Rumours still exist concerning the events leading to the sacking of Supt William Geary 71 years ago.

During Mr Geary's long campaign to have his case reopened, he received a detailed report from the minister for justice in 1978, Mr Gerry Collins.

One section involves local stories concerning his dismissal: "I now come to the matter of other inquiries. I have personally spoken to a few people in Co Clare, who I was told might have some knowledge of the background. The information I received from them was that it was rumoured (and believed locally in certain circles) that the then local IRA had deliberately taken certain action which would mislead the Garda authorities into thinking that you were associated with them (i.e. the IRA).

"However, when I tried to check the basis of the rumour, the answer was always that only a tiny number of people would have known whether it was true. I think it right to mention this rumour since it is a point in your favour."

A close friend of the late Peadar O'Donnell, a former member of the IRA army council, recently contacted The Irish Times regarding such rumours. He claimed that Mr O'Donnell often told the story of a Garda superintendent who was particularly hard on the republicans and therefore widely reviled.

Allegedly, the local IRA wrote to the then chief-of-staff, Sean MacBride, asking permission to do Supt Geary severe harm. MacBride said he would forgo violence and take care of it another way. A plot was conceived to send a letter to a leaking address, or an IRA "safe" address, where mail was known to be monitored by the Garda Siochana.

In the letter, this superintendent was allegedly told the IRA couldn't give him any more money and that he should pick up the last of it at a certain address.

In 1928, Chief Supt David Neligan explored two possible reasons why Mr Geary might have been set up.

The first was that the superintendent had a reputation for being very tough on republicans. Several months before his dismissal, An Phoblacht railed against Mr Geary for his continuous raids on republican houses.

Secondly, he was known as a strict disciplinarian. "Three months ago he accused, in a general way, the detectives in his district of loose talking. They protested to the commissioner as a result," he wrote.

Although revenge was a possible motive for either party, Chief Supt Neligan believed a set-up highly unlikely. His report led was the one that ultimately to Mr Geary's removal from the force.