Claim that garda gave information to IRA is 'monstrous lie', inquiry told

Counsel for a retired Garda detective sergeant has described as a "monstrous lie" claims by a leading unionist politician that his client had passed on information to the IRA.

Barrister Jim O'Callaghan told the Smithwick tribunal yesterday that his client, retired sergeant Owen Corrigan, could be of no assistance to its work in examining the circumstances surrounding the killing of two senior RUC officers 17 years ago. He said Mr Corrigan had been dragged into the controversy.

He said that in 2000 unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson (now a member of the Democratic Unionist Party) had made a statement under privilege in the House of Commons in Westminster saying Mr Corrigan had passed on information to the Provisional IRA in respect of the tragic killing of the two RUC officers.

"That statement was a monstrous lie and had a severe impact on my client's reputation," Mr O'Callaghan said.

He said it was a monstrous lie given that his client had spent the latter part of his career in the Special Detective Unit (Special Branch) in Dundalk fighting subversives, and had carried out this work at some personal sufferance.

Mr O'Callaghan said Mr Corrigan felt compelled to come before the tribunal and seek representation as under its terms of reference it was to examine "suggestions" of collusion between gardaí and the IRA in the killing of the two officers. Such suggestions had been made under privilege by Mr Donaldson and were false, he said.

Solicitor Ernie Telford also sought representation yesterday for the family of Robert Buchanan, one of the officers murdered by the Provisional IRA in March 1989.

Judge Peter Smithwick also said he had received a request for representation from the family of the second RUC officer, Harry Breen.

After the hearing, Mr Telford said the Buchanan family welcomed the establishment of the tribunal. The intervening years since the deaths of Supt Buchanan and Chief Supt Breen had been difficult for their families and friends, he said. "There are so many unanswered questions and so many lingering suspicions as to what happened on the lonely roads of south Armagh 17 years ago," he said.