An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

An Garda Síochána An analysis of a police force unfit for purpose

Preamble In constitutional democracies, governments must operate within a framework of constitutional rules, which define the powers, structures and functions of governmental institutions and the rights of citizens. However, the framers of the Constitution of Ireland – in operation since December 29 1937 – eschewed any express provision for policing. This left An Garda Síochána vulnerable to the self-serving manipulation and intrigues of governing parties, individual politicians and well-connected national and local elites. An Garda Síochána is directly controlled by, and accountable to, central government. Professor Dermot Walsh, Chair of Law at the University of Limerick, has warned that such “a huge concentration of police power in the hands of central government in the absence of adequate constitutional checks and balances is uncomfortably close to the arrangements associated with a police state.” [1] Professor Walsh’s warning is hugely important, given An Garda Síochána’s “monopoly on the legitimate use of force in civil society”. [2] Police violence can be used to overwhelm and subdue dissent, at the behest of governments. The right to dissent peacefully is a cornerstone of democracy. Civil disobedience and other forms of peaceful protest and dissent, though irksome to governments and ‘The Establishment’, are vital for a healthy society. Mass-dissent is a form of civil activism, an expression of deep- rooted anger in society. The crushing of such dissent suggests authoritarian rule, not democracy. Nevertheless, “the legitimate use of force in civil society” is widely used by police in Western ‘democracies’ to curb dissent, to impose harsh and unpopular – even loathsome – government policies, and to maintain, and magnify, gross inequalities between social classes. Dermot Walsh’s warning – of how some elements of Ireland’s government/ police relationship come “uncomfortably close to the arrangements associated with a police state” – will be addressed throughout this document. A police state is one in which police forces become synonymous with an intolerance towards public dissent, and also synonymous with repression, with criminality and lack of accountability. Such a state is incompatible with democracy. Do we live in a democracy – or in a police state? An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

SHELL HELL

“There has to be a strong, cordial relationship between society and its police force”. (Michael McDowell, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, at 2003 MacGill Summer School).

“Once you come into Erris, all law is suspended. Shell takes over the law.” (Pat ‘The Chief’ O’Donnell, fisherman from Erris, County Mayo). [3]

The evacuation of British troops, which began in January 1922, and the disbanding of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), followed the attainment of Irish independence. AA new police force was set up – the Civic Guard. Shortly after its formation, Civic Guard recruits mutinied at their Kildare training depot. The Civic Guard’s commissioner, Dáil deputy Michael Staines, and fellow officers, had to flee, “pursued by a threatening mob containing many members of the Civic Guard… they had to run for their lives”, according to one report. [4] Ammunition, revolvers and up to 300 rifles were seized by the mutineers. A siege of the depot ensued. It was an extraordinarily inauspicious start for the infant state’s national police force. Staines soon resigned as commissioner. He was succeeded by General Eoin O’Duffy.. In August 1923, the Civic Guard was renamed An Garda Síochána, with O’Duffy as its first commissioner. A man of excessive ostentation, self-laudation and vanity, he was a mercurial, imperious and publicity-seeking demagogue who, in time, delighted in moving in fascist and Nazi circles. A biographer described how he “rubbed shoulders with Oswald Mosley at the Nazi-sponsored International Action of Nationalisms conference in Zurich. He attended a conference in Montreaux organized by a newly formed Italian organization… which brought together the most important fascist organizations outside Germany”. [5] By then, he had been dismissed as Garda commissioner. In 1932, when the Cumann na nGaedheal government – which had appointed O’Duffy Garda commissioner nine years earlier – lost to the de Valera- led Fianna Fáil in a general election, there were rumours and fears of an O’Duffy-led or promoted coup d’etat. Professor of Modern History Joe Lee noted that Commissioner O’Duffy and Cumann na nGaedheal minister for finance Ernest Blythe “were rumoured to want an army coup.” [6] Conor Brady – author of a fine history of An Garda Síochána – related how “As early as six months before the election O’Duffy had been sounding out senior army officers about the possibility of a joint army-Garda takeover in the event of Fianna Fáil winning the next election.” [7] However, no coup occurred. From its earliest years, Ireland’s post-independence police force was dogged by controversy, and by accusations of impropriety, illegality, ineptitude and indiscipline. After his appointment to the force as assistant commissioner, Eamonn Coogan – father of Tim Pat Coogan – inspected a police station in Corofin, County Clare in early 1923. His report was scathing. “When I arrived at the Station, the Sgt sat glowering at me and refused to call the party to attention… Garda – tried to rise but fell into the fireplace. II asked the Sergeant to account for the state of affairs existing at the Station but he replied An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

in such a manner as would do more justice to the worst cornerboy in the slums of London. I searched the barracks and found that a seizure of poteen (three gallons) made on the previous day had been almost consumed by the Station party. The Barrack servant sat with a baton in her hand, protecting the remainder of it and refused to move… I heard noises coming from the rear of the cells… I found three young ladies there. I took statements from them and they complained that when passing the Barracks they were forcibly taken in by Sgt – and Gardas – and – , for a purpose better imagined than described… I found the Sergeant urinating from the front door into the street and he started to argue with me on the footpath with his person exposed.” [8] When police recruits completed their training, they were dispatched to stations around the country, such as Corofin. One of the earliest recruits was Donegal native Michael Canney, who was sent to Rossport, in the remote Barony of Erris in north-west Mayo. Describing life in the area at that time, he wrote that “the good people of Rossport… required no Gardaí to help regulate their honest lives… The people were law-abiding, affable, friendly and free from crime.” As a consequence, “only a few Gardaí were required to enforce the law in that wide area between Blacksod and Killala” – an area stretching around forty miles from west to east. [9] However, over 80 years after Canney’s arrival in Erris, the law-abiding and peaceful area around Rossport had been transformed into a virtual police mini-state. Rossport lies in the parish of Kilcommon, which has a population of probably no more than two thousand men, women and children. In October 2006, around 200 gardaí – including members of the riot squad – were temporarily posted to police the area, ensuring the highest Garda to local population ratio, by far, of any rural community in the entire country. The force’s objectives were not benign. What ensued was a quite startling erosion of civil liberties, human rights and democracy. Essentially, democracy was suspended in the region. The story of the community’s years of suffering and repression, at the hands of An Garda Síochána, began with the October 1996 announcement of a natural gas discovery 83 kilometres off Mayo’s west coast. Called the Corrib Gas Project, the venture represented the second largest – after Intel – inward investment in Ireland. It was proposed that the gas would be piped ashore from the gas field and then through a 99 kilometre high-pressure land pipeline – via the Gaeltacht area of Rossport – to an inland treatment plant at Bellanaboy. Initially, the discovery was greeted enthusiastically by the vast majority of local residents, who hoped that the region was on the cusp of an economic boom. However, as time passed, a handful of locals began to raise the possibility of an explosion in the onshore section of the pipeline. Later, people became concerned about the health implications of a run-off of aluminium-containing water from the gas treatment plant site at Bellanaboy into Carrowmore Lake, the main source of drinking water for people in the region. Aluminium has been blamed by some as a causal factor in breast cancer and as a neuro-toxin that can cause Alzheimers Disease. The original route proposed for the high-pressure natural gas onshore pipeline passed within 70 metres of two homes, even closer to a local public road, and was a few hundred metres away from Rossport’s two schools, its pub and other residences. Fearful of the dangers posed by the pipeline to the lives and safety of their own families, their friends An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

