Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Archive for the ‘Justice’ Category

Virginia Roberts-Giuffre, Courtney Wild, Maria Farmer – Women Assaulted by Ghislaine Maxwell and the Late Jeffrey Epstein tell their stories as American FBI swoops in Bradford New Hampshire

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www.youtube.com/watch

This Australian TV documentary tells a sharp accurate story in 30 minutes.

US Attorney Audrey Strauss explains case against Ghislaine Maxwell in New York

Virginia Roberts Giuffre confidently tells her frightening story

Contrast this account with tedious fluff elsewhere camouflaging the likely crimes of British Royal Prince Andrew. Follow the facts, ignore conspiracy theories.

There is a host of unanswered questions. We should be clear that a number of people make direct specific child abuse allegations against the English Prince Andrew, ex Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, ex US Senator George Mitchell (an architect of the Irish 1998 Good Friday Agreement), ultra-Zionist Alan Dershowitz and some others. While the Clintons, the Trumps et al were close personal associates of Epstein/Maxwell they are not accused of child abuse. The police probably look on the Clintons et al as people who can be very helpful with their investigations. The carrot for Bill Clinton is : help the cops, and embarrassing information might not enter the public domain. The stick is : obstruct the cops and you are back in Monica Lewinsky territory.

President Higgins ‘will not allow’ Dáil to disband if programme for government fails – A SFFFSDLP Government lurches across the Phoenix Park horizon in Dublin

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Leo Varadkar’s Fine Gael is doing well in current opinion polls, and is threatening a fresh Irish General Election if Green Party members reject coalition with Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and several right-wing gombeens.

The President Michael D Higgins is entering stage left, and is refusing to play Varadkar’s game.

President Higgins says to lame-duck Taoiseach “Good riddance Leo, at last you’re sacked”

This means Fianna Fáil, which is doing badly in opinion polls, may act in its own interest and form a coalition with Sinn Féin, trying to also attract the Social Democrats, Labour and the Greens.

We can call this the SDLP option.

FF might need to replace its leader Mícheál Martin to complete this manoeuvre.

The opinion poll data is very persuasive in a situation like this :

Paddy Healy notes :

“Irish Mail on Sunday Poll June 21
FF At Less Than Half Sinn Féin Vote!!!
FG34 SF27 FF13 GRN8 LAB4 SD3 SOL/PBP2 IND10
In Comparison with poll in Irish Mail on Sunday in May
Independents up 4%, GP up 2%, no change for SF and FG and FF slightly down. All others as it was.
In Comparison with General Election 2020
FG +13, SF +2, FF -9, Gn +1 Lab NC, SD NC, Sol/PBP-1, Ind -2” Read the rest of this entry »

Ciúin House Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim – Gombeen State Racism in Ireland

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Donal O’Kelly’s article should be circulated far and wide – Action is Necessary.

Ciúin is a word I love. It’s the Irish word for quiet. It has a peaceful, secure and sleepy feel to it, ideal for a lullabye. Suantraí. Ciúin, ciúin, a stór .. as baby closes her eyes .

Last May I used my facebook page to highlight the fact that Ciúin House Carrick-on-Shannon, the then newly-opened emergency accommodation centre for asylum seekers, had just received 38 male international protection applicants who’d been transferred from Hatch Hall Direct Provision centre in Dublin. Hatch Hall was being converted into a luxury hotel. Ciúin House was accommodating these people on a general basis of two per room. It had a sign and a book in the reception hall that everyone had to sign. The sign said that all residents had to be in their rooms by 10pm nightly.

I met three of the residents on their second evening in Carrick-on-Shannon. I know about the curfew because the men, all in their thirties or thereabouts, wanted to get back to Ciúin House in case there was an unknown penalty for not observing the curfew. I dropped them back at 10pm sharp.

After the facebook post drew a lot of public attention, the curfew was dropped. The owners at first said it was a language misunderstanding, then that the note only referred to not using the washing machine after 10pm. It was neither of those things. It was a curfew. And the owners obviously considered they had a right to impose it.

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Dolours Price buried in Belfast – “A Liberator But She Never Managed To Liberate Herself” The Irish Times – Tue, Jan 29, 2013

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Dolours Price – “a liberator but she never managed to liberate herself”

Eamonn McCann’s tribute sums up this moving newspaper report – despite having major political differences, Eamonn McCann and Dolours Price remained close friends for forty years.

Bernadette McAliskey was applauded when she told shivering mourners:

“We cannot keep pretending that 40 years of cruel war, of loss, of sacrifice, of prison, of inhumanity, has not affected each and every one of us in heart and soul and spirit.

“We cannot keep pretending that the war did not hurt. It broke our hearts and it broke our bodies, it changed our perspectives and it makes every day hard.”

Carrie Twomey wrote this account of the wake and funeral for Dolours Price

Carrie Twomey : “Rest in Peace”

Clare Daly TD questioned Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore on the imprisonment without trial of Martin Corey and Marian Price in the Dáil recently.

