A former garda has told the inquests into the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings that he was given the name of a soldier in the Northern Ireland security services that the RUC suspected of involvement in the atrocities of 1974.
Mr William Kelly, a retired superintendent, who was a detective inspector in Dublin in 1974, said an RUC officer told him the name of a suspect who was a UDR soldier and a member of the illegal UVF. However, Mr Kelly said he does not remember the name of the soldier nor the RUC officer who passed on the information.
In the months following the bombings, Mr Kelly and a colleague, Det Sgt Brendan Burns, met an RUC detective sergeant in Portadown to discuss the investigation.
The meeting was informal and Mr Kelly did not keep any notes.
During the meeting the RUC officer disclosed the name of a suspect who was a member of the UDR and was due on duty at the Portadown police station later that day.
Mr Kelly and his colleague waited in the station for the rest of the day. However, the soldier failed to attend.
"We met with the RUC detective sergeant and he mentioned the name of a suspect to us who was a member of an illegal and a legal organisation. He was a member of the UVF and also a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment."
Mr Kelly said the suspect stuck in his mind because of his "dual membership". However, he did not keep notes of the meeting and could not remember the details of the conversation nor the suspect's name. He did not know if the suspect was ever detained by the RUC.
"At that time there was no system in place for us to go to Northern Ireland to interview suspects," he said. "It was an informal meeting, we went on spec."
Mr Kelly said it would have been his practice to pass on any information to the investigating team in Dublin.
A separate "non-police source" had given Mr Kelly the names of two UVF members believed to have organised the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
The source, who Mr Kelly met in Dublin shortly after the bombings, but may have been from Northern Ireland, named two Belfast-based men who, he said, planned the atrocities. Mr Kelly told the inquest that he did not remember the names of the men, but he did recall passing them on to the Dublin investigation team.
The inquest continues.
