Carthy phoned friend to request a solicitor

Gardaí were informed at the scene of the siege in Abbeylara, Co Longford, that a week before his death, Mr John Carthy told a colleague he was "cracking up" and was going to do something people would hear about, the Barr tribunal has heard.

Ms Mary Ireland told the tribunal that she received a phone call from her son, Kevin, some hours before the shooting, to say that Mr Carthy had phoned him requesting a solicitor.

Ms Ireland said she told her son, a friend of Mr Carthy's who was living in Galway, to pass the information on to the gardaí.

Ms Ireland, a cleaner in the radio station, Shannonside FM, rang the station to make contact with a reporter, Noeleen Leddy, whom she knew was in touch with gardaí at the scene in Abbeylara. Ms Ireland told Ms Leddy about the request for the solicitor, and added that a week earlier her son had told her Mr Carthy had said he was "cracking up".

"Kevin said John said he was cracking up and was going to do something people would hear about. John said it to someone else who said it to Kevin," Ms Ireland told the tribunal.

In her statement she said Mr Carthy had the conversation with aunnamed plasterer. She passed on her son's mobile number to Ms Leddy and told her Mr Carthy had assured her son he "hadn't a notion" of harming anyone.

In her evidence Ms Leddy confirmed she had spoken to Ms Ireland and written brief details, noting Mr Ireland's number, the comment about "cracking up", that Mr Carthy was seeking "some Dublin" solicitor and he was "making a laugh of the gardaí" and calling them "eejits".

Ms Leddy said she passed the information about the request for the solicitor to gardaí but may not have mentioned the "cracking up" comment. "I, myself, was a bit dubious about it. I may have dismissed it and I'm not sure I passed it on to the guards."

Counsel for the Carthy family, Mr Michael O'Higgins, put it to Ms Leddy that the words "watch this space" appeared in notes made by a garda relating to the information given by Ms Leddy. Ms Leddy said she did not use those exact words but conceded they probably did relate to the "cracking up" comment.