Ms Rose Carthy, the mother of Mr John Carthy, did not say she had been "put out of the house" by her son the night the siege in Abbeylara began, the Barr tribunal was told yesterday.
Ms Ann Walsh, cousin and godmother of Mr Carthy, said that contrary to media reports and Garda statements made at the time of the siege, Ms Rose Carthy never said she had been thrown out of the house by her son, but had left voluntarily.
The tribunal is investigating events surrounding the siege which ended in the shooting dead of Mr Carthy by gardaí on April 20th, 2000.
On the evening of April 19th, 2000 shortly after 5 p.m., Ms Walsh was visiting her mother, two houses away from the Carthy house, when she heard shots being fired.
She was not alarmed, she said, because she presumed it was "lads shooting in the fields".
Minutes later Ms Carthy arrived at the door of the Walsh house. "Aunty Rosie was hysterical and crying and I instantly thought of the two shots I'd heard. I asked if it was John and she said he had the gun and she was afraid he would shoot himself.
"She said John told her to come down to mammy's (Walsh's house) for a few hours and he'd be all right," Ms Walsh told the tribunal.
Ms Walsh then rang the Garda station in Granard. At this stage, she said, she may have told the Gardaí that Mr Carthy had thrown his mother out of the house.
"I may have said that John put his mother out of the house. I couldn't swear to it but I may have said it because I wanted the Gardaí to come down as quickly as possible."
Mr Diarmuid McGuinness, counsel for the Garda Commissioner, put it to Ms Walsh that it was recorded in her statement to gardaí after the shooting that Mr Carthy had put his mother out of the house.
"I was so distraught when I made that statement. She (Ms Carthy) did not say that John had put her out of the house, but I may have said on the phone to the gardaí that she did."
Some time after Ms Walsh rang the Gardaí at Granard, a plain clothes and a uniformed garda arrived to the Walsh house. Until then Ms Walsh said her only concern had been for the safety of Mr Carthy.
However, she said, when the two gardaí left to go to the Carthy house she was worried that Mr Carthy might be angry with his mother for alerting the Gardaí. Ms Walsh was aware of his animosity to the Gardaí, she said.
On the previous evening Ms Walsh said she had met Mr Carthy in the driveway of his home. He appeared "elated" and said there would be "no more Gardaí and no more laughing".
Ms Walsh assumed he was referring to an incident in September 1998 when Mr Carthy had been held for questioning by gardaí in Granard over the burning of a football mascot.
Ms Walsh said she realised Mr Carthy "was not well" but did not pursue the matter as she knew he was due to see his psychiatrist, Dr Shanley, two days later.
On the evening the siege began, Ms Walsh said she told gardaí that Mr Carthy was under the care of a psychiatrist and had "bad feeling" towards the Gardaí because of the mascot incident. She also told them he was taking lithium, however she told the tribunal: "I don't think they wrote anything down".
Ms Walsh said she asked for the telephone in the Carthy house to be reconnected.
This did not happen until late on the first night of the siege, she said, because the Gardaí had "taken the number down wrong".
