Diageo’s, Irish brands, Guinness, finance, bushmills, baileys

Diageo’s, Irish brands, Guinness, bushmills, baileys continue to do well.

Diageo’s Irish brands continued to grow in its latest fiscal year, the company said, with Bushmills leading the charge with a 12 per cent rise.

The whiskey was particularly popular in Russia and Eastern Europe, notching up growth of 36 per cent. Sales of Baileys were 2 per cent higher globally, Diageo said.

Although net sales of Guinness grew by 1 per cent globally, the majority of the growth was seen in Africa, the drink’s largest market by value. In other territories, sales of the black stuff fell, with Western Europe showing a 3 per cent decline.

In Ireland, Diageo’s brands faced tough markets with both the beer and spirits markets contracting. But despite the tough trade environment, Guinness held a 33 per cent market share, and sales of Captain Morgan and Bushmills rose by 2.3 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively. Baileys grew by 9 per cent.

“The trading environment may be challenging, but Diageo remains committed to the Irish market and working with Ireland to build a stronger economy,” Diageo’s country manager for Ireland David Smith said.

In the UK, Smirnoff lifted the spirits of the drinks giant in the UK after the vodka’s improved trading performance offset weaker sales of Guinness.

Guinness sales were 3 per cent lower in the UK in the year to June 30th, but there was encouragement from a better final quarter on the back of greater marketing. Smirnoff sales grew 4 per cent worldwide - ahead of the wider market - while other successes in the UK included the launch of Pimm’s Blackberry & Elderflower and the expansion of its range of pre-mix drinks cans.

Ivan Menezes, who took over as chief executive from Paul Walsh earlier this month, said the effectiveness of Diageo’s marketing campaigns had helped the company extend its market positions for a number of brands.

“This has been a key driver of our performance in scotch, our biggest and most profitable category, especially for Johnnie Walker which is now a 20 million case brand.”

Profits in North America rose 9 per cent to £1.5 billion, offsetting a fall of 9 per cent to £656 million in western Europe. Asia Pacific grew 21 per cent to £414 million, despite a second half slowdown in China as a result of an “anti-extravagance” campaign launched by the government.

Business news, Vodafone ireland, technology, economy, smartphones

Vodafone Ireland

Smartphones continued to drive growth at Vodafone’s Irish divison, as the number of customers using the devices on the network rose by 27 per cent year on year.

But although Vodafone Ireland increased the number of customers in its contract customer base by 8.2 per cent, gaining it 23,000 new customers, average revenue per user continued to decline, falling by 2.8 per cent on the previous quarter to €29.20.

Vodafone Customers

The company now has a total of 2.4 million customers, with 2.1 million mobile subscribers.

The network has continued to invest in its network in recent months, improving voice and data coverage for mobile customers in the southeast of the country. Vodafone Ireland is also working on rolling out 4G services to customers.

According to Vodafone Ireland, 65 per cent of its customers now use mobile data on their devices, a figure that covers phones, tablets and notebooks. That represents a rise of 20.5 per cent year-on-year.

The company also increased its fixed line customers by 2.9 per cent year on year, and launched fibre-powered broadband in the quarter, bringing high speed broadband to customers in certain areas.

A new enterprise customer solutions division was also added to the Vodafone Ireland, aimed at providing complex integrated telecommunications services for business customers from one provider. It has already secured a deal to supply a managed high speed fixed data network to Government departments and public sector agencies in a bid to improve public services and increase efficiency.

On a group-wide basis, Vodafone reported quarterly service revenue that fell as a price war in Germany compounded a three-year slump in southern Europe. Service sales excluding currency swings and acquisitions decreased 3.5 per cent in the three months through June, the fourth consecutive quarterly decline.

Vodafone Germany

The German unit, which is Vodafone’s biggest and accounts for almost a fifth of revenue, reported a 5.1 per cent drop in service sales.

The carrier is bulking up in Germany, bidding €7.7 billion to buy the largest cable company, Kabel Deutschland Holding, as it seeks to add bundled services across Europe by combining phone, web and TV to increase customer loyalty and stabilize prices.

