Tag Archives: Lucia O’Farrell

Tonight since 8pm.

In the Dáil.

A debate has been under way in relation to a Fianna Fáil Private Members Motion on the terms of reference of the scoping exercise into the death of Shane O’Farrell.

It follows the family of the late Shane O’Farrell highlighting the Department of Justice’s rejection of terms of reference drawn up by District Court Judge Gerard Haughton who was appointed by the Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to chair the scoping exercise into the 23-year-old law student’s death.

Earlier: “We’re Hoping To Get Support From Other Parties” [Updated]

From top: Lucia O’Farrell outside Leinster House yesterday; Terms of reference submitted by Judge Gerard Haughton for a scoping exercise into the death of Lucia’s son Shane O’Farrell; terms of reference from the Department of Justice

This morning.

Lucia O’Farrell spoke to Dr Gavin Jennings on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland following her and her family’s protest outside Leinster House yesterday.

The family believe that the Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan and his department are narrowing the terms of reference of a scoping inquiry to be carried out by District Court Judge Gerard Haughton into the death of Lucia’s 23-year-old son Shane.

Shane was cycling home in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, when he was struck by a car driven by Zigimantas Gridzuiska and killed on August 2, 2011.

After meeting with the O’Farrell family, the judge had put forth his own terms of reference for the scope earlier this year.

His terms made reference to the Constitution and the European Convention of Human Rights and outlined that he would review: the criminal prosecution of Zigimantas Gridzuiska over Shane’s death; Zigimantas Gridzuiska’s previous prosecutions; the review of Shane’s case by the Independent Review Mechanism; the criminal investigation by GSOC; the subsequent disciplinary investigation by GSOC; and documentation gathered for Shane’s inquest.

However, these have now been omitted from the minister’s terms of reference and the family believe they have been “watered down” greatly.

During this morning’s interview, Dr Jennings and Lucia were discussing the difference between the judge submitting that he review the previous investigations and Department of Justice’s terms of reference stating the outcomes of previous reports and investigations will be taken into account when they had this exchange:

Lucia O’Farrell: “That may well sound well and good [that previous reports will be taken into account] but that’s taking on board that the investigations were done correctly and we can prove there’s serious flaws in those [investigations] and inaccuracies…”

Dr Gavin Jennings: “What investigations are these, Lucia?”

O’Farrell: “The investigation is, one of them, was by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, which was seven years and there are two very serious flaws in that.

“One being that the GSOC report stated that the guards were unaware that Zigimantas Gridzuiska was outside the jurisdiction, reoffending two weeks before he killed Shane [while on bail].

“And we have a letter from both the PSNI and the prosecution [service] in Northern Ireland saying the guards were fully aware of this. They had contacted them.

“Also bail, in relation to Shane [his death] was fixed at €500 despite eight offences following the killing of Shane. That bail was never taken from him.

“And we have, in the GSOC report, it states that the judge estreated the bail. We have a letter form the Supt who prosecuted the case saying bail wasn’t estreated.

“So the public…our family are entitled to the truth. The public are entitled to the truth. But the members of the Dáil and Seanad voted for a public inquiry and the Government and Minister [for Justice Charlie Flanagan] has disrespected the will of the democratically elected people of this country. And we need to get the terms of reference right to give the judge the right tools to do his job.

“Which is looking at all of the circumstances of the case. That’s what was looked for and voted on in the Dáil and Seanad, to look at all of the circumstances.

“Looking at an outcome of a report is not doing what was voted on in the Dáil.

“And the terms will not allow the inquiry to assert the full and relevant facts in Shane’s case and it appears to be in an attempt to curtail the scope of the inquiry and further delay this.

“We are eight years and three months [since Shane’s death] and we have been, the only word I can say is: abused. Abused by the Department of Justice.”

Jennings: “Ok.”

O’Farrell: “As [the late former member of the UN Human Rights Committee] Nigel Rodley said: Delay, deny, lie.”

Jennings: “Lucia O’Farrell, thank you very much for speaking to us. That’s Lucia O’Farrell, the mother of Shane O’Farrell who was 23 when he was killed by a hit-and-run driver in 2011.”

The O’Farrell family have been campaigning for several years for not only the matters leading up to Shane’s death to be investigated but, also, for their concerns about matters which occurred after Shane’s death to also be examined.

In March 2018, the Dáil voted by a majority of two to one for a commission of investigation to be set up to investigate Shane’s death.

The same motion was carried in the Seanad in February 2019.

