House of Prayer makes a €1.7m profit in 2010
Monday, 24 January 2011 20:19
House of Prayer makes a €1.7m profit in 2010
Anton McNulty
THE controversial House of Prayer in Achill made a €1.7 million profit at the end of last year despite falling numbers visiting the centre and allegations of financial irregularities in recent years.
The House of Prayer was founded by religious visionary Christina Gallagher in 1993 who claimed to have the stigmata and receives regular messages direct from the Virgin Mary. Accounts filed with the Companies Registration Office show that the House of Prayer had profits of €1.72m at the end of last year.
In 2006, the Revenue Commissioners stripped the House of Prayer of its charitable status and since then it has had to treat its donations as income. Accounts show that the House of Prayer increased its income in 2010 by 18.7 per cent to €626,282. Donations made up €297,000 of that figure but the mainstay of its income came from the sale of goods and merchandise such as religious snow globes and plastic religious figurines.
The company made €285,000 from the sale of such items, up from €186,000, while café sales and accommodation accounted for another €30,000 of the centre’s income. The wage bill for the House of Prayer was reduced from €273,241 to €267,783 following the cut in employee numbers from 12 to eight in 2010.
Since it opened has attracted thousands of pilgrims from across the world but it has been highly controversial with reports that donations to the centre were funding a ‘lavish’ lifestyle for Christina Gallagher and her family.
A number of former followers claimed that their live savings were taken from them and in 2008, the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary distanced the Catholic Church from its operation.
The House of Prayer has been a huge boost to hotels and B&B’s especially in the Achill Sound region where it is based. However, in recent years there has been a significant fall in the number of pilgrims travelling to the House of Prayer in the large numbers it once enjoyed
Friday, 22 April 2011
Saturday, 9 April 2011
Revealed: secret deals for Lowry and Healy-Rae
Revealed: secret deals for Lowry and Healy-Rae
.New TD won't give up seat dad got him on state board
Michael Lowry's appointments
Transparency in public appointments
Also in National News
Brother tells of despair as mechanic's killer is jailed
Bertie gets burned in bank share meltdown
'Negligent' former bank chief barred from management of any company
New Tesco outlets to create 172 jobs in next few weeks
Cancer device and microchip crowned 2011's best inventions
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By Fiach Kelly Political Correspondent
Saturday April 09 2011
CONTROVERSIAL TD Michael Lowry and former Independent deputy Jackie Healy-Rae were each given three positions on state boards to hand out to supporters as part of a secret deal struck with Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen.
The Irish Independent has learned the six posts -- worth tens of thousands of euro a year in payments and expenses -- were a key part of the deals reached with Mr Lowry and Mr Healy-Rae to ensure their support for the Fianna Fail-Green Party coalition.
The full details were not known to other members of the Cabinet outside of Mr Ahern and Mr Cowen.
The revelations come in the wake of the publication of the Moriarty Tribunal report, which led Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin to furiously try and distance his party from the dealings it had with Mr Lowry.
Mr Healy-Rae's son Michael -- who has assumed his father's Dail seat -- was appointed to the Citizens Information Board (CIB) during the last Government, a position he still holds. He denies his appointment was part of a deal and said he sought the job himself.
There are no rules barring TDs from sitting on state boards; and his position on the board, which the new TD said he would not give up, is worth an annual fee of €5,985 plus expenses.
The deal, the contents of which were always closely guarded, was made after the 2007 General Election and was reaffirmed by Mr Cowen when he became Taoiseach in 2008.
It also contained projects for Mr Lowry and Mr Healy-Rae's constituencies of Tipperary North and Kerry South.
Mr Lowry last night said he filled three positions during the lifetime of the Government, all with people from Tipperary.
Mr Healy-Rae claimed he could not remember the contents of his deal or if he got state positions.
However, sources said he was consistently "hassling" to get his appointment passed, particularly that of his son Michael.
His daughter, Rosemary Healy-Rae, was also given a post during the last Government.
Mary Hanafin, then Social and Family Affairs Minister, said she put Michael Healy-Rae on the CIB board on the orders of Mr Cowen, but was unaware if it was part of a deal.
"The Taoiseach asked me at the time to do it," Ms Hanafin told the Irish Independent. "I'm not aware if it was part of any deal."
Mr Lowry's appointments were:
Sean Fogarty, who was given a position with the Equality Authority, which is based in Roscrea in Mr Lowry's constituency.
