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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
32 March 2015
POLITICS
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A
BIG spin is underway about
“the biggest ever reshuffle of
senior gardaí” by incoming
Garda Commissioner, Noirin
O’Sullivan with “nearly 100
senior officers being transferred and
promoted” and the Irish Times editorial-
ising about a “bold and brave new start”.
So Village decided to have a look back
at incidents of corruption, malfeasance,
harassment and intimidation which
have significantly compromised the rep-
utation of the Irish police force; and to
which she needs to direct herself.
The litany involves real or alleged
Garda involvement in an extraordinary
range of delinquency from supplying
drugs to framing for murder to bullying
whistleblowers.
Much of the Garda is
systemically and endemically
corrupt. By Jonathan Baxter
Get on with it
March 2015 33
that for a considerable 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 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 Ombuds-
man found that no action could be taken
ag ain st hi m as he had r et ir ed. He had a lso
exercised his right to silence throughout
his questioning and “largely gave a ‘no-
comment’ interview” to them.
Following the death of Gerry Ryan
in 2010, the Irish Independent pub-
lished allegations that the drug use of
high-profile figures was well-known
to gardaí. A senior source had told the
paper that half the trade of one notori-
ous dealer was going into RTé. Despite
apparent awareness, gardaí did not act
on this information, instead protect-
ing the ongoing supply as it was claimed
the dealer was a “valuable intelligence
source”.
An official response from the gardaí
claimed these allegations came from
anonymous sources and were not sub-
stantiated by facts. Other sources
suggested that there was an unwill-
ingness within the force to bring such
allegations to light for fear of political
reprisals.
In 2013 report by Ombudsman for
Children Emily Logan found gardaí
had been guilty of racial profiling after
taking a blonde two-year-old Roma child
into care.
Also in 2013, a whistleblower emerged
alleging numerous incidents of inter-
nal fraud with dozens of members of
the gardaí accused of falsely claiming
subsistence, travel and overtime pay-
ments. It appears that all of these claims
were made against individuals based at
Garda headquarters on Harcourt Street,
the home of specialist units such as the
Criminal Assets Bureau, National Bureau
of Criminal investigation, and the Garda
Bureau of Fraud Investigation.
A chief superintendent was appointed
to investigate the claims but no outcomes
from the investigation have yet to have
been made public.
Meanwhile, individual members of the
Garda were coming forward with claims
of internal harassment and intimida-
tion, to mixed effect.
Detective Sergeant Michael Buck-
ley fought his transfer from the Serious
Crime Review Team at Harcourt Square
to the Stolen Motor Vehicle Investigation
Unit. He claims the move was a malicious
response to complaints made by him in
2011 against more senior officers who
he alleged were the perpetrators of bul-
lying and harassment. His claims were
dismissed in 2012 but, following one
unsuccessful appeal, he brought another
to the High Court which agreed that one
should be heard. Gardaí dropped the case
in July last year and Buckley remained in
his original post.
Then, of course, there is the case of
Maurice McCabe – another Garda with
an apparently good record of service.
McCabe was the whistle-blower who
brought the practice of deleting pen-
alty points to the public’s attention. It
was a serious charge but one which was
met with defensiveness rather than out-
rage. McCabe made serious charges
against colleagues in the Cavan/Mona-
ghan area, including that they framed
innocent people for crimes, failed to
investigate serious crimes including
sexual assault and hijacking, published
details of a victim of domestic abuse on
social media, were often drunk at work
and managed ver y poorly. The force itself
reacted by making both his personal and
work life difficult for McCabe, while the
ostensible political oversight provided
by Minister Alan Shatter appeared some-
what deficient.
It is also worth remembering that the
exposure of malpractice by McCabe was
not just limited to penalty points. As
the Irish Examiner noted: “other cases
involving serious assault, burglary, drug
crimes, and serious motor offences such
as dangerous driving were also altered
to give the impression that such inci-
dents had been dealt with in a proper
manner ”.
The story was characterised by the
infamous line: “if Shatter thinks you’re
screwing him, you’re finished”, which
was delivered by Oliver Connolly, the
‘confidential recipient’ appointed to
support whistleblowing within the
Garda. Significantly, the McCabe story
also highlighted the friendly rela-
tionship between Shatter and Garda
Most infamously in recent memory,
the Garda corruption in Donegal
investigated by the Morris Tribunal
(2002-2008) involved a sweeping range
of crimes including framing a man
for murder, illegal phone-tapping and
intimidation of witnesses as the Donegal
Garda sought to frame Frank McBrearty
junior and his cousin Mark McConnell
for a murder that they did not commit
and, in fact, was not even a murder.
