Day 189 - 20 Nov 95 - Page 38


     
     1
     2   Q.   You do not remember the police, the Garda, being called on
     3        four separate occasions at the beginning of the strike?
     4        A.  I remember one incident where the Garda, the police --
     5        one policeman stood at the door and said, "There is no
     6        strike on here, none of them work in here" -- because it
     7        was customary that McDonald's gave free food to the Garda,
     8        or the police, when they came in.
     9
    10   Q.   Do you mean that McDonald's kind of corrupted the police?
    11        A.  Well, no.  It is common practice on the premises when
    12        the Garda call that they give them a cup of coffee or
    13        whatever.  But there was also another bitter industrial
    14        dispute on at the time with the post office workers, and
    15        the Garda were coming from those incidents to our
    16        incidents, which was a very small affair.
    17
    18   Q.   It was a rough time for industrial relations in Ireland in
    19        1979, in Dublin, was it not?
    20        A.  It was, yes.
    21
    22   Q.   Can you go on past the end of the strike now?
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Mr. Rampton, I cannot draw the conclusion
    25        that Mr. Justice Costello found that there actually had
    26        been abusive and threatening language or intimidation,
    27        can I?
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  You cannot, and I do not know enough about Irish
    30        law to know whether there is some balance of convenience
    31        rule.  What your Lordship can conclude, I respectfully
    32        suggest -- and what I shall invite your Lordship to do at
    33        the end -- that if he had thought that the evidence for the
    34        Plaintiffs was fabricated, he would not have granted an
    35        order.
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.  But if I understand page 1023
    38        properly, Mr. Justice Costello read the affidavit; he did
    39        not hear any oral evidence, and there was no
    40        cross-examination.
    41
    42   MR. RAMPTON:  He did not hear any oral evidence.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  And no doubt very sensibly thought the best
    45        way was to make the order which he did make, and there
    46        could be a full and proper trial in due course, if
    47        necessary.
    48
    49   MR. RAMPTON:  Which there never was.  All I am saying is,
    50        if ----- 
    51 
    52   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Happily, I have not been called upon to deal 
    53        with an industrial dispute, but I have made many not
    54        dissimilar orders just because the defendants would not
    55        suffer from them and it might do a bit of good keeping
    56        things calm.
    57
    58   MR. RAMPTON:  I quite agree.  As I said, all I would say about
    59        it was that if he had thought that on the balance of
    60        probabilities the allegations by the Plaintiffs and their

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