September 21, 2025 by HillenSean

Sinn Fein’s Presidential decision – a case of the tail wagging the dog

Is Sinn Fein’s decision this weekend to support Independent candidate, Catherine Connolly, in November’s Irish Presidential elections a case of the tail wagging the dog?

It certainly seems so.

After much dithering and delay, Ireland’s third ranked political party – which not so long ago could have topped the polls nationwide and emerged as the nation’s leading party if they’d only put forward more candidates – could not even decide on its own Presidential candidate, party member or not.

Instead, it meekly followed in the wake of other smaller Left-leaning parties who have been supporting Connolly for many months.

*Catherine Connolly – established Irish politician.*

If that’s not the tail wagging the dog, what is?

No matter how well the story is spun – and sadly Sinn Fein party leader Mary Lou MacDonald offered an ‘over-the-top’ act to do so a few days ago, uttering the superlative cliché ‘game-changer’ – this non-decision decision may come back to bite her and her colleagues.

While they won’t say it publicly, the other Left wing parties in Ireland are now frothing at the mouth at the possibility of stealing parliament seats from Sinn Fein at the next election.

Unfortunately, Mary Lou made the situation even worse this weekend when she tried vainly to justify choosing Connolly by saying recent Irish presidents had been elected “from outside the political establishment” and that Connolly was following in that tradition.

What a load of nonsense.

Catherine Connolly has been an ‘established’ politician for the last quarter of a century, beginning as local councillor in Galway, then rising to Mayor five years later, then becoming a TD ten years ago. For goodness sake, she was even chairperson of Ireland’s national parliament for a full four years.

If that’s not ‘established’, what is?

Even the present President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, elected not once but twice over the last 14 years, was a ‘classic established politician.’ For almost half a century including stints as Labour Party president, Senator, TD (Member of Parliament) and even as a Minister.

One has to ask oneself ‘Who the hell is writing Mary Lou’s scripts. And who’s conducting her research?”

I’ve always been Left of center in my political outlook, and would like Sinn Fein to be in Government and shake up the meagre mediocrity of Irish politics. But with poor decisions like this one over the Presidency, I fear that’s not going to happen any time soon.

Sinn Fein has shown itself in many instances to be a no-risk party, including its electoral management strategy in Donegal where I now live. In order for it to justify its claim as a leading party, it needs to take risks. But time and time again, it has shown itself to be very much risk averse.

My humble view is that Irish people are desperate for a fresh face in Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence of the President of Ireland, someone truly not involved in Irish politics. Someone with the international experience necessary to conduct the role of Presidency in a strong diplomatic manner. They simply don’t want the Presidential race to be based along worn, age-old political party lines.

That’s why someone like Gareth Sheridan – a man whose US-based company has accumulated losses of 40 million dollars and who has himself already been fined for misleading people about his business and whose main business partner is said to have links with Russian oligarchs – has managed to get two county councils in Ireland to nominate him as a Presidential candidate.

That’s how desperate Irish people are to find someone new.

Mary Lou went half way by talking about the need for someone new.

But then she went right ahead and selected someone straight from the old political establishment. And to make matters worse, someone other parties had already selected a long time ago.

It seems Sinn Fein may have just bought the ruling coalition of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael an early Christmas present.

September 18, 2025 by HillenSean

GAME-CHANGER OR GAME-OVER IN IRELAND?

Sinn Fein’s President Mary Lou McDonald today described on national airwaves that her political party’s long-awaited, soon-to-be-named Irish Presidential candidate would be a ‘game changer.’

@rtenews
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said that the party’s participation in the Presidential Election campaign will be a “game-changer”. Sinn Féin has been mulling over its approach to the race for Áras an Úachtaráin, with two options at its disposal – either run its own candidate or back Independent Catherine Connolly’s campaign. Speaking at the National Ploughing Championships in Screggan, Co Offaly, Ms McDonald said she already knew the proposal she would be bringing to the party, but that it would not be made public until Saturday. Go to link in bio for more #rtenews #ireland #presidentialelection #sinnfein
♬ original sound – RTÉ News

Having used this grandiose, hifalutin phrase, that’s exactly what supporters and would-be supporters of Sinn Fein will be expecting that person to be – a unique choice who will shock and surprise everyone.

The kind of individual a disillusioned electorate are hungry for. Someone whose name and background will light a fire under what has already become – albeit in its early stages – a timid, banal, utterly predictable and lukewarm election campaign.

To use such a superlative phrase as ’game-changer’ and not deliver an individual with the immense passion, innovative vision and creativity the term demands will be considered by most people to be a dismal failure. And show Sinn Fein to be a ‘has-been, once-was’ party, one whose rise in recent years has incontrovertibly stalled.

