Empty buildings 'suited subversives'

A number of buildings near the Garda station in Dundalk that were unoccupied in the late 1980s would have offered a perfect vantage for subversives spying on the movements of RUC visitors to Dundalk Garda station, the Smithwick Tribunal was told today.

The tribunal heard this morning that two houses at the top of Vincent Avenue directly faced the Garda station across an open area known as the Crescent. It also heard a former hospital building and a Dominican monastery would have offered a perfect vantage point for subversives.

The tribunal is inquiring into suggestions that members of An Garda Síochána in Dundalk may have tipped off the IRA about the movements of RUC officers who made regular visits to Dundalk to discuss counter terror and anti-smuggling measures.

Chief supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan were killed in an IRA ambush on the Edenappa Road, south Armagh, minutes after leaving a meeting in Dundalk Garda station on March 20th, 1989.

Giving evidence to the tribunal this morning, Ms Moira Carroll told counsel for the tribunal Fintan Valentine she had purchased an unoccupied house at number 12, the Crescent, in mid- to late-1989. She said the house was in a state of disrepair with some floorboards missing. But she said to the best of her recollection no doors nor windows were broken.

A neighbour, Mr Kenneth Farnon, said he believed Ms Carroll’s house was vacant for up to four years before her purchase in 1989. He said he had inspected the house with an estate agent before the sale and found it to be secure. But he agreed with counsel for the tribunal Mary Laverty SC that there were a number of positions around the crescent in front of the Garda station that might have been useful to subversives.

These included a motor tax office to the left of the Crescent that had at one stage been used as a hospital. They also included a former monastery to the right of the Garda station, he said.