| News From Ireland Five Jailed
Over Refinery Protest
Controversy continues to plague the multi-million-dollar gas refinery
project in north County Mayo. Tension surrounding the project has heightened
considerably since June when five local men — now known as the Rossport
Five — were jailed in Cloverhill Prison for obstructing the project. The
men have refused to withdraw their opposition to the proposed high-pressure
gas pipeline, claiming that Shell E&P Ireland’s plan endangers the health
and safety of their families.
Shell intends transporting gas reserves from the Corrib field 50 miles
off Mayo’s Atlantic coast to an onshore refinery at Bellanaboy, some seven
miles inland. Local groups are strongly opposed to an onshore facility,
and the ‘Shell to Sea’ campaign fronted by the Rossport Five has gathered
regional and national public support.
Under increased public pressure, Minister for the Marine and Natural
Resources Noel Dempsey ordered Shell to dismantle sections of a high-pressure
gas pipeline that were constructed without legal authorization. Shell has
consent only for “preparatory” work on an onshore pipeline, and when it
was revealed that sections of piping were already welded into place, the
minister demanded that the pipeline be dismantled until the company received
official sanction.
The following day however he gave Shell the all-clear to construct the
supply pipeline at sea, adding to widespread fears that the onshore refinery
is already a done deal.
“The current license regime was agreed by the Fianna Fáil government
and a Fianna Fáil minister and it was Fianna Fáil who controlled Mayo County
Council which granted the initial planning permission for the terminal,”
said Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who holds a Dáil (parliamentary) seat
in the Mayo constituency.
“The real consent at stake is that of the people of Rossport,” commented
Dr. Mark Garavan, a spokesman for ‘Shell-to-Sea.’ “And they do not consent
to this high-pressure pipeline.”
Werner Blau, a professor of physics at Trinity College Dublin, has come
out strongly against the proposed onshore terminal. Prof. Blau suggests
that with construction already underway any safety review commissioned by
Minister Dempsey would be of no particular benefit. “They are afraid to
ask the simple question: How many would die and what extent the damage would
be (in the event of pipeline failure)” he told The Irish Times.
In a further twist, Mayo County Council voted 13-9 against ordering Shell
to move the refinery offshore. Council lawyer Michael Browne warned an emergency
meeting of councillors that compelling Shell to build an alternative facility
could leave Mayo County Council exposed to costly litigation.
O’ Loan States Her Case
Nuala O' Loan, Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, repeated her insistence
that police must be accountable if the security forces are to have any credibility
among both communities in the North.
“We must be evidence-based, not influenced by political expediency or
any other cause,” she said, speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Co.
Donegal. “In my Omagh investigation and in others, I have found failures
of intelligence-handling and management and the consequence of this appears
to be that those who might have been made amenable for crime have not always
been apprehended. They have remained at large to commit further serious
crime.”
In a strongly-worded address O' Loan referred to abuse of position by
police forces both sides of the Irish border. “I do not need to rehearse
the stories of policing in Donegal and in the North,” she began, in reference
to an ongoing investigation into garda corruption in Co. Donegal.
“This is not to suggest that all police officers are corrupt. That would
be nonsense. Nor do I think that people become police officers because they
will have extensive power over others. I firmly believe that most people
who become police officers do so because they are motivated by the desire
to protect life and property and to prevent crime.
“Something happens somewhere along the line, often to those who are the
best police officers. Sometimes it is noble-cause corruption, the corruption
which arises because people decide to do wrong things to achieve what they
see as proper ends.”
The Ombudsman’s office deals with public complaints against the Police
Service for Northern Ireland (PSNI) – the body which replaced the Royal
Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Last year 2,885 complaints were made, with the
Protestant/Catholic divide 47/37 percent.
Colombia Three Face Uncertain Fate
The Colombian government has demanded that the Irish government capture
and return three Irish republicans who evaded prison sentences in Bogota.
