Regrettable lacuna – a missing voice at the Smithwick tribunal
The Smithwick tribunal will probably be the last of its kind – a PR campaign against excessive fees, discontent with the slow pace of investigations, and a lack of political will mean future scandals will be investigated by inquiries and commissions, but never again though a public tribunal of inquiry. Smithwick is the Cinderella of Irish tribunals. It didn’t help that it spent its first five years working in private, negotiating the tricky business of encouraging non-compellable witnesses from Northern …