The Wheelock family protest outside the Dáil on what should have been Terence's birthday. An extended interview with Laurence Wheelock, brother of Terence Wheelock.

I remember my 21st birthday. My friends all came out and we hijacked a large corner of a pub in town. There were cards, presents, pints bought and songs sung. That's nearly nine years ago for me. Your 21st is generally seen as a celebration of your arrival into adulthood. In your twenties you grow up more, make new friends, lose others, find more of your independence, switch jobs a few times, make mistakes, learn, maybe travel a bit, fall in love, start a family. This afternoon one Dublin family, the Wheelocks, will be marking the day of their sons' 21st birthday, were he alive, outside the Dáil with a protest.

Terence Wheelock died in September last year after being on a life support machine for three months. He had been in a coma since his arrest and detention on June 2nd in Store Street Garda Station, along with three other people on suspicion of car theft. The Garda Press Office made a statement, claiming that Terence had tied a ligature around his neck, and secured this to a "fixture" which was "counter sunk into the wall". The subsequent renovating of the cell after his death, and the lengths to which the Gardai went to prevent the family from accessing his clothes, has raised many serious and troubling questions about what happened to Terence Wheelock while in custody in Store Street on June 2nd, 2005.

I met up with Terence's brother Laurence in the family home in Summerhill, who told me about what is happening at the Dáil today at 2pm. "The protest is for people from the local and wider community who have an interest and who would empathise with our situation as a family," says Laurence. "Terence would have been 21 today, but he never made it to his 21st birthday. We're asking the Minister for Justice: Why? We'll be doing a birthday card protest. We cant present Terence with a card on his birthday, so instead we're presenting it to the Minister for Justice. In doing this, we're asking him - "Why is it that we cant give this to Terence today?" The card is going to have a key on it, a key to the door for his 21st birthday. People will be handing this in at the gate, in a democratic protest. This will hopefully draw attention to our campaign in a peaceful and dignified way."

"But, hark! a voice like thunder spake, The West's awake! the West's awake!" This is a first hand account of what is probably the first anti-war demonstration on the campus of Glenville State College since the Vietnam era protests. Students are fed up with President Bush and his illegal war in Iraq that is costing the lives of West Virginia's youth which are being exploited by the military in promise for scholarships. We have arisen from our slumber and shall no long stand idly by as Bush and his cronies are destroying not only our country but the world of which all of us live!

I have sat in pubs all over Ireland and I think I heard John Denver's hit song "Country Roads" being sang in nearly all of them maybe even sometimes hummed during sunday mass. Well, this is a story about the land so endeared to Denver and revered with utmost consideration by you guys.

As the lies about European restrictions on investment begin to unravel you don't have to be a socialist, to be concerned about the employees or even worried about transport links to feel that Aer Lingus should stay in state hands.

This is not a sentimental or political debate.

This is just a rip off.

Polluted water is currently running off what was the construction site for Shell’s refinery in North-West Mayo, a site which is currently disused due to its closure by pickets; pickets that have continued from July 2005 right up till today.

In order to build the refinery on such boggy land Shell have had to transfer tons of peat from Ballinaboy (aka Bellanaboy – there are a variety of spellings) to a facility owned and operated by the state company Bord na Móna at Srahmore.
They were carrying out this work early last summer and it is the only work to date they have managed to undertake. Underneath the top layer of peat is a substance called dobe, which has high aluminium content.

The site is waterlogged, being a bog, and this being North Mayo it rains a lot, and the pools of aluminium contaminated water on the site run off into nearby Carrowmore Lake. Carrowmore Lake is the source of County Council water supply for the Erris area.

Read on for an interview with Terence Conway, Erris Shell to Sea activist, about this issue, plus lots of photos.

Related Links: Shell Contaminate the Water in Mayo
Carrowmore Lake by George Russell
Conservation Information on Carrowmore Lake

The metro on the way to the demo was packed, with barely breathing space; it emptied entirely at St Jacques qnd we started marching to Place Renfort for the demo. Right away it was clear that this was as big a demo as I'd ever seen, maybe Make Poverty History would be bigger, but that doesn't count. Generally people were having a good time, each party/union had their own sound system, and while some groups tried to lead their members in chants, many were content just to blare out crap french punk. Everyone was having a laugh, and les jeunes were passing around tins of cheap lager, rose and joints. So kind of like a massive Reclaim the Streets for some people.

After no end of milling around, the march got going, but it took several hours for all the groups to start moving. The CGT seemed to have an endless supply of vans filled with soundsystems and speakers leading the union branch in the slogan, "retrait! retrait! retrait cpe!". As the march passed the prison, the demonstrators cheered the prisoners who were at their cell windows. As the Anarchist groups moved past, the sound systems started playing as loudly as possible, and everyone raised their fists. This wasnt enough for some, and a symbolic attack was launched upon the prison walls, bottles and other debris bouncing off the brickwork. No prisoners were liberated. The march moved on eventually, and a few took the chance to graffiti a bank and others put their tag APH everywhere.

Background and Resources: French Universities Occupied | Three Generations March Hand In Hand. | French Youth Up In Arms Over New Employment Law

The Libcom site provides a blog with up to date archiving of events in France including exclusive translations, analysis, discussion and eye-witness accounts. Paris Indymedia also carries reports.

Other IMC Coverage on France: The Suburbs Are Ticking... Why The Nihilism Of The Paris Riots Is Not A Political "Insurrection | La Haine Est Dans La Rue| Paris Housing Hell | Paris Housing Hell 2 | Paris Housing Hell 3 | Discussion On earlier Riots On Indymedia.ie