The state trumpets every drugs seizure as a major victory over the barons. But the war against drugs is really a murky world characterised by botched operations , questionable use of informers and ego-driven squabbles between the Garda Siochana and customs officials.
Mairead Carey gets the inside story.
From 'MAGILL' magazine , August 2002.
By mid-1997 , the informant Edward Keating had come to the notice of Customs , who pulled him over in Ringaskiddy in Cork and questioned him : he revealed that he was working with the Garda , so Customs sent a report on the case to Garda HQ. Keating felt under pressure.
In July 1997 , Garda Jack Doyle said that arrangements were made to find two bags of cocaine in a field beside Keating's home - no one was ever prosecuted in relation to the find , but it allowed both Keating and the Garda to sever their arrangement gracefully. In October 1997 , Garda Doyle took up duty at Togher Garda Barracks in Cork and was there only about six weeks when Keating was arrested after a shooting incident in Farranree , on the north side of Cork city.
Later that same night he got information about a rucksack which Keating had stored at his home outside Blarney and he travelled out to the house and picked it up. Inside the rucksack was a handful of firearms , including a Magnum 357 , the type of gun used to murder Veronica Guerin ; there was also a 9mm semi-automatic Browning pistol , a number of other hand guns and a couple of hundred rounds of ammunition.......
(MORE LATER).
THE PETER BERRY PAPERS....... The Top Secret Memoirs of Ireland's Most Powerful Civil Servant : Dirty Tricks, Election '69/ Spying on a Unionist Politician/ Keeping the (State) Taoiseach informed/ The Garda Fallon Murder/ Advice to Jack Lynch- 'Fire the pair of them...'/ Vivion De Valera's advice to O'Malley/ Rumours of a Coup D'Etat/ The Internment Plot, November 1970/ Secret Meeting with William Craig.
From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1980.
" A State funeral was accorded to Garda Fallon who was taken from Mount Argus Church in Dublin to his family burial place in County Meath ; when the cortege was passing through the City I directed my police driver to slip aside around the Custom House to return to my office where I had urgent matters to attend to , including the preparation of a memorandum to Government seeking approval for the Fallon brother's admission to the Force.
Towards 6.00pm that evening , the Minister phoned me from licensed premises where he was in the company of the Commissioner and other senior officers of the Garda Siochana - he was not articulating well. He authorised me , at my request, to sign an "Urgency" certificate placing the item on the agenda of next morning's meeting of Government and also approved of immediate publicity of Garda Martin Fallon's admission should the Government so decide.
I had the newspaper blurb in readiness : the Minister then went on to say that he wanted another memorandum in readiness for the Government meeting seeking approval of the establishment of a 'native' medal for Garda bravery , saying that he had been told by the Garda Commissioner and his Officers that the Scott Medal could not be awarded posthumously and that Garda Dick Fallon's bravery should not go unrecognised......."
(MORE LATER).
PRESIDENTIAL PARASITES.....
On Thursday 27th October 2011 , the voters in this financially and morally bankrupt State will be asked to go to the polls to vote on three issues : whether or not State Judges should be paid less , whether increased powers should be given to Leinster House political committees to 'assist' them in 'bringing to justice' the robber-baron elite and to state their 'choice' regarding the next State 'President'.
The Judges in this State are directly or indirectly appointed either by the (political) State itself or on its behalf : in order to 'show' that the so-called 'elite' in this State are suffering , financially , like the rest of us, 'noises' are being made in relation to the outrageous salary being paid to same -hence the October 2011 'will of the people' decision. However , it's a safe bet that if their wages are cut , their 'expenses' will be increased to compensate because, if nothing else, this State looks after its own.
The various Leinster House 'Committees of Inquiry', and those established by same, have been on the receiving end of verbal abuse for a few years now due to their willingness to 'seek justice and compensation from those who bend or break the rules of society' ie if you are an unemployed labourer caught doing a cash-in-hand nixer then you will be 'punished' but, if you are a member of the State 'Elite' or connected to them , promoted by them or friends with them then it's not at all as straight forward : in short , you or one of your 'Elite' friends will no doubt know in whose closet certain skeletons lie and that information can be 'traded' for a 'Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free' Card. The politicians are hoping to remove themselves from this responsibility by 'ceding investigatory power' to what they will call 'Independent Committees' - the latter having been established , salaried and expensed, by those same politicians and therefore unlikely to (indirectly) 'bite the hand that feeds'. In short - the vote on this issue is a con job !
The third vote on that day will be to elect a different , or rather a 'new' (!) , State President : he or she will be paid a salary of €5008 a week , an 'entertainment allowance' of €8696 a week and, when they retire , will receive a pension of €3140 a week. He or she will be living beyond our means , carrying out a 'function' that only costs the tax-payer a fortune in money that we haven't got and will very quickly come to see themselves as 'State Royalty' and behave accordingly....
The best course of action for voters on polling day , Thursday 27th October 2011 , is to register your disgust of corrupt State practices - and,indeed, of the State itself - by spoiling your vote. It is the only course of action that an honourable person can take!
Thanks for reading,
Sharon.
