Morris: Woman 'given money to pass on information'

A key witness at the Morris tribunal into garda corruption claims admitted today she received money from both the gardai and a woman with suspected terrorist links for relaying information to them.

Ciara McLaughlin told suspended Garda Superintendent Kevin Lennon – one of the figures at the heart of the on-going probe – that she was given “fivers and tenners” by a detective and also got cash from fellow witness Adrienne McGlinchey.

The payments from Detective Garda Noel Jones were in return for “keeping an eye” on Ms McGlinchey, who, lived in a flat on the floor below her in a house at Buncrana, Co Donegal, in 1993 and 1994.

And she agreed with Superintendent Lennon that she was paid by Ms McGlinchey to pass on what were “false stories” to Detective Jones and that she had no problem with that, recalling: “It was just a bit of craic.”

Ms McLaughlin accepted, too, that as “an alcoholic drug addict with a gambling habit and a broken-down family“, she had been prepared to take money from any source.

She told the tribunal had no concept of time or dates about those events of up to a decade ago.

And, pressed for details of one particular event, Ms McLaughlin conceded, “I have no sense of direction – I never had,” adding, too: “I don’t know about distance; I was never any good at that sort of stuff.”

She was accused by Superintendent Lennon – representing himself at the tribunal after failing to secure the right to legal costs – of having “a very selective memory“.

He put it to her: “You are not telling the truth to tribunal,” and she answered: “Yes I am.”

The 28-year-old mother-of-six witness said that when she saw Detective Garda Jones again for the first time in five years, she failed to recognise him, and believed him to be a social worker.

Cross-examined about the timeframe for an incident in 1993, she responded to a series off questions: “I don’t know. I don’t keep dates.

“My child is five months old now, and I had to ask someone the other day what age he was. I have no concept of time.”

The superintendent, one of two guards alleged to have prepared explosives that were later planted and then found in bogus garda strikes against terrorism in the 1990s, questioned Ms McLaughlin at length about her claim she she saw him and the other officer, Detective Garda Noel McMahon, carrying heavy black plastic bags into a house near her flat.

Kevin Lennon and Detective McMahon, who is also suspended from duty, have denied the accusations about the explosives, and Adrienne McGlinchey, also said to be involved in the explosives-mixing operation, has insisted she was never in the IRA nor relayed information to the gardai about that organisation.

Superintendent Lennon questioned Ms McLaughlin’s memory in connection to a series of events relating to Ms McGlinchey in Buncrana, Co Donegal during 1993 and 1994.

Ms McLaughlin lived in a flat in the town, above one then occupied by Ms McGlinchey and her friend Yvonne Devine.

She has told of seeing cartridge shells and bags of fertiliser in the McGlinchey flat and of being asked by a local detective to “keep and eye out” for activities there and report back for payment.

She has also highlighted the deep debt of gratitude she owes Adrienne McGlinchey, who got her a job and helped her find a home when she encountered drugs and drinking problems years after the events now being investigated.

The tribunal, headed by former High Court President Mr Justice Frederick Morris, was established on the direction of the Dail two years ago to probe a number of claims of improper garda activities in Co Donegal.

The present, opening phase of the investigation is dealing with the explosives allegations, and has now completed nine weeks of hearings. Overall, the proceedings are expected to last as long as two years.

The tribunal chairman indicated a level of irritation about the slow pace of the hearings day after a mid-morning halt for the sake of stenographers – one of two brief stoppages permitted each day.

Mr Justice Morris said, without signalling the specific target of his comment: “Gentlemen, it is meant to be a five minute break – not down tools for the morning.”

The morning stoppage lasted for a quarter of an hour; in the afternoon it was precisely five minutes.