{"id":254161,"date":"2025-12-27T14:29:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T14:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/254161\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T14:29:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T14:29:19","slug":"christy-moore-interrogation-in-uk-questioned-by-irish-officials-in-2004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/254161\/","title":{"rendered":"Christy Moore interrogation in UK questioned by Irish officials in 2004"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish officials queried the decision of UK port authorities to question famous folk singer Christy Moore<\/strong> in 2004, amid a rise of similar complaints relating to anti-terrorism measures.<\/p>\n

The singer-songwriter said he was stopped by officers and detained for more than two hours after he got off a ferry from Dublin in the Welsh port of Holyhead in October of that year.<\/p>\n

Both he and his driver were interrogated separately by police at the port under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.<\/p>\n

In a statement released through his publicist at the time, Moore said none of his equipment, bags or his car was searched by police.<\/p>\n

\"StardustChristy Moore in 2024 (Damien Storan\/PA)<\/p>\n

He said it was saddening to think that this kind of treatment of Irish people travelling to the UK was not a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

He said he was questioned about his song lyrics and the contents of his briefcase.<\/p>\n

Moore said other cars in the queue off the ferry had been searched, but maintained his own vehicle had not been inspected.<\/p>\n

He described the incident as \u201cheavy and harassing and invasive and scary\u201d, and made a diplomatic complaint.<\/p>\n

Officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs met counterparts in the UK Home Office about the matter in London on December 1st, 2004.<\/p>\n

\"PortThe Port of Holyhead in Anglesey, north Wales (Peter Byrne\/PA)<\/p>\n

It came amid a rise in complaints of the treatment of Irish people going through the Common Travel Area (CTA) after the imposition of new British anti-terrorism laws in preceding years.<\/p>\n

The concerns are contained in a document now made public as part of the annual release of files from the National Archives of Ireland.<\/p>\n

According to the file, the department highlighted three main areas of concern: Irish passengers being unwittingly photographed at ports and airports, authorities carrying out stops and examinations under the Terrorism Act 2000, and people being asked to fill in personal information on a landing or embarkation card, an act known at the time as \u201ccarding\u201d.<\/p>\n

Issues involving Moore\u2019s \u201chigh profile\u201d case, including the locking of his interrogation room, were also raised in the meeting.<\/p>\n

Home Office figures said they would not comment on individual cases, but Irish officials brought up the issue of \u201cinappropriate lines of questioning and the damage that can be done should a person feel that they are being questioned for entertainment or curiosity value\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response, the UK\u2019s national coordinator of ports policing Commander, Bob Milton, stated this was a \u201ctraining issue\u201d.<\/p>\n

The file said Mr Milton added that should a person feel the line of questioning was inappropriate, he should make a complaint to the chief constable of the force in question.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"White<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

White House did not want photo of Clinton shaking Adams\u2019 hand during 1995 visit<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The Department of Foreign Affairs file reads: \u201cAs regards locking the room Mr Moore was detained in, Milton considered that it was up to the officer to decide whether it was necessary to lock an examination room based on whether the person was likely to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did acknowledge that there could be a health and safety issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 This article is based on documents contained in the file labelled 2025\/127\/1 in the National Archives of Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish officials queried the decision of UK port authorities to question famous folk singer Christy Moore in 2004,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-254161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news","22":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115792011944340113","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}