Will the Garda Phone Tapping Debacle Lead to Internment?

Ireland may not be digesting the full content of the political crisis that befell this country as the cabinet met on the morning of 25th March 2014. Fianna Fail TD Willie O'Dea pointed to the extreme danger created by the fallout of the phone tapping scandal at many Garda stations throughout the country. Apparently as many as 100 rapists, murderers, and gangland leaders from the Limerick City area alone will seek access to the contents of the phone tapping tapes. If their solicitor used the telephone in that Garda station then they have the legal right to seek the tapes of that conversation. If they received a phone call from their mammy or as is their legal right made one phone call from the Garda station and that call was recorded without their permission or the respondents permission they have a legal right to challenge their conviction in the High Court and very likely to the Supreme Court of Ireland. Without going into the legal, constitutional or political consequences of this fact, Ireland could be financially destroyed by the consequences of a vast legal challenge by up to one thousand convicted criminals now held in custody by the Irish Justice system. But on that morning of Tuesday 25th March 2014 as Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan left his home and arrived at Garda HQ at 9.35am to officially confirm his resignation to the Irish Government did he actually know more than the Government knew. Martin Callinan was a professional Police Officer. In terms of professionalism let us examine other professions. Gynaecologists have a big wage but a low professional standard by the record of the amount of new born babies and mothers who die in this country because of medical negligence and incompetence. Building Engineers and Architects have a very bad record of professional competence but during the Celtic Tiger they became billionaires and millionaires. I could go on about the rats who abandoned ship and are now in Australia, Boston, Auckland, Quebec and London. But NO. I will dwell more on the professionalism of Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan who had 41 years experience as a Police Officer. Many might forget that Mr Callinan crossed swords with many obnoxious criminals in this country. He fought them on the streets. But more importantly he defeated them in the courts. By his shrewd but honest witness testament before the Irish courts. Against professional legal experts and barristers who have sucked this country dry with their obnoxious fees. Corruption for 40 years in Ireland will not be addressed until we destroy the legal profession. I've deliberately left my main point to the end. And I believe that Mr Callinan would have had the legal opinion made available to him about what may be coming down the road from convicted prisoners in Ireland over the next 28 days. Without tape evidence, without witness evidence some convicted prisoners will already know they were recorded by Gardaí without consent. I suspect that within the next 21 days a writ of Habeas Corpus will be presented to the High Court by at least one prisoner held in an Irish prison. If that prisoner is a danger to society, a rapist who is a danger to children, a terrorist who is a danger to society or a convicted murderer who is a danger to us all the Irish Government will be left with no option but to introduce a limited form of internment without trial. Government don't have legal, constitutional or political tools to deal with Habeas Corpus applications where precedence has already been set by the High Court such as in the Waterford case. To prevent catastrophic releases of highly dangerous persons from prison the government needs to pass emergency legislation. But under the constitution they cannot backdate legislation. So to prevent extremely dangerous people from gaining freedom through Habeas Corpus the Irish Government would need to seek an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland. To do that would take up to two years as the Irish political system is extremely slow, often laborious and mostly extremely corrupt. And so the only alternative open to government to prevent a mass exodus from Irish prisons is to introduce internment until a legal solution is found.