Visit of 
Minister Éamon Ó Cuív, TD, 
Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, 
to Philadelphia and New York, 
13-18 March, 2004
 

John Jay College of Criminal Justice
 

Detective Garda McCabe Fellowship Breakfast - New York, March 16, 2004 
 
 

It is a privilege to be here this morning to pay tribute to the memory of Det. Garda Gerry McCabe. On behalf of the Government, I would like to thank John Jay College and all those involved in organising this event. It is an important opportunity to honour his memory and his service to his community as a police officer who paid the ultimate price of his profession. 

Gerry McCabe's sacrifice is borne particularly heavily by his wife and family who lost a beloved husband and father. To lose one's life in the line of duty is a risk undertaken by all police officers and a fear that all of their families must live with. 

I am also conscious that, since last year's Fellowship Breakfast, we have lost a great friend of John Jay College and supporter of the Garda McCabe Fellowship, Mr. Brean Murray. I extend my deepest condolences to Tina Murray who, like Brean, has been an invaluable supporter of the Fellowship since its inception. 

It would seem appropriate too in this city in particular to recall the sacrifice of so many other public servants, particularly those fire-fighters who lost their lives on 9/11. As we honour St. Patrick's Day, we are reminded that so many of these fallen were Irish, part of the proud tradition of service so common in the Irish American community here.

In recalling the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty, we are reminded all too starkly of the burdens we place on police officers and of our reliance on them. It is right therefore to recall the vital role that police officers play in the life of our communities and in underpinning the values of our society. 

We charge our police officers with momentous responsibilities:

• to uphold the law fairly and firmly; 
• to pursue and bring to justice those who break the law; 
• to keep our communities safe; 
• to defend human rights; 
• to prevent crime; 
• to keep the peace. 

In carrying out these duties vital to society, officers need to rely on many attributes. Physical courage is required. Quick judgement and a cool nerve. A natural affinity with the rule of law combined with a sense of fairness. An understanding of human fallibility and ultimately a belief in the possibility of redemption.

But police officers cannot operate in a vacuum. All their human skills need the support of the community if they are to uphold justice and serve the law. Without that community support and trust, there can be little but coercion left. And coercion as a tool negates the very cooperation that is required for effective policing. It is this insight that has inspired the philosophy of policing in Ireland since the foundation of our state. As the very first Commissioner of An Garda Síochána, Michael Staines, put it, a police force succeeds "not by force of arms or numbers, but by their moral authority as servants of the people". 

Garda McCabe was the embodiment of this tradition. His loss was therefore felt all the more keenly within the local community, within our nation and indeed internationally, as this annual event testifies.

The greatest policing challenge on the island of Ireland of course lay in Northern Ireland. So many years of division and conflict had left Northern Ireland with policing arrangements which did not command the support or confidence of the community as a whole. Indeed, Northern Ireland had become a society in which the composition and ethos of the police reflected one community to the virtual exclusion of the other. That was not a sustainable position if we were to achieve lasting peace and stability in which good policing is so vital an ingredient.

The Good Friday Agreement therefore called for a new beginning to policing, drawing on the lessons of policing in our own society. Informed by the principles of equality, human rights and partnership which provide the foundation for the Agreement itself, the Agreement's terms of reference laid out clear requirements for the new policing arrangements - namely, a professional and effective police service which carries out its duties fairly and impartially, which is free from partisan political control, which is accountable both under the law and to the communities it serves, which is representative of those same communities and which acts in accordance with the highest human rights standards.

This was the vision of the Good Friday Agreement. The task of working out how to make this vision a reality was given to the Independent Commission on Policing, which was led by Chris Patten and which included Dr. Gerald Lynch. 

The Commission proposed reforms, which as Tom Constantine, the Oversight Commissioner reminded us, were the most complex and dramatic changes ever attempted in history. With the continuing implementation of this report, there has been a quiet revolution in how Northern Ireland is policed.

The breadth and depth of change has been extraordinary. To recount in just the broadest outlines some of what has been achieved, we now have: 
 

• a new community-centred police service, governed by a code of ethics in line with the highest standards of human rights; 
  
  
• comprehensive accountability structures, including District Policing Partnerships which make the police accountable to local communities;
  
  
• recruitment policies which are slowly but surely making the police more representative of the communities it serves;
  
  
• the re-casting of Special Branch as an essential tool in a new crime branch, a new leadership and new procedures due to come on stream for greater accountability;
  
  
• considerably enhanced co-operation between the PSNI and An Garda Síochána, including provision to allow officers from each force to serve in the other. 