Thurles-based Billy O'Dwyer, who was given a place on the Irish Greyhound Board.
Valerie O'Reilly, who does PR work for Mr Lowry, was given a post with the National Transport Authority.
Mr Lowry defended the appointments and said all were doing a good job.
"The feedback on the appointments that I have made has been exceptionally good," he said. "All of them are very competent and able people. As part of my agreement with the Government, I had three appointments to state boards. It was part of the deal and that was it."
Sources also said Mr Healy-Rae got Killarney-based engineer Colm Lonergan on the board of the National Roads Authority. Mr Lonergan refused to comment last night.
Barrister Rosemary Healy-Rae was appointed to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal by then-Justice Minister Brian Lenihan in 2007, and was reappointed for another three years by Dermot Ahern last December.
She is considered well-qualified for the post and there is some confusion over her appointment, with numerous people saying she would have been given the position anyway.
Well-placed sources from the FF-Green coalition said Mr Healy-Rae wanted "his daughter plus two" other state board positions.
Mr Lenihan said he had high regard for Ms Healy-Rae and said it wasn't conveyed to him that it was part of a deal.
"I was doing it anyway," Mr Lenihan said last night.
"I've known her for a long number of years and she is a very able person."
Another source said: "Jackie was the one who was always giving grief about the board appointments, not Lowry. He hassled and hassled and hassled about that, Jackie, and about Michael being appointed to something."
Jackie Healy-Rae, who is considering a run for the Presidency, last night said he couldn't remember the contents of the deal. "I really don't know at this stage," he said. "I don't, I swear to God. Between what I looked for and what I got, that's where I'd be getting confused."
.New TD won't give up seat dad got him on state board
Michael Lowry's appointments
Transparency in public appointments
Also in National News
Brother tells of despair as mechanic's killer is jailed
Bertie gets burned in bank share meltdown
'Negligent' former bank chief barred from management of any company
New Tesco outlets to create 172 jobs in next few weeks
Cancer device and microchip crowned 2011's best inventions
National News Home
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By Fiach Kelly Political Correspondent
Saturday April 09 2011
CONTROVERSIAL TD Michael Lowry and former Independent deputy Jackie Healy-Rae were each given three positions on state boards to hand out to supporters as part of a secret deal struck with Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen.
The Irish Independent has learned the six posts -- worth tens of thousands of euro a year in payments and expenses -- were a key part of the deals reached with Mr Lowry and Mr Healy-Rae to ensure their support for the Fianna Fail-Green Party coalition.
The full details were not known to other members of the Cabinet outside of Mr Ahern and Mr Cowen.
The revelations come in the wake of the publication of the Moriarty Tribunal report, which led Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin to furiously try and distance his party from the dealings it had with Mr Lowry.
Mr Healy-Rae's son Michael -- who has assumed his father's Dail seat -- was appointed to the Citizens Information Board (CIB) during the last Government, a position he still holds. He denies his appointment was part of a deal and said he sought the job himself.
There are no rules barring TDs from sitting on state boards; and his position on the board, which the new TD said he would not give up, is worth an annual fee of €5,985 plus expenses.
The deal, the contents of which were always closely guarded, was made after the 2007 General Election and was reaffirmed by Mr Cowen when he became Taoiseach in 2008.
It also contained projects for Mr Lowry and Mr Healy-Rae's constituencies of Tipperary North and Kerry South.
Mr Lowry last night said he filled three positions during the lifetime of the Government, all with people from Tipperary.
Mr Healy-Rae claimed he could not remember the contents of his deal or if he got state positions.
However, sources said he was consistently "hassling" to get his appointment passed, particularly that of his son Michael.
His daughter, Rosemary Healy-Rae, was also given a post during the last Government.
Mary Hanafin, then Social and Family Affairs Minister, said she put Michael Healy-Rae on the CIB board on the orders of Mr Cowen, but was unaware if it was part of a deal.
"The Taoiseach asked me at the time to do it," Ms Hanafin told the Irish Independent. "I'm not aware if it was part of any deal."
Mr Lowry's appointments were:
Sean Fogarty, who was given a position with the Equality Authority, which is based in Roscrea in Mr Lowry's constituency.
Thurles-based Billy O'Dwyer, who was given a place on the Irish Greyhound Board.
Valerie O'Reilly, who does PR work for Mr Lowry, was given a post with the National Transport Authority.
