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VILLAGEApril/May
When I met the McBrearty family in the
late s a similar pattern of Garda abuse,
inept and inaccurate internal inquiries and
cover-up, as well as illegal phone-tapping
and intimidation of witnesses was evi-
dent as the Donegal Garda sought to set
up Frank McBrearty junior and his cousin
Mark McConnell for a murder that they did
not commit and, in fact, was not a murder.
As the Morris tribunal subsequently discov-
ered, it was more likely that cattle dealer
Richie Barron was killed in a hit and run
incident, and that the more likely suspect
was a member of the force. Again, years of
false accusations including by paid inform-
ers, intimidation of witnesses, illegal phone
tapping, abuse in custody and perjured evi-
dence by members of the Garda were among
the artillery used to batter a respected
Raphoe family whose pub and nightclub
happened to present a commercial threat
to more politically influential businesses in
the north-west.
Irish
police on
lunch-break.
(Wikipedia)
N
OT much has changed since I first
wrote about Garda malpractice
in the early s. At that time I
reported on the miscarriage of justice con-
cerning two youths from Tallaght who were
wrongly convicted of stealing a car and car-
rying its distressed owner on the bonnet as
it sped away from his home in Firhouse,
and given five-year sentences. The theft
and assault intensified the hysteria sur-
rounding car theft in the city and I recall
thousands of delegates at that years Fine
Gael ard eis pulsating as the then justice
minister promised similarly severe penal-
ties and the introduction of spiked chains
to slow the gallop of the joyriders.
The Tallaght Two case, as it became
known, was marked by a chain of misconduct
by investigating gardaí including at least one
flawed internal report which came to con-
clusions that were in direct contradiction to
the facts. After a number of trials and hav-
ing served their sentences, Joseph Grogan
and Joseph Meleady, were granted certifi-
cates of miscarriage of justice although they
are still, all these years later, awaiting the
compensation due to them for their wrong-
ful imprisonment. What was clear from the
Tallaght Two case was that gardaí had given
false information about fingerprint evidence
to the courts, that had led to their conviction;
and had failed to act when the man who actu-
ally drove the stolen car admitted his role
to the parents of Meleady and Grogan in my
presence and insisted that their sons were
not involved.
Further, the gardai ignored the claims of
the other car thieves involved, one of whom
was convicted and whose father was jailed
for contempt of court when he tried to point
out that innocent men were being jailed. The
third man in the stolen car was convicted of
perjury when he tried to insist, truthfully,
that he and his two friends were culpable
and that Meleady and Grogan were in no way
involved. Sound familiar?
NEWS GARDA
History, and the current lack of official, political and journalistic incisiveness,
suggest reform of the Garda will remain elusive. By Frank Connolly
Content and focus on the Garda
April/May VILLAGE
Equally, the treatment of the Diver fam-
ily in Ardara when they were blamed for
planting explosive devices at a controver-
sial MMDS television mast in , wrongly
arrested and intimidated until it emerged
that a member of the Garda, also involved
in the McBrearty scandal, was actually the
culprit. Members of the force had explosives
planted, and discovered, in Rossnowlagh and
other parts of Donegal which they claimed
as IRA finds in order to hype their promo-
tional chances while the same gardaí had
drugs placed in the premises of Inishowen
publican, Frank Short, who was also granted
a miscarriage of justice certificate and a
huge payout from the State when the truth
emerged.
What about the treatment of the Gallagher
family in St Johnston whose home was sub-
jected to a three-day raid by the Special
Branch in a search for explosives which
Garda informer, William Doherty, had
failed to plant on the property in an elabo-
rate but unsuccessful exercise to stitch up
Alfie Gallagher’s son, John? Where’s Willie
by the way?
The close and unhealthy relationship
between security correspondents and their
‘Garda contacts’ across the media ensured
that I had a free run on these extraordi-
nary stories as they were advised by their
handlers that there was no substance to
these wild claims of Garda corruption in
the north-west division. For two years and
more I published exclusives in the Sunday
Business post and in documentary form on
TV, before the political scandal deepened
and the Morris tribunal was established.
