27 November 1997 Edition
Back issue: 5 years for a poster
THE possession of a poster and the hearsay of a Garda superintendent resulted in Cork Sinn Féin organiser Don O'Leary receiving a five-year sentence for IRA membership at the Special Court in Green Street, Dublin, on Thursday 19 November.
For some years, `evidence' of this character had been thrown out of the Special Court but the three judges under Judge Barr made use of the witch-hunt atmosphere following the Enniskillen tragedy to savagely reduce the right of free speech in the 26 Counties and to victimise a Sinn Féin activist.
Don O'Leary is a voluntary worker at Sinn Féin's Cork shop-front city offices in Barrack Street. On sale at the offices, among the books and pamphlets, are a number of posters. One of these is a picture of an IRA Volunteer with the slogan `IRA Calls the Shots'. This poster has been a bestseller.
Sinn Féin's campaigning work among the working-class communities of Cork's Northside, in which Don O'Leary played a leading role, has angered the Cork Examiner newspaper and the city's TDs by showing up their lack of concern for ordinary people.
For some years, `evidence' of this character had been thrown out of the Special Court but the three judges under Judge Barr made use of the witch-hunt atmosphere following the Enniskillen tragedy to savagely reduce the right of free speech in the 26 Counties and to victimise a Sinn Féin activist.
Don O'Leary is a voluntary worker at Sinn Féin's Cork shop-front city offices in Barrack Street. On sale at the offices, among the books and pamphlets, are a number of posters. One of these is a picture of an IRA Volunteer with the slogan `IRA Calls the Shots'. This poster has been a bestseller.
Sinn Féin's campaigning work among the working-class communities of Cork's Northside, in which Don O'Leary played a leading role, has angered the Cork Examiner newspaper and the city's TDs by showing up their lack of concern for ordinary people.