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Search words: shannon Mary Kelly: Sentencing To Take Place Wednesday December 1st: UPDATE - 2 YEARS (Suspended!!) galway |
anti-war / imperialism |
feature
 Saturday November 27, 2004 20:48 by Tommy Donnellan - Galway Alliance Against War
 Mary recently published the below as a comment on a newswire article
Dear Mary, Your conviction is like the re-election of George W. Bush here – a cause for despair – to which we cannot yield. The Irish jury like the American voter was poorly informed and misinformed and that information largely controlled by government here/prosecutor and court there and the corporate owned media which serves economic power and glorifies war and other violence. You performed a miracle under the circumstances in emboldening two jurors to vote for acquittal. I am very concerned about your sentencing and must hope the Court can understand that a government that punishes people for acting, effectively and harming no living thing, on moral principle to prevent war will destroy itself. Thanks for your courageous struggle.
Keep in touch.
Day of Action against Mary's Sentencing: Mary would like people who are protesting on Dec 1st to carry a flower in memory of the 100,000 Iraqi dead. Details here Background Information on Mary's Trial / Report from Mary's Galway Supporters / Reflection on Mary's Trial from Professor Curtis Doebbler (University of Najaf, Palestine) at the Link Below From the newswire (with minor editing): Before the lashing rain forced us to wind-up the leafletting prematurely, a not inconsiderable number were handed out on the crowded street, eliciting warm support, except for vicious comments from two head bangers. With the denouement of her long travail against the murdering Yanks and their contemptible apologists in this country happening in Limerick City this Wednesday, December 1st (when she is up for sentencing before Judge Moran with the possibility of a savage custodial sentence), we felt that Curtis Doebbler's thoughtful analysis of the provenance of the shameful jury verdict and pussy Moran's pusillanimity had to be disseminated and, as such, that was the content of todays leaflet. With the jury exoneration of 'Robocop' Corcoran and this June's Referendum result, it is self-evident the collective Irish psyche/ethos is deeply twisted. We urge all activists and people of conscience to demonstrate their anger on the streets of Ireland on Wednesday when, as expected, the fuckers make a martyr out of her and put the frighteners on the Pitstops and all cutting edge activists. Activists in Galway and Limerick cities will certainly be doing their duty on the streets this Wednesday. The International Human Rights lawyer, Professor Curtis Doebbler (University of Najaf, Palestine) on the Ennis trial of Mary: It is often hard for a competitive and individualistic society to understand one who acts out of moral necessity to help others. Most individuals, judges and lawyers alike, confine their understanding of right and wrong to their narrow vision of the law. They neither appreciate the significance of their own acts nor the acts of others for society as a whole. Instead, they merely satisfy themselves with reiterating the status quo that they think is the best that they and society can achieve.
Ironically, this is the belief upon which our modern society has been based at least since the end of World War II, when governments agreed to respect some basic human rights of all individuals and some basic principles of international law. Mary Kelly's actions and her attempted defence of these actions before Judge Carroll Moran in the Ennis courtroom, reflected the basic values of human dignity that were established by a consensus of our society more than half a century ago, to guide us into a future of peaceful coexistence. Such ideals were too much for Judge Moran to grasp, instead, he retreated to the security of the status quo and rejected the possibility that an individual could act to improve the world. It was not surprising and not unexpected. It is, however, very disappointing to see that a senior judge lacked the courage and the foresight to follow the path set by so many courageous men and women - many of them fellow lawyers - who put our communal aspirations to paper so long ago. These aspirations have formed the basis of our rule of law ever since, but they are now being challenged by policies of lawlessness and violence.
Both Mary, and those observing her trials might be consoled by remembering that it has often been individuals like Mary who have kept humanity on course through such treacherous waters as we face today. And it is often after the worse wrecks that we most clearly reflect on the beacon of human dignity that guides us. After all, even the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted without dissent by the majority of states in the international community and today largely a reflection of established customery international law, was only born from the ruins of the Second World War. Background information and links:
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I enclose comment from Ramsey Clark ex US Attorney General, who due to Judge Moran's adamant "opinion" that any evidence I brought forth relating to the US Military presence in shannon or the war on Iraq was irrelevant, was not allowed testify at my trial. His evidence, plus that of Denis Halliday, ex Assistant General Secraetary of the UN, Dr Curtis Doebbler,
Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon whistleblower, and Dr Siegwart Hosrt Guenter, the world's leading expert on Depleted Uranium, would have informed the jury greatly and put my action firmly in the context in which it was taken. Instead the jury were forced to see me as a vandal.
The pedestrians of Shop St., Galway were leafleted by a diverse group of activists on Sat. Nov 27th 2004 in order to draw attention to the continuing saga of the case of peace campaigner, and direct action activist, Mary Kelly. Nick from the Galway Mary Kelly Support Group, Spanish Veronica from the Nunca Mais movement, me fein (Tommy Donellan) and Tony of the SWP.
