Anti-garda rhetoric a hallmark of Sinn Féin

IN his letter (Irish Examiner, November 16) about the Shell to Sea campaign in Co Mayo, Kieran McCarthy conveniently neglected to mention the fact that he is a Sinn Féin councillor.

But it was not difficult to guess his political affiliation, as he prattled off the anti-garda rhetoric which has been the hallmark of Sinn Féin’s hijacking of this issue.

He compares the Shell to Sea protesters to the Northern Ireland civil rights protesters in the 1960s. Isn’t it ironic then that while the civil rights movement campaigned for an equal right to employment for all citizens, the Shell to Sea protesters are attempting to deny the Bellanaboy workers their right to work on the Shell site? One would have expected Mr McCarthy to notice this glaring contradiction.

His call on the Government to ‘rein in’ the gardaí betrays a shocking ignorance on his part of how justice operates in a democracy such as ours.

Surely he knows the gardaí enforce the law independently and free from any political interference?

He mentions the RUC and the Gestapo — police forces whose many wrongs were committed due to the influence that their political masters had over them.

Yet now he makes a spurious call on our Government to exert a similar influence over the gardaí.

As an elected representative of Sinn Féin, his sentiments give us a disturbing insight into what the enforcement of justice might be like under a Government that includes his party.

Barry Walsh

Brookfield Hall

Castletroy

Co Limerick