4 0 April 2017
T
HE GARDA appears to be stumbling from crisis
to crisis. As Village was going to print Fianna
Fáil was considering a vote of no confidence in
its management and the Government had
agreed a 'root and branch' review. It is now dif-
ficult to keep account of all of the controversies that the
force has been embroiled in - or the associated inquiries.
The current difficulties with a million phantom breath
tests, and 14,700 wrongful convictions for motoring
offences, the ongoing tribulations of Garda management
in the mishandled controversy surrounding the Garda
whistleblower, Maurice McCabe, apparent misaccount-
ing in Templemore and rumours of false crime, including
murder and domestic-violence, statistics, are just the
latest in the downward spiral of scandals - but are noth-
ing new.
For most of the history of the new Irish state the suc
-
cess of the Garda force in presenting a neutral, unarmed
and publicly acceptable form of policing after a bitter
civil war has been the subject of wide-ranging favourable
commentary. However, in the modern era, certainly from
the 1980s onwards, the force has not coped well.
Vincent Browne recently recalled how, following the
murder of the British Ambassador Christopher Ewart-
Biggs in 1976, two gardaí who argued a fingerprint
allegedly found on a helmet near the scene of the explo-
sion was not the suspect’s were moved out of the
fingerprint unit and were effectively demoted. A subse-
quent inquiry into the affair led by the head of the
fingerprint unit in Scotland Yard concluded that what
was done in the Ewart-Biggs case “endangered the sci-
ence of fingerprinting worldwide”.
In 1977 Nicky Kelly, Osgur Breathnach and Brian
McNally, members of the then newly formed Irish Social-
ist Republican Party (IRSP) were convicted of committing
a £200,000 train robbery in Sallins, Co Kildare. The only
evidence against them was confessions they made while
in Garda custody and while in that custody there was
clear evidence that they had suffered significant injuries.
More that 20 gardaí gave evidence in almost identical
phraseology that the accused were not assaulted in cus-
tody and that the confessions were voluntary. Kelly was
ultimately pardoned and the other two acquitted.
In many ways I am the last person to be critical of An
Garda Síochána. My own grandfather joined the force in
1922, rising to the rank of Chief Superintendent, was
shot at during the civil war and was compelled to carry
a revolver for most of his service career. The fact that my
father was a Minister from before I was born meant that
much of my parenting and early lessons in life were actu-
ally provided by my fathers two Garda drivers. They were
really part of our family and in many ways an inspiration
to us growing up. My grandfather's old dress uniform
hung in his bedroom wardrobe well into retirement and
we would gaze at it, as children, with great awe - its gold-
braid peaked hat and the Sam Browne belt with blue
whistle and tie.
Over the years in politics, business and in journalism
I have interacted with senior gardaí and never found
them wanting. In particular I found Garda Commission-
ers Pat Byrne and Fachtna Murphy to be exemplars of
professionalism and would go as far as to count them as
friends. Most of the gardaí I have spoken to, not the pre
-
viously mentioned I hasten to add, have been shocked
by revelations in the whistleblower affair.
Few understand how the current Commissioner can
retain her position, given that she must have known
about so many of the controversies that are undermin-
ing the force including the incendiary rumours that
were circulated about Maurice McCabe, including by
To regain confidence, strengthen policing
and change leadership
POLITICS
by Conor Lenihan
Garda
too strong,
yet too weak
The same...