Category: Government

Garda Ombudsman: Rape threat, what rape threat?

The Garda Ombudsman has recommended disciplinary action be taken against one of five Gardai whose comments about two female Corrib gas protesters were recorded after the women were arrested.

A Garda Sergeant used the word rape but told investigators he heard the word used at the scene while the women were being arrested.

Obviously, the Garda Ombudsman has accepted this ridiculous claim.

Is the Sgt. claiming that this is the first time he’s heard the word ‘rape’ and, like a schoolboy hearing a dirty word for the first time, can’t wait to tell everyone he knows a grown up word?

The Sgt. in question has since (very conveniently) retired and so cannot be the subject of disciplinary proceedings.

So once again we witness a state official bounding across the two-foot high accountability fence into the carefree, well-paid land of retirement.

His departure is greeted with a huge sigh of relief by all those highly paid officials who labour day and night to maintain the farce of accountability in Ireland.

That the good name and credibility of the Gardai is once again seriously damaged by this ‘investigation’ doesn’t seem to bother the Garda Ombudsman in the slightest.

Matt Cooper broadcast a detailed analysis of the video recording on The Last Word today (24th).

Sgt. A: Who is them two lassies, do you know the two of them?

Garda B: I don’t know the second one; the first one is with blond hair.

Garda C: She was up in the tractor earlier on.

Sgt. A: It would do no harm to get the second one’s name again.

Garda B: She’s some yank, I don’t know who the fuck she is.

Garda C: Is she a yank?

Garda B: It sounds like it, the accent anyway.

Garda D: Sounds like a yank or Canadian

Garda B: Well, whoever, we’ll get immigration fucking on her.

Sgt A: She refused to give her name and address and told she would be arrested.

Garda B: And deported.

Sgt. A: And raped

Garda B: I wouldn’t go that far yet. She was living down at that crusty camp, fuck’s sake you’d never know what you might get.

Sgt. A: Give me your name and address or I’ll rape you.

Garda C: Hold it there, give me your name and address, I’ll Facebook you.

Sgt. A: Or I’ll definitely rape you.

Garda C: Will you be my friend on Facebook?

Fr Ted Republic

Letter in today’s Irish Independent and Irish Examiner.

Our Fr Ted Republic

It is certain that if a Mahon Tribunal-like report were published in any self-respecting, functional democracy there would have been immediate arrests and police investigations. In Ireland the response was predictable.

A copy of the report was sent to the DPP, the Revenue Commissioners, the Garda Commissioner and to the Standards in Public Office Commission.

There was the usual fake anger from politicians mouthing meaningless Fr Ted-like utterances such as ‘down with this sort of thing’ before heading off on their two-week Easter holiday.

Some commentators called for heavy fines to be imposed on those named in the report, some called for the Criminal Assets Bureau to investigate while others called for pensions to be withdrawn.

None of these suggestions will be acted upon, that’s not how things are done in our dysfunctional democracy.

We can see this from the response of the above-mentioned state authorities to the publication of the Moriarty Report last year.

At the time we were told that these authorities would, as a matter of urgency, examine the report for potential criminal charges.

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said an examination of the report by a team of detectives would be finished sooner rather than later.

Unfortunately, he did not provide us with his definition of the term ‘sooner rather than later’.

The failure to properly respond to the Mahon Report and countless other reports and scandals in the past tells us, and the rest of the world, exactly what we are as a country; a two-bit, backward, banana republic.

This will not change until arrests are made, charges are brought and justice is seen to be done.

Anthony Sheridan
Cobh, Co Cork

Minister Howlin should be treated with the same level of respect as the liar Ahern

When Brendan Howlin, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, was asked why disgraced businessman Denis O’Brien was invited to the Global Irish Economic Forum last October he replied:

The invitations that went out replicated those that were invited to the first forum, and that’s what happened.

This pathetic excuse was (rightly) greeted with howls of laughter in the Dail.

Howlin’s excuse can be placed in the same category as that of the liar Ahern’s ‘I won my money on the horses’ excuse.

Both of these individuals show arrogant contempt for proper democracy and the intelligence of Irish citizens.

Minister Howlin deserves to be treated with the same level of respect as the liar Ahern.

Copy to:
Minister Howlin

Sheep worrying takes precedence over democratic accountability

Independent TD, Stephen Donnelly, has an article in today’s Sunday Independent which proves just how undemocratic our country has become.

Michael Noonan’s promissory note announcement this week was a stark example of how toothless an institution the Dail has become.

This is bad for democracy, and bodes ill for our economic and social recovery.

At 4pm on Thursday, Michael Noonan walked into the Dail and announced a new deal on the imminent payment of €3.1bn to the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (formerly Anglo and Irish Nationwide).

He read out his page and a half, refused to answer any questions, and left.

I and other TDs urgently requested time to ask a few questions but were informed that the house must proceed with ‘topical issues’.

This is time dedicated to discussing the most critical national issues of a given day.

It was introduced by the new Government to make the Dail more relevant, more connected to reality.

The following 10-minute debate was given over to the problem of sheep worrying by ramblers.

You are not reading a Father Ted script. That’s what actually happened.

Does anyone see any hope whatsoever?

Cormac Lucey: Still not in the big picture

I received the following comments from Cormac Lucey in response to my recent article on the fallout from the Mahon Tribunal Report.

My response to Mr. Lucy follows below.

I’m sorry that you were disappointed by my piece. Nowhere do I suggest that Bertie is “innocent of everything that happened”.

There is no doubt that those in government at the time must accept political responsibility for what happened to the economy on their watch.

But they got precious little help from “the experts” as this piece, which I wrote a year, attempts to demonstrate.

