Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
EDMUND BURKE, IRISH politician and philosopher, died in July 1797. However, his words on ethics in Irish politics and public life are as relevant today as they were 220 years ago: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
In the current political crisis – which threatens to collapse the government and trigger a general election – the focus is on what one woman, Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald, did or did not do in July 2015, in relation to a legal strategy designed to further damage, vilify and destroy Garda whistleblower, Sergeant Maurice McCabe.
Much publicised enquiries and investigations
While Frances Fitzgerald was Minister for Justice from May 2014 to June 2017, she was aware of countless enquiries and investigations into Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe. These enquiries included several Garda investigations, both administrative and disciplinary, the Fennelly Commision of Enquiry, the O’Higgins Commission of Enquiry, Judge Iarflaith O’Neill’s Report and the report by Senior Counsel, Sean Guerin.
These much publicised enquiries and investigations confirmed the truth of Maurice McCabe’s allegations of grave wrongdoing within An Garda Síochána.
These enquiries and investigations also confirmed Maurice McCabe’s integrity and demonstrated him to be a man of the utmost moral probity – a man motivated solely by a desire to tell the truth about a toxic culture within Ireland’s police force. Maurice McCabe, as a public servant, simply wished to do the State some service.
As a consequence, in a textbook case of what Transparency International (Ireland) refer to as “Whistleblower Reprisal”, Maurice McCabe was subjected to eight years of sustained character assassination and targeted bullying and harassment from members of An Garda Síochána and other State agencies.
I suffered a similar campaign
As an army officer and whistleblower who revealed shockingly high levels of sexual violence against female soldiers within the Irish Defence Forces, I suffered a similar, sustained campaign of character assassination, vilification and false rumours designed to undermine my personal and professional integrity.
To this day, I still suffer the negative effects of this campaign, on a personal, social and professional level. However, I was lucky. I survived.
In Maurice McCabe’s case however, powerful forces at the highest level of Irish society, were determined that he be completely destroyed. The whistleblower reprisal and strategy of character assassination culminated in false allegations of rape and child sexual abuse. Such false accusations are unspeakable.
They were designed to not only to destroy Maurice McCabe – but to also destroy his marriage and his family. Such a campaign is the very expression of evil. Sadly, a surprisingly large number of public officials, politicians and journalists were prepared to collaborate with and extend the negative narratives around Maurice McCabe.
The now infamous email
It is in this context that Frances Fitzgerald, as Minister for Justice received the now infamous email on 15 May 2015, alerting her and her political advisors to the legal strategy adopted by then Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan to raise “a serious criminal complaint against Sergeant McCabe” (which he has always denied).
The email goes further to explain that the case “had been submitted to the DPP, who directed no prosecution”. At the time of receipt of this email, the case of Maurice McCabe was well known to the Taoiseach, the Minister for Justice and indeed the entire nation.
Any email regarding the treatment of Maurice McCabe in July 2015 would have had the status of a very large red flag.
On receipt of this email Frances Fitzgerald and her political advisors were faced with a decision. An ethical dilemma. It was and remains a very simple, clear, ethical question. What should I do when made aware of an attempt by way of an adversarial legal strategy to further damage the reputation of a good man who has been irrefutably shown to have spoken truth to power?
The answer to this question is very simple. All ethical models, from Aristotle and Plato, to Emmanuel Kant – even to basic Christian teaching – tell us in such circumstances, to act.
We ought to expect ethical action and moral courage
Frances Fitzgerald should have acted publicly to bring an end to such a strategy. Ethical action and moral courage are what we ought to expect and require of our elected representatives. As Edmund Burke observed, so eloquently, failure to act in such compelling circumstances, allows evil to triumph.
In the last few days, the narrative around Frances Fitzgerald’s actions has been almost devoid of ethical scrutiny. Her actions or lack of action has been summarised in almost exclusively legal terms by those who would seek to defend her.
The unanimous line adopted by Fine Gael politicians and reinforced by a number of political correspondents – who ought to know better – is that Frances Fitzgerald had no “legal role” in the matter of Maurice McCabe’s ongoing and unethical hostile scrutiny by the Garda Commissioner’s legal team.