Listen back in full here

Previously: Shane O’Farrell on Broadsheet

Lucia and Jim O’Farrell with their daughters outside Garda HQ in Phoenix Park in January of this year; the late Shane O’Farrell

This morning.

The family of the late Shane O’Farrell will hold a demonstration outside Leinster House before meeting with TDs, including Fianna Fáil’s justice spokesman Jim O’Callaghan.

They plan to discuss the Department of Justice’s rejection of terms of reference drawn up by District Court Judge Gerard Haughton who was appointed by the Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to chair a scoping exercise into the death of 23-year-old Shane.

Shane was killed on August 2, 2011, while cycling home when he was struck by a car driven by Zigimantas Gridzuiska.

The O’Farrell family have been campaigning for several years for not only the matters leading up to Shane’s death to be investigated but, also, for their concerns about matters which occurred after Shane’s death to also be examined.

In March 2018, the Dáil voted by a majority of two to one for a commission of investigation to be set up to investigate Shane’s death.

The same motion was carried in the Seanad in February 2019, with Senator David Norris telling the Seanad:

“Since that vote [in the Dáil] eight months ago the family has discovered that two statements given by Zigimantas Gridziuska were altered by the Garda for the inquest into Shane’s horrific death. This is most extraordinary. Left out was reference to his heroin problem.

“Those statements were not redacted: they were completely removed and the sentences joined up. These incomplete statements would only have been noticed if compared with the original statements. It is very much in the public interest that there would be a public inquiry in line with what the other House has already decided…”

In the same month, February 2019, Minister Flanagan chose to launch a scoping inquiry instead of a commission of investigation – despite the votes in the Dáil and Seanad – and appointed Judge Haughton to carry this out.

However, the O’Farrell family believe that the department’s rejection of the judge’s proposed terms of reference “undermines the scoping inquiry” and that the new terms put forth by the department “are deliberately narrow”.

Judge Haughton submitted his terms of reference – considered after he met the family and which the family respected – to the Department of Justice on April 24, 2019.

However, according to the family, the department has:

Removed references to Shane and the family’s rights under the ECHR to ensure an effective investigation into the unlawful killing. To date the State has failed in its obligations under the ECHR;

Removed consideration of the prosecution of Shane’s case,

Removed any consideration of the Coroner’s Inquest into Shane’s death, in which serious irregularities have emerged;

Removed any investigation into the previous prosecutions of the accused (despite him being in breach of multiple counts of bail when he killed Shane);

Limited the judge to take into account the outcome of reports prepared (being reports which in the families view are deficient), rather than a review of the investigations behind these reports, as originally envisaged in the February terms of reference.

This morning, the family have said:

“An independent public inquiry is the last chance for the State to meet its ECHR obligations to investigate properly Shane’s unlawful killing and to carry out an effective investigation into the true and full circumstances of the unlawful killing and the role of State authorities in Shane’s death.

“The family has the utmost respect for Judge Haughton, however the family believe that the terms of reference now proposed by the department do not reflect the spirit of the Dáil and Seanad resolution.

“These terms will not allow the inquiry to ascertain the full and relevant facts pertaining to Shane’s case and appear to be an attempt to curtail the scope of the Inquiry and further delay matters.

“The terms proposed by the department would lead to a narrow and unfair consideration of the complex legal and public policy issues that are at play in Shane’s case and they are not sufficiently broad or exhaustive to address the State’s ECHR obligations.

“The family attend Dáil Éireann today in a bid to secure truth and justice on Shane’s behalf.

“This requires a public inquiry to establish the truth of what happened and we will be making representations to TDs today seeking that the resolution of the Dáil and Seanad for a public inquiry is followed.”

Zigimantas Gridzuiska, 39, from Lithuania, who had 42 previous convictions in three different jurisdictions and was out on bail at the time, should have been in jail when he struck Shane.

He pleaded guilty to failing to stop, report or remain at the scene of the crash and he received an eight-month suspended sentence on February 28, 2013, on condition that he leave the country within 21 days.

Judge Pat McCartan, at the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin, gave Gridziuska the choice of serving the eight months or leaving the country and he chose the latter.

During the sentencing of Gridzisuka, Shane’s mum Lucia O’Farrell claims Judge McCartan asked if there was anything coming up in the pipeline for Gridziuska and that the State solicitor failed to notify the judge that – over the five months before Gridziuska’s trial – a file had been prepared in relation to insurance fraud charges against Gridziuska.

