The description of the late Patrick Finucane in the Garda report as a "republican solicitor" was a typographical error and was very much regretted by gardai, Chief Supt Adrian Culligan said yesterday. Mr Finucane's family had described the description as "wholly unfair and unfounded" and said it appalled and distressed them. Mr Michael Finucane had called on the subcommittee to investigate its origins.
Chief Supt Culligan said a statement from Mr Kevin Ireland - John Carthy's friend - described Mr Michael Finucane as a republican solicitor but an error in reproducing this remark in the Garda report resulted in the description being applied to Mr Finucane's father, Patrick.
"And that is regretted, and it only came to my notice yesterday," he said. "If it has insulted the Finucane family by terming the late Pat Finucane as being a republican solicitor, I unreservedly withdraw that from my particular report, but it was not my intention, Mr Chairman."
He said he would have seen no fault with including Mr Ireland's reference to Mr Michael Finucane as a "republican solicitor", as this was in Mr Ireland's statement. "It would be my view, Mr Chairman, that Mr Ireland is incorrect . . . Michael Finucane was not a solicitor at that particular time . . ." he said.
Earlier, Garda Commissioner Mr Pat Byrne said he accepted a solicitor for John Carthy should have been brought to the scene during the siege at Abbeylara. John Carthy had asked for Mr Michael Finucane to be brought to the scene but gardai failed to make contact with him.
Mr Byrne pointed out that the name "Finucane" was only in the Garda domain for about three hours before Mr Carthy's death. While the Garda report stated that a solicitor should have been called to the scene, it added: "but it cannot be said that the outcome would have been any different, bearing in mind Carthy's responses and actions to his closest friends, who had been conveyed to the negotiating point."
Yesterday, Mr Byrne said: "But I, in hindsight, stated in my report, as I do now, that I believe a solicitor, wherever the solicitor was acquired or contacted, should have been brought there."
The Garda Commissioner rejected suggestions that there was a conflict between reports from State pathologist Dr John Harbison and the gardai on John Carthy's stance when he was shot.
Dr Harbison's report referred to the possibility that John Carthy may have been bending or falling forward when shot for the fourth time, while gardai said he continued to approach them in a "purposeful and menacing fashion" before the fourth shot.
