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On 6 May 2014, two reports condemning the conduct of Alan Shatter, Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, were delivered to government buildings in Dublin. Shatter resigned from cabinet the next day under pressure from Taoiseach Enda Kenny, his reputation destroyed and his political career in tatters. The GSOC bugging scandal had precipitated an avalanche of Garda corruption allegations and Shatter was in the eye of the storm. He was savaged by the media, and accusations of his covering up espionage and of ignoring the concerns of whistle blowers such as Maurice McCabe were widely accepted. Damaged by false narratives and political maneuvering by Enda Kenny, he then lost his Dáil seat ...
Laura is placed with adopters after her unmarried mother, Colette James, has been abandoned by Laura’s father, Sean Brannigan TD. To her adopters, John and Jenny Masterson, Laura is their daughter and they love her dearly. Their world is turned upside down when they learn that Colette has changed her mind and wants Laura back. This novel, full of compassion, anguish and suspense, relates the drama of the fight for Laura’s future. Alan Shatter is well known as a politician, legislator and lawyer. Laura is his first novel.
In Life is a Funny Business Alan Shatter revisits his early life experiences and explores how he was shaped and influenced by them. For the first time he describes the tragedy and comedy in his family history and background, depicted through the lens of an Irish Jewish boy growing up in 1950s and 60s Dublin, and his insights as a member of Ireland’s small Jewish community. His story travels through the Ireland of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and his early years of social and political activism and experiences as a lawyer. It ends shortly after Christmas 1981, just over six months following his first election to Dáil Éireann at the age of thirty. It also touches on some more recent events of s...
In this remarkable sequel to his critically acclaimed memoir Watching the Door, Irish journalist Kevin Myers reflects on his roller-coaster career over three decades in the Irish media, from the European conflicts he reported from to the personal conflicts he fought. Fresh from the horrors of 1970s Belfast, Myers took a job in 1979 with The Irish Times, and brilliantly evokes the comical chaos of life in the smoky newsroom of Ireland’s paper-of-record. Having taken over An Irishman’s Diary, Myers single-handedly pioneered the campaign to rehabilitate the memory of the forgotten Irish soldiers of the Great War, and in the process fell foul of the paper’s editor, the legendary Douglas Ga...
In Life is a Funny Business Alan Shatter revisits his early life experiences and explores how he was shaped and influenced by them. For the first time he describes the tragedy and comedy in his family history and background, depicted through the lens of an Irish Jewish boy growing up in 1950s and 60s Dublin, and his insights as a member of Ireland's small Jewish community. His story travels through the Ireland of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and his early years of social and political activism and experiences as a lawyer. It ends shortly after Christmas 1981, just over six months following his first election to Dáil Éireann at the age of thirty. It also touches on some more recent events of soc...
The Regulation of the Legal Profession in Ireland is a new and insightful exploration of history, controversy and reform relating to the Irish legal system. During recent legislative debate over a professional reform bill, Alan Shatter--then the Minister of Justice in Ireland--publicly called this study, in its earlier form as a dissertation, "marvellous," and stated that it "should be compulsory reading for us all." He noted that the thesis "sets out the history of the legal profession and how it evolved. It evolved continually until approximately 1870 and then went into paralysis and nothing has changed since. ... It is extraordinarily curious that people think the world stopped in 1870." ...
Little is known about life imprisonment and the process of releasing offenders back into the community in Ireland. Addressing this scarcity of information, Griffin’s empirical study examines the legal and policy framework surrounding life imprisonment and parole. Through an analysis of the rationales expressed by parole decision-makers in the exercise of their discretionary power of release, it is revealed that decision-makers view public protection as central to the process. However, the risk of reoffending features amidst an array of other factors that also influence parole outcomes including personal interpretations of the purposes of punishment, public opinion and the political landscape within which parole operates. The findings of this study are employed to provide a rationale for the upward trend in time served by life sentence prisoners prior to release in recent times. With reform of parole now on the political agenda, will a more formal process of release operate to constrain the increase in time served witnessed over the last number of decades or will the upward trajectory continue unabated?
In January 2013, the nation was horrified when Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe was murdered as he carried out a routine cash-escort duty at the Lordship Credit Union in Dundalk, Co Louth. Aaron Brady, the chief suspect, fled to the United States where he built a new life for himself, starting a family. While in some ways he was careful to cover his tracks, his habit of bragging about the murder after a few drinks would eventually see him arrested and charged. Deported back to Ireland where he faced the prospect of a 40 year jail term, Brady coordinated a campaign of witness intimidation from his cell in Mountjoy Prison. Pat Marry, former colleague of Adrian Donohoe and the detective inspector in charge of the investigation, and journalist Robin Schiller take us inside the notorious case, describing the gardai's unprecedented collaboration with the FBI, the NYPD and Homeland Security which finally brought Brady to justice, following the lengthiest police inquiry and murder trial in the history of the Irish state. Filled with details not previously known to the public, Murder at Lordship is the definitive account of one of the most shocking crimes of this century.
The research for this book was prompted by a combination of events, in particular the election of Mary Robinson to the Presidency and the X Case which rocked Irish society. The book is an exploration of the dynamics between the courts, the legislators and the Irish citizens in relation to certain socio-sexual questions: divorce, contraception, abortion, and homosexuality. Spanning 73 years since the creation of the Irish State, The Politics of Sexual Morality in Ireland questions the nature of the moral order regulating Irish society and the concept of democracy underlying it. It examines the fragile balance struck between tradition and modernity.
By many measures Enda Kenny was Fine Gael's most successful leader of all time, but his position as Taoiseach was thrown into turmoil in February 2017 by an explosive political scandal – one which threatened to collapse his government, and ultimately cost Kenny his job. In Enda the Road: Nine Days That Toppled a Taoiseach, Gavan Reilly offers an enthralling blow-by-blow account of the Maurice McCabe scandal: how a Garda whistleblower was targeted by a national smear campaign, and how the government's botched response led to a fatal loss of trust in its leader. Compiled through exhaustive research and interviews with dozens of key figures and witnesses, Enda the Road is the ultimate account of a nine-day political hurricane whirlwind that brought down a Taoiseach.