Eamonn McCann: Rage at Stormont over Workfare (or not)

Tonight The Pensive Quill links to a piece in the Derry Journal on Thursday 29 March 2012 by radical socialist activist Eamonn McCann. A regular to TPQ recommended it, saying 'it exposes the Stormonteers for their eagerness to push through Tory attacks on the unemployed.'

Posh-boy Chancellor George Osborne barely had time to draw breath after his feed-the-rich, fleece-the-poor budget last week than a succession of Stormont politicians was mad-dashing for the microphones to express anger and dismay at the likely effect of the measures on the less-well-off in this part of the world.

Even Sammy Wilson was incandescent. Of course, Sammy incandesces easily.

But what does Sammy propose could or should be done to counter Osborne’s plans?

Nothing so far. But maybe he’s working on it. Or not.

The ‘workfare’ scheme introduced at Westminster, supposedly to acquaint the unemployed with the “culture of work,” provides the most obvious precedent for the budget measures. Workfare involved major companies being supplied with free labour and the unemployed threatened with loss of benefits if they balked at taking up the offer. The measure was so obviously unfair that it immediately sparked widespread protests and disruptions which were supported by millions who ordinarily would run a mile from militant action.

History in the North of Ireland is Repeating Itself with a new Dimension added to it - British Interference in America.

Tonight The Pensive Quill features guest writer Helen McClafferty from the Free Gerry McGeough Campaign, www.freegerry.com

I don't know if people realize the degree to which the injustices in the North of Ireland are starting to mount again, especially since 2006 when the Weston Park Accord was withdrawn?  The British government is blatantly treading all over people's human and civil rights by arresting and incarcerating republicans at whim, flaunting their total disregard for a person’s right to ‘due process’, interfering with legal documents, and refusing to prosecute those British soldiers responsible for the murder of innocent Irish men, women and children during the ‘troubles,’ while aggressively pursuing Irish republicans on offences prior to the Good Friday Agreement.

There can be no misunderstanding, the British government and their civil servants - the RUC/PSNI, Minister of Justice David Ford and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Owen Paterson, are on a roll. It started with the politically motivated arrest and incarceration of Gerry McGeough on 31 year old troubles related charges (less than a year after the withdrawal of the Weston Park Accord) when he ran in the 2007 elections. The arrest and continued interment of Marian Price and Martin Corey without charge or due process; the subpoena of the Boston College oral Irish history tapes by the RUC/PSNI in America, attempting to legally interfere with our American academic freedoms; and now Prime Minister Cameron’s new attempt to have President Obama amend the US/UK Extradition Treaty.

Intrusive Freedom

This is the fool who made a complete ape of himself last March by telling the nation that bishops have no obligation to report crimes of child-rape to the civil authorities.  Maurice Dooley is a former professor of canon law, which tells you all you need to know about canon law — shit they made up.  Dooley thinks canon law is superior to the law of the land, and sees no problem with the cover-up of the Catholic hierarchy, including Seán Brady, swearing raped children to secrecy – Bock The Robber, 2010

The experience of those children abused by Jewish clergy once again underscores how many religious people make little attempt to comprehend why they should be compelled to refrain from inflicting their beliefs on other people. They expect to work as marriage registrars but decide who they will approve; as chemists but determine who is worthy of treatment; as hoteliers yet deny services to those whose sexuality is offensive to their own religion.

Chris Bray: The People Who Ratified the US-UK MLAT Think the DOJ Is Wrong About What the Treaty Means

At the bottom of this post, a strong letter sent yesterday by Senator Charles Schumer to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric "La La La I Can't Hear You" Holder regarding the Belfast Project subpoenas served on Boston College. Schumer makes his position plain, asking Clinton and Holder to "work with the British authorities to have this MLAT request withdrawn." Read the whole thing, but one paragraph in particular wages a direct assault on the arguments made in court by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts:

During the ratification of this treaty we in the United States Senate made clear that provisions of this treaty, and other[s] with the UK, should not be invoked pursuant to political goals related to Northern Ireland. In particular, the Senate resolution that accompanied the ratification of the extradition treaty in 2007 states that, "The Senate understand that the purpose of the treaty is to strengthen law enforcement cooperation between the United States and the [U]nited Kingdom by modernizing the extradition process for all serious offenses and that the treaty is not intended to reopen issues addressed in the Belfast Agreement, or to impede any further efforts to resolve conflicts in Northern Ireland.

