Smithwick and the hypocrisy of it all.

national | history and heritage | opinion/analysis Thursday December 05, 2013 15:33 by Raibeart O'Longain

Glaring hypocrisy in the light the Smithwick tribunal.

The Smithwick Tribunal has been published and accepted without question, except for the most truthful contention that members of An Garda Siochana hold "loyalty to the force above honesty" as you would find endemic in practically any police force across the globe, such is human nature. However the media have latched onto the remarks of Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams in his factual statement that the R.U.C Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan disregarded their own safety in traveling through South Armagh.

There is little doubt that some members of the Garda did give information to the IRA, however the top brass, have since the early seventies been, for all intents and purposes, under the direction of the British intelligence, in relation to the north, which at the highest levels was in collusion with and at times directing loyalist death squads. There is however no revulsion, no shock and certainly no ramifications when it comes to cross borders killings , the Dublin-Monaghan bombings or the assassination of Pat Finucane, all of which were at best carried out by loyalists under R.U.C/ British intelligence direction or at worst carried out directly by the latter.

The morality of the actions aside, at the time the R.U.C were engaged in a shoot to kill policy regarding republicans, armed or otherwise. They were also colluding to much greater extent with loyalist, sectarian death squads. To suggest that these two men travelling through South Armagh, a Republican stronghold, was anything but moronic, is to deny reality in favour of political expedience. Just as two unarmed U.S soldiers would not dare to travel into Sadr city, Baghdad, alone at the height the insurgency, these men should have known better .

As much as the they may wish to revise, sanitise and eventually erase history, many TD's and members of the establishment in this country would also do well to remember that actions similar to this and far more ruthless, are the reason Dail Eireann and all the institutions of this state exist today.