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William Hederman talks with the authors: 'The Rossport Five were back in the capital today for the Dublin launch of 'Our Story – the Rossport Five', their account of their time in prison in 2005 and the events that led to their imprisonment....

The five men – Willie Corduff, Vincent and Philip McGrath, Micheál Ó Seighin and Brendan Philbin – travelled to Dublin for the launch and press conference, along with Shell to Sea spokesperson Dr Mark Garavan and family members and supporters. Dr Garavan compiled and edited the book and wrote the introduction. The launch took place at Buswell's Hotel, opposite Leinster House. There was a strong turn-out of print and broadcast journalists and photographers.

'Our Story – the Rossport Five', which had already been launched in Co Mayo before Christmas, records accounts by the five men and their wives of the 94 days they spent in prison in 2005, as well as their roles in the campaign since 2000 against the proposed method of processing Corrib gas.

Philip McGrath and Mark Garavan are due to travel to Norway later this month to speak at a conference on how communities can benefit from natural resources.'

Rummy's Other Mission Accomplished

Justin Morahan notes the following points in his article on the trial of Saddam Hussein:

• Four defence lawyers were assassinated during the trial (two by alleged US/Iraqi collaboration)
• Four of the 5 original judges have either resigned or been killed
• The US spent hundreds of millions of dollars in support of the prosecution
• No confidential visits were allowed by defence lawyers to their clients and none at all until after the start of the first trial
• The Defence team was allowed only minutes to begin presenting its defence after the charges were made known on May 15th 2006
• Defence had to end its case within weeks but the Prosecution were allowed months
• Evidence was withheld from defence counsel.
• Defence lawyers were denied access to investigative hearings, denied prior notice of witnesses and denied permission to visit the scene of the alleged crime.
• Trial sessions were announced oftentimes without advance notice or consultation with the result that even the most experienced lawyers missed the hearings.
• Four of the five judges who started in the case were removed by publicly acknowledged US interference
• During the trial, George Bush declared that Saddam Hussein "will be" executed
• Transcripts of the proceedings were refused to defence lawyers.

and more....

In this exclusive interview for Indymedia.ie Alec Empire discusses the origins of Atari Teenage Riot in a climate of rising Nazi attacks in the early 1990's, experimentalism and conservatism in music, his future projects and much more besides.

With the would be 'Sir' Bonos of the world doing such a wonderful job as the soft, recuperating face of global governance, its easy to be cynical about the space where politics and music combine. Still, few artists spring to mind that can rival the continued enthusiasm of Alec Empire for pushing the boundaries of contemporary music to incorporate radical politics. As a techno innovator responsible for the emergence of the digital hardcore genre, Empire was a figurehead to a generation of German experimental artists emerging in the wake of the Berlin Wall's collapse through the creation of his Digital Hardcore Records label.

Starting off within the punk scene fronting bands like Die Kinder, Empire eventually grew disillusioned and moved towards the growing rave scene. During the turmoil of re-unifaction the bubbling techno scene was seizing ware houses in the east of Berlin for massive parties, linking it to a long standing autonome squatting scene that was spreading eastwards from its traditional bastions in areas like Kreuzburg.

Related links: Atari Teenage Riot Arrested Playing At Anti-fa March | Praxis on Breakcore In The Spectacle | Digital Hardcore Record Label | Kaboogie Myspace | Alec Empire Myspace | Oxegen, Poxegen: The Modern Rock and Roll Experience | Pimping the Music Industry and an Interview With A Vampire |

"If Padraig Nally had been convicted and received a suspended sentence at least that would have been some acknowledgement of the hurt inflicted on the extended Ward family, and indeed the Traveller community. But Padraig Nally's acquittal means that no wrong or hurt has been done and that is just not acceptable. We are angry and we have every right to be."

"The Nally/Ward Case and the negative media coverage reminded one of events in Mississippi Alabama in the thirties and forties. At times we as a community were on trial and not Padraig Nally. The message which is being received by travellers from this verdict is that our life is worthless and of no value...

"I do not accept for one moment that John Ward being a traveller was of no relevance to this case; it had everything to do with it from the beginning, middle and end. At times more value was placed on who would take care of Nally's live stock- his cattle and sheep, rather than the life of a human being."
Martin Collins, Pavee Point

Related links: Go - Move – Shift: Anti-Traveller Racism in Ireland | Protest against Traveller eviction in Cork | Out of site, Out of mind -Travellers in Ballymun | Ireland gives a summer welcome to Citizen Traveller - yet again | VIDEO: "Myth Busters" - Deconstructing Myths About The Travelling Community | Travellers Fear Vigilante Tactics in Bundoran | Pavee Point

“The important thing is that since the first day that we broke the barricade and secured the entrance, the workers have been going in and out. We haven’t altered any time schedules or anything else because the message that I want to send out is that I am in charge now. They are not. For the want of better words they have been ‘stood down’.” - Superintendent Joe Gannon, Belmullet Station.

Neil Ward’s front page feature article in Garda Review, the magazine of the Garda Representative Association, draws heavily on an interview with Superintendent Joe Gannon to outline the Garda view on the protests at Ballinaboy. In the article, entitled Reclaiming the Streets, Gannon defines the problem as: “The entrance to the site was blocked for a year and a half. Local people had a veto on who went in and out of the site: it was out of this situation that the current operation was born.”

Related Links: MarShell Law at Bellanaboy | Eyewitness account from Rossport | Corporate Media’s Sunday Shell Smear | October 3rd Protests | Start of Autumn Confrontation | Rossport Solidarity Camp | Shell to Sea Campaign | Indymedia Mayo Archive