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McCabe Scandal (1 Viewer)
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nooleen
bad ape
detailed timeline down the end of this article
From Kenny to Zappone, and from McCabe to Fitzgerald: the winners and losers after a scarcely-credible week of controversy - Independent.ie
Kermit McDermott
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It was just a clerical error. They were supposed to put him on the list of registered tax offenders...
I met Justine McCarthy once, she was very nice. No boys-club bullshit edge to her at all.
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Save having to looks at that guy's face...
JUSTINE MCCARTHY PUTS IT UP TO PAUL WILLIAMS AND PAUL REYNOLDS
"The Sunday Times", 12 February 2017:
Name and shame the rumour-mongers who slurred Maurice McCabe
JUSTINE McCARTHY
On April 12, 2014, the Irish Independent published a report beneath the headline: "Girl wants new probe into alleged sexual assault by garda." Written by Paul Williams, a crime correspondent, it said: "A young woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted as a child by a serving garda claims the incident was covered up through a botched investigation. The woman claims she was six when a colleague of her garda father abused her. Both men are still serving members of the force."
Any journalist who had contemplated reporting on the allegations of misconduct being made by the whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe recognised him as the unidentified garda in Williams's story. For we had been warned to treat McCabe with the utmost suspicion. Generally, it was crime reporters who received the warning from their garda sources, and relayed a tread-carefully SOS to non-crime beat colleagues, who get shorter shrift from the garda press office. The former head of that office, Superintendent David Taylor, has alleged he was instructed to traduce McCabe in briefings to journalists. In defamation law, to call someone a child sexual abuser is the most serious allegation you can make, being devoid of any possible justification.
On April 15 that year, Williams filed a second report, this one headlined: "Alleged garda sex victim wants to meet Martin." It said the woman was seeking a meeting with Micheál Martin, noting that the Fianna Fail leader had previously referred a dossier of alleged garda malpractice to the taoiseach. That dossier triggered an inquiry by Seán Guerin, a senior counsel, whose report was published on May 9, 2014, leading to Alan Shatter's resignation as justice minister and the establishment of the Fennelly Commission.
Martin Callinan had already resigned as garda commissioner, following a protracted controversy about malpractice in the force. Nóirín O'Sullivan had been appointed acting commissioner, until the position officially became hers on November 25, 2014.
On May 5, Williams filed a third report, following a meeting between the woman and Martin. "Kenny to set up probe into garda sex abuse claims," the headline wrongly forecast. It quoted a spokesman for Martin as saying: "He listened closely to what she had to say and he took her allegations very seriously and he has written to the taoiseach." Williams said the woman was due to meet investigators from the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) and that she was taking legal advice about taking court action for damages.
Referring to the garda investigation of her complaint, Williams added: "A file was sent to the DPP who decided the officer did not have a case to answer." In fact, the DPP's instruction to gardai was more succinct. It said: "No offence disclosed."
Williams's reports began appearing in the same month that Tusla, the state's child and family agency, created separate files on McCabe and each of his children, erroneously stating that he stood accused of penetrative child sexual assault. McCabe was oblivious to the existence of this information, available to garda colleagues on the force's Pulse intelligence system. He had been barred from accessing Pulse by a superior officer in late 2012 after he and John Wilson, a former garda, revealed that senior officers were quashing penalty points for favoured motorists.
Why, one wonders, would a garda's daughter who believed herself the victim of a garda cover-up contact a crime writer known to have contacts at the highest level of the force? If, on the other hand, it was Williams who made the approach to her, who gave the journalist her name and contact details? Furthermore, after Enda Kenny received Martin's letter about the woman's allegations, did Martin, the taoiseach or his staff contact Tusla to alert the child protection agency? If so, did Tusla tell them it already had individual files on McCabe's family? The choreography is the key to understanding the significance of these Kafkaesque events. In December 2015, Tusla contacted McCabe, saying it had information he might be a danger to children, on foot of a counsellor's erroneous complaint relating to the same woman. At that time, Kevin O'Higgins, a retired High Court judge appointed to investigate McCabe's complaints of substandard garda investigations in the Cavan/Monaghan division, was preparing his draft report for the government.
It was also just weeks after a failed bid to discredit McCabe behind the closed doors of O'Higgins's commission. As Michael Clifford revealed in the Irish Examiner last May, O'Sullivan's senior counsel was planning to question McCabe's motivation and credibility arising out of a meeting in 2008 during which it was alleged he admitted being motivated by a grudge against a senior colleague. McCabe had said no such thing, as O'Higgins acknowledged after the sergeant produced a recording of the 2008 meeting.
Even after Clifford's story was published, the whispering campaign continued. Garda sources told their journalist contacts the reported smearing of McCabe at the commission was untrue and evidence would emerge to disprove it. Ten months later, that evidence has not materialised. Luckily for the top brass, O'Higgins's report never mentioned the exchanges about McCabe's motivation or the 2008 meeting.
Two days before the report was published on May 11, the RTE crime correspondent Paul Reynolds reported extensively from exclusively leaked extracts that Higgins had found McCabe "prone to exaggeration, and while some of his complaints were upheld, others were proven to be overstated, exaggerated, unfounded and ultimately withdrawn".
