I was hounded by gardaí, claims key witness
Another witness a niece of IRA figure Pearse McCauley also alleged yesterday she was assaulted by gardaí at a garda station in Buncrana after being arrested with Ms McGlinchey.
Cross-examination of Ms McGlinchey who gave a total of 11 days of evidence to the Government-ordered inquiry in Dublin ended after concentrating on variations between what she has told the tribunal and the contents of 150 pages of statements she made to the earlier internal probe, headed by Asst Comr Kevin Carty.
The tribunal heard about a highlighter colour-coding system Ms McGlinchey used when she went through the statements she initially provided to the Carty team.
Yellow markings signified that what was written was not true; red meant she did not recall saying what was attributed to her; and blue denoted her remarks had been taken out of context.
Ms McGlinchey reported at an earlier session of the tribunal that she wrote to Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne outlining her grievances about the Carty team.
Yesterday she said: "I am a normal human being. Why did they have to keep hounding me? They deliberately went out to confuse me. I was harassed and intimidated the whole time."
At one stage, she said, she had become so upset at the persistent interviews that she almost drove over a bridge. Ms McGlinchey, a 39-year-old Co Donegal businesswoman, has denied ever being in the IRA, or relaying information about that organisation to the gardaí.
She is a central figure in claims about improper garda activity in Co Donegal during the 1990s.
Her case focussed particularly on allegations that together with Det Garda Noel McMahon and currently suspended Garda Supt Kevin Lennon, she prepared explosives and obtained other materials that were later planted and subsequently found in bogus finds of terrorist arms hauls.
She also rejected suggestions that more than a decade ago she befriended a then teenage girl, Yvonne Devine, because her uncle was Pearse McCauley, and that factor would give her credence in Buncrana.
Ms Devine began giving her evidence shortly before the hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.
Her uncle was an escapee from London's Brixton jail in the 1980s, and is currently serving a jail sentence for the manslaughter of a garda detective in an IRA operation in Co Limerick seven years ago.
She said she first met Adrienne McGlinchey in 1988, when as a 14-year-old she worked in her Letterkenny restaurant, and they shared an interest in cycling. One night in 1991 when they were driving together they were stopped and arrested by gardaí using anti-terrorist legislation for questioning about a bomb in Raphoe.
"They were also asking questions about my uncle, who had escaped the day before. He had escaped from Brixton with a gun after a boot was sent to him," she said.
"I was later released without charge. Adrienne told my mother she would take me away from this hassle with the guards.
"The guards were accusing my mother of sending the shoe to my uncle. We went to Buncrana because Adrienne suggested it. I believe she may have gone there after meeting Noel McMahon, and that is why she picked Buncrana," said Ms Devine.
In a statement at the time, Ms Devine talked about Adrienne being "besotted by a garda with big brown eyes".
She thought, though, that Ms McGlinchey had attempted in Buncrana to befriend "people with a republican background". Ms Devine said she and Adrienne were also later arrested for being drunk. She told the inquiry: "I was assaulted by a number of guards at that time."
