Garda crisis: Meeting meaning depends on lead actors’ viewpoints

It was, as outspoken TD Mick Wallace joked darkly, “one for the mantelpiece”.

At the end of a combative meeting between under-fire Garda Commissioner Noirin O Sullivan, the politician-cum-garda arch critic and his Oireachtas justice committee colleagues were asked to step outside for a formal photo to mark the visit of their latest guest.

Despite being the bane of each others’ lives for the best part of two years due to whistleblower revelations, the high-profile pair stood together as they smiled politely for the cameras.