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LAST UPDATE | 3 Apr 2023
SINN FÉIN TD Eoin Ó Broin has had a “very positive” conversation with a Garda representative after he was criticised over sharing an image which depicted gardaí edited into a famine-era eviction scene.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Antoinette Cunningham, general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) said Ó Broin should have made clear he was criticising the Government when he shared an image on Twitter which depicted gardaí edited into a famine-era eviction scene.
Ó Broin, his party’s spokesperson for housing, shared the tweet with the caption “no words needed”, shortly after a protest in Dublin over the expiration of the eviction ban at midnight on Friday.
The image, created by Dublin artist Mála Spíosraí, is a rendering of the Famine-era Eviction Scene painting by Daniel MacDonald except the officers in the 1850s image are replaced by present day gardaí.
The hooded gardaí that were inserted in the image are taken from images of a 2018 incident in which housing activists that had occupied a building in Dublin’s North Frederick Street were removed from the building by a private security group.
Gardaí were also present at that 2018 incident and the decision by the gardaí to cover their faces was criticised, with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris describing it as “not correct”.
No words needed (credit Mála Spíosraí) pic.twitter.com/JK6NVcFNeU
— Eoin Ó Broin (@EOBroin) April 1, 2023
Over the weekend, the tweet was criticised by the justice minister as well as the general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), Antoinette Cunningham, who called it “deeply offensive”.
This afternoon, speaking in Galway, Cunningham said she had spoken to O’Broin who apologised for the offence caused by the tweet.
Cunningham said that Ó Broin has “since clarified that the tweet was intended as a criticism of Government policy and not An Garda Síochána”.
She said that she believed that the Sinn Féin housing spokesperson’s phone call was “sincere”.
“This afternoon I received a phone call from deputy O’Broin and he was very clear that he didn’t mean to offend, criticise, or indeed drag An Garda Síochána into any political controversy.
“We appreciated that clarity from him and we will inform our delegates of that because this tweet did set out to cause upset to the membership and quite controversial and I suppose setting An Garda Síochána against society generally is not helpful to the job that we do,” she said.
In a tweet this afternoon, Ó Broin said he has had a “very positive” phone conversation with Cunningham.
“I stressed it was not my intention to offend, criticise or drag An Garda Síochána into a political controversy,” he said.
“My intention was solely to highlight the issue of homelessness/evictions and criticise Govt policy.”
Cunningham also tweeted that there had been “important and welcome clarity” from Ó Broin this afternoon, which she will communicate to AGSI members tomorrow.
Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly defended Ó Broin and said that her party “fully appreciate and respect” the work that members of An Garda Síochána undertake.
“We fully appreciate and respect the work that members of An Garda Síochána have to do and they do so in very challenging circumstances because of historic underfunding.
“We know that there is a crisis of recruitment and retention within An Garda Síochána.”
AGSI is holding its annual conference in Galway today.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Cunningham said that in a speech, AGSI president will call on the Garda Commissioner to “issue new, clear and updated guidelines for members who may be asked to attend at evictions so that we’re all very clear in our role”.
“The legislation currently is around a breach of the peace and to prevent a breach of the peace from occurring and that’s the role we currently have,” she said.
Cian Ó Concubhair, Maynooth University assistant professor in criminal justice, said he has a lot of sympathy for gardaí as evictions are civil matters and, where conflict arises, the law is weighted towards upholding property rights.
He added that as law favours property rights in disputes over tenancies, gardaí may “instinctively favour” property owners where there is a court-ordered eviction notice.
Ó Concubhair said gardaí are “concerned about the political consequences about being involved in enforcing evictions” where they are called upon to attend the scene.
“I have a degree of sympathy with the gardaí because there could be violence and if they don’t intervene they can be criticised for not intervening and stopping public order violations, on one or the other side,” said Ó Concubhair, who is working on research funded by Irish Council for Civil Liberties examining the policing of housing activists.
“The anxiety I would have is that because the law favours property owners that generally if they do get involved, it’s going to be on the side of those seeking to uphold the property owner’s rights rather than protecting any potential rights that might be violated against the occupiers.”
The president of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) stressed to The Journal that guards are have little role in evictions as he maintained “it’s not a policing matter”.
Speaking before the controversy over Ó Broin’s tweet, Brendan O’Connor said he that no guidance had been issued to members and he had found there had been “no chat in the organisation” around whether evictions will become an issue.
“Sometimes we will be called by either party where a court order is to be enforced, to be present just to maintain order, but there’s certainly no role in it for the guards,” O’Connor said.
“It’s not something the members are raising.”
Minister for Justice Simon Harris has said that the sharing of the artwork “cut deep” with the force.
“It’s clear that Deputy O Broin’s comments cut deep with many Gardai across the country,” he told the media before addressing the conference.
“I think it’s been extraordinarily regrettable that he would endeavour to drag the men and women of An Garda Siochana into political debate,” the minister said.
