Frank McBrearty (60), yesterday proudly produced his Army medals and recalled serving on the peace-keeping mission in the Congo. Now he was almost bankrupt trying to defend the reputation of his family, he said.
The Donegal nightclub owner said his family were intimidated and harassed by gardaí during the investigation into the 1996 death of Raphoe cattle dealer Richie Barron.
Mr McBrearty snr told the inquiry into Garda corruption in the Donegal division: "We continue to be victimised by the State because of the ongoing refusal of this tribunal to guarantee me payment to our legal team."
He told the tribunal that he served on a UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo, and produced his Army medals to the tribunal. After leaving the Army he worked for 15 years in the UK, returning to Ireland in 1976 to establish his pub business.
He said he got on well with Richie Barron, although he had barred the cattle dealer from his premises after he was in a fight.
Mr McBrearty said that he and his son, Frank jnr, were working in the nightclub the night Mr Barron died. He said just before 1am, a group of men from Castlederg in Northern Ireland were ejected from the nightclub, and a row developed in the car park.
Mr McBrearty jnr was involved in sorting out the row between the Northerners, and Mr McBrearty snr stopped a car which was coming out of the car park at speed, banging on the bonnet to tell him to slow down.
"My staff and me were sober," he said. "The guards were drinking and the patrons were drinking. We were sober doing our job, but the guards didn't do their job." Two local gardaí, John O'Dowd and Pádraig Mulligan, have admitted to tribunal investigators that they went for a drink in a Lifford pub the night Mr Barrodied.
Mr McBrearty said that he felt the gardaí were trying to frame his family and identified Garda O'Dowd as "the main man in this whole thing . He orchestrated it, he set it up. He used William Doherty." Mr Doherty was a Garda informer.