Ms O’Farrell repeatedly requested for this file to be compiled and completed so that it could be included in the proceedings of the case of dangerous driving causing death.

But it wasn’t.

On March 1, 2013 – one day after Gridziuska dangerous driving trial finished – the file on Gridziuska’s insurance fraud was submitted to the DPP.

Then on March 6, 2013 – just days after he was ordered to leave the State within 21 days – Gridziuska appeared in Carrickmacross District Court for insurance fraud and he was jailed for five months by Judge Sean MacBride in relation to three policies of insurance fraud, one of which covered the day on which Shane was killed.

Judge MacBride also banned him from driving for ten years.

Related: The road to truth in Shane O’Farrell case getting narrower and narrower (Michael Clifford, The Irish Examiner)

Previously: Shane O’Farrell on Broadsheet


Lucia and Jim O’Farrell with their daughters outside Garda HQ this morning; Garda Commissioner Drew Harris

This morning, at 11.30am, the family of the late Shane O’Farrell will meet with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris at Garda HQ in Phoenix Park, Dublin.

Shane was 23 and cycling home when he was killed in a hit-and-run in Carrickmacross in Co Monaghan by Zigimantus Gridziuska, from Lithuania, on August 2, 2011.

At the time of Shane’s death, Gridziuska had 42 previous convictions and he was in breach of multiple bail orders and suspended sentences.

In addition, about an hour before Shane was killed, the Garda Drugs Squad pulled over the car Gridziuska was travelling in, along with Paulius Paplauskas/Petrosas and Edgars Zelenousy, on suspicion that they had drugs in their possession.

Zelenousy was driving the car when it was pulled over. The O’Farrell family understand the gardaí asked the men to get out of the car, searched them and then got Zelenousy to switch with Gridziuska, thus resulting in Gridziuska being behind the wheel. Zelenousy had no insurance.

The car was then waved on.

Following Shane’s death, Gridziuska was arrested and the car he was driving was found concealed in bushes.

He was eventually acquitted of dangerous driving causing death.

He pleaded guilty to failing to stop, report or remain at the scene of the crash and he received an eight-month suspended sentence on February 28, 2013, on condition that he leave the country within 21 days.

Judge Pat McCartan, at the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin, gave Gridziuska the choice of serving the eight months or leaving the country and he chose the latter.

During the sentencing of Gridzisuka, Shane’s mum Lucia O’Farrell claims Judge McCartan asked if there was anything coming up in the pipeline for Gridziuska and that the State solicitor failed to notify the judge that – over the five months before Gridziuska’s trial – a file had been prepared in relation to insurance fraud charges against Gridziuska.

Ms O’Farrell repeatedly requested for this file to be compiled and completed so that it could be included in the proceedings of the case of dangerous driving causing death.

But it wasn’t.

On March 1, 2013 – one day after Gridziuska dangerous driving trial finished – the file on Gridziuska’s insurance fraud was submitted to the DPP.

Then on March 6, 2013 – just days after he was ordered to leave the State within 21 days – Gridziuska appeared in Carrickmacross District Court for insurance fraud and he was jailed for five months by Judge Sean MacBride in relation to three policies of insurance fraud, one of which covered the day on which Shane was killed.

Judge MacBride also banned him from driving for ten years.

On June 14 last, a motion was accepted in the Dail calling on the Government to establish a public inquiry into Shane’s death but such an inquiry has yet to be established.

On the same day, in the Seanad, the Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan admitted:

“It is clear there are a number of troubling matters surrounding the circumstances leading up to the road traffic incident in which Shane O’Farrell’s life was cut tragically short. The GSOC report clearly identifies those matters.

“They were, in fact, failures. In the debate in the other House last Tuesday, I was emphatic that I accepted that they were failures. A man, who had numerous previous convictions, including for theft, drugs and road traffic offences, and who was on bail at the time of the incident, had also been arrested for other offences while on bail.

“We all know there are laws related to the obligations on those who obtain release on bail and there are sanctions if those bail conditions are breached. Unfortunately in this particular case those sanctions were not implemented and there was a failing.

“…The failings in the follow-up following a breach of a bail condition is unacceptable.”

Ahead of her meeting with the Garda Commissioner this morning, Lucia writes:

“Gridziuska would have been in jail if the gardai had done their basic duty, in accordance of the orders of various courts. Bail had no legal meaning for Gridziuska or the gardai. We are seven years with no answers and no accountability.”

