The ‘war on drugs' prompted by the murder of Veronica Guerin has had little effect on the availability of heroin. Despite enormous drug seizures and the biggest crackdown on organised crime in the history of the state, a Magill investigation has found that heroin continues to be widely available in most areas of Dublin. This is also despite the considerable successes of the the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) and the Veronica Guerin investigation.

Two weeks after Veronica Guerin was shot in the leg in January 1995, John Traynor was arrested and questioned at Coolock Garda Station under the Offences Against the State Act. “He said plenty” recalled a detective “but he implicated neither himself nor anyone else”.

In a tribute to his murdered wife at her funeral Mass, Graham Turley told the congregation that Veronica “had to be first at whatever she did and I never interfered with what she did because she had to do it, to achieve what she needed to get herself onto that pedestal and nobody, absolutely nobody, was ever going to knock her off.”

John Gilligan, a notorious Dublin criminal with 12 convictions, is believed by Gardai to have been the chief cuplrit in the murder of Veronica Guerin—he has been charged with the murder and his extradition from the United Kingdom is being awaited.

One of the key issues to emerge after the death of Veronica Guerin was the role played by her employers, the Sunday Independent and whether they could have done more to protect her.

The life, career, controversies and murder of Veronica Guerin.

“Paul Ward told me he was going to be arrested for the murder on the night. He told me this on the night I signed the blank passport forms”
“I gave a court official £40 or £50 to pull summonses”
“Long told me he already had a friend in the force”
Garda John O'Neill

Earlier this month the High Court awarded £49,780 to Patrick McDonald. The award was made after he sued a solicitor who had been negligent in the handling of a car accident case on McDonald's behalf. McDonald is forty-two, and it has taken him fifteen years - most of his adult life - to get this award made.

In February of last year, a party was held at the Folk Park near Bunratty Castle in County Clare. 'Over sixty people attended. When the party was over, there were less than a dozen people left behind and the function manaager, Patrick Nugent, was dead. There is evidence to suggest that a car acciident may have had something to do with his death. But nobody there on that night admitted to seeing what happened. William Ryan was afterwards charged with manslaughter. Last month, he was acquitted on all counts.  By Derek Dunne

Derek Dunne examines the performance of the Special Criminal Court

Thirteen years ago this month the then Fianna Fail government issued a proclamation that "the orrdinary courts were inadequate to secure the effective administration of justice and the preservation of the public peace and order."

The pattern of sentencing and conviction in Dublin's District Court relies as much on the legal knowledge of the gardai, the sharpness of the solicitors, the demeanour of the defendants and the personal views of the judge as it does on criminal law. MARK BRENNOCK reports.

The inside story of how two Gardai were punished for their honesty, by Gene Kerrigan

YOU HAVE IT NOW. I'M NOT going to make it difficult for you," Joe Ainsworth was overrheard to say to Larry Wren during the crisis-filled weeks in which Wren saw out the Mc Laughlin/Ainssworth regime. And indeed Wren had it all, as his old rival conceded; the commissionership, a reputation unsullied by the wave of political scandal, and a clean sweep at the top of the force which left him head and shoulders above any possible internal challlenge. by Olivia O'Leary

There is nothing at all surprising about the Kerry Babies scandal. The social elements (with echoes of the Lovett case) are not surprising and even less surprising are the criminal justice elements. For a decade conscientious gardai, lawyers, journalists and other observers have been expecting a case to come along which would be so crudely handled that even a Minister for Justice would be embarrassed. For the past decade the gardai have been systematically employing such methods in order to do their job and this has been tolerated by successive Ministers for Justice.

The Crime

There were four houses at the crossroads. The McCooeys, the O'Harts, the Kinsellas and the Halls. This was at Legnakelly, a crossroads about a mile and a half outside Clones, County Monaghan. Just yards from the border. Two cars came across the border from Ferrnanagh, each carrying four men. The men were armed. When they got to the crossroads they donned masks, left the cars and split up, four at the front of the McCooey home, four at the back.

IN MOUNTJOY JAIL ON SUNDAY MORNING, 3 June Patrick Ennis, a prisoner serving a five year sentence for larceny found a black polyythene rubbish bag in the A3 landing which he subsequently discovered had been put there by a fellow prisoner who had taken it the previous day from the censor's office along the landing. There were two bags taken from the office that day: the other was placed where rubbish is collected on D3 wing, also close to the censor's office.  By Colm Toibin

Every three months, on average, someone dies in a police station or prison. The deaths are seldom natural, often violent and sometimes without a satisfactory explanation. Gene Kerrigan reports.

YOU had intercourse with your husband before you were mar¬ried; how many other people did you have intercourse with before that? When was the first time you had intercourse'? Are you going with some¬one now? Do you have intercourse with him? Where do you have it? Do you have it in a car?"

The debate on the Criminal Justice Bill raises questions about the wider powers being given to the police. The powers and methods which are now being legitimised by the Bill barged their way into Christy Lynch's life and tore a family apart.

Derek Dunne examines the new information which has come to light in the Sallins case.