Fitzgerald’s defenders argue that she was acting on “legal advice” as if invoking the notion that “legal advice” is binding or compulsory to the exclusion of common sense, decency and the moral imperative to do the right thing.
What is legal can often be harmful and wrong
Legal advice is just that. Advice. Clients – in this case, the Minister for Justice or the Garda Commissioner – instruct their legal teams. Not the other way around.
Legal advice is not a moral arbiter. What is legal can often be harmful and wrong. This is why we place such faith in our elected representatives and ministers. We expect them to act in the interests of the people. To do so – is to expect them to act morally, ethically – the essence of political correctness and leadership.
In this case, Frances Fitzgerald’s inaction – to come to the aid of a good man, Maurice McCabe – can at best be explained by moral-legalism. The invocation of legal constraints as a barrier to doing the right thing is commonly referred to in the literature on ethical probity as a refuge for those who are morally compromised.
The invocation of such a legal defence for inaction has the moral equivalence of the infamous assertion, ‘I was only following orders’. In ethical terms, such a defence rings hollow and shows a lack of leadership, judgment and moral courage.
The McCabe’s suffering
In February of this year, Maurice and Lorraine McCabe – in a rare joint statement – spoke publicly of their suffering:
We have endured eight years of suffering, private nightmare, public defamation and State vilification arising solely out from the determination of Maurice to ensure that an Garda Síochána adheres to decent and appropriate standards of policing in its dealings with the Irish people.
Following Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s apology to the McCabes – they asked very explicitly for one simple thing, the truth:
We are entitled to the truth, today. Justice can follow in its wake. We wish to make it clear that we are definitely not agreeable to that entitlement being wholly postponed so that another commission of enquiry can conduct a secret investigation behind closed doors.
Throughout this crisis, the McCabe family have made their position clear – the desire for all concerned, especially politicians, to state the truth “immediately” about what they knew about the false allegations spread about Maurice.
This affair is not just about an email
It is telling, that in the current crisis, Frances Fitzgerald’s defenders in An Taoiseach and others in the Fine Gael party, are resistant to this request. They have couched their response to the emerging information about Frances Fitzgerald’s actions or lack thereof in almost exclusively moral legal terms – an empty defence.
They have also demanded that the matter be dealt with exclusively by the commission of enquiry – contrary to the explicit demands of the McCabe family. And contrary to opposition politicians demand that ministers such as Frances Fitzgerald and Charlie Flanagan be held accountable in Dáil Éireann.
This affair is not about a simple email. It is about the sacred social contract between government and the people. It is about trust and ethics in office. The no-confidence motion in Frances Fitzgerald reflects a broader lack confidence in our policing and the administration of justice in the Irish Republic.
If – as a mature EU state, we cannot have this ethical expectation in relation to Justice – we cannot trust such a polity to negotiate on our behalf in vital Brexit negotiations.
Dr Tom Clonan is a former Captain in the Irish armed forces. He is a security analyst and academic, lecturing in the School of Media in DIT. You can follow him on Twitter here.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
This is a good article by Tom Clonan. It brings in the wider dimension.
It is obvious that Frances Fitzgerald did not even consider how she might take legal advice so as to prevent the unwarranted attack on Sgt. McCabe.
It is not just emails, it is the complicity of the Department of Justice with AGS in adopting an attack dog strategy on Sgt. McCabe based on wholly false and spurious allegations before the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation. The purpose was to mislead and to distract the Commission of Investigation away from the substance of Sgt. MCabe’s assertions and into an examination of Sgt. McCabe’s character and motivation.
Now look at leadership. Nóirín O’Sullivan was Garda Commissioner. Frances Fitzgerald was Minister for Justice. Then examine the relationship between the leaders. They have had a close association for upwards of 20 years and the Garda Commissioner is legally, politically and constitutionally answerable to the Minister for Justice.
Only a naive person would accept that in these circumstances, AGS was pursuing a strategy of trying to destroy Sgt McCabe but without any awareness or complicity on the part of the Tanaiste and former Minister for Justice.
