Cops Charge Irish Government With Treason

TalkieWalkie

By Gabriel Donohoe

When a national police association accuses its government of what amounts to treason it is time to sit up and pay attention.

Michael O’Boyce, President of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), said at its annual conference in Limerick, at the end of April, 2010, that the Irish Government had been ‘corrupted’ and had been ‘bought’ by developers and bankers. (A garda is an Irish policeman, gardaí in the plural.)

Mr. O’Boyce, speaking on behalf of the country’s 11,000 gardaí, charged government ministers with sacrificing the country to protect ‘wealthy cronies’ who had bankrolled the leading government party, Fianna Fáil. Such criticism of a serving government by its police force is unprecedented in Irish history and extremely rare in any western democracy.

Smarting from recent government disparagement of the gardaí a rankled Mr. O’Boyce pointed to an aggravating Fianna Fáil gaffe. While the government referred to the gardaí as ‘self-serving, overpaid, underworked and dishonest people’, it at the same time praised the ‘entrepreneurial skill’ and ‘business acumen’ of failed banksters like Sean Fitzpatrick (Anglo Irish Bank) and Michael Fingleton (Irish Nationwide Building Society), two people who played a huge part in bringing the Irish economy to its knees.

Clearly infuriated by collapsing living standards and the abject state of the economy, Mr. O’Boyce intended to deliver his speech directly to the Minister of Justice, Dermot Ahern, who was scheduled to attend the annual conference of the GRA. However, Mr. Ahern was sent a copy of the speech in advance and hastily declined to attend.

Mr. O’Boyce would have castigated the Justice Minister directly by saying, “The Government of which you are a long-serving member has mismanaged the wealth of this country for more than a decade by allowing our assets to be plundered and robbed by bankers and speculators, and you are making generations of Irish workers pay the price for this treachery…

“…You did this because bankers and speculators have bought your party, and in return you have sacrificed the greater good and prosperity of the Irish nation for the benefit of the few – the few who have now taken their ill-gotten gains and secured them in tax havens around the world. Truly, a government of national sabotage.”

Gardaí present at the meeting gave Mr. O’Boyce a standing ovation for the speech of which they were aware but which was never actually made. Nonetheless, the speech was angrily criticised by politicians and others who said that a police force should not intervene in politics. Justice Minister Ahern said that he utterly refuted the allegations made in the speech and that such remarks “besmirch the reputation of the force and have no place in a modern democracy.”

Government backbencher Niall Collins said, “…[F]or me to hear a member of An Garda Síochána accuse a sovereign Government of robbery, corruption and treason, and this coming from a member of An Garda Síochána who are the agents of the State to investigate and prosecute these types of crimes, it’s just clearly not sustainable.”

This is an amazing attack on a modern democratic government described by the country’s own police association as “a government of national sabotage.” What prompted such wrath and fury from the GRA and does the Association have any basis for charging the Irish Government with treachery or treason?

The underlying cause of garda frustration and anger is the state of the Irish economy. The gardaí, like most Irish citizens, blame government incompetence and collusion with banksters and speculators for economic collapse. The government itself points to global recession and international bank failures as the cause of Irish woes but the reality goes much deeper than that.

The economic depression in Ireland is much more severe than anywhere else in the world. The fallout from global recession was seriously exacerbated by shortcomings of Irish Government Ministers, i.e., flagrant failures of governance through incompetence, self-interest, and criminal recklessness. These failures were further amplified by the cronyism and cosy intimacy of Fianna Fáil politicians with bankers and developers, by the utter ineptitude of government regulators, and by the laissez-faire attitude of the then Finance Minister, Brian Cowen, towards an alarmingly inflating construction bubble. (Cowen is now the Irish Prime Minister or Taoiseach and is stubbornly clinging onto power even though his personal rating is a paltry 18% in opinion polls.)

What angers the GRA, apart from hair shirt budgets, welfare cuts, and cuts in public sector pay, are the huge amounts of money given to renegade banks. These astronomical sums, cavalierly tossed into the laps of fraudulent bankers, are underwritten by the ever-suffering Irish taxpayer. A massive 22 billion euro has gone into the corrupt Anglo Irish Bank which has the dubious distinction of being the worst bank in the world. It is the biggest loss-maker of any bank on the planet and the Irish bank bailout is the most expensive bailout anywhere on the globe.