To come up with something less – such as merely supporting Independent Catherine Connolly – will help damn the party into endless Opposition. It will signal to a triumphant Fianna Fail-Fine Gael coalition Government that it has nothing to worry about from Ireland’s third-ranked party. That Sinn Fein is all bark and bluster. But no real bite.

Regardless of the spin about Left wing unity, Sinn Fein supporting Connolly will be seen as nothing less than inherent party weakness. That of a political party seeking to lead the country that cannot even find a suitable candidate for the most universally elected political position in the nation.

That’s not leadership. That’s impotence.

Supporting Connolly, Sinn Fein at this stage will also be seen as being led by the other Left wing parties who decided on her months ago. And they risk losing key votes at the next election as a result, probably leading to an inevitable decline in its parliamentary seats. A major, perhaps irrecoverable, blow to the party’s hardworking grassroots members.

Thus it’s all-important, not just for future success but for sheer survival, that Mary Lou and her colleagues in the upper ranks of Sinn Fein deliver what they’ve promise so confidently. Nothing less will do.

In doing so, hopefully, they’ll also make this rather boring Irish Presidential battle a bit more interesting than it is right now, raising it from its low-level drab ordinariness.

If they don’t, Sinn Fein may pay a heavy price at the next election. And possibly never recover from the fall.

For a party that is admirably ethical and honest in its dealings, with a central mission of equality and justice for all, they need to find the courage to take risk, something the party is not particularly known for, as not running a second candidate in the Gweedore-Cloughaneely area in the last election showed, with Pearse Doherty’s massive surplus votes going nowhere instead of towards electing a record third TD in Donegal.

This Presidential campaign is Sinn Fein’s Rubicon moment. It’ll be intriguing to see if they manage to cross over. Or drown in the effort.

October 20, 2024 by HillenSean

Meet The Real Simon Harris – The Dishonourable Duke Of Duping

Is it not reprehensible – the height of hypocrisy in fact – that Simon Harris the leader of the Irish Government – has the audacity to accuse Sinn Féin in recent weeks of ‘duping’ people when it expelled several party members for substandard social behaviour?

The Cambridge dictionary definition of dupe is ‘to deceive’ and if anyone is guilty of deception, it is Harris and his colleagues in the coalition Government of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party.

Over the last four years since being in power – and for many years before that – these parties have been nothing less than ‘repeat offenders,’ constantly deceiving the ordinary hardworking people of Ireland with false promises of a quality lifestyle as befitting a nation that is one of the earliest members of the European Union, then called the European Economic Community, or EEC for short, back in 1973.

Instead, however, we have one of the most disastrous health systems on the continent, with people waiting years for life-saving surgeries, often dying before they receive it; we are awash in homelessness and poverty, with an estimated people 30,000 living on the streets, including thousands of young children and infants; we have a forsaken, forgotten, forlorn State where retirees and newlyweds alike are unable to afford the rent of a simple home, never mind the financial resources to even remotely consider buying one to end or begin their lives together in a modicum of comfort.

Not only does the Dishonourable Duke of Duping continue to deceive people that after all these years he’ll one day consider putting a roof over our heads, but he himself basks in the lap of luxury in one of the most expensive and elitist places in Ireland, the scenic coastal town of Greystones in county Wicklow, where he was born, where he lives and where houses cost up to two million euro, and more.

But is it not somewhat harsh of us to criticise the Dishonourable Duke of Duping for his lack of common decency? Is it not unfair to ask a man of such Royal blood living in such a high falutin’ environment to understand the plight of so many desperate Irish people? Is that not akin to asking King Charles of England to make his own cupán tae once in a while?

Shamefully, while the wealthy in Ireland (many of whom are the Dishonourable Duke of Duping’s closest neighbours) while away their days in decadent lifestyles with fancy homes in fancy places or travel in environmentally-damaging private jets (which the Dishonourable Duke of Duping does frequently) and indulge their whims in ostentatious holiday homes abroad (which the Dishonourable Duke of Duping often does), modern Ireland suffers the worst housing shortage in its entire 100-year history.

Studies show less than a third of 30-year-olds own their home. Over half of all newly-built homes in greater Dublin alone were bought or developed by global vulture investor funds, thus locking countless people out of ever attempting to buy one. These ‘vampire funds’ don’t buy homes to sell, they buy them to extract high rents in perpetuity. In other words, they suck the lifeblood out of decent Irish society.

And to make matters worse, the Dishonourable Duke of Duping and his cadre of Government lackeys allowed a temporary no-fault eviction ban in Ireland to lapse last March, thus opening the floodgates for more than 15,000 notices of termination to be issued last year, making the number of evictions higher than it was during the Famine in the mid-1800s.