Mr Lowry defended the appointments and said all were doing a good job.
"The feedback on the appointments that I have made has been exceptionally good," he said. "All of them are very competent and able people. As part of my agreement with the Government, I had three appointments to state boards. It was part of the deal and that was it."
Sources also said Mr Healy-Rae got Killarney-based engineer Colm Lonergan on the board of the National Roads Authority. Mr Lonergan refused to comment last night.
Barrister Rosemary Healy-Rae was appointed to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal by then-Justice Minister Brian Lenihan in 2007, and was reappointed for another three years by Dermot Ahern last December.
She is considered well-qualified for the post and there is some confusion over her appointment, with numerous people saying she would have been given the position anyway.
Well-placed sources from the FF-Green coalition said Mr Healy-Rae wanted "his daughter plus two" other state board positions.
Mr Lenihan said he had high regard for Ms Healy-Rae and said it wasn't conveyed to him that it was part of a deal.
"I was doing it anyway," Mr Lenihan said last night.
"I've known her for a long number of years and she is a very able person."
Another source said: "Jackie was the one who was always giving grief about the board appointments, not Lowry. He hassled and hassled and hassled about that, Jackie, and about Michael being appointed to something."
Jackie Healy-Rae, who is considering a run for the Presidency, last night said he couldn't remember the contents of the deal. "I really don't know at this stage," he said. "I don't, I swear to God. Between what I looked for and what I got, that's where I'd be getting confused."
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
knock airport access works
Tom
Good to hear from you. I am delighted to say we have made much progress. Our new signage for the car park highlighting the PRM car parking spaces is in place. We have modified the toilet on the main concourse near the arrivals doors and this is now a lot more spacious and accessible. We have put in a new signage plan in the car park which makes it much clearer where to park and set down.
Work in progress
We have ordered alarms for all the PRM toilets
We have ordered signage for the disabled toilets which will hopefully arrive in next couple of weeks
We have committed to making ‘way finding’ one of our next big projects and are currently researching some initial steps in this regard.
We have obtained the intercom and a fold down seat for the shelter in the car park. Installation of the intercom is on our electrical contractors list and we hope to have this completed soon.
I am away on holidays shortly and want to suggest later in week commencing 2nd May for a visit if that’s ok. We expect to be very busy over Easter and thus I would prefer to aim for a quieter week.
Let me know how that suits you?
Regards
Trina Donohue
HR Manager
Good to hear from you. I am delighted to say we have made much progress. Our new signage for the car park highlighting the PRM car parking spaces is in place. We have modified the toilet on the main concourse near the arrivals doors and this is now a lot more spacious and accessible. We have put in a new signage plan in the car park which makes it much clearer where to park and set down.
Work in progress
We have ordered alarms for all the PRM toilets
We have ordered signage for the disabled toilets which will hopefully arrive in next couple of weeks
We have committed to making ‘way finding’ one of our next big projects and are currently researching some initial steps in this regard.
We have obtained the intercom and a fold down seat for the shelter in the car park. Installation of the intercom is on our electrical contractors list and we hope to have this completed soon.
I am away on holidays shortly and want to suggest later in week commencing 2nd May for a visit if that’s ok. We expect to be very busy over Easter and thus I would prefer to aim for a quieter week.
Let me know how that suits you?
Regards
Trina Donohue
HR Manager
Garda - "Give me your name and address or I’ll rape you"
Garda - "Give me your name and address or I’ll rape you"
Date: Tue, 2011-04-05 08:29
“Give me your name and address or I’ll rape you” - the words of a Garda Sgt as he discussed with at least two other Gardai how they were going to interrogate one of two female Shell to Sea campaigners they had arrested and who were being brought to Belmullet Garda station. Just second earlier while they were discussing how to interrogate the women one Garda suggested they threaten her with deportation. The Sgt responds with the addition of the rape threat which he repeats before another so far unidentified Garda chimes in with “hold it there, give me your name and address there, I’ll rape you” prompting the Sgt to repeat it one last time as “or I’ll definitely rape you.” [Listen to the 2 minute audio]
The Garda press office have tried to spin this horrific revelation by press releasing that a “Garda Superintendent from outside the Mayo area was appointed this afternoon to carry out an examination of the alleged derogatory remarks.” Shamefully but unsurprizingly RTE initially simply reprinted and broadcast on the Nine o’Clock News this press release without question, despite the fact that audio, video and a transcript were all sent to the station 10 hours beforehand, around 11pm on Monday.
