Paralysed man denies INLA membership

A man who was left paralysed after he was shot in the back denied at the Special Criminal Court today that he was an INLA member when he was arrested by gardaí investigating a plot to kidnap a Cork businessman.

Edward Mc Garrigle said that there was "absolutely no truth " in the prosecution allegation that he was part of an INLA active service unit in Cork to "do this job".

Mc Garrigle, who is now aged 43, told the court that he was shot in the back in Strabane when he was aged 17 and since then has been paralysed from the chest down and is confined to a wheelchair.

He is one of three men who have denied INLA membership after they were arrested by gardaí in Cork investigating a plot to kidnap a Cork businessman.

Edward McGarrigle (aged 43), Melmont Gardens, Strabane, Co Tyrone, Neil Myles (aged 54), of no fixed abode, and John McCrossan (aged 47), Ballycoleman Estate, Strabane, Co Tyrone have pleaded not guilty to membership the INLA on February 22 last year.

It is the prosecution's case that the four men were involved in a plot to commit a crime at the home of a Cork businessman.

Mc Garrigle told his counsel Mr Brendan Nix SC that he has been involved in an INLA ex prisoners group, Teach na Fáilte, since 1997 and has become the group’s cross-border co-ordinator.

He told Mr Nix: "I have never been a member of the INLA.’’

Asked about his views on the use of violence, Mc Garrigle said that it was necessary to look at who was behind the violence in the North.

"British intelligence was in there and in a sense the people of Northern Ireland were in a big science laboratory," he said.

Mc Garrigle said that violence was "futile" and created more violence.

Asked about his view of so called "tiger" kidnappings, Mc Garrigle said they were "disgusting".

Mc Garrigle said that he had met Declan Duffy, who was recently jailed for four years for INLA membership, at a hotel. He said he wanted to encourage him to become involved in Teach na Fáilte.

He said that he was "at a loss" to understand why he was charged with INLA membership and added that the gardaí were aware that he was not a member.

The trial continues tomorrow.