'Prevailing opinion' in station that pair had IRA links

The "prevailing opinion" in Buncrana Garda station in Co Donegal in 1992 was that Ms Adrienne McGlinchey and Ms Yvonne Devine were connected with a subversive paramilitary organisation, the Morris tribunal was told yesterday.

Giving evidence of the arrest of Ms McGlinchey in May of that year, Sgt John Forkan said he and Sgt Michael Murphy had found Ms McGlinchey carrying a holdall containing what was described as "obvious paramilitary paraphernalia", including balaclavas, walkie-talkies and combat jackets.

Despite the find, which he described as "significant", Sgt Forkan told the tribunal that he, like other members of the force in Buncrana later came to doubt "the worth" of Ms McGlinchey as she was constantly making what he thought were exaggerated efforts to hide when the gardaí passed on the street.

However, Sgt Forkan said that to the present day he still did not know for certain whether Ms McGlinchey was free of any involvement with paramilitaries.

Sgt Forkan said that while the seizure of the holdall had been a lucky find, it was among the kind of things "that you would be hoping to find along with more serious items" when a person with suspected paramilitary links was detained. He agreed he had been surprised when no prosecution was initiated against Ms McGlinchey.

Sgt John Murphy told the tribunal he saw Ms McGlinchey carrying a holdall in the company of Ms Devine in Buncrana, sometime between 1992 and 1994. By the time he had parked the patrol car, she no longer had it in her possession. He organised a search and a holdall was discovered in a nearby graveyard and in it he found a tubular steel pipe into which holes had been drilled.

He gave evidence that it was his intention to bring the pipe and holdall to the attention of the local detective branch, and later telephoned Det Garda Noel McMahon, who told him to bring the material out to the McMahon home.

Sgt Murphy said he brought the matter to Det Garda McMahon because of Det Garda McMahon's known association with Ms McGlinchey for intelligence-gathering purposes.