Convicted drug dealer at Garda station demo
A CONVICTED drug dealer – one of nine people alleged to have breached an injunction against obstructing water meter installers – became involved in a heated row with a garda at a protest at Coolock Garda Station this week.
Colin McGettrick from Woodbine Park in Raheny is identified in a video of the stand-off between gardaí and protesters who congregated outside the Dublin station.
The father-of-one can be heard roaring ‘scumbag’ at a garda who is asking him to leave.
‘Colin McGettrick, can you please leave?’ the garda repeats a number of times.
McGettrick received a two-year suspended sentence for possession of cocaine for supply in 2005, and has been described as a regular protester who records proceedings on a camcorder.
Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday last month, McGettrick, who is unemployed, said he was protesting against the water charges on behalf of his child.
‘I’m not doing it just for myself, I have an 11-year-old kid. We’re being taxed to death. We are basically working just to pay bills.’
When asked if he was working, he replied: ‘No. I can’t find work for the last two years.’
When he was pressed on his criminal history, he questioned whether the MoS journalist was a garda: ‘You’re talking about stuff that happened 10 years ago.’
He said he is taking a civil action against An Garda Síochána, alleging he had been beaten by gardaí.
McGettrick is one of a number of protesters with a criminal past. Others include a known republican convicted of IRA membership, activists associated with Real IRA members and a man involved in a racist attack on a taxi driver.