Murdered RUC officer 'warned over safety'

The RUC officer who was killed by the IRA as he returned from a meeting in Dundalk had been warned he was being reckless with his own security, the Smithwick Tribunal heard today.

Supt Bob Buchanan and his RUC colleague Chief Supt Harry Breen were killed in an IRA ambush in March 1989 in south Armagh as they returned from a meeting in Dundalk Garda station.

The tribunal is inquiring into suggestions that members of An Garda Síochána or other employees of the State colluded in the killings of the two officers.

This morning, retired Garda Chief Supt Michael Bohan told the tribunal he late superintendent Brian McCabe of Dundalk Station told him he had warned Mr Buchanan that he was "a man of reckless courage".

Mr Bohan said Supt McCabe had also told him of Mr Buchanan's habit of travelling frequently to Dundalk and parking his "vivid red Vauxhall" with its Northern Ireland numberplates outside the Garda station.

“It would not take much for the IRA to take note and do as they wanted,” he said.

Mr Bohan said he had no idea how the name of Det Sgt Owen Corrigan came to be mentioned in rumours of an IRA mole operating in Dundalk. He said Det Sgt Corrigan was "a loyal, efficient and dedicated officer to my knowledge" and one who had solved "serious outrages" in the area.

He said on one occasion, two men dressed in balaclavas had fired shots from a handgun in the porch of the church at the funeral of republican Paddy Doherty as the coffin was leaving.

Mr Bohan had issued orders to arrest the men, which were difficult to carry out as there were women and children standing in the porch “screaming police brutality and the IRA were behind them".

He said "Corrigan never led from behind" and was among the first into the church. A handgun was recovered from a confession box.

He also said Det Sgt Corrigan has suffered local harassment for his anti-IRA position and a dead hen had been left at his door. "I would consider that a threat: the hen is dead, you may be next," Mr Bohan told Judge Peter Smithwick.

Mr Bohan also said he had written a letter of reference in support of Det Sgt Corrigan when Mr Corrigan was subsequently the subject of a disciplinary hearing for disobedience and neglect of duty in late 1989. Mr Bohan said he considered the issues "minor" although the charges against Mr Corrigan had been upheld.

Mr Corrigan, who has denied he was an IRA mole, is expected to give evidence to the tribunal at a later date.