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Talking Bollox Podcast

Episode 267 w/ John Sweetman

14 May 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

5.127 - 18.208 Calvin

Talking Bollocks, a Go Loud original podcast. Sponsored by Right Style Furniture. Right price, right style, right now. Visit rightstyle.ie. Go Loud. Sounds better with us.

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19.032 - 21.517 C.O.B.

Are you still sitting on a beanbag and you're sitting with them like you're 17?

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21.958 - 29.153 Unknown

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29.353 - 37.169 C.O.B.

For just €3,649 you get an electric sofa set, full dining setup and beds with mattresses. That's a serious bang for your buck.

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37.189 - 38.492 Unknown

I got my corner sofa of them.

38.472 - 46.592 C.O.B.

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46.612 - 50.421 Unknown

One stop shop for getting out the gaff. Don't tell me never looked after you. Exactly.

50.842 - 53.308 C.O.B.

Right price, right style, right now.

53.322 - 60.553 Unknown

visit www.roystoyle.ie and when you shop in store, tell them Terence and Calvin sent you and they'll throw a discount on top of that as well.

Chapter 2: What inspired John Sweetman to start the podcast Lines of Inquiry?

375.412 - 377.174 C.O.B.

Would that have been frowned upon? No, no.

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377.214 - 392.903 John Sweetman

Or would that have been looked up to? I don't know, like... You know, like, Scarry's a quiet enough town. There's not much trouble or anything in it, like, you know. And even nowadays, like, there's a Garda station there, but it's rarely open. Like, they'd be out and about. They'd be based out of Balbriggan most of the time.

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392.963 - 403.277 John Sweetman

But, you know, it was looked at as, you know, a good thing if your son or your daughter had applied for the Gardas. It was looked upon as, yeah, Jesus. Expectedly.

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403.297 - 407.042 Unknown

Yeah. You said you didn't like being on the B. No. What did you not like about it?

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407.022 - 425.689 John Sweetman

I didn't know. I didn't have any confidence. You know, I didn't have any self-confidence. Like, you know, I wouldn't be able to, you know, if you got into some kind of situation where you needed to talk your way through it rather than lose the head and stuff like that. I was very quiet, you know, and I was kind of like shy and stuff like that.

425.729 - 433.941 John Sweetman

And, you know, it takes a fair bit of confidence and being assured of yourself. And I just didn't have it. And it didn't help that, like, my first station...

433.921 - 445.333 John Sweetman

It was brilliant for me from the point of view of travel was Malahide and at the time that was only 15 minutes up the road from me and it wasn't nearly as big or as expanded as it is now and it was great and I liked it but it was really really quiet.

446.234 - 457.887 John Sweetman

So for the nine months I was there I didn't get a huge amount of experience you know like you could have a week of nights say where you're working nights and maybe nothing fecking happening all week until a Saturday or a Sunday night.

457.867 - 470.263 John Sweetman

So it was very quiet, whereas a lot of the other people that were in my class and that maybe got stations like Store Street or the Bridewell or busy stations down in Cork and Limerick and stuff like that, and they were getting the experience.

Chapter 3: What was John Sweetman's background before joining the Garda?

812.021 - 836.342 John Sweetman

But I often wondered years later, like, who came to clean up afterwards, you know, because I know now there's specialists that do that kind of stuff, certainly nowadays there is, but this was in, you know, the depths of, you know, the Midlands back in the late 90s. I'd say it was up to either local neighbours or maybe even, God love them, the relatives to clean up afterwards, you know.

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Chapter 4: How does John describe his experience working in the Technical Bureau?

836.322 - 857.723 John Sweetman

you know we go we leave a scene we go on and we move on to the next one but you know it's still there and I found myself it's only really since I got back into looking at me old notes for the podcast and stuff that I'm going down the rabbit hole trying to find out these things I was on I was on Google Maps there last week trying to find that house you know, in a satellite picture or something.

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857.863 - 874.767 John Sweetman

And I reckon I found it. It doesn't look anything like it did back then, but I reckon I found it, and I said, Jesus, I'll never forget that, like, you know. But I had a photograph of myself, the photographer, because it was my first job out as a trainee. I had the white suit and that on me, so I'm standing outside with the arms folded, thinking I'm great.

