Man jailed after returning home to face drugs charge
MAN ABSCONDED TO UK AFTER BEING FOUND WITH €80,000 OF CANNABIS IN HIS VAN
A NORTH Cork man has been jailed for three years after he returned from the UK to face drug charges from almost ten years ago when he was caught with over €80,000 worth of drugs by gardai when they stopped and searched his van.
Philip Foley (46), who at the time lived at the Manor, Clondulane, Fermoy, pleaded guilty to possessing €80,000 worth of cannabis resin for sale or supply when he was stopped by gardai at Kevin Barry Hill in Fermoy on March 16, 2011, contrary to Section 15A of the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Det Garda Dave Moynihan of Fermoy Garda Station told how gardai stopped Mr Foley in his van on the day in question and when they searched the vehicle they found the stash of cannabis resin and herb hidden in a Tesco plastic bag.
Foley was arrested and charged and was due to appear before Cork Circuit Criminal Court in November 2011 but he fled the country and went to the UK, returning earlier this year and surrendering to gardai who had issued a European Arrest Warrant for him.
Pleading for leniency, defence counsel Tom Creed SC acknowledged that his client had left the jurisdiction with the case against him pending but he was now facing up to the charges after returning from the UK, where he had turned his life around.
“This man has truly proved himself and has turned his life around. He has helped others who have gotten into trouble. He has been of impeccable behaviour and support to society since,” said Mr Creed, who presented a number of testimonials from UK employers on Foley’s behalf.
Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said the amount of drugs in the case was significant with a value of over €80,000 while the fact that he absconded and fled to the UK after being charged here was also an aggravating factor in the case
“He did very well in England. A lot of people speak up for him in these testimonials but it is questionable that none of these worthies in England – if they knew about it – told him to come back and face the music himself,” he said.
Judge O Donnabhain said Foley had said he was merely transferring the drugs for someone else but he knowingly took part in the operation and he believed the headline sentence should be five years but he said he would suspend two years in the light of the efforts he made to turn his life around.
SINCE the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, an infodemic has also spread around the world. And like the virus which emerged from Wuhan in China, the infodemic has reached Cork and Kerry.
As much as the global spread of the coronavirus has been complicated by variants such as those which emerged from the UK, South Africa and Brazil, the infodemic, which is related in no small way to other rapidly spreading internet conspiracy theories, has been similarly compounded by analogous ‘strains’.
The latest of these is what is being termed ‘ The Great Reopening’ and, at present, there is a great deal of activity on social media platform, Telegram, in which plans are being discussed and made for businesses to reopen sooner than current restrictions would allow. The Government ordained restrictions, declared to suppress the spread of the virus, are openly scorned on these forums and suggestions are made to challenge Gardaí enforcing the likes of the 5km restrictions.
While everybody on the ‘great reopening’ forums is not a ‘far-right extremist’, it is fairly clear that far-right elements and parties are using them to recruit more followers and spread their disinformation which, at present, is focusing on the pandemic.
An indication of the nature of the disinformation is how posters on these forums describe the spread of COVID-19 as a ‘scamdemic’ or a ‘plandemic’. These two terms fit with the notions they have that the pandemic is a hoax to control people or an event planned by the government.
“When it comes to disinformation and digital media, we’re always focused on the last scandal and missing what’s happening right now,”
said Dr. Eileen Culloty, a researcher at the Dublin City University’s Institute of Future Journalism.
“After the 2016 US election, governments focused on Russian interference while ignoring domestic actors.
“In Ireland those domestic actors are targeting minorities and they are mobilising within local communities so I would consider that a real threat.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has provided far-right elements an opportunity to galvanise their support further.
It was a natural progression for far-right groups to move from anti-vax campaigns that already existed to being against the different COVID-19 vaccines. They cite different pretexts in their social media posts - the notion that COVID is a scam, that the vaccines are a plot by an elite to gain control of our bodies.
They’re also against the ongoing lockdown - even though the COVID vaccine seems to be the only way out of lockdown
at present.
Far right parties did not do well in last year’s General Election, but the story could be quite different now.
“The far-right are not electorally strong,” said Dr. Culloty.
“Far-right political parties not only failed to win seats in the 2020 General Election, they attracted few first-preference votes.
“But a lot has changed in the past year.”
There are two political parties in Ireland which could be described as ‘far-right’, the Irish Freedom Party and the National Party, both of which want Ireland to leave the EU and have thinly disguised anti-immigration policies.
The anti-immigration policy chimes with conspiracy theories which are spread online, the so called great replacement, a theory that governments want to replace Irish natives with workers from other countries which could be paid less than their Irish counterparts.
The Irish Freedom Party, which is led by Nigel Farage ally Hermann Kelly, stood a candidate in Cork North West in the February 2020 election. Tara Nic Domhnaill polled 956 first preference votes or two per cent of the valid poll.
One of the things that has transformed the situation for far-right activists is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to a significant growth and acceleration in the spread of disinformation on a number of fronts – denying the lethality of the virus, undermining mask wearing as an affront to free speech and promoting anti vaccination stories.
