Cian Ó Concubhair
@cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
1.6K followers 440 following 730 posts
Lectures criminal law, policing & criminology @ Maynooth University Research: policing, media, crime, legitimacy & trust, power & resistance Views personal Sé/é Dublin via da Banner https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/cian-concubhair
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cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
What I particularly like about the Catherine Connolly video demonstrating her athletic prowess

Is that she is totally ruthless when faced with weaker opposition (i.e. the kids she played basketball with)

Exactly what I want to see in a non-Executive head of state
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
That I was allowed in to observe with the freedom and access I was granted is a testament in no small part to the high value English policing places on independent academic research, whatever its other limitations and failings.

I really hope that this situation does not change.
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
I am not sure this kind of study (particularly access to the police communications department) could be done in other countries.

It is inconceivable that a study like this could be done in Ireland.
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
I'd like to reiterate my thanks to all the gatekeepers and participants who made this project possible. Thanks also to the editors in Routledge who made the book possible.

While this book is now out there, my research on this area is still very much ongoing.
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
For the project I spent a number years observing both crime reporting journalists & police communication professionals

I was lucky enough to be given access to several newsrooms for long observation periods, and was similarly given access to one police communications department
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
This is the culmination of more than a decade's research into police-media relations and police communications.

The study focused on England, but was very much informed by things happening in Ireland (e.g. the Garda Whistleblowing Scandal) and elsewhere.
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
I am more than a little late to do my own bit of promotion for this, but my book The Communicative Architecture of Policing was published by Routledge in August.
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
I guess the blueshirts have recent form here

Wonder will there be an intervention from the current Min for Justice?
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
The 'Party of Law and Order' think servants of the court should breach fundamental ethical duties of their profession
tonightvmtv.bsky.social
🗣️ "Just be honest, she didn’t answer the question." — John Cummins, Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Fine Gael

🗣️ "You wouldn’t know transparency if it hit you in the face." — Eoin Ó Broin, Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Housing
#TonightVMTV
Reposted by Cian Ó Concubhair
suzybie.bsky.social
Has someone asked Barry Ward or any other FG barrister about who they represented or the cab rank rule? This rubbish from FG and media is embarrassing - and yes you can criticise banks as a politician and have represented them professionally before or after. Why are we allowing disinformation?
tonightvmtv.bsky.social
🗣️ "Just be honest, she didn’t answer the question." — John Cummins, Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Fine Gael

🗣️ "You wouldn’t know transparency if it hit you in the face." — Eoin Ó Broin, Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Housing
#TonightVMTV
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
This piece doesn't even acknowledge this is really an ethical duties on Irish barristers, it just quotes what she said about her obligations

The rule is well known

What journalist can't bother doing a google search to verify what she is saying?

What editor allows this through?
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
So is it the position of the 'paper of record'?

That the cab-rank rule is bad?

And that Deputy Connolly should have ignored it?

And risked disciplining from Bar Council for breach of professional ethical obligations?
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
I would have though Deputy Connolly's observance of the cab-rank rule would have endeared her to tedious shoneens who proclaim themselves liberals

Guess intellectual consistency isn't really a virtue in that camp
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
I mean if there's a problem with the cab-rank rule

It's that it's not actually properly enforced

As cynical as I am about the Irish Bar, at least the cab-rank rule keeps a degree of honesty to the claim it is 'independent'
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
And what if Deputy Connolly was a vocal violator of the cab-rank rule?

Would the 'paper of record' be generous in its coverage of such a professional ethical norm-violator?
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
So is it the position of the 'paper of record'?

That the cab-rank rule is bad?

And that Deputy Connolly should have ignored it?

And risked disciplining from Bar Council for breach of professional ethical obligations?
Reposted by Cian Ó Concubhair
elaineedwards.bsky.social
Got to love Dublin. #Speirgorm
Picture of a large junction box on the street at the top of Kildare Street at Stephen’s Green in Dublin, Ireland. On it is painted a very large, angry-looking seagull in front of two wooden gates. Two tiny people, dwarfed by the seagull, appear to be running from it, one on either side of the lower front of the image. The text over the gates reads St Stephen’s Green. The signature in the lower right of the image says M. Fitz 25.
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
One of the things I find particularly amusing about this scandal is that Sinn Féin

Key architects & central players in the GFA

Are now Connolly's biggest supporters

Maybe this is news to the politically illiterate in political journalism

But shinners really hate dissidents

More than the cops
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
I think the GFA was flawed, but as good as was achievable given the state of the conflict

But it's not insane or evil to think it was a bad deal
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
Listening to the discussion about this on
@rteradio1.bsky.social this morning

Do political hacks & politicians understand that it is not illegal to think the Good Friday Agreement was bad, and to be politically opposed to it?
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
I see the non-story writer has logged on

What is the paper of record suggesting here?

That @eirigi1916.bsky.social are an unlawful organisation?

FWIW I don't think Keena ever recovered from the personal shock of the acquittal of the Jobstown Six

archive.is/tYzy1
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
Yeah I understood it was terminal – but the impression I got was that it was under control for now
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
Beidh an tír ina háit níos measa gan é
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
You can imagine the torrent of rage messages it precipitated

And tbf to Magan – he was quick to recognise the harm of opioid use

But not a man for observing taboos
cianoconcubhair.bsky.social
One of my favourite moments listening to Manchán Magan was years ago on the travel slot he did for Matt Cooper's The Last Word

He spoke nostalgically about visiting Amsterdam as a youth & the 'really beautiful' experience with heroin there

Cue nervous clarifying response from Cooper