We see that there was a strategy to sabotage the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation, a statutory Commission, to obstruct and to hinder its investigations.
Then add to that the withholding of relevant and crucially important documentation from the Disclosures Tribunal, chaired by Mr. Justice Charelton, a statutory Tribunal of Inquiry.
There is no point in having Commissions of Investigation and Tribunals of Inquiry if they are to be obstructed and hindered and if the miscreants are to be allowed sabotage these processes.
The Tanaiste is unfit. She let her friend and close ally, the Commissioner, free to instruct Colm Smyth SC to do a demolition job on Sgt. McCabe. That was unacceptable.
@Fiona deFreyne:
For me it boils down to this.
If you’re unable to identify a structured deception in the form of the tail wagging the dog then you’re not fit for politics.
On the other hand, if you are astute enough to identify a structured deception in the form of the tail wagging the dog and then you do not take action you’re not fit for politics.
In either scenario she’s not fit for any purpose.
@Tweed Cap: excellent points.
I tend towards the latter view. She knew full well what was happening and decided to allow the Commissioner to unleash the legal attack dogs.
@Fiona deFreyne: This has been rumbling on from 2006,its obvious to me that the powers that be are determined to ignore all sense of justice ,government ,judiciary ,and THe AGS .what other western european country would allow such blatant obsfucation of justice .Law and order in ireland is for the elite to implement as they see fit ,democracy ,transparency ,accountability ,Never
Nobody sees the elephant in the room. Her ministerial pension isn’t due for another year. She’s not going anywhere till that’s approved. Like the rest of them.
Lurchers.
@Robert Hughes: that doesn’t explain why Leo just doesn’t drop her. In the dog eat dog world of politics, her ministerial pension means nothing when everyone else’s ass is on the line.
She had to go and resign. We need an outside commissioner, with pre determined goals, that is held responsible by a committee made up of lay, professional and international experience.
@Rory: fitzgerald represents well the class of gombeen politician we’ve got, stubbornly putting herself before the Irish people. She’ll get her neighbours to vote her back in and then claim that as personal vindication that she was right what she did!
@Adrian: I really wish that was not true but it is true.
Our Department of Injustice
It is not often that one person, in this case Frances Fitzgerald, can decide if she is so important and so much more important than Sgt. McCabe, that she can decide if there is or is not be to be a General Election.
The FG Ministry of Misinformation and Propaganda will need to get busy against this article.
Frances Fitzgerald can now decide if there is to be a General Election over her political position. Is she really that important that she should come first?
Inaction in such a case is a total failure of the ethical duty to act in the face of injustice. The comment that ‘action is not needed is not an absolution for not doing the right thing to protect an honourable. The minister did nothing Wrong? Yeah and ‘Brutus was an honourable man’. Too long we have endured such actions/Inactions. Is politics the new priesthood ?
@Dermot Healy: The person who wrote the email doesn’t recall writing it. the minister who recieved the email doesn’t recalling reading it.
This very week the Irish Army Air Corps is pressing ahead with a Military Medical Board in order to dismiss the ONLY serving Air Corps toxic chemical scandal whistle-blower on grounds a military doctor described as a “work related industrial dispute”.
A military medical board overseen by the same Army Medical Corps that never detected or noticed a large number of young fit Air Corps men dying from cancer, heart attacks & suicide all because Health & Safety management didn’t do their job.
Surely theres someone accountable for this incrediable injustice on a person who stands up for what he believes in what has this society become we try to bring up our kids to do whats right only to learn that IRELAND and its leaders are there to fill there pockets with what ever means possiable for god sake wake up before our society is totally ruined.
@Michael Mulcahy: The whole establishment is who’s responsible.
The establishment who have no problem in carring out a witch hunt and slander campaign against any individual or group in the state that dares question what that establishment is doing.
Water protesters, the unemployed, the homeless, those on social welfare those on low pay, those who protested in Tallagh.
Yet bankers and white collar criminals, the corrupt, can walk away free of any sanction.
FF/FG like days of old will never change. they have to be found out. a total disgrace what they were prepared to put this man and his family through.
