Category: Government

An Garda Siochana is a corrupt police force

 

By Anthony Sheridan

I’m in the process of writing an article in response to the latest incidence of Garda corruption.  In the meantime, here’s an article I wrote three years ago in response to Garda corruption.

 

Garda/political corruption – Nothing will change

The Irish Examiner editorial describes the latest revelations in the Ian Bailey case as mind boggling.

That Gardai may have considered paying someone in order to frame a man for murder is described as not only corrupt but almost unbelievable.

The Irish Times speaks of an appalling vista and grave national concern that Gardai may have acted illegally in securing convictions in the courts.

And yet this stuff is old hat, it’s all happened before. Garda corruption in Donegal involved a whole range of crimes including framing a man for murder.

Nobody was charged, some were allowed to retire on full pension and, to my knowledge, just three gardai were fired.

In other words, major criminal acts carried out by police officers and confirmed by an Oireachtas inquiry were effectively ignored.

The political response was exactly the same as the response we are now witnessing in respect of the latest scandals.

Denial, useless internal reports, full support for the Gardai and minister, promises to legislate to prevent it happening again blah, blah, blah….

The then Justice Minister McDowell and his civil servants who drafted and introduced the ‘this must never be allowed to happen again’ legislation must have been complete morons or they deliberately drafted the law to ensure the minister and Gardai remained unaccountable.

I suspect most intelligent citizens would opt for the latter explanation.

So what’s happening now?

Well, editorials are expressing shock and outrage, politicians are expressing their unqualified confidence in the minister and the Garda and everybody is supremely confident that the interim Garda Commissioner, Noirin O’Sullivan, will act decisively to reform the force.

So let’s have a look at what she has done to restored confidence and clean out the corruption that’s obviously rampant within the force.

She has decided to leave in place the punishment meted out to completely vindicated Garda Maurice McCabe by her predecessor.

And she’s conducting a survey to ask rank and file members how the organisation can be improved.

Pathetic and all a bit sad so to finish I’ll express the brutal truth.

Corruption is rampant within the Gardai because our corrupt political/administrative system, by doing nothing, allowed that corruption to flourish.

That rotten system will do nothing in this instance. Things will remain exactly as they are, exactly as they were allowed to remain following the Morris Tribunal.

 

 

Catholic Church: The brutal truth

By Anthony Sheridan

Truth poses the single greatest threat to those who wield power within a corrupt political/administrative system such as the one that currently operates in Ireland.

The corrupt and those who support the corrupt must ensure that the truth is denied, warped or simply ignored.

We witness this culture of truth denying in abundance in response to the latest atrocities committed by the Catholic Church.

So here’s the truth in all its brutality:

The crimes committed by the Catholic Church in Tuam and countless other locations around the country since the foundation of the State are nothing less than crimes against humanity.

Crimes against humanity: Certain acts that are deliberately committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population or an identifiable part of a population.

Cimes against humanity are not isolated or sporadic events but are part either of a government policy or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority.

 

The following are just some of the crimes against humanity committed by the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Dehumanisation

Human experimentation

Extrajudicail punishments

Forced disappearances

Kidnapping

Unjust imprisonment

Slavery

Torture

Rape

Child trafficking

Operation of forced labour camps

Brain washing

Sale of corpes to medical establishments

Illegal disposal of victim’s bodies

 

The following people, organisations and institutions are directly responsible for these crimes against humanity.

The Catholic Church from the Pope down to the individual nuns and priests who committed the crimes.

The politicans who handed over absolute power to the Catholic Church.

State institutions such as the Gardai, Dept. of Justice, Dept. of Education, those responsible for child welfare to name just a few.

The following mealy-mouthed excuses do not in any way exonerate those guilty of crimes against humanity.

They Catholic Church did more good than bad.

It was in the context of the time.

We’re all to blame.

We were just obeying orders.

The whole thing is exaggerated.

The fathers are to blame.

The families of the victims are to blame.

The British are to blame.

We must learn lessons and move on (without looking back).

If these excuses are acceptable, and many defenders of the Catholic Church do accept them, then the great bulk of Nazi concentration camp commandants/guards are also innocent.