The Irish people are now learning that they will never see a penny of their 22 billion euro again – it has disappeared into a black hole of bankster-generated debt. The new chief executive of Anglo has admitted that the money would never be seen again and Prime Minister Cowen grudgingly confirmed, only after four attempts by opposition leaders to get a straight answer, that the 22 billion euro is gone forever. This is a heartbreaking loss for a small country of less than 5 million people, many of whom are calling the bailing out of Anglo an act of criminal recklessness.

Responding to a recent government decision to extend the bank guarantee to Anglo Irish Bank, Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore said, “I believe that the decision was made to save the skins of a number of individuals, some of whom are connected to Fianna Fail. If my belief is correct, and I have not been convinced to the contrary, then that decision was an act of economic treason.”

Strong words indeed from Mr. Gilmore which echo the sentiments of Michael O’Boyce and the GRA.

Even worse than the Anglo Irish Bank fiasco is the government bank bailout programme called NAMA (National Asset Management Agency) which covers 5 Irish banks including Anglo Irish. The government says that NAMA will clean up the banking system by paying the banks 54 billion euro of taxpayer money to purchase toxic loans from their balance sheets. This is a huge risk which could blow up spectacularly and put several generations of Irish people into excessive debt.

Already we are seeing evidence that the banks lied about the quality of the loans on their books. At the time of agreeing values on their toxic property portfolios the banks assured the government that 40% of their loans were income producing. Now we find out that the real figure is only 25%. What the percentage will be in a year’s time is anyone’s guess.

Apart from NAMA and the Anglo Irish Bank bailout, the Irish Government has already recapitalized other Irish banks and financial institutions to the amount of some 13.5 billion euro. This was supposed to release funds and provide much needed credit to Small Business and to mortgage seekers. But the banks which were bailed out by the people of Ireland are not responding in kind to the people of Ireland. They are holding onto their funds while businesses are failing in unprecedented numbers for want of working capital. Much of the bailout money is being used by the banks to strengthen their balance sheets or to make safe investments elsewhere.

(In the United States, banks find it more profitable and free of risk to borrow from the Federal Reserve at .25% interest and buy 5-year Treasury bonds at 2.5% return rather than lend money to cash starved businesses. They can make enormous profits while thousands of businesses go to the wall.)

When one adds up the amount of money committed to recapitalization and bailout of Irish banks one arrives at a figure of some 90 billion euro.

If the Irish Government had invested this 90 billion in a state owned bank they could have implemented that sleight of hand practice so beloved of banksters called “Fractional Reserve Lending” whereby they could create and lend some 12 times the amount of capital invested. This would exceed 1,000 billion euro!

Ireland would be awash with cash and with prudent management the economy would have been turned around very quickly. Small businesses would have adequate working capital, home seekers could buy homes, public projects and infrastructure could be easily financed, and Ireland would return very swiftly to full employment.

But the government did not take that option. Instead, they pledged a colossal amount of money to private banksters to save them and their investors from losses incurred by their own criminal recklessness. In doing so, they have mortgaged the future of Ireland and the Irish people for generations to come and crippled the economy to levels often seen in the Third World.

By giving billions of public money to maintain the fortunes of its former cronies in banking and property development the Irish Government has created a living hell for its struggling citizens: almost 500,000 people out of work, 200,000 emigrating in search of jobs, tens of thousands of mortgages falling into arrears, hundreds of small businesses going to the wall, and suicides alarmingly on the rise. The land is filled with misery and despair when it could so easily have been triumph and prosperity.

Is Michael O’Boyce and the GRA correct when they charge the Irish Government with treason?

You decide.

This article first appeared on articlesbase.com on July 21, 2010.

http://foolscrow.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/cops-charge-irish-government-with-treason/

studiorat

The Garda, with 46 different expense types? Rich coming from the president of the GRA.

Garda pensions cost €1 million each!!! I kid you not. They are the best payed public servants in the land.

Their rent allowance, which even the commissioner gets cost the state €59 million. My favorite is the holiday allowance they get because they can't claim overtime because they are on holiday!!!

Ya never see a poor Guard.

Thing is, the Cops haven't charged anyone with treason. So the title of the OP is utterly false.

Brown Bomber

"charge" can have many meanings. Assuming the events took place the title is not false.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

yes ,
its no conspiracy either

they committed treason , pure and simple

it amazes me still that people do not seem to realise this ,

humanji

Nobody commited treason. That involves violence.

studiorat

Brown Bomber wrote: »

"charge" can have many meanings. Assuming the events took place the title is not false.

