An Garda Siochana – Slugger O'Toole

McCabe story exposes how public institutions still really view whistleblowers

Mick Fealty on November 30, 2017, 4:39 pm

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The Sergeant Maurice McCabe case has now accounted for the extraordinary haul of two Garda Commissioners (Chief Constables if you’re reading this in Britain), two Ministers of Justice and one Secretary-General (or Permanent Secretary). McCabe reported the quashing of penalty points by senior gardaí in Cavan/Monaghan in 2007. When it landed with the Comptroller and Auditor General in 2013 his report concluded: “there is almost no overall management or coordination of the fines system”. But what’s most disturbing about this story was the …

Review – Green and Blue – a thoughtful and respectful dramatisation of border policing

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 23, 2016, 8:02 pm

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GREEN AND BLUE is a thoughtful and respectful dramatisation of oral history, illuminating life of officers and their families. While there are many moments of laughter throughout, it’s not all levity: the performance doesn’t shy away from the deadly aspects of Troubles policing, and the mounting personal trauma of policing terrorism and being terrorised, of shooting being shot at.

Fennelly reports a comedy of errors at the Department of Justice…

Mick Fealty on September 3, 2015, 4:13 pm

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For those of you watching/caring, here’s the nub of the Fennelly report, published late on Tuesday (most of it after the Taoiseach went onto the Six One News), Vicky Conway: Despite it being such a serious matter and even though he was statutorily accountable to the minister and the Government, Callinan first discussed this matter with the Attorney General. While unable to be precise about dates, Fennelly confirms the commissioner waited at least a month to inform the secretary general of …

Uncomfortable Conversations – the Chief Constable, Sinn Féin Chair and me

Patricia MacBride on August 25, 2015, 9:41 am

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Tomorrow night in Derry, I’ll take part in an “Uncomfortable Conversation” that will include the PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton, Sinn Féin Chair Declan Kearney and Alan McBride, member of the NI Human Rights Commission and victims’ campaigner. The event, part of the Gasyard Féile, is one of a series of conversations around how we both deal with our past and build our future as communities, towns and cities and indeed islands seeking to emerge from conflict. These events and …

Gerry Adams: “I have no recollection of that whatsoever.”

Pete Baker on April 23, 2014, 11:13 pm

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A couple of points to note about the BBC report of the interview with former Provisional IRA member Peter Rogers. From the BBC report An ex-IRA man has made new allegations about Gerry Adams, in which he raises questions about the Sinn Féin leader’s claim to have never been in the IRA. Peter Rogers has alleged that Mr Adams and his Sinn Féin colleague Martin McGuinness ordered him to transport explosives to Great Britain in 1980. Both Sinn Féin men declined interviews …

Seems like no one has been ‘minding’ the Guards for years…

Mick Fealty on March 26, 2014, 3:04 pm

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If you want to get a measure of the trouble both the Minister of Justice and now the Attorney General (the second case of a key office holder avoiding making a report to said Minister of Justice) is, this contribution from Independent TD Stephen Donnelly at Leader’s Questions this morning. As other stories began to fade out came this: It is understood that recording devices installed in the 1980s at the country’s main stations were routinely taping conversations. Although their …

Between a rock and a hard place it is the Garda Commissioner who resigns…

Mick Fealty on March 25, 2014, 12:43 pm

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So whilst the government was having a big fat argument over whether the Minister for Justice should apologise (or not) for calling the behaviour of Garda whistleblowers disgusting, Martin Callanan has taken the matter into his own hands and resigned. It’s been a long haul since independent TD Mick Wallace first raised the matter in the Dail. It took several interventions on the floor of the house from Micheal Martin before a response was forthcoming from the Taoiseach. The buck …

Policing Board member Gerry Kelly sues Board’s own ’employee’ the Chief Constable of the PSNI

Mick Fealty on February 25, 2014, 10:10 am

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Given the currency of the debate on reform of the Garda oversight system in the Republic, and Sinn Fein’s settled view that an NI style policing board system – ie, where power is distributed between a basket of political parties – is preferable to direct control by the minister it’s a little odd that their most senior representative on the PBNI has, as the Belfast Telegraph reports: “…taken a civil case against the PSNI chief constable (Matt Baggott) over the …

#Shatter: “…the prologue should have had a Greek chorus chanting the Government’s promises…”

