NUIG Law Society Talk! '08
A mhaithe is a mhor uaisle, fáilte róimh uilig chuig an crinniu seo anocht. Is mise Dónal de Róiste nó Dónal Roche mas mian libh agus tá an-áthas orm bheith I bhur measc. Is mór an onór é domhsa agus dom clann bheith anseo in Ollscoil na Gaillmhe le daoine comh galanta ! Good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Donal de Róiste and I am here to speak about my life and my long struggle to clear my name. I would like to thank Mr. David O’Leary and the staff of the Law Society for inviting me. Justice can never be done to anyone until the injustices perpetrated against them are recognized as such! I agreed with Mr. Mansergh T.D. when he observed that “Many stern moralists become great pragmatists, when confronted with allegations of misbehaviour by the security forces”. I suppose by now this could be termed an opposition mantra. Non sub homine sed sub Deo et lege – that is to say the that the rule of law is intended as an attempt to subordinate human power to some external restraint – all the horrors that happened in Nazi Germany were legal after all! In a Democracy every citizen’s good name is worth defending and not just the powerful - Legal, Political and general interest!
In 1969 I was a young Army lieutenant with 6 years blemish free service. While attending to my duties, I was suddenly, without warning placed under armed arrest, locked up, interrogated and finally forcibly retired by President Eamonn de Valera. He had to use a rarely invoked clause in the Defence Act that gave him the power to retire any officer “in the interests of the service”. There was no charge, no trial, nothing! For the past 40 years, all my attempts at clearing my name have been blocked by the state. In seeking Justice I have questioned authority and think it is a healthy thing in a democracy. As you know Justice does not pre-exist the case in hand, it is whatever result fair/just procedures have led to! If the legal process had been adhered to in my case, the outcome would have been just. I have got no relief to date, despite a High Court ruling in my favour in 2005. The judge found that I did not get “FAIR PROCEDURES”!
Pause
Please imagine that the President of your country suddenly destroys your chosen career, how devastating that would be to you? Without warning your livelihood is forcibly taken away and you are given no opportunity to defend yourself! Fired, for no reason, without mercy, with no avenue of redress? One day you are a contented person progressing in your chosen career and the next day you are finished. This is what was done to me on 27th June 1969. I’m sure you must realise how debilitating and frightening such an experience is? Mr. Alan Shatter T.D. in the Dáil 1998 called it Kafkaesque! (The Trial) Bernard Allen T.D. described my treatment by the army as lower than a kangaroo court. I suffered public humiliation at the time; my good name was destroyed being published in the Government publication, Iris Oifigúil, my character assassinated, and my relationship with friends and family ruined. Worse still a 6-year gap was created in my C.V. thus setting my educational achievements to nought and ensuring that I was made permanently unemployable? Overnight I became a pariah to former friends and colleagues who when they saw me in the street crossed over rather than greet me or look me in the eye. Following this brutal treatment and change of fortune I was very traumatised and suffered nightmares and flashbacks of my arrest and interrogation which have lasted for years. All of my support systems had been suddenly destroyed! I was threatened and called a traitor by former comrades and finally forced to emigrate to find work trying to get on with my life.
As you picture that terrible scene, just think how totally surprising, shocking and painful it was for me to have this long ago disgrace anonymously leaked to the media 30 years after the event. This was done in order to destroy, not me this time, but my youngest sister Adi Roche’s presidential bid of 1997.
Pres. not retroactive.
Of course with the sudden sneak attack and public exposure of my past, all of my suppressed terrors came back as I was relentlessly pursued by media frenzy. They door stepped me and turned up at my workplace asking colleagues what it felt like to be working with a terrorist.
The power to forcefully retire an officer has been used very rarely as you would expect and only 3 officers have been so retired since 1966. You have before you the only person in the history of the army to be fired by a President without reason whose retirement was used in a presidential election over 30 years later, to benefit the party under whose regime that retirement was originally organised.
