The Morris Tribunal: The estranged wife of Det Garda Noel McMahon has adamantly denied that bags left in her garage by her husband contained second-hand clothes rather than bombs, as she had claimed.
Mrs Sheenagh McMahon was giving evidence to the Morris tribunal in Dublin yesterday.
Mr Brian Murphy BL, cross-examining Mrs McMahon on behalf of Det Garda McMahon, put it to her that he had brought home bags of clothes from the wife of Supt Kevin Lennon.
The Lennon children were a bit older than the McMahon children, and Mrs Lennon had passed on clothes they had outgrown, he suggested. However, Det Garda McMahon had previously had an argument with his wife about clothes from the Lennons, so he did not want to tell her the bags contained clothes.
"I never put any of Supt Lennon's second-hand clothes on my children. It was not necessary for me to put second-hand clothes on my children. My mother was very good to my children and bought clothes for them. They were dressed in the best of clothes."
"You were annoyed about the clothes," said Mr Murphy.
"It never happened, so how could I be offended?" replied Mrs McMahon.
"Your husband will say he came with the bags and he didn't want you to know what was in them. He didn't want to upset Supt Lennon by saying he wouldn't take them, and he didn't want to upset you. So he made some off-hand remark that made you think they were bomb-making equipment."
"That's the wildest story I ever heard," said Mrs McMahon.
The chairman of the tribunal, Mr Justice Morris, asked Mr Murphy to clarify his client's position.
"Is it the position that Det Garda McMahon is saying there were bags dumped in the garage, but they contained second-hand clothes?"
Mr Murphy said Yes.
Asked to clarify Det Garda McMahon's comment about the bags to his wife, Mr Murphy said: "He knows he made an inaccurate comment about the contents. He can't recollect the precise words. He didn't want her to know it was clothes. He said it was something related to work, a bomb, 'nothing to do with us'. He can see how she drew the inference it was a bomb."
Mr Morris asked Mrs McMahon to go back over that part of her evidence. "Noel told me there was a bomb in the shed. There is a door from the utility room into the shed, but we went outside. He told me there was a bomb."
Mr Justice Morris: "You must have nearly died."
Mrs McMahon: "I did. I was afraid it would blow up the house. He took me in and showed me the clump of bags. He said, 'don't worry. It's not assembled.' "
Mr Justice Morris: "What do you say to the suggestion that Mrs Lennon, perhaps ill-advisedly, sent you second-hand clothes?" Mrs McMahon: "It would be far better to tell me that than to tell me there was a bomb in my garage."
Earlier she told Mr Murphy that her husband had been upset by Supt Lennon being awarded the Policeman of the Year award for his work investigating the Point Inn, when he had been told he was getting it, and had told his family about it.
Mr Murphy put it to her that it was she who hated Supt Lennon and resented his promotion and money, and had said "Milford is not far enough away for him."
Mrs McMahon said: "I would call that anger, not hatred. I do not hate anybody."