Author: Gerard Cunningham

Gerard Cunningham occupies his time working as a journalist, writer, sub-editor, blogger and podcaster, yet still finds himself underemployed.

Threat Level

Justice minister Dermot Ahern says membership of a criminal gang will become a scheduled offence, to be tried in the Special Criminal Court. In the last chapter of Chaos and Conspiracy, when I considered the lessons to be learned from what happened in Donegal a decade ago, I wrote this: “The Gardaí need effective oversight… Continue reading Threat Level

Sign of the Times

Yesterday I posted edited extracts from a review of ‘Chaos and Conspiracy’ in a shameless bid to promote the book to anyone who happens to be reading out there. The review appeared in last Saturday’s edition of the Irish Independent, under the headline ‘The rumour-mill that tore the soul out of an Irish country town’.… Continue reading Sign of the Times

Independent Review

Gerard Cunningham, who covered every day of evidence at the Morris tribunal, has written a devastating new book. Chaos and Conspiracy is at its most powerful when it details the awful consequences of the wrongful arrests of twelve innocent people. Take for example, Roisin McConnell: accused of having an affair, called a slut and a… Continue reading Independent Review

Those Junior Ministers…

Biffo plans to cut back on junior ministers. So who’s for the chop? Barry Andrews, minister for Having a Famous Grandfather Billy Kelleher, minister for Getting Two Points on His Driving License Tony Killeen, minister for Putting Criminals on the Streets Seán Haughey, minister for Having a Famous Daddy Trevor Sargent, minister for Parsnips and… Continue reading Those Junior Ministers…

Lest We Forget

Robert McCallion was 29 years old. He was born in Swinford, Co Mayo. He was a Guard, as was his father. His brother is also a member of the force. Robert was an active member of his local GAA club in Swinford. He won a county minor title in 1997, and played at minor and… Continue reading Lest We Forget

Doling Out The Blame

Dole minister Mary Hanafin is trumpeting the results of social welfare fraud investigations. In short, just over one in ten claims investigated were ‘suspended’ or ‘under continuing investigation.’ We are not told how many inquiries are continuing, and how many are completed. So much for presumed innocent. The majority of dodgy claims were from foreigners,… Continue reading Doling Out The Blame

Media Bites

News has never been more immediate, with twentyfour hour rolling news channels, talk radio, websites, instant feedback through email, blogging, even twitter. And yet, for many in the industry, things have never been as grim. It’s not just that media groups face the same problems as everyone else, be it debt leverage, shellshocked pension funds,… Continue reading Media Bites