Garda rejects claims he prepared explosives found in bogus arms finds

GARDA Noel McMahon yesterday rejected claims that he prepared explosives for bogus arms finds in a bid to advance his career.

Completing a record 23 days of evidence at the Morris Tribunal, he insisted that he had never been interested in promotion or even applied for a written sergeant's examination. Dismissing suggestions that he had attempted to speed up his progress within the force, the detective garda maintained: "I was enjoying the work I was doing and getting a lot of satisfaction out of it and time just marched on.

"It was mostly subversive work that I was involved in and the post of sergeant would have involved a lot of mundane administrative duties and I was not that keen on office work, he said.

"I liked out-and-about, on-the-ground work and I was very happy with that," he continued. Garda McMahon and another detective, Superintendent Kevin Lennon have both denied that, together with alleged IRA informer Adrienne McGlinchey, they put together explosives that later turned up in fake garda finds of terrorist supplies. And Ms McGlinchey has maintained that she was never either an informer or a member of the IRA.

The tribunal went into private session near the end of yesterday's proceedings to hear sections of evidence from former Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne and Assistant Commissioner Joe Egan.