votes" - Omer Goldman, member of the Israeli Shministim, daughter of former Mossad agent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QTHzhyvnMY)

The 17th Knesset
Kadima 29 Labor Party 19 Shas 12 Likud 12 Yisrael Beiteinu 11 Jewish Home and National Union 9 Gil 7 United Torah Judaism 6 Meretz 5 United Arab List–Ta'al 4 Hadash 3 Balad 3 The Greens 0

Latest results for 18th Knesset (80% counted) (source:http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1061917.html)

Kadima (Tzipi Livni) 29 (No change), Likud (Benjamin Netanyahu) 28 (+16), , Labour (Ehud Barak) 12 (-7) Yisrael Beiteinu (Avigdor Leiberman) 16 (+5) Shas (Eli Yishai) 11 (-1), United Torah Judaism (Yaakov Litzman) 4 (-2) Meretz (Haim Oron ("Jumes")) 4 (-1) Jewish Home (Rabbi Daniel Hershkovitz) 3, National Union (Ya'akov Katz) 4, (JH and NU, -2) Gil (Rafi Eitan) 0/1, (-6/7) Meretz (Chaim Oron) 4 (-1) United Arab List (Ibrahim Sarsur) T'al (Ahmad Tibi and Mahmud Asad.), Hadash (Mohammad Barakeh), 4 (+1), Balad (Jamal Zahalka) 2 (-1) Greens (Pe'er Visner) 0 (no change)

Hilary Clinton on Gaza

2009-01-29T00:32:00.005Z

Just when we were all wondering about the Barack Obama New Deal on the world, his Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, gave us an important insight into her own take on the Israeli massacre in Gaza, (December 2008/January 2009)

Yesterday she addressed the question. She did not say that the State of Israel went in and murdered 1300 and injured 5000 near defenceless people in the Strip of Gaza which they had weakened by siege. She did not say that Israel had refused to accept the democratic elections in Palestine (2006) which removed Fatah from power and elected the rival Hamas political party in their place.

She did not say: "For shame on the administration of George W Bush who said he was spreading democracy around the world, yet when elections were held in Palestine, internationally monitored and declared to have been free and fair, he did not condemn Israel for refusing to recognize the democratic process. In fact, the USA also refused to recognize the election results. For shame on the USA. We will be different."

No, Hilary did not say that as any true democrat should have done.

Nor did she chide Israel for lying again about their pretext for the savage murders in Gaza of men women and children. She did not tell the world that the propaganda from Israel that Hamas had been the first to break the truce was a blatant lie. For the truce had been well and truly broken by the State of Israel on the night of 4 November 2008 when the IDF crossed the border and killed five Palestinians on Gaza soil. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/05/israelandthepalestinians

Instead, she said: "We support Israel's right to self-defence. The (Palestinian) rocket barrages which are getting closer and closer to populated areas cannot go unanswered.”

Then she went on to give substance to a new lie, namely that the present truce was also broken first by Hamas. This lie has been presented in various media although there had been an Israeli attack on a fisherman's boat days before the death of the Israeli soldier and the Palestinian man to whom she referred.

Ignoring this, and always mentioning a killing by Hamas first, Mrs Clinton "blamed Hamas for the death of an Israeli soldier on the Gaza border yesterday and the subsequent killing of a Palestinian man by Israeli forces", according to the Irish Times report.

Hilary Clinton is no Barack Obama but she could be the tail that wags the dog. Just as the State of Israel has been the tail wagging the USA dog for many decades.

It all adds up to little hope for a fair and just peace for Palestine and Israel.

Letter to Israeli Ambassador to Ireland Zion Evrony

2009-01-26T13:20:00.004Z

Letter written and e-mailed to Ambassador 2 January 2009
First published in Indymedia Ireland 3 January 2009

Dear Ambassador Dr. Zion Evrony,

Further to my telephone call to your office this morning I wish to reiterate some of the points which I made in the conversation with your secretary, and to elaborate on them a little further.

1. I am sick to the teeth of the lies you are telling on RTE and in the Irish media about what is happening in Gaza. Israel has killed over 400 people there on the pretext that a cease-fire had been broken unilaterally by Hamas. You know this is not true.

2. You said that Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties but that Hamas use their civilians as shields for Hamas soldiers. You know that this is not true. Gaza is smaller in area than our smallest County, Louth, and is over-populated with 1.4 million people, before your country reduced the population with murder from the sky.

3. Your Army invaded Gaza prior to an election and in the interregnum between the Presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. You kill over 400, injure over 1000 and promise more killings and injuries. And you blame Hamas for all of these killings and injuries. You know that it is not true that Hamas are to blame for your murders. You, the State of Israel and the IDF, are to blame for the people you kill and injure, no one else but you.

4. You said the upcoming elections had nothing to do with the massacre in Gaza. You know that this is not true. On the eve of the election you deliberately provoked a barrage of rockets from Hamas, even though you knew it would put Israeli lives in danger because you also knew that the Hamas response would give you a pretext to wreak havoc on Gaza and make it appear that it was Hamas' fault.

5. You and other Israeli propagandists keep repeating ad nauseam on RTE and in articles in the Irish Times the question: "What would you do, if you lived in Sderot or Ashkelon and your children had to run from constant rocket fire?" But you never ask the countering questions: "What would you do if you lived in Gaza, besieged by an Israel that denied the legitimacy of your democratically elected Parliament, and where Israel,a hostile power, has ultimate control over every aspect of your life? What would you do when this hostile power has the fourth or fifth most powerful army in the world, complete even with a nuclear arsenal, when it "agrees" to a truce (good public relations) that it breaks at will (no-one will notice the "small" incursions and killings of Palestinians)? What would you do if Israel invaded your little plot of land, murdering men, women and children, including many civilians, from the sky? Would you take your children and run to the sea (there is no other escape in Gaza) or would you think "This is a war against me and my children" and would you resist in whatever way you could?"

6. Do you think that all of the Irish people are stupid enough to believe your propaganda, no matter how often it is repeated?

7. Though not mentioned this morning, your Government has lied about the Israeli navy ramming the Dignity in international waters. The Dignity was carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza and had two Irish citizens on board. I protest against this action also and strongly condemn it

8. As a result of the war crimes which the IDF/Israel has committed in the Gaza Strip and in Palestine, I believe that our Government should call you in, advise you to leave and shut down the Israeli Embassy in Ballsbridge.

I have already written to Minister Mícheál Martin making this precise request.

With best personal wishes

Justin Morahan
2 January 2009

letter to Israel January 2009

2009-01-14T01:23:00.004Z

Dear members of Israeli Government and Armed Forces

I protest against the relentless, most cruel and savage bombing and invasion of Gaza which you have carried out and continue to carry out against the will of the peoples of the world, in spite of international condemnation which is growing in intensity at every hour. At every hour too your aggression is defying all comprehension in its pure evil. Do you not even care about the children that your soldiers are blowing into pieces?

On TV and in the press you defend your flagrant killing of defenceless people in Gaza, no matter how horrendous and bloody the killing. Your spokesperson from the IDF lies through her smiling teeth after every new and fearsome atrocity. All of you are guilty of war crimes.

It is a disgrace of the highest magnitude that the Governments of the world are cosseting and pampering you while you ride roughshod over the people of Palestine whom you have divided, in order to conquer and obliterate them.

You, Ehud Olmert, you, Ehud Barak, you Tzipi Livni are all war criminals. All of those who planned and now support these horrific killings in Gaza are also war criminals. As some decent people of Israel have said, you are compelling your own young soldiers to be guilty of war crimes.

For your own selfish reasons, to win popularity before the forthcoming elections , you are teaching them how to murder and then forcing them to murder people who are stuck in the cage of Gaza which you have locked and sealed. There are credible reports now emerging that you had planned this atrocity for six months and that you hope it will help you to gain control over the off-shore gas belonging to Palestine. You are the real murderers. You are killing children and stealing the goodness and virtue away from the hearts of your own children.

When the Germans were murdering Jews in Europe there was no Internet and people like myself could not protest against it. Now the shoe is on the other foot, you are the aggressors, the Internet is there and I, a pacifist, a human rights activist, and above all a human being, call upon you in the name of whatever or whoever you believe in to stop murdering people. Stop murdering children, stop acting the bully, stop the massacre, stop the New Holocaust.

At the present time your apologists give the impression of supreme arrogance. They repeat the same lies, over and over again, gaining continual access almost at will to the world's media. When the lies are uncovered, they are nevertheless repeated in different parts of the world by countless spokespersons, while others of your lobby of propagandists complain and whinge, like so many Uriah Heeps, that your side of the story is not being heard.

But the lying propaganda of tyrants wins only temporary and Pyrrhic victories. Where is the legacy of Joseph Goebbels today? Your imitation of the Nazi persecutors of your fathers can only lead you and your children into a similar ignoble oblivion. Is that what you wish for yourselves and for your children?

Through this letter from one human being, I call on the Government of my own country, Ireland, to expel your ambassador, Zion Evrony. I call on all other Governments to expel your Ambassadors from their own countries and to deny you all the special privileges you have been granted until you come to your senses, look at the carnage you are creating and realize that we, the people of the world, will not tolerate the savagery of your actions against defenceless and hapless civilians.

