A Baptist pastor has gone on hunger strike in protest against a jail term imposed on a tax-evading garlic importer.
Pastor Dave Syms (57), of the Six Principles Baptist Church in Baltimore, Co Cork, said though Paul Begley deserved a jail term, the six-year sentence handed down was “outrageous”. The pastor, who had announced his intention in the letters page of The Irish Times, enters his fourth day on hunger strike today. He said Begley’s case was the catalyst for his fast, but that the hunger strike was more closely driven by “growing inequality” in this country.
Mr Syms’s fast is broken only by cups of tea, three times daily. He is taking vitamins and supplements during the fast, which he will continue until Easter Saturday, April 7th. “I made a commitment to go on hunger strike in protest against the injustice of sentencing in this country. I hope my faith can get me through,” he said.