Schumer has framed the question widely, addressing his concerns about the mutual legal assistance treaty between the US and the UK with a quote from the Senate resolution regarding a different treaty. But his argument is still specifically sound: A few years ago, the Senate ratified a treaty between these two nations regarding a matter of international cooperation in internal criminal justice matters. Doing so, they make explicit their intent to keep "issues addressed in the Belfast Agreement" -- like the past activities of paramilitaries that fought during the Troubles in Northern Ireland -- out of the bucket of things for which the treaty would assure police cooperation. So why would the same United States Senate ratify a different treaty, just a few years earlier, with an entirely different intent?

ICAN: Problematic Stories: Documenting Conflict during a Peace Process

“Problematic Stories: Documenting Conflict during a Peace Process”
Saturday, 24 March, 2012
NINE TENTHS UNDER – Performing the Peace

Playhouse ICAN – International Culture Arts Network in partnership with School of Creative Arts at Queen’s University, Belfast

Chaired by Declan Keeney, Queen’s University, Belfast and Dr Cahal McLaughlin, The Prisons Memory Archive and University of Ulster. This symposium will focus on the issues of recording memories from the Northern Irish conflict in the context of a peace process. Journalist Ed Moloney will talk about ‘The Belfast Project’, a controversial archive of multiple testimonies from former combatants involved in The Troubles. Dr Cahal McLaughlin will speak about The Prisons Memory Archive and an archive of 175 filmed interviews of people connected to the Maze & Long Kesh Prisons will be shown. Other speakers include filmmaker Alison Millar, and and Claire Hackett, who will also speak about Healing Through Remembering project, and Falls Community Council’s oral history archive, Dúchas.

Continue to read the text of Ed Moloney’s talk.

Chris Bray: Boston College Faculty Call for an Investigation

Boston College Faculty Call for an Investigation -  Boston College Sleeps Through the Whole Thing

An online petition created by the Boston College chapter of the AAUP gives you a chance to join their call for an independent investigation of the Belfast Project.

Triple A Rating

Liverpool have won 5 out of 15 home games this season - Abysmal. They got beat 3-2 at home by QPR during the week and lost 2-1 at the same ground to Wigan on Sunday - Atrocious. Manager Kenny Dalglish blames fatigue – Awful. They sit 13 points behind Tottenham.

Many of us remember when a good Liverpool side were beating Spurs 7-0 and were capable of producing a goal of memorable quality from Terry McDermott after a well coordinated team move.  Little sign of coordination, fluency or flair in the side of today. There is more chance of herding cats than getting the current crop to function as a well heeled pack.

As a coach in the world of modern soccer King Kenny reigns no more, the Midas touch, if it was ever there, has gone AWOL. He has been deposed. He has no clothes but the adults cannot see it and praise him for his attire. The club owners think he is well suited and booted. Or maybe they just fear incurring the displeasure of the fans who are more tolerant of the current manager than they should be. But even they booed at the end of the defeat against Wigan.

Chris Bray: An Aside

I warn you in advance: I'm mostly repeating myself, here, on a matter of personal concern that you will only want to know about if you're closely interested in the saga of the Boston College subpoenas. If that's not you, then here, watch this soothing music video instead:

Swimmer: Solo Version

On Hunger Strike Against her Israeli Jailors

Tonight on The Pensive Quill guest writer, Sandy Boyer, the co-host of Radio Free Eireann on WBAI in New York City, reports on the heroic struggle of Palestinian political prisoner Hana Shalabi. This article featured on SOCIALISTWORKER.org on March 21, 2012

HANA SHALABI, a Palestinian political prisoner on hunger strike since February 16, was transferred to an Israeli military hospital as she clung to life by a thread. The transfer took place on March 18, the 34th day of her hunger strike, according to CNN.