I call on you who are still fellow humans to end this new and already infamous Holocaust of Gaza, to lift the siege of Gaza, to end your occupation of the whole of Palestine, to stop stealing land for your settlers, to recognize the rights of Palestinians to their own homeland from which you once ousted them, to treat Palestinians as humans with equal rights to yours.

I call on you to put your humanity before the politics of the forthcoming elections. otherwise, you may win the elections but lose your humanity.

If you don't care about your own humanity, have regard for the humanity of your children. Many of them, many in your own households, are crying out against your actions, your own children are calling these actions war crimes, they do not want you to murder other children. They are shouting to you, even as you throw them into jail for doing so:

"COME WHAT MAY WE WILL NEVER ENGAGE IN VIOLENCE".

Are you totally deaf to these profound words of wisdom?

With best personal wishes

Justin Morahan
Dublin, Ireland.

ISRAELS HEROINES AND HEROES IN THEIR DARKEST HOURS

2008-12-31T14:33:00.011Z

1 THE SHMINISTIM (literallly TWELFTH GRADERS)

In the dark hours of the Israeli massacres in Gaza, it is good to know of the groups in Israel who oppose these horrific actions. Among these, pride of place in my opinion, goes to the Shministim, the young Israelis who say NO to conscription in the Israeli Army.

The Shministim are not the first refuseniks in time but they are especially inspirational.

Reading through their testimonials is a boost to any human who espouses non-violence. They suffer jail terms for their refusal. This is not easy in any country but especially so in iron-fisted Israel where the word "traitor" is easily thrown around at people who act out of conscience in a way that is not complicit with the beliefs of the IDF and the State.

These young teenagers of the Shministim are a light of hope shining in the midst of the darkness that is the State of Israel.

As an introduction please look at the video below and listen to what they say:
(there are four speakers aged 18, 19, 19, 19)

"We are Shministim ...
We are Israeli Conscientious Objectors
That means we refuse to serve in the Israeli Army
Because they are occupying another people, the Palestinians
Palestinian kids like us can't get to school because of checkpoints
Many Palestinian kids get arrested for no reason
A lot of them have been killed or their homes demolished
The Government says this policy is keeping us safe
But denying Palestinains their basic human rights put us all in danger
It's illegal
It's wrong
It's immoral
It's against my personal beliefs (x2)
It's against my basic values
It's against my values
That's why we are Conscientious Objectors (x3)
That's why I am a Conscientious Objector
We are Shministim (x3)
I am a Shministit
We are being jailed for refusing to serve in the Army
We need your support
Please sign the letter
and tell all your friends
Palestinians, Israelis, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Atheists, - everyone
We all need to stand together against violence
against oppression
no matter who does it
Take a stand with us for peace
and coexistence
and refuge for children like us everywhere
Sign the letter today (x2)
Please sign the letter today"

The names are: Sahar Vardi, Yuval Oron-Ofir, Omer Goldman and (I think) Miya Tamarin.

Link to sign the letter: http://december18th.org/

G

The Sickening Murders in Gaza

2008-12-31T01:17:00.002Z

For the past three days the Israeli Army has been murdering people in the Gaza strip.

I am sick and tired of their excuses for these multiple murders and as a pacifist I have been wondering what non-violent people can do to stop such brutal aggression so far away from the scene of the heinous action.

With the remembrance of the US bombing of Iraq burned in my mind, the monster demonstrations worldwide that tried but failed to stop it, the millions of words spoken and written, the non-violent direct actions resulting in protracted court appearances and imprisonment for so many brave people, still ongoing after all these years, I was looking for some faltering request from people in Gaza. Something that would say "This is what you can do. This will help us." I have heard their cries and to some extent felt their pain but I was hoping for a request from them that might be possible to fulfill and that might help to stop their suffering.

Two hours ago a heart-rending e-mail came from a non-violent group not in Gaza itself but in Palestine.

Here is the e-mail

"To all free people of the world,,, to all who call for freedom and Justice……

To all who have a living conscience,,, to all who love Peace,

The hearts of the children of Palestine are calling to you, the screams of the bereaved mothers are calling your consciences.

We are wondering how the world sleeps while the children of Palestine are been cut into pieces, forgive us, our eyes are full of tears and our hearts are saddened by the criminal actions of the Israeli occupation that are beyond our imaginations.

It is also hard to see the support of the governments of the world for such war crimes, which are giving permission to Israel to commit more crimes.

We are calling upon you all on the following:

1- To continue your demonstration in front of the Israeli embassies and your parliaments not just as an emotional reaction

2- A serious boycott to Israel at all levels and work to ask the Israeli ambassadors to leave your countries

3- To work towards having the Israeli war crimes put before war crime courts

4- We call upon all popular committees in Palestine to organize more demonstrations on a daily basis

5- We call upon the Israelis who refuse the occupation to demonstrate in front of their war ministry"

Maybe some answers lie in there

Vanunu July 8 Appeal against 6 month sentence heard

2008-07-08T19:13:00.005Z

News from Jerusalem is that Israeli whistleblower, Mordechai Vanunu, had his appeal heard today against a six month sentence that had been handed down for speaking to foreign journalists. Mordechai, who spent nearly twelve years in solitary and six more years in prison for revealing Israel's nuclear secrets was "released" over 4 years ago on 20 April 2004 from Ashkelon prison in Israel.

Immediately, the harshest of sanctions were placed on him. Among these, he was forbidden to approach the immediate vicinity of Israel's borders or foreign embassies,forbidden to leave Israel, forbidden to speak to foreigners or foreign journalists, and he had to report any change of residence to the authorities. Over these past four years he has been arrested several times, had his living quarters raided, had property confiscated, was held overnight and by day for questioning, prevented physically from attending Christmas night Mass in Bethlehem, and harassed generally.

Today's court appearance is one of many dozens of such appearances. Today, it appears that the three judges showed a certain amount of openness and sympathy to the lawyers who robustly criticised the inhuman conditions placed on Vanunu's freedom. However, it will be their judgement in September that will be of import, rather than their apparent attitude in the court.

If they do not grant his appeal, Mordechai faces another six months in prison on top of all that he has suffered to date.

He has another appeal lodged in the Supreme Court against the sanctions that have been renewed by Israel year after year since his release. This case will not be heard for a month or two.

Final Result of Referendum on Lisbon

2008-06-13T16:02:00.005Z

The final results are in.

YES: 752,451

NO: 862,415

Lost by 53.4% to 46.6%

It was a day when Irish radio and television did not distinguish themselves. for most of the day RTE radio sounded like a wake house. then on both TV and radio came the whingeing, petulance and arrogance of bad losers.

The no campaigners were inavariably taken to task by presenters with barely concealed anger. they were repeatedly challenged to provide Taoiseach Brian Cowen with a blueprint with which he could approach his colleagues in Europe. The bias of many RTE presenters, so obvious throughout the campaign ,was now translated into an attack on the winners, their motives, their campaign, even their finances.

It looks as if the Establishment has not received the message that the electorate had tried to pass on to them. One of these, in my opinion, was that arrogance in high office is unwelcome, and that people honoured with the right to represent others must not take the people who elected them for granted. That they should shed that arrogance which makes them believe that election to the Dáil every five years gives any Government a mandate to act ruthlessly, pushing the favoured agenda of a few.

It was that kind of arrogance that (during the campaign) caused one prominent member of Government to describe the No voters as Loolahs and (on today's Radio) two other pro-Yes people to declare that the vote of the people reflected class division.

Aligning themselves with the already establised arrogance of the Government parties (Fianna Fáil and the Green Party) in pushing this opaque Treaty on their voters with a minimum of real, well thought-out reasons for doing so, will have done nothing to help the Fine Gael and Labour Parties.

The win for the NO vote should be a salutary lesson for those who walk or swagger in the corridors of power both in Dublin and in Brussels.

Looks like a NO to LisbonTreaty

2008-06-13T10:07:00.004Z

REFERENDUM RESULTS CONFOUND PUNDITS

Early indications from around the country are that the Lisbon Treaty will be defeated in the referendum with a resounding NO vote.

If the trend continues, it will be an amazing result. The three major political parties Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour went on an all out blitz of postering and propaganda to ensure a Yes vote. Also supporting were the two minor Government parties - the Greens and Progressive Democrats. The only political party against was Sinn Féin. The anti-war movement, left radical groups, and right radical groups aso opposed. Libertas, new on the block, was one of the latter.

At 11.20 RTE announced that it appears that only three constituencies in the country have the appearance of having a Yes majority. The final result might be 55% to 45%.

The unexpected No vote will be interpreted in many ways - a No to an unexplained and almost unreadable treaty, anger with an arrogance of power, dismay with obfuscation, annoyance at the partiality of much of the mainstream media and a genuine suspicion on the part of the man and woman in the street that "this crowd" are up to no good.
The Irish Commissioner in Europe, Charles McGreevey, while supporting Lisbon, admitted that he had not read it and that anyone who did must be insane. The hint of forcing Ireland to increase military spending did not go down well.

There are sore losers on the Pat Kenny show already - including Pat himself - who usuaually can hide his anger and disappointment better than he is doing today. An avid No campaigner, Patricia McKenna, who broke ranks with her party leaders, is especially singled out for attack.

