Reflecting on Fennelly: After Fennelly and Toland, what now?

Mark Kelly observes little sign of the ‘sea change’ promised in justice and policing

JUDGE Fennelly’s core factual conclusions about Garda-related events in March 2014 can be captured in a great deal less than the 283 pages of his interim report.

The judge’s terms of reference, set by the Government, were narrow: To clarify the fate of a letter about Garda taping written by former commissioner Martin Callinan to former secretary general Brian Purcell, containing information for the attention of former justice minister Alan Shatter, and to determine the sequence of events leading up to Mr Callinan’s retirement, just 15 days after he wrote that letter.