The Morris tribunal opened in Donegal this week. Joe Humphreys looks at the series of 'sensational and disturbing' claims of Garda corruption.
Sensational and disturbing allegations of Garda corruption were disclosed for the first time this week with the opening of the Morris tribunal in Donegal. Claims of gardaí in Co Donegal planting hoax explosives and weapons, harassing and intimidating local people and helping to cover-up crimes in which they were implicated - most seriously, the alleged killing by two gardaí of cattle dealer Riche Barron - were almost beyond belief.
And, indeed, one should be wary of believing them too easily, as the tribunal's chairman, Justice Frederick Morris, said. Allegation, he stressed, was not fact.
Having said that, the range of claims, the emergence of a distinct pattern to them, and the fact that so many gardaí have given contradictory evidence in relation to them, is already enough to spark grave concern about the state of the Garda in Co Donegal, if not the country as a whole.
For symbolic reasons, and to allow local people to attend, the tribunal chose to open in Donegal town. The hearing of evidence will take place in Dublin, and the inquiry is expected to take at least two years.
Among the main allegations are that certain gardaí:
Orchestrated hoax explosives finds
These allegations centre on statements given by IRA "informer" Adrienne McGlinchey to the internal Garda inquiry, between February 1999 and May 2000, headed by Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty, into alleged Garda misconduct in Donegal.
McGlinchey, who was regarded by the Donegal Division as a reliable source of information on subversive activity, alleged she had planted explosives on the instructions of Supt Kevin Lennon and Det Garda Noel McMahon so that the same two officers could gain credit for "finding" them.
She listed a series of such alleged operations, detailing times and locations, throughout the county, including one at Rossnowlagh. Ironically, this find was the subject of a letter of congratulations from Sir John Wheeler, Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office in Whitehall, to the then Minister for Justice, Maire Geoghan-Quinn, in which the "professionalism" of the Garda was praised. The "find" had earlier been trumpeted in a press release from the Garda.
Supt Lennon and Det Garda McMahon deny the allegations against them.
Assisted in the bombing of Strabane courthouse
One of McGlinchey's most serious allegations was that Det Garda McMahon drove a van across the Border containing a bomb, which went off outside Strabane courthouse, causing blast damage and minor injuries to three people.
In a separate statement, the officer's estranged wife, Sheenagh McMahon, claimed her husband knew of the planned bombing in July 1993 but let it "get through to save McGlinchey".
A senior officer, Det Garda John O'Keefe, said Det Garda McMahon told him he had driven the bomb into Strabane "in order to assist two females". However, Det Garda O'Keefe said he didn't believe him as Det Garda McMahon appeared intoxicated.
Det Garda McMahon denies the allegations.
Planted arms and other illegal substances on innocent citizens
Det Sgt John White, formerly stationed at Letterkenny, has been accused by one of his colleagues of planting a sawn-off shotgun at a Travellers' encampment in Burnfoot in May 1998.
Det Garda Thomas J. Kilcoyne said he accompanied the officer in the operation but "felt it wasn't my place to tell him it was illegal" as Det Sgt White was "my sergeant and more experienced than me". As with other incidents, search and arrest warrants were issued on foot of inaccurate information from informers of dubious credibility. Seven people were arrested in the operation at which one garda was said to have laughed openly at the circumstances of the gun's "discovery".
Det Sgt White is facing a charge before the courts in relation to the matter.
The same officer has been accused by a local resident, Hugh Diver, of making a suspicious phone call to his home as well as taking part in the planting of poitín on his property.
Det Sgt White denies all the allegations against him.
Planted an explosive device at Ardara
One of the more bizarre allegations relates to the discovery of a crude explosives device, made up of fireworks, at the site of a telecommunications mast at Ardara in November 1996. The mast had been the subject of protest from local residents who were concerned about its potential health effects.
It had also attracted vandalism, including an arson attack which cost an estimated £55,250 in criminal damage.
The explosive device was discovered within days of that attack, and had the effect of triggering a number of search and arrest warrants. A suspicion is that the device was assembled using fireworks seized by gardaí in Glenties two months earlier.
Counsel for the tribunal, Peter Charleton SC, said it would examine whether or not the device was "fitted up by someone, not with a view to causing damage, but with a view to providing a convenient excuse for the exercise of the powers available under the 1939 (Offences Against the State) Act".
Had a role in the death of Richie Barron
McGlinchey has alleged she was told by Det Garda McMahon that two gardaí killed Barron. She further claimed she washed what may have been blood from a metal object which the officer allegedly told her had been used in the murder.
In what Charleton described as an "extremely elaborate story", McGlinchey also said she had been asked by Det Garda McMahon to give money to a man to help out "a garda in trouble", and that the man in question gave her the alleged murder weapon in return.
In a separate statement, Sheenagh McMahon claimed that her husband had told her he was turning down an offer to take part in the Barron investigation because "there will be heads rolling over it". She said the statement was made at a time when her husband was drinking heavily.
The tribunal heard two gardaí have refused to account for their movements on the night Barron was killed.
Gave contradictory evidence to the Carty inquiry
Whether or not gardaí were involved in the death of Barron, the fact that certain members of the force apparently changed their evidence in relation to the murder investigation causes concern.
Of particular interest was a statement by Garda James Connolly to the effect that he saw two colleagues, Garda Patrick Mulligan and Garda John O'Dowd, in a pub in Lifford on the night of Barron's death.
Garda O'Dowd indicated to the inquiry that any witness who testified to seeing them in a pub must have been mistaken about the date. Subsequently, however, a local figure in the Garda Representative Association told the Carty investigators "we are conceding the pub issue in full".
Gardaí Mulligan and O'Dowd went to the scene of Barron's death, despite the fact that the latter garda was not on duty that night. Charleton said one of the issues which arose was as to what the two were doing.
Tried to frame people for Barron's death
A garda informer, Paul "Gazza" Gallagher, has claimed that gardaí asked him to "stitch up" publican Frank McBrearty for the murder of Barron. The informer was apparently told that McBrearty had made a statement implicating him in the murder, and that he should "get his story right".
A second informer, Noel McBride, told the Carty inquiry he implicated members of the McBrearty family in the murder because he was under pressure from another Garda informer, William Doherty, and Garda John O'Dowd.
Doherty was arrested in September 1997 in relation to hoax telephone calls made to the home of Michael and Charlotte Peoples in 1996.
During a search of his property, a notebook owned by Garda O'Dowd was found.
Doherty claimed Garda O'Dowd had given him McBrearty's private telephone number "so as to allow him to start abusing him". He also claimed defamatory leaflets, referring to the "murdering McBreartys", were printed and given to him by Det Sgt John White todistribute in the area.
The tribunal heard McBrearty and his cousin Mark McConnell became chief suspects in the murder case on foot of inaccurate information from informers.
The Carty report stated: "A failure to properly evaluate William Doherty as a source of information by Kevin Lennon and John O'Dowd has caused untold damage to the reputation of An Garda Síochána in the Donegal division."