Morris tribunal:A journalist has told the tribunal that an anonymous fax alleging high-level Garda corruption was "unpublishable" in the form he discovered it until he learned that two Opposition TDs had brought it to the attention of the minister for justice.
Frank Connolly said he was sent the fax by Donegal publican Frank McBrearty snr in June 2000. "He told me had received it in the post," Mr Connolly said. He remembered asking him if there was any defining postmark on the envelope and what date was on it.
Mr McBrearty told the journalist he had discarded the envelope.
"I think he sent it to me because he thought I was somebody he could trust, in a climate where a lot of media were rubbishing the claims that were emerging from Donegal. So he would have sent me documents that he would have considered important with a view to me publishing them.
"This was completely unpublishable or unusable in the form we had it," Mr Connolly added.
However, "within a couple of days" he spoke to Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim Higgins, who told him he had gone to minister for justice John O'Donoghue about the anonymous allegations, along with Labour spokesman Brendan Howlin. "That was the hook that allowed us to publish the story," Mr Connolly said.
He was "informed at some point by Jim Higgins, and possibly in the first instance by Frank McBrearty snr", that a member of the Garda Complaints Board had approached Fine Gael leader John Bruton and asked him to tell Mr Higgins to "ease off" on the McBrearty case. History would show that Mr Higgins did not accede to the request.
The tribunal is to look into the role of the Garda Complaints Board in dealing with the McBrearty family in its final module.
An emotional Mr McBrearty snr said he wanted on behalf of his extended family and staff "to thank Frank Connolly for being so nice and so generous to us".
"From my family and myself, thank you," he said, his voice breaking.