Fourthwrite .......................Issue No. 11

Reforms still deferred  

by Cathal McGovern

  Revelations in the media  again reveal the Garda as a force short of control. Revelations of perjury and corruption were levelled against the force during the appeal hearing of Frank Shortt, wrongfully imprisoned in 1995 for allegedly permitting the sale of drugs on his premises. Mr Shortt, a chartered accountant who ran a niteclub business in County Donegal, had his life thrown into chaos as a result of blatant wrongdoing on the part of the force.

The Shortt case provided the public with a glimpse of  the  extent  members  of the force were out of control in County Donegal. Mr Shortt maintained he actually contacted the Garda in the first instance to ask them to help him rid his venue of persons dealing in drugs. What followed was a piece out of  amateur theatre. 

A Garda couple, made up of a Ban Garda aged in her mid twenties, accompanied by a 'partner' aged over forty. This couple attempted to pose as 'ravers' in a niteclub. It would have been obvious to anyone familiar with the dance scene that the 'couple' were Garda. Nevertheless, permission was given to continue with the Cluso like undercover operation. We can only guess that faced with having to justify this operation ( which failed to arrest one drug dealer),  someone made a decision  to fit Mr Shortt up.

The list of similar revelations grows longer, from the McBrearty case in Donegal to Urlingford in Kilkenny, to shoot-to-kill instances. Yet not a single member of the force (except a low-ranking Garda in Donegal) finds themselves before the nation's courts.

 Previously in Fourtwrite we highlighted the need for greater Garda accountability. But in the words of PJ Stone, the GRA representative, such calls are dismissed as the diatribe to be expected from 'subversives' and criminals. Surely, this claim on the part of the force stands ridiculed in light of the catalogue of misdemeanours which have recently surfaced?

Mr Shortt was never a criminal yet the Garda chose to try and make him one. The McBrearty family did not deserve to be subjected to the orchestrated Garda  campaign of harassment which they endured. John Carthy did not deserve to be shot in the back in Abbeylara. Nor did Ronan McLaughlin. He was part of a Real-IRA team that was supposed  to  have opened fire on the Emergency Response Unit. 

There is no point in representatives of the Garda dismissing obvious wrongdoing as minor events, or  ignoring claims of wrongdoing  altogether. We argue that a need exists for Garda accountability. A need exists for corrupt Garda to be brought before the courts to face charges. An independent complaints board proves a must. A failure to implement any of these demands would equal  yet another 'whitewash.' The Irish public deserve much better.