Yeah right! How many meanings does it have in the context of Charging with Treason?

Brown Bomber

studiorat wrote: »

Yeah right! How many meanings does it have in the context of Charging with Treason?

many equals more than 1.

King Mob

studiorat wrote: »

Yeah right! How many meanings does it have in the context of Charging with Treason?

You could be charging something using Treason brand battery chargers.

squod

DaDumTish wrote: »

yes ,
its no conspiracy either

they committed treason , pure and simple

it amazes me still that people do not seem to realise this ,

http://dws-sketch.uk.oup.com/cgi-bin/onlineOde/print_entry.cgi?id=T004734964&match_point=4&lemma=&right_column_mode=labels&caption_style=short&search_type=simple

treason
• noun (also high treason) I][URL="http://dws-sketch.uk.oup.com/cgi-bin/onlineOde/print_entry.cgi?id=M001548389&match_point=2&lemma=&right_column_mode=labels&caption_style=short&search_type=simple"]mass noun[/URL][/I the crime of betraying one's country,

My name is URL

squod wrote: »

treason
• noun (also high treason) [mass noun] the crime of betraying one's country

You should define 'betrayal' too.

breaking or violation of a presumptive social contract, trust, or confidence

Brown Bomber

welcome you to the 32nd Annual Delegate Conference of the Garda Representative Association. I accept your non-attendance last year was due to circumstances beyond your control, but was disappointed you did not make greater effort to fulfil our invitation to attend the conference dinner.

At conference last year I called for the embargo on promotions to be lifted. I thank the Minister for Finance for heeding the call and I’m glad to say that practically all the members of the Garda Representative Association who should have been promoted last year now are.


At conference last year I said, “This government is driving experience out of An Garda Síochána. A rising number of members of all ranks who could and who want to continue to serve this country are considering retirement.” Sadly my words proved to be correct. In one garda division alone, numbers are down by 20 in recent months.


At conference last year I spoke about the mothballing of the Garda College. Disgracefully, there are no students in the college – for the first time in its history. Due to government policy there will be no students in the Garda College for a long time to come. An Garda Síochána is contracting by the direct action of the government; experience is being driven out and no new blood coming in. This is pushing the Force to the brink of disaster.


An effective police force needs continuity, a principle tried and tested the world over but ignored in Ireland. In these uncertain times the public needs to know that there will be adequate frontline gardaí for them. Garda numbers will fall again by the end of 2010. The people of Ireland should rightly demand garda recruitment is taken away from government because it is misused as an election gimmick. It is far too important for that. The Garda Representative Association will continue to campaign for an end to this obnoxious trick.


For the past year and a half, gardaí and other public sector workers have endured an unrelenting, distasteful and vitriolic attack from the government and their wealthy cronies. This was distasteful and unbelievable considering the role garda take in society. It most definitely verged on incitement to hatred. The attacks were orchestrated to demonise and marginalise public sector workers. They were designed to drive a wedge between public and private sector workers.


But the ancient tactic of divide and conquer did not succeed, except with those misguided souls who contact daytime radio talk shows. They were primed to deflect attention away from the ‘national saboteurs’.
We are angry, we have been betrayed and we are disillusioned. But I do not believe it is yet understood just how angry we are. And that anger will find an outlet, the anger that we feel will find its target.


We are angry at being portrayed as self-serving, overpaid, under-worked and dishonest people with overly generous pensions that we don’t pay for. Yes, there are public servants who fit into that category; they are represented by you and your colleagues, not us.


We are angry that we, our children and our children’s children have been sacrificed by this government to protect the people who bankrolled your party and robbed the Irish People. Men like Fingers and Seanie were held up by government as examples of entrepreneurial skill and business acumen but who were nothing more than ‘gombeen’ men.


We are angry at the arrogance of a government corrupted by years of power has lost touch with the reality of life on a modest salary; if they ever knew it at all. A government whose only agenda is to protect the economic traitors.


We are angry at being lectured by government on the need to be patriotic. A patriot is ‘a person who vigorously supports his country and its way of life.’ This government is misusing what it means to be Irish as they support a new aristocracy created in their image. This new aristocracy chooses whether to retain state pensions while still working as public representatives, using all means to spend vast resources on the few, while taking pay from the majority. This government have created a new class system; one that does not value our service and dedication.


We are angry about NAMA. No, not the entity set up by government to bail out developers and speculators who reneged on their debts, the cost of which you have placed on the shoulders of generations of Irish workers to come. Yes, we are angry about that, but, I am talking about the NAMA that the government is, The National Assets Mismanagement Agency.