When the people of Ireland remove the corrupt political system that played a major role in these crimes against humanity and replace it with a properly functioning democratic republic the following actions should be taken.

A formal complaint of crimes against humanity against the Catholic Church and other religions submitted to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

An immediate and wide-ranging criminal investigation by the Gardai.

The immediate seizure of church property to be liquified and used to compensate the survivers.

The immediate freezing of all church financial assets as a stick to ensure compliance with state authorities.

A complete separation of Church and State.

A complete secularisation of all state funded schools and hospitals.

Anything less than the above measures will constitute a further crime against the countless thousands of victims of the Catholic Church.

Fergus Finlay: Damaged by vile corruption?

 

By Anthony Sheridan

Once again Fergus Finlay is anguishing over the horrors inflicted on Grace by the State. Here are some of his anguished comments taken from Today with Sean O’Rourke:

It’s one of the most shaming things that I’ve come across for a long, long time.

It’s impossible to believe that in the 1990s and 2000s our systems are allowed to run like that.

This is something that has happened again and again and again. It’s not enough to know what happened, we have to know why it happened.

Here’s why it happened and why it will continue to happen.

Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state where, over several decades, a cabal of political parties principally made up of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour morphed into a corrupt ruling class.

In effect, Ireland is a one party state where these three entities pretend to be separate parties while plundering the State’s resources and abusing its citizens.

The system became irretrievably infected with the disease of corruption in 1979 when the criminal politician Haughey came to power and reached its catastrophic end in 2008 when the rotten system careered over the cliff of economic disaster taking with it the wealth, dreams, ambitions and, most of all, the trust of the Irish people.

Since that year of national betrayal a significant and growing number of citizens have been actively working to bring down the entire rotten edifice and replace it, for the first time in history, with a truly democratic republic.

This corrupt system, which Finlay so admires, is directly responsible for the creation of a culture where vulnerable citizens like Grace are left unprotected and vulnerable to the devices of extremely evil and brutal people.

Lest anyone think I’m being too harsh on Finlay, consider this:

On the very day he was shedding crocodile tears over the horrors inflicted on Grace an article, written by him, was published in the Irish Examiner praising Enda Kenny, one of the principal architects of the corrupt political culture responsible for her suffering.

Finlay’s article is a grave insult to the countless thousands of Irish citizens, including Grace, who have suffered and even died as a direct result of political corruption.

The article is sickening in its pathetic attempt at lightheartedness when writing about a man who is responsible for so much damage and suffering.

Here’s a sample of quotes:

There may be a few moves in Enda yet – a tango with Angela, a cha-cha-cha with the entire European Council.

When all is said and done, Enda Kenny will be remembered, I think, as being bigger than the sum of his parts.

Maintaining the dignity of a small country that believes in human rights, while also protecting the special relationship we have with a country that is vital to our interests, is no small task. (On Kenny’s St. Patrick’s Day visit to the White House)

Here’s a fact: Grace will never dance a tango or a cha-cha-cha. The corrupt political system, as represented by Enda Kenny, has seen to that.

Here’s another fact: Grace will never be remembered for the sum of her parts because the corrupt political system responsible for her nightmare destroyed any potential she may have had for happiness.

And a final fact:

To even think, never mind actually print, that a compulsive liar like Kenny represents an administration that believes in human rights, given all the vile revelations of recent decades, is nothing less than vomit inducing.

The most charitable interpretation of Finlay’s blind loyalty to the corrupt political system that has wreaked such devastating damage and suffering on Ireland and its people is that he too has been somehow damaged by its vile influence.

Copy to:

Fergus Finlay

 

Coveney and Varadkar: The battle of the balls

 

By Anthony Sheridan

There are two reasons the water charges issue has blown up again.

First, Coveney is very worried that Varadkar’s balls are growing bigger than his so it’s time to throw himself about a bit to show potential leadership supporters that his balls are actually way bigger than Leo’s.

Ok, it’s demeaning for the refined Simon but power is power and sometimes one has to lower one’s standards to reach the dizzy heights.

Second, those of us who successfully defeated, not just the government but also the State itself and all its powerful agencies, have rightly begun to celebrate victory.

