Oct 10 2007
I walked past the Dáil today. And there was a a garda on the street. As usual. And another one the inside the grounds of the government buildings. Again, nothing unusual about that.
And they were chatting to each other. As gardaà sometimes do.
But they looked so cute, chatting to each other, hands on the big iron bars that separated them. Just like a couple in a film where one is in prison or summat.
Awwww
Tags: awwww, cute, GardaÃOct 04 2007
This morning, as I walked to work, I happened to glance at the headline of my Metro Family anger at killings verdict. And I thought to myself, this couldn’t be the family of the armed raiders shot while robbing a post office, could it?
Of course it was.
This sort of shite annoys the fuck out of me. Is it sad that you lost a member of your family? Of course. But sometimes family members do stupid things and bad things happen to them. And it is their own fault. These were men attempting to rob a Post Office, armed, the gardaà told them to disarm. They didn’t do that so they got shot. It wasn’t for “no reason” it was because they were attempting to rob a post office and threatening the lives of people.
Garda A gave evidence that he heard a loud bang and saw the glass in the security hatch shatter. He believed that the loud noise was a gunshot and shouted “armed garda, drop your gun” as he opened the door leading into the public area of the post office.
At least half-a-dozen witnesses gave evidence indicating they clearly heard the officer warn the raiders to drop their weapons. Some witnesses said the garda gave the warning several times;
one man said he warned them on up to 10 occasions.
I’m not a huge fan of the gardaÃ. But in cases like this, where armed robbers are involved? Then I’m backing them. I’m not even a fan of the death penalty. I think it is a ridiculous punishment and serves no purpose apart from revenge, which is not what I think the justice system should be involved in.
Bereaved mother-in-law Ann Grimes, who reared Griffin’s four children, hit out angrily yesterday.
She said the gardaà “knew beforehand they were going to do the job. They should have stopped them”. She added: “they put people in the post office at risk.”
Part of me can understand that coming from the family. After all they have suffered a death. But another part of me is more than a tad annoyed at that sort of attitude. The gardaà knew what was going to happen, so they should have stopped them! How exactly? Should they have arrested them despite having no evidence apart from a tip-off? A rumour?
It isn’t as though the gardaà didn’t try to intercept the raiders;
However, efforts by gardai to stop the raiders’ car prior to the raid, including cordons on approach roads and vehicle tracking, failed, and the three raiders entered the rear of the building at approximately 8am led by Gavin Farrelly, who was wielding a sledgehammer
Maybe Colm Griffin, who knew he was going to rob a post office with a gun, should have stopped himself. He was the only one responsible for his own actions. He went to Lusk intending to pull a gun on people. He took up a firing position, he put people’s lives in danger.
I’d have more sympathy for the family of the second robber killed. After all he was unarmed when shot. But at the same time if the garda involved believed he was armed that what other option did he have? I don’t say that to let the garda off the hook. More to say that you get involved in an armed robbery then don’t try to play the victim when shots are fired. After all if it had been a shoot everyone then the third individual involved still be alive, would he?
And lets not forget that a garda involved in that operation now has a contract out on him.
Oh, and for the record, I’m not saying that the gardaà should be allowed to shoot anyone and then say “he had a gun” obviously there should be an inquest, as happened here, and the fact should come out. But the very idea of turning an armed gunman into an innocent victim is just wrong.
Tags: armed robbers, Colm Griffin, crime, crime in Ireland, death, GardaÃ, Lusk shooting, post office robbery, responsibility, tragedyJul 08 2007
It has been a long day. Doubly long, for a Sunday. Was up at 6.30[1] Yes, Six Thirty in the am. On account of peoples falling out windows and impaling themselves on railings. And while I am prone to exaggeration, that is the truth, and let me tell you, finding firemen washing blood off the footpath outside your home is not something you really want to wake up to. And inviting a garda up to your place in order to give details of the faller, and then having to head up to the hospital and hang around, being told nothing, for hours. Until yet more gardaà arrived and took our witness statements.
Don’t worry, damaged foot, broken arm, fractured skull, but the patient is stable and currently snoring in the hospital. But still, not a great start to the day.
The demon drink eh.
In much better and happier news Sligo are Connacht Champions 2007. First time since 1975 that we’ve won. So the favourites didn’t win their 45th title. Cue the celebration in Sligo.
