Gardaí 'very annoyed' at Cork councillor's McDonalds claims
In a statement, Lorna Bogue said she never suggested the garda was acting as a doorman for McDonalds. 'That appears to be a wilful misunderstanding because I have been very clear and consistent for years as a councillor that the leadership of An Garda Siochána sees the protection of private property as their primary responsibility above public safety,' she said.
Gardaí have dismissed online allegations from a Cork City councillor that gardaí were more interested in protecting a private business than the public good.
Ms Lorna Bogue, leader of An Rabharta Glas or the Green Left, posted a photograph on X, formerly Twitter, of a garda standing outside a McDonald’s outlet in Cork City on Saturday, during one of a series of nationwide rallies for Palestine.
Ms Bogue posted: “It is interesting that the same police force who can't enforce anything they are asked to do for public good is well able to produce riot squads, helicopters, and now it seems private security for capitalist interests.”
In later posts, she said: “love 2 see a McDonalds getting better protection from the guards than *checks notes* A PUBLIC LIBRARY.”
She added: “What was the decision-making structure around 'Operation Big Mac'?". The initial post has been viewed almost 370,000 times.
The head of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), Antoinette Cunningham criticised the posts as so "very wrong", giving the existing challenges being faced by gardaí on a daily basis.
“A Garda member stands on duty, lawfully doing his job — an elected representative falsely accuses him of providing private security, uses his image and subjects him to on line abuse. This is so very wrong,” the AGSI’s general secretary said in a post on X.
Sources have told the that the garda is an inspector and that he was “simply monitoring the protests, nothing else”.
One source said frontline gardaí in Cork were very annoyed at the posts, and the ease with which a councillor was ready to jump to conclusions and make wild allegations.
“We are used to it now,” one source said.
Another source said he was wary of giving any credence to the allegations by making a comment, other than to point out what frontline gardaí do while on the beat.
Garda HQ declined to comment on the specifics of the allegations.
“An Garda Síochána does not comment on third party remarks,” it said in a statement. “An Garda Síochána does not comment on material posted on social media, the contents of which cannot be verified.”
When contacted by the Ms Bogue stood over her series of tweets.
In a statement, she said she never suggested the garda was acting as a doorman for McDonalds. “That appears to be a wilful misunderstanding because I have been very clear and consistent for years as a councillor that the leadership of An Garda Siochána sees the protection of private property as their primary responsibility above public safety,” she said.
“Secondly, the identity of the individual Garda in that photograph is not discernable, and the point I made does not relate to any individual garda but to the operational decisions taken by senior gardaí in relation to the policing of protests.
“It is a point I have made before at the Joint Policing Committee in Cork City Council to senior gardaí and which has been ignored, so I’m glad that it is being addressed by the AGSI.”
She said as people marched through Cork in protest against genocide in Gaza, there were a quite a number of gardaí “clearly posted to protect businesses from the imagined threat posed by a peaceful demonstration”.
“Meanwhile Cork city council has had to ask time and time again for adequate protection of their workers against violent threats made publicly by fascist agents-provocateurs with an inadequate response from the Gardaí leadership,” she said.
“When vulnerable people living in tents come under attack from violent thugs or when library workers and users are threatened by louts calling themselves protestors, the Gardaí are nowhere to be seen."
Fine Gael Cllr Damian Boylan, chair of the city’s joint policing committee, distanced himself from Ms Bogue’s remarks and said he is fully behind the gardaí.
“With elections coming, some will fabricate outrage for clicks and likes,” he said.
