Rein in gardaí or things may get out of control

THE violent scenes from Co Mayo last Friday were reminiscent of the worst excesses of the RUC towards peaceful civil rights demonstrators in the 1960s.

A later generation of Irish people watched as similar force was dished out to the peaceful residents of the Garvaghy Road in Portadown in the 1990s when they sat on the roadway to block unwelcome Orange marchers.

The Taoiseach, who will shortly take credit for brokering a peace deal in the North, has justified the brutal behaviour of baton-wielding gardaí by saying the protesters were breaking the law. Has he forgotten that those were the very words British ministers and RUC spokesmen continually used to justify their Gestapo-like behaviour towards the nationalist population for decades?

The sight of two garda officers throwing a man over a ditch by the legs was unforgivable and no excuses from Justice Minister Michael McDowell or the Taoiseach will make it otherwise.

The Government would do well to rein in the gardaí before this gets out of control. Failure to do so could result in another tribunal or, worse still, the Government might achieve what Kenny and Rabbitte cannot do, which is to deprive itself of power.

Kieran McCarthy

89 Russell Heights

Cobh

Co Cork