Boylan case shows Garda use of informants shrouded in darkness

It’s a bit like the closet with the proverbial skeletons. It has creaked open, but only slightly, just enough for a few limbs to spill out. Inside is still shrouded in darkness.

That’s the insight we have been given into a shadowy — but necessary — aspect of policing: the use of informants and the thin line between criminality and order their handlers must walk.

It’s an area that is, by its very nature, an ethical, operational and legal minefield.