Friday, September 22, 2006

THE WALLACE AND HOLROYD FILE .......
These files are now coming under the scrutiny of the 'authorities' . Heads will role . But whose ?
From 'New Hibernia' magazine , April 1987 .

If an MI6 agent inside the Garda arranged for another MI6 agent , Captain Fred Holroyd , to meet the head of Garda security , it is a matter of more than academic interest , especially in view of Holroyd's other allegations . The failure to clear the matter up is being viewed with increasing disquiet in (Free State) Government Buildings .

The other part of the Wallace/Holroyd File - the claims of smear campaigns run by MI5 which have been made by Captain Colin Wallace - are not being viewed with the same urgency by the Haughey Government. Colin Wallace served as a civilian 'Information Officer' and later ' Head of Production Services ' , a cover-name for a 'black' propaganda unit at (British Army) Military HQ in Lisburn , County Antrim .

His statements back up much of what Fred Holroyd says , but such corroboration is unnecessary , so detailed are the former undercover man's notes . Neither of them have been contacted by Irish (sic - Free State) security officers in the four years that Holroyd has been making allegations , or since Wallace joined him last December , when he came out of jail after serving a sentence for a manslaughter he says he did not commit . It remains to be seen if the on-going investigation into the entire riddle ordered by Charlie Haughey will change that situation .
[END of 'THE WALLACE AND HOLROYD FILE']
(Next - 'Lotteries and other hold-ups' : from 1987)


THE HEAVY HAND OF THE LAW .......
Allegations of Garda brutality only hit the headlines intermittently . But the problem may be much more widespread than most people imagine . Last year out-of-court settlements of cases involving members of the Garda cost the taxpayer over €1 million . What's going on ?
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 2003 .
By Mairead Carey.

Allegations of abuse while in Garda custody are nothing new to Fr Peter McVerry - " I get a substantial number of complaints . It goes in phases , but it is very consistent . The problem is that no one has any way of verifying each individual case ; they are always inconclusive because it is the garda's word against the word of a young person who , more than likely , has a criminal record . Most of the guys here don't complain anymore , because they are afraid they will get a worse hiding the next time , and they know from past experience and the experience of others that it won't go anywhere . "

Fr McVerry believes it is time for Garda management to adopt a "...holistic approach.." in order to see if the same names and stations crop up repeatedly in complaints . " I believe there is substance to most of the complaints I hear - they may be exaggerated , and I may only hear half the story . They may have given the gardai a load of lip , but there are so many complaints coming in , from so many young people , many of whom have no contact with one another , that it is impossible to believe that they are all inventing these stories with a view to blackening the names of the gardai . They have nothing to gain by telling me the story . There is nothing I can do about it . I can't make the complaint on their behalf . "

The same garda stations come up repeatedly , he says , listing off Store Street , Fitzgibbon Street and the Bridewell . They also feature prominently in the annual reports of the Garda Complaints Board . In 2001 , the latest year for which figures are available , there were 143 complaints against the Dublin North Central Division which is made up of Store Street , the Bridewell and Fitzgibbon Street , compared to 47 in the Limerick Division and just 14 in the Roscommon/Galway East Division.......
(MORE LATER).



THE STRANGE STATE KILLING OF MAURICE O'NEILL .......
James Gogartys Tribunal reminiscences about the shooting dead of a Garda colleague have resurrected a long-lost story of justice miscarried .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , March 1999 .
By ANTON McCABE .

Maurice O'Neill was a quiet man . The IRA had moved him up to Dublin that September . Once , when sent out on IRA business he didn't return till evening. When queried , O' Neill replied - " It is the custom , in our part , to call into every church that you have not been in before and to say a prayer ." The man had been in half the churches in Dublin !

In his last letter , Maurice O'Neill wrote to his father : " I am glad that I am not being reprieved as the thought of the torture I would have to endure in Portlaoise makes me shudder . The IRA prisoners there wear no clothes and have only two blankets to cover themselves . " A fellow Kerryman was in charge of the firing squad . There were only a handful of small and scattered protests .

