Blaze at farm of alleged IRA kingpin

FIREFIGHTERS from north and south of the Border were called to the scene of a blaze yesterday at the farm of Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy, an alleged IRA kingpin.

A hayshed was destroyed in the fire which appeared to have started in a workshop on the sprawling Border farm.

The blaze was thought to have started accidentally.

Fire crews from Dundalk and Ardee, Co Louth, as well as Crossmaglen, attended the scene.

The fire broke out at about noon, but it wasn’t until 3pm that the authorities were called to the Murphy holding at Hackballscross, south Armagh. Crews took some time to bring the blaze under control.

Eamon Woulfe, chief officer with the Louth Fire Service, said it wasn’t clear on which side of the Border the fire started.

“There will be a full examination. It could be electrical or some sort of equipment catching light. We just don’t know,” he said.

Mr Murphy, an alleged former IRA chief of staff and self-made multi-millionaire, has been at the centre of major investigations by police and customs officials probing massive fuel smuggling between the North and the Republic.

The farm was the subject of a major cross-Border search operation just last April, during which more than e1 million in cash and cheques was discovered by gardaí.

Both gardaí and members of the PSNI were at the scene of yesterday’s fire.

A spokesman for Dundalk Fire Service said he believed the fire broke out in an outbuilding or workshop area on the farm at about noon.

“It spread from the workshop to a hayshed. It was not really serious,” he said.

He said the fire would be investigated by whichever police force’s jurisdiction it was found to fall into.