According to Jawad Bulos, one of Shalabi's lawyers:

The prosecution and defense teams ... met with the military judge Tuesday to look into an appeal, [and a] decision could come as early as next week to either accept the defense appeal for her immediate release or to keep the detention order.

St Patricks Day: Radio Free Eireann interview with Carrie Twomey

Radio Free Eireann
Saint Patrick’s Day Special
WBAI – New York
Saturday 17 March 2012

Sandy Boyer (SB) interviews Carrie Twomey (CT)


Sandy Boyer (SB): You’re listening to Radio Free Eireann WBAI 99.5 FM and this is our Saint Patrick’s Day Special. And we have just about an hour and twenty minutes to go and then the last hour we’re going to turn it over to Eliza Butler to spin her inimitable mix of Irish music. But we’re very lucky that we have Carrie Twomey in the studio today, who’s normally in Ireland, and her husband, Anthony McIntyre, was the Lead Researcher on what has become known as The Belfast Project at Boston College, which was a very innovative attempt to get an Oral History of The Troubles from the point of view of the IRA veterans, the UVF veterans, the people who were actually on the front lines fighting it. But Carrie, now we have the pretty terrible spectre of the US government, at the bidding of the British government, trying to subpoena some of those papers. Carrie, can you tell us about it?

Carrie Twomey (CT): It would be like trying to subpoena Ernie O’Malley’s notes to use them to prosecute him for On Another Man’s Wound. It’s just a terrible situation. When I was last here we were in the lower courts and our Motion to Intervene and Boston College’s Motion to Quash was over-ruled or dismissed, basically. But we have very good lawyers in Eamonn Dornan and Jim Cotter, and they managed to get a Stay on all the material being handed over, pending an appeal, which is going to be heard in April. So I’m here to continue lobbying, to continue the political pressure to get this to stop.

SB: Very specifically, we’re talking about tapes (and) interviews about the case of Jean McConville, who was allegedly an informer for the British in a Republican ghetto in Belfast. But Carrie, it looks like this is a fishing expedition, an attempt to use these interviews, if they can get their hands on them, to mount criminal or maybe even civil prosecutions.

CT: Oh absolutely it’s a fishing expedition. There’s no question about that. And we do believe that because these are unsworn testimony, it’s going to be uncorroborated, it’s not going to meet the standard of evidence in a criminal court. We believe that there is a move to try to get them released as criminal evidence in order to proceed with a civil suit against people like Gerry Adams. That’s not what this Oral History was gathered for and that’s absolutely wrong to do and the US courts should not have proceeded as far as it has with it. The Department of Justice should have said “No” as soon as it landed on their desk.

Marian Price Needs Our Help

Tonight The Pensive Quill featured guest writer, Sandy Boyer who highlights the grave situation of the Irish republican political prisoner Marian Price who 41 years after the a British Tory Government introduced internment, findes herself interned by another British Tory government.

Marian Price could be in a British prison for the rest of her natural life. Unlike other political prisoners in the North, she has had no trial, no sentence, no release date and not even a date when the Parole Commission will review her case. Unless the courts intervene, she will only be released by order of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Paterson.

Twice she has been arrested and brought before a non-jury Diplock Court. Twice a judge has ordered that she be released on bail. Each time Owen Paterson overruled the judge and ordered her back to prison. He said that he was revoking her license.

The General’s Daughter

The reader doesn’t have to journey too far into Frances Cahill’s book before discovering the real villain of the piece - An Garda Siochana. Her father Martin and his cohorts were pretty okay sort of guys who made a stand against the police and invasive authority. Nor did the father countenance marital infidelity, never having had an affair with his wife’s sister, nor fathering a number of her children. Just a good, all round solid guy, the type you would not mind climbing over your back wall in the middle of the night. Reluctant to judge her father she merely says it ‘appears he was involved in criminal activity’ even though in a later part of the book she would discuss counting out substantial amounts of money for her father at the age of eight or nine and his progression from house burglary to armed robbery. 