This morning despite having access to the audio for 20 hours Morning Ireland has not yet chosen not to play it and worse still to spin the alleged remarks as simply being “of sexual and disturbing nature”. Both the original Garda remarks, the attempt by the press office to spin it and the compliance of the state broadcaster with this strategy demonstrate how completely Shell have managed to bend all sections of the state to its will. If you have not yet listened to the audio you should do so now to understand what was actually said - with the audio in circulation online we expect RTE will be forced to broadcast it. [Listen to the 2 minute audio]
Dublin Shell to Sea spokesperson Caoimhe Kerrins has said of the recording that “This is shocking and extremely serious. It is very frightening for those of us involved in the campaign. Gardai are the people that women are supposed to trust when they need to report a rape. Gardai are supposed to be responsible for bringing rapists to justice.”
Two of the Garda on the tape have been in the area since the start of the struggle against Shell’s experimental gas pipeline and so are “known to campaigners” for their roles in numerous other incidents. They have have identified by the Rossport Solidarity Camp which so far has chosen not to make their identities public. We are also aware of who they are but will reluctantly follow the lead of those directly involved in not publishing them.
It is telling that despite the fact that at least one other Garda joins in the interrogation discussion the Garda press release only refers to an investigation of two officers, presumably the ones named in the transcripts that Shell to Sea had provided to the media. Are we to believe that the Garda are incapable of working out who that third unnamed officer is? And what are we to take of a media that supplied the transcripts to the Garda and then not only failed to run with the actual story of Garda discussion using the threat of rape as an interrogation technique against a women in their custody but in the knowledge of what that story was ran instead with the spin!
Rossport Solidarity Camp have published a transcript of key sections of the recording on Indymedia.ie as below
TRANSCRIPTS OF KEY SEGMENTS:
[ These transcripts, as well as the recording, were provided to the mainstream media by the Rossport Solidarity Camp. The Gardaí in question were named in the original transcripts. The Irish Times changed the name of the Sergeant to “Garda A” and changed the name of the other Garda to “Garda B”. Rossport Solidarity Camp also decided to remove the names of the Gardaí before publishing here, but changed the Sergeant’s name to “Sergeant” and the other named Garda to “Garda A”, and incorporated this into the video file on Vimeo. Hence there seems to be an inconsistency between the Irish Times transcripts and the Indymedia transcripts, but there is not. “Garda B” in the Irish Times is “Garda A” on Indymedia and Vimeo. ]
Sergeant: “Who is them two lassies, do you know the two of them?
Garda A: “I don’t know the second one, the first one is with blonde hair.”
Unidentified Garda: “She was up on the tractor earlier on.”
Sergeant: “It’d do no harm to get the second one’s name again?
Garda A: “She’s some Yank. I don’t know who the fuck she is.”
Unidentified Garda: “ Is she a Yank?
Garda A: “It sounds like it, it sounds like it, the accent anyway
Unidentified Garda: “Sounds like a Yank or Canadian.”
Garda A: “Well whoever, we’ll get Immigration fucking on her.”
Sergeant: “She refused to give her name and address and told she would be arrested.”
Garda A: “.......and deported”
Sergeant: “And raped.”
Garda A: “I wouldn’t go that far yet….. She was living down at that crusty camp, fuck sake, you never know what you might get.”
Sergeant: “Give me your name and address or I’ll rape you.”
Unidentified Garda: “Hold it there, give me your name and address there, I’ll rape you.”
Sergeant: “Or I’ll definitely rape you.”
Unidentified Garda: “Will you be me friend on Facebook?”
[Conversation continues about Facebook in Garda station]
Pic: One of the two campaigners shortly before being arrested, source indymedia.ie
Excerpt from video camera recording in which Gardaí discuss safety and techniques for arrest at protests.
Sergeant: [on phone to a colleague]: “I know we don’t want to be arresting them but by the same token, we were left with no option. We have an issue there as well with the lads in the protest removal team there, of actual climbing the tractors. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to get safety ropes and ladders and we’re going to leave them in the van in case we have to go up on the cab of the tractor again. So we’re looking after that now at the moment.”
Sergeant: ends call.
Garda A: “You see at least you’re a sergeant, like.”
Sergeant: “ like some of auld timers who were here in the area in the first and second campaign. I’ll tell you one thing, the decisions that were made policing at that time.”