Fianna Fail, being a party without a trace of integrity or scruple, is always open to twisting itself inside out if it means gaining an advantage. So no problem there with abandoning previously held principles.

Poor old Fine Gael though, a party used to talking down to and issuing diktats to the great unwashed is finding it very difficult to accept that they have been defeated by such lowly peasantry.

The overall picture is that we are witnessing the continuing and very welcome disintegration of the ruling political elite who have done so much damage to Ireland and its people over the decades.

History is finally catching up the gangsters.

 

Disclosures Tribunal: Truth and lies

 

Crossing out Lies and writing Truth on a blackboard.

By Anthony Sheridan

Judge Charleton has made an impressive start to the Disclosures Tribunal. It’s a pity his fine words are meaningless in the context of the sewer of corruption within which it will be carried out.

Here’s the reality behind his fine words:

He wants to find out if the media was used as an instrument for the dissemination of lies. Far from being used, the media were willing conspirators in the lies spread about Maurice McCabe.

The dogs in the street or at least the media dogs that live close to and sometimes off politicians and government officials were more than willing to spread the muck on McCabe.

Judge Charleton warned that there could be consequences for those who lie at the tribunal.

I have no doubt that the judge is genuine in his warning but, again, his words are meaningless. Lying under oath is a long established tradition among the ruling elite in this country. Bertie Ahern lied under oath at the Mahon tribunal with not the slightest fear that he would be investigated never mind actually charged with a crime. The culture of lying created by our corrupt politicians still holds power.

Just last week we witnessed the current Taoiseach lying through his teeth but instead of being thrown out of office in disgrace his mealy-mouthed supporters demanded that he be treated with sympathy and respect.

I’m not quite sure what the Judge meant when he said:

The truth is bitter though it is not shameful.

I believe truth is sometimes bitter but always enlightening, always cleansing. Truth is a vital element in a functional democracy, that’s why it’s such a rarity in Irish politics.

Truth poses the greatest threat to the power of our corrupt political/administrative system. That’s why the State goes to such lengths to suppress the truth, that’s why citizens like Maurice McCabe are attacked by the State when they try to expose the truth.

I wish judge Charleton the best in his attempts to expose the truth but in the end it will be a wasted exercise because the tribunal system was designed by our corrupt politicians with the specific aim of suppressing truth.

Kenny says boo – Varadkar Coveney run away

 

By Anthony Sheridan

The liar Kenny said boo to the so-called rebels and they ran away. These are the cowards, Varadkar and Coveney, who believe they have what it takes to lead the country – Pathetic.

With Kenny back in charge and the McCabe corruption safely in tribunal deep-freeze for at least three or four years the way is clear for a full return to the political criminality that passes for democracy in Ireland.

Copy to:

The cowards

 

Fergus Finlay: Hypocrite

 

By Anthony Sheridan

I genuinely felt like getting sick as I read Fergus Finlay’s ‘letter’ to Maurice McCabe in last Tuesday’s Irish Examiner. I have never read such a sickeningly patronising, grossly insulting attempt at excusing the diseased political/administrative system that has inflicted so much suffering and despair on the people of Ireland.

Before commenting on this disgraceful example of rank hypocrisy it will be useful to know something of Finlay’s background.

He is a loyal, unapologetic supporter of the rotten establishment that has destroyed our country, the same establishment that has destroyed the lives of Maurice McCabe and his family.

He is a loyal supporter of the Labour Party, the party that has been betraying Ireland and its people since, at least, 1992 when Dick Spring went into coalition with the criminal politician Haughey.

This was after Spring, having rightly accused Haughey of being ‘a cancer in the body politic’, promised the Irish people that he would remove the cancer of corruption. Fergus Finlay was a political advisor to Dick Spring when the decision to enter coalition with the corrupt Haughey was made.

This is the man who now has the gall to write a letter to Sgt. McCabe on behalf of the Irish people. This is a man operating under the delusion that Sgt. McCabe might be grateful for receiving some new insight into the nightmare that has consumed his life for nearly a decade.

Here’s a sample of the sickly, patronising waffle written by Finlay:

Dear Sgt. McCabe,

You deserve our gratitude.

