SÍOCHÁIN FREEDOM OF LIMERICK CONFERRED ON ADARE DETECTIVES McCABE & O’SULLIVAN WINTER 2015 ISSNAutumn 1649-5896 2018 ISSNwww.gardaretired.com 1649-5896 SCAN QR CODE FOR www.gardaretired.com MEMBERS’ AREA St Pauls Car Loan poster.qxp 31/10/2017 10:06 Page 1 Tel: 021 4313355 Email: [email protected] St. Paul’s Web: www.stpaulscu.ie Garda Credit Union Limited For a no frills, no fee car loan at a great rate of 4.9% (5.0% APR*) talk to us at St. Paul’s Garda Credit Union Tel: 021 4313355 Email: [email protected] Web: www.stpaulscu.ie Plus up to €400 Cashback to members when purchasing new Ford or Hyundai. *For a 5 year car loan at 5.0% APR variable interest rate the weekly repayments would be: Amount Weekly Repayment Total Repayment Total Interest €5,000 €21.68 €5,637.55 €637.55 €10,000 €43.37 €11,275.11 €1,275.11 €15,000 €65.05 €16,912.66 €1,912.66 €20,000 €86.73 €22,550.22 €2,550.22 Loans are subject to approval. Terms and conditions apply. Figures quoted are indicative, actual repayments may vary. To minimise the total interest payment on your loan we recommend you repay in as short a term as you can afford. Warning: If you do not meet the repayments on your loan, your account will go into arrears. This may affect your credit rating, which may limit your ability to access credit in the future. St. Paul’s Garda Credit Union Limited is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. EDITORIAL COMMENT QUESTIONS FOR NEW GARDA COMMISSIONER If the GSRMA was concerned about a culture within An Garda Síochána then the new Garda Commissioner is coming from a background that’s steeped in culture, writes General Secretary Paschal Feeney. In a letter to Drew Harris, the Association has expressed concerns of Garda colleagues over his testimony to the Smithwick Tribunal in 2012. he appointment of a new Garda Commissioner was his evidence to the Smithwick Tribunal in 2012. It is the Teagerly awaited by many onlookers in Ireland not least belief that Judge Smithwick, on delivering his report to within the serving ranks of An Garda Siochana but also to Government, took great stock of the evidence of Drew those of us in retirement. Harris, in introducing what has been termed ‘the fourth We all know the force has experienced very difficult man’. times over the past number of years with one controversy As we know this man has never been named. So, following hot on the heels of another. The appointment in effect it’s every member of An Garda Síochána who therefore of the person to take charge was always a hot was stationed in Dundalk, right throughout the period topic from the moment the incumbent Commissioner of review by the Smithwick Tribunal. The concerns of Nóirín O’Sullivan declared that it was her intent to retire GSRMA are so great that they have penned the letter in September 2017. Media pundits had a field day with reproduced below for the new Garda Commissioner. many predicting the winner. A common trend among the media speculators was Mr Drew Harris that the person would have to be from outside the Commissioner, An Garda Síochána, country; after all the culture within the guards had to be Garda Headquarters, broken. As we all now know Drew Harris Deputy Chief Phoenix Park, Constable of PSNI has been chosen as the most suitable Dublin 8. candidate to fill that role. So, instead of deflecting attention away from the A Chara Coimisinéir Harris appointment of a new Garda Commissioner the spotlight has never more firmly been focused on the person The Garda Síochána Retired Members’ Association selected. He has been swamped in controversy before (GSRMA) wishes to acknowledge your appointment he even gets off the blocks, and one wonders what the as Garda Commissioner and to wish you well in the future holds for our new Commissioner. future. A major bone of contention with the guards is what is Our Association represents almost 6,000 retired perceived to be a culture of secrecy and cover ups. Drew members and widows. The majority of those members Harris’s appointment puts us back into that frame of served in the border region and we are acutely aware mind. Because of his key role with MI5 and Special Branch of the stress and strains endured by our members and Intelligence it is alleged Drew Harris holds the key to more your former colleagues in the RUC/PSNI. secrets than most. MI5 operates on the island of Ireland, As an Association we are also aware of the very real so he must hold sensitive information, which is of interest concerns expressed by our colleagues, particularly in to the Irish State. But, will he share this information? Dundalk Station, regarding testimony supplied by you If we were concerned about a culture within An Garda in 2012 to the Smithwick Tribunal. Síochána then the new