Garda A: I’ll still go back to what says there . . . If someone gets hurt we’re going to be on our own in the blocks.”
Sergeant: “. . . I don’t think we’re going to be on our own. If we have exercised due diligence and we have used common sense and used whatever was available to us to remove them. At the end of the day, we have a certain duty of care to them. We ask them to get down, if they don’t get down, we tell them we are taking them down forcefully. We take them down forcefully.
“We use whatever means at our disposal, which includes ladders and ropes or whatever to get them down safely. If one of them slips, so fuckin. What can we do?”
Garda A: “Ladders and ropes. All I’m saying is, the point is
‘Garda, are you a member of the protest removal team?’
’I am.’
’Have you received training with working at heights?’
’Yes, I have.’
. . .’How did you train to bring someone down?’
’In a harness with ropes.’”
“We didn’t have any of them options today there . . . That’s all I’m saying. And is dead right; if we’re in the box:
’Have you received training on how to take a protester down from heights?’
’Yes’.”
“And if we did it with ropes and harnesses . . . then why did you let my client fall? Did you not go get your ropes and harness to take her down. That’s all.”
Sergeant: “. . .To get them down safely we’d have to erect a scaffold tower beside them and abseil them down. And and, the, the, taking the common-sense approach, and a common-sense view, it would be impractical to erect a scaffolding tower to get them down off it. And we use whatever safe means at our disposal, as we considered safe protest removal team to take them down, ie, ropes and ladders.”
Unidentified Garda: “What was the obstruction?”
Garda A: “There was no obstruction . . .”
Sergeant: “They were obstructing the road.”
Garda A: “There was no obstruction . . . The tractors all other vehicles were able to get past.”
Sergeant: “They were obstructing the road. Excuse me. If a car stops there, in the middle of that fucking road, and it’s stopped there, it’s obstructing the road. It doesn’t have to be blocking it. If it’s parked there it’s obstructing it.”
Unidentified Garda: “Well if nothing else they were obstructing the vehicle.”
Garda A: “That’s the only vehicle obstructed.”
Unidentified Garda: “. . . free passage.”
Sergeant: “The vehicle was obstructing the road. Just because other vehicles could pass didn’t mean the road wasn’t being obstructed.”
Sergeant seems to get out of the car . . .
Garda A: “We all said this, it was a safety issue.”
Unidentified Garda: “It was the best option . It was the best option at that time, there’s no doubt about it.”
Garda A: “We all said it because of a safety issue. There was three up, there was a wind blowing. And like did you fucking feel safe, 100 per cent safe going up there taking down two people.”
Unidentified Garda: “No”.
Garda A: “...I don’t know what you thought?”
Unidentified garda: “All I know is that if something happens, who’s going to stand fucking behind me.”
Garda A: “And do you honestly think that is going to turn around and say “oh look it”. We got trained a certain way.
’Garda did you fucking, take a protester down the way you were trained’.
’No I didn’t.’
’Well then Guard.’
“And the job will say were you fucking trained a certain way. The job will fucking ditch you.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dublin Shell to Sea described how the Garda came to record themselves and hand over this recording to the campaign as follows
Last Thursday, 31st March 2011, several Gardai, including a Sergeant, accidentally recorded their own conversation while travelling in a squad car in north Mayo. They had just arrested two female protesters at a Shell compound at Aughoose, had seized their camera and had let the camera continue recording in the car. The women were travelling in two other Garda cars in the same convoy.
After the women were released without charge, and the camera returned to them, the women discovered the recording of the Garda conversation. This included the Gardaí talking about threatening to rape one of the women in their custody. They also talk about whether they should bother adhering to safety procedures for removing protesters from heights: the Sergeant advocates ignoring the rules learned in Garda training. “
One of the two women described how on playing back the tape “It was terrifying to hear Gardaí talk in this way about rape. How can women living in the area feel safe when such a culture of brutal intimidation and violence exists here?”
The communities around the pipeline route have been under siege for years by an occupying force of Gardai and private security that at times of tension has reached 500 or more personnel. Garda have made threats to rape women involved in the campaign in the past during this occupation. Residents have complained of private security from IRMS filming their children on the beach or apparently filming them inside their houses. Several residents and many campaigners have suffered injuries, some of them serious, as the result of Garda violence. The Garda have arrested people at the moment Shell needed them arrested and the courts have tried people on the days Shell needed them out of the way. The vast majority of the Irish media have remained shamefully silent as this has happened or worse still have taken part in smear campaigns against the campaigners.
