Galway Advertiser 2002/2002_10_24/GA_24102002_E1_022.pdf 

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Battered woman denies allegations of lying Tony Blair on 'the c r u n c h '
Last week British prime minister Tony Blair at last declared enough is enough. As the Northern Ireland Assembly is suspended yet again because Sinn Fein finds itself doing the two-step shuffle on behalf o f its more robust counterpart, the I R A . David Trimble, w h o has been fighting for his political life almost since the G o o d Friday Agreement was signed, let Blair know that unless the I R A began destroying its weapons - its m o r e recent weapons, not the antiques it was holding for a museum exhibition one day when we were "a nation once again" it was curtains for the Assembly. Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams muttered his usual stuff about "fully supporting the peace process" and so forth, but Trimble (well, he wouldn't, would he?), John Reid, Northern Secretary, nor Tony Blair were buying really that line anymore. Listen to Adams - it was refreshing, and rather astonishing, to hear the RTF. One news reporter on Morning Ireland last Friday getting very stroppy with Sinn Fein's smooth-talking spin-doctor - and you'll get a crash course in what deja vu in all about. The crass suggestion someone made to me last week that the scholarly-look ing Adams is on a crash-course o f Statesman's Pills is, o f course, libellous, and we condemn utterly another rumour that a forked tongue is a prerequisite for becoming a spokesperson for Sinn Fein. However, let's return to the British Prime Minister " It is hard for anyone to under stand terrorism", he declared in his Belfast speech last Thursday, " and I d o not believe it was ever or could ever be justified." The prime minister continued" At the core {of The Northern Ireland Agreement! was this deal: in return for equality and justice - in politics, policing, in acceptance of nationalist identity - all parties were to commit exclusively to peace. And for unionism, the right o f the people o f Northern Ireland to remain part o f the UK s o long as a majority want to, was enshrined. Indeed, provided, in effect, unionists agreed to equality and to recognising the legiti macy o f the identity o f nationalists, the union would remain." But at this point in his speech the prime minister introduced a harsher note, one that those o f us who have felt that Blair has compromised with Republican terrorism too often in the past, will welcome wholeheartedly: Referring to the unedifying dance the IRA has led both the British government and General de Chastellain's commis sion, the prime minister reminded his audience of "Negotiation after negotiation, a decommissioning act here, an IRA statement there, progress made, but slowly." And then he got down to business: "We are coming to a crunch point. Will republicanism really take the final step o f committing exclusively, Sinn Fein and (he IRA, to the peaceful path?" Blair bluntly noted that "the very thing republicans used to think gave them negotiat ing leverage lie. the threat represented by an IRA resumption o f violence) doesn't d o it anymore." In so many words, the prime minister pointed out that the intimidating, bullying lactics practised by both Sinn Fein and the IRA won't work anymore. "The crunch is the crunch. There is no parallel track left. The fork in the road has finally come ... we cannot carry on with the IRA half in, half out of this process," adding that "the con tinuing existence of the IRA as an active paramilitary organisation is now the best card those whom republicans call "rejectionist" unionists, have in their hand. It total ly justifies their refusal to share power." And Blair also drew attention to one o f the manifest follies o f the recent situation; "The concept o f republicans on the policing board, o f young republicans becoming police officers, while maintaining an active paramilitary organisation, outside the law, only needs to be stated, to be seen as an absurdity." With tedious predictabiUty, the IRA has responded with its customary intransigence. A senior IRA member said: "There is considerable concern within the IRA at recent developments. There is also real anger at the attempt to present the IRA as a threat to the peace process. The IRA is not a threat to the process and will not accept the imposition of unrealistic demands." However. Observer Northern Ireland correspondent Anthony Mclntyre made a sig nificant point at the weekend: "While Sinn Fein at one lime was an embarrassment to the IRA. Sinn Fein's hegemony within republicanism has led lo a situation where the IRA is now an cmharrassmenl lo Sinn Fein." Sinn Fein is really serious about peace and stability in Northern Ireland and wants move into a major political role not simply in the North but also in the Republic, it time - indeed, it is long past time - to stand down the paramilitaries. Whatever dubious justification the IRA might have had in the past - for myself. I think it has held up a peaceful solution for decades - there is absolutely no justification for its continued existence. Private armies have no place in Irish politics, they arc part o f the problem and not part of the solution. Dear Editor, I am writing in response to a letter entitled Sean Stitt Hits Out at the 'matriarchal Mafia' in your issue o f Oct 10. My letter is from the point of view of a woman who has been experiencing domestic violence for the past 18 months. I've had reason to seek refuge at Waterside House more than once since the beginning of 2002 and I wish to make it quite clear that none of the staff there ever put pressure on me to seek a barring order, nor have any of them ever sug gested that I should lie either to the gardai, my solicitor or the Family Law court. I made my own decision to apply for a barring order eleven months after the idea was suggested to me by two officers of the gardai who are based in the Mayo town where I was living at the time (incidentally they are male officers -- not the matriarchal type at all.) These officers advised me to seek advice with regard to getting a Barring Order, from Mayo Women's Refuge. I'd never heard of a Barring Order before. The gardai told me the location of the refuge and suggested I call to the Garda Station the following morning to get the number. Eleven months later, when I informed staff at Waterside House of my decision to apply for a Barring Order, they advised me to go to my GP to get my injuries documented (for evidence) and to seek legal advice. They were support ive, but I repeat, none of them ever suggested I should lie. I was granted a protection order which gave me the court's protection whilst awaiting a hearing for a barring order. My ex-partner didn't know I'd gone to court for a pro tection order. However, he did receive a copy of it which included a summons requiring him to attend court for the hearing lor the barring order. This gave him one month in which to seek legal advice and prepare his defence. The pro tection order prevented him from coming round to my place to get at me during that month. In his letter Dr Stitt asserts that interim barring orders are handed out to women without the man knowing what the case against him is and that he is not allowed to see the evi dence against him. Well, when my ex-partner received his copy of the protec tion order, he knew exactly what the case against him was and as for seeing the evidence against him, he saw that each time he looked at my face and saw the black eyes, sustained as a result of his violence. Dr Stitt begs the opportunity to close the discussion by offering readers 'factual-based, scientific, neutral research evidence." Clearly this long list of adjectives is meant to convince us of the validity o f the 119 randomly selected two-sex studies from around the globe, to which he refers. In view of the fact he attaches such importance to the use of scientific research methods, I'm surprised to find no sign that he used them himself when he conducted his own research. In his letter he states that he has personally spoken to about 20 women in the Galway region and they have all told him that when they approached women's groups in the area, the latter advised them to 'lie, lie and lie again'. He could at least have taken the trouble to count them properly. How did he collect this data? Did the 20 (or so) women sim ply volunteer this information? Did he ask them questions? If so, I hope they weren't leading questions as leading ques tions should be a v o i d e d when c o n d u c t i n g research. Furthermore, it strikes me as a bit odd that when the 20 (or so) women approached various 'women's groups in the area', all of these unidentified women's groups told all 20 (or so) women to use precisely the same words (lie, lie and lie again) when they went to the Family Law court. In the final paragraph of his letter, Dr Stitt produces his trump card and slaps women in the face with it. Using high ly emotive language, he raises the issue of abortion. I fail to see the relevance of this issue in the context of our current debate. Yours sincerely, Angry feminist. (Name and address with editor)

