Arms, bullets and bombs: a litany of lies
The Morris Tribunal’s first report outlines a number of shocking incidents and charades, including the planting of ammunition and hoax explosives in Co Donegal carried out by Superintendent Kevin Lennon and Detective Garda Noel McMahon.
A row broke out between Noel McMahon and a number of uniformed officers in Buncrana Garda Station over who would get the credit for discovering a steel item in the possession of Adrienne McGlinchey.
Garda Séamus Gordon said that it had been found by a uniformed officer but McMahon disagreed and drew his gun and pointed it at Gordon’s head. The trigger was cocked by McMahon a number of times.
Kevin Lennon ordered McMahon to put his gun back in its holster and the pair of them left the room.
“In short, nothing was ever done about this incident,” the Morris report says.
Adrienne McGlinchey carried a box of bullets and cartridges across the border into Strabane, Co Tyrone. On foot of McGlinchey’s contacts with McMahon, the RUC was tipped off by Lennon and the box was found by an RUC patrol. Lennon received kudos for excellent police work which thwarted terrorist activities.
But Lennon and McMahon were actually responsible for orchestrating the event as part of an exercise to make McGlinchey look like a terrorist or someone with close relations within the Provisional IRA.
“The object of the whole event was to provide Lennon with an opportunity to claim credit for good police work,” the report says.
Gardaí discovered a large cache of supposed homemade explosives at a derelict house outside Donegal town, credited by McMahon and Lennon to information from McGlinchey.
The pair arranged for the find to be uncovered by a routine Garda sweep on abandoned houses in the area, to disguise its emergence as a result of intelligence from a supposed informant.
In fact it was not homemade explosive at all but animal feed called urea. Superintendent Michael Duffy gave the strange direction that the Detective Branch were not to be involved in the discovery.
“The giving of this order, the exclusion of Detective Branch, raised suspicions with the tribunal that it was given to avoid the possibility of it being revealed that the find was a sham. However, the tribunal prefers the conclusion of unsatisfactory management,” the report says.
Two steel objects, resembling small rockets, were allegedly being transported for the IRA by McGlinchey. The objects were given to McMahon and passed on to Lennon. The RUC examined the objects but were unable to identify any use for them.
The objects weren’t returned to McGlinchey to give back to the IRA, raising question marks about the claims that she was a genuine informer as this would have left her having to account for the loss.
“This would have been tantamount to signing her death warrant if she was a genuine informer,” the report says.
Homemade explosives were transported from Buncrana to Bridgend by McGlinchey.
The scheme involved a roadblock being put in place, on foot of arrangements by McMahon and Lennon, prompting McGlinchey to dump the explosives on the side of the road at a roundabout at Bridgend, where they were picked up by gardaí. The charade was reported as a successful police operation.
“The tribunal has no doubt whatever that this whole event was orchestrated so as to enable Detective Inspector Lennon to demonstrate his ‘ability’ to the Chief Superintendent, the Detective Superintendent and the RUC,” the report says.
Responding to reports of a water leak, McGlinchey’s landlord entered her flat at The Crescent in Buncrana and found homemade explosives and steel objects.
The landlord reported the discovery to a Garda, who tipped off McMahon. McMahon collected McGlinchey for work and later brought her to the flat. He arrested her under the Offences Against the State Act and took her to Burnfoot Garda Station for questioning, where Lennon also became involved. During the day, the scene at the flat was interfered with and the steel rocket-like objects disappeared.
The pair claimed to the tribunal that the arrest was a charade to protect McGlinchey’s identity as a Garda informer.
“All of this was done to hide their activities and not, as they say, to hide her identity as an informer,” the report says.
McGlinchey transported ground fertiliser by bus in two hold-all bags from Ballyliffen to Letterkenny. After she dropped them on the side of the road, the bags were discovered by a pedestrian and reported to gardaí, who collected them. Subsequently cardboard boxes also containing fertiliser appeared, apparently planted by McGlinchey, and contradictory telexes were sent to Garda Headquarters.
No effort was made to carry out any worthwhile forensic examination of the material and the bags and cardboard boxes were left lying around the gymnasium in Letterkenny Garda Station.
“The Tribunal considers the offence another example of negligence in the performance of duties by the personnel in Letterkenny Garda Station,” the report says.
Two caches of homemade explosives were found: one in a derelict house and the other in a farmer’s shed, both in the Rossnowlagh area, south west of Donegal town. Again Lennon and McMahon claimed McGlinchey’s information led them to make the finds.
A Northern Ireland Minister of State complimented the Minister for Justice on the good work done by the gardaí in this case.
“From all of the evidence, the tribunal is forced to the conclusion that these two officers had a significant involvement in preparing and placing these two caches of explosives,” the report says.
“THE answer to that question is: If there is a lack of proper management at senior level, corruption at middle level and a lack of review throughout the force, then it is certainly possible that in similar circumstances similar corruption could arise. . . it is certain that as corruption in the form of deceit, the abuse of investigations through inventions against suspected criminals and bribery have arisen in other police forces, they will also occur within the Garda Síochána.
“What has been so serious about this inquiry has been the neglect of the fundamental duty of police management to ask questions and get answers. Whether An Garda Síochána has rectified management deficiencies which enabled the corruption to flourish in this instance is not a matter upon which this tribunal can give an opinion. It can merely report on facts and make recommendations.”
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