Just give it a few days…they’ll find a way to just blame it on the United States!!!
Assuming he flew from London to Athens, I believe he’d have had to show his passport on leaving the UK and entering Greece, at either of which he could have been turned back – provided he’d previously been identified as a potential problem. It’s certainly true that known soccer hooligans have been denied travel to international matches, so if this guy had been spotted as a problem, there’s no reason why he couldn’t have been dealt with in the same way.
So, yes, on the one hand, this could have been prevented. On the other hand, given that the Greek authorities have had to take enormous care with the security surrounding the Olympics (when everyone from Abu Nidal to the Zapatista National Liberation Army, from ETA to PETA, would consider it a feather in their caps to disrupt them) and have presumably been co-ordinating with the security forces of God knows how many countries to weed out potential suicide bombers, assassins, hostage-takers and hi-jackers, the fact that a lone defrocked Catholic priest with one prievious conviction of making a tit of himself managed to get through might, when all’s said and done, be seen as an understandable oversight.
So, anyway, he’s not going to be locked up. Which means he’ll probably do it again at some point. Athletes, be on your guard for an Irish whackjob who may try to interrupt your sport in order to…well, we don’t really know WHY he’s doing it, but…anyway, just be vigilant.
Nah, I understand the difficulties of trying to pick out one guy in a crowd of tens of thousands (which is likely why he’s chosen sports with large anonymous crowds to protest) but you’d think once authorities have their hands on him, they might be able to do more than say, “Er, don’t do it again. All right, off you go.”
Lima is still a remarkable class act, isn’t he?
This morning on the radio an interview with Neil Horan, which took place shortly after he was released from prison for the Grand Prix incident, was replayed. The guy is clearly a complete nutjob - his explanation amounted to “the Bible made me do it”.
It was the Marian Finucane show on RTÉ1 if anyone is curious enough to look up the webcast.
But you know in addition to the suspended sentence and the fine, Horan received a very stern warning to stay out of trouble.
I’m sure that will do it. News reports I read said that the Greek police blamed the British police for not alerting them to Horan’s presence on a flight to Athens.
Couldn’t the British government just revoke the man’s passport? He can just stick to being an idiot on the island of Great Britain.
On what grounds would they revoke his passport? It is not like these are serious crimes he is commiting just public crimes.
That’s why I was asking. What standard is required to get your passport revoked?
No, the British Government cannot revoke his passport.
The Irish Government, however, can and have been asked to do so by at least one leading Opposition politician. Whether they do or not remains to be seen.
But that wouldn’t restrict his travel within the EU, as from Ireland to Greece, would it?
Is that what people eat in Ireland? Does it taste like head cheese?
Yes, it would. Although all EU citizens have freedom of travel within the EU, they must show their passport (or European identity card, which presumably he would also lose, if he even has one - most Irish don’t) when travelling between the continent and Ireland or the UK. This is because the latter two countries are not part of the Schengen Area within which there are (theoretically) no border controls.
Correcting myself: according to the Irish press this morning, it’s the courts and not the Government that could confiscate Horan’s passport.