Patrick Corrigan – Page 3 – Slugger O'Toole

Mauritius must get to grips with torture if it wishes to restore confidence

Patrick Corrigan on July 20, 2012, 9:59 am

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The failure to find and convict the killers of Michaela McAreavey has exposed glaring holes in the Mauritius criminal justice system and a worrying reliance on confessions allegedly extracted under torture. The Mauritian jury’s ‘not guilty’ verdict seems to show that they believed Avinash Treebhoowoon’s allegation that a confession statement produced three days after Michaela McAreavey’s murder was a police concoction, only signed by him after days of torture. Treebhoowoon made his first official complaint of ill-treatment at a court appearance …

Northern Ireland – China relations and human rights

Patrick Corrigan on May 3, 2012, 11:45 am

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China’s persecution of ‘barefoot lawyer’ activist Chen Gaungcheng continues to cast a long, dark shadow across the two-day visit of US Scretary of State Hillary Clinton. The BBC reports a senior US diplomat: The United States believes that no state can legitimately deny the universal rights that belong to every human being – or punish those who exercise them. A China that protects the rights of all its citizens will be a stronger, more prosperous partner for the United States. I …

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore calls for delivery on Northern Ireland Bill of Rights

Patrick Corrigan on April 21, 2012, 7:50 am

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I was pleased to be at the Alliance Party conference dinner in the La Mon hotel last night to hear the guest speech from Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore TD. He used it to make a strong call for Northern Ireland party leaders to get round a negotiating table to deliver the long-awaited Bill of Rights. As I don’t see it yet published elsewhere, it’s worth reproducing the relevant speech extract at length: Just as history is shared between the communities, so …

University of Ulster: “part of China’s overseas propaganda set-up”

Patrick Corrigan on April 13, 2012, 10:09 am

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It’s a big day for the University of Ulster as it welcomes senior Chinese Communist Party Politburo member Liu Yandong to officially launch its Confucius Institute. While promoted as independent educational and cultural bodies, the Confucius Institutes have perhaps been more accurately described as “an important part of China’s overseas propaganda set-up.” Who said that? Some external critic of China, no doubt? No, none other than Li Changchun, the propaganda chief of the Chinese Communist Party and the 5th ranked member …

Titanic: was it all right when it left here?

Patrick Corrigan on April 2, 2012, 12:03 pm

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Not according to metallurgists Tim Foecke and Jennifer Hooper McCarty whose research has suggested that dodgy Harland and Wolff rivets were at fault for allowing the Titanic’s hull to be ripped apart by the pressure of the iceberg impact. With six of the hull’s chambers exposed to the Atlantic waters, the “unsinkable” ship lasted less than three hours, not enough time for rescue boats to reach those (disproportionately poorer) passengers left without access to a lifeboat (the White Star line …

Repression in under 140 characters

Patrick Corrigan on March 13, 2012, 1:37 pm

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The adverse effect of a tweet on politics may be much in the news in Ireland, but what about the adverse effects of politics on tweeters? Like the Saudi man left facing the death penalty over a Twitter message. Hamza Kashgari, 23-year-old former columnist for the country’s Al-Bilad newspaper, faced the prospect of beheading for making three tweets which have offended the hair-trigger sensibilities of hardliners in his home country. It is impossible to verify with certainty what he actually wrote, since …

Haiti: ‘Baby Doc’ escapes justice for past abuses

Patrick Corrigan on January 31, 2012, 12:53 pm

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Given the Slugger community’s interest in Haiti, I thought it worthwhile to note the regrettable decision by a Haitian court not to charge the country’s former dictator, Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier, over allegations of torture and murder. Duvalier returned to Haiti this time last year after 25 years in exile in France. Since then, he has been under investigation for serious human rights violations – including torture, disappearances and extrajudicial executions – that took place during his rule from 1971 to …

“A drum major for justice”: Martin Luther King Jr Day

Patrick Corrigan on January 16, 2012, 1:27 pm

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Today the USA celebrates Martin Luther King Jr Day, a federal holiday to honour the man who helped change America (although not by as much as he would have liked). The civil rights campaigner would have turned 83 yesterday, had he not been assassinated in April 1968. The Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington opened to the public some months ago and it has recently been announced that a controversial (mis)quote on one side of the monument is be …

Happy travels! Guantánamo Bay: a decade of failure

Patrick Corrigan on January 11, 2012, 10:42 am

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Ten years ago today, the first detainees were transferred to the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Since then 779 people have been held, yet only one has been given a trial in an ordinary US federal court. Yesterday I met with the impressive acting US Consul General, Kevin Roland, at the Consulate in Belfast to record our demand that the Guantánamo Bay detention camp be closed down, and our call that the 171 remaining prisoners be charged with …

Christopher Hitchens, 1949 – 2011

Patrick Corrigan on December 16, 2011, 10:22 am

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Writer Christopher Hitchens has died aged 62. He was as contrary as he was brilliant. Here is a brief In Memoriam from Vanity Fair (his outlet of choice since 1992) and, here, a longer tribute from his friend Christopher Buckley Stanley in The New Yorker. Better, perhaps, though to post one of Hitchens’ own writings in tribute. I’ll make no apology for choosing one of his most remarked upon pieces of recent years — his 2008 Vanity Fair article on waterboarding, Believe …

