Journalists over-rely on official sources, conference hears

Journalists over-rely on official sources, conference hears,“When the allegations were first aired we saw many of the political and security correspondents saying there was no story here, that the whistleblowers had an axe to grind. Well, we saw then how that reliance on the official version from official sources proved to be wrong when the whistleblowers were proved to be right.”?

Review of prison system fails to tackle endemic problems

Review of prison system fails to tackle endemic problemsIn relation to this recent report, Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald said: “In the past, we have had plenty of reports but not enough implementation. I will not let this be the case with the Penal Policy Review”. Referring to the ignored Whitaker report of 30 years ago, she said there now exists “the deep-rooted determination and political will to make change happen in penal policy”. Unfortunately, the Strategic Review of Penal Policy fails to address many of the deep-seated problems in Ireland’s prisons, and in many instances fails to even acknowledge them.?

Stop the TTIP-Dr Paul O'Connell on Vimeo

Stop the TTIP-Dr Paul O'Connell on Vimeo1/10/2014 in UNITE the union headquarters Dr Paul O'Connell gives the lowdown on the trade agreement between the US and the EU.

Special report: Stepping up the pace of Garda reform | Irish Examiner

Special report: Stepping up the pace of Garda reform | Irish Examiner,Prof Dermot Walsh, an author on policing and criminal justice, said the authority should “subsume most of the policing functions” held by the department. This would include “recruitment, appointments, education and training, pay, pensions, conditions of service, discipline, complaints, ethics, promotion and uniform”. ?AND FREEDOM OF INFORMATION?Stop treating abuse victims with contemptStop treating abuse victims with contempt Louise O’Keeffe outside Dunderrow NS, Kinsale, Co Cork. She fought a 15-year legal battle to establish that the State’s failure to establish an adequate child protection framework in schools made it partly responsible for abuse suffered by children.Picture: Dan Linehan. Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - 12:00 AM Everyone who suffered abuse in a defective school system should now be paid the compensation they are entitled to under human rights law, writes Conor O’Mahony. It is well known that navigating the justice system is a traumatic experience for people who experience sexual abuse or assault. This has been documented at length in academic research, and extensively discussed in the media in the past year or two. It remains the case in spite of the fact that in criminal cases, the power of the State is amassed on the side of the victim. So imagine how much more traumatic the experience must be when the power of the State is devoted to denying justice rather than pursuing it? This is what has been experienced by people who were sexually abused in Irish primary schools in the 1960s and 1970s. Learn more Louise O’Keeffe knows this all too well. She fought a 15-year legal battle to establish that the State’s failure to establish an adequate child protection framework in schools made it partly responsible for abuse suffered by children. During this time, the State repeatedly sought to pursue her for costs; she could have lost her family home. When she lost in the Supreme Court, the State wrote to other litigants threatening to pursue them for costs unless they dropped their cases immediately. When she eventually won her case in the European Court of Human Rights in 2014, that should have been the end of the matter, not just for Ms O’Keeffe, but for others abused in the same defective system. Instead, the State once again marshalled its considerable resources to seek to prevent others from obtaining compensation. It established an ex-gratia compensation scheme, but applicants could only qualify for compensation if they could prove that their abuse occurred in the aftermath of a prior complaint made against their abuser. This condition was effectively impossible to prove; and moreover, it was incompatible with the judgment in Ms O’Keeffe’s case. Every single application to the scheme was rejected for failure to prove prior complaint. The independent assessor appointed to review applications to the scheme,retired High Court judge Iarfhlaith O’Neill, ruled on Monday that the condition was “an inherent inversion of logic and a fundamental unfairness to applicants”, and was “inconsistent with the core reasoning of the judgment of the ECtHR in the Louise O’Keeffe case”. This establishes once and for all that rather than accepting its liability following the O’Keeffe judgment, the State spent five years (and €1.5m in legal costs) seeking to deny compensation to people entitled to it as a matter of human rights law. So now is the time to put things right. In practical terms, this means that every person who experienced sexual abuse in the same inherently defective system should be compensated inthe same way. The Louise O’Keeffe judgment demands no less. There are 360 known victims, and the scheme proposes to make payments of €84,000 per person. The total cost of this would be €28m — just 2% of the €1.4bn indemnity given to religious orders in respect of abuse in residential institutions. Unfortunately, there is already evidence that the Department of Education is considering a continuation of the“divide and conquer” tactics that it has employed over the past five years. Thus far, it has only indicated that it will make payments in 13 cases specifically considered by the independent assessor. However, to limit the implications to these 13 cases is a wilful distortion of the assessor’s decision. If the condition of prior complaint is inherently incompatible with the O’Keeffe judgment, then as a matter of international human rights law, it must be dropped for all applicants (and not just those whose cases tested the point). Other tactics adopted by the department to date include distinguishing cases based on the point in time at which court proceedings were instituted, and denying all compensation to people who have never litigated in the courts. There is neither logic nor humanity to these positions. They penalise people who lacked the emotional or financial resources to take a court case at a time when the State was attempting to financially ruin those who took one. If two people suffered sexual abuse in the same defective system, it is abhorrent to compensate one and not another simply because court papers were or were not filed by a specific date. And humanity aside, there is a strong argument that since the European Convention on Human Rights does not require people to pursue national remedies that had no reasonable prospect of success, all victims should be entitled to benefit from the O’Keeffe decision regardless of whether they ever took a case at national level (where Irish courts have repeatedly rejected all such claims). This issue has dragged on for far too long already. The State has treated abuse survivors with contempt, and added insult to their significant injuries. It needs to make amends now by paying everyone who suffered abuse in a defective school system the compensation that they are entitled to under human rights law. It has failed to do so once already; the same mistake cannot happen a second time. Conor O’Mahony is director of the child law clinic at University College Cork. The clinic assisted Louise O’Keeffe’s case before the European Court of Human Rights, and made multiple submissions to the independent assessor in this case.