Yet for all its bias this is a great read. If your preference is for the literary output of a good storyteller rather than accuracy this might well be the book for you; a read to be enjoyed rather than believed. Frances Cahill employs the artist’s licence and does it quite well, never losing the attention of her reader.

Ed Moloney: BC Subpoenas are Legally Dumb and Dumber

Irish Echo March 14TH, 2012

Slowly, but inexorably, the penny is dropping, both here in the United States as well as back in Ireland. The Boston College subpoenas seeking access to oral history interviews with former IRA activists on behalf of the police in Northern Ireland are about the dumbest things that have ever happened in the long relationship between the United States, Britain and Ireland.

The difficulty is not how to describe why they are so dumb, but in counting the ways in which they are so dumb.

First of all, this is not the way in which to heal a conflict like that in the North of Ireland.
Over 3,000 people died and tens of thousands were scarred, physically and mentally, by a war that was undoubtedly one of the longest and most violent, if not the most violent in Irish history.

But the war has now ended, peace reigns and there is a desperate need for dealing with the past in a way that solidifies that peace and ensures an untroubled future.

The British have chosen a way that does the opposite. The Boston College subpoenas symbolize an approach to this issue based on revenge and the view that alleged combatants in that war should be dragged before the courts, convicted and jailed.

To do this, they created a special police unit, the Historical Enquiries Team (HET), put it under the control of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and authorized it to dig up evidence to support criminal prosecutions.

The emphasis in this approach is on retribution and punishment. Yet anyone who has had dealings with victims of the violence in Northern Ireland knows full well that most just want to know what happened to their loved ones. Who killed their father, brother, son, mother, sister, wife? Why did they do it, and did their loved one suffer?

The sin of omission was Boston's, not ours

This is a letter published in Times Higher Education on 2 February 2012 in response to Professor John Brewer

Your readers will emerge much better informed about the Boston College-Belfast Project case having read Peter Geoghegan's informed piece rather than John Brewer's speculative letter on the subject (respectively, "If trust is lost, future promises naught but troubles for research", 19 January, and "Inescapable burden of 'guilty knowledge'", 26 January). Geoghegan at least spent considerable time researching before he wrote.

Onward Christian Socialism

Tonight, on Patricks Day, The Pensive Quill features guest writer former Blanket columnist and self proclaimed right-wing commentator, Dr John Coulter.  He maintains that the St Patrick’s Day celebrations for Ireland’s Christian patron saint should be used to boost the concepts of Christian Socialism.

Christian socialism is the springboard which the Labour movement in Ireland, north and south, can use to save the island from the ravages of Tory-style cuts. The Occupy movement, which has set up tent camps near major Christian cathedrals, has shamed the Churches into facing up to their responsibilities in combating poverty.

Patrick’s Day.

It’s that peculiarly Irish day again tomorrow. My plans are to head off with the kids into town for the parade just like last year. They are looking forward to it, as am I, even if their presence limits me to one pint.  Unlike last time around we will be without my wife as she is in the US lobbying on the Boston College case. More the pity as she wouldn’t mind me having one too many to add to the festivities.  Drogheda always puts on a great display and, weather permitting, for its denizens the shamrock will be drowned with something other than rain.

Whatever about the elements, the shamrock will definitely be drowned more than it will be blessed even though the day is still officially one named after the island’s national saint. My son even told me he had to wear green at school rather than his uniform, despite his top being green, for ‘St’ Patrick’s Day. My more secular reference to it as Patrick’s Day he seemed not to notice. And I have no intention of changing how he refers to it.

Chris Bray: Howlers (Final)

About the origins of the Boston College subpoenas: The PSNI's "murder investigation" isn't a murder investigation. Period, full stop. No police investigator ever cared especially much about Jean McConville's 1972 murder until 2011. This is an acknowledged fact. Nor is the PSNI now conducting an investigation; rather, it is attempting to borrow someone else's. This attempt to take archival materials is not police work, and is unlikely to result in successful prosecutions. Don't take my word for it: Go see what the PSNI's chief constable said six years ago.