The short tape contains many of the other stories the media has refused to report, casually discussed by the Garda in the car. The time below is for the edited Audio that has been made available, long silences in the original have been removed reducing the recording time to 25 minutes from the original 40. The sound quality has also been enhanced. [Listen to the edited Audio]
At 4.35 the Sgt. rings his superior to say he has arrested two people even though he is not really meant to. This is the infamous ‘no arrest’ policy under which Gardai used violence against campaigners rather than arresting them because the jailing of the Rossport five had led to such public outrage.
At 4.50 and at other intervals they discuss how their methods of moving protesters creates dangers to the protesters and themselves, at 18.30 they have a disagreement over whether if this leads to injuries they will be protected by ‘the job’ or not.
At 9.05 they reveal that the calling of a National Day of action the following day has lead to the cancellation of all work and the they had demanded that a full unit of the riot squad be sent to the area.
At 11.20 we hear them filling in the overtime forms, the huge Garda presence at Corrib has resulted in million of euro in overtime costs alone as the people of Ireland pay to protect Shell’s plundering of our Oil & Gas.
At 23.50 you can just make out them discussing the protests during the June bank holiday in 2008 when a scrum of Garda almost pushed several protesters over a 6m cliff onto the rock below.
This is not a case of a couple of rotton apples, rather this tape is further evidence of the way all sections of the state have been mobilised in aiding Energy corporations plunder the 540 billion worth of Oil & Gas Resources that Ireland has. With such extreme profits to be made is it any surprize that such extreme lengths are being gone to to break the resistance to the Great Oil & Gas Giveaway
Date: Tue, 2011-04-05 08:29
“Give me your name and address or I’ll rape you” - the words of a Garda Sgt as he discussed with at least two other Gardai how they were going to interrogate one of two female Shell to Sea campaigners they had arrested and who were being brought to Belmullet Garda station. Just second earlier while they were discussing how to interrogate the women one Garda suggested they threaten her with deportation. The Sgt responds with the addition of the rape threat which he repeats before another so far unidentified Garda chimes in with “hold it there, give me your name and address there, I’ll rape you” prompting the Sgt to repeat it one last time as “or I’ll definitely rape you.” [Listen to the 2 minute audio]
The Garda press office have tried to spin this horrific revelation by press releasing that a “Garda Superintendent from outside the Mayo area was appointed this afternoon to carry out an examination of the alleged derogatory remarks.” Shamefully but unsurprizingly RTE initially simply reprinted and broadcast on the Nine o’Clock News this press release without question, despite the fact that audio, video and a transcript were all sent to the station 10 hours beforehand, around 11pm on Monday.
This morning despite having access to the audio for 20 hours Morning Ireland has not yet chosen not to play it and worse still to spin the alleged remarks as simply being “of sexual and disturbing nature”. Both the original Garda remarks, the attempt by the press office to spin it and the compliance of the state broadcaster with this strategy demonstrate how completely Shell have managed to bend all sections of the state to its will. If you have not yet listened to the audio you should do so now to understand what was actually said - with the audio in circulation online we expect RTE will be forced to broadcast it. [Listen to the 2 minute audio]
Dublin Shell to Sea spokesperson Caoimhe Kerrins has said of the recording that “This is shocking and extremely serious. It is very frightening for those of us involved in the campaign. Gardai are the people that women are supposed to trust when they need to report a rape. Gardai are supposed to be responsible for bringing rapists to justice.”
Two of the Garda on the tape have been in the area since the start of the struggle against Shell’s experimental gas pipeline and so are “known to campaigners” for their roles in numerous other incidents. They have have identified by the Rossport Solidarity Camp which so far has chosen not to make their identities public. We are also aware of who they are but will reluctantly follow the lead of those directly involved in not publishing them.
It is telling that despite the fact that at least one other Garda joins in the interrogation discussion the Garda press release only refers to an investigation of two officers, presumably the ones named in the transcripts that Shell to Sea had provided to the media. Are we to believe that the Garda are incapable of working out who that third unnamed officer is? And what are we to take of a media that supplied the transcripts to the Garda and then not only failed to run with the actual story of Garda discussion using the threat of rape as an interrogation technique against a women in their custody but in the knowledge of what that story was ran instead with the spin!
