Two gardaí in this car arrived unannounced at the home of journalist Gemma O’Doherty (top) last night
Yesterday evening, a male and female Garda, dressed in plain clothes, arrived unannounced at the home of journalist Gemma O’Doherty.
She had just arrived home, had parked her car and she was entering her house when they approached her.
They said that they were members of An Garda Siochana and mentioned a communication Ms O’Doherty had made with the Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan.
Finding the situation intimidating, Ms O’Doherty immediately asked them to leave.
Ms O’Doherty believes it was in relation to her ongoing investigation into allegations of malpractice in the Raonaid Murray murder investigation.
They refused to leave a number of times despite being asked and it was only when Ms O’Doherty said that they were being recorded and that she would be seeking legal opinion, that they left.
Ms O’Doherty legal team have been informed of the incident and she has also written to the Minister for Justice and a number of other Dail deputies.
Their visit followed a complaint made by Ms O’Doherty to the Data Protection Commissioner some months ago – after the Garda Press Office gave Ms O’Doherty’s private email address to a garda from Dun Laoghaire Garda Station.
In relation to that complaint, after some months, the Data Protection Commissioner eventually found that the guards had no case to answer and that it was acceptable for the Press Office to hand over private details of a reporter to other sections of the gardai.
Ms O’Doherty maintains it was not.
Ms O’Doherty feels the arrival of the two guards last night to her home was an act of harassment and intimidation.
Previously: Gemma O’Doherty on Broadsheet
Pic: Gemma O’Doherty
Rollingnews
“arrived to her home” – that’s a bit vague, what was the context of the visit? what did you speak about?
How many times have guards arrived at your home for no reason?
Just because it wasn’t raining and they weren’t wearing trench coats and fedora hats, smoking and staying just outside the pool of light from the street lamp………just because it wasn’t a scene from some dodgy black and white film, doesn’t mean it wasn’t and attempt to intimidate.
What do you want GO’D to say….that they said they’ll break her legs if she doesn’t stop looking into garda coverups.
Read between the line. Its not that hard. And you don’t have to look far.
People like GO’D are scarce in this country. They should be protected and looked out for. Just ask the family of Veronica Guerin.
What context could plain clothes gardai have for calling on someone who hasn’t been accused of a crime on a Sunday evening? Hmmm… I wonder?
No idea but I’d probably ask them before sending them away tbf. Surely they would have told her why they were there? It makes it seem like they just stood there saying nothing until she said they were being recorded.
Are we ignoring the part where she repeatedly asked them to leave and they didn’t?
and what happened between these askings? they just stood there?
No, hence why I said her account ‘makes makes it seem like they just stood there saying nothing until she said they were being recorded”, something you seemed to ignore.
There is plenty relevance in them not leaving when asked. That is threatening behaviour, whether you want to admit it or not.
I don’t doubt this was connected in some way with Gemma O’Doherty’s trojan work on the Mary Boyle story, etc. But the post is very light on details – what’s wrong with asking for more info? Did the Gardai say why they were there? Did she ask them why they were there? Did they refuse to tell her? Did they say just nothing (which would itself be quite intimidating)?
exactly, thanks
Talk about getting attacked for asking a question…
there is almost no detail in the post, did they call to the door, did they just hang around outside, what??
Harry, you consistently show favour towards the established national narrative.
“Harry, you consistently show favour towards the established national narrative.”
Translation: “Harry why can’t you believe that everything is enmeshed in some giant conspiracy theory of state oppression and turn away from your delusional attitude of assuming there might be an innocent explanation for something. Its sheeple like you that are keeping The Man in power”
+1
“They said that they were members of An Garda Siochana and mentioned a communication Ms O’Doherty had made with the Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan”, after which they were asked to leave.
That bit wasn’t in the original piece hence why people were querying why they were there.
Yes, I got what they said – if that is the case in relation to a communication Ms O’Doherty had made…Ms O’Doherty should have been noted in writing…email or letter in response to her communication telling her that some officers will talk to her about her concerns…I have raised concerns with Garda Commissioner via email and I have always been advised that this matter has now been passed on to specific Assistant Commissioner who wlll be in touch with you shortly…but also giving me the names and contact telephone numbers and emails to follow up if I don’t hear from them…Ms O’Doherty was not given the same courtesy…just intimidation all the way…she dealt with it the only way she could..
maybe I’m going mad but when I read the article this morning there was a lot less text. hence my question.
