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 .
Last August , Lt Col John Morgan of G2 (Security) Section of Irish (Free State) Military Intelligence obtained a file listing detailed allegations about the co-operation of members of the State security forces with dirty tricks carried out in the Irish Republic (sic - the 26 county State/Free State) - the dossier named three serving detectives in the Garda Siochana , an assortment of British military and civilian intelligence men , and a Garda officer who claimed : " We (the gardai who were co-operating with British intelligence) are more afraid of our own politicians . They're the ones you can't trust . "
Last week , six months after the allegations that named individuals who had conspired in murder , kidnaps and probably committed treason , not one of them had been interviewed about the claims which came from Captain Fred Holroyd and Captain Colin Wallace , two former intelligence men in the North of Ireland . The names of four men alleged to be behind the Dublin bombings of 1974 and the RUC detective sergeant who co-operated with them were also in the file obtained by G2 . None of these had been interviewed by last week , yet the then (Free State) Justice Minister , Fine Gael's Alan Dukes , had dismissed the Wallace/Holroyd claims .
Now an investigation has been ordered by (Free State) Taoiseach Charles Haughey (Fianna Fail) : its purpose - to find out who stopped the investigation last August , and why the Wallace/Holroyd claims have been dismissed in State ministerial briefings despite the failure to investigate . There is a distinct fear in some security circles in Dublin that when the riddle of the Wallace/Holroyd File is solved , more than one head will role and that some detectives could end up behind bars.......
(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.
Few of those cases ever make the headlines : what happened to Grainne and Ciara Walsh (scroll to post #18) was an exception .
The two sisters were walking up Grafton Street in Dublin with friends in the early hours of 25 April 1998 when an unmarked Garda car reversed towards them ; in an attempt to alert the gardai , one of the sisters , Grainne , a fashion designer from Castleknock in Dublin , banged on the boot of the car . She was arrested and thrown into the back of a Garda van and , when her sister objected , she , too , was arrested . On the journey to Pearse Street Garda Barracks , Grainne Walsh claimed she was held by her hair , while a garda knelt on her back . She claimed the garda continuously moved her , shook her , lifted her up by the hair and banged her down again .
She claimed that when the van stopped , the garda put one hand on her head and , as the door opened , pushed her head forward suddenly as he let go of her wrists , ensuring that she had no chance of using her feet to step down from the van . She alleged that she fell head-first to the ground and landed on her chin . She also claimed that she was then pulled by the arms through the doorway to the garda station , that she was on her knees and that she ripped her trousers as she was pulled . Friends of the sisters , who had witnessed the incident, immediately went to Pearse Street Garda Barracks to complain . One was offered a lift to the garda station by a sympathetic garda .
In the station , the sisters were put in the same cell by a garda sergeant , who apologised to them , and assured them that no charges would be brought : a doctor was called to look at Grainne Walsh's injuries . The duo were released after a few hours . But that was not the end of the matter as far as the Gardai were concerned.......
(MORE LATER).
VINCENT BROWNE : PILLARS OF SOCIETY .......
Vincent Browne is the nearest thing to Robert Maxwell that Ireland has got - in style , if not in scale .
From 'PHOENIX' magazine , 1985.
Vincent Browne's biggest scoop came in the celebrated interview with Dominic McGlinchey over a year ago : that particular exclusive was on his desk some days before Browne conducted his own interview with McGlinchey , and came from a journalist who had interviewed the INLA boss earlier in the month . But the editor disapproved of the interview or , more particularly , he did not like the byline on the piece - it was not his own !
'Mad Dog' Browne wanted to face 'Mad Dog' McGlinchey himself : in the event , McGlinchey and friends were incensed with the piece which , although relatively flattering , was regarded as felon setting . Then , fearing that Vincent Browne might be subpoena'd to give evidence in Dublin's Special Criminal Court if Dominic McGlinchey was acquitted in the North of Ireland , the IRSP denied that the interview ever took place . The INLA went further and telephoned Browne , advising him that an appearance in court , North or South , would be positively unhealthy .
Those journalists who do enjoy Browne's approval are guaranteed maximum coverage in the newspaper as well as a 23-hours-a-day workload : others have been shunned and either have left out of disillusionment or have rotted away at their desks. The restaurant cleavage in the staff has left the editor surrounded with a few acolytes and the rest who either fear or dislike him . Only the regular and dramatic confrontations with the NUJ chapel unite the editorial staff ! The 'top tier' in the newspaper did not escape , either.......
(MORE LATER).
