Terry Prone of the Communications Clinic and former Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan at the Public Accounts Committee on July 13, 2017

An Garda Siochana paid the Communications Clinic €10,400  and €92,955 in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

Further to this…

On Thursday, July 13, 2017.

The former Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan was asked about this sum of €92,955 by Fianna Fáil TD Marc MacSharry, in a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee.

Ms O’Sullivan told the committee the money would have been used to train gardai to deal with local radio and media.

She said:

“As part of our modernisation and renewal programme, we have committed to opening up the organisation. I do not have the exact breakdown here, but maybe some of my colleagues do.

“The moneys would again have been spent on training Garda and civilian members around the country for interaction with local radio and local media, for example, on some of the information messages that would have gone out around Operation Thor and the “lock up and light up” campaign.

“Again, we can provide an exact breakdown or maybe some of my colleagues would have it, but that is what it would have been.”

When Mr MacSharry specifically asked Ms O’Sullivan if she had attended any media training sessions with the PR firm, Ms O’Sullivan said:

“No. Maybe it is an opportunity, if I may Chair, to do something. I have seen a lot of speculation and commentary. Particularly, I think there was a figure of €140,000 mentioned which apparently I spent in terms of preparing for Committee of Public Accounts meetings. That is completely untrue. I have never received any preparatory training. Like yourself, Chair, I am not sure where that reporting came from. Certainly, no, I did not. “

Mr MacSharry attempted to clarify further when they had this exchange:

Marc MacSharry: “So the €92,000 was for people who would have to be spokespeople for local radio after a crime or were being consulted on an issue or something.”

Ms Nóirín O’Sullivan: “And, for example, district offices. As the Deputy will have seen, one of the criticisms we have received is that we are insular and defensive. Some of the inspectorate reports quite rightly raised the fact we need to speak more openly to the media. The Deputy would have seen a lot of our local officers around the country engaging more with the media. We have found that part of public reassurance is to get on local radio stations in particular and give out messages of reassurance and crime prevention and stories of interest to local communities.”

However…

Yesterday, John Mooney, in The Sunday Times, reported that the Disclosures Tribunal is examining advice which Terry Prone, of the Communications Clinic, gave to the former Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan in May, 2016.

Ms Prone gave this advice after it emerged that claims made by Ms O’Sullivan’s senior counsel during the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation in 2015 – that Garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe was acting out of malice – were proven to be untrue and journalists were asking Ms O’Sullivan for a comment about the same.

Mr Mooney reported:

“The tribunal has been notified of email exchanges between senior gardai and Prone from May 2016, when the PR executive was consulted on the wording of a statement issued by the garda press office in response to media queries about O’Sullivan’s approach to McCabe at the O’Higgins Commission hearings.

“…Charleton has been given statements and documents that show Garda Headquarters held a meeting to discuss how it would respond to the issues identified by O’Higgins. The Garda press office later released three statements on the report and the leaked transcripts.

“Prone advised O’Sullivan on the second statement, which was released by the garda press office. It was an attempt to clarify the then commissioner’s role after newspapers published transcripts of the commission’s hearings. The statement, released on May 16, quoted O’Sullivan as saying she believed “dissent was not disloyalty” and she never regarded McCabe as malicious. It added that she was legally precluded from commenting on matters discussed at the commission.

“Charleton has been told the statement was circulated by O’Sullivan to Garda Headquarters on a private Gmail account, which deleted emails after 30 days, before its release. Copies were retained by Garda Headquarters as they were sent to official accounts. The email thread shows Prone had advised O’Sullivan.”

Meanwhile.

Two separate attempts earlier this year, by journalists Ali Bracken, of the Irish Daily Mail, and Ken Foxe, to obtain details of An Garda Siochana’s hiring of the Communications Clinic, under the Freedom of Information Act, have been rejected.

Specifically, Mr Foxe sought “copies of any emails between the Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan and PR consultant Terry Prone or the Communications Clinic during the period in which those services were provided to AGS.”

In addition.

The Department of Justice paid the Communications Clinic €2,336, €756 and €24,221 in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.

Two weeks ago, the Department of Justice released a series of emails which showed how, on Saturday, July 4, 2015, RTÉ journalist John Burke sent a press query to the Garda Press Office.

Mr Burke asked about the former Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan’s counsel questioning Sgt Maurice McCabe’s motivation at the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation.

Subsequent to this, in an email from the Department of Justice Secretary General Office Assistant Secretary Ken O’Leary to the then Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald, Mr O’Leary stated Ms O’Sullivan phoned him “to let me know they had received queries from Colm O’Nongain [sic] about Sgt McCabe”.

Mr O’Leary added that the Garda Press Office was asked “was it the Garda Commissioner who had instructed counsel to adopt an aggressive stance towards Sgt McCabe at the O’Higgins Commission”.

