Restore my character

Forty years ago, Joe Geary raided a Co Cork pub owned by local Fianna Fáil TD Jerry Cronin. The former Garda has been suffering the consequences ever since. He tells his story to Frank Connolly

"Do you want a pint or a transfer?” are the immortal words attributed to former Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, when he was reportedly “found on” by a Garda as he drank after hours with his friends in a rural pub during his term as Minister for Justice in the 1960s. Invariably, the story goes, the raiding Garda would choose to enjoy the pint.

Former Sergeant Joe Geary, however, claims that he was unjustly transferred and his family life destroyed, precisely because he did his duty and sought to enforce the licensing laws in his native Co Cork some 40 years ago. He claims that among those that participated in his mistreatment were two former Garda commissioners, the former secretary of the Department of Justice, Peter Berry, and a former minister whose pub he raided, Jerry Cronin.

Joe Geary, now 84, was stationed in the town of Doneraile in the 1960s, when he was asked to reinforce the Garda contingent in Mallow eight miles away, during the 50th celebrations of the Easter Rising. There was a festival atmosphere in the town and the local members of Fianna Fáil were particularly pleased as then President Eamon de Valera had just visited the area. On 10 May 1966 he was patrolling the main street after midnight when he noticed that the side door of Cronins pub was open and there were indications of after-hours drinking.

“It was about 12.45am when I walked in with another guard and was confronted by this fellow. He said to me, ‘Where the fucking hell do you think you're going?' I was a substantial figure, six feet tall and a bulky individual. I continued into the bar. It was supposed to be closed at midnight. The people in the bar didn't stir. They continued drinking and smoking and chatting. Jerry Cronin ordered me out again. He put his fist up to my face and said; ‘If it's the last fucking thing, I'll have you transferred.'”

I knew he was TD for the area. I took the names of some of the people who were there and left to go back to the station. When I passed by on my way home at about 2.30am there were still people in the pub.”

From that day Sergeant Geary's life was ruined, while Jerry Cronin went on to become Minister for Defence.

“The following day I made a report to the local Garda Superintendent, Laurence Wren (later Garda Commissioner), with a view to preparing a prosecution for the premises in Mallow. There was an immediate upheaval when it became known that Cronin's had been raided by the gardaí. Apparently it was unexpected and it was felt that it could lead to trouble for the gardaí concerned. The pub was well known for late-night drinking and there was concern that shift workers from the sugar factory who finished at midnight were drinking there to the early hours.”

Joe Geary wrote to Supt Wren on a number of occasions to remind his superior that there was a six-month statutory period within which to take a prosecution, but received no reply. He also wrote to the then Garda Commissioner who replied that it was a matter for the local superintendent.

Some months later Geary was visited at Doneraile, where he lived with his wife, Nora Theresa, and their seven young children, by Inspector Owen Giblin from Cork city. He was informed by Inspector Giblin that a number of local people had made complaints of harassment against him. The men included a number of people that had recently been investigated by Sergeant Geary for running an illicit bingo operation. The complainants included the man running the illicit bingo games, two teenagers and a man who was subsequently convicted of murdering his wife and who committed suicide in the Central Mental Hospital in 1970.

“Giblin said he was satisfied that the statements were correct and directed me to plead guilty. I said the complaints were totally false and that there was conspiracy involved. I said I wanted copies of all the statements made against me. A few days later he returned with Superintendent William Purcell who had replaced Wren. Again I demanded copies of all statements made against me but they refused and again asked me to admit my guilt. I was subsequently accused of being against authority and unwell, both of which were untrue.”

Geary had an exemplary record since joining the force in 1946, yet disciplinary charges involving “falsehood or prevarication, disobedience of orders and neglect of duty” were filed against him. One report prepared against him in 1967, and which Geary only obtained under Freedom of Information in 2000, referred to his “obvious apathy and indifference to his work, his apparent distrust of and antipathy towards all forms of authority”.

It claimed that he suffered from an anxiety neurosis, for which he had been receiving medical treatment, an assertion that is disputed by Joe Geary and his wife.

