Politcally Correct but at what cost?

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Tue Jan 15, 2008 01:11

The Mahon Tribunal - with its undefined limits........and its honest prograstination for almost a 10 year period.........Where are the answers?

They now have no tax certificate for an Taoiseach but then maybe if this cannot be completed until after the Mahon Tribunal Findings, it would appar the taoiseach' s waiver has been accepted. Hence, he has been able to proceed. I only home his acclaimed set of accountants can clarify the matter to the Government Electorate and all ease.

The Taoiseach's visit to Africa is good timing......Tanzania is being destroyed by the torriential rains and the cape town funding profided by the builder Mr. Mellon, is housing some of those in need. The Taoiseach will find this a humbling undertaking.

I ask about the malarkey of the Benefit in Kind for the house.....is this being a little bitchy amongs technocrats. OK Bertie was bringing in this legislation but on the other hand did he think if he was given the loan of a house in difficult marritable times, that he really wuold need to to consider benefit in kind. Let's be plausabile.........What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Tax......Tax....Those who skipped asea and bouth properties in euroope, to those who have in Spain and who knows will they have to pay rates. And then there are thosing who face the treat of the Auctioneers making submissions to the Revenue about properties overseas........

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Fri Jan 11, 2008 16:40

George Santayana - South American
'Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it'

Why do I value Freedom of the Press?

Because it is about core values of a Society, and not as we tend to describe Ireland, so frequently these days, as the Irish Economy! This was pointed out in the media during the week and what a rich distinction of what is about money and what is about social justice.

A message to the people about the Courts System (in this case martial courts) during a time in which Erskine Childers was prominent in the activities of 1914 to 1921........yes, the Rising, the Proclamation, Independence and what has evolved.

Erskine Childers was involved in gun-running into Howth in 1914. This man was a cultured man with a literary bent.

When it came for the people of Ireland to decide - the pro-Treaty side or the anti-Treaty side. Erskine Childers sided with Dev. In the Civil war IN CORK, he operated A PRINTING PRESS TO TURN OUT ANTI TREATY PROPAGANDA.

Outcome in October 1922, Erskine Childers was summoned to return to Dublin, to be the Secretary of De Valera's shadow 'Government'. This man carried with him both his typewriter and Colt Automatic revolver, which had once been given to him by Michael Collins. Again, I ask how important is Freedom of the press in Ireland?

Erskine Childers was caught by the Free State Government forces at the home of his cousin, Richard Barton (one of the signatories of the Treaty). at his home in Co. Wicklow.

Headlines reached all including Winston Churchchill who is said to have commented that Erskine Childers was a mischief making renegade and 'Such as he is may all who hate us be".

The Charge against was the illegal possession of arms - the Colt revolver, the gift from Michael Collins.....

It was a mlitary that tried Erskine Childers - the date was 17th November 1922. The venue was Portabello Barracks, Dublin 4. From this barracks, he sent for my Grandfather, Michael Comyn KC to defend him. (They were friends and he had often hidden in Michael's House in Leeson Park. Michael's sister who shared this house said when she met him the first time "It is a shame to have a delicate and cultured man mixed up in our Irish quarrels. He is no more fitted for it than a child in a blizzard'.

JJ, Michael's nephew, continues the story in the words of Michael Comyn, KC, (1922).

'Childers in his cell was perfectly calm, drinking tea from a mug. I knew how much he loved tead so I asked for a mug of tea for myself which I then gave to Childers. "You know, Comyn" he said, "there is no defence in fact, I had a gun". "That may be, I replied "but you are too famous a figure to be condemned to death without due form and solemnity"

It was my rule in those awful times and awful circumstances never to betray any softness or sympathy: it would have been unkind. He had some messages for Mrs Childers, which I brought to her.

At his trial, which was in camera, Childers was, as we all anticcipated, convicted. Then with Paddy Lynch (later Attorney General) we went to the High Court. presided over by the Master of the Rolls, Sir Charles O'Connor, and we conducted a spirited fight based purely on technical grounds. It failed and we appealed.

This is what I recall my cousin JJ telling me so often as a young child, '

'Before the appeal was heard the terrible news came, in an announcement from London...................that Childers had been shot at Dawn on 24th November 1922 at Beggars Bush Barracks.

Michael also states 'that measures to rescue him weree know to the Free State authorities and forestalled. IT WAS A COMPLETE NEGATION OF JUSTICE, the worst I have ever know, TO EXECUTE A MAN WHOSE CASE FOR LIFE OR DEATH WAS ACTUALLY UNDER ARGUMENT AND AWAITING JUDGMENT.

This view was echoed by the Judges of the Court of Appeal when the casee was mentioned to them a few days later - but much good did it do"

What are the Plain People of Ireland going to do to restore the much needed equilibrium to the Scales of Justice that stand tall, inwards on Dublin Castle.....