Gardai: Ms O’Doherty? It’s about your missing dog…
GO’D: WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?
Gardai: Uh, she’s been found safe and well, she’s at the local vet.
GO’D: WHY WON’T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE?
Gardai: Ok, well, just letting you know, Ms O’Doherty.
GO’D: I’M RECORDING YOU RIGHT NOW!
Gardai: …
A dismissive comment with the kernel of a fair question in there, i.e. Was it all just a misunderstanding? Personally I find the incident hard to gauge from the details supplied above.
Saying that, Gemma has contacted the Minister for Justice over the incident.
https://twitter.com/gemmaod1/status/770224911528894464
The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom has also tweeted about the incident:
https://twitter.com/ECPMF/status/770227718944387072
I doubt that this would be happening if there was some level of misunderstanding involved.
I suppose your one of those gardai that Gemma is investigating….. Anyway, what a gobpoo!
The mating habits of snails !! What do you think they talked about
Not a surprise. Ireland has one of the worst police services in the Eu . They are corrupt from head to toe.
Google the name Keiron Boylan for the crack.
Then goggle Athlone Garda station and drug dealers…
Sure that’s nothing new. Do people think the drug dealers can do it openly because the garda just cant see it. They all rat each other out and garda use it as justification to leave them dealing. Anyone who knows a certain bookies in D8 can see them openly selling in what is a very busy shopping street.
Fascinating.
Why were they there? Any ideas?
Perhaps they were returning her handbag?
We should be told.
…maybe someone should contact the Garda Press Office…they are usually quite forthcoming
Christ Almighty. Two cops came to her house. Another one got her email address. Gemma may have some valid points about garda corruption, but if she continues to cry wolf about this kind of thing, she’ll lose any credibility on the issue.
Has never happened to me anyway.
GO’D is a thorn in the side of Gardai, think she is wise to highlight any suspicions for her own protection, hopefully they are unfounded.
Even landlords are advised not to serve notices on a Sunday.
If she claims to have information/insight pertaining to a murder inquiry, I’m not surprised that the Gardaí might want to get in touch with her(?)
“but if she continues to cry wolf about this kind of thing, she’ll lose any credibility on the issue”
So which station are you attached to? Are you using Pulse illegally? Trying to get the IP addresses of people who support her?
When else has she cried wolf?
Mick Clifford kind of nailed that one.
If this is in reference to Clifford’s opinion piece dismissing the Mary Boyle documentary:
In fairness, Clifford did not address the claim that Mary Boyle’s mother told Sgt Collins, Ann and Margo several times who killed her daughter.
https://twitter.com/gemmaod1/status/768548241017282564
I think such a claim is a pretty damning indication that Gemma is on to something with the Mary Boyle case.
At the same time, I don’t think you can necessarily blame Clifford for omitting this particular claim from his opinion piece. Simply because it may not have have held sway in the memory as it should have. It didn’t for me anyway. The identity of the person making the claim (i.e. Mary Boyle’s mother) is not stated outright in the documentary. As the clip above indicates, It is only alluded to.
(In my opinion, if the identity of the person in the clip was stated, it would have given more weight to the documentary, in a way that the ‘mainstream press’ could not ignore. But perhaps the documentary couldn’t state her name for legal reasons. To my knowledge, Gemma has only stated outright that it was Mary Boyle’s mother in the odd tweet.)
Anyway, with all this in mind, I really think Mick Clifford should reconsider his position on the documentary.
Raonaid Murray, Noeleen Murphy and Fiona Doyle. All in DL Garda station catchment area.
Don’t forget poor Cynthia Owen as well
The forces of corruption in this state, hate to have light shone upon them. Ms O’Doherty is right to feel concerned.
Fair play Gemma, hold strong and stay the course! You’ve got someone nervous.
“They said that they were members of An Garda Siochana and, finding the situation intimidating, Ms O’Doherty immediately asked them to leave.”
If it was me I would have asked them what they wanted. And then talked to them or not depending on what it was about. But if she asked them to leave, she asked them to leave – and they should have done so immediately, not only after being asked a few times.
Gemma should have just said goodnight and went indoors . That’s the thing with guards , they stick to there own group and have a skewed view of reality . The only people who give then the time of day outside of work is family and the odd scumbag “..I’ve a friend who’s a guard..” to get out of a fine type. They feed their own insular self-righteous egos.
Some people here seem to be very naive or have never had to deal with the ugly side of the Guards before.
If you want to do something positive by way of having your questions answered at the very least, why not contact the Garda press office directly and ask them.
