Morris tribunal:Local gardaí suspected an explosive device found on a television mast in Co Donegal was a set-up and made from seized fireworks stored at the station, the tribunal was told yesterday.
Retired garda Pat O'Donnell said that after the device was found, on November 19th, 1996, the chat in Glenties Garda station was that bangers found in a fireworks seizure had been used in the planted device.
The haul, comprising 150 fireworks in three boxes, was seized at the Glenties harvest fair in September 1995. They were put in a station storeroom where they remained until December 1997.
The tribunal is looking into allegations that a garda or gardaí assembled the device and put it on a television mast in Ardara for the purpose of arresting three local people, Hugh Diver, the late Anthony Diver and Bernard Shovlin. There were protests against the mast, with nails being put on the road and locks glued. The situation escalated in early November 1996, with an arson attack on a container, causing £50,000 worth of damage.
It has also been alleged that Det Sgt John White took a spoonful of powder from the device after it was taken back to the station and that he tried to test it by lighting it. Det Sgt White denies this.
Mr O'Donnell told the tribunal yesterday he was in the station that evening after the device was found. The chairman, Mr Justice Frederick Morris, asked what view was taken in the station on the device. He understood there was chat about Det Sgt White having taken a bit of powder from it.
"Nobody had proof but [ they said] that Sgt White had powder in the yard and that [ Garda] John Kilbane had come in and told some of them it was the powder taken out of the bangers that were in the station and assumptions were being raised," Mr O'Donnell said.
Peter Charleton SC, for the tribunal, asked if it looked like a serious terrorist event. "No, from the powder that was there, the gardaí didn't take it as that."
Mr Charleton asked: "Did you have some suspicion in relation to bangers and this device? Were you putting any fact together with any other fact?"
Mr O'Donnell said: "Well, going by the story I heard that night in the barracks, it looked like as if the bangers were used to plant the device on the mast."
Asked what bangers he was referring to, he replied: "The bangers that had been seized in Glenties." Mr Charleton asked if other people had that view.
"Well, there was a general talk about it. Nobody had any proof but some were assuming that something might have happened. There was a view of what was involved and it transpired that it was possibly a set-up job."
He wrote a report before Mr Shovlin's arrest, stating that he was law-abiding and had taken no part in the protests. When Mr Shovlin was arrested, Mr O'Donnell said he had spoken to Det Sgt White about releasing him and lost his temper when the detective said he should be kept longer.
All three were released without charge.