Tribunal adjourned pending receipt of UK intelligence

PUBLIC SITTINGS of the Smithwick Tribunal have been adjourned pending the receipt of information from UK intelligence services.

Noting that yesterday, March 20th, was the 33rd anniversary of the killings by the IRA of Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan, into which the tribunal is inquiring, tribunal chairman Judge Peter Smithwick offered his sympathies to the families of the two men.

“The anniversary, naturally, brings back the horror of the day in question and . . . I just want to say to the families of the victims that we are very much aware of this, and our thoughts and prayers are with them at a time that I know they must find very difficult,” Judge Smithwick said.

But he said the tribunal, which is looking into allegations of Garda-IRA collusion in the murders, was suspending public hearings. This was because it was “totally dependent upon information for which we are awaiting, and that will govern the next day that the tribunal will sit”.

The judge did not refer explicitly to what the information was, but counsel for the tribunal Fintan Valentine told the hearing it related to the judge’s comments of last week that certain information had been requested and this request was being “progressed”.

Last week Judge Smithwick told the tribunal he was awaiting information from British intelligence services in Northern Ireland and Britain.

The judge said such material was highly relevant to the tribunal’s terms of reference.

The announcement that public sittings were being suspended came at the end of evidence yesterday. During that hearing a former senior British army officer described how the army reacted to the ambush. He said a first report of the killings had most likely not come from British army observation towers.

He said the watch towers in the south Armagh area were not as effective as the local population perceived them to be.

Referred to only as Witness 79 and giving evidence from behind a screen, the officer said he had served three tours of duty with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers where he was commanding Y Company, based in Forkhill army barracks.

His duties included rostering patrols and he was in radio contact with the towers, patrols on the ground and army HQ at Bessbrook, Co Armagh.

Two British army observation towers, which were used to to survey a wide area north and south of the Border, offered “a very large arc view”.

It was possible “to focus on one area” but while this was “a very significant deterrent”, they were believed to be more effective than they were, he said.