The Morris tribunal: Mr Frank McBrearty jnr has told the Morris tribunal it was "entirely false" that the first time he spoke to gardaí after the death of Mr Richie Barron was the morning after Mr Barron's death.
He first spoke to gardaí two days later, he said, when Insp Jim Gallagher and Insp John McGinley called to his house with Mr McBrearty's father. They were interested in Mr Paul Gallagher and Mr Damien McDaid.
Mr McBrearty jnr (34), who, along with his cousin, Mr Mark McConnell, was suspected by gardaí of the murder of Mr Barron in October 1996, began his evidence to the tribunal yesterday.
He said that just before 12.30 on the night Mr Barron died, Mr McDaid arrived at Frankie's Nightclub and was upset when he was not admitted for free.
Shortly afterwards, he was told Mr Gallagher was giving a girl hassle, and he walked Mr Gallagher outside. Later, a fight broke out between two men, and the two were ejected. When they got outside, they were "going off the head" in the car-park.
As he and their friends tried to calm them, Mr McDaid came down from the car-park driving at speed, and Mr Frankie McBrearty snr "told him to cop himself on".
It was not until Tuesday that he heard Mr Barron was dead, Mr McBrearty said.
On Wednesday, the Garda inspectors arrived at his house with his father. They asked him what times Mr Gallagher and Mr McDaid had left the club.
That night, Mr Gallagher came into the McBrearty pub, and they spoke about Mr Barron's death. Mr Gallagher said the guards were looking for his car. McBrearty thought this odd, as a garda, Mr Peter Smith, was sitting further down the bar.