The Missing Women Roll-Call
national |
rights, freedoms and repression |
opinion/analysis 
Monday October 09, 2006 21:45
by Missing
Stop Violence Against Women.
Since the highly publicised case in 1993 of the disappearance of Annie Mc Carrick
there has been little done in the way of Gardai Resources to tackle the issue of
finding the women that have gone missing along the East Coast of Ireland.
There has been little done in the way of resourcing to combat the violence which
has led to the death of two women, and the disappearance of one Meg Walsh
in Waterford.
No-one has been brought to Justice for the death Of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.
Where are the Department of Justice resources going?
Some of the names of the women.
The campaigns to locate loved ones are driven tirelessly by the families.
Including the endless work of the Deeley family.
Trevor has been missing years- its not alone about missing women, but
about an under-resourced missing person's network, but is written in the context
of the disappearance of Meg Walsh (35) mother, who reported feeling 'unsafe'
just before her disappearance.
Today there was an inquest into the death of a woman whose body was found
wrapped in blanket on Mercer's Street, her partner took a lump hammer to her because
'she bit his ear during sex'.
A woman was founded strangled and tied to her steering wheel in Bluebell,
her husband walked free- Murder could not be proven.
The murderer of Sophie Toscan du Plantier has never been found. Her parents
travel to Ireland every year to lay flowers in West Cork.
The bodies or wherabouts of Annie Mc Carrick. Jo Jo Dullard. Fiona Sinnot.
Deirdre Jacob. Fiona Pender have never been discovered.
Parents have died not knowing what has happened to the children they named,
cared for and brought up.
Meg Walsh is a mother. She is missing one week.
There is no trace or line of enquiry.
There are sightings.
There were sightings of all these women.
In the nine year regime of this government, there has been inadequate resources
directed to the search for answers in relation to the survivors and loved ones
of these women.It's a small country.
The disappearances were in largely rural locations.
Most of them were dotted along the East Coast.
The issue of resourcing the searches is a cop-out.
Stop violence against women travelling in this country.
Images of the missing women are on ; http://www.garda.ie/angarda/missing.html
Comments (22 of 22)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22The Gardaí have put huge resources into cases such as these. Maybe occassionaly you could stop the whining and the hysteria and recognise the facts and the truth of the situation. I have great sympathy for these women and their families but so do the Guards.....who have worked tirelessly to solve these cases. Using every opportunity to badmouth them and run them down damages your own credibility.
Getting the facts straight will help your credibility.
That women bit his penis during sex, this was backed up by evidence presented in court. Clearly this doesn't justify violence but the facts should be known.
The trauma of families and friends who endure such an experience is overwhelming enough. Any reasonable or sane person would take it as read that the authorities in the relevant area would facilitate people in every manner possible, to assist in finding the missing person. This however, is incredibly, not the case. In Dublin City, Dublin City Council, DCC instructs its employees to remove and destroy all posters including Missing person posters. They are on the record as having this as their "policy".
In mid March of this year DCC removed a missing poster, the young mans body was taken from the Liffey 24 hours later. Th only paper coverage of this was by PHOENIX magazine ! A number of citizens campaigned and won to have the unconstitutional ban on notices of public interest/concern revoked. This happened last May 22, but the council and its employees continue to remove and destroy all such notices including missing person posters.
I got a call that friends of a 15 year old wicklow girl had placed the missing posters on commercial posters last night in Dublin. A good idea since thesae posters are not considered to be "Rubbish" by DCC. Terence O'Keeffe is solicitor for DCC and he is responsibile for all of this, without his imprimatur these things cannot happen. He can be contacted at Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin 8. Someone might put his phone number up here I do not have it to hand at the moment.
In addition to all of this, there is no helpline for missing persons, it was closed down on the "reasoning" that there was no one using it ! I kid you not. They had not advertisied same and closed it some weeks later.
The Govt should be held to account as well as the unelected MANDRINS in city hall. L G
Yeah it is a disgrace alright and something can be done about it. Particularly if the media pick it up, now might be the time with the media focus on this latest case. Contacting your local councillor could also help with this.
The families have driven the campaigns.
The Gardai may publicise regularly but there is not enough resource
used in this country to deal with the issue of violence against women.
This morning the body of a woman was discovered in the passenger seat
of a burnt out car in Smithfield.
The emergency services were contacted at 4am, after local reports of a burning vehicle.
Jo Jo Dullard disappeared after calling her family.
Fiona Sinnot who was pregnant at the time has never been found.
The Deeley family were out night and day leafletting all over Dublin Looking for information
and help.
The posters have been torn down, vandalised and abused.
On anniversaries of the dissappearances it is the families who again seek help
with their queries.
Annie Mc Carrick's father travelled every year to this country in the hope of finding his daughter
or news of her welfare. He never got answers.
The family of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier visit every year on the anniversary of her death.
If the people in the comments above me consider that sucessive ministers
for justice have addressed the issue of violence against the women who travel
in this country to be properly resourced I would say that their stance is illogical.