Good name / Mum
Being young I did not realize how important one’s good name is. Like all ephemeral things - one does not miss them until they are gone. My late mother was fond of quoting Othello:
“Who steals my purse steals trash;
‘tis something, nothing, ‘twas mine, ‘tis his, and has been slave to thousands.
But he that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him and makes me poor indeed.”
After all, if you don’t have your good name than what do you have?
Cadet school
Let me now explain what it is like to have the state set its face against you! With the Fianna Fail republican tradition in my family it was no surprise that, as a teenager I wished to join our national army. In order to prepare myself at 16, I volunteered for the cadre of the defence forces known as the FCA in Clonmel. With my honours Leaving Cert. my commanding officer (Comdt. Mulligan) recommended that I apply for an army cadetship. From over 1000 applicants tested and interviewed I was chosen as one of the 55 members of the 38th cadet class in 1963. Needless to say I was thrilled!
Military training
I enjoyed my military training and have benefited throughout my life from the lessons I learned. The Military College at the Curragh runs internationally respected training courses for soldiers. It is modelled on WestPoint, Sandhurst and other such war colleges. Tough but fair they told us, - we learned later that it could be ruthless also! Of the original intake of 55, only 33 cadets in my class were commissioned. That was 50% attrition. My family proudly attended the ceremony in the Curragh. In time I was promoted to Lt. and saw service in the Signal Corp, Artillery Corps, Air Corps and finally was stationed in the Supply and Transport Corps in Custume Barracks Athlone.
The Irish Scene - Ballads O’D’s fun etc.
The 60’s as they say came late to Ireland but there was an entertainment phenomenon in the pubs, called the Ballad boom. It was led by Tommy Makem, The Clancy Bros. and others. I enjoyed my off duty time having the occasional pint with my comrades in these various venues. If no one else performed we would take out our tin whistles and guitars and play ourselves. In light of what was to happen, I subsequently learned that the Army top brass frowned on our mixing with ‘civvies’ - as non-military people were disparagingly referred to. I am told that even today jeans are taboo in the officer’s mess. One of my ‘faults’ duly noted in my files, “was associating with University Types and bohemians!” These general staff officers had a particular disdain for O’Donoghue’s Pub in Merrion Row Dublin, birthplace of The Dubliners. It was demolished some years ago after a fire and rebuilt. It is still a venue for tourists and as noisy now as then but not so smoky a place.
Auction
In early April 1969 I was sent to Dublin to help organise the sale of old military vehicles. These were mostly used junk land rovers, Willies jeeps, gun towers, staff cars, motorbikes etc. to be sold by public auction in Clancy Barracks, Islandbridge. I performed my duty as required, and afterwards it was publicized as the most successful military auction to date. Everybody was delighted. On returning back to base the following day, I was without warning or caution placed under armed arrest, ordered into a staff car and driven back to Dublin in what turned out to be my very own ‘longest day’. The arresting officer, Capt. Pat Dixon who knew me, and worked with me remained mostly silent throughout the journey. When I queried what was happening the best he could offer was the old Nuremberg cliché “I don’t know anything I’m just following orders.” Dixon handed me over to military police at Army HQ, Parkgate Street Dublin, Phoenix Park. I was marched up 3 flights of stairs and into a bare room that was then locked. It contained two armless chairs, a table and a single light bulb. 1) I was left on my own to stew for what seemed like an eternity.