Remember that the ACLU of Massachusetts nailed just this point in their amicus brief: "The PSNI/RUC’s self-inflicted wound, their sorry record of non-performance over more than 40 years, does not justify an invasion of academic freedom and the likely destruction of much of this valuable historic research. Academic freedom should not pay the price for the constable’s incompetence."

So how does the government's novella address the undisputed fact of police indifference and incompetence over the course of forty years? With a solemnly obtuse determination to not notice.


http://chrisbrayblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/howlers-final.html

Lab Rat Stares Back at the White Coat

Tonight The Pensive Quill features a piece by guest writer Mark McGregor. Mark blogs at Hearts of Oak and Steel. This article should be of particualr interest to all who like to debate on the web.

Not being one for academia when a friend drew my attention to a seminar organised by the Centre for Research in Political Psychology at Queen's University Belfast on ‘The content and function of dissident Irish Republican discourses online' I surprisingly found the topic interesting enough to invite myself along.

The talk was given by Dr Lorraine Bowman-Grieve from the School of Psychology at the University of Lincoln and the press blurb ‘Dissidents have gone online to advance Republican cause, research suggests’ states:

Use of the Internet by dissident Irish Republicans to disseminate ideological material shows how the movement is changing, but has largely been overlooked until now, an academic expert told a seminar in Belfast this week.

Dr Lorraine Bowman-Grieve from the School of Psychology at the University of Lincoln presented some key findings from her research into how Republican ideals are conveyed on the web.

Chris Bray: Howlers (Part Two)

or, But We Don't Want Our Power to be Limited
(Part One is here.)

As I've argued before, the DOJ's view of legal assistance treaties means that we have fewer protections against foreign governments than we do against our own. The new novella from the government again makes this argument explicit, using breathtaking language with all the customary flat affect of the bureaucratic scrivener. Time to rewrite that stupid Fourth Amendment thingie: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but unless the British say so.

Even better that this case is being litigated in Boston.

In the novella, look at pages 60 and 61 (of the PDF file; pp. 48-49 of the brief). First, the government approvingly notes a decision from another court: "The Eleventh Circuit concluded that district courts should not evaluate MLAT subpoenas under the standards applicable to domestic subpoenas or under the law pertaining to civil requests under 28 U.S.C. §1782." Then, in a footnote:

"In a similar vein, if modern MLATs incorporated by reference all of the substantive discretion available to review subpoenas under 28 U.S.C. §1782, and required a district court to test a subpoena under the standards set forth in Intel, it would defeat the very purpose of the MLAT. As noted above, the primary aim of these treaties was to limit judicial discretion and related litigation, and to speed compliance with foreign requests in criminal cases."

Píobaire Hamelin

This morning saw me off to my daughter’s school for a drama performance being staged there. While I make no great claim to be what they call a culture vulture, my children are educated through the medium of Gaeilge and it was heartening to see so many parents there in support of their local Irish language school, Gaelscoil An Bhradáin Feasa. It means a lot to the parents and the school does a great job. Probably with unemployment being so high people have time on their hands which they did not solicit but are going to make use of anyway. Turning up to appreciate the efforts of staff and pupils alike was well worth the effort. I failed to make it over yesterday morning to see my son do his bit, but only because I had a pre-existing arrangement to meet a friend who was travelling quite some distance to make it here.  

Like many parents I suppose, I thought the drama would be something to be endured rather than enjoyed. I was delighted to be proved wrong. The kids were fantastic and for some there must be a future in the world of drama and acting. We were treated to a fest of dancing, singing, acting, music. It was all conducted through the medium of the Irish language. Two of the youngsters combined to put on a Jedward performance of such calibre that it made me think they should represent Ireland at events like the Eurovision rather than the terrible twins themselves.

Chris Bray: Howlers (Part One)

The government has filed its brief novella in the legal appeal by Belfast Project researchers Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre. Ted Folkman has already posted his legal analysis, noting some things along the way that surprised him: "Most boldly, the government goes for it and argues that there simply is no First Amendment academic’s privilege."

