Barr Tribunal: Gardaí could not allow Ms Marie Carthy to speak to her brother, John, the night the siege in Abbeylara began because she was agitated and under the influence of alcohol, a Garda witness told the Barr tribunal.
The tribunal heard that Ms Carthy had wanted to help negotiate with her brother, who was holding out in his house with a loaded gun, but was stopped from doing so by gardaí. A friend of Ms Carthy was sent to the scene in her place.
Det Garda James Campbell said he was "100 per cent sure" that Ms Carthy had been drinking. Ms Carthy had previously denied she had drink taken, the tribunal heard.
The tribunal is investigating the events surrounding the shooting dead of Mr John Carthy by gardaí outside his home in Abbeylara, Co Longford, on April 20th, 2000.
Ms Carthy had arrived at Abbeylara accompanied by two friends shortly after midnight on Wednesday, April 19th, some six hours after the siege began.
She asked to be allowed speak to her brother, but arrangements were made for her friend, Mr Martin Shelley, to go in her place.
"She was very agitated and she made a move to pass by [to go towards the Carthy house] but she was held back and persuaded not to go down," Det Garda Campbell said.
When asked if he had formed the opinion that Ms Carthy was under the influence of alcohol, Det Garda Campbell replied that he had.
A combination of this and the fact that she was upset and agitated made her an inappropriate person to negotiate with her brother, he said.
Mr Carthy swore and aggressively challenged Det Garda Campbell to enter his house during an earlier attempt at negotiation.
Det Garda Campbell said he and Garda John Gibbons had approached the Carthy house intending to speak to Mr Carthy, but Mr Carthy began to fire shots.
"I told him to throw out the shotgun. I told him no harm had been done, that no one had been shot. He told me to f--- off."
Garda Gibbons then told Mr Carthy that his GP, Dr Patrick Cullen, was outside, and this resulted in Mr Carthy firing another shot.
"I assured him that he would be treated OK and asked him again to throw out the shotgun and come out, but he said: 'Come in here, you f---er, I'm not coming out'."
Meanwhile, Dr Cullen may be recalled to the tribunal because of a dispute over the evidence of another Garda witness.
The chairman of the tribunal, Judge Barr, adjourned the evidence of Garda Gibbons yesterday afternoon and asked him to make a supplementary statement, "to make it absolutely clear" if he was criticising Dr Cullen.
Garda Gibbons had told the tribunal that Dr Cullen could have given more information on Mr Carthy's medical history.