The men — dubbed the “Colombia Three” — were sentenced to 17-year jail terms
for allegedly assisting FARC rebels in an ongoing campaign against state
forces in Colombia.
The three men – Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley –
remain in hiding in Ireland but were welcomed home by Sinn Féin president
Gerry Adams. Following a highly controversial court trial and appeal, the
trio disappeared from view in Colombia. It is unclear how they made their
clandestine journey home from South America, but James Monaghan said in
a secretly filmed RTE television interview that Irish republican sympathizers
had made safe passage possible.
To date, Bogota’s call has gone unheeded in Dublin. Ireland and Colombia
do not share an extradition treaty, so there is no legal basis for their
return. However, the trio’s surprise re-emergence in Ireland has placed
Bertie Ahern’s government in a very awkward position. Despite the dubious
nature of court evidence presented against the Irishmen, U.S. President
George Bush is a known adversary of the leftist FARC organization. Any association
between the Colombia Three and FARC would be viewed with strong disapproval
in Washington.
Garda (Irish police) sources suspect the men arrived home in March, and
the fact they are still at large is a source of embarrassment at diplomatic
level. The Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) met with U.S. Ambassador James
Kenny to update the situation, but if the men are re-arrested soon in Ireland,
it may be even more problematic for Ahern what exactly to do with them.
Should Washington apply pressure to have the men extradited or serve
out their jail terms in Ireland, it would be seen as an endorsement of a
highly suspect legal administration in Colombia. Their high-profile court
hearing and appeal in Bogota reached a divided verdict at odds with the
severity of their jail sentences. Even so, the Dublin government is now
faced with a diplomatic nightmare on what to do with three “fugitives” with
alleged connections to international terrorism.
Their arrival in Ireland also provoked a furious response from Northern
loyalists who see the men’s liberty as part of a litany of concessions made
to republicans.
Note: As we go to press, the three men remain in Ireland. At the end
of August they voluntarily presented themselves at garda stations accompanied
by legal representation. After undergoing questioning all were released
without charge.
Limerick Woman Wins €115 Million
Dolores McNamara, 45, from Limerick became the first Irish person to
win the EuroMillions lottery. After avoiding publicity for two days she
claimed prize money worth €115 million and picked up the check at the National
Lottery headquarters in Dublin. Her solicitor David Sweeney told reporters
his client would keep her feet “firmly on the ground.”
Coincidentally, a Hungarian man living in Ireland also won big on the
same draw. The man — a chef now resident in Dublin — collected €667,248,
an amount he calculated to be worth “about 100 years’ wages” in Hungary.
Call for Payment to GAA Players
Mick O’ Dwyer, manager of the Laois senior Gaelic football team, has
called for payment to be made to GAA players who reach the final of the
All-Ireland football championship. “The two teams that get into an All-Ireland
should get €10,000 a man,” he suggested, on the eve of the Leinster provincial
decider between Laois and Dublin.
“Players are out of pocket no end for the amount of work they put into
this game. A lot of players have to break off work at four in the evening
to make training and they are losing money. You’ll have over 80,000 people
in Croke Park on Sunday and not one penny going to any one player – and
they’re the ones putting on the show. I think that’s wrong.”
O’ Dwyer’s comments provoked a strong reaction among GAA fans. Gaelic
games hold amateur status with revenue raised through ticket sales and TV
coverage poured back into facilities around the country. However, the 69-year-old
O' Dwyer has spent long enough in the game to hold an audience. Having played
with great distinction for his native Kerry, he has successfully managed
teams in both Kildare and Laois.
He suggested €10,000 would “just cover the loss of earnings and expenses
over the year – and I don’t think that’s asking too much. They should certainly
get better expenses than they are getting. No one wants to be paid for play
or anything like that, but they should be looked after better than they
are.”
He referred to an unnamed Wexford player going to a club in New York
to play a match for cash, as happens regularly with many U.S.-based GAA
clubs. “The day has come when we have to see after them in a financial way,”
he added.
