A man told the High Court yesterday he thought Catherine Nevin was joking when in 1989 she said she wanted the IRA to shoot her husband, Tom Nevin. He said he was taken aback, and what Nevin said was ridiculous.
John Jones was giving evidence on the second day of the hearing of libel proceedings brought by him and two other men against Independent Newspapers over headlines on articles in three newspapers in early 2000.
At the opening of the hearing on Thursday, Garrett Cooney SC, for the plaintiffs, had recalled that in 2000 Nevin stood accused of four counts: the murder of her husband, and of soliciting three men to commit that murder. Those three were the plaintiffs in the present action.
Mr Cooney said that at Nevin's trial the jury was satisfied the murder had been arranged by her. She had arranged for somebody, who was never identified, to carry out the murder.
The proceedings have been brought by Mr Jones, Balrothery, Balbriggan, Co Dublin; Gerard Heapes, St Nicholas Village, Mornington, Co Meath; and William McClean, Harold's Cross Road, Dublin.
Mr Jones said he joined Sinn Féin in 1970-71 because of the "terrible things that were happening in the Six Counties". He ceased to be a member of the organisation in 1994-95.
He and another man, Dessie Ellis, had a TV shop in Finglas. In 1982-83, premises at the rear of the shop were used as an advice centre for Sinn Féin.
Around 1984 Nevin came to see him. She asked if he knew of any pubs for sale. He said he could not help her. Subsequently he discovered she and her husband had taken a lease of a pub in Finglas.
Mr Jones said that in 1989 Nevin arrived at his premises and said she had a proposition for him. She said she wanted the IRA to shoot her husband. He was taken aback. It was ridiculous.
Her idea was that an attempt would be made to rob Tom Nevin when he was lodging money at the bank, and in the process he would be shot and it would look like a botched robbery.
Mr Jones said he did not take it seriously. When he became a partner with Mr Ellis in the repair shop, he did not know anything about Mr Ellis's political views. He came to know he had been convicted on explosives charges and served a sentence.
Mr Jones said that on the last occasion he met Nevin she was wearing dark glasses, and her eyes were bruised. Both her hands were bandaged. She took off her glasses and said: "What do you think of that? That is what Tom did to me."
When his youngest daughter saw the newspaper headlines she was terribly distraught because the headlines were put up in her school. Members of his family were "called out" on the street.
In evidence, Mr Heapes (55) said he was about 20 when he became interested in "the Troubles". He was head porter at Jervis Street Hospital in April 1974 when the Dublin bombings occurred. He decided to join the republican movement "to try to help my people, because nobody else was going to do it and I became a member of the IRA".
He remained in the IRA until he came out of prison in 1985.
The hearing, before Mr Justice Éamon de Valera and a jury, continues on Tuesday.