Donegal's answer to Jeb Bush

Or is he Donegal's answer to "Doctor" Bill Frist? Either way it seems that Doctor Jim "Wrong-way" McDaid would have been able to step in instantly to the Terri Schiavo disgrace and not look out of place. Some context for readers unfamiliar with this story [see also the Freestater blog for links]. A botched investigation of an apparent hit-and-run death in Donegal has turned into a convulsive scandal for the Irish police, not least because of the attempts of members of the force to frame a local family, the McBreartys, for murder. The family ran up against a brick wall in their attempts to clear their name or avoid malicious investigation and had to hire a private investigator and lobby intensively before they started to make any progress.

A recent judicial inquiry completely vindicated their position, but the latter of their legal costs is not quite settled and the government refuses to see the broader indictment of the lack of accountability in the force, something they're very good at lecturing our neighbours about.

Anyway into the breach steps local Fianna Fail TD -- who was nowhere to be found when the McBreartys were trying to rally political support -- and former minister McDaid who has learned from Jeb Bush and Bill Frist what you do to a family that has proven politically inconvenient: you keep hounding, preferably under the guise of some expertise or other. So, from Friday's Irish Times (subs. req'd):

The TD, who lives in Letterkenny and whose constituency covers Raphoe, said he had visited the scene of Mr Barron's death and believed it was almost impossible for a car to have been travelling at a sufficient speed to have caused the injuries to Mr Barron ... "It's not just one person that knows, but two, three, four or five people who know what happened to Richie Barron."

Note that he's alleging not just murder, but conspiracy, and yet the brave politician won't name names -- which of course he could do using parliamentary privilege. But then again the real motive is probably to sow just enough doubt about the official version to defend his friends:

Dr McDaid denied his comments were motivated by the fact he was personally acquainted with many of the gardaí criticised in the second Morris report, but that the whole truth in relation to the incident had to emerge. "What I'm saying is if this county is to come to terms with all of this, well, then every line of inquiry will have to be followed."

Much like Jeb wants to know why Michael Schiavo is off by 45 minutes in his recollection of the night 15 years ago that his wife had her critical heart attack. Does Fianna Fail call itself The Republican Party because it so perfectly follows their tactics?