“We don’t do that in this country. We have a police force – the Gardai – who have policed with consent and with community support for a century I think the image shared is an awful attempt to try and compare the Gardai to perhaps some sort of colonial force of the past. So, I welcome the fact that he has shown remorse, but we’ve seen what he’s done in one year in opposition.
“Last summer, he was going to sack a civil servant who didn’t agree with him and then, of course, he apologised. And now this spring, he’s dragging the Gardai into political debate.
“It’s easy to send out a tweet, it’s quite a different thing to put yourself in harm’s way.”
With reporting by Eoghan Dalton
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A lot of politicians seem to be upset over the weekend about an artist depiction of an eviction, rather than the evictions themselves.
It’s seems to be an attitude of ‘so what if evictions happen but don’t you dare paint us in a bad light’
Im not a sinn fein supporter but this is a storm in a teacup. The real scandal is the government lifting the evictions ban. Ó Broin has given them ammo to shoot at him and deflect from themselves.
@Brian Dunne: why should private property owners have their legal rights reduced in favour of people who have no ownership of the property?
@Brian Dunne: 100%
@Brian Dunne: The knee, not the foot!
@Tipper Irie: Because the wellbeing of all the citizens in an emergency situation overrides the business and commercial interests of the few. It always has in a civilized society. We’re not America.
@Brian Dunne:
I’m not a sinn fein supporter but ..
@GERARD KENNELLY: yes Gerard, i am not a supporter of sinn fein. I have never voted for them.
@Tipper Irie: Maybe THEY should blame the government then either way someone has to, theey fk’d up rightly. Not because of the whole eviction, but by letting too many scroungers into the country Irish and Foreign a like.
@Tipper Irie: O’Broins trajectory is certainly lamenting what is going to be asked of the Gardai. The firm in Dail Eireann are tactical and cunning by provoking, turning tenants against the smaller landlords with perhaps one property, and being charged a whooping 52% tax on their rent. It’s the big Developers with many properties that can withstand this. I’m hazarding a guess you are the latter?
@Tipper Irie: here here. Spot on. Not enough free houses is the problem. Plenty houses for people willing to work and get a mortgage.
@IronMan2020: What about low paid workers? At least they are trying, they are not sitting on their backsides doing nothing. We need to stop funding life long scroungers, people who are well able but have no intention of working. Having a low paid job should NOT make you ineligible for a home, on the contrary, we should bee helping those who are trying to better themselves and get themselves or their families into a position where they can be productive members of society.
@Trash CanMan: Very true but not a line you will find many TDs willing to agree with!
@Trash CanMan: Agreed the big problem is that the people who are working on minimum wage 40 hours a week are worse off than those not working at all. They have made it too lucrative to not work… between different schemes and top ups on social welfare.
@IronMan2020: false. Only 14.5% of those who work earn over €100k. Which is pretty close to theMINIMUM requirement for a mortgage. I I think it’s
@IronMan2020: false. Only 14.5% of those who work earn over €100k. Which is pretty close to theMINIMUM requirement for a mortgage. I I think it’s a
@Trash CanMan: except with FULL employment these scroungers are really a myth of Lieo’s, remember his welfare fraud campaign that cost more than it saved. Look to the real cause of our problems not deflecting onto myths that don’t exist to point it cause the crisis.
@IronMan2020: FFG has implemented employment legislation allowing for zero( now banned I think) minimum hour contracts which benefit employers by absolving them from obligations such as holiday pay, redundancy pay, Sickness leave etc and other full time employees benefits/rights. Social welfare, public money, is then used to raise incomes to a minimum existence level. This isn’t social welfare, IT IS CORPORATE WELFARE instigated by FFG. Look to the real cause not the victims of this massive con.
@Benny Mchale: that doesn’t answer the question. Removing property rights from legal owners is a very slippery slope. Pensions are a property for example.
@M Bowe: your talking BS regrettably I earn no where near that… but I cut the cloth to fit what I do earn, what I can afford to buy.
@M Bowe: what a pathetic comment, comparing the famine to this shows hyperbolic ignorance in the extreme.
@Martin O’Reilly: seems to me you are wrong on all your guesses, but when you need to rely on a guess to make a point you should know you are not making a reliable or factual comment. You gave not answered the question either.
All this news deflection isn’t going to change the homelessness situation.
How could he possibly think that would not be offensive
@Michael Graham: He was just lamenting, do you not get it? There is a very strong possibility this is about to happen sooner than later. The developer landlords will get private security firms to do their dirty work. Empathy will not prevail, and we are well versed in our history that such provocation leads to trouble ahead.
@GERARD KENNELLY: Oh I see where you are looking through rode tinted glasses at an invasive army, and their comrades in the RUC etc. Please construct some argument of realities before you comment.
@Michael Graham: O Broin has vilified landlords for the last number of years and effectively promised that “when” SF get into power, they would remove all rights from landlords. This has frightened many small landlords out of the market and compounded the housing rental shortage. As for the Tweet, more populist politics, which this time has backfired.
