The Easter rising began at mid-day today 90 years ago. Traditionally the anniversary is marked as being on the Easter Monday rather than the actual date, perhaps in part because of the common theme of blood sacrifice. Histories of the rising tend to focus on the idea of blood sacrifice at both a motivation for the rising and the reason for the creation of the Free State. This article argues that although this may have been an important motivation on the day it was not the reason for the rising nor was the reason for the subsequent rise of the IRA simply found in the execution of the republican leadership after the rising. So using the article to mark the actual '90 years on'' date seems appropriate.

No-one should be surprised by the actions of our Guardians Of Privilege in Baldonnel last weekend. The grumpy authoritarian ego-trippers had to do something to justify their bank holiday overtime pay and the use of the copper-copter. Cuffing a young lad, forcing him to the ground and kneeling on him because he didn’t want to piss himself – that’s really guarding the peace. It seems as though the boys in blue haven’t quite moved on from the days of former blueshirt Garda Commissioner Eoin O’ Duffy. The "few rotten apples" thesis spouted by the Garda Representatives Association (ironically acronymed GRA) isn't credible. One only has to look at the cases of the Wheelock, Mulhall, Abbeylara, McBrearty families, RTS 2002 along with the Sallins train robbery, the 'Kerry Babies' case and Shercock cases in the past as evidence of a wider, institutional and generational malaise with the Gardai. Even, Henry Grattan called the police service" an abominable institution".

For the record, the group of four, Tim Hourigan, Mary Kelly, Deirdre Morgan and Edward Horgan, who made a similar submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs on 20 Dec 2005, also offered to make a similar presentation to the EU Committee. The EU declined on cost grounds, and invited me only. However, I have received substantial help from a dedicated group of peace activists, mainly Irish, but with a few significant non-Irish contributors.

Over the past month a Garda has confirmed to me in confidence that they have been directed not to search US CIA aircraft or US military aircraft at Shannon airport, and that many of the Gardai disagree with this directive because it means “… turning a blind eye to the probability of wrongdoing, and we all know what terrible things such policies have led to in the past.”

In my submission to the European Parliament I called a spade a spade, and referred several times to the unlawful killing of over 100,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan and the interconnected rendition for torture programme, and the Irish Government’s complicity in these events. Many MEPs did not want to hear this, and the Irish MEPs in particular were embarrassed at Ireland being publically exposed for its participation in the Iraq War.

If Hitler and his ilk had been robustly challenged much earlier on the murders and torture they were committing in the 1930s, then many of their victims might have been spared. Yet it was considered politically or diplomatically incorrect to do so. 1945 was tens of millions of victims too late to accuse Hitler of mass murder. In my EU submission I referred to Britain as a “rogue European Union state because it is waging in an unlawful war on Iraq that has caused over 100,000 dead", and I referred to Ireland as a “rogue neutral state” for its breach of international laws on neutrality by its facilitation of the Iraq War at Shannon airport.

It was clear from the reaction that MEPs considered that my statements were politically incorrect. I can live with their criticism, but I cannot remain silent given what I know is going on, with a substantial degree of certainty.

Ed Horgan: I went to the European Parliament in Brussels to tell the Parliament what I knew of Ireland’s involvement in the unlawful rendition for torture process at Shannon airport. I insisted on linking the extraordinary rendition process with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the combined serial abuses of international law that these wars and the torture process involved. To a large extent I was telling the EU parliamentary special committee what they did not want to hear – “don’t mention the wars” – I told them anyway in the brief summary of my submission that the 15 minute time slot allowed me. My main submission was thirty-seven pages long, with 45 separate attachments and it became clear very quickly that very few had even read the executive summary of my submission, and some of those who did, read it only with the intention of trying to discredit it, and discredit me. The Irish Times report on Friday captured the tone of the parliamentarians response - “the witness failed to present the facts”.

My response is that the parliamentarians failed to read the facts I put before them. Sean O’Neachtain, FF MEP, standing in for Eoin Ryan MEP, was put forward to attack my submission, but failed to address any of the facts in my submission, including my statement that the Irish Government’s reply to the Council of Europe on Rendition for Torture was fraudulent and misquoted Article 40.4.1. of the Irish Constitution thereby giving the impression that foreign prisoners being taken through Shannon are specifically protected by the letter or wording of the Irish Constitution. Simon Coveney incorrectly accused me of calling Ireland a “rogue state”. My statement was that Ireland was “a rogue neutral state” and I explained this issue in detail.

Craig Murray, former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan got a similar response from some MEPs and was accused of “disloyalty” by one UK MEP because he blew the whistle on the Government of which he had been an ambassador.

The primary purpose of my submission to the European Parliament special committee on Extraordinary Rendition (TDIP committee) was to put a dossier of information on the public record in Europe on what the Irish Government has been doing not only in connection with CIA rendition at Shannon, but also on Irish direct participation in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I emphasised through my written submission and my verbal submission that the rule of international law needs to be reinforced not trampled on, as many European states, including Ireland, have been doing.

Builders and machinery have moved in, trees and plants have been taken up and it looks like it might be the end for the Dolphins Barn Community Garden, which celebrated its first birthday on Wednesday the 12th of April. Presently the garden crew has 54 people on its mailing list and there have been at least twice that in the garden.

After nearly a year of what turned out to be a really positive experiment in sustainable urban gardening, re-establishment of community, healthy use of derelict space and the creation of new friendships, things have taken a change for the worse… but it might not be the end. There is the possibility of revisiting matters later in the year, but the gardening project has been put on hold for the moment after a number of meetings with the owners of the land where the garden is established.

the botanic spine - a greenway and CPUL for Dublin City, the garden was the first node 0.32 Mb what will we eat as the oil runs out? 0.01 Mb dolphins barn community garden birthday party on good friday 0.1 Mb