Low grade public representatives; misplaced loyalties

Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan proudly
displays the following quote on her website.

‘Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.’

Unfortunately for the citizens of Ireland Ms. Coughlan doesn’t actually live by the sentiments expressed in the quote. She does not stand up for ideals, she does not act to improve the lot of others and she most certainly does not strike out against injustice.

About ten years ago the shocking scandal of Garda corruption in Donegal first became public. Over that period the Morris Tribunal has published six reports on the matter revealing the following outrages.

The framing of innocent citizens for murder, planting of explosives in order to gain promotion, unlawful arrests, mistreatment of citizens in custody, procurement of false confessions, perverting the course of justice and perjury. Not a single police officer has been charged in connection with any of these serious crimes and it is a certainty that none ever will.

In all those years, while all this slime was seeping from the national police force in a county where Ms. Coughlan is a public representative, a public representative who claims to strike out against injustice, had absolutely nothing to say on the matter until last Friday.

During an interview on RTE (1st report) in which the presenter, Sean O’Rourke, described the scandal as a tragedy for the Gardai in Donegal, Ms. Coughlan was asked if she was satisfied that the Gardai were now operating to the very highest standards.

The following is her reply with my comments in brackets.

“Well, I have to be very careful with this being married to a member of the force and therefore have not until today made any public comment on the matter.”

(This low grade politician is asking us to believe that she has remained silent on this national scandal for ten years because she’s married to a member of the police force. Her mealy mouthed and cowardly words are an insult to the intelligence of all right thinking citizens.)

“There are many issues that are being addressed by the Garda authorities and by the relevant ministers over the last number of years.”

(When the Deputy Commissioner of the force was asked what action was being taken against the rogue policemen he said he was powerless to act against them. It’s five years since the first report was published and we are still waiting for the matter to be seriously debated by our irresponsible and incompetent politicians in our national parliament.)

“This has been very fundamentally difficult time for many members of the force who have found that perhaps they have been let down or that there was public vilification of them even though they may not have been involved.”

(Look again at the above list of outrages perpetuated by Donegal Gardai, outrages that have destroyed the lives of dozens of innocent citizens, outrages that will never be accounted for and decide if the Gardai are deserving of the Minister’s sympathy.)

“But I think there has been a lot of lessons learned, good management structures are there and people are moving on and taking the lessons of what has happened. But of course one has to await the final outcome and the public discourse that will take place and my view on all of these issues is that very serious issues arose, very serious lessons have been learned and arising from those lessons the fundamentals are being rejuvenated into members of the force in my county.”

(This is a typical example of the unintelligible drivel Irish citizens are constantly assaulted with by our low grade public representatives. The insulting waffle is laced with the usual inane excuses for incompetence and inaction – lessons have been learned; new management structures have been put in place;; have to await the final outcome of the tribunal; we must move on blah, blah, blah.)

Mary Coughlan is one of those politicians who steadfastly stood by Bertie Ahern even as his fantasy tales changed by the week and became ever more bizarre. Her blind loyalty to Ahern was a betrayal of the Irish people and her unquestioned loyalty to Brian Cowen, a man who rates loyalty to party above loyalty to country bodes ill for the people of Ireland.

Copy to:
Ms Coughlan