and neighbours – their community – a few locals began to engage in a campaign of peaceful resistance and hindrance. Civil disobedience. On June 29 2005, five local men – dubbed the Rossport 5 – were committed to prison, for an indefinite period, for contempt of a court order, obtained by the Shell-led gas project consortium. The court order barred protestors from continuing their small-scale non-violent obstruction of Shell personnel, who were ‘trespassing’ on private land, without the owners’ consent. When the men’s imprisonment sparked a wave of anti- Shell anger, and daily protests began at its Bellanaboy site, the multinational performed an unexpected u-turn. It lifted its court injunction, enabling the five men to walk free, after 94 days behind bars. With many former supporters of the Shell project now opposing it, governmental behaviour towards the area shifted alarmingly towards authoritarianism. With the arrival of the 150-200 gardaí in October 2006, the parish of Kilcommon resembled a place under siege by police – a virtual police state, where people endured Garda surveillance and harassment, arrest, imprisonment, the crushing of dissent by the State through police violence and a constant pressure to conform with the government’s will, and with Shell’s interests. October 2006 marked the beginning of the most intensive, intrusive, prolonged and violent public-order policing operation in a small area in the entire history of the State. If, as the government claimed, the Corrib Gas Project was overwhelmingly supported by the local community, such a large police presence and such forceful tactics would not have been necessary. In early 2007, just months after the huge influx of outside gardaí, the area was visited by international human rights and environmental justice investigators representing the US- based Global Community Monitor. Their report noted evidence of “excessive physical force by Gardaí against peaceful protestors… which resulted in serious injury.” It told of how protestors “were followed and confronted by Gardaí when they were about the community on their private matters. Gardaí have appeared in plain clothes at public anti- pipeline events, resulting in other people present feeling intimidated… There is evidence from videos of youth, women and the elderly being pushed and beaten by Gardaí without provocation. Even high ranking officers were personally involved in beating upup protestors… Emergency response and medical treatment to injured protestors was denied and delayed by Gardaí without justification.” There was also evidence of gardaí “verbally threatening people without cause, which appeared to incite violence rather than diffuse it.” [10] Journalist Michael McCaughan has remarked on the strong-arm tactics of gardaí. “Anyone who has watched the endless hours of [video] footage from these [Bellanaboy] incidents will see a police force out of control and lacking a strategy for what is a minor disturbance on a remote country road.” [11] What especially gave the community a sense of living in a police mini-state was the violence perpetrated against them, with apparent impunity. There was a pervasive belief among anti-pipeline protestors that gardaí had been given some form of governmental exemption from prosecution and punishment for any repressive or thuggish actions used by them against campaigners. In February 2007, Global Community Monitor held a public meeting in Erris, at which a panel of five international environmentalists and human rights specialists heard the An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

testimony of protestors about alleged police brutality. Ed Collins, an American-born resident in the area told of how he had “been beaten, assaulted, kicked, choked, punched… I have been kicked and battered from day one… charged at, kicked at, kneed in the face when we sat down on the road”. He told of how, at a protest on the morning of November 10 2006, he was walking down the road, away from the protest, heading home. A female garda, he claimed, grabbed him and then “laid in a series of kicks at my legs, she kicked me in the privates, she kicked me in my groin. I bent over. She grabbed me by my camera strap… All of a sudden a Garda [number provided]… came running, charging, at me with kicks.” Ed fell, with the female garda, into a deep drain. He was brought to hospital in an ambulance. His “blood pressure was 193:120… I hhI ad serious contusion in my lower back and I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t feel my feet, I couldn’t move my toes for three days in the hospital… It seems that I was kicked so forcibly in the back of the knee that my leg and my knee is going two different directions”. [12] Although his version of events has been contradicted by An Garda Síochána, for a considerable period afterwards he was confined to a wheelchair, unable to walk, and subsequently had to use crutches and pain-killers. Over four years after being injured, he was getting about with the aid of a walking stick. He has had recurring back problems. Betty Noone, a 63 year old grandmother, told of how she had travelled from Killala – around 30 miles away – “to see for myself what was happening.” She alleged that at the November 10 protest, she was lifted off her feet by a garda and thrown over the side of the road towards a water-filled drain, perhaps seven or eight feet below the road. Her “feet were caught in briars and I was thrown face down. As I landed half-way down, I was aware of a large rock sticking out and my leg lodged against that… the pain was excruciating. I was totally shocked. Some people helped me up.” She explained how anan ambulance arrived, “and injured people were being taken to it. I approached one Garda [name provided]… and said, ‘I need medical assistance and I need it fast’. He looked at me and he said, ‘What’s the matter?’ I said, ‘My leg is injured’, and at this stage it wasas absolutely swollen to the tightness of the trousers I was wearing. He looked to the right to another Garda and he said, ‘She’s hurt her leg, oh dear, she’s hurt her leg.’” She believed her leg was fractured. “I went to the hospital that same day… and since that, and even now, I have a large haematoma” [a collection of blood forming a swelling], she told the hearing three months after the incident. She also told of how three gardaí grabbed one lady, “dragged her to the side [of the road] and she tried to get up, and as a third Garda left her… he kicked her. I screamed and shouted for the cameras to come, because that was our only weapon that day. We were totally and completely non-violent that day and the cameras were the only protection we had, and if we had cameras the Gardaí stopped abusing people”. Betty had driven to the protest with another Killala grandmother, Phyllis Regan, who was thrown to the ground by a female garda, but suffered no injury. Pat Coyle told the hearing how on January 19 2007, he got hit on the front of the head and then was hit “on the back of the head with what felt like a baton”, knocking him to the ground. He got a front tooth knocked out and had a cut on his forehead. Siobhán McDonnell told of how her lower back was injured and ribs bruised on October 11 2006, when she was knocked to the ground by gardaí. Subsequently, she attended a chiropractor – “at the very start for about two months, twice or three times a week.” An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

