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Quotes

Civil disobedience

“We’re justified in resorting to civil disobedience when our cause is valid, we’re motivated by that cause to disobey, we’ve made reasonable efforts to use legal channels first, and we’re sensitive to the likely impact on other people. Civil disobedience is not just justified, but praiseworthy, when it helps to remedy grave injustices in our society.”

Kimberley Brownlee, associate professor in legal and moral philosophy at the Warwick University Law School

— Kimberley Brownlee

the Irish Times

Seán Guerin

“The overall impression given by the internal Garda investigative process was that complaints or matters of concern were put through a process of filtration or distillation so that, by the end of the process, any matter of concern had been removed as a form of impurity, and only what was good was found to remain.”

— Senior counsel Seán Guerin's report into Sgt McCabe’s allegations of Garda wrongdoing

Judge Martin Nolan

“It would be most unjust to jail these two men when I feel that a State agency had led the two men into error and illegality,”

— Judge Martin Nolan on his decision not to jail 2 ex-Anglo directors. However at least 20 campaigners have spent time in jail for protesting against of the various bad and illogical decisions that State agencies have made over Corrib. One law for the rich, One for the poor.

Ed Vulliamy

"This is one of the most important stories of it's kind in Europe."

— Ed Vulliamy speaking on Corrib and the campaign against it

Evidence of RTE bias in relation to Corrib

"A former Producer and Editor at RTE, Betty Purcell, revealed that in 2009, she proposed and scheduled 21 documentaries and only one, ‘Living on the Edge’, a Would You Believe programme about Willie and Mary Corduff’s life on their farm in remote Rossport, was questioned and challenged by management. It was even  suggested, she said, that because TV3 were about to do a documentary on Corrib ‘maybe we should leave it to them’.
She claimed the pressure on her team was ‘sustained’ and stated her belief that Shell personnel appeared to have ‘automatic access’ to senior management in RTE."

— Áine Ryan - Mayo News

Robert Ballagh

"In a State that has completely lost its moral core it’s almost inevitable that those who tenaciously pursue their principles and speaks out against the hypocrisy of power will find themselves silenced."

— Robert Ballagh on the jailing of Margaretta D’Arcy

Sister Majella McCarron

“I experience it in every community [companies splitting communities]. It’s the same story whether it’s Erris (Co. Mayo), Leitrim, whether it’s the people threatened by fracking now; it’s exactly the same story. The same psychological war-fare is being got ready for them ..... God forgive companies for what they do to communities.”

— Sister Majella McCarron

Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett

“One cannot fail to be impressed by the strength of spirit shown by the recipients of these awards. It is that strength of spirit that makes our communities better places in which to live, that selfless sacrifice and endeavour that lifts us all.”

— Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett speaking at an award ceremony in which Pat & Martin O'Donnell recieved awards for bravery

Maura Harrington

"Today the Commercial Court made an order quashing the revised licence issued by the EPA to Shell E&P Ireland.

Shell to Sea is delighted that that the EPA decision to grant this licence is now shown to be illegal and Shell to Sea believes that this shows gross incompetence if not indeed negligence by this statutory body."

— Maura Harrington

Seamus Heaney

'It's not the most distressful country after all when five "green" men stand their own ground'.

— Seamus Heaney (RIP) message of support on the night of Willie Corduff's Goldman Prize celebration in Belmullet