People of the Year - March

The year in people: March

Ciaron O'Reilly and the hammer of God

In the early morning of 3 February 2003, Deirdre Clancy, Nuin Dunlop, Karen Fallon, Damien Moran and Ciaron O'Reilly (pictured) – known as the "Pitstop Ploughshares" – attacked a US navy C40 transport plane at Shannon Airport. They were charged with criminal damage without lawful excuse for doing an alleged €2.5 million worth of damage to the plane.

Midway through the action, they broke off from hammering the plane to pray, and allegedly invited a garda guarding the plane to join them while doing so.

Ciaron O'Reilly, a 44 year old Australian who works with the homeless in Dublin, is a veteran of the anti-war movement and had been jailed in Australia and the US for similar "actions" against military aircraft.

The trial of the Pitstop Ploughshares – who are all members of the Catholic Worker movement – was aborted twice this year, in March and October. The judge in each trial acknowledged that their action in attacking the plane was done in an honest belief that thereby lives in Iraq would be saved, but said their action was not reasonable in the circumstances because the damage they inflicted on the aircraft was merely symbolic. If the Pitstop Ploughshares had done more damage to US military aircraft at Shannon they might have been found "not guilty" by now. They are still on bail.

Cian O'Connor, riding high again

Waterford Crystal was riding high again in December as Cian O'Connor rode him to second place in the Frankfurt Grand Prix, taking the Leading Rider and Leading Horse awards overall.

O'Connor had returned to international competition in August this year, at the Aga Khan, but this was the first time since his ban that he competed internationally with Waterford Crystal. The horse showed no sign of injury, or of psychosis, human or otherwise.

O'Connor had received a lenient three-month ban from the International Equestrian Federation (IEF) in March, following a hearing which found that his horse had been doped with fluphenazine, a human anti-psychotic drug which has sedative effects in horses, prior to the 2004 Olympics. O'Connor lost his medal, but largely kept his reputation: the IEF found he had technically breached anti-doping rules, but accepted he had done so in good faith, as the drug has some history of being used legimitately prior to being specifically banned in 2004.

The gold medal went to Brazilian Rodrigo Pessoa in July, while O'Connor served out his international ban enjoying the Irish national circuit (governed by different regulations to the international one), and the scandal appeared largely behind him when he rode out for the Aga Khan in the RDS to the cheers of Irish fans. Though if O'Connor was over it, some of his colleagues weren't. The fallout from the doping scandal and the associated personality conflicts within the team and management – some of which pre-dated the Olympics – continued to blight Irish showjumping, and the Irish team only narrowly qualified for the 2006 Super League.

Kunle came home, but others didn't

In March, Olukenle "Kunle" Elukanlo, a Leaving Cert student at Palmerstown community school, who was also an asylum seeker, was deported to Nigeria along with 34 others. Kunle was not the only young person to be deported, but he was the only one doing his Leaving Cert. His class organised a protest outside the Department of Justice, and the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, had an overnight change of heart and offered Kunle a student visa to allow him to sit his exams. Anonymous officials in the Department of Justice told reporters Kunle would be able to apply for subsequent visa extensions to allow him to stay in Ireland after his exams. Then a series of front-page stories in the Evening Herald, apparently based on anonymous sources in either the Garda or Department of Justice, alleged that Kunle had had various "scrapes with the law", including having his car impounded. By December, Kunle had yet to hear if his application to remain in Ireland had been accepted.

Also deported on that March flight were two Nigerian mothers who had settled in Athlone. Elizabeth Odunsi and Iyabo Nwanze were both deported along with some of their children, but were forced to leave four other children, who had not arrived home from school, behind them. Those children are still in Ireland, "in hiding" and fearing deportation, according to sources close to them. Despite substantial support from the people of Athlone, including local politicians, Odunsi and Nwanze have not been allowed to return. Speaking from Nigeria recently, Elizabeth Odunsi told Village her six year old son, who has now spent most of his life in Ireland, no longer believed he was from Nigeria. "I'm really worried about my children, they haven't been to school for nine months, they can't go outside, they're always afraid", she said.

In Dublin, young people from Angola, Sierra Leone and Burundi face deportation. A campaign has started, seeking permission to stay in Ireland for a group of young asylum seekers who came here as unaccompanied minors and have been issued with deportation orders since turning 18. Michael McDowell has refused to consider any group "amnesty", though a small number of individuals continue to receive "leave to remain" after applying directly to the Minister.

A further group of 120 Afghan men protested in December outside the Dáil, having been refused asylum and now are facing deportation.

Department of Justice figures show that 392 individuals were deported during 2005, with a further 208 returned to the EU state where they first arrived, under EU immigration law.

Ann Louise Gilligan married Catherine Zappone

Ann Louise Gilligan and Catherine Zappone got married in Canada in 2004. When they returned to Ireland after their honeymoon, they asked the tax authorities if they could file their returns as a married couple, but their application was rejected. They are challenging the Revenue's refusal to recognise them as a married couple for tax purposes. They are now trying to have their marriage recognised in Ireland so that they can get State's recognition of their valid marriage abroad.

They have been granted leave by the High Court to pursue a judicial review. If successful, the case would have wide ranging implications for all cohabiting couples. In 2002 census, there were 77,600 family units, two thirds of whom are childless.

In December 2005, civil partnership rights were introduced in Northern Ireland, England and Scotland. Michael McDowell, the minister with responsibility in this area, has set up a working group to draw up options available to the Government on the introduction of a form of civil partnership for gay couples. The working group will report back by next March.