Previously: Shane O’Farrell on Broadsheet

Pic: Conor Hunt

Screen Shot 2017-04-10 at 15.12.14

Alternative writes:

We interviewed the very brave Lucia O’Farrell – who told us about how her son Shane was killed by a hit-and-run driver who had been stopped by police before the killing. The police let a car which had no insurance go… Please watch and share this video. Lucia deserves to be heard by as many people as possible.

Alternative (Facebook)

Previously: Delay, Deny, Lie Then Cover-Up

Lucia O’Farrell on Broadsheet

LuciaHusband

Lucia and Jim O’Farrell hold a picture of their late son, Shane

You may recall the death of Shane O’Farrell.

Shane, aged 23, was killed in a hit-and-run outside Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan on August 2, 2011.

The man who struck Shane was Zigimantas Gridzuiska, 39, from Lithuania. He had 42 previous convictions in three different jurisdictions and was out on bail at the time of Shane’s death.

During the sentencing of Gridzisuka, Ms O’Farrell claims Judge Pat McCartan asked if there was anything coming up in the pipeline for Gridziuska and that the State solicitor failed to notify the judge that – over the five months before Gridziuska’s trial – a file had been prepared in relation to insurance fraud charges against Gridziuska.

Gridziuska then received an eight-month suspended sentence on condition he leave Ireland.

However just days after he was ordered to leave the State, Gridziuska appeared in Carrickmacross District Court for insurance fraud and was jailed for five months by Judge Sean MacBride. This was in relation to three policies of insurance fraud, one of which covered the day on which Shane was killed.

Further to this, Shane’s mother Lucia O’Farrell sued Gridzuiska for nervous shock. She settled this afternoon.

The Irish Times reports:

She told Mr Justice Raymond Fullam joy has gone out of her life since her son died.

“I relive every minute of the day that it happened. I will never move on. My life is over,” she said.

In her High Court action, Lucia O’Farrell sued for nervous shock claiming, since the accident, she has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and a severe grief reaction including flashbacks and nightmares.

On Wednesday, her counsel Gabriel Gavigan SC said the case had settled and could be struck out. The terms of settlement are confidential.

Anthony Kidney SC, for Mr Gridzuiska, said the defendant’s legal team empathised and sympathised with the O’Farrells and had defended the case on the instruction of the insurer.

Mr Justice Fullam said it was in everyone’s best interests the case had settled and he hoped, with the trauma of the litigation, both criminal and civil, behind them, the family can face the future together and live with their great loss.

‘I lost my only son. Now I see everything as being over’ (Irish Times)

Previously: ‘Delay, Deny, Then Cover Up’

lucia

Lucia O’Farrell

Lucia O’Farrel’s  23-year-old son Shane was killed in a hit-and-run by Zigimantus Gridziuska  on August 2, 2011. Gridziuska was on bail for several offences at the time and was on suspended sentences in the Republic and the North that should have been activated prior to the incident.

Lucia has raised concerns about garda failures and serious ‘irregularities’ during Gridzuiska’s trial and is suing the Minister for Justice and the State over Shane’s death.

Lucia writes:

Our quest for justice for Shane has been hampered by the Department of Justice. They appear to have forgotten the very thing they are supposed to represent, they appear to have forgotten the very thing they are supposed to fight for: truth and justice. They appear to have forgotten the very people that they are there to serve.

Despite my correspondence with evidence of irregularities which occurred in the court in Shane’s case – which have been with the Department of Justice since before July 2013 – they have chosen to ignore it. Is this in the public interest of the people that they are there to serve? The Minister for Justice has chosen loyalty over honesty.

The ‘review panel’ which was set up by Minister Fitzgerald in July 2014 was to look at allegations of Garda failure. It was to take 8 to 12 weeks. No thought whatsoever went into this ‘review panel’ or did it?

Why was Conor Devally appointed, when they knew he defended the man who took Shane’s life? Despite Shane’s case being one of the most serious – as Shane is dead because of Garda failure – they appointed the Mr Devally as one of two senior counsels to oversee the ‘review panel’.

His appointment is unjust, there is the appearance of bias, it shows lack of independence, unfair procedure, and it is irrational and totally wrong. Minister Fitzgerald refused to remove him.

Please bear in mind that, Ms Fritzgerald has stated in the Dáil that the purpose of the two senior counsels is “to oversee the mechanism to ensure consistency of approach across all the cases” and “in addition to examining individual complaints, are required to advise the Dept generally on the management of the process, take a joint lead in allocating cases to junior counsel, and jointly oversee recommendations with a view to ensuring as far as possible a consistency of approach”.

