Mr Michael Feely told the Flood tribunal he had no difficulty recalling the whereabouts of Mr Joseph Murphy jnr during the weekend preceding June 8th, 1989, the most likely date of the meeting in the Swords home of Mr Ray Burke TD when he was paid £30,000 by JMSE. Mr Feely was getting married on Saturday, June 3rd, in Waterford and his friend, Joseph Murphy, was invited. He had travelled to Waterford on the Thursday and met Mr Murphy in the Bridge Hotel that evening. He noticed that his friend had already established a rapport with the bar staff and said to him, "I thought I was supposed to be the main man here."
"I was here last night and had a few pints," Mr Murphy had replied. It was a big wedding, with more than half the townland of Hill Street, Carrick-on-Shannon, invited. They had planned to make a long weekend of it. He met Mr Murphy on the Friday and they had a few drinks. He recalled there had been some difficulty with his passport and it had to be "couriered down".
The wedding was on the Saturday and he met him again at the reception. On Sunday they had more drinks, which went "into extra time". On Monday, June 5th, he and his wife checked out of the hotel. His last recollection of meeting Mr Murphy was at around 10 a.m. before he left.
Mr Feely was one of seven "Leitrim witnesses" to give evidence yesterday relating to the JMSE chairman's whereabouts in the days preceding and after the Waterford wedding and over the subsequent weekend. They also had details of when he was in Ireland again for the funeral of Mrs Mary Elizabeth Flynn, the woman he considered his grandmother.
The testimony has a pivotal bearing on the tribunal's investigations because, from Mr Murphy's viewpoint, it provides evidence that he was not at the meeting in Mr Burke's house, as Mr James Gogarty had claimed, when the money was delivered. Mr Murphy had told the tribunal he returned to London on the Monday after the wedding and did not return to Ireland until the following Friday, June 9th, for the funeral. The Leitrim witnesses corroborated this account.
A key witness was Mr Denis Flynn, his close friend and first cousin, whom he had arranged to meet in the Bridge Hotel on the night of Wednesday, May 31st, after flying in from London to Dublin and taking a hired car to Waterford. Mr Flynn had phoned his cousin at the hotel to say he could not make it because his child had become ill and his wife was too concerned to travel. "I rang Joseph when he arrived at the hotel in Waterford in the late afternoon."
He and his wife travelled the following morning and met Mr Murphy at the hotel that afternoon. He had been in Mr Murphy's company at the reception all day Sunday and up to lunchtime on the Monday before returning to Carrick-on-Shannon, he told the tribunal. Mr Murphy said he was returning to Dublin Airport that day en route to London.
The tribunal also heard evidence from Mr Flynn focusing on the dates preceding and following the death and funeral of Mrs Mary Elizabeth Flynn, his grandmother, whom he looked in on every day as she lived only three miles away from the colliery he owned at Arigna. On Wednesday, June 7th, he had contacted Mr Murphy at his home in London's Maida Vale to tell him that their grandmother's condition was deteriorating. He contacted him again on the following morning at his work and late that night, just after midnight, to apprise him of her condition.
Mrs Bridie Flynn, his mother, told the tribunal she phoned Mr Murphy in London on Friday, June 9th, to say she had died. Mr Derek Green, a next-door neighbour of the late Mrs Flynn, was hoping to catch the same plane out of Heathrow to the funeral as Mr Murphy on Saturday, June 10th. Instead, he took the next plane at 11 a.m. and found Mr Murphy waiting for him at Dublin Airport. They travelled straight to Arigna in a hired car. They attended the removal and afterwards went to the Railway Bar.
Mr Murphy stayed in Mrs Bridie Flynn's house that night. The burial took place next day. Mr Denis Flynn had told the tribunal that he and Mr Murphy stayed behind after the funeral to stand a drink for the grave diggers, all local men, before joining the rest of the funeral party for lunch at the County Hotel, Carrick-on-Shannon. Mr Green gave evidence of travelling back to Dublin Airport with Mr Murphy. They sat beside each other on the plane to London and parted company at Heathrow.
The witnesses to give corroborative evidence included Mr Charlie Foley and Mrs Sheila Foley, proprietors of the Railway Hotel, and Mr Sean Green (Derek Green's father).