He told Ms Fitzgerald: “The Gardai are not commenting.”

He then went on to advise Ms Fitzgerald, who was scheduled to appear on RTE’s This Week on Sunday, July 5, 2015, to say the following:

“Both the Garda Commissioner [Noirin O’Sullivan] and myself have made it clear that Sgt McCabe is a valued member of the Force.”

She was also advised to say she couldn’t comment on the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation and that:

“…it would be wrong of anyone to make public comment which might interfere with or attempt to influence those proceedings in any way.”

In addition, Mr O’Leary also told Ms Fitzgerald that she could say:

“It would be wrong of anyone to make public comment which might interfere with or attempt to influence those proceedings in any way. The Commission clearly has to be let take its course.”

In the end, Ms Fitzgerald wasn’t asked about the matter when she appeared on RTE’s This Week on Sunday, July 5, 2015.

O’Sullivan ‘advised’ by PR guru about McCabe (John Mooney, The Sunday Times)

Previously: Getting Their Story Straight

Reputable History

Our Worst Fears

Five Years After

Was The Communications Clinic Hired To Deal With Mission To Prey Before It Was Even Broadcast?

Committee transcript via Oireachtas.ie

This morning.

Ranelagh, Dublin 6

Gardaí at the scene (above) where they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the discovery of a body of a 22-year-old man  at approximately 4.40am this morning.

The man was found unresponsive with a head injury near the Luas station entrance on Ranelagh Road and taken by ambulance to St James Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The scene is preserved for technical examination and the Coroner has been notified.

Man’s body found at Luas stop (RTÉ)

Google Maps/RollingNews

This morning.

At 10am.

Temperatures recorded around Ireland.

Brrr.

And last night?

Yikes.

Via Met Eireann

From top:  Josepha Madigan, TD Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht; Grace Dyas

Dear Josepha,

I am writing to you to tell you who I am.

With my work with THEATREclub, I have built an artistic practice on speaking truth to power. It has taken me to methadone clinics across the country; to dig physical and metaphorical holes in city council land; to live with the people of Moyross in Limerick City; and to sit and listen to hundreds of people who feel oppressed, let down, and abandoned over the last ten years.

I’ll admit this to you, Josepha, it’s been easier for me to stand up for other people than to stand up for myself.

My blog post about my experience with Michael Colgan was the first time in my life that I or publicly shared my own experience. I was supported by many, but many felt I didn’t have the right to bear witness to my own experience. They worried about the use of social media and they felt I should have followed ‘due process’. I know you’re worried about that too. Let’s talk about that:-

This experience with Michael Colgan had something in common with most of the abuse that I have experienced in my life. It happened to me out in the open in front of people. It was witnessed, and nobody did anything to help me. There was nowhere I could go to help myself. There was no due process in place.

I used social media because I had nowhere else to go. I believed that once this abuse of power was exposed and out in the open, we as a community could figure out how to respond, and how to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I trusted that due process would be restored, and there would be somewhere to go for other survivors who came after me.

That didn’t happen, and here’s what did: –

Eleven women in total have spoken publicly about Michael Colgan’s abuse of power.

Michael Colgan got to write his own verdict in the Sunday Independent and The Gate Theatre has assumed the right to investigate themselves. Crucially, Josepha, the decision as to how much of The Gate Theatre’s report is made public is entirely up to those who would have a vested interest in keeping it buried.

People are writing to me, daily, because I am now the only place they can go.

Inspired by my post, Adrienne Corless has also named people, in her account of her experiences of Abuse Of Power at The National Museum, where she was sexually harassed by Andy Halpin. As an employee, she had access to due process, which she promptly followed, and it failed her. Her abuse was witnessed. She was one who had to leave.

There is a crisis in your new portfolio.

People are suffering.

Their abuse is an open secret.

No one is stepping in to help.

I feel I cannot stand idly by.

So, I am offering anyone who has experienced abuse of power, in the form of sexual harassment, bullying, or corruption, a platform to expose these open secrets by publishing on my blog: with the help of Legal and Therapeutic professionals.

I believe we need to keep digging and keep exposing the reality of what is happening in our country. I had hoped there would be a better way. I hoped someone else would step in. But if the past month has taught me anything, it’s that I can’t trust the people in authority to not sit back, do nothing, and watch as people are abused in front of them.

(To any of those suffering reading this, please get in touch with me.

I believe you before you open your mouth. )

I am doing this because this is who I am, Josepha.

My question is who are you?

Tell me, what are you going to do?

Open Letter to Josepha Madigan, TD Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht (Grace Dyas)

Previously: Barbarian At The Gate

Broadsheet.ie