Alleged informer visited US to collect weapon documents, says garda
Ms McGlinchey's former handler Detective Garda Noel McMahon told the corruption probe the Letterkenny woman told him she had been asked to go to the US by the IRA to collect documents relating to a high-powered weapon.
In the event, though, Ms McGlinchey returned from her trip, which went ahead in November 1994 months after the start of the first IRA ceasefire, empty-handed and said she had not been contacted by IRA personnel.
Asked by tribunal counsel Paul McDermott whether he had believed the alleged informer, Mr McMahon replied: "I was not in a position to believe or disbelieve her. I was not getting anything."
"She promised she would show me whatever she picked up," he recalled.
"But on her return, she said it never materialised, and she did not collect anything. As per usual, I informed the authorities what was happening. She talked about documents, and there was mention of a counterfeit currency plate."
He had a vague recollection the documents were about a device that had something to do with the ability to bring helicopters down.
"My actual thinking was a rocket-type propellant. I don't think she knew too much about it, and I was dependent on the production of the documentation."
Det Gda McMahon said Ms McGlinchey was to have handed over the materials she had with her to a third party at Heathrow airport in London. She had "no notion" of the identity of the contact at Heathrow.
Det Garda McMahon is one of two detectives claimed to have prepared explosives together with Ms McGlinchey that were later used in bogus garda arms finds in County Donegal during the 1990s.
He and the second officer involved, Detective Superintendent Kevin Lennon, have both denied the accusations, and Ms McGlinchey has insisted she was never an informer or a member of the IRA.
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