'Free State' fram more political opponents

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million, a total of 108 days were spent forcing through the conviction of three political opponents of the Lynch government.

There were in fact two different trials-both held in the Special Criminal Court where three judges try, convict or acquit and sentence the defendant without the inconvenience of a jury.

The first trial ended after 65 days when one of the three presiding judges John L. O'Conner died.

The second, lasting 43 days, ended with the conviction of three members of the Irish Republican Socialist Party.

Osgar Breathnach, Bernard McNally and Nick Kelly were all found guilty of robbing the Cork-Dublin mail train.

Breathnach and McNally were given 12 and 9 years respectively.

Disappeared

Nick Kelly, who disappeared before the end of the trial, has not yet been sentenced.

:: These three and Michael Plunkett, who was acquitted during the second trial, were charged with stopping the Cork-Dublin mail train on 3ist March 1976 and stealing mail bags.

Neither the bags nor the money (estimated at between £250,000 and £400,000) have ever been reçovered.

The convictions rested on statements made by the accused while they were being 'questioned' by the gardai (police).

Throughout the 'trials' all three pleaded 'not guilty' and said that the confessions were extracted under torture.

In the days leading up to the • death of Judge O'Conner the defendants complained on a number of occasions that he was asleep.

.Counsel complained through all the legal channels and asked for O'Conner's replacement. The complaint was rejected and branded as an attempt to disrupt the court broceedings.

Dead

However, on June 6th O'Conner failed to appear and a messenger sent round to his home was told that the Judge was dead.

Thus the first trial ended after 65 days and the whole thing had to be started all over again.

The Irish state could have saved itself time and expense by continuing to use O'Conner-keeping him in a deep freeze overnight and propping him up in his chair during the day. •Events in the second trial were to show that it wouldn't have made any difference to the verdict. ¡Soon after the beginning of the second trial Michael Plunkett was released. Workers demonstrate against The sole evidence against him was that he had been identified by Mr. Conal O Toole whose house was occupied by armed men on the night of the robbery.

Osgar Breathnach was first arrested on March 31st 1976.

At the Bridewell he was questioned by detectives and asked to account for his movements on the previous night. Released after 48 hours he was rearrested four days later.

Taken back to the Bridewell, Breathnach claims he was taken to a tunnel and beaten up by detectives.

Confession

From there he was taken to an interview room where the beating continued.

Wishing to avoid further injury he agreed to sign a confession.

However, he signed 'Oscar' rather than 'Osgar' indicating his disagreement with the statement's contents. Lynch's domestic polictes When he was taken to Portlaoise Prison on April 9th he was found to have bruises on his left arms and both legs and a lump on his head.

This was testified to by Prison Officer Brendan Breen who received him at the prison.

• Self inflicted As we shall see, the Judges chose to argue that the injuries were selfinflicted' or the prisoners deliberately injured each other.

Supporting evidence that violence was being carried out at the time was given by three prisoners who testified to having heard shouting and screaming during the night.

William Royale said he had heard someone say "We can work in relays all night" and "it'll stop when you tell us what we want to know"

When he banged his own cell door he was told "you'll get the same if you don't shut up".

Students struggle against the Lynch Next day he reported the incident to a Sergent Cleary who advised him to mind his own business.

A vital part of the court's verdict rested on whether or not Breathnach's constitutional rights had been violated by his second arrest and whether or not his alleged statement, made he claimed, while under duress, could be admitted as evidence.

The bench's decisions on these questions involved the most farcical contortions of legal interpretation.

Breathnach claimed he had asked for a solicitor while in the Bridewell.

No request This was denied by the prosecution counsel Macdonald who went on to make the amazing statement that 'There had been no request to the gardai by Breathnach other than saying he would not say anything until his solicitor was present. That was not a request for a solicitor".

(Irish Press 10.11.78-our emphasis This was too much for even Justice Hamilton, who replied "Would it not be sufficient that there was an indication? One of the gardai has given evidence that he reported to his superiors that Mr. Breathnach insisted on speaking Irish and told them that Mr. Breathnach was looking for a solicitor"

Obviously embarrassed by all this the court decided to reserve its judgement on the admissability of Breathnach's statement.

Further evidence of gardai violence emerged when evidence relating to Nick Kelly was heard.

Two doctors Paul McVeigh (Mountjoy Prison) and Richard Burke (Portlaoise Prison) testified that they had examined Kelly on April 8th and 9th respectively and both. found injuries consistent with a severe beating.