The government of which you are a long serving member has mismanaged the wealth of this country for more than a decade by allowing our assets to be plundered and robbed by bankers and speculators and you are making generations of Irish workers pay the price for this treachery. You did this because bankers and speculators have bought your party, and in return you have sacrificed the greater good and prosperity of the Irish Nation for the benefit of the few – the few who have now taken their ill-gotten gains and secured them in tax haven around the world. Truly, a government of national sabotage.


In the face of the unwarranted attack by the government on the workers and unemployed of this country the Garda Representative Association has stood head and shoulders above other trade unions. We have shown leadership, temerity, tenaciousness and courage. We have lead from the front.


The Central Executive Committee picketed Dáil Eireann. No government minister or TD had the courage to come out and meet us. We led 4,000 of our members on a march to the Dáil. Once again no government minister had the courage to come out to us. We joined the 24/7 Frontline Services Alliance. No minister had the courage to tell us we shouldn’t be part of that alliance. They knew the answer that we would have given them.


On the 7th December 2009 we announced that we were going to ballot our members on industrial action. I have no doubt the announcement saved our allowances from the hatchet.


You Minister came out fighting, saying you were going to arrest and jail the CEC, and forgetting that you hadn’t the power. Then you threatened to seize the assets of the GRA; believing your own frenzy you went on to threaten to arrest the printers and the postal workers. As we know none of this happened – except the issuing of the ballot.


What the GRA said we would do, we did. What you, Minister, said you wouldn’t allow, you couldn’t stop.
An ‘away win’ for the Garda Representative Association.


The GRA has now set forth on a course to become a full trade union. Minister, you have said that we will never achieve that status. That is the second leg. And when, in the near future, the GRA achieves trade union status, it will be the home win.

http://www.newstalk.ie/programmes/all/breakfast/the-speech-that-was-never-delivered/

pa990

Boyce is NOT THE PRESIDENT OF THE GRA ....


also.. there is no such thing as a holiday allowance.

jeez.. conspiracies are no fun when the basic facts are blatantly WRONG

TalkieWalkie

Brown Bomber wrote: »

The government of which you are a long serving member has mismanaged the wealth of this country for more than a decade by allowing our assets to be plundered and robbed by bankers and speculators and you are making generations of Irish workers pay the price for this treachery. You did this because bankers and speculators have bought your party, and in return you have sacrificed the greater good and prosperity of the Irish Nation for the benefit of the few – the few who have now taken their ill-gotten gains and secured them in tax haven around the world. Truly, a government of national sabotage.

I guess this is another way of saying the government is privately owned

phantom_lord

TalkieWalkie wrote: »

I guess this is another way of saying the government is privately owned

um, no

Di0genes

TalkieWalkie wrote: »

I guess this is another way of saying the government is privately owned

Um a world of no. And the GRA don't represent the entire Garda, both O'Boyce and PJ Stone have made absurd inflammatory claims at their conversations.

Joshua Jones

Yep. Pretty much where we're at. Onwards and upwards.

Brown Bomber

Di0genes wrote: »

Um a world of no. And the GRA don't represent the entire Garda, both O'Boyce and PJ Stone have made absurd inflammatory claims at their conversations.

Have you been listening in to their phone calls or something? How do you know what they've said during their conversations?

By the way...

"You did this because bankers and speculators have bought your party"
Is another way of saying the government is privately owned, albeit deceptively.

Mahatma coat

Di0genes wrote: »

Um a world of no. And the GRA don't represent the entire Garda,

So let me get his straight
the Garda Representative Asscosiation

is not an asscosiation that represents Gardai

both O'Boyce and PJ Stone have made absurd inflammatory claims at their conversations.

Examples, Source, Link??????

King Mob

Mahatma coat wrote: »

So let me get his straight
the Garda Representative Asscosiation

is not an asscosiation that represents Gardai

The GRA has 11,600 members which includes retired personnel.
There are 14,411 officers of the Garda that are currently active.

Hence the GRA does not represent the entire Garda.

Di0genes

Mahatma coat wrote: »

So let me get his straight
the Garda Representative Asscosiation

is not an asscosiation that represents Gardai

Some Garda not all Garda.

Examples, Source, Link??????

Sigh Mahatma. This is how this works. I point out something. You demand proof. I show you up as a ninny. You ignore said proof.

