A former detective sergeant today described how he found an explosive device at a telecoms mast in Donegal.
Det Sgt White
Three men were arrested following the discovery of a device strapped to the mast on November 19th, 1996, which came two weeks after a container at the site in Ardara was burned causing £50,000 of damage.
It is alleged the device was planted by gardaí.
In previous protests, locals who were opposed to a transmitter being installed at the mast had strewn nails on the road and glued locks, the Morris tribunal into Garda corruption in Donegal heard.
Det Sgt White said he had got a message there was a problem up at the mast and that he and Gda George McNeill went to check it out.
He described going up to the Telecom Eireann site and finding the device strapped to the mast, with a fuse sticking out of the bottom of it.
"I went over to the mast, looked around it and went within about five or six feet of it. I was a bit nervous but I walked around the side and the back of it," he said. It was about three minutes before he called over his colleague, who was talking to a telecoms man in a hut at the site, he said.
The device turned out to be constructed out of firecrackers and was not a genuine explosive, the tribunal heard.
Det Sgt White denied testing the device outside the Garda station following the discovery and telling colleagues it was an explosive.
"I've no recollection of touching the device in any way. I'm sure as I personally can be in my memory, and I would tell you if I did."
Det Sgt White agreed with the suggestion the protests at the mast could be viewed as a pretty serious threat to forces of law and order in the district. But he denied there was a view that it was shameful the gardaí could not keep control.
Mr Peter Charleton, SC for the tribunal, asked: "Would it be possible to take a view on the Garda side that this really wasn't on and something had to be done about it.
"That's a very loaded question. Are you saying that some garda decided to take illegal action?" Det Sgt White said.
"The nails and barbed wire were annoying, but they weren't a serious threat to garda health. And the protesters had a point as such," Det Sgt White said.
Asked if he thought the burning of the container at the mast was an escalation of the situation, he said it was.
"There must have been 50,000 Irish pounds worth of equipment in the container that was burned. Of course it was very, very serious and we set about investigating it."
But Det Sgt White denied he was in charge of the investigation, saying he was not giving orders and only making suggestions as to what needed to be done.