Garda spent cold nights in ditch spying on IRA

A RETIRED garda with 30 years of dedicated service revealed he spent every night for more than three months hiding in a ditch watching an 11-strong IRA unit making a lethal two-tonne bomb.

The Morris Tribunal yesterday heard PJ Togher spent the freezing winter of 1992 lying alone in a ditch near Drumkeen, Co Donegal, as the Provo gang built the massive explosive.

In a statement to tribunal investigators in September 2003 as they probed garda corruption, Mr Togher told of the efforts he had made to catch the IRA unit and he spoke of his sadness at claims of dirty policing.

“I’m saddened at all of this. I’m sad for the 27-and-a-half-years I spent along the Irish border helping prevent terrorism,” the statement read.

“I’m sad because on one such occasion I lay in a ditch every night from dark till before dawn from December 27, 1991, to March 9, 1992, on my own, watching 11 IRA men build a 4,600lb bomb and thwarted their efforts days before their intended outrage.”

Gardaí raided the bomb-making factory on that day seizing the bomb hours before it was sent off to its target.

Mr Togher denied having anything to do with private investigator Billy Flynn who had done some work for the McBrearty family as they sought to clear their names.

Letters from Mr Flynn constantly arrived at Frank McBrearty’s office where Mr Togher worked part-time after he retired.

The ex-garda said: “Some of the allegations that he made were scurrilous and I would have no hand, act or part [in them].

“I quietly got rid of them and destroyed them and did not let them into the public domain.”