Pat ‘The Chief’ O’Donnell told of an occasion when a garda “jumped up on my knees”, stamping on him with his heels, while Pat was sitting on the road. He “couldn’t walk for two or three days.” At a November 10 2006 protest – at a local quarry – he sustained bad bruising to his ribs when assaulted on the ground by two or three gardaí, necessitating a visit to a hospital. On another occasion, a few gardaí held him while another hit him with “four or five punches in the face… about a week after, my teeth fell out”. His brother Martin told of how, on November 10, he himself was struck on the chin bone with a loud-hailer by an identified senior officer. He also told of how, on January 18 2007, when he went to save his brother, who was being beaten up, two gardaí grabbed him and two others pounded him. “I got two stitches in my eye and I got a chipped bone in the back of my neck”. Fourteen year old Céire McGrath told of how she sustained “damage to the tendons and soft tissue of the shoulder joint” when hit by a garda on October 26 2006. Six days later, she was hit by a garda on the same arm, which was in a sling, injuring it again. The Global Community Monitor panel noted that it requested meetings with the Gardaí and with the local planning authority, Mayo County Council, “but these requests were rejected.” The Garda assault on Pat O’Donnell at the quarry was witnessed by a Galway student, Sarah Clancy. In a statement to the Garda Complaints Board, she told of how she had seen him being thrown to the ground, with “first two, then one garda kneeling on his back… they pressed his face into the dirt, all the while hitting him with batons… There were four gardaí at least involved in this.” She also saw a female classmate being punched in the stomach. Sarah was subsequently interviewed by the Garda Complaints Board, which concluded that there had been “no breach of either discipline or protocol” by gardaí. [13] The events of November 10 2006 – during which people were savagely batoned and thrown like sacks of rubbish into the air, to fall into a drain far below the road – were widely shown on television and in the documentary film The Pipe, and were reported on in the following day’s newspapers. The day marked a watershed in the dispute. In that month’s Garda Review magazine, Superintendent Joe Gannon, district officer for the area, explained that a “no arrests” policy had recently been decided upon. “That was part of our strategy: we did not want to facilitate anyone down there with a route to martyrdom. That has been the policy ever since.” Batons and overwhelming Garda numbers were, it seemed, to replace arrests as a means to quell dissent. What occurred on November 10 was a bitter foretaste of what was still to come, with the apparent imprimatur of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. On the day of the baton assaults, he told RTE correspondent Eileen Magnier that “negotiation is over. The rule of law has to be implemented… And if there are those who try to frustrate that, they’re breaking the law and it’s a matter for the Gardaí to enforce it”. “There’s a danger of someone getting seriously hurt”, Magnier suggested. “Well, that’s always the danger when you have people breaking the law”, Ahern replied. The pipeline controversy had become a law and order issue, rather than a civil liberties or human rights issue. Law and order concerns can be, conveniently, concocted to justify even the most absurd and anti-people governmental policies and activities, and also to excuse completely disproportionate responses by a state’s security agencies. In Erris, under the pretext of enforcing law and order, people were criminalised for seeking An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose changes to a project that threatened their community’s health, safety and lives. People’s rights were ignored. Existing regulations were changed, to meet Shell’s needs. Democratic principles were jettisoned. The struggle of a small community for human dignity and for human and civil rights was being brutally opposed by a powerful alliance of the ruling political parties, a mega- corporation with a dismal human rights record, and the State’s police force. It was a very unequal contest – ostensibly powerless peasants against seemingly near- omnipotent and invincible corporate and political foes. A political decision had clearly been taken to resolve the impasse through physical force and violence, rather than through negotiation and consultation. An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

Guardians of the Peace?

“In a democracy, there is no uglier spectacle than the power of the State being used against its own citizens. In fact, it’s not even compatible with the notion of democracy. Only totalitarian states operate as if the interests of the State were more important than the needs of the people.” (Fergus Finlay, former chief adviser to Labour Party leader Dick Spring). [14]

Since its earliest years, An Garda Síochána – and its predecessor, the Civic Guard – displayed a strange penchant for violence. The infant state’s affairs were, to an alarming extent, conducted through coercion In September 1922, just months after the formation of the Civic Guard, policing took a sinister turn when post-independent Ireland’s first trades dispute occurred. Demonstrations by striking Irish Postal Workers Union members were brutally suppressed, on the orders of the government, by gardaí and soldiers. A female striker in Dublin was shot at, but had a lucky escape when the bullet was deflected by a suspender buckle. It had become “dangerous to be dissident” historian Diarmaid Ferriter observed. He wondered if the country was experiencing “a class war with a government overly hostile to workers”. [15] In 1929, gardaí badly beat up an IRA member in Clare, leaving him unconscious. In the Dáil, on July 31, Minister for Justice James Fitzgerald-Kenney (Cumann na nGaedheal) asserted that the injuries were the result of a kick from a cow on the victim’s own farm. The gardaí involved later planned to drown the same victim, but were foiled when their superiors learned of their plans. Conor Brady (later editor of the Irish Times and a commissioner in the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission) has written about “the development from about the end of 1923 onwards, of the problem of maltreatment of prisoners. In Wicklow, Waterford, Cork and Tipperary and later in Clare there were allegations of severe ill-treatment of prisoners in custody, many of whom were never even charged. O’Duffy was later to confess in 1929 that the problem had been serious.” [16] In March 1934, the Irish Press revealed that gardaí serving under O’Duffy had been dismissed for drunkenness, assault, theft, incompetence and non-performance of duties. The Garda Index to Special Files, 1929-1945, reported excessive drinking of alcohol by some gardaī in Dublin. It also alleged “widespread bribery of gardaí by the butchers union” in 1938. In August 1934, members of the Garda S-Branch – an armed wing of the police, which was formed by the recently-elected de Valera government and was comprised of Fianna Fáil supporters – opened fire on farmers protesting in Cork City, killing a 15-year old boy and wounding several men. Assigned a central role, by the government, in the sphere of social control, An Garda Síochána had considerable discretionary powers and flexibility in maintaining a compliant and obeisant working class. People protesting against injustices or opposing government policies and programmes risked being singled out for ‘special treatment’ by the police. Dissent was unwelcome, often punishable. An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

Culture of Impunity

“The Gardaí are beset by allegations. Corruption in the Morris Inquiry in Donegal, poor judgement and over reaction in the Abbeylara Inquiry in Longford, indiscipline and misbehaviour in 70 legal actions which were settled on the steps of the courts and cost the taxpayer £6 million in the last five years… There has been a growing sense of remoteness between the community and the Gardaí. For some considerable time there is a growing belief that the Gardaí are never around when needed; that it is not worth reporting public order offences because nothing will be done; that there is a sense that the Gardaí have disengaged from the community and that they are only to be seen flashing around in squad cars. The citizens of Ireland no longer believe that they are living in a secure environment.” (Labour deputy Joe Costello at the 2003 MacGill Summer School).

