NO HAIL TO THE CHIEF
Fisher, Desmond
IN IRELAND NO HAI TO THE CHIEF Americans, accustomed to the general switch in public service jobs after a change of administration, might see nothing startling in the abrupt sacking of...
...The removal of the Commissioner on January 19 must be put down, at least indirectly, to the repercussions in the Republic of the traumatic.events of recent years in Northern Ireland...
...It was only with his dismissal that it 'became known that he had been attempting to prosecute five G6rda leaders under the Offences against the State Act for usurping the functions of the state...
...The results of the investigation are still being awaited...
...The Court's verdict, while accepting that the five techniques used do not constitute torture, is nevertheless seen in Ireland as a major victory in protecting human rights in the 19-member Committee of the Council of Europe...
...forcing them to stand for long stretches against a wall with arms and legs outstretched...
...That government had taken a tough law-andorder stand, forcing through a declaration of a state of national emergency and enacting legislation permitting detention without charge for up to 7 days...
...It is estimated that there are at least 100 cases alleging G~rda brutality being strbmitted to the courts...
...They were: the placing of hoods over the heads of prisoners...
...Lynch eight days before his dismissal...
...The case had dragged on for over six years, largely because of British delaying tactics, and the Court's verdict had been con~dently expected to return a verdict of "torture," which the European Commission (as distinct from the Court) of Human Rights had eartier ,found and which the British AttorneyGeneral in charge of the case had, in fact, admitted...
...Garvey ran his 9000-member force with a heavy hand...
...of arbitrarily transferring members from one station to another as a disciplinary measure and ~or dismissing them i~ they refused...
...At first, no fingerprints were found on the helmet but later, after a known IRA man became the leading suspect, a fingerprint identified as his was reported as being found on the helmet...
...Morale was so low that votes of no confidence in their chief were passed by local groups of G~rdaI in different parts of the country and the stage was reached when the force's representative ,body gave what amounted to an ultimatum to the Minister...
...Garvey's dismissal should have come on the day after the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg had ruled that Britain was guilty of inhuman and degrading treatmentmbut not of torturein using what were euphemistically called in-depth Commonweal: 199~ interrogation techniques in Northern Ireland in 1971...
...As a result, the suspect is virtually immune from arrest, and fingerprint evidence in other cases has been called into question...
...The leaders of both the coalition parties, now in opposition, issued statements calling for full explanations from the government of its dismissal of the Commissioner...
...During the election campaign, however, it was alleged that many hundreds of G~irda had promised to support candidates of the Fianna F~iil party, then in opposition, in consideration of a change of Commissioner...
...It had been no secret, however, that there were three main areas of contention including Mr...
...The Irish disappointment was deepened by the reaction of the British media which treated the ruling as a British victory...
...Garvey was appointed Commissioner in 1975 by the coalition government which was ignominiously swept out of office in the June 1977 General Election...
...The same techniques, used by the British Army in 11 countries over the past 30 years and, in this instance, also by specially trained Northern Ireland police, were stopped in 1971 after Ireland laid the charges against Britain...
...Another major reason for concern was a scandal over fingerprint identifications by detectives in the force's technical bureau...
...He reduced the number of policemen on the beat: stopped overtime and introduced driver-only police cars...
...There was no concealing the disappointment and chagrin in Ireland at the findings of the Court...
...and subjecting them to long periods of "white noise," that is, highpitched electronic sounds...
...Garvey had transferred the two detectives who disputed the fingerprint identified and an internal inquiry failed to clear up the differences in the fingerprint unit...
...Edmund P. Garvey, was an indirect victim of the Northern troubles and of the still unsolved problem of Irish unity...
...depriving them of sleep...
...Jack Lynch, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) said it would be improper to enter into public discussion about the government's attention which, though "deeply regretted," came after long and careful consideration...
...Garvey denied that he was aware of any government concern at the way he was running the force or of any loss of confidence in him...
...Surprisingly, for a country born in violence, it is only the second time in the 56 years' history of the modern Irish State that such a thing has happened...
...The Strasbourg case involved only 14 of the hundreds of Northern Ireland Catholics rounded up and interned without trial in August 197I...
