A case of questioning some facts while accepting other facts without question?… A letter The Irish Times today responds to an article by the same paper’s Peter Murtagh (’Scrutinising claims of a ‘vicious’ attack on Shell protester‘, May 18, 2009):

A chara, – Like Peter Murtagh (Opinion, May 18th), I will reserve judgment on what happened to Willie Corduff at Glengad, Co Mayo, in the wee hours of April 23rd, until I see medical reports or other evidence of his injuries.

But I will also reserve judgment as to who it was used a digger to tear down Shell’s fence the previous evening, until I see evidence to identify them.

Mr Murtagh insinuates that this was the work of a group of Shell to Sea protesters: “. . . Protesters disagree and a group broke into the fenced-off area on April 22nd, commandeered digging machinery and smashed the fence.”

All the reports I have read indicate that the people who tore the fence down wore masks, and somehow managed to escape without being arrested, despite the large numbers of private security contractors and gardaí stationed in the area. I have seen no explanation as to how they started the digger, nor any evidence that it was hot-wired.

It may be bizarre to speculate that a group of masked Shell sympathisers might have taken a digger to tear the fence down, but no more bizarre than the findings of the Morris tribunal that members of the Garda Síochána in Donegal planted a hoax bomb at the MMDS antenna in Ardara so as to arrest local protesters under the Offences Against the State Act.

As the seanfhocal says: “Ní mar a shíltear a bhítear.” It is fair enough for Mr Murtagh to ask for evidence of what happened to Willie Corduff, but he must not then join the charge to transmute some other unproven allegation into bald fact. – Is mise,

COILÍN ÓhAISEADHA,

Metropolitan Apartments,

Bóthar Inse Chór,Cill Mhaighneann,

Baile Átha Cliath 8.

There still remains questions over the source of the part of the story which Murtagh apparently presents as unquestioned facts. As pointed out in the Phoenix recently:

…shortly before 9am on April 23, listeners to RTE Morning Ireland were told that the Gardaí had sealed off an area at Glengad as a “crime scene”. But this was not because of what allegedly happened to Corduff, which was barely mentioned, but because of an alleged “incursion” and “intimidation” of Shell security staff and “damage” to equipment by “armed”and “masked” men who acted with “military precision”. This was later updated to “paramilitary precision” by the zealous Mayo Gardaí.

But as locals have pointed out — even if the media has not — the Gardaí have declined to say if they were present. This is because any such admission would beg the question: why did they not arrest any of the paramilitary perpetrators? And if they were not present, how do they possess such precise details of the assault?