Interrogation/Interview
During the next few days I was forcefully interviewed and threatened, for hours on end by mainly one officer but sometimes two. No rest, no food no drink and no toilet breaks! Initially I thought it was some kind of endurance test, like those we were subjected to during Cadet training. When I queried the chief interrogator Comdt. G. O’Sullivan as to what it was all about he replied, 2) “That is for you to tell us Lieutenant” Incidentally he was later promoted to Chief of Staff of the Defence forces. I was frightened and confused! Time seemed to stand still for me. I felt terrified by the threats and his general demeanour. He said that I was guilty of such crimes that suicide might be an available option but preferably later as he glared at the barred window! He told me that in wartime I would be shot by firing squad. He left the room many times, banging the door and locking it leaving a loaded pistol behind him. My family would be disgraced he said. He threatened me with physical violence and also a Court Martial, the worst threat for a soldier! He said my fiancée; whose father was a Garda superintendent in Athlone would disown me. He also said that he had a signed statement from a fellow officer, which would convict me. 3) At times he softened his tone exhorting me to resign my commission (stick) and promising me a good reference if I did so (carrot)!
Effects of Interrogation
Nowadays we are fully aware of interrogation methods or “human resources exploitation” as the CIA refers to it. It is a technique, a learned skill like any other. It is a hot topic currently also, what with our involvement in facilitating the kidnapping referred to as ‘rendition’ at Shannon etc. The torture at Abu Ghraib, those wrongly imprisoned for the Sallins Mail Train robbery, The Kerry babies’ case, the Donegal Gardaí, McBrearty etc. In the 6 Counties the Diplock Courts Guineapigs case, and in England the Guildford 4 and Birmingham 6 and on and on! Who can forget poor, dead Dean Lyons, forced to confess to Gardaí to a double murder he couldn’t have committed. These are examples of how the state uses its power to violate people’s rights and to violate the law. I can vouch from experience that a trained interrogator can break any individual, whether innocent or guilty! Interrogation is designed to make the victim feel more comfortable confessing to the allegations put to them rather than holding out. It has no bearing on the truth.
Power over others/man in uniform
(In the 1960s Dr. Philip Zimbordo built a fake prison in the basement of Stanford University, Palo Alto CA. He wondered if anybody could do what the so-called good Germans did – given the right circumstances. Volunteer ($15 day) students were randomly assigned roles as guards and prisoners. After 6 days he had to stop the experiment because of “the cruelty inflicted by the guards on the prisoners.”) Abuse of power. In 1974 the results of the Stanley Milgram tests in the U.S. were published where student volunteers had been told they were participating in a memory/learning test with others. They could administer shocks to the ‘student/subject’ as punishment for wrong answers. The ‘learner’, - who was a trained actor, in another room cried, wept and begged for mercy. HE even said he had a heart condition. Nonetheless 65% of the volunteers gave shocks him that could kill a person. This is what people would do because a man in uniform told them to.
I would have done anything, said anything, or signed anything in order to get out of that interrogation room!
O’Ds pub
On the second day after my arrest Comdt. O’Sullivan finally told me that the issue was a security matter. It had to do with my visiting O’Donoghue’s pub he said. ! In my confusion at the time I was relieved that the guessing game was finally over. I was always in the company of army comrades while out socialising. 4) My situation now abruptly changed from being interviewed to being interrogated that is he started putting serious allegations to me! Comdt. O’Sullivan alleged that an informant had seen me talking in O’Donoghue’s with a known subversive. He advised me to cooperate and confess what I knew to help clear matters up. I answered truthfully, to the best of my ability. He said that individual was also seen talking to me at the public auction. Keep in mind that part of my auction duties, besides organising the thing, involved liaising with the public! Open lie – “kept informed”.
Annual assessment
Every February the army, like any big organisation compiles annual reports on its officers. There are two possible conclusions, either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. If an officer gets an unsatisfactory report he/she must be informed and given a chance to reply. The fact that all my reports had been satisfactory to date gave me a false sense of security, since my latest assessment had been two months before my arrest. I still held onto the vain hope that this mess could be straightened out.
