From top: Former Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan; Maurice and Lorraine McCabe this morning.
Today.
Former Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan is continuing to give evidence to the Disclosures Tribunal in Dublin Castle about the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation.
Olga Cronin is there and ‘sheet tweeting on the evidence given so far today.
For the first time the public heard Ms O’Sullivan speak about her knowledge of the false rape allegation that was levelled against Sgt McCabe in documentation circulated between Tusla and An Garda Siochana in 2013 and 2014.
Readers will recall how, on May 16, 2014, then Asst Commissioner Kieran Kenny sent a letter to the the then Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan’s office, with the wrong referral attached.
The letter included the line:
“You will note that the allegation identifies the alleged perpetrator as Maurice McCabe.”
Ms O’Sullivan has told the tribunal she can’t remember getting the false referral when it was sent to her by Mr Kenny.
Asst Comm Kenny also told the tribunal he subsequently received an amended/corrected referral but never sent this on to Ms O’Sullivan.
In the summer, Ms O’Sullivan’s former private secretary told the tribunal that he was of the understanding she had read the incorrect referral in May 2014.
Readers will recall it was May 2014 when Sean Guerin SC recommended that a Commission of Investigation be carried out into Sgt McCabe’s allegations of malpractice in Cavan/Monaghan – giving rise to the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation.
Furthermore.
The tribunal heard of two letters that Mr Walsh sent to Asst Comm Kenny – in which he clearly stated “I am directed by the Commissioner” – asking for further details on any follow-up action on foot of Mr Kenny’s referral.
This morning.
Ms O’Sullivan told the tribunal that she read Mr Walsh’s evidence and doesn’t dispute it.
However, she said she had “no recollection of that letter being brought to my attention”.
She repeated: “I don’t remember it”.
Kathleen Leader BL, for the tribunal, asked Ms O’Sullivan, given timing of the O’Higgins Commission and her receipt of the false referral – and the level of interaction between her and the department about Sgt McCabe – if she had ever shared any information about this false referral with the Department of Justice or any Department of Justice officials.
Ms O’Sullivan said she didn’t and it would have been “very inappropriate [to do so] even if I had seen it”.
Ms O’Sullivan said when the issue of the false rape allegation arose in 2017 (presumably because of tribunal), she learned the referral sent to her office was “filed on a different file to deal with Ms D as opposed to McCabe file”.
She said, in light of referral being in Ms D’s file as opposed to Sgt McCabe’s, that perhaps its relevance to Sgt McCabe was “not immediate” to her.
The tribunal continues.
Olga’s tweets can be followed here
Earlier: Unforgettable
Rollingnews
Noirin is very good at failing to remember when it would be detrimental to her …. she has an exceptional memory though when it suits her case ….
Looks like they will all get away with it , no supergrass
Fair play to Olga!
+ 1
FFS. The predicted amnesia is at epidemic proportions today.
At what point can a witness be clattered across the noggin by the judge, in an effort to cure this???
It’s a disgrace that there isn’t more done to deter uncooperative testimony.
Listening to all this you would think that what was done to the McCabes was a series of unfortunate events. Disgraceful behaviour by the ex commissioner of the police force. Think about that for a moment. And she is not the first commissioner to act in this manner. Truly disgusting behaviour.
It shows the spin we are fed. Sad country.
Look Ireland is a great place to do business. If you have the power and/or the money you can get away with anything.
No one of any real note has ever been really held accountable here. Its fact.
If you are a common Joe soap then you WILL be thrown to the wolves.
Ireland is on a trajectory with ever increasing momentum to a very scary place where the values of a republic will be a distant memory.
That first pic looks like she’s carrying a baby!!
Don’t say that
lock her up till she remembers. Wont have amnesia then
That’s only for the peasants. Their unwillingness to remember is contempt. Hers is because she’s such a busy capable woman… and shur, who would remember such a banal everyday thing like a report claiming that the thorn in your side is a child rapist?
I do hope her Amnesia doesn’t interfere in her new role with the International Association of Police Chiefs.
do we have laws in ireland, about how you conduct yourself in trubunals? can you actually just say “i don’t remeber” to anything that incriminates you? can you just do that? and then walk away free because you didn’t admit wrongdoing? even tho as we know, if your found out, you still walk away. what a joke shop.
Would you get away with that ‘I don’t remember’ in court. As in ‘I don’t remember if i was driving’.? If there was proof that you were driving you’d be convicted. There is proof of many things as regards herself. Same should apply.
That’s why the folks who set up Tribunals make sure that they are fairly toothless, cos it’s not the ordinary Joe Soap being called to account.
There is a virulent form of collective amnesia affecting some sections of Establishment
and there needs to be developed some form of DNA tests to identify it and eradicate it.
This amnesia seems to affect a lot of their supporters too, cos they keep reelecting gombeens who are happy to let this circle of corruption continue.
What a joke. This isn’t good enough.
Missing in action
2 x Garda Commissioners
2 x Ministers of Justice
2 x Secretary Generals of Justice
Still standing, Maurice.