Morris Tribunal: It was "difficult to swallow" that the senior officer in Buncrana did not inquire into the discovery of an apparent bomb factory within yards of the Garda station there because it was someone else's responsibility, the chairman of the inquiry into alleged Garda corruption in Donegal has said.
Mr Justice Morris made the statement when he intervened to ask Supt John P. O'Connor about a search of the flat of alleged IRA informer Ms Adrienne McGlinchey on March 14th, 1994.
Supt O'Connor said he was in Letterkenny at a conference with other senior officers that day, and in the evening went to Dublin, so he was not in Buncrana to issue a search warrant for the flat. On this date the flat was searched after her landlord reported suspicious items there when repairing a plumbing leak.
Supt O'Connor said he received no information on events at the flat while at the conference. "The conference would have taken second place," he said. Procedures would have been put into effect if this had happened. It was not until after he returned to duty, on March 22nd, that he found out about the search and arrest of Ms McGlinchey.
Mr Justice Morris intervened to say: "This seems very strange to me. You were away on leave, you come back and, as Mr Charleton has put it, a bomb factory was found within yards of a Garda station. You seem to have taken it in your stride. Did you inquire as to why they weren't charged?"
"I wouldn't have at that time," said Supt O'Connor. "As with other matters relating to Ms McGlinchey, this would have been another matter where the detective inspector had responsibility," said Supt O'Connor. "I would have left it to their professional judgment."
He said the first he knew that the search warrant was missing from Garda files, or that there had been no warrant, was when it emerged at the tribunal.
The tribunal is investigating claims that two Donegal gardaí, Det Noel McMahon and Supt Kevin Lennon, prepared explosives, together with Ms McGlinchey, for use in bogus finds by gardaí.