Wheelock Family

The family of Terence Wheelock were attacked by Gardaí in their home in Summerhill in the centre of Dublin last night. Up to 30 Garda officers were involved in assaulting six members of the family, including a pregnant woman. Terence died from injuries he received in garda custody last year. His family have been highlighting his case for over six months since his life support machine was switched off after he never woke from a coma, and are calling for an independent public inquiry.

Robert, Terence's brother, recounts what happened. "My youngest brother was handing out leaflets for the protest outside Store St Garda Station on the 3rd of June. He's been getting hassle all the time from the Garda. A Garda saw him handing out leaflets and told him to get out of the area - but it was right across from the family house! My brother said to the Garda "I'm delivering these leaflets", and then the Garda jumped on him. All of a sudden a rake of police cars arrived in."

Racist Hecklers

This evening's anti-war vigil outside St Patrick's Cathedral attracted roughly 30 to 40 participants, including a number of schoolkids who had maintained a presence since 2pm. Just before the vigil began, one of these kids fainted and had to be removed by ambulance for medical attention.

Throughout the vigil - and for some time before - those there in solidarity, including the schoolkids, were subjected to repeated taunts, abuse and racist chants from a group of local teenagers.

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Castlemartin, Kildare residence of O’Reilly

“Paramilitary style death threats have been made against workers on Shell's controversial Corrib gas pipeline project in Co Mayo, the Sunday Independent can reveal. The Sunday Independent has learned that two Scottish workers employed by the Norwegian-owned Statoil corporation were approached by a gang of men outside a pub in Belmullet and told they would be shot "in the back of the head".”

- Sunday Independent, July 17th, 2005.

People who suffer the misfortune of being regular readers of the rag known as the Sunday Independent may remember a series of literary assaults it ran last summer on the Shell to Sea campaign. As the weather improves and we enter a new ‘construction season’, so to does the chance of Shell attempting work, things hoting up here, and another parade of corporate media lies. So in the spirit of getting your retaliation in first here follows an exploration of the interests the O’Reilly Empire has in the privatisation of natural resources. Growing naturally from this is a look at what is entailed in that privatisation, at fresh developments in oil and gas in Ireland, and at the political issues involved in campaigning around this.

Related Links on Oil and Gas: Centre for Public Inquiry Providence Resources Gas Lads – Magill Article Irish Offshore Operators Association

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SHELL NOT WANTED IN ROSSPORT

Syttende mai (May 17th) is commemorated every year by Norwegians all around the world, to mark their country's achievement of independence. A parade was held this morning in Dublin, when many members of the Norwegian community carried their country's flag along Grafton Street.

They were joined this year by members of the Shell to Sea campaign, who followed along behind with a section of Pipeline with PROPERTY OF STATOIL and NOT WANTED IN ROSSPORT printed on the side.

John Monaghan of Shell to Sea said: "This year in Ireland May 17th was also marked by Shell to Sea activists who want to point out the absurd situation whereby the people of Ireland will benefit nothing from the Corrib gas field, while the people of Norway will see the profits invested in their schools, hospitals, roads and pensions."

Liverpool Brigade Veterans Jack James Larkin Jones(93)
and Jack Edwards(92) behind banner of Connolly Column
at fortress of Castell de Sant Ferran, Figueres, Catalonia

On Saturday, April 15th, 2006, British and Irish relatives and friends of International Brigaders marked the 70th anniversary of the formation of the International Brigades with a commemorative walk, led by Pauline Fraser, across the Pyrenees from France into Spain.

The ceremonies commenced in the French Pyrenean village of Las Illas, at the monument to mark the passing through that village in 1939 of the President of the Spanish Republic, the President of the Basque Republic and the President of the Generalitat of Catalunya - fleeing for their lives as refugees from the triumph of fascism in Spain. (In 1940 the Nazi German occupation authorities and the collaborationist Vichy French Government would hand over President Companys of Catalunya for subsequent execution by Franco’s Spanish fascists in Barcelona).

This monument also commemorates the same village as one of the routes through which International Brigade volunteers clandestinely entered a blockaded Spanish Republic from 1936 to 1938; as well as the route taken in the reverse direction in 1939 by a significant proportion of more than half a million Spanish Republican refugees.