Man on Seventeenth Day of Hunger Strike Outside the Dail.
international |
crime and justice |
news report 
Wednesday June 07, 2006 13:53
by Michael Gallagher - Photographer
libertypix at yahoo dot co dot uk
Starving for Justice.
Peter Preston, a Dublin family man, is now into his 17th day of his hunger strike. He is being ignored by the Minister For Justice, Michael McDowell.
He needs your support. If you can talk to him at the gates of the Dail he will explain his plight in his own words. Get on to the Joe Duffy show, Vincent Brown, Newstalk -whoever will listen- and ask why is this man on hunger strike and being ignored.
Comments (30 of 30)
Jump To Comment: 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 1If we are the only media reporting this (as we are) and the commercial media are not reporting this because of "libel" this means several things :-
1) we're not worried about the libel.
2) the libel is written down somewhere and has passed from being "slander" to a physical public notice.
Now bringing you through this gently, we're not worried about libel because all we've done is carry pictures of 2 written statements. the first was handwritten & the second is a printed copy of that with date of original "publication". Both versions were "published" (as in made available to a public readership) on Kildare Street in front of the Irish Government within several metres of a permenant Garda presence who we hope have noticed its presence & read it over the last 3 weeks.
So we may presume no serious allegations of libel have been made. Which brings us by anomolous pravity proof theorem to the thought that no libel has been done.
The ball with one little push goes into the courtyard of Leinster House.
Why has a man spent most of the last 35 days fasting on protest without certain politicians making a statement?
... that Mr. Preston gave original documents to a politician and didn't hold on to any copies himself???
Although I sympathise deeply and fully support an open investigation into what happened to Mr. Preston's daughter, the specific allegations against Joe Costello seem to be a tad lightweight and if original documentation did happen to go missing might it have been in error and for god's sake why was original material handed over and not copies?!?!
by getting a firm resolution to the issue( ie not by tricking him off a hunger strike)
This man is ill, he needs help, not supporters.
Tell him to stop starving himself.
The media are ignoring the issue because he has made liabelous statements that they can't report and they are worried that he may be unbalanced.
It is imoral to assist this man in damaging himself
Did Joe talk to him on Monday Im scanning through the monday show im not hearing it, or any radio program
although it was good show on suicide though... http://www.rte.ie/rams/radio/latest/Mon/rte-liveline.smil
http://indymedia.ie/article/76818
oddly enough though the link in the update doesn't come back here.
still. most people have stopped reading this article except for the ones that know about it or read every article with the magic words "hunger strike" fnord in the title. & they're kept very busy you know, what with the merchandising, the racism, the UNHCR, the sly references, the international days of commemoration & so on so fnord.
I'm a media insider - I get text messages from Chomsky
Follow Peter Preston's case & support him and all who will follow his type of action.
& change the language we report such action in.
Allegations have been publically made.
a man has passed from "extended fast" to ( fnord ) "hunger strike",
not much coverage has occured beyond that on this site, which now bears an out of date title.
& do note - yes nota bene how much importance is attached to the word ( fnord ) "rape" in the comments above.
Why hasn't any of the ministers involved actually denied the allegations, so?
I've spoken with the man, and I belive him to be genuine.
I'm not easily swayed or infulenced by the usual conspiracy theorists, but I believe this man. Hes very lucid and in a good mental state. Hes on 33 or 34 days today, and is doing this not for himself, his daughter, or anyone else. He's doing this because he believes that our government can work. Hes doing this for *all* of our civil liberties.
/In my opinion
I work in Leinster House, and would normally never comment on this sort of thing.
But there is a media block on this story, and I want to know why.
More questions need to be asked of this man on the authenticity of these allegations. Whatever one may think of the politicians mentioned I don't think it is acceptable to allow such serious accusations to be published on Indymedia when no evidence has been produced to back them up. People's reputations are being damaged without a shred of proof.
I would ask people to read the statement very carefully before making rash comments. I have not read the trial transcripts or any of the files. Peter is basing his allegations on these. Regarding the use of the word 'rape', Peter doesn't mean of the sexual kind, obviously.
As he states himself, there is more to this than what is in the statement.
Just read the statement.
It is full of unspecified charges against all sorts of people. The word rape is used 3 times.
I would worry about this man, who while passionate is obviously in the wrong on this one.
I mean no slur on Peter. But persucution and conspiracies are the remit of people who need help.
Are you sure that he is ok? Anyone starving themselves needs some type of help especially as the effects of food deprevation sets in on the mind.
I just want to make sure that he is a genunine case as I would hate to think people would be inadvertantly helping a man with problems do himself harm etc.
+
I mean the programme might force some response, in case that was unclear.
Thanks very much for the images. They are readable.
I'll be listening to Joe Duffy's programme tomorrow. Perhaps that will force some of the parties involved to make a response?
.....
Peter, his brother Paul and Independent T.D. Finian McGrath
...hopefully it legible, otherwise I will have to type it in.
Peter Preston is now heading into his fourth week of his hunger strike.
Since he had his statement about his and his daughters plight circulated, there has been a positive response (all be it slow, apart from Finian McGrath who has been supporting Peter from the start) from some public representatives in the Dail. The media now need to honour their duties as messengers of the public and highlight this case.
Joe Duffy of RTE has been made aware of Peter's hunger strike and Peter expects a response from him tomorrow. A copy of his statement will be sent to RTE tomorrow.
My response to some of the comments above. I have been talking to Peter every day since June 2nd. At no time did I get the impression that he was mentally ill as implied by one of the above. I am not suggesting that Peter is right in his assertion that their is a conspiracy all the way up to a high court judge, but nothing surprises me any more about the 'system' in this country.
