THE once united police officers' "union", the GRA, has been reduced during the past five years to a bickering, directionless and deeply divided organisation.
The disputes were not, by any means, the fault of John Ferry, but much of the antagonism generated has been directed towards him.
From the very start of his stewardship he faced quite bitter antagonisms from a rump of opponents who felt he should not have won his position - which he did by a slender, though democratic, vote.
This antagonism surfaced at intervals over the next few years. Mud-slinging appeared to be a full-time occupation among the GRA. Meetings of the central executive committee (CEC) were reportedly marked by bouts of intensely bitter exchanges. There were repeated allegations of mishandling of funds, at least two of which were the subject of investigations by the Garda Siochana itself but which were found to be groundless.
John Ferry, like his predecessor Jack Marrinan, is made of stern stuff. He rode through the storms and, eventually, broke his opponents at the CEC table.
Ferry, a native of Dunfanaghy, Co Donegal, is a former member of the Regional Task Forces, which were set up in the late 1970s to counter terrorist and roving criminal activity. The Task Forces had their successes but were, inevitably, involved in controversy and were eventually disbanded.
Garda Ferry, as a plain clothes officer in Sligo, had time on his hands. He became the local GRA representative and built up a support base in the west of Ireland which brought him to power in 1989.
The internal tensions were largely a matter of no interest and went virtually unreported when they surfaced during acrimonious debates at the annual GRA conferences.
However, the differences escalated into outright mutiny in 1994 when a group of gardai, mostly from Dublin, picketed the GRA conference in Galway over what they described as a sell-out over the PCW pay negotiations. The then Minister and Commissioner, Mrs Maire Geoghegan-Quinn and Mr Patrick Culligan, were forced to walk through the picket in front of television cameras. They were further embarrassed when the conference was unable to proceed after dissidents in the hall prevented it from convening.
After this, about 2,500 of the 8,300 officers of garda rank left the GRA to set up the Garda Federation.
The following year the GRA hired a private security firm to prevent a repeat of the picketing and disruption, apparently oblivious to the ridicule this action brought down on the force.
Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn attempted to resolve the dispute and appointed the then head of the Labour Relations Commission, Mr Kieran Mulvey, to act in conciliation. His role was rejected by Mr Ferry.
Relations with Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn deteriorated to the point where the Minister was on the verge of dissolving the association when she was ousted from office by the collapse of the Fianna Fail/Labour Coalition.
Within a month, representatives of another 1,100 gardai absented themselves from the GRA central executive, leaving Mr Ferry with virtually unchallenged authority but over a much reduced association.
The relationship between the present Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, and the Garda Representative Association (GRA) has never been a happy one.
From the outset, Mrs Owen had indicated her desire to see a reunited association with all disputes resolved.
However, at her first address to a GRA conference, her overtures were strongly rebuked by Mr Ferry who said his association would use all its resources to challenge any efforts to interfere with its independence. He threatened to affiliate to the ICTU - something the ICTU was probably less than happy about.
The relations with Mrs Owen reached an all time low after the Minister introduced legislation establishing a reconstituted Garda representative body last year. The legislation has led to legal challenges by the GRA which are currently before the High Court.
The Minister intervened in internal GRA elections last August to prevent the appointment of new officers after it was decided that this would interrupt the setting up of a new association.
The GRA brought an injunction against the Minister and this turned into a fully fledged legal challenge which is expected to be heard within the next two months, unless it is dropped by the GRA.
In the midst of the controversy over the delisting of Judge Dominic Lynch last month, Mr Ferry launched an attack on Mrs Owen which surprised even his own supporters. He said Mrs Owen did not have the ability to be in her job.
It was the second time in eight months that the GRA had attacked the Minister in such a way. Mr Ferry's deputy, Mr P.J. Stone, made similar comments during a radio interview in April and this led the then Garda Commissioner, Mr Culligan, to issue a public statement denouncing the criticism and apologising to the Minister.
However, many gardai felt Mr Ferry's attack on Mrs Owen was not only badly timed, but loutish. His crudely worded attack was seen as a direct challenge to the authority of the Minister at a crucial point in the dispute.
With Mr Ferry gone, there is renewed speculation that the internal garda dispute might be resolved. However, many garda representatives yesterday insisted that the portrayal of Mr Ferry as a cause of the internal divisions missed the point.
Gardai are as unhappy over pay and conditions today as they were 20 years ago. Many officers actually admired Mr Ferry for the pugilistic way he stood up against Government at a time when pay levels were seen to be dropping and workloads increasing. His departure may signal changes at the top in the Garda staff association but it does not signal any major changes in the lot of the average member of An Garda Siochana.