The Driven

The Driven were an Irish rock band, possibly best known for their 1996 single Jesus Loves You More If You Can Drive. From 1995 to 1998, the band consisted of Brendan Markham (vocals, guitar), Darrin Mullins (lead guitar), Ned Kennedy (drums) and Paul Power (bass). After 1998, Ned Kennedy was replaced by Christian Best. Three of the members later went on to form a group called Citizen.

History

Prior to forming The Driven in 1987 (then known as The Drive), Brendan had been the driving force behind the town of Rathkeale's first modern rock group, A Clockwork Orange. This group had Brendan on vocals, Pat Madigan on drums, Niall Mooney on guitar and Peter O'Connor on bass. After A Clockwork Orange split (circa 1985), Brendan left Ireland for Greece and, on his return in 1987, approached Pat Madigan, Ned Kennedy and Noel Brennan with the idea of forming a new rock group. They all accepted and The Drive was born.

The newly formed band played their first gig supporting Newcastlewest's Cloud 9 at the 1987 Rathkeale Soccer Club's annual dinner. The gig was a success and the band's next public performance was in a talent show in Foynes. The Drive won the competition, securing a cheque for £100 as prize money.

Driven

Driven is a 2001 action drama film directed by Renny Harlin and starring Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote and produced. It centers on a young racing driver's effort to win the Champ Car World Series auto racing championship. Prior to production of the movie, Stallone was seen at many Formula 1 races, but he was unable to procure enough information about the category due to the secrecy with which teams protect their cars, so he decided to base the film on Champ Car.

Stallone now says he regrets making the film.

Plot

Halfway through the (Fictionalized) 2001 Champ Car season, rookie driver Jimmy Bly has already won 5 races. His brother/business manager Demille is seems more concerned with working out endorsement deals and press engagements than racing, putting tremendous pressure upon Jimmy. His success has also drawn the ire of the reigning champion and series points leader Beau Brandenburg, who believes he's not doing as well as he should because of his fiancée Sophia becoming "a distraction". He breaks up the engagement and he regains his winning ways.

Secret police

Secret police (sometimes called political police) are intelligence services or police and law enforcement agencies which operate in secrecy. Therefore, they have little to no transparency, accountability or oversight. A secret police organization is often used beyond the law by totalitarian states to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian (autocratic) political regime.

Duties and function

Instead of transparently enforcing the rule of law and being subject to public scrutiny as ordinary police agencies do, secret police organizations are specifically intended to operate beyond and above the law in order to suppress political dissent through clandestine acts of terror and intimidation (such as kidnapping, coercive interrogation, torture, internal exile, forced disappearance, and assassination) targeted against political enemies of the ruling authority.

Secret police forces are accountable only to the executive branch of the government, sometimes only to a dictator. They operate entirely or partially in secrecy, that is, most or all of their operations are obscure and hidden from the general public and government except for the topmost executive officials. This semi-official capacity allows the secret police to bolster the government's control over their citizens while also allowing the government to deny prior knowledge of any violations of civil liberties.