Starving outside the Dáil

national | crime and justice | news report

Thursday September 27, 2007 15:00

by Seán Ryan

Peter Preston begins second hunger strike outside the Dáil.

Peter Preston not the focus

Yesterday on the 26th of September 2007 the Dáil re-opened for business after the long Summer holdidays. There were many and various protests taking place outside, along with many TD's who were basically complaining about the current government, especially Bertie Ahern. People were protesting about the closure of hospitals, the substandard nature of schools, keeping jobs in Shannon Airport, keeping the US military and spooks out of Shannon Airport and a plethora of other needs and protests. And there was Peter Preston.

After being ignored by those in the Dáil and the media for the most part, Peter has decided to go on a second hunger strike and he started it yesterday as the Government and their alleged opposition returned from their long Summer holidays. I did a brief interview with Peter, the audio file in included with this report.

There are two main aspects to Peter's protest. The first being a civil case in the High Court which took place some years back following a criminal case that arose from an attack on Peter's daughter, in which she was viciously glassed in the face and scarred for life. Please note that Peter's protest is not about the criminal case and it never was. Peter considers it to have been a farce, but it is not an issue he feels that he should protest about. This point must be made because of the constant spin applied to Peter's protest by the Government and others, who have constantly focussed on the criminal case and have spun it that this is what the protest was about. This can be seen from Peter's Press Pack, the contents of which I shall upload in the next few hours.

The second aspect of Peter's protest is to do with hypocrisy. He feels that this particular issue is more important than the issue to do with his daughter and he says so in the interview. Peter says that the pub in which his daughter was attacked in was wilfully catering for underaged drinkers and that they had been engaged in this practice for years. According to Peter, the pub refused to call an ambulance when his daughter was attacked. Her friend eventually had to call an ambulance herself when they went outside the pub. This would seem to indicate a reluctance on the part of the pub to want their practices open to examination. Peter told me that Bertie Ahern was a regular drinker at this pub at the time of the attack and that the owners of the pub were friends of his. It strikes Peter as incredible that Bertie Ahern could walk in and out of the Dáil over a period of 64 days without comment whilst Peter protested outside on his last hunger strike, despite the fact that Peter had placards pointing out the nature of this pub and Bertie Ahern's frequent patronage and friendship with the owners. Peter reckons that this was an overt act of hypocrisy, whereby politicians on the one hand complained about the scourge of underage drinking in this country and on the other hand that they had nothing to say when confronted with an actual example of a pub that facilitated it.

I wish Peter all the best. I don't hold out all that much hope for him. I know very few care.