PDs: The Political Wing of IBEC
international |
environment |
opinion/analysis 
Friday March 03, 2006 18:00
by Andrew McGrath - The Tara Foundation
The challenge currently under way in the High Court to the lunatic M3 motorway has brought out an important fact that the corporate media have, as is their wont with important facts, ignored:
that the present administration has done more to undermine heritage protection than any in the Republic's history.
On January 12th, Gerard Hogan S.C., argued that the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 2004 permits the Minister for the Environment to order the sale or destruction of any monument, heritage site or artefact in the country, if said Minister deems this to be "in the national interest", the definition of this term not being provided. This incredible amendment to previous National Monuments law was introduced as emergency legislation by the previous incumbent, Martin Cullen, now Transport Minister, in response to the Supreme Court decision in 2003 that, not only was the National Roads Authority's wish to destroy Carrickmines Castle illegal, but that Government has a Constitutional duty to safeguard heritage.
The contempt of the Minsiter for the highest court in the land, as expressed by his evisceration of the National Monuments legislation, is symptomatic of the PD-led administration's contempt for the constitution, or more precisely, their rage at the existence of a legal document with the temerity to presume that there are such things as basic rights and protections. It is also a sign of their contempt for the country and its history that they should see themselves entitled to act so openly.
The arrogation to the Minister's possession of all national monuments and heritage sites has been done with a distinct aim in mind: by removing all State monitoring of and guidelines for archaeological excavation, the Minister can now permit for-profit archaeological firms to work the necessary destruction, without repsonsibility for this destruction secruing to the State, or to the office and person of the Minister. Once the corporate media and other vocal interest groups have suceeded in normalising the transference from archaeology as research and preservation to archaeology as something old and useless that gets in the way of progress, the projuect canproceed, with expressions of triumphalist scorn from Cullen and Co. for old thinkers who stand in the way of the inevitable future.
The problem is that the M3, and the roads programme as a whole are simply an excuse for spending large amounts of money in a way that does not benefit those who actually have to pay for them. The M3 will enable drivers to reach the glut of traffic on the M50 in less time than before, but that is all. What is to be done about the increasing dependency on private ownership of petroleum-powered GM or Ford products and the non-existence of a public transport network in the country is, simply, not the administration's business. Their business is to create 'investment' opportunities for land speculators in the Boyne Valley and on any re-zoneable land in the 'Greater Dublin Area'. This is a logical step for IBEC's political wing the PDs, a party which no one elected to Government and enjoys 3% support, yet dictates Government policy and controls its major ministries.
But there are bigger games at work. One of the condidates for the M3 contract, Brown and root, formerly Kellogg, Brown and Root, is well known for its greatest cash-cow yet, the Dublin Prot Tunnel, perhaps the most appropriate symbol of expensive futility imaginable. Brown and Root is the construction subsidiary of teh Halliburton, a corporation that is less than popular in America owing to the investigations by the Pentagon and Congress into its practices, including allegations of massive fraud, bribery and insider trading.
But a friend in need is a friend indeed, and what better way to support ailing administrations to give them tax holidays and vastly expensive prestige projects like the Dublin Port Tunnel and the M3? And waht better way to make this possible than to clear waway a few inconvenient legislative obstacles?
Considering Minister McDowell's willingness to trample on the legal rights of Irish citizens and to sign defence 'agreement' with the US without bringing them before the Oireachtas, it seems that the IBEC administration's policy is to ignore the Constitution wherever possible until the great day dawns when it can be cast aside. and 'who will stand upright in the winds that would blow then?'
Comments (10 of 10)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Martin Cullen left the PDs to join Fianna Fáil in 1994. Cullen was Minister for Environment, Heritage & Local Government from June 6th 2002 till Sept 29, 2004, when that portfolio was given to Dick Roche,(FF) who still holds the job.
Martin Cullen is now head of Dept. Transport - still quite relevant, of course.
Opinion
Government thinking it's above the law (having contempt for the Constitution) also evidenced recently by Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell's pronouncements on Frank Connolly.
If government itself sees law as an inconvenience to be by-passed, why shouldn't we all despise it for the hollow, elitist, pompus institution it is? - same could be said for government.
