A Garda detective inspector told the High Court yesterday he was directed in 1991 by then Chief Supt Patrick Byrne, now Garda Commissioner, to have a garda, Mr Joe Walshe, and a woman arrested under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act on suspicion of membership of an illegal organisation.
Det Insp Anthony Fennessy said he had been sent in 1991 to the Limerick division because there was concern there was an IRA "mole" or "moles" there. He was able to identify one of those moles as Garda Denis Kelly. He was jailed for five years by the Special Criminal Court.
Insp Fennessy was giving evidence in an action taken against him and the State by then garda Mr Walshe (61), of Oaklawn Drive, Dromin, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, and Ms Bedford (58), of Sir Harry Mall, Limerick. They are claiming damage for alleged false imprisonment and slander arising out of being arrested,
Yesterday, Insp Fennessy said he had never met Ms Bedford before entering the courtroom.
He knew Mr Walshe, who had given him a satisfactory explanation to how a young cousin of Mr Walshe's, Ms Sara Duggan, whom, Insp Fennessy said, was a suspected member of the IRA, had come to have Mr Walshe's ex-directory phone number. Mr Walshe had told him he had already reported to his superior that his cousin was connected with a subversive organisation.
Shortly before the arrests, Insp Fennessy said he received secret information which identified Mr Walshe and Ms Bedford as passing information to Mr Michael Edwards, of Moyross, Co Limerick.
He was summoned to a meeting at Garda Headquarters on September 26th. It was chaired by Chief Supt Michael Patrick Byrne, now the Garda Commissioner. A plan was put into operation in relation to the arrest of Garda Kelly.
As the meeting was ending, he was called back by Mr Byrne who directed him to have Mr Walshe and Ms Bedford arrested the following day. The first time he had heard of Ms Bedford was in a secret document in which she and Mr Walshe were named.