Rossport Solidarity Camp have published a transcript of key sections of the recording on Indymedia.ie as below
TRANSCRIPTS OF KEY SEGMENTS:
[ These transcripts, as well as the recording, were provided to the mainstream media by the Rossport Solidarity Camp. The Gardaí in question were named in the original transcripts. The Irish Times changed the name of the Sergeant to “Garda A” and changed the name of the other Garda to “Garda B”. Rossport Solidarity Camp also decided to remove the names of the Gardaí before publishing here, but changed the Sergeant’s name to “Sergeant” and the other named Garda to “Garda A”, and incorporated this into the video file on Vimeo. Hence there seems to be an inconsistency between the Irish Times transcripts and the Indymedia transcripts, but there is not. “Garda B” in the Irish Times is “Garda A” on Indymedia and Vimeo. ]
Sergeant: “Who is them two lassies, do you know the two of them?
Garda A: “I don’t know the second one, the first one is with blonde hair.”
Unidentified Garda: “She was up on the tractor earlier on.”
Sergeant: “It’d do no harm to get the second one’s name again?
Garda A: “She’s some Yank. I don’t know who the fuck she is.”
Unidentified Garda: “ Is she a Yank?
Garda A: “It sounds like it, it sounds like it, the accent anyway
Unidentified Garda: “Sounds like a Yank or Canadian.”
Garda A: “Well whoever, we’ll get Immigration fucking on her.”
Sergeant: “She refused to give her name and address and told she would be arrested.”
Garda A: “.......and deported”
Sergeant: “And raped.”
Garda A: “I wouldn’t go that far yet….. She was living down at that crusty camp, fuck sake, you never know what you might get.”
Sergeant: “Give me your name and address or I’ll rape you.”
Unidentified Garda: “Hold it there, give me your name and address there, I’ll rape you.”
Sergeant: “Or I’ll definitely rape you.”
Unidentified Garda: “Will you be me friend on Facebook?”
[Conversation continues about Facebook in Garda station]
Pic: One of the two campaigners shortly before being arrested, source indymedia.ie
Excerpt from video camera recording in which Gardaí discuss safety and techniques for arrest at protests.
Sergeant: [on phone to a colleague]: “I know we don’t want to be arresting them but by the same token, we were left with no option. We have an issue there as well with the lads in the protest removal team there, of actual climbing the tractors. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to get safety ropes and ladders and we’re going to leave them in the van in case we have to go up on the cab of the tractor again. So we’re looking after that now at the moment.”
Sergeant: ends call.
Garda A: “You see at least you’re a sergeant, like.”
Sergeant: “ like some of auld timers who were here in the area in the first and second campaign. I’ll tell you one thing, the decisions that were made policing at that time.”
Garda A: I’ll still go back to what says there . . . If someone gets hurt we’re going to be on our own in the blocks.”
Sergeant: “. . . I don’t think we’re going to be on our own. If we have exercised due diligence and we have used common sense and used whatever was available to us to remove them. At the end of the day, we have a certain duty of care to them. We ask them to get down, if they don’t get down, we tell them we are taking them down forcefully. We take them down forcefully.
“We use whatever means at our disposal, which includes ladders and ropes or whatever to get them down safely. If one of them slips, so fuckin. What can we do?”
Garda A: “Ladders and ropes. All I’m saying is, the point is
‘Garda, are you a member of the protest removal team?’
’I am.’
’Have you received training with working at heights?’
’Yes, I have.’
. . .’How did you train to bring someone down?’
’In a harness with ropes.’”
“We didn’t have any of them options today there . . . That’s all I’m saying. And is dead right; if we’re in the box:
’Have you received training on how to take a protester down from heights?’
’Yes’.”
“And if we did it with ropes and harnesses . . . then why did you let my client fall? Did you not go get your ropes and harness to take her down. That’s all.”
Sergeant: “. . .To get them down safely we’d have to erect a scaffold tower beside them and abseil them down. And and, the, the, taking the common-sense approach, and a common-sense view, it would be impractical to erect a scaffolding tower to get them down off it. And we use whatever safe means at our disposal, as we considered safe protest removal team to take them down, ie, ropes and ladders.”
Unidentified Garda: “What was the obstruction?”
Garda A: “There was no obstruction . . .”
Sergeant: “They were obstructing the road.”
Garda A: “There was no obstruction . . . The tractors all other vehicles were able to get past.”