The continuing success of this project is a tribute to the people involved at all levels:

The Policing Board has been the primary engine of change, driving forward the implementation of the Patten recommendations. From day one, the Board has refused to shy away from taking the hard decisions, no matter how sensitive or complex the issue involved. Their record of success is there for all to see, and it continues to grow. 

Just last month, the Board chose Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, as the site for a purpose built, world-class policing college. Here the next generation of police men and women in Northern Ireland will be trained to the highest standards. There will be significant opportunities for co-operation with other institutions, including I hope, John Jay College. 

The Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, continues to demonstrate his determination and insight in what must be one of the most demanding offices in Northern Ireland and certainly one of the most challenging police jobs in the world. Together with his cadre of senior officers, and also with his talented team of district commanders working in their local communities, he is making the concept of "policing in the community" a reality throughout Northern Ireland.

The Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, has, throughout, conducted her work with rigour, fairness and impartiality. Her office commands widespread cross-community support, and her tireless work has done much to instill confidence within both communities in the development of acceptable policing structures and effective accountability mechanisms. 

I would also like to commend Mr Tom Constantine, who has just stepped down as Policing Oversight Commissioner. His rigorous and impartial approach has ensured that his nine reports were not just critical indicators of change, but were in fact drivers of change. I am confident that his successor, Mr Al Hutchison, will follow this pattern and continue to guide the oversight process with similar expertise and determination. 

This process has not always been easy. In the past six months, perhaps the greatest burden has been borne by nationalist members of the District Policing Partnerships. These are people who are doing their civic duty by working to bring about acceptable, representative policing in their local communities. 

Because of this, they have come under threat from those seeking to undermine the progress made in policing. Using the bully-boy tactics of the past they have tried to harass and intimidate the independent and SDLP party members of the district policing boards. It is a testament to the courageous individuals on the Partnerships that these attacks have served to not remove but reinforce their resolve to carry out their civic duty. It is a testament also to the effectiveness of the new policing structures that co-operation between the PSNI and the Gardaí has removed much of the threat which they faced.

Much has been done, then, to make the Good Friday Agreement's vision of policing a reality. Of course, challenges remain.

We have travelled far on the road to full public acceptance of the police, but we're not there yet. We must complete the journey with the endorsement of the new policing by Sinn Féin, now the largest nationalist party in Northern Ireland. Only then can we have a police service which is endorsed by all, which is representative of all, and which is accountable to all. 

Quite apart from the beneficial implications for policing per se -and there are many - such an endorsement by mainstream republicans would represent a clear and definitive break with what the Taoiseach has called the 'culture of paramilitarism'. 

The advances in forensic and DNA technology will also present huge challenges for the PSNI - as they do for every other police force - especially in terms of how it deals with the large number of unresolved murders from the Troubles. Public confidence will depend on the PSNI's ability to meet its obligations in this area in a way which reflects international best practice.

These are serious challenges, and I know there are others. But you can be assured that they will be approached with the same rigour and determination which has already brought us this far. 

For it is in the completion of this policing project, in the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and in the realisation of a peaceful and secure Northern Ireland that we can honour the heavy price which Gerry McCabe and others paid for their service to their communities. 

We owe it to his memory, and to all the victims of the past thirty years, that we never flag in our efforts towards this goal of an Ireland, North and South, devoted to peace, reconciliation and the welfare of generations to come. I can think of no better tribute to the memory of Gerry McCabe. 

The acknowledgement of Gerry McCabe's sacrifice today is a timely occasion to remind ourselves of a bedrock principle of the Northern Ireland peace process: the absolute requirement to bring definitive closure to violence and paramilitary activities. There can be no half-way house between paramilitarism and democracy. 

Finally, I am deeply conscious that this is the last Fellowship Breakfast which Gerry Lynch, a dedicated friend of Ireland, will attend in his capacity as President of John Jay College. Since 1976, this College has, indeed, been very fortunate to have benefited from his excellent stewardship.

We thank you for the close relationship which you developed between John Jay College and our Garda Síochána; your contribution to peace, justice and reconciliation through your membership of the Patten Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland; and your work to embed the guiding principles of your College more broadly in the international arena.

Gerry, we wish you every success in the future and I know that John Jay College will continue to benefit from your vast experience and sound judgement.

Thank you.