Mary Kelly's actions disturbed this smug intellectual charade by showing that individuals can act in meaningful ways to change the world around them for the better. Rather than being confined by short-sighted legal traditions, her acts were based on respect for the most basic traditions of human dignity. Her attempt to stop an act that would lead to the death of others, a clear violation of international law, reflected her belief that we can do better as individuals and as society.
The silver lining,perhaps, is that both Mary Kelly's actions and her pro se defence remind us that everyone can defend the values of human dignity. No social or political podium or starched wig of legitimacy can distract from the basic natural right of every human being to act in the name of the most basic laws decreed by society and to defend their actions based on these laws.
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Comments (57 of 57)
Jump To Comment: 57 56 55 54 53 52 51 50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Judges Moran and O'Donnell have both said in Ennis Circuit Court that they believe there's still an immediacy clause in the necessity defence at S.6 of the Criminal Damage Act (1991). Though it was explained over and over again to them both at Eoin Dubsky's trial and Mary Kelly's trial that there is no longer any reference to immediacy, since the law was ammended in 1997 by the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act (section 20).
The judges couldn't accept that, and so they both came up with the same hypothetical example of someone who they believed could have a lawful excuse under the 1991 Act for damaging property of another (remember: the 1997 doesn't apply in Co. Clare):
If a person was threatening another with a handgun and you grabbed the weapon from them, then damaged it, you could have a lawful excuse under the circumstances.
The trouble is that if the judges don't accept the 1997 Act, then even their handgun-kicking cartoon hero might be in trouble with the law. Though the gun is *right there* (immediate in terms of space), an unfired bullet never hurt anyone. The threat, in terms of time, is *immanant* because you can't tell when or if they'll pull the trigger. Indeed it's quite likely that the person with the gun has no desire to fire the weapon at all, and has only brought it along so that they can get their hands on the money in the till or whatever.
Any idiot can tell why the law was ammended in 1997 -- because to leave it as it was in 1991 would mean that brave people like judges Moran and O'Donnell could only intervene in a gun situation matrix-style once the bullet has been fired, but before it has yet hit the target. That's the UK government's official position on their genocidal nuclear weapons system (i.e. it will only become justicable once the red button is pressed, so you can go to court or break into Faslane *then*).
Sorry to disappoint you but "everyone" knows that there was co-operation between the RIRA and CIRA one made the bomb and one drove it to Omagh, so I'm afraid you cant get the CIRA off the hook, they are both murdering scum
Gerry,
Thought your self reference to being a Catholic worker, may confuse our readership here with the anarcho-pacifist Catholic Worker...no comparisons desired. It's mutual.
No great admiration for the UN (nice "swords into ploughshares" statue, outside the NYC HQ - and one of George and a Dragon whose entrails were made of disarmed SS20's and Pershing Missile casings- ...last time I was there tho')
It was UN sponsored sanctions - unilaterally enforced by US, British and Australian Navies and Air Forces - that killed at least 500,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 during the 1990's.
It was the UN that cut and run after ensuring the East Timorese that they could vote safely in their referendum in 1999.
It was western bank accounts where over 90% of the UN funding dedicated to rebuilding East Timor (see excellent article inrecent Peace News) after the scorched earth policy of the Indonesian military and the 23 years of occupation that preceeded it.
No great faith in the UN, but I like too quote Kofi on this war in Iraq being "illegal" as if you ever end up in court you'll get to know it's always best to get your evidence from a hostile witness than a supportive one.
I'd say, give it a break on trying to trot out the old lie that the Irish tax payer dished out the $US2.5million to repair the killing machine disabled at Shannon. We do know however recent Evening Herald headline,,,another hostile witness! that the Irish tax payer has dished out 6million euros to facilitate the war planes through Shannon. So if there not going to get stirred up by the real 6E, your imaginery 2.5US looks a little paltry.
Gerry as they say truth is always the first casualty of war...but don't feel oblige to put a bullet in it's head when it's lying on the ground.
Don't get so enraged when peace activists don't end up in jail......."Do You ever get the feeling you've been cheated!"
Johnny Rotten last gig in San Fran
Hi Katherine,
I did not ask for any thing from you. All I say is I lived in a war field in W.Africa. I saw both the good work that charity workers did. I also saw a lot of wishy washy incompetence and a lack of effectiveness. We are still doing the same things 30 years later on and we are not learning from what we are doing in the field.
John O'Shea of GOAL calls it as it really is, and cites corruption, tribalism and absolute
greed both locally and nationally as being the key factors that are holding Africa back.
On the subject of waster Mary Kelly, for your information, the Irish Govenment has already stated that they WILL and MUST pay the US Dept. Of The Navy the $1.5m. dollars due.
Well done Mary on behalf of the Irish taxpayer !!
Get real about the suckers you support !!
Regards,
Gerry
Sunshine,
I'm not looking for anything, certainly not comparison with you.