Of course, the government is quite boldly going for it in arguments against the First Amendment all the time, these days, so I take that boldness as part and parcel of a larger assault on civil society. In 2012, the pattern is well established: Yes, government is going to boldly go for it and argue against our First Amendment "privileges." (See also.)

In any case, my plan was to read the government's brief this morning and then write a long post about it. But the government destroyed my plans with the raw power of their comedy gold, and now I'm just going to start posting as I go through the awful thing. The government's novella is below, if you feel like tasting your own bile. While laughing! It's sort of a repulsive comedy effect, and someone should add the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts to this page. They've earned it.

Support Republican Prisoners - Join the Protests!

Tonight The Pensive Quill carries an appeal from the Cork Prisoners Solidarity Group.

Protest at Daunt Sq Cork City 24th March 3pm

Thirty one years on from the H-Blocks where ten men died for political status, republican prisoners are on dirty protest fighting criminalisation. The current protest has been going on now for nearly a year. Whether you agree with the politics of those imprisoned, held on remand or interned doesn’t matter: the prisoners deserve your support. Rather than underestimating the seriousness of the situation in Maghaberry we need to act now.

The Prisoners face forced strip searching and beatings on a daily basis, going to and from court and visits. And they are subjected to controlled movement otherwise known as a denial of free association on the landings in Roe House.

Either Or

The wars we lose, the wars we win

And the world is - what it has been

- Randall Jarrell

A couple of Fridays back a friend asked if I would like to take a run up to Newry where he had a few odds and ends to attend to.  Iceland being one of the things I most miss about living in Louth, I jumped at the opportunity. Whiskey can be bought the country over but those Iceland pasties, well, they are something else.

On our return we took a detour into South Armagh and looked at sites, unmarked and otherwise, of historical importance. We made our way through the square in Crossmaglen with its impressive monument and past the GAA club where I had attended a function in 1992 which was put on for republican prisoners out on Xmas parole, some of whom are now officials in the British administration at Stormont.  Strange the twists and turns of life. We also drove through ambush points where so many British forces breathed their last, courtesy of the former IRA. We stopped in Meigh where one of the current IRAs made headlines by frightening the wits out of a PSNI patrol, forcing it to flee the scene, leaving the IRA to its own devices.

Chris Bray: Because They Are Icky, Your Honor

Boston College has filed a docketing statement -- two days after the court's deadline, 'cause they're right on top of this one -- in its Belfast Project appeal (see below, if you have lots of time on your hands). The sad thing here is that the First Circuit's docketing statement form is a total snooze -- compare it to the form from the Ninth Circuit, which requires a brief description of the "Principal Issues to be Raised on Appeal." Clearly, the First Circuit is not thinking about my needs.

But there's one very mildly interesting addition, a "supplemental" declaration typed on a separate page and stuck into the middle of the court's form: "Appeals from the denial of a motion to intervene in this action, and from a separate action relating to the same subject matter that was dismissed, are pending in this Court in Nos. 11-2511 and 12-1159 (consolidated as No. 11-2511). No abeyance of any of the appeals or consolidation is warranted."

Translation: Don't lump us in with those fuckers, 'cause we wanna go this one alone.

Suckers

There is a funny cafe scene in The Departed where Boston gang boss Frank Costello, played by Jack Nicholson, is embroiled in an exchange with some Catholic clergy. Costello dismisses them with the words ‘have a nice day, cocksuckers’ and saunters off nonchalantly. At other points his references to pederasts joins the dots for any still wondering what he might have meant. Yet Catholic holy men are not alone in having the put down thrown their way. 

‘Literally cock-sucking Jews’ is not the sort of copy line that would normally make me sit up and pay attention. When I first came across it on The Caudal Lure, a blog written by the scientist Pete Darwin, I sort of twitched my nose as if it has been assailed by a bad smell. Some anti-Semite drawing on the thoughts of Joseph Goebbels, venting their spleen against Jewish people? Then I read the opening line:

You’d think that in any context a man putting his mouth over a baby’s penis and sucking would be seen as outrageous by each and every person with sound mind, right? Wrong. The below image is of one of the most disgusting religious practices I can think of aside from female circumcision and child brides.

