Policing – Page 2 – Slugger O'Toole

What does Drew Harris’s appointment as Garda Commissioner tell us about Fine Gael’s attitude to Sinn Fein?

Brian Walker on June 27, 2018, 9:33 am

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In the Irish Times Ed Moloney has a fascinating backgrounder on the ground breaking appointment of PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Drew Harris as Garda Commissioner. Might we now expect that senior Garda officers will at last become eligible to head the PSNI? Or does history suggest that a single force to serve the entire state creates too introverted a culture to adapt to elsewhere, even to the North? Drew Harris brings heavy baggage with him and his appointment will have …

Veil of secrecy over Special Branch informer system lifted a chink as the Finucanes make their bid to the Supreme Court

Brian Walker on June 26, 2018, 2:40 pm

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The Guardian lead on the Walker report ( no relation), neatly coincides with the opening of the Finucane family’s bid to the Supreme Court to order a public inquiry into Pat Finucane’s murder. The “secret” report by a former head of MI5 complied in 1980 – nine years before he was murdered – was “the blueprint for making RUC special branch a ‘force within a force’, according to the human rights legal group the Committee on the Administration for Justice …

Avoid a battle of the narratives. The Chief Constable and Police Ombudsman appeal for agreement emerging from the proposed legacy process

Brian Walker on May 16, 2018, 1:07 am

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Eamonn Mallie has published transcripts of Chief Constable George Hamilton and Police Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire addressing a gathering at Queen’s University on the approaches they hope will be adopted on the consultation just launched on dealing with the past. I shamelessly share them with warm thanks to Eamonn. Both men plead for responders not to adopt a polarised or polemical position right from the start and take the broader view that works for reconciliation. They also call for a …

Don’t you know who I am?

Pete Baker on February 3, 2018, 11:12 pm

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As the BBC reports Sinn Féin has confirmed that one of their MLA’s has removed a clamp from the front wheel of his car, using what appears to be bolt cutters, in Belfast. In a statement, a spokesperson for the party confirmed that Gerry Kelly removed the clamp at about 07:20 GMT on Friday outside a gym. A recording of the incident has been posted on social media. The Belfast Telegraph report notes The footage was captured in the Exchange …

“In Kenova’s sights are also those IRA leaders on the Provisional Army Council who sanctioned the “executions” for spying…”

Pete Baker on January 30, 2018, 7:46 pm

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The BBC reports that Freddie Scappaticci has been arrested in England by the Operation Kenova team and is being questioned “in connection with the investigation into allegations of murder, kidnap and torture”. [Scappaticci is pictured above – bottom left with dark moustache at funeral of Provisional IRA member Larry Marley] The investigation team confirmed that a 72-year-old man had been arrested. The BBC understands the man being questioned is Fred Scappaticci and that he was arrested in England. The investigation …

The Loughinisland appeal, when “withdrawal” is not “recusal”

Brian Walker on January 27, 2018, 11:21 am

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Now I may have been dreaming but I’m almost sure I read yesterday that Mr Justice McCloskey had announced he was still sticking with the Loughinisland appeal case, in spite of the objections from the lawyers representing the families and the police ombudsman. But no. I woke up to this morning to learn he had in fact withdrawn. Reporting howler in jumping the gun? Maybe. But then there’s that legal language of fine distinction but crucially different meaning like “ …

“The truth remains that Adams will only reveal his past if it suits his own agenda.”

Pete Baker on December 31, 2017, 3:44 pm

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We might never know the truth about the suggestion that Gerry Adams was responsible, directly or indirectly, for setting up the Provisional IRA’s East Tyrone Brigade for ambush as they tried to blow up a police station in Loughgall in May 1987. Sinn Féin have dismissed the claims as “utter nonsense”, and some of the usual suspects have busied themselves playing the man – and/or the media. Meanwhile, Ed Moloney provides some useful background, and reproduces the chapter in his book ‘A Secret …

“there is no corresponding organisation to monitor the work of the Ombudsman…”

Mick Fealty on December 21, 2017, 1:11 pm

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It’s not just the Republic who has problems with ‘who guards the guards’. There are two worrying stories on the same day concerning the activities of the Police Ombudsman’s office. One concerns a criminal case which the Judge is reported to have said: …failings in the investigation “resulted in it being impossible for the defendants to receive a fair trial”. He said weaknesses in the investigative process meant it “would offend the court’s sense of justice and propriety to be …

The reception for the Loughinisland documentary No Stone Unturned shows that legacy issues will stay marginalised

Brian Walker on November 16, 2017, 10:59 am

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The low key reception given to the documentary No Stone Unturned, the film documentary on the UVF murders of six randomly selected Catholics in their local Loughinisland pub in 1994 which is currently being given a brief screening at the Queen’s Film Theatre, is the latest example of how presumed familiarity with the underlying problems of Northern Ireland has produced if not quite contempt, at least widespread deadening indifference. Warm congratulations nevertheless go to The Detail team especially their reporter …

Policing and Nationalism: “It’s too soft and it needs to be stronger. You need to be firmer.”