At around 1.30 am on April 25 1998, two Dublin sisters – both fashion designers from Castleknock – were strolling with friends in the narrow city-centre Grafton Street, a pedestrianised zone. When an unmarked Garda car reversed at speed towards the group, one of the two, alarmed, impulsively thumped the vehicle’s boot to alert the driver that he was endangering pedestrians’ lives. What followed was terrifyingly nightmarish. She later alleged that men sprang from the car, violently grabbed and handcuffed her and shoved her into the back of a nearby Garda van. She had been arrested, as was her younger sister, when she sought to intervene. The eldest claimed that, en route to a police station, she was pinned down by a garda, who sat on her back. Again and again, he smashed her head against the van’s floor. At the station, she was pushed out of the van, falling head-first to the concrete. The two siblings were placed in cells. Shortly afterwards, witnesses to the dramatic encounter in Grafton Street arrived at the station. The sisters were then released, without being charged with any offence. Courageously, they both sued the Garda Commissioner, the Minister for Justice and the State. The Garda response? In what appeared to be a vindictive prosecution, both women were charged with being drunk and disorderly and assaulting a Garda officer. The charges were dismissed by the District Court. In July 2002, the High Court was told that the sisters’ legal actions had been settled – that the Garda defendants apologised for what had happened and acknowledged the women were of “unblemished character”. They received undisclosed damages. Their ordeal – which had lasted for over four years – was finally over. Their previously untainted reputations were restored, that of An Garda Síocána tarnished. A few weeks before the sisters’ High Court hearing, peaceful participants in a Reclaim the Streets protest in Dublin’s city centre were thrashed by baton-swinging gardaí. Subsequently, the chairman of the Garda Complaints Board revealed that not one of the 150 gardaí policing the event had been willing to name colleagues responsible for the assaults. Gardaí were deliberately covering up brutality and indiscipline. A reported twelve protesters needed medical treatment and twelve were arrested. Without the presence of video cameras, which recorded some of the assaults, it is unlikely that any investigation would have been held into the actions of rogue gardaí. Some members of the force wore no identifying letters and numbers. An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

In January 2004, Minister of State Dick Roche (FF) alleged that an 18-year old male constituent in Wicklow had been attacked by gardaí while in custody. “He had injuries to his head and injuries to his body. He had bruising and had a dreadfully nasty injury right under his chin”. The mistreatment was equivalent to “torture”, Mr. Roche claimed. [66] On September 12 2009, an inebriated 29 year old man was assaulted in Cork’s city centre. In an unequal confrontation, he got an “unmerciful beating”, was knocked unconscious, and was left with fractured cheek bones, a broken nose, broken teeth and bleeding to the brain. An off-duty garda was given a six-month prison sentence for the assault. However, around twenty-four hours later, he left the court a free man – after spending just one night in prison. His barrister had argued that a garda would face a more difficult time than other prisoners. The judge agreed, and cancelled the sentence he had delivered the previous day. “Do gardaí now have immunity to break the law and not face a custodial sentence?”, a Sunday Times editorial asked. [67] On January 29 2010, a man was assaulted by gardaí in Waterford. He had been caught peeing in a street. He was hit around the head, pepper-sprayed and kicked in the head while on the ground. A female Garda sergeant was given a suspended sentence. Two male colleagues were jailed, one for attempting to pervert the course of justice by turning a CCTV camera away from the incident, while manning the Garda CCTV room. In November of the same year, a large student protest took place in Dublin against fee increases. They were confronted by members of the Garda Public Order Unit – or riot squad – and by mounted police and police dogs. Several were hit with batons. One bloody-faced music student told the Sunday Times of how he was hit on the top of the head while passing through the crowd and hit twice in the face with a baton when he sat down. He later received seven stitches. Occasionally, such incidents are recorded by newspaper photojournalists and television cameramen. Loathe to have their savagery exposed in the public domain, gardaí have, at times, assaulted the photographers and cameramen. In March 1975, IRA member Tom Smith was buried in Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery. The Irish Press newspaper group sent three photojournalists to cover the event. Immediately after the hearse passed through the cemetery gates, they were forcibly closed by gardaí, who then began to baton some of the few mourners who had managed to gain access to the grounds. While photographing these assaults, one of the Irish Press photographers, Dick Rowley, was briefly knocked unconscious – hit with a Garda baton to the back of his head. It is a blow that should only be used in the most extreme circumstances, since it can have fatal repercussions. Two days later, when an Evening Press reporter phoned a Dublin Garda station about unrelated matters, he was asked about the state of the injured photographer’s health. When told that it appeared he was okay, the garda replied “that’s a pity”, and immediately hung up the phone. The assault on Mr. Rowley had been reported in a few newspapers. He subsequently became depressed. Admitted to a hospital, he was found to have a brain tumour, which was removed. For a while, he resumed his work as a photographer. Tragically, his life was soon cut short when he died from a brain haemorrhage. While the illegal blow to his head cannot be proved to have initiated the sequence of health-related events, nevertheless it is difficult for some people who knew him as a very active, fit and healthy person to accept that the blow had no bearing on the death of a person regarded by friends and colleagues as a wonderful human being – known widely An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

