C REATING THE TRUST TO ENABLE FORMER P OLICE O FFICERS TO MOVE FROM SILENCE TO STORYTELLING Good morning everybody. You are all very welcome here today. First of all I would like to take this opportunity to thank Bridging the Ages and Diversity Challenge for invitjng me to meet and speak to you and the topic I am going to speak about is “Creatjng the trust to enable Former Police Offjcers to move from silence to storytelling”. But before that I would like to take just a couple of minutes to introduce myself to you. My name is Patrick Donnelly and I was born in county Cavan approximately 100 km’s from Dundalk. The small town I was raised in is just about 4 km’s from the border with Northern Ireland. My memories of my childhood back in the early 60’s are good ones. As children were didn’t have a care in the world. Politjcs and religion were never discussed in our home but even at that early age I knew there was something difgerent about one road, this was the road that led from our town into Northern Ireland. On this partjcular road there was a small hut with a “STAD” or “STOP” sign outside and there was always a man dressed in uniform there. It was as I got older I learned that this was a “Customs Post” and the man in uniform was a Customs Offjcer. That was my fjrst memory of the border and of being difgerent in some way to the people from the “other side of the Custom Post”. In 1972 a car bomb exploded in our town killing two school children and injuring many more civilians. One of the children was 16 year old Patrick Stanley from County Ofgaly, he was working as a helper on a truck and was in the phone box trying to ring his parents to tell them that they had been delayed and that were staying the night in a B&B and not to worry he would be home tomorrow. Sadly the car bomb was parked just outside the phone box and he was killed. Shortly afuer that the Britjsh Army blew up the bridge that connected our town with Northern Ireland and for a lot of the townspeople it would be many years before they would feel safe enough to venture back across the border into Northern Ireland. In 1976 I joined the Irish Army and served all over Ireland, Cavan, Gormanstown, Dublin, The Curragh, Cork, Limerick, Mullingar, Athlone, Galway, Leitrim and Donegal. I also served overseas with the United Natjons in Southern Lebanon where like many more soldiers I witnessed the devastatjon caused by years of war, the conditjons that people were living in and how despite all this they managed to live side by side. Back home in Ireland I was involved in many difgerent operatjons in the border regions including cash escorts, patrols, checkpoints and searches. These dutjes were always carried out in what was known as “aid to the Civil Power”. The civil power being An Garda Sochána.
In 1982 I lefu the Army and joined An Garda Sochána. Afuer completjng our training in Templemore, Co. Tipperary many of my class mates were sent to Dublin and I was sent to Carlingford which many of you know is a village approximately 20 km’s from Dundalk. In Carlingford there was one Sergeant, one senior Garda and me. Because of the small statjon strength, when you were on duty you were on your own, without any radio, any patrol car or motorbike or backup. You just hoped that whatever occurred during your shifu that you would be able to deal with it and that you would fjnish your shifu safely. Afuer two years in Carlingford I transferred into Dundalk and served here untjl my retjrement in 2008. Looking back over the years, my tjme as a Garda or Policeman was at tjmes frustratjng and at other tjmes challenging but always worthwhile. I took an Oath to uphold the laws of the land, “… without fear, favour, malice or ill-will” and that is what both myself and my colleagues endeavoured to do each day we put on the blue uniform to patrol the citjes, the towns, the townlands, highways and byways throughout Ireland. As I said at the beginning I have been invited here today to speak to you on the topic of “Creatjng the trust to enable Former Police Offjcers to move from silence to storytelling”. I became involved with the cross border project known as “Green and Blue Across the Thin Line” about two years ago. As the Secretary of the Internatjonal Police Associatjon I was approached by Will Glendining from “Diversity Challenge”. Will was very enthusiastjc when he explained to me that story telling was now a recognised and widely accepted means for recording history. He told me that “Diversity Challenge” was coordinatjng a cross border project that would allow both serving and retjred members of An Garda Siochána and the Royal Ulster Constabulary the opportunity to have recorded into history their own stories of what it was like to live and work along both sides of the border. At fjrst I must admit I