Solicitors letter
On my release I immediately consulted a Solicitor. I believed that the law was there to protect people from this sort of arbitrary arrest and mistreatment (subordinating human power to some external restraint)! I had refused to sign any statements, and consistently declined O’Sullivan’s offer to resign my commission, despite his promising me good references. The solicitor, as a civilian and a lawyer was shocked at the story I told him! He could not believe that I was not cautioned nor could he understand why the matter was not dealt with in my home station. “What about the chain of command” he asked “How could they just take you from Athlone and bring you to Dublin. Where was your commanding officer? What is the charge?” I told him that I didn’t know as they refused to tell me. He advised me to remain silent and to seek a court martial, in order to clarify matters. I asked permission for him to attend the interrogations but, as I had not been charged, O’Sullivan refused. The Solicitor undertook to write to the army on my behalf, asserting my innocence, protesting the unjust treatment and seeking what charges if any were against me? Which he did! The army ignored the solicitor’s letter. Comdt. O’Sullivan then changed tactics from threatening me with Court Martial to denying me one.
False confession It is what it is.
Much research has been done on the subject of false confessions and innocence. As a matter of fact 26 percent of convictions overturned, as a result of DNA testing were false according to the New York based Innocence Project, which seeks to free people wrongly convicted in the U.S. Some of you may have heard of an Irish Law student who was instrumental in saving a person convicted by confession, from death row in the U.S. last year?
Under severe pressure at the time, I confessed to receiving hubcaps from an old staff car sold at the auction.
Innocent people, under interrogation, will confess because of their belief in the system. Some may even confess in order to get away. They feel they have nothing to hide, and give the interrogator what he/she wands in the hope that things can be straightened out later! Innocent suspects have a naïve but powerful belief that their innocence will protect them. I knew that I had done nothing wrong. I felt a proper investigation or Court Martial would prove this, so I cooperated. I believed in the army, in Justice. A trained interrogator can make someone doubt their own memory. They presume a person is guilty and they can lie to them at will while the victim is locked up and defenceless. Research also shows that 73 percent of false confessions are given after more than six hours of interrogation. I endured days of interrogations including from the Deputy Judge Advocate General Of The Army, Col. Emfi. He of all superior officers in the chain of command should specifically have been protecting my rights. He was the senior legal officer in the Army. I have often wondered since then what would have happened had I walked out on the first day, or chosen a spot on the wall and said nothing. It couldn’t have been any worse than what did in fact happen! Victims often blame themselves, the psychologists tell us and I can vouch for the truth of that conclusion.
Retirement by Col. Byrne
After weeks of bullying and false accusations, I was sent to a new posting in Boyle Co. Roscommon. This involved a pay raise and more responsibility. My military friends and my solicitor concluded that the arrest was all a mistake and the army was tacitly admitting as much. The trouble had blown over and they were saving face so to speak! My new job involved taking charge of an FCA platoon with full equipment, transport, guns and ammunition etc. – Boyle is close to the Border, hardly the place to send a subversive? About a month in my new job, I was summoned back to Athlone. I thought it was for a briefing but on arrival I was marched into a room in front of my commanding officer Col. Harry Byrne. He was flanked by other officers, some armed. Within the Military structure, as my superior officer he too should have been defending me. Instead he handed me a sealed envelope saying, “We both know what is in it. You have 12 hours to vacate your quarters.” He ordered me to open it in his presence but I was unable to comprehend what had happened. I was shaking! I felt psychologically crushed, destroyed, humiliated, and powerless! My career was over without any explanation. And not even the fig leaf of Fair Procedures. My solicitor had got it wrong. As Clemenceau, observed Military justice is to justice what military music is to music!
