An excessively deferential approach and a reluctance to apply for search warrants to secure church records were suggested as contributory factors

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan responded to the report by saying that the force had given ‘huge attention’ to improving its handling of child sexual abuse investigations.

This is the standard response when serious failures are revealed within the Garda, the political system, the church or the financial sector.

Mistakes were made in the past but now everything is rosy in the garden – until the next failure, the next scandal.

While the media is, by far, the most effective force in bringing state authorities to account there are occasions when sections of the media do get things wrong.

An Irish Times editorial in response to the Garda Inspectorate report tells us (My emphasis):

It is important to realise that this investigation was ordered in the aftermath of the Murphy report concerning clerical sex abuse in the Dublin archdiocese and it deals with criticisms of the Garda Síochána from 2009.

The report was delivered in 2010, as public anger over denials and cover-ups by the Catholic hierarchy overflowed and a fresh investigation was launched in the Cloyne diocese.

In the circumstances, withholding the document to avoid the Garda being caught up in public condemnations was understandable.

It is, of course, neither understandable nor acceptable that information should be withheld to save any state institution from being the subject of public odium.

The expression of public anger in response to state failures is a crucial element in a healthy democracy.

Copy to:
Irish Times

Everything from Minister Howlin’s toilet to the underlying reasons for the global financial crisis was the target of his crusading pen.

It was nice to see him give due recognition to Gavin Sheridan (My nephew) as one of his principle sources of research.

I know these things because I occasionally click into an indispensable website, thestory.ie, run by journalist and researcher Gavin Sheridan.

Mr Sheridan has an admirable devotion to digging out and archiving raw data on the running of the Government.

When I read the particular Editorial referred to by the letter writer I came to the same conclusion.

The Editorial, and a number of other editorials on the same matter, reflect a deep and damaging ultra conservatism in the Irish media.

Sir,

Your Editorial on property tax is sheer nonsense. “We are living beyond our means”, it begins. Yes we are.

But the problem is not a lack of property tax: as anyone who has paid stamp duty knows,

Irish home-owners have been royally fleeced in recent years.

The reason is that as the Local Government Efficiency Review Group has identified, at a very minimum €511 million is being wasted on excessive layers of local government and hierarchy, waste which that report – commissioned by government – recommended be ended.

You could have used your Editorial to urge government to eliminate waste in local government.

And to curb eye-wateringly generous pay and pensions conditions enjoyed by the large number of the 32,000 local government employees whose role is administrative and unconnected with the provision of any real services to the public.

Instead you observe “Nobody likes to pay tax” before describing the “contempt for civic morality” of those opposed to the tax.

Can I suggest that the real “contempt for civic morality” is amongst those who expect hard- pressed homeowners to suffer more taxation to fund the egregious waste of public money.

Yours, etc,
Marc Coleman

2,000 miles away a country in turmoil lit the spark in a wildfire that would overwhelm Ireland and threaten to destroy the single currency.

Greece, according to the programme, was brought to the brink of financial collapse by a combination of corruption, chronic indebtedness and a dysfunctional tax system.

Ireland, on the other hand was ‘damaged’ by a combination of reckless banks, inept regulators and disastrous economic policies.

For a full hour the programme analysed the loss of Ireland’s financial independence without once mentioning the word ‘corruption’.

It is no mean achievement to analyse a country brought to ruin by political, financial and administrative corruption without once referring to that reality.

Greece is corrupt; Ireland is not, apparently.

So let’s bring ourselves up to date on who is to blame for the catastrophe visited upon Ireland.

The global financial crisis.

Lehman Brothers.

The German and French banks

And now – the Greeks.

Copy to:

Prime Time

O’Dowd admitted that he was completely unaware of this situation and clearly sees it as a major, new, news story.

Finucane was also astonished on hearing the claim. It would be quite extraordinary, she gasped.

Such ignorance from O’Dowd is understandable, he lives in America and is obviously not the brightest of journalists.

But there is no excuse for Finucane who has, for decades, been at the centre of events in Ireland.

She must know (or maybe she doesn’t) that the Dept. of Finance, the Financial Regulator and senior politicians knew about the DIRT fraud, knew about the Ansbacher fraud and knew about dozens of other frauds within the Irish financial sector over the decades.

The authorities never took any action to bring these frauds to an end. The criminals were allowed free rein to plunder the state and its citizens at will, without fear of ever being brought to justice.

And just for Marian Finucane’s information, the situation remains exactly the same as I write.

That is, there is still no financial regulation in Ireland when it comes to the financial sector; crime is still rampant within the sector.

Copy to:
Marian Finucane

He spoke to Marian Finucane (Sunday) about an interview he conducted earlier this month wth former CEO of Anglo Irish Bank, David Drumm, in which the disgraced banker poured his heart out.

