[Gemma O’Doherty]

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Gemma O’Doherty was among several speakers at Airing Erris in An tSeanscoil in Ceathrú Thaidhg, Co. Mayo on Sunday organised by Afri Ireland [Action From Ireland].

Other speakers included former Garda John Wilson; former UN Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday; former Garda Sergeant Bernard McCabe; peace campaigner Margaretta D’Arcy and farmer/environmental activist, Willie Corduff.

Ms O’Doherty, a former journalist at the Irish Independent, spoke about her involvement in the Fr Niall Molloy murder case; how an alleged witness tried to run her off the road when she went to question him; the penalty points controversy and her concerns relating to Irish media.

“To my shame, as a journalist, I have never been or reported on the appalling issues you, as a community, have been subjected to here, until a few weeks ago when I came over to meet Ed Vulliamy from The Observer. My visit happened to coincide with the transport of the tunnel boring equipment, leaving Glengad and heading, I think, to the refinery potentially, as it was making its way to Dublin, to leave the country.

And it was only the sheer coincidence of my being here with Ed that gave me a glimpse of what you, as a community, has suffered in terms of the level of heavy policing. As the machinery was moved through the night, in the cover of darkness, both Ed and I witnessed at least two van loads of Gardai, on a Sunday night, into the early hours of Monday morning, not a protester in sight, apart from one individual who’s a local resident, myself, another journalist and two local residents.

And, for some reason, at least a dozen gardai were required for this exercise. The one thing that struck me as a Dubliner, living in a city which is so disgracefully, badly policed and on a Sunday night, when the city and other cities, are bereft of gardai, it was an absolute scandal to see so many of them here, for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I wrote up that story and it was not used. But I did report what had happened that evening to Clare Daly and she raised it at Leader’s Questions and directly challenged Enda Kenny on it.

But the scenario seems to be that ‘you ignore it and it will go away’. Now both Ed and myself do not intend to allow that incident to go away. We were shocked at how the three people, the three local residents, were treated by the gardai that night. They didn’t speak to anyone, they acted as if we were subhuman, I don’t think they were aware that there were two journalists present but it did give me an insight into what has been happening here, which the public have not been fully informed about.

And I think now the public are much clearer about what has been happening within the gardai, thanks to the brilliant work of John Wilson, who is here today. John is a hero and a patriot of the highest order and his colleague Maurice McCabe. And I think we do hope that more whistleblowers will come forward.

When [Former Garda Commissioner] Martin Callinan came before the Public Accounts Committee in January of this year, he said he found it extraordinary that, in his force of 12,000, that there were just two individuals making allegations of this nature, not hundreds, not dozens, just two. And, of course, there’s nothing extraordinary about that at all.We’ve seen how John and Maurice have been treated. And so many officers who might be inclined to come forward would obviously be terrified at the prospect.

A close contact of mine, a senior garda who has left the force now, he tells me stories of shocking malpractice and corruption when we talk on a regular basis. And I said to him recently, ‘why won’t you go public?’ And he said to me, ‘Gemma, they will destroy me’. And I said, ‘they will only destroy you, if there is something they can destroy you with’.

And he said to me, ‘No, they don’t need anything’ and the implication being that things could be made up. As I’ve said we’ve seen the devastation caused to Maurice and John Wilson’s lives, to their wives and to their families.

At every step, in their battle to expose corruption, they were blocked, they were harassed, they were intimidated, they were victimised and both of them have paid such a huge price and I don’t think the public really understand the ongoing ordeal that both of those men are suffering.

And it certainly is the case it is a very dangerous time in this country to be a whistleblower – especially if you are holding the gardai to account. At a garda reform conference recently in Farmleigh, in the Phoenix Park, Nuala O’Loan, the former Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland, described the blue wall of silence that acts as a cover-up for wrongdoing in the gardai. And, certainly, we’re seeing that in so many different cases around the country at the moment.

Until my dismissal last summer, I spent almost two decades working as a journalist with the Irish Independent but, for me, it was during the summer of 2010 that my career took a turn, that would have a huge impact on my life and would change my views of the Garda Siochana and this State. And it all began with a chance encounter with a man from County Offaly while I was doing a story on the Dublin Horse Show.Continue reading →