Sergeant: “They were obstructing the road. Excuse me. If a car stops there, in the middle of that fucking road, and it’s stopped there, it’s obstructing the road. It doesn’t have to be blocking it. If it’s parked there it’s obstructing it.”
Unidentified Garda: “Well if nothing else they were obstructing the vehicle.”
Garda A: “That’s the only vehicle obstructed.”
Unidentified Garda: “. . . free passage.”
Sergeant: “The vehicle was obstructing the road. Just because other vehicles could pass didn’t mean the road wasn’t being obstructed.”
Sergeant seems to get out of the car . . .
Garda A: “We all said this, it was a safety issue.”
Unidentified Garda: “It was the best option . It was the best option at that time, there’s no doubt about it.”
Garda A: “We all said it because of a safety issue. There was three up, there was a wind blowing. And like did you fucking feel safe, 100 per cent safe going up there taking down two people.”
Unidentified Garda: “No”.
Garda A: “...I don’t know what you thought?”
Unidentified garda: “All I know is that if something happens, who’s going to stand fucking behind me.”
Garda A: “And do you honestly think that is going to turn around and say “oh look it”. We got trained a certain way.
’Garda did you fucking, take a protester down the way you were trained’.
’No I didn’t.’
’Well then Guard.’
“And the job will say were you fucking trained a certain way. The job will fucking ditch you.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dublin Shell to Sea described how the Garda came to record themselves and hand over this recording to the campaign as follows
Last Thursday, 31st March 2011, several Gardai, including a Sergeant, accidentally recorded their own conversation while travelling in a squad car in north Mayo. They had just arrested two female protesters at a Shell compound at Aughoose, had seized their camera and had let the camera continue recording in the car. The women were travelling in two other Garda cars in the same convoy.
After the women were released without charge, and the camera returned to them, the women discovered the recording of the Garda conversation. This included the Gardaí talking about threatening to rape one of the women in their custody. They also talk about whether they should bother adhering to safety procedures for removing protesters from heights: the Sergeant advocates ignoring the rules learned in Garda training. “
One of the two women described how on playing back the tape “It was terrifying to hear Gardaí talk in this way about rape. How can women living in the area feel safe when such a culture of brutal intimidation and violence exists here?”
The communities around the pipeline route have been under siege for years by an occupying force of Gardai and private security that at times of tension has reached 500 or more personnel. Garda have made threats to rape women involved in the campaign in the past during this occupation. Residents have complained of private security from IRMS filming their children on the beach or apparently filming them inside their houses. Several residents and many campaigners have suffered injuries, some of them serious, as the result of Garda violence. The Garda have arrested people at the moment Shell needed them arrested and the courts have tried people on the days Shell needed them out of the way. The vast majority of the Irish media have remained shamefully silent as this has happened or worse still have taken part in smear campaigns against the campaigners.
The short tape contains many of the other stories the media has refused to report, casually discussed by the Garda in the car. The time below is for the edited Audio that has been made available, long silences in the original have been removed reducing the recording time to 25 minutes from the original 40. The sound quality has also been enhanced. [Listen to the edited Audio]
At 4.35 the Sgt. rings his superior to say he has arrested two people even though he is not really meant to. This is the infamous ‘no arrest’ policy under which Gardai used violence against campaigners rather than arresting them because the jailing of the Rossport five had led to such public outrage.
At 4.50 and at other intervals they discuss how their methods of moving protesters creates dangers to the protesters and themselves, at 18.30 they have a disagreement over whether if this leads to injuries they will be protected by ‘the job’ or not.
At 9.05 they reveal that the calling of a National Day of action the following day has lead to the cancellation of all work and the they had demanded that a full unit of the riot squad be sent to the area.
At 11.20 we hear them filling in the overtime forms, the huge Garda presence at Corrib has resulted in million of euro in overtime costs alone as the people of Ireland pay to protect Shell’s plundering of our Oil & Gas.
At 23.50 you can just make out them discussing the protests during the June bank holiday in 2008 when a scrum of Garda almost pushed several protesters over a 6m cliff onto the rock below.
This is not a case of a couple of rotton apples, rather this tape is further evidence of the way all sections of the state have been mobilised in aiding Energy corporations plunder the 540 billion worth of Oil & Gas Resources that Ireland has. With such extreme profits to be made is it any surprize that such extreme lengths are being gone to to break the resistance to the Great Oil & Gas Giveaway
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