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Photographs of the late Michael Dwyer: a correction.

category galway | rights, freedoms and repression | news report author Friday July 17, 2009 08:18author by Margaretta D'Arcy - Galway Shell2Sea


Michael Clifford's piece from The Sunday Tribune (12th July) is a serious misrepresentation of our 27th-June Shell2Sea street-meeting in Galway.

He maintains that “for the sake of cheap expediency,” and to further the agenda of certain “elements,” we made a special (and indecent) point of photographs of the late Michael Dwyer carrying guns; he has since repeated his allegation on the Pat Kenny show. There were in fact no such “elements” at the meeting and no private agenda: our declared purpose was to call for suspension of work on the Corrib Gas project pending a full review of its environmental, legal and economic dimensions; a petition to that effect was available for public signature.

To enable people to understand the situation and to make up their own minds about it, we displayed several informative collages made up of scores of cuttings from all manner of newspapers and magazines – e.g. The Irish Times, The Sunday Times, The Irish Examiner, The News of the World, The Mail on Sunday, Village magazine, Phoenix, an Phoblacht, local Galway papers, local Mayo papers. No article was blown up, no photos had any more emphasis than that given them by their original editors. The collages are currently in storage in Galway and can be inspected if required. We heard no complaint about them – there was an open mike which could have been used by an offended person, but no-one did.

We assert our right to inform the public by collating as much published material as possible, and thereby to alert politicians of the seriousness of the situation in Mayo. An Indymedia article which had come out that week, dealing with Private Security at the Corrib Gas project, is a first-class piece of journalism that fills many of the gaps in public knowledge, and we were able to distribute copies of it at the meeting. It clearly indicates the curious connections between the death of Dwyer, the political background of some of the security men at the Shell site in Mayo, and the nationalization by the Bolivian government of a gas pipeline part-owned by Shell.

Nothing has been conclusively proven, but the known facts are so suggestive that it would be an offence against truth to suppress them. To plead in this context that Dwyer was an Irishman and his mysterious activities must be hushed up for the sake of his family is nothing less than emotional blackmail; it is a sentimental species of self-censorship, a phenomenon that has plagued Irish news-reporting for generations, destroying integrity and blinding understanding.

Comments (8 of 8)

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author by Conorpublication date Fri Jul 17, 2009 11:23author address author phone

“for the sake of cheap expediency,” and to further the agenda of certain “elements,” - Right! and I suppose its okay to publish his photos in newspapers that only do it for one thing, profits.

author by galway STSpublication date Fri Jul 17, 2009 19:22author address author phone

of the 4 collages of newspaper clippings that were displayed, these images and captions of Michael Dwyer appeared on 2

kolaz1.jpg

kolaz2.jpg

author by Stevo - Galway S2Spublication date Fri Jul 17, 2009 20:43author address author phone

I came over to this story after reading it this morning and hearing the farce on Pat Kenny yesterday, then going in to help out on the table this afternoon. While doing that I realised how much out of proportion this was being blown. The image of Dwyer was not the most immediate among the rest of the newspaper articles.
I took a photograph so that looking back in future I would remember what all this hubbub was supposedly about, but having seen the ones on the message above I don't know if there's much point in adding another. My photo was taken specifically of the supposedly main image as it was today. the newspaper boards are about 2ft wide & 4ft tall. I can't really see them having been more prominent on the day in question, they merely illustrate one of many instances of questionable behaviour on the side of the Corrib Gas Conglomerate. You might be able to get a better picture of how the stall looked if a certain group member hadn't decided he needed to be in the photo, Though the way the stall was run, there was normally at least one person between the table with books etc on and the newspaper boards, even if the man in the street's vision didn't stop at the table.

I don't know how things were organised on June 29th but it remains true that Dwyer was scarcely highlighted among the various stories on the newspaper boards. & it should be stressed that those boards used newspapers that themselves did more to highlight that story

Is this what all the fuss was about?
Is this what all the fuss was about?

author by o as ispublication date Sat Jul 18, 2009 12:53author address author phone

Yeah, right, it's all a "conspiracy theory".

The guns, the nazi tattoo, the Hungarian mercenaries, the shut down website, the ex-special forces spooks meeting British handlers in Hans Place, the six month hotel bill paid for by a part time student, the shoot out and the dead bodies, and the Fianna Fáil gombeen man wheeled out to testify to the good character of the dead man he'd never met. All a conspiracy, because you say so. And the Irish people don't like it, so Shell to Sea should shut up.