Mick Fealty on November 10, 2017, 3:12 pm

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There’s been some fascinating comment on the Peadar Heffron interview that our new blogger “Pluto” mentioned yesterday. The interview was published nearly two weeks ago, and yet the issue seems to be reverberating still. The position of nationalist policemen and women (and Heffron was certainly that) has been given little public consideration. After an empty formula of platitudes, it appears they’re just routinely abandoned to their fate. It’s another sin of omission that’s become commonplace in the current simulated hunger games routines that passes …

Belfast man sentenced in Germany for 1996 Provisional IRA attack on army barracks

Pete Baker on October 25, 2017, 2:22 pm

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A timely lesson from the German authorities on dealing with Northern Ireland legacy issues… Having successfully extradited 48-year-old James Anthony Oliver Corry from the Republic of Ireland in December last year, the Belfast man has now been convicted and sentenced for his role in the Provisional IRA mortar attack on a British army barracks near Osnabrück, Germany, in June 1996. From the Irish Times report A Northern Ireland man has been convicted in Germany of attempted murder for participating in an IRA attack on a British army barracks in the …

“Terrorism’s true face has been masked at the expense of a fine police force…”

Mick Fealty on July 28, 2017, 11:55 am

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Interesting and provocative piece from William Matchett, who’s recent book on the RUC has been getting rave reviews, at least on the Unionist side of the fence. He doesn’t like to pull his punches: The Troubles were due to a failure in politics, not a failure in security. No nationalist, or unionist, party is blameless. Neither London nor Dublin comes out of it well. Of Hume’s SDLP, Gerry Fitt complained that it got too close to the Provisionals. Conscious of …

Extradited Suspect Admits Role in 1996 Provisional IRA Mortar Attack in Germany

Pete Baker on July 26, 2017, 3:21 pm

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Unencumbered by the Belfast Agreement, ‘comfort’ letters, or any proposals on legacy issues, German authorities sought and, last year, secured the extradition of a suspect in the Provisional IRA mortar attack on a British army barracks near Osnabrück, Germany, in June 1996. James Anthony Oliver Albert Corry, from north Belfast, had been arrested in Killorglin, Co Kerry, in October 2015, on foot of a European Arrest Warrant issued by German authorities. At the start of his trial today in a court in the city …

Operation Kenova and The Spy in the IRA…

Pete Baker on April 17, 2017, 2:57 pm

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John Ware’s BBC Panorama investigation on Freddie Scappaticci, The Spy in the IRA, is available online, with an accompanying article on the BBC website. Ed Moloney has some relevant posts on his blog on the programme, including criticism of the initial response by processors in the media to Liam Clarke’s scoop when he broke the story in 1999. Not all journalists were as keen to follow the story up. Sinn Fein spread the word that Liam Clarke’s story was the work of …

Peter Taylor: “Gradually I got used to reporting death. But I never became insensitive to it.”

Pete Baker on April 1, 2017, 3:23 pm

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In advance of the broadcast on BBC Radio 4 tonight, 8pm, of Peter Taylor’s documentary, Fifty Years Behind the Headlines – Reflections on Terror, the renowned journalist has written an article on the subject for the BBC website. Most revealing, on many levels, is the part in which he recounts the “interview [which] affected [him] personally above all others.” The blanket protest by the IRA prisoners in the Maze started in 1977. They refused to wear prison uniform, insisting they were political prisoners and …

We missed out on Cressida Dick but the links between the NI police and the Met are strong

Brian Walker on February 22, 2017, 7:00 pm

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Congratulations to Cressida Dick who has overcome the pain and controversy of being the Gold commander in the operation which led to the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, to become the first woman Commissioner of the Met. The Policing Board here passed her over for Chief Constable in 2014, preferring George Hamilton as the first local man to head up the PSNI. Gender therefore isn’t everything, although her application suggested that the PSNI job could still …

German Police Formally Arrest Extradited Suspect in 1996 Provisional IRA Mortar Attack

Pete Baker on December 17, 2016, 4:57 pm

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Rather less widely reported than developments in certain other legacy cases was Dublin High Court recent ordering of the extradition of a suspect in the Provisional IRA mortar attack on a British army barracks near Osnabrück, Germany, in June 1996. James Anthony Oliver Albert Corry, from north Belfast, was arrested in Killorglin, Co Kerry, in October 2015, on foot of a European Arrest Warrant issued by German authorities. The Belfast Telegraph has the latest update via a PA report German police have arrested a …

NI Executive’s £80m Social Investment Fund projected to cost extra £13.1m

Pete Baker on December 14, 2016, 4:44 pm

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Another day, another leaked Northern Ireland Executive memo… That’s quite a budget over-run, btw. And the Fund is to run for 4/5 years longer than anticipated. The leak was to BBC NI Spotlight. As the BBC report notes The Stormont executive’s controversial Social Investment Fund (SIF) requires an extra £13m of taxpayer money, according to a leaked document. A memo, in the name of the first and deputy first ministers, and sent to government departments last week, was passed to the BBC Spotlight …

“What you should not do is expose Joe Bloggs who might have been buried as a hero but was in fact an informant for the Brits.”

Pete Baker on December 9, 2016, 4:38 pm

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With this attempted distraction in mind, the latest comments by Denis Bradley make even more interesting reading. Bradley also expressed concern about the fate of thousands of one-time informers if there was “full disclosure” of all sensitive Troubles-related security files. “What Robin Eames and I found out in our investigations leading to the Consultative Group on the Past report was that at any given time there were at least 800 informers working within the ranks not only of the loyalist …

“Deputy Gerry Adams says he took notes and that the individual was a friend who knew what happened.”

Mick Fealty on December 7, 2016, 6:50 am

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So, for the sake of completeness on on-going saga of what Gerry Adams knows about the murder of Brian Stack, there was an interesting exchange at Leaders Questions in the Dail today between the Taoiseach and Micheal Martin (VIDEO). When it came to his turn Adams, dismissed Martin’s intervention as an “opportunistic, cynical and contemptible” attempt to undermine his “efforts in good faith to assist the family of Mr. Brian Stack”. Only, of course, that’s not how the Stack family see …