The priority seems to be given to gun crime and beating up protestors.
That indeed is a vicious circle and suggests an administration with little priority.
Can the Dept of justice produce figures which say that campaigns to stop Domestic violence,
Rape are adequately funded?
Are refuges funded ?
Is education on safety for both teenage boys and girls funded adequately by this state?
In the last twenty four hours a man was shot by emergency response in Gort.
A woman was found dead ina burnt out car in Dublin.
These are all very tragic cases. Sadly, in many of these cases the woman was murdered by those closest to them or by somebody they were involved with. What can a Minister or any Garda do about an act of violence like that? What can a Minister do when a disturbed individual takes it up on themselves to murder an innocent woman?
Investigations ARE properly funded. The Gardaí have put huge resources into investigating them and have sought the best international expertise in doing so.
Refuge centers are funded and the wages of staff paid for by the HSE.
The posters issue is separate to all of that.
There are currently eighty women missing in Ireland.
The Annie Mc Carrick case onward has revealed no bodies for the families to bury.
Now three women have died violently in the last couple of months as
a result of domestic abuse.
One : Meg Walshe is missing eight days.
She reported being in fear of her life to numerous friends before her disappearance.
Separate the two issues.
Violence by lover/husband/friend leading to death.
and
Missing without a trace for 13 years.
1. resourcing of education to kids about violence and its repurcussions on the person
in our schools.
2. The re-opening of the missing person's help-line.
3.The re-sourcing of a continued search for the bodies of the dissappeared women
in order that their families would have closure.
As reported earlier, the body of a woman was recovered from the passenger
seat of a burnt out car this morning.
The naked body of a woman was found wrapped in a blanket on Mercers Street
a couple of months ago.
The issues of violence against women in vulnerable situations such as travelling alone
is separate to the issue of domestic violence- but neither is addressed adequately.
The link is to the Stop Violence Against Women Campaign.
When the helpline was there it was unused, so it was stopped. Seems sensible enough for me.
Annie Mc Carrick.
Fiona Pender.
Jo Jo Dollard.
Fiona Sinnott.
add names, I cannot remember them all.
Meg Walshe.
Some have been missing thirteen years.
One has been missing less than two weeks.
There is no help-line available to the families in what is a rather unique position.
They have hundreds of people, army and gardai, searching for her right now? What more can they do? What more do you want them to do?
Undoubtedly there are detectives working hard on the case too.
Justice Paul Carney today discharged the jury because he could not 'hear' the
lawyers.
John O Neill admitted the Killing.
There will be a re-trial.
The case is over and Mr O Neill is free to go until a re-trial is called.
Rosemary Dowling was found naked , and rolled in a blanket on Mercer's Street.
Three days of deliberations and cross-examination have just been wasted.
Now Justice Carney is getting on- but this is an absurdity.
Ms Dowling had her head smashed (with a lump hammer-during sex-for biting the dick
of John O Neill)
The case aginst another man - for what the french would call a crime passionel- he
lashed his ex-wife to her steering wheel ended in no custodial sentence.
Murder beyond reasonable doubt could not be proven.
you seem to be all over the place with your various rambles.
What exactly is your point?
Allocation of Garda resources? (how were these inadequate?)
Taking down of posters (if all of the posters required by indymedia contributors were allowed up the country would covered in even more litter)
Treatment of a murder case in the court (what exactly did you see Paul Carney as having done wrong? Specifically?)
Paul Carney allowed for a prosecution speech which was described as innaccurate and
inflamatory to go ahead.
The jury retired after 3 days of trial to consider it's verdict.
then the Jury took issue with prosecution statements.
There was a complaint.
Justice Carney * admitted that he had not heard the speech and had to allow for the trial collapse.
As to all over the place:-
There is no missing person's helpline.
Posters are removed.
Crimes of violence against women including the crime of rape rarely end in conviction.
Justice Carney will be remembered for attempting to bring the issue of sexual crime
into the realm of the district not the criminal court thereby reducing the import of the
crime and allowing for reduced sentences.
He is also getting old.
There should be an inquiry as to why a judge did not hear closing statements?
How can he judge if he cannot hear?
The Case against John O Neill has Collapsed.
Justice Carney, ex -PD and Justice specialising in Rape and Murder cases
at the Central Criminal court Has had to allow for the case aginst John o Neill
for the Murder of Rosemary Dowling to Collapse.
He apparently did not hear the closing speech of the Prosecution, which was
described as inaccurate and Inflammatory, Admitting to not hearing it
he had no option but to allow for the collapse of the trial. The jury whom
had been ppresent for three days of cross-examinations, in which John O Neill
admitted killing Ms Dowling were discharged.
There is considerable Wiki on Justice Carney , as well as this interesting article
about his clashes with DRCC and victims advocacy groups.
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2003/04/13/story135...1.asp
In recent years he lobbied for the hearing of rape case in the district courts , rather
than in the central criminal court of which he is president.
