This article is from page 13 of the 2006-03-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
A LEGAL service which specialises in dealing with human rights and refugee issues has opened for business in Ennis.
Pendred and Co. solicitors, the brainchild of campaigning litigator, Conleth Pendred, will offer for the first time, a totally independent private service, which is not linked in any way to government agencies.
Pendred decided to set up in Ennis after his Dublin firm began seeing a lot of clients from here and from Galway. Clients whose income from Government was just €19 a week, were travelling to Dublin to ask for Pendred’s help in their applications to stay in this country.
Pendred had learned that there was a large immigrant population in the mid-west “who are undocumented and have no status.
“That’s unacceptable on human rights grounds and it’s hypocritical of the Taoiseach to go to the US to represent undocumented Irish people when there are thousands here who have no security or status.”
A former member of the Garda, Pendred became involved in human rights litigation while working with a legal firm in the US, which handled a lot of emigration work.
When he returned to his native Dublin, Pendred became involved in working with the first trickle of emigrants who came to Ireland.
“It got my goat up to see how they were being treated,” said Pendred, who went on to qualify as a solicitor and set up his own firm.
One of his most high profile cases was that of Bola Fumi Ojo, a Nigerian woman, who was arrested and held in Mountjoy with her five-weekold baby in 2003.
Pendred successfully argued that her detention was unlawful and unconstitutional because there was no deportation order hanging over her.
“Undocumented people here rely on the kindness of the community and what all of them say is that they want to be able to work.
“If they are documented and given a green card, they are free to give their skills to the community,” said Pendred.
Pendred’s practice is a private one and this is important for his client’s peace of mind, he says.
“People who have been persecuted for a long time grow accustomed to living with fear in their lives and they often associate that fear with government agencies.
“It’s important that people know that we don’t work for any government agency – our raison d’être is often to fight the dovernment.”
Pendred can be contacted through his Ennis office at 85 Parnell Street.