Garda battle against reserve will go up in smoke. Just ask the publicans

I HAD a strong sense of déjà vu watching the news coverage of the large meeting of gardaí called by their various representative organisations in a Sligo hotel on Monday night.

This meeting is the first in a series they have planned nationwide to launch a campaign of opposition to the Government’s proposals to set up a Garda Reserve. At the meeting there was a lot of belligerent talk, a lot of verbal bashing of the Minister for Justice and standing ovations from the rank- and-file in support of the strong stance taken by their leaders.

Watching the footage I couldn’t at first figure out what it reminded me of. Then it came to me. I had a flashback to similar news reports in the autumn of 2003 about the publicans’ campaign against the smoking ban. They, too, held meetings in hotels nationwide as a show of strength in opposition to a different minister’s proposal. They, too, drew determined battle lines.