For the record, Laois were narrowly beaten by Dublin.
Muted Response to IRA Statement
July’s announcement that the IRA was ending its military campaign drew
a muted response from political quarters north and south of the Irish border.
Although the statement was potentially historic by calling on IRA activists
to unconditionally dump arms, unionist politicians again reacted sceptically
to how decommissioning would take place and be independently verified.
The arms call, however welcome, was also greeted with caution in Dublin.
Even before the statement was issued, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell,
an outspoken adversary of armed republicanism, questioned whether an IRA
declaration amounted to fundamental change in policy or a publicity stunt.
“The real issue is whether the actions match the words,” he warned, before
taking his summer vacation. “We are no longer in the business of fudge or
equivocation – there has to be clear, unambiguous language used and the
people of these islands are entitled to clear and unambiguous language.”
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the dominant party within unionism,
has already put pressure on London and Dublin to prove that decommissioning
is actually taking place. The DUP has threatened to hold off sharing power
with Sinn Féin for two years, during which time the decommissioning process
can be assessed. “If they do things openly and transparently, then obviously
the period of assessment could be significantly shortened,” said deputy
leader Peter Robinson.
On previous occasions the procedural means of monitoring and verifying
the destruction of weapons has presented a serious stumbling block to the
peace process. Unionists want clear photographic evidence while republicans
refuse to provide evidence that could be construed as humiliating surrender.
Republicans are prepared to resolve the impasse through the Independent
International Decommissioning Body headed by John de Chastelain, a mechanism
in which unionists have shown very little faith.
At constitutional level, the Northern Ireland assembly is currently suspended
and the next elections are not due until 2007. Government sources in Dublin
and London expressed some hope that the IRA initiative might kick-start
the Stormont assembly back into life next spring. However, unionism’s cool
response to recent developments makes it more likely that devolved government
will stay on ice somewhat longer.
Unionist leaders have condemned the early release of republican prisoner
Sean Kelly, who had been jailed for planting a bomb in a Shankill Road fish
shop, killing ten people in 1993. They are also aggrieved that a number
of significant concessions have been made to republicans on foot of the
IRA announcement. They argue that these concessions were made without any
proof that the military order to dump arms has been put into effect.
It is seven years since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998.
Although political progress has been frustratingly slow at times, its very
survival in a time of relative calm stands partly in tribute to the efforts
of former Northern Secretary Mo Mowlem, who died several weeks after the
IRA announcement. The 55-year-old suffered from a brain tumour and underwent
radiotherapy in 1997 prior to collaborating on the historic Belfast Agreement
the following year.
News In Brief
RESPONDING to a report by the Crisis Pregnancy Agency, Health Minister
Mary Harney made a case for contraception to be available for girls as young
as 11. The report revealed that girls aged 11-14 years are involved in sexual
relationships and that pregnancies are possible in that age group. “I think
we have to deal with the reality and the consequences of that,” said Harney.
“We have to make sure that if the morning-after pill is required that it
is available to somebody in that age group. Clearly their parents have to
be involved if they are underage” . . .
A VAST improvement in the Leaving Certificate results has led to suggestions
that the school examination is now graded more easily than before. The State
Exams Commission revealed that the honours rate is up by almost 16 percent
over the past decade with the exception of Maths results, where the failure
rate continues to rise . . .
“WE want to take Ireland’s economic model and replicate it in our own
country,” concluded Eddy Martinez, secretary of state from the Dominican
Republic. Martinez led a 27-member delegation to Dublin to assess similarities
between the two countries and attempt to apply successful formulas from
the Irish model.
The visitors felt that Ireland had been transformed from one of Europe’s
poorest countries in the 1980s to a leading EU performer by 2000. “Both
from an economic and social point of view I have seen no other country that
has so many similarities with the Dominican Republic,” he said, adding that
he hoped his country would become the “Ireland of the Caribbean.”
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