Barr Tribunal: The scene commander of the Abbeylara siege, Supt Joseph Shelly, has told the tribunal that he thought the operation went "quite well" overall. Olivia Kelly reports.
Supt Shelly said he was happy with the way he commanded the siege, and that he chose to use a "hands-on" approach because it "suited my style".
Supt Shelly has been recalled to the tribunal to respond to criticism of his management of the siege by a number of expert witnesses.
He was the officer in charge on the evening the armed stand-off between Mr Carthy and gardaí began, and again the following day when Mr Carthy was shot dead outside his home by members of the force.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Michael McGrath, put it to Supt Shelly that former FBI negotiator Mr Frederick J. Lanceley had said the negotiation point should not have been put in Mr Carthy's line of fire. The Garda negotiator, Sgt Michael Jackson, had presented himself as "a target" and a focus for "self-enragement", said Mr Lanceley.
"I don't believe Sgt Jackson was making himself a target," Supt Shelly said.
Sgt Jackson told him where he wanted to put the negotiation point, and he had "no problem" with that because it gave adequate coverage.
He always felt there would be a breakthrough in negotiations because of Sgt Jackson's efforts. "Unfortunately he wasn't successful."
Another expert, former British police negotiator Mr Michael Burdis, had said the operation struggled because of a lack of an "intelligence cell" and a specific officer delegated to intelligence-gathering.
"I don't believe the operation struggled. I believe that overall the operation went quite well," Supt Shelly said.
Mr McGrath put it to him that he had not known Mr Carthy was seeing a psychiatrist until the second day of the siege even though a Garda file relating to the return of the 27-year-old's firearm contained a letter from the doctor.
Mr Carthy's GP, Dr Cullen, could have told gardaí about the psychiatrist but didn't, Supt Shelly said. "I am in no way saying he wasn't helpful, but if there was something he wanted to say he could have."
The Carthy family could have also given this information, but they were "ordinary decent country people who had been through a big ordeal", and gardaí did not want to pressurise them.