Ex-RUC office tells tribunal he was warned about Dundalk gardaí

A FORMER RUC/PSNI officer has told the Smithwick Tribunal that he had been warned not to have any contact with Dundalk Garda station due to collusion with the IRA.

The officer whose identity has been protected by the tribunal was a detective sergeant with the criminal investigation department and was based in Co Down between 1987 and 1992.

He told the tribunal that he was aware there was a member of the Garda Síochána based in Dundalk who was “actively sympathetic” to the IRA.

Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan of the RUC were killed in an IRA ambush minutes after leaving a meeting in Dundalk Garda station on March 20th, 1989. The tribunal is investigating suggestions that one or more members of the Garda in Dundalk at the time colluded with the IRA in the killings.

RUC special branch had informed the officer that Det Sgt Owen Corrigan, based in Dundalk, was “actively associating” with subversives, he told the tribunal.

Mr Corrigan denies all allegations of collusion.

Mr Corrigan was identified by special branch by name only and, the witness said, he never met him. However, on the advice of special branch he stopped all contact with Dundalk Garda station.

He acknowledged that he had no direct knowledge of any evidence against Mr Corrigan. “It was purely on what I was advised by special branch.” Following the deaths of Chief Supt Breen and Supt Buchanan, the officer said he and his colleagues had been “totally shocked” to hear they had been returning from Dundalk. “I certainly would not at that time have travelled to Dundalk. I am surprised in the circumstances that they travelled down the way they did.”

The witness also said he was introduced to a former British agent within the IRA, Kevin Fulton, in the late 1990s.

He described him as a “likeable rogue” who “liked to run with the wolves” but had “a sinister side”.

He said it did not surprise him that Mr Fulton was described as “an intelligence nuisance” by special branch, because he said they did not want an informant of theirs talking to CID.

The officer who retired in 2000 said that in later years he had had an “excellent working relationship” with the Garda.

He said he had “nothing but praise” for the Garda. “Everywhere there are bad apples in every walk of life, but I don’t hold it as a reflection of the Garda Síochána.”

Retired assistant commissioner Kevin Carty yesterday told the tribunal that he was directed to attend Dundalk Garda station with assistant Garda commissioner Ned O’Dea the day after the murders.

Mr Carty was a detective sergeant at the time and said he was part of a “fact-finding mission” rather than investigation, to establish who knew the RUC officers had been in the station.

Mr Carty said he conducted the interview with Det Sgt Corrigan who said he had not known the RUC officers were in the station. His statement was similar to those of other members of the force, Mr Carty said. He said he had worked in Dundalk before and had never been aware of any “unease” in relation to Det Sgt Corrigan.