Judge backs tough policing to keep streets safe

Dublin’s streets would be vastly safer if an elite garda public order squad of the 1960s, famed for its fearlessness, had not been disbanded, a senior High Court Judge said tonight.

At a lecture on his experiences of the gardai, Mr Justice Paul Carney claimed the heavy-handed detective garda James “Lugs” Branigan, who headed up the unit, had the respect of both the community and judiciary.

“Nowadays in more politically correct times he would probably be abolished by the Garda Ombudsman Commission and possibly also prosecuted,” Mr Justice Carney said.

“Had his unit, known as Prevention and Detection of Street Nuisances, been continued rather than disbanded on his retirement, I suspect that the streets of Dublin would be considerably safer than they are now.”

In his inaugural Professorial Lecture at NUI Maynooth, the controversial judge said the District Court of the 1960s was dominated by the legendary officer, a boxing referee who was more frequently injured on the street than in the ring.

“Lugs Branigan in his day enjoyed the respect of the community, the bench and those he prosecuted,” Mr Justice Carney said.

But he also praised the fundamental decency of modern gardaí and claimed he no longer came across allegations in court of physical abuse and mistreatment by officers.

“I am dealing primarily with my experiences in trials on indictment which evolved from a situation in my early days where there was an attack on Garda behaviour in virtually every case to a situation in which garda conduct is criticised in my court now virtually none,” Mr Carney said.

The outspoken judge also said that while video recording of interviews was the jewel in the crown of the criminal justice system, it could never totally rule out misconduct, and he could not explain the sea-change in attitudes.

He also pointed out that in the many cases he had tried involving Limerick’s criminal gangs he had never come across any stories of mistreatment or impropriety by gardaí.

“In what I might describe as the bad old days, there were frequent allegations of verbals being floated in the police car on the way to the station or on the stairs leading from the cells to the dock,” he said.

“I never hear such allegations now.”