For centuries, gutless, greedy, often absentee, landlords, have been the scourge of Ireland, rich, ruthless people who with the click of a finger, a scribbled signature on a sheet of paper, thoughtlessly tossed hungry families out into the ditches.

Now it seems the same is happening all over again in modern Ireland, this time under the dictatorial rule of the Dishonourable Duke of Duping and his ignoble entourage.

Instead of urgently dealing with these major social and health issues that are making the lives of so many Irish people intolerable, Harris and his well-to-do cohorts, including Government coalition leaders, Micheál Martin of Fianna Fail and Roderic O’Gorman of the Green Party, are pointing their grubby finger at Sinn Féin, an oft-used political ploy to distract popular attention away from the real issues, and their own failings on them.

In doing so, however, these ‘I’m-better-than-you’ leaders fail to realise something important. While the bitter winds of winter howl at our doors, while Storm Ashley batters the coast this weekend, Irish people are not bears. They are not hibernating. They are wide awake. And fearful. And hungry. And cold. And they remember the empty promises made to them from on high four years ago, and for many years before that.

Maybe, just maybe, we should ask Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald to re-tell the story of these empty promises once more, to remind us how easily we were taken for fools. And in doing so, help us make sure the Dishonourable Duke of Duping and his Royal patrons don’t sneak back into power through the back door and make jesters of us for another four years in their Court of Failure.

Maybe, just maybe, we’ve learned our lesson and are wide awake enough to elect Sinn Féin, the ‘Party of Change’ and improve things for the better. For each and everyone of us, our parents, our children and the generations who come after.

January 31, 2015 by HillenSean

TV3’s Vincent Browne ‘People’s Debate’ in Donegal attracts lively discussion

While Fine Gael and Labour were expected to take a beating at yesterday evening’s Vincent Browne-hosted ‘People’s Debate’ in Letterkenny – in part deserved as the two parties refused to participate – Fianna Fail also took a drubbing.

At one point, after listening to the party’s TD Charlie McConalogue berate government policies, the veteran TV host exclaimed, “I cannot understand how you can make these criticisms. Fine Gael is simply following Fianna Fail policies. Fianna Fail laid down the strategy for dealing with the banking bailout and Fine Gael and Labour are merely following it.”

McConalogue made another mistake later in the debate saying, “the agreement with the Troika was negotiable,” thus contradicting what the public had been told by Fianna Fail that the deal under former Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Minster of Finance, Brian Lenihan, was non-negotiable. Browne was quick to make the point, “Your party said details of the agreement with the Troika were non-negotiable, yet now you say they were. Make up your mind.”

On the emotive issue of water charges, McConalogue – after much fudging said he would halt Irish Water and suspend water charges. Again, Browne responded, “Your party, Fianna Fail, already had a plan in place in 2010 to impose water charges, but now you’re saying you’re having second thoughts.”

Browne, at his best as a current affairs host when pushing political guests for a clear-cut answer, didn’t let the lively capacity audience down, especially when badgering the four-member panel for their views on a potential coalition after the next election. Asked whether he would take a ministerial seat under a Fine Gael or Fianna Fail led coalition Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty seemed somewhat uncomfortable in his seat.

“That is a hypothetical question and such decisions are made at our party Ard Fheis,” he said finally, as if caught by surprise, but recovering. “What we have agreed is that unless water and property charges are dropped, we will not go into any coalition.” He acknowledged, “Some members have voiced their opinion that they would go into a coalition as a minority party. We are a party hungry for change, we are not hungry for power.”

When asked the same question, his Sinn Fein colleague TD Pádraig MacLochlainn was more direct, unhesitatingly replying, “I will not participate in a government led by either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael.” As if taking strength from this, Doherty later stated categorically, “If asked by a government led by Fianna Fail or Fine Gael to be a minister, I would refuse.”

After chastising the two Sinn Fein members for not giving a straight ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, McConalogue himself began the dance of the slippery eel until, under bombardment from host and audience, he finally said, “I would not like to participate in a Fine Gael-Fianna Fail coalition but if I was outvoted by my party colleagues I’d have to go along.”

In his two-minute intro, Doherty said “four years ago we were promised a democratic revolution yet all we have had is more of the same with cronyism, stealth taxes and high levels of unemployment, no more so than right here in Donegal. There is a fairer and better way of moving forward and Sinn Fein’s job strategy can reshape this county.” He added that it was little wonder Donegal was known as ‘The Forgotten County.’ “I know Vincent you didn’t come here by train because this is one of only five counties in all Ireland without a mainline railway service.” Under an FOI request he said he has asked for a government paper produced on the future of small schools, adding that Donegal has the second largest number of such schools, with four teacher or less.

