Detective denies involvement in hoax bomb discoveries

A VETERAN detective and key figure at the Morris Tribunal probe of garda corruption yesterday denied being involved in any hoax finds of explosives or bomb-making equipment in Co Donegal during the 1990s.

Detective Garda Noel McMahon, one of two officers at the heart of this phase of the inquiry, declared: "The allegations are totally false."

He started giving evidence on the 128th sitting day of the Dublin-based investigation, chaired by former High Court President Mr Justice Frederick Morris.

A member of the force since 1978 and formerly part of the Emergency Response Unit, Garda McMahon firmly rejected the claims made against him repeatedly since the start of the tribunal proceedings last March.

The claims involve his alleged part in false arms finds in a number of locations and were put to him by senior counsel Paul McDermott.

The inquiry is focusing on claims that Garda McMahon, together with Superintendent Kevin Lennon both suspended from the force prepared explosives at the McMahon family home in Buncrana, Co Donegal, together with alleged IRA informer Adrienne McGlinchey for subsequent use in bogus garda arms finds.

The two officers have repeatedly dismissed the claims, and Ms McGlinchey has insisted she never had an informer's role. Garda McMahon described how he had developed and "cultivated" his links with Ms McGlinchey after his first meeting with her in 1991.

He maintained that at the time she had said she was having a relationship with an individual who was "very high-graded" within the IRA, and was "very active and dangerous".

Initially she had given "teasing snippets", he reported. "But I felt at the time she had access to information because of the relationship she was in.

"I felt that she was pushing the contact," he said.

Asked about his general ability to handle informers, Detective Garda McMahon said: "I think I was quite successful, treating them with respect. I had one very good loyalist."

He spoke, as well, of the time Ms McGlinchey was arrested in July, 1991, following the discovery of a large bomb in Ballintrait, and questioned in Letterkenny garda station.

While there, she had twice attempted to leave by climbing through a window.

Garda McMahon remembered: "She was worried about her mother finding out about the arrest."

And he agreed that her behaviour on other occasions had sometimes been "foolhardy".