Sinn Féin’s influence on Cooley group a source of disquiet, says councillor

Faced in 1998 with the release of three men convicted for Garda Frank Hand’s murder, the Garda Representative Association bristled with anger.

“Obviously the crocodile tears of politicians of all shades flow very easily at the graves of my colleagues when they play the Last Post,” declared its general secretary, PJ Stone, commenting on the release of Thomas Eccles, Patrick McPhillips and Brian McShane under the Belfast Agreement.

Eccles, a member of Sinn Féin, is now prominent in the Cooley Community Alert Group, a Co Louth organisation that has lobbied for extra gardaí for the region.

Faced with questions about Eccles’ presence, the group quickly defended him. “Tommy Eccles is a valued member,” said the group’s chairman, Johnny Larkin, in a statement.

Worked tirelessly

“[During] his involvement over the last four or five years he has worked tirelessly to aid the elderly and most vulnerable within our society,” he said.

“In addition to his treasurer duties, which he carries out professionally, he volunteers on a weekly basis for hospital runs, shopping runs, chemist runs, house calls and home security repairs,” said Larkin.

However, Fine Gael has been strongly critical of a man convicted of murdering a garda being involved in a campaign seeking more Garda resources in a county where two members of the force have been shot dead recently.

Councillor John McGahon, a Fine Gael representative in the Dundalk-Carlingford area, said Eccles now wanted more gardaí to ensure greater safety for the community and the members of the force patrolling it.

But he said Eccles had no such concerns when he was a member of the Provisional IRA gang who shot dead Det Garda Hand in 1984 in a bank raid that netted £200,000 for the raiders. McGahon said there was “disquiet” about Sinn Féin’s alleged influence over the Cooley group.

Political agenda

“This is what Sinn Féin tends to do; the infiltration of local community groups,” he said. “And then they use said community groups as vehicles or engines to push their own political views and their own political agenda,” he added, although he said he did not disagree with its view that more gardaí were needed.

The Cooley Community Alert Group, created in the wake of the killing of Det Garda Adrian Donohoe, was briefed about Garda shortages by Garda Tony Golden shortly after the Donohoe murder.

The charge that the group has been taken over by Sinn Féin was rejected by one source. “When we meet there might be 20 people and most of us would struggle to name anyone else apart from the people involved in our own small groups and maybe a few others. The idea this is a secret Sinn Fein group is simply not true.”