{"id":99136,"date":"2025-10-02T13:37:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T13:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/99136\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T13:37:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T13:37:17","slug":"irish-citizens-detained-by-israel-denied-legal-access-dail-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/99136\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish citizens detained by Israel denied legal access, D\u00e1il hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish citizens who were detained after their Gaza bound flotilla<\/a> was intercepted by Israeli<\/a> forces have been denied access to lawyers, the D\u00e1il has heard. <\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> foreign affairs spokesman Donnchadh \u00d3 Laoghaire says he has received confirmation that a legal firm had received calls from participants \u201cthat immigration authorities have already begun conducting hearings on their deportation and detention orders in the Ashdod port\u201d, without prior notice to their lawyers.<\/p>\n

T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney <\/a>said he understands Irish citizens had identified potential sources of legal representation on the ground and \u201cI\u2019ll certainly take that up as soon as I leave here\u201d.<\/p>\n

Israeli<\/a> forces have intercepted more than boats carrying aid and foreign activists, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg<\/a>, to Gaza<\/a>. Organisers of the flotilla of boats<\/a> have accused Israel<\/a> of the \u201cillegal abduction\u201d of Irish citizens.<\/p>\n

The names of nine Irish citizens were released by organisers, who said they had been detained when their boats were intercepted. <\/p>\n

These were: Colm Peter Byrne on board the Hio, Cormac Kevin O\u2019Daly on board the Yulara, Louise Heaney on the Dir Yassine, Caitr\u00edona Graham on the Aurora, Sinn F\u00e9in Senator Christopher Andrews and Sarah Catherine Clancy on board the Spectre, Tara O\u2019Grady on the Alma, and Diarmuid Mac Dubhglais and Thomas Doherty on the Sirius. <\/p>\n

A further six Irish people were on board the Amsterdam, Fair Lady, Ohwayla, Meteque and Paola I, which are assumed but not confirmed intercepted. These are Donna Marie Schwarz, Patrick Kelly, Patrick O\u2019Donovan, Tara Rose Sheehy, Anthony (Tadgh) Hickey, and Mary [sometimes named as Maureen] Almai.<\/p>\n

Speaking in the D\u00e1il, Mr Harris said at least 14 Irish citizens are among those who have been \u201cintercepted and detained\u201d by Israel.<\/p>\n

He said \u201cthere may be two other citizens whose presence is still being verified\u201d but he expected they were also detained. There are 16 Irish citizens on the flotilla with a further flotilla some days behind.<\/p>\n

Mr Harris said there are no reports of any injuries among the Irish but said \u201cI am very conscious of the volatile and dangerous environment\u201d. He said \u201cour ambassador in Tel Aviv has formally requested consular access to those Irish citizens\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy department has now established a dedicated point of contact for the families of those detained and on the flotilla, in addition to the broader contact point for those co-ordinating the flotilla activity\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said he has \u201cinstructed my officials to contact the non-resident Irish ambassador to Israel to register our strong condemnation of the actions of the Israeli authorities and to highlight our absolute expectation that the welfare of our citizens is protected in line with international law\u201d.<\/p>\n

Not all of those who were on board boats have yet been accounted for as communications were lost with vessels as they began to be intercepted by Israeli naval forces.<\/p>\n

The Meteque, which was carrying comedian Tadhg Hickey, is listed as \u201cassumed intercepted\u201d in the flotilla\u2019s tracking page. <\/p>\n

The Israeli foreign ministry said that those who had been detained were \u201cbeing transferred to an Israeli port\u201d.<\/p>\n

The flotilla members \u201care making their way safely and peacefully to Israel, where their deportation procedures to Europe will begin. The passengers are safe and in good health\u201d, the ministry said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Gaza flotilla: Israel intercepts 39 aid boats, organisers sayOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"IsraeliIsraeli forces surrounded several boats that were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla aiming to deliver aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to camera footage from the group. Photograph: Reuters <\/p>\n

The Government was criticised for a lack of intervention and Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O\u2019Callaghan questioned why it did not send some personnel \u201cjust to observe what was happening and to try to help safeguard those Irish citizens\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mr Harris said a Spanish vessel was in the area and he did not believe \u201cit would have made any material difference\u201d as their vessel had to withdraw. <\/p>\n

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said Israel\u2019s action is an \u201cact of piracy in international waters\u201d. He said the Israel Defense Forces sprayed a number of vessels with heavy water cannons and rammed some small boats and boarded with heavily armed soldiers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Murphy, who has participated in previous flotillas to Gaza said the Israeli soldiers boarding vessels are \u201chyped up\u201d and have been told those are on board \u201care Hamas terrorists\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also said the Israel state could not be trusted and the Irish ambassador had to carefully monitor the situation. <\/p>\n

His experience was that in front of the Irish ambassador all sorts of commitments were made to them, that they would not be strip-searched, and there would be no mistreatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the ambassador was gone, all of that was gone, we were strip-searched\u201d. He said \u201cI know there\u2019s limits to what the Irish ambassador can do in Israel, but that whole pressure needs to be added to ensure that these people are properly treated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flotilla organisers released pre-recorded videos of the passengers on board the boats as they were intercepted, stating their names and nationality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am an Irish citizen and if you are seeing this video it means I have been illegally abducted by the Israeli occupation forces,\u201d Thomas McCune said in a pre-recorded video released after his boat, the Sirius, was intercepted.<\/p>\n

The F\u00f3rsa<\/a> union released a message on social media from their member Donna Szhwarz, and called on Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin and T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris \u201cto do everything possible to ensure her safety\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy name is Donna Schwarz, I\u2019m from Ireland, if you are watching this video I have been kidnapped by the IOF and brought to Israel against my will. Tell my government to end its complicity with Israel and to bring me home. Stop the genocide,\u201d Schwarz said in the pre-recorded video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish citizens who were detained after their Gaza bound flotilla was intercepted by Israeli forces have been denied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,3761,6,71,3857,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-99136","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-gaza-strip","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-israel-hamas-conflict","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news","25":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99136","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=99136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}