Gildea speech reopens old controversies

Independent Deputy Thomas Gildea's controversial speech in the Dβil last week was a reminder of controversies past

Independent Deputy Thomas Gildea's controversial speech in the Dβil last week was a reminder of controversies past. Four and a half years after being elected as an independent protest candidate he decided to rake over the coals of episodes in south-west Donegal concerning the TV deflector controversy.

In a rare Dβil contribution, he made a series of allegations, without offering any evidence, about the former Minister for Justice, Mrs Nora Owen. He subsequently withdrew the allegations and apologised.

Mr Gildea had spoken of "certain incidents" in his constituency, including Garda treatment of the Diver family, and the burning of a Portakabin, the property of Cable Management Ireland.

At that time, in the mid-1990s, Cable Management Ireland Ltd had the franchise to rebroadcast British television stations on the MMDS microwave system but community groups had been transmitting the signals for years without a licence via the low-cost deflector system. They protested strenuously at the prospect of having to pay more for their television viewing and this resulted in clashes with garda∅.

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"It was during Minister Owen's term of office that a force of up to 100 garda∅ was amassed for use against the local law-abiding rural population of Ardara-Glenties area," said Mr Gildea in his speech. "Then at a later date, actually almost one year later, the burning of the Portakabin and the finding of an explosive devise at the site of the proposed MMDS transmitter site led to the controversial arrest, detention and interrogation of the Diver family."

The deputy was speaking during a Private Member's motion calling for a tribunal of inquiry into the McBrearty controversy. But after briefly addressing that issue he veered into the incidents which had gone on in his own part of the county, including the allegations of the Diver family.

Mr Hugh Diver from Ardara has made allegations of wrongful arrest. This resulted from a yearlong picket, conducted nightly by locals, including Mr Diver, protesting at the proposed MMDS mast, owned by Cable Management Ireland. Crude explosives were found at the site and when the picket ended, a Portakabin with an estimated £80,000 worth of equipment was found burnt down.

Days later the arrests were made and the men were interrogated about the events, of which they said they knew nothing.

Mr Diver claims that he and his brother Anthony, who has since died of cancer, and their brother-in-law, Mr Barney Shovelin, were wrongfully arrested in November 1996. The men were held for 24 hours. Mr Diver has said he wants nothing more than to clear his name and the names of his brother and sister-in-law, who died after her husband.

When the Private Member's motion, put forward by Fine Gael, Labour and the Green Party, was being drawn up last week the Labour Party was in contact with the McBrearty family.

According to party sources, the McBreartys asked if the motion could be extended to include "the reasons why and the circumstances in which members of the Diver family were arrested and detained under section 29 of the Offences Against the State Act, 1939, and the connections between those events and the arson of the telecommunications installation adjacent to their home".

Party sources said they went to the trouble to make the addition believing that as a result Mr Gildea would vote with the motion and against the Government. Instead he stood up and launched the attack on Mrs Owen before voting with the Government on the issue.

According to the Donegal Democrat, leading members of the MMDS group say Mr Gildea has lost their support because of what he said in the Dβil. They had wanted him to vote for a public inquiry into Garda activity in Donegal.

Mrs Geraldine Shovelin, wife of Barney Shovelin, pointed out this week that Mr Gildea would not be in office were it not for the support of the MMDS campaign. She told the Donegal Democrat that the whole community felt let down because he had failed to vote in favour of an inquiry.

She said Mr Gildea had telephoned the family before the Dβil debate and said he believed pursuing criminal proceedings would be better than a tribunal.

Mrs Shovelin said his remarks about Mrs Owen being a "paid handmaiden" of Cable Management Ireland were seen by local people as a cynical ploy to detract from his decision not to support a tribunal. "If he has something on Nora Owen, he has had it for the last four years. It should have been the first thing he said on entering the Dβil," she said.

Despite this negative reaction to Mr Gildea's outburst there are reports that he received rounds of applause last Sunday night when he attended a convention in Letterkenny to choose Mr Harry Blaney's successor in Donegal North East. How this Dβil controversy affects his electoral chances remains to be seen. It certainly has resulted in an embarrassing and frustrating few days for the Government.

The Fianna Fβil Chief Whip, Mr Seamus Brennan, made strenuous efforts to get the independent TD to make a personal statement in the Dβil on Tuesday saying there was no truth in the allegations against Mrs Owen. He refused, and since the Government relies on Mr Gildea for his vote there was no option but to accept his decision.

The Coalition scraped by on just one vote in the McBrearty motion last Wednesday night. The possibility of Mr Liam Lawlor returning to jail shortly, depending on the decision of the Supreme Court, would put the situation on even more of a knife edge.