British #SpyCops in Ireland: What is @FitzgeraldFrncs covering up? An interview with Jason Kirkpatrick

by soundmigration Jan8 2017

Jason Kirkpatrick wants Irish Dept of Justice to explain role of British undercover police spying on him in Ireland

I spoke to Jason Kirkpatrick targeted by British undercover police across several countries including Germany, N Ireland, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland. The officer was Mark Kennedy attached to the UK’s National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU.) Kennedy operated in many European countries including several deployments to Ireland.

The NPOIU is a political policing unit set up to illicitly disrupt political networks social movements and family campaigns challenging abuses by the police.

The unit was preceded by the Special Demonstrations Squad (SDS) set up in 1968 to infiltrate protest movements opposed to the US war in Vietnam.   Both units not only spied on political organisations and social movements, but on campaigns against police abuses and murder in the UK.

Mark Kennedy, using the name Mark Stone, from the UK’s National Public Order Intelligence Unit, was deployed multiple times in Ireland. The Department of Justice and An Garda Siochana refuse to cooperate so far with Jason Kirkpatrick.

Jason is currently bringing legal cases in several jurisdictions with an aim of expanding the Pitchford Inquiry into the scope and nature of undercover policing set up by the current UK prime minister Teresa May. Currently this inquiry is limited to undercover policing in England and Wales. Jason and others are pushing to see this expanded to cover all areas that British undercover police targeted them.

It is understood that the NPOIU operated using contractual terms of agreements with several nation states/police units around the deployment of British officers from the unit in those states. It’s likely that some of the information held by the Irish police force includes such an agreement. It is also common practice for information fed back by British undercover police to their units is shared with the police force of the country they are operating in.

Full interview below

Currently the Irish state refuses to publish an existing report into Mark Kennedys deployments across Ireland, or who he was spying on and what information he has supplied to both the British and Irish states. Minister for Justice Francis Fitzgerald has called for another report from Commissioner O Sullivan, a move that should be understood as a stalling tactic to resist any transparency around some really dodgy policing

Source: Soundmigration Jan 8 2017

---

Radio Free Éireann - Martin McGuinness' health and Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland

Radio Free Éireann podcast broadcast on WBAI 99.5FM Pacifica Radio, New York City, Jan 7 2017

In the first part John McDonagh and Martin Galvin speak to Derry Republican Mickey Donnelly via telephone from Derry about Martin McGuinness’ health. 

In the second part the journalist and author Ed Maloney talks about McGuinness and the implications for Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland.

Please wait for possible loading delay

Source:  The Pensive Quill
              Radio Free Éireann - Transcripts
              WBAI 99.5FM Pacifica Radio

---

Irish Water is Labour's "biggest regret" while in Government says party leader Brendan Howlin

The Wexford TD took over as leader from Joan Burton after the party's electoral defeat in the 2016 general election

By James Ward, Jan 4 2017

Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin TD (Photo: Collins)

Irish Water is the Labour’s biggest regret from their time in Government party leader Brendan Howlin has revealed.

He now admits “we just should have said no” to the plan to set up the hated utility which has stumbled from one crisis to the next.

Mr Howlin is currently undertaking one of the largest rebuilding jobs in Labour history, having lost 30 seats in the 2016 election to leave them with just seven TDs.

In an exclusive interview with the Irish Mirror, Mr Howlin has admitted that the issue would have been handled completely differently, were it not for the pressure being put on Government by the Troika.

He said: “We were under the cosh to build a huge utility like Irish Water. To get a national metering programme in place and charge for water in the space of three years, which we just should have said no to. I’m sorry we didn’t.

“Within Government, we certainly had that battle with Fine Gael. At a critical point, the decision we made was to stick with it as opposed to pulling down the Government at that stage.

“Because we were afraid of the consequences for our country if we pulled the Government down. But we paid too high a price for that and we should certainly have stood our ground in relation to Irish Water.”

This marks a significant turnaround for Labour, who repeatedly condemned the anti-water charges movement while in power.

Now Mr Howlin has admitted that the introduction of charges should have been handled much differently, and says they would have been had the Troika not been breathing down their necks.

Asked if introducing charges was the right thing to do, he replied: “No, not at the time. Not the way it was done.

“It think a much longer term approach should have been taken, and would have been taken had we not been under the cosh of the Troika.

Brendan Howlin & Labour TD Alan Kelly (Photo: Collins Photo Agency)

“It was one of the things that Fianna Fail had committed in the Troika deal in 2010.

“It was one of the things that, every month, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF were insisting ‘where is your progress on this list of things?’

“This was one of the things we had to make progress on. Because they were signing off monthly on the paycheck for the nation, in order for us to pay pensions and pay the cost of wages and so on.

“Under normal circumstances, that should have been a ten year project. I certainly think it was handled badly.”

Labour has struggled badly since leaving office sitting at just 6% in the latest polls.

The savage austerity cuts of the last Government, and in particular, the introduction of water charges are seen as the main reasons for Labour’s demise.

Source: Irish Mirror, Jan 4 2017

---