Irish Times Letters: McDowell Allegations About Frank Connolly
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Wed, Dec 14, 05
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/letters/2005/1214/index.html
McDowell Allegations About Frank Connolly
A chara, - Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has acted in an
outrageous manner in making allegations against the journalist Frank
Connolly that are not only unsubstantiated but also entirely baseless
legally. By leaking confidential Garda documents to a sympathetic press
member he has shown contempt for the office of Minister for Justice and
for the legal parameters of the State, as well as setting aside a
fundamental principle of jurisprudence.
The frightening aspect of this incident is that Mr McDowell reportedly
took this decision only after the DPP refused to prosecute Mr Connolly
because of the lack of evidence against him. So here we have a Minister
who, when it suits, feels he can publish allegations against fellow
citizens if the legal institutions of the State will not support his
view.
What does this say about the ability of the legal arm of the State to
protect its citizen's rights, if Ministers can bypass its
recommendations when and where they see fit? Besides the fact that Mr
Connolly has a right to be presumed innocent until found otherwise, the
issue goes beyond this particular individual. If Michael McDowell is
allowed to get away with this, where does it stop? Is anyone of his
choosing open to this form of abuse?
The Minister should resign for pursuing his own partisan agenda and not
that of the State and its citizens. - Is mise,
CHRIS Ó RÁLAIGH, St Anne's Road, Dublin 9.
Madam, - The Minister for Justice has admitted that he leaked a copy of
a document obtained by him in his official capacity to a particular
newspaper. The document, which came from a Garda investigation,
allegedly implicated Frank Connolly, the head of the Centre for Public
Inquiry (CPI), in travelling to Colombia on a false passport. The
Minister produced similar documents to Mr Chuck Feeney, chief funder of
the CPI, at a private meeting. We do not know to whom else he may have
shown these documents, or indeed what documents about other people he
may have shown to hand-picked journalists or the employers of people of
whom he does not approve.
Chuck Feeney has now withdrawn his funding from the CPI, which Mr
McDowell and his party colleagues have always disliked, and Mr Connolly
looks likely to be out of a job very shortly.
Mr McDowell has justified his conduct by saying he was defending the
security of the state. But what threat did Frank Connolly and the CPI
pose to the security of the state and have we not got courts to deal
with such matters? And if the Minister believed that somehow there was
such a threat and that for some unexplained reason the courts were
inadequate to deal with it, why did he not announce this publicly in a
Dáil debate or at a press conference where TDs or journalists could
have questioned him about his evidence? And why did he wait for several
years until Frank Connolly was heading the CPI before revealing this
dastardly plot?
This episode has all the hallmarks of McCarthyism in 1950s America. If
this is established as acceptable procedure, how long will it be before
somebody else on the fairly lengthy list of people and organisations
the Minister does not approve of becomes the target of unattributed
leaks and private briefings to funders or employers based on selected
material from Garda files? - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL FARRELL, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
A chara, - Michael McDowell has reached a level of near hysteria in his
never- ending crusade against all things republican with his admission
that he supplied documents to a journalist for a story he was writing
about Frank Connolly. Mr Connolly may well have plenty of questions to
answer, but there are ways and means of conducting such an
investigation, and the Minister, of all people, should know better.
The abuse of Dáil privilege to attack a man against whom the DPP could
seemingly find no case was bad enough; the excuse that he was
protecting the security of the State is as preposterous as it is
disingenuous, and this is not the first time the Minister was afraid to
make a claim outside a forum where neither its veracity could be
contested nor could any slandered party seek suitable recompense.
Surreptitiously supplying photocopied documents to investigative
journalists is the sort of thing Justice Ministers did in the early
1980s, and reveals a deeply flawed character obsessed with winning his
battle using whatever means possible, no matter what the cost.
The Department of Justice is no place for a man suffering this level of
manic fixation with sensitive matters associated with the peace
process. If a resignation from Cabinet is not politically possible,
then the Tánaiste and Taoiseach should urgently organise some form of
sideways move. Serious precedents are being set and need to be
corrected before it is too late. - Is mise,
DAVID CARROLL, Castle Gate, Dublin 2.
Madam, in the light of the controversy surrounding Michael McDowell TD
and Frank Connolly, it is worth remembering that it is not the role of
the Minister for Justice to win popularity contests. At crucial times,
this nation has needed the holder of that portfolio to take tough
decisions, and to call it as it is. I am thinking in particular of
Desmond O'Malley in 1970 and Michael Noonan in 1983.
This is another time when we should be grateful for the current holder
of the Justice portfolio. - Yours, etc,
DESMOND GIBNEY PC, Santry, Dublin 9.
Madam, - Mr McDowell has undermined Article 38 of the Constitution,
blatantly abused Dáil privilege and leaked confidential State
documents to a newspaper in an attempt to blacken the reputation of a
highly respected investigative journalist whose scrutiny he feared.
Arguably, he is doing more damage to the State than the subversives he
claims to be opposing. - Is mise,
JUSTIN MORAN, Fosters Terrace, Ballybough, Dublin 3.
Madam, How progressive and democratic of the Minister for Justice to
forward information from Garda intelligence to a daily newspaper.
In the further interest of State security, could he now release similar
files on Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to the newspaper of his
choice? - Yours, etc,
RORY O'GRADY, Corbawn Lane, Shankill, Co Dublin.
Madam, - These days we are told by our political masters and mistresses
to shop around for the best value.
This must have been the reason why the Minister for Justice, Equality
and Law Reform decided to release confidential Garda intelligence
documents to only one newspaper. - Yours, etc,
ENDA FAHY, Knocknaree Avenue, Drimnagh, Dublin,12.