wasn’t sold on the idea because by their very nature Police Offjcers are mistrustjng. It is their job to not to accept things on face value. It is their job to questjon, to inquire, to explore, to get to the truth. The botuom line I didn’t trust Will. However I decided to see how it would go. I atuended a couple of meetjngs and the seeds were sown. I started to see that what Will was providing was not some ruse to get informatjon about An Garda Siochána but rather he was giving us with a wonderful opportunity to tell the people whom we had worked so tjrelessly protectjng for so many years, what it was like for us to live and work along the border. Very few people will have ever heard of Temporary Constable William Campbell who was statjoned at Bridge street Police Barracks here in Dundalk in 1921. He was natjve of Scotland and arrived from England in January of that year. On the 17 th June at approx. 10.30pm he was ofg duty but lefu the Barracks and cycled on his push bike towards Dowdallshill which is on the old Newy road. When he didn’t return a number of his colleagues went looking for him. At about midnight informatjon was received that there was a body of a man lying on the Newry road about one mile from the town. A patrol was sent out and they found the body of Temporary Constable William Campbell. He had been shot dead. Five days later on Wednesday 22 nd June he was buried in St. Patrick’s Cemetery close to where he died. He never got the chance to tell his story.
In 1985 Sergt. Paddy Morrissey was atuending the Court in Ardee, Co. Louth not far from here when the local bank was robbed by two armed men. Despite coming under fjre Sergt. Morrissey and Gardai pursued these men to Tallanstown, where the thieves crashed their motorbike and ran across fjelds. Despite the obvious dangers Sergt. Morrissey followed these men on foot. One of these men turned and shot Sergt. Morrissey dead. Sergt. Morrissey who was 48 years old lefu a widow and a young family. I’m sure that when he was going to Court that morning he thought he would be home that evening. He had given over 25 years of his life to the service of the State and was cut down in his prime. Like Temporary Constable William Campbell he too did not get a chance to tell his story. Since the foundatjon of our State eighty seven (87) Gardai have paid the ultjmate sacrifjce and have been killed on duty. They died upholding the laws of Ireland, they died so we could go on living safely in Ireland. Just like many other Police Offjcers across the world they went out to work one day and didn’t come home. They didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, they didn’t get a chance to grow old with their families, they didn’t get a chance to tell their story. We have been given to chance by “Diversity Challenge” and “The Green and Blue Across the Thin Line” project to make sure our story is known and that we are not forgotuen like so many of our fallen comrades. So how do we create trust? How did “Diversity Challenge” “create the trust to enable Former Police Offjcers to move from silence to storytelling.” I looked up the word trust in the dictjonary and the following three words were in the defjnitjon: Belief, Confjdence and Hope. Belief: The person gathering the story and the story teller must believe in the project. “Diversity Challenge” achieved this by holding several informatjon meetjngs across the country. These meetjngs were atuended by both serving and retjred members of An Garda Siochána, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Police Service Northern Ireland. At these meetjngs many questjons were asked and all were answered fully and honestly. Prospectjve partjcipants were shown that the project was soundly based in ethics, that there was a very robust and transparent procedure for gathering the stories. Presentatjons were also made showing examples of stories already gathered in similar projects. These meetjngs and open discussions we feel went a long way to help people believe in this project. Confjdence: To establish confjdence in the project one of the fjrst things that “Diversity Challenge” did was to train Police Offjcers and retjred Police Offjcers to become “Story Gatherers”. This was a very important step as both serving and retjred Police Offjcers would be more willing to speak to other Offjcers. As I have already said prospectjve partjcipants were shown that the procedure for gathering stories was transparent. Also they were informed that they would have control of their story at all tjmes throughout the project and that they would be provided with a copy of their completed interview before anything was published. This important point I feel help to allay a lot of fears the “Story Tellers” had.
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