Like Ahern, Parnell endured his trials and tribulations at the Tribunals |
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Parnell Vs The London Times
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Almost 120 years ago, Charles Stewart Parnell, called on Parliament to launch a Tribunal of Inquiry to vindicate his good name. His case, which involved the publication of a series of slanderous articles by The London Times entitled ‘Parnellism and Crime’ led to the creation of the Tribunals of Inquiry Act 1921, from which today’s tribunals derive their powers.
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| The Tribunal of Inquiry Act 1921 is actually an English law which Ireland adopted |
The series climaxed in 1882 with the publication of a letter apparently supporting the assassination of Lord Cavendish and Under Secretary Burke in the Pheonix Park. The document, allegedly written in Parnell’s hand claimed, “Burke got no more than his deserts”.
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Parnell was incensed at the publication, calling it “an audacious and unblushing fabrication” but hesitated in suing The Times before a London or Dublin jury, since an unprejudiced hearing could not be guaranteed. Instead, he called for an “urgent public enquiry” into the affair. Thus a tribunal named The Parnell Commission and headed by three judges, was created: its powers were straightforward, it was to be held in public, and would provide legal counsel for those who assisted its inquiries. It was also vested with all the powers of the High Court in enforcing the attendance of witnesses but it could not prosecute a criminal, merely investigate any wrongdoing, and report, with recommendations, to Parliament.
That inquiry took three weeks to vindicate Parnell’s claims; concluding the letters were forgeries, purchased by Times editor E.C. Houston from a disreputable Dublin journalist, Richard Piggot-who later fled prosecution, and committed suicide in Madrid.
The inadmissibility of tribunal testimony in criminal cases would have made little difference in the tense political atmosphere following the Irish Civil War.
In 1928 the Free State began a tribunal following the same basic rules – a public investigation, with the same significant powers – to investigate the killing of IRA volunteer and Fianna Fail member Tim Coughlan by Free State officer and IRA agent provocateur Sean Hurling.
Hurling, one of the few witnesses to appear before the Tribunal, claimed to have been attacked by two armed assailants, as he arrived home one evening. He returned fire, mortally injuring one attacker in the process.
That tribunal reported to Eamon De Valera’s government that Coughlan, was an IRA assassin intent on murdering Hurling and exonerated the Fianna Fail member of any wrongdoing.
But several discrepancies arose between his testimony and that of Dr. Wilfred Lane who conducted the post mortem. Lane concluded that the remains of a cigarette butt between the victims lips, a horizontal frature of the skull and a bullet entry wound at the back of Coughlan’s skull indicated that Coughlan had been caught unawares, viciously beaten before being executed.
In 1946 allegations made against Fianna Fail Parliamentary Secretary Dr. F. C. Ward by Dr. MacCarvill TD in Dail Eireann prompted De Valera to call for a tribunal to establish whether Dr. Ward was guilty of unethical conduct in his management of the Monahan Curing Company.
MacCarvill, who’s brother had been fired from a managerial position at the company by Dr. Ward, claimed that the Secretary had profited from undisclosed cash sales of meat to the army and the avoidance of tax as a result. Although the report found no basis for many of the allegations of corruption, it did note that “certain cash transactions carried out by the company did not disclose tax receipts.”
Prior to De Valera releasing the report, he read Dr. Ward’s letter of resignation to Dail Eireann.
In recent decades tribunals have been called upon to investigate some of the most senior figures in contemporary business and political circles. 1997 saw the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern and Minister for Local Government, Brian Lenihan, create three tribunals, led by Judges McCracken, Moriarty and Mahon. They were created following sustained revelations of scandalous behaviour by government Ministers, many of whom, had enriched themselves by accepting bribes during their periods of office.
Judges McCracken and Moriarty’s inquiries would focus on former Taoiseach Charles Haughey’s Ansbacher accounts and report whether any public representative or civil servant had received unethical payments, and if so, by whom, and for what purpose. The Mahon Tribunal would investigate allegations of planning corruption in order to “ensure that the integrity of public administration is not compromised by the dependence of party politics on financial contributions.”
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| Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey |
In 2005, prior to the publication of the Moriarty report, Minister for Justice and Law Reform, Michael McDowell, introduced a Bill which he claimed would “likely repeal the Tribunals of Inquiry Act 1921″. The Amendment proposes conferring a broad range of powers (namely the power to dissolve a tribunal as well as setting and amending its terms of reference) on the Minister responsible for creating them; the Minister for Local Government.
The Moriarty Tribunal lasted almost ten years, and its report in 2006, soon after Mr. Haugheys death, confirmed that he had enriched himself by 9.1 million pounds in payments (equating to 45 million today), which, the report stated: “devalued the quality of a modern democracy”. It also discovered, that he had purloined 265,000 pounds from his friend, Brian Lenihan’s liver transplant fund, as well as accepting a 50,000 pound share in a race horse from a Saudi businessman, allegedly in return for a favorable decision in a passport application.
Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Brian Lenihan reintroduced The Tribunal Amendment Bill 2005 in 2007 following the Taoiseach’s appearances before the Mahon Tribunal in September. The timing of the reintroduction of the Bill, coming days after Mr. Ahern’s first appearance at the Tribunal was described as “sinister” by opposition parties.
The Bill, if carried by the Seanad and the Dail – Fianna Fail commands a comfortable majority in both of these Houses – will empower the government, and in particular the man responsible for instating a tribunal, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, to dissolve any Tribunal, or to limit the scope of its inquiries. The Minister with his finger on the ‘kill-switch‘ is the newly elected Green Party leader, John Gormley. It is Minister Gormley’s first governmental role.
15th December, 2007
