The Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, has expressed concern at the timing and source of weekend newspaper reports that his family home was formerly owned by a man with a criminal record.
The Commissioner said last night that the reports, which appeared in three Sunday newspapers, amounted to "black propaganda". He believed the stories "originally emanate from criminal elements who are seeking to embarrass me".
Mr Byrne bought the house at Greenogue, Co Meath, in 1994 and only later learned that it had belonged to a man with a record and criminal connections. The house, it appears, was registered under a false name at the time it was on the market.
The Commissioner bought the house at the market price and carried out considerable renovation. Mr Byrne and his wife, Dolores, had to take out bridging finance while they sold their previous home, a semi-detached house in Swords, and renovated the new house.
The Byrnes have teenage children, and the family wanted to be close to a relative who had suffered a bereavement.
The gardai are aware that at least one document containing information about the previous ownership of the house had been circulated recently to newspapers. It is suspected that a north Dublin criminal figure is behind this and that it has been timed to damage the Commissioner while the force is embroiled in controversial industrial action.
The previous owner was a Dublin man who had a conviction for manslaughter, arising from a stabbing 26 years ago. He has no other serious convictions and is not suspected of being the source of the information about the house.
However, he was arrested at the beginning of this year and is facing charges in relation to the killing of a Dublin criminal, Anthony Beattie (35), who was shot in a city centre public house last December. According to Garda sources, he had a reasonably successful career as a trader and was involved in a number of legitimate businesses. He built the house in the mid1980s but moved back into the inner city to be closer to his family. Before the house came on the market the deeds were twice transferred.
According to Garda sources, there are grounds for suspecting that Mr Byrne has become the target of a Dublin criminal, a middle-aged man who has connections with drugs and other violent crime on the north side of the city.