Protesting priest starts jail sentence in Texas

A PROTESTING Irish priest is starting a six-month prison sentence in Texas today.

Fr Jim Hynes, 57, was convicted of trespassing on US government land during a 10,000-strong protest in Geogia last November.

The Ballyfermot-born priest and 85 other protesters crossed the fence outside the School of Americas military training camp as a form of civil disobedience. They were all arrested and Fr Hynes spent two nights shackled in a cold Georgia jail. A federal judge gave him a $500 fine and a six-month prison sentence. “I wouldn’t say he’s looking forward to it, but he’s determined to do it. He’ll keep going until that place closes down,” said his brother Richard Hynes, who lives in Clondalkin in Dublin.

The School of Americas, based in Fort Benning, Georgia, is run by the US military and trains soldiers from Latin America. Although it has recently been renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC), it has been consistently condemned by human rights groups for providing military training to soldiers who have gone on to kill, torture and rape in their own countries.

Some of the school’s 160,000 graduates include dictators like Manuel Noriega of Panama and the killers of Bishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador in 1980. “I’ve heard Jim talking about the School of Americas for years. He doesn’t want anyone to save him from the sentence. He said it would defeat the cause,” Richard Hynes said.

His main concern is for the welfare of his dog, Mick, who is being looked after by an Irish lawyer in Texas named Paddy Moloney. Fr Hynes spent many years working in Peru before moving to a Hispanic parish in San Antonio, Texas.

At the Our Lady of the Angels church, he preaches in Spanish to parishioners, who gave him a standing ovation after his arrest. He also has the support by his family, according to Danny Hynes, his London-based brother. “My brother is being very brave. We all support him and our thoughts are with him.

“I know he won’t be freed, but we just want people to know what is happening,” he said. Fr Hynes is no fan of President Bush either, especially due to the war in Iraq.

“He’s very anti-Bush. He has a friend in Texas who went to school with George W Bush and he said he was a bit of a bully. The climate in America at the moment is very tough,” said Danny Hynes.

Fr Hynes will be released from prison in October.