Garda fails to prevent questions on Cavan siege

Counsel representing the Garda Commissioner at the Barr tribunal has failed to prevent a senior garda being questioned about the Bawnboy siege, which occurred three years before the Abbeylara incident.

Mr Diarmuid McGuinness submitted to the tribunal yesterday morning that Supt P.J. Brown should not give evidence in relation to the siege at Bawnboy, Co Cavan, in January 1997, on the grounds it was outside the terms of reference of the tribunal.

Supt Brown was the scene commander at Bawnboy where an armed man had holed himself up in his house with his terminally ill mother, after shooting the Cavan county registrar and two other officials.

Mr Gerrit Isenborger, a German national, shot and wounded sheriff Mr Thomas Owens and bailiffs Mr Paul Comiskey and Mr Christopher Raythorn when they tried to evict him from his house at Bawnboy on January 15th, 1997. A 42-hour stand-off with gardaí ensued.

Mr McGuinness told the tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Barr, that Supt Brown had "no hand, act or part" in events at Abbeylara, and that inquiring into the Bawnboy siege was not within the remit of the tribunal.

It was not appropriate for the tribunal "to now depart from the inquiry into Abbeylara incident and commence inquiring into the management of the Bawnboy incident".

At no stage during proceedings had it been suggested that the business of the tribunal was going to cease in order to focus "on a siege three and a quarter years before, in a different county manned by different officers, involving totally different circumstances".

Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Michael McGrath, told the chairman that the Bawnboy and Abbeylara sieges were "somewhat similar incidents". He said it was not the intention of the tribunal to make any criticism of the Garda handling of Bawnboy, but it wished to examine the siege management structures that were in place before the Abbeylara siege.

Following a three-hour suspension of proceedings, Mr Justice Barr said he would not accept the submission.

Bawnboy had, he said, been referred to "at some length" by several Garda witnesses to the tribunal.

There were a number of similarities between the two incidents: neither man involved had a criminal history; both sieges continued for a substantial length of time; both involved local gardaí and the Emergency Response Unit; and both involved a local scene commander.

"I am satisfied it is appropriate to hear the evidence," he said.

Supt Brown told the tribunal that Mr Isenborger had engaged in negotiations with gardaí from the beginning of the siege, and eventually surrendered. He had requested Coca Cola and cigarettes and these were delivered, without a handover of weapons. "I took the decision that it would be prudent to progress negotiations to deliver cigarettes and Coca Cola."

The tribunal has heard that Mr Carthy requested cigarettes during the Abbeylara siege but they were not delivered.