Witness claims she was blackmailed by detective
Adrienne McGlinchey, an alleged one-time IRA member who passed information to the gardaí both charges she has repeatedly denied delivered her outburst while giving evidence for a second day at the public inquiry in Dublin. Ms McGlinchey, 39, has been named in central allegations as being involved in mixing explosives, together with Det Garda Noel McMahon and suspended Garda Supt Kevin Lennon, so that the materials could later feature in "successful" garda finds of terrorist arms hauls in Co Donegal. The claims about explosives were made by Sheenagh McMahon the estranged wife of Noel McMahon who gave evidence to the tribunal over a total of five days earlier this month.
She also reported that Ms McGlinchey was permitted by her husband and the superintendent to transport a bomb across the border into Strabane, Co Tyrone, where it was later detonated in a street near the local courthouse, injuring people in the process. Pressed about her attitude towards grounding down explosives with a coffee-grinder for terrorist bombs, as well as other activities, such as "drops" leaving bullets and other items in various parts of Donegal Ms McGlinchey admitted: "There were funny times. But I have to say it was the most terrible time in my life. I was threatened by them, I was afraid of them and I did do all that happened, and I can't change it."
Asked by tribunal counsel Peter Charleton why she had been doing it, Ms McGlinchey replied: "He (Noel McMahon) was blackmailing me in the middle of it then. "He told me I was going to get done and get sent to Limerick (prison) over bullets and my fingerprints. He was telling me to get lifted after dropping items, and I would get lifted. And then he would say to me 'I am stopping you getting prosecuted,' even though he was the one who told me to drop them in the first place.
"There was tripods, there was everything. Why did it happen? I can't say, like."
Ms McGlinchey earlier told the tribunal how Noel McMahon handed her a bag of bullets that he said "had my fingerprints all over them".
She said she knew of garda evidence that she had been found in the grounds of a Buncrana convent and that bullets were found soon afterwards, and that she had also been found in possession of an angle-grinder, a homemade tripod and rocket-like metal objects.
Ms McGlinchey also said she had acted under the orders of detective McMahon, adding: "I don't know why he told me to do it, but I put my hands up I did it.
"Noel McMahon handed me a bag of bullets 200 bullets in a bag and told me to walk into the convent. I was to throw the bag down in front of Danny Kelly (another garda) and say I needed the bag back.
"Noel McMahon owned the bullets, not me. He told me my fingerprints were all over them bullets.
"Danny Kelly took that bag of bullets, and they used that, right up until today."
Quizzed further about her views on making up explosives, Ms McGlinchey said: "I never expected it to be used against anybody. I believed what he (Noel McMahon) was telling me that every guard was out to get me and that if I could convince them that I was this IRA woman, or whatever, then I would be grand."
Ms McGlinchey will continue her evidence today.
