LIMERICK EIGHT -- POLITICAL TRIAL

national | miscellaneous | news report Saturday January 11, 2003 22:37 by Republican

THE trial opens in the Special non-jury Court in Green Street, Dublin on January 13 of eight men arrested at a Republican Sinn Féin meeting in Limerick over a year ago.

In the 13 months since these arrests it is the consensus of Irish Republicans throughout the 32 Counties and abroad and also of civil rights people that this is nothing short of a "political trial".

The eight men, Ard Chomhairle members Des Long (Limerick) and Matt Conway (Kildare); chairperson of Comhairle na Mumhan Paddy Kenneally (Ennis) and Limerick spokesperson Joe Lynch, Christy Dunne, Pat O'Shea, Ger Brommell, Limerick and Bobby McNamara, Tipperary Town all face IRA membership charges based on the unsupported "opinion" of a police chief superintendent. It is tantamount to internment without trial under the infamous Offences Against the State Act.

The men's trial will take place before a special court about which a former President of the 26-County State produced a well-known pamphlet in the early 1970s entitled The Special Criminal Court and outlined the objections to this sentencing tribunal.

The political purpose behind this State harassment is the attempted suppression of Republican Sinn Féin's continued opposition to British rule in Ireland. The Dublin and British administrations seek the mandatory acceptance of the Stormont Agreement and the handing over of all claims to the Six Counties to the British.

The bail conditions imposed on the men reinforced this with the unprecedented demand that they “do not take part in any Republican Sinn Féin activity” which effectively prohibited them from all political activity. This included campaigning against the Nice II referendum and the campaigning that the men were involved in on local issues.

On August 9 last one of the eight men, Christy Dunne, was abducted and had his life threatened by 26-County ERU members and only escaped by jumping into the River Shannon.

Both Christy Dunne and Joe Lynch then had their bail revoked because the State said they were seen together in a crowded pub in Limerick. The 26-County police have been trying to prop up the notorious “opinion” clause of the Offences Against the State Act with flimsy and ridiculous corroboration. In Joe Lynch's case the police submitted in evidence that he was selling SAOIRSE in O'Connell Street, Limerick.

The 26-County State is demanding the partial disruption of Republican Sinn Féin through the bringing of political charges to a non-jury court.

What price now freedom of expression and the right to communicate and receive political ideas?

• Show your opposition to this political trial by supporting the picket on the Special Court in Green Street, Dublin at 10.30am on January 13.