THE extraordinary speech by the Gardai Commissioner this week in which he referred to a "flasher", a "dealer in pornography" and other offenders who had been expelled from the force, arose from a sense of frustration he has felt in dealing with the Garda representatives, colleagues say.
Two months away from retirement, Commissioner Patrick Culligan is seen by senior officers as having overseen a remarkable transformation in the management and structuring of the force in his five years as Commissioner.
From the perspective of the rank and file, Culligan is often seen as having inflicted strange and pointless new work procedures on them.
As it is the job of the staff associations, like the Garda Representative Association (GRA), whose conference he addressed on Wednesday, to reflect and promote the interests of their members, it is inevitable that there will be differences of opinion.
Culligan, according to close colleagues, has never been concerned at the notion of staff associations criticising management. He himself was once a leading figure in the staff associations and played this role.
His concern, they say, has been with what he sees as the tendency among representatives to play up to the media with what he sees as petty and unwarranted criticism. The unseemly squabbling that has broken out among the representatives has also he pointed out, been damaging to the image of the force although it has never impinged on operational capability.
As part of the protocol of annual conferences, the Commissioner's office was supplied with the keynote addresses from the GRA before the conference. The addresses were not that unusual, containing the usual list of complaints and sniping at the Commissioner and the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen.
One address concentrated on alleged abuses of the disciplinary procedures by management. There was mention of bullying and a picture painted of decent, hard working gardai living in fear of dismissal. Management was to blame.
The practice in previous years has been for the Commissioner to bite his lip, ignore the taunts and deliver a serious and somewhat dull speech laying out the achievements made by the force.
On Wednesday, this routine was shattered as the Commissioner rounded on the association. He had almost decided to ignore the conference but, as the keynote speeches touched on serious issues, he had decided to attend. He described his decision to attend as "masochism".
He responded to the allegation that Garda management pick on wholly innocent, hard working officers with the list of offenders including the "flasher", the pornographer and those charged with sexual offences, larceny and drunken driving.
He waded into the representatives in his speech, accusing them, effectively, of demeaning this force in the eyes of the public. He spoke of the "petty ridicule" which had become stock in trade in debates at these conferences.
He pointed to the GRA allegation that stations were running out of stationery. The story was picked up and used in evening newspapers and radio. Its portrayal of incompetency and maladministration ignored the fact that the State is spending £30 million on a computer network system. Tens of millions of pounds have been spent on new technology and new stations in recent years.
The allegation that student and probationer gardai are being unfairly treated and dismissed for "trivial" reasons also incensed him. There was a 5 per cent drop out rate among recruits.
Commissioner Culligan and his immediate predecessors have overseen a transformation of policing at a difficult time, something which has taken place almost totally unobserved in the popular media.
Patrick Culligan was born in Limerick and grew up in Killarney where his father served as the local sergeant. He joined the ESB after school but then decided to follow his father's trade. He was stationed in Cork and then Co Laois from whence he was plucked to serve on the Special investigations section (the old Murder Squad) under a future Commissioner, Patrick McLaughlin.
Culligan excelled in organisation. He was a member of the Murder Squad for 16 years and one of a number of internal critics of the group.
The reduction of the Murder Squad and dispersal of its members in the late 1980s is something Culligan has always defended. He did so again on Wednesday in the face of public calls for its reinstatement.
Aside from one brief interlude, when he was moved sideways from the position of Chief Superintendent in Dublin South to Mayo in 1986, he rose steadily towards the top job. His transfer to Mayo after a complaint by the then Taoiseach's son, Mark FitzGerald, that his car had been stolen outside his father's house - which was in Culligan's division - was seen as scapegoating by other gardai.
He moved back to Garda Headquarters the following year, becoming Chief Superintendent in the Crime and Security Section. He made Assistant Commissioner within a year and was appointed Commissioner in December, 1990.
He is married with three grown children and lives in Naas, Co Kildare.