Weak Arm of the Law in the 26 County bit of Ireland – Police “Hug-a-Thug” Policy imported from the 6 County bit of Ireland

The boss of An Garda Síochána (police force in the 26 county bit of Ireland), Drew Harris, was recruited from the cops in the 6 county bit of Ireland. The people running the two states in partitioned Ireland have developed very close social, political and personal relationships since the the 1998 triumph of the Good Friday Agreement. I recently circulated details of Harris’s “Hug-a-Thug” policy towards growing far-right violence in the 26 counties to a 6 county political activist, who commented this was “reminiscent of the historic style of policing up here”.

Ruling class forces were extremely happy about the continuation of partition guaranteed by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. They did not foresee that the foundations of partition in Ireland are more rotten than their constitutional plan conceding a Unionist Veto to the voting population of the six county state. The Brexit referendum result of 2016 lit a slow-burning fuse under the GFA structure; in the meantime we are witnessing the creation of a possible “United Ireland from Hell” which consists of knitting together the most reactionary features of both partitioned states in Ireland.

The following article from the Cedar Lounge Revolution Blog powerfully illustrates the dangers arising from importing 6 county softly-softly policing methods towards the far-right (loyalist paramilitaries), fine-tuned by Garda boss Drew Harris.

John Meehan April 22 2024

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Weak Arm of the Law – Cedar Lounge Blog

Link : Weak Arm of the Law – Cedar Lounge Blog

So, Friday comes the news that the previous night:

Gardaí were called to the home of Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman on Thursday night when a gang of up to 12 masked men gathered outside his house and huge placards and banners were stretched across his driveway gate, along his wall and fastened to outside polls.

Irish Police Boss Drew Harris Offers Light-Touch Appeasement to Far-Right Protesters Outside the Gates of Leinster House – Skeletons Rattling in the Garda Commissioner’s Cupboard

Irish Police boss Drew Harris is in trouble – rank-and-file members of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) have voted no confidence in their chief – 10803 ballots issued, 9129 returned, 99 per cent of them (9113) against Harris, only 116 in favour. The GRA is on a collision course with Drew Harris and the Dublin Government over rosters introduced to deal with the Covid 19 emergency in 2020. Justice Minister Helen McEntee might be wishing she never heard of Drew Harris, but she has no excuses – plenty of warning lights were flashing.

Drew Harris was always a controversial choice. Appointed in September 2018, his preceding police career was spent in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) of Northern Ireland from 1983 onwards. The RUC was renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in 2001 in order to overcome a well-earned bad reputation. Skeletons are in the cupboard, and they haunt the boss of An Garda Síochána. One significant reason for the RUC’s negative image is the 1975 Miami Showband Massacre.

Unclean Hands of Garda Boss Drew Harris

Miami Showband Massacre Survivor Stephen Travers on the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris :

When he was part of the PSNI, Mr Harris had blocked, delayed and frustrated every effort to “find out who shot our lads”, he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

Gene Kerrigan Reports : FFFGGG coalition turns into a laughing stock – ministerial piglets swarm around stinking trough

Gene Kerrigan remains a pillar of good journalism in a very low quality newspaper, the Sunday Independent.

IT took months for Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens to cobble together a Government. It took days for them to turn it into a laughing stock.

When they haven’t been mugging one another, the politicians have been adding little extras to the goodies that these days go along with the job.

 

Hardly had the current Taoiseach appointed his Cabinet when the in-fighting began, and the backstabbing.

This went beyond the usual laments about which county, townland, village or street didn’t get its own minister.

It’s hard to believe that adults are involved — with some of them whinging openly about how the position they were given was not the one they wanted.

FFFGGG piglets desperate to dip snouts in the trough

I’m almost convinced that these creeps see the jobs not as positions of public service but opportunities for career advancement.

Fianna Fáil seems to have entered one of its vicious periods, in which factions queue up to knife one another.

Since they have to share the goodies with Fine Gael and the Greens, there are fewer goodies for each party.

The Coronavirus Manifesto by Gene Kerrigan, 'Sunday Independent', 22nd March 2020.

“IMAGINE the chaos if the nurses went on strike right now, for higher pay and better conditions. They won’t do it, of course, but if they put their personal interests above all else, now would be the time to pull the plug.

Instantly, their every demand would be met.

Of course, in human and social terms, it would be disastrous — not to mention selfish and immoral.

Which is why the nurses won’t do it.

In fact, in the face of the Covid-19 assault on our lives, the opposite is happening. Retired medics are lining up by the tens of thousands to re-register and put their skills to use in the common good.

They and the existing workforce step without hesitation into the frontline.

And our gratitude is huge and transparently genuine.

This is the politics of community.

So, tell me this: why, in normal times, do we force medics and other essential workers to fight for every extra cent in pay, and every piddling improvement in conditions?

A range of other undervalued workers have kept us afloat in recent days.

The shop workers and transport workers, the pharmacists, the cleaners, the armies of those who produce and distribute.