IRA would probably have killed alleged informer McGlinchey, tribunal told

ALLEGED informer Adrienne McGlinchey would probably have been killed by the IRA if she had relayed to gardaí intelligence of the sort claimed during the Morris Tribunal, the inquiry heard yesterday.

Former Co Donegal Superintendent Tom Monaghan said the Letterkenny woman's death at the hands of the Provisionals would have been likely had she given gardaí the kind of information that has been reported to the garda corruptions probe.

Paul Murray, counsel for Ms McGlinchey, put it to the superintendent after referring to a series of huge explosives finds linked by witnesses to his client. "If she were informing to that extent and had knowledge to that extent, am I correct in thinking in very bald terms that she would now be dead?" he said.

Mr Monaghan replied: "I believe that would be a very distinct possibility, a probability, indeed."

Supt Monaghan also said Ms McGlinchey's politician father had worried about the company she kept and her rebellious nature.

Fianna Fáil Senator Bernard McGlinchey spelled out his concern in 1988, he said.

"He approached the gardaí about Adrienne and was worried that she was associating with IRA members.

"She had left home the words he used was that she was kicking up a bit, rebelling at home and keeping company he wasn't happy about in Letterkenny with some suspected IRA people."

A 26-year veteran of the force, Mr Monaghan said he had been based in Letterkenny during a very busy period that involved liaison work with the police in the North.

Of Adrienne McGlinchey, he recalled: "There was plenty of IRA activity taking place but I can't recall her coming into the thinking on any matter. I believe the IRA would have not have had her in their ranks in the first instance."

The chief superintendent talked, as well, about IRA activity in and around Donegal during the years he was based there, reporting how the terrorist organisation maintained arms dumps "near sympathisers who could keep an eye on them." He told the inquiry: "In my experience, the IRA operated a cell system and a very strict and very effective intelligence service of their own.

"If some of their operatives were keeping company with people who were likely to create a risk for them, they would have switched that off very quickly and put a stop to it."

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

Ms McGlinchey, who is from Letterkenny, has insisted that she was never either an informer or a member of the IRA.

The tribunal, chaired by former High Court President Mr Justice Frederick Morris, last night adjourned for Easter.