Letters to the Editor 2005-06-03
Criminal Justice Bill and ASBOs – an attack on our civil liberties
The controversial Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) and other amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill 2004 are due to go to the Cabinet for approval on 6 June and through the Dáil soon afterwards. ASBOs could result in normal activity becoming criminalised. One need only look at some examples of ASBOS in Britain:
• A 13-year-old was banned from using the word 'grass'
• a 16-year-old was banned from showing his tattoos
• a profoundly deaf girl was served an order for spitting in public
• an 87-year-old was forbidden from being sarcastic to his neighbours
• a 17-year-old was ordered not to enter or leave his home except by a back alley
• a 21-year-old was banned from wearing a woolly hat, baseball cap or hooded top
• an 18-year-old was ordered not to meet with three or more other youths. He was later arrested for breaching this order because he entered a local youth club. (see www.nyci.ie)
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has said that the Bill contains "a strong tendency to see solutions to crime in terms of increase of policing powers, creation of new offences... without the necessary evaluation of how powers are used... it is all too easy to advance 'quick-fix' populist answers to crime, which lack any evidence base as to their effectiveness and in fact in time will contribute to an unjust system."
Other worrying aspects of the Criminal Justice Bill include:
• Section 6 (1), which empowers members of the gardaí to seize anything he/she has reason to believe relates to the commission of an arrestable offence. This is open to abuse.
• Section 8 increases powers of detention for all arrestable offences from 12 hours to 24 hours;
• Section 11(1) empowers the gardaí to photograph all persons arrested.
• Section 29 provides that Gardaí will be entitled to issue an on-the-spot fine for a Section 5 Public Order offence (disorderly conduct in a public place). This section allows Garda to be judge and jury without any safeguards for the accused provided.
These proposals, if introduced would undermine the civil liberties of everyone, but particularly youth and those who take part in public protest. The Union of Students in Ireland, along with the Union of Secondary Students, HotPress Magazine and the Coalition against ASBOs, are calling for ASBOs to be dropped. Unfortunately all the mainstream political parties are supporting ASBOs, except the Greens, Sinn Féin and the Socialists.
USI and USS are holding a "celebration of youth, dissent and difference" protest at 2.30pm on Saturday 11 June at Parnell Square in Dublin. Please send messages calling for the proposals to be dropped to the Minister for Justice, the Taoiseach, the Minister for Children and the Tanaiste.
An infringement on civil rights is an attack on all of us.
Rory Hearne
Deputy President/Campaigns Officer, Union of Students in Ireland
appreciation
Paul Ricouer died on 20 May aged 92. In my opinion he was the most important French philosopher of the century. His work on memory and time is brilliant and unlike so many (including Derrida, Baudrillard et al), he is very accessible.
I thought of him – and a beautiful line of his on memory – when I wrote the poem below.
Richard Kearney and Ciaran Benson introduced Ricouer to Irish audiences – Richard in particular was brilliant on stressing the importance of his work at seminars in Normandy and Dublin.
Michael D Higgins
Blogging
Fight vote fraud bloggers
Conor Brady is correct to point out the dangers of new media (Village, 27 May), for which there are "no mechanisms for the validation of content, for the screening out of material that is inaccurate, dangerous or likely to spread hatred, panic or fear". Brady points out that "there are no effective sanctions if the blogger screws up, gets it wrong or spreads disinformation that results in people being hurt – or worse."
But these dangerous deficiencies also apply to the old media's coverage of the appointment of George Bush as president and the invasion of Iraq.
Fox declared Bush the winner of the 2000 presidential election before it was possible to call, and the other networks jumped on, with no validation of content, to make this spurious news item a fact.
Similarly, the traditional media published the lies about Iraq's (non-existent) weapons of mass destruction and links to al-Qaeda that justified the invasion.
The traditional media failed to screen out material that was inaccurate and dangerous, and spread hatred, panic and fear. The traditional media screwed up, got it wrong and spread disinformation that resulted in tens of thousands of Iraqis being hurt so they will hurt no more.
The market knows that the traditional media screwed up. A Harris Poll published by NewsMax in January revealed that 62 per cent of Americans distrusted the newspapers, 58 per cent distrusted television, and only 43 per cent trusted the radio. This helps to explain the growth of the blogs.
Now the traditional media are failing to cover the controversy about vote fraud in last year's US presidential election that is raging in the new media.
Progressive blogs quote an analysis conducted for US Count Votes by an array of university-based statisticians who find that they cannot reject the hypothesis that discrepancies between exit polls and vote tallies were due to "errors" in the vote tallies that gave Bush a majority.
Conservative blogs denounce this hypothesis as a spurious conspiracy theory.
While Conor O'Clery mentioned this controversy in his column in the Irish Times on 16 April, the rest of the traditional media in Ireland have been dozing.
But the traditional media cannot afford to doze while the evidence is being debated elsewhere. They must fight to hold on to punters – i.e. customers – who would much prefer to follow the debate in the comfort afforded by the paper, TV or radio.
Dr Coilín Oscar ÓhAiseadha
21 Rockfield Green, Maynooth, Co. Kildare
Blogging
Blogging on
Great to see Village magazine acknowledging the existence of blogs ('Blogging On' , May 27) despite same being a "terrifying concept for traditional media", as your columnist Conor Brady put it!
I help to publish a blog (1169andcounting.blogspot.com) commenting on Irish history and politics, and we have over 40,000 "hits" so far, mostly from America. Perhaps your magazine could cover the blog scene (preferbly the Irish one) on a regular basis?
