This article is from page 18 of the 2007-05-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
AN anti-war activist has been told by a judge that the district court is not an arena for making political NR eet elie
Judge Aeneas McCarthy made the comment in the case of Conor Cre- gan, who 1s facing two charges un- der the Air Navigation and Trans- port Act, arising out of an incident at Shannon Airport in July 2006.
Mr Cregan (34) of Cronan Lawn, Shannon made eight applications at Shannon District Court on Thurs- day.
The accused, who represented himself in court, said he was look- ing for CCTV footage from the date of the alleged incident.
The judge said whatever evidence in the possession of the State should be handed over.
Mr Cregan made a number of oth- er submissions 1n court, which were refused by the judge.
He sought a detailed list of all those refused entry to the airport
and a list of the military traffic which went through, eight weeks prior to and after the invasion of Iraq.
He also sought a detailed list of gardai and airport police personnel who manned the gantry on a par- ticular date and copies of all note- books and disciplinary records of gardai and airport police staff who would give evidence in the case.
Judge McCarthy said he was refus- ing the applications, saying, “This court is not for the purpose of mak- ing political statements. The matter before the court is charges in rela- tion to you. The court is not obliged to give you information on foreign aircraft arriving in Shannon.”
Mr Cregan said he was not endeav- ouring to make a political statement and that the matters pertained to the charges. Judge McCarthy said he had refused all applications on the grounds that they were not relevant to the matters before the court.
The case was adjourned until next month.