I would recommend using an Internet Cafe/Public Pc with a dummy/fake email/social media account.
Your naivety will be quashed pretty quickly if they can identify you and decide that you are possibly a threat to their ” investigations ” involving this woman.
Do it anyway and anyhow you feel comfortable doing it. It will let them know that you actually care enough about this to contact them. If a few hundred people do it then they’ll have to stop and think or actually start a more comprehensive ” Stasi ” like system to deal with everyone. Strength in numbers…
Most guards I’ve dealt with before are decent people just like anyone else but unfortunately most of them have to keep their heads down and keep it shut if they want to succeed. Guess what?.. It’s not those guards that turn up and mess with your life if you get caught up with them.
If you think I’m wrong, ask yourself how many times have you heard a guard even criticise the gardai over any serious issues or even for more serious legal offences like malpractice or breking the law that they are supposed to uphold.
G O’D’s problem here was that she wasn’t prepared and recording the whole thing from the start, that’s why the guards did a runner…. no uniform, no badges, no specific markings on the vehicle and probably using fake licence plates/names to boot.
No incriminating evidence, not that it would matter much if anything more serious had happened because who in the skull crushing division of the upper echelons is going to be intimidated by one or two journalists and a few lawyers.
:-J
– Not a reply, I just randomly posted here for some reason.
:-J
Scary stuff.
http://garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=87&Lang=1
I thought the Stasi had disbanded.
Ah no…in fact i made a complaint to GSOC and the data protection commissioner and was subjected to a mighty big statsi tactic called zersetstung by the local gardai for 6months until i withdrew my complaint…completely unreal,straight out an Orewll novel.Mail and rubbish interfered with, group mobbing in places i frequented, full blown smear campaign with the neighbours,and street theatre as well as neurolinguistic programming …of course i didnt know what was going on at first, done some reading around what i was witnessing and low and behold I was the subject of no touch torture, originally used by the statsi to silence critics.German made,really effective!
An Garda Siochana is not a normal police force.
Correct. They are useless corrupt ar$e holes. I’ve said this many a time here but iv only ever been mugged once and it was by two garda.
I disagree.
They’re normal for about 1973.
What’s that saying…..
“When a crime goes unsolved, evaluate the actions of the police.’
The Guards would never harass a journalist, their employers and the National Union of Journalists would surely protect them staunchly and not just throw them to the wolves that inhabit our public institutions.
defo needs more detail. like if it was me id say “what do you want?” if they hadnt already said. and then if they didnt tell me. and stood there silently, like how it reads in the piece, then id shrug my shoulders and go inside leaving them to stand on the lawn like a couple of mutes. but i doubt they said nothing. DETAILS PLEASE
I’m in the dark here. Did these two Gardaí at any time state the purpose of their visit, as would be normal? If not, why not? This article leaves a great deal to be desired as far as actual information goes.
An Garda Siochana needs to be disbanded like the RUC was. It is a deeply corrupt self serving organisation with a cult-like structure. It preserves itself by being vassals of FF and FG and carries out political spying and subversion on their behalf (false arrest of opposition politicians for fake charges). During the 50s and 60s Garda detectives spied on behalf of the Catholic Archbishop. There is hard evidence of that.
Worse than the mafia I tells ya.
wahhahahh Who guards the guardians.
Who wastes their time wahahahing obscure snide comments rather than taking the opportunity to engage with issues they disagree with might be more apt.
But I suppose if you’ve limited writing and advocacy skills there’s not much else to fall back on to express your point of view. Shame.
Funny Fi. You have missed my point and I fear you will miss the bigger picture.
@ Fi- ” one should always play fairly – when one has the winning cards”. The lack of a comma is quite telling. Best of luck :)
Sorry if I missed your point, J. I thought your original comment was just random snideness. Would you mind explaining it for me? The Oscar Wilde quote could have a number of applicable meanings, and I’m finding it difficult to decide between them.
Totally scary big brother, state-led, oppression of the voice of freedom and liberty. They actually called to her house??? What next? A gulag??
I’m at a loss. Did these Gardaí at any time state the purpose of their visit? If not, why not? This article appears to be short on actual information and heavy on innuendo.
Did you not read the story??? It should fit in nicely with your view of Ireland as the corrupt, medieval kip that you and the BS massive are always complaining about. The sun must be getting to you.
Maybe they weren’t normal Gardai.
