SCANNAL returns to our screens with more stories that have shocked, outraged, amused and incited the nation.
From the landmark legal case that won the right to contraception for Mary McGee to the Croke Park Garth Brooks Concerts that were “Subject to Licence” and left 400,000 fans frustrated and the 1993 Northern Ireland v Republic of Ireland soccer match in Windsor Park, Belfast which was decisive and divisive.
But to kick off the series ……
Episode 1 The Fingerprint Affair
July 1976, the brutal assassination of the newly appointed British Ambassador to Ireland, Christopher Ewart Biggs, together with his diplomatic colleague, Judith Cooke, hit the headlines here and around the world. The deadly IRA bomb attack in south County Dublin gave rise to an intense Garda manhunt for the culprits. The apparent ease, with which the IRA had blasted the embassy car and gotten clean away, was a huge embarrassment to both the Gardaí and the Government. But almost forgotten is a scandal which had its roots in that very callous capital murder: The Fingerprint Affair.
In the aftermath of the bomb, Gardaí had, within minutes, been using every means at their disposal to identify and locate the attackers. Very quickly, items were recovered from the bomb site, which it was hoped might yield crucial forensic evidence. However, as the Garda investigation proceeded, it became mired in errors, disputes, internal inquiries, leaks to the press, Dáil debates and High Court proceedings. What happened could have threatened the credibility of fingerprinting as a science internationally and it did result in Garda Detectives being criticised and re-assigned, including the two officers who had alerted authorities to the errors in the first place!
“In those days we didn’t have the term Whistleblower, but they were certainly whistleblowers and when one looks at the Maurice McCabe saga in our own time now, you realise that he wasn’t by any means the first …. denying Whistleblowers , circling the wagons, defending the institution, and punishing anyone who steps out of line, it really didn’t start with Maurice McCabe.” Conor Brady, Former Editor of The Irish Times
Láithreoir / Tuairisceoir : Padraig O’Driscoll
Léiritheoir Feidhmiúcháin & Stiúrthóir : Kevin Cummins
Scannal, Tuesday 21st May, 7PM on RTÉ One