I came across your web site for the first time this morning (http://www.tara-foundation.org/); and, just in case you might not already know about it, there is some important and interesting historical information regarding the Hill of Tara which is not well known at the present time (as far as I am aware?) - possibly because it is being very deliberately suppressed?
For some strange reason, which I know nothing about, it seems the name "King Ollamh Fodhla" (1317 - 1277 BC) is one which the big decision makers very definitely do not want the general population of Ireland, or anywhere else possibly, to know anything about.
Also, and another even stranger aspect of the situation perhaps, is that the many campaigners who publicly assert the EXTREME importance of Tara - some of them leading archaeologists, historians, and lawyers, are apparently also afraid to explain why - exactly - it is that Tara is so historically important: even though the answer is right there in front of their noses in ancient historical accounts like the "The Annals Of Ireland by the Four Masters" (for example) - i.e. the combination of King Ollamh Fodhla, Brehon Law, and the The Great Feast of Tara (which was started by King Ollamh Fodhla apparently).
If interested, please visit the following address - which I cobbled together in a hurry some months back - just to try and make sure some people at least got to know about the King Ollamh Fodhla connection with Brehon Law and the Hill of Tara - before the mechanical diggers destroyed things that might be well worth preserving: http://www.kingollamhfodhla.com/
People are prone to quote ancient texts like the Bible, the Book of Invasions, or the Annals of the Four Masters as if they are literal truth.
It's worth noting that in the case of Medieval Ireland, the literati depended on patronage, as the old bards depended on it.
History was a political device, changed regularly to suit whoever the writer's latest patron happened to be or what part of the country he happened to be in. Genealogies could be created at the drop of a hat, and dates invented.
With the Book of Invasions, the author/s tried to give Ireland a Classical and Egyptian respectibility to Irish ancestry.
The archaeological and comtemporary historical evidence for invasion from Iberia is scant, but at least there's no obvious political reason why it should be there. Hence, it's more credible than anything written about Tara.
Wherever the Celts went, their druids formulated a geographical system of four areas with an uisnech being the fifth, most sacred province in the middle. Everything points to these being metaphysical models mirroring the Hindu pentarchy.
Hence, Irish metaphysical provinces reflected the pentarchy as follows:
Purple Mide - Kings
White Munster - Priests
Red Ulster - Warriors
Green Leinster - Farmers
Black Connacht - Slaves
In the temporal world, no such geographical divisions existed - but were used to justify political claims based on the myth.
The mythical concept of the High Kinship of Ireland only approached reality for the first time with Brian Boru, who managed to impose something like a feudal system from 1003-1014 AD. 1169 happened because Dermot MacMurragh wanted High Kingship for himself, but he died in 1171 before it could be realised, and Henry II became claiment in his stead.
Insum, Celtic historical sources must be treated with caution. Their motives weren't exactly attempts to get at the temporal truth: they were more taken with abstract ideals.
Found this...
Article From Labour Comment, May 2003
"The News Of The World appears now to be the main mouthpiece of new Fianna Fail. Throughout the invasion of Iraq, the most base and jingoistic stories were appearing alongside half-page columns written by Fianna Fail Ministers.
Murdoch is now backing Ahern provided the Progressive Democrats are guaranteed a place at the cabinet table.
What was once the bastion of a really national, independent and spirited press—Ireland’s provincial papers have all but disappeared—bought off mainly by British interests at exorbitant prices!"
Scroll half way down the page and you'll find it.
http://www.atholbooks.org/archives/pastlabcom/labcommay...3.php
Despite all the work mentioned in the quotations below, why is it (for example) that so many Irish people still know so little about Brehon Law? - which some claim was the most compassionate, and possibly the most advanced, legal system in human history?
"That we have ample means for becoming acquainted with some of the principal provisions of the Brehon code is entirely owing to the labours of two men, O'Curry and O'Donovan, who were the first Irish scholars since the death of the great hereditary Irish antiquarian, Duald Mac Firbis (murdered by an English settler in 1670), to penetrate and understand the difficult and highly technical language of the ancient law tracts. "
"After much laborious work in the libraries of Trinity College Dublin, in the Royal Irish Academy, in the British Museum, and in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, O'Curry transcribed eight volumes full of the so-called Brehon Laws containing 2,906 pages, and O'Donovan nine more volumes containing 2,491 pages."
