rendition 14 March 2008
One of the proudest days of my life was when I heard I had been made an Honorary Life Member of Amnesty International (Irish Section). This was bestowed on all 15 of the writers who wrote a chapter each for the novel YEATS IS DEAD in aid of Amnesty – a wacky and wonderful read in which (initially) each author seemed intent on making life very difficult for the next one by killing off the main characters in each chapter – very naughty. By the time it came to my turn Joseph O’Connor, our editor, was a broken man and had stepped in to write his chapter and stop the bloody slaughter. He begged me to leave some of them alive, which I did, and pump up a love story therein, which I also did, and then I was allowed to have whatever I was having myself too. Great fun and it was a thrill to be sandwiched between the covers of a book with the likes of Roddy Doyle, Frank McCourt et al.
Anyhow, I had, and have long, been a supporter of Amnesty so it is with horror, though not a lot of surprise, that I see today that the Irish section says it has evidence which pretty much proves that Ireland has allowed flights used for so-called ‘extraordinary rendition’ to refuel at Shannon. This should not be allowed, in my opinion. And I hate the secrecy surrounding all of the dealings involved. We deserve to know what’s going on and it is through keeping the public in ignorance that bad deeds are perpetrated and a nation is made complicit in an evil it wants nothing to do with. Shame on our politicians or any of those who know and sanction such activity.
