Pull up a crying chair.
James Beggan writes:
‘We’re Not Leaving’ are delighted to have [Homeless activist] Fr. Peter McVerry at our photo exhibit tonight and to launch our policy recommendations to tackle the housing crisis. After researching the housing situation in Ireland and alternatives in place elsewhere, well, there may be rent controls..Read our executive summary here
FIGHT!
Migrant Rights Centre,, 37 Dame Street, Dublin @ 7pm
From top: Fr Niall Molloy in the Irish College in Rome with relatives and friends in the 1960s and a false insurance claim on Fr Molloy’s life
Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald is considering a report that aims to explain some of the mystery surrounding the death of Fr Niall Molloy ending a three decade wait by his family.
Ahead of this we have prepared a brief timeline of events around the case since the killing in Roscommon in 1985.
1985: On July 5th, Niall Molloy, Parish Priest of Castlecoote, County Roscommon and a Flynn family friend, attends an after-party at Kilcoursey House, County Offaly following Maureen Flynn’s wedding to Ralph Parkes of Limerick. The guests include the late Brian Lenihan Sr and reportedly “at least one other senior Fianna Fáil member”.
At 3.15 a.m., James Duignan, parish priest of Clara, arrives at Kilbeggan Garda Station and informs Sergeant Kevin Ford that Fr Molloy has been killed at Kilcoursey House. Maureen Flynn’s mother Therese, a childhood friend of Fr Molloy, has already been sedated and taken to hospital.
Richard Flynn, Maureen Flynn’s father, makes a statement to the Gardai in which he states that he hit Fr Molloy several times with his fists in his bedroom following an unprovoked attack by the priest and Therese Flynn in the course of an argument over drink.
1986: Richard Flynn is tried in Offaly Circuit Court for manslaughter. The presiding judge, Frank Roe, writes to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Eamon Barnes disclosing prior knowledge of the Flynn family and Fr Molloy.
At the trial, Judge Roe directs that the jury acquit following an admission by Dr John Harbison, state pathologist, that heart failure could not be ruled out as a contributory cause of death, telling them “it’s a little bit unusual but not improper of me to say that no one intended any injury to be caused.”
A subsequent inquest finds that Fr Molloy died of acute brain hemorrhage consistent with an injury to the head. Speaking to RTE News after the inquest, Richard Flynn’s son David states:- “It’s very difficult, maybe, when one knows certain answers and isn’t in a position to comment. It makes it very difficult to live with.”
1987: Theft of the Niall Molloy file by criminal Martin Cahill.
1992: Niall Molloy file returned to the Gardai in a deal struck with Cahill and his criminal associate John Traynor, in return for charges being dropped against Traynor. Subsequently Sunday Independent crime reporter Veronica Guerin is made aware of certain contents of the Molloy file, including Judge Roe’s correspondence with the D.P.P. Guerin was working on the Molloy story at the time of her murder in 1996.
2003: Death of Judge Roe. His obituary in the Irish Times states:- “[h]e came from a staunch Fine Gael family and his political sympathies were always well known. He was described as ‘strong Fine Gael’ this week by those who knew him, and he was active in Fine Gael politics for most of his legal career.”
2010-2012: Irish Independent reporter Gemma O’Doherty carries out an investigation into Fr Molloy’s death. The results of this investigation, based on information supplied by Fr Molloy’s nephew Bill Maher (who has spearheaded the family’s campaign for justice for three decades) and the statements of a number of individuals, including that of a Kilkenny surgeon, now deceased, details the presence of political figures in the house on the night of Fr Molloy’s death, and concludes that the blows causing death occurred downstairs, in the presence of a number of people, and that he took several hours to die.
As a result of Ms O’Doherty’s work, the Gardai Serious Crime Review Team (SCRT) is appointed by Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy to re-examine the case.
Following concerns regarding the conduct of the Gardai in the initial investigation, including the failure to investigate a fraudulent insurance claim on a life policy taken out in the name of Fr Molloy naming Therese Flynn as beneficiary, Roscommon Labour Senator John Kelly demands his party uphold its pre-election pledge to establish an independent inquiry.
2013: Garda SCRT Report into the Fr Molloy death delivered to Commissioner Martin Callinan. The DPP states that the Gardai investigation has uncovered insufficient evidence to press charges.
