Irish Examiner view: Keeping up with the Kinahans

Assistant Commissioner John O'Driscoll shows a slide relating to Garda seizures from the Kinahan organised crime group, at Dublin City Hall on Tuesday. 

It was 70 years ago that the then Irish ambassador to Washington, John Hearne, sent a box of shamrock to US president Harry S Truman to mark our national day.

Mr Truman was not in the White House that day, but the pomp and ceremony grew from there and the annual tradition is now an important event for our taoiseach of the day.

Each year, the ‘undocumented Irish’ in the US are expected to form part of the talks and often a presidential visit to Ireland is tabled in hope as much as expectation.

One would expect the unprecedented security operation launched on Tuesday by the Irish, US, and British security forces against the Kinahans might have featured in talks between the Taoiseach and current president Joe Biden this year. However, Micheál Martin says the issue was not discussed with Mr Biden. Perhaps some of the detail was hammered out in bilateral meetings between officials away from the glare of the Oval Office.

Whichever way it came about, it is a reassuring and welcome joint operation to take on a group that is a stain on our country.

The gardaí who relentlessly pursue these criminals are rarely named in public, nor praised for their work, but deserve our thanks (though it was dispiriting to see several of the journalists who have pursued the Kinahans with the same vigour being excluded from the press conference for what appears to be no good reason).

Bringing criminals to justice is a job for our gardaí and security forces. But the media have an important role to play and should be encouraged to always pursue that information, not just at the times that best suit press conferences.

The Kinahans make a mockery of the image of Ireland we wish to present, one of friendship and the hundred thousand welcomes referred to in a speech by Mr Biden last month.

The gang and its associates would destroy the lives of all around them in the hope of making a little more money if they could, no matter who gets caught in the crossfire.

Let us hope this joint operation becomes a new symbol of how we can work with our nearest and dearest neighbours away from the shamrocks and the photo-ops to tackle the criminals who present a threat to people and democracies everywhere.