EVERYONE (I MEAN EVERYONE!) HAS HUMAN RIGHTS

I appeared on a panel on Tonight with Vincent Browne last night discussing the question “Are people who oppose same sex marriage equality homophobic?”. I was invited to be on the panel because I am acting for John Waters, Breda O’Brien and members of the Iona Institute in relation to comments made on the Saturday Night Show when they were accused of being homophobes.

Brophy Solicitors is a human rights firm. I am a human rights lawyer. I believe that every individual has the right to have their rights vindicated and protected. This protection extends to a right to express contentious views freely and a related right to protect one’s reputation from damage. 

As a lawyer, my role is to represent my clients and to vindicate their rights to the best of my ability. I must do this irrespective of whether I personally agree with the views held by my clients. I believe that my clients were defamed on the Saturday Night Show and I subsequently represented and protected their interests effectively by securing a positive outcome for them.

At the same time, I am an advocate of same-sex marriage. I act for Senator Katherine Zappone and Dr. Ann Louise Gilligan in their application to have their Canadian marriage recognised in Ireland. I absolutely support their entitlement to have their marriage recognised in Ireland. If there is a referendum next year on same-sex marriage, I will vote in favour of a constitutional amendment to give effect to same sex marriage.

I frequently act for many members of the gay and lesbian community and other minority groups. My firm recently secured a very significant victory in a transgender case that will have major implications for gender-recognition in transgender cases. I support marriage equality and equality generally for the gay community.

Fundamentally, I believe that every individual should be afforded the opportunity to express their opinions freely. Individuals who oppose same-sex marriage should not fear for their lives or their reputations just because they oppose same-sex marriage.

I welcome debate on the question of same-sex marriage in the run up to the referendum next year, provided that it is a rational and civilized debate that respects individual rights. I may not be sympathetic to all my clients’ views on a particular subject, but I will always do my utmost to vindicate their rights if they are defamed and seek to defend their human rights if they are infringed.

Kevin Brophy,

Brophy Solcitors

TRAYVON MARTIN - THE WELL KNOWN IRISH TRAVELLER

There is a strong argument to be made that if Trayvon Martin had been white, the vigilant Mr. Zimmerman would not even have noticed him. I have absolutely no doubt that Trayvon Martin is dead because he was black. He is also dead because the American legal system in a substantial number of states recognises the “stand your ground” defence. Because Mr. Zimmerman was able to say that he felt threatened by Mr. Martin, he was able to justify the use of lethal self defence to protect himself and kill his supposed assailant. 

Something similar happened in Ireland a few years ago when an Irish Traveller was discovered on land belonging to a farmer, Padraig Nally. The farmer suspected him of carrying out previous burglaries and he calmly went away, took up his legally held weapon and shot the Traveller dead. 

Another similarity is that the two juries involved decided that they were both innocent. 

Another similarity in my mind is that if Trayvon Martin was white or if John Ward was not a Traveller, they would probably both be alive right now. 

There is however one big difference. In the United States, the not guilty verdict has provoked outrage. In Ireland Mr. Nally was regarded by many as a public hero and the not guilty verdict provoked the government of the day to say that it intended to introduce laws to allow home owners to use lethal self defence if necessary to protect the sanctity of their family home against possible burglars. 

So I hope to God I don’t hear any Irish politician hypocritically criticising the racism that exists in America because this Irish pot is an awful lot blacker than the American kettle!

Kevin Brophy

Brophy Solicitors

EDWARD SNOWDEN – WELCOME TO IRELAND

I am saying that because our government certainly won’t. Over the last few days I have been reading the most ridiculous stories in the Irish newspapers. They are to the effect that it is “unlikely” that Edward Snowden would be offered asylum in Ireland. Either that or “on balance” he would not be granted claim political asylum in Ireland. There isn’t the remotest prospect that our bulldog government would upset Blessed Barack in this way.

Edward Snowden is a genuine asylum seeker and there is no prospect that he would receive justice if he were extradited to his home country, the United States of America. He should be a national hero but if he were returned to the United States, he would almost certainly spend the rest of his life in prison. 

For many years in Ireland, we had a government appointed official who rejected every single claim for asylum that came before him. There was a deluge of complaints about him but nothing happened until one brave asylum seeker took a case against the Department and was on the verge of obtaining embarrassing Discovery documentation when our brave government conceded the case so as not to have to reveal these incriminating and hugelt embarrassing documents. 

In March 2006, seven solicitors working in the area of refugee law swore affidavits stating that this man had never been known to decide a case in favour of an asylum seeker. He was the Tribunal’s highest earner during the same period. There was an allegation that the then Chairman of the Tribunal was allocating cases specifically to Mr. Nicholson and others because they were known to be likely to reject appeals. Actually “likely” is the wrong word, they most definitely would have rejected appeals.

In Ireland our record of accepting applications for asylum is lower than almost anywhere else in the world.

So let’s not kid ourselves. And let’s not kid Edward Snowden. We are not Ireland of the welcomes as far as asylum seekers or refugees are concerned and we are certainly not Ireland of the welcomes to anyone who the United States might regard as an enemy. Mr. Snowden – there is no room at the inn. You would be more than welcome in my house but unfortunately my house is in Ireland and in Ireland we don’t do refugees, asylum seekers or enemies of the United States. Sorry about that.

Kevin Brophy
Brophy Solicitors

HOW TO DEFAME SOMEONE AND GET AWAY WITH IT?

In recent blogs I referred to the fact that it is relatively easy these days to seriously attempt to destroy a person’s reputation and get away with it. What you do is you post some utterly untrue and scurrilous remarks on Facebook or on TripAdvisor or on Twitter and if possible you hide your identity. If the injured party tries to chase any of these social media sites, they will be faced with an impenetrable wall of legal protections, which will make it extremely difficult to succeed in an action against any of these social media sites. 

Here is something else you can do if you feel like defaming somebody a little closer to home. 

The Irish Times website contains a facility that allows you to comment on articles appearing in their newspaper. The website says that these comments are carefully monitored and if they are in any way objectionable, they can be removed without notice. Unfortunately however these are just words and it doesn't happen. I have acted for injured parties who have been seriously defamed by members of the public who make up fictitious names and then say the most outrageous things on these comment pages. You can pursue the Irish Times or any other newspaper that has comment facilities like this but this is always after the event and in my experience, most clients who are defamed in this manner would rather not be defamed in the first place rather than have to pursue a newspaper or anybody else. The big problem in these cases always is that I can make up an entirely fictitious name, defame whoever I like on one of these comment sites and I get away scot-free. 

That’s the bad news, here is the good news. At least you have a substantial organisation like the Irish Times or Independent Newspapers who you can pursue and obtain damages from. You can also press these bodies to reveal the identity of the person who is making the comments. As we all know, you can hide on the internet, but not forever. On paper, it might be very difficult to pursue these individuals, who hide under a cloak of anonymity but if a solicitor is determined enough and has the contacts and knowledge necessary to uncover this cloak of anonymity, then the person making these defamatory comments can be tracked down and orders can be obtained.

Kevin Brophy

Brophy Solicitors