But the result appears, even while they speak, to be a NO verdict from the Irish people. This, in spite of reports (at noon) that there may be a chance, although a very slender one, of a Yes victory.

Whatever the outcome, those who tell us so often that "the people have spoken" after they patch together a Coalition of losers, must accept the democratic will of the people. This time, not as in an election, the people will have spoken.

THE NEW GOVERNMENT

2008-05-10T00:49:00.004Z

THE LONG GOODBYE of Bartholomew Ahern ended on Wednesday, May 8th, when Brian Cowen was elected Taoiseach by 88 votes to 76. Although the outcome had been certain, the tradition of proposing the leaders of Fine Gael and Labour, Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore was complied with.
After his eklection Brian Cowen visited Áras an Uachtaráin returning to name his new Cabinet in the Dáil.

THE NEW CABINET

Taoiseach: Brian Cowen
Tanaiste: Mary Coughlan
Finance: Brian Lenihan
Health: Mary Harney
Transport: Noel Dempsey
Justice: Dermot Ahern
Foreign Affairs: Mícheál Martin
Arts, Sport and Tourism: Martin Cullen
Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Éamo Ó Cuív
Social and Family Affairs: Mary Hanafin
Defence: William O'Dea
Environment, Heritage and Local Government: John Gormley
Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Eamon Ryan
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food:: Brendan Smith
Education and Science: Batt O'Keeffe
Chief Whip: Patrick Carey
Minister of State for Children and Youth Affairs: Barry Andrews
Attorney General: Paul Gallagher

MARY HARNEY has retained Health, although it seems that three quarters of the population are clamouring for her to go. Her agenda is to privatise Health, a move that will make life easier for her Department from which she has already shucked off a lot of responsibility. Under her, the prospects for Health are not rosy.

BATT O'KEEFFE is the new Minister for Education and Science replacing MARY HANAFIN who has been moved sideways to Social and Family Affairs although she had expressed a desire to remain in Education. His first performance on Radio after his appointment was disappointing and sounded negative, - apparently his plans will be to save money even at the cost of providing schools and relieving over-crowding in classrooms. Disappointing for me too was the fact that he made no mention of the curse of bullying that is rampant at present in Irish schools with 40% being bullied according to the latest survey.

CHIEF WHIP THOMAS KITT lost his job to PATRICK CAREY and promptly announced that he would not stand for election again. This was the first chink in the armour of the new Government. There were rumours that frantic efforts were being made to make him change his mind.

SURPRISE RETENTION was MARTIN CULLEN (see Archive). SEAMUS BRENNAN had already signalled that he would not be available because of ill health.

THE NEW CABINET is not very different from the old but there is a new leader, BRIAN COWEN, who may give it a new direction. Every new leader must be given a chance to show what stuff they are made of. The blessing given to Mary Harney's programme is not promising. The good relationship with Stormont will continue and the Peace Process, such as it is, will not be endangered, it may be strengthened. As the Celtic Tiger diminishes, two important portfolios have been entrusted to Tanaiste MARY COUGHLAN (Enterprise, Trade and Employment) and BRIAN LENIHAN (Finance) - and the country will be watching.

ON FRIDAY a new challenge was thrown down publicly to the entire Cabinet on the question of the use of Shannon and other Irish airports by US aircraft suspected of involvement in "extraordianry rendition". A letter in the Irish Times, signed by 32 people, mostly Irish, reports that the signatories have decided to form a People's Inspection Team and from now onwards are recruitng active lay inspectors to aid the Irish Government and Garda in thoroughly inspecting aircraft landing at Shannon airport and suspected of involvement in extraordinary rendition.

GREEN PARTY Ministers are expected to remain silent on this and other green issues such as the destruction of Tara of the high Kings and its environs, Corrib Gas, export of live animals etc (See Archive) Two camps of protestors at Rath Lugh and Tara Hill have been ruthlessly sacked in the past two weeks alone.

DERMOT AHERN is another Minister (at Justice) who will be closely watched. Not only did crime not abate under his predecessor (Brian Lenihan) but there are signs that the house of Justice itself (with all of its trappings) needs urgent reform. It will be interesting to see if this will happen.

WHETHER OR NOT this Government will give us the better Ireland that is so badly needed will depend on where its members place their loyalties: Will their loyalties be given to Party, colleagues and friends or will loyalty be given first of all to Conscience and Country.

THEY HAVE THEIR CHANCE

Written complaint to a Judge cost a man €17,500

2008-04-29T16:49:00.010Z

ONE-SIDED REPORT OF CASE INVOLVING JUDGE

This morning, the report of a case for defamation in several national newspapers failed to cover in a fair manner much of what happened in Dublin Circuit Court yesterday but gave a one-sided account which favoured the Plaintiff (a Judge) and denied the Defendant fair reportage. Journalist Ray Managh wrote a lopsided piece pubished in most morning newspapers in one form or another. In all cases the reports make no mention of the case for the Defence but publish at length the Judge's remarks and the Prosecution's case. This report tries to redress the balance in the interests of fair reportage. Any errors are regretted and are entirely the reponsibility of the author

PERSONS INVOLVED

Presiding Judge: Matthew Deery, President of the Circuit Court

Plaintiff: Judge Patrick Brady, a District Court Judge

Witness for the Prosecution: Judge Michael White

Defendant: Kevin Tracey, representing himself (a lay litigant)

Witness for the Defence: Karen Tracey: wife of Kevin

Mentioned in the proceedings but not present in Court: High Court President Judge Joseph Finnegan, recipient of the letter of complaint, District Court President Miriam Malone who received the letter from Judge Finnegan for investigation.

BEFORE THE CASE WAS HEARD:

Kevin Tracey asked Judge Deery, in order to avoid bias or the perception of bias, to have the matter taken out of the Circuit Court and transferred to the High Court with a jury, because the actions of another Circuit Court Judge, Michael White, would be central to the case.
Judge Matthew Deery refused this request. He commented that no juries could sit on defamation cases in the Circuit Court since 1971, and said the Plaintiff could take the case in whichever court he wished.

Again to avoid bias or the perception of bias, Kevin Tracey requested the President of the Circuit Court, Judge Matthew Deery, to step down (recuse himself) from hearing and adjudicating on the case in the Circuit Court. The actions of another Circuit Court Judge Michael White, would be central to the case. Judge Matthew Deery refused this request without explanation.

A request that the matter be struck out or dismissed as vexatious and frivolous.was also refused by Judge Deery.

(In the course of the trial, Kevin Tracey again asked the Judge to recuse himself on the grounds that he was making the Prosecution's arguments for them but the Judge again refused this application without giving reasons)

Judge Deery first refused Mr Tracey's requests in the "list court" where cases are assigned by the President in the morning to a panel of three judges. Participants are advised that all applications must be made in this court.

When the President later allocated the case to himself, before the case came to hearing, Mr Tracey repeated his applications in this court of hearing, before the same Judge, adding to his reasons for the applications this time that the presiding Judge himself, Judge Deery, had received a complaint from him ( Kevin Tracey) that was indirectly associated with the case, a complaint which Mr Tracey said was never replied to. Again to avoid bias or the perception of bias. This application was yet again refused by Judge Deery

THE PROSECUTION'S CASE:

A case in which Judge Michael White had been defendant, and Kevin Tracey the plaintiff, had come before Judge Brady in the District Court about 4 years ago.The letter written by the Defendant to Judge Finnegan had to do with that case. In the letter, the Defendant had stated that Judge Brady had allowed Judge Michael White, (known to him)) to enter his room and remain there during the case. This letter was read out in court. The letter had also stated that when Mr Tracey mentioned the presence of Judge White in Judge Brady's room, Judge Brady had threatened him with contempt of court and called the Garda to remove him. He had referred in the letter to the Judge's behaviour as "appalling" and "disgraceful". Mr Tracey had eventually withdrawn the inference that Judge Brady might have discussed the case with Judge White but had refused to withdraw the allegation that Judge White had been in his room. (For fuller coverage see printed mainstream media accounts)

Judge Brady gave evidence that Judge White had not entered his room.
As prosecution witness, Judge White gave evidence that he had not entered Judge Brady's room

Neither Judge Joseph Finnegan nor Judge Miriam Malone, who were the recipients of the letter, appeared in court.

THE CASE FOR THE DEFENCE

Kevin Tracey pleaded that for defamation to occur there must be three ingredients, all of which must be present before a statement is deemed defamatory

1. it must be published,
2. it must refer to the complainant and
3. it must be false.

1 He denied that his letter had been published but said that it was covered under qualified privilege and was fair comment.

He reminded the Court that this was not a letter published in a newspaper but a private complaint to a person in authority, intended to be seen only by him, and, until now, seen by only two people, apart from the plaintiff.

He said that it was not defamatory to make a complaint to a person in order to seek redress.

He had made a complaint on this matter four years ago to the President of the High Court (at the time of the incident) without getting a result.

2. He accepted that his letter referred to Judge Brady.

3. He stated that the complaint was true.

Kevin Tracey gave sworn testimony that he had seen Judge White enter Judge Brady's room .

