Maman Poulet

Thoughts before bedtime

So the CPI were about to investigate the Minister’s new prison site at Thornton Hall, you know the one that has cost €33 million before a brick was laid. The one where vastly increased amounts of money were paid per acre compared to similar land sales nearby. The Minister did not like that.

Niall O’Dowd, editor of the Irish Echo believes that Atlantic Philanthropies could be giving the money back to the CPI – if the CEO changes maybe?

There is also increasing speculation that many journalists and legal academics are afraid to comment publicly on the issue for a number of reasons. Frank Connolly’s family links to Sinn Fein, and the Minister’s bullying tactics and their impact on funding, careers and other employment related issues.

Earlier this year the minister threatened RTE and Prime Time in particular after they reported on Thornton Hall.  So an investigative programme is threatened by the Minister and an organisation which tries to investigate has been shorn of its funding because of the Minister’s campaign and interference.

His colleagues in government support him because they don’t like Frank Connolly not only because of his alleged Sinn Fein links but because he investigates things (them!) and writes about them. As I said in an earlier post many of McDowell’s government colleagues don’t believe in a group of citizens setting up a body funded by ‘foreign’ money.

This rampage through rights not only of Connolly but of democracy and free speech is an issue which deserves full ‘investigation’. McDowell cannot be allowed to go into the Dáil and not answer some questions because he over-answered others.

I don’t believe anyone, other than the government, thinks that Frank Connolly is or has been a threat to the state or that the term subversive can be applied to him. The Minister believes that he does not have to provide evidence and that if he believes it to be true and says so, then that is it. Read the transcript of the Statement and questions in the Dáil here.

Another interesting thought, if McDowell was found to have been telling fairytales, breaking the law and generally stitching Connolly up and interfering in the running of an NGO (and it’s a very big if) would we be facing a general election? Could the PD’s stay in power with Fianna Fáil?

posted by Maman Poulet @ 12/14/2005 12:10:00 a.m.