A former senior RUC officer was told he could not raise the role of two former Taoisigh in the garda investigation into the IRA ambush at Narrow Water at the Smithwick Tribunal today.
The retired RUC officer had claimed there was no co-operation from the gardaí into the killing of 18 British soldiers in two bombs at Narrow Water close to Warrenpoint in 1979. One tourist was shot dead on the river bank across in the Republic.
Identified only as Witness 68, the former Deputy Assistant Chief Constable of the RUC had given evidence in which he was highly critical over the lack of garda co-operation into the murders.
He started to tell the Tribunal about a meeting he had with senior gardaí in Dublin Castle. However, counsel for the Garda Commissioner, Michael Durack, raised objections to that matter being dealt with now. In reply to a question from counsel for the Tribunal, Mary Laverty, the witness confirmed the matter he was going to say related to two Taoisigh.
Ms Laverty said they would have to notify public bodies if there is evidence that could involve some political leaders and she asked the witness to leave that evidence to the next time he appears before the Tribunal.
Judge Smithwick said he wanted the witness to give his information in full but he asked him not to continue with the political issue at the moment.
The Tribunal is investigating whether one of three former gardaí, Owen Corrigan, Leo Colton or Finbarr Hickey, passed information to the IRA which allowed them ambush and kill two senior RUC officers minutes after leaving a meeting in Dundalk Garda Station in March 1989. All three men deny the claims of collusion in the murders of Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan.
Witness 68 had given scathing evidence to the Tribunal over what he claimed was the lack of garda co-operation into the IRA attack which resulted in the single largest loss of life to the British Army during the Troubles.
Eighteen British soldiers, mostly from the 2nd Parachute Regiment, were killed in the IRA ambush at Warren Point in 1979, while a British tourist across the river in the Republic was also shot dead.
Witness 68, who retired at the rank of Deputy Assistant Chief Constable of the RUC in 2001, was the Chief Investigating Officer into the Narrow Water bombing.
He said that despite repeated requests for access to information from the gardaí about their investigation it was all refused.
Such was the level of non-co-operation that the witness raised it with the Chief Constable of the RUC and he raised it with the Garda Commissioner "but I have to say little really changed.
"Their help was absolutely non-existent," according to the witness.
However, Michael Durack, counsel for the Garda Commissioner, said they would be disputing the allegations of non-co-operation.
One of the three former gardaí being investigated by the Tribunal, Detective Sergeant Owen Corrigan, was the senior investigating officer on the southern side where the bombs at Narrow Water were detonated, according to the witness. He said his team were promised by Detective Sergeant Corrigan that the scenes would be preserved but when they returned the following morning the whole area had been cut down.
He said he was furious that this happened, calling it "absolutely inexplicable".
The witness also told the Tribunal that at the Narrow Water bomb scene he had been told earlier by his senior officer to be wary of what he said to Det Sgt Corrigan as he was a security risk.
Information gathered by the gardaí was not shared with the RUC as had happened on other investigations. The witness said they sought interview notes, statements, forensic reports and other information but "co-operation was so lacking" none of it was forthcoming. The retired RUC officer said he was later given a copy of the forensic report unofficially several years later.
He also told the Tribunal that he had worked with other gardaí on other crimes and found them to be highly professional.
The witness also said two men, Brendan Burns and Joe Brennan, were arrested near Omeath shortly after the attack on a motorbike which had been purchased just days before the attack. The former RUC officer said that there was residue of firearms found on their clothes while traces of ammonium nitrate used in homemade explosives were also found.
They were never charged in connection with the attack and the RUC was only told sometime later that they had been released. In the years after Narrow Water, both men were responsible for dozens of murders, he said. Brendan Burns later died while making a bomb, while Brennan was convicted of a mortar bomb attack and sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment in 1995.
Even then they could not charge him in connection with Narrow Water because "absolutely nothing" was made available to the RUC by the gardaí.
The witness also said he had helped the gardaí as much as possible to investigate the death of Michael Hudson, the British tourist killed on the southern side of the River Newry.
He said he had got a considerable amount of opprobrium as he collected all the British army weapons after the ambush to see if they could be linked to the death of Mr Hudson. The witness said no bullet cases were found on either side of the border.
Under cross-examination by Darren Lehane, counsel for Mr Corrigan, the witness acknowledged that he did not have everything in his statement that he said from the witness box.
However, he said he would not retract his evidence against the former detective sergeant. If anything, events since Narrow Water had supported the warning against Mr Corrigan, he said.
