February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — Former Progressive Democrats leader Desmond O’Malley has launched a strong defense of his role as Justice minister during the turbulent events surrounding the 1970 Arms Trial and the crisis caused by the worsening violence in Northern Ireland.
He categorically denied he had tampered with a witness statement of the former head of Military Intelligence, the late Col. Michael Hefferon, prepared for the arms trial.
A copy of the statement, released under the 30-year rule to the National Archives Office, shows there were 16 deletions, most apparently to protect then Defense Minister Jim Gibbons and his assertion he did not sanction the importation.
"I certainly did not alter it or ask anyone else to alter it," O’Malley said in the first of a four-part documentary series, "Des O’Malley — A Public Life," on RTE.
The former minister could not remember if he had seen the statement or his signing of an order claiming privilege on a file connected with the second arms trial.
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O’Malley claimed that all of the original statements had been made available to both the defense and the prosecution.
The arms trial convulsed the Fianna Fail government of Jack Lynch. Senior ministers Charlie Haughey and Neil Blaney, and three others were charged with conspiracy to illegally import arms. All were subsequently acquitted.
O’Malley said he believed all had been properly charged and said the trial judge at the time had also said it was justified.
"I’d like to see a full inquiry about this," he said. "I don’t want an inquiry now that will concentrate on one aspect of a trial."
He said he had nothing to fear from an inquiry and would be glad to cooperate. He did not believe Lynch’s reputation would be affected.
"The fact of the matter is that when the chips were down, it was Lynch and myself and several other ministers who had to stand in the breach to prevent what could have led to outright sectarian war on this island, which could have left the Civil War in the shadow as a minor thing," O’Malley said.
Justice Minister John O’Donoghue is to report to the Dail about the recent disclosure surrounding the arms trial files.
O’Malley told the RTE documentary that at the insistence of the Gardai he carried a gun in a shoulder holster for almost four years when he was minister for justice in the early 1970s. He said it was for protection from the IRA. He kept the gun under his pillow at night and was given shooting practice every six months.
He also revealed he had moved around from home to home of friends in Dublin, with the Gardai insisting he did not stay in one place for longer than a week for security reasons.
Once, when he was staying in an apartment on Waterloo Road, gardai arrived in the morning and told him and his friend to lie on the floor.
"They told me they had got a rifle with a telescopic sight on a tripod on the opposite side of the road aimed at the flat where I was," he said. "They were going to shoot me when I came out the door."