I opened my eyes this morning to the dulcet tones of Cathal Mac Coille delivering the news as is my routine every morning. I find it is a good way to introduce myself to the day and only really backfires when the alarm comes on in the middle of a Morning Ireland screaming special between Aine Lawlor and some other individual who doesn't like the cut of her gip!
However this morning I found the news especially intriguing. It would appear the Michael McDowell our esteemed Minister for Justice, published a written response to a parliamentary question on the eve of the budget announcement. As a result, in my opinion anyway, today is turning out to be a very interesting news day.
The gist of it is that McDowell has accussed Frank Connolly, brother of Niall Connolly one of the
Columbia Three of travelling under a false passport with known IRA men to Columbia to engage in dirty dealings with Farc rebels. Curious, thought me, who is Frank Connolly when he's at home?
Frank Connolly is the CEO of a group calling themselves the Centre for Public Inquiry, a privately funded body who is charged with keeping an eye on governement accountability and ethics. It rang a bell somewhere in the back of my mind but nothing concrete and besides where do they get their money from?
They have been funded by Chuck Feeney, reknowned Irish American philanthropist who also liked to support the IRA.
McDowell doen't like Connolly. He doesn't like IRA men, and he really doesn't like being questioned about his ethics. This is a very interesting story and I hope we hear more about it.
I have linked to some stories I found online which I think are very informative about who we are dealing with here. I hope the links work!
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5 comments:
You are absolutely right it is an intriguing story, especially when you realise who is involved and how they are connected to each other.
Although in the most part I cant stand Herr McDowell, I admire his stance agaisnt SF and the IRA, and it is about time someone in the Republic's goverment did so.
Frank Connolly was interviewed on Dunphy this morning and it was very interesting to listen to their choice of words. Connolly definitely denied something, but I was left unsure as to exactly what it was he was denying. Presumably it was travelling to Colombia on a false passport as McD suggests, but you should have heard the way the two of them carefully crafted their phrases.
Eamonn is one of McD's biggest critics, not least because he feels he is constantly picked on by the gardai.
Do I smell another tribunal on the horizon?
I really hope not and I don't think so in this case. But I hope coverage continues on it so we can hear what is really happening here!
Agree with you both. While I'm no fan of McDowell, I'm even less enamoured with the SF/IRA mafia.
However I don't like McDowell's style. I'll take his word that he's not right wing and I'm even prepared to accept he believes himself to be quite a liberal. But what is clearly evident is that regardless of his political views he is a bully.
His dealings with the gardai, McBreaty's, Rossiters, ....... show this tendancy to hector first and reflect later. I nearly long for the days of "on mature reflection" where you knew that if your minister for justice wanted to pull a stroke he'd have the decency to do it behind everyones' back.
I like McDowell and the fact that he doesn't pull strokes and seems to say what he means. However he is a man that appears to go by the book. In relation to the McBreartys in particular he had no precedent there to grant them aid initially and it was a brave move to give them assistance in the end and one which I'm sure he won't regret given the result of the inquiry. But I can only imagine the struggle he had to overcome to make that decision.
I don't agree he's a bully, but I would agree that he often regrets with hindsight some of the things he's said and done!
And it gets curious and even more curiouser, thanks for info; (some of the links are a little banjaxed. My interesting read for the day.
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