Karen Tracey gave sworn testimony that she had seen Judge White enter Judge Brady's room. Several times, under intense cross-examination from Eoin McCullough, SC, she reiterated; "What I am saying is the truth. I saw Michael White going into Judge Brady's room".

JUDGE DEERY'S JUDGEMENT

Judge Deery had heard Kevin Tracey and Karen Tracey swear that they saw Judge Michael White enter Judge Brady's room and had heard Judge Brady and Judge White swear that this did not happen.

Judge Deery accepted the word of the other two Judges and awarded damages of €17,500 and costs to Judge Brady against the lay litigant.

Dismal Opening of Dáil

2007-06-15T00:27:00.001Z

THE SUN DID NOT SHINE in Dublin yesterday for the opening of the new Dáil.

It was a truly dismal occasion in mid-June, cold rain the order of the day.

THE OUTGOING TAOISEACH Bartholomew Ahern was elected after a vote to a third term, and most of the old Fianna Fáil faces were back in Government.

John O'Donoghue, Fianna Fáil, was elected Cathaoirleach after a vote.

Changes in Cabinet include Ministers
Brian Cowen (FF) new Tanaiste (retains Finance),
Seamus Brennan (FF) Arts, Sports and Tourism,
Eamon Ryan (Greens) Communications, Energy and Natural Resources,
John Gormley, (Greens) Environment, Heritage and Local Government,
Brian Lenihan Jr (FF) Justice, Equality and Law Reform,
Martin Cullen, (FF) Social and Family Affairs,
Noel Dempsey (FF) Transport and Marine.

SOME MEMORIES:

Bartholomew Ahern the Taoiseach will forever be remembered as a friend of Bush and Blair, stepping in line and marching to Bush's tune.

John O'Donoghue, the new Cathaoirleach, was seen on Ireland's Day of Shame running from the Dáil to the Ministry for Justice chased by angry women seeking revenge for Iraq.

That same year, Brian Cowen, the new Tanaiste, was seen doing a similar 100 metre sprint away from an anti-war activist-with-a-microphone outside the Fianna Fáil meeting place in Killarney.

Brian Lenihan Jr, new Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, was seen standing outside the same venue on the same day refusing for 15 minutes an invitation to a mike to debate the issue of Shannon with another anti-war activist ("Brian Lenihan sent me to tell you he has only two words to say to you and the second one is 'Off'!" a messenger later told the protestor).

Martin Cullen, the new Minister for Social and Family Affairs, is remembered as the Minister who in 2004 spent 52 million euro on unreliable electronic voting machines that were put into cold storage - where they remain at a cost of nearly 1 million euro annually.

Séamus Brennan, the new Minister for the Arts, Sport and Tourism, was the Minister who told the Irish nation on the 1 o'clock news on 3 February 2003 that the 5 Pitstop Ploughshare activists who disabled a plane at Shannon airport had hospitalized a Garda. When this proved totally without foundation he did not retract or apologize, nor did he do so even when all five were unanimously found not guilty of all charges against them by a Dublin jury.

IN THE DÁIL CHAMBER, it was odd to see the Green Party members alongside Fianna Fáil and the PDs. It had the look of the holy people sitting in the abomination of desolation.

AFTER AN ENDLESS MONOTONY of routine speeches and protocol, however, there was an unholy row when Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and Labour Leader Patrick Rabbitte reminded the Greens of their erstwhile principles and were treated to a highly charged outburst by Trevor Sargent.

EARLIER, INDEPENDENT ANTONY GREGORY'S SPEECH stood out as a brilliant recording of the sickness that appears to have stricken the Irish body politic and through it the Irish Parliament. In this new Dáil, both he and the four Sinn Féin deputies will have a fight on their hands to speak at all. The departure of four Indpendents and the Greens to the Government benches leaves them isolated despite the efforts of Caoimhín Ó Caoilean to remedy the situation from the start.

ALL IN ALL A DAY WITHOUT MUCH PROMISE, but who knows what the first 100 days will produce. Only time will tell.

Green Party Sell-out.

2007-06-13T23:06:00.002Z

BY A MAJORITY of 86% to 14% Green Party members voted this evening to join with Fianna Fáil and the PDs in Government. Three or four Independents will also support the re-election of Bartholomew Ahern as Taoiseach. Trevor Sargent resigned as Green Party leader as he had promised to do in such an eventuality. Still he proclaimed himself delighted with the result.

THIS GREEN PARTY who were the most vocal in Ireland against corrupt practices in public office, who rejected the brown envelope tradition, who demanded an end to the US military use of Ireland's civilian Shannon Airport, who appeared to be champions for the conservation of national monuments, who opposed the export of live cattle, who supported Shell to Sea in their fight against Shell and the Irish Government, who said that they would stop Mary Harney’s ‘co-location’ plans to build private hospitals on public land have now accepted power alongside the Party most responsible for corrupt practices including the "Brown Envelope", the party responsible for letting out Shannon airport to George W Bush, the party that is driving a motorway through Tara of the High Kings, now declared one of the world's 100 most endangered monuments, the party that supports Shell, the party that supports and carries out the export of live cattle, and the Party pushing for, and about to implement, co-location of hospitals under the stewardship of the same Mary Harney.

THE DEAL DONE with Fianna Fáil gained only minimum benefits for the Greens.

ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS vigilled outside the Mansion House all afternoon and evening begging delegates not to do this deal. They were joined by Shell to Sea supporters, Tara preservation supporters and others. Among these groups, especially among anti-war activists, there is a sense of helpless outrage not matched since Ireland's Day of Shame, 20 March 2003, when the Fianna Fáil-PD Government granted rights to Bush to use Shannon for the war he had just started in Iraq - all without UN approval. (Unprecedented protests had followed including a "ring around the Dáil" in which the Garda Special Response Unit used heavy-handed tactics in the arrests of hundreds of sit-down peaceful protestors)

GREEN PARTY SUPPORTERS may be pardoned for feeling that the Parliamentary Party and paid-up members have sold out, taken the shilling and let them down.

IT NOW APPEARS VIRTUALLY CERTAIN that Fianna Fáil and Bartholomew Ahern are back in Government for another five years. What was not expected was that it would be the Green Party that would copper-fasten this happening.

Fall of the Green Party

2007-06-12T21:01:00.002Z

After playing ping-pong all day today - deal, no deal, deal, no deal - just before the nine o'clock RTE news, the Green Party agreed a final draft of a Programme for Government with Fianna Fáil. They must get a two thirds majority tomorrow afternoon from their members in the Mansion House to ratify the decision of the leadership and negotiating team.

The news will come as a shock to many Green supporters who will look incredulously at a programme that will probably ignore the continued use of Shannon airport by US military to maintain their control of Iraqi oil, the destruction of Tara for a new motorway, the co-location and privatization of hospitals under outgoing Minister Mary Harney, not to speak of the contradictions in the Taoiseach's explanations of receipts of money - which the Greens and PDs had made an election issue.

One re-elected Green TD, Ciaran Cuffe, had written on his own blog that a potential coalition with Fianna Fail was a "deal with the devil".

We have seen unexpected deals in Ireland before. This one, if it happens, will rival the flip-flop of Labour when they returned Fianna Fáil in 1992 after the electorate had given Labour 33 seats believing that in doing so they were getting rid of Fianna Fáil

Fianna Fáil May be Using Resurrected Offer of Talks to Greens as a Decoy

2007-06-11T11:10:00.000Z

FIANNA FÁIL KEPT THE GREENS TALKING for six days - and, after several Green deadlines had expired, the Greens eventually walked out. No sooner had they left the room than the crafty Fianna Fáil heads began to lure them back. Remember, while they are talking to Fianna Fáil, they cannot be negotiating with Fine Gael and the presumption that Bartholomew Ahern will again be Taoiseach is a winning headline for the media.

UNDECIDED INDEPENDENTS, the two PD deputies and even the four Sinn Féin deputies are supposed to feel threatened if they don't join the winning Fianna Fáil bandwagon. So, the media pundits who always seem to decide these matters have declared that the new Government will consist of 78 Fianna Fáilers, 4 Independents and 2 PDs with the possible addition of the 6 Green members to give "stability" to Bartholomew Ahern's new Government. Why only 4 Independents? Because the fifth, Anthony Gregory, is in Bartholomew's own constituency and Bartholomew could not be seen, in return for Gregory's support, to be giving favours to his own voters that had been bargained from him by a rival in his own backyard. So, he never approached Gregory.

THERE IS A PRESUMPTION in Fianna Fáil that the other four Independents are ready to play ball and the 2 PDs are taken for granted. The Independents and PDs have not said this themselves and all of them, being pragmatic people, have left their options open even at this late stage. The dallying with the Greens is an important public exercise on the part of Fianna Fáil in helping people to make up their minds fast.

SO, ENDA KENNY'S DECISION not to concede defeat on the night of the count or since, in spite of scoffing by radio, TV and other media pundits, has paid dividends for everyone except Fianna Fáil. If the latter do go into Government, it will be at the maximum cost to themselves whether their partners are the mixed grill of Greens, Independents and PDs or the Labour Party. Until now, Labour have been left out of the equation, probably because they would demand five ministries.