Ultimately, the Tribunal found, cattle
dealer Richie Barron had probably been
killed in a hit and run incident, most
likely by a member of the force. Nobody
was charged, some gardaí were allowed
to retire on full pension and just three
were fired. Morris’s most important
recommendation – to set up an inde-
pendent authority to oversee the force,
like Patten’s in the North, was set aside
until it was forced back on the political
agenda in the wake of the recent Callinan
resignation,
The Ian Bailey case currently before
the courts has aired serious allegations
that gardaí considered paying someone
in order to frame a man for murder.
In 2009, then Justice Minister, Dermot
Ahern, declined to explain why the state
dropped a case against a presumed
Garda informant, Kieran Boylan, caught
in possession of €1.7m worth of cocaine
and heroin while on bail. The Director of
Public Prosecutions (DPP) informed the
courts he would not pursue the case. In
May 2013 a Garda Ombudsman investi-
gation into the affair concluded with no
evidence established of any improper
conduct by gardaí.
It was later revealed that gardaí had
disrupted the Ombudsman’s investiga-
tion. In 2014, the Ombudsman disclosed
there had been a securit y alert at its office
arising from a suspicion that gardaí were
bugging the office due to its investigation
into this affair.
Several international reports found
unacceptable levels of violence in the
policing of Shell’s installation of a gas
terminal at Rossport in Mayo. “There
is a sense the law is being used to kick
people into submission”, according to
local parish priest Fr Michael Nallen.
A 2007 human-rights hearing
conducted by the US-based Global Com-
munity Monitor, was told by Ed Collins,
an American-born local resident of how
he had “been beaten, assaulted, kicked,
choked, punched… kicked and battered
since day one”. One alleged Garda assault
left him with a knee so badly damaged
Better
technology,
independent
appointments,
strengthened
and
streamlined
Ombudsman
and
Commissioner
accountable to
Ombudsman
“
34 March 2015
POLITICS GARDA
commissioner Martin Callinan – one,
it appeared, which was quite conducive
to ensuring that McCabe’s “disgusting”
claims were sidelined.
Interestingly, the confidential recip-
ient system was called into question
by another Garda whistleblower, John
Wilson. Wilson brought information to
Connolly regarding apparent misuse of
the Pulse system and its targeting of Ian
Bailey, a suspect in the Sophie Toscan
du Plantier case. He claimed that the
amount of attention focused on Bailey
was disproportionate to his status in
the investigation and that “it is totally
inappropriate for police to be scrutinis-
ing citizens without good cause”.
Wilson further suggested that such
attention would likely to have been
assigned from a high level. Connolly,
however, did not reply to his contact,
surprising Wilson who saw him as “an
honourable and decent person”. Wilson
had a dead rat tied to his door for his
efforts.
Connolly was yet again implicated in
the warning off of gardaí bringing claims
to him. Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness
revealed that he had been contacted by a
female Garda alleging sexual harassment
and that part of Connolly’s response to
the Garda in question was that “the last
man who used the service was now wash-
ing cars in Navan”.
Last year saw the emergence of yet
another particularly explosive claim
against the fundamentals of the policing
and judicial system in Ireland. A former
detective sergeant brought forward his
complaints that warrants for monitoring
of phone calls by police were misused to
include conversations between prisoners
and their legal counsel – conversations
which are at all times protected by law.
He did so after pursuing internal
mechanisms but claims he was “isolated,
bullied and harassed” after doing so, for
which took action against the State. It is
now suspected that at least 2,800 such
calls were monitored. The prison service
claims these were done “inadvertently”
and confined to cases where more than
one solicitor was involved in each case.
The government ordered an inquiry into
these abuses but refused to say at the
time whether it would be carried out in
public.
The undermining of core procedures
of justice is a serious offence in itself
but recent accusations made by TD
Mick Wallace suggest even more nefar-
ious activity: namely, the complicity of
gardaí in major criminal offences involv-
ing criminal gangs. These allegations
were brought forward by retired Garda
Jack Doyle and were supported by exam-
ples provided by a member of one of the
gangs involved.