Chair on hands

Giving evidence, Kelly described the beating he had received which included lying down on the floor while a detective sat on a chair which rested on his open palms; having his head repeatedly forced down a toilet bowl; repeated punches; blows on the back with a chair; and at one point having his ears banged simultaneously for ten minutes.

• He repeatedly asked for a solicitor, a doctor or a priest but got no response to these appeals.

Kelly told the court he had signed a statement to avoid further beatings and that he had identified at least eleven of the detectives in court who had beaten him in Fitzgibbon Street and the Bridewell Gardai Station.

On December Ist 1978 the court eventually declared that the injuries to the defendants were not caused by the gardai but were self-inflicted:

The court ruled that all the statements, both verbal and written were admissable and that although Breathnach had been held unlawfully there was no conscious infringement of his constitutional right to liberty.

Public interest

This statement was considered admissable 'in the public interest.

Breathnach had been examined by a doctor in the Four Courts who pronounced him dangerously ill.

At St. Lawrence's Hospital, however, he was seen by doctors who found "no serious injuries"

It was these doctors the court chose to believe.

At the end of the Judges' statement defence counsels MacEntee and Sorohan asked for a transcript of the judgement.

This was refused-as was an application for the court tape recording of the judgement.

Astounding

Defence counsel Sorohan in making application for the transcript, referred to the judgement as Lynch 'astounding'.

Judge Clark asked if he really found it astounding and Sorohan replied that he found it 'surprising'.

He should not have, for he had heard similar points made in the trial of Noel and Marie Murray (see SP 124).

Defence Counsel such as MacEntee and Sorohan, who are employed by the state at the modest fee of £240 a day', are in reality simply there to provide a fancy legal cover for what can only be described. as judicial frame-ups.

Protests

The verdicts and sentences were met with protests inside and outside the court.

As the 12 year sentence was handed down, Breathnach jumped to his feet and shouted "The state has spent £l, million in framing me. I am innocent"

Outside the court IRSP supporters picketted and handed out leaflets.

During the trial attempts were made to implicate the late Seamus Costello, leader of the IRSP, who was assasinated on October 5th 1977.

Irish justice

further issue of Socialist Press will carry an article on the attempts to postpone the inquest on Costello's death.

The train robbery case shows once again the nature of justice in Ireland. * Once again political opponents of the Lynch government and the Irish capitalists have been railroaded into jail after a trial without a jury and on the sole evidence of statements which they claimed were made under torture.

As the economic crisis facing Lynch grows ever more sharp it is more than ever necessary for the Irish bourgeoisie to remove those who are fighting to destroy capitalism.

The Irish state, up to its ears in debt to foreign imperialists, spent £1 million to do its. latest dirty trick.

The sort of 'justice' to be found in Ireland today will no doubt come to Britain tomorrow just as the imperialist army in the North will be used on the British working class.

Keith

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NDUSTRIAL boy exposes Garners sabotage Shorter The weakness of the IGWU bureaucracy in the movement of the working class against the Labour Government and its own leadership is clearly accentuated in the Garners' strike for union recognition.

A meeting of the TGWU Regional Committee for Region 1 was forced to hear fresh calls for action from members of the strike committee after it was lobbied by TGWU shop stewards.

This was the fourt h full meeting of the Reg ion 1 HEVS committee since the strike began more than a year ago. During that time the committee-headed by Stalinist secretary Staden and Regional Organiser, Shorter, has been totally implicated in sabotaging the with police As reported in Socialist Press this culminated in the notorious agreement with police to limit the numbers on any one picket to six.

As l the committee STANE members arrived and found themselves confronted by a lobby, their indifference and arrogance turned to embarrasment as they tried unsuccessfully to fend off accusations of sabotage.

They even denied the existence of the agreement with police.

The fact that the lobby forced the committee to accept a delegation from the strike committee shows how vulnerable the leadership is under the pressure from the membership.

This period provides favourable conditions for a renewed co-ordinated campaign against the bureaucracy to demand an end to the isolation of the strikers.

After the meeting Shorter hurried to the strike committee HQ to tell members that the region refused to support their call for a new day of action on March 3 and for a national TGWU delegate conference.

Because of the mass pickets on January 27 and the intervention into the Regional Committee, Shorter was not however in a position to kill off the Garners pickets, January 1978 it.

The strike committee and supporters must intensify their struggle against policies which seek to isolate the strike.

Visits to factories must be followed up and demands not confined to the necessary calls for financial support and support on the pickets.

Strike committee members must clearly explain to stewards, convenors and members the role of the TGWU leadership in the strike, and win their support to challenge and change those policies.

Workers Socialist League

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