AND NOT EVEN the stability of Government desired by Bartholomew would be worth the wrath that would fall on his head if he had to concede so much to an Opposition Party. Meanwhile, Enda Kenny is keeping his cool, knowing that there is always a chance, however small, that the winning chips might fall into his lap.

GREEN PARTY - FIANNA FÁIL TALKS BREAK DOWN

2007-06-08T17:42:00.000Z

THE TALKS between Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have broken down. They failed to reach agreement on issues such as climate change, the Environment, health, education, transport, energy despite having made enormous progress "on a number of issues". WHAT THEY AGREED ON IS NOT CLEAR.

GREEN PARTY leader Trevor Sargent said the party is now ready to talk to all other parties including Fine Gael in order to form a Goverment. Neither the Greens nor Fianna Fáil have ruled out another attempt to reach agreement although they failed to agree after six days of negotiations.

WITHOUT THE GREENS, Fianna Fáil would be depending on the two PDs and three Independents to reach 83 seats. The three Independents on whom they expect to rely include BEVERLY FLYNN who herself faces a charge of bankruptcy over an alleged failure to pay 2,8848,088 euro in legal costs when she lost her case for libel against RTE who reported that she had encouraged or assisted a number of persons in tax evasion. The case against Beverly Flynn comes up on Monday, June 18, four days after the Dáil is expected to convene.

THE GREEN PARTY CONFERENCE, scheduled for Sunday June 10, has been called off. Once again, it's all to play for.

Minister Dempsey says agreement with Greens "very, very likely"

2007-06-06T12:34:00.000Z

THE LATEST SIGNS ARE that a Fianna-Fáil, Green Party and PD coalition is on. Minister Noel Dempsey told RTE'1's Lunchtime that he thinks it very, very likely that FF and the Greens will be in Government. Meanwhile, Minister Mary Hanafin told another radio host on Newstalk 106 that the deal now looked possible. Indeed she sounded very confident on an earlier radio show where she was outlining programmes for the future as if she had already been sanctioned as the new Minister for Education and Science., the post she holds at present.

THE AVAILABILITY of the PDs in such a scenario appears inevitable as is the support of three Independent TDs: (former Fianna Fáilers) JOHN HEALY RAY and BEVERLY FLYNN and (former Fine Gaeler) MICHAEL LOWRY. The PDs will be disappointed if MARY HARNEY does not get back as Minister of Health where she intends to privatize health, beginning with the co-location of hospitals.

HOWEVER ON SUNDAY NEXT, the Green Party chiefs must face their own members at a Conference (no seats available) to get their permission for the agreement. The questions about Shannon, Tara, co-location of hospitals, the sell-out of national gas rights in Mayo (and consequent mishandling by Shell and Gardaí of local protests at Rossport and Bellanaboy on safety and environmental grounds) may figure high on Question Time there but at this stage, it looks as if the Green Party top brass may themselves have sold out on all four issues. Only time will tell.

IF THE DEAL FALLS through for any reason, all other options will re-open.

Nothing dramatic happened at The Mahon Tribunal which re-commenced this morning. Thomas Gilmartin was back and the Tribunal ground slowly on. Ther was a hearsay remark about a former Fianna Fáil Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, but nothing about Bartholomew Ahern.

FINE GAEL STILL BREATHE DOWN THE NECKS of all the high profile participants in the talks, with Enda Kenny reminding all and sundry yet again at his own Parliamentary meeting that no defeat has been conceded

Will the Green Party do a deal with Fianna Fáil?

2007-06-04T08:48:00.000Z

ALL THROUGHOUT YESTERDAY, the Green Party Comhaontas Glas were not just chatting with Fianna Fáil deputies - they were in serious talks about entering a Coalition with Fianna Fáil. Earlier promises made by Green Party leader Trevor Sargent that he would resign as leader in such an eventuality are now in serious danger of being broken. Immediately before the election, after receiving advice from their counterparts in Germany, the Greens gave notice that they wanted power in Government to implement Green policies. They lost votes and seats by the mixed messages coming from their different candidates thereafter but now that the election is over they appear to be hungry for power in Government.

THE NEWS IS that Fianna Fáil are surprised and co-operative. Having the Greens on board would relieve them of the necessity to bargain with difficult Independents.
FF, the Greens and probably the PDs would provide a handsome 86 votes to elect Bartholomew Ahern as Taoiseach. An Independent or two would be icing on the cake.

TALKS ARE CONFIDENTIAL but rumours that the FF delegates were surprised at the maturity shown by Green delegates reads to me as if the Greens will not be striking a hard bargain.

I'M WONDERING, for instance, if these vexed questions will be addressed with success or quietly forgotten: the use of Shannon airport for US military use, the co-location of hospitals in Tallaght (State land being sold to private owners for a private hospital on the same site where an existing public hospital stands), the desecration of the Tara site for a new motorway, corporate donations (which bolstered the "brown envelope" tradition of payment to politicians for rezoning land, and led to numerous costly Tribunals that have got bogged down for nearly a decade), the live export of cattle, electronic voting - all of which were opposed by the Greens and favoured by Fianna Fáil. Not to mention the high ethical standards demanded by the Greens in their condemnation of standards obtaining at present.

TV AND RADIO COMMENTATORS are appearing smug and "knowing" about the present talks, prophesying further developments based solely on calculations of gross personal gain to deputies. So an editor of the Irish Independent last night commented on RTE's "Week in Politics", in a non-joking practical way, that the post of Ceann Comhairle held perks such as a state car that would entice many deputies.

THE TALKS WITH THE GREENS continue today. Independent Michal Lowry has also announced that Bartholomew has been in touch and wants to talk.

IF THE GREEN TALKS FAIL, then Labour may be waiting for an invite from the Taoiseach. Meanwhile, the Alternative Coalition is still alive and, while it remains alive, it puts pressure on Fianna Fáil to make bigger offers to all who remain unattached - at present that includes everyone.

AND STILL, THE CLOUDS of the Mahon Tribunal hang like a foreboding canopy of dark grey over all the talks, all the bargaining, all the prognostications.

Elections 2007 - doors still wide open

2007-06-03T18:04:00.001Z

TODAY'S NEWS IS that there is still no new Government formed. Parties have been meeting. At last, it has been established that there are, as yet, no clear winners. The magic number is 83. Fianna Fáil (78) must work even for the support of their 2 PD colleagues. Fine Gael (51) must fight even to keep the Labour Party on board of their proposed alternative coalition. The king makers as between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are: Labour Party (20), PDs (2), Green Party Comhaontas Glas (6), Independents (5), Sinn Féin (4).

From day to day, the preferred options vary.
TODAY, THE FAVOURITES among media pundits are: FIANNA FÁIL, GREEN PARTY and PDs - making a total of 86 for the re-election of Bartholomew Ahern as Taoiseach of a new Coalition Government.

The difficulties here include the contentious questions of the present destruction of a major part of the historic Tara site through which the present Government is building a new motorway, the use of Irish airports, especially Shannon, for the transport of US troops to the war arena in Iraq, electronic voting (all at variance with Green aspirations). On many other environmental issues such as the pollution of water, global warming, renewable energy, public transport, improved building standards, it would be likely that Fianna Fáil might acquiesce or the Greens compromise (if FF have not already stolen the clothes of the Greens). Also, the PDs and Greens haven't much in common. The abolition of "corporate donations" (to political parties) is also high on the Greens agenda. Nor can Fianna Fáil rely unequivocally on PD support any longer.
Many Fianna Fáil TDs will also be uneasy sharing power with the Greens.
A bigger problem here may be the clouds hanging over Taoiseach Bartholomew Ahern from the Mahon Tribunal (postponed till Wednesday 6 June because of the illness of its star witness, Thomas Gilmartin).

ANOTHER COMBINATION, high up among the favourites, are: FIANNA FÁIL, the PDs and INDEPENDENTS John Healy Ray, Beverly Flynn, Finian McGrath, Michael Lowry and Anthony Gregory - making a total of 85 for the re-election of Bartholomew as Taoiseach of a slightly different Coalition Government.

The difficulties facing this combination are the demands the Independents will make for giving their support. Here are the Independents in question:

JOHN HEALY RAY, better known as JACKIE Healy ray, a former Fianna Fáil TD, has already supported Bartholomew in return for favours unspecified, beneficial to Healy-Ray's constituency in Co Kerry. Fianna Fáil would be confident of his support again although officially this Deputy has kept his options open.

BEVERLY FLYNN, expelled from Fianna Fáil after her action for libel against a TV reporter failed, is believed to want back into the party. Her support should be easily achieved, although not at her own price.

FINIAN MCGRATH was one of the deputies who gave a guarantee before the election not to participate in any Government that would allow Shannon Airport or other Irish facilities to be used by the United States to conduct war in Iraq or any other imperialist war. As Bartholomew's Government committed Ireland to this war even before it was declared supposedly "legal" by the UN, and as he has worked closely with both George W Bush and Anthony Blair in supporting its continued execution, this could well be an insoluble difference denying Bartholomew this Deputy's support.
A former soup runner for the homeless of Dublin and Simon Community worker, McGrath would also be expected to strike a hard bargain on many "agreed" subjects - replacing lip-service with action on a wide range of issues including the homeless, the sick, the disabled, workers, children, the under-addressed issue of bullying in Irish schools and many local problems.