Banishment/Exile
Thus began for me what amounted to a form of ‘internal exile’. Though never charged, tried or convicted I was being severely punished with no possibility of redress. In Ireland anyone who is charged with a crime is entitled to a defence, the presumption of innocence and due process. I am the exception. Somebody accused by the state of being its enemy deserves special attention, because the state can use all its power to violate their rights and to violate the law. The army is not above the law! A lifelong friend told me at the time; “Dónal you were meant to go away and stay away” like a defrocked priest. An Irish solution to an Irish problem. Sadly my father was so ashamed that he disowned me. He had served in the army emergency, known elsewhere as WW II and his proudest memory was a photo of himself on a guard of honour for then Taoiseach Mr. deValera. He was what was known as a Dev man. (Less said the better) He said. “You want me to believe that the President is wrong and you are right?” as he barred me from my home forever! (I don’t feel too bad now that I heard while Sen. McCain was a P.O.W. in Hanoi his dad ordered the bombing of that unfortunate city during the Vietnam War!) At the time I feared for my life. My uncle, who was in the department of defence told my mother, that the IRA would kill me for being an impostor and he observed, that as they had not I must have been involved. He also said there was a photograph of me on an IRA firing squad at the Barnes - McCormack funeral in Mullingar. When I challenged him, he admitted that had not seen the photo himself but had been told about it by reliable sources. This was another fabrication and one of the many false stories spread about me at the time and since. It was an example of how secret lies and rumours can take on lives of their own. I was told later that all door locks in my former barracks had been changed. Talk about the job filling the time allotted to it! As comedian George Carlin remarked, Military intelligence is the biggest contradiction in the world.
Dad/Passport emigration etc.
For months after these shocking events I had thought it was all a mistake and would be rectified. I assumed I would be reinstated and continue my military career. This nightmare had to end. That is a measure of the depth of shock, denial and depression I was in! No one would hire an ex-officer with “retired by the president, in the interests of the service” on their record certainly not for work commensurate with my skills and education. The state even went to the trouble of putting “Profession deleted officially” on my passport (point). This ensured that I was stopped and questioned regularly. As a security issue my retirement had overtones of terrorism and subversion attached to it. I had to emigrate in order to try to find work. First I went to London. It was a dangerous time to be Irish in England. I was harassed and threatened by Irish special branch and held overnight by the English Special Branch in Holyhead. Later I emigrated to the US and after 15 years living there my forced retirement surfaced again when I applied for citizenship. Once I was taken out of the line and interviewed crossing into Canada. That cold feeling and knot in the stomach as I wait in line and wonder if I will be pulled out again for questioning in front of everybody has never left me. Homeland security!
Irish ways and Irish Laws indeed! If I had been part of the IRA I would be feted and welcomed in the corridors of power today! Is that some sort of Irish joke.
Presidential Election exposure
In 1997 President Mary Robinson suddenly resigned her position in the Arus to take up a better offer, at the United Nations. My sister, Adi Roche founder of the Chernobyl Children’s Project, was the agreed Rainbow Coalition candidate in the ensuing election. It was said at the time that this was the dirtiest election in Irish presidential history. The sexists all chortled that it was because mainly women were running and one ex-Taoiseach was heard to remark “that’s women for ya!” During that campaign, someone released false stories to the press about my forced army retirement. Their intent was to enhance the chances of the Fianna Fail candidate, and eventual winner, and present incumbent Mrs. McAleese. She was under severe media pressure at the time because of her associations with (media hounding because she stated that it was important to support) Sinn Féin? All hell then broke loose in the press with wild speculative stories about my past. This sideshow had the effect of taking the heat off the Fianna Fail candidate and needless to say they denied instigating or having anything to do with the leak. Mrs. McAleese sympathised with my sister but she ignored all my pleas and has done so since. The newspapers alleged that I was retired from the army for having I.R.A. connections. They also urged my sister to denounce me as a traitor! The media door stepped me and got an angry drive by photo of me trying to defend myself. She was asked if she would grant me a pardon if she became President that is commander in chief. I never sought a pardon because one can’t seek a pardon without a conviction. All I wanted was fair procedures!
Open season on me!
Journalist and newly selected Senator Eoghan Harris, wrote erroneously that “The fact that her brother would want to change Defence Force regulations is worrying and Adi Roche must distance herself from it.” The truth is that the regulation under which I was forcefully retired (Sec 47 (2) of the Defence act) was amended in 1985, 12 years prior to the ’97 election ensuring that what happened to me could not be done to anyone ever again. Unfortunately for me that amendment is not retroactive!
