Tom Nevin's first wife has told the Central Criminal Court that her family called him "the gentle giant". June O'Flanagan was married to Tom Nevin between 1962 and 1970 was giving evidence at the Nevin murder trial. She said that he was not a member of the IRA. Mr Nevin's surviving seven brothers and sisters all testified that he had no interest in politics and was never a member of the IRA.
One by one today, Tom Nevin's surviving seven brothers and sisters went into the witness box to refute claims made by Catherine Nevin that he was a member of the IRA. The family grew up on a farm in Tynagh in County Galway. Tom Nevin was the eldest. They said that their family never had anything to do with the Republican movement or the IRA. "We had no Republican sympathies... hard working people... that's it," his sister Mary Glennon said.
Mr Nevin's first wife, June O'Flanagan, said that he never expressed political views and was not a member of the IRA. Ms Flanagan was married to Tom Nevin for eight years. The marriage by annulled by church and state in the early seventies. Today, June O'Flanagan said that the breakdown of the marriage was entirely her fault. She said that Tom Nevin was a kind gentleman, hardworking and his dream was to own his own pub and home. She also said that she never saw him drunk. Catherine Nevin claimed he was an alcoholic. Ms Flanagan said her family absolutely loved Tom Nevin and called him "the gentle giant".
Another former staff member at Jack White's Inn, who had made a complaint about an alleged sexual assault by a Garda in 1992, said that most of the Arklow Gardaí stopped coming to Jack White's after her complaint. The incident was alleged to have occurred in 1990. Both Tom and Catherine Nevin made statements, but there was no prosecution. Mrs Nevin had alleged bad feeling between Jack White's Inn and the Arklow Gardaí arising out of this complaint.
