In the Central Criminal Court this afternoon, Catherine Nevin has claimed that her husband was a member of the IRA. Mrs Nevin took the witness stand this afternoon on the 22 day of her trial for the murder of her husband, Tom Nevin, at Jack White's Inn in March 1996. She claimed her husband told her about his IRA membership about three years after their marriage and he said that it would always be part of his life.
49-year-old Catherine Nevin was one of three children raised on a 32-acre farm in Nerney in County Kildare. Her mother is still living. After completing her Leaving Certificate she began working in the hotel business in Dublin and met Tom Nevin when she was 21-years-old. Mr Nevin had been previously married but had both civil and church annulments and in 1976 Catherine and Tom Nevin married in Rome. Her husband was then managing his uncle's pub in Dolphins Barn in Dublin. Catherine Nevin had moved from the hotel business to travelling to schools providing career guidance advice.
Catherine Nevin told the jury of six men and six women in the Central Criminal Court today that hers was a good marriage for 20 years. She and Tom Nevin were happy she said and there was nothing wrong with their intimate life. But three years into their marriage she became concerned that her husband was having an affair. He was coming home late. He told her he was a member of the IRA and it would always be part of his life. Mrs Nevin said that she had no contact whatsoever with Sinn Féin or any political association with anyone like that.
Mrs Nevin contradicted evidence given earlier in the trial by John Jones, a former member of Sinn Féin who claims she solicited him to murder her husband. She denied ever asking him about pubs available in the Finglas area or ever being in his advice centre. John Jones was, she said, a friend of her husband's. She also claimed that Mr Jones was to be a silent partner in the purchase by her husband of the Kilinarden Inn in Tallaght and was to contribute £100,000. Mr Jones had denied any knowledge of any negotiations in relation to this pub. Mrs Nevin claimed that a number of her husband's political friends had attended the opening of their new pub Jack White's Inn in May 1986 including Joe Cahill, Cathal Goulding and Tommy Thompson who she said was in the IRA.
Mrs Nevin is being led through her evidence by her counsel Patrick McEntee. Throughout the questioning she referred to Tom Nevin as my husband and my late husband God Rest Him. She is being led slowly through her account of her life with Tom Nevin. She is to resume her evidence in the morning.
