- Music
- 21 Apr 17
Luke 'Ming' Flanagan has told us what happened when himself, Gino Kenny and Vera arrived in this afternoon from Barcelona where she'd obtained medicinal cannabis for her daughter...
MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan has spoken exclusively to Hot Press about what happened today when himself, Gino Kenny and Vera Twomey, who was attempting to bring in THC-based medicine for her daughter, Ava, arrived at Dublin Airport from Barcelona.
“Vera took the decision to do this about three weeks ago,” he tells our man Stuart Clark. “She said she was going to take the plunge and go to Barcelona. She’d already done a consultation over Skype with the consultant, which made her feel comfortable about going out to talk to them. She contacted myself and Gino and we said, ‘Sure, we’ll go out and support you’ because we agree with what she’s doing and, also, there were no public representatives from her area who’d have been willing to go. It would’ve been helpful if there were, but there you go.
“We touched down at 12.15pm and, instead of being allowed to proceed to passport control, the people on our plane were stopped. We were all lined up in single-file against the wall and a sniffer dog walked up alongside us all. The three of us were subsequently questioned separately. They’d obviously gotten word of what Vera had through her putting the information out in public. They took the medicine off her and gave her a confirmation note. As is normal procedure, they’ll go off and test it and the ball will then be in their court.
“There were no strip-searches or anything like that. We met a lot of ladies and a lot of gentlemen who had a job to do, but you couldn’t miss the ‘we’re not comfortable with this’ look on their faces. They were brilliant, great credit to them.”
Asked how Vera is feeling following her ordeal, Flanagan continues: “She’s holding up very well. I was a bit wary on her behalf when she came out to talk to the media, but as it turned out, the more she said the better she got. When asked, ‘Why did you publicise the fact you were doing this and coming through with medicine?’ she replied, ‘I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I wasn’t going to sneak through here like some sort of a schleem.' That sums it up perfectly. She’s been very public about it and will continue to be very public about it.
"Down through history, it's taken people like Vera Twomey to change things. Politicians can do this, that and the other, but unless there's somebody directly effected by it who speaks up, it never changes."