At worse a conspiracy of the judicial and gardai etc is possible, at best some terrible injustice has taken place resulting in Peter having to take this stand.
Regarding the person wanting to read the placard from a bus??? I suggest you take a short walk (assuming that you get your bus not far from Kildare Street) to the Dail and talk to Peter himself. As he says, their is a lot more to this than can be written on a placard, even his statement doesn't give the full facts. Hopefully Joe Duffy will have this on his programme tomorrow Monday 12th, RTE 1 1.45PM.
I just want to say that I have the greatest admiration for Peter Preston. I found him to be honest, dignified, courageous and above all, determined to get to the bottom of this for his daughters sake.
I put the photo of the placard up in larger file format, but this hasn't changed the size of the writing. I did try and contact indymedia through here to get a statement from Peter posted up, but nobody from the site has responded. I will photograph the statement and put it up later.
Tomorrow is the start of the fourth week of Peter's hunger strike.
Can anybody throw any light on what happened to the news story of Laurence Wheelock's recent arrest?
For a Peter's campaign to become more effective, I think Peter's sign should be re-written in a clearer manner.
It's very difficult for the person who's not involved to understand what he's talking about from the poster.
I pass it everyday on the bus and try to read what it says, but with no luck as the writing is too small if you are passing by in traffic.
I've just had look at it on your website and even when I can read it, the wording is very difficult to understand.
If it was an advertisement it would be written as one big headline with about three lines of subtext to get the message across. The average person wont invest more time than this reading it.
.....I hope to have a statement by Peter uploaded soon. Indymedia seem to be on holidays.
I spoke to Peter on the phone about an hour ago and he's in good spirits. He thanks everyone for their support. I am on my way to meet him now. I will keep you posted every day.
Listen to the Joe Duffy show tomorrow,Thursday the 9th.
I sent a copy of a statement from Peter to indymedia, but just got a reply saying that the guy in the 'office' is away until the 20th. Could someone from indymedia contact me immediately at the number above about getting the statement posted here. I will try and get clearer pic of placard.
laminate it - make it more legible - & then stick a copy up here?
Its a small thing, but I don't like calling the refusal of food a "hunger strike" before the 21st day. I prefer the term "sustained fast" before that. (He needs loads of water, with small doses of sugar and salt to stop kindey failure, & if he's suffering mentally he might just do with mineral supplements of magnesium copper and zinc too...)
Isn't there a danger the Mr Preston is actually unwell?
I have know several conspriracy theorists who have been unwell.
I feel so sorry for his daughter and for him.
But a conspiracy which reaches all the way to the High Court and not only there but certain TDs are in on it too, removing files etc? I think this man may need help and really should not be encouraged on a forum like this where credibility is given to his claims.
I have no doubt that corruption exists and that it is everywhere in our society but what High Court or Garda official would try and subvert a simple assault case? Why and for what motivation?
I think Mr Preston needs help of a different kind especially now that he is starving himself.
and told him , that not one of the people in dail eireann are worth his life.
he agreed but sad it was what he had to do.
He has told his story at the teacher's club during a CIL meeting at which two
public representatives were present. The night denis donaldson was murdered, it was vivid.
I don't think either of those representatives talked to him but I am open to correction.
he will contiue with his hunger -strike and they don't give a fuck.
Thank's Brian for that information. I am sending on a copy of Peter's briefing statement to the indymedia editors to upload. If anyone wants a copy just e-mail me at the above address.
Peter is in good form and holding up well, he did complian of a slight pain in one of his eyes yesterday. He is taking water, tea and a certain amount of salt every day.
Peter Preston
All the establishment have to do is ignore him until he gives up.
It involves a private drinking club in Drumcondra sometimes frequented by the Taoiseach.
Best of luck with it anyhow, its a long queue looking for justice in Ireland these days.!
Peter Preston from Dublin
He has been in a long struggle trying to get justice for his daughter who was assaulted by having a glass pushed into her face in a private lounge pub in Dublin. The upshot is that he feels he can prove through court transcripts that there was a conspiracy in this case involving two police stations and a High Court judge. In trying to get action he has unfortunately had to even go on hunger strike outside the Dail. In any case he gave this evidence to some senior members of the Labour Party in the hope they would pursue it but found out that they weren't really interested and he even states that some documents were changed and some missing when he got them back. He does not absolve these senior TDs from suspicion of being involved in this tampering. His saga of course involves the usual threats and intimidation that are always made against people caught up in these cases.
(from http://www.indymedia.ie/article/72186)
Peter Preston from Dublin:
He explained that it was his idea to invite Joe Costello TD to the meeting and the reason he wanted to do this was to challenge him face to face with certain allegations.... At which point he was cut off by Frank McBrearty who explained that Joe Costello was a friend of his who had always helped him and his family and he would not tolerate allegations like that being aired at the meeting. After much argument Peter resumed his story on the basis that he would relate the facts about his daughter only. So he stated that his daughter had been assaulted with a broken glass in a drinking club and he had established proof of a conspiracy to cover it up involving gardai and judges and for which he had even been on hunger strike outside the dail. At which point he outlined his allegations against Costello. Basically he said that he had given important documents (transcripts of a court case) on his case to Costello and when he got them back some were missing and some changed....whereupon...[Joe Costello replied to the charges as you can read at http://www.indymedia.ie/article/73090 ].
Don't even know what this all about. Perhaps someone could tell us more on what this whole thing is about?
Any further info on what it is about? I dont have the opportunity of going down to the Dáil.
This is a complex case and there is a lot more to this.
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