Since moving down here almost thirteen years ago three Garda have been murdered. Each killing has produced a palpable sense of loss and an intense public focus on the event. When the priest officiating at the funeral mass for Colm Horkan, shot dead in a bizarre incident earlier this week, said 'the gunshots echoed not just in the town of Castlerea but right across the country', it was easy to see why. The priest caught the dark mood of the moment that invariably descends when Garda are cut down in the line of duty.
Aaron Brady is currently on trial accused of having killed Adrian Donohoe, Adrian Crevan Mackin committed suicide immediately after cutting down Tony Golden, and Steven Silver has appeared in court charged with murdering Colm Horkan. This demonstrates, without prejudicing the Brady case, that there is a lot in the public domain about each of these killings, none of which shows the attackers in an exculpatory light. There is nothing in any of their exchanges with the dead Garda that remotely resembles a suffocating guy lashing out at some cop with a knee on the neck.
It gave me an upfront insight into how embedded in the community Garda actually are and why there is such a reaction when they are killed. Their lives and line of work are held up as polar opposites to the type of people and activity that brutally claimed the life of Drogheda teen, Keane Mulready Woods at the beginning of the year.
When I lived in the North and RUC were dying frequently enough, there was never any sense of shared loss in the working class nationalist community, where the RUC were invariably seen as alien; a force that was not perceived as policing for the community but against it. Their loss was their own, not ours. I guess it took the poignant footage of a child walking behind the coffin of his late RUC father in 1997 for an empathy that was more than fleeting to sink in.
Back then a Sinn Fein view of the world didn’t lend itself to seeing cops as anything other than enemies. The RUC were never found to be in short supply when it came to nourishing that view. But Sinn Fein have come some way over the years. The killing of Colm Horkan prompted Mary Lou McDonald to say: "This is a shocking incident and is a sad and difficult day for An Garda Síochána, not just in Roscommon but across the State." This jars completely with the moment when Martin McGuinness spelt out the conditions whereby it was okay for the IRA to kill Garda.
There is no point in having a rose tinted view of policing that filters out its dark side. Every police force across the globe relies on coercion to get the job done and that provides scope for abuse. Much of that coercion is societally endorsed and legislatively approved, but much goes on in the shade and out of view. Even when the coercion is not deemed illegal, police will always serve the state even when the latter comes up against its own citizens.
Aaron Brady is currently on trial accused of having killed Adrian Donohoe, Adrian Crevan Mackin committed suicide immediately after cutting down Tony Golden, and Steven Silver has appeared in court charged with murdering Colm Horkan. This demonstrates, without prejudicing the Brady case, that there is a lot in the public domain about each of these killings, none of which shows the attackers in an exculpatory light. There is nothing in any of their exchanges with the dead Garda that remotely resembles a suffocating guy lashing out at some cop with a knee on the neck.
A while back the job I was doing in a nearby town led to me interacting with Garda on almost a daily basis. They were acting as private citizens so I was in their homes, drinking coffee with them, speaking to them and their families, meeting their children, exchanging book recommendations with their wives. I can still remember the names of some of their dogs. I got on great with them. If they knew anything about my background it was never mentioned. They didn't pry and never let it get in the way of what had to be done. The most that ever came up was that one mentioned that I had written a piece in one of the national newspapers. He didn’t say if he had read it. I liked engaging with them as they had an ultimately practical view of the world and were starry eyed about nothing.
It gave me an upfront insight into how embedded in the community Garda actually are and why there is such a reaction when they are killed. Their lives and line of work are held up as polar opposites to the type of people and activity that brutally claimed the life of Drogheda teen, Keane Mulready Woods at the beginning of the year.
When I lived in the North and RUC were dying frequently enough, there was never any sense of shared loss in the working class nationalist community, where the RUC were invariably seen as alien; a force that was not perceived as policing for the community but against it. Their loss was their own, not ours. I guess it took the poignant footage of a child walking behind the coffin of his late RUC father in 1997 for an empathy that was more than fleeting to sink in.
Back then a Sinn Fein view of the world didn’t lend itself to seeing cops as anything other than enemies. The RUC were never found to be in short supply when it came to nourishing that view. But Sinn Fein have come some way over the years. The killing of Colm Horkan prompted Mary Lou McDonald to say: "This is a shocking incident and is a sad and difficult day for An Garda Síochána, not just in Roscommon but across the State." This jars completely with the moment when Martin McGuinness spelt out the conditions whereby it was okay for the IRA to kill Garda.
There is no point in having a rose tinted view of policing that filters out its dark side. Every police force across the globe relies on coercion to get the job done and that provides scope for abuse. Much of that coercion is societally endorsed and legislatively approved, but much goes on in the shade and out of view. Even when the coercion is not deemed illegal, police will always serve the state even when the latter comes up against its own citizens.
Last year I spoke with a friend over breakfast. His son had been subject to a lot of unnecessary hassle by local guards for basically doing very little. His view was that society would be better off were the Garda disbanded. I though about how that might work. It wouldn’t. Merely think about what society can afford to dispense with least. There are a lot of things it will function well without - churches, secret societies, but not the cops no matter how much they at times jar with us. In the type of societies in which we live, policing like health care is a vital function every citizen has a democratic right to. That we often complain about both is no indication of our desire to see either dispensed with.
It is impossible to envisage of a police-free future in any society, other than Heaven which does not exist and never will exist. Even for those of a revolutionary hue, the societies they wish to create via the abolition of the current state will still have to be policed. And on past form, trepidation is justified. Secret policing rather than visible policing has often been the dominant strain.
So when people like Colm Horkan are killed, I no longer echo the sentiment of the revolutionary but that of the humanist gradualist.
⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre
Great piece and so very true some people don't get it that a police force is and always be needed even the hated RUC were often called upon to clear up domestic issues of all sections of the community
ReplyDeletePolicing by consent not by armed force is essential to social cohesion and democratic functioning as those of us who grew up in NI know, very good and humane piece as always, Anthony.
ReplyDeleteI think republicans forget that the RUC were hated in loyalist communities too. In 1986 there was a concerted campaign to burn them out of loyalist areas. I remember at Linfield games the rioting with the DMSUs was fierce. Like all police forces there are good and bad in the ranks, some decisions are overly political and some calls are just plain wrong. It doesn't make all the coppers worthy of murder. I knew a lot of RUC personally ans some of them were absolute gentlemen and some were just cunts.
ReplyDeleteSpeak to any cop and he will tell you that their day is spent policing domestic violence and dealing with delinquency and mental illness and for the most part they do a great job that most of us don't see. As AM says, like healthcare, society needs policed, and the police need policed too.
Peter,
DeleteSpot on. My Dear Old Da always said to never trust a cop, and he was a very much a Law and Order guy! A few were decent enough and I seem to remember even some former Provisionals on here commenting as much.