Ciaron O'Reilly

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Ciaron O'Reilly is long time Catholic Worker, nonviolent resister and Christian anarchist. Ciaron took part in the 1980s civil rights, social justice and free speech movement in Queensland, Australia against Joh Bjelke-Peterson.[1]

During the 1991 Gulf War, Ciaron was a member of the 'ANZUS Ploughshares' group which attacked a B-52 Bomber which was on 20-minute scramble alert, at Griffis AFB in upstate New York. Their actions put the aircraft out of action for the next two months at the height of the bombing campaign in Iraq. Together with the other members of the group, he was arrested and sentenced to 13 months in the U.S. penal system.[2] After his return to Australia, Ciaron took part in the 'Jabiluka Ploughshares' group action which disabled uranium mining equipment in the Northern Territory of Australia in 1998.[3]

Ciaron is the author of Remembering Forgetting - A Journey of Nonviolent Resistance to the War on East Timor (Otford Press, Australia, 2001). Together with other members of the Brisbane Catholic Worker, he took an active role in highlighting the involvement and complicity of the Australian government, corporate and military sectors in supporting Indonesia's brutal and illegal 25 year occupation of East Timor.

On July 5, 2006 Ciaron went to trial at Dublin's Four Courts for a third time for disarming a U.S. navy war plane at the civilian Shannon Airport, Ireland in the early hours of February 3rd 2003.[4] This group action became known as the Pitstop Ploughshares. Two earlier trials in 2005 ended in mistrial.

Ciaron and four others, Deirdre Clancy, Nuin Dunlop, Karen Fallon and Damien Moran were acquitted by an Irish jury on on 25th July 2006. [5]

Contents

[edit] Life

Ciaron O'Reilly was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1960. His father Garrett is from Co. Offaly, Ireland. He was educated at the Sisters of Mercy in Brisbane and later by the Christian Brothers at St. James College Fortitude Valley.[6] He went on to achieve a BA in the Arts in university and it was there that he first came into contact with Catholic Worker communities. The Catholic Workers (CW) were involved in non-violent prophetic witness and action against war, acts of mercy, including prison visits. They also live in community with the poor. They were concerned about the threat posed by nuclear weapons and the uranium industry and its direct and indirect effects on those from the third world. The CW movement was originally founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin during America's great depression in the 1930’s. They live together and work together to feed the hungry and homeless and to work against war.

Brisbane's West End Catholic Worker community was founded in 1982 by Ciaron, Jim Dowling and Angela Jones to oppose injustice and engage homeless Aborigine youth ‘street children.’

In 1989 Ciaron left Brisbane to go to the USA to work in soup kitchens and skid row.

In 1990 he moved to Washington into a Trinitarian run home – where he helped give support and shelter to homeless women and children. Here he practiced non-violent witness against the White House. He spent four years in the USA from 1989 to 1993 and was mentored by the well known Catholic activists, Daniel Berrigan and his brother Philip. He was there for the invasion of Panama and first Gulf War and attended non-violent demonstrations at the Pentagon on a weekly basis. He witnessed and met young people deployed in the army, navy and the National Guard, including women who’d just given birth but were deployed anyway.

He was there for Hiroshima Day when Margaret Thatcher and George H.W. Bush imposed sanctions on Iraq.

On the morning of January 1, 1991 Ciaron together with Moana Cole, from New Zealand, and Susan Frankel and Bill Streit, members of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in Washington, D.C., calling themselves the ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand and U.S.) Peace Force Plowshares, entered the Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, New York. After cutting through several fences, Bill and Sue entered a deadly force area and hammered and poured blood on a KC-135 (a refueling plane for B-52's) and then proceeded to hammer and pour blood on the engine of a nearby cruise missile armed B-52 bombers that could be used in Iraq.

Simultaneously, Moana and Ciaron entered the base at the opposite end of the runway, and made a sign of the cross with blood on the runway, spray-painted "Love Your Enemies - Jesus Christ," "No More Bombing of Children in Hiroshima, Vietnam, Iraq, or Anywhere!" and "Isaiah Strikes Again." They hammered upon the runway chipping at two sections, one being nearly 5 feet in diameter, before they were detained. In their action statement they declared that they came together from three different countries to reclaim the acronym from the ANZUS Treaty and create a "new pact for peace, which is the way of the Lord." They also asserted they were acting to prevent war in the Persian Gulf and called upon people to nonviolently resist war and oppression. In their indictment they cited the U.S. government for war crimes and violations of international law.

All four were indicted on January 9th on federal charges of conspiracy and property destruction and faced a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. They went to trial in Federal Court in Syracuse in May and were convicted by a jury. On August 20th, they were sentenced to twelve months in prison and ordered to pay $1800 in restitution.

Ciaron was based in the Liverpool CW from 1996 to 1999 and also involved with the London CW and worked with the Simon Community.

On Monday 10 December 2001 Ciaron O'Reilly 41, Susan Clarkson 55, Scott Albrecht 39 from the London Catholic Worker community were arrested and charged with criminal damage at a demonstration outside a military base Northwood Headquarters, Sandy Lane, Northwood, Hertfordshire in England. The three sprayed red paint onto the sign at the entrance to the base, set up small placards, knelt under the sign and prayed until they were arrested. The demonstration was in response to the rising number of civilian victims of the American aerial bombing campaign against Afghanistan. (See for example the dossier of Professor Herold of University of New Hampshire which shows over 3,600 civilians directly killed by American bombs by 10 December 2001.

