Tribunal told of Department inquiry

There was no “prima facie case” to support an inquiry into allegations of collusion between members of Dundalk Gardaí and the IRA, a high ranking official of the Department of Justice has told the Smithwick Tribunal.

Ken O'Leary assistant general secretary of the Department of Justice told the tribunal concerns in relation to Garda-IRA collusion in Dundalk in the late 1980s had been sparked by an article in The Irish Times, published in March 2000.

The article, written by journalist Kevin Myers, claimed an IRA mole had been responsible for the deaths of two senior RUC officers who were ambushed by the IRA as the returned from a meeting in Dundalk Garda station in March 1989.

The article claimed these were just two of at least 12 murders which the IRA informer or informers among the Gardaí had played a part.

Giving evidence to the tribunal this morning Mr O’Leary said the article appeared to be the impetus for Dáil questions raised by then opposition justice spokesman Jim Higgins, in April 2000.

Then minister for justice John O’Donoghue told the Dáil the Gardaí had launched an internal review based on the allegations, but Mr O’Leary told the tribunal the Gardaí had reported there was “no tangible evidence” of the presence of an IRA mole in Dundalk.

Mr O’Leary said he had no recollection of the department ever asking for a definition of the expression “no tangible evidence” and there was no documentary record to suggest such a question had been asked.

However the article had also been followed by a letter from the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble to the Taoiseach, and this had been again raised between the Irish and British Governments during peace process negotiations at Weston Park, in the UK in 2001.

Mr O’Leary told the tribunal this morning the Irish side had been pressing for inquiries into allegations of RUC collusion with subversives in Northern Ireland.

“The unionist parties wanted parallel inquiries to take place,” he said.

He said the commitment to have an inquiry into the allegations of Garda-IRA collusion in Dundalk had arisen at Weston Park “as a matter of politics in the context of the peace process”.

He said it “didn’t involve a strong prima facie case”, adding that the department “did not conduct a detailed analysis” of the allegations.

Mr O’Leary said the Weston Park negotiations had led to an agreement for an investigation by the Canadian Judge Peter Corry.

He told tribunal chairman Judge Peter Smithwick “it was a given that once judge Corry recommended that a tribunal of this kind be established, it would be established.”