None of this is to impute wrongdoing by Williams, Reynolds or their colleagues. Journalists rely on contacts for information. Protecting sources' anonymity is a cherished principle of the trade. But, in this case, trust was demolished in the relationship between some journalists and their sources. The debt is cancelled.
Even in media outlets that refrained from reporting the spurious claims, the campaign to vilify McCabe exerted a chilling effect and is partly the reason this controversy has gone on for years. Apart from the anguish this caused the sergeant, his wife and their children, the relentless denigration of McCabe put the safety of Irish citizens at risk by deterring urgent examination of what is rotten in the country's law enforcement. That is not to mention how such a vicious campaign has accelerated the disintegration of public morality.
We journalists, even if inadvertently, facilitated it by not properly interrogating the false rumours against McCabe. There is an onus on us now to correct the record. We can start by dispensing with the shield of protecting our sources. Why protect a source on whom you cannot rely to tell the truth? Those of us who know the identities of the rumour-mongers have a duty to go to the Charleton Commission and name those names. Journalists' first obligation is to the truth.
JUSTINE MCCARTHY PUTS IT UP TO PAUL WILLIAMS AND PAUL REYNOLDS
"The Sunday Times", 12 February 2017:
Name and shame the rumour-mongers who slurred Maurice McCabe
JUSTINE McCARTHY
On April 12, 2014, the Irish Independent published a report beneath the headline: "Girl wants new probe into alleged sexual assault by garda." Written by Paul Williams, a crime correspondent, it said: "A young woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted as a child by a serving garda claims the incident was covered up through a botched investigation. The woman claims she was six when a colleague of her garda father abused her. Both men are still serving members of the force."
Any journalist who had contemplated reporting on the allegations of misconduct being made by the whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe recognised him as the unidentified garda in Williams's story. For we had been warned to treat McCabe with the utmost suspicion. Generally, it was crime reporters who received the warning from their garda sources, and relayed a tread-carefully SOS to non-crime beat colleagues, who get shorter shrift from the garda press office. The former head of that office, Superintendent David Taylor, has alleged he was instructed to traduce McCabe in briefings to journalists. In defamation law, to call someone a child sexual abuser is the most serious allegation you can make, being devoid of any possible justification.
On April 15 that year, Williams filed a second report, this one headlined: "Alleged garda sex victim wants to meet Martin." It said the woman was seeking a meeting with Micheál Martin, noting that the Fianna Fail leader had previously referred a dossier of alleged garda malpractice to the taoiseach. That dossier triggered an inquiry by Seán Guerin, a senior counsel, whose report was published on May 9, 2014, leading to Alan Shatter's resignation as justice minister and the establishment of the Fennelly Commission.
Martin Callinan had already resigned as garda commissioner, following a protracted controversy about malpractice in the force. Nóirín O'Sullivan had been appointed acting commissioner, until the position officially became hers on November 25, 2014.
On May 5, Williams filed a third report, following a meeting between the woman and Martin. "Kenny to set up probe into garda sex abuse claims," the headline wrongly forecast. It quoted a spokesman for Martin as saying: "He listened closely to what she had to say and he took her allegations very seriously and he has written to the taoiseach." Williams said the woman was due to meet investigators from the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) and that she was taking legal advice about taking court action for damages.
Referring to the garda investigation of her complaint, Williams added: "A file was sent to the DPP who decided the officer did not have a case to answer." In fact, the DPP's instruction to gardai was more succinct. It said: "No offence disclosed."
Williams's reports began appearing in the same month that Tusla, the state's child and family agency, created separate files on McCabe and each of his children, erroneously stating that he stood accused of penetrative child sexual assault. McCabe was oblivious to the existence of this information, available to garda colleagues on the force's Pulse intelligence system. He had been barred from accessing Pulse by a superior officer in late 2012 after he and John Wilson, a former garda, revealed that senior officers were quashing penalty points for favoured motorists.
Why, one wonders, would a garda's daughter who believed herself the victim of a garda cover-up contact a crime writer known to have contacts at the highest level of the force? If, on the other hand, it was Williams who made the approach to her, who gave the journalist her name and contact details? Furthermore, after Enda Kenny received Martin's letter about the woman's allegations, did Martin, the taoiseach or his staff contact Tusla to alert the child protection agency? If so, did Tusla tell them it already had individual files on McCabe's family? The choreography is the key to understanding the significance of these Kafkaesque events. In December 2015, Tusla contacted McCabe, saying it had information he might be a danger to children, on foot of a counsellor's erroneous complaint relating to the same woman. At that time, Kevin O'Higgins, a retired High Court judge appointed to investigate McCabe's complaints of substandard garda investigations in the Cavan/Monaghan division, was preparing his draft report for the government.
It was also just weeks after a failed bid to discredit McCabe behind the closed doors of O'Higgins's commission. As Michael Clifford revealed in the Irish Examiner last May, O'Sullivan's senior counsel was planning to question McCabe's motivation and credibility arising out of a meeting in 2008 during which it was alleged he admitted being motivated by a grudge against a senior colleague. McCabe had said no such thing, as O'Higgins acknowledged after the sergeant produced a recording of the 2008 meeting.