In search of metro fox
Dear Editor, We have recently started a project examining urban fox populations within Galway city and we would like your help. Foxes have been utilising urban areas more and more in the past 100 years. Studies in Dublin, Britain, and further afield have investigated these populations and discovered their behaviour varies considerably to that of their rural counterparts. Their feeding habits have changed (with scavenging becoming more important and house mice and rats replacing the mammals more common in their native habitat) and their home ranges appear to be smaller also. We plan to carry out a thorough investigation on foxes in Galway city, primarily investigating whether the Galway foxes have become as fully integrated into urban life as their counterparts in wider urban sprawls such as Dublin. The first step in this project is to map the distribution of urban foxes within the city. This requires the assistance of a number of people in Galway as we need as much informa tion as possible on sightings of foxes in the city. Foxes are mostly nocturnal animals, laying low during daylight hours, and coming out to feed ai night. If anyone has seen a fox. could they contact us at the address/phone number below, detailing where and when (including time of day) they saw the fox. We will then use this information to plot their distribu tion, a n d hopefully identify some of the fox dens within the If anyone would like further information on this survey, please feel free to contact us. Yours, Karen Kelly, Galway Kox Survey, / o o l o g y Dept. Arus dv H i UII . NUI,Galway. email keUyk^nuigalwayJe

Reward for regular parkers
Dear Editor, As a regular user of the excellent parking facilities at Dyke Road, may I pay tribute to the helpful people who work there and endeavour to ensure I and many others get a space there very day. However. 1 have a gripe with the organisation of the park, in that I always buy a weekly ticket for six euro as opposed to the daily rate of 1.50. I get this sometimes at the weekend for the week ahead, yet when I queue up to get into the car park from Monday onwards, I have to wait behind dozens of cars who do not have any weekly ticket and who just turn up and seem sur prised that they have to pay money, judging by the time it takes them to fumble in their dashes for change when they get to the kiosk. Maybe there should be some way of letting ticket holders into the park so that regular users get preferential treatment. Is there any possibility of a ticketholders entrance? Regards Happy parker (Name and address with editor)

Film appeal
Dear Editor, I wonder if you could help me. 1 have in my possession some old films of my childhood in the west. They are on 16mm film and I would like to get them put onto video or DVD before they get damaged. I wonder if any of your readers out there are able to tell me where I could get this done. They were shot in the 1950s and 1960s and are of immense sentimental value. People can contact me through your newspa per. Thank you, (Name and address with editor)
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