Fury of ex-love told to pay up (From Worcester News)

Fury of ex-love told to pay up (From Worcester News)"But there's no animosity towards her, the frustration is at the way the legal system works.?

BBC News - Martin Foran wins second miscarriage of justice appeal

BBC News - Martin Foran wins second miscarriage of justice appeal,"It has been a long, hard battle to get to this point and I have waited many
years."?TIP OF THE ICEBERG?

Tusla working to establish facts around death of toddler in Dublin

Tusla working to establish facts around death of toddler in Dublin,She said she wasn’t “in a position to comment” when asked if more could have been done to help the family .?QUOTE FRANCES FITZGERALD MINISTER FOR JUSTICE?

Fitzgerald added that the gardaí will be included in the Freedom of Information Bill, which is expected to be enacted quickly. “I am determined to do whatever is necessary to provide our communities with the policing service they deserve and I am confident that the Government’s reform programme will achieve that,” she said. ?

Hardiman’s concerns about Strasbourg court unconvincing

Hardiman’s concerns about Strasbourg court unconvincing,Regard must be had to the particular circumstances of each case and the Court of Human Rights must take account of the general legal and political context in which remedies operate and the personal circumstances of individual complainants such as Louise O’Keeffe.?

Family of teen who died while in HSE care seeks independent inquiry, inquest hears - Independent.ie

Family of teen who died while in HSE care seeks independent inquiry, inquest hears - Independent.ie,“We have written to the Child and Family Agency seeking that they appoint a member of the judiciary, either serving or retired, to conduct an independent inquiry into the State and how it dealt with Danny Talbot throughout his entire life,” he said.?

Prison officers say they’re told to “cover their arses”

Prison officers say they’re told to “cover their arses”

In his annual report, Judge Michael Reilly described finding “incomplete, inaccurate, and at times misleading” statements from prison staff.

He described one investigation where a prison officer said he and his colleagues had been told to deliberately “keep [their reports] short and cover your arse”.?

Amid the shocking allegations and controversies surrounding the Garda, for example, it’s worth remembering – as Conor Brady writes in his new history of the force – that “a police force is almost always a mirror image of society’s prevailing values”. ?

Cronyism is at the heart of Irish society

Cronyism is at the heart of Irish society,At the same time, a 2014 European Commission survey on corruption suggests that four out of five Irish people also believe that corruption is endemic and only a quarter believe efforts to eradicate it are working?

Prayer for reformed judicial appointment process has fallen on deaf political ears - Independent.ie

Prayer for reformed judicial appointment process has fallen on deaf political ears - Independent.ie,To counteract claims of cronyism, we were also promised reform of the judicial appointments process - See more at: http://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/prayer-for-reformed-judicial-appointment-process-has-fallen-on-deaf-political-ears-?

CRONYISM | Oconnellpadd13's Blog

CRONYISM | Oconnellpadd13's Blog,ENCOURAGECHANGE.: Lijit paddoconnell: “‘Basically i find it obnoxious that in this life cronyism comes before qualifications,Plus the fact that your class background defines what position you may be granted in life by the so-called elites.’?THE GREY-HAIRED MEN?”

