Dissent and democracy - Village Magazine

32 November 2014

a knee so badly damaged that for a consider-

able period he was conﬁned to a wheelchair,

unable to walk. Betty Noone told of seeing

gardaí drag a woman to the side of a road –

“she tried to get up, and as a third garda left

her… he kicked her”. Noone – a 63 year old

grandmother – outlined how she herself was

lifted up by a garda and thrown towards a

water-ﬁlled drain, perhaps eight feet below

the road. John Monaghan, a former Irish

Press journalist and co-author of this article,

told of how a garda had threatened to rape

his wife. He has an audio recording – that he

says is of this incident. Another recording

shows how sergeant James Gill joked about

raping two female protesters who had been

arrested. But the Garda Ombudsman found

that no action could be taken against him

as he had retired, He had also exercised his

right to silence throughout his questioning

and “largely gave a ‘no-comment’ interview”

to them.

What is remarkable about the testimony

of witnesses is the number of alleged Garda

assailants who were identiﬁed by name

or number. None of the identiﬁed gardaí

were ever disciplined. Few were even

questioned.

There is a symbiosis between dissent and

democracy. Polemicist Tony Judt argued that

“the disposition to disagree, to reject and

to dissent… is the very lifeblood of an open

society. We need people who make a virtue

of opposing mainstream opinion. A democ-

racy of permanent consensus will not long

remain a democracy”.

“What happened to the people in Rossport

beggars belief”, Deputy Mick Wallace told

the Dáil in May of this year. Front Line –

an organisation founded to protect human

rights defenders – argued in a 2001 report

that it would be appropriate to characterise

the situation in Kilcommon “as one where

groups of individuals are clearly seeking to

defend human rights”.

It is imperative that an independent

inquiry be held into Garda behaviour there.

It is time that the actions of the people of

Kilcommon are, ﬁnally, vindicated and

that their reputations – besmirched by their

oppressors – are restored; and that Garda

reform becomes an imperative not a clichéd

oxymoron. •

N September 17 2011, hundreds of

Americans gathered in New York’s

Wall Street district, the very hub of

American and global capitalism. Calling

themselves the Occupy Wall Street move-

ment, they set up a protest encampment,

which soon spawned similarly themed

protests in over 100 US cities around the

world.

Within months, most Occupy camps

around the world – including camps in

Ireland – had been forcibly closed by police.

In the US, over 6,000 protestors were

arrested. Some were batoned or pepper-

sprayed.

A movement that encompassed around

ﬁfty countries was being suppressed. State

power – using police power – was crushing

People Power.

A few weeks ago, on the day the Dáil recon-

vened after its lengthy summer recess, a few

protest groups gathered outside the gates.

The following day’s Irish Times carried a

front-page photograph of a woman being

carried from the scene by ﬁve members

of the Garda Public Order Unit

(POU) – its riot squad. Why?

Did she pose a physical threat to

gardaí, to members of the public

or to members of the Dáil?

The use of riot-squad mem-

bers to police a group of peaceful

protestors was extraordinarily

intimidatory – intended to over-

awe them with fear, and dissuade

others.

The Water Tax protests have

resulted in a certain casualisa-

tion of aggressive police force.

In 1996, residents of Kilcommon

Parish in north-west Mayo

learned of a natural gas discov-

ery in the sea oﬀ their coastline.

The proposed gas pipeline’s land

route passed through Rossport

village, close to a local road and

outlying houses. Assurances that

the pipeline posed no risks did not assuage

local fears. Ultimately, consultants hired

by the Shell-led consortium admitted that

residences within 230 metres of the pipe

could ignite spontaneously if an explo-

sion occurred while pipeline gas was at the

maximum pressure. Occupants would have

just 30 seconds to ﬂee the scene.

Residents chose to oppose the project,

peacefully but in October 2006, around 200

gardaí – including POU members – arrived

in Kilcommon, whose population num-

bered no more than 2,000 men,

women and children, What fol-

lowed was a startling erosion of

civil liberties and human rights.

Democracy was suspended in the

area.

Allegedly, police tapped

phones, correspondence was

intercepted and read – and

sometimes stolen. People’s

movements were monitored and

their protests ﬁlmed. Around 24

people spent time in jail – the

Rossport Five for 94 days, and

Pat ‘The Chief’ O’Donnell for

around ﬁve and a half months.

“There is a sense the law is

being used to kick people into

submission”, according to local

parish priest Fr Michael Nallen.

Indeed a 2007 human rights

hearing in Glenamoy, conducted

by the US-based Global Community Monitor,

was told by Ed Collins, an American-

born Kilcommon resident of how he had

“been beaten, assaulted, kicked, choked,

punched… kicked and battered since day

one”. One alleged Garda assault left him with

Apart altogeter from ineﬃency, there is no redress against ongoing Garda

abuse. By Tom Hanahoe, Terence Conway and John Monaghan

Dissent and democracy

peaceful

dissent

POLITICS GARDA ABUSE

“There is a

sense the

law is being

used to kick

people into

submission”,

according to

Mayo parish

priest Fr

Michael Nallen

“