Sir, - Thinking gardai have always been wary of politicians. It was that caution, I suspect, besides the consideration of possible compromise in future crime investigation, that led to the reluctance of the Abbeylara witnesses to give evidence at the Oireachtas inquiry.
The chairman of the sub-committee, Mr Sean Ardagh, expressed confidence that their investigation "would be effective and address all concerns".
Proceeding from apparently narrow terms of reference - concentrating exclusively on the immediate circumstances - Mr Ardagh and his colleagues were unlikely to have discovered what made Abbeylara or a similar tragedy inevitable.
Policy decisions, taken before the Abbeylara witnesses were born, imprisoned Garda management in an administrative straitjacket. On the ground, ill-considered re-deployments resulted in the dissipation of the reservoirs of local knowledge.
It will also be necessary to investigate the establishment of the ERU, which poses a serious threat to the benign posture of the unarmed civil police in independent Ireland. Look at the record (gleaned from the Garda Directory and staff magazines).
In close on 80 years of Garda history, some 350 of the rank-and-file were awarded the Scott Medal for Valour. The overwhelming majority, including unarmed uniformed gardai and appropriately armed detectives, were decorated for arresting armed criminals, for the most part acting alone on their own initiative.
There were 27 awards for the safe arrest of armed mental patients, not counting the unpublished arrests of unarmed but potentially dangerous patients whose detention called for the same gumption. John Carthy would have been subdued and brought to hospital if the existence of the ERU had not got in the way of common sense.
Reform in the Garda Siochana will be accomplished, but not by "[taking] down from the shelf . . . the Patten report" (Fintan O'Toole, Opinion, May 1st). Study Patten, for sure; but, following the example of the pioneers of our independent State, we will be best guided by our own native genius. - Yours, etc.,
Gregory Allen, Upper Kilmacud Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin.