Posted by Kevin Myers: ‘People died to feed Ryan his drugs. He knew. He funded those deaths’ Br Kevin is a Hero of the Poor and Homeless, Ryan was a Motormouth.
RTE’s silence in response to the revelations contrasts sharply with how it treated Ryan’s death
I don’t apologise for returning to the issue of Gerry Ryan. A week has now elapsed since it was revealed that Gerry Ryan died of massive and long-term cocaine usage: and six months have passed since his death.
I had hoped that RTE, the licence-funded national broadcaster, by this time would have made a statement upon the involvement of one of their foremost broadcasters in organised crime. But, of course, that’s too much to hope for in the strange land of Montrosia, where principles only exist if someone else spells them out, in BLACK AND WHITE.
Had Gerry Ryan been a working class-boy from Drimnagh, he would have been called a “drug addict”. He wasn’t. He was a millionaire and so he just had a “coke habit”. Either way, he was at the consuming end of the most evil drugs trade in the world. People died in the supply line which fed him his drugs. He therefore indirectly helped to make those deaths possible. He funded them. And he was fully aware of the nature of the trade in which he was a consumer, as Michael O’Toole of the ‘Daily Star’, has made plain.
Now, a couple of accusations are likely to be levelled at anyone who writes a column like this. The first is that I am being judgmental. Guilty, as charged. I do make judgments on the cocaine-business, especially since drugs are now the main cause of death of young men in half-a-dozen Dublin estates, and have almost turned Moyross into Little Bogota. The second charge is that it is showing little regard for the man’s family. Possibly, but I hope I am showing some regard for families which have not yet been touched by cocaine use, but certainly will be if the broadcaster remains a celebrity-hero. For, if emulated by the working-class poor, Ryan’s lifestyle will see them in Mountjoy Jail, six to a four-bunk cell, and a shit-filled chamber pot on the floor. Oh, and no state funeral when they OD.
RTE’s silence in response to the revelations about Ryan’s drugs dependency is in sharp contrast to how it treated his death. RTE radio virtually closed down the morning of his funeral, as ‘public-service’ broadcasters abandoned their duties in order to be seen there (so much for their understanding of the term ‘public-service’). Ryan Tubridy’s recent words, that Gerry Ryan should be let “rest in peace” and that he “would not abandon” his friend are merely unctuous waffle. The man is dead. He is not being abandoned if the world is told in detail about the criminal calamity that drugs had made of his life — but RTE is already abandoning those other people who are not yet victims, but by God who will soon be if they follow the Ryan path.
This is not a once-off issue: that much was plain when Eamon Dunphy was introduced on ‘Prime Time’ recently as a voice of moral authority. This is the fine fellow who once complained about how difficult it was to get good cocaine in Dublin, and who managed to rack up nine driving and drink-driving charges before he was put off the road.
Clearly, to expect any meaningful moral ethos to emerge of its own accord from the ghastly concrete slabs of Montrose is almost like expecting Martyr’s Memorial Church to conduct services in Latin. Meanwhile, the oxymoronic RTE Authority exhibits as much authority as a tentacle-less jellyfish in the Gulf Stream.
So from whom else can we expect leadership on this issue? Well, the President for one: clearly ignorant (as all of us — well, outside RTE — were) of Gerry Ryan’s criminal habits, she attended his funeral, as did Health Minister Mary Harney and the Acting Chief of Staff, General Dave Ashe. All three would be truly appalled by the squalid reality of Gerry Ryan’s life. She is the head of state, the most respected and acclaimed in our history. It is surely not politically inappropriate, or ultra vires, for the President now to distance herself from the systematic criminality that defined his private life, and brought him to an early death.
The alternative is the kind of meandering, maudlin sentimentality so classically enunciated by Father Brian D’Arcy, who, officiating at the Ryan funeral, maundered: “He would never mention God, but God would not be unmentioned.” What does that mean? That I’m Father Trendy, and I’ve got to justify my presence at yet another showbiz funeral?
RTE once introduced broadcasting restrictions under Section 31 to prevent the IRA getting on to the airwaves. As the cocaine trade threatens to overwhelm entire communities, would it now be wrong for the Government to tell RTE to introduce cocaine-only blood-testing for all employees and contract staff? Or to prohibit access to the airwaves of known promoters of cocaine use, regardless of what they are talking about.
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RTÉ stars ‘knew Gerry Ryan took cocaine at work’
The late 2fm broadcaster would often take cocaine to help him through his morning radio show, many of today’s papers say.
GERRY RYAN occasionally took cocaine while at work in RTÉ in order to help him through his three-hour radio show every day, it is claimed in many papers this morning.
The Irish Mail on Sunday claims that the DJ, who died in April, was known by many in RTÉ to have been a regular cocaine user, though the star had striven to hide his habit “pretty well”, covering it with the use of champagne and valium.
It also quotes a former colleague of Ryan’s, 4fm broadcaster Gareth O’Callaghan, who claimed that Ryan’s cocaine use was “widely known in both RTÉ Radio 1 and 2fm”.
The star would apparently pay “over the odds” for the volume of the drug he would use, it claims, in order to keep his habit a secret.
Nonetheless, it adds, the broadcaster’s drug supplier attended his funeral – a dealer the Sunday Times claims that a Garda inquiry into Ryan’s death failed to identify.
The Times says Ryan had promised his partner Melanie Verwoerd that he would not use the drug while they were together, and quotes Eamon Dunphy who suggested Ryan was too “sensible” to use the drug on a regular basis.
