Commissioner cited as being 'one of the lads'

Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan. Photo: Gerry Mooney

It seems ironic that Nóirín O'Sullivan is being called into question for being "one of the lads", or more appropriately "one of the big lads".

When she was appointed as Ireland's first ever woman Garda Commissioner in November 2014, there was much made of the number of women now holding high office in the ultra-male world of law and policing.

It was noted that Frances Fitzgerald, now in the political trenches along with Commissioner O'Sullivan, was Ireland's third-ever woman Justice Minister.

The other women heavy-hitters who came into office around the same time make for a very impressive list. They include Chief Justice Susan Denham; Attorney General Máire Whelan; Director of Public Prosecutions Claire Loftus; Chief State Solicitor Eileen Creedon; and District Court President Rosemary Horgan.

Just weeks after her appointment, in February 2015, Commissioner O'Sullivan told a conference in Dublin Castle, entitled 'A Woman's Place in the World', of her early years in the gardaí.

She had joined in 1981 and was posted to Store Street station in the heart of Dublin.

Women gardaí were only in the force since 1959, and she believed that, two decades later, the authorities did not still know how they fitted in the system. No great surprise that her call to a man who had phoned seeking assistance was greeted with his demand for "a real policeman".

But the real crunch came when the superintendent gave her money to go and buy bread and ham to make sandwiches. "I said, 'No sorry, I can't sir'," she recalled at the conference.

Young ban gharda O'Sullivan was sent home and she believed that her police career would be very short indeed.

But she went back the next day and resumed a career which peaked 33 years later with her reaching the top job.

Yet it is clear that at least part of Commissioner O'Sullivan's difficulty arises from being associated with the previous regime of Commissioner Martin Callinan. Ms O'Sullivan was Commissioner Callinan's deputy from 2011, and she is often seen in television footage sitting beside Mr Callinan as he told a Dáil committee of his disgust at the conduct of some garda whistleblowers.

Critics like Deputies Mick Wallace and Clare Daly see Ms O'Sullivan's gender as beside the point. They argue she represents continuity.

Irish Independent