“Before COVID-19, their events might attract a few hundred people, but in 2020 they were bringing a few thousand onto the streets,” Dr. Culloty said.
“Of course, not everyone attending those protests was an extremist, but it shows how the far right can exploit public frustrations to increase their platform.”
The Irish Freedom Party’s chairwoman Dolores Cahill, has publicised a ‘ national tour’ which had a date pencilled in for Dingle in January. This meeting never took place, though it was planned to go ahead in contravention of COVID-19 guidelines. Further meetings are listed to take place though dates and venues have yet to be revealed.
Dolores Cahill was to feature in a BBC Panorama show on Monday. Entitled ‘ Vaccines - the Disinformation War’, the show was widely publicised on Great Reopening forums, including the Cork and Kerry forums.
The contribution of Professor Cahill to the hard-hitting programme seems to have ended up on the cutting room floor, causing much frustration among her Telegram followers who described her exclusion as another example of mainstream media censorship.
While the message on these forums and other social media platforms may ostensibly be about COVID-19-related issues, depicting the virus as a hoax, for instance, Dr Culloty says that for some ‘ the core agenda is racism and white supremacy’.
In particular, some activists spread disinformation about minorities, she said.
She illustrated her contention by pointing to the attempt by the far right to spread disinformation last year following the stabbing of a teenager in Carrigaline. The aim seems to have been to provoke racial tension.
As Dr. Culloty says, these efforts were supported by far-right actors in the UK and the US.
“So while the Irish far-right may be small, it can mobilise quickly because the tactics are well-established internationally.”
One of the dangers, according to Dr Culloty, is that there’s been a perception that Ireland has been immune to far-right extremism and a parallel lack of awareness.
“In response to that, the news media have an important role in informing the public and facilitating debate without giving a voice to extremist or hateful views.
“And ordinary people need to be more aware of the issue, who is organising the protests they attend, who is behind the Facebook groups they join, who created the anonymous messages forwarded on WhatsApp?”
Dr Culloty revealed that two prominent far-right hail from Cork.
Both are very active online, producing large amounts of content. Some relates to direct provision and some promotes a theory which alleges that western governments are replacing native populations with migrants for economic reasons.
The international links of these campaigns were underlined when British far-right activist Katie Hopkins, in a story featured in September 2019 in The Corkman, posted a tweet ‘expressing concern’ for the use of converted hotels as direct provisions. Hopkins, who is now banned from Twitter, infamously misspelled Macroom as ‘ Macroon’ in her tweet. activists
“In Ireland these domestic actors are mobilising within local communities and are a real threat’
“When it comes to disinformation and digital media, we’re always focused on the last scandal and missing what’s happening now
“So I think the far-right should be viewed as a potential threat and something that needs to be monitored because these groups can mobilise very quickly.”
The online discussions are translating into leaflet printing, recruitment of leaflet distributors in towns in Cork and Kerry as well as elsewhere. Funding campaigns are being organised and business sponsors, keen to get back to normality, are coming forward to support the campaigns. Protests against COVID restrictions for public health purposes are being planned and advertised openly on these forums.
The infodemic is gaining a foothold and whether or not the protests being posted about on the Great Re- Opening are successful, from the extremists’ point of view, they’re unlikely to do anything except continue to spread their disinformation.
THE old saying goes ‘ that bate Banagher’ but now bridge builders all over Ireland and the UK face an even tougher challenge following the installation of the longest prestressed concrete river span over the Sullane as part of the ongoing N22 bypass project.
Seven 155-tonne beams made by Banagher Precast Concrete, which came in at 49.9 metres long, were in recent weeks transported to Cork.
Making them and delivering them has been a massive exercise in logistics.
According to Caroline Cavanagh, Banagher Precast Concrete’s Marketing and Bid Manager: “We are very proud of our work on this project. We always said that we could make a 50-metre beam, but up to now we’ve never had a client brave enough to do it!”
The lifting and transportation of the seven longest beams by truck required slow, Garda-escorted, overnight journeys from Banagher to Macroom.
One of the toughest challenges was getting through Birr in County Offaly, due to a notorious pinch point in the town.
“Transported by our expert local transport partners, Whitten Road Haulage, the beams left Banagher late each evening in order to minimise disruption to other road users and to the local communities,” said Caroline.
“The beams travelled to Birr and, due to their length, they had to be reversed into the mart car park in Birr and then driven out to Loughnane’s sand pit, turned out there, and brought back through Birr.
“They were then parked up between Roscrea and Borris-in- Ossory overnight, and it took eight hours to get them down to Macroom the following day.”
The second-largest set of prestressed concrete bridge beams ever made in Ireland or the UK also made their way to Macroom in the past fortnight.
Measuring 48.75 metres in length, twelve beams have been transported to the bridge location.
In total, the Offaly firm is designing and manufacturing precast bridge beams for 23 15 structures for the Macroom bypass project, along with other precast work such as culverts.
This is the latest in a series of engineering and logistical achievements by those involved in the Macroom bypass.
In late January, massive steel girders arrived from Spain to help complete a viaduct which will be part of the bypass of Bbaile Mhic Íre and Baile Mhúirne, all part of the same €280m bypass project.