“Underlying trends have slipped in our view as German competition rises and Italian pricing becomes even more brutal,” Nick Lyall, an analyst for UBS AG, wrote in a note to investors ahead of the results.

Vodafone’s 45 per cent stake in Verizon Wireless, the largest US mobile-phone company, accounts for about half of its adjusted operating profit. Majority owner Verizon Communications, which reported a 4.3 per cent growth in revenue yesterday, is interested in buying out Vodafone’s share this year, people familiar with the matter said in March. A deal could win Vodafone $120 billion or more, analysts have said.

Chief executive Vittorio Colao is reducing Vodafone’s reliance on lagging European markets with investments in higher growth markets such as India, South Africa and the US Vodacom, Vodafone’s African business, yesterday reported a 3 per cent increase in quarterly revenue as more customers switched to smartphones.

seamus mckenna funeral dundalk, continuity ira, omagh bomb

Seamus McKenna, Continuity IRA, accident, dissident republicans, omagh bomb, sean mckenna, real ira

New: Sean McKenna, Autobiography: Voice from the Grave

Seamus McKenna Funeral

17/7/2013: Thousands of Irish Republicans are gathering this morning for the funeral of Vol. Seamus McKenna, republicans from across Ireland have gathered in south Armagh and north Louth, to say farewell to a dedicated and staunch republican. The funeral has begun at the home of McKenna’s son Sean in the Armagh village of Silverbridge. The funeral procession will travel across the border to St Mary’s Church, Ravensdale for mass at 11am, with burial afterwards in the church cemetery.

Teams of uniformed and armed gardaí set up checkpoints on approach roads around 1km around Ravensdale and searched cars making their way to the funeral at St Mary’s Church. Gardaí also questioned mourners, took personal details and requested ID from many of those attending. The Garda Dog Unit is also at the scene and reinforcements from the Public Order Unit in Leinster Area are on standby. A Garda Helicopter is monitoring the funeral.

16/7/2013: Gardai are concerned that attempts will be made by dissident republican groups to stage a paramilitary display at Seamus’s funeral in Ravensdale, Dundalk, tomorrow. His remains were removed last night to his son's home from a funeral home in his native Silverbridge, Co Armagh. Seamus McKenna was born in Monaghan, and lived in Clara in North Monaghan until he was a teenager. The family then moved to O’Neill Avenue in Newry and later Seamus moved to Silverbridge and then Dundalk.

Seamus McKenna RIP 13/7/2013 (Sad news received after the article below was written)

Seamus McKenna, Óglaigh na hÉireann, has been seriously injured after falling from a school roof while working in County Louth. McKenna has been a life-long republican and member of the IRA, McKenna never faltered in his dedication to the Irish Republican Army and that dedication was within the ranks of the Continuity IRA since 1986, although Seamus would have assisted anyone opposed to the British occupation. Seamus is, at the time of writing, on a life support machine.

In 2003 Seamus was found in possession of 1,200Lb bomb near Dundalk and sentenced to six years in Portlaoise Prison, while the DPP appealed the sentence handed down, the Court of Criminal Appeal found that the sentence was appropriate due to McKenna’s previous lack of convictions.

Seamus McKenna's Father, Sean McKenna Snr was interned and tortured in 1970 and, both Sean and other men who had been interned and tortured would have their inhumane treatment declared as such by the European Commission (Now The European Court of Human Rights).

Seamus McKenna was named in a civil action taken by the families of victims of the Omagh bomb, however, the case against Seamus McKenna was dismissed and no evidence was adduced to secure either civil or criminal conviction. McKenna was named as allegedly one of the Real IRA team which transported the Omagh bomb into the County Tyrone town in August 1998. Twenty nine people, including the mother of unborn twins, were killed in the blast while hundreds more were badly injured.

A couple of weeks back when life-long republican Ruairi O Bradaigh was buried, Seamus reflected on the time that Sean McKenna Snr had been buried in Clara in North Monaghan, and Ruairi had given the oration. On that day Sean Jnr (who was on the run) had been preparing to fire a volley of shots over his Father’s coffin with his Father’s personal colt 45 revolver when he was attacked by agents of the state, the gun that Sean was carrying, went off and his uncle Patsy McKenna was shot in the leg by accident. 

