THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY....... Twenty-six men were convicted on the word of Harry Kirkpatrick. On their appeal against those convictions could well rest the future of the 'Anglo-Irish Agreement'
('The Hillsborough Treaty') . Based on a full transcript of the Kirkpatrick trials , the story of how these convictions were obtained shows why the 'Supergrass System' is a pale shadow of justice.
By Derek Dunne. From 'MAGILL' magazine, February 1986.
At the 'trial' , the British Army Marines were not really sure what weapon was fired at them : it could have been a high , or low, velocity weapon . One of them , who had given a description of the alleged gunman which was quite clear , could not remember what that mans face looked like in court . In fact , he claimed that smoke from the gun obscured his view! But there was no such 'obscurity' when he made his original statement.
But the description he gave in no way resembles either Gerard Steenson or Paddy McAreevey who were charged with the shooting , but it did resemble Kirkpatrick's friend Gerard Barkley. Kirkpatrick consistently denied putting other people in incidents in order to protect his friend , and showed no remorse for this or for anything he had done , despite admitting in court that he was a drug taker , a drunkard , liar , perjurer and a murderer !
He made many serious mistakes in giving 'evidence' and changed his account from time to time between March 1982 and the 'trial' . We have compiled a list of those 'mistakes' , starting from when Harry Kirkpatrick signed a statement for the RUC in which he claimed to have told them about everything he had been involved in . But that's not true.......
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CIA SLAMS IRISH JUDGE.......
A Dublin District Justice was accused by American embassy intelligence personnel of encouraging left wing agitators and tolerating hostile acts against the United States.......From 'MAGILL' magazine, 'Christmas Special' 1980.
On October 14th , 1976 , Mairin de Burca made a speech at St. Catherine's College , St. Paul , Minnesota ; the FBI used this opportunity to gather some information about events in Ireland , information which still resides in their files and, even now, may be in use to brief their internal/external security operatives. But the FBI agent who wrote the 'St Catherine's College Report' appears to have been drunk whilst doing so -
" Today the conflict is due to the separation of counties in Northern Ireland. The majority of the citizens of Ireland did not want separation from Great Britain or Catholic control . The history of the revolution has been by force of arms and has been a tradition up until 1962..." One can see that there is a mind at work here . Somewhere. It isn't quite sure what it is doing , but it's determined to understand 'the Irish problem' and report on it to its master.
The FBI agent continued - " In 1965 , the Irish Republican movement was founded. This was a departure from the Socialist Movement and a new departure from traditional armed conflict. The Communist Party of Ireland was founded at this time in 1965..." Now this will more than likely come as a shock to those such as Mick O' Riordan who have been battling away for the best part of 50 years! The rest of that sentence won't make things any clearer , either. Remember , according to that FBI agent, the CPI was founded in 1965 , which was the same year that "...the minority of the population moved to the Left for traditional religious reasons.." !
That Bright Spark of an FBI agent then attempted to explain "the military attacks" in the Six Counties to his boss.......
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THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST HEROIN IN DUBLIN....... The drugs crisis is one of the major problems facing young people in Dublin today. In large areas of the city it has now reached massive proportions , while in the inner city there is estimated to be a higher percentage of drug addicts and drug abusers than in Harlem in New York . But it has been only recently - 5 years after this epidemic began in earnest - that any notice has been paid to the problem. And even now the Free State government has failed to confront the crisis in a meaningful way . Tony Barry of Na Fianna Eireann has been looking at the issues for 'IRIS' magazine.From 'IRIS' magazine, December 1984.
Inevitably, given the garda antagonism to the anti-drugs campaign , there have been numerous incidents of intimidation of campaigners by the drug-pushers themselves , including attempts to run them down and several occasions on which guns have been produced by the pushers.
Yet, unlike several other times when known pushers have complained to the gardai about 'intimidation' from anti-drug campaigners , no action was taken by gardai in the aftermath of any of these incidents. On another occasion , in the north-side of Dublin City , (P) Sinn Féin's Christy Burke (secretary of the Hardwicke Street tenants' association and involved in the Inner City Drugs Action Group) was taking part in a community 'chant about' in a block of flats when the Special Branch ('Political Police') arrived in force and approached Burke ; they speedily withdrew, however, when they recognised two of those with him (along with over 300 residents) to be Fine Gael Leinster House member Michael Keating and Independent Leinster House member Tony Gregory.
Unfortunately , Dublin Central is just about the only area where elected representatives have lent their support to the anti-drugs campaign . In the vast majority of cases , politicians have 'hummed and hawed' , issued pious statements of 'concern' , and then done absolutely nothing.......
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