McBrearty junior denies rift with dead farmer's family

Frank McBrearty junior today told the Morris Tribunal into garda corruption allegations that he had no problems with the family of cattle dealer Richie Barron.

Mr Barron met a roadside death in the early hours of October 14, 1996 in Raphoe, the Co Donegal home town of the two men.

Mr McBrearty was among a number of people arrested for questioning.

In the event, though, no one was ever charged in connection with the incident, and forensic pathologists have told the currently Donegal town-based inquiry, of pointers that Mr Barron died as the result of a motor accident, with a post mortem returning an open verdict.

After firstly working on the hit-and-run accident theory in relation to Mr Barron’s death, gardaí later launched a murder inquiry – a development that prompted the unfolding of events that helped lead to the establishment of the tribunal.

There were allegations that Mr McBrearty and Mr McConnell and their extended family, came in for “gross harassment” and mistreatment from the gardaí, and civil court cases are still being pursued about those claims.

The tribunal has heard that Mr Barron died as he walked home after spending the night before his death drinking, and that his blood-alcohol level was far in excess of that permitted for driving.

The inquiry is examining in detail how the Barron death was investigated, including claims that garda officers were late arriving at the scene of the incident, and failed properly to preserve the scene after the discovery of the body, as well as their reasons for regarding the two cousins as murder suspects and other apparent flaws in the garda operation, among them questions about the use of informers.

Opening his evidence yesterday, Mr McBrearty detailed his movements on the night of the fatality, when he was manager of Frankie’s nightclub, run by his family in Raphoe, and said he only heard of the accident from a woman who arrived on the premises late at night.

Today he stressed that he knew nothing about the death of Mr Barron until some days after it happened. But he had later heard rumours and read about the incident.

Asked about possible family difficulties between the McBreartys and the Barrons, he said: “As far as I was concerned, there were no problems, although I will not deny that Richie Barron was not a man I would have liked.”

He said that on the night of the death he had not heard about an argument between Mr McConnell and Mr Barron in a Raphoe bar.

Mark McConnell’s wife Roisín said she and her husband had been in the nightclub when news of Mr Barron’s accident came through. “It put a dampner on the evening,” she recalled, “and Mark was shocked and upset.”

The tribunal – chaired by former High Court President Mr Justice Frederick Morris – was put in place by the Oireachtas almost two years ago to inquire into a series of claims about improper garda activities in Co Donegal during the 1990s.

It began hearing evidence in early March, firstly relating to separate allegations that two detectives helped an IRA informer prepare explosives that were later planted and then found in bogus successful garda strikes against terrorist activities.

That dimension of the broader inquiry has now been adjourned and will resume back in Dublin later this year.

In all, the hearings are expected to last as long as two years.

The present phase of the proceedings is being staged in Donegal for the convenience of locally-based witnesses.