Those boys in blue. I remember the McBrearty Affair in Donegal, the attempt by gardai to frame an innocent man for the hit and run death of Richie Barron, the planting and finding of hoax bombs and material, intimidation and falsification of evidence. And I remember the Morris Tribunal Report and the virtual nothingness that came out of it in dealing with that police corruption. I remember the Sallins Train Robbery and the beatings inflicted on five innocent men by the Garda Heavy Gang and the framing of those men by the police, and the conviction of those men by a corrupt court, later overturned. I remember the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and the complicity of the state police in covering up British military and intelligence involvement in the murder of 33 civilians. The then Minister for Justice, Patrick Cooney (Fine Gael), later claimed amnesia about the atrocity. I remember the war waged by the state police on the Shell to Sea campaigners, often in unison with private security thugs employed by Shell, and I remember the threats of rape uttered by serving guards directed towards female protesters. I remember Sean OCallaghan and his claim of killing Sean Corcoran, both of them members of the Provisional republican movement turned informers, and both under the control of garda handlers at the time of Corcorans death. We may yet hear more about this aspect, and the failure to protect Corcoran, in the courts. I remember the Kerry Babies Scandal, the framing of Joanne Hayes using intimidation and extracted confessions, and the ludicrous scenario cooked up by detectives to apportion blame for the deaths of two unrelated infants to the supposed mother of both, Hayes. I remember the death in police custody of Peter Matthews in Shercock, Co Cavan, and the deaths in police custody of John Maloney (Rathfarnham Garda Station) and Terence Wheelock (Store Street Garda Station). I remember Abbeylara and the shooting dead of psychiatric patient John Carthy by the Emergency Response Unit in highly dubious circumstances. I remember the treatment of the garda whistleblowers - two brave and ethical men - by their rank and file colleagues, and particularly by their superior officers including the current Acting Garda Commissioner, and by the former Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter. I remember the Ian Bailey case and the perversion of justice in an effort to set him up as the murderer of Sophie Toscan de Plantier - of which we will hear much more over the coming weeks. I remember, personally, the obviously pre-planned violent assault by the gardai on an absolutely peaceful anti-Iraq war protest in Kildare Street which placed my 84 year old mother in danger of losing her life by being swept under the crowd but for the efforts of other protesters who rescued her while garda violence continued. So much to remember about the boys in blue. When I hear orchestrated lies being told about peaceful Irish Water protesters being violent towards the boys in blue, when the accumulated video and photographic evidence tells a very different story, I remember all of the above, and more. They must think we are very stupid indeed, or that we have very short memories. This police force is rotten. Starting at the top, the Acting Garda Commissioner should resign. Her stewardship of the policing of the Irish Water debacle has been a disaster. But so too should the Minister for Justice whose wild assertions about violence directed by protesters against gardai are based only on claims, as yet unproven, by gardai and their representative body. She has vilified tens of thousands of decent peaceful people around this country. Weve heard this stuff before, and it doesnt wash. We are not stupid. We remember.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 23:15:54 +0000
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