She also stated that “counsel have to take into account whether those cases have been through due process, even if the persons involved remain unhappy with the outcome of that process.”

Naturally I have no faith in this process, it is very flawed. I have written several times asking for a list of the documents that are being reviewed by this panel. This is not even best international practice, it is just normal standard practice, yet no list has been furnished to me.

For over a year before this panel was formed, I sent documents to various state agencies and deputies who may have passed them to the Department of Justice. I have no idea on what material they are making their findings.

Documents with evidence of cover-up by the State were sent to the Dept of Justice/Attorney General. DPP, Standards in Public Office. The Irish Human Rights and Equity Commission, The Joint Justice Committee, An Toaiseach, Joan Burton, Kevin Humphreys, Eamon Gilmore, etc.

Documents with evidence of State cover-up and corruption were also sent to members of the Northern Ireland Assembly on our visit to Stormont in December 2014, also to Minister for Justice in Northern Ireland Mr David Ford whom I met with. In May 2015 similar documents were given to our MEP’s in the European Parliament in Brussels.

On July 21, 2015, I attended the 2016 MacGill Summer School for the debate entitled, The justice system – where stands reform? At question time, I addressed Shane’s horrific death and the cover-up that followed, I said to Minister Fitzgerald that we are frequently told that no one is above the law, even those appointed to uphold and administrate the law, yet she has failed to act on wrongdoing in this case, irregularities that occurred in the court to protect the gardaí in their failure.

I again asked for a Public Inquiry into his killing and the cover-up that followed. I said that I am not going away. Her reply was, ‘this case is under investigation’. Please note this was the same response from Minister Fitzgerald one year ago (July 2014) at the MacGill Summer School on a similar debate about justice.

Frances Fitzgerald has failed Shane and our family. She has failed to investigate the very serious wrongdoing by the prosecution which she has had evidence since May 2014. She is prizing loyalty over honesty.

Surely if the truth is not told in a court of law by the prosecution, this is a serious problem. I always believed evidence was all that was needed, it is not, because who do you bring it to? Very serious evidence of wrongdoing is being ignored by Frances Fitzgerald.

I will see them in Strasbourg.

Previously: Not Going Away

Shane O’Farrell on Broadsheet

Screen Shot 2014-10-24 at 05.45.18 Screen Shot 2014-10-24 at 05.45.35

A letter sent in January 2014, by Lucia O’Farrell to Nick Reddy, private secretary to Taoiseach Enda Kenny, requesting a meeting with Mr Kenny

Lucia O’Farrell, mother of Shane O’Farrell, has repeatedly requested a meeting with Taoiseach Enda Kenny, to no avail.

Shane, then 23, was killed in a hit-and-run in Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan by Zigimantus Gridziuska, from Lithuania, on August 2, 2011. Gridziuska’s was on bail at the time.

An hour before Shane was killed, the Garda Drugs Squad pulled over the car that Gridziuska was travelling in, along with Paulius Paplauskas/Petrosas and Edgars Zelenousy, on suspicion that they had drugs in their possession. Zelenousy was driving the car when it was pulled over. The O’Farrell family understand the gardaí asked the men to get out of the car, searched them and then got Zelenousy to switch with Gridziuska, resulting in Gridziuska being behind the wheel. Zelenousy had no insurance. The car was then waved on.

Following Shane’s death, Gridziuska was arrested and appeared in court on August 4, 2011. Gridziuska’s numerous suspended sentences were not activated and gardaí did not object to him getting bail.

Eight days later, he was found in possession of heroin.

At his trial in February 2013, he pleaded guilty to failing to stop, report or remain at the scene of the crash but was acquitted of dangerous driving causing death. Judge Pat McCartan gave him an eight-month suspended sentence on February 28, 2013, on condition he left the country within 21 days.

But this condition was never met because, on March 6, 2013, Gridziuska appeared in Carrickmacross District Court for insurance fraud and was jailed for five months by Judge Sean MacBride in relation to three policies of insurance fraud, one of which covered the day on which Shane was killed.

A file in relation to Gridziuska’s insurance fraud had been compiled for five months before Gridziuska went on trial for Shane’s death. During Gridziuska’s sentencing over Shane’s death, Judge Pat McCartan asked if there was anything coming up in the pipeline for Gridziuska but the State solicitor failed to notify the judge about the file on insurance fraud.