as a person who had devoted much of his free time to developing the game of basketball in Ireland. He had been the co-founder, with Roy Curtis, of Corinthians basketball club, for long one of the country’s premier clubs. The blow to his head was an illegal act of thuggery and cowardice. Years earlier, Eddie Kelly, an Irish Times staff photographer, was also the victim of Garda violence. On August 1 1957, Eddie – described in that paper as “one of the last gentlemen press photographers in Ireland” and as “one of the quietest men on the planet” – was arrested and had his camera broken while photographing IRA prisoners being transported from Mountjoy Prison to the Curragh internment camp. [68] Dick Rowley and Eddie Kelly were just two of several press photographers during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s who were harassed, arrested, assaulted or had their cameras and/or films confiscated by gardaí – almost certainly illegally , since the photographers were not breaking the law. When confiscated films were returned, there was a possibility that they had been deliberately exposed to light by gardaí, and were therefore unprintable. Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of a functioning democracy. Attacks on journalists by, ostensible, ‘guardians of the peace’, are indicative of a drift towards repressive rule – towards a police state. Like almost all other acts of Garda violence, no inquiry was held into the assaults on Dick Rowley and Eddie Kelly. In a functioning democracy, ordinary citizens should have an expectation that they can go about their daily lives without being assaulted and/or arrested on the mere whim of thuggish gardaí.. The work of investigative journalists writing about Garda wrongdoing is made very difficult by the almost complete absence of whistleblowers within the force. Garda Mary T. O’Connor was one of that rare and courageous breed. In a 2005 book, she told of her experiences in the force. She told of gardaí using handcuffed prisoners’ heads “as a door opener”; of a garda who “would deliberately throw buckets of cold water” on top of people sleeping on the steps outside the station; of a Traveller in a Dublin Garda station sprayed directly in the face from an air-freshener, apparently because he smelled; of how “Knackers, gougers, blacks, refugees and almost every minority group there is come in for a lot of negative comment and rough treatment among some Gardaí. No one I know beyond probation has ever been censured for it, so it is allowed to fester”; of how a concerned citizen, who told a garda in Dublin’s city centre that there was a “jumper” on a nearby bridge, was told that “If someone wants to kill themselves, well that’s their own prerogative”; of how, during her time in the force, she had only one lecture on moral ethics; of how gardaí, responsible for enforcing the law, broke it with impunity, “being allowed to drink in pubs until six o’clock in the morning because we were Gardaí”. [69] In journalistic circles in Dublin, stories circulated about alleged threats of repercussions for bar owners if they did not facilitate thirsty gardaí after hours. To antagonise some gardaí could, it was believed, have serious consequences. It was more prudent to ingratiate oneself with them. Banging prisoners’ heads against doors, throwing cold water on homeless people, spraying a Traveller in the face, jeering and physically abusing people from minority groups, refusing to help a person who may have been about to commit suicide – such outrageous actions suggest gardaí with little compassion, love for their fellow human beings, concept of justice, any leadership qualities, any moral sensibilities or any real sense of what role a member of An Garda Síochána should play in Irish society. Such An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

Dundalk Garda Station

Justice Frederick R. Morris – who chaired the Morris Tribunal – observed that after “several more months of hearings into Garda corruption in Donegal, the spirit wearies at the lies, obfuscations, concealments and conspiracies to destroy the truth”. [85] However, he concluded that gross wrongdoing within An Garda Síochána was not limited to its Donegal division. “Of the Gardaí serving in Donegal, it cannot be said that they are unrepresentative or an aberration from the generality.” [86] Another tribunal, chaired by Judge Peter Smithwick, concluded that some gardaí, in County Louth had collaborated with the Provisional IRA, and that somebody in Dundalk Garda station had colluded with the IRA in the murder of two RUC officers. On March 20 1989, two unarmed senior RUC officers, Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan, attended a meeting in Dundalk Garda station. Shortly after leaving the station, both were fatally wounded in an IRA ambush near Jonesboro in south Armagh. Years later, on April 13 2000, Fine Gael deputy Jim Higgins told the Dáil he had the names of two gardaí who, allegedly, colluded with the Provisional IRA in the deaths of twelve people, including the two RUC men. Democratic Unionist Party MP Jeffrey Donaldson, under House of Commons privilege, identified one of the two as a former member of the Garda force in Dundalk, Detective Sergeant Owen Corrigan. In December 2013, the Smithwick Tribunal report was published. Judge Smithwick was “satisfied that there was collusion in the murders” of the two RUC officers, and held that “the evidence points to the fact that there was someone within the [Dundalk] Garda station assisting the IRA”. [87] Judge Smithwick found that former Detective Sergeant Owen Corrigan had engaged in “a series of inappropriate dealings with the Provisional IRA going back until at least mid- 1991”. He found, “as a fact, on a strong balance of probabilities”, that former Garda Sergeant Leo Colton had “assisted the Provisional IRA” [88] in 1995 and 1996, through helping in the processing of false passport applications. However, he argued that the evidence was not “of sufficient substance” to establish that Corrigan had colluded in the fatal shootings of the RUC men and “that the evidence does not establish that [Leo Colton] colluded with the Provisional IRA in the murders of the two officers.” [89] Even before the murder of the two RUC officers – there were suspicions within both An Garda Síochána and the RUC that some gardaí in the Dundalk station were collaborating with the Provisional IRA. Two days after the killings, Mr. Breen’s staff officer, Sergeant Alan Mains, made a statement about a conversation he had with Mr. Breen, just hours before the ambush. The trip to Dundalk related to cross-border smuggling by Tom ‘Slab’ Murphy, later chief of staff of the Provisional IRA. Mr. Mains stated that “Mr. Breen highlighted the fact that he was uneasy about travelling down to Dundalk… he felt that ‘Slab’ Murphy had contacts within the Garda and to this end he felt he could not trust certain Garda Síochána members… he felt that certain members of the Garda were on Murphy’s payroll.” [90] Years after the murders, Mains told the Smithwick Tribunal that Mr. Breen, especially, did not trust Owen Corrigan. Nor did Bob Buchanan. Garda Superintendent Tom Curran told the tribunal that Bob Buchanan had told him that “the RUC had information that Detective Sergeant Owen Corrigan in Dundalk was An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose associating, unnecessarily associating with the IRA”. [91] Former Garda Detective Superintendent Tom Connolly told the tribunal that it was “fairly well known” that Corrigan was “being talked about as possibly or maybe or suspected of being at some type of smuggling or in cahoots with the IRA in some way.” [92] Former Garda Detective Inspector Sean O’Connell told the tribunal that the general opinion within the force was that there “was something dodgy going on” in the Dundalk station, and that the word “dodgy” was often applied to Corrigan. [93] (On February 25 2014, the High Court in Dublin granted Owen Corrigan permission to challenge some of the Smithwick Tribunal findings). Corrigan’s colleague in Dundalk, Sergeant Leo Colton, had IRA ties. He provided a letter supporting an application for a trade plate certificate for one Brian Ruddy, falsely claiming that Ruddy was a bona fide garage owner. In a report on this matter, Chief Superintendent Burns stated that Ruddy “associates with leading members of the PIRA [Provisional IRA] in the Dundalk area and is deeply involved in the illegal cattle hormone and growth promotion trade”. [94] In September 1998, Sergeant Finbarr Hickey of Hackballscross Garda station, north of Dundalk, was arrested and questioned about signing eight false passport applications, certifying the identities of the applicants. Three of the eight passports issued came into the possession of active members of the IRA. Sergeant Hickey alleged that he had been asked to sign the forms by Sergeant Colton, which Colton denied. Hickey pleaded guilty to four charges and served a one-year prison sentence. An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