Tragic Death of Sean McKenna

December, 2008

In December 2008 IRA Volunteer Sean McKenna died suddenly and goes now to rest after a life of dedication to the cause of Irish Freedom. Sean McKenna served many long hard years in Long Kesh and other British hell holes. When released from prison Sean McKenna was frail, having been on hunger strike and then being subjected to institutional torture in Long Kesh. 

Sean sought work with his cousin Vincent McKenna in Monaghan Mushrooms, and was happy working long hard hours to pay his way in the world. Sean later moved to his loved County Kerry, a county he truly enjoyed.

Sean McKenna died in 2008 at his home in Dundalk. Sean never fully recovered from his ordeal on the first H-Block hunger strike in 1980 which lasted for fifty three days. Sean was buried on Monday, 22nd December 2008, in Calvary cemetery, Ravensdale, County Louth, after Requiem Mass in nearby St Mary’s Church.

Republicans from across Ireland, including many former prisoners and surviving hunger strikers, attended the funeral.

Vol. Sean McKenna had been illegally arrested, along with his Father, and hundreds of others, by the British army on 9^th August, 1970. His father was one of the ‘hooded men’ and died whilst in his early forties as a result of being tortured. Father and son were both interned in Long Kesh. After his release Sean returned to active service but lived in County Louth at Edentubber.

On 12th March 1976 members of an SAS undercover team crossed the border and abducted Sean, again illegally, without any protest from the Dublin government at the breach of its sovereignty. Sean was sentenced in a Diplock Court and was on the blanket for several years prior to the hunger strike.

It was later alleged that the SAS who had kidnapped Sean McKenna was led by the infamous Captain Niarac, who was later executed by the IRA and his body never recovered. However, Sean McKenna was not able to confirm that Niarac was involved in his illegal kidnapping.

Below: Extract from soon to be published Autobiography of Vincent McKenna:

"The British Army also fell foul of the Catholic population when they were involved in rounding up thousands of innocent Catholics and interning them without trial. The vast majority of these people would never have supported terrorism; however, the internment camps became the recruiting ground of the IRA. Recent history reminds us that the British have learned little from their mistakes, to win a war you must win hearts and minds; you don’t achieve that through inhumanity and brutality. My Uncle Sean McKenna and his son Sean Jnr were interned without trial. The European Commission would later make findings that my Uncle Sean and his comrades were tortured by the British, Uncle Sean was one of the men who famously became known as the 10 Hooded Men, due to the fact that the British placed hoods on their heads while torturing them".

Internees Being taken onto the Maidstone Prison Ship

INTERNMENT

It was early morning on the 9^th of August 1970 that British soldiers launched operation Demetrius, the introduction of internment without trial. Internment had been employed by the Unionist Government at Stormont in every decade since the creation of the northern state as a means to suppress Republican opposition. In the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s republican suspects had been imprisoned without trial. As violence increased in 1970 the Unionist Government again came under increasing pressure to clamp down on the activities of the IRA. By August 1970 the Stormont Government had convinced the British Government that internment offered the best method of dealing with the increasing violence, and pointed to its repeated success in previous decades. In an attempt to reduce the expected nationalist outrage a ban on all parades was announced at the same time, aimed at defusing the potential for unrest that the Apprentice Boys parade on the 12th August posed.

The arrests were based on outdated lists containing 450 names provided by the RUC Special Branch; the British Army swept into nationalist areas of the north and arrested 342 men. The RUC intelligence, however, was hopelessly outdated and many of those arrested had no connections with the IRA. Others, although Republican minded, had not been active in decades. Others arrested included prominent members of the Civil Rights movement. In one instance in Armagh the British Army sought to arrest a man who had been dead for the past 4 years. It appears that the rapid radicalisation of much of the north’s nationalist community, and the RUC’s alienation from that community in the previous 2 years, had created a large intelligence gap in RUC files. Indeed, so out of date were the lists that within 48 hours 116 of those arrested were released. The remainder were detained at Crumlin Rd prison and the prison-ship The Maidstone.

No Loyalists were arrested in the operation, despite the fact that the UVF had been active since 1966. The first Protestant internees were not arrested until 2nd February 1973.