I would argue that Bertie didn’t deserve the adulation he enjoyed at the height of his powers. But nor does he deserve the opprobrium he “enjoys” today.

The same bodies which assured Bertie’s government that everything was OK in 2007 are today reassuring Enda’s government that our debts are sustainable.

We should look behind the pantomime villains which politics throws up and examine carefully the vested interests which endure long after “the villains” have left the stage to be replaced by new pantomime figures.

Unfortunately, Mr. Lucy, the pantomime villains you speak of hold positions of power where they can do pretty much as they like.

In almost all cases they put themselves, their party, the continuation of power for as long as possible and, of course, the behind the scenes vested interests before the country or its people.

They can do pretty much as they like because our administrative system- legal, public/civil service, law enforcement, regulatory agencies etc. do not operate like those in functional democracies.

In almost all cases these so called authorities go to great lengths to protect those guilty of corrupt practices and in many cases are themselves complicit in corruption.

At any time in the last thirty or so years politicians could have prevented the banks from routinely robbing their customers, could have allowed so called regulatory agencies to actually regulate rather than protecting the thieves, could have thrown their corrupt fellow politicians in jail.

They chose not to do any of this. As we can see from the (non) response to the Mahon Tribunal Report, they are still choosing not to do this.

Furthermore, many in the media seem to be completely blind to the big picture which is right in front of them.

Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state. It is different from all other Western democracies in that it refuses to act against corrupt politicians or white- collar crime in general.

Anyone who doubts what I say need only ask themselves the following simple questions.

If a Mahon Tribunal type report were published in a functional democracy would there have been arrests by now?

The answer is, of course, a resounding yes.

Why, then, have there been no arrests in Ireland?

Because state authorities, including the body politic, put the preservation of their corrupt system before the good of the country or its people.

The evidence for this is overwhelming and obvious to anyone looking at the situation with a completely objective mind.

The article you wrote in 2011 deals with some reasons for the economic collapse in 2008. While the collapse of the economy is a catastrophic event it is only a (an inevitable) symptom of a corrupt political/administrative system.

Political/administrative/business corruption is the big picture. This is where the power lies and ordinary citizens are completely powerless to do anything about it – to date.

Bertie Ahern does deserve the opprobrium he’s getting. It’s an absolute minimum ‘punishment’ for what he has done to Ireland and its people.

I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that if this low-grade politician did what he did in a functional democracy he would now be in jail.

As a victim citizen of a corrupt state I can say with absolute certainty that neither Ahern nor any of those named in the report will be brought to justice.

That fact alone confirms that Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state.

Copy to;
Cormac Lucey

Ryan and Martin: Running for cover

Now that it has been established that Bertie Ahern lied under oath at the Mahon Tribunal all those who loyally served under him have to make a choice.

They have to admit they were complete fools to believe such drivel, make up some excuse for their gullibility or, for the first time in Irish political histroy, admit they knew he was lying but kept quiet to protect their own particular interests.

The third option, telling the truth, has never happened in Irish political life but here are examples of option one and two.

Micheál Martin has opted for the ‘Im a fool’ excuse. Asked by the Irish Daily Mail if he was a knave or a fool to believe Ahern’s evidence Martin replied;

I believed what Bertie Ahern said at the time of the tribunal and I was wrong and I was disappointed.

Now only a fool would believe that this fool is telling the truth when he says he believed the fool Ahern but at least he’s not blaming anybody else for his stupidity.

Former Green Party minister and loyal Bertie Ahern supporter Eamon Ryan took the second option – an excuse.

Questioned on Tonight with Vincent Browne (March 22) he placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Irish people.

Vincent Browne: You were implicated in the whole thing.

Ryan: No, we raised the whole issue of corruption… blah blah blah blah…

VB: But you were in government with Ahern.

Ryan: We went into government with Bertie Ahern and no matter what we did he was still going to be Taoiseach. The Irish people returned Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach in 2007, not us.

VB: You defended Ahern when everybody knew he was a liar

Ryan: The Irish people made a democratic decision that they were going to return Bertie Ahern and Fianna Fail. That was not our call, it was the Irish people that did it.

VB: It was your call to go into govenment with someone you knew was telling lies to the tribunal.

Ryan: It was the Irish people who returned Bertie Ahern.

VB: You went into governent wth someone who you knew was lying.

Ryan: It was up to the tribunal to discern that (that Ahern was lying).

VB: Rubbish; you remained happily in government. Did you think it credible? (Ahern’s evidence)

Ryan: No, I didn’t. (Rejecting the ‘I’m a fool option’).

VB: You’ve never said that before in public. So you remained in government disbelieving the evidence the leader of government gave to the tribunal on the issue of corruption.

Ryan: One of the reasons you stay in government is to get things done…blah blah blah blah…

It is obvious from this exchange that, at the very least, the integrity and honesty of Eamon Ryan and the Green Party was seriously compromised by their association with the corrupt Fianna Fail party.

Copy to:
Eamon Ryan
Micheál Martin

Rank hypocrisy of Micheál Martin

Irish Examiner Journalist Colette Browne has an excellent piece in today’s edition in which she exposes the rank hypocrisy and dishonesty of Micheál Martin regarding the very serious charge by the Mahon Tribunal that Fianna Fail ministers tried to collapse the tribunal.

Here’s her comment on Minister of State Martin Mansergh:

Another Minister of State, Martin Mansergh, was aghast that Ahern had to appear before the tribunal at all: “No other head of state in the EU has to appear before tribunals… In France, the president is immune from prosecution. It’s a ridiculous way to conduct public affairs.”