MICHAEL LOWRY, like Beverly Flynn, was in trouble with his own party (Fine Gael). The cloud over him had formed because of the revelation at another Tribunal (the McCracken Tribunal) that supermarket tycoon Ben Dunne had paid IR£395,000 for an extension to his home in Tipperary. He resigned from Cabinet in November 1996 and resigned from Fine Gael, being subsequently re-elected as an Independent.
This deputy should have no difficulty in supporting Fianna Fáil, having already made a statement that they look the more realistic prospect. However, his vote is still not promised.

ANTHONY GREGORY, better known as TONY Gregory, elected in Bartholomew's own constituency, may not have been yet contacted by Bartholomew. In a previous election he had struck the hardest bargain ever for his support for Taoiseach Charles Haughey, making the famous "Gregory Deal" public immediately and promising that he might withdraw his support on any disputed issue during the life-time of the Government. In November 1982, true to his promise, he helped bring down the Haughey Government by abstention on a vote of confidence.
The Gregory Deal was a signpost for some of the issues that are closest to this Deputy's heart - civil and social rights, housing, social and community structures, respect and help for people in disadvantaged areas, for the neglected, for workers and the poor, with particular emphasis on his own inner city constituency. Close on policy issues to the defeated Joe Higgins, like him and Finian McGrath he vehemently opposed the invasion of Iraq and Ireland's participation in it through the use of Shannon airport, and like both of them signed the declaration not to participate in any Government that would allow Shannon Airport or other Irish facilities to be used by the United States to conduct war in Iraq or any other imperialist war.
He understands the machinations of Government and is nobody's fool. He will be expected to strike a hard bargain for his support

A third favourite combination is:FIANNA FÁIL and the LABOUR PARTY allowing for a total of 98 votes for Bartholomew Ahern as Taoiseach of a new Coalition Government

The difficulties here are the strong unrelenting promises of Labour leader Patrick Rabbitte not to enter Government with Fianna Fáil and a recollection of what happened to the Party when a previous leader, Richard Spring, unexpectedly did a 180 degree turnabout after an election and returned Fianna Fáil to power . Rabbitte is strong on his convictions and in spite of internal turmoil, will not be expected to cave in or turn his back on his pre-election arrangement with Enda Kenny and Fine Gael unless and until the latter concedes defeat.
However, there are internal dissensions in Labour as in all parties suffering an apparent electoral setback
Significantly, this combination also appears to be last on the Taoiseach's wish list although you couldn't be sure whether the public message from Bartholomew on this subject truly reflects what he believes in private.
As with all other prospective partners of Fianna Fáil, PDs, Greens and Independents, the fear of the revelations from the Mahon Tribunal about Bartholomew's veracity re money transactions may put a hold on any Labour Party decision also to commit absolutely to entering Government with Fianna Fáil.

THE ALTERNATIVE TO THE ABOVE is the Alternative Coalition back-boned by Fine Gael and Labour with their combined total of 71 votes.

The possibilities here are just two:
FINE GAEL, LABOUR, GREEN PARTY, PDs, INDEPENDENTS with a total of 84 votes.
or
FINE GAEL, LABOUR, GREEN PARTY, PDs, and 4 INDEPENDENTS with a total of 83 votes.

AS OF NOW, none of the deputies outside the Fianna Fáil party is committed beforehand and the fact that Enda Kenny has held out hope for all of them in an Alternative Government means that each one, even the 2 PDs, can hold out and bargain for the better option for themselves.

IN BOTH OF THESE SCENARIOS, some of the same difficulties exist as obtained for the Fianna Fáil-led possibilities, e.g. PDs co-existing with Greens, Independents and two Labour deputies bound by their commitments on the use of Shannon airport, some Green policies at variance with those of Fine Gael, Independents' priorities at variance with PDs, and some with Fine Gael and Labour. The big obstacle NOT looming on the horizon to scupper these two options are the expected revelations of the ongoing Mahon Tribunal..

THERE ARE OTHER SCENARIOS too depending on which party offers to make a sacrifice and accept the office of Ceann Comhairle, a double-edged sword, as, if the votes tie, the Ceann Comhairle can give the decisive vote , otherwise the Ceann Comhairle has no vote.

IN ALL OF THE ABOVE, the 4 SINN FÉIN deputies have been omitted from the equation. This is because the big parties have excluded them beforehand. It remains to be seen, however, whether or not they will exclude them if they can make a difference. It has never been explained satisfactorily how Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour agree that Sinn Féin - members of this same party - should hold Executive seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly and even have laboured long and hard to ensure that this should come to pass, and yet exclude them as a matter of principle from sharing power in the Republic of Ireland.
All 4 have made the commitment concerning the use of Shannon airport, which leaves them in the same position as two Independents and two Labour deputies with whom they have also found much in common on social justice and human rights issues. This then is not the reason for their exclusion.

IF SINN FÉIN WERE CONSIDERED "WORTHY", which is not beyond the bounds of possibility, the configurations given above would all need alteration. Both alternatives could benefit from their inclusion. In a previous Government, Sinn Féin the Workers Party, previously taboo on the political scene, were warmly welcomed into Government under their new name of Democratic Left. Former members of Sinn Féin the Workers Party are none other than Patrick Rabbitte, present leader of the Labour Party, and Proinsias de Rossa who serves with distinction in the European Parliament after a term in the Irish Government as Minister for Social Welfare.

Elections are over but it's still all to play for.

2007-05-30T15:39:00.000Z

THE ELECTIONS ARE OVER. The count was held last Friday and Saturday, and by Sunday the position was fairly clear. There are 166 seats in Dáil Éireann. All have now been filled.

A party or parties wishing to form a Government should in theory have 84 members but 83 would be plenty if someone from the new Opposition accepted the office of Ceann Comhairle (Speaker) who presides over Dáil debates.

THE RESULTS are:

Fianna Fáil (FF) 78 Fine Gael (FG) 51 Labour (Lab) 20 Green Party (GP) 6 Independents (Ind) 5 Sinn Féin (SF) 4 Progressive Democrats(PD) 2

The state of the parties before the election was:

FF 81 FG 31 Lab 21 GP 6 Ind 13 SF 5 PD 8 Socialist Party (SP) 1

Fianna Fáil had lost 3 seats, Fine Gael gained 20, Labour lost 1, Green Party no change, Sinn Féin lost 1, PDs lost 6, SP lost its only member.

Notable losers were Tanaiste Michael McDowell, leader of the PDs who retired from politics on the spot, and the Socialist Party's Joe Higgins, anti-war champion, defender of the poor and the Dáil's most colourful and eloquent orator.

NO GOVERNMENT HAS FORMED AS YET. Early predictions were that Fianna Fáil would form the new Government either with the help of the PDs and five Independents OR with PDs, the Greens and some Independents OR with Labour,including possibly others. That was the order of preference indicated by the Taoiseach BARTHOLOMEW AHERN in an interview on Sunday on Sky TV.

ENDA KENNY of FINE GAEL stubbornly refused to concede defeat. Kenny's stubbornness has meant that all parties and none (with the possible exception of Sinn Féin) are at present in discussions about who will be the next Taoiseach. Bargains can be made, promises elicited, shopping lists presented. Both FF and FG have, publicly at least, ruled out doing business with Sinn Féin.

THE ELECTIONS WERE SCARCELY FINISHED and winners and losers had scarcely dusted themselves down when a Tribunal of Inquiry, postponed because of the elections, re-opened on Monday 28 May and new difficulties for Taoiseach Bartholomew began to emerge. The Tribunal, in its opening statement, pointed out that it had found discrepancies between Bartholomew's account of moneys lodged to an Allied Irish Banks (AIB) account and the Tribunal's own findings.

BARTHOLOMEW HAD SAID earlier to a Tribunal lawyer in private session that a crucial £30,000 Sterling received in cash from a Mr Wall of Manchester had been lodged by his partner Celia Larkin in the said Bank on 5 December 1994. Bartholomew was then Minister for Finance. However, the only Sterling (British) money lodged on that day in that bank was a mere £1200 sterling (approximately). No sight of £30,000 in sterling. However a large sum, in Irish punts (IR£) which would amount to exactly $45,000 (US) was lodged in the bank on that day. The implication was that Ms Larkin had made a lodgment in dollars. The question was Who might have given her such a sum in dollars. After all, the mentioned £30,000 had come from a Manchester businessman. And Bartholomew said he had never dealt in dollars. A row with the Tribunal itself ensued.

DARKENING CLOUDS THICKENED OVER BARTHOLOMEW at the very time that the king-making deputies were considering their options. This evening, Sinn Féin threw out an invitation to both sides to deal with them as they are open to talks.

THERE SEEMS TO BE only one thing certain now: The shape and content of the next Dáil will be very, very interesting.

ELECTIONS IRELAND 2007 - Third Week

2007-05-28T18:13:00.000Z

THE MEDIA CONTROVERSY about the Taoiseach's house and money eventually died down.

