Gardaí 'told of member's IRA links'

A former member of the Garda Síochána has told the Smithwick Tribunal he believes Garda headquarters was warned about his alleged links to the IRA, in advance of the murders of two RUC officers.

Former det sgt Owen Corrigan said the naming of him as a IRA mole who assisted in the murders of RUC officers chief supt Harry Breen and supt Bob Buchanan was part of a British security services plot to undermine him.

This morning,  Mr Corrigan said the first part of this plot was that the RUC put pressure on the Garda and Government to upscale the detective facility in Dundalk by the addition of about 40 new officers after the Anglo Irish Agreement in 1985,

Mr Corrigan said it led to him being "excluded" from the station's day-to-day activities by a new superior, Supt Tom Connolly.

Mr Corrigan said the second phase of this plot was to prompt Monaghan supt Tom Curran to travel to Dublin to speak to then assistant Garda commissioner Eugene Crowley, about fears allegedly expressed by Mr Buchanan that Mr Corrigan was inappropriately associating with the IRA.

"It is my contention that they went, that the next steps along the way, was that they wanted Mr Curran to go to Mr Crowley, "
Mr Corrigan told his counsel Jim O'Callaghan SC.

But he said he had been well known to Mr Crowley and Mr Crowley "was not going to doubt" his behaviour.

The tribunal has previously heard from retired chief supt Tom Curran that he had travelled to Dublin and told Mr Crowley about the concerns of Mr Buchanan and the RUC. However Mr Curran said Mr Crowley kept his head down throughout the warning, and never replied or spoke to him about the allegations.

Mr Curran has also told the tribunal he had been separately warned by a person he believed to be a member of the IRA that Mr Buchanan's name was on a list of people the IRA had targeted for assassination.

Mr Buchanan and Mr Harry Breen were killed in an IRA ambush in south Armagh in 1989, minutes after leaving a meeting in Dundalk Garda station.

The tribunal is inquiring into allegations that a member or members of the Garda Síochána or other employees of the State colluded in the murders of the two officers.

Mr Corrigan this morning said British security services were behind the allegations against him as part of an effort to deflect attention from claims of collusion between the British services and loyalist murder gangs.

He said the evidence of British army undercover agent in the IRA Peter Keeley which also implicated him, was another part of the plot. Further elements included evidence Mr Keeley gave to a previous inquiry chaired by Canadian Judge Peter Cory.

Mr Keeley "fooled judge Cory. He led him a merry dance", Mr Corrigan said.

Mr Corrigan also said the naming of him by DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson as an IRA mole, under House of Commons privilege, was a further part of the plot against him.