Letters to the Editor: Bad policing decisions are due to poor management
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The explanation by the Garda Commissioner regarding the Coolock riots, after the programme, make me wonder who is in charge of riotous or public order situations in Dublin, or elsewhere, for that matter.
This is not the first time that frontline gardaí were left high and dry by senior officers.
The Dublin riots were an example of this, where gardaí from around the country, of their own volition, responded to a call for help to a volatile situation, without senior officer approval, to stand by their colleagues in Dublin and subdue a group of rioters who were intent on causing as much damage as they could and inflicting serious injury.
That the public order unit was stood down at 7am before the disturbances last July in Coolock was a decision made at the highest echelons of the force, and one that would have involved penny-pinching bean counters counting the cost of having the unit on standby.
The same penny-pinching bean counters are responsible for the slow response to the Dublin riots. I know of public order unit gardaí who were about to be sent to Dublin but were ordered to stand down at the last moment.
Who made this decision and why?
I take my hat off to those brave men and women of An Garda Síochána who put their bodies on the line to preserve peace and public order against those who attempt to overthrow our democratic norms and values. The fact that some senior managers feel they must defer to Garda HQ before responding to a riot or public order incident has reduced the independent capability of on-the-ground commanders —superintendents or chief superintendents — to manage and deploy as they see fit without having to worry about cost.
What is more important, the lives of our citizens and frontline gardaí, the protection of property, or the penny-pinching cost-saving measures that balances the Garda books?
What showed was that frontline gardaí were physically and verbally abused by a group of thugs who answered the call of social media influencers intent on stirring hate and division within our society and that senior officers in charge failed to respond.
A tougher and more rapid response is needed to quell these extremist thugs. But who in the senior echelons of An Garda Síochána is brave enough to put his/her head above the parapet, thereby possibly negating their chances to move one step further up the ladder of promotion?
After a dismal summer, with an average temperature of 14.5C and the coldest in Ireland since 2015, the autumn equinox coincided with a glorious Indian summer. At autumn equinox, as the sun crosses the equator from north to south, day gets shorter and night grows longer.
The Indian summer is described as a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that sometimes occurs in autumn in the northern hemisphere.
Weather historian Bill Deedler, of the US National Weather Service, defined an Indian summer as “any spell of warm, quiet, hazy weather that may occur in late autumn”. At this time of year, the landscape explodes with vibrant colours of red, yellow, and orange. The leaves fall from the trees, providing endless hours of fun for children and lots of raking for parents! Plants, shrubs, and trees slow down to prepare for winter dormancy.
Hedgehogs, bats, rodents, and dormice prepare to hibernate while migrating birds fly south.
Last week’s spell of wonderful weather, dovetailing nicely with the National Ploughing Championships, a super harvest moon, and a partial lunar eclipse, provided a welcome opportunity to harvest the crops and cereals, to pick the fruit, vegetables, and berries.
It allowed us to enjoy outdoor living and leisure in temperatures of 22C. Beaches along the coast were thronged with people soaking up the sunshine and swimming in 15C seawater, a great bonus in late season.
The Indian summer has certainly raised our spirits and put a smile as well as a bit of colour back on our faces.
I wish Billy O’Shea, the Fine Gael candidate for the upcoming general election in Kerry, the very best of luck ('All-Ireland winning footballer joins Fine Gael’s election ticket for Kerry' — Irish Examiner, September 23).
Even though the Killorglin man has Listowel connections, it is telling that both sitting councillors, Mike Foley and Mike Kennelly, in the Listowel Municipal District were publicly shafted by Simon Harris in favour of a politically untested “celebrity” candidate in the middle of the sprawling constituency.
With a number of high-profile businesses forced to close in Killorglin in the last year — including Zest Café, who blamed the Government for lack of supports for small, family-owned enterprises as one of the reasons the popular café had to close after 18 years at a prime location in the town — Mr O’Shea may find that it will not be all plain sailing if Fine Gael are to retain their seat in Kerry.
Over recent days, a newspaper reader might have discovered that the incoming chief executive of Cork City Council, the person entrusted with an annual budget of €292m, will be paid €182,280 a year.
In a coincidence underlining how skewed our world is, that newspaper reader might also have noticed that a senior RTÉ reporter, one with little or no budgetary obligations, would be paid more or less the exact same amount.
It is, no matter how strongly you support the idea of well-resourced public service broadcasting, very difficult to square that particular circle. However, it goes some small way to explaining an annual deficit nudging towards €10m in Montrose — and exposes, again, an unsustainable sense of entitlement totally out of place at a small, struggling, regional broadcaster.
Something has got to give.
The Northern Ireland Court of Appeal’s ruling last Friday on the British Troubles Legacy Act is a damning indictment of the Tory government’s attempt to deal with unsolved Troubles-related killings.
Lady Chief Justice Siobhán Keegan said the Troubles Legacy Act gives the British government excessive power over the disclosure of sensitive material to the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery.
Might we suggest that a truth recovery process that provides conditional amnesties for former combatants in return for full disclosure and a willingness to engage with victims and survivors, if the latter so wish, offers one of the few viable pathways out of this maze of conflict and perpetual distrust.
We have been advocating this for the past six years, but politicians are too nervous to even mention it, and attempts by ourselves and others to do so are drowned out by outraged defenders of the status quo.
Unionism and nationalism are still too invested in protecting their tribal bases a quarter of a century after the armed conflict ended to remove their straitjackets. Sadly, the two national governments are also reluctant to admit their faults and they put protection of state institutions before the wider interests of ordinary people on these islands.
The number of former combatants willing to engage in a truth recovery process along the lines we propose is small and dwindling by the year. Soon it won’t be an option at all. Societies too timid to explore new options for the future are left in prisons of their own device.
Declan Colley’s article ('Being stuck without a spare tyre leaves few options' — Irish Examiner, September 21) was on the mark, and I’m sure many motorists will be glad somebody has highlighted the crazy policy of the motor industry selling cars without spare wheels.
My latest car is the first not to have a spare tyre, and I am thankful that it is not electric. I could not handle both range anxiety as well as flat tyre anxiety. Tyre damage from nails, bolts, and kerb hits are much more likely to occur on a wet night or over a long weekend. It can be curtains for any journey you are taking and of course all garages will be closed. This is Murphy’s law, which is immutable.
Perhaps the motor industry might reduce the substantial infotainment technology in cars which is carbon- and resource-intensive as well as a distraction, and restore the small spare wheel.