Ex-RUC man tells of respect for gardaí

A former detective inspector with the RUC has told the Smithwick Tribunal he had “nothing but admiration” for members of the Garda in Dundalk.

Former CID det insp Gerry McCann said many RUC officers had successfully trusted the Dundalk gardaí with their lives.

Mr McCann said he had never heard any suggestion that any member of the gardaí in Dundalk was "a risk" in relation to leaking information to paramilitaries.

He particularly said he believed former Det Sgt Owen Corrigan of Dundalk station had protected him and other members of the RUC as well as Northern VIPs on their visits to the Republic.

Mr McCann said if there had been any concern about Mr Corrigan "it was unbelieviable" that he would have not been told of it.

The Smithwick Tribunal is inquiring into suggestions that members of the gardaí in Dundalk colluded with the IRA in the March 1989 murders of RUC officers chief supt Harry Breen and supt Bob Buchanan. The officers were killed in an IRA ambush on the Edenappa Road in South Armagh minutes after leaving a meeting in Dundalk station.

Recalling his time as a detective inspector in the Border area in south Armagh and South Down yesterday, Mr McCann said the police station in Newry would have had "almost more contact with [the gardaí in] Dundalk" than some RUC stations such as Besbrook and Armagh which were further away.

He repeated on a number of occasions that he had only admiration for members of the gardaí and that it would have been "unbelieviable" if there was concern about links between gardai and the IRA which could have put his and the lives of other RUC officers at risk.

He said he was aware Mr Corrigan had an excellent relationship with a number of senior RUC officers incuding the chief constable, Sir John Hermon.

He was asked Darren Lehane by counsel for Mr Corrigan if in fact it would have also been "grotesque", as well as unbelieviable, that he would not have been told of such concern. He agreed this was the case.

Under cross examination from counsel for the Garda Michael Durack SC Mr McCann said he was "the local man" in relation to the investigation into the Narrow Water bombing in which 18 British soldiers were killed by the IRA.

Mr McCann said he was surprised to learn the senior investigating officer, known to the Tribunal as Witness 68, had said there was a lack of cooperation from the gardaí. That was not his experience at local level, and he did not remember anybody warning him about the local investigating officer on the Southern side, who was Mr Corrigan.

Under cross examination from Neil Rafferty counsel for the self-described IRA double agent Kevin Fulton, Mr McCann agreed his opinion of a garda might change if he knew the garda was involved in smuggling.

He also said agreed his opinion of a garda might change if the garda had intimidated a witness.

In a further response he said he would have to accept that murdered officer Harry Breen had suspicions about a member of Dundalk garda, because this was relayed by Mr Breen's staff sergeant Alan Mains. He would accept the point "if Mr Mains said it".