Irish Examiner view: EU credibility facing a huge challenge

Lukashenko’s piracy in the skies

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Back in the old chief’s time, when far too many otherwise sensible people pretended to believe that an Irish political leader could honestly live like a Rothschild, scandals were as common as whitethorn trees in bloom today. 

One of those was the 1982 Dowra affair. James McGovern from Fermanagh, allegedly the victim of an assault, was arrested by the RUC on the basis of false Garda intelligence. McGovern was on his way to give evidence at the district court in Dowra, Co Cavan, in a case taken against Garda Thomas Nangle. McGovern’s absence meant the case collapsed, saving Nangle’s brother-in-law, the then justice minster Seán Doherty, considerable embarrassment. How very convenient.