If your friends in the UN had done their job properly, the US/UK axis would not have gone into the mid-east. You guys need to grow up and get a life and get real jobs. Dont talk to me about so called charities, top heavy with fat-cats all chasing the same dosh. The expection of John O'Shea in GOAL who says it as it actually is.
Gerry
That the public record - sanitised as it is by generalised government secrecy when it comes to shannon airport and by the filters employed by the CRH dominated elites in this country - only records the examination of the contents of a single US Military Plane at shannon by any irish citizen whatsoever.
That citizen was Brendan O'Connor, a failed comedian turned attack dog anti war baiting neocon yoof journalist. The plane was the same one mary kelly Attacked with a hatchet and he stated later that the plane (which he inspected after an extremely long period of time had passed after the attack) contained nothing but coke and crisps for the troops. Who let him on the plane? Why? I don't know exactly but one thing is certain - they were American. I would guess that they also had a very fine command of the skills needed for news management.
I called it realpolitik.
In fact eh - I'm amused how the cops think they will get their own way.
Bad luck on this one - them's the breaks.
It should burst the Corcoran bubble.
"sick of mary kelly" wrote:
"alas facts have no place where mary is concerned."
And then preceded to re-iterate the false line that was specifically addressed in Joe's post above. Namely that:"
"it suits mary and her cohorts to give the impression the plane was transporting the entire US military to Iraq. It suits their purpose to call this a war plane rather the the transport it is."
Now, if you read Joe's post above instead of dismissing it as "facts" (!) you'd realise that the point is that a transport plane is just as essential to killing babies in Iraq as is a cruise missile. Without transport planes of "coke an' crisps" for the troops, or transport planes of new boots, or transport planes of young men being sent of to die and kill it would be very hard to kill babies and children and men and women and old people and fanatic Muslims and moderate Muslims and Christians and people that don't give a shit.
Read the post, think about it.
Joe, in answer to your question 'Is either of these 'facts' important.' The answer is NO. You have brought some really useful and relevant FACTS to the forum, but alas facts have no place where mary is concerned. The bottom line here is this, it suits mary and her cohorts to give the impression the plane was transporting the entire US military to Iraq. It suits their purpose to call this a war plane rather the the transport it is. Anything else is just not dramatic enough.
Nice work, but mary needs money for her legal fees, so it's a war plane transporting crazed yankee baby killers to iraq....
Say a thank you to Mary
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=67746
There are re-occurring weird posts on indymedia that seem to imagine it is terribly important that the plane disarmed by MK and the CW5 was (1) A transport plane (2) Maybe only going so far as Sicily. Is either of these 'facts' important?
1) A transport plane
The US military is not composed of a bunch of isolated individuals doing their own thing. Rather it is a collective and hierchical enterprise involving hundreds of thousands of people and tens of billions of dollars. It's supply chains span the globe.
Like most hierchical organisations it has order givers and order takers. Order giver in chief is the US president who seems to have carefully avoided ever being an order taker. While it is the order takers that do the nasty stuff on the ground they do so on the orders of the order givers.
Every link in this chain has a part in the war in Iraq. That is certainly how the military would see it. A plane transporting crates of Playboy for the troops in barracks plays one role in the war, an F15 play another but both are part of the same machine.
So this transport plane helps transport the order givers. Without the order givers none of the killing would happen as the troops would be sitting in barracks back home.
2) Only going to Sicily
a. Get a globe. Look at where the USA is. Now look at where Iraq is. Consider the locations of countries who oppose the way and are not keen on Iraq bound planes using its airspace. Now trace a route that goes from the USA to Ireland and onwards to Iraq. Did you find your finger passed near Sicily?
b. Remember we are not talking of an individual plane but of one cog in a vast machine. Every cog plays a role in keeping the machine going and a cog that has to be replaced in one location stops a spare being available elsewhere.
To quote Katherine 'if you are interested, the irish tax payer didn't pay for the damage to be repaired on the plane Mary disarmed.'
Anyone spot the error here?
Yes, you've guessed it! Mary didn't 'disarm' a 'war plane'. She vandalised a transport plane.
Disarming implies she removed weapons. She didn't. Like a common yobbo she vandalied property, in the name of peace of course..that makes it ok. Right?
Gerry,
Charity is dragging people out of the river. The Catholic Worker movement does this and occasionally goes up river to see who is throwing them in and nonviolently confronts them.
How many refugees and homeless did the U.S. war machine create this time after it past through Shannon Airport. Might be worth reflecting on along with the role of the charity industry here and abroad in maintaining oppression.
So what you worked for a charity loads of people do, including myself. That doesn't mean you are better than anyone else, get down of your tower.
if you are interested, the irish tax payer didn't pay for the damage to be repaired on the plane Mary disarmed.
and if you are interested Mary is a nurse and a mother. She tended to injured and dying people who were besiged in the church of the nativity by the Israeli army. She also acted bravely in this case to prevent killing in Iraq.
