The Supreme Court has overturned a High Court finding that the arrest and detention of a retired garda on suspicion of membership of the IRA was unlawful, and has set aside an award of €175,000 to him.
However, the court rejected the State's appeal regarding a woman arrested at the same time, and the award to her of €100,000 was upheld.
Joe Walshe from Dromin in Nenagh was arrested in 1991 along with Kay Bedford of Sir Harry's Mall, Limerick under Section 30 of the Offences Against The State Act and held for three days before being released without charge.
The State now accepts that neither of them were ever members of the IRA.
However, the State appealed the High Court's ruling on the legality of the arrests to the Supreme Court.
The High Court had ruled that the arrests were unlawful on the grounds that the arresting gardaí did not have the necessary suspicion for the purposes of a Section 30 arrest.
In the course of his evidence to the High Court, arresting garda Detective Inspector Anthony Fennessy said he had seen information about Garda Walshe in a confidential document known as a C77.
This is a confidential secret intelligence document on which a claim of privilege was upheld in court.
Today the Supreme Court found that the reason for making the arrest was the direction given to Detective Inspector Fennessy by a senior officer, but that did not mean he did not have his own reasonable suspicion based on the information in his possession from the C77 form.
The court found he had all the material necessary to form a reasonable suspicion at the times of the arrest and found that Garda Walshe's arrest was lawful and valid.
However, in the case of Ms Bedford the Supreme Court said the evidence fell well short of what was necessary to ground a reasonable suspicion and in her case the State appeal failed.
Mr Justice Keans said he could conceive of very few things more damaging than to be wrongfully arrested on suspicion of being a member of the IRA and he did not regard the size of the award to her as excessive.
