February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — A top-level investigation into allegations of collusion between members of the gardai and the IRA in connection with a dozen murders in the border area in the late 1980s and early ’90s has failed to find any evidence to substantiate the claims.
The allegations surround the murders of six RUC officers, a top Northern Ireland judge and his wife, three members of County Down family and Louth farmer.
The probe was ordered by Gardai Commissioner Pat Byrne and the investigation report by two senior Garda officers, Det. Chief Supt. Sean Camon of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Det. Insp. Peter Kirwan of the Security and Intelligence Branch, has been passed to Justice Minister John O’Donoghue.
The investigation involved inquiries in the Republic, Northern Ireland the United States.
The minister does not intend to publish the report because of its "confidential nature" and a department spokesman said that unless evidence was produced about the allegations no further inquiries were planned.
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However, Fine Gael spokesman Charlie Flanagan, who raised the claims in the Dail last year, said he planned to pursue the matter further with the minister and the commissioner and would also be contacting RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan.
"This is not over as far as I am concerned," he said.
The department said no evidence of collusion by Garda officers in the murders was uncovered by the investigation by the two senior detectives.
"In addition, they were informed by the RUC, which also carried out an investigation into the allegations, that no evidence existed, nor could any documentation be located, which evidences any such Garda collusion with subversives."
The murders at the center of the allegations were:
May 20, 1985: RUC officers William Wilson, 28, Tracy Doak, 21, David Baird, 22, and Steven Rodgers, 22, all from Armagh, were killed by a 1,000-pound IRA bomb in a trailer at the Killeen border crossing outside Newry. They had gone in an armour-plated car to take over security duty from gardai on a £2 million security van cash delivery from banks in Dublin to Belfast.
April 25, 1987: Lord Justice Maurice Gibson, 73, and his wife, Cecily, 67, were killed by a 500-pound landmine at Killeen as their returned to their home in Drumbo, Co Down after they had returned to Ireland from holiday via the Dun Laoghaire ferry. They were switching from a Garda to an RUC escort when the bomb exploded.
July 23, 1988: James Hanna, 45, and Maureen, 44, and their son David, 7, who were killed in a landmine explosion on the Belfast to Dublin Road at Killeen near Newry. The heating contractor and his family were returned from a US holiday.
The IRA said the 1,000-pound bomb had been intended for High Court Judge Eoin Higgins, who had also flown into Dublin Airport with his wife and daughter after an American holiday.
March 20, 1989: RUC Chief Supt Harry Breen, 51, and Supt. Bob Buchanan, 55, who were both found shot dead by the IRA at Jonesborough. They were returning to South Armagh after a security meeting with Garda colleagues in Dundalk. The two officers were unarmed and their car was hit 25 times by a heavy machine-gun.
July 19, 1991: Tom Oliver, 37, a farmer and father of seven from the Cooley Peninsula in County Louth, was abducted by an IRA gang. He was found badly beaten and shot dead near Belleek in South Armagh. The IRA’s claim he was a Garda informer caused outrage in the locality.