When corruption and lack of transparency within Údarás na Gaeltachta was brought up, including its refusal to release key information on its public spending such as lucrative pension payments to former executives which amount to half of its entire annual budget, Doherty said his party had tabled formal parliamentary questions on the issue, adding, “there should be full disclosure about people in receipt of high public pensions, it is important to have complete transparency so such payments can be scrutinized by the public.”

McConalogue said in his intro, “the last four years of government have been an attack on Donegal with post office closures, agriculture being hard hit and worsening heath services,” adding, “we have strong potential here but we need better infrastructure including the A5 project up and running and wider broadband.”

Referring to the pre-election catchphrase ‘Frankfurt’s Way or Labour’s Way,’ MacLochlainn said the government’s record has proved very different, “with a reduction in classrooms, budget cuts across the board and Donegal having the lowest allocation of medical staff of any county.” He added, “Donegal people are hard-working and passionate. All we’re asking is a fair chance and for Dublin to meet us halfway.”

Regarding the water charges, he added, “For thirty years, Sinn Fein has opposed these charges and now it has become the straw that broke the camel’s back. There has simply been too much austerity. Irish Water is a white elephant. My message is ‘scrap the water charges and go back to the drawing board.’ ”

While decrying the lack of proper health services and unfair stealth taxes, Independent TD Thomas Pringle said renewable energy had tremendous potential for Donegal as had the biomass wood industry. Speaking of Killybegs, he also said the fishing industry had been “hard-hit.’ He said water conservation should be a top priority because so much is being lost through poor network connectivity. He also said he was proud of challenging the bank bail-out through the courts and being in the forefront of water charge protests (continuing the momentum, a major ‘Right2Water’ protest took place earlier today – Saturday – in Letterkenny, with others elsewhere nationwide).

All four TDs, when asked directly, said they would vote ‘yes’ in the upcoming referendum on same-sex marriage.

Over the lively, two-hour event at the Clanree Hotel, there was no shortage of questions from the floor with periodic rambunctious catcalls, cheering and booing, which caused short stoppages and words of warning from the presenter.

True to his word, Browne attempted to cover as many topics as possible such as equality, including the upcoming same-sex marriage referendum; family services, education, employment and health. Speakers ranged from parents of terminally-ill children; school teachers, social workers and community activists working on behalf of people as diverse as lesbians, gay, bisexuals, transgender, cancer sufferers, the disabled, and many others.

Some light-hearted moments and biting comments helped take the edge of emotions as when a thirsty Vincent Browne ran out of water and promised he’d even pay for some and when James Woods from Gortahork commented that with so much emigration, Donegal was turning into a wildlife refuge.

All in all, ‘People’s Debate’ is an excellent initiative by TV3, no doubt demanding detailed planning to host such shows in all the constituencies of Ireland.

Fine Gael and Labour’s decision to spurn them, indicating fear and a lack of understanding of the difficulties facing ordinary people, could ultimately cost them vital votes in the polling booths.

January 28, 2015 by HillenSean

‘Whatever you say, say nothing!’ – motto of Údarás na Gaeltachta

‘People have no right to ask how we spend their money.’

That’s the attitude of Údarás na Gaeltachta, which has once again refused to release key information about how it spends public funds.

A Senate committee revealed that Údarás pays millions of euro every year in pensions to former executives, some of whom were local Donegal employees including Cathal MacSuibhne, former regional manager based in Gaoth Dobhair.

Sinn Fein’s Trevor Ó Clochartaigh, a member of that Senate committee, exclaimed, “I nearly fell off the chair when I heard that almost half the current expenditure goes on pension payments to 136 people who are no longer employed by the organisation. Small wonder Údarás is not able to function more effectively.”

He added, “This raises serious concerns regarding the levels of monies being paid and who is receiving them.”

Under transparency rules, other public bodies have made a breakdown of such pension figures available for examination, but in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request I made, Údarás refused to do so, citing gobbledegook about data protection.

As a result, having brought the matter to the attention of a number of TDs, the Údarás pension issue has risen to the highest levels of national government, to the office of Brendan Howlin, Minister for Public Expenditure.

I can reveal in this blog that on my behalf various leading politicians including Public Accounts Committee (PAC) member, Mary Lou McDonald, have attempted to find out the individual pension figures but Údarás has stonewalled every request, preventing their release.

How it happened

Údarás responded to my initial FOI request last year seeking details on pension and lump sum payments to former executives in a letter signed by Padraic O’Conghaile – a ‘cinnteoir’ at the organisation’s headquarters in Galway.

