Alleged informer a seasoned liar, tribunal told

Alleged IRA informer and key Morris Tribunal witness Adrienne McGlinchey is capable of lying about anything and to anybody, the garda corruption probe heard today.

Brian Murphy, counsel for Detective Garda Noel McMahon, highlighted “the kind of fiction Ms McGlinchey is capable of spinning”.

And, opening his final submission to the long-running tribunal, he told chairman Mr Justice Frederick Morris: “She can lie and lie and lie about the same incident in different ways, different incidents, anything. It is all invented.”

For more than a year, the investigation has been looking into claims that Noel McMahon, together with his garda boss, Detective Superintendent Kevin Lennon and Ms McGlinchey, prepared explosives that later turned up in bogus finds of terrorist arms.

The two officers have denied the allegations and Letterkenny woman Ms McGlinchey has insisted she was never either an informer or a member of the IRA.

The tribunal is set to finish hearing legal submissions next week, and Mr Justice Morris is afterwards expected to deliver an interim report on the arms issue to Justice Minister Michael McDowell before embarking on a range of other modules confronting the proceedings.

Mr Murphy described Ms McGlinchey as his client’s main accuser, and added: “It has been put to the tribunal that her evidence was the simple truth.

“I am saying in contrast that it was totally unreliable. It is very hard to believe her about anything she would say.”