He was housesitting in Ballyfermot in Dublin when he arrived in Ireland. He first worked in Clancy Barracks with young heroin users and then went onto work with chronic alcohol abusers in Dublin’s first ‘wet shelter,’ in Aungier St. ‘Wet shelters’ were places where homeless alcoholics were actually allowed to drink. It was a ‘stimulating environment’ and it was where he learned to deal with aggression and conflict. During his time there, 15 people passed away due to their addictions. He worked there from December 2002 to October 2003 fulltime, and has been a relief worker there since.

Ciaron and the "Pitstop Plowshares" were arrested for non-violently disarming a US Navy Warplane at the civilian Shannon Airport in Clare County, Ireland. On February 3rd, Ciaron and the four other activists entered a hangar at the airport, and damaged the US Navy war plane that was on its way to Iraq. In the hangar they set up a shrine to the innocent of Iraq and prayed until the authorities arrived. Following their arrests the five spent 4 to 11 weeks in Limerick Prison. They went to trial in Dublin circuit criminal court in March and October 2005 on two counts of Criminal Damage, €100 and $U.S. 2.5 million. Penalties, if convicted, would have carried a maximum of ten years imprisonment.

The March '05 trial collapsed on the 6th day when Judge O'Donnell agreed with Defence counsel arguments that his adjudication was tainted with a 'perception of bias' which was undermining the defendant's right to a presumption of innocence. The judge agreed, called a mistrial, dismissed the jury, and instructed the media not to report on the reasons for the mistrial.

The October '05 re-trial collapsed on the 10th day, after Judge Donagh MacDonagh agreed with Defence counsel that his attendance at the Bush inauguration in 2001 (amongst other meetings with Bush) was grounds for his removal from the case, in that his role was tainted with a 'perception of bias'.

On a visit to Australia in February 2006 O'Reilly was pulled aside on arrival in Brisbane and interviewed by two Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) officers. O'Reilly publicly accused ASIO of heavy handed tactics saying "I felt it was a kind of intimidation basically; they were asking what my plans were for the next three months, in terms of politically organising against Australian involvement in the war. I don't see what business that has to do with them if their main thing is security."[7]

The 3rd trial of the Pitstop Ploughshares trial started on July 10th 2006 and resulted in a unanimous 'Not Guilty' verdict on both charges after 12 days of testimony and legal argument. Judge Miriam Anderson had agreed on Day 9 of proceedings with Defence Counsel after extensive submissions and legal argument on the applicability of the statutory 'lawful excuse' defence.

After 4½ hours of deliberation the Dublin jury of seven women and five men returned and gave their decision that all the accused should be acquitted as they honestly believed they were acting to save lives and property in Iraq and Ireland, and that their disarmament action was reasonable taking into consideration all the circumstances.

Over 100 international and numerous Irish anti-war activists converged on Dublin for both trials. They were occasions for public witness against the war, with evenings of celebration of the disarmament and public meetings concerning ongoing Irish involvement in the war on Iraq.

Ciaron is now living with the Oblate Fathers in Inchicore. He has seen action as a peace worker for 25 years. He majored in Literature and History for 3 years and taught at Queensland as a relief teacher in the 1990’s.

[edit] The Ploughshares Movement

The term "Ploughshares" is a reference to the biblical prophesy of Isaiah Ch 2 and Micah Ch 4 "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more".

On September 9, 1980, Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit priest and his brother Philip, a Josephite priest and six others (the "Plowshares Eight") began the Plowshares Movement when they entered the General Electric Nuclear Missile Re-entry Division in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania where nose cones for the Mark 12A warheads were made. They hammered on two nose cones, poured blood on documents and offered prayers for peace. They were arrested and initially charged with over ten different felony and misdemeanor counts. On April 10, 1990, after nearly ten years of trials and appeals, the Plowshares Eight were re-sentenced and paroled for up to 23½ months in consideration of time already served in prison. Their legal battle was dramatically re-created in Emile de Antonio's 1982 film In The King of Prussia, which starred Martin Sheen and featured appearances by the Plowshares Eight as themselves.

Since this action over seventy Plowshares actions have taken place around the world against weapons of war, several involving Ciaron O'Reilly.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Revolution will not be Televised! A Campaign for Free Expression in Queensland (1982-1983) by Ciaron O'Reilly, No ISBN, online at http://www.takver.com/history/brisbane/freespeechqld.htm
  2. ^ When Ploughshares met the US Air Force Green Left Weekly, 20 October 1993. Accessed May 05, 2007
  3. ^ Jabiluka Ploughshares
  4. ^ Aussie peace activist facing jail The Age July 5, 2006. Accessed May 05, 2007
  5. ^ Five not guilty of damaging US plane, RTÉ News, 25 July 2006
  6. ^ St James College - History. O'Reilly is especially listed as a past student for his peace and social justice activities. Accessed May 05, 2007
  7. ^ Peace activist slams ASIO treatment The Age February 7, 2006. Accessed May 05, 2007

[edit] See also

Pitstop Ploughshares

Catholic Worker Movement

[edit] External links