Morris Tribunal: A retired Donegal garda has told the Morris tribunal how he felt "annoyed" that the work of gardaí in Border areas was now being questioned.
The tribunal is investigating claims that alleged informer Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, together with Supt Kevin Lennon and Garda Noel McMahon, prepared explosives for subsequent use in bogus arms finds. Both officers deny those claims and Ms McGlinchey has insisted she was never an informer.
"I have always had the height of admiration for Det Insp Lennon," said Mr Michael Duffy, who served as superintendent in the Ballyshannon district until his retirement in 1998. "The man never had no need to do anything wrong. I still cannot come to terms that he would do anything wrong."
He added: "We worked very hard on the Border. It just doesn't seem fair at this stage that doubts are cast on some of the work we did."
Mr Duffy said he was told of planned IRA attacks on Border checkpoints by Supt (then Insp) Kevin Lennon 10 days before Insp Lennon provided him with information that led to a suspect explosives find near Rossnowlagh.
"The IRA were planning the attack by means of a bomb loaded into a caravan," Mr Duffy said. A caravan to be used in the planned attack was identified and kept under surveillance, he added.
When on July 18th, Insp Lennon informed Supt Duffy that suspect materials were to be found in Rossnowlagh, Mr Duffy said he then felt this material was to be used for the planned attack on Roscor near Belleck.
Later, retired Chief Supt Seán Ginty said that the phrase "a hands-off policy" was not his wording and that his direction was that "no other member of the gardaí was to interfere with the handling of contacts with the informer Adrienne McGlinchey".