The Nationalist/Catholic community was outraged. This anger was reinforced when news of the treatment of the internees, particularly 11 men, including Sean McKenna, who became known as the "hooded men" became public. This anger took the form of increased support for the IRA and the commencement of a campaign of civil disobedience that enjoyed overwhelming support within the nationalist community.

Concern from the public at the treatment of many of the internees led to the establishment of the Compton Commission, which reported in November 1971. This report concluded that whilst detainees had suffered ill treatment this did not constitute brutality or torture. Incidents of ill treatment included:

·     In-depth interrogation with the use of hooding, white noise, sleep deprivation, prolonged enforced physical exercise together with a diet of bread and water.

·         Deceiving detainees into believing that they were to be thrown from high flying helicopters, in reality the blindfolded detainees were thrown from a helicopter that hovered approximately 4 feet above the ground.

·         Forcing detainees to run an obstacle course over broken glass and rough ground whilst being beaten by British soldiers.

The botched arrests and stories of brutality escaping from the internment centres and the reintroduction of internment, which was viewed as a form of communal punishment and humiliation, unleashed a wave of violence across the north, with practically no military gains to offset the impact internment had on the entire nationalist community.

In Belfast the IRA held a press conference on the 13th August at which Joe Cahill, the Officer Commanding the IRA in Belfast, claimed that internment had had no noticeable effect on IRA structures and the campaign would continue. The statistics add weight to his words. In the remainder of August 1971 35 people were killed, 1 more than the total for the previous 7 months, and c. 7,000 Catholic families had fled across the border. By the year’s end 139 people had been killed since the introduction of internment.

Non-violent opposition to internment  was marked by a number of rallies and marches were planned. On Christmas Day 1971 c. 4,000 protestors attempted to march from Belfast to Long Kesh. This march was blocked before reaching its destination on the M1 motorway and dispersed. On the 22nd January another protest march took place at Magilligan Strand, not far from Derry City.

This protest was blocked by the British Army and dispersed with violence, in which members of the Parachute Regiment were prominent. The next anti-internment rally was planned for Derry, on Sunday 30th January 1972.

Seamus McKenna dead, Continuity IRA, accident, dissident republicans, omagh bomb, sean mckenna, real ira

Seamus McKenna, Continuity IRA, accident, dissident republicans, omagh bomb, sean mckenna, real ira

New: Sean McKenna, Autobiography: Voice from the Grave

Seamus McKenna Funeral

17/7/2013: Thousands of Irish Republicans are gathering this morning for the funeral of Vol. Seamus McKenna, republicans from across Ireland have gathered in south Armagh and north Louth, to say farewell to a dedicated and staunch republican. The funeral has begun at the home of McKenna’s son Sean in the Armagh village of Silverbridge. The funeral procession will travel across the border to St Mary’s Church, Ravensdale for mass at 11am, with burial afterwards in the church cemetery.

Teams of uniformed and armed gardaí set up checkpoints on approach roads around 1km around Ravensdale and searched cars making their way to the funeral at St Mary’s Church. Gardaí also questioned mourners, took personal details and requested ID from many of those attending. The Garda Dog Unit is also at the scene and reinforcements from the Public Order Unit in Leinster Area are on standby. A Garda Helicopter is monitoring the funeral.

16/7/2013: Gardai are concerned that attempts will be made by dissident republican groups to stage a paramilitary display at Seamus’s funeral in Ravensdale, Dundalk, tomorrow. His remains were removed last night to his son's home from a funeral home in his native Silverbridge, Co Armagh. Seamus McKenna was born in Monaghan, and lived in Clara in North Monaghan until he was a teenager. The family then moved to O’Neill Avenue in Newry and later Seamus moved to Silverbridge and then Dundalk.

Seamus McKenna RIP 13/7/2013 (Sad news received after the article below was written)

Seamus McKenna, Óglaigh na hÉireann, has been seriously injured after falling from a school roof while working in County Louth. McKenna has been a life-long republican and member of the IRA, McKenna never faltered in his dedication to the Irish Republican Army and that dedication was within the ranks of the Continuity IRA since 1986, although Seamus would have assisted anyone opposed to the British occupation. Seamus is, at the time of writing, on a life support machine.

