By Anne Cadwallader
BELFAST — It took a lot of arm-twisting, and he’s been told not to comment on the Ombudsman’s office or interfere in the Omagh inquiry, but the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, has managed to hang onto his job another four weeks.
Flanagan had resigned last November, effective at the end of this month, and had accepted a new job, but had made it known that he badly wanted an extension of his term of office until at least April 5, when he would have taken the salute from the first new batch of post-RUC recruits.
This ambition was vehemently opposed by the SDLP members of the Police Board as well as many of its independent members. During the furious row over the Ombudsman’s report on the 1998 Omagh bombing, Flanagan had not endeared himself to them by delaying the production of the internal police report into the hunt for the bombers.
On Feb. 21, the day his fate was being decided, he first applied to speak to Police Board members in person. This request was denied. He then applied to send each member a fax message individually. This request was also denied.
Finally, after a long and tense Police Board debate, it was announced he was staying on after all — but only for four weeks and only on condition he does not comment in public on his row with the ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan, or interfere with the newly constituted police inquiry into the hunt for the Omagh bombers.
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All the nationalists on the board wanted him to go sooner rather than later, but unionists said they wanted him to usher in his successor. It was through the vote of the board chairman, on a motion proposed by the DUP members of the board, that he was permitted another four weeks.
Although it could be said that Flanagan won a victory, it was, if anything, a Pyrrhic one that will result in an undignified exit before his chosen tim.e
Alex Attwood, one of the SDLP representatives on the Board, said the chief constable is now a “lame duck” and that the vote, which had tied before the chairman used his, could hardly be seen as a ringing endorsement.
The absence of one SDLP member, Eddie McGrady, meant the board was split 9-9, so independent chairman Professor Desmond Rea had the crucial vote.
Flanagan put a brave face on the board’s decision, saying he thought it was in the best interests of the police and he was prepared to postpone his retirement for a month.
“I will maximize every moment of this period to ensure the organization is best positioned to continue to provide the highest quality of service to the public it is humanly possible to achieve,” he said.
But he must have been disappointed at being deprived of presiding over the passing-out parade of the first batch of 48 recruits to the renamed Police Service of Northern Ireland, formerly the RUC, and the adoption of the new badge and uniform.
Ombudsman O’Loan’s scathing censure of his handling of the Omagh inquiry, and the public row that followed, have continued to blight his last weeks in office.
He vehemently rejected her criticisms, and the Police Association, which represents officers of all ranks, is currently mounting a legal challenge to the report asking that be “set aside.”
The Home Office announced Flanagan’s appointment last week as an inspector of Her Majesty’s Constabulary for the east of England, but did not specify a start date. In this job, he will be responsible for overseeing policing standards of, among others, the London Metropolitan Police.
The chief constable of that force is Sir John Stevens, who is currently heading the third round of investigations into allegations that the RUC colluded in the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.
This could put Flanagan in the interesting position of being responsible for overseeing the work of a senior police officer who may recommend an inquiry into claims of collusion while Flanagan was a senior police officer in Belfast.
Colin Cramphorn, the deputy chief constable, is expected to temporarily step into Flanagan’s shoes in Belfast until a permanent successor is chosen.
Relatives of many of the 29 people killed in the Omagh bomb in 1998 have already said they had lost confidence in Flanagan and wanted him to go as soon as possible. They appealed to him, in the last days of his tenure as chief constable, to ask a new officer to head up the inquiry, but they were refused.
Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son, Adrian, was among the victims, said: “We have to respect the policing board’s decision but we don’t have to like it.” His group of relatives had said they hoped Flanagan would be gone by the end of February.