Francis fitzgearld is no viictim shes part of the corruption the irish people have to put up with the irish people are the victim and time you resign francis
Sgt. McCabe is a hero in all this. If he had not had the foresight to tape the meeting where they were alleging that he said that he had a grudge they might have got away with it.
David and Goliath comes to mind.
Frances Fitzgerald should resign and put the country first and if she doesn’t Leo Varadkar should sack her.if he has the guts .
@Aine O Connor: well said.
For Leo, he sees this as a god sent apportunity too display his toughness with SF and FF and to get a reputation as a ruthless and hard playing political leader.
This is Leo’s opportunity to shine, as he sees it.
Ultimately, it’s all about Leo.
Frank sullivan’s first comment was posted just 2 minutes after Tom Clonan’s extensive article was posted up.
is Frank Sullivan a speed reader?
Did he even read the caption of the Tom Clonan article.
@Fiona deFreyne: And he hasn’t even posted his cringey #FeelingGoodWithFG shite yet…
@Shakka1244: if I was in FG I would pay him for his silence.
On the other hand, he is an accurate representation of a typicla FG supporters and he demonstrates how they “think” about issues”
I like when frank uses Leo’s phraseology and style. It is has if Leo himself is posting here.
Obstruction or hindering a Commission of Investigation and / or a Tribunal of Inquiry are each criminal offences.
Good article by Tom Honan. However, what seems to be getting pushed into the background is the appalling vista of the extent of a deep deep malaise within the Gardai at all levels. This needs to be sorted and done so as soon as possible. It is unconscionable that we should allow this situation to continue. An out of control police force cannot be tolerated.
@John Campbell: the proble is accountability. AGS is totally supported by DJE senior officials and usually the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner are close or in the case of Frances and Noreen, extremely close. Therefore, there is no accountablity, only highly political policing.
Anyone who votes for either FF or FG in the coming election (whenever it happens) is complicit in the continuing gombeen amoral politics which afflict our country.
Bravo Tom, perfectly clear for those that want to see. But I’m minded to understand their actions and inactions as duplicity and not stupidity (though I admit they do have an abundance of that capacity too).
RTE News 22nd December 2017
After a mediocre showing by FG in the recent GE and the loss of 2 FG seats, Simon Coveney and others in FG have asked the Taoiseach to step aside in favour of Frances Fitzgerald.
Frances Fitzgerald has thanked the Taoiseach for his personal support but has emphasised that the interests off the FG must come first. It is rumored that the Taoiseach will be offered the joint Ministeries of Health and Housing.
Frances Fitzgerald says that if she becomes Taoiseach, she will include Justice in her portfolio of direct responsibility.
No matter what the rights and wrongs are. Ms Fitzgerald Has got To Go !!! She is at least incompetent, and apears to have been at least compliant if not complaisant with Nooreen O’Sullivan in a Fraudulent and criminal effort to destroy a man and his family’s life and reputation for ever.
The fact that frank Sullivan is supporting the Tanaiste tells against her.
These gombeen mainly FF and FG politicians we’ve currently got are a disgrace. They’re incompetent, unfit for the job, and have to character assassinate others to save themselves.
Tom Clonan, excellent article, The truth hurts as in this case FG & CO will not accept the truth and it proves they are incapable of being honest.
They are not fit to govern
When people ask for Ministers to resign , what they dont realize is that they never resign, that have to be bought out with a soft high paying job …. Its only a matter of time, but they never resign out of principle …
Tom great article but just imagine any poor person caught in our justice system and this happens and no one has an ethnically principle to act. How many are victims of injustice at the hands of our department of justice
I feel Frances Fitzgerald is a decent and honorable woman. But she should have brought that email to the attention of the Government at that time. The allegations against Maurice Mc Cabe had already been shown to be false. It begs belief why the Commissioner insisted on pursuing that line of false allegations against Sergeant McCabe.