Hail Mary!
It has also emerged that the tax payer is massively subsidising these military landings. So the sooner the can be stopped, the the less we all have to pay.
Your attitiude is "Hey, lets have a ball, do our stuff and let someone else carry the responsibility + pay the price".
Someone always pays the price - the TAXPAYER DOES you knumbskull.
When will you people grow up. You think small, you act small, and as a consequence your results and support is small.
Keep up the good work.
Gerry In Dublin
p.s. I worked in Africa as a Charity worker during a major war + took in refugees + looked after them. Apart from hitting planes, what did YOU DO with your life ?
While it might be hypocritical to support RSF and CIRA while protesting other forms of violence, it does not invalidate her opposition to the war in Iraq. To say that it does (which is what I would take 'you cannot have it both ways' to mean) would be the equivalent of saying that as Mary has links to these people and the anti war movement, that all actions of the anti war movement are tainted and invalid. That's a rather strange position for a self proclaimed member of that same movement to take.
It is interesting (in light of the character assassination by some here) that there are others claiming that she has no links to RSF and CIRA. Hopefully, people aren't simply claiming the world is flat because they heard if from a friend of a friend.
Sorry but alinging yourself to a just cause like stopping the war in iraq in my view is tainted by garnering support from groups like RSF and CIRA. and there are conclusive links from them to MS. Kelly.
You cannot have it both ways,
anti american imperialsm but pro violence here
its hypocracy and hurts the cause in mainstream society
so get off your high moral ground and think about the moriality of that situation
I can't believe the amount of people trying to distort the focus of support for Mary Kelly to unproven, unfounded links to the so-called Continuity Irish Republican Army. Not once have I ever heard heard Ms. Kelly mention this group by name or insinuation.
I have however heard her speak out against the occupation of Iraq and Ireland's involvement in such matters. I have heard her speak and read her words on a variety of independent news sources and have read a few articles of support from various news papers - this does not mean she is a representative of or aligned to all of these organisations.
People are rallying behind her because she was/is right. Shame on those of you refusing to do the same because of others supporting the same cause.
Perhaps Indymedia commentators need to get out in the real world and take action, rather than sit behind their computer passing judgment on those that really care.
There are more details from RTE @ http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/1201/kellym.html.
So, Patrick Gageby (son of indymedia whipping boy, Douglas Gageby - http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=65790&time_posted_upper_limit=1088481600&time_posted_lower_limit=1088395200) was representing the blessed Mary. Was he appointed by the State? Who is playing him? He don't come cheap ... we should be told...
According to the U.S. Ambassador at the time, the two disarmament actions at Shannon lead to 3 private U.S.. companies transporting troops to the war to pull out of Ireland.
The state will use whatever punishment it views to minimse and manage dissent.
Obviously someone upstairs learnt from the Brits/.1916 mistake - that prisoners of conscience in Irish jails would not service the continued use of Shannon for the US military and the winding down of the movement opposing its continued use (as promised by Cowen to the U.S. Ambassador at the time of the air war).
Having direct activist police themselves for 2 years on bail and 4 years bound over is the choice they made.
Mary Kelly has been crucified on a cross made from American warplanes.
Mary's mild sentence looks good for the Pitstops in March, PRO-PIT-ious, in fact ?.
Just the pics
The sentence is a very sophisticated one. It is about managing dissent and generating ambiguity. It puts Mary where most of us are -in a state of suspended animation as the killing in Iraq goes on.
The action in retrospect may have been sponatneous and reckless (not even accompanied by a press release that took personal responsibility taher than as a major media spokesperson for the peace camp at the time). Our motivations are awlays mixed ego, compasion, despair, hope. We have good days and bad days. From memory the day she acted was Sharon's victory in Israel and Bush's State of the Union address...it all factors into a very subjective, non-accountable decision.
The solidarity campaign around her trial appeared too personalised and desperate to generate further activism from others against the war rather than a shrinking veneration.
We can celebrate that one less person is in jail. When the dust settles it may be worth revisitng the whole experience.
Four years is a long time to be be bound over to passive obedience while the Irish state facilitates a war against innocent Iraqis. Hardly a victory sounds like the sentence was decided at the highest levels and taken out of the hands of judge personally invested and very pissed off.
from rte Judge Carroll Moran said Ms Kelly had committed more than civil disobedience. He said her action constituted criminal damage. [if this was not a casse of rightful civil disobediance then what is ? ] The judge said society at large would expect him to prevent the sort of social anarchy which inevitably follows when people take the law into their own hands as Ms Kelly had done. However, he said everyone could see she was a woman of good character, driven by ideological motives. He said this did not excuse her behaviour, but it was a mitigating factor. Judge Moran suspended the sentence for four years from today on condition that there is no repetition of criminal damage by Ms Kelly, and that she does not come within a one-mile radius of Shannon Airport.