Garda Commissioner is coming We look forward to working with you in the near from a background steeped in culture. We have seen future to ameliorate these concerns. attempts within the Courts to prevent his appointment, all unprecedented, and even before the man sits down at his Mise le meas desk in Garda Headquarters. Matt Givens The Garda Síochána Retired Members also have Uachtarán GSRMA questions for the new Garda Commissioner. In particular, Síocháin 1 CONTENTS SÍOCHÁIN The Official Magazine of the Garda Síochána Retired Members’ Association FREEDOM OF LIMERICK CONFERRED ON ADARE DETECTIVES McCABE & O’SULLIVAN WINTER 2015 ISSNAutumn 1649-5896 2018 ISSNwww.gardaretired.com 1649-5896 SCAN QR CODE FOR Autumn 2018 www.gardaretired.com MEMBERS’ AREA Volume 47 • Issue3 • ISSN 1649-5896 4 ASSOCIATION NEWS was shot dead by the IRA, and his Short Story Competition 2018.The colleague retired Detective Garda usual Terms & Conditions will apply. Ben O’Sullivan, who was shot and 25 ST PAUL’S GARDA CREDIT seriously injured, for their courage UNION and bravery in foiling a post office robbery in the Limerick village of 26 IN-HOUSE REPORT Adare in June 1996. 79 GARDA MEMORIAL DAY Church of Ireland Garda Chaplain Archdeacon David Pierpoint told Garda Memorial Day on 19 May that the millions of euro spent on enquiries into alleged abuse, 65 GSRMA SOCIAL OUTINGS corruption or other aspects of An 37 GSRMA PRIVACY POLICY A four-day trip to Northern Ireland Garda Síochána, public bodies or Following the new General Data reviewed, details of a late autumn political life could be put towards Protection Regulation, which break to Ennistymon, Co. Clare in equipping our Gardaí, nurses, came into force on 25 May 2018, November, a four-night escape in teachers and other frontline the Association is now reviewing January to Westport, Co. Mayo, or services with necessary tools, its procedures and updating its jump on board a 13-night cruise to training and education to do their approach to the management of Iceland and the Faroe Islands next job. members’ data to fully reflect and October. embrace the new standard. 70 CENTRAL COMMITTEE (2018-2021) Eight new members, elected to the Central Committee at this year’s ADM in Ennis, Co. Clare, will now join the other seven Central Committee members to form the Board of Management 82 THREAT OF CONSCRIPTION for the Association up to the 2021 The threat of conscription in 43 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Conference. 1918, not the executions of the 1916 Rebellion leaders, provoked the greater national outrage and 58 FREEDOM OF LIMERICK 72 SHORT STORY provided a greater incentive and The Freedom of Limerick has been COMPETITION encouragement for the cause of awarded posthumously to the late Friday 28 September is the deadline Irish Independence, writes Donal J. Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, who date to submit your entries for the O’Sullivan, Tralee Branch. 2 Síocháin CONTENTS 88 CHANGE OF CAREER 96 COMMUNITY POLICING Trevor Laffan, Cork City Branch, As a teenager David O’Carroll, who has been in contact with a Bray Branch, says that his GSRMA EDITORIAL lot of colleagues heading towards attitude regarding the police was BOARD retirement, is surprised at those transformed and coincided in no Paschal Feeney who dread the prospect of small way to meeting a young (Editor & General Secretary) retirement and having to ‘throw in policeman from Abbeyfeale, Co. the towel’. However, he says there’s Limerick. a wonderful life out there beyond retirement. 104 BOOK REVIEWS 91 ABOUT THE GARDEN In his younger days Thomas J. 106 MEMORABILIA PAGE Coen, Roscommon Branch, had Billy Saunderson the impression that all you had to do was to set down the seeds and 109 MEMBERSHIP FORM wait. However, now that he’s been sowing a garden for more years OBITUARY NOTICES than he cares to remember, he has 111 learned something new about this mystery of food growing. 117 ARCHIVE SNAPSHOTS Joe Ward 118 CROSSWORD IN THE FRAME 94 LOOK BACK 120 John Mulligan, Dublin North Branch, says that one of the great things 121 POETRY CORNER about the Guards, (until now that is) was that all recruits came in John O’Brien the same way through the gates of 124 BULLETIN BOARD the Depot or Templemore, as he recalls here the start of 18 weeks in training to become ‘members’. 128 NOTICEBOARD SÍOCHÁIN is published by Ocean Publishing, 14 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2. Tel: 01-6785165; Email: [email protected] Website: www.oceanpublishing.ie Garda Síochána Retired Managing Director: Patrick Aylward Members’ Association, In-House Editor: Grace Heneghan GSRMA House, In-House Designer: Catherine Doyle 5 Harrington Street, PRESS CONCIL OF IRELAND Dublin 8.