The Rearguard

Last week two protesters down at the Corrib oil field in Mayo were manhandled and arrested as they filmed in the area by members of the Gardai. They were put in cars and driven to Belmullet Garda Station. The camera, which was confiscated, was carried in another Garda car. Unbeknown to the Gardai, the camera was still running and recorded them joking and laughing about the arrests and making offensive jokes concerning deportation and rape.

The two protesters were released and it was only later they discovered that the camera had recorded everything. The offending dialogue is 13:30 into the recording.
Gardai have launched an investigation and the claims have met with widespread dismay, though one would have to question the quality of news reporting on this when it comes to the mainstream but that's another issue. This ain't the mainstream. If you don't highlight what's wrong you can't fix it. I use my unemployment to that end most days to fill in the time gap and although at times advised to tone it down a little, I can't see how doing that would benefit anyone around me that I hold dear.

Last night I took a trip into Dublin and on my return I was tuned into a late night talkshow. The incident was the subject of debate and one caller dismissed the episode as just a bit of a laugh and a bit of banter between the Gardai.
Deluded or what?

Everyone of us are capable of a bit of banter. Some people derive kicks from going to stand-up shows where anything is on the cards in the name of 'laughs.' I'm open to a laugh, believe it or not, but rape is not a subject I'd choose to go to in order to get a cheap laugh. The fact that it involves members of the ruling classes makes it appalling altogether.
Corrib will never be renowned as a place where Gardai are held in high esteem after their previous heavy-handed tactics when dealing with protesters at the oil site given away by the State to oil mongers. In this video, previous taoiseach Bertie Ahern shows what side he is on when he denounced the protesters as law breakers and another Shell spokesman as well as an RTE journalist laying claims that it is the protesters who are violent. I think the video speaks for itself.

The documentary expose on the Corrib pipeline, which has been received with International acclaim goes deeper into the debacle that has been taking place down there since 2006.
Ireland, a small nation, hundreds of billions in debt, is sold out by 81 men and women to international forces who now call the shots here in Ireland. Previous politicians were compliant in the handing over of the Corrib gas field, estimated worth, €420 billion to Shell oil.
It makes absolutely no logical sense and with the new government now going back on electoral promises to 'burn bondholders' and continue with the failed Fianna Fail policies of austerity, it seems that Ireland turn back in on itself may continue for a time yet.

It's hard to tell where this story ends, but in all my light shining, I don't see a bright one. I've wrote on Corrib before and nothing has changed my mind.
There are fine officers within the ranks of the Garda, but there is also a need to make sure those hired to protect the laws of the land are up to the job and maybe it's time some of them took a look into some of the shysters who have been breaking those laws for years, yet walk around like they own the land.

Ireland is its people's. United in grief today at the burial of the PSNI officer murdered at the weekend, our political leaders from across the divide were there and there for a reason. We are NOT going back to those days.
Ireland has a new fight to take on, and that's how we reclaim our sovereignty and stop this pillage of everything we hold dear. Let those who gambled get on with their losses and let those who didn't get back to life.

Likelihood? Blah...