Column: Is loss of civil liberty the inevitable price of national security?

In a climate of mounting threats from extremists, how do the relevant agencies, and we as a society, balance national security with civil liberties?

This was a dilemma that was explored in some detail at a number of talks during the recent MacGill Summer School in Glenties, and one that I found particularly thought provoking.

While it seems a bleak and paranoid way of looking at things, one has to acknowledge that scrutiny of our digital conversations and online activity is inevitable.It must also be acknowledged that this scrutiny is more likely to come from malevolent sources than from those tasked with keeping us safe. 

If that is indeed the case, surely we would want our own security services to step up and pay more attention. But how can they do so without us feeling overly watched by our government and its agencies? 

That is the paradox facing those of us fortunate enough to live in relatively liberal democracies.

A talk at the MacGill Summer School which I found particularly interesting was Intelligence Capabilities for a World on the Brink. Professor  Edward Burke, Assistant Professor in the History of War since 1945 at University College Dublin and Azure Forum Adjunct Senior Research Fellow was in conversation with Brigadier Phil McKee, former Director-General of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service. 

The two men were acquainted, addressing each other throughout the talk as Ed and Phil. This degree of familiarity and mutual respect helped set the atmosphere for a difficult and uncomfortable topic discussed with a light touch that made it palatable.

Phil McKee is a senior intelligence officer in the security service of New Zealand, a country which from a security perspective has much in common with Ireland.

Both island nations with a relatively small population, neither country is immune from the threat of terrorism and the mounting culture of extremism. 

New Zealand learned this the hard way with the 2019 Christchurch Mosque massacre which saw 51 people murdered and a further 40 seriously injured.

Ireland is in a position to learn from New Zealand’s experience, and perhaps prevent such an atrocity happening here in the future. Because let’s face it, we have seen more than enough bloodshed on this island, much of it in living memory.

A Royal Commission into the Christchurch massacre found that there was nothing the intelligence agency or law enforcement agency could have done that would have prevented it.  

Brigadier McKee said: “I take no satisfaction in that, none at all. 

“We didn’t find this individual and he murdered 51 people. It happened on my watch. Our job is to find people like that.”

He said that it had turbo-charged the thoughts of himself and his colleague on how they could improve their intelligence gathering and threat identification.

“How do we give ourselves the best shot at making sure something like that doesn’t happen again?” he asked. “That’s what drives me.”

A burning question indeed, and one which the brigadier did not shy away from. 

Communication and transparency were key strategies in how they moved forward from the attacks, and there is much to be learned from this approach.

Opening the agency up to oversight from political bodies, as well as going out into communities - including ethnic minority communities - and working closely with them has helped to identify and quantify threats. 

Furthermore, it helped to build trust and an understanding that people and agencies were working together for the greater good. 

An unclassified publication which outlined threats was a further innovative step taken by Brigadier McKee and his team. 

“We have had to massively change our culture,” he told those gathered in the Highlands Hotel. 

“You can’t know threats and not talk about them to mitigate them.

“The confidence we got with a lot of our communities was incredible and heartening. They can kick back and talk to us.”

From an Irish perspective, we have seen recent riots where there were direct attacks on gardaí. 

Also speaking at the MacGill Summer School, Taoiseach Simon Harris praised gardaí who stood strong in protection of the people while having bricks hurled at them during the Coolock unrest.

During the Dublin riots last November, there was shock at how quickly a core group had mobilised in retaliation to the stabbing of children.

Surely the guards should have seen that coming, people said. Surely they must know who these people are, these extremists and instigators who walk amongst us. 

But how can they know who they need to monitor more closely if they are not watching all of us?

And is the right to privacy which many of us hold sacred worth the cost of a Christchurch type massacre on our soil?