In the tragic sequence of events surrounding the death of John Carthy at Abbeylara, the issue of media coverage of the coroner's inquest is perhaps of secondary importance. Nonetheless, it was raised in certain comments by counsel and by the Longford County Coroner, Dr Gerry McDonagh. It is necessary that those comments be addressed.
When the inquest opened on Monday, counsel for the State requested that the names of members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit should not be published. The coroner, acknowledging that he had no power to prevent such publication, asked the media to co-operate with that request. The Irish Times alone of the national news media declined to do as the coroner asked and published the names of the officers concerned.
On Tuesday the coroner expressed disappointment that his request had not been complied with and said he felt he was entitled to an explanation from The Irish Times. Counsel for the State expressed similar sentiments. On Wednesday morning a letter from the editor, setting out the reasons for the newspaper's decision to publish the names, was handed to the coroner. While it is not known if he conveyed its contents to anyone else, he made no public reference to having received it. The text of the letter is published today in page 8.
The decision to publish the names of the officers involved was not taken lightly. They were faced with life-or-death choices in a situation for which their equipment and possibly their training was quite unsuited. There is no suggestion that any of the Emergency Response Unit members acted other than properly in the discharge of the duty which fell to them in the circumstances.
Whether in seeking to establish the truth of what happened in Gibraltar or in Derry or in Abbeylara, the balance of public interest is best served by the presentation of all the facts. It is also, in this instance, in the better interest of the Garda Siochana. The Garda is not a gendarmerie or a military force. Its members are not mere agents or private soldiers. Unlike most European police forces, each member is personally accountable for his or her actions on duty. It will be a bleak day when it is permitted to act as though it were the SAS.
Many questions arise from the death of John Carthy. Whether the ERU acted properly is not the primary one. What must be explained to the public is why the Garda response to the situation was to mobilise the police equivalent of a special forces attack unit? Why were none of the many alternatives to lethal weaponry not available on this occasion? And if a similar situation were to arise today, have there been any changes in equipment or training? In short, have any lessons been learned?