Strange goings on in a Mayo court

mayo | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Friday January 11, 2008 21:51 by éirígí - éirígí

Three natural resource activists tried in Belmullet court

Wednesday’s (January 9) trial of three men in Belmullet district court, county Mayo was a mixture of the farcical, the bizarre and the downright sinister. The article below features extracts from a more comprehensive piece which can be accessed in its entirety at

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest110108.html

The three, Dominic McGlinchey (Derry), Rab Jackson (Belfast) and Cathal Larkin (Cork), were in front of the court on charges arising out of a Shell to Sea protest on November 9 last year.

Garda witness after Garda witness were grilled by defence solicitor Alan Gannon, who successfully exposed contradictions, inaccuracies and unusual levels of forgetfulness from the state witnesses.
Some of the most notable points of the day included:

- The fact that the second most senior Garda on duty on the day of the protest did not know how many Gardai were under his command. The same Garda confirmed that he had no training in the handling of public order situations.

"Inspector Byrne outlined how he used the Public Order Act to direct the protesters engaged in the sit-down protest to return to the other side of the carriageway. He then ordered the unknown number of Gardaí who were under his control to start removing protesters from the road. When asked what professional training he had in relation to the handling of public order events or of sit-down protests Byrne conceded that he had none."

- The inability of the Garda prosecuting Rab Jackson to recall many of the details of the day and his denial of his being drunk at the time of the protest.

"As the cross-examination of Garda O’Keefe continued for close to an hour, his answer of “I don’t recall” began to take on a mantra-like quality. For example, while admitting that he had seen a Garda operating a video-camera mounted on a stick, O’Keefe was unable to estimate how far away he himself was from this camera. He was also unable to confirm or deny that he had pushed some protesters into a ditch on the opposite side of the road to which the sit-down protest was occurring. Similarly, O’Keefe couldn’t estimate how many protesters he had personally removed from the road. While conceding that many of the protesters had repeatedly rejoined the sit-down protest, the witness was unable to estimate how many had actually done so or answer why it was that he arrested only one of them – Rab Jackson.

While denying that his lack of recollection was due to the fact that he was drunk at the time of the protest, O’Keefe admitted that he had “two pints” in Roscommon on the evening prior to the protest."

- Rab Jackson's explaination for travelling to the protest in Mayo

"While Rab accepted that he had sat down on the road and thus blocked the path of the Lennon Quarries vehicle, he believed that he had just cause in doing so given the risk to human health and safety that the Shell refinery represented. He expanded, stating that as an Irish citizen he believed it was the correct thing to do. "

- The confirmation by a Garda that he had made comments to Dominic McGlinchey relating to his assassinated parents

" When it was put to Philips whether he had said to the accused while in Belmullet Garda station that “you have your mother’s eyes and your father’s stubbornness,” he confirmed that he had. When asked by the defence did he not consider such a remark to be insensitive he responded by saying that he didn’t and it was said in the context of the accused being “chatty”...."

"...Alan Gannon pursued the issue, asking the witness whether he had known Dominic’s mother. Philips replied that he had not. When asked how he could possibly see Mrs McGlinchey’s “eyes in the eyes of her son,” Phillips replied that he could remember what she had looked like from a photograph he had seen in a publication. Quizzed as to when he had last seen such a photo Philips replied “15 or 20 years ago,” although he was unable to tell the court the name of the publication or any other details about the photo."

- Dominic McGlinchey's assertion that he had been arrested by a different Garda then one presented to the court as the arresting Garda.

"He also rejected the suggestion that Garda Philips was the arresting officer, instead stating that the two Gardaí that had arrested him were considerably younger then Philips. Dominic went on to state that the first time he had seen Philips was in the Garda van where he was detained prior to being transported to Belmullet Garda station."

- The questions of Judge Devins to Dominic McGlinchey relating to whether he knew a named individual whose name had not been mentioned at any point during the proceedings and had Dominic himself travelled to the protest with this named individual

"Having firstly asked the accused how he had come to hear of the protest the district court judge then went on to ask Dominic did he “know Brian Leeson?” When Dominic confirmed that he did indeed know a Brian Leeson, Devins asked had he travelled to the protest with him."

A full account of the proceeding in Belmullet ditrict court can be read at

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest110108.html