Rumour was rife about a device on a television mast. Christine Newman reports as the module ends
This module of the Morris tribunal has centred on a claim that a garda or gardaí made an explosive device and planted it on a television mast at Ardara in Co Donegal. The most unusual aspect is that the allegation does not generate from an identified source.
Local people in 1995 began protesting against the 2.43m (8ft)-mast at the then Telecom Éireann site on the mountainside in southwest Donegal when Cable Management Ltd acquired the licence to transmit. The campaign for deflectors in community areas was a national issue.
This is where local farmer Tom Gildea came in. He supported the Ardara picket and was elected as a TD in 1997 on the deflector campaign ticket.
Although the protests were largely peaceful, the situation escalated on November 7th, 1996, when an arson attack on a container of equipment at the site caused £50,000 worth of damage.
The area superintendent, Denis Cullinane, called in John White, then a sergeant and now detective sergeant, to be involved in the investigation.
On November 19th, 1996, an explosive device was found on a cable at the site. Ballistics experts testified that it was little more than a large firework, made up of banger-type firecrackers.
It is alleged the device was made in the back yard of a Donegal Garda station by a garda or gardaí and planted on the mast in order to arrest a number of local people. These were Hugh Diver, the late Anthony Diver and Bernard Shovlin, their brother-in-law, who had land adjacent to the mast.
This allegation is not made by any specific witness. Mr Gildea said his confidential source on the allegation was Frank Connolly. The journalist, who has made a written statement to the tribunal, has not been called to the witness box.
Mr Gildea said there was "a multiplicity of rumours" at the time. A retired garda, Patrick O'Donnell, said when the device was found, the chat in Glenties Garda station that night was that, although there was no proof, it was a set-up and that the powder from the device was taken from fireworks seized the previous year.
Det Sgt White has denied an allegation made by two local gardaí that after the device was taken back to Glenties, he took a spoonful of powder from it and tested it by trying to light it at the back of the station.
Warrants were issued under the Offences Against the State Act. The three men were arrested on November 20th, 1996. Anthony Diver and Bernard Shovlin were released the same day and Hugh Diver the following day, all without charge.