In the letter, he wrote, “I am refusing these records as they relate to the pension of an individual under Section 28.1 (Personal Information). The FOI Act defines personal information as information about an identifiable individual that: ‘would, in the ordinary course of events, be known only to individuals or members of the family or friends, of the individual.’ I believe that the right to privacy of these persons with regard to such information far outweighs any public interest there may be in this matter.”

The fact, that all the pensions and payments are publicly-funded and thus not “known only to individuals or members of the family or friends, of the individual” as he asserts – did not seem to enter Mr. O’Conghaile’s thinking. Or, perhaps, did, but he refused to acknowledge it.

Following this response, I requested several TD’s to present formal written parliamentary questions in the Dail on the same issue.

For example, Mary Lou McDonald, a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), submitted her parliamentary question to the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht asking the Minister to “reference the specific provisions of the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003 to which he referred (supporting Údarás’ denial of information); the basis on which he believes Údarás na Gaeltachta does not, unlike in the case of all other senior managers across the civil and public sector, have to make public the details of public service pension arrangements on retirement for senior management.”

Dinny McGinley, then junior minister, wrote back in a vague response saying simply that Údarás had informed him it was “a data controller, defined under the Acts as a person who either alone or with others controls the contents and use of personal data.”

Put in simple words, it means Údarás, while deriving all its funding from public money, considers ‘People have no right to ask how we spend their money.’ McGinley’s response also has no logical meaning whatsoever under present Irish law. Instead it is a classic delaying tactic. The former Minister did not bother to question it or seek elaboration.

That response led McDonald to submit a follow-up question, this time to Minister Howlin, reading, “given the Minister’s stated commitment to transparency and accountability in the spending of public monies, whether in his view it is acceptable for a public body fully funded by the exchequer to withhold from the public record details of public service pension arrangements on retirement for senior managers; and if he is prepared to legislate to require all publicly funded bodies to make such information public in the interests of open government.”

It is most disappointing that a simple request to a fully publicly funded body about its spending has led to such a reactionary response from an organisation such as Údarás, which is responsible for the economic, social and cultural development of the Gaeltacht.

Such utter lack of transparency and disregard for public concerns has already led to such widespread corruptive practices as those at FAS when it was discovered hundreds of thousands of euro went on lavish holidays including first-class travel and expensive rounds of golf for executives and their wives. Údarás itself has yet to account for trips paid out of public funds for board members, executives and wives to visit attractive international destinations, including Las Vegas.

Public money is a precious thing and every penny of it ought to be properly accounted for and judiciously spent.

I will reprint Minister Howlin’s response on this blog when it is received. It should provide a most interesting read.

July 25, 2014 by HillenSean

West Donegal whale protection group formed as threats to human health resurface

Following an often emotional public meeting held at Teac Jack in Glassagh earlier this week, a wildlife protection group has been formed in west Donegal to lobby for government policy changes towards stranded marine animals and to promote specialized training.

The ‘North West Whale & Dolphin Support Group,’ which was established at the Tuesday evening meeting, follows concerns by many local people about the treatment of a pod of 13 pilot whales that were left stranded on Ballyness beach near Falcarragh, which all died of slow suffocation after five days. It is the 13^th such stranding this year in Donegal, including a sperm whale stranded off Machaire Rabhartaigh beach. Around 32 other whales died off Rutland Island two years ago and were cut up and transported to Cavan where they were incinerated.

Meanwhile, concerns have arisen as to what caused the mysterious deaths of all the whales amid a recent rise in the numbers of marine animals being stranded off Donegal’s coast. And that, whatever it is, may also be a hazard to human health.

A stranded pilot whale struggles for life at Ballyness beach near Falcarragh, west Donegal. (Photo by Antonia Leitner).

Chairperson of the meeting, Amanda Doherty, with Selkie Sailing, who has also launched a petition that has attracted more than 230 signatures on the issue, said she was pleased by decisions those attending had made together.

“We want to raise community awareness and have the current policy regarding cetacean strandings in the area reviewed,” she said. “It should be a more flexible policy to allow for the particulars of different situations that occur. This is best practice according international standards and Ireland should follow it.”

Some people at the meeting – many of whom tried their best to save the dying whales – became emotional as they described the traumatic situation at Ballyness beach and the agony of the cetaceans as they slowly died of suffocation in shallow water.

