Tribunal told of phone tap attempt

DETAILS OF attempted phone tapping in the Dundalk area were revealed at the Smithwick Tribunal yesterday.

William Prendergast, a former investigator with An Post, told the tribunal he recalled an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the discovery of a tapped phone cable in Dundalk telephone exchange.

He said to the best of his recollection the incident involved a “jumper cable” which was attached to an unassigned line. As such he said the interception would have been worthless.

“My recollection is it was on a spare set,” he said. “It was not assigned.”

Mr Prendergast said he had interviewed staff and would have had a detective sergeant with him in case he had to take statements. He could not recall if he had spoken to the engineer who discovered the equipment had been interfered with. But he said the investigation was short-lived as there was no evidence of a successful tap.

Thomas Cumisky, an engineer who worked with Telecom Éireann, the body which assumed control of the State phone service, said he had found an unauthorised wire leading from a roadside pole near Hackballscross in Co Louth.

He said the line was adjacent to the Border with south Armagh.

It ran from the interception point, down the pole and was then buried underground.

Mr Cumisky said he thought the line headed north across the Border.

It was an “interception” he said adding that “it was not a Telecom Éireann wire”.

He said he believed the discovery was made in the early 1980s.

The tribunal was considering reports that the IRA tapped phone lines into Dundalk Garda station in a bid to gain intelligence on the movements of visiting RUC officers.

Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan were killed in an IRA ambush just across the Border in south Armagh, minutes after leaving a meeting in the Garda station in March 1989.

John O'Halloran, who worked as an engineer for Telecom Éireann's successor Eircom, told the tribunal reports in the Phoenixmagazine alleging a phone tap in Dundalk telephone exchange were practically impossible.

Mr O Halloran who now works as a telecommunications consultant said: “If there had been any whisper of IRA tapping in Dundalk, it would have been huge.”