The recent Morris reports are a far worse indictment of the gardaí than has registered in public consciousness. Just take one of the reports, that on the unlawful detention of seven members of the Traveller community, writes Vincent Browne
This has been presented merely as the indictment of one garda, Det Sgt John White, for the planting of a gun so as to have then detained under the Offences Against the State Act. It is far worse, far far worse than that.
For starters, several gardaí lied under oath to the tribunal. Not just John White. Many more.
A large number of gardaí were involved in the interrogation of the arrested Travellers over their possible involvement in the murder of an elderly Mayo man, Edward Fitzmaurice, between May 1st and 6th, 1998. Several of these gardaí showed them photographs of the murder scene and of the murdered man - this was a finding of the report. Not a single garda admitted to having shown these photographs and not a single garda said he/she saw other gardaí showing thee photographs to the detained men.
Obviously many of them were lying under oath and many of these gardaí were not from Donegal or attached to the Donegal division. Several came from Dublin and many more came from Mayo, from where the murder investigation was being directed. I am not saying that many gardaí from either Dublin or Mayo lied; simply that of the gardaí involved in these interrogations, it is obvious that several of them lied over the photographs.
The tribunal found that several of the detained Travellers were subjected to verbal anti-Traveller racist abuse. All gardaí who appeared before the tribunal and who were asked about this denied it happened. Clearly many of them were lying.
The interview notes of several gardaí went missing in many of the instances under investigation. Commenting on the difficulties there were in getting at the truth about what happened to the Traveller detainees while in Garda custody, Mr Justice Morris notes: "The tribunal has also been hampered in its quest for the truth by a reluctance on the part of many members of An Garda Síochána to deviate from the party line, even when this line is irrational."
Materials relevant to a murder inquiry went missing at Garda headquarters, materials that might have shown that there was a conspiracy on the part of gardaí to plant a gun on a Traveller site in Donegal. Eleven cartridges that supposedly had been "found" with the gun on the site also went missing at Garda headquarters. Mr Justice Morris said this was "astounding". He said: "Nobody has been able to satisfactorily account to the tribunal as to what became of the bag and the two items of clothing found with the gun."
Warrants to give lawful backing to the searches conducted at the Burnfoot Traveller site obviously were fabricated after the event. It is certain more than one garda was involved in that.
The gun itself was "cleaned", almost certainly in Letterkenny Garda station after it had been "found", and it is improbable that other gardaí did not see the person who cleaned the gun doing so.
There are sections of the report which are unintentionally hilarious, although the Travellers abused by the gardaí may not think so.
Part of the evidence of one of these Travellers, Michael McCann, who was interviewed by gardaí at Burnfoot Garda station, is noteworthy in this regard - although the tribunal ultimately disbelieved the evidence.
Recalling an "interview" with gardaí on the night of Sunday, May 24th, 1998, he said there were three detectives interrogating him. "I remember there was one sitting in the middle and he was asking me questions. He reminded me of Marty Whelan, the game show host, he looked like him. . . in the dress sense and sort of appearance as well. I couldn't really say one hundred per cent but I think he did have a moustache. . .
"There was two other fellas sitting on each side, these were kind of quiet now, there wasn't a budge out of them. . . So, Marty, as I was saying, was asking me questions. Slowly, but surely, the other two lads pulled around to the side of me. So they were sitting right close to me, here and here. . . Yeah, they were at the two corners say. . . And they pulled right around. . . We sat there for a while without saying anything.
"One would start whispering this side and the other fella started whispering this side. So I was kind of looking at them half-edgy and trying to answer Marty's question at the one time.
"Then I get a flick here, just a flick. But you know it was nerve-wracking because I had to keep an eye on everybody because I was in the middle of these three and you know then I'd get a flick here at this side. . .
"They were calling me 'knacks', it must have been short for 'knacker', but that's what they were calling, knacks. . . I kind of nicknamed the [ two other guards] Bodie and Doyle, because one was tall, a big strapping man. . . They were similar to [ the TV characters]..."