He also lobbied for the right to try not alone murder and rape but fraud.
He argued that family law cases should not be held in camera arguing that media
reported 'responsibly' on rape and would therefore argue responsibly on issues
of family law.
Today , after a complaint about the inaccurate and inflammatory closing speech, he
had to admit not hearing the detail sufficently to judge its merit and the jury was discharged.
Ms Rosemary Doyle's body was discovered wrapped in blankets and sheets on Mercer
Street, she had been beaten with a lump hammer.
There will be a re-trial.
Should not there be an inquiry into why a judge did not hear the details of the closing
statements of the prosecution- quite apart form the legal implications of the
judges decision to halt the trial, there is the issue of closure for the victim's family?
This is linked to a series of Opinion and Analysis pieces on the issue of
Violent Crime Against Women in Ireland and how the Triple Arm of Good
Governance has approached the Issue of Protection, support and legal
avenues for victims of these crimes.
Am I right in thinking that the prosecutor was 'acting' and delivering his speech in the way of a drama? A bit overly dramatic if the judge can't hear it. And in fairness, if the judge can't hear it...
Was there a stenographer? Did the judge ask the stenographer if she got a record? He might have been able to get a record of it, but if the prosecutor had already passed a point where a judge would have objected, then there is trouble, and grounds for appeal.
Better to have good convictions than unsafe ones. If the guy is guilty, then he should be properly convicted, not be in the centre of a theatre, and able to pull out grounds of appeal by the bucketload.
That would not be described as 'theatrical'.
The case was in the Central Criminal Court and was a murder trial.
John O Neill admitted the Killing.
The Judge said that he did not hear the prosecution's closing speech, he said that he had
no option having not heard it -(for whatever reason) but to discharge the Jury.
It took 25 minutes from the speech to the question to the collapse.
Therefore there should be questions asked as to why a judge on the bench did
not hear and could not therefore answer a point of law on the Inaccuracy or otherwise
of the prosecution's closing speech.
Meg Walshe, whose body was found a few days ago was buried today.
She is survived by a seventeen year old daughter.
There is no point in dwelling on the details of her death, which the mainstream have done luridly,
except that she died from violent attack and that her attacker was known to her.
Condolences to her family.
RIP.
Please find information at this link:
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2006/1124/bre...7.htm
http://www.womensaid.org
Georges and Marguerite Bouniol have written an open letter to the murderer of their
Daughter, its on the front page of the Irish Times (http://www.ireland.com).
Each year for ten years, either the Bouniol's or the now deceased Husband of Sophie
have done this. No-one has yet been charged with her murder.
As the Irish Times Website changes during the day, the Sophie story has moved down the
list and is interestingly juxtaposed with the arrest of the murderer of Meg Walshe.
This 'disappearce' provoked the original article and comments on this thread.
The Sophie story is still very much in the hearts of the people of West Cork
and they all have their theories- but noone has been charged with that murder.
apparently- after 10 years, a report on the whole issue is now being prepared
for publication.
It will no doubt be presented to the present Tanaiste and Minister for Justice.
It would be nice for the parents to have some answers. I remember walking past
the cross which marks where Sophie fell and seeing the dying flowers that
people leave there.
Condolences to the family of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.
It is ten years since the killing of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier, today.
There are memorial services and renewed appeals.
A young woman, in the meanwhile from County Laois has set up a web-site asking
for support in finding information of the murder of her mother Annie Kilmartin, in 1994.
No- one has ever been charged with that killing. The Gardai have re-opened the case
and stated that the killer or killers had a good geographical knowledge of the
areas in Laois.
Both of these publicity campaigns to get knowledge and a sense of closure
have been driven by the families and survivors of this particular brand of
violence.
The Annie Kilmartin site is at: http://www.imom1512.com
The Kilmartin campaign received widespread media coverage in the last 48 hours.
It's Marie Kilmartin- not annie. apologies.
Family members and survivors of the dissapearances, unsolved murders
of irish and women of different nationalities took part in a silent protest
last week. The crowd included the parents of Sophie Toscan du Plantier
(a French national) . I am curious if the survivors of Annie Mc Carrick Attended
(a U.S Citizen) her father died after dedicating many years to travelling here
and asking people, creating lobbies and political pressure.
We have a terrible name for the resolution of crimes of violence against
women and not one government has dedicated a department or
committee to ameliorating the traumatic situation of families who find them
selves bereaved and traumatised by the lack of co-operation of the
authorities in the resolution of these issues.
They will stand in their designer suits, and make-up at a monument to 1916
and make a mockery of our past whilst starving the resources of our
economy to the resolution of crimes of violence against women and
children in this country.
Ireland is not alone violent but in denial of violence.
The mothers/sisters/nieces/daughters of victims of violence deserve
resources and answers, they will not get them from a government concerned
alone with the accquistion of wealth and its own personal corruption.
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