Gardaí made an unsuccessful 11th‑hour attempt to secure footage from RTÉ’s hard-hitting exposé on violent far-right protests just days before it aired this week.
Officers initially tried to serve the order to reporter Barry O’Kelly – whose dramatic film contained strong criticism of An Garda Síochána’s ‘soft-touch’ policing of riots – on Tuesday, September 10.
When this attempt to secure the footage was unsuccessful, a second District Court order, this time to RTÉ, was obtained by gardaí two days ago.
Sources this weekend said three officers called to Mr O’Kelly’s Dublin home nine days before the programme aired to serve him with the court order, but he was not there at the time.
Three gardaí also attempted to serve the order to Mr O’Kelly at RTÉ, but sources said the journalist had already ‘left the building’.
Ultimately, gardaí were unable to secure the footage or track down the award-winning reporter before the documentary aired.
A source said: ‘It was a complete stunt. Why did they not go after RTÉ first?’
On Friday, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris confirmed that the first time he saw the RTÉ footage was when the film was broadcast on Thursday this week.
Mr Harris also expressed frustration that, despite appeals, other footage taken from the scene of rioting at the former Crown Paints factory in Coolock earmarked for asylum accommodation was not made available to them until they got a court order.
However, the Garda chief made no mention of the court order directing Mr O’Kelly to hand over his footage. An RTÉ spokeswoman yesterday said it had ‘no comment’ to make on the court orders.
However, the broadcaster this week said it has given an undertaking to gardaí to provide the footage once it has fulfilled its journalistic obligations to protect sources.
A spokesman for Mr Harris confirmed a court order was ‘sought and was granted’ to ‘secure’ the RTÉ footage.
He said: ‘During the course of the ongoing investigation, An Garda Síochána discovered that workers of a private company in the area had been wearing body-worn cameras during this incident.’
‘In the eight weeks since the incident, this body-worn camera footage had not been provided to An Garda Síochána by the parties involved. To secure this footage, An Garda Síochána sought and was granted a court order.’
‘RTÉ has been made aware of the court order and has given an undertaking to An Garda Síochána that it will provide the footage to the investigation team.’
Gardaí added it is ‘normal in any criminal investigation, following an appeal for video footage, where images/video are identified and voluntarily being provided by both commercial and private entities, and in other cases as required, this would be formalised under the provisions of a District Court Order in accordance with the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1997’.
The RTÉ Investigates documentary, Inside The Protests, was filmed over a six-month period at anti-immigrant flashpoints, including the recent rioting in Coolock in north Dublin. Mr O’Kelly was at the site when it came under attack from a violent mob. His footage showed concerned staff desperately calling gardaí urging them to send more officers to the scene.
The cameras captured a mob – some armed with poles – threatening and chasing security workers, smashing windows, stealing beds and setting fire to a digger.
One member of the security team was seriously injured when he was struck in the head by a large pole. The footage showed him drifting in and out of consciousness when paramedics arrived at the scene.
Garda management was severely criticised for its slow response to the chaos that unfolded in Coolock on July 15.
A source with a strong background in protest policing this week said ‘ground’ lost to far-right provocateurs ‘will be hard to retrieve’. The source, a retired senior garda, said it was hard to watch thugs freely ‘roam around private property and set machinery alight’.
He said: ‘The Commissioner came out way back and said he didn’t want to play into their playbook, but sure of course they jump on that to basically do what they want. The message is all wrong. They [far-right agitators] have the ground at the moment, and I can’t see how this is going to be retrieved any time soon.’
‘Leadership is a major aspect in all this. Just because the Commissioner says not to play into their playbook, that doesn’t mean, if you are in charge in an area, you stand idly by. This Government, the Government of law and order, has allowed this, and the leadership in the Garda haven’t a clue about operational policing.’
With Mr Harris due to retire in May, the source said ‘the next commissioner would want to get a firm handle on this very quickly’.
The source noted: ‘In fairness to the British government, when the gun was put to their head with their far-right rioting over there, judges were picked and straight away into the court and jailed for three, four, five years and that it killed it instantly. But here we are watery and we’re debating and talking about hate speech legislation for a year-and-a-half and allowed these thugs to gain ground.’
In the immediate wake of the Coolock riots, a senior garda strongly criticised Commissioner Harris over the decision to delay the deployment of the Public Order Unit to the scene in Coolock.
Garda Representative Association (GRA) vice president Niall Hodgins also said it was ‘incredible’ that frontline gardaí, who were first to respond to the riots in Coolock, had ‘soft hats’ on when a ‘petroleum bomb had been thrown’ and ‘bricks were raining down’.
Commissioner Harris on Friday admitted the decision to stand down the Public Order Unit that morning was ‘not the right decision in hindsight’.
However, GRA president Ronan Slevin said the Commissioner’s U-turn was ‘extraordinary as it seems completely at odds to what he said in the direct aftermath of the riots’. Dublin-based senior detective Garda and GRA delegate Mark Ferris yesterday said the documentary highlights how gardaí are ill-equipped and untrained to combat rioters.
He said: ‘Rank-and-file members with limited experience of such scenarios are expected to face an onslaught or step aside.’
Commissioner Harris this week admitted there are lessons to be learned, but insisted gardaí are determined to bring offenders to justice.
A Garda spokesman noted the Commissioner‘s elements of the policing operation in Coolock were ‘far from perfect’.
‘The Garda Commissioner also highlighted that senior Garda management had met with the Garda associations on July 15, which was a constructive meeting with positive suggestions, and that all in attendance had reiterated the firm position that An Garda Síochána should maintain our community-based ethos with strong community support.’
