Alleged IRA informer often dumped ammunition, tribunal told

AMMUNITION and other terrorist material was often dumped by alleged IRA informer Adrienne McGlinchey when she feared she could be caught by security forces, the Morris Tribunal heard yesterday.

Ms McGlinchey's former handler Detective Garda Noel McMahon made the comment as he detailed a cross-Border delivery of IRA ammunition by the Letterkenny woman in 1993.

He told the inquiry Ms McGlinchey had been told to take bullets and ammunition in a lunchbox to Strabane, Co Tyrone, from neighbouring Co Donegal.

Asked by McGlinchey's counsel Paul Murray whether any cover story had been lined up for Ms McGlinchey in the event of her being intercepted, Detective McMahon replied: "Ms McGlinchey was well-used to abandoning packages and throwing bags over walls in the event of being thwarted.

"She had done it on numerous occasions and this one would not have been any different. It was to be typical."

Ms McGlinchey was to have left the ammunition in Strabane for collection by a local IRA female contact.

However, she threw the package over a bridge and the bullets and cartridges were subsequently recovered and disposed of by the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Garda McMahon and colleague Superintendent Kevin Lennon have both denied that, together with Ms McGlinchey, they prepared explosives for use in bogus garda arms finds.

Ms McGlinchey has insisted she was never either an informer or a member of the IRA.