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter appoints prosecution counsel Dominic McGinn SC to conduct a review of the contents of the Garda SCRT report and in light of that review to (i) prepare a report on any issues of public interest that may arise so as to facilitate the reviewer’s report being put into the public domain as well as (ii) to identify any matters of significant public interest or concern which would warrant examination by a further inquiry, which would have a reasonable prospect of establishing the truth.
2014: McGinn Report delivered to Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald. The Molloy family is not informed and finds out about this online.
Yesterday: The Report Is In
Pics via Bill Maher at Justice for Fr Niall Molloy
Omar Sarhan writes:
Small serviced office available to rent in Rathmines.
Meanwhile, in New York: The Plan to Turn NYC’s Old Payphones Into Free Gigabit Wi-Fi Hot Spots (Gizmodo)
Protesters in Donaghmede, Dublin yesterday (top) Dr Rory Hearne, a lecturer in political and economic geography at National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Dr Rory Hearne spoke to Keelin Shanley on Today With Sean O’Rourke this morning about the protests that have taken place since the Fine Gael and Labour coalition were elected into Government in February 2011.
Keelin Shanley: “Rory, how do you explain the way in which the protests have grown and, you know, the apparent lack of understanding from the Government and the establishment of what’s driving them?”
Dr Rory Hearne: “Well, I think that the protesters have emerged as a result of a cumulative impact of austerity. And, you know, we can’t get away from this and, you know, Enda Kenny is right when he says, they’re [the protests] not about water. To a certain extent, they’re not because people are saying, you can hear there in the interviews with people who are protesting, they can’t take anymore. And I think it’s, the narrative that came out, when the Troika left was, ‘well, we’re now in recovery’ and, for the majority of people, they’re not seeing any recovery. And if we look at, you know, there’s structural problems within the Irish economy – things like low wages, housing crisis, mortgage arrears, child poverty, these have not gone away, they’re still there and they’re going to, the likelihood is they will get worse.
And, essentially, and I’ve been analysing this for a number of years now, there was this idea that the Irish people didn’t protest during the crisis and it’s not actually true. There was a number of protests that emerged after the Labour/Fine Gael government was elected in and that is significant. I think that was a significant moment. When Labour and Fine Gael were elected, on the promise of a democratic revolution and this idea that they were going to radically reform the State, that bondholders would be burned, that the recovery, and you know that it was the end of the way that politics was done, there was a sense that this was a new republic but they absolutely failed to do that.
And so people, in response to that started protesting. We’d a small group in Cork, called the Ballyhea Says No, who were protesting about the bondholder bailouts and the Anglo debt. There was the groups that protested against the sell-off of the forests who were actually successful in that, there was a lot of community groups and disadvantaged areas who have been, where their communities have been disproportionately affected by cuts. And there was a number of protests that were growing, and then of course we had the household charge campaign and we must remember that 50%, half the population, refused to pay that charge initially, that was a significant protest. And, obviously, that was defeated, when the Revenue Commissioners came in and I think it’s also interesting that when people comment about when, you know, what happened in Ireland during the austerity, why wasn’t there, you know, protests, and Lenihan went over to Europe and ministers in Europe were asking, ‘how are you doing all these adjustments and people aren’t protesting?’
And similarly, Enda Kenny was on the front of Time magazine, saying ‘I’ve got us through all this austerity, we’ve made vast adjustments and there hasn’t been protests’. And to a certain extent, I think people were holding back. They were holding back on the basis of shock, of collective guilt and a fear, and a sense of powerlessness and now that’s all changed. People feel now that they have a power to stop these water charges, that they can actually do it. And they also see that they’ve been through the worst, they can’t get any worse for most of these people. And there’s also an injustice, there is an injustice that’s lingering about the bailout of the banks and the role in which Ireland played in bailing out the European financial system and the fact that we were left with the highest cost, €64billion, of any other European country. And while the government tries to say that, ‘well that’s not significant’, well, it is for people. They feel the pain of it everyday and I think what’s happening is that you could describe this as a fracturing of the social contract of the Republic. The Republic was, since independence, was based on the idea of, you know, we’re all in it together, that there’s no real divisions – whereas that’s completely…”
Shanley: “That’s been broken at this point…”
Hearne: “That is broken and I think that we’re seeing the emergence of a new type of politics, of people feeling that they can’t rely on the political system, they have to take action themselves and with the water charges protests, you can see that they’re right – they’ve achieved more with these protests than electing a government.”
Listen back in full here
Earlier: Are You In The Sinister Fringe
(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)
Sinn Fein Deputy Leader Mary Lou Mc Donald TD and Aengus O’ Snodaigh outside Leinster House this afternoon.
