Campaign

Albert Byrne (Independent) Candidate for Louth

Letter to Louth Constituents: Dáil Election 2020

For some time now and particularly in the past year, I have been subjected to various forms of harassment including:

1. Interference in my Facebook page postings during the recent council elections for which I stood as a candidate.
2. Interference in my Google email accounts: blockage of emails etc.
3. Interference in my iPhone social media and email exchanges.
4. Constant entry and exit (with impunity) to my property to conduct low level actions designed to unnerve me.
5. Interference in the mechanics of my car.
6. Interference in my house broadband which is monitored.
7. Interference in the installation of broadband at my home.
8. Interference in the purchase of my family home.
9. Interference in my computer equipment.
10. Interference in my voluntary website www.myeboga.com.
11. Interference with my personal belongings including stealing my bicycle from the front hall.
12. Harassment at every hotel I stay while I am working in Limerick etc.
13. Attempts to seduce me into compromising situations.

I wrote to the Garda Ombudsman in July 2019 with evidence of the above and to date the only response I have had is: we are considering whether to investigate or not. This despite the fact I gave a number plate of a car rammed outside my gate which I believe was an unmarked Garda car.

In the meantime I have approached my local Garda station and since that time practically all overt harassment has ended.

However 2 days after I arranged by mobile to go to the Garda station to give a statement I received a veiled death threat where I was basically told if a Garda could be killed overseas so could I. It had been clear to me for some time my calls were being monitored.

So there are only 3 possible reasons why this is happening that I know of:

First I should explain as a child I was abused both sexually and physically. Every day of my childhood was filled with fear and the torments of those who exploited it.

I spent my whole life beginning as a young teenager looking for ways to heal myself and in the end had a most extraordinary experience with a plant from West Africa (from which ibogaine is derived) which I write about in my autobiographical book (under the pen name Lee Albert) which you can download for free here: https://docdro.id/ZxOgyvD. It showed me my past and my history and a way forward in my life. In gratitude for what it did for me I set up a non-profit website 17 years ago www.myeboga.com offering free information and details of services all over the world as this plant not only has therapeutic value but also has the ability to cure the physical addiction of heroin and many other poly drug abuses. This is how I came to support the HARM reduction community in the USA and to this day am invited to speak at forums on the subject of ibogaine. Ibogaine was also discussed this year in Davos as a potential cure for heroin addiction.

So for a time I was afraid that maybe the pharmaceutical industry was seeking to silence me and so that added to my confusion as to who or what was behind the events that were happening to me now. Ibogaine is a threat to the usual pharmaceutical products used to counter drug addiction as it is effective and it is cheap and cannot be patented as the patents have already expired. This is a multi billion dollar industry.

Then another thought came to my mind. That perhaps it had something to do with my politics on Northern Ireland which I espoused in 2009 on my website. After working for 5 years in Belfast and living in London and Brighton, I came to the conclusion that the best way forward for Ireland as a whole is as a federal state where the rights and guarantees of the Northern Ireland assembly are maintained. I thought perhaps someone does not want my message to get out. But then I thought surely nobody would go to this effort?

So after exploring both those reasons, and not feeling satisfied in searching for my answer, the final reason I found myself considering was this:

In the 2009 county elections I stood for reform and transparency as I was appalled by the bank bailouts and the slight of hand that allowed government to pass on a generation of debt resulting in serious social unrest that tore at the fabric of society and led to suicide and all forms of social problems which we are still dealing with today, including drugs and gang violence.

In the 2009 county election there were irregularities at the vote which I reported to the Gardai with my suspicions that the vote had been interfered with. A vote from the Ardee electoral area ended up in a box in Dundalk forcing a recall of the votes. Based on the tallies that I kept the voting patterns changed significantly after the recall which led me to believe the votes could have been swapped. I reported all of this to Det. Sgt Vincent O’Connell at Dundalk Garda Station on 8th June 2009.

Since that time my life took a turn for the worse and I have learned how the system of justice and policing administered in this state is a relic of a colonial past that we still have not escaped from, where a nod and a wink still hold sway.

Which is why I believe all political appointments to the bench should cease to help safeguard civil rights and avoid political interference.

I also believe the constitution protects the rights of the individual to be treated fairly before the law and not to be persecuted with contrived evidence which certain Gardai do nothing to investigate or refute as it suits them that way for whatever reason they may have, or whatever influence may be brought to bear upon them.

So after all these considerations I found myself coming to the conclusion that what is happening to me now, in this past year in particular, is quite likely linked to the events of 2009 and consequently to organised crime. From this I find myself asking to what extent are projects such as the Children’s hospital a conduit to siphon off state funds which are then clawed back by raising the pension age? Or, in what way are local infrastructure needs such as by-passes exploited?

What has become obvious to me is the way in which crime seeks to take control of the individual by seeking to compromise them in some way. So I find myself asking how many of our unelected officials are compromised?

Without transparency we will remain subject to a criminal class who have hijacked the reigns of power and seek to destroy anyone such as myself from entering. In the meantime they will seek to corrupt anyone who stands in their way. They use the lack of transparency and the lack of probity exercised by many legal individuals to exploit a system not built for purpose.

I believe in a just and fair society where taxes are properly utilised and where losses are not socialised while profits are privatised. In order to achieve this we need a system that is not handicapped by a lack of transparency.

Coming from a background in systems analysis, as someone who has retrained as a nutritional therapist I also believe we need to reinvent our approach to healthcare. As a population we should avail of free nutritional evaluations for all the population to correct deficiencies in our diet and heal the cause of many of our ailments. We are poisoning ourselves on expensive pharmaceuticals which are leading to more illness when proper nutrition could alleviate the need for many of them.

In our hospitals it costs 3500 euros for cataract surgery on one eye. In Pakistan it costs approximately 10 euros in a doctors surgery. Something is very wrong,

My life has been a healing journey and in that journey for healing I went to Southern Africa after graduation to help in the struggle against apartheid as I believed in the vision of Nelson Mandela and the aims of the ANC. I helped in the building of an A level chemistry department on the borders of SA.

While I was there the SA army invaded and killed many SA ANC refugees across the fence from where I was a teacher. I heard the gunshots as they entered the homes of the poor and killed based on the intelligence they were given. My fellow chemistry teacher, who was an SA ANC refugee, asked to take shelter in my home with his family for protection during those night time raids. I gave him my protection but I was scared for my own life as I am also concerned for it now. But what choice did I have if I was to do the right thing and stand with human decency and dignity?

It was this experience that also brought me in contact with the PLO and the Palestinian people. I went to the Gaza strip and slept as a guest in the home of a Palestinian family. I also stayed with a very good Israeli friend in the state of Israel.

So I understand the importance of dignity for all people including the underprivileged who are sucked into gangs from a life with nothing else to offer. Which is why we need to reach out and offer hope to those who have none. This we cannot do without proper services and the inclusion of disaffected individuals into the fabric of daily life. The money needed for this is being robbed from the state.

We will not fix the problems of gang violence until we know what works.

As a child I watched my parents suffer as they struggled to cope with the daily demands of endless work. That is why I came home from Australia to help them in their later years out of a deep reverence, love and respect regardless of anything else.

Because I believe the dignity of all people on this island is vital to our own dignity. As our dearly departed Seamus Mallon once said: make haste slowly.

So I am asking you to come out with me on Feb 8th and vote for that dignity and the prosperity it brings and the liberty and joy it fosters and vote for Albert Byrne.

Is mise le meas,

Albert Byrne