@Paddy Robinson: the full context is that the Government wanted to support the efforts of AGS and it’s legal team, led by Colm Smyth SC, to mislead the O’Higgins Commission of Investiogation into thinking that Sgt. McCabe was motivataed purely by spite and revenge. Frances Fitzgerald was not going to stop a strategy which protected AGS and indirectly protected the Department fo Justice. It was easy to sacrafice one person, Sgt. McCabe, for the benefit of the reset.
Frances would not have acted on the emails because she was part of the strategy.
This email was never intended to emerge and it was never intended that the email woukld end up going to the Disclosures Tribunal.
What else has been concealed?
Frances Fitgerald did absolutely nothing wrong, and no witch hunt can change that :)
@frank sullivan: the problem is she did nothing…repeat nothing to defend a whistle blower.
@frank sullivan: you did not take the time to read this fine and full context article first.
Yes, Frances Fitzgerald did wrong. She was at least tacitly complicit in the campaign to destroy Sgt McCabe. She was at the top of the chain. She ignored what was happening even though the final constitutionally, political and moral responsibility rested with her.
@Rory: Correct she did nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing :)
@Johnny Leddin: Facts are all as clear as day. No case to answer :)
@Johnny Leddin: she allowed the campaign by an AGS to character assassinate Sgt MCCabe anbd to obstruct and hinder the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation.
She pretended to support and to protect Sgt McCabe bout she let Noirin O’Sullican, AGS and the State paid Colm Smyth SC loose to destroy Sgt. McCabe.
Lucky, very lucky indeed that Sgt McCabe had the audio recording.
@frank sullivan: Yeah OK Frank – all FG politicians are the bestest politicians in the world EVER :)
@frank sullivan: “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”.. Its not that she did nothing wrong. But she did NOTHING. Thats whats wrong with this country. People who turn a blind eye for fear of rocking the boat. (Or risking their big fat pension)..
@frank sullivan: completely untrue. As soon as she read that email she should have summoned the commissioner and instructed under no circumstances should those false charges have been used against McCabe. She choose to ignore this knowing what was going to happen, and then lied in the Dail about it, and then let Leo back her up in the Dail knowing she lied to him also making him look complacent. She should have been fired on the spot as soon as Leo found out.
@Jay Coleman: exactly.
Instead Frances Fitzgerald allowed a strategy to be pursued which result 3 days later in a salvage legal assault by Colm Smyth SC, acting on instructions, to tear Sgt McCabe apart as motivated by spite against his colleagues.
@frank sullivan: the only witch hunt was the witch hunt against Sgt McCabe.
@frank sullivan: Did you conveniently skip a quote, from an Irish politician made 220 years ago in the article and does it make you uneasy when you compare it to Frances or are you a FG sheep?
@frank sullivan: Did you bother even reading the article? There’s no witch hunt on her. The truth of the witch hunt carried out by various branches of the establishment on an innocent man, who dared question that establishment, is what is being discussed.
Those that side with and support Fitzgerald and the government are as bad as any who had hand act or part in the witch hunt against McCabe.
@Dave Doyle: frank sullivan posted his first comment just 2 minutes after the substantial article by Tom Clonan was posted.
frank Sullivan is a 4th generation FG bot.
@frank sullivan: Frank is a dyed in the wool FG troll. He has no concept of anything which might slight his beloved cult party.
@Fiona deFreyne: A fraperoom member, those that sit all day waiting to defend the indefensible actions and slander pumped out by the establishment.
They do us all a favour in reality. We know from them exactly what FG thinks about the ordinary people of the country they hold in contempt.
@Dave Doyle: the amusing thing is that FG supporters think that he is playing an absolute blinder for the FG party.
@frank sullivan: ah the drowning man quandary , if I help I might get into difficulty, if I leave him he will drown , but I’m a great swimmer,what does one do ? Or do we need a law to make this occur ?
If FF were hammered for destroying the country, FG have now surely rendered themselves untrustworthy and permanently unelectable now.
A terrible indictment of the whole political system, the Guards and the legal system
@Kevin Slater: Unfortunately there is no one who can be trusted to do a proper job. Our politicians are only egotists and pocket fillers.
