Posted on 02/02/2003 6:12:33 AM PST by aculeus
"PEACE ACTIVIST" Mary Kelly arrested after a hatchet attack on a United States Navy transport plane in Shannon which caused €500,000-worth of damage has been honoured in New York by supporters of the dissident Republican Sinn Fein (RSF) group, which has links to the Continuity IRA.
She was supposed to be one of two female guests of honour at a $750-a-table fundraising dinner in the Astoria World Manor hotel on Friday night. The vice-president of RSF, Mary Ward, read out a citation in her honour which received a sustained round of applause from the audience.
Described by advertisements for the 8th Annual Michael Flannery Testimonial Awards Dinner as a "dedicated human rights activist who has recently served in Palestine, one of the world's most unstable areas", Mary Kelly received the Michael Flannery Award. The male guest of honour was the convicted American gun runner and veteran republican George Harrison.
Immediately after her award, John McDonagh, who runs the pro-RSF radio station Radio Free Eireann, held up a cartoon of Kelly wielding a hatchet and compared her act to George Washington's symbolic chopping down of a cherry tree (symbolising British colonialisation).
During the period Ms Kelly spent in the Church of Nativity with Palestinian extremists, she made almost daily phone calls to Radio Free Eireann which were then broadcast in New York.
One of the promoters of the night, Michael Costello of the National Irish Freedom Committee (NIFC), which supports the RSF political programme and "Irish POWs" (Continuity IRA prisoners) through Cabhair, the Irish prisoners' dependents' fund, had urged people to support the dinner. He said all monies raised through earlier appeals had been sent to Cabhair.
The NIFC is a hardline anti-Agreement group founded in 1987 because of the perceived "betrayal in the making of traditional republican principles and values by the leadership of Provisional Sinn Fein".
Speaking on Radio Free Eireann last week, Kelly said she would be unable to attend the dinner because she was too busy with the Shannon peace camp.
In a web discussion she said that she was "delighted when anyone takes a serious interest in reporting on the mass murder going on in Palestine, while most of the world turns a blind eye".
"I did many interviews for Radio Free Eireann. I will work with anyone who has good attitudes, and stands up against injustice and war- mongering, be they peace commissioner, freedom fighter, soldier, prisoner ... the divisions between people has always been our downfall here in Ireland."
Meanwhile, it has been learned that the incident in Shannon caused acute embarrassment at Government and senior Garda management level. Stringent cuts in overtime meant the local Garda division was not allocated resources to mount proper protection of the six-mile airport perimeter at Shannon.
The main security for the American aircraft was provided by the small number of airport police. Kelly was easily able to cross the low wire fence, which is designed only to keep livestock off the runways, make her way across the apron and attack the aircraft. Security has since been stepped up.
Kelly's republican links are now likely to cause further embarrassment to the Government, which is understood to have offered an apology to the US government. It had been known for some time that she was connected to a variety of radical groups.
The Friday night function in New York was organised by Cumann na Saoirse, which holds an annual awards ceremony in commemoration of the veteran American IRA supporter Michael Flannery.
Cumann na Saoirse is associated with the Irish Freedom Committee, which split from Sinn Fein and Noraid, its US fundraising wing, in 1989 after Ruari O Bradaigh left Sinn Fein when it voted to drop its policy of abstentionism from the Dail. Mr O Bradaigh has been refused a visa to visit the US. His place at the function was taken by Mary Ward.
George Harrison, the veteran republican who was the co-recipient of the Michael Flannery award on Friday night last, was convicted in 1981 of sending guns to the IRA and imprisoned. At the time it was reported that he had sent hundreds of weapons to the IRA, including M60 machine guns stolen from US Army bases.
Why isn't she in prison?
This "award ceremony" shows how many Anti American cults we have inside our borders. It's scary.
At least they put this shameful event in a third or fourth rate hotel ... in Queens.
Errr, waitaminute...
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