Northern Ireland military exports and human rights violations in Syria

Patrick Corrigan on December 6, 2011, 6:21 pm

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The United Nations report a death toll “much more than 4,000” in Syria, mostly anti-government protestors killed by the country’s security forces. On 23 November, a Commission of Inquiry established by the UN Human Rights Council said it was “gravely concerned that crimes against humanity have been committed” in Syria. I can now report that Northern Ireland plc, acting perfectly legally, has done its bit to help prop up the repressive regime. Anti-President Assad activists have posted this video of Northern Ireland manufactured armoured vehicles, …

“The vast majority of people in Northern Ireland consider a Bill of Rights to be important”

Patrick Corrigan on November 16, 2011, 3:49 pm

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Fascinating public attitudes research from Ipsos/MORI, on Northern Ireland public attitudes towards a NI Bill of Rights, was published earlier this week as part of a new report (PDF) from the Human Rights Consortium. It seems to explode the myth that there is no appetite from the Northern Ireland public for a Bill of Rights or that such appetite only comes from ‘one side of the house’. In fact, the headline findings from Ipsos/MORI are that: the vast majority (83% …

Robinson: “shared education is the way forward”

Patrick Corrigan on November 15, 2011, 6:35 pm

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I was fortunate enough to catch the end of an event in Newcastle last night when children from thirteen maintained, controlled and integrated primary schools ‘graduated’ from the Shared Languages, Shared Cultures programme, run by the town’s Shimna Integrated College. The programme, supported by Queen’s University’s Sharing Education Programme (hats off to Prof Tony Gallagher) and funded by Atlantic Philanthropies and businessman Gerard O’Hare, recently picked up the TES Outstanding Community Partnership Award. The TES judges’ commented: “The main hope for …

There is no reprieve from the grave: rejecting the DUP’s death penalty call

Patrick Corrigan on November 11, 2011, 4:41 pm

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In the midst of a global / European economic meltdown, there are many pressing issues deserving of time for Commons debate. In the week of Remembrance Day, as ex-Serviceman Mark Mullins and his wife Helen commited suicide – apparently out of despair at their poverty and lack of adequate support from the State – perhaps it might be useful to debate why so many old soldiers are left to end up on the scrapheap, with inadequate benefits and inadequate mental health services. …

Cameron’s decision on Finucane case insults family, betrays us all

Patrick Corrigan on October 11, 2011, 5:58 pm

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When a lawyer is murdered in any country, it should be a matter of great public concern, seen rightly as an attack on the entire legal system. When there is clear evidence pointing towards the collusion of a range of agents of the State in that murder, then the mood should become one of national outrage. When the killing, alleged collusion and cover-up is happening not in Latin America or Russia, but within the UK, then one might expect that …

Making Europe a death penalty-free zone

Patrick Corrigan on October 10, 2011, 12:56 pm

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Victims are informed they will be executed just moments before it happens. They are killed with a bullet to the back of the head. Their bodies are not handed over to their families. The burial site is kept secret. This is not a description of paramilitary disappearances in 1970s Northern Ireland. It is Europe today and it’s the state meting out the bullets in the head. While US capital punishment tends to get most of the headlines, state execution is …

Great BIG Politics Quiz: latest news!

Patrick Corrigan on September 19, 2011, 4:33 pm

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An unofficial ‘Haiti Week’ is underway on Slugger, with Moochin’s terrific photo-series on POTD, with further shots to be featured as wall projections during Belfast Culture Night on Friday, and more from me later in the week on Haiti and human rights. And, of course, there’s just days to go until the 2011 Great Big Politics Quiz night gets underway in Belfast’s Black Box (Thursday 22 September, 7:45pm). Latest news… new prizes have been added to the pot (already looking …

Great BIG Politics Quiz: prizes to vie for!

Patrick Corrigan on September 15, 2011, 7:48 pm

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Courtesy of Stratagem, here’s the awesome prize list for the Great BIG Politics Quiz, supported by Slugger O’Toole, and being held next Thursday, 22 September at 7:45pm in the Black Box, Belfast. There’s enough in this valuable prize hamper to keep even the most anorakish of political anoraks going for quite some time – and plenty to share amongst your triumphant quiz team-mates. “The Thick of It Series 1 & The Special Boxset” DVD “Last Mitterand,the [DVD]” “Pistols at Dawn: Two …

Great BIG Politics Quiz: tickets now on sale!

Patrick Corrigan on September 9, 2011, 12:13 am

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Former (edit: see comment #1) Belfast City Councillor Niall Kelly reckons the SDLP South Belfast team are out to retain their Great Big Politics Quiz champions title: I know that ballot box brainiacs from other parties, campaign groups, public affairs companies and the media will be out to prove him wrong. Indeed, there might even be the odd blogger who fancies getting a team together for a tilt at the title. Well you can all now pre-book your places as ticket …

Save the date: the Great Big Politics Pub Quiz is back!

Patrick Corrigan on September 6, 2011, 11:08 pm

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Who has the sharpest political brains in Northern Ireland? We’ll soon find out. Yes, it’s time to pit your wits against the finest minds(!) at Stormont as Slugger O’Toole brings the return of the Great Big Politics Pub Quiz. Date: Thursday 22 September at 7:45pm. Venue: The Black Box, Hill Street, Belfast. This is what happened last year, according to Alan in Belfast, as over £1,000 was raised for charity in Haiti and Stoops to Conquer, the South Belfast SDLP …