Video Link Here :

Clare Daly TD Questions Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore about Internment Without Trial of Martin Cory and Marian Price

Daly points out that Martin Corey has spent almost 3 years in jail without being shown any evidence justifying his incarceration – Gilmore hides behind the fact that the case is subject to an appeal in the Belfast Supreme Court next February. Read the rest of this entry »

Radio Free Eireann interview with Anthony McIntyre and Ed Moloney: The Death of Dolours Price | Boston College Subpoena News

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http://bostoncollegesubpoena.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/radio-free-eireann-interview-with-anthony-mcintyre-and-ed-moloney-the-death-of-dolours-price/ Level headed tributes to Dolours Price as the British State bars her sister Marian from leaving prison to mourn.

Pat Finucane – A De Silva British State Whitewash?

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Read this – and see that the British State is very unlikely to hold a Public Inquiry into the killing of Pat Finucane

The Broken Elbow's avatarThe Broken Elbow

Corrected 14.40 EST

Correction – December 27th 2012 – The Force Research Unit member we identified as Peter Charles Jones from the two photos taken of the unit was in fact a soldier called Kevin Dodds. He was/is a friend of another well known special forces soldier, Charles Pettifer, a former member of the SAS who married Tiggy Legge Bourke, friend of the late Lady Diana Spencer and nanny to her two sons. Dodds and Pettifer, according to our sources, went into business together after military service and set up a risk assessment company (business-speak for private detectives). However as you can see here, Pettifer has since moved up in the world, literally.

Meanwhile the former SAS soldier turned thriller writer known as Andy McNab was obviously indulging in some sly humour at the expense of the former FRU member when he wrote the novel described below (cue tipsy laughter…

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Baseline Benefits are under attack: ULA statement | United Left Alliance

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Bernadette McAliskey Interview – Not Much Has Changed in Northern Ireland

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Written by tomasoflatharta

Aug 28, 2012 at 7:46 am

Violent Legacy of Irish Troubles, British Double-Standards – Boston College Row Revisited

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Ed Moloney’s Irish Echo Editorial (an Irish-American Newspaper) on the Boston tapes controversy is required reading for all people genuinely interested in dealing with the violent legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles (1969-1998, signing of the Good Friday Agreement).

Two key quotes :
Number 1 :

But the war has now ended, peace reigns and there is a desperate need for dealing with the past in a way that solidifies that peace and ensures an untroubled future.

The British have chosen a way that does the opposite. The Boston College subpoenas symbolize an approach to this issue based on revenge and the view that alleged combatants in that war should be dragged before the courts, convicted and jailed.

Number 2 :

There will be those, of course, who will say that if Gerry Adams did order Jean McConville’s “disappearance” then he deserves to be prosecuted. In a normal society, one ruled by a normal government, that would be a difficult argument to answer. But Northern Ireland is not, even with the peace process, a normal society and nowhere is this more evident than in the administration of justice.

The plain, undeniable fact is that there are double standards in the way justice is doled out in Northern Ireland.

Read, Circulate, and Act.

The Broken Elbow's avatarThe Broken Elbow

Irish Echo
Editorial | By Ed Moloney | March 14th, 2012

Slowly, but inexorably, the penny is dropping, both here in the United States as well as back in Ireland.

The Boston College subpoenas seeking access to oral history interviews with former IRA activists on behalf of the police in Northern Ireland are about the dumbest things that have ever happened in the long relationship between the United States, Britain and Ireland.

The difficulty is not how to describe why they are so dumb, but in counting the ways in which they are so dumb.

First of all, this is not the way in which to heal a conflict like that in the North of Ireland.

Over 3,000 people died and tens of thousands were scarred, physically and mentally, by a war that was undoubtedly one of the longest and most violent, if not the most violent in Irish history.

But the…

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Northern Ireland News – Be Shocked, But Not Surprised – Prisoners Abused By the State

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Two quotes sum up stories which should shock :

Over the last year, political prisoners in Maghaberry have faced a range of abuses of their human rights. More recently, Marian Price has been effectively interned, her licence revoked after 30 years of freedom. Worse, she is the only woman prisoner in Maghaberry, which means she is very isolated.

This public meeting has been organised by a broad-based group of women, many of whom do not agree with the political views of the prisoners whose rights they want to defend. But it is the case all over the world that, if we don’t stand up for the rights of all, whatever their political views, all of us will suffer in the end. Speakers at the meeting are families of the prisoners, including Marian Price’s sister. The meeting will be chaired by Bernadette McAliskey.

More Details Here :

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=237249876294398

Here is Quote Number 2 :

A report which could end the protest by republican prisoners at Maghaberry jail has gathered dust on the desk of Justice Minister, David Ford, for eight months.

The secret document – drawn up by respected individuals hand-picked by Mr Ford – lays out a clear way of ending the bitter confrontation between dissident inmates and the prison authorities.

…….

the main recommendation of the report – given to Mr Ford last October – indicates the confrontation could be swiftly resolved. New technology – whereby prisoners are searched with scanners and then sit in an x-ray-type machine called a BOSS chair – could bring peace to the jail, the authors suggest.

………

The report was compiled by former NIO political director, Chris McCabe; Peter Bunting, assistant general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions; and two experienced conflict resolution negotiators – Dutch woman Fleur Ravensbergen and Conal McFeely from Derry.

Full Report here :

http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/breen/arts2011/jul4_forgotten_report_could_end_jail_disputes__SBreen_Belfast-Telegraph.php

Congratulations to Goretti Horgan and Bernadette McAliskey – Their example should be followed.

Written by tomasoflatharta

Jul 13, 2011 at 12:02 am