A RETIRED Garda Inspector told a court yesterday that he said a prayer in the ear of a dead trainee garda killed in a shoot-out with the kidnappers of supermarket boss Don Tidey.
Insp Seamus O’Hanlon, now retired, told the Special Criminal Court that after he heard gunfire at Derrada Wood near Ballinamore, he heard somebody shouting: “Garda dead over here.”
Almost immediately another voice shouted: “Soldier dead over here.”
Insp O’Hanlon identified the late garda as Garda Gary Sheehan, whom he had known. “He had a large wound in his head and he was dead. I said an Act of Contrition in his ear,” he said.
Insp O’Hanlon said he told another garda to say an Act of Contrition in the ear of the dead soldier.
He was giving evidence on the third day of the trial of Maze prison escapee Brendan “Bik” McFarlane. Mr McFarlane (56), a father of three, of Jamaica Street, Belfast, was arrested outside Dundalk and charged in January 1998.
He has pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning Donald James Tidey on dates unknown between November 24th and December 16th, 1983.
He also denies possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life at Derrada Wood, Drumcroman, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, between November 25th and December 16th, 1983, and possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose between the same dates.
Retired Det Insp Bill Somers said he was in charge of the search in the area. The search had been going on for a number of days when on Friday, December 16th, 1983, Det Insp Somers’s armed search party, code-named “Rudolph One”, arrived at Derrada Wood.
Det Insp Somers told the court that he heard heavy gunfire coming from a small wooded area.
He saw members of another search party lying on the side of a hill. They had “flushed out the terrorists” and were coming under fire.
Det Insp Somers said he radioed for help and then saw someone coming through a ditch.
“The first thing I saw was a person in green combat gear coming through a ditch and I thought it was one of the terrorists making a break,” he said.
Det Insp Somers realised the person was Mr Tidey, whom he recognised despite his “bad condition” and clothing.
He was in the process of calming Mr Tidey, assuring him he was in safe hands and that help was on the way, when he saw a blue car driving towards them.
As the car passed them at high speed, the driver opened fire. There was also gunfire coming from the boot of the car.
Det Insp Somers pulled Mr Tidey to the ground but Det Garda Donal Kelleher was shot in the legs. The car sped off around a corner but came up against a Garda checkpoint and further gunfire was exchanged. “The ground reverberated with the amount of fire power,” he said.
Det Insp Somers put a bullet-proof vest on Mr Tidey and got him into a car, which drove him to safety.
Det Garda Francis Moran told the court that he was a trainee garda taking part in the search at Derrada Wood. He heard intense bursts of automatic gunfire and one or two loud bangs and he jumped to the ground.
He saw eight or nine people coming out of the wood, three of them bearded, in combat gear, and armed with rifles and sub-machine guns. A man pointed a rifle towards himself, another garda and two soldiers, told them to get up and said: “Dead heroes, no good.”
He said the gardaí and soldiers were directed to run with their hands held high through fields, with the gunmen behind them.
At one stage he became aware of an armed detective on his right and one of the gunmen fired a volley of shots in the detective’s direction.