You’ve more than earned your title of Sergeant, a title that has always earned respect in Ireland.

You’ve tried to do your job to the best of your ability.

We’ve seen how you and your wife and children have suffered.

You have spoken the truth to power…despite unbearable pressure, without flinching. You’ve tried to serve the interests of the public the best way you know how.

I sincerely hope that Maurice McCabe never gets to read this mush written by a man who is long on meaningless platitudes but zero on challenging the political corruption that is the ultimate source of Maurice McCabe’s horrific treatment.

Rank hypocrisy comes naturally to establishment figures like Finlay. This is crystal clear when we witness his nauseating defence of some of those responsible for McCabe’s nightmare.

Writing about the file that was used to destroy McCabe, Finlay is critical of the ‘system’ but not of those responsible – he writes:

The first instinct of some people (my emphasis) in the HSE is to cover up.

Having placed the blame on some vague, unidentified, unaccountable people in the HSE Finlay then strongly supports those who are actually responsible.

I have faith in the senior management of the HSE. I believe people like Tony O’Brien (Director General of HSE) have tried as hard as they could to change the culture of the organisation.

Finlay then goes on to defend Fred McBride, the CEO of Tusla, an organisation that, in a functional democracy, would be under immediate criminal investigation as a result of its actions/failures.

Fred McBride would not tolerate the sort of practice that permeates large bureaucratic systems.

So Finlay is suggesting to McCabe, the victim, that while ‘some people’ and ‘bureaucracy’ within these organisations are to blame the senior management are innocent bystanders deserving of sympathy.

Keep in mind that Finlay believes he is writing a personal/public letter of support and apology to the man whose life has been destroyed by these and other organisations.

Finlay ends his disgraceful article with a statement that bears no relationship whatsoever to the reality of how our country is misgoverned.

I believe that you will be vindicated Sgt. McCabe. I believe that justice will be done in the end and that we will know who did this.

Firstly, we already know exactly who did this – The corrupt political system that has infected agencies of the state like the HSE and the Garda Siochana is responsible.

Secondly, tribunals are nothing more than a mechanism created by our corrupt political system to sidetrack justice and accountability. This tribunal will be no different from any other. It will arrive at the same mealy-mouthed conclusion as Finlay does in his article – the system was to blame, bureaucracy was to blame – no individuals will be held to account, no justice will be done.

The depth of Finlay’s hypocrisy on this matter can be gauged by reading an article he wrote less than three months ago in which in lectured the people of Ireland for having the default position of demanding heads every time a controversy arose. It’s time we all got a grip of ourselves, he admonished; he goes on:

As for the rest of us, we need a break too, and some sense of proportion about all this stuff. “Off with their heads”, as the default response to every controversy — especially when it’s amplified a thousand times by the poisonous side of social media — is not just wildly disproportionate, it’s killing the kind of public discourse we need.

 

And here’s what he had to say about Garda Commissioner Noreen O’Sullivan, the individual at the heart of Maurice McCabe’s nightmare.

Maybe her main crime is that she’s a woman in a macho world. Whatever it is, I hope she withstands the pressure. She’s a breath of fresh air — and could do a lot more if she was given a break

I wonder if Finlay were to meet Maurice McCabe would he have to courage to say to his face – I think the Commissioner who has mistreated you so badly is a breath of fresh air, that she could do a lot more if only she was given a break.

Somehow I doubt it.

Copy to:

Fergus Finlay

Irish journalism: Suffering from a serious malaise

demand-real-journalism-logo

By Anthony Sheridan

 

A well-informed, objective media is one of the cornerstones of a healthy democracy. Journalists in a healthy democracy do not just report news and current affairs; they also have a duty to be rigidly impartial in their analysis of events.

Disturbingly, Irish journalism comes nowhere near the standards necessary to robustly challenge the State and its agents particularly when it comes to political corruption.

The recent publication of Hell at the Gates by journalists John Lee and Daniel McConnell is just the latest example of the disquietingly close and frequently grovelling relationship between the media and those who wield power within the Irish political system.

John Lee, writing about an interview he conducted with former Taoiseach Brian Cowen as part of his research for the book provides us with a good example of this cringing, extremely deferential type of journalism.

