Are gardaí deployed to Bellanaboy more urgently needed where real crime exists?

BARRY WALSH (Irish Examiner letters, November 21) misinterpreted my recent letter on garda violence at Bellanaboy in Co Mayo (Irish Examiner, November 16).

In the first instance, I didn’t realise it was a condition of having a personal opinion published in a national newspaper that one’s party political affiliation or preference must be declared to the editor.

I imagine that at least 80% of letter writers to our national daily papers come from people with some political affiliation or other.

Need I guess which party Mr Walsh belongs to or supports?

When I referred to the civil rights campaign in the North in the 1960s, I was really comparing the violent behaviour of the then RUC with the recent unnecessary violent actions of the gardaí in Co Mayo.

If a difference exists between the protesters then and now, it must surely be that one group was campaigning for civil rights and the other to protect their families and homes which, by my reckoning, is a human rights issue, too.

In relation to Mr Walsh’s contention that I wanted the Government to interfere in the justice system by reining in the gardaí, I think most fair-minded people would know I was referring to the need to check unwarranted violence used by the garda.

It is not as if governments in the past never had to bring the gardaí to book for unacceptable behaviour.

It might be argued also that the Government already is interfering in the justice system by having so many gardaí deployed to the Co Mayo site (to appease Shell) while they are desperately needed in other areas where real crime exists.

Members of various political parties have travelled to Co Mayo to offer their support to the Shell to Sea campaign. They include Sinn Féin, the Green Party and, more recently, senior Labour Party members. Isn’t it interesting that there wasn’t a garda decision to lash out with their batons on that occasion.

Yes, I am a member of Sinn Féin and, yes, I would like to see justice for the Rossport people. Expressing an opinion about unnecessary garda violence does not amount to anti-garda rhetoric.

If it’s generally accepted that a fair and accountable political-free police force is essential for a just and peaceful society to evolve in the North, why is it so wrong for people here to expect anything less of their gardaí? The people deserve better and the gardaí themselves deserve better.

I am not anti-gardaí, and those who are now desperately trying use my party to discredit a democratic campaign for justice by ordinary people in Co Mayo are themselves politically bankrupt.

Cllr Kieran McCarthy

89 Russell Heights

Cobh

Co Cork