Gardaí are the new HSE and our TV licences are the new water bills
GROWING UP, we would often call to visit my grandparents and one of the abiding memories I have is of my grandfather’s Garda hat hung on the wall. The navy, peaked hat was worn with pride and was a symbol of a hard working man, who would invariably shine a big smile on us and offer us a hard boiled sweet from the press or a pound note pressed into our little hands from his giant creased hands.
He was a simple man, who was content with what life had given him. Living in the small Kerry town of Cahersiveen, having been stationed in Killorglin for several years, he and his wife reared their six children and a niece whose mother died too young.
He himself had lost two brothers to the Black and Tans in Tipperary in his youth.
A bicycle guard, he would cycle the byways of the town and area in an era when there was no real pressure, apart from putting food on the table and looking after the children.
In later years I remember he had a garda car which was his pride and joy.
Then the hat on a nail in the sittingroom with his picture underneath. This was after he died.
An Garda Siochana is in crisis at the moment. They are the new HSE.
Management are getting it in the neck and probably wish they were on bicycle duty at some remote outpost, chasing after a man who stole a bicycle from outside a pub.
From the penalty points scandal to Maurice McCabe to somehow magically doubling breath test statements to twice the number taken, faith in An Garda Siochana is at an all-time low.
The corollary is that media appetite for criticising the gardaí is at an all-time high. The spats between high ranking garda commissioners, press officers etc makes for great reading and seems to point at something rotten at the core of Templemore, where spending is currently being investigated.
As is always the case the truth lies somewhere in between.
In our leap-to-an-ill-formed-conclusionfirst and check-the-facts-later generation, there is a desire for blood letting at public body level.
Despite all the talk of Ireland’s economic powerhouse many communities across the country remain decimated with unemployment, crime, drug problems, domestic abuse, but much worse, hopelessly, lack of pride and misplaced rage. The media are an effective watchdog and we, in the media, need to hold the powers that be to account and gardaí are most definitely the powers that be, just as policemen across the world are. There will be mistakes made and heads should roll if people are found guilty of wrongdoing, but these Salem witch trials, like the way the nuns were likened to Nazis recently with the Mother and Baby Home revelations in Tuam, need to stop. Gardaí play an invaluable role in communities today as they always have.
Another thing that needs to stop is RTE jacking up their licence fee. My father was visiting recently and as we sat down one night to watch something, we were confronted with the starkest of choices. In the end it came down to a chat show or First Dates Ireland. We opted for the latter. This was a weekend night on St Patrick’s weekend and that was the best RTE could do.
Now the communications minister is planning to charge anyone who has an iPad or a laptop the as-of-yet to be announced licence fee to not watch televsion they will stream for free elsewhere.