Now, the first question that any competent journalist would ask himself is – what’s this man’s agenda, why is he so eager to speak to a journalist?

O’Dowd never noticed that he was being used and fell for Drumm’s bullshit hook, line and sinker.

Some quotes:

He wanted to make his side of the story plain; I think he felt he had been the victim of a witch hunt in Ireland both in the media and personally.

He wanted to give an interview to a journalist in America rather than in Ireland, he was more comfortable with that scenario.

I’ll bet he was and he made a good choice – an obviously uninformed and naïve journalist.

What I was looking for Marian was the human story because behind all these great scandals there are lives and that’s what I tried to bring out in the interview.

I think you’re looking at a guy in very deep anguish for all the obvious reasons.

What was interesting to me was his very deep sense that he was one of many yet he felt he’s been singled out.

Ahhhhh, wouldn’t your heart be broken listening to such tragedy?

The national broadcaster had a simple choice following the finding that its Prime Time Investigates programme had grossly defamed parish priest Fr. Kevin Reynolds.

It could have made public all the relevant facts surrounding the case and taken severe action, including sackings, against those responsible for the debacle.

Or

It could have decided to creep into the dank cave of darkness where bankers, politicians, higher civil servants and the Catholic Church thrive on a diet of secrecy, obfuscation, denial and arrogance.

Sadly, the broadcaster is heading for the darkness of the cave.

Those in charge in RTE have clearly deluded themselves into thinking that they can bluff their way out of the affair while retaining the very high level of respect and credibility built up over many years by Prime Time and Prime Time Investigates.

They have, in effect, decided to inflict serious damage to the credibility of the organisation as a whole and 100% damage to the credibility of the Prime Time programme.

And for what?

So that those responsible for the debacle are protected from the consequences of their actions.

If they continue as they are Prime Time will rightly be seen as nothing more than a joke programme.

Lying politicians, priests, bankers and others who have, until now, rightly feared the dreaded call from Prime Time staff will now welcome the opportunity to strut the Prime Time catwalk and sneer at questions put to them by a totally discredited programme.

RTE should immediately apologise for attempting to avoid responsibility and follow that up by taking the painful but crucially necessary action to protect Prime Times’ hard won credibility.

There is no alternative.

Copy to:

RTE
Prime Time

He’s written yet another article (this time nearly 2,000 words) criticizing all and sundry for the mess the country is in without once mentioning his great hero Bertie – amazing.

Pat Kenny: The ECB, it’s as much our Central Bank as it is the Germans. We can, if we want, implement changes in policy.

Panelist: But the cheque will, ultimately, be written by the Germans and they’re not going to write the cheque having been let down.

They don’t want to write a cheque in advance of the reforms they’re looking for from Greece, Italy and the rest.

Kenny: The Germans got very big cheques written for them after World War Two, they shouldn’t forget that.

Panelist: They’re not likely to back the solution we would like without trusting that the maturity of the political systems in Ireland or Greece will step up to the plate.

Kenny: Haven’t we, at least in the short term, demonstrated quite a lot of maturity?

Panelist: We have and that’s why we’re seen as the good guys in Europe.

Amazing isn’t it? Pat Kenny, a citizen of a failed state ruled by a crowd of corrupt gombeens, telling the Germans they should be grateful for money given to them by the Americans.

The Germans used that money to create one of the richest, most democratic, most accountable countries in the world.

That success allowed them to hand over about €30 billion to gombeen Ireland to bring the country from the 16th to the 21st century.

And what did our ‘mature’ ruling elite do with the money?

They blew it on a ponzi building boom that enriched the corrupt politicians, bankers and developers while impoverishing the rest of the population for generations to come.

Joe attempted for a short time to remain balanced but it soon became obvious that callers who supported McGuinness were, let’s be kind here, ‘robustly’ challenged by Joe while those opposed to the former IRA man were allowed to make their point without serious interruption.

Joe: If Martin McGuinness committed crimes he should be in prison.

Caller: The Good Friday Agreement dealt with all of that. The UVF prisoners were all let out.

Joe: (Shouting down the caller).

Hang on, Larry Murphy of the Shankill Butchers is not standing for president of Ireland…how would you react if Larry Murphy was to put himself forward and get the support of twenty of our parliamentarians, tell me how you would react.

The caller attempted to respond but Joe became hysterical.

Joe: You’d vomit.

Caller tries again to make a point.

Joe: You’d vomit.

Caller: No Joe, I wouldn’t.

Joe: You would.

I think we can safely say that Martin McGuinness’ entry into the fray has finally launched the election campaign; I think it’s going to be very interesting.