The (Irish Mail on Sunday) article is not available online so I have reproduced it in full below.

The headline gives a good indication of the tone of the article:

An astute, self-aware, intelligent man

Before making further comment on the article I want to express my opinion of Brian Cowen, an opinion that I believe is held by the majority of Irish people.

At best, Cowen is a political idiot. I do not say this as an insult (although it obviously is); I say it because it’s a simple fact. Cowen is nothing more than your typical Fianna Fail backwoodsman, gombeen politician who never had to do anything courageous or visionary to reach the apex of political power.

As a privileged member of one of the many political family dynasties that have plagued Irish politics since independence he was effectively handed power following the death of his father.

He was literally enthroned as Taoiseach by the disgraced Bertie Ahern who was forced to resign after his true pedigree was exposed at a tribunal.

But when Cowen, for the first and only occasion in his mediocre career, was called upon to show courage and vision in leading the nation he failed miserably.

As one editorial put it:

The worst Taoiseach in the history of the State.

And yet a stranger reading John Lee’s article could easily conclude that Brian Cowen was a politically intelligent, insightful and courageous man whose overriding mission in life was to promote the best interests of the Irish people.

A stranger reading the article would not see what most Irish people see.

That Cowen is a loyal member of the most corrupt political party in Ireland, the party that promotes the interests of property developers, bankers and other members of the golden circle that feed off the wealth of the Irish people.

A stranger reading the article would not see that Cowen is a loyal member of the party principally responsible for the economic disaster of 2008 that destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens.

However, a stranger who informed himself of Irish history over the past several decades would immediately recognise the rampaging elephant in the room – which is:

The Irish political system is seriously corrupt. In reaction to this political corruption a significant percentage of Irish citizens have rejected the legitimacy of the State and are in open rebellion.

A disturbingly large proportion of Irish journalists are either blissfully unaware of this dramatic shift in the political landscape or are willing collaborators in defence of the corrupt system.

Either way Irish journalism is suffering from a serious malaise that is not only bad for the profession but is having a very serious negative impact on Ireland and its people.

Copy to:

John Lee

Daniel McConnell

 

John Lee’s article – judge for yourself:

When Brian Cowen agreed to meet me for an interview for the book my colleague Daniel McConnell and I were writing, I didn’t really expect him to give anything away.

We sat on straight-back chairs at a table in a quiet corner of the Tullamore Court Hotel. I drank tea he drank mineral water. We discussed family (his brother Barry Cowen had been pivotal in securing the interview for me), mutual friends in politics, and a shared interest in golf.

When the iPhone recorder went on, he was ready. What followed was an insightful, forthright and considered summing up of his years at the top of Irish politics.

It’s said of Lyndon Johnson, that he was at his best with an audience of one. I think this applies to Cowen. He uses your first name, looks you in the eye, is exceptionally articulate and sharp. In the fog of war that engulfed Ireland during his years at the top, much of this was forgotten. Yet he understands why that is.

He spoke about how he felt the day he became Taoiseach, the enjoyment of appointing a cabinet and the brief summer of calm before all hell broke loose.

Bright man that he is, he knew there were claims about him that he had to confront. As the interview progressed I merely pointed to where we were in the chronology, and without pause he would take on the issues that he has been given so much time to think about over those preceding four years. He happily accepted he had made a mistake in not addressing the nation.

When we got to the incident at the Ardilaun Hotel in Galway in 2010, dubbed Garglegate, Mr. Cowen was also ready. He’s been crucified for it, and knew exactly what had happened – and was happy to tell his version of it, which was by no means self-serving. I had been at the Ardilaun too, and the press only asked questions about the previous night’s social session because Simon Coveney had tweeted critical remarks about Mr. Cowen’s performance on Morning Ireland.

Mr. Cowen blames Coveney for that debacle. But he proceeded for almost 10 minutes (a long time in an interview like this) to discuss his PR failures.

He revealed himself to an astute, self-aware and intelligent man.

The great pity is, perhaps, that when he was in charge he couldn’t find a way to reveal more of this side of himself to the Irish public.