"Nor was their labour by any means exhaustive. There are many more valuable Brehon documents still untranscribed in the library of Trinity College, in the British Museum, and in the Bodleian, and possibly some fragments in the Royal Irish Academy and other repositories."
"From the labours of O'Donovan and O'Curry the Government published in the Master of the Rolls series five great tomes and a sixth containing a glossary. But these five large volumes do not by any means contain the whole of Irish law literature, which, in its widest sense, that is, including such pieces as the "Book of Rights", would probably fill at least ten such volumes."
The above short pieces of text have been copied from a very much larger piece found at the following location:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02753a.htm
Gerard Hogan SC to the best of my knowledge is a member of the PD's.
Interesting though W Finnerty's contribution to this thread undoubtedly is, perhaps we should come back to the subject in hand: the means by which Fianna Fial and the PDs are systematically destroying democracy - all to further the profit-making interests of speculators and developers - often foreign. They are wrecking our environment and destroying the core values of our society with increasing ruthlessness and contempt. Every instance of this behaviour needs to be exposed and the roles of the key players, (IBEC, EPA, PD's, Fianna Fail and greedy individuals) brought to account for what they are doing. The idea that they are generating wealth for the many is completely bogus. The wealth that is generated remains firmly in the hands of the few while everyone else is lectured about the need for 'competitiveness'. Most of us will spend our entire working lives working to clear the debt that keeping a roof over our heads now entails. How have we have been duped into this form of economic serfdom without noticing it?
Labour costs are too high, these business gurus tell us, castigating the hourly rates the average worker needs to stay afloat in this economy. But ask any one of them what their average hourly pay is and whether they'd care to bring it in line with the amounts they are recommending for others, and you'll find that that's a whole other order of play. Things like our heritage, our countryside and our society mean nothing to any of these people so long as there is a buck to be made.
I have read the recent newspaper reports describing Mr Justice Smyth's very strong decision in favour of the proposed M3 through the Tara / Skreen Valley going ahead.
The two big questions in my mind now are:
1) Did Mr Justice Thomas Smyth known anything at all about the "mountain" of important historical information which very strongly links King Ollamh Fodhla and Brehon Law with the Hill of Tara (as very briefly outlined in the two "comments" I have made above); and,
2) If not, why not?
According to the much respected "Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters", completed in 1632, King Ollamh Fodhla reigned over Ireland for the 40 year period between 1317 - 1277 BC.
All of the several newspaper reports I have read in recent days suggest that Mr Justice Thomas Smyth was completely unaware of the links between King Ollamh Fodhla, Brehon Law, and the Hill of Tara - which not only involve core issues relating to Ireland's ancient history, culture, and heritage, but to Europe's as well. There are also of course plenty of reports which link King Ollamh Fodhla with places well outside the present boundaries of Europe.
What is going on?
Please note that, as can be seen in the bottom half of the page address provided immediately below, numerous senior politicians/lawyers, heritage protections agencies, and media organisations, were informed about the King Ollamh Fodhla, Brehon Law, Hill of Tara links during the most recent "Heritage Week" (September 4th - 11th 2005): i.e. the very small set of crucially important links which give the Hill of Tara, and surrounds, its EXTREME historical and cultural importance, but which almost nobody wants to examine or even take note of at the present time:
http://www.kingollamhfodhla.com/
The leading historians and archaeologists seem (to me) to be saying, for years now, and more recently in a court of law apparently: "The Hill of Tara and surrounds are EXTREMELY important, but, we can't tell you why exactly because the historical information is question is entirely top-secret, or not to our liking, or not to someone else's liking, or whatever???".
It is small wonder perhaps that Mr Justice Thomas Smyth decided the way he did? - and that the proposed M3 now looks all set to go right through the Tara / Skreen Valley.
"If government itself sees law as an inconvenience to be by-passed, why shouldn't we all despise it for the hollow, elitist, pompus institution it is? - same could be said for government."
RJS, to quote from your comment above, my opinion is no. Our point is that the Constitution protects gives Irish citizens their very fundamental rights and therefore Irish citizens should endeavour to guard it from attack.
Let's not let the politicians off the hook here.
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By despising the law as a pompous, hollow, elitist etc. institution you are arriving remarkably close to the position of government itself. What kind of opposition is that?
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