Harry White had nine lives : on 30 September he had been with Paddy Dermody who was also on the run . Dermody had slipped home to attend his sister's wedding , taking Harry White with him . Armed Gardai stormed the wedding reception at a house near Mount Nugent in Cavan . A Garda inside the house stumbled in front of a window - a colleague of his outside shot him dead . Then Paddy Dermody was killed instantly by a bullet in the back . Harry White was on his own now , in a house which was surrounded by armed gardai , some of whom were coming in . He would have to shoot his way out.......
(MORE LATER).







Thursday, September 21, 2006


The 'Royals'/UDA golf partners out for a stroll !


One wonders how Mary McAleese can find the time in her busy itinerary to open proceedings at a golf competition especially when , as far as we know , her husband's colleague ,Jackie McDonald , was not present . One also wonders if Mrs McAleese will receive an extra allowance , on top of the €6,613 per week which her spokesperson stated she receives "...for entertainment and personal expenses . The substantial proportion of this allowance goes to meet the cost of food , refreshments and entertainment.." We may yet have to do a collection , readers ......
Incidentally , Mary McAleese did not have an agreed proposer or seconder in 1997 when she sought the nomination for the position of State President from Fianna Fail . As she said herself at the time - " Either of the candidates (Albert Reynolds and Michael O' Kennedy , left , holding a British trinket) could have got rid of me , there and then ; they would have been perfectly within their rights to insist that we follow the rules . That would have been the end of me and I would not have been a threat to whichever one of them was elected . I was very grateful for their generosity ."
Martin McAleese stated at the time , in relation to that same Fianna Fail nomination meeting : " When Rory O'Hanlon (Fianna Fail Chairperson at the time) told us about the new procedure (ie that Fianna Fail were willing to forgo proposer and seconder) , I couldn't believe that Albert had left the door open for her like that . I can only put it down to overconfidence on his part . If I was in his shoes , I'm afraid I would have insisted on party rules being obeyed ."
The McAleese's and their like , in Leinster House and in the Free State Senate , are non-productive leeches that are living beyond our means . They should first be made to apologise to the people on this isle , then forced to reimburse their ill-gotten financial gains and then permanently expelled from Irish soil .






Wednesday, September 20, 2006

THE WALLACE AND HOLROYD FILE .......
These files are now coming under the scrutiny of the 'authorities' . Heads will role . But whose ?
From 'New Hibernia' magazine , April 1987 .

Despite the fact that Fred Holroyd's allegations were not investigated , 'security correspondents' were briefed that the claims that he made on BBC and then RTE were "...being dismissed in Garda Headquarters.." . This week , as the first serious look at those claims is underway , the question of dismissals does not centre on Holroyd's statements , but on those who rejected them .

Included in the file are photocopies of pages from Capt Fred Holroyd's official notebook from that period , mentioning the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings and naming names . None of those named have been interviewed , nor have the RUC been asked to assist in the investigation , although 34 people died and the crimes are still unsolved . By far the most crucial allegation made by Fred Holroyd is that he met Assistant Garda Commissioner Ned Garvey during a trip to Garda Headquarters in April 1975 . Holroyd has a mass of detail in his notebooks about the visit . He was driven to the Border at Kileen on the main Dundalk-Newry Road by his subordinate , Ian Bushell , in an unmarked car along with Detective Inspector Frank Murray of the RUC.

The two men transferred to a Garda car driven by a Garda detective named by Fred Holroyd in his file , which also gives details of how they were escorted by a second Garda car containing other detectives , and covered front and rear by two Irish (Free State) Army Panhards which peeled off from the convoy just before the outskirts of Dublin . According to Holroyd , the visit had been arranged through the 'Badger', who had told Assistant Garda Commissioner Ned Garvey who had "...told Garvey what sort of a chap I was.." : Mr. Garvey has emphatically denied Captain Fred Holroyd's claim about the visit since it was first made on Channel Four TV in the 'Diverse Reports' programme in the early 1980's and through all its subsequent repetitions .

