Carthy threatened club members, tribunal told

John Carthy threatened members of the Abbeylara Handball Club that he would "bring down the gun and shoot them" if they continued to frustrate his use of the local alley, the Barr tribunal heard yesterday.

The tribunal, which is inquiring into events surrounding the shooting dead of Mr Carthy by gardaí during a siege at the Carthy home in Abbeylara, Co Longford, in April 2000, was told the threats were reported informally to gardaí by officers of the club.

The tribunal also heard that concern about Mr Carthy's possession of a shotgun was expressed informally to local gardaí by members of the McCormack family, who ran a pub and petrol pumps in Abbeylara.

Giving evidence yesterday, Mr John Gilligan, who was PRO of the handball club in 1998, said he was telephoned in or around the middle of that year by Mr Packie McCormack, who told him of threats to a number of youths at the handball alley.

The threats were to the effect that Mr Carthy would bring down the gun and shoot them, Mr Gilligan explained, adding he believed that "if Packie told it to me then it had to have happened". He also said he thought Mr McCormack had "probably overheard" the threats.

Mr Carthy was "deeply committed to handball and would not like to be beaten".

He would have "wanted to stay on until he won and when he won he was less anxious to leave", Mr Gilligan told the tribunal.

He said the young members of the club may have had difficulty in playing against Mr Carthy because of this attitude.

Mr Gilligan said that, having consulted the club chairwoman, Ms Mary Smith, and secretary, Ms Anna O'Reilly, he rang the gardaí at Granard and asked if there was any possibility of taking the gun off him for a period.

He found out that the gun had subsequently been removed from Mr Carthy, but was told by Garda Oliver Cassidy that unless somebody made a formal complaint, the gardaí would ultimately have no option but to give it back.

On asking around, Mr Gilligan found that Mr McCormack had not personally overheard the threats, and he formed "a half doubt" as to their seriousness.

He also said: "It wasn't as if we had any reason to feel threatened."

Mr McCormack told the tribunal that he was a retired farmer and, in addition to working in his family's public house, he was a member of the handball club.

He said he was in the alley when "about 20 youngsters told me that Johnny said he was going home to get the gun.

"I heard it from the youngsters in the alley."

He had phoned Mr Gilligan immediately but at this remove he could not remember the identity of any of the youths.

Garda David Martin told the tribunal that he met Mr Michael McCormack, a nephew of Packie McCormack, outside the family public house in 1998 when he was getting petrol.

Mr McCormack had made some allegations about Mr Carthy threatening to use his gun during rows in the pub, "but again they were not specific".

Garda Martin said at this stage he had not heard about the handball alley incident. He later became aware that Garda Cassidy had taken the gun from Mr Carthy, and assumed this was as a result of the complaints.

Garda Martin said he had known Mr Carthy for about 13 or 14 years and would occasionally give him a lift in his car.

Relations between the gardaí and Mr Carthy were good, at least up until an incident involving the mysterious burning of an artificial goat, the local football team mascot.