The second episode of Dirty Money, TV3’s series on the Criminal Assets Bureau and its war on Irish organised crime, screened last night, CAB being a unique and largely successful Irish experiment in targeting criminals’ assets whether or not it could be proved individuals had broken any actual laws in accumulating them. CAB came into being in the wake of the murder of the Sunday Independent’s investigative reporter Veronica Guerin (and, lest we forget, that of Detective Jerry McCabe), and the series is narrated by Guerin’s then peer and rival, Paul Williams of the Sunday World (the series is loosely based on Williams’ best-selling account of the period, THE UNTOUCHABLES). Marred by excessive Sunday World branding, and a faux hardboiled delivery on Williams’ part, it is nonetheless a fascinating account of a watershed in the Irish public consciousness, not least for its impressive array of talking heads, which includes most of the main players from the time. The first vid we posted had no sound, mainly because we're monkeys when it comes to the techie stuff, but our second attempt (featuring the relevant ministers Ruari Quinn and Nora Owen, and the then Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne) tries to answer John McFetridge's question in the comment box, about how you get the country to care about such matters. You take the Twenty Major approach, if Ruari Quinn is anything to go by ... Roll it there, Collette … Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Follow That CAB
The second episode of Dirty Money, TV3’s series on the Criminal Assets Bureau and its war on Irish organised crime, screened last night, CAB being a unique and largely successful Irish experiment in targeting criminals’ assets whether or not it could be proved individuals had broken any actual laws in accumulating them. CAB came into being in the wake of the murder of the Sunday Independent’s investigative reporter Veronica Guerin (and, lest we forget, that of Detective Jerry McCabe), and the series is narrated by Guerin’s then peer and rival, Paul Williams of the Sunday World (the series is loosely based on Williams’ best-selling account of the period, THE UNTOUCHABLES). Marred by excessive Sunday World branding, and a faux hardboiled delivery on Williams’ part, it is nonetheless a fascinating account of a watershed in the Irish public consciousness, not least for its impressive array of talking heads, which includes most of the main players from the time. The first vid we posted had no sound, mainly because we're monkeys when it comes to the techie stuff, but our second attempt (featuring the relevant ministers Ruari Quinn and Nora Owen, and the then Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne) tries to answer John McFetridge's question in the comment box, about how you get the country to care about such matters. You take the Twenty Major approach, if Ruari Quinn is anything to go by ... Roll it there, Collette … 
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Declan Burke has published a number of novels, the most recent of which is ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL. As a journalist and critic, he writes and broadcasts on books and film for a variety of media outlets, including the Irish Times, RTE, the Irish Examiner and the Sunday Independent. He has an unfortunate habit of speaking about himself in the third person. All views expressed here are his own and are very likely to be contrary.
Oh, I was watching this last night.
ReplyDeleteI had the 'Now it was personal' line spouted about two seconds before him. Then I laughed. What else can you do?
ps - no sound on that video.
No sound might be the best way to watch Paul Williams ... I'll see what I can do. Cheers, Dec
ReplyDeleteStill no sound, but it LOOKS cool.
ReplyDeleteWhat we'd like to know is how you go about getting, "the Irish public consciousness," to focus on one thing. The recognition that there IS organized crime is a great step. Truly, we're jealous.
We've had a few reporters targeted, http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2006/08/28/auger-retire-crime.html
and the RCMP has "proceeds of crime" department, but we've never managed to get any public interest. We're experts at looking the other way.
Maybe the great Irish crime fiction helps.
John - Maybe the smaller population helped, everyone seemed to take it personally at the time ... Also, it coincided with the murder of a Detective Garda, so there was a snowball effect ... There's a sense that, among all the other consequences of Veronica Guerin's murder, it had a hugely cathartic impact on Irish crime fiction. The 'new wave' of Irish crime coming now had its origins back then, I'm sure. Cheers, Dec
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