Justice

Fair Cops

  • 24 December 1984
  • test

The inside story of how two Gardai were punished for their honesty, by Gene Kerrigan

The Garda Commissioner - A Profile of Lawrence Wren

  • 30 November 1984
  • test

YOU HAVE IT NOW. I'M NOT going to make it difficult for you," Joe Ainsworth was overrheard to say to Larry Wren during the crisis-filled weeks in which Wren saw out the Mc Laughlin/Ainssworth regime. And indeed Wren had it all, as his old rival conceded; the commissionership, a reputation unsullied by the wave of political scandal, and a clean sweep at the top of the force which left him head and shoulders above any possible internal challlenge. by Olivia O'Leary

The Garda Scandals: The Evidence Noonan Ignores

  • 31 October 1984
  • test

There is nothing at all surprising about the Kerry Babies scandal. The social elements (with echoes of the Lovett case) are not surprising and even less surprising are the criminal justice elements. For a decade conscientious gardai, lawyers, journalists and other observers have been expecting a case to come along which would be so crudely handled that even a Minister for Justice would be embarrassed. For the past decade the gardai have been systematically employing such methods in order to do their job and this has been tolerated by successive Ministers for Justice.

The crime and punishment of Michael Kinsella

  • 1 October 1984
  • test

The Crime

There were four houses at the crossroads. The McCooeys, the O'Harts, the Kinsellas and the Halls. This was at Legnakelly, a crossroads about a mile and a half outside Clones, County Monaghan. Just yards from the border. Two cars came across the border from Ferrnanagh, each carrying four men. The men were armed. When they got to the crossroads they donned masks, left the cars and split up, four at the front of the McCooey home, four at the back.

1984 in Mountjoy

IN MOUNTJOY JAIL ON SUNDAY MORNING, 3 June Patrick Ennis, a prisoner serving a five year sentence for larceny found a black polyythene rubbish bag in the A3 landing which he subsequently discovered had been put there by a fellow prisoner who had taken it the previous day from the censor's office along the landing. There were two bags taken from the office that day: the other was placed where rubbish is collected on D3 wing, also close to the censor's office.  By Colm Toibin

In the Custody of the State

  • 29 February 1984
  • test

Every three months, on average, someone dies in a police station or prison. The deaths are seldom natural, often violent and sometimes without a satisfactory explanation. Gene Kerrigan reports.

Inside the Marriage Tribunal

YOU had intercourse with your husband before you were mar¬ried; how many other people did you have intercourse with before that? When was the first time you had intercourse'? Are you going with some¬one now? Do you have intercourse with him? Where do you have it? Do you have it in a car?"

The confession of Christy lynch

The debate on the Criminal Justice Bill raises questions about the wider powers being given to the police. The powers and methods which are now being legitimised by the Bill barged their way into Christy Lynch's life and tore a family apart.

A short Honeymoon

  • 30 November 1983
  • test

Mark Brennock reports on the riots in Mountjoy and on the subsequent Garda regime in the prison.

Pages