RUC man suspected ‘mole’ in station

ONE of two senior RUC officers killed by the Provisional IRA in 1989 expressed concern just hours before his murder that a garda based in Dundalk was passing on information to republican paramilitaries.

The Smithwick Tribunal heard yesterday that Chief Superintendent Harry Breen had expressed displeasure about travelling to Dundalk on March 20, 1989, because he believed Sergeant Owen Corrigan was in the pay of local republican, Thomas “Slab” Murphy.

In the inquiry’s opening statement in Dublin, tribunal senior counsel Mary Laverty said Chief Supt Breen and his colleague, Supt Bob Buchanan, were travelling to Dundalk to discuss a possible joint operation with gardaí on lands owned by Murphy at Hackballcross, Co Louth.