I enclose comment from Ramsey Clark ex US Attorney General, who due to Judge Moran's adamant "opinion" that any evidence I brought forth relating to the US Military presence in Shannon or the war on Iraq was irrelevant, was not allowed testify at my trial. His evidence, plus that of Denis Halliday, ex Assistant General Secraetary of the UN, Dr Curtis Doebbler, Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon whistleblower, and Dr Siegwart Hosrt Guenter, the world's leading expert on Depleted Uranium, would have informed the jury greatly and put my action firmly in the context in which it was taken. Instead the jury were forced to see me as a vandal.

Dear Mary,

Your conviction is like the re-election of George W. Bush here – a cause for despair – to which we cannot yield. The Irish jury like the American voter was poorly informed and misinformed and that information largely controlled by government here/prosecutor and court there and the corporate owned media which serves economic power and glorifies war and other violence.

You performed a miracle under the circumstances in emboldening two jurors to vote for acquittal.

I am very concerned about your sentencing and must hope the Court can understand that a government that punishes people for acting, effectively and harming no living thing, on moral principle to prevent war will destroy itself.

Thanks for your courageous struggle.

Keep in touch.
Ramsey

Day of Action against Mary's Sentencing: Mary would like people who are protesting on Dec 1st to carry a flower in memory of the 100,000 Iraqi dead. Details here

Background Information on Mary's Trial / Report from Mary's Galway Supporters / Reflection on Mary's Trial from Professor Curtis Doebbler (University of Najaf, Palestine) at the Link Below

"Hey Ronnie Reagan, I’m black and I’m pagan,
I’m gay, and I’m left, and I’m free
I’m an unfundamentalist environmentalist,
Don’t bother me."

'In the few days before Reagan arrived, sleepy old Galway was transformed: the town was invaded by secret servicemen with cropped hair and dark suits, who spoke into hidden microphones on their cuffs; the black Mercedes population trebled; and the unusual helicopter activity was menacingly suggestive of ‘Apocolypse Now’. Those of us who had friends in the vicinity of the University were unable to visit them for a few days.'

Follow the link below for more of the History lesson:

'I do wonder, however, if the racists who run websites, who make disgusting intimidating phone calls, who will not accept my right to have my election posters displayed publicly, are gaining encouragement from the government’s decision to run a racist referendum in conjunction with these elections'

Tokie Laotan, an independent candidate for the North / East ward in Galway city, has been facing harassment on the election trail. She has been receiving abusive anonymous phone calls to her mobile phone, she has been targeted by a racist website, and now her posters are being removed –-apparently in a systematic fashion.

‘I was reluctant to raise this publicly’, says Tokie Laotan, ‘because almost all of the Galway people I have met on my campaign have been friendly and open to what I have to say. Clearly, however, there are individuals who think that an African woman should not be allowed to even stand for election. All this harassment is making me nervous, and making it difficult for me to campaign effectively’.

‘The phone calls stopped after a few days, when I started to tell the callers that I was having their numbers traced’, according to Ms Laotan. ‘The website is still up and spreading its message of hate against me and other immigrants to Ireland —can it be closed down, I wonder?'

‘The final straw was when I learned that two-thirds of my posters were removed within 36 hours of being put up. I realise that posters can be brought down by the wind, and by the odd stray drunk, but this was done systematically, with posters taken from every pole on several routes —College Road and Augustine-street for example.’

‘I know that the racists who do this are a tiny minority, and that they have little support among Galway people and Irish people generally. I do wonder, however, if the racists who run websites, who make disgusting intimidating phone calls, who will not accept my right to have my election posters displayed publicly, are gaining encouragement from the government’s decision to run a racist referendum in conjunction with these elections'.

Related Links and Stories on Immigrants, Elections and McDowell's Referendum
Audio Report on Campaign against the Racist Referendum Meeting - June 4th 2004
Voting Rights for Immigrants in Ireland Under Threat - April 11th 2004 Report
All Children are Equal But if Michael has his Way - Some Will be More Equal than Others - April 6th 2004 Report
The Chen Case @ the European Court of Justice – Money Talks and a Government Lies - May 24 2004 Report

Mary Kelly, an Irish nurse and mother of four, peacefully disarmed a USAF warplane in Shannon on Jan 29th 2003 by taking a hatchet to the nose-cone installation. Having failed to convince a jury to convict her on June 30th 2003 Mary now faces prosecution on June 15th by the Irish State for acting according to the dictates of the Nuremburg Convention. Supporters have been active in many cities around Ireland. The following is a brief roundup of the tremenduous support this brave and principled activist is receiving.

From the Newswire: Report from Tommy D:

"Last Saturday more powerful support for St. Mary was evidenced at the Mary Kelly information stall in Shop St, when the Galway 'Mary Kelly Support Group' did their stuff, from 10.30 AM to 5.45 PM, giving out 1,000 leaflets on her plight.

The peak moment of the day was when five preteen/teenage girls, daytripping from Portumna in the Vibrant City, offered to distribute the leaflets to passing pedestrians, when appraised of Mary's disarming of the war plane.

Yet another primo moment was when a guy who stopped at our stall affirmed that he "was against her attack on the plane last year, now I'm for it."

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Group were out in strength commemorating Nakhbah Day (the planned ethnic cleansing of their land in 1948 by the Zionists) centering their activity around the stall.

Galway Alliance Against War also gave themselves an outing and didn't stint their support for Mary, with one of their activists, dressed as one of the tortured of Abu Ghraib prison, eliciting strong condemnation of the American human rights abuses in Iraq.

To boot, an activist from Galicia, did his stuff for Mary as well. Fair play, Jose !

This Saturday, along with all Saturdays leading up to her trial, another stall is planned. What about activists in Cork, Limerick, Kilkenny, Dublin, etc doing something similiar???? Now is not the time for fiddling and farting about when, as it were, Mary is about to burn."

Fairview Against the War, MAMA and Global Women's Strike will be holding a stall in Ennis every Saturday from 12:30pm in Ennis until Mary's trial on June 15th.

See Mary Kelly's website for more information

From the newswire [3:06pm Fri Mar 26th 2004]:

UPDATE: arrested person has been released

"One person has been arrested in the past hour while protesting against the US Ambassadors visit to NUI, Galway. He is being held in Mill St Garda Station on some bogus charge, so anyone in the vicinity, please come down & show your support.

The visit began this morning in the main quad, where the Bush appointed US Ambassador, James Kenny, was to meet with local whigs. It appeared as though the whole morning shift from Mill St. was in attendance, along with a number of Special Branch & various assorted Spooks in Suits. Banners were grabbed and a few scuffles took place, as they tried to smuggle the publicity-shy Ambassador in through a back entrance.

From there it was on to a planned ‘meet & greet’ with selected American students, which was held in Moffets café, one side of which was conveniently made of glass. This gave Kenny a pretty good view of the thirty or so people present. Some of them were dressed in orange jump suits, shackled & kneeling. Others brandished Palestinian flags and other banners people had cobbled together on the morning of the protest. The poor old Ambassador had to strain to hear what students were saying above the shouts from outside, bangs on the window, whistling, drumming & the Tibetan horn someone had fortuitously brought along.

The arrest was made, as Kenny emerged from the quad after lunch, by a couple of over enthusiastic cops who were extremely heavy handed in their approach. A number of people tried to stop the cop vans, one of which contained our arrested friend, from leaving but they were also dragged out of the way & threatened with arrest."