No evidence found that IRA tapped phones

NO EVIDENCE could be found to verify allegations that the IRA tapped private Garda telephone lines in Dundalk telephone exchange, a Garda criminal investigation found.

But the investigation initiated by former assistant Garda commissioner Joe Egan did unearth suggestions that “non-private” telephone lines on poles outside the exchange may have been tapped.

None of the allegations was subsequently verified by the Garda investigation, which also uncovered differences between the RUC and the Garda about which lines were classified as “private wires”.

Giving evidence at the Smithwick Tribunal yesterday, former detective inspector Christopher Kelly said he was asked by Mr Egan to carry out the criminal investigation after allegations in Phoenix magazine in 2005.

The allegations claimed lines were tapped in Dundalk telephone exchange and this was the method by which the Provisional IRA had been able to gain vital information that enabled them to carry out a number of killings over a three-year period from 1987.

Among those killed were RUC officers Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan, who were shot in an ambush on the Border minutes after leaving a meeting in Dundalk Garda station in March 1989.

The Smithwick Tribunal is inquiring into suggestions that members of the Garda in Dundalk or other employees of the State colluded with the IRA in the murder of the two RUC officers.

Counsel for the tribunal Fintan Valentine yesterday recalled evidence from former Garda superintendent John Nolan that the fateful meeting had been arranged by a phone call from Armagh police station. Mr Nolan had said the phone line was not encrypted as the systems North and South were not compatible.

Giving his evidence yesterday, Mr Kelly said that his conclusion had been that, although the method of interception in Dundalk telephone exchange described by Phoenixmagazine was "technically feasible", it was "highly unlikely" if not impossible.

But Mr Kelly said his investigation did unearth comments from a former telephone engineer to the effect that lines on a telephone pole may have been tapped.

The tribunal continues today.