Establishment begins an all out assault on the right to protest - Jobstown

A court case began this week in the Children's Court, Dublin against a juvenile, the first member of 18 protesters charged with falsely imprisoning Joan Burton and her adviser during an anti water charge protest in November 2014.  The accused was 15 at the time of the water protest at Fortunestown Road in Jobstown in Tallaght, Dublin.  The last day of this first case is set for 27th September when, as the jargon goes, 'a verdict will be handed down'.

Many might not read much into this little case in the juvenile court but many would see itas the State flexing it's muscle, using the full force of the legal system to come down hard on a working class community and the general principle of the right to protest.   In this first case it is picking on a juvenile breaking up the case into separate cases.  Possibly it believes that this is potentially a weak link in the Jobstown Not Guilty Campaign.

The case against the 18 Jobstown protesters accused of falsely imprisoning Joan Burton is no minor matter.  If convicted the accused could receive lengthy prison sentences.  No matter what this case will have historic relevance and could have serious intended consequences for anyone protesting.
 

 

The State's historic repressive apparatus

How would one look at the State's assault against the working class in 1913 when 'William Murder Murphy', a journalist, a member of parliament and prominent bussinessman initiated the Dublin Lockout of 1913? 

Central to that dispute was the 'right to unionise'.  Central to the jobstown case is the 'right to protest'.  But common to both is the assault on our freedom. 

We wonder how former minister Joan Burton would react to a similar nickname?

 

Follow the case

A good place to read about the case is the excellent coverage in thejournal.ie.   Hopefully The Journal will continue and keep us informed of all future Jobstown cases.  Of course you will get full coverage in Jobstown Not Guilty facebook page

‘A Terrible State of Chassis’ - A Lecture by Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Field Day Annual Lecture

A Lecture by Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Introduction by Emer Nolan, Q&A with Michael Farell

It will take place on Friday 30th September in The Playhouse, Derry.  Tea and coffee reception 7pm, lecture starts 8pm.

 

photo: Picssr

Seamus Deane gave the first of the annual lecture series in his honour last year.

His work is not, as he himself has stated, devoted to a rewriting of the Irish past but to a writing of the Irish present.

Founder and editor since 1995 of the Field Day Review, as he had earlier been of the Field Day pamphlets in 1983-88, he has made his poetry, fiction, scholarship and criticism, particularly in latter years in the form of the essay, a meditation on the need, in a debased political system, to follow the dictum: ‘When in Rome, do as the Greeks do.'

Bernadette Devlin McAliskey is from Cookstown, Co. Tyrone. While still a student at Queen's University, she and her colleagues in the newly-formed People's Democracy transformed political resistance in the Northern Irish statelet by spearheading a socialist, anti-sectarian, mass movement for change. Her celebrity began when she was elected to Westminster for Mid Ulster in 1969 - then the youngest woman MP ever - and when she became a leading organizer on the barricades in Derry during the Battle of the Bogside.

In an electrifying maiden speech she declared herself, as the second Irish woman elected to Westminster, to be in the same tradition of feminist republicanism as the first, Constance Markievicz. Later, she was active in the Smash H-Blocks campaign, was seriously wounded in 1981 in an assassination attempt by Loyalists and British paratroopers, yet continued her sustained left-wing critique of many key developments in Ireland since, including the Peace Process.

‘Bernadette' as she is still known, currently works supporting migrants' rights in South Tyrone and remains Ireland's finest political orator, the unforgettable voice of the Troubles.

Source: derryplayhouse.co.uk

TDs query Irish Water’s access to DPP ahead of legal actions

 

Anti-meter protesters confront Irish Water contractors in Raheny
Colin Keegan

by Justine McCarthy

Irish Water has held discussions with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) about how the utility’s relationship with water meter installers can be “best presented” in criminal prosecutions.

TDs who oppose water charges claim the discussions indicate an “unusual level of access to the DPP” and say that they intend to raise the matter in the Dail.

The discussions came to light in a letter obtained during court proceedings relating to an anti-metering protest in Dun Laoghaire in May 2015.

The letter, dated July 20, 2015, was written by Kevin McSherry, Irish Water’s metering development manager, and was addressed to Superintendent Kevin Dolan in Dun Laoghaire garda station. It described the discussions with the DPP’s office as being “at a high level”.

McSherry said it had been agreed that a corporate witness statement would be provided for each prosecution from a senior Irish Water manager, “which will highlight, inter alia, the relationship between Irish Water and its contractors and the fact that Irish Water is entitled, pursuant to its corporate memorandum and articles, to act through contractors”.

Joan Collins, an Independents 4 Change TD who was acquitted last February of charges arising from an anti-water protest, said: “I would think it’s highly irregular that a company would have direct contact with the DPP, and I’ll be asking questions in the Dail.

“The DPP is supposed to be independent. She cannot even give reasons for her prosecution decisions. To have a company have private discussions with her or her officials is sinister.”

A spokeswoman for Irish Water said “there was nothing out of the ordinary” about the meeting. “[It] was simply for the purposes of clarifying a legal procedural query we had,” she said. “An Garda Siochana had requested clarification on how Irish Water would demonstrate our legal relationship with our metering contractor, as this evidence would be required for any prosecution against a third party for interference or obstruction of the contractor.

“We met with the DPP to clarify the appropriate way to provide evidence of this legal relationship and this was deemed to be through a witness statement.”

Irish Water’s head of capital delivery subsequently provided a witness statement for prosecutions being taken by the DPP.

Paul Murphy, an Anti-Austerity Alliance TD, described the letter as “fairly significant”.

“Irish Water is not the gardai. It is a semi-state company. The letter raises question marks over the DPP and what was happening in those discussions. There is at least a problem of perception,” he said.

Murphy is due to go on trial next year on charges relating to a protest in Jobstown during which Joan Burton, the then tanaiste, was trapped in her car.

The DPP’s office did not reply to questions.

Source: The Sunday Times, Ireland, Sept 25, 2016
              Fliuch, Sept 25, 2016