Family Business Remains Closed
national |
crime and justice |
news report 
Sunday July 09, 2006 14:24
by Political Hostage - Michael McKevitt Justice Campaign
It is almost eight years since The Print Junction shop owned by Bernadette Sands-McKevitt was closed. It still remains closed to this day. A layer of dust a couple of millimeters deep covers every surface. T-Shirts bleached and worn-out looking by the sun and passage of time hang limply in the window. A pile of mail rests under a coat of soot-like dust inside the door, unopened, unread and unanswered.
Bernadette McKevitt was one of the first tenants to trade in the Long Walk shopping centre when it first opened in March 1994. She used her redundancy money from a local factory to open the T-shirt, Photocopying & Print shop. Although a small shop, the business grew over the subsequent years and provided a living for her and her family.
During the week immediately after the Omagh bombing, photographers were permitted to enter the shopping centre to photograph Bernadette in her shop. She was harassed and hounded by them as she tried to conduct her business. Bernadette made numerous requests to the shopping centre Management and security staff to intervene and stop the harassment, however her requests were ignored. Much to her concern, she witnessed members of the security staff point her premises out to reporters and photographers.
On the evening of August 19th, Bernadette closed her shop as normal and locked up. Sometime afterwards the shop was broken into and the locks were changed. The next morning when she returned to the shopping centre, she was prevented from entering the building. A senior member of the security staff informed Bernadette that she was no longer permitted to conduct her business there. She was excluded from her shop and lost her livelihood.
The McKevitt family later learned from a source close to the Fianna Fail leadership that the owner of the Long Walk shopping centre, Mr. Martin Naughton allegedly ordered the closure as a political favour. Martin Naughton is one of the wealthiest men in Ireland. It seems ironic that as chairperson of the cross border employment body and a former member of the council of state to the Irish president that he is linked with denying Bernadette McKevitt the constitutional right to earn a living.
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3how about the constitutional right not to be slaughtered while out shopping bernie??
Extract from the British Irish Rights Watch Report to Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, November 2000.
3.1 Despite the 32 County Sovereignty Committee's unambiguous condemnation of the bombing and denial of any involvement in it, numerous newspapers have named Michael McKevitt as a perpetrator, an accusation that he strenuously denies. The police have cast their net very widely in their attempts to identify the bombers; they have interviewed 6,500 people and taken 2,700 statements. Michael McKevitt has never been questioned or arrested by the police in connection with this bombing (he was arrested on 26th May 2000, long after the bombing, and questioned about membership of an illegal organisation, but was released without charge). Nevertheless, the media have run a relentless campaign of vilification against both Bernadette and Michael McKevitt, accusing them of involvement in the bombing and putting their lives at risk in so doing. They have also published their photographs, and photographs of their children and their home, which has further endangered their lives. As a result of this campaign, Bernadette McKevitt has been excluded from her shop in the town centre of Dundalk, and has lost her livelihood. The couple have also received a large quantity of hate mail, including death threats.
Is dóigh gur briseadh conradh éigin léasa na mná seo ocht mbliana ó shoin. Má chuir sí cúirt ar an dtoice, cad ba thoradh dó? Cad dúirt an chúirt agus cén fáth?
Muna chuir sí cúirt ar mo dhuine, tuige nár chuir?
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