And now there is the Munster Hurling[2] to be watched[3] Busy busy busy, that’s what I am. Haven’t even had the time to open up the newspaper.
Jun 12 2007
Last week a young boy was attacked in Offaly by two rottweilers. He was rescued by his father, and was taken to hospital. The dogs were put down.
So now we have to put up with the usual knee-jerk reactions. That these specific breeds are dangerous and shouldn’t be allowed as pets. I have every sympathy with the family. And do believe that dogs need to be controlled, but the fact is that any dog can attack. And any dog can inflict a fatal wound on a person, especially a child.
“I’ve seen virtually every breed involved in fatalities, including Pomeranians and everything else, except a beagle or a basset hound”
The fact is that people do not appreciate that dogs can kill. Sure, a pitbull probably makes a more efficient job of it than a pekinese, but that is simply because humans have bred them to be that way. Statistics show that in America the number of people who die as a result of dog attacks remains fairly stable. What does change is the breeds involved. Having more german shepards means that more german shepards will bite. Thinking of dobermans as “attack dogs” means that people who want that in a dog will get a doberman and, in all likelihood encourage that response through training.
“In 1974,” he says, “we saw more German shepherd, collie, andcocker spaniel bites. Today it’s the Rottweiler, chow, and pitbull. The dogs are a victim of their own popularity.”
In the case in Offaly it seems that the rottweilers were usually kept confined to a back garden, but managed to break out. The owner seems apologetic and remorseful, obviously enough, but maybe questions should be asked about how she kept those dogs? She says that she left them locked in the garden, which, given the fact that this happened on an estate, couldn’t have been the largest space, on Friday and returned on Saturday night. I think the dogs were both year olds, but no where does it say whether they were neutered or not. Entire male dogs are more likely to want to break free and can be more aggressive. There are a lot of questions that need answering before we go down the usual “lets ban this breed” argument, which I’m sure will come up at some point.
Then there is the response from the gardaÃ. Neighbours in the estate have criticised the gardaà for not doing something after they were informed that the two dogs were running loose. Supposedly two gardaà took a look and decided to call the dog warden, but it took more than an hour to track him down.
A spokesperson for the county dog warden’s office said gardaà left a message on their phone at 9.18pm but dog warden Ray Mulhall was not contacted on his mobile until 9.45pm.
I’m left wondering exactly how many dog wardens there are in Ireland, and was the one in question on or off duty at the time. I’m guessing that 1) there aren’t enough and 2)he was off-duty.
I don’t think that the dogs involved in this specific case were fighting dogs, but they may have been, or maybe dogs used for intimidation purposes, so maybe if a dog warden, or someone trained in handling possibly dangerous dogs, was on hand this all could have been averted.
Are the Gardaà to blame? I don’t think so, yes, they should have gotten in contact with the warden quicker, but unless they were trained to assess the animals then they could have provoked an attack themselves.
Dogs, like people, can be unpredictable, and dangerous. And sometimes accidents happen. I’m not saying that we simply say “oh well, it was an accident”, by all means we should investigate what happened, but knee jerk reactions won’t help anyone.
Tags: breed specific legislation, dangerous dogs, dog attack, dog warden, fatal bites, GardaÃ, Offaly, pitbull, rottweiler, stupidityJun 01 2007
I apologise for posting so much nothingness and links today, but dude! Samurai swords!
Tags: Castelconnel, crime in Ireland, GardaÃ, samuraiTwo men have been arrested in Castleconnel after a row in which two, maybe three samurai swords were involved.
Apr 25 2007
Those of who in Ireland will have heard about the Dunne family tragedy. Others among you probably haven’t.
It has emerged that when the dead couple, Adrian and Ciara Dunne, visited an undertaker in New Ross last Friday, they ordered four coffins, headstones and a burial plot, for themselves and their daughters, Shania (3) and Leanne (5). Preliminary post mortem results suggest Mr Dunne was hanged, that his wife was strangled or choked, and that the two children were smothered.The visit to the undertakers was brought to the attention of the Garda last Friday and the HSE on Saturday. The Garda sent a priest to assess the family’s wellbeing on Friday and he was assured by the Dunnes that they were not suicidal. No Garda member went to the Dunne home. The Garda also passed details of the case to the HSE.
