Garda nuclear clock ticking towards midnight
The Macushla Revolt, as it was known, created a precedent. The sackings set off a chain of events that ultimately led to improved pay and conditions.
Now, 52 years on, more precedents are being set on both sides of the fence, which have seen the nuclear clock tick steadily towards midnight.
Eyes are not just on the outcome of the disciplinary action which could be taken against four sergeants who walked out of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) annual conference in Sligo earlier this week.
There’s more brewing, but if the sergeants receive a slap on the wrist, it may stop the nuclear clock ticking for the time being.
If more serious sanctions are imposed, the countdown will continue.
The mood among AGSI members — the force’s 2,000-strong middle management — hasn’t been good for some time.
Traditionally the AGSI has been more placid than the Garda Representative Association (GRA), which has 11,000 rank-and-file members.
But Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s comments that he wasn’t enamoured by AGSI behaviour at the Sligo conference didn’t go down well and have further frayed relations, as did his sanctioning of the disciplinary hearing against the four sergeants.
The GRA’s annual conference will take place in Westport at the end of next month and it’s expected to be even more controversial.
The GRA has already created a precedent by telling Alan Shatter he’s not welcome. He will become the first minister in history to be denied that invitation.
When Nora Owen was justice minister between 1994–1997, one of her speeches to a GRA conference was greeted in total silence by delegates who all showed her red cards.
Michael McDowell was told in 2006 he wasn’t welcome to speak at the GRA conference, but was invited to attend the dinner, which he did.
Since the GRA was founded in 1978, no Garda commissioner has ever been refused an invitation to its annual conference. Yet, within the next week, the GRA’s central executive committee is to decide whether an invitation to Commissioner Martin Callinan will be issued.
Some members of the force believe not inviting their boss would be the ultimate insult to his rank and say it’s unthinkable.
Others, however, believe the commissioner is simply doing the bidding of his political master and needs to do more to protect the force from pay cuts and reductions in its resources.
“The commissioner has been provisionally granted a two-year extension on his contract,” said a GRA source.
“Chief constables in Britain are often quoted in the media as saying they don’t have enough resources. His own people are telling him they don’t have the resources.”
However, some gardaí believe the commissioner is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The rhetoric has often been heated between various ministers and the GRA in the past, but this time it seems more serious.
There’s no love lost between Mr Shatter and the GRA. Last year he accused them of making derogatory remarks about the Defence Forces after then GRA president Damien McCarthy asked why recruitment was allowed in the army and not in the gardaí.
Last Valentine’s Day, the GRA issued a vote of no confidence in the minister.
But gardaí aren’t supposed to strike and the nearest they’ve come to it was a Blue Flu on May 1, 1998, when four-fifths of the rank-and-filers called in sick.
Many gardaí felt while it made a statement, that was all it did, as they ensured emergencies would be handled in order not to put the public at risk.
Some now feel that a mass resignation should be considered, which would really put it up to the Government.
Others feel it is time for cool heads. They suggest opening up back door channels for talks between Mr Shatter and the representative associations to ensure the nuclear button isn’t pressed.
Yesterday, Mr Shatter publicly congratulated the gardaí on cutting crime.
Was this some form of an olive branch? Time will tell.
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