A bird's eye view of the vineyard
Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb
The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog. We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).
What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are
Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader 2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of
The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by The Saker >>
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail supporter? Anthony
Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony
Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony
RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony
Waiting for SIPO Anthony Public Inquiry >>
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Julian Assange is finally free ! Tue Jun 25, 2024 21:11 | indy
Stand With Palestine: Workplace Day of Action on Naksa Day Thu May 30, 2024 21:55 | indy
It is Chemtrails Month and Time to Visit this Topic Thu May 30, 2024 00:01 | indy
Hamburg 14.05. "Rote" Flora Reoccupied By Internationalists Wed May 15, 2024 15:49 | Internationalist left
Eddie Hobbs Breaks the Silence Exposing the Hidden Agenda Behind the WHO Treaty Sat May 11, 2024 22:41 | indy Human Rights in Ireland >>
Catching Covid Does Not Lower Your IQ Tue Jul 23, 2024 09:00 | Noah Carl Headlines earlier this year proclaimed that catching Covid may knock up to 6 points off your IQ. A new study punctures this claim: there was no decline in cognitive test scores after Covid infection.
The post Catching Covid Does Not Lower Your IQ appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The BBC Has ?Fact-Checked? Labour?s Claim that Renewables are Cheaper than Fossil Fuels and Declared... Tue Jul 23, 2024 07:00 | Paul Homewood The BBC has ?fact-checked? Labour's claim that a unit of power from a new solar or wind project is cheaper than the cost from a new gas generator and found it to be true. But it's false, says Paul Homewood.
The post The BBC Has ?Fact-Checked? Labour?s Claim that Renewables are Cheaper than Fossil Fuels and Declared it to be True. But it?s False appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Tue Jul 23, 2024 01:16 | Richard Eldred A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Will Trump Ever Admit Lockdown Was a Mistake? Mon Jul 22, 2024 19:35 | Jeffrey A. Tucker Will Trump ever admit he was wrong to back lockdown in March 2020 ? a decision that doomed America to years of crisis and sank his re-election hopes that year? Jeffrey Tucker is hopeful that truth will finally prevail.
The post Will Trump Ever Admit Lockdown Was a Mistake? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Joe Biden Out in Apparent Palace Coup Mon Jul 22, 2024 17:30 | Eugyppius Biden's team was still obliviously tweeting his resolve to fight on hours after he had decided to step down. So was the matter taken out of his hands? It has all the signs of an opportunistic palace coup, says Eugyppius.
The post Joe Biden Out in Apparent Palace Coup appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
|
Teresa Treacy Ordered to Jail over ESB Powerlines.
national |
environment |
news report
Monday September 12, 2011 19:57 by Niall Harnett
“You picked the wrong place here” - Teresa Treacy to ESB consultant Shane McLoughney, April 2007.
Teresa Treacy, a 65 year old woman from Tullamore, Co Offaly has been ordered to jail by High Court Judge Daniel Herbert at the request of the ESB.
Ms Treacy, who shares the family farm with her sister Mary at Woodfield House, Clonmore, Tullamore, Co Offaly has refused the ESB access to her lands in order to protect the natural environment and the native trees that she has managed there for many years.
In February 2006 the ESB began plans to construct a 110kV transmission powerline from Cushaling to Thornsbury. The plans specify that double woodpole structures and steel towers accommodating overhead powerlines be built at 200 metre intervals over a total distance of 32 kilometres through the lands of local landowners.
Ms Treacy outlined her objections in a number of letters to the ESB and arranged a number of meetings with them to request that the powerlines be constructed underground for the following reasons.
1) The Health & Safety risks, including cancer risks which are increasingly associated with overhead powerlines as a result of Electro Magnetic Fields (EMF).
2) The fact that she has always maintained and improved her land as a natural habitat which includes native trees, old and new, cared for and/or planted by herself for future generations as a sustainable natural resource, through which the ESB want to smash.
3) The fact that the undergrounding of powerlines is now considered to be best practice across Europe. Ireland and the ESB are at the bottom of the league in terms of catching up with international standards and the progress which has been made to ensure that underground powerlines are the progressive way forward.