But Gerry are we not making millions out of refuelling all of them US planes keeping the war machine in Iraq grinding on. But hey if its money your worried about I hear there is an opening for concentration camp guards coming up. Sounds like your just the sort of guy they are looking for, not everyone can look the other way for a price.
Hi you guys,
Remember, despite all that Mary Kelly did, the IRISH TAXPAYER is left to pay a bill of euro2milion to the US Dept. of the Navy.
Thats not funny, despite the righteousness of any cause. That's really clever !
Gerry in Dublin
I'm not sure if not knowing what an Italian name corresponds to gender wise is either sexy or stupid. I still find it unlikely that an anti-war protester would use the term 'anti war crow[d]' in the manner you use it. Or indeed take such a ludicrously sectarian position when an anti-war protester is handed down a sentence.
Not to mention that I'd have presumed an Italian would be aware that Italy is the main transit point on the route to Iraq for US planes after they leave Shannon or Frankfurt.
But, if you are what you claim, your really not in any position to be calling other people stupid!
Ray Hanrahan
Treasurer
Cork Anti-War Campaign
1st December 2004
Press Statement
Cork Anti-War Campaign deplores the sentence of 2 years suspended
handed down to Mary Kelly today by Judge Carroll Moran
of the Circuit Court. This brave individual has risked
her liberty to follow the dictates of her conscience,
which is more than the assembled bench of the Circuit
Court will ever do. We applaud her action that
disabled a warplane and potentially saved lives in
Iraq, matters of fact that the State, through the
presiding judge, suppressed during the trial, thus
denying Mary, an Irish citizen, a fair hearing of her
case. This contrasts with the complete failure of the
Irish state to uphold its own laws regarding the
policing of Irish airspace and military
overflights/landings. The Aviation Act of 1951 is
clear on the duty of the Gardai to search all foreign
military aircraft (or aircraft under charter to
foreign military agencies) landing in the State for
compliance with the provisions of the Act, a duty that
the Gardai have been instructed not to do, for fear of
what they would find. The government has given
permission for these landings at Shannon in defiance
of public opinion and in the face of international
law, thereby facilitating an illegal invasion and
occupation of a sovereign country. Our message to the
government is that the Kantian imperative of ‘Do as
you would be done by’ is not obsolete, and should the
doctrine of ‘pre-emptive war’ be applied to Ireland
anytime in the future, we think the Government should
spare a moment’s thought for the treatment of Mary
Kelly at their hands – a brutal railroading of a
courageous woman whose actions are supported by so
many of her concerned fellow-citizens of Ireland and
the world. If Bertie Ahern ever faces a show-trial at
the hands of his current friends, he’d have no grounds
for complaint – he would be tried by the same
standards he applied to Mary.
ENDS
"Excuse the ignorance but what is a colour party?"
A colour party is basically a group that carries a flag. It comes from the military term for a Flag- Colours since each unit had their own Flag and uniform and these were known as their colours. It was used to differentiate different units in Napoleonic times and remains as part of the ceremony today. A colour party can carry the National flag or unit flag etc. It is usually made up of the flag bearer themself and 2 or more "guardians" who will defend the flag.
Firstly major woody
You must be sexist or stupid, what makes you presume firstly that Nicolo is a female, (Its italian for nicholas) and secondly just because some several people actually agree about not supporting Mary Kelly dont mean one person is writing with different names, perhaps a lot of people are angered by her.
Curious
A colour party is a military group formed to escort or pay respects to an individual or flag, they are in military formation and uniform,
if MK accepted a salute from them then it does stink of hypocracy.
Two years suspended, now that she is off I bet she will stop moaning about the unfair biased trial
This is brilliant!
As I understand it Mary can appeal the "guilty" judgement without risking a harsher sentence should her appeal fail.
BTW What about the bill for the damage to the plane?
What would you law lovers say if it had been the plane used to ferry prisoners to Guantanamo?
Two years suspended seems very reasonable to me. You can not ride roughshod over the law and vandalise at will. This was a supply plane headed for Sicily. Ms Kelly certainly didn't deserve to go to jail. It would even have helped make her something of a martyr. So a wise decision all in all.
A couple of points spiff
1) Bias is subjective, how amazing that only her supporters have found the judge biased. No mainstream media or legal wathcers have reported anything on this. Also I agree the criminal justice system is crap but its crap for all of us and its nothing to do with a politically motivated witch hunt. As for the unfair trial, she can have her day at the appeals court,
2) her defence was based on saving lives, so its fair to ask how many lives she saved (none). The plane wasnt even going to Iraq. But thats not the point
3) If her character is to be judged by involvemnt with CIRA and RSF then she is involved with a lovely bunch of democrats ?
4) Finally it was the jury who decided she was guilty-a group of peers she has to live by it, not everyone suported her actions
5) its relevent to bring this points up because she brings them up
6) were you in shannon to hear her on nov 13th last, if not then dont comment on what you havent heard. What I heard was a sacred person ranting and raving and she never mentioned a biased judge and unfair trial.