An organisation that bristles at the mention of their recent bedfellows or fellow travellers, feel free to compare/equate our Gardai with crown force bailiffs .
Risible.
The present government would do well to remember that evictions did happen, and people tossed onto the road of Ireland with no place to call home.
The present government has replaced the English landlords of the past, with there own brand of eviction helping the wealthy landlords and developers to evict sitting tenant’s.
@Jimmy Kiely: fair comment. It was law back then n we can argue it is law today but it is the role of Gov to implement policies to protect ppl in times of crisis.
We have imported over 400k ppl since the 2016 census. As successful as our economy has been and creating loads of jobs it hasn’t been sustainable from an infrastructural point of view.
We are currently at crossroads where we take the liberal road and decide to look after our citizens and try create a more equal society or we continue down this road of winners and losers.
@Jonny Parkinson: I’m a FG voter n i think they have created an amazing environment to do business but haven’t regulated how quickly it grows and now the entire system is under so much pressure. At work we can’t get more staff for the warehouse all applicants are from abroad but if we employ them we are making the problem worse.
How is anyone even comparing this to the famine! 1845- Starvation, forbidden education, religion, genocide, no hope, no benefits, no chance. Not even close to todays reality, have some respect
I don’t see the problem here, Garda have been present during evictions in Ireland, I seen it with my own eyes. Irish agents working on behalf of British absentee landlords evicted thousands of Irish people from their homes so what’s the difference today?
@ggg: Wow ggg, you have been busy, been too thousands of evictions and managed to work out that they are all for British absentee landlords. Tell us more, how did you mange to see all this, with your own eyes!!?
No shame…divisive troublesome tweets. Mask slips again
With the glasses and the scarf he looks like a character from Hogwarts in that photo.
Harry Squatter.
Scrapping the bottom of the barrel again,,and no shame
History repeats itself, as they say, it’s only the actors that change.
The image is actually quite good, and accurate, once there is a court order in place.
Remember, only certain types of court orders are actually enforced:
Eviction Order – enforced
Access Order – not enforced
Protection Order – enforced
One thing for certain the amount of people using “the masks slips” shows its not only the Shinners who have groupthink.
Exactly as the artist intended and no lies within . What is the problem exactly. The truth ?
The eviction ban was only meant to be temporary and should be lifted. However they should have improved the rights of tenants before lifting the ban. Landlords should not be allowed to enter the rental market as a “hobby second income” you can’t be a landlord 1 week and then decide you won’t be the next. Being a landlord should be regulated as a long term investment. Landlords are currently taxed like they did a bit of overtime, treat them fairly tax wise and then demand higher standards for tenants in return.
By the by, IRA during the War of Independence killed innocent civilians too. I don’t think the Provos had a monopoly on that.
@AnthonyK: Not forgetting Ballyseedy by the Free State.
And Why have a conversation, nothing illegal only the Gardai there at evictions. Those bringing up the past wrongs of SF if history serves me FF destroyed the whole Country with a civil war and today by stealth taxes against the people
After so many years of adversity I suppose its hard to expect sf to have any respect for the garda!!
I am a spectator, and certainly not a party faithful of any party. O’Broin was only lamenting what the government and intrigues may have the Gardai be ordered to comply with. Who knows, this could become a reality. It is certainly pointing that way. I’m sure the political thought will be to let private security firms do the dirty work paid for by the Developers alias landlords with many properties.
This should serve as a lesson to those who might be led to believe Provisional Sinn Féin represent an alternative to FF/FG. As usual they play to multiple audiences but climb down and toe the establishment line when push comes to shove
Disgusting, do the honourable thing and resign.
Try and get one when your house is been robbed good luck with that
Do Sinn Fein recognise the authority of Garda Siochana as the lawful Police force in the State.
Listened to Mary Lou on the 6pm news yesterday evening when Catriona Perry asked her to comment on the tweet. She spent 5 minutes talking complete bluster about the Government’s failures without answering the question.
Outrageous behaviour to edit in Garda to eviction scene. These ignorant politicians need to educate themselves on the existing eviction laws. If they do not like them, change them. We all know those who shout loudest about the evictions are satisfied to sit on their arses and do nothing. Ireland deserves better.
Garda = RIC
Have always looked on O Broin as a psuedo lefty posh boy who is always trying to give himself some “street cred” by posting incendiary comments.The new breed of Shinner i assume thats more acceptable to the electorate.A bit like the Tory party in the UK.
Populist rewriting history once again.
I personally think it’s quite unfair to be pressuring and putting blame in landlords. If they evict, no doubt the house will be taken up by someone else. The numbers then add up. As for numbers…well, ain’t that the problem, not that I’m saying from where or who, just numbers. The division sum dies not divide: thus illogical maths.
Deep water alert
It wasn’t offensive at all
I HOPE THEM TWO WERE NOT KISSING
have your say