Seventy years trying to clear his name

For more than 70 years, William Geary has been trying to clear his name. This slender 99-year-old with wool peaked cap, dickie-bow and cane is an anachronism living in New York City.

Despite a slight stoop, his long hands and determined gaze exude a noble air. Even his tidy apartment near the United Nations suggests a more gentlemanly era, a time when a man's honour was everything.

While walking up five narrow flights of stairs to the Geary residence, one is struck by the formidable silence and age of the building. Mr Geary is the oldest of a handful of long-term residents al lowed to remain following the sale of the property to developers. He must relocate in the spring.

The door opens to small rooms where sunlight marks thick stripes in dusty air. Smiling children and grandchildren peek from frames and the walls hold a tulip painting and large crucifix.

Sitting in a straight-backed chair, William Geary thumbs through a large box of papers which are testament to a seven-decade writing campaign to restore his reputation.

A meticulous record-keeper, he has carefully filed hundreds of letters written and received regarding a case; his case, which has its origins in another time and in another country, Ireland, or more correctly the Irish Free State.

The moment which William Geary has turned over in his mind for most of his adult life happened more than 70 years ago in Kilrush, Co Clare. He was a superintendent in the Garda Siochana when, on June 26th, 1928, he was sacked for allegedly accepting a £100 bribe from the IRA.

It is an allegation he denied then and continues to deny with vehemence.

Despite seven decades away from Ireland, Mr Geary still speaks with his native accent. As the story of his exile comes tumbling out in painful recollections, it is enhanced by snippets of letters written by government officials.

In the mid-1920s Clare was considered a "disturbed" area, with a higher-than-usual level of republican activity and numerous cases of arson.

According to Mr Geary, the area calmed down following his arrival, and the Garda seemed to gain the confidence of the people who handed in small caches of arms found on their land or nearby.

One day Mr Geary was called to Garda barracks in Ennis to meet Chief Supt Edward O'Duffy who escorted him to Carmody's Hotel to meet Deputy Commissioner Eamon Coogan. Once inside the room, Geary claims, he was confronted by Commissioner Eoin O'Duffy, Coogan and Chief Supt David Neligan.

A statement written by Mr Geary soon after the dismissal recalls the scene. "Commissioner O'Duffy told me to sit down and, having done so, he opened the conversation with the following statement: `Mr Geary, we have evidence that you took £100 for information you gave the republicans.' I was shocked and denied the charge.

"He then asked me `Did you sign a receipt for money?' When I said No, he asked how was it that I was involved and not any other superintendent? I told him that I was never offered any money.

"In my mind, as I had nothing to conceal, I told him that Det Keyes, Kilrush, had told me about a month before that he [Keyes] had received information I was to be offered money for information. His source of information was not disclosed to me and after discussing the matter with Det Sgt Conroy, Ennis, I dismissed the matter from my mind as I thought it simply silly. I heard no more about it.

"Commissioner O'Duffy then said: `I have your signature in receipt of money, and can you explain that?' I said I could not. The commissioner did not show me the alleged signature at the time nor was it ever seen by me."

Mr Geary claims he was then searched by Chief Supt Neligan. Later Neligan and two detectives searched his lodgings and personal belongings while Chief Supt O'Duffy and others examined his Kilrush office.

Mr Geary recalls that several days after the interview he was offered a job in Government Buildings if he told the whole story. "Being innocent of the allegations made against me, I could not in good conscience fabricate some story to avail of the offer," he says.

On June 26th, 1928, Mr Geary was called before Chief Supt Liam Stack, who was in charge of dismissals, and told he was sacked from the force. He says he was never given the opportunity to defend himself against the charges, despite numerous requests for a trial.

That November he emigrated in disgrace to the United States and settled in New York, where he has remained ever since.

Despite his lengthy letter-writing campaign, ministers for justice from 1934 to today have refused to reopen his case, citing lack of new evidence while at the same time denying him access to the original evidence against him.

"To this day I know nothing about it. What the papers were saying, what was in the report, I do not know," Mr Geary told me when I met him recently.

This has rankled with Mr Geary throughout his years in exile. When asked if he thought the charge was politically motivated, Mr Geary replied: "I don't know. All I know is this, that I did my duty and I believe I was penalised for doing my duty. I served the guards and I served the State loyally and I was dismissed."

Choking with emotion, he paused then said: "That's all I can tell you. I was humiliated and that's why I never went back."

In 1934 he appealed to Donnchada O'Briain, a Fianna Fail TD from Limerick, to discuss the case with the minister for justice, P.J. Ruttledge.

In response to Mr O'Briain's query, Mr Ruttledge said: "I have had the papers before me of ex-Supt William Geary and am satisfied that there would need to be some fresh facts, other than a mere reaffirmation of innocence on the part of Mr Geary himself to justify the reconsideration of a decision which was reached after full and fair consideration on very clear evidence.

"Really I do think that this is a case in which you should interest yourself no further."

Following Mr Geary's retirement in 1967 from the electricity company Consolidated Edison, he decided to ask again for a review of his case. In 1968 a friend, Father Donald O'Callaghan of the Carmelite Missions, wrote to the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch.

He passed the file to the minister for justice, Micheal O Morain, but the request appeared to fall on deaf ears.

Early in 1971 Mr Geary wrote to David Neligan, one of the senior Garda officers instrumental in his dismissal over 40 years ago. Neligan was by then a former Det Chief Supt and had also written a book, The Spy in the Castle.

