Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 21 Dec 1983

Vol. 102 No. 9

Electoral (Amendment) Bill, 1983. - Murder of Members of Security Forces: Statements.

Mr. Ferris

Before going on to the Order of Business, I consider that it would be inappropriate if this sitting of Seanad Éireann did not avail of the opportunity to convey in the strongest possible terms our condemnation of the atrocious events in this country, North and South, and outside of it over the past week. The cowardly and contemptible act of kidnapping of innocent people from their families and homes and held to ransom by paramilitary organisations must be outlawed by all of us who value and defend the freedoms and rights of the individual.

In bringing the most recent episode of Mr. Don Tidey's release to a conclusion we lost two members of our most respected security forces in the murders of Garda trainee Sheehan and Private Patrick Kelly, both from families who have given sterling service to this nation in the Garda Síochána and the Army. To date, we have lost ten members of the Garda Síochána and for the first time since the foundation of the State we have lost a member of our Army in combat in this country in incidents involving groups who dare to use the name "Irish" or, indeed, at times "socialists" in their organisations' names.

If these events were not enough to shock and numb this nation, the week brought further death and destruction to the heart of London, where many of our relatives and friends who are Irish, and indeed many people from throughout the Commonwealth and America and other nations had gathered, and where many Irish people live and work. This outrage took place at a time when the maximum death and destruction could be inflicted on those innocent people engaged in the normal practice at this time of the year of goodwill, of Christmas shopping.

What a shame it is on all of us. What possible cause or belief or campaign could justify these acts of wanton destruction? I would call today on all paramilitary organisations, and there are some on both sides of this unfortunate fence, and on the supporters and sympathisers of these senseless killers, to stop these acts of madness. The excuse, if one could call it that, is that the recent London bombings were not authorised by the IRA, and this signifies, if we are to believe that it is an excuse, that even they have lost control of these maniacs. We must not forget that in the past responsibility was claimed — if that is the appropriate word to use — for similar murders. Could it be that, possibly, the IRA now realise that all reasonable people throughout this country, North and South, and in England, want totally to dissociate themselves from their dreadful actions?

If a truce was possible it would then rightfully place a renewed responsibility on politicians of all different beliefs in Ireland, North and South, and in England, to use all the democratic institutions that are available to us in the Houses of the Oireachtas, in the Houses of Parliament in Britain, in the Assembly and in the Forum to make rapid progress towards an acceptable lasting and peaceful solution to the underlying problem of our country. I commend you, a Chathaoirligh, on your statements and in your actions as a public representative in your own area where some of these events are taking place, for having asked for the Ministers for Justice and Defence to investigate the whole area surrounding the unfortunate accident that happened to Gerard Wrynne. This House sends him our best wishes for his recovery. You can be assured, a Chathaoirligh, that you have the support of this House for those actions which you have taken. With the permission of the Cathaoirleach, I would ask the other groups in this House to join with us in extending our sympathy to all the families who have been bereaved in these tragic events.

Mr. Lanigan

I join with the Acting Leader of the House in expressing our contempt for the actions which have taken place, purportedly in our name, over the last few weeks. What benefit will it be if we in this House express our sympathy to the people who have suffered so much because of these atrocities? It does not seem that the people who perpetrate these atrocities are listening to the majority viewpoint in this country. They can only be called savages. They do not represent republicanism in any shape or form.

As has been said, Garda Sheehan comes from a family who have given fantastic service to this nation, as have the Kelly family. The Garda are doing an immense amount of work on our behalf in tremendously difficult circumstances. They are being taken from their cars, hidden away and their uniforms taken from them. They are an unarmed and very highly disciplined force. If the atrocities that are being perpetrated upon the Garda continue we will have more demands for arming the Garda. I do not think anybody here wants to see an armed police force. We have seen the excesses that can be caused with the presence of an armed police force. We are very proud of the fact that the Garda in exceedingly difficult situations over many years have been able to hold the line between anarchy and peace. We have the back-up of the Army who are very well trained. I hope that over the next few months when gardaí are sent out on patrol at night or if they are setting up road blocks, they at all times will have the support of the Army rather than, as is happening at present, people calling for the arming of the Garda.

The IRA now deny responsibility for the atrocities which took place in London. It is cynical when a group say that the bombing in London was carried out by a member of their armed forces but without the permission of the IRA. Gerry Adams now seems to want to get away from what happened regarding the Tidey affair. At the same time he says that the people who perpetrated the kidnapping and the subsequent actions were doing the right thing. That gentleman and the organisation to which he belongs should be condemned. There has not been any condemnation from Sinn Féin for the actions.

