Morris Tribunal highlights a culture of secrecy and denial
There is no large group of people on the planet that does not have within its ranks a few renegade elements or people who, by their actions or behaviour, bring disgrace on the group as a whole. The gardaí are no exception.
Neither, as we know to our cost, are the religious orders that were looked up to with an almost unthinking reverence for decades in this country. The problem is that both gardaí and, until recently, the religious orders, have been notorious for the level of cover-up and closing of ranks that characterised their reaction to allegations of abuse by members.
Some guards, perhaps a small minority, have used heavy-handed tactics in an effort to get the results expected of them by their superiors, and by the public on whose behalf they attempt to enforce the law that is there to protect all of us.
The so-called Heavy Gang of the 1970s and early ’80s brought shame on the Garda Síochána, as have the psychological torture techniques employed against suspects in a variety of cases in more recent times.
The story of a woman who had a nervous breakdown after being held for 12 hours in a garda station was harrowing and disturbing.
Statements from Garda top brass condemning such aberrations are not enough. What is needed is a root and branch initiative to eliminate the culture of secrecy and denial that has been spotlighted so dramatically by the Morris Tribunal.
Any garda who knowingly covers up for a colleague who has abused his powers should be kicked out of the force.
Comradeship and loyalty are fine - but a garda standing over an abuse of power to ‘protect’ another garda, or helping to conceal evidence of abuse, is surely a menace to society.
These bad apples do a grave disservice to many brave gardaí who have served the public well, including those who lay down their lives for the cause of our safety and security.
The same applies to religious orders, and the Catholic Church. The so-called men and women of God who covered up for abusers helped to perpetuate the horror that continued to unfold in their parishes or institutions.
While paying lip service to a creed of love and compassion, and urging others to follow them and remain ‘steadfast in the faith’, these Pontius Pilates connived and conspired to help abusers evade justice - thereby ensuring that further abuses could wreak havoc on even more innocent young lives.
I say this with the greatest respect to the vast majority of priests, nuns, and brothers who devoted their lives to helping their fellow human beings. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Christian Brothers, in particular. They provided a sound, basic education to thousands of impoverished children at a time when the State did nothing for them, any more than had the British authorities prior to independence.
We have to be conscious, too, that unscrupulous people will make false allegations against both gardaí and religious orders. Criminals have been known to falsify claims of ‘police brutality’ to short-circuit cases that otherwise might result in convictions based on strong forensic or witness-related evidence.
Likewise, a minority of those claiming to have been abused by religious people have been exposed as frauds, while a number of other complaints continue to be regarded with the deepest suspicion. These include allegations of abuse that were rejected by the courts but found a sympathetic hearing at the Residential Institutions Redress Board.
Such are the ethical complexities that confront us in relation to alleged wrongdoing by people we need to be able to trust, and who need our trust, confidence, and cooperation.
We should remember that no situation in life is entirely black and white.
Perfection in any sphere of life is unattainable. Shades of grey dominate the real world. The best we can hope for is that right will always triumph in the end, whatever or how many wrongs weigh down the scales of justice in the meantime.
John Fitzgerald
Lower Coyne Street
Callan
Co Kilkenny