We "bloggers" might then become less "terrifying" to our "cousins" in the main-stream media ...
John Horan
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22 .
? More http://1169andcounting.blogspot.com
Champions League Final
Liverpool victory a bad day for soccer
The Contents page of Village of 27 May proclaimed that the magazine would pose the question: "Lucky shots or red braves?" in relation to Liverpool's triumph. That Graham Hunter's article stuck to the same fan-with-typewriter line as the rest of the media was a pity; that some of his comments were shockingly thoughtless was an altogether more serious mistake.
The assertion that this is the best final ever is hugely misguided (as was the lionising of Stephen Gerrard – the fact that the Liverpool captain finished the game at right back was an indictment of his lack of influence). I hoped the article might go beyond the euphoria of victory and acknowledge that football is in a terrible state when a team as poor as Liverpool can win the trophy.
In this final we saw Europe's (supposedly) best side falling apart like schoolboys when a team of journeymen and lightweights showed even a flicker of resistance. Milan are supremely talented but gutless; they ended the game hoofing the ball long like a Unibond League side, and got what they deserved.
The recent roll call of winners – Greece, Porto, and now Liverpool – is sobering stuff. A few years ago we took it for granted that resilience and will-to-win were prerequisites for top sides. Now we don't, and football is the worse for it.
If this lack of insight was disappointing, however, the comments about Heysel were crass and offensive. Perhaps Mr Hunter should consider going to Turin and airing the belief he expressed in his article; that a football game has shown that the people of Liverpool should be forgiven for Heysel. Perhaps he should seek out the families of the 39 victims of that night and explain to them that God has decreed that it's time to forget all about it.
He might then realise how shallow and insensitive such statements are. He might agree that forgiveness for Heysel will come when the people of Liverpool show the humility to ask for it, not when there happens to be an exciting cup final 20 years later.
I would hope that Mr Hunter will choose his words with more care in the future. For Village to publish such insulting comments was a grave disappointment.
If I'd wanted to see a man eat an orange, I'd have taken the orange-eating class.
Mike Morris
Dublin 3
Liverpool's victory
Hunter misplaced
I follow closely the work of Graham Hunter. On Sky television, Graham Hunter's Spanish football musings are usually authoritative, if slightly tinted by an understandable Catalan / Barcelona-specific hue. On Newstalk 106, his regular insights into Spanish football and specifically the circus that is Real Madrid usually make for fascinating listening.
However, it appears that Village has given Graham a "fan's column". I am referring to his ridiculously one-sided views on Liverpool's Champions League run. Minor points like the fact that not all 39 killed at Heysel in 1985 were Italian would matter if he had his anorak's cap on, rather than his Liverpool shirt.
In his half-serious match report, no mention is made of Shevchenko's "offside" goal, or of the fact that there was an offside flag before Gerrard won his penalty. No matter. He then brings up Liverpool's hellish off-pitch period from 1985 onwards without reference to Hillsborough, which is quite incredible.
Cynically, I could venture that the 96 were not part of Graham's £700 day-trip generation, and belong to a time when the "scum" (working-class) ruled, so they don't merit a mention. But I wouldn't be so assuming.
Undoubledly a fine writer, Graham needs to approach his Village work as he does his broadcast work.
James Connors
Walkisntown, Dublin 12
Pollution in Offaly
EPA gives licence to convicted polluter
The public have until 17 June to make their views known to the EPA following their decision to grant a new pollution control licence to T&J Standish Sawmills in Co Offaly, days ahead of proceeding with a prosecution against the saw mills in Roscrea District Court for breaches of the company's current integrated pollution control licence. The case in the District Court was adjourned.
The EPA has already successfully prosecuted the company for causing pollution. Local farmers have been warned not to dredge the River Fuarawn, because dangerous toxins have settled in the riverbed. What message does this action by the EPA send out to other IPC licence holders? You can put human health at risk and destroy the environment and the only penalty you are likely to incur is a nominal fine in the local court.
As for the EPA, they appear to act without impunity, because until now there hasn't been sufficient public interest mobilised against their activities. I have no idea where this sawmill is located, yet I feel that this decision by the EPA effects not just the local people but every citizen in this state. It is sending out the wrong message to would-be polluters and people who do not comply with the terms of their IPC licences.
A few minutes of your time can make a world of difference. All it takes is a few lines in an email to info@epa.ie or alternatively: EPA, Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford to show the powers that be that there are people in our society who are seriously concerned about the threat posed to the environment by a select few who display no regard for the law. Remember, all it takes for bad things to happen is for all the good people to do nothing.
Anna Kavanagh
Co Longford
Childhood remebered
Limerick school
A recent reference in Village to lay schools in County Limerick, and to Mrs Josie Savage née Egan (pictured) in particular, drew my attention.
Your Limerick Leader informant omitted the former Secondary School, Rathkeale, founded by the late John O'Connor, which was also co-educational.
I received a wonderful education there up to Leaving Certificate in 1956 and, as a result, gained a county council scholarship to university. Josie Egan, as my mother would usually refer to her, since they knew one another well, coming as they did from the same part of the county, was then summoned to give me, as a prospective student, the benefit of her advice. All I remember is being told to study all year long and not try to cram everything in an addled brain the week before exams. Good counsel indeed.
It might also be of interest that the practical patriotism of those years meant that the council requested me, as a scholarship beneficiary, to spend two years of my future professional life in Ireland. That request made a lasting impression on me.
Helen Ó Murchú
Dublin 13