Ms McDonald returns following a sit-in the Dáil chamber last week in protest at her expulsion by the Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett. The party intends to put down a motion of no confidence in the Fine Gael stalwart.
Bold.
Few deputies can escape Seán Barrett’s tongue or temper in Dáil (Fiach kelly, Irish Times)
(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)
Update:
Ms McDonald and a Leinster House usher this afternoon.
(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)
Ched Evans and his partner, Natasha
Stuart Gilhooly
A lawyer for a body representing footballers has likened convicted rapist Ched Evans to the Guildford Four as a fourth high-profile Sheffield United patron resigned over the ongoing row.
The Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland defended Evans on their official website, claiming he could be innocent and that even if guilty, he deserves a chance of redemption.
The article written by solicitor Stuart Gilhooly has been removed from the PFAI website but you can read it in full here.
The difficult element of this discussion, though, is the part about the scale of the crime. There are people who will say rape is rape and degrees shouldn’t come into it but in sentencing these issues matter. This crime, as alleged, was at the bottom end. There was no violence and thankfully the victim has no recollection of it. This, I hasten to add, does not make it right, or anything close to it, but it is nonetheless a mitigating factor.
From Jessica Ennis-Hill to Charlie Webster and pretty much every media commentator who has waded into this mire, the horses most of these pundits have mounted are so high, they’ll need a parachute to get down. When sanctimony takes over, there is rarely any real room for serious debate.
It’s not easy to muster up too much sympathy for Evans but there is surely nothing worse than being accused of a crime which you genuinely believe you didn’t commit.
The argument against that is that a jury convicted him of the crime. That’s right. And the same applied to the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six. They got no public sympathy either.
Maybe he is guilty or perhaps he’s innocent, none of us knows for sure. Surely, either way, he deserves a chance at redemption. Don’t we all?Stuart Gilhooly is the solicitor to the PFA Ireland. He is also a journalist and has recently been shortlisted, for the fifth year in succession, a Journalist of the Year at the Irish Magazine Awards.
1. Ched Evans & McDonald both accused of rape because girl too drunk to consent. No question of violence or coercion. Girl remembers nothing
— Stuart Gilhooly (@PFAISolicitor) April 22, 2012
Evans guilty of boorish sexual opportunism no doubt and vile behaviour but this is not a crime. If he is guilty so must McDonald be — Stuart Gilhooly (@PFAISolicitor) April 22, 2012
Mr Gilhooly had also tweeted support of Ched Evans during the trial.
Update:
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/177485007″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
William Crawley spoke to Stuart Gilhooly on BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback earlier.
So it wasn’t rape-rape?
By gallantly kneeing me in the lughole.
*swoon*
“I actually believed that the Taoiseach was in the first car that had left and I didn’t actually really see the other car coming out. So I slowly went to march, not to march, but to walk across the road because I thought that the cars were gone and I was going to go over to where all the other protesters were.
And as, you can even hear me in the video saying, ‘excuse me’ to one of the guards. As I walked slowly out onto the road, someone kind of shouted, ‘Kenny, Kenny, Kenny’ and I turned around and I could see him in the car and he kind of smiled a bit and I just automatically, knee-jerk reaction, banged on the bonnet, ‘Out, out, out’.
And that was it, next thing I knew, I was on the ground, being hurled to the ground. The car could have just pulled out, very easily. You know, all them guards had to do was hold me back. They did not have to pick me up and throw me to the side of the road or throw me onto the path.”
“I was thrown from the road over to the path, narrowly missed a bollard. And I actually believe that it’s thanks to, one of the guards, one of the guards in the black, he bent down at the end of it but you can clearly hear his knee, now that’s his knee hitting the bollard. And he saved my life, that one did. The tall guard in the black, he saved my life because he pushed my head out of the way with his knee. I actually thought I had hurt my neck but it turns out it wasn’t, it was his knee that was actually pushing into my neck to turn it away from the bollard.
My hip is quite badly bruised. It’s quite sore underneath… I’m out on the streets every morning, helping to stop the installations but doing it peacefully. I’ve never been arrested, I’ve never been injuncted. You know, I do, I’m a peaceful protester, I’m only doing this for my son. I need to have a future for my son and the way I see it is our country is being sold off, bit by bit, to the highest bidder.”
Fiona Healy who was removed by gardaí from the path of Enda Kenny’s car outside the Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin on Sunday speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland
Very sinister.
Listen back here
Previously: Everyone Stay Cool