I have the greatest admiration for Maurice McCabe. If only we had more brave men and women
like him to speak out against the grave injustices that are going on in our country.
Tom there is no doubt that in the minds of many that this episode around McCabe has all of the hallmarks of “modus operandi” they did it before , they are used to doing it, they have been getting away with it for a long time but they are not used to being caught with their hands in “the cookie jar” and thats when they get most vicious. How many lives, thus far, have they destroyed that will remain unspoken of , at the hands of the state. A simple example of this is the secret nature of the so called family law court where if one speaks out about any injustice experienced there one is immediately thrown into jail and no one but no one will know anything about it. As you related “all that is necessary for evil to thriumph is that good men do nothing” in this case you are immediately incarcerated, difficult, huh.
Frances Fitzgerald has to resign. That she did nothing speaks volumes. No hiding behind a smokescreen of ‘I couldn’t interfere’ of course she could
With apologies in advance to Oliver Callan who does an even better caricature of our new Taoiseach
Leo is up early. He is in the bathroom. He practises staring hard at his reflection in the mirror. Leo poses, he clenches his well-defined jaw in a look for fearsome determination . He tries to look menacing, macho and challenging.
He visualizes Micheál and Mary Lou in the Dail Chamber . He practices his hard glare.
“You lookin’ at me, you lookin’ at me” he mouths in his aggressive challenging. He likes his look.
Leo is now getting worked up. “I’m your worst nightmare; I’m Leo the Lion. I am Leo the Magnificent. I am tough Leo. I say that The Tanaiste stays. I don’t back down. I’m wearing my Superman socks. I’ll sock it to anyone who takes me on.
He is no pumped up! “Bow down in awe and terror. There’s a new Taoiseach in town and he is tough, ultra tough. Quake in fear you petty ones . The Tanaiste is under my protection.”
Leo throws shapes, punches the air and calls out to his driver. “Let’s go. I have political guttersnipes and bushwhackers to sort out” he tells himself, making his driver and Personal Secretary very nervous as they hear him mutter menacingly, “Don’t mess with me, the hard Leo: you won’t like me when I’m angry”.
The start of another day in the life of Leo the Most Magnificent, Ireland’s new Sun King. Gaze in wonder.
“God, I just love being me” Leo exclaims. “This new gig is a total blast.”
“Who will play me in the bio pic of my political career. Is there any actor who could even start to portray my chutzpah and charisma?” He thinks before sadly realising that there is no one good enough, no where near half good enough.
Thank to you Frances for allowing me the opportunity to shine, to display myself in my full magnificence as a strong and ruthless leader as well as the greatest ever Taoiseach in Irish history.
Fitzgerald needs to resign…full stop. The fact that she doesn’t, and puts her name forward in a general election convention while bringing this country to the brink of a general election after what she did/didn’t do in relation to Maurice McCabe, only validates justice how morally corrupt she and her FG cronies really are. The more I think about this mess, the more I believe that not only does she need to be forced to resign; but both her and Noirin O’Sullivan need to be made an example of. Both of them, along with their legal advisors, and anyone corrupt enough to support either one of them, needs to be in prison. I find it suspect that so many in FG are supporting her. Perhaps she pulled the old “if I am going down, I am taking you all with me” trick. One has to wonder just how many names she has on her list of culpable players in this ongoing, disgraceful saga…and how many of them are terrified of being brought down with her.
If one does happen, FFS use your vote and wisely. FF/FG/L/SF, are the dinosaurs destroying our Country and hit them with the Meteor they deserve!
@Stephen murphy: Fair enough Stephen but what will they be replaced with? The likes of Wallace, Daly, Halligan etc etc
@Eamonn Ó Maoldomhnaigh: Ah sure why not. Then we can arrange for a GE every three months or less, when the egos can’t agree on what should be on the breakfast menu in the Dail bar. I am afraid that, much and all as I detest party politics, it is like democracy, the lesser of two evils.
I would be an ardent supporter of anarchy but that would require a individual level of discipline that heretofore has never been evident.
@Eamonn Ó Maoldomhnaigh: It was Wallace and Daly who brought this to where it is today and look what was done to them for lifting there heads.
