Garda denies covering up for on-duty colleagues in pub

A GARDA yesterday denied he was covering up for two colleagues who were in a pub on the night of farmer Richie Barron’s death in Donegal seven years ago.

After persistent reluctance over a period of years to disclose their movements to an internal garda inquiry, Garda John O'Dowd and Garda Padraig Mulligan admitted they were in a pub for part of the period in question.

Garda Patrick Boyce denied he had attempted to cover up for his two colleagues on the night in question.

Garda Boyce, the on-duty communications officer who dealt with telephone calls about the death of the Raphoe farmer, said he had 'not an inkling' on the night of the incident that there was a problem as to the whereabouts of his two colleagues.

"I did not think it was important," he told the tribunal chairman. And to tribunal counsel Paul McDermott he added: "I did not become aware of the situation until years later."

Garda Boyce has also reported to the inquiry sitting since yesterday at the courthouse in Donegal town of confusion that initially arose about the location of Mr Barron's body following a series of telephone calls.

Mr Barron's body was found on a road close to Raphoe in the early hours of October 16, 1996.

Yesterday Garda PJ McDermott, who was station orderly at Lifford on the night of the accident reported: "There was confusion over whether it was in Convoy or Raphoe."

Earlier, the tribunal was told by an ambulance driver, Kevin Monaghan, that the gardaí were not at the scene of the fatality when he arrived there.

Mr. Monaghan recalled that no officers were there, and that he had asked the ambulance control centre to inform the guards about the apparent hit-and-run incident that had occurred because it was imperative they should be present.

Garda McDermott said that at one stage, he had 'genuinely believed' wrongly that the incident was in Convoy, rather than Raphoe.

He rejected any suggestions that the telephoned alert about the death had amounted to a nuisance for him shortly before he was due to take a meal break and that be had simply 'shunted' a patrol car off to Convoy.

Responding to the tribunal chairman, former High Court President Mr Justice Frederick Morris, Garda McDermott said: "After 30 years in the force, I know that a meal break is more of a privilege than a right."

Mr Barron, a pedestrian at the time of his accident, had four times the permitted drink-drive alcohol level at the time of his death.

Geoffrey Dolan, who was in the Raphoe bar where Mr Barron had been drinking, said he had not noticed Barron until he had 'words' and a scuffle with Mark McConnell. But he also remembered "Mr Barron seemed fairly drunk at the time".

Mark Quinn, the bar's owner, said he had been told the row between the two men was "vicious and violent," but he had not agreed with that assessment. He also denied starting a rumour that the events surrounding Mr Barron's death amounted to murder.