Chris Bray: Gov't to Judge - This is Gonna Be a Little Harder Than We Thought

Several developments in the legal appeals over the subpoenas of Belfast Project interviews at Boston College:

First, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston has asked the First Circuit for an extra business day to submit its response to a pair of appeals filed by Belfast Project researchers Anthony McIntyre and Ed Moloney, and to the amicus brief filed by the ACLU of Massachusetts. The government's brief is below, but here's the most important piece:

The arguments in these appeals raise a number of issues of first impression regarding the rights of third parties to intervene in or otherwise effect proceedings under the MLAT. In addition, because the appeals implicate an international treaty as well as issues of domestic civil and criminal law, a number of departments of the United States have requested that they be allowed to review and comment on the government’s brief. A draft of the brief has been completed. In order to allow sufficient time for the brief to be reviewed and reviewer comments to be incorporated into the draft, however, the government requests that its deadline be extended by one business day.

In a single paragraph, the DOJ conveys the exceptional importance of the aggressive legal effort from Moloney and McIntyre. With Boston College making no more than limp and polite gestures at challenging these subpoenas, a pair of independent researchers chose to go it alone -- aided by capable lawyers, and now joined by the ACLUM -- and to fight like hell. The U.S. Attorney's Office never broke a sweat working against BC's sad efforts, but now it faces a legal battle over "a number of matters of first impression" that demand the immediate attention of "a number of departments" of the federal government. These appeals will make case law that will define the relationship between researchers and the government for decades to come. Academic news media, get off your asses and pay attention.

Here's the brief:

Screws Beating Brian Shivers

We utterly condemn this brutal attack on a terminally ill republican prisoner and call for all those involved to be held accountable. We demand assurances from Maghaberry and David Ford that Brian will be able to attend his many future hospital appointments without fear of a repeat of the brutality inflicted upon him by the thuggish screws employed by Maghaberry - Mandy Duffy PRO, Family & Friends of Republican Prisoners Maghaberry.

Brian Shivers is to appeal the verdict delivered against him in a juryless court. That court decided that he was responsible for the deaths of two British soldiers at the British military installation of Massereene three years ago. Shivers is terminally ill and in normal circumstances it would be expected that his appeal would be hastened as a matter of urgency. But the North of Ireland has so rarely fitted the ‘normal’ category that the British state has frequently had to seek recourse in egregious strategies of normalisation. 

One Night

Tonight The Pensive Quill features a short story by guest writer Thomas Dixie Elliot

A reddening Irish sky casts a bloody reflection on the long narrow lake. The lofty mountain on the eastern side of the lake gradually loses it’s purples and greens to the dark grey shadows of dusk.

The incessant cawing of crows as they circle above pierces the quietude like an angry crowd. One of their number, perhaps tired after a day of foraging, alights on a fence post for momentary respite. It looks out over the valley before spreading it’s wings and flying off to join it’s comrades on their obstreperous flight. They merge into a darkening sky that draws the night like a curtain.

As the moon rises from behind the mountain casting light upon the inky landscape, clouds change shape and form as they drift across the night sky. Faint lights in the darkness indicate where those who work the land rest up before the coming day brings further toil. This land is hard but beautiful, as are those who eke their existence from it.

Cardinal Cretin

But the overwhelming dominant norm of traditional marriage was enabled to be precisely that, a norm, because anything outside of that was treated as profoundly abnormal and either rejected or punished.  Male homosexual practice was criminalised, unmarried mothers institutionalised or shunned, the children of the outside the norm families similarly treated – anything that did not fit the dominant cultural norm was to be jailed, institutionalised or forced to flee – Irish Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly

There has been no shortage of Scottish bigots over the years. We witnessed enough of them on the streets of the North, armed and dangerous, in regiments like the Black Watch. And here they are tooling up once more with the weapons of prejudice, poised to strike again. In their sites this time around is that ‘grotesque’ act of gay marriage. Keith O’Brien, the cardinal of Scotland has targeted those societies that have opted to put a halt to discriminating against gay people. For allowing gays the same rights to marriage as straight people, they have in his warped world shamed themselves.

