A Co Donegal woman denied at the Morris Tribunal yesterday that she was ever a member of the IRA or any terrorist organisation.
Ms Adrienne McGlinchey (39) was beginning her evidence to the tribunal. It had been alleged that she was a police informer in Co Donegal.
Mr Peter Charleton SC, for the tribunal, had asked if she was ever a member of the IRA, or of any other terrorist organisation or front. Ms McGlinchey replied: "Never." Asked if she had ever acted with a view to blowing up or killing people, she said: "No, I am completely against it."
She was asked if she knew anybody who had been involved with the IRA. Ms McGlinchey replied there were people working in the family restaurant who were from across the Border, but she did not know if they did "terrorist things".
Mr Charleton asked if when in Letterkenny she had been a police informant, she replied: "Certainly not, I was just a typical business person." Asked if she became a police informer when she moved to Buncrana, Ms McGlinchey said Det Garda Noel McMahon would tell her "things".
Mr Charleton: "Are you saying that anything that came to you about the IRA was given to you by Noel McMahon, with a view to giving information to other gardaí?"
"In Buncrana. Yes, definitely," she replied.
Earlier, Ms McGlinchey was shown photographs of houses and sheds in Co Donegal and asked about meetings with Garda McMahon.
She was asked about a shed in Rossnowlagh, which she described as being the last stop on the rounds and had fertiliser, diesel and explosives.
Ms McGlinchey said she went there with Det McMahon and Supt Kevin Lennon. "I know Noel McMahon wanted it to be found around July 12th," she said. She said she had gone with Mr McMahon and they collected Supt Lennon at his house and drove down to the shed. She said Mr McMahon and Supt Lennon unloaded "the stuff".
On another occasion, she left fertiliser and sugar in a premises. Supt Lennon came to her house. She believed he did not know anything about this. She said she was to tell Supt Lennon that the IRA was going to blow up Belleek and she knew the location of the bomb.
"Kevin Lennon said it was great to know that and he went up to the Garda station," she said.
Mr McMahon, Supt Lennon and she went off to Donegal town. She slept in the car. They passed the house where the materials were and Supt Lennon pointed that out to them.
"Up to now I thought I was showing him where it was but he said we'd passed it," Ms McGlinchey said.
Another time she was in her house grinding fertiliser. A friend told her the gardaí were around the corner and she rang Mr McMahon. He said she would be all right if she did not mix ground and unground fertiliser. She moved it to the attic of the restaurant and Mr McMahon brought Supt Lennon, who said: "Oh, there's a bomb factory here."
Ms McGlinchey said at the beginning she had never seen fertiliser. Mr McMahon said she should bring it to her bedroom and spread it on the carpet. He brought a coffee grinder and bags of unground fertiliser.
He had told her she would be left alone if she could show them something. She was grinding the bags to appear as what, Mr Charleton asked.
"To appear as explosives. I was doing it on behalf of Noel McMahon. I always thought it was Noel McMahon trying to impress Kevin Lennon, but I knew Kevin Lennon was just as much involved after the chain of events," Ms McGlinchey said.