Clonmoylan 2012
What happens when the Guards don’t support the Government and the media won’t report the Guards?
One of the most frustrating and revealing aspect of the war over turf cutting – and there are many – was the media’s failure to report what actually happened on the night of Wednesday 20 June 2012 at Clonmoylan Bog in County Galway.
According to the media ‘Protesters maintain officials from the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) yesterday tried to remove machinery belonging to turf cutting contractor Michael Darcy from a field outside the conservation zone. But when an excavator, worth about €60,000, was destroyed in a blaze after it was detained, Mr Darcy collapsed and was taken to hospital. A deal was brokered and a stand-off called off when it was agreed to return the remaining machinery to Mr Darcy.’
Sympathy for the turf cutters abounds in the national and international media. In countless rural papers we hear about ‘freehold’ and ‘rights’, as with this from the Galway City Tribune: ‘That disjoint is also responsible for the awful scenes on Clonmoylan bog over the last week, where ordinary people – law-abiding citizens – find themselves subjected to the full rigours of the law for continuing to do something that their fathers and forefathers did before them.’
What actually happened that night?
Ming’s flash mob were called in – and there are hundreds on the text list – when the NPWS made an attempt to seize the machinery on the bog. The gardai could have prevented the crowd from assembling as the vehicle was being put on the lorry if they had stopped them at the top of the road – but instead they allowed them down to obstruct the vehicle leaving.
NPWS Offcials were then trapped in their jeep all night, lights shone on them, sods of turf thrown at the car. And the Guards just walked away.
The Offcials were actually trapped in the jeep when another machine went up in flames – much less being responsible, as one media report had it, from a botched hot wiring.
Again and again the Guards have openly sided with the turf cutters, refusing to escort Rangers on site, making it clear where they stand.
This is Government policy and the Guards are refusing to implement it. So we have mob rule. And imprisoning the NPWS Offcials in the car is kidnapping.
The trouble with mob rule is that it turns ordinary law abiding citizens into criminals – and it denies us the right of protection for individual liberty and safety upon which any society rests.
Ming, an elected TD, is well behind all this – and the media, who knew damn well what happened that night, never reported the truth.
It’s sick. And its dangerous.
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This Blog was revised on 12 July, 2012
How can Ming support something (machine cutting & extraction of peat) which is just environmental vandalism? This isn’t (as I previously thought) the traditional teams of peat cutters, which might be seen as having a cultural & social value, this is just a silly and short-sighted greed.
as sovereign citizens, it is their right to protect their private property from intruders and harm. the gaurds cannot and should not break the laws which they pledge to uphold. this includes escorting people onto private property where no crime has been commited. cutting turf is not a crime.
Again another load of green agenda propaganda,it was a complete peaceful protest in order to protect a local man from having his machinery & livelihood being confiscated illegally. The machine was in the hands of the NPWS & Gardai when it went up in flames due to the incompetence of the thugs brought to hot wire the machinery & steal them. The reason the gardai are in the middle of this is because the Rangers have claimed they need them for their protection which is another load of nonsense, as far as the Rangers having sods of turf thrown at them this is completely false as there was a ring of steel around the rangers that night & nobody went anywhere near them. Its people like Tony Lowes & NPWS who put out misinformation & lies & are the ones who are fuelling this fire & its clear to the Gardai that this is the case. So Mr Lowes if Your going to relay information please get your facts straight & stop doing what you & the parks always do & that is tell lies to aid your own agenda!!
Where did my comment go please!!!!!!!!! This is a really fair way of operating isn’t it if you dont like what’s posted to give another view or opinion its taken down, maybe because it revealed you for the spin doctor you are.
Tony writes:
Apologies Cathal – I think the editor may be away so I have tried to approve all the comments that have come in – let me know if there are any more problems
What actually happened that night?
I see the usual “spin” and “untruth” from friend of environment Tony Lowes.
Tony Claims us stupid, ignorant country folk “simply don’t understand”, but the truth is we do understand our environment and the balance of life: human, vegetative and animal.
I was there Tony and I can tell you it was no “mob”, nor “flash mob”
“Sympathy for the turf cutters abounds in the national and international media”. I’m not sure what planet Mr. Lowes lives on, but we cannot even get on our local radio station, FM103. KFM (Kildare radio) blows hot and cold and certainly doesn’t ask hard questions of Fine Gael politicians. An article in the Leinster Express was inaccurate and quoted the Coolrain turf cutters incorrectly. It was then used by dear Tony to try and make out we were having a party and giving an “up-yours” to the authorities when we cut.
Of course, I loved standing on a wet Galway road all night. I don’t have anything better to do. If anybody suggested the NPWS set the digger on fire on purpose, that is just stupid. Just as stupid as suggesting the turf cutters set it on fire. My guess is it was an accident – caused by whom?
Exactly how do you expect one or four guards to escort NPWS rangers through a crowd of 30 to 40 turf cutters? We used passive resistance on our bog. We simply stepped in front of anyone who tried to pass along the lane. The guards made every effort to persuade us to allow the rangers through, but we refused.
I spoke to senior officials in DG Environment the week before last, and I mean SENIOR.
The truth is:
1. The EU Habitats Directive was never intended to stop domestic turf cutting. its purpose was to stop large scale commercial cutting and peat milling.
2. There is now confusion (this confusion is peddled by FIE and IPCC) around commercial cutting and domestic cutting done by machine. IPCC claim all domestic machine cutting is semi-commercial. This is absolute nonsense.
I spoke to Professor John Sweeney (Chairman of An Taisce) last week.
He has no understanding of the reality of the turf cutting row.
1. He thought the bogs were owned communally. The truth is, on our bog, the bog plot is freehold and owned by each individual as private property.
2. He believed the propaganda peddled by NPWS and the Minister that it is only 2% of raised bog that is being designated. It’s almost 50% of the domestic turf cutters’ bog that has been designated.
3. He believed 30% of the raised bog SAC has been destroyed in the past 10 years. Dept of Heritage claim there is “30% less active raised bog”. But given the manner in which they lie with stats. one would need to have independent verification.
I saw people shining the torch at the driver of lorry on which the Hopper was loaded. I’d be very surprised if sods were thrown at the rangers. Sods would break the window of the jeep.
I will debate the issue of turf cutting with any person, in any venue, if you are interested in the truth of what is happening. Interpretation and implementation of EU Habitats Directive, Irish style.
From what I can gather the guards were there because of the hipe about the distruction of habitats. They saw no habitats been destroyed and the NPWS were unable to show them any habitats been destroyed or destroyed. Without witnessing a crime and without evidence of a crime been committed the guards could not arrest anyone.