Even after Clifford's story was published, the whispering campaign continued. Garda sources told their journalist contacts the reported smearing of McCabe at the commission was untrue and evidence would emerge to disprove it. Ten months later, that evidence has not materialised. Luckily for the top brass, O'Higgins's report never mentioned the exchanges about McCabe's motivation or the 2008 meeting.
Two days before the report was published on May 11, the RTE crime correspondent Paul Reynolds reported extensively from exclusively leaked extracts that Higgins had found McCabe "prone to exaggeration, and while some of his complaints were upheld, others were proven to be overstated, exaggerated, unfounded and ultimately withdrawn".
None of this is to impute wrongdoing by Williams, Reynolds or their colleagues. Journalists rely on contacts for information. Protecting sources' anonymity is a cherished principle of the trade. But, in this case, trust was demolished in the relationship between some journalists and their sources. The debt is cancelled.
Even in media outlets that refrained from reporting the spurious claims, the campaign to vilify McCabe exerted a chilling effect and is partly the reason this controversy has gone on for years. Apart from the anguish this caused the sergeant, his wife and their children, the relentless denigration of McCabe put the safety of Irish citizens at risk by deterring urgent examination of what is rotten in the country's law enforcement. That is not to mention how such a vicious campaign has accelerated the disintegration of public morality.
We journalists, even if inadvertently, facilitated it by not properly interrogating the false rumours against McCabe. There is an onus on us now to correct the record. We can start by dispensing with the shield of protecting our sources. Why protect a source on whom you cannot rely to tell the truth? Those of us who know the identities of the rumour-mongers have a duty to go to the Charleton Commission and name those names. Journalists' first obligation is to the truth.
nooleen
bad ape
this frances fitzgerald thing is bizarre
it's so minor compared to the brazen shite politicians routinely get away with
it's so minor compared to the brazen shite politicians routinely get away with
You'd think the last couple of years in Britain would have, by now, killed this piece of irish conventional wisdom!
The two Paul's are completely interchangeable to me but Jesus how I despise their "reporting". Fucking hangers on and rumor peddlers, trying to impress everyone with their knacker noir and the dangerous life they and their garda buddies live.
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Like Nooly asked...why is this such a big deal? I'm missing something
Because its bloody great mileage for sinn fein. They've nabbed two garda commisioners, a minister for justice and might be able to take out a tanaiste too. If this was chess the govt would be fucked all together.
sinn fein have just sat in the dail for 30 years getting crime jibes off ff/fg every time they make a legit point about something because its always been easy meat for a politician to point at gerry adams and say 'you were in jail, etc etc'. Now that they can't point at gerry for much longer its a really good time to start dissecting the govt over what is actually a pretty horrific act of gombeenism, and as it all takes place within the legal sphere of the gardai, its a pretty solid way of making peoples positions untenable.
So is it important?
yes, because the garda really, really shouldn't be passing the buck this long
no, because its also a political football
Unknown Convict
Well-Known Member
feeding time at the zoo?
nooleen
bad ape
this article makes the level of fuckery involved a bit clearer
Fintan O’Toole: Did the Department of Justice engage in a deliberate act of subversion?
Fintan O’Toole: Did the Department of Justice engage in a deliberate act of subversion?
I think it's pretty clear that they thought they ocould bury McCabe and Fitzgerald was just doing as she was told by being completely hands off on it all. Typical boys club stuff, close ranks and tell everyone else to look the other way.
I'd probably believe her when she says she had no idea about those emails, I bet she never even looked at (or for) them, she just assumed it would be dealt with in the way it's always been dealt with since forever.
She deserved to go alright but, Christ, she's hardly the only one in there who should get the boot.
I'd probably believe her when she says she had no idea about those emails, I bet she never even looked at (or for) them, she just assumed it would be dealt with in the way it's always been dealt with since forever.
She deserved to go alright but, Christ, she's hardly the only one in there who should get the boot.
Of course they did! Everyone knows it, everyone. Like every tribunal we've had since as far back as I can remember this is just about weeding out those who didn't have the wherewithal to cover themselves and to find a few scapegoats to blame. I'm actually kind of impressed that Leo is standing by her even now.
Kinda wondering are they in such a cloud of ranks closing that they don't want to turn clondaklin over to the socialists, therefore soft landing for first-pref-frances?
Jesus i hate these pricks.
Even the good ones.
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But how will she live with the shame, the scandal?
oh..
Standing ovation for Frances Fitzgerald as she returns to Leinster House - Independent.ie
oh..
Standing ovation for Frances Fitzgerald as she returns to Leinster House - Independent.ie
nooleen
bad ape
hermie
Well-Known Member
He really is a shit. And so righteous!
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So..was she wrongfully maligned or what?
hermie
Well-Known Member
She was totally exonerated by the tribunal. There'll be plenty of people who still won't believe her version of events. Not sure where I stand myself but it's not difficult to imagine she'll be back in the cabinet in no time.
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