Garda denies staging bomb parts find

Garda Noel McMahon today dismissed as nonsense an alleged informer’s claim that he set up the discovery of potential bomb-making equipment in order to impress an officer appointed to oversee his work.

The detective told the Morris Tribunal that Adrienne McGlinchey’s claim that he was out to impress Detective Superintendent Kevin Lennon was untrue.

He stressed: “I feel it is an allegation that I was trying to convince Supt Lennon that she (Ms McGlinchey) was a good informant and that the arms find was set up to show how important she was and to get him on board.

“I totally deny that.”

Gda McMahon also said he had no suspicions about the location of the isolated house at Ardchicken, near Donegal town, where the cache of potential bomb components was uncovered in 1994.

He said it was “an ideal location to store stuff in”.

“It was obviously vacant, very overgrown and dilapidated and ignored. It was good enough for a temporary store.

“Vacant houses were at that time a popular spot for in-transit explosives.”

He agreed with Kevin Lennon – representing himself at the inquiry after failing to secure legal costs – that the superintendent had been buoyed up as a result of the Ardchicken affair.

Gda McMahon and Det Supt Lennon have both denied that, together with Ms McGlinchey, they prepared explosives for use in bogus Garda finds of terrorist arms.

Ms McGlinchey has said she was never an informer or a member of the IRA.