Books
Gerard Cunningham is the author of two books, 'Chaos & Conspiracy', published in April 2009, and 'Breaking the Silence' (along with Martin Ridge). He also worked as consultant editor on 'Charades', by Karen McGlinchey.
Click here to buy [Breaking the Silence]. What emerges very strongly from the narrative is the wall of silence, of shame, of guilt and of fear that had prevented significant numbers of victims from speaking out about their experiences ... The authors have skilfully portrayed this gradual opening up ... What must occur to anyone reading this account of the rape and sexual abuse of so many young people in one parish in Donegal, is that it is unlikely to be an isolated case; perhaps victims in many other areas of the country are awaiting their opportunity to talk about their pain and despair. It is certainly a book that will leave a sense of betrayal, while at the same time eliciting an enormous sympathy for all those whose innocence was taken from the by men whom they should have been able to trust implicitly. - Irish Emigrant Click here to buy [Breaking the Silence]. |
Click below to buy Chaos & Conspiracy [The scandal is] the country's Guantanamo Bay — a pockmark on the state's policing practice. Dozens of gardaí were criticised in the tribunal's reports, most of who retired in shame. The human cost is more difficult to assess. Twelve innocent people were hauled into custody and questioned barbarically six weeks after Barron's death, suspected of colluding in his murder.
What is infuriating about the whole episode, which trumbled on for 12 years, is that most of the mistakes were made in the first week, as Gerard Cunningham outlines in his riveting new book, Chaos and Conspiracy.
This is a brilliant piece of reporting. Readers will already know the bones of this case through newspaper, TV and radio reports. The book to hand, taken in two or three sittings, makes for a more dramatic read than the daily drip-feed of national newspapers.
The question that this reader arrived at was how the gardaí hoped to get away with this behaviour. Did they see themselves as so unconnected with Garda HQ in Dublin that they believed they could act in such an unrestrained way?
This story has almost been lost because it became the subject of the Morris Tribunal, which ran for six years. But Gerard Cunningham, who covered every day of evidence at the tribunal, has written a devastating new book which redresses the balance. And Chaos and Conspiracy is at its most powerful when it details the awful consequences of the wrongful arrests. These were ordinary people who had never seen the inside of a garda station and were suddenly being shouted at, abused and told they were involved in a murder which they knew nothing about. And Gerard Cunningham carefully catalogues their stories, which had previously been lost amidst tens of thousands of pages.
Chaos and Conspiracy is a gripping account which will be read most avidly in Raphoe. But it should also be obligatory reading for the 14,000 members of the gardai and for those of us tempted to argue that the end justifies the means when it comes to combating crime.
Click here to buy [Chaos & Conspiracy]. |
Click here to buy [Charades]. Never before has the cliché 'incredible but true' seemed so inadequate or trite. - Daily Ireland A series of almost farcical events involving the 'discovery' of bomb-making equipment by McMahon and later Superintendent Kevin Lennon. Behind the corruption is a litany of non-reported incidents, of allegations denied, of alcohol abuse and of physical, mental and emotional abuse against a naive girl who was afraid to admit to her family that she had gone off the rails. The extent of the corruption is quite astonishing, as is the way in which the Garda Síochána closed ranks to protect its own members. - Irish Emigrant Click here to buy [Charades]. |