Officer did not want RUC chief at funeral

AN RUC officer who was killed in an IRA ambush told his wife he did not want then RUC chief constable Sir John Hermon attending his funeral in the event of his death, the Smithwick Tribunal was told yesterday.

June Breen, the widow of Chief Supt Harry Breen, said the instructions had been given to her on “several occasions” before her husband and his colleague Supt Bob Buchanan were shot dead by the IRA on March 20th, 1989.

The tribunal is investigating allegations that the two men died as a result of Garda collusion with the IRA. They were gunned down in south Armagh just minutes after leaving Dundalk Garda station.

The tribunal is investigating the possibility of an IRA mole in the station at the time. Ms Breen’s evidence, which was originally taken four years ago, was read into the record of the tribunal as she was too unwell to attend.

The reasons were not given for the late Mr Breen’s insistence that Sir John should not attend his funeral. However, Ms Breen also revealed she felt it was wrong that her husband should have gone on television to display the weapons seized in the Loughgall ambush where IRA volunteers were shot dead by the SAS in May 1987.

Giving evidence of the events leading up to Mr Breen’s death, she said her husband had expressed his delight that Mr Buchanan had been posted to Newtownards.

She “secretly wished” Mr Breen could be similarly transferred away from Co Armagh.

Ms Breen said her husband had been out shopping with her on the day he was alleged to have been told by an RUC superior not to cross the Border.

Witness 18, a senior RUC officer at the time, gave evidence earlier to the tribunal that he warned the two men not to cross the Border at a meeting on March 16th, 1989, four days before they were murdered.

Ms Breen said on the day in question that this meeting was supposed to have taken place, her husband cut the lawn in the morning and the pair went to the newly opened Sprucefield shopping centre in Lisburn. They then went to Belfast and did not return until the following evening. She was “quite certain” her husband was not in the office that day and could not have attended any meeting.

She also revealed that on the night before he was murdered, her husband sought a sleeping tablet and complained he had trouble sleeping over recent nights. She said this was unusual for him.

She recalled that the day he died was a “dark, wintry day”. She first heard on the radio that two men had been shot dead in Jonesboro, Co Armagh, and assumed they were IRA men. She thought to herself, “you are some mother’s son, but you are trying to kill army or policemen”.

It was only later at 5.35pm, as she was preparing her husband’s dinner, that an RUC officer called to the door to tell her that her husband had been murdered. In a statement Ms Breen’s solicitor John McBurney said she was anxious to make her statement available and may well have more to say in the future as further issues arise. The inquiry continues.