Bullies are the ones who always use character assassination because it passes the buck, the worse their bullying the greater the character assassination. Therefore the lies are measuring rod to see how bad the harassment was?
Whatever the bullies do they try and excuse it by saying the victim did them and bullies will protect each other and stand up for each other and eejits will call the bullies great people at the same time. As the saying goes beware of people always running up to the altar railings… Sometimes the worst bullies are those who have the most to lose and always try to be somebody important in crowds. So the higher you go in any society then the more bullies you find on the way up?
I love the political all-forgiving “The minister did nothing wrong”.
When I hear it I know I’m looking at the guilty party.
Problem.
In a time when the whole country was talking about little else the Ministry doesn’t remember sending and the Minister doesn’t remember receiving an email that described how a corruption whistleblower was to be defamed and taken out ??!!
Solution.
The Ministry needs to be overhauled and the Minister needs to step aside.
Q.E.D.
The fact that a Garda sergeant had to turn whistleblower in the first place tells you all you need to know. Irrespective of who saw or read what. The whole cabal from the top down is rigged. Two commissioners later and we are still focusing on McCabe. It’s a farce, and I have no faith in those that are in power to resolve it. Amateurs the lot of em.
Fitzergald’s continuing actions, along with those of Noirin O’Sullivan, and their supporters in FG…show just how drunk and corrupt with power they all are.
Excellently written.
Also true is a quote by Martin Luther King
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really co-operating with it”
To let a man’s life & family be almost destroyed to protect rather than investigate the allegations he brought forward tells us a lot about the people who instigated it & also about those who let it happen.
Someone should stand up & be the one who says “Enough! All the lies stop now”
Let’s see who will be as brave as Maurice McCabe & Tom Conlon.
This duplicity and hypocrisy pervades ALL aspects of Irish life – both public and private. The Gardai have been aided and abetted for as long as Ive been a lawyer in the courts (30 years) by the judiciary who turn a blind eye to their perjury in witness boxes. Could say a lot more but I’ll get Mcabed too!
This is indeed a sad case.
It clearly shows wrongdoing by people in high places.
It’s time to clean up the legal system! Alan Shatter was forced to resign. The Garda Commissioner was forced to resign.
Let’s have the full truth!
Something is wrong!
It’s not the rime for a general election!
The journal should take a poll “simple ”
Should She stay
or
Should She go
Let the people speak
Was it really necessary to compare the author’s so called whistleblowing to the case of Sgt McCabe? Does the author really think they are comparable situations? To my knowledge the author publish a doctoral thesis on women in the army, rather than proactively expose “shocking” sexual misconduct. And to say he continues to suffer because of a smear campaign seems laughable to me. Perhaps it is his performance in the media as a ‘Security Expert’ which colours opinion.
I am taken aback,
” and reinforced by a number of political correspondents – who ought to know better”
This is part of the problem and is a large factor in why we’ve had a dysfunctional Garda Management/culture for so long :(
No matter
McCabe went to ridiculous lengths to expose at worst mistakes and poor performances of colleagues some of which were working under him as a sergeant. These were minor issues according to the Higgans report. He wrongly accused others of corruption and was found to have aggravated other claims. Considering all this his motives were and should be examined and the fact that a young woman did accuse him of inappropriate behaviour when she was a child is a factor and needs to be looked at. This is a man with a chip on both his shoulders who set out to destroy anyone he came in contact with even those that tried to help him.
@Stephen: Are you a member of the Garda?
@Con O’Driscoll: no I’m saying his motives should be questioned. And it is an undeniable fact that McCabe is an alleged child Molester. That’s not a smear it’s a fact and does point to his motives in my opinion.
whether you like it or not the gardai and government will be corrupt , power corrupts always has always will and this is why nobodies actually surprised . The gardai used to work but not now that local community is replaced by centralism and benifits , liable to be even more corrupt in the future of the self , so get used to it . bleedin easy , well paid , non dangerous job too . Mc Cabe is no hero , was only ever looking after his own interest like everybody else in this sorry tale , life
have your say