Morris Tribunal: A suspended detective at the centre of claims that arms finds in Donegal a decade ago were bogus was yesterday questioned at the Morris tribunal about two major finds of homemade explosives materials involving his alleged informer.
Det Garda Noel McMahon said that, on the first occasion, around midnight on November 19th, 1993, his informer, Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, called and said she had information about "a house outside Donegal town where the makings of a bomb were being stored".
The tribunal is investigating allegations by Ms McGlinchey, who denies she was ever an informer, that Det Garda McMahon and another garda, Supt Kevin Lennon, planted bogus explosives finds. Both gardaí deny these allegations.
"It had been accumulated mostly in the Inishowen area and transported," Det Garda McMahon said. "The intended target was Belleek. She maintained that she had been down there [in Donegal town] on a number of occasions."
Ms McGlinchey was brought to Ardchicken, near Donegal town, by a prominent IRA member "as a cover-up. A man and a woman would not look as suspicious as two men in a van. They would pull in as if for a quick snog," he said.
Det Garda McMahon said Ms McGlinchey felt confident enough IRA personnel knew about the house that she would not be identified as the source of the leak.
The detective was asked why, in a statement to the Carty inquiry, he said Ms McGlinchey learned about the Donegal town explosives store "through pillow talk". A lawyer for the tribunal, Mr Paul McDermott SC, said Ms McGlinchey's involvement in moving the material, her knowledge of the intended target and her role providing a "figleaf cover" by posing as a girlfriend would amount to more than he had told the Carty team.
The detective said Ms McGlinchey had kept the authorities informed of everything.
Det Garda McMahon, who got "some personal satisfaction" from the find, 62 bags of fertiliser/icing sugar mix weighing over 300kg, said he could not explain why the stash turned out to be urea, a non-explosive substance. When he notified Supt Kevin Lennon, they drove to Donegal town with Ms McGlinchey.
The detective disagreed with Ms McGlinchey's account that she had travelled to Donegal town with Det Garda McMahon in his car several times, with bags of fertiliser in the boot, some of which had been collected from his house.
He said he could not disprove this account, except that if fertiliser had been stored in his house, his wife, Sheenagh, would have mentioned it in her evidence to the tribunal.
Mr Justice Morris asked why Det Garda McMahon had said in two statements that he and Supt Lennon had travelled with Ms McGlinchey in a Garda surveillance van, but now said they travelled in Supt Lennon's car.
The detective said it was because they had on other occasions travelled to Donegal and Rossnowlagh in the van "looking for an alleged barrack-buster bomb".
The next incident with Ms McGlinchey began when she phoned to tell him she was required to transport ground fertiliser to Bridgend for collection.
The resulting Garda operation at the Derry Border on January 11th, 1994, recovered 42.5kg of fertiliser and 12kg of icing sugar.
Mr McDermott for the tribunal said the detective's evidence differed from that of Chief Supt Denis Fitzpatrick, who told the tribunal he and Supt Lennon devised a plan which was put in place to stop Ms McGlinchey crossing the Border by setting up a checkpoint at Bridgend.
Ms McGlinchey wanted a guarantee she would not be arrested, and Det Garda McMahon said he would talk to his superiors about it. He did not remember how he got word to Ms McGlinchey she would not be arrested. He might have left a message with his wife, or Ms McGlinchey might have phoned him, he said.