High Court/Dad Alzheimer/ death.
At about this time my father slipped away into the confusion of Alzheimer’s. After 4 years he eventually died in 2002 and sadly we never reconciled! I remained silent during the Presidential election so as not to further add to my sister’s defeat but immediately started working to clear my name as soon as the election was over. I decided to seek my Army files through a High Court Judicial Review.
High Court Judicial Review
At the hearing in 1998 the state told the High Court that I was guilty, had signed a confession and was therefore wasting the court’s time. Justice Kinlen replied that this may well be so but he suggested that they produce the confession and the necessary files to the court. I must point out the Judge did not make an order, only a suggestion. This became very important and was used against me in later cases. That was on Tuesday. On Thursday the state returned and told the judge that there was no signed statement by me. They also claimed that the files on my case had been lost since 1969. “Someone removed them and did not return them m’lud.” (These are top secret files they are referring to here?) Then they changed tactics stating the files issue was moot and they proposed fighting on delay. I hoped the delay clock should start from the date of the attacks on me during the Presidential election. After 3 years the final High Court judgment was that my delay was “both inordinate and inexcusable”. Statute of limitations applied! The state promptly sued me for costs! As the case had serious merits I got my costs but my petition to get my files was denied. They claimed security would be threatened. They must protect what they called their informants! We never sought informants only the information.
Supreme Court
Despite this setback I appealed to the Supreme Court, with all the stress that entailed. In front of 3 Supreme Court Judges we argued that although my delay was inordinate (excessive) I had some plausible ‘excuses’. A Psychiatrist Dr. Fionula O’Louglin, diagnosed me as suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder which should help explain my inability to seek a hearing earlier. I thought that the enforced resurrection of the case during the Presidential election had made it current. The state barristers waxed eloquent on the security of the state, the seriousness of the case in hand, how the state must protect itself and its informants, these were sensitive matters and on and on . They referred to the impossibility of dealing with such long ago decisions as dead men were involved. The Military as everyone knows keeps files ad infinitum and in triplicate! Actually the main instigator of my downfall, General Gerry O’Sullivan was alive and available and we had told the Court this! The President, they said, never retired any officer “in the interests of the service” except for the most grievous reasons. This is what I call the open lie. Sadly they made light of my PTSD diagnosis. Finally the 3 judges in reserved judgement, agreed with this line and I was denied once more because of delay. Statute of limitations was applied. Freedom of Information did not apply. The State again claimed privilege on the grounds of security. As everybody knows our government is very secretive and is dead set against giving out any information not to mind FOI! I wouldn’t have got as far as I did without the limited freedom of information available at the time. All my legal avenues were now exhausted but luckily, again I was awarded costs.
Press conference JAG review _ DVD time
In 2002 my support group and I, with Don Mullan author of the book “Speaking Truth to Power” called a press conference in Buswell’s hotel opposite the Dail DVD NOW DVD maybe. Sr. Helen Prajean, author of “Dead man walking” attended and she compared my plight to that of being in a perpetual open prison. We gained massive public support including from actors Gabriel Byrne and Helen Barkin, at the time. I went on radio and TV pleading my case. My family and I even travelled to NY to support meetings and got interviewed on Irish radio there. On the Pat Kenny show I challenged the people who attacked me during the election to have the courage to confront me! The interest generated in my struggle prompted the Minister of Defense Michael Smith, to announce a Judge Advocate General’s review of what he referred to in his Jesuitical way, as “all gaps and ambiguities” in my case. I protested that this was the army investigating itself. I wanted an independent investigation and pointed out that Ms Oonah McCrann, B.L. the Judge Advocate General is employed and paid by the Army. During her subsequent investigating she refused to interview either me, my solicitor or any supportive army colleagues. The ‘sub judice’ rule was again applied, silencing us during the review period. My campaign to clear my name was effectively stonewalled, stalled and shut down!