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874.747 - 891.437 John Sweetman

And I had the photograph in front of the house. I was comparing that with the street view. It's still there. I still remember it. Not in a bad way. It doesn't affect me or anything like that. But I just never forget it. And it's funny because every time I walk up here, I come up whatever street it is. I come up off Graff Street and then cross over.

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891.697 - 909.867 John Sweetman

There's a little post box and it's written on that, don't forget to remember. And I copped that not long after I started coming in here doing the episodes. And I said, Jesus, I must, like, that's what you don't forget to remember, like, you know, and I think it's very important. And I think that's what we try to do with the cases. Yeah.

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910.168 - 914.916 John Sweetman

You know, not to forget, like, you know, that these are real people that you're dealing with. Yeah, that's their story. Yeah.

915.216 - 918.402 Unknown

John, is it true that every single person has a unique fingerprint?

918.762 - 939.735 John Sweetman

Absolutely, 100%. Yeah, like, I mean, you'll get people saying, and rightly so, that, you know, DNA is fantastic. DNA as a means of identification is just incredible and just keeps getting better and better and better. But identical twins will have the same DNA, whereas they won't have the same fingerprints.

939.715 - 964.417 John Sweetman

And there's so many factors involved in it that we used to have to go through a spiel for court, explain it in layman's terms. Because you know the skin on your hands and the skin on your feet and that is that kind of rough thing with the patterns and all that sort of stuff. Well, all those patterns form you know, after about 16 weeks gestation of the fetus or whatever.

964.979 - 982.811 John Sweetman

And there's so many factors involved with how they will form the patterns. It could be anything from the diet of the mother or it could be anything like with the way the fetus is lying in the womb, all these sort of things. Because, you know, when the baby is forming, you can think like the hands and the feet are almost like little paws.

Chapter 5: What was John's first significant case as a fingerprint expert?

2833.718 - 2860.469 John Sweetman

So it's a much more relaxed. It's not like it was. But I mean, when I say the stuff that we had to adhere to, this was in the early 90s when I joined. But when I talked to the lads that joined in the 80s and the 70s and Jesus Christ! You know, they're talking about buttons up and starched collars and, you know, hobnailed things and getting marched up to Mass on a Sunday in Temple Moor.

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2860.489 - 2869.78 John Sweetman

They had to march a couple of miles to the church. They were marched up to the church and marched back every Sunday. And you couldn't say, no, I don't believe. You couldn't go on whether you believe or not.

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2869.76 - 2898.332 John Sweetman

all this sort of crack but uh yeah it just changes like it's like anything else it's just another college now really like it's it's it's a big college yeah um i haven't been back now it's the only thing i just i'd have nightmares about at the odd time but i don't i haven't been back i used to get the temple more sweats the odd time where i'd be in i'd be dreaming i was still down there you know but at the same time a great crack down there like it was most nights especially when we started getting paid because we just when we started the students down there we got 50 quid a week

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2898.312 - 2912.203 John Sweetman

And you could be driving a car up and down as well. So that wasn't much. But by the time we were finishing up, we were sworn in and we were getting wages. So, like, for pints mostly, you know. So it was a good crack. Well, it helps that you don't look like a copper.

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2912.223 - 2916.793 C.O.B.

Yeah. Because we're not on edge or anything. Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No. We're usually on edge or anything.

2916.773 - 2934.529 John Sweetman

Yeah, like, I mean, that's, that's, that's not like I had to go down to get my passport thing signed there a week or two ago. And your man is looking at me and I says, I was a member myself, like, you know, all right. And then he just, he relaxed then, you know, but no, I take it as a compliment. And that's nothing against guards or anything like that, but I know I don't.

2934.509 - 2947.008 John Sweetman

I'll let it be again, so fuck. You know what I mean? But I mean, I don't go around talking about a vehicle. Like, I mean, if I was reading that in a podcast, I'd be pretty sure somebody would say to me, will you stop talking like that? You don't talk like that. You know?

2947.289 - 2951.755 Unknown

Speaking of the podcast, John, how are you finding it? It's bleeding, took off. Yeah.

2951.795 - 2954.119 C.O.B.

We're doing talking bollocks numbers, the fella is.

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