Before the brutal attack on Kevin Lunney, An Garda and the authorities generally were prepared to cede control of a portion of the state to an armed gang. Northern Ireland authorities did likewise. In two senses it is of course a legacy of the conflict in Ireland. Firstly, the group in this case were either members of the IRA or had business dealings with them. Secondly, taking control of an area and becoming the law enforcers to the exclusion of state forces is something that the IRA did successfully. However, it is neither confined to IRA history nor a matter of lethal force. The PSNI recently withdrew in order to let loyalists control a huge bonfire adjacent to people’s homes and a few years ago an election candidate was excluded from a Dublin housing estate by “forces” who considered it their area. The point is that unless a group goes too far, the state will cede territory to them. Indeed police will not even consider the usurpation of their power in a small area or to a small degree to be a challenge to the democratic state.
It is is not at all like routine police practice whereby, say, protesters are allowed to have temporary control rather than risk a confrontation.* This is more serious; it’s both longer term and involves territory – perhaps a tiny territory like a small housing estate or a more extensive territory like part of a city or county. It is moreover a partial abandonment of citizens of the state and their delivery to an occupation or rule by a self-appointed gang or even a para-military force.
Recently on radio Michael McDowell, the barrister and former government minister, wittily underlined the difference in treatment. He’d been driving in the Cavan/Fermanagh region and saw the threatening posters and signs permitted by lack of state action and contrasted it with what would happen if he erected similar in Ranelagh. The same could be said of course about the chances of diesel laundering in, say, Leixlip and yet it continued in border regions.
Two states have now jointly decided to take back control and liberate the citizens of Cavan/Monaghan. It doesn’t auger well for the future that it took an act of appalling barbarity to prompt action.
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* There is an overlap with protest. Here’s an old piece written during the water protests: https://colummccaffery.wordpress.com/2014/10/14/citizens-need-to-talk-about-a-contentious-suggestion-which-is-reported-regularly-by-an-uncritical-media/
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