A key intelligence report which implicated a member of the gardaí in Dundalk in leaking information to the IRA has been so heavily censored by the PSNI that it is of little use, the Smithwick Tribunal has heard.
What is known as ‘the 1985 intelligence report’ is the only RUC document so far supplied to the tribunal which names an individual member of An Garda Síochána as being involved in passing information to the IRA.
The tribunal is inquiring into allegations that members of An Garda Síochána colluded with the IRA in the 1989 murders of chief supt Harry Breen and supt Bob Buchanan of the RUC. The officers were killed in an IRA ambush minutes after leaving Dundalk Garda station.
The intelligence report was described by Michael Durack SC for An Garda Síochána as “the tipping point” which led to the setting up of the Smithwick Tribunal.
It named former det sgt Owen Corrigan of Dundalk station as a garda special branch officer who was passing information to the IRA.
The tribunal heard the report was drawn up by two members of the RUC special Branch based in Newry some four years before the murders of Mr Breen and Mr Buchanan. It took the form of an “SB50”, which was passed to their superior officer known only to the tribunal as Witness X.
Parts of the report which were not censored by the RUC said, under a heading “PIRA Activity”, that “Owen Corrigan a Garda in the Special Branch in Dundalk is helping out the PIRA”. Some words were redacted and the report continued: “Corrigan is keeping both the boys and the organisation well informed and he lets the boys know what the Security Forces (sic) are doing in the North when he can.” A hand written note added: “Ensure that Corrigan has been recorded on a white slip”. Other handwritten notes were redacted.
A comment was appended to the report noting: “There is a Sergeant Owen Corrigan attached to the Garda Special Branch in Dundalk”.
In response to questions from Mr Durack Witness X replied that he personally did not attach much weight to the report. He said he met Mr Corrigan a number of times and on one of these occasions Mr Corrigan had advised him on matters of safety in avoiding potential subversives in Dundalk. He said the intelligence report did not prevent him from further meetings with Mr Corrigan.
However Witness X declined to give the official RUC grading assessment of the report, remarking only that he thought it might be graded of “medium” value. Mark Robinson for the PSNI also objected to Mr Durack seeking to ascertain the official grading, saying this was a security issue.
However Mr Durack claimed the version of the report presented to the tribunal was so heavily “redacted” it was not possible to tell what weight the RUC had given to the intelligence. Mr Durack said such reports were graded, both in terms of the quality of the information supplied but also in terms of the supplier. But the grading in this instance was redacted. He said he believed he was entitled to see what the RUC officially thought of the quality of the information provided by the two RUC officers, and what the two officers thought of the source and circumstances of their information, as this was “extremely relevant”.
Ruling that the witness need not disclose the information, Judge Smithwick said it was up to the parties at the tribunal to claim the report was “frail”, if that was their opinion.
Ultimately, he said “the PSNI will have to accept that I will entertain this intelligence only for what it's worth, and I think the comment may well be made by various parties that it isn't worth a great deal in the absence of an exact status of the informants”.
