Police Methods in Ireland.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 40, 2 October 1902, Page 5

Police Methods in Ireland.

What chiefly occupies attention at present in Ireland (gays the Manchester Guardian) is the Sheridan incident, and the disclosures, familiar enough to Irishmen, with regard to police evidence in agrarian and political cases. Of course, it is not to be thought that Sergeant Sheridan is a typical instance of the Irish Constabulary officer. On the contrary, of the 12,000 men composing the oonstabulary force it may, with perfect certainty, bo said that over 90 per cent, are men whose character and conduct are beyond reproach. But the evil of the matter lies in the fact that any ambitious young man desiring promotion knows well that he must in some way make himself conspicious as the discoverer of crime, which in Ireland mostly means agrarian and political crime, and the temptation is very great to such a man to invent crime when it does not exist, As a rule this takes a form very much less glaring than that imputed to Sergeant Sheridan. Sham threatening letters, sham attempts to set fire to dwelling-houses, and, generally speaking, appearances of crime without any actual injury, are the usual resort for active and enterprising young constables. It is no small tribnte to the force as a body that the number of black sheep should prove to be so few.

Bnt the fewness of the number is more than counterbalanced by the blackness of the record. Three names in particular stand out in the Irish mind as instances of the infamy which the present administration engenders. The first is the case of Head Constable Talbot, who, with the knowledge of his superiors, went not to detect but to create crime in the county of Tipperary, and who, in furtherance of this scheme, attended Catholic worship, although he was and remained through life a Protestant, and actually partook of the Eucharist, which to him was of course a mere mummery, but to Catholics was an unspeakable sacrilege. This unhappy man, having led scores of young men astray, swearing them in as members of a secret organisation and then betraying them, was assassinated in Dublin by the brother of one of his dupes. Next in succession came Head Constable Whelehan, who actually incited to midnight outrage and lured, in concert with a paid informer, a number of men to make an attempt on a farmer's house, while he lay in ambush to take them red-handed in the act. But on him, as on Talbot, his own crimes recoiled, for in the endeavor to arrest the gang he was struck down and killed. Now in both these cases, wicked as they were, the victimd of both Talbot and Whelehan were undoubtedly criminals, although they had been lured into crime by Talbot and Whelehan themselves. But the case of Sheridan is infinitely worse. Stated barely, the facts were that he, holding the rank of sergeant in the Royal Irish ConBtabulary, in complicity with four or five men under his command, committed grave crimes ; and then, again, in complicity with hia subordinates, falsely accused innocent men and brought about their conviction by perjury. All this time he was rewarded for real, and was supplied with funds to purchase imaginary information.

Such a state of things comes as an appalling revelation to the English public, but we venture to think that there is scarcely a grown man in Ireland to whom the revelation has given the slightest shock, and, of course, no one believes or hopes that English indignation will last one week or lead to the most fractional change in the evil system. The rumor runs in Ireland — and who can wonder at it ? — that the Government dare not prosecute, as prosecution would entail an exposure so wide and deep as to appal the public mind. Something must have deterred Mr Wyndham, starting as he did with the intention of probing thei matter to the bottom, and suddenly stopping short in this mysterions way. It is a grave responsibility for Mr Wyndbam to take ; and it is the exercise in its worst form of the dispensing power, and not in aid of tender consciences, but of official wickedness.