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The Garda Síochána is the national police service of Ireland. It is more commonly referred to as the Gardaí or "the Guards". The service is headed by the Garda Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are in Dublin's Phoenix Park.
Alan Joseph Shatter is an Irish lawyer,author and former Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Justice and Equality and Minister for Defence from 2011 to 2014. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South constituency from 1981 to 2002 and from 2007 to 2016.
The Morris Tribunal was a public inquiry to address allegations of the 1990s and early 2000s against the Garda Síochána,the national police force of Ireland. Subjects explored included suggestions of corrupt and dishonest policing in County Donegal but its recommendations and conclusions have more widespread consequences and importance.
The Smithwick Tribunal was an Irish Tribunal of Inquiry into the events surrounding the killing of Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). The men were killed in a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) ambush near the Irish border at Jonesborough on 20 March 1989 as they returned in an unmarked car from a cross-border security conference in Dundalk with senior Garda officers. The tribunal issued its report on 3 December 2013,finding there had been collusion between members of the Gardaíand the IRA,which resulted in the deaths of Breen and Buchanan. The tribunal took its name from the chairman of the Tribunal,Judge Peter Smithwick.
The Special Detective Unit (SDU) is the main domestic security agency of the Garda Síochána,the national police force of Ireland,under the aegis of the Crime &Security Branch (CSB). It is the primary counter-terrorism and counter-espionage investigative unit within the state. The Special Detective Unit superseded the Special Branch,which itself replaced the older Criminal Investigation Department (CID),which was founded in 1921. They work in conjunction with the Defence Forces Directorate of Military Intelligence (J2) –Ireland's national intelligence service –on internal matters. The unit's headquarters are in Harcourt Street,Dublin City.
The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) is an independent statutory body in Ireland charged with overseeing the Garda Síochána,the national police force. It is a three-member body established under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 to deal with complaints from members of the public about the conduct of Gardaí.
Since at least the 1970s,many Irish political scandals relating to miscarriage of justice,dereliction of duty and corruption by public officials have resulted in the establishment of extra-judicial Tribunals of Enquiry,which are typically chaired by retired High-Court judges and cannot make judgements against any of the parties. Since 2004 many such scandals have been investigated by the less costly but less transparent Commissions of Investigation. Many Irish scandals,however,have not resulted in trials or public enquiries.
The Grangegorman killings were the homicide on 6 March 1997 of Sylvia Sheils and Mary Callinan,patients at St. Brendan's Psychiatric Hospital in Grangegorman,Dublin,Ireland. After giving a false confession,Dean Lyons was charged with the murders and placed on remand. In his statement to the Garda Síochána (police),Lyons gave details that would only be known to the murderer or to the investigators. After Lyons was charged,Mark Nash confessed to the killings,but later retracted his confession. In April 2015,Nash's trial for the murder of Sheils and Callinan began after an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the trial from going forward.
The National Surveillance Unit (NSU) is the principal clandestine intelligence gathering and surveillance operations unit of the Garda Síochána,the national police force of Ireland. The unit operates under the Crime &Security Branch (CSB),based at Garda Headquarters in the Phoenix Park,Dublin,and also works from Harcourt Street,Dublin. Members of the unit are specially trained and selected Detective Gardaíwho are tasked to remain covert whilst on and off duty,tracking suspected criminals,terrorists and hostile,foreign spies operating in Ireland. The unit's detectives are routinely armed. The National Surveillance Unit is understood to possess a manpower of approximately 100 officers,and is considered to be the most secretive arm of the force.
Adrian Donohoe was an Irish detective in the Garda Síochána based at Dundalk Garda Station in County Louth,who was fatally shot in Bellurgan on 25 January 2013 during a robbery by an armed gang of five people on a credit union. He was the first garda officer to be murdered in the line of duty since 1996,and was afforded a full state funeral.
A penalty points system has been in operation since 2002 for regulatory offences relating to driving licences in the Republic of Ireland. More serious driving offences are not included in the penalty points system but result in automatic driving bans or imprisonment. After controversy about alleged flaws in the implementation,an Independent Oversight Authority was established in 2015 to make annual reports on its operation.
