Ploughshares Trial Day Two

by Elaine Tue Oct 25, 2005 23:17

... we took shelter under the tree and broke out the flask of coffee. It was a good chance to get to know other acitvists both Irish and from abroad.

Fr. Martin Newell Leaflets Outside The Four Courts

Shelter From The Storm

Irish - Not This Time - Eileen (Liverpool) Fr. Martin (London) Carmen Trotta (New York) And Eric (Scotland)

Martha Keeps The Beat

Sheila Leaflets The 83

by Elaine Tue Oct 25, 2005 23:26

from the tree to shelter from the driving rain. At four, just as we were packing up, the sun came out.

Toby Olditch, Eileen, Farah, Per And Sheila Hiding At The End

Sheila, Sister Susan Clarkeson And John FitzGibbon

Banners This Good Don't Grow On Trees

by Nixer Wed Oct 26, 2005 00:20

Report from Ireland on Line
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=160375666&p=y6x37637z

by Paul Moloney Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:25 paul_moloney at hotmail dot com

I'm curious to hear anything about the trial itself, rather than the antics going on outside the courtroom. Does anyone have any info?

P.

by Liam Herrick Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:34 liamherrick at hotmail dot com 0872351374

I'm also very interested in the trial itself, is anyone keeping a transcript of the case? If so, I'd love to see it.

by St.John Wed Oct 26, 2005 15:03

Best wishes and mucho solidarity!!!
Would love to read more, like said above, from another source aside from Ireland On-Line.
Best of luck - your actions speak for many people

by Lara Hill Wed Oct 26, 2005 15:18

There is a good article about the trial on page 2 of today's Irish Times.

by Angie Zelter - Seeds of Hope & Loch Goil Ploughshares Wed Oct 26, 2005 20:32 acquitted twice!

My thoughts and prayers are with you all - I have good feelings about your
trial - love and hugs to you all, Angie.

by Ronan Wed Oct 26, 2005 20:35 Mozambiqie

Prayers and solidarity from Mozambique Ciaron & All,
with you in spirit,
ronan.

Ronan White,
Nampula,

by marcusneofitou Thu Oct 27, 2005 01:01 marcusneofitou at hotmail dot com

I hope that you all get the message across and are acquitted.

Ciaron,
we are thinking about you in Australia and send you lots of love and support.

Thank-you for standing up for peace.

Marcus

(From your Jabiluka days)

by tim collins Thu Oct 27, 2005 04:15

best of luck ciaron and friends. our thoughts with you in melbourne aust.

by Seán Ryan Thu Oct 27, 2005 07:11

Best wishes to those who chose to defend us and our country, at a time when our military forces were not ordered to, but instead were ordered to point weapons at Irish citizens on Irish soil at Shannon.

Before I go further, I'd like to point out that I have no legal qualification and what I have to say is a product solely of my opinion. So if I libel or defame any person or persons associated with the capitalist dictatorship that I find myself oppressed by, feel free to sue me.

To me, the guilt or innocence of those accused is an issue, totally without merit. That they chose to attack a plane that was the property of the American military, the very same military who was not under the control of our Óireachtas, and who was therefore here illegally via the terms of our constitution. In layman's terms the forces of a well known warmonger were in our country and were here in a fashion that violated our constitution. Let me rationalise this for a moment - If an American citizen can bring his army into my country without my consent, can I not raise an army, and smite Bertie and his minions from the land? In the very same country. In fact, my country. I think this is a constitutional vagueness that needs to be addressed. Furthermore, it needs addressing now. I am prevented from raising an army in the constitution via many articles, the article on treason immediately springs to mind. Now if old Georgie Shrub is allowed have an army in my country and I'm not, then I'm being oppressed. More to the point we are being oppressed as a nation.

Genocide and in particular the Genocide convention depict many ways in which a people may be destroyed or irradicated. To remove a culture from existence is a popular theme. I suppose Irish culture has been influenced by the chains of slavery for generations, we understand it, we're used to it. Instead of landlords we now have "bankers" et al. But slavery is not the root of what we were or what we rose from. The apathy we experience now is not true apathy, but a response mechanism. Similar to a child who is dissapointed often, we learn to mask our hurt and resentment. But the Irish are not a "child" race. Our constitution feels that by promoting the individual we promote our society itself. I too feel this way, I say our government acts in a fashion contrary to this aspiration. I also say many others too are conscious of this and more become so all the time. When we cannot dictate the courses of our lives we become slaves. The Irish are not slaves and have not been bred to be slaves. To make a race of slaves out of the Irish who were born to be anything but slaves is genocide.

When I was born, why was it not stamped into my early existence, that I was property of the State?

If it had been, maybe I would have not been so bothered about it now. Why is it that the constitution is considered to be a legal contract between citizen and State? More to the point why am I legally bound to it when it does not contain my signature, and furthermore allows my government to continue to act in a way that revolts me.

I have posted another article on our "neutrality policy" elsewhere on Indymedia so I won't go into it fully here. Basically my premise for this article was that the preamble of our constitution has legal merit, and that our government's actions in relation to this preamble violated this premise. The part of the preamble that was my particular focus was as follows:

"And seeking to promote the common good, with due observance of Prudence, Justice and Charity, so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured, true social order attained, the unity of our country restored, and concord established with other nations"

It all seems simple to me really. Our treatment of the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq via our collusion with the warmongers did not promote prudence, justice or charity. It certainly did not promote the dignity or freedom of any individual. And it did not seek to promote concord with either Afghanistan or Iraq. Some might say it promoted it with America, maybe, but more like compliance I say. Finally, it didn't promote the common good unless there are at least two parties, henceforth referred to as Them and Us.

Furthermore our corrupt system prosecuting those who actively seek to employ these values is perfectly understandable.

The system protects itself, that's simple evolution for you. However the fact that the very same system is not currently kicking in the doors of those in "government" despite the fact that this same "government" acts repugnantly to the very authority that defines the system to begin with. Now that worries me.

To act in such a fashion or to do nothing and promote such a thing is in my opinion to act in hostile fashion with reference to the preable also.

I'm not saying, "Go out and break the law." That would be both stupid and wrong. Most law is derrived from what are self evident examples of "right" and "wrong." However to have to intuitively obey a set of laws that it takes close to a decade of education to be considered an expert on, is to say the least, stupid.

For instance. If a spaceship lands in my back garden and little green men pour out of it, and I know that they are armed to the teeth, and I also know that they are not under the orders of my government, I feel it is my right to consider myself and my country under a state of attack. I feel it is both natural and within my rights to do so. What's the difference between George Bush and a martian?

In case my comments in any way prejudices the case or anything else about five defenders (rather than defendants) I'd like to point out that we don't know each other or have association and again that my views are only my own.

I'd like to leave you with a thought. Many muppets claim that the numbers of people who participated in opposing the American war machine were hardly representative of the people of Ireland. I don't know whether the views of these people are held by the majority of people in this country or not. But what I do see as representative, is the ammount of Irish citizens who turned up to protest America's right to commit attrocities, and the right of the Irish government to facilitate this.

War machine out, neutrality and sovereignty in.

Sláinte

Seán Ryan