Hugh Orde was appointed PSNI Chief Constable against a predictable backdrop of controversy but he has the mettle for the demanding post, writes Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor
Memo to senior gardaí considering applying for vacant assistant chief constable positions in the Police Service of Northern Ireland: Think carefully because some interviewers here have an idiosyncratic concept of the principle of confidentiality.
Just ask the PSNI Chief Constable designate Hugh Orde, or the unsuccessful but experienced in-house candidates for the post, assistant chief constables Alan McQuillan and Chris Albiston.
In true Northern Ireland fashion Mr Orde was welcomed to the post of police chief constable in a spirit of acrimony and controversy.
Mr Orde, Mr McQuillan and Mr Albiston did not cross the qualifications threshold for the position, claimed two of the Policing Board's eight-member interview panel, Mr Fred Cobain of the Ulster Unionist Party and Mr Sammy Wilson of the DUP. None of them should have been appointed, they added.
Significantly, the sole SDLP member, Mr Joe Byrne, and the five independents plumped for Mr Orde, while acknowledging the merits of the other two candidates.
Because of the question mark over Mr Orde's capabilities - and also over those of Mr McQuillan and Mr Albiston - Mr Dan Crompton, the independent assessor on the interview panel from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, whom unionist politicians cited for their claim, felt compelled to break the confessional seal of the interview. He chastised Mr Cobain and Mr Wilson and expressed confidence that the London Metropolitan policeman would be a chief constable of distinction.
Mr Orde conveys the impression of an officer capable of overcoming such vicissitudes. Obviously made of stern material as operational head of the Stevens inquiry, he is taking over a force some of whose members he is investigating for alleged collusion with loyalist paramilitaries in the killing of Belfast solicitor Mr Pat Finucane. In terms of Stevens he is judge, jury and executioner. He will be central to determining whether police officers, particularly those in the Special Branch, have a case to answer. He will be party to recommending what penalties they could face and now he will implement those recommendations.
A powerful position and responsibility but also the sort of position that could quickly earn him enemies in the PSNI. But Mr Orde knows what lies ahead. A senior player in the UK's largest force, the London Met, he could have applied for other chief constable posts in Britain. He didn't. The PSNI is what he wanted and what he got even though, as he said with nice understatement, "it is not a post for the faint-hearted" - a point emphasised by the serious weekend rioting in east Belfast.
Mr Orde will take encouragement from a statement by the police representative body, the Police Federation, which welcomed his appointment, looked forward to working with him, and pointedly added that all three candidates were "very able" officers.
Moreover, unsuccessful candidate Mr McQuillan, secretary of the Chief Officers' Staff Association of which Mr Albiston is also a member, with great magnanimity said: "As senior commanders in the PSNI we welcome warmly the appointment of Hugh Orde as our new chief constable. We are confident that Hugh will make a great chief constable and look forward to working with him in taking our service forward and improving our service to the entire community in Northern Ireland."
If unionists have concerns be sure that the Irish Government and the SDLP will be more than content. Here, after all, is a dramatic break with the past, as nationalists have been demanding. Not only has Mr Orde no links with the old RUC - he is also engaged in a process to make officers accountable for alleged wrongdoings of the past. This, too, will satisfy Police Ombudsman Ms Nuala O'Loan.
That severing of the RUC-PSNI knot at leadership level may also hasten the day when Sinn Féin joins the Policing Board. The party was predictably grudging about the new chief constable but, with each incremental change to policing, Sinn Féin is running out of excuses to resist signing up to the new arrangements.
It was no coincidence that on the same day that Mr Orde was appointed, Canadian judge Peter Cory, who has a good human rights record, was confirmed as the independent judge who will adjudicate on whether there should be inquiries into the Pat Finucane, Robert Hamill, Rosemary Nelson and Billy Wright murders, as well as into allegations of Garda collusion in IRA murders.
Catholics are applying to join the PSNI in large numbers. The Policing Board, as evidenced by the Orde decision, is prepared to follow an independent path, as is the Police Ombudsman.
Mr Orde, if the Stevens report is as robust as is being predicted, may also be the policeman who finally helps bring the curtain down on the notion of the Special Branch being a "force within a force".
Sinn Féin will continue to complain of lack of accountability, but when you examine the PSNI-Policing Board-Ombudsman triangle it is obvious that the accountability features are strong and strengthening.
Mr Orde's leadership skills will now be tested at the fiery furnace of loyalist and republican violence, sectarian disturbances, north and east Belfast, Omagh, and rising organised and ordinary crime. One of his chief tasks will be to restore and build police morale.
Time will tell how he fares. But it must be a measure of the man that he was a volunteer rather than a conscript for probably the toughest policing job on these islands.