Author: Anthony

Manipulated and discredited law

My posting ‘Two Views’ was a comment on the ridiculous practice of prosecuting people because they had broken what is effectively a religious law. Michael Kelly makes an equally valid point, strongly supported by comments, that judges should not be allowed to pick and choose which laws are to be applied.

The existence of medieval like religious laws and the casual attitude to law in general are simply reflections of the kind of country we live in.

Here are just a few examples.

The Beef Tribunal uncovered massive fraud and corruption within the Irish meat industry. Apart from a few minor officials who received a slap on the wrist nobody was made accountable. The only person to be charged, for refusing to reveal her sources, was Susan O’Keeffe the Granada Television reporter who broke the story.

It would have been extremely embarrassing for Ireland if O’Keeffe was found guilty after the tribunal whitewash had exonerated all those who were actually guilty. A legal technicality was conveniently discovered and O’Keeffe was acquitted.

It is almost certain that Bertie Ahern committed perjury at the Mahon Tribunal. The facts are simple. He stated under oath that he never dealt in significant amounts of sterling. The tribunal produced irrefutable evidence that Ahern’s statement was untrue.

In a functional democracy it wouldn’t matter that the tribunal was ongoing, it wouldn’t matter that the alleged perjurer was Prime Minister, immediate police and legal action would have been taken.

The conflict between Irish Times journalists Geraldine Kennedy and Colm Keena and the Mahon Tribunal over the disclosure of sources is still unresolved nearly a year after the event.

It is a very serious case where the journalists openly admit that they destroyed evidence despite being ordered not to do so by the Tribunal. It doesn’t matter that the journalists are, at least, morally right, it doesn’t matter that the tribunal is ongoing.

If Ireland was a country where the law enjoyed the same respect as it does in functional democracies both these journalists would long ago have been made accountable for their actions.

These cases and countless other examples ranging across every level of society demonstrate that Ireland is not like any other Western democracy, that Ireland is a country where the law is manipulated to suit events and circumstances rather than acting as a protector of society in general.

PDs drown in Fianna Fail sewer

About the only sensible thing Michael McDowell ever said during his political career was that the PDs had to be either radical or redundant. The party stopped being radical and thus became redundant the moment Mary Harney decided to share power with Bertie Ahern.

Of course, the PDs had shared power with Fianna Fail before but there was always a degree of instability so long as the PDs stuck by their ethical principles. It’s actually impossible to maintain ethical standards and, at the same time, share power with a corrupt party like Fianna Fail as the Greens have quickly discovered.

Harney, realising this, quickly abandoned the party’s core value of defending high ethical standards in public office and led the party back down to the Fianna Fail sewers from which the original leaders of the PDs, including Harney, had courageously extracted themselves in 1985.

Once back in the sewer, political life became much easier for Harney and most of her colleagues, both parties floated along at the same level, happily sharing the same stench.

The problem of course was that voters couldn’t tell the difference anymore so why bother voting for a party that had voluntarily made itself redundant.

Two views

Letter’s in today’s Irish Times.

Madam,

Judge Mary Fahy deserves great praise for her liberal and perfectly logical judgment regarding what she called the “ludicrous and ridiculous” prosecutions brought by Galway gardaí against nine restaurants for serving wine on Good Friday ( The Irish Times , September 10th).

This religiously inspired medieval law should be scrapped forthwith.

Yours, etc,

ANTHONY SHERIDAN

Madam,

The comments of Judge Mary Fahy, criticising laws banning the sale of alcohol on Good Friday, are astounding. Even more amazing is that the judge refused to apply the law and record convictions against people who had demonstrably broken it.

Since when is it the responsibility of judges of the District Court to criticise and refuse to implement acts of the Oireachtas? Are we to live in a state where judges pick and choose the laws which, in their opinion, are worth applying? – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL KELLY

God bless Ireland

Picture the scene:

A large group of policemen are sitting around the station with nothing to do. Organised crime has been terminated; carnage on the roads has been brought to a halt; even white collar crime has, at last, been tackled and the jails are full.

What are we to do pleads a desperately enthusiastic rookie. The experienced Sgt. has the answer. C’mon me boyos, it’s Good Friday – Let’s raid the restaurants.

And so, the greatest insult to the Great One in his heavenly abode is finally redressed, the greatest danger facing the civilised world is narrowly averted by our boys in blue as they bravely tackle those evil, meat eating, wine drinking demons

The world, nay, the universe is at peace – God bless Ireland.

Back to the UK?

Letter in this morning’s Irish Independent

Shoppers fleeing rip-off Republic

Tuesday September 09 2008

The news that private bus companies are running buses from Dublin, and as far as Athlone, to the Asda stores in the North should be proof positive that prices here are far too high.

Why would anyone travel as far as 300 kilometres on a bus to do their weekly shop, unless there was a huge difference in prices?

This year, 40pc of the shoppers in the Asda store in Strabane are from the Republic, as opposed to 27pc last year. This is a national disgrace.

Mary Coughlan has commissioned yet another report as to why prices are so much higher here than up North. She had better get the report on her desk without delay or she could find herself out of a job faster than she thinks.

People are fed up being ripped off in this republic and morale is sinking fast.

If the Government can’t sort out the problems we’re all facing then it’s time to get a new one, or else Dick Roche will be having another referendum — not on the Lisbon Treaty — but on whether or not we go back into the United Kingdom.

RORY O’MEARA
DUBLIN 8

Within a few days…

Last week I mentioned that a member of the Passport Review Committee promised to get back to me within a few days with an answer to one of my questions. Not surprisingly – she didn’t, so I rang again today.

I was talking to someone new, which surprised me; I thought I had already spoken to everyone in DFA.

Anyway, I filled him in on the case background and again put my question – Would the special passport facility for members of the Oireachtas be advertised in the Department’s literature and posted on the Passport Office’s website so that all citizens could avail of the service?

He assured me he would check it out and get back to me – within a few days.

PDs – A humiliating end

It’s almost, and I stress ‘almost’, sad to see the PDs (Pathetic Dopes?) spin out their inevitable demise in such a humiliating fashion.

Mary Harney has always been a dyed in the wool Fianna Failer, a fact clearly demonstrated by her complete abandonment of ethical standards after taking over leadership of the PDs.

Her unwavering loyalty to a chancer like Bertie Ahern was bound to result in the destruction of a party that once had the potential to really break the mould of Irish (corrupt) politics.

Dangerous talk in a dream world

David McWilliams took Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan to task on Saturday View.

“Three years ago when I said this thing can’t last, house prices will fall, I was told ‘that’s dangerous talk. Don’t ever suggest that, it’s unpatriotic.’ The minute we muzzle economic analysis we go back into the dream world that left us in this mess. And you know minister, that anybody that punctured the dream, anybody who said this was fundamentally detrimental to the economy was told, you’re dangerous. I’m saying again, look at the banking system that’s where the weakness is.”

The Minister replied;

“I can assure your listeners that the Regulator has maintained a very detailed supervision of Irish banks and that the Irish banks are not in anything like the difficulties that their counterparts in the US are.”

Here’s the reality. The Irish banking system is the least regulated in the Western world. The New York Times described the Irish system as the “Wild West of European finance”. Irish banks have robbed countless millions from the State and their customers over the years and not a single bank or official has ever been investigated by the police.

The so called Regulator has never punished the banks in any form whatsoever and usually allows them to investigate themselves. Irish banks are among the most profitable and greedy in the World mainly because they can pretty much do as they please without any fear of consequences.

This Minister knows nothing about the real situation because his information comes from the Central Bank and the so called Financial Regulator who take their orders from the banks. Taxpayers should hold on tightly to their wallets, the banks will soon be looking to do some more pick pocketing.

Different folk – Different law

The new charity legislation going through the Dail was discussed on Today with Pat Kenny during the week.

Pat mentioned the case of a Romanian woman who was charged with organising a bogus charity collection in Dun Laoghaire. The woman was up in the children’s court under the Theft and Fraud Offences Act and was remanded on bail until a further hearing later this month.

Meanwhile, yet another solicitor is under investigation by the Law Society amid allegations of forging passports and falsifying bank loans to the tune of €1 million. (A million Euro fraud seems to be the magic figure that triggers action against solicitors)

We’re told there’s the ‘possibility’ that the Fraud Squad may even be called in. It’s unlikely as I’m sure they’re fully focused on dealing with that dangerous Romanian child.

And let’s not forget that Jim Flavin is and will remain a free man despite his €83 million fraud on the Irish Stock Market.

We’ll never see Flavin or that solicitor remanded on bail – the very idea.