More Garda wrongdoing and ineptitude

Judge Smithwick commented on the reluctance of gardaí to give testimony that might damage the reputation of their force. He wrote that he was “drawn to the conclusion that a number of the Garda witnesses before this Tribunal, including former and current senior Gardaí, were not fully forthcoming in their evidence to me.” [95] He noted that only two senior gardaí openly and frankly admitted to hearing of unease about the trustworthiness of some members in the Dundalk area. This, he opined, “suggests that there is an ingrained culture of prioritising loyalty to the good name of the force over the legal, moral and ethical obligation owed to give truthful evidence to the Tribunal.” [96] Elsewhere in the report he asserted that “there prevails in An Garda Síochána today a prioritisation of the protection of the good name of the force over the protection of those who seek to tell the truth. Loyalty is prized above honesty.” [97] He was not alone in expressing his dismay at the unreliability of some Garda witnesses. A few judges have commented on the propensity of gardaí for lying. In January 2004, retired Circuit Court judge Anthony Murphy alleged on a Prime Time programme that there had “been occasions when the guards have committed perjury in my court.” [98] Weeks later, on April Fools Day, “an utterly shocked” Judge Mary Devins stunned attendees at Westport District Court when she adjourned a court sitting after a garda admitted making a false statement. Holding that the prosecution case was tainted with irregularities, “or much worse”, she wondered “whether this has happened before. Is there frequently or ever collusion between arresting gardaí and arrested persons? Are deals done and statements altered? Do gardaí take on the role of the judiciary?” [99] Journalist Vincent Browne, a barrister, has also commented on this issue. “Anyone with experience of the criminal courts will say that the incidence of perjury on the part of Garda witnesses is part and parcel of the system. Gardaí tell lies under oath often without thought nowadays. Not all gardaí do so, but very many do so.” [100] One can only speculate as to how many miscarriages of justice have occurred in Irish courts due to Garda perjury, or tampering with evidence. Then there is the issue of Garda incompetence. Gross Garda ineptitude was a major factor in the death of 27-year old John Carthy in the Longford village of Abbeylara. On April 20 2000, he was killed when hit by four shots fired by two members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit. Subsequently, a tribunal of inquiry was set up, under the chairmanship of Mr. Justice Robert Barr. Concluding that Garda management at the scene was “defective… and fell far short of what was required to contend with the situation successfully and to minimise the risk to life”, he listed 23 Garda “command failures” which contributed to John Carthy’s death. It was a list of shameful Garda inadequacy and bungling. [101] John Carthy had reason to be distrustful of policemen. In September 1998, he had been arrested, falsely accused of malicious damage and, Carthy claimed, been physically assaulted by Garda officers, while in detention. Mr. Justice Barr wrote in his report that he did “not accept the evidence of Gardaí Bruen and McHugh that neither of them physically abused the subject while under interrogation after an unjustified arrest and charging with a substantial crime.” [102] An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

Compiled by: - Tom Hanahoe (former journalist, Irish Press newspaper group). Terence Conway (Spokesperson Shell to Sea). John Monaghan (Spokesperson Pobal Chill Chomáin). An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

NOTES

1; Irish Times June 9 2007. Paul Cullen, ‘Political Control of Garda attacked’. 2; Vicky Conway, The Blue Wall of Silence (Dublin; Irish Academic Press, 2010), p.1. 3; Risteard Ō Domhnaill’s film documentary The Pipe (2011). 4; Quoted in Tom Garvin, 1922; The Birth of Irish Democracy (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2005), p.114. 5; Fearghal McGarry, Eoin O’Duffy: A Self-Made Hero (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p.275. 6; JJ Lee, Ireland 1912-1985: Politics and Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p.175. 7; Conor Brady, Guardians of the Peace (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1974), p.167. 8; Timothy Pat Coogan, Ireland Since the Rising (London: Pall Mall Press, 1966), p.48. 9; Western People, April 24 2012 – citing article by retired garda Michael Canney, Garda Review magazine, October 1977. 10; Report of an International Fact Finding Delegation to County Mayo, Ireland February 23-27, 2007 (http://www.gcmonitor.org/article.php?id=598 11; Michael McCaughan, The Price of our Souls: Gas, Shell and Ireland (Dublin: Afri, 2008), p.120. 12; For testimony of witnesses see http://www.gcmonitor.org/article.php?id=576 and http://www.gcmonitor.org/downloads/glenamoy hearingtrans.pdf 13; Lorna Siggins, Once upon a time in the West: The Corrib Gas controversy (London: Transworld Ireland, 2010), pp 214-215. 14; Fergus Finlay, Notes from the Margins: A Decade of Irish Life (Dublin: Hachette Books, 2009), p.43. 15; See The Limits of Liberty, presented by Diarmaid Ferriter, shown on RTE One television, June 1 2010. Also Diarmaid Ferriter, The Transformation of Ireland 1900- 2000 (London: Profile Books, 2005), p.256. 16; Conor Brady, Guardians of the Peace, p. 115. 17; Donal Ō Drisceoil, Peadar O’Donnell (Cork: Cork University Press, 2001), p. 61. 18; Conor Brady, Guardians of the Peace, p.217. 19; Western People, February 26 1938, ‘Exciting time at Ballina Quay’. 20; Irish Press, February 18 1938, ‘Ballina Dock Scenes’. 21; Western People, February 26 1938, ‘Exciting Time at Ballina Quay’. 22; Diarmaid Ferriter, The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000, p. 492. 23; John Horgan, Noel Browne: Passionate Outsider (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2000), p.191. 24; Garret FitzGerald, All in a Life (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1991), p. 48. 25: Diarmaid Ferriter, The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000, p.490. 26; Noel Browne, Against the Tide (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1986), pp. 254-255. 27; Ibid, p. 255. 28; Brian Hanley & Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers’ Party (Dublin: Penguin Ireland, 2009), p. 239. 29; Brendan Ryan, Keeping Us in the Dark: Censorship and Freedom of information in Ireland ( Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1995), p. 54. 30; Conor Brady, Guardians of the Peace, p. ix. An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