Recently on the occasion when we were passing a vote of sympathy with somebody else, Senator Robb made a statement that if Sinn Féin and those who support them are not put strictly in their place the destabilisation which has happened in the North will start to occur here. We have seen this. It shocks me to see that we have supposedly prominent businessmen in Wexford and in Mayo in the last week giving support to organisers of very serious crimes, people who live here under the protection of the State and yet they are going out helping known killers. I would like the Leader of the House to extend my sympathy and Fianna Fáil's sympathy to the relatives of Private Kelly and Garda Garry Sheehan and equally to the relatives and friends of whose who were so callously murdered in London at the weekend.

Mr. O'Leary

I would like, on behalf of the Fine Gael Party, to be associated with the expressions of sympathy in respect of both these tragic events mentioned by Senator Ferris and I would like to add all those innocent victims who died in the North of Ireland during 1983. The killing of a garda and a soldier on active duty, places, in our opinion, in their proper context the Provisional IRA and their lackey boys in Sinn Féin. These people are the enemies of this Republic, of this House and of the people we represent. The Fine Gael Party will ensure that they will play their part so that the institutions of this State will not tolerate the cycle of violence which has happened in the North being repeated here.

Those who might be tempted to test our determination should be warned that we will not be as vacillating or as weak kneed as the British administration in the North in this regard. We will not play "footsy" with these gangsters and murderers. We will give no credibility to them by talking to them. I believe that applies equally to this Government or to any possible alternative administration in this country.

Our thanks must go to the members of the security forces for their efforts in the recent past and our deepest sympathy must go to those who were bereaved. We were all elated that the victim of the recent kidnapping was released without the payment of ransom. Unfortunately, during the publicity surrounding that recent kidnapping it was reported that another major Irish store had paid some money in a similar case. If that is true it reflects little credit on that store.

With regard to the Harrod's bombing, no words can express our revulsion at this type of action. The perpetrators of this act claim to be acting in the name of Ireland. If they did what they did in Ireland's name I would, of course, be ashamed. They have no right to speak on behalf of the Irish people and, therefore, I refuse to accept that they have shamed our country. They have, of course, temporarily confused some people in Britain. Some people may feel that they have in fact associated all Irish men and women with this kind of action and, correspondingly, that we should accept part of that guilt.

The Fine Gael Party, which I represent, do not accept nor indeed should any other party in this House accept, any guilt for what were the actions of lunatics completely outside the bounds of reason and actions carried on without our authority and without our permission. Our message to them is clear: Get off our backs, leave our people alone.

Senator Lanigan said, and I concur, that we should appeal to voters not to support fellow travellers of this type. Just as during the Second World War Hitler made a pact with Stalin because it suited him at the time, these people would make a pact with the devil if it advanced their twisted principles in any way. For example, they now make great play of the fact that they lead a fight against drugs. If it suited those people to sell drugs in the morning to advance their cause that is what they would do and they would seek to justify it. We must make sure for the remainder of this year and next year that we will resist all attempts to cloak these murderers with platitudes and smooth talk. We must extend out sympathy not only to the recently bereaved but to all the innocent victims of the continuing cycle of violence in the North of Ireland in 1983. It is appropriate at this, our last sitting of 1983, to include those people as worthy of our sympathy at this time.

Mrs. McGuinness

On behalf of the Independent Group I would like to join in the expressions of opinion expressed by other Senators. We must all join in the expression of sadness and horror at the recent events that have taken place both in our own country and in London and, of course, in extending our sympathy to the relatives of all those who have been killed. The killing of Garda Sheehan and Private Kelly marks a dangerous new departure in the violence that is being carried out by the Provisional IRA in this country, North and South. Up to now we have had this killing of security forces going on in the North and we have felt very badly about it, but there has not been to the same extent this spill-over into our own jurisdiction of this particular form of violence. Not only is it horrifying but it is highly dangerous and a very bad sign for the future that we should find members of our own security forces being killed in this kind of operation.

With regard to the way in which they died, we must be extremely proud of the fact that in the record of these kidnappings that have taken place in this country all our Governments and our security forces have resisted so firmly the idea that ransom should be paid and encouragement should be given to this type of violence and horrible crime. We must be proud of our record that people have been rescued and that Mr. Tidey has been the last in this series to have emerged safe from his ordeal. We must congratulate him and his family in emerging successfully from it. The families of Garda Sheenan and Private Kelly can feel very proud that their sons and brothers have played a part in carrying out this policy and this important chain of events that will tend to discourage the proliferation of this type of crime which is very difficult to deal with. We should all be proud of the way in which they served their country while at the same time mourning their unnecessary and tragic deaths.