What have we learned from the Tribunals? How can we effect the changes? What about social justice.

Michelle Clarke

Quotation
'What out for the fellow who talks about putting things in ordet! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control'
by: Denis Diderot (1713-84) French Philosopher

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Thu Jan 10, 2008 19:21

2008

Politically Correct Ireland - what has it created?

How important is Freedom of the Press? Has anyone a view to offer the Minister of Justice Equality and Law Reform, Minister Brian Lenihan.

I am looking at the Front Page of the Irish Times and I am read that Lenihan 'warns the media on privacy'. He asks that the media show respect.

The Press Council was launched last night - my wish is that in charge consider the words of William Butler Yeats 'Thread softly because you thread on my dreams'. Mr. Lenihan, Ombudsman, is keen to press ahead with a Defamation Bill........what do people think about this?

Freedom of the Press has served us well, particularly over the last number of years. The outcome of the Barr Tribunal (which is hardly ever referred to now) provided the details that so easily could have been concealed and particularly to the people of Ireland, on how a man, John Carthy, a bipolar and anxiety temperment (who the Gardai thwarted with a supply of cigarettes) was indiscriminately shot dead, at his home in Abbeylara, by the ERU team. Our mental health services continue to turn away people in need of help and the crime rate increases.

What is going to be done here. We need the press coverage regarding crime and mental health and illegal drugs, to keep people on their toes and involved in the democratic Ireland, Island of Ireland?

The Mahon Tribunal; just as I expect the Barr Tribunal to be referred to in the clean up of our mental health system, our Gardai force, etc. likewise I would expect the message of the Mahon Tribunal to ring loud and clear that 'Corruption is a crime and the sentence is a prescribed number of years'. This must be a deterrent to Corruption message.

I want to know if private airports are involved in trafficking illegal drugs, just as I expect dedicated crews of people on the seas and on land to check for same.

People as Mentors, with morality, ethics and core values, intrinsic to their personage; work and lifestyle.

To hear and read today about a senior member of 'Government' and a sexual assault and the conspiracies that almost happened, leaves me cold. What gives people such rights.....where has the power come from? Who is going to put a stop to it.

I want to hear more about Transparency Ireland viz a viz Transparency International because I want to know that Ireland is moving in the Anti-Corruption, Ethical, Transparent flow. We need to hear about the corruption from all members of the economy because their corruption affects other people's standard of living, their education, the health system, the social services, the infra structures.

I want to know about the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of the our Corporate companies, who inter alia, hold our pension funds, our equity values, our labour force.

I want to know about Rendition and Shannon........

I want to know about Shell and the Corrib. I want to know the cost to the Island of Ireland of the Gardai decommissioned from other locations and based at the Corrib, as it appears to be, night and day. Why do we not hear more about the man who won the Nobel Prize for the Environment - why such a paradox.

Michelle Clarke

Advice to all out there..........the plain people of Ireland
'When a Man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him whose?

By Don Marquis (1878-1937, US humourist and journalist

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Fri Sep 28, 2007 20:26

Kevin

It looks as if the Right to Silence is a misnomer given the lack of actions during the Mahon Tribunal......

I heard someone discuss the art of 'Lying' the other night on the Radio. It is part of social relations and sometimes necessary. However, body language and eye movements tend to reveal the person who lies and it is the anxiety factors that prompt the lie detector to pick up on signals.

There was one final point!

In Ireland, we tend to cover ourselves when we lie by giving opposing options. The aim is to confuse the listener.

As a person with ABI and no short-term memory, and one dimensional, this makes perfect sense and explains why I live such a muddled existence.

I hope now that Fianna Fail make a most conservative effort to fund Neurology services in Ireland, particularly with an emphasis on the rehabilitative needs of people with brain injury (we tend to survive now, but our needs ensure our destiny is underclass.. particularly where families don't wish to provide for us....and their belief is the state will do so) .....I hope the Minister for Finance gives us some consideration .... I was delighted to see a Neurologist on yesterdays Health section of the paper - it is the 'on the couch' section. I agree with all comments by Professor Norman Delanty. Action is needed now. Just think of the RTA a.m. two boys dead in Roscommon; and two fighting for their lives!!!

Michelle

Lewis Carroll (1832-78) British mathematician and author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (the Mahon Tribunal, I would suggest).

'It's a poor sort of memory which only works backwards'

Evidential now.....Let us Move forward, take responsibility.....

by Jack Russell - Social Justice and Ethics Tue May 22, 2007 23:19

Some time, toi digest the political waffle Prime Time tonight, a whole day free from news about politics so people can consider who they vote for and more important what policies they represent....