31: Patsy McGarry, While Justice Slept (Dublin: Liffey Press, 2006), pp.244-245. 32; Kevin Farrell, It’s all news to me (Dublin: Paperweight Publications,2011), pp. 35 and 37. 33; Robert Allen and Tara Jones, Guests of the Nation: People of Ireland versus the Multinationals (London: Earthscan Publications, 1990), p.105. 34; Ibid., p. 109. 35; Irish Times, June 8 2005, Peter Murtagh, ‘A law unto himself in a strange and menacing era’. 36: Joe Joyce & Peter Murtagh, The Boss: Charles J. Haughey in government (Dublin: Poolbeg Press, 1986), pp. 272-273. 37; Fearghal McGarry, Eoin O’Duffy: A Self-Made Hero, p. 116. 38; Bruce Arnold, Jack Lynch: Hero in Crisis (Dublin: Merlin, 2001), pp. 123, 126. 39; Brendan Ryan, Keeping Us in the Dark , p. 53. 40: Hibernia magazine, April 18 1975. 41: Patsy McGarry, While Justice Slept , pp. 46-47. 42; Garret FitzGerald, All in a Life, p. 313. 43; Irish Times, December 31 2007, Stephen Collins, “Lynch urged to act on Amnesty report into Garda ‘heavy gang’”. 44; Joe Joyce & Peter Murtagh, Blind Justice (Dublin: Poolbeg Press, 1984, p.124. 45; Ibid., p.335. 46; Ibid., pp. 337-338. 47; Derek Dunne & Gene Kerrigan, Round Up The Usual Suspects: The Cosgrave Coalition and Nicky Kelly (Dublin: Magill Publications, 1984), pp. 205-207. 48; Report of the Tribunal of Inquiry – Set up Pursuant to the Tribunal of Inquiry (Evidence) Acts 1921-2002 into Certain Gardaí in the Donegal Division [The Morris Tribunal], Term of Reference (i) – 6.09. 49; Ibid., Term of Reference (a) and (b) – 1.07. 50; Ibid., Term of Reference (a) and (b) – 5.109. 51; Ibid., Term of Reference (b), (d) and (f) – 3.21. 52; Ibid., Term of Reference (b), (d) and (f) – 3.144. 53; Ibid., Term of Reference (b), (d) and (f) – 4.183(2). 54; Gerard Cunningham, Chaos and Conspiracy: The Framing of the McBrearty Family (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2009), p. 189. 55; Ibid., pp. 204, 215, 250, 320. 56: Morris Tribunal Report, Term of Reference (h) – 3.309. 57; Ibid., Term of Reference (a) and (b) – 1.61 and 1.73. 58; Irish Times March 22 2007, Mary Carolan, Paul Cullen and Conor Lally, ‘Nightclub owner awarded increased damages’. 59; Morris Tribunal Report, Term of Reference (i), pp. 258 and 140. 60; Ibid., Term of Reference (i), p. 187. 61: Ibid., Term of Reference (i), 6.10. 62; Ibid., Term of Reference (g), p.52. 63: Karen McGlinchey, Charades: Adrienne McGlinchey and the Donegal Gardaí (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2005), p. 272. 64; Morris Tribunal Report, Term of Reference (a) and (b), 9.25 and 9.28. 65; Ibid., Term of Reference (a) and (b), 1.12. An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

66; Irish Times January 9 2004, Conor Lally and Mark Hennessy, ‘Commissioner concerned at retired judge’s allegations’. 67; Sunday Times May 29 2011, ‘Time for a fresh look at leniency for gardaí’. See also, Irish Examiner May 28 2011, Liam Heylin and Jennifer Hough, ‘Jail too hard for garda; judge’. 68; Irish Times March 13 2010 and February 1 2014. 69; Mary T. O’Connor, On the Beat: A woman’s life in the Garda Síochána (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2005), pp. 187, 185, 191, 193, 187, 196. 70; See Sunday Times May 19 2013, Matt Cooper, ‘Penalty points scandal is another fine mess we can’t ignore’’; Irish Times May 17 2013, Conor Lally, Garda investigated for points fraud’. 71; See Sunday Independent March 16 2014, Jody Corcoran, ‘Callinan and Shatter still have their careers on line’. 72; Martin Callinan and John O’Mahoney at Public Accounts Committee hearing, January 23 2014. 73; Irish Times March 26 2014, Colin Gleeson, ‘Misconduct within force ‘frightening’, claims whistleblower’. 74; The Phoenix magazine September 6 2013, ‘New INM Code: Don’t mess with the cops’. 75; Clare Daly TD, Dáil Ēireann December 4 2012. 76; Mick Wallace TD, Dáil Ēireann February 26 2014. 77; Mick Wallace TD to Pat Kenny, RTE Radio 1 May 20 2013. 78; Quoted in Irish Times May 18 2013, Mary Minahan and Conor Lally, ‘Shatter defends disclosing Wallace Garda information’. 79; Pat Flynn, Catherine and Friends (Dublin: Liberties Press, 2010), pp. 58, 56. 80; Karen McGlinchey, Charades, p. 5. 81; Ibid., pp. 6-7. 82; Ibid., p. 7. 83; Sunday Independent November 26 1978, Hugh Leonard Column. 84; Eamon Dunphy, The Rocky Road (Dublin: Penguin Ireland, 2013), p. 318. 85; Morris Tribunal Report, Term of Reference (a) and (b) – 1.105. 86; Ibid., Term of Reference (i) – 6.02. 87; Report of the Tribunal of Inquiry into suggestions that members of An Garda Síochána or other employees of the State colluded in the fatal shootings of RUC Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and RUC Superintendent Robert Buchanan on the 20th March 1989 [The Smithwick Report]. – 23.2.5. 88; Ibid., 23.2.7 and 23.2.8. 89; Ibid., 23.2.7 and 23.2.11. 90; Ibid., 6.1.10. 91; Ibid., 10.2.1. 92; Ibid., 11.2.3. 93; Ibid., 11.2.6. 94; Ibid., 11.12.3. 95; Ibid., 11.2.11. 96; Ibid., 11.2.11 and 11.2.8. 97; Ibid, 10.6.11. An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

98; Irish Times January 9 2004, Conor Lally and Mark Hennessy, ‘Commissioner concerned at retired judge’s allegations’ – citing RTE Prime Time interview. 99; Western People April 7 2004, Michael Gallagher, ‘Judge: Can I trust Gardaí in Mayo?’. Irish Times April 2 2004, “Case dismissed after statement altered to save ‘embarrassment’”. 100; Irish Times July 26 2006, Vincent Browne, ‘Culture of Garda is flawed’. 101; Report of the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Facts and Cicumstances Surrounding the Fatal Shooting of John Carthy at Abbeylara, Co. Longford on 20th April 2000. [The Barr Tribunal], pp. 456-459. 102; Ibid., p. 415. 103; Ibid., p. 462. 104; Ibid., pp. 461-462. 105; Nell McCafferty, A Woman to Blame: The Kerry Babies Case (Cork: Attic Press, 2010), p. 174. 106; See Irish Times March 3 2012, ‘Questions for the Garda’. Sunday Times March 4 2012, Justine McCarthy, ‘Zero tolerance of crime and garda corruption must be aim’. 107; Sunday Times April 6 2014, John Mooney and Justine McCarthy, ‘Gardaí discussed cash for testimony’. 108; The Phoenix magazine May 4 2012, ‘Marie Farrell and the scandalous pursuit of Ian Bailey’. 109; Sunday Tribune September 7 2008, Ken Foxe, ‘Garda wrongdoing costs millions a year’. 110; Sunday Times April 26 2009 ‘Put our own justice system in order’. Also John Mooney, ‘State helps drug trafficker Boylan create new identity’. 111; See Tom Hanahoe, America Rules: US Foreign Policy, Globalization and Corporate USA (Dingle: Brandon, 2003), p. 17. 112; Quoted in Noam Chomsky, Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance (London: Penguin, 2003), p.16. 113; Al Gore, The Future (WH Allen, 2013), p. 121. 114; Tony Judt, Ill Fares the Land (London: Penguin, 2010), pp. 155-156. 115; Noam Chomsky, What We Say Goes – interviews with David Barsamian (London: Penguin, 2009), p. 5. 116; Kristen Iversen, Full Body Burden (Harvill Secker, 2012), p.160. 117; Quoted in Noam Chomsky, What We Say Goes, p. 4. 118; http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0634/D.0634.200703280066.html 119; Sunday Tribune August 26 2007, Sara Burke, ‘I go to sleep not sure if I’ll wake up. Frightened is what we are’. 120; Frank Connolly and Dr. Ronan Lynch, The Great Corrib Gas Controversy (Dublin: Centre for Public Inquiry, 2005), p. 43. Brian Barrington, Breakdown in Trust: A report on the Corrib Gas Dispute (Dublin; Front Line, 2010), p. 22. 121; Western People March 8 2005, Christy Loftus, ‘Corrib Gas: The dashed hopes and the lowered expectations’. 122; Corrib Project Overview leaflet – posted to homes in North Mayo by Shell E & P Ireland Ltd., in August 2005. 123; Western People July 12 2005, Cróna Esler, ‘Professor of Physics Launches a scathing attack on pipeline plan’. An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