**She will get what she deserves, just because she was found guilty dosnt mean it was an unfair trial or a biased judge**
No, the fact that it was a trial conducted by an obviously biased judge means it was an unfair trail and a biased judge and I'm afraid no amount of exclaimation marks will change that.
Your personal feelings about the woman are irrelevant and should have no effect on the outcome of a trial.
I would also say that given the fact that a man walked out of court with a suspended sentence for shooting somebody dead in the back, the bounds of what is legally justifiable are highly dependant on the judge trying the case.
Never mind 'politcal show trials', I'm sure she would have been content if any of the three had been fair trials.
How nice to live in a country where the police can admit, in court, to assualting people who dare to speak out against government policy and walk free without a reprimand but a vandalism case will take three trials and a grossly biased judge.
Yay for Irish justice! I'm sure American planes everywhere feel safer.
Mary,I share the truth of Ramsey Clark's comment that your conviction - like the re-election of George W Bush - is a cause for despair to which we cannot yield.
In both cases evil has cast a dark shadow.
In both cases there has been a triumph of sorts for the violence of the war in Iraq and the United States military use of Shannon airport to prosecute it.
How may times did I hear Judge Moran tell you in Ennis court that you were not allowed to use those very words "the war in Iraq" or "the US military use of Shannon airport". "How many times do I have to tell you", he said, (that you cannot refer to either of those two matters).
You didn't go out that night to do violence but to prevent violence. But in an Irish court you were gagged and prevented from giving voice to the core of your defence. You certainly tried hard - in the absence of the jury - but the voice of the Court was on the side of the State that prosecuted you. There was no justice there, it was a charade.
Whatever your sentence is, your conviction was wrong because the jury were prevented from hearing what we heard: that you had lawful excuse and the war in Iraq and the US military use of Shannon airport were part of that lawful excuse.
I'm very angry when I read some of the comments on this thread from Mike Malone, Toneore and "just another Idiot". The inference is that because cira, rsf supported your action you must be a fellow traveller. I, as a pacifist, support your action and I see nothing wrong with cira or rsf - with whom I disagree - giving you equal or greater support. But don't let these comments put you off. I seem to remember reading somewhere of another convict who before conviction or sentencing was criticised for fraternising with certain people, whom other people were then calling "sinners".
Mary, today you face sentencing and our best wishes are with you. Our family hope to be with you in Limerick in a few hours time.
Whatever happens, you have won. You have given a brave and brilliant witness to the truth.
Sounds like she didn't meet a tough judge in Ennis but an incompetent one that did not know the law.....leaving this verdict ripe for appeal etc.
The reference to Jesus Ghandi et. al is looking at the Mary Robinson Nicola line that you did something morally heroic and now you go to jail. That is lonly a legitimate logic paradigm if you want to maintain a system of empire and a genocidal US navy that at their own admission killed over 500,000 children under the age of 6 enforcing the sanctions (figures are likely to be closer to twice that figure).
Not everyone who carries out an act of nonviolent direct action is a pacifist. Disarming a war plane on the way to service a genocidal Navy tha had killed 500,000 kidz and was revving upto kill (and has since) killed a lot more was an act of nonviolent direct action.
There are lots of reasons beyond the pacifist postiion to oppose having an imperial foreign base in your country when it is carrying out an "illegal war" (Koffi)....one of the reasons is that you might be a nationalist or republican and desire inde[pendence....good luck to you in this heavilly colonised environment and housebroken plastic nationalists running the country. It's not my starting point but it's a legitmate starting point for nvda aginst an imperial war machinemobilising to kill defenseless people.
Cynicism remains the 5th. column of the estalishment and these trolls are wallowing it. Try one day in prison and then come back and be flippant about it.
The Irish legal system sentences itself tomorrow. see Herod servicng the Roman occupation for a relevant historical precedent.
The plane wasn't going to Iraq, it was going to Sicily...how disabling is supposed to have helped innocent Iraqis is beyond me.
Sharing the news:
IT WAS a bad week in court for "peace activist" Nurse Mary Kelly and a good one for the PAYE worker, and for people fed up with her self-promoting spin doctoring.
Last Thursday, Kelly, a professional protester and the unofficial Middle East correspondent for RTE, was found guilty in Ennis Circuit Court of inflicting €1.1m worth of criminal damage on a 737 US military plane in Shannon without lawful cause on January 29, 2003.
At one surgical stroke, the jury denied Hatchet Kelly, her supporters from Cork, and her gypsy-chic Shannon settlement cheerleaders the heroic political status and oxygen of publicity they crave - and which they have never been refused by RTE.
Kelly has always been the Father Neil Horan of the anti-war movement, favouring reckless stunts over sober debate whether it's in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem or Shannon airport. But Kelly's politics are as hard as the hatchet she used at Shannon.