The Garda phone recordings scandal was a political scandal in Ireland resulting from the widespread practice of recording phone calls to and from Garda Síochána police stations from the 1980s to November 2013. The practice was revealed in March 2014.
The Kieran Boylan affair refers to a long-running saga involving the convicted drug dealer Kieran Boylan and his links as a protected informant of the Garda Síochána.
The Garda Whistleblower Scandal involved the revelation of corruption and malpractice within Ireland's national police force,the Garda Síochána,and the subsequent mishandling of the complaints that had been made by serving members of the force.
Since 2013,allegations have surfaced that the Garda Síochána has been involved in malpractice,including allegations that members had inappropriately cancelled driving penalty points,that the offices of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) had been bugged,revelations that telephone calls at Garda stations had been recorded for decades,the case of Jerry McGrath and other allegations of serious Garda misconduct.
Nóirín O'Sullivan is an Irish Garda who has served as Director of Strategic Partnerships for Europe at the International Association of Chiefs of Police since October 2017. She previously served as Garda Commissioner from 2014 to 2017. In October 2018,Nóirín was appointed UN Assistant Secretary-General for the Department of Safety and Security.
The Fennelly commission,formally the Commission of Investigation,was a commission of investigation established in April 2014 by the then government of Ireland to investigate several controversies involving the Garda Síochána. The sole member of the commission was Nial Fennelly,a retired justice of the Supreme Court. Fennelly identified three separate strands within the commission's terms of reference:
- Garda phone recordings scandal:unauthorised recordings made since the 1980s of conversations to and from some Garda stations.
- Death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier:evidence from phone recordings at Bandon Garda station of misconduct in the investigation
- Martin Callinan:circumstances of his retirement as Garda Commissioner in March 2014.
Martin Kenny is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Sligo–Leitrim constituency since the 2016 general election.
The GSOC bugging scandal in February 2014 involved revelations that the offices of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission,Ireland's independent police watchdog,were under covert electronic surveillance by an unknown party. John Mooney,security correspondent for The Sunday Times,first published the story alleging that GSOC had been the subject of surveillance by an unidentified party using "government level technology" to hack into its emails,Wi-Fi and telephone systems. The espionage operation was uncovered by a private British counter-surveillance firm,Verrimus,whom GSOC hired after its suspicions became aroused of outside spying on the organisation and its activities.
Dara Quigley was an Irish journalist,activist,and blogger. Her death became a symbol of needed reform of the police force of Ireland.
References
- ↑ "Appointment of new Garda Commissioner". 10 December 2010. Department of Justice Ireland. Archived from the original on 26 April 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
- ↑ O'Doherty, Caroline (25 March 2014). "Martin Callinan: Good cop turned bad?". Irish Examiner. Archived from the original on 26 March 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
- ↑ Bohan, Christine. "Profile: The rise and fall of Martin Callinan". TheJournal.ie. Archived from the original on 14 November 2018. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- ↑ Mulhern, Robert (11 October 2013). "The story 'the Irish media don't want you to read'". Irish Post. Archived from the original on 31 October 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
- ↑ "Martin Callinan: Good cop turned bad?". 25 March 2014. Archived from the original on 4 August 2018. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- 1 2 3 4 Harrison, Shane (21 March 2014). "How row over penalty points and whistleblowers boiled over". BBC News. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
- ↑ "Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan resigns over whistleblower row". BBC News. 25 March 2014. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
- ↑ Martin Callinan: my shock that Enda Kenny shafted me Archived 2014-03-30 at the Wayback Machine , Irish Independent, 30 March 2014
- ↑ "Irish Justice Minister Alan Shatter resigns". BBC News. 7 May 2014. Archived from the original on 15 August 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
- ↑ Fennelly Commission (September 2015). "Interim Report: Terms of Reference (n) and (o)" (PDF). Department of the Taoiseach. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2015.