No relief from JAG
After 3 months the JAG findings were secretly leaked to the media before being given either to my legal team or to me. TV3 did a phoney car crash re enactment on their 5.30 news stating, that I knew why I was dismissed etc.! In her semantic laden review Ms. McCrann B.L. found that, although the note keeping by the army was sloppy at the time, everything else was correct. That was true in as much as the open lie is true where she stated that I had been “kept informed throughout the investigation”. She advised the state that no action be taken. Like the other barristers before her she talked about the state’s need to protect its security, informants etc., seriousness of the matter and the unfairness to dead men who made the initial decisions, despite General O’Sullivan being alive and well! She made no comment on the unfairness to me. I got no relief from her conclusions or review, except that my Army files were to be released to me, finally. She had conveniently ignored all unsuitable gaps and ambiguities, such as my ‘lost’ solicitor’s letter and a sworn affidavit from a comrade officer in my defence. This was from the friend who was alleged to have made a statement against me during the initial interrogations! I hoped that at last I would get to see what the charges were - There was nothing!
It was a victory of sorts getting the files but it did not help me clear my name. Interestingly those files the state told the High Court in 1998 were missing since 1969, mysteriously reappeared 2 months after I lost my case in the Supreme Court 2002. Our government is great at lecturing people abroad on human rights abuses but here at home it seems to me, anathema!
It is 7 years later - High Court again 2005!
After the failure of the Judge Advocate General’s review to resolve the issue we appealed to the High Court for a Judicial Review of her findings. 2 years later, in July 2005 her review was quashed. Justice Quirke found that I had not been given “fair procedures”. HE made no order on my forced retirement offering me no legal remedy! I hoped that my name would finally be cleared now or that I would at least get a new, open independent hearing. As the overthrown Judge Advocate General’s review was set up by the state, its quashing should have counted for something! The ministerial directive still stands ordering the examination of all gaps and ambiguities in my case?
Dáil question 2006
Last year a question was asked of the Taoiseach Mr. Aherne in the Dáil, who as we are aware is very militant in defending his own good name, as to what action he proposed to take on foot of the 2005 High Court decision. His answer was that I was aware of the circumstances of my retirement and that it would not have happened except for the most compelling reasons. That is no answers need be given, as you know the answers already. Inaction! He referred the query to Defence Minister Willy O’Dea. Such hypocrisy! One may ask how a people that struggled so long and hard for its freedom, independence and democracy can allow such wrongs to continue. “Too much suffering makes a stone of the heart” said the poet but in my case sometimes I just lose heart. If enough things that are untrue are said about you no one will know what really is true, a lie told often enough becomes the truth! Although never charged, tried or convicted of anything I am permanently blacklisted by this state. Security trumps the constitution it seems? I am fair game for any gutter press hack that chooses to attack me at any time! I am finished with the Irish Judiciary, unless I appeal to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. This could take 5 years and the costs are emotionally and financially prohibitive to me.
CONCLUSION
Finally I wish to reiterate that Justice can never be done to anyone until the injustices perpetrated against them are recognized as such! Power concedes nothing without demand and I demand that my name be cleared and will continue to do so!
Thank you all for your interest and attention ladies and gentlemen. I hope I have thrown some light on the state of justice in this republic of ours, as I experienced it. I would like to present to The Law Society a copy of the book detailing my case, “Speaking Truth to Power” by Don Mullan. This book was funded by the Rowntree Foundation, a peace and Justice Group from England. http://www.jrf.org.uk/ it is available on the web. I was greatly helped by the loyal support of the British Irish Rights Watch (www.birw.org) led by Ms. Jane Winter.
Go raibh mile maith agaibh. Oiche mhaith!
Former Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes of the U.S. Supreme Court said “90% of any decision is emotion. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for our predilections.”