In 2003 Seamus was found in possession of 1,200Lb bomb near Dundalk and sentenced to six years in Portlaoise Prison, while the DPP appealed the sentence handed down, the Court of Criminal Appeal found that the sentence was appropriate due to McKenna’s previous lack of convictions.

Seamus McKenna's Father, Sean McKenna Snr was interned and tortured in 1970 and, both Sean and other men who had been interned and tortured would have their inhumane treatment declared as such by the European Commission (Now The European Court of Human Rights).

Seamus McKenna was named in a civil action taken by the families of victims of the Omagh bomb, however, the case against Seamus McKenna was dismissed and no evidence was adduced to secure either civil or criminal conviction. McKenna was named as allegedly one of the Real IRA team which transported the Omagh bomb into the County Tyrone town in August 1998. Twenty nine people, including the mother of unborn twins, were killed in the blast while hundreds more were badly injured.

A couple of weeks back when life-long republican Ruairi O Bradaigh was buried, Seamus reflected on the time that Sean McKenna Snr had been buried in Clara in North Monaghan, and Ruairi had given the oration. On that day Sean Jnr (who was on the run) had been preparing to fire a volley of shots over his Father’s coffin with his Father’s personal colt 45 revolver when he was attacked by agents of the state, the gun that Sean was carrying, went off and his uncle Patsy McKenna was shot in the leg by accident. 

Tragic Death of Sean McKenna

December, 2008

In December 2008 IRA Volunteer Sean McKenna died suddenly and goes now to rest after a life of dedication to the cause of Irish Freedom. Sean McKenna served many long hard years in Long Kesh and other British hell holes. When released from prison Sean McKenna was frail, having been on hunger strike and then being subjected to institutional torture in Long Kesh. 

Sean sought work with his cousin Vincent McKenna in Monaghan Mushrooms, and was happy working long hard hours to pay his way in the world. Sean later moved to his loved County Kerry, a county he truly enjoyed.

Sean McKenna died in 2008 at his home in Dundalk. Sean never fully recovered from his ordeal on the first H-Block hunger strike in 1980 which lasted for fifty three days. Sean was buried on Monday, 22nd December 2008, in Calvary cemetery, Ravensdale, County Louth, after Requiem Mass in nearby St Mary’s Church.

Republicans from across Ireland, including many former prisoners and surviving hunger strikers, attended the funeral.

Vol. Sean McKenna had been illegally arrested, along with his Father, and hundreds of others, by the British army on 9^th August, 1970. His father was one of the ‘hooded men’ and died whilst in his early forties as a result of being tortured. Father and son were both interned in Long Kesh. After his release Sean returned to active service but lived in County Louth at Edentubber.

On 12th March 1976 members of an SAS undercover team crossed the border and abducted Sean, again illegally, without any protest from the Dublin government at the breach of its sovereignty. Sean was sentenced in a Diplock Court and was on the blanket for several years prior to the hunger strike.

It was later alleged that the SAS who had kidnapped Sean McKenna was led by the infamous Captain Niarac, who was later executed by the IRA and his body never recovered. However, Sean McKenna was not able to confirm that Niarac was involved in his illegal kidnapping.

Below: Extract from soon to be published Autobiography of Vincent McKenna:

"The British Army also fell foul of the Catholic population when they were involved in rounding up thousands of innocent Catholics and interning them without trial. The vast majority of these people would never have supported terrorism; however, the internment camps became the recruiting ground of the IRA. Recent history reminds us that the British have learned little from their mistakes, to win a war you must win hearts and minds; you don’t achieve that through inhumanity and brutality. My Uncle Sean McKenna and his son Sean Jnr were interned without trial. The European Commission would later make findings that my Uncle Sean and his comrades were tortured by the British, Uncle Sean was one of the men who famously became known as the 10 Hooded Men, due to the fact that the British placed hoods on their heads while torturing them".

