Here is the text of the letter:

Sara Grewing
Chief of Staff
Mayor’s Office
390 City Hall
15 W. Kellogg Blvd.
Saint Paul, MN 55102
September 1st 2008

Dear Sara,

I am contacting you from Ireland on behalf of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, based in Portadown, County Armagh, to protest against the recent treatment and harassment which Ms Eileen Clancy and other members of I-Witness Video have been subjected to by members of the St Paul’s Police Department.

The Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition and many members of our community have known Ms Clancy for many years, through her work in Ireland, when she helped record and publicise cases of unprovoked brutality and assault by the members of the British Army and police force in the North of Ireland against the civilian population. This work included recording death threats and assaults made by members of those same forces against the internationally renowned human rights lawyer, Mrs Rosemary Nelson.

Mrs Nelson, who was the legal representative for the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, was murdered just yards way from her family home in Lurgan, County Armagh, March 15th, 1999. Her murder is presently being investigated by an ongoing public inquiry established through agreement by both British and Irish Governments. Part of the official terms of reference for that inquiry is to determine “whether any wrongful act or omission by or within the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northern Ireland Office, Army or other state agency facilitated her death or obstructed the investigation of it.” Video interviews which Ms Clancy conducted with the late Mrs Nelson, in which Mrs Nelson spoke about direct death threats being made against her by members of the North of Ireland police force prior to her assassination, forms an important part of the evidence to that inquiry.

As a result of the work which Ms Eileen Clancy and her colleagues were involved in Ireland since the mid-1990’s, many prominent US politicians and public figures, including senior USA policing figures, became directly involved in assisting communities, such as our own in Portadown, County Armagh, as international observers who themselves were to witness at first hand the excesses of the British state in Ireland and who were very instrumental in pushing for a political settlement.

Without these international observers, particularly those from the USA, the Garvaghy Road community in Portadown and communities in other parts of the North of Ireland would have been alone in trying to state the case for justice and equality. Through the ongoing documentation by various international groups, the community's struggle was seen and communicated throughout the world by independent sources.

The Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition is extremely perturbed that Ms Clancy is now being subjected to unnecessary and potentially illegal and unconstitutional harassment by members of a police department within her own country as she and her colleagues in I-Witness attempt to document and monitor police actions at First Amendment events.

The Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition is formally requesting that Mayor Chris Coleman immediately intervenes in this situation and that, as Mayor, he formally meets with Ms Clancy and her colleagues to assist in the lodging of any formal complaint against this police action.

We understand that Mayor Coleman is, quite justly, proud of his family’s own Irish roots. The Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition is therefore requesting his formal and immediate intervention in this case in order to assist Ms Clancy who has played a small, but extremely important small part in directly assisting the ongoing efforts to achieve justice and equality in Ireland.

Ms Clancy can be contacted via the following e-mail address: iwitness@iwitnessvideo.info

Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition will be circulating copies of this letter to other individuals, political representatives, human rights organisations, etc, in both Ireland and the US.

We look forward to your prompt response on this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Breandán Mac Cionnaith