Garda co-operation 'non-existent'

Garda co-operation with the RUC investigation of the Narrow Water bombing went beyond “non-existent”, and vital forensic information was lost, the Smithwick Tribunal has heard.

Giving evidence this morning, a former deputy assistant chief constable of the RUC said efforts were made at chief constable to Garda Commissioner level to secure the cooperation of the Garda in the investigation of the deaths of 18 British soldiers, but the co-operation was not forthcoming.

The former senior RUC officer, who gave evidence to the tribunal by video link from Belfast was referred to only as Witness 68.

The tribunal heard he was the RUC senior investigating officer into the atrocity in which the soldiers were killed at Narrow Water Castle, about 3km from Warrenpoint in Co Down on August 27th, 1979.

The ambush resulted in the British army's greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles. The bombs were believed to have been triggered from a firing point across Carlingford Lough on a hillside in the Republic. Two men, Brendan Burns and Joe Brennan, described at the tribunal today as suspects, were arrested by gardaí on the day.

However Witness 68 said he was told at the scene on the bombing within hours of the explosions that he should be careful of speaking to individual gardaí, particularly Det Sgt Owen Corrigan of Dundalk Garda station, because of the danger of leaks to paramilitaries. He was given this instruction by his then superior, a superintendent in Newry.

Mr Corrigan later turned out to be the senior investigating officer appointed in the Republic.

Witness 68 said the RUC received an assurance from Mr Corrigan that the scene on the Irish side of the Border would be preserved overnight and that the RUC investigating officers would be granted access to it.

However, Witness 68 said when the RUC officers came back the entire site and surrounding countryside had been cut back with ferns, briars and potential evidence already removed.

Brennan and Burns were later released by gardaí who said there was no evidence to hold them for anything other than motoring offences. Witness 68 said Brendan Burns was killed in 1988 when a bomb he was transporting exploded prematurely. He said Joe Brennan was arrested in Northern Ireland in 1995 and later convicted on firearms charges.

Witness 68 said despite initial optimism that a prosecution against the suspects could be sustained no forensic report from the southern authorities, evidence relating to clothing or cigarette buts and a milk bottle found at the site was ever officially handed over to the RUC.

“I liaised with my chief constable and got him to meet with the [Garda] Commissioner," he said. "But he said 'co-operation was non-existent' and it was some years afterwards that Witness 68 met a senior garda in Store Street Dublin, who arranged to get him a copy of the garda’s forensic report, on a strictly non-attributable basis.

The tribunal is investigating suggestions that a member or members of the Gardaí in Dundalk colluded with the IRA in the 1989 murders of two RUC officers minutes after they left a meeting in Dundalk Garda station.