When that lengthy and expensive inquiry
was completed, its findings were largely
ignored and the illicit practices it uncov-
ered continued in Garda divisions across the
country. Its most important recommenda-
tion – to set up an independent authority to
oversee the force, like Patten in the North,
was set aside until it was forced back on the
political agenda in the wake of the recent
Callinan resignation, the revelations of
widespread bugging of garda stations, the
whistleblower claims on penalty points etc,
and the Bailey case.
Again the bribing of informers, the fal-
sification of evidence, the intimidation of
witnesses including of Marie Farrell who
gave false evidence in court against Bailey
under duress from certain gardaí, have fea-
tured - where the only certain outcome is that
the killer of Sophie Toscan du Plantier will
never be tracked down . Again the toxic rela-
tionship between certain media and senior
‘garda sources’ will come back to haunt those
outlets which so vigorously resisted Bailey’s
unsuccessful defamation case against them.
It will be fascinating to read the transcripts
of the forty-four phone calls between jour-
nalists and gardaí from the tapes recorded at
Bandon garda station during the du Plantier
invest igat ion. Hopefully, t hey w ill receive the
same blanket coverage given to the colour-
ful Anglo tapes by Independent Newspapers
last year.
So where next? Whether Alan Shatter and
his departmental secretary, Brian Purcell,
survive the fall-out from various enquiries
underway at present is the burning ques-
tion of the day, but much more is at stake.
For in the savage heat of debate and accusa-
tion of recent weeks other more important
issues have arisen and these go to the heart
of future policing in this State.
Over recent days and weeks the political
battle lines have been drawn between Fianna
Fáil and the Government over what the
opposition party claims has been the ‘scape-
goating of the commissioner’, a claim which
makes the traditional ‘law and order’ party,
Fine Gael, deeply uncomfortable. Ironically,
almost all the scandals now emerging have
their origins in the time when Fianna Fáil was
in government. Indeed, Shatter challenged
then justice minister, John O’Donoghue, over
the Garda bugging of conversations between
solicitors and their clients in the McBrearty
case as far back as May . O’Donoghue
accused him of making “ill-tempered, outra-
geous, and unfounded allegations”.
The latest casualty may yet turn out to
be an unnamed judge of the District Court
who has been accused by former garda,
John Wilson, of seeking to interfere with
his efforts to blow the lid on the widespread
cancellation of penalty points to the benefit
of people with influence or connections with
the force. The judge, who has previous form
in making controversial statements about
witnesses and solicitors in his court, criti-
cised Wilson, a family friend, for raising the
issue with TD, Clare Daly, whom he described
as “a bitch” and whose arrest on a drink
driving offence he described as
“karma”. The beak was allegedly
furious that Wilson had revealed
publicly that another contro-
versial judge, Mary Devins, had
penalty points terminated, ask-
ing “what had she ever done
to anybody?”. The judge made
outrageous and unrepeatable
comments, according to Wilson,
about whistleblower, Maurice
McCabe.
The meetings in February and
May , when these comments
were made, took place in the
Hotel Kilmore in Cavan. Wilson
was accompanied by his brother,
the Fianna Fáil senator, Diarmuid
Wilson who has refused to com-
ment on the claims. The brothers
are related to former Fianna Fáil
minister, John Wilson. In the
course of their conversation the
judge, according to a detailed statement
by the whistleblower and seen by Village,
referred to a serving Garda officer against
whom John Wilson had made serious allega-
tions of wrongdoing as “a good Fianna Fáil
man”.
When will a government decide get to grips
with the Garda culture problem? •
The law and
order’ party,
Fine Gael,
is deeply
uncomfortable.
Ironically,
almost all
the scandals
origninated
under the
Fianna Fáil
government
“