The ESB were also pointed to a recent decision in 2006 to underground the Bantry (Colomane - Ballylickey) 38kV powerline, which arose out of intense local protest opposing the overgrounding of that line. The ESB were contracted to that project by a private windfarm developer who succeeded in getting injunctions against local farmers but decided not to enforce them. He abandoned overgrounding in favour of undergrounding the powerline. See here: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/77007
When the Cushaling – Thornsbury project was proposed for Tullamore in early 2006 it appeared that there was stiff opposition to the project among the affected 90 landowners in Offaly. Undergrounding options were discussed as technical possibilities and European best practice had come to the attention of the public.
It's one thing to have a private developer opt for undergrounding but the ESB, fearing that a precedent may be set, were clever enough to use the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) to negotiate a compensation package with the landowners, most of them farmers.
Teresa Treacy stood to gain up to approximately 150,000 euro in 3 staged payments if she agreed to the project and on condition that no legal costs were incurred by the ESB if they had to go to court, in which case the last 2 payments would be 'forfeited'.
This deal, negotiated by the IFA over the course of 2 years, seemed to appease most of the landowners so by the time a public meeting was called to organise the landowners, by Ms Treacy in March 2009, less than a dozen people showed up.
By the summer of 2011 Teresa Treacy was the only one refusing access to the ESB.
The ESB has made a number of applications to the High Court over the summer, including orders for Ms Treacy to unlock her gates and let them in and subsequently an order empowering the ESB to break the locks after Ms Treacy refused to obey the first order. The ESB told the court that Ms Treacy “has an emotional attachment to her trees”. When Ms Treacy obstructed them from breaking the locks the ESB decided to go back to court to issue contempt proceedings against Ms Treacy.
Today, Monday 12th September 2011, Judge Daniel Herbert told Ms Treacy that he had no choice but to uphold the law and ordered that she be jailed for contempt of the court orders.
“I'm begging them for years” said Ms Treacy today. “5½ years, what a waste of time it was trying to talk to them”. Facing jail she said “I feel good, I really do. I just couldn't let them in to do that. It's just not right”.
“The route is cutting through our forest and the old Whitethorn hedgerows. For over 25 years I have used all my time and energy getting our lands into a place of natural beauty and overnight it can be destroyed with high powered lines going through forests beside the old bridge, the old laneway and through the new Oak and Ash woods I planted over 20 years ago. I have spent many years replacing dead trees and cutting gorse with my hands. I filled containers with water from the river so that my forest is a model. All my trees have been pruned individually by me to promote their growth”
“My heart is broken by the thought that they may be uprooted and thrown away. I know I will never see them in their full glory but was satisfied knowing that others would enjoy them long into the future”
“We already have 10 ESB poles on our land and feel that we have already done enough for the common good. Our farm is our life's blood, its scenic beauty from the untouched fields to the river and through the bog, all of it natural flora and fauna”.
Earlier court proceedings were heard by Judge Mary Laffoy who granted orders to the ESB. I'm wondering did Judge Laffoy decide not to be available to the ESB to hear contempt proceedings. Who would want to send an elderly woman to jail in these circumstances? When judgements are made in the High Court they are usually presented as ' ... the High Court has ruled such a way ...', and the name of the judge is understood to be irrelevant for the purposes of law. A judge is simply an instrument of the law and the law must be applied regardless of the personality or opinion of the judge. It is legally correct for a judge to take responsibility for 'difficult cases' because that's their job, and regardless of good reason, and the 3 reasons outlined above, the law must be applied, mustn't it?!
Ms Treacy will remain in jail until she 'purges her contempt' by agreeing to comply with the court orders. The ESB, however, are in a position to make an application to the court for her release, but this is unlikely, at least until they've smashed the trees and constructed their outdated powerlines. Her incarceration is in their hands.
Bury the powerlines, not the people!
Young Ash.
Old Hedgerows with mature native trees.
Regeneration.
Teresa Treacy at home at Woodfield.
|
View Full Comment Text
save preference
Comments (87 of 87)