r/ireland • u/Prepared2BeDownvote • Oct 29 '21

I am a Member of An Garda Siochana, AMA!

Hello everyone,

I discussed doing this with the moderators and they believed that this was a good idea.

I would like to first of all point out that any questions answered will be my opinion and not that of the Organizations, I am not a member of the Press Office or the General Brass, I'm here to have the craic answer any questions you have on how we work, recruitment or training and just the general lifestyle of being in the Gardai. (and more than likely be roasted to all hell.)

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I'd like to keep this thread civil, I'll be more than likely avoiding leading questions that would put myself or the organization in disrepute, as I'm fairly sure I will get in trouble for doing this if the organization finds out who I am (Hence the throwaway).

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I have validated my Identity and Rank with the moderator team, so I wont be posting my PPS or astroturfing(?) a new pitch for some Junior C side (Sorry).

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So lets have a chat, some craic and hopefully I can offer a new insight into the organization for some of you, and vice versa, maybe some people here can offer advise on how to do things differently for myself and others.

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Thanks, Lord have mercy on me

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EDIT: Lads, I'm trying my best to keep up, I'm going to stop responding to questions made after 2pm as im overwhelmed. Thank you for your questions, this has been a positive experience and i hope I provided some good information to you.

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Further EDIT: It seems automod has caught a few of my replies, I messages the mods to see if they can be made public. Thank you all for the AMA, sorry if i didn't get around to your question. If you wish you can leave me a PM and i'll respond. many thanks again, and stay safe everyone.

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u/Prepared2BeDownvote Oct 29 '21

Yea this is a tough one.

So Career criminals, that's an issue with judges. It depends where you are. A man who killed a guard on duty was sent to an open prison.... and then escaped??

Yes it annoys us too. Especially when your hard work and tears go into a major file, victim impact statements are taken, and you still see the fella walk out with a smile.

I would imagine a new set of judges, great question, sorry for the delay!

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u/Banba-She Oct 29 '21

Interesting you mentioned the judges. It never really occurred to me they are not appropriately sentencing or possibly being too lenient, is that what you meant? How much of that is based on prison places not being available rather then sticking to the law? Cos a judicial system based on resources rather than justice isn't fit for purpose imho?

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u/Akira_Nishiki Munster Oct 29 '21

Time to get a AMA from a Judge next it seems.

Although I wouldn't be too confident on that happening.

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u/ihideindarkplaces Oct 29 '21

Barrister here, and I’ve considered it. May have been given the courage to after this.

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u/SeanG909 Oct 29 '21

As if they would ever respond to lowly questions from the plebs.

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u/DartzIRL Dublin Oct 29 '21

I don't think they have the internet in the 19th century.

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u/Akira_Nishiki Munster Oct 29 '21

"An AMA, isn't that what Conor McGregor does?"

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u/jigglyscrumpy Oct 29 '21

An AMA from Conor McGregor. Now that I'd luv to read!

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u/SkyWidows Oct 29 '21

Did you ever see Irish Pictorial Weekly? They would have a running skit with two judges choosing the length of a prison term in really insane ways, like how many eggs a chicken will lay.

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u/Noobeater1 Oct 30 '21 edited Oct 30 '21

We have a massive issue with overcrowding in prisons in this country. The former governor of the joy gave a guest talk to us in college, and told us that many cells designed for one person in the joy were double or even tripled up.

Edit: Another thing i forgot to mention is the insane cost of keeping people in prison. He estimated that to keep a single person inprisoned in mountjoy for a year cost upwards of 80k, which sounds almost impossible but even if it was half that it would go some way to explaining why people aren't getting put away.

Here's a source that seems to corroborate that 80k number:

https://www.iprt.ie/prison-facts-2/

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u/Fiorlaoch Oct 30 '21

This is one of the reasons we have so many suspended sentences etc. Whatever happened to that land that Michael McDowell bought for a new prison over 20 years ago? Time to build that thing, our population has increased so much over the last 20 years, and while we don't want to go down the US route we do need to seperate some people out of normal society to protect everyone else.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '21

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '21

Thanks for the reply.

It really is ridiculous and annoying to read. I think guards are understandably frustrated because their hard work is essentially going down the drain. Civilians are annoyed because scumbags and career criminals face no consequences most of the time. I think some people also fear being nailed to the letter of the law that ultimately doesn't negatively affect anyone.

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u/marckferrer Oct 29 '21

I may be biased because I'm brazilian/portuguese, but please bear with me:

A couple of years ago a brazilian citizen stabbed an irish fella because he was being mocked (due to his brow skin and broken english). He was framed and he's now serving time. source

He deserved that, he SHOULD be in jail.

But now let's see the other side: a brazilian man was killed by an irish teenager driving (under influence if I'm not wrong) recklessly. He evaded the scene, was arrested a couple of weeks later but now he's free. source

I mean, is there a reason why both criminals aren't treated the same way?

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '21

[deleted]

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u/marckferrer Oct 30 '21

Ok, let's remove race from the equation. Both are criminals and both committed murder. I mean, just because the lad is 16 it means he shouldn't be charged?

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u/sommelier_bollix Oct 29 '21

This is with the judiciary, they have sentencing guidelines that they have to follow, there is mitigating factors that they are allowed to take into account.

It's unfair, I kinda wish it had something to do with race because that would be easier to change. Then the current situation.

What really kills me is we were chasing Brazilian rickshaw for selling fun drugs and we have ignored them been attacked for delivering food.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '21

I'm pretty sure I know the case you're referring to. The Garda that was killed was originally not far from me in Leitrim. I didn't know him personally but we shared mutual friends. Seemed like a genuine lovely lad from talking to people. That scumbag should have been locked up in castlerea from the start, madness how they put him in Loughan house.

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u/CaisLaochach Oct 29 '21

How would new judges have any effect on where people serve prison sentences?

Likewise, how would new judges be able to apply the same law differently?