Internees Being taken onto the Maidstone Prison Ship

INTERNMENT

It was early morning on the 9^th of August 1970 that British soldiers launched operation Demetrius, the introduction of internment without trial. Internment had been employed by the Unionist Government at Stormont in every decade since the creation of the northern state as a means to suppress Republican opposition. In the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s republican suspects had been imprisoned without trial. As violence increased in 1970 the Unionist Government again came under increasing pressure to clamp down on the activities of the IRA. By August 1970 the Stormont Government had convinced the British Government that internment offered the best method of dealing with the increasing violence, and pointed to its repeated success in previous decades. In an attempt to reduce the expected nationalist outrage a ban on all parades was announced at the same time, aimed at defusing the potential for unrest that the Apprentice Boys parade on the 12th August posed.

The arrests were based on outdated lists containing 450 names provided by the RUC Special Branch; the British Army swept into nationalist areas of the north and arrested 342 men. The RUC intelligence, however, was hopelessly outdated and many of those arrested had no connections with the IRA. Others, although Republican minded, had not been active in decades. Others arrested included prominent members of the Civil Rights movement. In one instance in Armagh the British Army sought to arrest a man who had been dead for the past 4 years. It appears that the rapid radicalisation of much of the north’s nationalist community, and the RUC’s alienation from that community in the previous 2 years, had created a large intelligence gap in RUC files. Indeed, so out of date were the lists that within 48 hours 116 of those arrested were released. The remainder were detained at Crumlin Rd prison and the prison-ship The Maidstone.

No Loyalists were arrested in the operation, despite the fact that the UVF had been active since 1966. The first Protestant internees were not arrested until 2nd February 1973.

The Nationalist/Catholic community was outraged. This anger was reinforced when news of the treatment of the internees, particularly 11 men, including Sean McKenna, who became known as the "hooded men" became public. This anger took the form of increased support for the IRA and the commencement of a campaign of civil disobedience that enjoyed overwhelming support within the nationalist community.

Concern from the public at the treatment of many of the internees led to the establishment of the Compton Commission, which reported in November 1971. This report concluded that whilst detainees had suffered ill treatment this did not constitute brutality or torture. Incidents of ill treatment included:

·     In-depth interrogation with the use of hooding, white noise, sleep deprivation, prolonged enforced physical exercise together with a diet of bread and water.

·         Deceiving detainees into believing that they were to be thrown from high flying helicopters, in reality the blindfolded detainees were thrown from a helicopter that hovered approximately 4 feet above the ground.

·         Forcing detainees to run an obstacle course over broken glass and rough ground whilst being beaten by British soldiers.

The botched arrests and stories of brutality escaping from the internment centres and the reintroduction of internment, which was viewed as a form of communal punishment and humiliation, unleashed a wave of violence across the north, with practically no military gains to offset the impact internment had on the entire nationalist community.

In Belfast the IRA held a press conference on the 13th August at which Joe Cahill, the Officer Commanding the IRA in Belfast, claimed that internment had had no noticeable effect on IRA structures and the campaign would continue. The statistics add weight to his words. In the remainder of August 1971 35 people were killed, 1 more than the total for the previous 7 months, and c. 7,000 Catholic families had fled across the border. By the year’s end 139 people had been killed since the introduction of internment.

Non-violent opposition to internment  was marked by a number of rallies and marches were planned. On Christmas Day 1971 c. 4,000 protestors attempted to march from Belfast to Long Kesh. This march was blocked before reaching its destination on the M1 motorway and dispersed. On the 22nd January another protest march took place at Magilligan Strand, not far from Derry City.

This protest was blocked by the British Army and dispersed with violence, in which members of the Parachute Regiment were prominent. The next anti-internment rally was planned for Derry, on Sunday 30th January 1972.

Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013, Abortion, Peadar Toibin TD

Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013, Abortion, Peadar Toibin TD

Peadar Toibin TD has stood firm in the face of immense internal party pressure to vote with the Sinn Fein leadership in relation to the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013.

Toibin has received overwhelming support from his constituents in Meath West, who believe that the northern leadership of Sinn Fein has lost touch with reality and are unable to make anything other than populist judgements based on tabloid headlines. Many are calling for Toibin to stand at the next General Election as an independent republican and break with the northern lead Sinn Fein grouping in Dail Eireann.