The providing of the names , times and other details in the Holroyd file obtained by G2 six months ago , offered a chance , if desired , to disprove the meeting had take place.......
(MORE LATER).



THE HEAVY HAND OF THE LAW .......
Allegations of Garda brutality only hit the headlines intermittently . But the problem may be much more widespread than most people imagine . Last year out-of-court settlements of cases involving members of the Garda cost the taxpayer over €1 million . What's going on ?
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 2003 .
By Mairead Carey.

Most of Barry Gannon's teenage years were spent in one institution or another : he has two children of his own , a six-year-old and four-year-old girl - their names are tattooed on his hands . He is now 24 and facing a stretch for robbery . " I'm trying to get off the stuff . I try to turn the corner but I always seem to go straight on , " he says .

Gannon claimed that one night in 1999 , after being arrested by gardai in Dublin city centre , he was punched and kicked on his way to the Garda station . Once inside, he claims to have been batoned on the legs , and had his head banged against a wall . He was released at about 4am and returned to the hostel for homeless young men on Whitworth Road , run by Fr. Peter McVerry - " He had marks all over his body and was very distressed, " says the priest . " We brought him to see a doctor who found bruises on his legs and back which were consistent with baton marks . He got a hiding , as bad a hiding as I had ever seen . There was no way he was inventing that distress."

After letters were written to the newspapers , the Garda complaints procedure was speeded up . Fr McVerry believes his arrest should have been captured on CCTV , but as in the case of the Walsh sisters , no footage was ever produced . " They called me in eventually to say they had found no substance to the allegation . They believed the bruising might have occurred before the arrest . It was his word against theirs ....... "
(MORE LATER).



THE STRANGE STATE KILLING OF MAURICE O'NEILL .......
James Gogartys Tribunal reminiscences about the shooting dead of a Garda colleague have resurrected a long-lost story of justice miscarried .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , March 1999 .
By ANTON McCABE .

Maurice O' Neill and Harry White of Belfast were in a house at 14 Holly Road , in Donnycarney , Dublin , : there was a £5,000 price on Harry White's head . Maurice O' Neill was not a wanted man . At 9.30pm they were tipped off that their 'safe house' was compromised , but finished their game of cards . Unknown to them , armed (Free State) police and soldiers had had the area surrounded from 8pm . Detectives at the door were listening to the last hands of the card game being played .

At approximately 9.50pm , White and O' Neill left by the back door , to pick up their bicycles and slip away down a narrow laneway . Seconds later , Detective Mordaunt and three other armed detectives burst in the front door . Mordaunt rushed out the back in hot pursuit . Armed Officers were posted at both ends of the lane and , as soon as figures appeared at the garden gate , they opened fire . In the darkness , a chaotic fire-fight erupted . Maurice O' Neill might have got away , but turned back when he heard a groan . He ran out of ammunition and retreated into the house , where he was captured .

Harry White escaped through gardens and a house , and hid in undergrowth for a night and a day before reaching another safe house . Detective Mordaunt's body was found , by accident , in a garden on the other side of the lane , in the early hours of the following morning . The detective who stumbled across his corpse was searching for a lost pen . The dead garda detective had not been listed as missing as no role-call had been held .

Maurice O' Neill had only three days to prepare his defence before his 'trial' by military tribunal began on November 2 , 1942 - important information was withheld from his counsel , Sean McBride - the record book showing weapons issued to the police and ammunition expended , plus information showing the targets hit by police shooting.......
(MORE LATER).







Monday, September 18, 2006

THE WALLACE AND HOLROYD FILE .......
These files are now coming under the scrutiny of the 'authorities' . Heads will role . But whose ?
From 'New Hibernia' magazine , April 1987 .

No one disputes that Fred Holroyd was what he says he was ; he has documentary evidence of every step in his career , from his rise through the ranks to his association with Craig Smellie , the Secret Service Chief in Lisburn , County Antrim . His allegations are that loyalist gunmen were used to kill and kidnap IRA suspects living south of the Border - with the help of three corrupt Garda detectives - at various times .