Mick Fealty on February 24, 2014, 8:13 am

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As my old friend RG Gregory says in a forthcoming book of his, in Greek times Tragedy recorded the consequences of “humanity’s struggle to outface the gods’. Alan Shatter has been one of the more capable ministers in the Republic’s government, although therein may lie the seeds of his own downfall. Eoghan Harris lays out a plot line sifted out of recapitulations throughout the last two weeks: Shattergate is best seen as a Greek tragedy which has not yet reached …

Garda Recipient gone, the pressure now moves onto Minister Shatter…

Mick Fealty on February 20, 2014, 11:28 am

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Yesterday’s leaders questions was once of those explosive occasions when you don’t quite get the extent of it at the time its happening. It’s clear from today’s front pages that Micheál Martin’s virtual bomb yesterday was well placed. Deputy Micheál Martin: Last week I read elements of the transcript of a conversation between the Garda confidential recipient, Mr. Oliver Connolly, and a Garda whistleblower, Mr. Maurice McCabe, such as how, if the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, …

Cunningham changes plea on Northern Bank robbery money-laundering charges

Pete Baker on February 18, 2014, 4:48 pm

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65-year-old Cork-based financier Ted Cunningham has re-joined the list of those convicted as a result of “Operation Phoenix”, a huge cross-border investigation into the December 2004 Northern Bank robbery – “involving anti-terrorist units, fraud squads and the Criminal Assets Bureau.” His original 2009 convictions, and his 10 year sentence, were overturned on appeal in 2012, after the Irish Supreme Court ruled that certain search warrants used had been unconstitutional. As an Irish Independent report noted at the time The three-judge [Court of Criminal Appeal] quashed …

O’Loan: “I wouldn’t be an Ombudsman if I had no power to investigate chief officers…”

Mick Fealty on February 17, 2014, 12:25 pm

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So Nuala O’Loan speaking on the current controversy managed to significantly cut through the hysterical noise in Dublin and bear in on the signal. All of Dan Keenan’s piece is worth reading (not least for the right of the GSOC to determine the levels of threat to its own security), but this is the money shot: “In running an office like this you have to work with the Government but I do know that the last time I was there, …

“If Shatter thinks you are screwing him, you’re finished…”

Mick Fealty on February 13, 2014, 12:16 pm

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So as the Taoiseach apologises for going after the Garda Ombudsman Commission (if not for being more than a little sloppy with the actualite). John Mooney of the Irish edition of the Sunday Times on RTE’s Late Debate programme (transcript on broadsheet.ie) went on to suggest that the Garda Commissioner may not be in complete control of all his troops. The real puzzle here is not just why the Taoiseach was so quick to jump down the throat of the GSOC, but …

Smithwick: “the evidence keeps pointing back to the desire of the IRA to acquire information as to how the British Security Services had gotten advance warning of the IRA ambush on Loughgall Police Station…”

Pete Baker on December 5, 2013, 6:34 pm

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As the findings of the Smithwick Tribunal report [RTÉ-hosted 22mb pdf] continue to be digested, it’s worth recalling the reported concerns of “members of the PIRA” in May last year. The Smithwick Tribunal is becoming a “significant issue” among republicans who are concerned it is uncovering information on past murders, the tribunal has been told. According to a précis of intelligence information gleaned by the PSNI within the last year, and aired at the tribunal this morning, “members of the PIRA are …

“The family are of the view it is vital that the police ombudsman receives this journal…”

Pete Baker on October 23, 2013, 12:39 am

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As I noted back in January this year, an inquest has yet to be held into the death of former senior Sinn Féin member, and informer, Denis Donaldson in 2006 – responsibility for which was claimed by the Real IRA. And, despite a previous NI Police Ombudsman‘s finding that there had been no police misconduct here, the new incumbent launched an investigation into allegations that officers may have contributed to his death. But that investigation is, reportedly, facing obstruction from the An Garda Siochana – who have refused to …

Arms find: 15 kilos of Semtex, guns, ammunition and gold painted replica pistol…

Mick Fealty on July 12, 2013, 3:53 pm

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You could conjure up a whole play on just one of several bizarre elements of is reportedly An Garda Siochana’s largest find of dissident arms… In the midst of all the real guns is a toy Smith and Wesson model painted gold… From the UTV report: Gardaí said some of the weapons looked in poor condition and included Provisional IRA weapons that should have been decommissioned. Fifteen kilos of Semtex and other bomb-making equipment, such as detonator cord and igniters, …