Time for Reflection: The Celtic Tradition

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Friday February 11, 2005 22:42 by Kevin Walsh - Social Justice and Ethics

'Restorative Justice - Healing the Effects of Crime'
Written by Jim Consedine
'The Celtic Tradition: Repairing the Damage'
It then reads: Fivefold are Crimes
* the crime of the hand by wounding or stealing
* the crime of the foot, by kicking or moving to do evil deeds
* the crime of the tongue, by satire, Slander and False Witness
*crime of the mouth, by eating stolen things
*the crime of the eye, by watching while an evil deed is taking place

Brehon Law existed in Ireland until the final Tudor conquest in 1500.
The Irish had their own form of Criminal Justice System. The Brehon laws was based on its own form of restorative justice. These laws were replaced with the harsh retributive system of the coloniser!

Now......From Behon to a faltering Irish Peace Process.....Can we learn anything?

The Hand; the Foot; the Tongue; Mouth; the Eye

Criminality is the word of the moment. It is not contextualised within the 10 years it has taken to put the Peace Process to near finality.

Firstly, let us take the 'Tongue' in the context of Bertie and McDowell and of course the Tongue of present Irish politics.

Devious Bertie and Himmler McDowell are spitting fire since this bank heist and back up everthing the Brits are saying. I have witnessed in the last week on RTE, Questions and Answers and last night on Newsnight, the Sinn Fein bashing and bashing. Now I ask myself why?

You see Folks whatever way you look at this game of Chess i.e. Dirty Politics, it is a smokes screen in hiding the real shame of Irish domestic Politics which are at crisis point.

Health: Did the little 2 year old in Limerick have to die? Remember, this corporate government gave 15 million euros to horses and they could not give it to our own children. Disgraceful but true.

The crisis in the Environment. The muti-million pound industry of fraud in relation to waste disposal in this country. The Minister Dick Roche would convince himself and others (sitting in a brothel, he was the Archangel Gabriel - that's my simple tongue.

Now more of Irish tongue. 68% of an Gardai Siochana are afraid to go to work because of bullying. In the last two days, two female gardai have come forward in the training college in Templemore claiming alleged sexual harrassment from two of our finest future Gardai. These Gardai will do well in the Donegal division eventually......

In Donegal we all know of how serious the criminality is among Gardai Siochana. The joke in Donegal now is 'If you are caught telling the truth, you are demoted but if you use a vulnerable idiot to plant bombs across the border, you get promoted'. Folks, make no mistake about it, if the power hungry Supt. Kevin Lennon wasn't caught, he could have been assistant commissioner of an Gardai Siochana today. Strange to say in all of that time, McDowell was Attorney General, and it took a whistleblower to expose the whole shower of bastards in Donegal.

Now let's see what Bertie and McDowell are also hiding?

I note from a recent article on Indymedia a slight conflict of 'interpretation'. As we are all aware, Bertie and others headed for a second visit to China......to look to potential opportunities both sides.

Already, many Irish entreprenneurs have established businesses in China and I note that one of the larger develpment companies has pledged Euros 2 billion to a property deal in Shanghai.

The conflict relates to Minister McDowell's new legislation preventing foreign students from places like China, Malaysia, Japan, working while studying in Ireland.

What are we saying? Rich students only invited to Ireland to study.......this was a policy adopted shrewdly by the Royal College of Surgeons in the 1970's when funds for education were short in the coffers.

Gladly, I note the Foreign Students plan to March in Dublin. I wonder did Mr. Ahern convey this new legislation to the Chinese during is visit.

We must remember Ireland received an unexpected windfall to education from foreign student fees last year......I believe the amount was euros 320 m.

Another smokescreen they hiding is Education. The acute shortage of remedial teachers throughout every school in Ireland. In some schools, the conditions are draconian with rat infestations. These conditions are dangerous to the health of both staff and children. I don't hear McDowell shouting on this issue. Of course, his own children attend private school.

An Post. The treatment of the staff is putting it mildly abhorrent. The bureaucrats who were assigned to shake up An Post spent 4.5 m. euros on PR while the staff are fighting for basic wages and working conditions.

Now let us not forget our own Irish people in England living in squalor. These people from the 1950's maintained the Irish economy being some of the main contributors in income to the people here. I hope we don't forget these people.

Let's go back to health again and the future generations of Ireland. Bertie, while in China said Ireland needs Incinerators for its waste products yet McDowell won't have the asbestos plant in his constituency in Dublin while he is prepared to have it in Killala in Co. Mayo.

At the moment, our fishing industry is in crisis. Allegations of fraud, deception and intimidation are rampant within the industry.

Now on Crime. The Minister for Justice keeps on telling the Irish people that crime figures are going down so how come young thugs in the Blanchardstown area of Dublin can go on the internet, order their guns and get them by post.

Dublin City is now one of International Crime and the Gardai are playing catch-up but Bertie and McDowell are not interested in the people of Ireland. There only interest in dirty politics relating to the rise in the Sinn Fein vote, North and South. There is a paranoia in the PD party.....and I do feel that McDowell needs serious psychiatric help. There are at least two more who could go to the Rutland Centre......they need to look in the mirror and ask the question who am I?

McDowell said it is time for reflection and I agree with the mad Mullah on this. Mr. McDowell - do you realise that animals are way ahead of us in common sense. You see the bear and the squirrel will hibernate for winter and they will wake up in the spring. Now in the spring, people in Ireland should know FF. PD, SF, and the Brits will sit down across a table and have a cappucino.....and somebody will say What Bank heist? You see - Common Sense - they will have to talk eventually.

Now Bertie, will you pass me the bleeding nuts......and wake me up in the Spring

Kevin Walsh

By the way - where is the Anorak?