Galway Advertiser 2001/2001_06_14/GA_14062001_E1_024.pdf 

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h a t h a p p e n e d in T e r r e H a n t e , I n d i a n a on M o n d a y of this week was " V T h a t h a p p e and degrading, and ea n n d i a n a on civilised values. The hoopla shameful, n e d in Tenre H a u t , I affront to Monday of this week was and public voyeurism surrounding t h e Federal Government's execution of the convicted Oklahoma City b a n n e r Timothy McVeigh was not simply disturb ing; it was morally repulsive as well as a sober reminder that we are not that far removed from the days when public r m n t i w u were as popular as soccer matches. More than 1400 reporters and technicians were on the spot to report on the last hours of McVeigh, as well as crowds for and against the execution of the Oklahoma bomber. The flush of excitement, the sense of self-importance, that could seen on the faces of the select group of journalists who actually viewed the death by lethal injection mixed elements of the surreal with the grisly. In the aftermath of the execution, a bizarre television parade began featuring reporters, both nxirwul and local, who provided the waiting world - or that portion of it, a distressingly large portion, glued to their screens - with a minute-byminute account of the death of this disturbed young man who apparently saw himself as engaged in a war against the US Government.

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Dear Editor, In the space of only three days last week, a number of heartless Galwegians displayed a wanton disregard for the law (breaking the Protection of Animals Act 1911, amended 1965) and total contempt for the welfare of innocent animals. Day one: an adult cat and nine kittens from two different litters are dumped at the entrance to the GSPCA shop. Later the same day, two one-week old kittens are discov ered in a tied plastic bag by the waters of the Claddagh waiting their fate of drowning or suffocation. Two days later some other criminal seals four adult cats into a rub bish bin, leaving them to suffocate to death. These five cats and 11 kittens are the lucky ones! There are thousands more who are never discovered by the GSPCA, who are never reported by the public, and who are regularly thrown into skips, rivers, sacks, and sileage pits. What is their crime? Being born. In the land of Ireland, where the sanctity of life is bandied about as a political and social issue, it is clear that this sanctity was never intended for anything other than humans. The GSPCA exists as a voluntary body to pick up the pieces of human failure, to re-home the flotsam and jet sam of the animal kingdom that no-one wants to know about. The organisation can no longer do this alone. Every animal rescued needs neutering, and that means another veterinary bill. All money must come from fundraising; this is no longer feasible. The GSPCA is providing an essential service for the public and for Galway Corporation and Galway County Council. The GSPCA therefore wants the backing of members of the public who believe that Galway Corporation and Galway County Council should work with the GSPCA