It is suggested in a number of papers that the inquest’s findings could have implications for Ryan’s life assurance policies, which may now decline to pay out given the apparent role of illegal drugs in his death.
Confirmation of Ryan’s cocaine use came on Friday when an inquest into his death found traces of the drug in his bloodstream, and returned a verdict of death by misadventure.
The economic cost, the psychological cost to so many, the social cost and most importantly just look to the homeless people and identify what addiction often caused by mental health issues does to them and their families. There is no old age for these unfortunate people, just coasting into their 40’s and most likely a young death in an old person’s body wracked by life from drugs. The Lords being the Gangland Leaders who employ young runners and we know in Ireland the cost of these Gangland Feuds.
70 charged in massive garda crackdown on bitter Longford feud
A petrol-bombed house on the Annaly Gardens estate
Gardai have secured serious charges against nearly 70 people as part of a massive investigation into the ongoing Co Longford feud.
Forty-two of them have been sent forward to the circuit court, which has wider sentencing powers than the district court, for feud-related offences including violent disorder, assault and possession of weapons.
Senior sources told the Herald some of these people are facing multiple charges and roughly 75pc of the defendants are male.
“The age profile is fairly wide as well, with charges being brought from people aged in their teens to people aged in their late 40s,” a source said.
Many of those charged are members of the same immediate or extended families and their cases are expected to be heard at Longford Circuit Court in the coming months.
“The courts are going to be very busy with all these cases coming up,” the source said.
There has been a “complete lull” in feud violence since the coronavirus pandemic restrictions after weeks of incidents that led to fears the dispute might become as entrenched as the criminal warfare in Drogheda, which has cost four lives.
While no one has been killed in the Longford feud, armed gardai have been patrolling the county, often on a 24/7 basis, and the Armed Support Unit has been deployed for a number of early-morning arrest operations.
“Travel restrictions linked to the health crisis have helped the situation, but another important factor is that some of the key players are now locked up, which has helped ease tensions, and others are living with very strict bail conditions,” the source said.
Bomb
“The expectation is that by the time all the court cases are completed, there will be a number of people serving custodial sentences.”
In February, one property in Edgeworthstown was attacked on three separate occasions as part of the feud, twice being shot at and once being petrol bombed.
The petrol bomb attack and shooting incidents are linked to the same feud that led to a two-year-old girl escaping with her life after shots were fired into a front door as she played in the hallway of the property on February 12.
The house, on the Annaly Gardens estate in Longford town, was later burned to the ground in an arson attack.
Gardai are investigating more than 80 violent incidents linked to the Co Longford dispute, which include shootings, attempted hits, stabbings and petrol bomb attacks.
Six Traveller families are directly involved in the violence, and criminals from Dublin are now also taking part in the feuding.
The Herald previously revealed that a number of women are suspected of directing and orchestrating much of the violence and, as a result, have also been the targets of murder attempts.
The Criminal Assets Bureau has also been carrying out investigations into the feuding gangs’ finances, while local gardai have been involved in mediation talks between the warring families.
Fred says personally I don’t give Ryan a thought. I never had any respect for Big Mouths and Arrogant drug taking idiots. When you read the newspapers over the last 20 years and see the suffering; the young lives lost; the families in pain; over the Drug Culture and the Gangs who have our cities, towns and villages, living in fear across the Island. I cannot believe that RTE would try and pull a Stunt like this (the Documentary).
GERRY RYAN IS NO ICON. HE WAS A SELF INDULGED FLAWED IDIOT WHO MOCKED PEOPLE ON AIR AND WHO BEHAVED LIKE A SEMI-GOD. O YES HE HAD HIS FOLLOWERS – CAGNEY, FANNING, DUFFY, TUBRIDY AND OTHERS BUT PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY ARE NOT STUPID. I WILL NOW RECALL A NIGHT IN A CERTAIN NIGHTCLUB WELL KNOWN FOR SO CALLED CELEB MUPPETS. A FRIEND OF MINE WITNESSED A NUMBER OF RTE HEADS IN THE GENTS, ON THEIR KNEES, TRYING TO RETRIEVE COCAINE FROM THE GENTS URINAL FULL OF PISS. HE SAID LOOKING AT THEM WAS PATHETIC AND SOME WERE LIVE ON AIR THE FOLLOWING MORNING SLAGGING OFF OTHER PEOPLE AND TELLING THE NATION HOW TO LIVE A NORMAL LIFE. THIS TO ME IS A LOAD OF BULLSHIT AND IT IS TIME THAT PEOPLE KNEW THE FACTS ABOUT RTE AND THE HIDDEN COKE HEADS WHO ARE STILL THERE.
I am no admirer of Kevin Myers but on this occasion he gave it from the hip and he was right. People have gone to prison for non payment of TV licences to keep these so called RTE junkies as Celebs on their overpaid salaries, perks and clothes expenses. This country has many heros. I mentioned Brother Kevin above. Ryan is certainly no shining example that young people should look up to. Ryan’s girlfriend from Capetown left Ireland lonely and bitter and she told a source of mine that RTE circled the wagons and froze her out of the picture. No surprises there. Before she finally left these shores, she was a lonely figure, reading her newspaper at the various cafes in the Dublin 4 area. Again I conclude that I have nothing against Ryan’s family but sympathy but I hold contempt for the RTE morons who are self obsessed and are prepared to allow their staff to use cocaine to boost their audiences. Fred
Who Watches the Watchers? 