Sinn Féin has suspended its Meath West deputy Peadar Toibín for six months after he went against the whip on the abortion vote.

Mr Toibín voted in favour of an amendment to remove the suicide clause from the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013 during the debate on the legislation last night. The amendment was rejected by the Government.

Shortly after the final vote on the Bill, Sinn Féin whip Aengus Ó Snodaigh confirmed Mr Toibín had been suspended from the parliamentary party for six months.

Mr Toibín has already been removed as the chair of the Petitions Committee due to his opposition to the party’s position on the abortion Bill.

In a statement Mr Ó Snodaigh said: “Sinn Féin has supported the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill and all Sinn Féin TDs were mandated to vote for this legislation.

“The decision this evening by Peadar Toibín TD to vote against the Sinn Féin position is a serious breach of party rules.

“As a consequence Peadar Toibín has been suspended from Sinn Féin for six months with immediate effect.”

Abortion, Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill, Politics, fine gael, labour, sinn fein

Abortion, Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill, Politics, fine gael, labour, sinn fein

Peadar Toibin TD has stood firm in his position to protect unborn children, however, his proposed Amendment, to remove the 'suicide clause', was voted down. This clause effectively leaves the determination of the unborn child's life or death in the hands of psychologists and psychiatrists, two 'professions' that has shown themselves time and again to be able to reach polar conclusions in relation to the same case.  

Minister of State Lucinda Creighton has renewed her call for abortion time limits to be introduced where a foetus is viable.

In an amendment that she is expected to vote against the Government on and lose the Fine Gael party whip and her job, Ms Creighton said she wanted to protect viable life and bring in limitations on when terminations could be carried out.

“It would actually allay the genuine concerns of many of our citizens,” she said during the report stage debate on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill, which resumed this evening.

“We know that in the vast majority of jurisdictions around the world where there are abortion regimes in place, far more liberal regimes of the type I hope we never see in this country, they do still enforce gestationsal limits, term limits for carrying out abortions,” the Dublin South East TD said. “I think that this is the minimum our citizens deserve.”

Two two amendments are currently under discussion in the debate.

The session began hours after the High Court refused to grant an injunction aimed at stopping provisions of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill being voted into law.

Labour TD Roisin Shortall also introduced amendments on gestational time limits and said it was unacceptable that there were none in the Bill. She said concern about the issue had been raised by Master of the Rotunda Sam Coulter Smith but there was no serious attempt made to address those concerns.

Fianna Fail health spokesman Billy Kelleher said he would oppose legislation if he thought for a moment if he somehow though that a baby at 34 weeks would be taken from the womb and destroyed.

Mr Kelleher said that if they talked about gestational limits, “we are pitting the life of the woman against the life of the baby” and “that would be repugnant to me and to the Constitution”.

He said the overriding issue at stake was the real and substantial threat to the life of the woman. “We cannot intervene to terminate the pregnancy because it would be in conflict with the legislation if we put in gestational limits.”

Minister of State for Health Alex White said there was no answering Mr Kelleher’s point.

Fine Gael TD Peter Mathews, who has already lost the party whip on the legislation, supported term limits. He said termination at 12 weeks was just as repugnant as a termination later in pregnancy.

In response, Ms Creighton said it was putting a time limit on the destruction on the life of the unborn and a clear obligation and onus on the medical profession to save the life of the unborn.

Minister for Health James Reilly and Mr Mathews clashed at the start of the debate this evening.

Mr Mathews asked the Minister to define what the term “as far as practicable” meant in terms of the medical situations that could arise under it.

Dr Reilly replied that it was an acceptable legal term which was well understood. “It is not clear to me,” said Mr Mathews.

Dr Reilly replied: “That is fine; you are neither legal nor a doctor.”

Mr Mathews replied that he was “a citizen”.

Earlier, the Minister moved a series of amendments which, he said, gave clarity to the medical definition of terms “in good faith” and reasonable opinion” in the Bill.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said there should be trust in doctors, adding that the amendments were just a concession to certain people who wanted to hold back and frustrate the legislation’s purpose which was to allow for a termination where there was a threat to the woman’s life.

Over 100 of the 165 amendments to the Bill have yet to be debated during the Report stage.

