THE BARR TRIBUNAL: The failure of gardaí to provide John Carthy with cigarettes during the Abbeylara siege was criticised by Mr Carthy's psychiatrist, Dr David Shanley, at the Barr Tribunal in Dublin yesterday.
Dr Shanley was also critical of a Garda decision not to allow Mr Carthy's sister, Marie, to talk to her brother, and said media coverage of the siege may have heightened Mr Carthy's anxiety.
Dr Shanley was responding to cross-examination from Ms Margaret Nerney SC, counsel for 36 named gardaí who were present at the siege, and Mr Patrick Gageby SC, for the Carthy family. Dr Shanley said that he knew every effort was made by negotiators, the gardaí, "to talk John down, but it did not succeed."
He also said the Garda decision not to allow Mr Carthy's sister, Marie, to take part in the negotiations may have been an error. "She was close to him, it might have been prudent to let her."
Dr Shanley described John Carthy as a "fairly heavy smoker" and said the classic symptoms of not having cigarettes would have been craving, restlessness and irritability. "It was not fair," he said "to use it as a weapon during the siege."
Dr Shanley said he was not an expert on sieges, and acknowledged that Mr Carthy "did have a difficulty with local gardaí" but maintained that "it did seem as if the gardaí and the emergency response unit were ganging up on this young man with a psychiatric illness."
When it was put to Dr Shanley that Mr Carthy's friend and cousin, Mr Thomas Walsh, had approached Mr Carthy, with the result that Mr Carthy had discharged his gun, Dr Shanley said: "Yes, Mr Walsh had been tearful and upset. John Carthy's reaction was inappropriate."
Ms Nerney suggested to Dr Shanley that the gardaí had attempted to establish a relationship with Mr Carthy, asking him if there was anything he needed in terms of food or cigarettes.
However, Dr Shanley said it had been "very difficult for him to get those fags and it became a bargaining tool, and while I understand that strategy, I think it would have helped if he had got those fags."
The tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Barr, asked Ms Nerney if it was to be Garda evidence that it was important to give Mr Carthy cigarettes, to which Ms Nerney responded that "it was a point of negotiation. It was difficult."
However, Mr Justice Barr responded that gardaí had looked through a window and seen John Carthy lying on a settee and he wondered if they could not have "left a few packets on the window sill?" Ms Nerney responded that gardaí had hoped to use the cigarettes as a tool to gain trust and rapport with Mr Carthy and that this was "part and parcel of negotiating tactics". She reminded the court that "repeatedly the gardaí have said they were in fear of their lives".
Dr Shanley said Mr Carthy's problems in the days leading up to the siege were possibly related to excessive drinking, "or relief drinking".
On the question of Mr Carthy's temperament Dr Shanley told Mr Patrick Gageby SC, counsel for the Carthy family, that he had never seen or heard John Carthy being verbally or physically aggressive. Asked "if taking the gun and firing it, all these were novel traits?" Dr Shanley replied that they were "not by any means typical".
Mr Gageby asked Dr Shanley if it was the case that Mr Carthy had been suffering from "nicotine withdrawal, alcohol withdrawal and anxiety", to which Dr Shanley replied that he had "no doubt that this man was suffering at the time".
Dr Shanley said he would have liked a broader basis on which to form his opinions but all the evidence "would appear to indicate that this was a more serious breakdown than before. He was in need of admission to hospital."
Dr Shanley, who is a consultant psychiatrist at St Patrick's and St James's hospitals in Dublin, was also critical of the media, whose television and radio broadcasts of the siege could have been picked up by Mr Carthy in the house. He described Mr Carthy as "a young psychiatric patient, very sensitive and very vulnerable," and added that he "personally believed there should have been a media blackout". He said if Mr Carthy had heard the broadcasts, "it would have had a very significant effect on John Carthy, which wouldn't be very helpful."