Two years ago she got an award from an American support group linked to dissident republicans. Nurse Hatchet is also an icon of the Socialist Workers Party. At far-left fringe meetings she is given the same messianic status as Bubba Clinton at Candidate Driftwood Kerry's swing-state rallies.
Kelly revels in her notoriety and is adept at posing for Soviet-style Mother Courage photographs which play up her Siobhan McKenna faux-heroic features. Narcissist Kelly has her own website complete with a tasteful sketch of an axe with the caption: Mary Kelly: Axtivist. The media has hidden her hard edge. At the last trial even the DPP man seemed deferential.
But in Ennis she met a tough judge and jury who showed Kelly for what she was: a vandal who rose at 4am one morning last year and attacked a US plane with a hatchet, causing €1.1m in damage - a bill subsequently paid by the State; that is, by you and me.
Kelly could have had free legal aid. But by defending herself she hoped to awe the provincial jury and intimidate them into accepting a big-city political show trial.
Judge Carroll Moran made sure that his trial was not hijacked by a professional anti-American agitator and directed the jury to stick to the facts. This left her balloon floating on hot air and the jury promptly pricked it. She'll appeal of course.
Like Fr Neil Horan, she's a publicity hound who has to have a Second Coming. But the judge and jury in Ennis have dented her as deeply as she dented the American aircraft which was flying brave men to fight and die for democracy in a far land.
Mary's judge seemed determined to send her down. I had a judge the two months ago in the same court (O'Donnell) who also refused to understand that there is no longer any "immediacy" clause for the "lawful excuse" defence against a charge of criminal damage (under the Criminal Damage Act 1991). The Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 changed that part of the Criminal Damage Act.
Great care was taken to explain, and re-explain the law over and over to the judges. There was no protest from the prosecution, and the judges never said why they wouldn't accept the 1997 Act.
Alas to be kind to judge O'Donnell, I didn't think he was the brightest crayon in the box when I saw him anyway. His eyes are very close. But J Moran, who had declined before to take my case on grounds that he may have a "conflict of interests" (my uncle bullied him in school... was that it?) should surely be smart enough to get his heard around all this stuff. 1991, 1992, ... 1997, ... 2003, 2004! You see?
"seeing as it is a US Navy plane, should not have been on Irish soil in the first place. We are supposed to be neutral, any breach of that needs to be put to referendum."
Why should it not have been here? It was a plane delivering spare parts to Italy. It was not involved in the Iraq conflict. Neutrality does not stop military planes landing here except in time of war.
Secondly, Neutrality is not in the constitution and does not require a referendum to be breached.
Thirdly, Ireland is not neutral. We are NON-ALIGNED.
As Antiwar Ireland have a solidarity demo planned for Mary (from 9.30am to 1pm) can all activists be outside Limerick courthouse at that time rather than 10.00am?.
btw the way it was non-violent as you said she damaged _not injured_ a plane. there's a whole wolrd of difference
Given the degree of damage done a custodial sentence looks likely.
A non-violent approach could have well articulated the point better, if there was one of any merit to be made in the first place.
If a custodial sentence is imposed that will take an active campaigner out of circulation and that strikes me as very counter-productive.
An appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal against conviction and sentence should prove interesting.
The emotive rants on part of our right wing press seem to have had little effect on readers here. So, next time someone with a stupid name like 'righteous pragass' writes in, be glad he is the one getting miffed with his holier than thou attitude.
People who look at life through that narrow view end up getting stomuch ulcers and been hated by their kids. Hippies live longer, unless they take too much drugs. But generally, old hippies into alternative heatl care are more pleasant to look at than say, oh, Brendan O' Connor will when he is fifty.
She stood for preventing the war, her attack on the plane was symbolic, and, seeing as it is a US Navy plane, should not have been on Irish soil in the first place. We are supposed to be neutral, any breach of that needs to be put to referendum.
At the end of the day, though, people don't give a tinkers toss about principle, etc. Unfortunatly, Mary will fall not only to the predjudices of the right wing rimmers that dictate thoughts via the judicary and Blue shirt media, but to the general apathy of the population regarding examination of principle. People worry more about pensions these days. Sometimes I wish revealations in the Bible would actually happen.
Mary Robinson also recently used the phrase "paying the price" in reference to the disarmament actions at Shannon. I assume she meant, as you do,....just like Jesus, Martin Luther Kng, Ghandi and all the other people throughout human history who didn't take the carrot or the stick and accept that killing kidz (in Iraq this time) is just the way things are we must be killed imprisoned, punished, whatever.
That's the price for stepping out of line, because this violent and exploitative system has to be maintained and kidz have to be slaughtered to maintain the privilege and power we have become accustomed to. Well I don't think obligatory price should be paid/is fair enuff and don't think this system should be maintained.
