Author Archives: Edward McGarr
Frank Shortt
The facts are known and admitted. Frank Shortt, now aged 72, an accountant by profession and the owner of a nightclub in County Donegal, was framed by senior police officers on charges of facilitating drug dealing in his nightclub, for which he was convicted and sent to jail for 27 months in 1995. See HERE for a journalist’s account of the affair and its consequences. Mr. Shortt appealed his conviction but the conviction was affirmed by the Court of Criminal […]
Cryptosporidiosis – Galway (4)
90,000 people in Galway are without a safe public drinking water supply for an indefinite period, following the pollution of the supply with Cryptosporidium, a parasitic micro-organism. Meanwhile there are (at time of writing) 112 reported cases of illness, some serious, although medical experts are of the opinion that the number is far higher. One city councillor, who fell ill, reports she lost a stone in weight as a consequence. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government travelled […]
Criminal Justice Bill 2007
The Irish Human Rights Commission has joined in the âdebateâ? on the proposals of the Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform (the Tanaiste) as set out in the Criminal Justice Bill 2007. They got their contribution in just in time. The Minister is rushing it through the Dail, presumably to ensure its passing before the calling of the General Election in which the Government of which he is a significant part will be going before the electorate in the […]
Cryptosporidiosis – Galway (3)
The Irish Times has carried a claim that the Cryptosporidiosis outbreak in Galway has been ascertained to have arisen from human faecal sources and not animal faecal sources as had been generally implied by the Galway local authorities. The Irish Farmers Association has issued the following statement: “3/28/2007 IFA SEEK AN APOLOGY FROM GALWAY COUNTY COUNCIL IFA Galway County Chairman Barry Donnelly has demanded that Galway County Council apologise for wrongly blaming farmers for the current water crisis affecting the […]
Cryptosporidiosis – Galway (2)
Galway City was due a new water treatment plant. The Minister for the Environment, whose job it is to make provision for such facilities, claims he provided the necessary finance in 2002 for the purpose. He claims the Galway local authority, failed to draw down the money and the Mayor is not fit to hold his job (the Mayor’s, not the Minister’s), on the grounds that the Mayor did not know of the Minister’s fund for the plant. The Minister’s […]
Personal Injury – Pressure while diving or tunnelling
For Employers’ duties see HERE Pressure is experienced most commonly in diving and tunnelling. Commercial diving and tunnelling are very dangerous occupations in themselves without the designed, pressured environment representing a further hazard to the worker. Tunnelling is also performed under pressure in an enclosed chamber, called a caisson, at the face of the tunnelling. The caisson keeps out underground water. Divers suffering from “the bends” are the stuff of emergencies in comic books; unfortunately it can happen in real […]
Separation of Powers
When matters are settled and not the subject of lively debate it is easy for the citizens to forget how important some ideas are. The principle of the Separation of Powers is one of those ideas. In Ireland we have adopted that principle and expressed it in Article 15 of the Irish Constitution. It is possible to undermine that Constitution. Consider the truncated “debate” of the Criminal Justice Bill in the Dail. It was truncated by the Minister for Justice […]
Personal Injury – Chemicals
For Employers’ duties see HERE Chemical-induced effects on the human body are of infinite variety, depending on the chemical, the level of exposure, the length and type of exposure and the constitution of the victim. In addition, if exposure to more than one chemical occurs, the chemicals may together have a different and amplified effect than that which they would have singly (“Synergy”). The following is a list of possible hazardous properties of chemicals ; • Corrosive • Explosive • […]
How to Change solicitors
Consider a shoe repairer. You leave your shoes with the repairer to have new soles put on. If you are like the writer, you want rubber soles glued to the original leather sole. (By implication, the shoes are brand new). Under the Constitution of Ireland the protection of private property is guaranteed. The shoes are your private property. You return to the repairer and ask for your shoes. The repairer declines to return them; there is the small question of […]
Cryptosporidiosis – Galway: A Case Study in Drinking Water
The source of the outbreak of parasitic illness in Galway has been confirmed; it is the public water supply. The responsibility for the management of the public water supply rests with the sanitary authority, that is, with Galway County Council/ Galway City Council. Under Section 58 of the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992 sanitary authorities are subject to obligation to report to the Agency the quality of drinking water in their area of jurisdiction. The Agency has, pursuant to the […]