A number of gardai have told the trial for murder of Mrs Catherine Nevin that they used to see the car of former Insp Tom Kennedy parked at the back of Jack White's Inn late into the night.
Ten Garda witnesses were called to reject a claim by Mrs Nevin that her husband hosted IRA meetings late at night in the old diningroom in Jack White's Inn.
They told the Central Criminal Court there were no sightings or reports of subversive activity or suspects in the vicinity of the inn and any checks run on the Garda computer on suspicious or non-local cars showed no subversive connections.
In their evidence, however, four of the gardai said they regularly saw Insp Kennedy's silver-coloured Renault parked at the rear of the premises up to 6 a.m. when they finished night duty.
Now retired, Insp Kennedy has told the trial he did not have an affair with Mrs Nevin, that he "wasn't into that" and that he valued his wife and family too much. Mrs Nevin has also denied that she and the inspector were anything more than friends.
All the defence and prosecution evidence has now been heard in the trial, and Mr Tom O'Connell will give a closing speech on behalf of the prosecution today. Ms Justice Carroll is expected to begin her charge to the jury on Monday.
Mrs Nevin (49) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of her husband Tom (54) on March 19th, 1996, in their home at Jack White's Inn, Ballinapark, near Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow.
She also denies that on dates in 1989 she solicited Mr John Jones, that in or about 1990 she solicited Mr Gerry Heapes and that on a date unknown in 1990 at St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, she solicited Mr William Mc Clean to murder her husband.
Retired garda Peter Smith, who was based in Arklow station from 1967 to 1997, said that for as long as he was in Arklow "there was never a whisper of IRA meetings" at Jack White's Inn. He told Mr O'Connell that he "never came across" known subversives or suspects or their vehicles at the inn.
He was then asked had he noticed any particular car there.
"Well, there was one particular car that I noticed," Mr Smith said. "The car was Insp Kennedy's car. It could be there at various times, judge, night times, it could be there all night, like." He said he finished his night duty at 6 a.m., and that was the latest he would have seen the car there.
Garda William Gorman, stationed in Arklow since 1982, said that all the ground surrounding Jack White's Inn was visible from the N11 and the Brittas Bay road and that during his regular tours of duty by the premises, none of the cars he had checked out was found to be associated with subversive suspects.
"If I had any suspicions whatsoever about a vehicle, I would certainly check it out," he told Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, defen ding. He agreed that his checking out of cars was based on instinct or suspicion.
Det Garda Paul Comiskey, stationed in Arklow since 1990, told the court that he lived more than a mile from Jack White's Inn. His night-time patrols brought him past the inn three, four or sometimes five times a night, he said.
In the years he patrolled, he had never checked out any vehicle with an IRA connection at the inn. "A vehicle that was parked there on numerous occasions was the car of Insp Kennedy," Det Garda Comiskey said.
It was a silver-coloured Renault and more often than not it would be parked at the back of the premises facing the rear wall. It would be there late at night and again when he was returning from night duty at about 6:15 a.m.
Cross-examined, Det Garda Comiskey said any car which he checked out on the Garda computer would have been parked at the rear of the inn, "because in my opinion there was no legitimate reason for a car to be parked at the rear of the premises because there were plenty of spaces in the car park at the front".
Det Garda James McCall, based in Arklow since 1971, told the court that he dealt with subversive activities as part of his brief. He would have been "more than conscious of any vehicles outside the premises" and any car he did not know he would have checked out.
None of the checks ever led to any subversive connection, he said, and Mr Nevin had no connection "whatsoever" with the IRA or any subversive organisation.
"There was one car in particular that was there on a very regular basis, both day and night, and that was the car of ex-Insp Tom Kennedy," said Det Garda McCall.
The witness also told the trial of a robbery at Jack White's Inn in 1985. In that robbery, the raiders locked the previous owners, Mr and Mrs Doyle, into a storeroom, he said. Firearms were used but not discharged. Mr Doyle's car was taken and abandoned around four miles up the main N11 road. Someone had phoned gardai and alerted them to go to the inn.
Three people were arrested after the raid. "Two were charged and one person got a jail sentence for it," said Det Garda McCall. He believed that the Doyles managed to get out of the storeroom before gardai arrived at the scene. About £16,500 was taken in the raid.
The raid took place over a bank holiday weekend and the money was never recovered.
In his evidence, Det Garda Joe Collins told the jury he had never seen any suspected IRA members late at night in the vicinity of Jack White's.
On occasions he would see Insp Kennedy's silver Renault parked at the rear of the Inn, often at 3.30 a.m.
Closing speeches will begin today in the trial, after 30 days of evidence.