They could possibly have been our lizard overlords. And I’m surprised that GOD didn’t point out that they refused to deny they were lizard people.
Given that most people don’t talk about lizard overlords except in the context of being thick or trying to smear someone else by using the term to devalue their discourse when they are unable or too lazy to find arguments to rebut it, I think it’s rather unlikely.
I’ll take the 2nd option so thanks
To clarify – I’m smearing other people
Great, that’s a few hours of sleep back tonight for me.
What’s your view of Ireland, Tony? What do you think about the child abuse scandals here over the past few decades? The financial scandals? The cover-ups? The way in which jobs and grants are awarded? The fact that the same families have been in power – and indeed in the media – for decades while all this has been going on? Sounds pretty medieval and corrupt to me tbh, and it affects most of us, most days of our lives, in the taxes we pay, in the rubbish we have to read in the media, in the people we have to see in power, in the lives of people we know who have been affected by this.
If you disagree, perhaps come out and say why rather than snidely sneering if you want anyone to take you seriously.
+1
Im in the broadsheet massive
My bad. Just couldn’t take the early expiry date on the bored sneery thing.
Mr. T inching that bit closer to full house on Apocalypse marries Fairytale Bingo.
Heartbreaking how easy it is to fall the wrong side of the line between witty and pretentious.
I chuckled . Thanks Fifi
Not at all, glad to be of help in cheering you up.
@ FI……Welcome to BS ………..where narcissism marries neurosis…..
Your issues not mine. Bye FI.
Surely, the officers identified themselves and she could have checked with their station to confirm/log the purpose of such a visit? I presume that approaching a member of the press has guidelines etc.
Thanks for continuing to cover this Broadsheet- there is something very sinister going on here and this woman is being bullied by the guards, it’s not right.
+1 Gardai intimidating journalists should be much, much bigger news.
It’s not…. Because the really bright ones left journalism to into law or business. Consequently we’re stuck with the ones who are related to somebody….
intimidation is the modus operandum for the gards. test this for yourself. simply approach one looking for help and observe their response. you’ll be met with an attitude that makes you feel like you’re the one who’s done something wrong. and that you’ve gone into their home on their day off to ask for help. unless you’re a pretty girl of course, then you can have your photo taken with them on a night out while wearing their hat and high-vis jacket.
Correct 15 cent, the idea of this visit on a sunday night is to terrorise, nothing more..
She has questioned their integrity repeatedly and the guards and their commissioner cant stand it..
they will try to intimidate her for as long as possible and if that doesnt work than they may have to call in the street thugs to finish the job, its been done before and if you think it wont happen again your living in noddy land
Oooh, now that is as close to the bone a comment you’re ever going to get on Broadsheet..
Of course, you could have mentioned that quite a few apartments in the city owned by members of the……..(fill in the blanks) serve as Growhouses and brothels. It’s a nice little racket with the landlord who happens to be a ….(fill in the blank) getting a cut. Naturally, there is plausible deniability should anything go wrong. But no matter, there’s always a fall guy (or girls) to take the blame.
This girl is definitely being bullied
Since the visit is now in the public domain
Can Noirin give us a statement on why Garda resources that’s she’s always whinging about as being too scarce managed to find time to call by Gemma’s gaff
If ever there was own goal this is one, who was daft enough to dispatch two
plain clothes detectives out to the private residence of Gemma O’Doherty on
a Sunday, without a warrant they cant go past the front gate, as to disclosing
a email address without permission, if this is taken further it will cost them
The Guards would be better chatting up a few familar notables in the Donegal Div.
Sorry mate but you’re wrong about the warrant. None required unless you’re actually physically searching for something.
I posted above already by mistake instead of here…
Point was, everyone should contact the press office and ask them what is going on with this situation and see what they say. At least they’ll know people are paying attention to possible harrassment by the Gardai on a journalist.
Use your real contact details at your own risk…
:-J
Noreen O’Sullivan , Garda Commissioner
Commissioner,
Perhaps you should search in Google for ‘Windle stops swindle’ and put Garda resources to enforcing the law of the land
Amen
Srinivasan Devrajan
The bungle brigade… I was in Dun Laoghaire the night Raonaid Murray was killed. Myself and 20+ pals, mostly lads celebrating a 21st. We were all coming and going around the town around the time of the murder, making our way from a pub to a nightclub. All of us to this day talk with disbelief as to how not a single one of us was asked a single question about the night. It’s obvious to us that there was no systematic investigation or elimination of potential suspects. It’s very sad indeed.