As regards the bombing in London, other Senators have said much of what I would have said about it. I feel that one of the major things that must be said about this type of bombing, which, inevitably, will involve the deaths and maiming of totally innocent people who are just going about their ordinary business, particularly just before Christmas, is the total impossibility of justifying an action such as that on any kind of grounds of principle, policy or political aims. It cannot be excused either by saying that a warning was given or by saying. "It was one of our men who did it without authority". The idea that issuing a warning a mere half hour before the bomb went off in an area of London which was crowded by Christmas shoppers and at a store which I understand can hold 20,000 people at once, could save innocent lives in those circumstances is mere madness. The idea of saying, "It was one of our members who did it without our authority" again is very far from being any form of justification or excuse. The only sign of hope that perhaps may come out of this kind of excuse is that not only by the official statement but by a number of statements by leading members of Provisional Sinn Féin it appears that they are at last beginning to see that public opinion in this country is totally revolted by this sort of action and that they wish to distance themselves both from the Tidey kidnapping and from the bombing in Harrord's. We can only hope that the fact that these leading personalities find it necessary, on a political basis, to withdraw a little from the actions of their armed comrades, whom they were so proud of previously, must show that they realise that ordinary people here are horrified and completely revolted by the kind of thing that they are doing.

With Senator Lanigan, I hope very much that this kind of incident and what has been going on over the past few days in the Ballinamore area will not be used as a reason for making the Garda into an armed force. This would be an extremely wrong step to take. We have a police force which commands the respect, allegiance and friendship of the vast majority of our citizens and to turn them into an armed force would be a very grave mistake. They have suffered and no doubt they will continue to suffer, but they suffer and continue to suffer with the support of the ordinary people. It would be very dangerous indeed to change them into an armed force. I agree with Senator Lanigan that much the better course would be to provide back-up from the Army in conditions when they are likely to be in danger. I know that this sounds like sending out young men such as Garda Sheehan into situations where they may be in danger of wounding and death, but in our democratic civilisation the idea of maintaining an unarmed force of police is extremely important and indeed crucial.

To conclude, I join with other Senators in extending the sympathy of this House to the relatives of the two men who were so tragically killed and to the relatives of all who were killed and wounded in the London bombing and in subsequent violence. I join with Senator O'Leary in extending sympathy to all those who have been bereaved, wounded and struck down in the violence that has occurred during this year.

Mrs. Rogers

I associate myself with the expressions of sympathy extended to the families who have been bereaved in this last week in this part of the island and in the North. About 18 years ago in Northern Ireland the first of the victims of the present spate of troubles was killed. He was a young Catholic named Peter Ward. I know exactly the circumstances in which he was killed and everybody in Northern Ireland still remembers that man's name. A few years later the first policeman to meet his death in that spate of troubles was killed in Northern Ireland. We also remember his name very clearly. He was Arbuckle. I do not need to refer to any files to remember his name. He was killed by Loyalist paramilitaries. That is incidental, but the point I am going to make has a crucial bearing on what will happen in Ireland from this day on.

Yesterday a UDR man was buried in Maghera in south Derry. Could anybody, North or South, tell me his name today? Last week a young man from east Belfast, a Catholic, who happened to be walking home at the wrong time of night in a Loyalist area was shot down. He was buried this day week as this Seanad was meeting. Can anybody, North or South, remember his name? I very much doubt it. What happened in the last week in this part of the country has brought home to the people of Ireland exactly the nature of the threat which we all face. The names of Garda Sheehan and Private Kelly are household names in Ireland today. We must ask ourselves if it is possible that in ten or 15 years time they would rate just a few lines in the papers or would we even be able to remember the next day who they were or, indeed, that the thing had happened at all? If someone had told me 18 years ago that I would not remember the name of someone who was killed last week or shot yesterday I would have said that that was utter nonsense.

This country is facing the greatest threat that it has faced since the foundation of this State. What has greatly helped and enhanced the fortunes of those people who want to undermine democracy in this country is the problem of the ambivalence which has affected all of us and it would be dishonest of us not to recognise that. At times in the last 15 years I have felt conflicting emotions and I have been slightly less sorry about some deaths than about others. That is one of the facts of life in Ireland. We must rid ourselves of that ambivalence which is the greatest friend of the paramilitaries who play on it.

I am reluctant to disagree with Senator Seán O'Leary when he called them lunatics. I do not consider them lunatics and I do not think anyone should. Those people who carry out those acts of violence are not mindless either. Many people talk of them as mindless, but they know precisely what they are doing. They know precisely what they are about. They are out, let their own words say it, to take power in Ireland by the gun and the ballot box. They are not out to free Ireland, they are out to take power in Ireland and let us not forget that.