Gridziuska’s trial finished on February 28, 2013. The insurance fraud file was submitted to the DPP the very next day, on March 1, 2014.

Lucia writes:

I sent a letter to Nick Reddy, private secretary to Taoiseach Enda Kenny, by registered post in January 2014, requesting a meeting with Mr Kenny. I did not get a meeting. I wrote back on May 8, 2014, also by registered post, requesting a meeting but I did not get a meeting.

An Taoiseach can meet someone from outside this jurisdiction, yet cannot meet families of injustice in his own country. He has failed his people. I understand there is going to be a full Dáil debate on the [Maíria Cahill] controversy next week. I sincerely hope that he also holds a Dâil debate on the killing of our son, Shane, due to Garda failure.

I understand, the Taoiseach promised that the Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald, is going to contact her counterpart in the North, David Forde, to discuss cooperation in handling the [Maíria Cahill] issue. I also hope she also contacts David Forde to discuss how a Lithuanian heroin addict could be given a suspended sentence in Newry, go on to kill our son two weeks later, and then, six weeks after killing Shane, get another two weeks in custody in Belfast.

Previously: ‘Delay, Deny Then Cover-Up’

Failure Of Duty

mariefarrell

Lucia O’Farrell

You may know the case of hit-and-run victim, Shane O’Farrell, is one of the 282 cases of alleged Garda misconduct being examined by a panel of two senior and five junior counsel.

The panel was established by Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald following the publication of the Guerin Report which looked at the handling of allegations made by Sergeant Maurice McCabe about gardaí and the Department of Justice. 

The Department of Justice wrote to Ms O’Farrell to tell her Shane’s case was being included in this review, on August 8, 2014.

In relation to the review, Frances Fitzgerald told the Dáil last Wednesday:

The review of each allegation consists of an examination of the papers by a counsel from the panel and does not involve interviews or interaction with complainants or any other form of investigation, although counsel may recommend that I seek further information to assist in coming to an appropriate recommendation in any particular case.”

Ms Fitzgerald, in response to a question from Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins, said:

“This is an opportunity to go through the detailed information on cases and we have asked everyone to submit material in writing. In many cases there is a considerable amount of correspondence. If there is nothing in writing I call on Deputy Collins to encourage people to put as much in writing as they can. We have put no limitation on the material that can be submitted and indeed extra material has been submitted in several cases.”

However, Lucia O’Farrell says:

“Perhaps Ms Fitzgerald could identify to me when she asked ‘everyone to submit material in writing’? I find this response unusual as neither in the letter to me or letters to Senator David Norris or John McGuinness or Finian McGrath (who wrote to her on my behalf), did she ask for materials to be submitted to to her. They appear to be making it up as they go along.”

“Initially, when the two senior counsels were appointed, this review was to take eight to 12 weeks. Therefore this would be due out soon. How can they now say on the Dáil floor, at the end of September, “we asked everyone to submit material in writing”?

“What about all the other families, who did not hear this on Wednesday, or who don’t have the internet, or can’t get broadband? I phoned around to inform who I could.

Last Friday, and in response to Ms Fitzgerald’s comments made in the Dáil, Ms O’Farrell drove from her home in Monaghan to Dublin, to deliver material to the Department of Justice at Stephen’s Green.

She says:

“I asked the desk person/security to phone upstairs for the person who was aware I was coming with this material. This call was made, but the secretary to minister Fitzgerald, Chris Quattrociocchi, refused to send anyone down stairs to collect and sign for the material which was in a brown A4 envelope. I left it with the desk person.”

Meanwhile, one of the Senior Counsel appointed to the review is Conor Devally – who defended Zigimantus Gridziuska, the man who killed Shane O’Farrell.

The O’Farrell family have since been told that Mr Devally won’t be involved in the Shane O’Farrell case due to a conflict of interest.

Despite this, Mr Devally will receive a brief fee of €20,000 to oversee all the complaints. The other senior counsel involved is Aileen Donnelly, who was made a High Court judge last week.

On foot of this appointment, Ms O’Farrell asks:

“Will she continue in the capacity as SC in this review process? Will she be replaced? If she is not replaced, will Connor Devally be overseeing all cases?”

The junior counsel include: Paul Carroll, John Fitzgerald, Tony McGuillicuddy, Siobhán Ní Chúlacháin and Karen O’Connor.

Previously: “Delay, Deny, Lie, Then Cover Up”