On Tuesday, 15 May 2007, Taoiseach BARTHOLOMEW AHERN received another accolade - in Britain. He was the first Taoiseach to address both Houses of Parliament - feted for his part in bringing a political solution to Northern Ireland and received astonishing and embarrassing praise from the departing Prime Minister ANTHONY BLAIR. "I have met many great world figures over the past decade but I've never met a bigger one than Bertie Ahern.” said Mr Blair. Rival ENDA KENNY who had also been invited had to sit through both speech and flattery. Bartholomew also received a standing ovation. Bartholomew failed to give credit to his own predecessors, Albert Reynolds and Charles Haughey or to Enda's predecessors, Garret Fitzgerald and John Bruton, nor to Enda himself, nor to Labour leaders including Pat Rabbitte neither did he mention JOHN HUME, SEAMUS MALLON or MARK DURKIN of the SDLP or DAVID TRIMBLE or the late DAVID IRVINE of the Unionist side. All of these had played significant roles in the Peace Process, some of them more significant than the final act played by Bartholomew. Nor was there any mention of Sinn Féin's GERARD ADAMS, MARTIN MCGUINNESS or the REV IAN PAISLEY. Even his most ardent admirers believed that Bartholomew had overscored by taking too much credit to himself.

IF THIS WAS A MISTAKE, it was followed immediately by an own goal by his backroom team who launched a piece of propaganda for TV featuring BLAIR, CLINTON and GEORGE MITCHELL singing the praises of Bartholomew in what all of them knew was an election advertisement. This was only a month after Angela Merkel had sent a letter to Enda Kenny hoping for his success. Enda read out the letter at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis. But Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming had expressed his fury with Ms Merkel for interfering in the elections of a 'sovereign country'. "The Irish people have a very deep rooted sense of not being told what to do by foreign powers. I hope that if Enda Kenny has any understanding of the Irish people, he will ask her to withdraw that letter." Mr Fleming did not protest about his own leader using foreign powers in his advertisement

Apart from Bartholomew turning to foreign powers for his support, there is still an enormous anger at Anthony Blair for the invasion of Iraq and against William Clinton for the years of sanctions against Iraq over which he presided and which caused the deaths of a half a million children there.

THERE WERE TWO DEBATES during the course of the third week. In the first, PATRICK RABBITTE (Labour), MICHAEL McDOWELL (PDs), GERARD ADAMS (Sinn Féin) and TREVOR SARGENT (Greens) had a lively debate. My own scoring afterwards was Rabbitte 7, McDowell 6, Sargent 6, Adams 5. The marking comprises marks for both substance and shadow.

A PUBLIC SQUABBLE on TV between Green Party President JOHN GORMLEY and PD leader TANAISTE MICHAEL MCDOWELL as the latter unveiled a new poster on his favourite lamp post caught the imagination of the public and of journalists and was quickly dubbed the "Wrangle in the Triangle"

THE LEADERS debate between BARTOLOMEW AHERN and ENDA KENNY was less lively. National Television RTE's MIRIAM O'CALLAGHAN hosted it in such a way that the Taoiseach had much more talking time than Enda Kenny had. My marking: Ahern 5, Kenny 5 (making allowance for the unfair hosting by O'Callaghan/ Not making allowance for the unfairness, I would have scored Ahern 5.5, Kenny 4.5.
(After the election, it transpired that O'Callaghan had a brother running as a Fianna Fáil candidate).

The nurses were partially appeased and cancelled a planned escalation of their industrial action.

ON FRIDAY NIGHT'S LATE LATE SHOW there was another glaringly biased offering by host PAT KENNY (definitely no relation of Enda's) who fielded a two-to-one team of Owen Harris and John Waters (FOR Fianna Fáil) versus the lone Eamon Dunphy (AGAINST Fianna Fáil). Harris indulged himself in a high-pitched rant against imagined plotters who had invisible knives out for Bartholomew; and delivered an "eloquent Dempsey" panageric of the man who was above all reproach, "a man from a working class background, from the north city area", firing carefully prepared epithets of scorn and derision at a few notable journalists who had not fallen in adoration of Bartholomew over the years. Waters, fresh from his failure as a composer at the Eurovision song contest, prophesied that voters would slink in and vote for Bartholomew anyway and confound the pundits. Dunphy, sandwiched between the two, had to be content with a few counter punches: "I'm also a man from a working class background and from the north city area, but that doesn't mean I should be Taoiseach".

THE WEEK CONCLUDED with a poll (taken on Friday and Saturday) showing a remarkable upsurge in support for the Government main party. The bias of two TV programmes appeared to have taken their toll.

Elections Ireland 2007 - Second week

2007-05-18T23:32:00.001Z

AS THE DISTRACTION OF THE TAOISEACH'S MONEY was dragged through th second week by the media the question of Cui Bono (To whom the benefit?) was on my mind. Fianna Fáil had just suffered an unexpected slump in the polls. Last time when there was a similar rumour going around about a difficulty of the Taoiseach's with regard to finance, his ratings went up 7% in the polls. Fianna Fáil efforts were now made to pin the leak on the Fine Gael party, but the possibility was always there that some of their own friends had leaked the information themselves. There was much protestation about "smearing" a decent man. Still, in the next poll, their ratings did not improve so much - just 2 per cent which heralded a dead heat.

But then PD leader, Tanaiste MICHAEL MCDOWELL, surprised everyone by saying that, last Autumn, Bartholomew had given him a radically different account of his finances from the one he had given during the campaign. The PD leader gave everyone to believe that he would resign from Government, but then said he definitely would not, and finally demanded a full statement to clear up the matter from Bartholomew which the latter promised for Friday 11 May.

DURING THE SECOND WEEK, Bartholomew's luck again re-surfaced as he had to fly with the same PD leader McDowell to Belfast for the accolade of the opening of the new Assembly into which he had put a lot of work throughout his term and Michael's position was softer after they came back to Dublin. Bartholomew was given extra time to make his statement and he was strutting the streets with chest much farther out than had been the case during the first week.

This was the week when THE NURSES DISPUTE took over from all others as the issue of importance. In an act of defiance, the Health and Safety Authority, backed by the (PD) Minister for Health MARY HARNEY and her Government, threatened to dock 13% of existing pay because of the dispute. In the USA where Mike Quill fought (and lost) for workers' rights, this kind of action might have won applause but in the country of Jim Larkin it appeared to be an unnecessary, aggressive, arrogant and maybe suicidal action. It was aggravated later in the week when the Nurses invited all party leaders to a Conference and they were treated to a lecture from the glum Ms Harney and a finger-wagging barrister Brian Lenihan of Fianna Fáil. The leader of the Opposition ENDA KENNY suggested an outsider should, even before the election, be invited to examine the issues - a suggestion derided by Bartholomew in a long sentence but adapted before the end of the same sentence in a waffled format. At week end the now angry nurses promised to escalate their strike, while promising to deal with all emergencies.

THE TAOISEACH made his promised (5000 word) statement in the Sunday Independent on 13 May. In it he claimed that allegations made by Tom Gilmartin against him about monies received were false, (this allegation is still to be determined by a Tribunal), that the strange manner in which he bought a house (the matter in the leak) was due to his marital break-up. It was Mr Wall's house, he said, bought in March 1995, but Bartholomew had, before this, accepted about £28,000 in cash from Mr Wall in his office to refurbish/furnish it and pay Mr Wall's stamp duty (Dec 1994) as he and Mr Wall had an arrangement that he would rent it from Mr Wall with an option to purchase it later. Bartholomew rented the house as agreed ("from the summer of 1995"). Mr Wall also willed him the house (6 June 1996) but Bartholomew did not know of this at the time. He, in fact, purchased the house in 1997. He had done no wrong, he said.

TANAISTE MCDOWELL, whose party had been elected largely to be the watchdog of the public on their larger partners in Government, said that he was happy now with the Taoiseach's explanation.. At week's end, both parties were down in the polls.

ENDA KENNY, leader of FINE GAEL, had steadfastly avoided getting involved in this affair in spite of Government taunts that his party must have been responsible for the leaks from the Tribunal that gave cause to the controversy. Instead he dealt with his own "contract for a better Ireland", putting his position on the line if he did not deliver. In his rapid tour of the constituencies he was jaunty, confident, touchy-feely, buoyant, jovial, and unexpectedly charismatic. The cross-country whistle-stop tour with impromptu speeches compensated for the high profile of his antagonist BARTHOLOMEW who was joining REV IAN PAISLEY at the site of the Battle of the Boyne on Friday 11 May.

MINISTER BRIAN COWEN, at the very start of the campaign, had chosen to say that he and his colleagues would roast the Opposition on a slow barbecue throughout the election campaign. This Minister, an able speaker when he controls himself, lost marks for the Government by roaring at opponents in radio and TV debates, "You're wrong, you're wrong, you don't know what you're talking about", by conducting his part of the debate as if he were an inquisitor "Answer the question, answer the question, you won't answer my question" and denying his opponent the right to reply by loud interruptions as soon as his opponent had uttered the first few words in reply. As the Government lost its way, LABOUR LEADER, Patrick Rabbitte, met Minister Cowen in a TV dialogue. Rabbitte showed his teeth in his opening statement "The Minister's barbecue has gone out" and the rest of his witty statement was half drowned by the the furious interruptions of the roaring Minister.