I am pleased that Seanad Éireann, representing as it does 93 per cent of the people of this island — that is Nationalist Ireland — also represents North and South, Catholic and Protestant, although perhaps not Unionist opinion. I hope that the message goes out clearly to the rest of the world today — and in this I agree with Senator O'Leary — that the atrocities carried out in London were not carried out in the name of the Irish people. They do not have the support or the agreement of the Irish people. They are abhorred by the Irish people. I would say, therefore, that this country, and this part of the country in particular, has to be very much aware of the threat that is facing it. The community, politicians and so on must rid themselves of this ambivalence. The time for this, and for people remaining silent when things needed to be said, is over. There are only two sides now. You are either on the side of the State and the institutions of this State, on the side of the forces which protect our institutions, or you are not. There is no middle way in the present climate in Ireland.

An Cathaoirleach

I have a difficulty here, Senator Fallon, in that you are a neighbour of one of the victims as I appreciate. Senator Ellis comes from the same area as myself and if the Leader of the House agrees on this I will give you a few minutes each. I do not think there will be any objections but I do not want to invoke procedure here on this.

Mr. Fallon

I knew Private Patrick Kelly very well. He was very much a quiet, unassuming family man. His hobby in life was fixing cars, tinkering with engines and such work. It is a very sad occasion when this House or any House should have to pass a vote of sympathy with his widow and his family and equally with the family of Garda Sheehan. Whilst the name of Paddy Kelly, who was stationed in Custume Barracks, Athlone, will appear in the history books of the future as the first Irish soldier since the Civil War to be killed in this country in this style combat, this will be no consolation whatsoever to his young widow and family. I, too, would like to offer my deepest sympathy to his family and to the family of Garda Sheehan, and to condemn the violence of the past weeks and years.

I share the concern of Senator Rogers for the future. The deaths of these two young people in our security forces in the past week will have very serious repercussions for this country for the future. I hope people will accept that a united Ireland can be achieved only through democratic means and certainly not by the methods that have been used recently.

Mr. Ellis

I should like to express to the families of Private Kelly and Garda recruit Sheehan my deepest sympathy. It was a tragedy for me on my return to this country to read in the papers in Dublin last Saturday morning what had happened in my home town. It was sad and disgusting to me and to the people whom I represent here that such an action should take place anywhere in the country. It is sad that two men who were the custodians of the safety of the State and its citizens should die in such tragic circumstances. What has been said here today also reflects the views of those whom I represent, namely, the people of County Leitrim and of the town of Ballinamore.

One or two matters have slightly annoyed me in this situation. I refer to some of the media and to some of the Press coverage that has been given to that part of the country. In my opinion, and I investigated the matter last night, some of the reports in the Press yesterday were totally untrue. I challenge the Press people who made the statements yesterday to show me where members of the security forces were not given fair and adequate treatment or served in any business premises in Ballinamore. I went home from Dublin especially to see what was the position and I can state I could not get confirmation of the statements made in the Press. I have no doubt the Cathaoirleach will vindicate what I have said. The people of Ballinamore have not been and never will be intimidated by anyone, paramilitaries or otherwise.

A very close friend of mine was critically wounded at a checkpoint on Friday night. I was glad to see the Cathaoirleach lend his support to my call on Saturday evening for a full investigation into the tragic accidental shooting of John Gerard Wrynne. He is a close personal friend and the last person who parted with him on Friday night was a very close member of my family. I hope the Minister for Defence and the Minister for Justice will arrange in the very near future to have a full investigation of this incident carried out. It has left a kind of suspicion in the minds of some and I have no doubt that both Ministers will ensure that the situation is clarified in the immediate future.

It appears from Garda reports today that the seige, as it might be called, may continue over Christmas. I hope the Garda and the Army will use all their tact to ensure that the area is allowed to enjoy as peaceful a Christmas as possible. The people of the area who have, I hope, no involvement in this atrocity, have been brought to the notice of the world and I am sure those in command of the security forces involved will ensure that they are allowed to have a peaceful Christmas.

An Cathaoirleach

I wish on behalf of the House to extend the sympathy of the House to the families of Garda Gary Sheehan and Private Patrick Kelly on their sad loss.

I wish to be associated with the expressions of horror and revulsion at the dark and terrible deeds that have been committed allegedly in the name of the Irish people. There is little I can add to what has already been said except that I am particularly grieved as these deeds have been committed in the Ballinamore area which is my own town. I want to emphasise that the evil perpetrators of these deeds do not find acceptance or approval in the area. This is borne out by the fact that in the last local elections a certain party got less than five per cent of the poll.

I also express our thanks to the security forces for the good work they have done on behalf of the community. They are getting the unstinted support of the vast majority of the local community. It is very regrettable that one local person, Mr. Gerard Wrynne, was injured and I sincerely hope that he will soon recover. I hope that an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the incident will be undertaken. It is very timely, indeed very urgent, that those who actively or otherwise support the evil-doers should take stock of their position, even at this late stage when so much suffering has already been caused.

A lot of damage has been done to the good name of the area as a result of the bad publicity surrounding the event.

Members rose in their places.