The Dublin Grassroots Network (DGN) has called on the owners of the exclusive Berkeley Court Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin to cancel a major international weapons conference due to take place at the hotel on October 19th and 20th.

The 'Jane’s Less Lethal Weapons 2004 Conference - Critical Incident Intervention' conference is effectively a trade fair for tools of torture and political repression, according to the DGN, which is vowing to stop the event from going ahead.

Mick Dooley of the DGN said: "If the Jury’s Doyle Hotel group doesn’t cancel this conference, we will call on the public to come out and force it to be shut down."

"The weapons in question include electro-shock batons, stun guns, plastic bullets, Tasers, CR Gas, pepper spray and the new sonic-bombs that have been deployed to 'disperse' crowds in Iraq.

"Put simply, people who sell these tools of political repression and torture and people who want to buy them will be gathering at the Berkeley Court to do business," Dooley said. "Irish people will not tolerate that."

"The Berkeley Court conference is the first event of its kind ever to be held in Ireland," Dooley said. "Apparently this country is now being seen as a potential growth market for the arms industry. The nature of the event is extremely provocative, coming at a time when revulsion at the war machine and the arms industry is running high across the world."

Northern Ireland's appalling track record in plastic bullet deaths is being celebrated by the inclusion of Colin Burrows, a former RUC superintendent, as conference host and main speaker.

The speakers also include senior officers from the West Midlands Police, which framed the Birmingham Six and others, and from the LAPD, responsible for beating Rodney King. The CEO of Taser International Inc, a major supplier of weaponry to the occupation forces in Iraq, will also be speaking.

"Are these people being invited here to teach the Irish authorities how to brutalise people?" Dooley asked. "The organisers of this conference and the owners of the hotel need to get a loud and clear message from people in Ireland: we are not going to sit back and allow these people to peddle weapons that will be used against us in the near future."

Cavan Heritage group, Red Branch Heritage have recently released a heritage report on important archeological sites in a catchment area located in a central area of County Cavan. Cavan County Manager Mr. Jack Keyes received the first copy on Weds 22nd September.

John O’Reilly, chairman of the group, stated that the fifteen-page document has been released in a determined effort to bring forward the important issue of the protection, or lack thereof, being given to archaeological sites in the greater Denn area. The report was compiled by the group over a number of weeks and specifically targeted four sites for special attention. Among these is the Black Pig’s Dyke linear earthworks at Ardkill More Mountain, Carrickaboy - a monument believed to be up to two thousand years old, which has already being damaged by an adjoining quarry. Recently removal of topsoil by the quarry company from a newly acquired area of the mountain has taken place without planning approval from Cavan County Council. According to the report considerable damage has already being caused to the local landscape.

In its summing up the report states: “the quarry site has now become a real eyesore and this extension must not be allowed to continue and the area of this latest unauthorised work should be re-landscaped with soil in order to bring about a renewal of growth. It is time to have a serious look at the long-term future of quarrying at Ardkill More. It is quite clear this site is totally unsuitable for quarrying with regard to its elevated location and the fact that an important archeological site lies in its immediate vicinity. The quarry owners might be encouraged to consider sourcing a more suitable quarry site and phasing out their operations at Ardkill More”

Red Branch Heritage secretary Susan Hayes stated that a winding down of the quarrying operation was the only solution to the problems at Ardkill Mountain. While admitting this would cause problems for the company involved in the short term, Miss Hayes said it was the only solution that would guarantee the lasting protection of this national monument.

“How could any surveyor view the landscape even as it stands today and say the quarry was not interfering with the character of the local landscape - it’s a total disaster even as things stand and we still haven’t even received a guarantee that the surviving stretch of earthworks will not suffer a similar fate to the two hundred yards destroyed in the past.”