2 days Ago By Staff Reporter
Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Belfast News Letter, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. The 39 retired officers were responding to a newspaper interview earlier this month with what was described as one the PSNI’s first Catholic recruits, who said that he had left the force in dismay at the sectarianism that he suffered. The former officer was said to have retired from the PSNI in December on medical grounds at the age of 45, but said that he now regretted ever joining the police.
Advertisement Advertisement In the interview, the officer was described as ‘Sean’, which for security reasons was not his real name, although the paper said that it had verified his identity. “I had a raft of experiences of sectarianism within the PSNI – more so within the tactical support group, which is a predominantly male group,” the man was reported as claiming in the Belfast Telegraph report. “I didn’t want to be ostracised and cast aside where they’d say ‘here’s the Catholic’.
” In a letter to the same newspaper, the officers write: “We are hurt and bewildered at the allegations made by our former colleague and friend, which bear no resemblance to the culture and conduct of our team. “No sectarian language was tolerated in our team, neither was any bullying nor oppressive behaviour.” Advertisement Advertisement The letter from the 39 retired officers was published in Saturday’s Belfast Telegraph, three weeks after the original interview with Sean in that paper, which was reported on the front page and on two inside pages.
The unnamed group of officers sign off in the letter, which was published on an inside page of the March 29 weekend edition, as “Retired members of ‘Sean’s’ TSG”. In the March 8 interview, Sean had been reported as describing some of the sectarian conduct he encountered as follows: “For instance, Ash Wednesday. I remember coming in with ashes on my head and the boys muttering under their breath saying ‘who the f**k does he think he is coming in with ash on his head?’ It was such a normal thing to me — my faith is important to me; it’s how I was raised.
“I was hearing boys saying ‘Fenian b******s, who do they think they are?’ When certain politicians came on the TV from the green side, they’d be chastised and sworn at. There were boys whistling The Sash going up and down the corridors around the Twelfth.” Advertisement Advertisement In their reply to the article, the unnamed retired officers write: “We are a group of 39 retired officers and believe we served alongside ‘Sean’ in his TSG and we held various ranks from constable to inspector in the team inspector being the most senior rank in a TSG unit.
” They also say: “No allegations about sectarianism were ever raised to us by any colleague, formally or informally. Our TSG was a highly cohesive team with strong but supportive supervisors – if there was a culture in our TSG like the one described by Sean we would know about it. We prided ourselves on professionalism in how we treated the public and our colleagues and our TSG had an excellent reputation in the PSNI.
” The letter continues: “We were a mixed group of individuals – male, female and drawn from all sections of the community – and we supported our colleagues through challenges of both a professional and personal nature.” The authors then write: “We can also confirm that despite being retired, we have let the PSNI Chief Constable and PSNI Legal Services Branch know that we are keen to provide sworn statements of evidence rebutting the allegations made by ‘Sean’. Many people connected to the PSNI know that it is our TSG that is the subject of these allegations, and we respectfully request that you publish our unequivocal rejection of them as a form of right of reply.
” Advertisement Advertisement On the Monday after the March 8 interview, the Belfast Telegraph published an opinion article by Jon Burrows, ex head of discipline in the PSNI, in which he said the police service faces many problems but sectarianism is not one of them. “I never heard any officer make sectarian remarks when I was in the PSNI. I held various supervisory, and leadership ranks in the PSNI for 17 years and not once did an officer bring concerns of sectarian conduct to me,” Mr Burrows wrote.
“I had a close bond with the officers I commanded, and many brought various matters to my attention, from sensitive personal issues to concerns about a colleague committing theft, but never sectarianism." He called for an investigation and said that if “officers used language such as ‘fenian b*****ds’ they need to be dismissed, and if the allegations have no substance, then the public record must be set straight”..