...British politicians, on the other hand, have condel~ned Ireland for pursuing a vendetta long after the practices complained of .were discontinued...
...And, ironically, the last occasion--in 1933--involved the man who had founded the Gfirda force eleven years earlie~ and the government which dismissed him was of the same party now in office...
...Garvey was the ideal police chief in such a climate and he was highly regarded by the then government...
...Garvey himself has begun High Court Proceedings, claiming that his dismissal on two hours' notice was invalid and contrary to national justice...
...The Director of Public Prosecutions then ordered a full investigation...
...In a letter from from his solicitors to the government, giving notice of his intentions to sue, Mr...
...A non-smoker, non-drinker and non-socializing father of seven, Mr...
...John Taylor, Junior Minister ,for Home Affairs in Northern Ireland at the time, denied that the N.I...
...Garvey, the public and the police force...
...was ironic that Mr...
...The third--and, perhaps, the most abrasive---cause of friction was the widespread dissatidaotion in the G~irda force about the disciplinary ideas of the Commissioner...
...The two most serious were external, involving people outside the force...
...In this sense, the Commissioner, Mr...
...The govern31 March 1978:198 ment did not specify them, saying merely that it was important {or it to have ~ull confidence in the G~irda Commissioner...
...All five were on the editorial board of the Gdrda Review, a magazine published by the G6rda representative body which has often been critical of the Commissioner...
...bread and water diet...
...In Ireland, where public servants enjoy the securest tenure of employment, the dismissal at two hours' notice of the Commissioner of the G~irda Sioch~ina (Guardians of the Peace), the 'national police force, has caused a major sensation...
...The most likely result is that they wilt be quietly removed and Anglo-Irish relations, which have been almost glacial since the Strasbourg case was initiated in December 1971, will thaw out now and gradually return to normal~ DESMOHD FISHER (Desmond Fisher is Commonweal's regular correspondent in Ireland...
...As a result, the government was forced to set up a tribunal to suggest ways of protecting suspects and of clearing the G~rdal from unjustified allegations...
...Garvey's dismissal, a government spokesman said that under no circumstances whatever was an commitment ~nade by any Fianna F,~il candidate about the Commissioner...
...He had received the opposite impression when he had dined wtih Mr...
...Amnesty International investigated the complaints and found "consistent and substantial allegations of maltreatment, mainly by plainctothes detectives from the central police agencies in Dublin...
...But just as the man was about to be arrested in Northern Ireland, another fingerprint expert identified the print as that of one of the experts who had originally examined the helmet...
...One was a series of allegations that some members of the G~rda force had been organized into a "heavy gang" which used ,physical and psychological pressure, amounting at times to brutality, to extract information from suspects, especially those believed to be members of the Provisional IRA and other extremist organizations...
...This began with the finding of a workman's plastic helmet at the scene of the murders of the British Ambassador to Dublin and his secretary in a bomb explosion in July 1976...
...31 March 1978:200...
...Other Gfirdai who had criticized the Commissioner at meetings of police had been on "special report," being subject to continuous investigation by the Special Branch which reported on their activities at set intervals...
...Ireland has hailed the verdict as a landmark ruling fully justifying her action in taking the first inter-country case before the European Court of Human Rights...
...Some of the same techniques were alleged to have been used--though this has never been proved in court--by the Irish police "heavy gang...
...However, the Court ruled that it had no powers to charge the persons responsible and there are no signs that the .British government plans to prosecute those guilty of authorizing and carrying out the techniques now ruled out as "inhuman and degrading...
...As in every other aspect of life in Ireland, politics came into it...
...Described as "a G~da chief who lived for the job" and "a top cop who got things done," Garvey was accused of pressurizing police into issuing summonses and making arrests...
...government had any knowledge of the events and blamed an unnamed ,British Minister [or approving the methods used...
...See Commonweal, April 15, 1977...
...IN IRELAND NO HAI TO THE CHIEF Americans, accustomed to the general switch in public service jobs after a change of administration, might see nothing startling in the abrupt sacking of the chief of a country's police force by a government just six months in office...
...But there were more proximate reasons...
...But after Mr...
Vol. 105 • March 1978 • No. 7
