Garda insists woman was IRA associate and informer

A senior garda superintendent alleged to have planned bogus explosives finds in Donegal a decade ago has insisted that a Letterkenny…

A senior garda superintendent alleged to have planned bogus explosives finds in Donegal a decade ago has insisted that a Letterkenny woman who says she was coerced into posing as an informer was involved with the IRA.

Supt Kevin Lennon, who is giving evidence to the Morris tribunal for the eighth day, agreed with Mr Paul Murray BL, for Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, that there were three possibilities: Ms McGlinchey was either an IRA associate and simultaneously an informer, a hoaxer, or collaborated with the Supt and Det Noel McMahon.

Of the three, Supt Lennon said his belief was she was an IRA associate and informer.

"If that were the case, then the reality of the situation is the IRA now know the true position. That Ms McGlinchey messed up in Strabane. That she led gardaí to [arms finds in] Ardchicken and Rossnowlagh. That she handed over to the gardaí steel items," observed Mr Murray.

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"Now that her name has been publicly disclosed, what requests have you made to the Garda authorities to put security on her?"

"None, sir," replied Supt Lennon. That is not a matter for me." He added he had never exposed his informer to any risk.

Mr Murray also asked the superintendent about evidence by Det Noel McMahon about notes he kept of allegations made to him against Supt Lennon by another garda.

The notes referred to allegations that Letterkenny businessmen were giving the superintendent money, Det McMahon had told the tribunal.

However, tribunal chairman Mr Justice Morris said it was unfair to ask Supt Lennon about the allegations. "I will totally ignore that passage, because it is totally unfair," he told Mr Murray.

Moments later, the judge said: "I see Ms McGlinchey is consulting her sister, and wondering why I'm making that ruling. Perhaps you would explain to them afterwards, unless there is some positive evidence, you can't be slurring a person's character with third-hand innuendo and suggestion of that sort when nothing was established. It would be most unfair to have that sort of backhand evidence thrown at him in the witness box when nobody is supporting it or substantiating it."

The tribunal is looking into claims that Supt Lennon and Det Garda Noel McMahon - both currently suspended from the force - prepared explosives, together with alleged IRA informer Ms Adrienne McGlinchey for subsequent use in bogus Garda arms finds. Both gardaí deny these allegations, and Ms McGlinchey denies she was ever an informer or a member of the IRA.

Also at the tribunal, Supt Lennon denied setting out to damage the reputation of the wife of Det Noel McMahon, who acted as Ms McGlinchey's handler, because she had made accusations against him.

"I put it to you that you have set out to damage her reputation because that was the only way you could deal with the evidence she gave," Mr Cormac Corrigan SC, for Sheenagh McMahon, the estranged wife of Det McMahon, said. Supt Lennon denied that this was the case.

Ms McMahon, in her evidence last year, said she had seen Supt Lennon and her husband carry black plastic bags into a shed at their family home, which her husband later told her contained explosives. Supt Lennon and Det McMahon have said the bags contained clothing and curtains.

The tribunal also heard that Det McMahon was eager to continue his evidence but was still unwell, so it was planned to complete cross-examination of Supt Lennon before returning to him.