Sir, – Michael Coyle (November 19th) notes that on December 2nd 1982 “. . . outgoing taoiseach Charles Haughey signed the Garda Síochána (Ranks) Order 1982 (SI 348/1982), the sole purpose of which was to increase the authorised strength of the force by one deputy commissioner.”
It is unfair to claim that the only reason for the governmental Order in question was to increase the “strength of the force by one deputy commissioner”. The documents show that by the self-same stroke of Haughey’s pen, the authorised number of station sergeants of an Garda Síochána was reduced by precisely one. With no record of what happened to the unfortunate sergeant in question, Mylesian bicycle-related speculation abounds. – Yours, etc,