‘In the shadow of the gunman?’: Revisiting the legitimacy of the witness security programme in Ireland

The police practice of the use of criminal informants and the provision to them of witness protection raises serious questions about trust and legitimacy in the policing of organised crime and beyond. Indeed, the deeply flawed ‘supergrass system’ created in Northern Ireland during ‘The Troubles’ perhaps represents the apotheosis of this ‘morally hazardous’ undertaking. Against this background, this article examines the legitimacy of the witness security programme (WSP) south of the border, a police-led programme that – given the history of these measures in Northern Ireland and their overspill into the Republic – provides a ‘hard test’ for these tactics. Drawing on documentary and semi-structured interview data, the article examines the legitimacy of the WSP in a systematic, chronological manner, following the three key stages in the process: pre-trial, trial, and post-trial. It concludes that, in respect of at least two of the stages of the witness protection process in Ireland – namely, the pre- and post-trial stages – significant aspects of State-run witness protection are difficult to reconcile with the core indices of legitimacy.