If Mary is sent to jail tomorrow there is a certain logic- if this country wants to surrender a civilian airport to a war machine that practises slaughter, theft, rape, torture, incineration as policy then I guess serious peacemaking becomes criminalised and off to their jails we go.
If Mary is sent to jail she joins a lot of great people both civilian peace activists and military resisters now before the courts and court martials (US/UK/Right here right now), in jails & military brigs for nonviolently resisting this war.
Solidarity from the outside is called for with all this folks on the inside. Mary is not being nominated for canonisation she is being sentenced tomorrow. At trial she was not allowed to mention Iraq or the war...so you do the math on whether she has had a fair trial or not.
Solidarity to her.
As Mary will be entering the court at 10.30AM, it is important that all activists be there at 10AM.
The Courthouse is on George's Quay, North East of the Hunt Museum !
Dear Mary Kelly.
My family and I live in a town called Merrick, on Long Island, NY - about thirty miles from New York City.
Only last week, while listening to WBAI's "Radio Free Eirinn" did I first hear of you and your action at Shannon Airport. Since then, I have told your story to as many people as I could. I wrote the judge on your behalf and insisted he sentence you to time-served (sic).
Your action toward that US warplane was one of the most inspiring, bravest, and selfless acts I have ever heard of. You knew how wrong it was for those planes to be there and you did something about it. If only there were more Mary Kelly's.
My daughter, ironically named Erin, is turning seven years old on Wednesday - the day of your sentencing. I was talking to her about what you did and why you did it (in an age appropriate way). I also told her that you were in a lot of trouble now. She responded by saying "Why does'nt she tell them why she broke the plane? How could they be mad if she was trying to help people". A tear came to my eyes as I realized there was no way I could explain the injustice of your trial to her. I have long distrusted the courts when it comes to matters involving anyone who is opposition to the government. Even I found it hard to comprehend the restrictions put on your defence. A girl in America less than seven years old has more sense and compassion than the judge who tried your case.
In today's world, it is sometimes hard to find heroes. You are on of them. Those who carry guns or fly planes killing people they have never met, are not the types I will ever teach my children to look up to. Those who act because their conscience demands it, without regard for personal consequences, are the people I most respect and who I teach my children to respect.
Thank you for everything you have done to try to bring some light into the darkness which plagues so much of today's world.
Good luck on Wednesday. Keep the faith.
With much respect,
Greg Penny
(address withheld for obvious reasons)
Day of action Against Marys Sentencing
Antiwar groups have organised a day of action against the war on Dec 1st 2004, the day of the sentencing of Mary Kelly in
Limerick Circuit Court at 9.30 to lunch time.
In Dublin we are organising a demo at Government Buildings Merrion Sq from
1 to 2pm.
There will also be a picket outside Dail Eireann at 6-7pm for those who can't make the lunchtime event.
In Limerick we are organising a demo outside the Courthouse, Limerick City Centre in solidarity with Mary from 9.30 to 1pm.
We have prepared some resources for download on the Antiwar Ireland
website here:
http://www.antiwarireland.org/downloads.htm
Please download, print and circulate as much as you can.
For more details you can contact fairviewantiwar@eircom.net or info@antiwarireland.org
only says Court House Limerick from 9am onwards?
and if want to show your support in Dublin its Government Buildings Upper Merrion Str 1-2pm
I'd like to go along and support Mary on Wednesday. Anybody know what time the sentencing is at?
This pic shows Mary in pristine form at the candlelit vigil in Galway to mark the burial of Yassar Arafat - no doubt, after, what seems to me the inevitable despicable custodial sentence is visited on her on Wednesday, she will have both fists punching the air in defiance.
St. Mary
Thanks a million for being a continuous presence in Glaway, despite weather, harassment,and at times the disinterest of people. Keep going keep strong and keep heart. Beir bua!
I enclose comment from Ramsey Clark ex US Attorney General, who due to Judge Moran's adamant "opinion" that any evidence I brought forth relating to the US military presence or the war on Iraq was irrelevant, was not allowed testify at the trial.
His evidence, plus that of Denis Halliday, ex Assistant General Secraetary of the UN, Dr Curtis Doebbler,
Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon whistleblower, and Dr Siegwart Hosrt Guenter, the world's leading expert on Depleted Uranium ,would have informed the jury greatly and put my action firmly in the context it was taken. Instead the jury were forced to see me as a vandal.
Dear Mary,
Your conviction is like the re-election of George W. Bush here – a cause for despair – to which we cannot yield. The Irish jury like the American voter was poorly informed and misinformed and that information largely controlled by government here/prosecutor and court there and the corporate owned media which serves economic power and glorifies war and other violence.
You performed a miracle under the circumstances in emboldening two jurors to vote for acquittal.
I am very concerned about your sentencing and must hope the Court can understand that a government that punishes people for acting, effectively and harming no living thing, on moral principle to prevent war will destroy itself.
Thanks for your courageous struggle.
Keep in touch.
Ramsey