Sir, – I recently had to travel from Belfast to Dublin by bus and was astonished when the bus was stopped and boarded on the motorway south of Dundalk, by a member of An Garda Síochána.
The object of this exercise was for every passenger to produce identification.
In a lifetime of travelling from the North of Ireland to the South of Ireland I was never once before asked to produce identification by a member of An Garda Síochána.
For this to happen as I lawfully went about my business as a citizen of Ireland is an outrage and an aberration of the highest possible order.
The authorities have no right to detain me or anyone else on a bus or anywhere else for that matter to demand identification papers.
I believe that everyone on this bus was wrongfully and illegally detained.
Members of An Garda Síochána would be better employed pursuing the tobacco smugglers and diesel launderers of this country rather than stopping bus loads of the travelling public in the middle of the day in the middle of the road.
Furthermore, I would suggest that should any member of the public in such circumstances refuse to show their identification to the gardaí then there is absolutely nothing the gardaí would be able to do about it – and that indeed would be another matter altogether.
Michael Collins would turn in his grave! – Yours, etc,