Senan Molony
Member
I beg leave to report the following development in the Irish High Court on Friday, June 17, 2005:
AMERICAN Greg Bemis (75) has won his High Court challenge to the Irish State's decision to refuse him a licence for a $2m (€1.64m) research expedition on the wreck of the liner, Lusitania.
Mr Justice Daniel Herbert found that a Ministerial decision, which said that an 'excavation' licence under a section of the National Monuments Act 1930 should have been sought by F Gregg Bemis from New Mexico, was based on a misinterpretation of the legislation and was "irrational and unreasonable".
He also found that the refusal of a licence to Mr Bemis under Section 3 (5) of the National Monuments Act 1987 on that ground was outside the Minister's powers.
In May 1996, the High Court made an order declaring that Mr Bemis was owner of the Lusitania wreck, which lies on the seabed 11.5 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Co Cork.
An Underwater Heritage Order was made in January 1995 under the National Monuments Act that the site be protected.
A section of the Act provides that an application may be made to the Commissioners of Public Works for a licence to carry out certain activities, despite such an order.
Mr Bemis, in his proceedings, sought an order quashing the Minister's refusal to grant him a licence under Section 3 of the National Monuments Act and a declaration that he is entitled to such a licence. The Minister opposed the application.
After delivering his judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Herbert adjourned the case and will hear submissions later from lawyers for both sides as to what the court's order should be.
Mr Bemis was not in court.
Mr Justice Herbert said the objects that Mr Bemis would like to be permitted to salvage and, as lawful and sole owner, to sell on a limited basis in order to defray some of the very significant cost included individual pieces of coal, rivets, small pieces of ship's metal and 20th century table and sanitary ware.
[Depressing: an invidious justification for plunder of the wreck, for the ultimate greater profit of eBay.]
These were "probably of little historical interest" and capable of providing only a low level of information.
[Justifying their retrieval and the methods used thereby?]
There were other more important items that Mr Bemis would wish to be permitted to raise for preservation and subsequent permanent display in museums in this State, primarily in Cork and Kinsale, and to form travelling exhibitions for display in other countries, particularly the US.
---
There we have it. Another circus in prospect. It is unclear at this stage what the effect of this judgement will be.
If the court proposes to allow Bemis to acquire his "more significant" items, I should hope the State would appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Lusitania is, after all, a national monument with significance for all mankind - and should not be not the plaything or exploitable resource of commercial instinct.
I hardly think the Bemis "travelling exhibitions" will be formed for the purpose of education of the many.
AMERICAN Greg Bemis (75) has won his High Court challenge to the Irish State's decision to refuse him a licence for a $2m (€1.64m) research expedition on the wreck of the liner, Lusitania.
Mr Justice Daniel Herbert found that a Ministerial decision, which said that an 'excavation' licence under a section of the National Monuments Act 1930 should have been sought by F Gregg Bemis from New Mexico, was based on a misinterpretation of the legislation and was "irrational and unreasonable".
He also found that the refusal of a licence to Mr Bemis under Section 3 (5) of the National Monuments Act 1987 on that ground was outside the Minister's powers.
In May 1996, the High Court made an order declaring that Mr Bemis was owner of the Lusitania wreck, which lies on the seabed 11.5 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Co Cork.
An Underwater Heritage Order was made in January 1995 under the National Monuments Act that the site be protected.
A section of the Act provides that an application may be made to the Commissioners of Public Works for a licence to carry out certain activities, despite such an order.
Mr Bemis, in his proceedings, sought an order quashing the Minister's refusal to grant him a licence under Section 3 of the National Monuments Act and a declaration that he is entitled to such a licence. The Minister opposed the application.
After delivering his judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Herbert adjourned the case and will hear submissions later from lawyers for both sides as to what the court's order should be.
Mr Bemis was not in court.
Mr Justice Herbert said the objects that Mr Bemis would like to be permitted to salvage and, as lawful and sole owner, to sell on a limited basis in order to defray some of the very significant cost included individual pieces of coal, rivets, small pieces of ship's metal and 20th century table and sanitary ware.
[Depressing: an invidious justification for plunder of the wreck, for the ultimate greater profit of eBay.]
These were "probably of little historical interest" and capable of providing only a low level of information.
[Justifying their retrieval and the methods used thereby?]
There were other more important items that Mr Bemis would wish to be permitted to raise for preservation and subsequent permanent display in museums in this State, primarily in Cork and Kinsale, and to form travelling exhibitions for display in other countries, particularly the US.
---
There we have it. Another circus in prospect. It is unclear at this stage what the effect of this judgement will be.
If the court proposes to allow Bemis to acquire his "more significant" items, I should hope the State would appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Lusitania is, after all, a national monument with significance for all mankind - and should not be not the plaything or exploitable resource of commercial instinct.
I hardly think the Bemis "travelling exhibitions" will be formed for the purpose of education of the many.
