Guinness, the FG scandal and the ambassadors assassain
A selection of articles from Wigmore, edited by Vincent Browne
Wigmore - Ambassadors "assassin" captured
Amid unanimous press inndifference, the man whose name was flashed to the cabinet, to British intelliggence and to No. 10 Downing St. as the murderer of the British ambassador, was arrrested in Dublin last month.
He is Martin Taylor who has been remanded in custody charged with being in illegal possession of a firearm and with membership of the IRA. He was arrested in his flat in Hollybank Rd., Drumcondra.
Taylor was the person whose fingerprints were "identified" on a workman's helmet near the scene of the ambasssador's assassination. His name had been "floated" as a suspect just prior to the "identification" and there was jubilation at the Garda Technical Bureau, at the Garda Head Quarters and at Government Buildings at the "breakthrough" in the invesstigation.
It was all a sinister hoax however. The fingerprint "identification" proved false and remember that no legitimate mistake can be made by fingerprint experts on indentification. But had Taylor
been arrested prior to the exposure of the hoax- and it took two months finally to persuade the Garda authhorities to relent on the "error", Taylor would have been almost certainly connvicted on the basis of the fingerprint evidence and then possibly hanged. Hanging is
still permitted for the murder of Gardai and foreign diplomats, and in the mood then prevailing within the coalition cabinet it is quite possible that they would not have yielded on the death penalty.
During Taylor's interrogation, a group of senior officers from the Technical Bureau including Superrintendent W. Murphy trooped down to Fitzgibbon St. where he was being .detained. They asked him in a perfunctory manner if he had anything to do with the murder of the British ambassador. He simply laughed and they left.
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Wigmore - F.G. Scandal
WHILE FINE GAEL is ponndering its psyche at the end of this month, it might spare a thought for one of the most scandalous abuses of power the state has known. This was perpetrated by their very own Liam Cosgrave, aided and abetted by Richie Ryan in the interregnum between the election and the change of Government.
Several appointments were made in the army, the Gardai, serni-sta te bodies and civil service during this time. But the worse such incident was the appointment of Mr. Thomas Coffey as head of the Department of Finance and therefore head of the civil service. It is the most critiical post in the entire public service and a great deal depends on the personal relaations between this person and senior government ministers. Traditionally, most outgoing Governments defer all pendding appointments in the pubblic service until the change of administration occurs. But the Coalition ignored this precedent and made most sensitive appointments, including this one to the Secretaryship of the Departtment of Finance.
The appointments seem to have been made through a conspiracy between Ryan and Cosgrave. Certain undertakkings were given to the cabinet (a) that had the election been won by the Coalition, anotther Finance official would be appointed to the post and (b) once the election defeat happened, no appointment would be made.
The appointment took place at a sparsely attended cabinet meeting when the two ministers likely to be most perturbed by the. manoeuvre, Garret FitzGerald and Justin Keating, were in Luxemburg. Ryan was also there but quite clearly Cosgrave and he had worked out the deal in advance.
Naturally, Jack Lynch was furious about the matter but opted to keep quiet lest further damage be done to the civil service.
So much for Fine Gael's vaunted respect for the institutions of state.
Wigmore - Guinness
In researching the 1913 featture (see page 32) we came across the following revealing information about Arthur Guinness, Son and Co. In that year 1913 net profits for the company amounted to over £1 m. The average weekly income of the 5000 workers in the company was £1. Therefore every worker prodduced £200 a year in profits and earned only £5 a for himself. And Guinness was perhaps the best employer in Dublin at the time.