Members of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), led by Dave Duggan and Pat Vaughan, decided “to let nature takes its course” rather than try to save the whales or apply euthanasia to reduce the whales’ suffering. They also did not ask the coastguard for assistance to bring the whales out to sea, as has happened in other parts of Ireland. The state-funded Donegal county veterinary office under the leadership of Charles Kealey, chief veterinary officer, has also come under criticism for refusing to get involved in any way to help the whales, including making sure the mammals were dead before they were buried. (In contrast, see photo below of a cetacean (dolphin) being treated more humanely in another part of Ireland, with vets and the coastguard involved).

Westport-based Irish Coastguard assist with a stranded Common Dolphin which could not be refloated. A Mayo vet administered an injection to humanely end its suffering. Photo by Shay Fennelly

Pearse Doherty Sinn Fein TD for west Donegal, who has submitted a number of formal questions over the last week in the Dail to Ministers regarding the treatment of stranded whales and other cetaceans, attended the meeting and gave his advice on the best way forward for the group. Doherty said it was important the new group work with current organisations such as the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and suggested a two-pronged approach – making sure policy at the IWDG matched international standards, and the establishment of ‘first responders’ in the local area, recognized by the NPWS and IWDG – people who could take the lead in developing situations.

The newly-formed ‘North West Whale & Dolphin Support Group’ decided to hold monthly meetings and invite Simon Berrow, founder of the IWDG, to provide specialized training for members on how to best help stranded whales and other cetaceans and to meet with a small working group on the same day to discuss further action. Clare-based Berrow is a full-time lecturer at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology teaching on the Applied Freshwater and Marine degree course and project manager of the Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation.

After being contacted about the meeting, Berrow told the author of this blog, “We are delighted to hear of the formation of a local group. We look forward to working closely with them to prepare a better response to stranded cetaceans in the future and also to encourage local recording.”

Offshore toxic waste dumping? Military submarine activity?

At the same time, concerns regarding the health hazards to human life – as well as marine – from toxic dumping at sea and military submarine activity and experiments that may have caused the strandings have resurfaced locally.

Oceans that become graveyards for poisonous debris that pose dangers to human as well as marine life.

International regulations state that discharges of waste material – often poisonous by nature – should not be made within a certain distance of any landmass, according to the Seas at Risk. But who’s watching? Some major ports have cleaning facilities such as Edinburgh, Belfast and Dublin, but this costs money so some incorrigible corporations say ‘why bother’? As the coast of Donegal is in direct line of most transAtlantic ocean traffic between Europe and the Americas, the amount of waste dumped offshore is probably immense, one respected scientist saying ‘enough to create mountains under the sea.’ Much of this material contains cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens) such as manganese, benzene, coal-tar, radium, petrolatum, parabens, vinyl chloride lead and zinc. With recent technological developments, many of these chemicals are in the form of deadly nanoparticles (particles less than the size of a human or animal cell) which, airborne, can then penetrate the cells, causing untold damage.

Nanoparticles: Technological and industrial development has outstripped health research into their potential dangers in everyday foods and consumer products.

Could this be the cause or partial cause of disease in whales and other marine animals? Researchers say they have found large quantities of these chemicals in the whale tissue samples taken and tested. And doctors report larger than normal incidences of human cancer in local people.

In addition, some of the waste is in the form of non-biogradable plastics. Because they don’t dissolve but break up into smaller elements, these plastics have formed what scientists now call ‘plastic islands’ – often the size of countries, one is larger than the US state of Texas, which in itself is 17 times larger than Ireland – that float in our seas, causing disruption to the normal flow of currents. Consequently, the dangers to both human as well as marine animal health is high. For a long time, many people in northwest Donegal have suspected such dumping to have taken place offshore, with menacing results (see further information here).

A special group was established within the last two years at Ionad Naomh Pádraig in Dore by Freddie O’Donnell and Aodán Ó’Gallchoir to examine correlations between high levels of cancer in the Gaeltacht area and dumping of waste in coastal waters nearby. Known as ‘Scaoil Saor ó Ailse’ (Break Free from Cancer’), the group’s public relations officer, Joe Diver, said former local doctor Paddy Delap, said such waste was affecting peoples’ health, particularly cancers of the skin, lung and brain, with an abnormally high level of fatalities. A deep-sea diver then broke his decades-old silence on Raidó na Gaeltachta, describing how he found a large area of the sea bed littered with large black drums with hazardous signage on them in the waters off Tory Island, adding, “We were looking for shipwrecks, went down 40 to 45 metres and came across black drums with green stuff growing on them. There were a few thousand of them. They were heaped in a hill-like structure and had skull and crossbones on them. The diver said the drums would have since disintegrated and their hazardous material dissolved into the ocean off the Gaeltacht coast.”

Military submarine activity and experiments at sea: what are the hazards for Man, Plant and Animal?

