‘Issues to be addressed’ over detective’s crime drama role

The Garda Commissioner has confirmed there are “issues that need to be addressed” regarding the appearance of a serving member of the force in crime drama Love/Hate.

Det Kieran O’Reilly is a serving member of the National Drugs Unit in Dublin Castle. He also plays undercover drugs detective Garda Ciarán Madden in the new series of the smash hit RTÉ show.

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said that an internal investigation had been launched into how Garda O’Reilly became involved in the show in an acting role similar to his real life job.

“Well, of course I’m very aware of the programme and its huge audience and, at this point in time, it’s not appropriate to comment other than to say that I had a discussion with some of my senior colleagues who viewed the programme.

“We’re of the view there are issues there that need to be addressed and a superintendent is examining those issues now. I won’t go beyond that at this point.”

Acting is not a banned extracurricular activity under the Garda Code.

A total of 880,000 viewers tuned in to the latest installment of Love/Hate, representing a 50% share of the Irish television audience.

It’s a huge increase on figures from last year’s series when the second episode attracted a 36% share with an average of 671,000 viewers. Sunday’s programme was slightly down on the 971,000 viewers that saw the season premiere.