Cork Peace Alliance needs Urgent Legal Help
national |
miscellaneous |
news report 
Sunday April 13, 2003 11:00
by James Mckenna
jimmymac61 at hotmail dot com
The activists are great but the Solicitors are few
Members of Cork Peace Alliance have been given very heavy suspended sentences and fines for paltry offences. Both parties tried unsucessfully to have their cases adjourned and were forced to go ahead with inadequate legal help.
There is a desperate URGENT need for good legal backup for activists who have ongoing court cases and also for people who want to do actions.
If there are any Solicitors reading this who could help please contact :
corkpeacealliance@yahoo.com
Comments (11 of 11)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11If you have any more details please post them up. What happened? What are people charged with? When are/were they in court?
There are quite a number of lawyers in Ireland who support protestors against the war... try legal@gluaiseacht.org, the golden pages, or your local citizens' advice office for details.
A good website for people who would like to use their time in court to put the war on trial, so to speak, is http://www.tridentploughshares.org/legal/
...Again, details if you have them please.
One person got a 3 month suspended sentence for 5 years and banned from Shannon for 2 years plus a hefty fine, the other got a 5 month sentence suspended for 7 years for a trespass charge on Old Head of Kinsale, and same person is due in court again re an action at Shannon.
We need good solid legal backup so that activists faced with crippling sentences and fines can get the best advice on how to fight back.
So, people got suspended sentences. Big deal! Don't do the crime if you can't deal with the time. I mean that quite seriously. Who cares about a suspended sentence? It's not as if you're going to jail or anything. Get on with the anti-war struggle and support those up on charges, but please don't fixate on it. Let's not have our agenda set by the gardai and their petty harassment. A suspended sentence is as good as no sentence.
C'mon, a suspended sentence is a little different from no sentence. If you're found guilty of a criminal offence again within x years you're likely to do some time for it.
People have continued their resistance to war in jail though, and because of their example we can hopefully deal with our fears of incarceration too and get on with it. Think of Karen Fallon (Pitstop Ploughshares - Catholic Worker Movement) who refused to take bail again this week, or Mordechai Vanunu in Israel even.
A suspended sentence isn't nothing, though when seen in the light of what our brothers and sisters are enduring (under what Mary Harney recently called "the rule of freedom"), it seems surely a small price to pay.
Why this someone get a suspended sentence in shannon.what was the charge?
Eoin, my comments weren't intended to sound 'hardcore' or anything other than how I see it. A suspended sentence is a 'get out of jail' card. It's a damn sight better than going to jail and it's not something to cry about. If you engage in civil disobedience or 'direct action', then a jail sentence is always a possible outcome. People know this beforehand and, frankly, to start crying about it afterwards is ridiculous.
More importantly, when so much work needs to be done, it would be utterly stupid to devote an inordinate amount of energy to shouting about people with suspended sentences and fines. Yes, they must be supported and money raised to pay expenses. But, ultimately, all that stuff is a distraction from what we're really about. Are we an anti-war movement or a prisoner support group? (and, of course, these people aren't even prisoners).
Let's do civil disobedience and direct action. But, those arrested can't expect the campaign to suddenly revolve around them. I've been before the courts for political actions and I just got on with it.
I see that Eoin Dubsky in first comment above tells us to check the golden pages or local citizen advice bureau! Duh!! Us ticks in Cork would never have thought of dat. Tanks Eoin.
This banning from Clare thang...which this Judge seems to tack on to every sentence that comes his way (generally for odc'S etc). ...seems a tad unconstitutional...as opposed to maybe a ban of a certain radius from the airport.
What's this all about then?
Sorry, pal. If somebody has been has been given a suspended sentence and a fine for their anti-war activities then it is up to us who are not as brave to attack a nose cone of an American bomber with an axe to do the right thing and at least pay the bloody fine. It takes a lot of guts for somebody to actually get out there and cut some fence wire or attack an American killer aircraft or stand up against Irish Police who work for America.
Donate your dosh now! Send cheques to Mary Kelly, c/o Con's boatyard, Baltimore, Co. Cork, Ireland.
No offence but i would rather send my money to the ploughshare movement.
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