“”It appears that the standard strategy for dealing with complaints – especially when they concern important or ‘connected persons’ is to target the complainant regardless of the complainant’s personal integrity – or of the legitimacy of their complaint. In the course of I-I members’ collective experiences with particular agencies and institutions, certain tactical patterns have emerged that are clearly designed to wear down, exhaust and intimidate the citizen, and thereby suppress the truth and frustrate justice.”?” – See more at: http://paddoconnell.blogspot.com

Irish Left Review | No Easy Victories

Irish Left Review | No Easy Victories,The campaign for the Right2Water in Ireland is rapidly growing in strength and confidence. Working class communities have been staging determined and inspiring protests to prevent the installation of water meters in their areas, the best of the trade union movement has mobilised to help support and coordinate these efforts at the national level and the Irish political left has rallied to the cause. In response to the growth of the movement, the Irish State has let loose its dogs of war. As a result of which recent days have witnessed heavy handed and provocative policing from An Garda Síochána, concentrated mainly in Edenmore, Donaghmede and Coolock. - See more at: http://www.irishleftreview.org/2014?

News - Department of the Environment, Community & Local Government

News - Department of the Environment, Community & Local Government,In carrying out his independent review Mr Woulfe visited the site, reviewed all relevant files and documents furnished by Wicklow County Council and met with Council officials and the Public Representatives. Mr Woulfe did not have any statutory powers in carrying out this review. He records however that he received the full cooperation of the Council, the Public Representatives and the Department.?

December 2012, NUI Galway Appoints Michael O’Flaherty as Professor of Human Rights: About Us, NUI Galway

December 2012, NUI Galway Appoints Michael O’Flaherty as Professor of Human Rights: About Us, NUI Galway,Since October 2011, Professor O’Flaherty has been Chief Commissioner of the
Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. The Commission advises the government
and is responsible for protecting and promoting human rights throughout Northern
Ireland. "It is also empowered to help people whose rights may have been denied
and can carry out its own investigations"?

Fr Molloy and Freedom of Information Act. A request by the family for information from the Department of Justice has come back after two months with information only relevant to the years 2010 -2014.We had naturally requested information going back to the time of Niall’s murder in 1985. No explanation has been given for excluding the previous 25 years. We are now in the position where we have to lodge an appeal to obtain information which is our legal right to have under the Freedom of Information Act. We have made similar requests to other relevant Government Departments and they have all responded with information dating back to 1985 and even earlier.Why is the Department of Justice holding back ?

Wallace in new claims of Garda harassment over Kilkenny pub

Wallace in new claims of Garda harassment over Kilkenny pub

Minister of State at the Department of Justice Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) did not refer directly to Mr Wallace’s allegations, but said “while I am aware of some of the disturbing and difficult cases which feed into a culture which needs to be addressed, now is the opportunity for us to address it”.

He acknowledged there were incidents which had shaken the confidence of the public, such as the Corrib gas situation, and he was aware of difficulties encountered by some young "Working-Class" men and their treatment in Garda stations.?

Wallace in new claims of Garda harassment over Kilkenny pub

Wallace in new claims of Garda harassment over Kilkenny pub,Mr Wallace also claimed that in an incident in July this year, when gardaí entered another bar, Matt the Miller, at 2.30am, “Inspector Connolly was on the premises drinking, clearly intoxicated, but left hastily, no names were taken and no record of this inspection was recorded on the Pulse system.”?

‘You could not get into Fortress Garda,’ says former GSOC commissioner

‘You could not get into Fortress Garda,’ says former GSOC commissioner,It’s only when it comes to their own door that it all changes. Some of the most difficult cases we’ve had to deal with were where a law-abiding, perfectly respectable family suddenly finds that a son or a daughter has been mistreated by a guard . . .?

It’s only when it comes to their own door that it all changes. Some of the most difficult cases we’ve had to deal with were where a law-abiding, perfectly respectable family suddenly finds that a son or a daughter has been mistreated by a guard . . .?

Who Killed Honor Bright? by Patricia Hughes (eBook) — Lulu IE

Who Killed Honor Bright? by Patricia Hughes (eBook) — Lulu IE,Authorities in the new Irish Free State harassed and murdered Honor Bright before maligning her as a prostitute and acquitting her assassin. The newly founded Garda Siochana spread deceitful rumours and coerced witnesses to conceal Honor's true identity and the real reason for he death.
False evidence, perjury and the silencing of potential witnesses led to hug he public demonstrations, but newspapers were coerced into printing only authorised stories or else face the consequences from the Garda or Ministry of Justice. ?

Prison Reform Trust > Press & Policy > News

Prison Reform Trust > Press & Policy > News

The Chief Inspector of Prisons added:

 

“Of course, there are security issues that need to be managed but the technology itself allows every key stroke to be monitored and access can be risk-assessed. Perhaps there are some who will say computers and the internet are luxuries prisoners should do without. There was probably some grumbling when they first put telephones on the wings too and if we want prisons to rehabilitate those they hold, we have to give them the tools to do so?

Community threatens to decapitate boy over antisocial behaviour / Sunday World

Community threatens to decapitate boy over antisocial behaviour / Sunday World,His grandmother said she loved him but also said she could not have him in her home any more. Locals want her evicted because of the boy's activities?