Areas affected could include Gaoth Dobhair, Cloughaneely and The Rosses. Calls for greater funding for a more comprehensive analysis were ignored by the relevant authorities, mainly on the instructions of Dublin, some say for economic and political reasons. Further, fearing such research could stir up waves of protest if the result became known, efforts were made by authorities, mainly Fianna Fail, then in power, to trivialize what little had become known. Politics and money trumped peoples’ health and once again the ‘Forgotten County’ was forced to live up to its unfortunate title.

Damage control became main concern for a certain cadre of elite: the party in power in the Dail and its big-business supporters. “This situation has been going on for far too long,” said one medical practitioner who has treated cancer patients in the area. “It is long past time national funding was made available to investigate this situation thoroughly. If it happened in certain other parts of the country, it probably would already have taken place long ago. Surely the deaths of so many marine animals and the high number of cancers affecting people means the issue should be looked at very closely. To some extent, it’s in the hands of ordinary people. They should be lobbying their government representatives by e-mail, phone and letter. If not, nothing will be done.”

Several of the whales at Ballyness beach were found to have lesions, blemishes and lumps on its skin, but National Parks and Wildlife Service officials declined to say where any disease may have originated. As whales are highly social creatures that travel in communities, some say healthy whales may have refused to abandon sick or injured pod members and followed them into shallow water. “We can’t say for certain,” said Pat Vaughan, district conservation officer for the NPWS. “What we do know is that whales and other marine animals can have high levels of certain toxic elements in their bodies.”

July 18, 2014 by HillenSean

Whale-protection group offers complimentary specialized one-day training in west Donegal

Meeting to take place at Teac Jack, Glassagh, this Tuesday (July 22) at 8pm

Officials with the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) have offered to host a complimentary one-day whale life-saving course in Falcarragh, Donegal over the next month for those interested in helping any struggling mammals that become stranded on the county’s beaches.

To avail of this offer, please contact directly Simon Berrow, founder of IWDG at coordinator (at) iwdg.ie

In addition, as part of a larger lobbying campaign for changes to the government’s policy on cetacean strandings, a meeting is being organised at Teac Jack in Glassagh, Donegal, under the auspices of Selkie Sailing and Gareth Doherty, environmentalist and wildlife enthusiast. The meeting is due to take place this Tuesday (July 22) at 8pm.

The generous offer of training from the IWDG comes as the well-respected organization denied vehemently that any call was received from the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) for help in dealing with the 12 stranded pilot whales that died at a west Donegal beach last week.

Berrow, who will visit west Donegal this weekend, said, “In contrast, it was someone from our group, Brendan Quinn, who called one of our senior members, Mick O’Connell, who in turn called the wildlife service in Glenveigh and got no response. Mick then called David McNamara, a wildlife service ranger, who went to the scene at Ballyness beach and observed the situation from a nearby hill with hundreds of people gathered around the beached whales. He then waited for them to leave the scene.”

Members of the family of pilot whales stranded off Ballyness beach, Falcarragh, Donegal, last week. Photo courtesy of Selkie Sailing

Voicing his disappointment that Dave Duggan, the acting NPWS regional manager in Donegal, nor Pat Vaughan, a NPWS conservation officer, requested help from the IWDG, Berrow said, “No call was ever received by us asking for our assistance. We would have come up – or at the very least have given advice on the phone. We also have detailed guidance on our website about how to handle a stranded whale situation, which could have been easily accessed and followed. We could have saved some of these whales.”

He also said a statement by Vaughan that nothing could be done for the dying whales but “let nature takes its course” and let the 12 whales die from slow suffocation over five days is ”pure rubbish.”

Another pertinent question to be asked: Where was the state-funded Donegal county veterinary office, run by Charles Kealey, chief veterinary officer, and his staff in all of this? With the local and national media attention the situation received, they would have to have been deaf, dumb and blind not to have heard of the tragedy, and if concerned in any way, should have been at the scene pronto to assist. And definitely, to make sure whales were not buried alive, which expert sources say – without veterinary expertise – could well have happened.

In Berrow’s view, “Everything went pear-shaped because nobody, no group, took ownership of the situation. The wildlife service won’t take responsibility for stranded whales. The IWDG is a small NGO, manned mainly by volunteers but we help where we can. Lack of responsibility at Ballyness, Falcarragh, meant that well-meaning members of the public had to step in. Unfortunately, most of them did not have the proper expertise or training. People like Amanda and Gareth Doherty deserve great credit for what they did, and are still doing, to help protect our marine wildlife.”