O’Brien preaches that if the current British government legalises gay marriage UK society would degenerate further into immorality. Which only means really that society would depart from Catholic teaching. That is hardly likely to make it more immoral. Conversely, it enhances morality by extending and deepening the concept of human rights to ever more people.

Difficult to get caught out when you always tell the truth

Tonight the Pensive Quill features guest writer Thomas Dixie Elliot. The following piece was published as a letter in the Irish News on on 25 January, 2012.

The thing about the truth is: you can’t get caught out telling it. Maybe that’s the reason Richard O’Rawe hasn’t been caught out telling lies, or ever changed his story regarding the events surrounding the 1981 hunger strike.  Others, Danny Morrison in particular, haven’t been so consistent.

In the Irish News on January 17th Danny said “the British telephoned Duddy [Brendan Duddy, the go-between] an offer on the 6th.…”

Throwback on Talkback

Not too long back a comment appeared on this blog suggesting that it would be worth listening to BBC Talkback’s discussion around the ongoing imprisonment of Marian Price. When I eventually found it, the suggestion turned out to be good advice. It was like one of those ‘what if?’ scenarios that historians sometimes fascinate over, where a figure from the past could be put in a studio with one from the present. The historians might go on to manufacture the exchange in order to give us a feel of what it might have been like.

There was no need to do that here. Assailing our ears was a Neanderthal determined to hug the past like a child does a comfort blanket. By opting to ignore what had happened in the meantime he rendered his perspective as antiquated as the black and white television he recalls getting his last news bulletin from.

A New War Of Independence?

Tonight The Pensive Quill features guest writer Dr John Coulter as he outlines why he believes Irish nationalists may need to fight a new War of Independence. John is a former columnist with the Blanket and writes within what he describes as a Radical Unionist perspective.

Ireland may have a new War of Independence on its hands as an indirect result of Tory David Cameron’s snub to the Eurozone.

From 1919 to 1921, Irish republicans fought a bloody war against the British Army, police, Unionists and Protestants – mainly in Southern Ireland – which ended in the Anglo-Irish Treaty, a move which sparked the equally bloody Irish Civil War.
  
The Republic is both part of the eurozone and the massive multi-billion euro bailout to prevent the state from becoming effectively bankrupt.

The Boys Are Black In Town

For those without religious belief the rituals associated with the phenomenon always have a touch of the unreal about them. Nothing strange about that given that religion is founded on the unreal itself and nowhere more so than its zombie culture where the dead are brought back to life. Religions have never offered any proof of it but millions claim to believe it anyway. The more mundane tricks like holy water and sin absolution are bog standard daily rituals particular to Catholicism, and the other major religions are not without their own tricks of the trade. Catholic magic is easier to stomach than the type of healing scams the Protestant televangelists get up to on screen.

Double Jeopardy

Tonight The Pensive Quill features guest writer Martin Galvin who draws attention to some important points in the case of Gerry McGeough

Gerry McGeough must soon face a Diplock version of “double jeopardy” courtesy of the crown. On Friday, March 2nd, the Tyrone Republican will be kept in his Maghaberry cell, awaiting word of the first of these two judgments, by two sets of British judges. A victory in either proceeding will likely free Gerry McGeough to return to his wife Maria and four young children. A double defeat will likely mean at least another year of imprisonment in that Maghaberry cell for McGeough, and gift the crown with another legal precedent for jailing other Republicans.

McGeough’s double jeopardy will begin this Friday; with the judgment on his judicial review. The issue here is narrow.

Under the terms of the Good Friday deal, Republicans jailed for pre-1998 IRA actions should be entitled to early release upon serving two years. McGeough served nearly 8 years, for IRA activities, first in a notorious German bunker prison and then in American prisons.