In early 1968, Joe Geary learned that he was to be transferred by Garda headquarters to Inagh, Co Clare as a punishment for his alleged misbehaviour. The transfer was endorsed by the Chief Superintendent in Cork, Patrick Malone, who also served later as Garda Commissioner.

“It was clear to me and to many residents of Doneraile that the State was out to get me because I had enforced the law on Jerry Cronin. When my wife and I visited Inagh we found that the accommodation we were given was totally unsuitable for our family of seven children. Clare Co Council agreed there was not enough room for us. I left the family in the large house we had bought in Doneraile and moved into a caravan in Inagh.”

Two months before his transfer his neighbours organised a petition signed by 1,000 people seeking his return to the town and demanded a meeting with the Minister for Justice. Instead they were met by the secretary of the Department of Justice, Peter Berry. The delegation of four residents was accompanied by the TDs representing the north Cork constituency, including Jerry Cronin, who presumably believed that it would be potentially more damaging to him politically if he did not attend.

Despite the pleas by residents, who described Joe Geary as a popular sergeant who enjoyed the support of 90 per cent of the towns' residents, Mr Berry explained that only the Garda commissioner had authority in relation to disciplinary matters within the force.
“The Minister could only assert his parliamentary authority and intervene if there was evidence that the Commissioner's decision had been affected by malice on the part of some of the Sergeants superiors,” an official record of the meeting states. Mr Berry said that it was a matter of internal discipline in the force and had nothing to do with the rumours or complaints referred to by the deputation. “The deputation could take it that the decision would not be changed and that the transfer would take place on 14 November (1968),” the record states.

Objections to the Garda commissioner, Michael Wymes, by the then Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Harty, to the fact that the Garda had been separated from his family, in breach of his constitutional rights, also fell on deaf ears. In response to the bishop's complaint that he would not have a Garda sergeant living in a caravan in his diocese, the Commissioner transferred him again – to Hollymount in Co Mayo and a further 150 miles from his wife and children. Again the accommodation was totally unsuitable, a view verified by the local doctor and Geary moved into a caravan near the Garda station in April 1969.

“While at Hollymount in August 1969, there was a serious fire in the village. I entered the burning building and rescued an old lady of 86 who was trapped inside. When she was recovering in hospital she was visited by the Minister for Justice, Michael Moran. She told him of the rescue and asked him to return me to my family 150 miles away. This he did and in January 1970. I was transferred to Cork city, still 30 miles away from my home in Doneraile, but a big improvement.”

Two years later he was transferred to a village closer to home, but was soon sent to Monaghan on border duty. After years of separation from her husband Nora Geary, who was the victim of continual harassment by some of her husband's tormentors in Doneraile, upped and left the family home. She went to work in the Linden Convalescent home, where ironically President de Valera was spending his last years.

Their 15-year-old eldest son and daughter cared for the younger children until their father could organise a housekeeper. The ISPCC wrote to the new minister, Patrick Cooney, expressing concern for the children's welfare and seeking to have Geary returned to Doneraile. Again Cooney deferred to the authority of the Garda Commissioner.

Joe Geary went to an old friend with whom he had served in the earlier years, the then Garda Commissioner, Edmund Garvey. Garvey sent his official car to Linden and brought Mrs Geary to his office in the Phoenix Park.

“My wife came in and she said; ‘Before you go any further I am not going back to Doneraile until my husband is there. He is a good man, he never mistreated me, he looked after the children.'” Garvey wanted us to move to Dublin and he'd find us a house for the seven kids but we refused.

“I was teetering on the brink. I had endured eight years absence from my family at their most vulnerable growing up period and visiting my children just once a month. My wife had left home and I lived in a caravan most of the time. I submitted my resignation on 2 February 1976. I could have served another nine years. I got a small pension. But I survived and I kept the children out of the industrial school where they could have suffered all sorts of indignities.”

At 84 Joe Geary is a healthy and fit man, who does not seek vengeance or retribution. “All I wish for now is to restore my character. That is hardly too much to ask.”π