As a result of their exchanges, on June 21st, 1971, Neligan wrote to him stating: "I am the man who got you dismissed on what seemed at the time impeccable evidence, and it is up to me now, even at this late stage, to try and clear your name."

Mr Neligan said he would seek a personal interview with the Department of Justice. "This being a secret service matter, no government will ever show the file to anybody, and that rules out lawyers. That is my opinion anyway. However, within the next week I'll see about that interview and discuss the matter with officials."

As time went on, Mr Neligan retreated from his initial position and, in a letter to Mr Geary, dated October 14th, 1972, which he copied to the Department of Justice, Mr Neligan said the original evidence against Mr Geary was "from an unimpeachable source; the origin of which I am not at liberty to disclose".

Neligan added that Mr Geary had been dismissed by the government of the day, even though Mr Geary denies ever receiving any money and said he never had any dealings with the IRA.

"That may well be: only he and the IRA chiefs at the time can answer the question," Neligan's letter said. "So long a time has elapsed that it is difficult to see what can be done now."

About this time Vince Moran, an Irish journalist in New York, heard about Mr Geary's story. Once back in Ireland, Mr Moran published a detailed account, including sections of Mr Neligan's letters, in the Limerick Leader.

The following year a new justice minister, Gerry Collins, sent a three-page detailed response to a letter written by Mr Geary which provided Mr Neligan's letters as new evidence.

Mr Collins dismissed Mr Neligan's statements as weak and outlined the main reason for not reopening the case.

"It is not possible to decide that a dismissal of 50 years ago was unjustified or even that the matter was open to doubt just because the information on which the authorities of that time acted is not now available to be evaluated. Otherwise, numerous past decisions, no matter how well justified, would have to be rescinded because the evidence on which they were based has, in the normal process, been lost through the periodic pulping of old files."

Mr Collins, who was a TD for Limerick at the time, said, however, that in the course of inquiries, he had spoken to people in Clare who might have some know ledge of the background to the case.

"The information I received from them was that it was rumoured (and believed locally in certain circles) that the then local IRA had deliberately taken certain action which would mislead the Garda authorities into thinking that you were associated with them (i.e. the IRA).

"However, when I tried to check the basis of the rumour, the answer was always that only a tiny number of people would have known whether it was true."

Although Mr Geary was led by Mr Collins to believe that all his files has been destroyed and that he was once again in an indefensible position, he persevered.

In 1984 he appealed directly to a new minister for justice, Michael Noonan. Frank Prendergast of the Labour Party also asked Noonan to reopen the case, but he dismissed the request, citing a lack of fresh evidence and the missing original evidence.

Prendergast, however, directed the Labour Party research office to look for records on Mr Geary's case. They found the minutes of the executive council decision to dismiss Mr Geary and a file relating to his case.

According to the research office's report: "There is a file reference (in margin of Minutes) S.9051 but this file is not available to the public. The actual file covers the period, 16.5.1925 - 2.5.1932. The file is entitled Dismissals. It will not be available for public reading until 70 years from 1932, that is, until the year 2002. This file obviously contains all the relevant details on the case of William Geary and others who were dismissed from their post in those troubled years."

The report also said: "Reading through the minutes of the Executive meetings it appears that such dismissals were customary. There is evidence of a virtual witch-hunt against civil servants - down to grade clerical officers, Garda Siochana, Army personnel, etc. The Minutes also recounts reversals of previous decisions to dismiss."

In the ensuing years, a defiant Mr Geary sought out new evidence. He underwent lie-detector tests and handwriting analysis in an attempt to confirm his innocence. In 1986, he signed a statement before a notary public waiving all rights to back pay and compensation. That same year the Tanaiste, Dick Spring, pledged to examine his case at the behest of Frank Prendergast.

In 1987 Mr Geary wrote to Gerry Collins, who was once again minister for justice, and to the National Archives to confirm the existence of the file uncovered by the Labour Party. The National Archives confirmed its existence and pinpointed its location, the Department of the Taoiseach.

The next decade found Mr Geary, then into his 90s, appealing to the Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, and to the President, Mrs Robinson. Soon after, a letter dated May 3rd, 1991, arrived at his home from the latest justice minister, Ray Burke.

Since Mr Geary's last request to Mr Collins, the letter claimed, the Department had located a further file which contained more information about his dismissal.

"Not only does it not contain anything that would help you to advance your case, but there would be a genuine concern that the release of the papers would tend to set your case in a less rather than more favourable light," said the letter from Mr Burke's office.

Mr Geary was enraged by the letter and wrote back: "I have been treated unfairly, denied civil rights, given no access to the allegations, the Department of Justice acts as judge and jury." Mr Geary asked for the immediate release of his papers to the National Archives but the request was once again denied.

However, this week it appeared that, finally, there was light at the end of the tunnel. Following queries by The Irish Times, the Taoiseach's office said it was releasing Mr Geary's dismissal notice to his godson, Judge John Collins of New York. Judge Collins requested the release of Mr Geary's files six months ago under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Taoiseach's office also said it had sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking that Mr Geary's substantive file be evaluated for release on humanitarian grounds. This suggestion is currently being considered.

Despite his extraordinarily long struggle, William Geary remains philosophical. Almost as a comfort, he frequently recites a favourite line from Hamlet:

There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will.

William Geary turns 100 on February 28th. Seventy per cent of his life has been spent in a foreign city "fighting a phantom," as he puts it.

With the release of his papers, Mr Geary, guilty or innocent, may now turn to face his accusers head on. The denial, once again, of his right to see the charges against him would mean Mr Geary may go to his grave wondering.