At the end of the second week, the position for the Opposition was almost too rosy. The danger for them was that they had peaked too soon. Mistakes could now be made by any candidate or party. Bartholomew's posters were being taken down in droves, presumably by party planners, as if his grinning face might now be a liability. But Fianna Fáil were expected to fight back. The PDs continued to campaign as if they were winners. In an amazing faux pas the leader of the GREEN PARTY, TREVOR SARGENT declared that the Greens might not now be able to consider a pact with Fianna Fáil after the elections. Green Party voters would be expected rather to get Fianna Fáil out of office than help them back in. The slip was quickly relayed on TV as if Sargent had been intending to go in with Fianna Fáil until he realized that the polls were indicating Fianna Fáil might not have the numbers. The gaffe would definitely raise the hackles of many supporters and could cause unwanted dissension among the members of the Parliamentary party.

As with the Greens, there was an uncertainty surrounding the LABOUR PARTY and SINN FÉIN. Both, while castigating the present Government, have adopted a position that leaves them (almost) free to take up any option after the results of the election become known. In a previous election, when a weary electorate decided for a change of Government, believing that a combination of Fine Gael and Labour were the preferred option, Labour got an unprecedented 33 seats in the Dáil. Labour leader DICK SPRING, went to Fine Gael leader John Bruton and demanded a share in the top office - a "rotating Taoiseach" position (he and Bruton to share the office of Taoiseach every six months). When this was rejected, he did a volte face and brought Fianna Fáil back into Government. For this betrayal, the electorate never forgave the Labour Party.

So, the election looks more open than ever. At this stage, a worried electorate face the possibility of any one of the following combinations for the future Government:
Fine Gael and Labour alone?
Fianna Fáil and the PDs alone? (outgoing)
Fine Gael, Labour, the Greens?
Fianna Fáil, PDs, the Greens, some Independents?
Fianna Fáil and Labour?
Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin?

ELECTIONS IRELAND 2007

2007-05-10T01:48:00.000Z

It began early on Sunday 29 April 2007. A sudden call to journalists to scurry to Áras an Uachtaráin at an unearthly hour to hear the news that the Dáil had been dissolved. Taoiseach Bartholomew Ahern had hidden the news up to the last minute (8 a.m). Within an hour his party's posters were occupying the best positions on Dublin's lamp posts. Bartholomew's party, Fianna Fáil, had enjoyed five years of power in coalition with the minuscule Progressive Democrats (PDs). The latter had climbed every post in Ireland to convince the electorate that they were necessary to be there with Fianna Fáil to keep an eye on the antics of the old war horse, to be the moral guardians of good Government. They got their wish. Bartholomew, whom most people call Bertie, was re-elected Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and Mary Harney of the PDs, erstwhile of Fianna Fáil herself, was made Tanaiste (Deputy Prime Minister). For five years there was a cosy relationship between the partners in Government. Luckily for them the Celtic Tiger economy continued to growl. Luckily, too, peace came to Northern Ireland during their tenure. They themselves would say that there was no luck but sheer hard work involved on both of these issues. Even critics, however, would grant that Bartholomew's part in the Northern peace making process was significant and that he deserved whatever luck he had on that important part of his Government record.

DURING THOSE FIVE YEARS some significant events had taken place:

THE INVASION OF IRAQ: Ireland, under Bartholomew, had allowed US troops to use Shannon airport for the build-up and later the full scale invasion and occupationof Iraq. This accession to the will of George W Bush continues to this day.
At first Bartholomew and his government denied that any troops were passing through Shannon but when pictures appeared on television to prove otherwise, they reverted to defending their position by saying that this had always happened without any complaints.
Before George W Bush invaded Iraq, 130,000 marched in Dublin and tens of thousands in other Irish cities to protest against the threatened invasion.
Ignoring this, Bartholomew continued to parrot the US line about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction while promising to do nothing out of line with the United Nations.
When the invasion happened, Ireland was in the peculiar position of participating in an "illegal" war, not ratified by the United Nations and without the consent of the Dáil. Ireland's Constitution states that Ireland cannot participate in a war without the consent of the Dáil.
The invasion happened on 19 March 2003, so, on the following day, 20 March, the Dáil was recalled to make legal the unthinkable. Bartholomew's motion contained the lines that

"Dáil Éireann recalls the long-standing arrangements for the overflight and landing in Ireland of US military and civilian aircraft and supports the decision of the Government to maintain those arrangements"

His motion also contained the lines that

"Dáil Éireann

- condemns the continued refusal of the Government of Iraq over a period of 12 years to comply with its obligation to disarm as imposed by numerous resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, most recently in Resolution 1441;

- endorses the decision of the Government that Ireland will not participate in the coalition's proposed military action against Iraq."

The motion was passed with the help of the Fianna Fáil and PD deputies. It was a typical Ahern waffle on a position. To the US he gave complete freedom to prosecute the war by using Irish air space and an Irish civilian airport; to Irish protestors he gave a contradictory guarantee that Ireland was not participating in the war while to US he also gave the nod that he agreed with their (later proven false) belief that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

There was outrage in Ireland. Several protestors on different occasions entered Shannon airport in protest and a US plane was damaged on two separate occasions in an effort to prevent it from bombing Iraq. After prolonged and scandal-ridden trials, five protestors, the Pitstop Ploughshares, were found not guilty of the offence because they were deemed to have due cause to damage the plane. Another protestor, Mary Kelly, is presently appealing her own conviction after a series of farcical trials in Clare where she was denied the very defence that later proved crucial to the dismissal of the State's case against the Pitstop Five.

THE NICE TREATY came up for ratification in a Government referendum. If passed it would have copper-fastened once again Ireland's support for a militarized Europe. The referendum was defeated. However, the Government decided that the electorate were not sufficiently informed about Nice and re-ran the referendum which was passed by a whisker second time around.

NATO had bombed the Balkans when Ireland, under Bartholomew, joined NATO, through the back door of the so-called Partnership for Peace (PfP). This action was taken without a referendum in spite of a promise before the election that he would not put Ireland into the PfP without first having a referendum

THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT was altered by Bartholomew's Government just after the invasion of Iraq had begun. Vital information about matters relevant to public scrutiny would no longer be accessible and enquirers would now have to pay heftily for each item of information.

THE SELL-OUT OF NATIONAL GAS AND OIL RIGHTS to a Shell/Statoil/Marathon consortium was begun and completed by a Fianna Fáil minister and work on erecting a pipeline went ahead, without Government permission, in Rossport, Co Mayo. Five locals who objected to the erection of the pipeline and engaged in non-violent action against it were jailed for contempt of court and spent 94 days in Cloverhill prison in 2005. A campaign against both the erection of the pipeline if the gas is processed on land and against the whole sell out of national rights is still alive and vibrant. Garda brutality against non-violent protestors has been featured for all to see on national TV news and there are several cases pending in the courts and complaints lodged with the Garda ombudsman relating to various Garda activities at the site of protest.

THE GARDA FORCE has come in for scrutiny on other fronts. Last month FRANK SHORT, a completely innocent man, was awarded over 4,623,000 euro for an appalling "miscarriage of justice" in which he was framed by Gardaí who perjured him into prison where he spent 23 months. Other Garda cases are before one of Ireland's interminable tribunals.

THE BROWN ENVELOPE TRADITION has been uncovered in some of those Tribunals. The brown envelope has come to signify corrupt payments to politicians for favours mentioned or unmentioned. Several senior politicians have been implicated, some are still to give evidence before a Tribunal.

FOR THE PAST WEEK these have not been the "issues" of the election however. THE ISSUES of the election are being defined daily by Government spin doctors and their opposition equivalents. These were quickly named as Health, Crime, the Economy, Stamp duty payable as a Government tax, Education, Traffic congestion, local water pollution, and others.
All of these are real issues and might be what one would expect in a Tiger economy. The hospitals have been overcrowded, nurses are presently on an ever escalating strike, crime continues to soar. There is a crippling stamp duty payable to Government by second hand house buyers and given the outrageous house prices at present obtaining, (average house price fell in March to 309,000 euro!) a young house buyer pays an average stamp duty tax of 15,000 euro.
Schools have been complaining of overcrowded classrooms for many years and lack of investment in education. Bullying, according to the latest surveys, is rampant in Irish schools and still unresolved.Successive Governments have failed to solve the traffic problem with some one mile journeys taking an hour or more by private car, while public transport remains inadequate to lure car owners away even from that affliction. Recently. in Galway, there has been a water crisis where the supply had been polluted and only bottled water from the shops or supermarkets was drinkable. Government and Opposition spar as to whether the proposed Opposition "Rainbow Coalition" would keep the economy in good shape or not.

THE MAIN OPPOSITION PARTY is FINE GAEL, whose leader is Enda Kenny They have an election pact with LABOUR and fight the election more or less from the same platform. Other parties that might or might not join in a RAINBOW COALITION are the GREEN PARTY and SINN FÉIN. A poll just before the announcement of the election showed an increase in the Rainbow position and a decline for Fianna Fáil and the PDs. Still, the election that had been heralded for long had to be called as the Government's time was up.

THE START OF THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN AND ITS FIRST WEEK WAS OVERSHADOWED by a leaked report that the Taoiseach had not quite explained receipt of certain money in his office in Drumcondra some years ago. Media attention was immediately focussed on this issue and that interest has persisted throughout the first week. (to be continued....