Convention 2008

Just back from Dundalk. That's Minister Trevor Sargent, Cllr. Ciaran O'Brian who replaced Deirdre de Burca on Wicklow County Council,Kealin Ireland, myself, Martin Hogan, Claire McKeever, and Cllr. Shane Fitzgerald from Leixlip Town Council. We're sitting just outside the Convention Hall this morning. I've never been able to catch the sunshine, and listen to Convention speeches before. Cheating slightly, a bit like listening to Mass outside the church.

I was pleased with my 'Twelve Steps to reduce your carbon footprint' workshop yesterday, and I've put up a new blog with the twelve steps and some embedded video here. It still has teething problems with uploads that I'll tidy up over the next few days, but I'd welcome your comments and suggestions on it.

Had a good chat with Mick Fealty this morning about the theory and the reality of an all-Ireland Green Party. It's clear that we need to become clearer about what we can learn from, and give to each other on both sides of the border.

Last night was fascinating. I've never seen Political Correspondents hightail it out of the Conference hall during a leader's speech before, but obviously once the Chinese delegation upped and left halfway through John Gormley's speech, they knew there was a story. Hopefully that won't distract from the rest of what we were saying over the last few days.

Freedom for Tibet

A decent turnout of a couple of hundred people headed out from the Spire on O'Connell Street at lunchtime today, and paused at the European Commission Offices on Molesworth Street, and outside Dáil Éireann before heading up to the Department of Foreign Affairs on Stephen's Green.

I heard someone mention that there was only two dozen Tibetans living in Ireland, but clearly they had got the word out! The group was very mixed, with parents and children, but no great political or religious presence. Dean Robert MacCarthy from St. Patrick’s Cathedral was there and I told him I had met his colleague David Frazier up at Mosney last Friday. It was great to see the Church of Ireland involved with both asylum seekers and worthy causes abroad.

Dermot Ahern’s statement this morning said that he deplores the loss of life that has occurred in Tibet and neighbouring Provinces in China, and calls for maximum restraint on all sides and for the release of imprisoned peaceful protesters.

I wrote to Chinese Ambassador Liu Biwei today to express my grave concern at the treatment of protesters seeking recognition of Tibet, and stated that the treatment of protesters in recent days has cast a dark cloud over the preparations for this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

It felt good to be out on the street again. We’ve all spent far too much time listening to the radio and reading the papers over the last few weeks.

Well done to the Tibetan Community in Ireland and Jampa Ling the Tibetan Buddhist Centre in Cavan for highlighting the outrageous crimes in Tibet.