Reforms paying dividends: Courage to change pays dividends

Before former PSNI officer Drew Harris was appointed Garda commissioner last September there was, at best, a mixed reaction from within the force to the idea of an outsider leading it — especially one who had not navigated the rites of passage studded along the road from Templemore to the Phoenix Park.

No matter how viscerally this opposition was felt, no matter how powerful this manifestation of the insularity that has done the force so much harm in recent decades festered, it was a dissatisfaction that dared not speak its name. As an institution the force had all but run out of credibility. Any public opposition to a new broom would squander what was left of that essential respect.