As it happened PJ Stone claimed a number of years ago that the reclaim the streets footage from 2002 had been heavily edited to make the Garda look bad, and he had seen the master tapes and they told a different story. This was simply impossible. I could go and find the link, but that would require me to jump through hoops for you that I'm really not bothered to do.

brown bomber wrote:

Is another way of saying the government is privately owned, albeit deceptively.

Or it is another way of saying it's you reading your own meaning into his comments.

Mahatma coat

Di0genes wrote: »

Some Garda not all Garda.

So they represent Most Gardai then??

Sigh Mahatma. This is how this works. I point out something. You demand proof. I show you up as a ninny. You ignore said proof.

Really????? Generally I ignore you because I think your a <insert appropriate Derrogotary Expletive>, nothing to do with your 'Proofs' & Seriously 'ninny':rolleyes:

As it happened PJ Stone claimed a number of years ago that the reclaim the streets footage from 2002 had been heavily edited to make the Garda look bad,

And??? they were edited, the ones on the Web were released by Indymedia were anyway, and done in a way to make it look a lot worse, not that it wasnt a clear display of Gardai oversteppin the bounds.

and he had seen the master tapes and they told a different story. This was simply impossible.

So I presume you have seen the Mastertape then?? if not then stop talking in absolutes.

I could go and find the link, but that would require me to jump through hoops for you that I'm really not bothered to do.

or you just made it all up, and this feigned malaise is a ploy to avoid answering questions.

bytey

humanji wrote: »

Nobody commited treason. That involves violence.

lol what a stupid statement

you think selling secrets to another governement for example needs to involve violence ?

thats treason , by the way

and so is destroying a countrys economy to prop up your banker / builder mates.

humanji

bytey wrote: »

lol what a stupid statement

you think selling secrets to another governement for example needs to involve violence ?

thats treason , by the way

and so is destroying a countrys economy to prop up your banker / builder mates.

Read the constitution and come back to me.

bytey

read

an act of war does not have to be violent - an economic / financial act can be an act of war.


case closed

Di0genes

Mahatma coat wrote: »

So they represent Most Gardai then??



Really????? Generally I ignore you because I think your a <insert appropriate Derrogotary Expletive>, nothing to do with your 'Proofs' & Seriously 'ninny':rolleyes:

English please.

And??? they were edited, the ones on the Web were released by Indymedia were anyway, and done in a way to make it look a lot worse, not that it wasnt a clear display of Gardai oversteppin the bounds.

And how do you know they were edited in a way to make the garda "look worse"

No they we're they were handed over to TV3 and RTE unedited.
So I presume you have seen the Mastertape then?? if not then stop talking in absolutes.

Yes Mahatma I did see the master tapes. And can provide proof of this to any mod of your choosing.

or you just made it all up, and this feigned malaise is a ploy to avoid answering questions.

Oh bless.

humanji

bytey wrote: »

read

an act of war does not have to be violent - an economic / financial act can be an act of war.


case closed

That's not what the constitution says.

Mahatma coat

Di0genes wrote: »

English please.

:rolleyes: Really, what part is proving too taxing for your little brain Diddums

And how do you know they were edited in a way to make the garda "look worse"

Well they certainlywerent edited by Indymedia to show the Gardai in a more Positive light.

Yes Mahatma I did see the master tapes. And can provide proof of this to any mod of your choosing.

Share with the Group Please.

Oh bless.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::pac:

Di0genes

Mahatma coat wrote: »

:rolleyes: Really, what part is proving too taxing for your little brain Diddums

The whole lack of coherence english part.

Share with the Group Please.

I was a founding member of the indymedia collective, shot the most damning footage, collected other peoples footage, testified as a prosecution witness in every case.

Kinda fúcks with your "glorified tea boy" attitude, now don't it?

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::pac:

I'll see that and raise it :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::eek::pac::pac::pac:

sbsquarepants

That's a hard one to come back from!:eek:

humanji

Guys, stop trying to make this personal.

uprising2

Di0genes wrote: »

I was a founding member of the indymedia collective, shot the most damning footage, collected other peoples footage, testified as a prosecution witness in every case.

Kinda fúcks with your "glorified tea boy" attitude, now don't it?

This I have to ask about.

About Indymedia

The Independent Media Centre Network is a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth.
http://www.indymedia.ie/about_us

Where do you fit in with this.......

Is this you?

http://www.indymedia.ie/features

Did you attend this?

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/97753


You don't seem the type......