They may be but the Guards has been an FG zone for a long time.
The guards need to be disbanded
3 Likes
Em, there clearly is a big conspiracy here and youâve outlined it in your last sentence.
1 Like
Does Pat Deering not realise that part of his constituency is at war and his constituency parliamentary colleague is in mortal danger of capture by the other side.
Historical BS. Iâve a good mate in the Guards got his transfer down from Dublin through the offices of an FF politician. They all have their connections.
Is he a crooked cunt as well
If you go chasing after cabinet members you distract from looking where you should be getting the answers. Local Garda management is where you need to look.
You are thinking too much about principals. This is about principles .
1 Like
Nah, I play (or manage) football and soccer with him, Iâm pretty sure he doesnât have the time, power or interest to go organizing malicious conspiracies against lads who piss him off at work
There was even two elections in 1927. Encouragingly for the Champ, think Fianna Fail have won all bar the 1927 elections.
Alan Kelly now says he has details of another whistleblower who expressed serious concerns about Tusla and their treatment of his family.
He sent 13 letters to that cunt fitz
The Police arent fit for purpose.
The UN need to step in
2 Likes
Just over three years ago, former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan appeared before an Oireachtas committee.
It was held on the morning of Thursday, January 23rd.
People might not remember the date, but they will remember what happened.
This was the day of the âdisgustingâ meeting.
Frankly, I think it is quite disgusting â on a personal level I think it is quite disgusting - Martin Callinan
Callinan was before the Public Accounts Committee to address allegations by two whistleblowers that some members of the force were illegally quashing penalty points for motorists.
Hereâs what Callinan said about âso-called whistleblowersâ at the time: âQuite clearly here, we have two people out of a force of over 13,000 who are making extraordinary, serious allegations and there isnât a whisper anywhere else, from any other member of the Garda SĂochĂĄna about this corruption, this malpractice and all of those things that are levelled against their fellow officers.
âFrankly, I think it is quite disgusting â on a personal level I think it is quite disgusting.â
Those were the standout words of that unsettling meeting.
At the time, the bullish commissioner was accompanied by an impressive display of top brass. NĂłirĂn OâSullivan, his second-in-command and eventual successor, sat next to him. And directly behind was Dave Taylor, then Garda press officer.
Today, OâSullivan is at the centre of a storm involving an alleged smear campaign against whistleblower Maurice McCabe, while Taylor has turned whistleblower and is among those levelling allegations.
This storm is now buffeting Enda Kennyâs Government.
Peeved
At the 2014 meeting, Callinan didnât want to concede an inch on the penalty points issue, despite some very compelling evidence to indicate a problem existed.
He sounded peeved at having to discuss internal Garda matters, pertaining to âmy forceâ, with a bunch of civilians.
The TDs were more or less told that it was none of their business.
âIsnât it extraordinary that itâs just two people that are making huge allegations?â Callinan airily remarked. âWhy isnât it dozens? Hundreds?â
Unlike most others in the committee room, he was blissfully unaware that his overbearing performance was providing a very big pointer to the reason why.
I covered that meeting and was, along with a number of colleagues who attended, taken aback by the arrogant and dismissive nature of the witnessâs testimony.
Many of the politicians who participated were similarly struck by his imperious approach.
Who would be a whistleblower in that sort of regime?
But what happened immediately afterwards struck me the most.
The main Oireachtas committee rooms are located in the basement level of the modern Leinster House 2000 annex. After meetings, people spill out into a spacious concourse area and usually congregate at the coat racks.
On that day, members of the Garda delegation mingled with journalists and observers as they left the PAC session. A lot of them knew each other. There was the usual small talk around the coat racks, but there were mutterings about the commissionerâs evidence.
I remarked to somebody that I wasnât at all impressed by his attitude and evidence.
I got back a tirade in the most colourful of language about Maurice McCabe and what an awful person he was and if I only knew the half of it I wouldnât be so quick to criticise the commissioner. The âhalf of itâ included insinuations about inappropriate sexual contact with a minor.
This didnât come as news â the rumours were already floating around.
Venomous
I looked around at the uniformed officers, the top layer of law enforcement in Ireland, and thought of the venomous denunciation of whistleblowers which had just happened at the committee.
And I thought about those words in the concourse, and the vehemence of their delivery.
It didnât tally with descriptions of McCabe Iâd heard from politicians and colleagues. Cussed, dogged individual he might be, but there was never a question about his character.
The words left a bad taste. There was something not right. I didnât believe them.
Then, we werenât to know that Tusla had received a complaint about McCabe in August of the previous year, claims which were passed onto the Garda. The man at the centre of them didnât know either.
Martin Callinan, meanwhile, was gone from his job the following March, but not before he had clarified his use of the word âdisgustingâ.
âThat term was not in reference to the character of either Sgt McCabe or former garda [John] Wilson, but the manner in which personal and sensitive data was inappropriately appearing in the public domain without regard to due process and fair procedures.â
This would be important stuff about quashing penalty points and the like.
But what about âpersonal and sensitiveâ and â as it soon transpired â absolutely baseless talk about McCabe inappropriately appearing in Garda, media and political circles?
âClerical errorâ
In May, four months after the infamous PAC meeting, Tusla admitted the complaint against McCabe was down to a âclerical errorâ.
Two years on, and the rumours about Sgt McCabe were still doing the rounds.
NĂłirĂn OâSullivan and her colleagues, one presumes, would have been outraged had they overheard what was said to me in their immediately vicinity on the day of the âdisgustingâ committee.
Itâs hard to credit that, since then, not even a whiff of the disgraceful stories circulating about one of her own members reached Commissioner OâSullivanâs ears.
News travels rapidly up the chain of command in An Garda SĂochĂĄna. When Mick Wallace was stopped at traffic lights and told to stop using his mobile phone, the then-commissioner, Martin Callinan, knew about it in no time.
As soon as the devastating complaint about McCabe was proved false two years ago, did an urgent directive travel down the same command chain to highlight this, with orders for an immediate shutdown of hugely damaging rumours about a serving member?
A member to be cherished in OâSullivanâs new dispensation for whistleblowers?
With serious consequences for anyone disregarding the directive?
Actually, that would have been impossible.
Because to do this, the crème de la crème of Irish policing would have had to know what was going on.
But the only ones who knew were the dogs in the street.
2 Likes
Miriam Lord very good at cutting the hole out of politicians
Nothing like the âsniffâ of an election to get politicans to grow a pair ,
I assume the indo are going with a rugby front page? Or else the misdirection of blaming Zappone or Tusla⌠I hope rea gets his commupance when all this is over too. Spindo staff up to their necks in this
2 Likes
The Guards are now eating up huge political capital and this position is utterly unsustainable going forward . There are huge social and economic matters to be addressed by government .