The claims allege that opportunities to
arrest the leader of one drug gang were
not taken due to the gang having “a senior
Garda in their pocket” while, in another
case, undercover gardaí intervened to
prevent customers officers intercepting
a shipment at Rosslare harbour. This
resulted in a car chase between the two
arms of State law enforcement. A Garda
spokesman told Wallace that members
of the Garda were indeed involved in the
importation of drugs but such instances
involved “controlled operations”.
Other claims included in the file given
to Wallace include the contrived man-
ufacturing of arms finds by gardaí.
According to the gang member who
spoke to Doyle, a handgun was hidden by
him in a wooded area in Cork, the loca-
tion of which was subsequently passed
onto a detective sergeant. Gardaí are
then alleged to have added additional
weapons to the discovery in order to
embellish its gravity.
Wallace’s associate, TD Clare Daly, was
March 2015 35
stopped and strangely handcuffed at the
roadside for alleged drunk driving and
the details leaked to the press, before the
breathalyser results ultimately showed
she had not been drinking at all. She
is pursuing the matter with the Garda
Ombudsman and in the High Court.
In late February, a Wicklow Garda
went on trial accused of forging a letter
from the Director of Public Prosecutions
in relation to the investigation of a priest
accused of sexual abuse.
The Minister is in receipt of a now-
leaked official report into the death in
1985 of Co Roscommon priest, Fr Niall
Molloy, which is expected to be pub-
lished shortly.
Fr Molloy’s badly beaten body was
found after a wedding party attended
by the late Brian Lenihan Sr and report-
edly “at least one other senior Fianna Fáil
member”. at Kilcoursey House, the Co
Offaly home of Richard Flynn who was
subsequently charged with manslaugh-
ter but was later acquitted. The trial
judge appears to have been involved in
irregular correspondence with the DPP
about the case. Judge Frank Roe also
appears to have known the defendant.
The file on the matter was stolen from
the DPP’s office by the General, Martin
Cahill, though journalist Veronica
Guerin published its key details. The
Sunday Times reported in November
that senior counsel Dominic McGinn’s
examination of the Senior Crime Review
Team’s report relating to the death con-
cluded that there was no evidence to
support allegations of a cover-up.
In November the Garda Inspectorate
Report uncovered a litany of shortfalls in
how victims are dealt with by local offic-
ers – particularly victims of domestic
violence. It made recommendations: an
upgrade in technology, effective systems
and changes to management practice.
One of the first actions taken by
Frances Fitzgerald when she succeeded
Alan Shatter at the Department of Jus-
tice, in response to the Guerin report
– which investigated Maurice McCabe’s
claims that serious crimes were not
properly investigated by the garda and
criticised the handling of the issue by
Shatter – was to establish an Independ-
ent Review Mechanism into allegations
of Garda Corruption countrywide. That
review is considering 305 separate cases
including some allegations involving the
possibility of wrongful deaths, of cover
up, of failure to investigate a crime and
of possible Garda brutality.
In December the Minister announced
a commission to investigate McCabe’s
allegations specifically about the Cavan/
Monaghan Division of the Garda Sío-
chána with former High Court judge
Kevin O’Higgins as the sole member
of the Commission. A debate on the
inquiry’s terms was cancelled at the last
minute on legal advice to Ceann Com-
hairle, Sean Barrett.
Despite the breathless talk of reform,
in January Clare Daly told ‘The Last
Word’ on Today FM that she has been
in touch with two serving gardai who
are facing internal pressure in the
force because of their allegations which
include “gardai being involved in drugs”.
She also claimed “there was a recent
batch of garda promotions and some of
the people are senior officers in areas in
which internal investigations are cur-
rently underway”.
Last year Frank Connolly, who
exposed the McBrearty case, wrote: “Not
much has changed since I first wrote
about Garda malpractice in the early
1980s”. The new Garda Commissioner,
an insider, albeit a woman and one who
was once forced to make sandwiches for
her colleagues, will need to change the
culture as well as the personnel if she
is to address the festering inertia. By
common consent, the Garda Commis-
sioner should be rendered accountable to
a streamlined Garda Ombudsman, and
the Ombudsman should have powers to
conduct investigations on its own initia-
tive. And a spirit of independent service
in the public interest needs to be strin-
gently inculcated, and soon. •
Last year saw
the emergence
of yet another
particularly
explosive
claim
against the
fundamentals
of the policing
and judicial
system in
Ireland
“
Noirîn O’Sullivan meets Maurice McCabe
