A Couple Of Swells

at

mcgowan:o'sullivan
Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan and her husband Chief Superintendent Jim McGowan

Detective Superintendent Jim McGowan, the husband of Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan, heads the team of half a dozen officers tasked with closely monitoring the water protesters and gathering intelligence on their whereabouts.

The Mail understands that the investigating officers also closely monitor social media and track the organising of the water protests and its leaders.
Dossiers on many of the ‘ringleaders’ of the protests have been compiled…

Him Indoors, Broadsheet, August 28, 2016

The promotion of the Garda Commissioner’s husband comes just weeks before responsibility for such appointments switches to the new independent Policing Authority.

Mr McGowan has also worked at Ballymun Garda Station in the DMR North Central division, and was previously the Superintendent in Trim, Co Meath. His current role is coordinating and tasking regional policing operations in the DMR division.

Speaking to the Herald, Mr McGowan said he was pleased with the promotion and that he was able to offer his service to the force at the rank of Chief Superintendent.

Garda Commissioner’s husband is promoted to chief superintendent (The Herald)

Good times.

Call for allegations to be brought to GSOC (RTÉ)

Last night: Explain Yourself

Pic Business & Finance

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35 thoughts on “A Couple Of Swells

  1. dav

    Nice allocation of resources against the life threatening water protesters, it’s not as if we have people being shot on the streets in broad…., oh

    1. realPolithicks

      There are sinister elements involved with water protests, sinister elements I tells ya…..

  2. bisted

    …when the pension cheques start rolling in they’ll put even ex-labour ministers in the ha’penny place…

  3. Tish Mahorey

    So they assign a ‘task force’ to spy on members of the public engaging in legal protest while they can’t manage to tackle the very serious threat to public safety from armed gangs. Are the police involved in organised crime? Is this why no real effort is being made to stop them?

    1. dav

      gangland crime only affects poor people
      water protests could effect profits for the vested interests
      the gardai must protect the vested interests

    2. some old queen

      Lets be honest about it, some of those protesters were not nice people. Following workers home and intimidating their families required garda surveillance, otherwise they would have been accused of not doing their jobs.

      If the majority had to have complied with the water charges everything would have been fine but now that the pendulum has swung in the other direction, it allows for accusations of political policing. It all depends on who they were monitoring and why of course.

      1. Cowenwatch

        “Are the police involved in organised crime?”

        Google the name Keiron Boylan and see what you can find!

    3. rotide

      The fact you think ‘no real effort’ has been made to stop criminal gangs speaks volumes about your understanding of the basic realities of the world.

  4. Maria

    Is that why Noreen is turning a blind eye to the 2 senior Gardaí who were supposed to have told lies about Garda McCabe? Pals of the hubby??????

  5. Eoin

    The water protests were NOT about WATER. They were about the social contract being broken and a complete collapse of trust in government. Irish Water was merely the straw that broke the camels back. The real crime was STEALING public money to pay back unsecured bond holders. Irish Water is just the latest part of that ONGOING crime. Monitoring the ‘ring leaders’ is pointless (not to mention wrong) because this is a grass roots movement borne out of a general sense of anger with the state and it’s behaviour in recent years. So there really are no ‘ring leaders’ as such. Shows how out of touch the Gardai are or how out of touch their establishment masters are. They seem to be believing their own propaganda on the water protests. That is, that it’s a minority of thugs that need monitoring. Rather than what it is, a general cross section of the population who’ve had enough of general state corruption and incompetence.

    1. Cowenwatch

      Watching the Week In Politics during the election campaign and David David Power was asked about the water issue. “It seems to have gone off the boil”, he guffawed to sniggers from the other panelists.

      Couple that with the commentary from Paul Reynolds following the drip fed leak of the O’Higgins Report.

      I wonder would the Government ever consider selling RTE! But, of course not. The Government mouthpiece, that is RTE, may not be very successful in telling people what to think but they are very successful in telling people what to think about!

  6. Anne

    Are there that many professional protesters that it warrants a team of Gardai officers to track them?

    It reeks of a police state, but there are a number of protesters who are professional wasters. They haven’t worked in years and are sufficiently compensation by the state that they vehemently protest at, at every opportunity.

    I mean some of them would show up for a politician cutting a ribbon at a shop. Some of them are Angry Annies who need better hobbies than harassing and shouting vulgarities at politicians.

    1. Original Cynic

      We absolutely need a crack Garda squad to protect us from Angry Annies rampaging around our streets. *shudders*

      1. Anne

        Yeah, it’s not warranted.. but there is a contingent of professional protesters who’d show up at the opening of a paper bag to scream abuse.

  7. John

    I was listening to Gemma Doherty podcast posted on Broadsheet this morning. Within she mentions that the Garda are absolutely political and gives the example of Irish Water and the fact Garda can be mobilised in their dozens when a threat to the status quo. No Garda shortage when it affects the vested interests. Corrib Gas field was the same. You are free to protest within a narrative or guideline permitted by the state.

    1. Sheik Yahbouti

      Agreed. I ‘m now tired of it. At one stage I found this concept of rapid communication intriguing and entertaining. Now all I see is forums swamped by paid and unpaid party hacks. I also see such ugly sentiments expressed that they depress me and make me think that nothing can change. Time I think to adopt more direct approaches, healthier and more satisfactory.

  8. Truth in the News

    The political manipulation of the police in appointments, which is in effect jobbery
    policing carried out to protect big business at the behest of the political establishment
    has reaped a whirl wind, wait till the beans are spilled on the police in relation to
    the Corrib and Water Protests, a rot has set in policing over the years and the
    previous tribunals only scratched the surface, is it time to disband the current setup
    or let it drift until it decends into a Stazi outfit.

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