Stranded pilot whale at Ballyness beach, Falcarragh, west Donegal (Photo by Antonia Leitner)

Berrow said the IWDG offers training in both identification of cetaceans (mainly whales, dolphins and porpoises), as well as one-day courses on effective methods for dealing with stranded whales “but no-one in Donegal has asked us to do such training. We could bring the equipment, we even have a life-size, inflatable pilot whale that we use for simulating saving techniques. All we need is for someone to organise a venue and a place to stay overnight for trainers.” He said trained IWDG volunteers “are thin on the ground in Donegal.”

Berrow also said the Donegal wildlife service’s contention that there were no vets with sufficient expertise about whales and that no adequate drugs in the county to euthanize the 12 whales was also misleading. “I’d be shocked if there is not enough Pentabarbitone in Donegal. Anyway, they could have contacted us or the Dublin Zoo which uses the drugs on large animals such as giraffes or even Tony Patterson, the relevant officer across the border in Northern Ireland who I’m sure would have gladly helped.”

In the Republic of Ireland, Pentabarbitone is administered by “a 14 gage needle, the longest one possible, preferably over six inches.” Around 60 to 80 milligrammes are used per kilo of animal. Pilot whales are on average between 1,000 and 1,800 kilo.

Regarding the alternative option for euthanasia, Berrow said, “The wildlife service at Glenveigh Park – due mainly to the deer population – have several persons well-trained in gun and rifle use. Using a .303 calibre rifle with solid bullets fired through the blowhole into the heart chamber, the unfortunate whales could have been put out of their misery within two minutes, instead of them having to suffer for five whole days with blisters on their skin the size of footballs.”

An international petition launched last week calling for more humane treatment of stranded whales in Ireland has already attracted more than 200 signatures (see petition here)

Local people gather with Native American Indian Gary (White Deer) for special prayers and a blessing of family of whales that died at Ballyness beach, Falcarragh, Donegal (photo courtesy of Sarah Sayers).

Berrow said a small government grant was awarded to the IWDG for 2011-13 to run a stranded whale scheme but only to monitor the mammals and handle data on them. There has been no funding for training courses. This year the contract went out to tender, then withdrawn in May. “With the increase in sightings of whales and dolphins off Ireland’s coast, it is crucial to have protocols and funding in place now,” he said.

He added that there is no national policy on taking tissue samples or conducting post-mortems on the mammals to find out what caused them to strand. “We have an agreement with the National History Museum and take samples wherever possible and place them there in a freezer,” he said. “But there should be a more concerted, organized effort by the relevant government authority.”

Meanwhile, Donegal Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty said, “I have huge concerns regarding the policy enacted by the National Parks and Wildlife Service when the pilot whales were beached in Falcarragh recently.” He added, “It is my belief that locals with knowledge in this area should have been assisted in their further attempts to rescue the whales and I commend them for their heroic efforts. I support the petition calling for this review of this policy and I have submitted a number of Questions to the Minister calling for this review, which are due to be taken tomorrow.”

Doherty has submitted several formal written questions to the Dail, including one viz-a-viz, “if there is an official policy in place within his Department which outlines the procedure for the rescue efforts of beached whales; if this policy is circulated to the various stakeholders such as Local Government and the NPWS and if the Minister will make a statement on the matter?”

Formal protocols and increased government funding are necessary to save the Irish whale population (Photo courtesy of Selkie Sailing)

A second question asks, “if it is best practice to allow beached whales to perish without any intervention in order to ease the suffering of the animal; if it is standard practice to prohibit volunteers from making rescue efforts ; if the Minister intends to review this policy in the near future in light of the distress of the whales beached in Falcarragh, Donegal recently and if the Minister will make a statement on the matter?”

A third question deals with lack of equipment, in which he asks for “the reasons why the necessary equipment was not available to the NPWS in Donegal to allow them to humanely put the beached whales in Donegal to death by chemical injection and if the Minister will make a statement on the matter?”

The worldwide organisation, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation group, active in over 25 countries globally, has also waded into the controversy, officials from its headquarters in the UK stating, “It’s a real shame that there is not a strandings network in Ireland as there is in for example the UK. Here there is an incredibly well set-up and coordinated network of volunteers (BDMLR) that are trained in what to do in the event of a stranding and are first responders to any live (and sometimes dead) stranding.”

It continued, “By having these volunteers in place around the country any whales and dolphins that strand have the best possible chance of being refloated and surviving the ordeal. In a nutshell, what needs to happen is a) Interested Irish citizens need to come together and try to recreate what has been achieved in the UK via BDMLR, and b) the Irish Government need to commit to providing funds to set-up a programme similar to the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP) here in the UK.” (see HERE example of how strong organisation and proper protocols can save some members of the whale population).

Sean Hillen

International journalist, publisher and author of novel 'Pretty Ugly'

Pearse Doherty