(But if it's bad for Shell to Sea, then surely Shell hacks would be encouraging this debate, not trying to shut it down?)

author by lulupublication date Sat Jul 18, 2009 16:37author address author phone

The people need to know just who has been allowed to act as private police guarding what's been robbed from them; the facist & anti-Semitic links are certainly alarming. These IRMS people must be made answerable for their background & actions.

author by Catharpublication date Sun Jul 19, 2009 18:31author address author phone

“Elod first went to Ireland and then to Madrid and Bolivia. Elod worked on something in Ireland after he and Revesz got together. Elod and Dwyer did not know each other before. They both know Revesz.”
quote from Elöd Tóásó's sister in today's Sunday Times.

I wonder where he worked with Tibor Revesz. I presume it was with IRMS.After all it was a well paying job in comparison to lecturing/teaching in Hungary. He travelled to Bolivia with Michael and the other IRMS employees.

So lets see rthe list reads Tiboe Revesz, Elöd Tóásó, Tamás Nagy ,Dudog Gabor, (All Hungarian) Ivan Pistovcák (Slovakian) Michael Dwyer and probably Daniel Gaspar worked for IRMS

Now the Maths and Probability of 7 members of a ten man group working for the same company before travelling to Bolivia are ?? % (and some returned also to work for it)
Of course the linking factor is Tibor Revesz or is it?

The shorter question is did any of the remaining 3 work for or have connections with IRMS or its largest client.

Why is Elöd Tóásó afraid for his family if the Legion are just hikers and not right wing paramilitaries.

Incidentally only 4 of the group had legion links. Revesz is the only one not dead or imprisoned

Related Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6719205.ece
author by Michael Cliffordpublication date Mon Jul 20, 2009 06:54author address author phone

Margaretta D'Arcy seriously misrepresents what I wrote in the Sunday Tribune about the Shell To Sea protest in Galway on June 29. She resorts to rebutting material which was never written in the first place, and she also throws up a few interesting aspects to her campaign.
I never wrote that a special point was made of photographs of Michael Dwyer at the protest. I never wrote that they were blown up or give special status. It was never stated or inferred that Dwyer or his involvement was the main plank of the protest. My single point was that the use of a dead man who died in violent and mysterious circumstances was an affront to his grieving family and friends he may have had since his time in Galway.
I never wrote or inferred that there was a private agenda at the protest. The agenda was perfectly open and legitimate.
My reference to “elements” is completely taken out of context.There are many elements protesting against Shell, local and outsiders, those motivated by safety, politics and the environment. Not all of those drawn from the various elements would or do agree with the use of a dead man in the manner that Margaretta D’Arcy considers legitimate. Some consider it beyond the bounds of decency. For the sake of those individuals – and I know at least one – I was making it plain that there are different views drawn from different organizations within the protest.
Margaretta D’Arcy is perfectly entitled to “assert her right to inform the public by collating as much published material as possible” about Mr Dwyer’s activities. Some people just consider it indecent to present him publicly in this manner on the streets of Galway. Incidently, Miss D’Arcy and others are constantly decrying the “right wing corporate media” and the “lackeys” who work therein. Then she not only resources material from that element of the media but reproduces it and drags it around the streets of Galway. Maybe some newspapers should hire her to work in promotion.
It is particularly offensive that she suggests I want Mr Dwyer’s activities “hushed up”. This displays an intolerance for those who don’t hold the precise views that she espouses. It infers the motivation of anybody who disagrees with her is questionable.
I don’t question her motives. Some people not involved in the protest do question whether some elements of the protest are merely using the Corrib gas as a vehicle to drive a political agenda, with scant regard for the people of Erris, or the issue itself. I don’t believe that. I believe a little tolerance could go a long way.
Finally, she decries what she identifies as “emotional blackmail”. When the Rossport Five were imprisioned I traveled to their homes and wrote about the impact the affair was having on their families. Presumably, Miss D’Arcy considered that also to be an attempt at emotional blackmail. My record on the Shell story over the last four years is available on the Sunday Tribune website.

Michael Clifford

Related Link: http://www.tribune.ie
author by Andrewpublication date Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:14author address author phone

a) The presence of newspaper clippings on a stall in Galway that include photos of Dwyer
b) What looks very like the involvement of an Irish company that offered 'armed services' in an attempt to spark a civil war in Bolivia, a civil war that would have been in the interests of its major contract in Ireland.

I think anyone who listened to that Kenny show segment and had a basic understanding of the facts would come away with the conclusion that you and Pat were using non-story a) as a way of undermining without even discussing story b). Much of PK's contributions were irrelevant to story a). Story b. is of course a good deal risker, Margaretta D'Arcy is a safer target for you then Shell or IRMS and in any case because of the O'Reilly ownership of the Tribune its very unlikely they'd break story b. anyway.

But keep telling us that the 'real' story are what newspaper clippings appear in Galway.


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