Their roles , according to Fred Holroyd , besides supplying information to British Intelligence , were to 'freeze' certain areas , ensuring that there were no Irish (ie 26-County State) security patrols when kidnaps or murders were planned . The names of those three Garda detectives were in the file which Irish (ie 26-County State) G2 Intelligence got last August (1986) , along with times , dates and specific dirty tricks operations , including the murders of John Francis Green and Eugene McQuaid , and the attempted kidnaps of two other men .

Amazingly , no attempt was made to establish the truth or otherwise of Fred Holroyd's claims : no interviews were carried out , nor were any Garda records for the dates and areas in question examined.......
(MORE LATER).



THE HEAVY HAND OF THE LAW .......
Allegations of Garda brutality only hit the headlines intermittently . But the problem may be much more widespread than most people imagine . Last year out-of-court settlements of cases involving members of the Garda cost the taxpayer over €1 million . What's going on ?
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 2003 .
By Mairead Carey.

Normally , solicitor Peter Mullen would not advise clients to take a civil case (against the Gardai) : " The Walsh sisters had huge advantages - they were middle class , well presented , articulate . It would have been a different story if they spoke with an inner-city accent , and had an address in Dublin 1 . It's easy to abuse the weak . The people I represent are more likely to be dispossessed , inarticulate or drug addicts . There are never any witnesses , because what happens takes place after the arrest . In court , you are faced with a Garda who is educated and articulate . The natural instinct is to believe the Gardai . "

Barry Gannon is a classic example : in June 1999 , Fr. Peter McVerry wrote to the newspapers about the then 20-year-old Barry Gannon - the Jesuit priest claimed that Gannon had been beaten up by gardai in Store Street Garda Barracks , having been accused of breaking a shop window in the city centre . A complaint had been made but would "...almost certainly not succeed.." , Peter Mullen predicted . He was right .

From behind the glass partition in the visiting room in Clover Hill prison in Dublin , Barry Gannon explains his life history in a few minutes . One of five children , his father died when he was eight years old . He was on the streets at 11 years of age , on heroin at the age of 13.......
(MORE LATER).



THE STRANGE STATE KILLING OF MAURICE O'NEILL .
James Gogartys Tribunal reminiscences about the shooting dead of a Garda colleague have resurrected a long-lost story of justice miscarried .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , March 1999 .
By ANTON McCABE .

In evidence to the Flood Tribunal on Tuesday , 2 February , former garda James Gogarty remembered - " I was within six feet of being shot dead , and a comrade of mine was shot dead , George Mordaunt " . Two dark chapters of Irish history briefly touched . The Flood and Moriarity Tribunals are casting light on the under-belly of Irish (Free State) politics in the past two decades , but little light has ever been shone on the dark days of World War Two (or 'The Emergency' , as it was euphemistically termed here) .

Fifteen-hundred Irish Republicans were interned . Five men faced firing squads and a sixth was hanged , after sentence by military tribunal - from which the only verdicts were death or acquittal . Three prisoners died on hunger strike and four individuals were victims of a shoot-to-kill policy .

Garda George Mordaunt died on October 24 , 1942 : on November 12 , 25-year-old Maurice O' Neill , an IRA member from Cahirciveen in County Kerry , was executed by firing squad , even though the prosecution accepted he did not fire the fatal shots . His death sentence was for shooting at police with intent to resist arrest.......
(MORE LATER).







Sunday, September 17, 2006

From 'VILLAGE' magazine , 7-13th September 2006 -


' Garda Donal Corcoran (left , with baton) who became known as 'Robocop' after he struck protesters with his baton at the 'Reclaim The Streets (RTS)' rally in May 2002 was recently promoted to detective rank . He was acquitted of assault charges arising from the protest , but admitted using excessive force . He is currently being investigated by the Garda Complaints Board for allegedly not wearing an ID number at the RTS rally .'

So there you have it : if you want to 'get ahead' in the Gardai , don't use your head . Use someone else's .