Without a single shred of evidence that could stand up in a court, apparently based upon nothing but hearsay and rumour, and driven by an obvious political agenda, the Herald newspaper has all but identified by name a woman working in the Law Library of Ireland that the tabloid alleges is a “suspected IRA recruiter”. And where does the Herald get its information? In one paragraph it is a “source”, in the next it is “sources”, yet we are not told who these people are. Are they fellow journalists? Members of An Garda Síochána? Politicians? Some bloke a Talbot Street hack met in a local pub?
And if serving Gardaí are the supposed “sources” why are they engaged in the unattributable defaming of an Irish citizen? Why are they acting outside the law, and their regulations, by passing on what one would presume is sensitive information to reporters?
Is it now the practice of Irish newspapers to engage in blatant libel? To engage in ideological witch-hunts? To push a McCarthyite agenda in contemporary Irish society?
And what if physical harm comes to this woman because of the Herald’s victimisation of her? In times past in this country claiming that an Irish citizen had a particular set of political beliefs or opinions could lead to his or her death. The family of Pat Finucane, an Irish civil rights lawyer murdered at the hands of British state-sponsored terrorists, can testify to that.
Is the right-wing tabloid reporting the news or creating it?
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
Reblogged this on Fiannaiochta.
LikeLike
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/new-law-targets-terrorist-recruiters-3290073.html
Additional laws that will allmost certainly lead to more of the same. Press act like judge jury and executioner in many cases taking a very high grounded moral stance while producing sub standard reporting now.
LikeLike
I quite agree. If only the same dedication was applied to eliminating the greatest threat to the social well-being and cohesion of this nation at the present time. Namely the drugs trade and all that stems from it. It is narcoterrorism that threatens the Irish state and people, and the criminal factions on the edges of the Real IRA or Continuity IRA are (for the moment) peripheral to that.
The Gardaí’s Organised Crime Unit should be trebled in size and budget and tasked with bringing the gangs to heel with the same zeal and range of resources that were applied across three decades of the northern conflict.
And though I’m loathe to admit it, the time may have come to review the legal status of certain narcotics.
If we don’t tackle this now, and with force, then the toxic mix of politics and drugs that the sensationalist press claims is true will in fact become a reality.
LikeLike