And of course bloggers are blogging about it. Some are laying blame. Finger-pointing or asking why. It is almost impossible to answer the why question. For a mother and father to decide that the best thing for their children was death? It is impossible to comprehend.
This post at The Public, the Private, and Everything In Between it struck me that it could almost have mentioned the Dunnes as well.
How private should private be, and who can ever possibly take it upon themselves to turn the private public? We are living in a precarious time, a time when both spheres are bleeding into each other and the line of demarcation is wavering. There is great potential here. Either we will become a society who ostracizes even more violently those who are different from us, suspect of every quiet student who doesn’t dress like the rest, suspicious of any husband or wife who doesn’t drag his or her child to every Saturday soccer game, or maybe, just maybe, we’ll become a society responsible to something greater than ourselves
After all some commenters seem to believe that the gardaà should have intervened in the Dunne case and removed the family. But all they really had to go on was second hand information. It may not even have been a formal report from the undertaker. Maybe she knew the garda and mentioned it to the gardaà unofficially. I don’t know. But if the social services had already been there that week. If the rest of the Dunne family believed there was no danger would it really have been acceptable to traumatise children and remove them from their parents based on no evidence? With the benefit of hindsight it certainly seems that they should have. But if you didn’t know the horrible results, isn’t it possible that maybe the parents were overly morbid and worried about the family dying in a road accident?
I do however believe that the HSE need to be open over the weekend. If they had made contact on the Saturday then possibly the family could have been saved. Then again, maybe not? Whatever the outcome of the various inquiries into this event I think that we should remember JL Pagano’s comments:
Tags: death, depression, Dunne family, GardaÃ, HSE, murder, suicide, tragedyOn last night’s edition I seem to recall the most telling evidence of all…three hearses carrying four coffins. This tells me we should let the family grieve, and if any pressure is to be applied anywhere, it’s to those responsible for setting up a public enquiry in a reasonable yet respectful time period so our debate can be a properly informed one.
Oct 12 2006
So who was it that taught pigeons to play chicken then? They can’t have come up with that nonsensical approach to life themselves can they? I mean, I know they’ve always been a bold and fearless[1] species, what with their belief that they can escape the wheels of death-buses merely by waddling out of the way rather than flapping their wings and flying off. But the whole spotting a pedestrian coming straight for them and instead of even attempting to remove their tiny little bodies from under a foot instead they do their best to walk straight towards impending doom.
Meant to post yesterday about the wonderful story about the two gardaà on duty outside the US embassy in Dublin.
Imagine this, you are an armed officer of the law, on protective duty outside the US embassy, the symbol of wickedness to a certain section of terrorist-types. Are we in character yet? Good. So what do you think you might get up to?
Bearing in mind that you have had years of experience on the force and so have a vague idea what the whole job entails? What would you do?
Would you head off for an early lunch in the pub. Spend the afternoon drinking. And then get in an argument with another garda officer who was supposed to be doing the exact same job that you should’ve been doing but instead was drinking in the pub. Would you have an argument about whose round it was, and let it develop into a brawl in full view of tourists, marines, and security cameras?
I know, I should feel all outraged at such behaviour. Bad example. Shocking display of An Garda SÃochána. Unsafe. And more than a little silly. But I just think it is hilarious. And it’d be even better if we were to discover that the row over whose round it was involved each insisting that they’d get it in.
I had some vague thought to write soemthing else. But the thought has evaporated. Possibly it was some mention of tonight’s impending doom. But who wants to think such depressing thoughts?
Well, okay, all that was written yesterday. But then the hosty-type peoples had some sort of problem and I couldn’t actually post it. Luckily I’d been using the handy Google Notebook Firefox extension fingy to write this post[2] and so didn’t lose it. And instead of the impending doom we actually had a good match. So celebrate.
Yes yes, a one-all draw may not sound too exciting, but after that nightmare night in Nicosia it was more than could have been hoped for. All the pundits were moaning about how we were going to lose. By at least two goals. Czech Republic being one of the best teams in the world, blah blah blah. And did they then apologise when we gave a “performance”[3] ? Hell no. Well apart from Liam Brady who declared himself well happy. Or at least happy that we were on the right road. But Eamo, in typical Dunphy style decided that this wasn’t anything to do with Staunton, despite proclaiming that he disliked moaning about him earlier.
Nice to see so many supporters show up as well, and that they gave Stan a round of applause before the match, bit different from the reaction from the meeja.