The Dáil is due to adjourn the abortion debate by midnight regardless of whether or not it has been passed. Taoiseach Enda Kenny said this morning if the Bill can conclude today, “so much the better”.

So far, two votes have been taken but neither relate to the amendments proposing a “pathway to care” plan for pregnant women with suicidal intent tabled by Ms Creighton. She voted with the Government on those two amendments at 2am and at 5am.

The High Court ex parte application was made by Jane Murphy, with an addresss at Milltown, Dublin 14 this afternoon and is expected to appeal Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns’ refusal to the Supreme Court.

She was accompanied in court by former MEP Kathy Sinnott and Mark McCrystal. In intended proceedings against the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and the Government, Ms Murphy sought injunctions “to prevent the respondents usurping the will of the Irish people on the day of Thursday 11th of July 2013”.

The application stated the intention was to prevent the Government including two provisions in the Bill currently before the Oireachtas and also to prevent the vote on that Bill.

Mr Justice Kearns said he was satisfied he had no jurisdiction to grant any such relief. This matter was before the legislature and the court, under the doctrine of the separation of powers, had no entitlement to deal with it. He did not believe the court, at this stage of the matter, had any entitlement to interfere.

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar said this morning that if the President referred the Bill to the Supreme Court it would be “the right decision”. Many parts of the Bill would be challenged by people coming from different perspectives, he said. “If he refers it, it can just be either cleared or struck down once and for all with no further challenges. If he did I think that would be the right decision. But that’s entirely his prerogative not mine,” he told RTÉ Radio.

Earlier today Mr Kenny defended the late overnight sitting in the Dáil. He said there were “some very good contributions” and it was “no harm that it went to 5am”.

However, Fianna Fáil leader Michael Martin described the organisation of the overnight debate as “shambolic” and “lamentable”.

The Labour Party was thrown into disarray early this morning by the shock defection of its Clare TD Michael McNamara in a vote .

In dramatic scenes just before the debate on the Bill was adjourned, Mr McNamara voted against the Government on an amendment tabled by the technical group which called for abortions to be allowed in cases where there were fatal foetal abnormalities or inevitable miscarriages.

However, the party maintained later that Mr McNamara would not lose the whip as he had made a “genuine mistake” and had pressed the wrong button. Tánaiste and Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore was not in the Dáil for the vote as he is abroad on Government business.

Following the announcement yesterday by two Mayo TDs John O’Mahony and Michelle Mulherin that they would support the Bill, the other TD whose voting intentions were in doubt - John Paul Phelan of Carlow-Kilkenny - also confirmed to the Dáil at 1.30am that he too would be supporting the legislation despite having misgivings about the Bill.

His confirmation that he would support the Government - which was widely expected - has left a total of five Fine Gael TDs at odds with the party on this Bill. Besides Ms Creighton, the other TDs are Mr Mathews, Brian Walsh, Billy Timmins and Terence Flanagan.

The Labour Party had, until Mr McNamara’s vote, shown a strong party discipline and had consciously maintained a slightly background stance, because of the sensitivities of Fine Gael’s position.

The defection of Mr McNamara, even if Labour manages to repair its hand and reverse it, has damaged that show of unity and also dampened what was considered a successful effort by the Fine Gael leadership to contain its defections to a maximum of five TDs.

The debate on the report stage of the Bill commenced at 11.30am yesterday and continued for a cumulative total of 14 hours after the Taoiseach said he wished the Dáil to complete its deliberation of it by this morning. However, with no guillotine in place, Government Chief Whip Paul Kehoe initially announced an extension until midnight, and then until 5am.

The Bill was scheduled to transfer to the Seanad today but that will not now happen until tomorrow at the earliest.

The first substantive vote - to reject an amendment tabled by Peadar Tóibín of Sinn Féin to remove the suicide clause in its entirety - was carried by 135 to 24 votes.

Many Independents voted with the Government but Maureen O’Sullivan, Michael Lowry, Michael Healy-Rae and Mattie McGrath voted against.

The vote was taken after more than eight hours of debate on a group of 38 amendments from a number of TDs, dealing with the suicide clause, where termination is permissible to avoid suicide.