THE Sean O'Callaghan affair has a significance far beyond his own duplicity and the hypocrisy of his agenda-bearing fans. It raises the most serious questions about the conduct of a murder investigation by the Garda.
John Corcoran was an epileptic father of eight who was murdered in March 1985 in a field in south Kerry. O'Callaghan, the self-proclaimed IRA informer, has alleged in newspaper interviews that he committed the murder.
Last week I submitted questions to the Department of Justice and to the Garda Press Office:
1. Sean O'Callaghan has alleged in interviews: with the Kerryman, the Sunday Times and the Boston Globe that in March 1985 he informed the Garda that John Corcoran was about to be murdered and also gave the address of the location where Corcoran was then being held (O'Callaghan implicitly confirmed this in a letter to this newspaper, published last Saturday). Is it true that the Garda was informed of plans to kill John Corcoran and of the location where he was being held and did nothing about it?
2. What investigations have been made within the Garda force since Sean O'Callaghan first made this allegation to establish whether it is true (that the Garda was so informed) and what has been the outcome of such investigations?
3. Given Sean O'Callaghan's admission in press interviews that he personally murdered John Corcoran, why was there no warrant seeking his extradition from Northern Ireland on his release from jail there in the last few weeks?
4. Did the Garda seek to interview him while he was in jail in Northern Ireland, following his claim that he murdered John Corcoran?
5. Is Sean O'Callaghan now being sought for the murder of John Corcoran?
I received the following reply from the Department of Justice:
"The investigation of a criminal offence and the bringing of proceedings against any person on foot of such an offence is a matter for the Garda Siochana in consultation with the Law Officers. It is understood from the Garda authorities that the Garda investigation of the murder of John Corcoran remains open. It would not be appropriate for the Minister to comment further in the matter. It is not the practice to discuss whether an individual is wanted in respect of a criminal offence or whether a warrant has or has not been issued for the extradition of a person from another state."
The Garda Press Office gave a similar response.
THE claim that the Garda does not comment on ongoing investigations is codswallop. They have made countless comments about the "ongoing investigation" into the murder of Veronica Guerin and several others.
So why the reticence on the appalling, cold-blooded murder of John Corcoran. Does his life not matter?
But of course reticence about ongoing investigation of murders would not inhibit an explicit comment on the allegation that the Garda was informed about this crime in advance and did nothing about it.
This is a far more serious issue than that which brought down the last government, the mishandling of a file within the office of the Attorney General. It is more serious than the issues that gave rise to the crises to do with the Department of Justice over the last several months. It is even more serious than Michael Lowry's management of his tax affairs and his liaison with Ben Dunne. This concerns the murder of a citizen; my suspicion that the Garda failed to take even the rudimentary measures to apprehend the self-proclaimed murderer; and the apparent refusal of the Department of Justice and the Garda to account for their actions.
FINALLY, a further insight into the character of this new hero of Irish revisionism.
It was Danny Morrison, the former head of publicity for Sinn Fein, who was the "leading republican" that O'Callaghan met in Crumlin Road jail, Belfast, in January 1990. O Callaghan has claimed that Morrison informed him first that he (Morrison) was a member of the IRA army council and then went on to disclose, secret information about IRA plans, notably concerning the peace strategy. O'Callaghan relies crucially on this conversation for his claims now on current IRA plans.
Morrison is scornful of the suggestion that he would have revealed any sensitive information to O'Callaghan. "We knew he was a `tout', so on that account alone I would have told him nothing," Morrison said. "Furthermore, O'Callaghan was in terrible shape mentally. He was heavily doped (with medication) and in a bad way."
Morrison then went on to make a further interesting claim about that conversation. "O'Callaghan said he wanted to kill Michael Stone" (the loyalist who had opened fire on republicans in Milltown cemetery during the funeral of an IRA man and who was then in the seclusion wing of Crumlin Road jail, where O'Callaghan had been held up to a few days prior to that conversation with Morrison).
Now, normally there would be no way of checking this claim and, clearly, Morrison would have had a vested interest in manufacturing such an allegation against someone who is now engaged in a campaign of vilification of the republican movement.
But quite by chance I obtained corroboration for Morrison's claim. This came from Gerard Colleran, editor of the Kerryman.
Colleran, who had conducted the initial interview with O'Callaghan in November 1988, went to visit him at the end of 1989. Before I had made any reference to Morrison's claims, Colleran told me that in the course of that interview O'Callaghan had said that he was going to kill Michael Stone.
Either O'Callaghan was then off his head, in which case why should we be bothered with anything he says and, particularly, how could we give any credence to his version of the conversation he had with Morrison, the conversation that he now relies upon as "proof" of his current insight into IRA thinking?
Alternatively, he was telling both Morrison and Colleran the truth, in which case why should we believe anything at all he says, given that as recently as 1990 he was planning on murder, 13 years after he claims to have been converted to peace and non-violence?