Rabbitte line on garda brutality is quite rich

ON Saturday, January 10, Labour party leader Pat Rabbitte called on Justice Minister Michael McDowell to “stop delaying” the appointment of a Garda ombudsman — a statement which I tend to agree with despite the fact that I am neither a Labour supporter nor a fan of Pat Rabbitte’s.

I find the Labour leader's comments quite rich, though, given the fact that it was under a Fine Gael/Labour coalition that the infamous Garda 'heavy gang' tortured suspects during interrogations in order to force confessions. Was this the way the Fine Gael-Labour coalition sought to improve accountability and transparency in the police force in the 1980s?

Again that coalition's justice minister, Michael Noonan, vehemently defended the Garda unit's credibility and, in the early 1990s, he arrogantly resisted the growing calls for the release and pardon of Nicky Kelly in relation to the Sallins mail train robbery.