Tribunal hears of IRA 'boast'

An IRA activist boasted of the killings of two RUC officers, claiming the murders had been carried out with the aid of a member of an Garda Síochána in Dundalk station, the Smithwick Tribunal has been told.

John McAtamney, solicitor for former IRA activist Kevin Fulton told the tribunal his client overheard the boast in a house in Dundalk.

The boast related to the killings of RUC chief supt Harry Breen and supt Bob Buchanan who were shot in an ambush in south Armagh minutes after leaving Dundalk Garda station in March 1989. The Smithwick Tribunal is inquiring into suggestions that a member or members of an Garda Síochána based in Dundalk colluded with the IRA in the ambush.

Mr McAtamney, who was cross examining an RUC officer identified only as Witness 64 said it was Mr Fulton's written evidence to the tribunal that the boast of garda collusion was made by IRA activist Patrick "Mooch" Blair.

However Jim O'Callaghan SC for former Dundalk garda Det Sgt Owen Corrigan immediately objected to the revelation that there was such a written statement. Mr O'Callaghan said it related to his client and he had not been given a copy . After a break over lunch Judge Peter Smithwick told Mr O'Callaghan he would be supplied with a copy of the statement in which the allegation had been made.

The exchanges came during cross examination by Mr McAtamney of a former RUC head of special branch intelligence in Newry. The former RUC officer who gave his evidence from behind a screen was identified only as Witness 64.

Witness 64 said he had been posted to Newry in December 1988 and had been warned by fellow officers not to trust or to have anything to do with Mr Corrigan. He said he took heed of the warning.

Witness 64 said he was in charge of the RUC intelligence team in Newry and had initially used Kevin Fulton as an informer. However he said Mr Fulton who was also known as Peter Keeley stopped being useful and he later came to classify Mr Fulton as a "nuisance" after some information was found to be seriously "misleading". He said that by misleading he meant something other than "inaccurate".