and the city and county vets to make available an annual amount of money every year for the neutering of male and female cats and dogs. The GSPCA is asking the pub lic to flood both G a l w a y C o r p o r a t i o n and Galway County Council offices with letters demanding that the We were told many times, but everybody had something new to add, that McVeigh tried scandal of stray cats and dogs be dealt with humanely. to stare into the eyes of those relatives and invited witnesses; that his eyes rolled back in The GSPCA no longer accepts the corporation and coun his head and then remained open; that his chest moved up and down, and then stopped. ty council's mantra that they have no legal obligation to We even got to hear, though not read by the prisoner, his 'last words' or 'final testament': care for cats. Galway Corporation has no legal obliga a poem called Invictus by William Ernest Henley, a minor Victorian poet who could never tion to care for swans either, but has handed over public have dreamed that his paeon to the Victorian virtues of self-reliance would one day be money to assist the beautiful Claddagh swans. Swans broadcast around the world as a crazy justification for murdering 168 people. might be good for tourism, but conversely colonies of stray, diseased and starving cats are not, and instances of T h e t r i u m p h of 'infortainment' these are reported to the GSPCA every year by visitors to But what finally made us turn off CNN, a station specialising in the trivialisation of news, Galway - not a very positive impression of this boom aka 'infotainment', was the appearance of a local reporter, a young woman obviously far town. down the pecking order when it came to the media 'hot 100', who began by telling us that The GSPCA is sick listening to tales of the Celtic tiger she could add a few more details to what had already been said". And what kind of and of how Galway is such a marvellous city to live in. details might they be? Were we about to be given a unique insight into the final moments We call on the Corporation and Council to turn over a of the bomber? No. "I can tell you that the curtain lie the curtain surrounding the peculiar few stones and take a look at the underbelly of this eco chair in which McVeigh played his last scene, which looked not unlike a conventional dentist's chair) was of a 'greenish' colour". Click. That's enough from Terre Haute, nomic boom. Fewer and fewer people volunteering to do Indiana. anything other than earn money and spend it on them Meanwhile, reporters outside the prison could barely conceal their disappointment at the selves, and an unbridled hedonism towards the pursuit of poor turnout of demonstrators for and against the death penalty. There were hardly enjoyment. Stray cats and dogs do not enjoy living in enough 'crazies' to fill the screen. But then there were the merchandisers and the flim Galway city - they are miserable and they are being flam men, and the snake-oil salrsmra - the kind of people who used to turn up at Tyburn abused and murdered on a daily basis. in London during the 18th century for the 'turning off of some poor devil sentenced to The GSPCA calls on every responsible person in the city death for stealing a sheep. and county, whether they own an animal or not, or even On Monday of this week, hundreds of Oklahoma City bombing survivors and victims' whether they are animal lovers or not, to write a short let family members watched the lethal injection on closed-circuit television. McVeigh even ter in support of the GSPCA's proposed mass neutering had his own 'celebrity' fan; his invitation to novelist Gore Vidal to attend his execution campaign for the city and county. had been accepted. "This hoy's got a sense of justice. That's what attracted me to him ... Address city letters to: John Tierney, City Manager, He's very intelligent." As things turned out. Gore couldn't make it. But there's bound to Galway Corporation, College Road, county letters to: be a book in it. And for the rah-rah supporters of capital punishment around the country Donal O'Donoghue, County Manager, Prospect Hill, and around the world (China, for example, takes a particularly no-nonsense, unsentimen Galway. Also we ask everyone to call into the GSPCA tal approach, and one that Fielding would have approved; once the trial is over, the con shop in St Augustine Street and and sign our petition demned are taken outside and shot), there arc t shirts; web sites where you can trade exe cution stories with web-friends; glossy magazines with sharply -reproduced photos of the calling for iiis neutering campaign. chair where he died, and a detailed description of what he had for his last meal; and Yours sincerely, despite all efforts to prevent the television transmission of the execution in Terre Haute Alison Herbert, being 'hacked' as it winged its way to the very private cinema in Oaklahoma City where Chairperson, 300 of the relatives and friends of the 168 people murdered by McVeigh watched his last Dear Editor, GSPCA, momements - we will be very surprised if the footage is not on the internet before the 1 am writing in regard to the new legislation implemented 15 Ballybrit Heights, weekend. by the Bus Eireann local services. It relates to the folding Galway, of all prams and pushchairs on the bus premises, would like you to make queries and inform the public on: " K i l l i n g p e o p l e w h o kill p e o p l e I. what are the reasons behind the implementation of the to stop people from killing o t h e r people" afore mentioned rule; 2. does this rule apply to Ireland as a Let us be clear there are serious and well-thought out arguments in favour of capital pun whole; 3. who is the person to be contacted in cases such w e u u v o t e d ftCAwsr t h e t r e a t y TO CNlAMX ishment, just as there are equally serious and considered arguments opposed to i t For our THE E.U. BECN1SC fM MOT IN FfWOOfc Of selves, we see the matter as straightforward; in the words of the US Conference of I when the minder of the child in a pushchair cannot fold the eNLARClNG Trie CM. Catholic Bishops (1999): "We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing". This point | buggy/pushchair for health reasons; or when one person was expressed even more uncompromisingly by one of those protesting at Terre Haute: |cannot at the same time fold the pushchair, hold the baby "Why do we lull people who kill people to stop people killing other people?" Wiser heads take care of the luggage and do all this in time before they may be able to answer that one; we confess that we cannot. And it heartening to recall that need to get off the bus in which case the reversal of activi in the recent referendum. 82% of Irish people voted in favour of removing the death ties applies; 4. what are the chances for this rule to be abol penalty from the Irish statute books, in this we are certainly in step with the rest of ished; or at least, is there a possibility of exemption from tiu rope. which has condemned the McVeigh execution. the rule? But we are not now concerned about the arguments for or against capital punishment. We would be grateful if you could spare some space in the are concerned with the utter lack of dignity, the sickening 'commercialisation', and the newspaper and address this issue since it discriminates sordid trivialisation of death that the world was a witness to on Monday. McVeigh's crime against the people with children in pushchairs who have to was unspeakably wicked And p a haps there is a case for saying that some crimes put avail of the public transportation. Also, it looks like this is those who commit them so far outside the human community that it ought to be expected the only place in Europe where public transportation is not that the death penalty might he justified |child-friendly. If we could all pay for the taxis every time But nothing can excuse the manner in which the death of Timothy McVeigh was turned I we ought to go out we would not need public into the most crass and morally offensive kind of public entertainment, and that many of | transportation at all. us who watched it ended up feeling like voyeurs, soiled by this 'pornography' of death. | Thank you for your time. GALWAY A D V E R T I S E R 41-42 Eyre S q u a r e , Galway. Name and address with editor. Telephone 091 - 567077 Fax (General) 091 547079 ISDN 507170 GALWAY ADVERTISER 41-42 Eyre Square, Gahvay. F a x : (Advertising) 091 - 507150. F a x : (Newsdesk) 091 - 565627 Internet Address: httxn/rwww^alwajad>trtisei j e Tel: 091 - 567077. Fax (General) 091 567079 email: s a k s ^ g a r w a y a d v e i t i s e r . i e Fax: (Advertising) 091 - 567150 -hi - to achiM (hat il l> nnt Fax: (Newsdesk) 091 - 565627 news^jgafwajad vet tiserJe Internet Address: http://www.galwayadvertiser.ie prndiictinai#galwajailtirtiai,iJc ^ tUvsifitdv^garwavadvti t i s e i j e news@galwayadvertiser.ie

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