Gardaí were ‘powerless against IRA’ in Donegal
A former high-ranking officer agreed with the assessment of tribunal chief Mr Justice Frederick Morris that the picture emerging from the corruption claims inquiry was that the terrorists "appeared to have lived peacefully in the community without being in any way harassed by the garda authorities".
The chairman asked: "Why were they not, so to speak, approached on an offensive basis, rather than trying to prevent them from harming the public?"
Ex-chief superintendent Sean Ginty replied: "It is a true picture. We are powerless to take them except in accord with law section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
"We don't use those powers idly, just to frustrate them.
"But if we arrest someone, take them in and interrogate that person, the chances of gaining information from that process are rather remote, because we are dealing with highly-trained and experienced people, who know well how to counter any such activity on our part. I am not complaining about the powers but they are restrictive. I have to put it to the tribunal that we did not have the means in law to counter their activities."
Mr Ginty also said the quality of policing operations in Donegal during the IRA campaign had suffered badly from a lack of resources, declaring: "I am quite satisfied that it did. I felt that we should have been more highly resourced in the border divisions." And he also claimed that garda moves to uncover IRA arms during the long-running campaign of terrorist violence were often "hand-to-mouth, wing-and-a-prayer operations", adding: "We were more concerned with taking stuff out of circulation, rather than following through on the off-chance, as I would see it, of being able to bring a prosecution.
"This was not normal policing we faced a situation we all know about. We took on countering terrorism and we met the threat fairly successfully."
In a reference to the IRA getting arms from Libya, the ex-police chief added: "It was laid down to us at a conference of chief superintendents what had come in from the Mediterranean and that there was a serious onus on us to find this and take it out of commission.
"The emphasis was on confiscating the weapons. It was a question of priorities, not one of rigid policy". The tribunal is currently probing claims that two detectives, Superintendent Kevin Lennon and Garda Noel McMahon and alleged IRA informer Adrienne McGlinchey, prepared explosives that later turned up in bogus garda finds of terrorist materials.
The two officers have denied those allegations and Ms McGlinchey has said that she was never either an informer or a member of the IRA.
