Family looks for answers as venue still not ready

NO schedule has yet been set out for public hearings of the Abbeylara Tribunal of Inquiry which opens in Longford today because the planned venue is still not ready.

Senior counsel for the tribunal will this morning begin reading their opening statement and are expected to conclude tomorrow but they must then adjourn to an unknown date while work continues on specially-created hearing rooms in Dublin.

A spokesman for the tribunal said it was hoped the premises would be ready early next month so the hearing of evidence from witnesses could begin within a matter of weeks but no starting date could be given.

The head of the tribunal, Mr Justice Robert Barr, told a preliminary sitting, in a borrowed courtroom in the Four Courts in early January, he hoped to be in the assigned accommodation in the Jameson Building in Dublin’s Bow Street by the end of that month but the tribunal is still operating out of temporary premises.

Today’s opening presentations will be made in Longford County Council Chambers and mark the culmination of an almost three-year long campaign by the family of John Carthy to have a full public inquiry into his death.

Mr Carthy, a 27-year-old unemployed plasterer, was shot dead by members of the elite garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) following a 25-hour armed siege at the cottage he shared with his widowed mother in Abbeylara, Co Longford on April 20, 2000.

A full tribunal form of inquiry was also sought by 36 named gardaí, including the ERU members, and the Garda Representative Association (GRA) who challenged an attempt to use the Joint Oireachtas Sub-Committee on Justice, Equality and Women’s Affairs to investigate the affair.

In a landmark ruling that has had repercussions for the work of other Oireachtas sub-committees, the Supreme Court found in their favour that such committees did not have the necessary powers to conduct investigations requiring the compelling of witnesses and disclosure of documents.

The tribunal’s terms of reference are simply that it should inquire into “the facts and circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of John Carthy at Abbeylara, Co Longford, on 20th April, 2000”.

At the preliminary sitting in January, however, Justice Barr set out a very detailed and wide-ranging list of issues and questions he wants addressed.

He has structured the inquiry to take place over six modules, three relating specifically to the Abbeylara incident, one to the ERU, one to best police practice in comparable circumstances in other countries and one to the law on gun ownership.

The Carthy family, led by John Carthy’s only sibling, his sister Marie, and backed by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, have a number of specific questions they want answered.

They want to know why the ERU, the elite squad specially trained for hostage situations and other serious crimes, were called in to deal with a distressed man with a history of mental illness who had no hostage and had committed no offence before gardaí arrived at his house and he fired warning shots at them.

They also want explanations as to why the gardaí had no stun guns, gas cannisters or other non-lethal weapons to subdue Mr Carthy and why there was no media blackout to prevent him hearing about the scale of the garda operation and details of his medical and personal history broadcast in public during the stand-off.

They will also ask why, as a person with a history of depression, Mr Carthy was allowed renew his gun licence; why his closest family members were kept from the scene; why, as a chain-smoker, he could not be supplied with cigarettes during negotiations; why there was a delay in contacting his psychiatrist and why his requested solicitor was not found and no other legal adviser offered.

One of the most contentious issues will be the fourth bullet wound which State Pathologist John Harbison found killed Mr Carthy.

Dr Harbison gave evidence at the inquest in 2000 that the position of the wound showed Mr Carthy was falling when shot this last time.

More than 200 witnesses have supplied statements to the tribunal which will hear evidence from some of the country’s most senior gardaí, including Commissioner Pat Byrne.

Details of the inquiry are available online at www.barrtribunal.ie