124; Western People October 18 2005, Orla Hearns, ‘Explosion would destroy everything within 250 yds.’ Irish Times October 13 2005, Lorna Siggins, ‘Corrib hearing aims for ‘post hoc’ justification’. 125; Irish Times May 28 2009, Lorna Siggins, ‘Expert warns on risks of explosion’. 126; The Great Corrib Gas Controversy – see Appendix, p. 1. 127; Irish Times June 4 2009, Lorna Siggins, ‘Gas explosion fears raised at hearing’. Lorna Siggins, Once upon a time in the West , p. 310. 128; Lorna Siggins, Once upon a time in the West , p. 310. See also, Lorna Siggins, Irish Times June 4 2009, ‘Gas explosion fears raised at hearing’. 129; Brian Barrington, Breakdown in Trust , p. 28. 130; Ibid., pp. 35-36. See also, Would You Believe: Living on the edge, RTE One television, October 25 2009. 131; Lorna Siggins, Once upon a time in the West , p. 336. 132; Brian Barrington, Breakdown in Trust , p. 36. 133; Ibid., p. 38. 134; Would You Believe: Living on the edge, RTE One television, October 25 2009. See also Breakdown in Trust, p. 52. 135; Pete Lavelle at a public meeting in Inver Community Hall, April 30 2009. 136 See Brian Barrington, Breakdown in Trust , p. 55. 137; Village magazine June 2009, Miriam Cotton, ‘Irish media failing over Rossport’. 138; Liam Corduff at a public meeting in Inver Community Hall, April 30 2009. 139; Lorna Siggins, Once upon a time in the West , pp. 370-371. 140; Ibid., p. 315. 141; Prime Time, RTE One television December 3 2009, Death in Santa Cruz. 142; See Brian Barrington, Breakdown in Trust, p. 42. 143; Prime Time, RTE One television December 3 2009, Death in Santa Cruz. 144; Brian Barrington, Breakdown in Trust , p. 43. The Irish Mail on Sunday, May 31 2009, Michael O’Farrell and Paul Henderson, ‘Licensed to Kill’. 145; Mark Garavan, ed., Our Story: the Rossport 5 (Wicklow; Small World Media, 2006), p. 184. 146; Brian Barrington, Breakdown in Trust , p. v. 147; Mayo Echo July 16 2008, ‘Community Outrage as Children Filmed at Beaches’. Brian Barrington, Breakdown in Trust , p. 4. 148; Lorna Siggins, Once upon a time in the West , pp 211-212. 149; John Mooney in Sunday Times April 10 2011. 150; Irish Mail on Sunday January 23 2011, Larissa Nolan, ‘State asked UK spy to infiltrate Shell protests’. See also, John Mooney in Sunday Times April 10 2011; Irish Times January 17 2011, Mary Fitzgerald, ‘Appeals for inquiry into British police spy’s activities’; Sunday Times January 16 2011, Harry Browne, ‘Adventures of Mata Hairy undermine ecological activists’; Sunday Times January 16 2011, Tim Rayment and Robin Henry, ‘Revealed – The secret family of undercover cop’; Irish Times January 15 2011, Lorna Siggins and Mary Fitzgerald, ‘Eco-spy infiltrated Irish protests’. 151; Sunday Times June 28 2009 Āine Ryan, ‘Local fishermen claim dirty tricks in pipeline fight’; Mayo News October 5 2010, Āine Ryan, “Project has been victim of ‘tarnished politicians’”; Irish Times September 30 2010, Āine Ryan, ‘Corrib area a victim of politicians, says priest’. An Garda Siochana: An Analysis of a Police Force unfit for purpose

152; Irish Times September 22 2007, Lorna Siggins, ‘Trouble in the pipeline’. 153; Irish Independent April 6 2011, Edel O’Connell and Brian McDonald, ‘Young woman just terrified of being hurt’. 154; Irish Examiner April 8 2011, Cormac O’Keeffe, “Rape remark victim has ‘little faith’ in inquiry”. 155; Irish Times May 13 2006, Kathy Sheridan, ‘True Blues’. 156; Irish Independent April 28 2010, Tom Brady, ‘Fight crime and stay out of politics, warns commissioner’. Irish Times April 28 2010, Conor Lally, ‘Minister cries off in face of criticism by gardaí’. 157; Irish Times April 29 2010, Elaine Edwards and Conor Lally, Fianna Fáil TD calls for O’Boyce to be fired’. 158; The Irish Times Tns/mrbi poll – Irish Times February 10 2004, Mark Brennock, ‘Majority have confidence in fairness of Garda, poll shows’. 159; Sunday Independent/ Millward Brown poll – Sunday Independent 18 May 2014, Maeve Sheehan, ‘Poll shows 57% have lost some confidence in gardaí’. 160; The Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer 2004 found that Irish people – given a choice of fifteen national institutions and sectors – believed that their political parties were, by some distance, the most corrupt of the broad spectrum of institutions and sectors on the Transparency International list. The judiciary/ legal system was perceived to be the next most corrupt of the fifteen, followed closely by the Dáil and Senate. In joint fourth place were An Garda Síochána and the business/ private sector. 161; Brian Barrington, Breakdown in Trust , p. 60. 162; Ibid., pp. 60-61. 163; Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya – mission to Ireland (19-23 November 2012).