Retired garda recalls winter watching IRA bomb builders

A retired garda, with 30 years dedicated service, revealed he spent every night for four months hiding in a ditch watching an 11-strong IRA unit making a lethal two tonne bomb.

The Morris Tribunal heard today PJ Togher spent the freezing winter of 1992 lying alone in a ditch near Drumkeen, Co Donegal as the Provo gang built the massive explosive.

In a statement to tribunal investigators in September 2003 as they probed garda corruption, Mr Togher told of the efforts he had made to catch the IRA unit and he spoke of his sadness at claims of dirty policing.

“I’m saddened at all of this. I’m sad for the 27-and-a-half years I spent along the Irish border helping prevent terrorism,” the statement read.

“I’m sad for the danger I visited upon myself and my family.

“I’m sad because on one such occasion I lay in a ditch every night from dark till before dawn from the 27th of December 1991 to the 9th of March 1992, on my own, watching 11 IRA men build a 4,600lb bomb and thwarted their efforts days before their intended outrage.”

Gardaí raided the bomb making factory on that day seizing the bomb hours before it was sent off to its target.

The find came less than a month after a huge car bomb outside the Baltic Exchange in London’s financial district which killed three people and wounded 91.

The statement went on: “I’m sad for the many years I faced danger serving along the Irish border preventing terrorism.

“I’m sad for the decent, honest and exemplary man and women of An Garda Siochana who are touched in some way by all of this unnecessary burden.”

Mr Togher denied having anything to do with private investigator Billy Flynn who had done some work for the McBrearty family as they sought to clear their names.

Letters from Mr Flynn constantly arrived at Frank McBrearty’s office where Mr Togher worked part-time after he retired.

The ex-garda said: “Some of the allegations that he made were scurrilous … and I would have no hand, act or part [in them].

“The man was off his trolley.

“I quietly got rid of them and destroyed them and did not let them into the public domain.”

Yesterday, Mr Togher denied being the source of anonymous allegations about alleged corruption in the top brass of An Garda Siochana which were passed on to two TDs.

These allegations, which are totally unsubstantiated, formed the basis for the Morris Tribunal and lawyers are now trying to establish the source.