Libel claim farmer denies he supports IRA methods

A Co Louth farmer who claims he was libelled in a newspaper article about an IRA bombing campaign has told the High Court he attended the funeral of an IRA man. Mr Thomas Murphy said he had attended the funeral of Eugene Martin, but not the unveiling of a memorial to Mr Martin in April 1997. Mr Martin was a neighbour and he attended the funeral as a mark of respect to the man and his parents.

He believed it was a paramilitary funeral. Everyone from the district attended the funeral, he said. That was the custom.

Asked if he supported the IRA, he said: "Not really, no." Asked what he meant by "not really", he said: "I'd like to see the island, this country, being united." He did not support the IRA's methods.

The cross-examination of Mr Murphy, a farmer from Ballybinaby, Hackballscross, Dundalk, continued yesterday, the sixth day of his action against Times Newspapers and a number of journalists. Mr Murphy claims he was libelled in a Sunday Times article of June 30th, 1985, which dealt with an IRA campaign to bomb seaside resorts in Britain.

The court was told yesterday that one juror had a family bereavement. It was agreed the trial would proceed with the other 11 jurors.

Mr Murphy told Mrs Justice McGuinness that his brother, Frank, had received a death threat from the Loyalist Volunteer Force over the weekend and was very concerned. Neither Frank nor his family were involved in the case, he said.

Mr Paul Gallagher SC, for the Sunday Times, said it was not appropriate that the matter be raised before the jury, and the judge directed the jurors to put it out of their minds.

Mr Gallagher asked Mr Murphy to examine an aerial photograph of the Murphy family lands, houses and other buildings. Mr Murphy agreed the Border ran immediately behind the back kitchen of his home.

Counsel asked him detailed questions about oil tanks and tankers in the photograph and about his family's involvement in the oil business.

Mr Murphy said some of the tanks were in the North and some in the South. He agreed it was possible for tanks on the northern side of the Border to be filled from the southern side.

Mr Gallagher asked Mr Murphy about a number of occasions when he was stopped by gardai.

Mr Murphy said he thought he was arrested for a motoring offence in September 1983, with a Mr Quigley, under the Offences Against the State Act (OASA). Mr Quigley was the owner of the yard where he was arrested.

Mr Gallagher suggested the OASA had nothing to do with a motoring offence. Mr Murphy said he believed the Act could cover a lot of things, and he was arrested for a motoring offence.

Mr Gallagher asked if he was arrested after he was stopped in his car with a Mr Kieran Conway at Tallanstown, Co Louth, in February 1984.

Mr Murphy said he had given the man a lift and did not know his name. He went to a Garda barracks. He denied he had remained silent there. He did not recall the convicted IRA killer turned informer Sean O'Callaghan giving evidence that Mr Conway was at a meeting of IRA General Headquarters staff which Mr O'Callaghan said was also attended by Mr Murphy.

Mr Murphy said he recalled being taken to a Garda barracks in Monaghan sometime in 1985. He was taken in because of having taken alcohol.

Mr Gallagher put it to him that there were two other men with him in his car, a Mr McKevitt and a Mr Kevin Martin. Mr Murphy said two men in the pub, whom he did not know, had asked him for a lift and he agreed. Counsel asked Mr Murphy if he did not consider himself very unlucky to be constantly arrested in circumstances where he had unknown passengers in his car. Mr Murphy said he was arrested only once, for drink-driving.

Mr Gallagher asked if he was not arrested a number of times under the OASA. Mr Murphy cited two occasions when he recalled Section 30 of the OASA being mentioned. He did not recall being asked while in Garda custody in 1989 whether he was a member of the IRA and remaining silent. He was not in the IRA. He had jumped out of his mother's house through a window on an early morning in June 1989 because he saw men with guns outside. He was under pressure because of the Sunday Times article and was getting death threats. He only later realised the people outside were police and soldiers. He had nothing to hide and had no experience of escaping like that.

He said he had not attended the unveiling of a memorial to an IRA man, Seamus Harvey, in January 1997 nor did he attend a memorial for an IRA member Eugene Martin, in April 1997. He was probably at Mr Martin's funeral.

Pressed on the nature of that funeral, Mr Murphy said he believed it was a paramilitary funeral. There were people dressed in black who he thought were a guard of honour and there was a Tricolour. He did not believe the people in black were IRA. There were guards of honour from football clubs, he said. i, he had the reputation of being involved with the IRA, Mr Murphy said he didn't know what the Garda's opinion was.

He agreed it had to be a coincidence that certain entries on a passport found by gardai during a search of his mother's home were similar to those on a passport used by Mr Gerard Kelly. Asked if he had heard of Gerard Kelly, he said he might have learned from the news that Mr Kelly had escaped from some prison in the North.

Asked if he had heard of the Maze Prison, he said he might have.

The judge said: "Come on, Mr Murphy, you must have heard of the Maze." Mr Murphy said he thought the prison that some people escaped from was Long Kesh.

Re-examined by his counsel, Mr Eamon Leahy SC, he said the IRA had not appointed him as Officer Commanding for Northern Ireland in February 1984 and "no way" had he sanctioned the participation of certain persons in an IRA bombing campaign in Britain in 1985.

Mr Leahy told Mr Murphy that witnesses Sean O'Callaghan and Eamon Collins had put him at various locations in 1983 and asked him what his physical appearance was then. Mr Murphy said he had more hair and a beard.

Mr Gallagher objected, and Mr Leahy said Mr O'Callaghan had given evidence Mr Murphy did not have a beard. Mr Murphy said he had had a strong, bushy beard for some years - he thought from the late 1970s to about 1984. Mr Gallagher produced a passport to Mr Murphy and he agreed it was issued in March 1979 and showed him without a beard. Mr Owen Kelly, a former SDLP councillor, from near Cullyhanna, Co Armagh, said he knew Mr Murphy from childhood and regarded him as honest and hardworking. He saw the Sunday Times article of 1985 and thought it was a joke. He agreed he did not know much about the Murphys other than through his mart business.

The hearing continues today.