"Garda Sinn Fein/IRA collusion concerning murders of security forces and civilians"

IRA Men Lay in Wait to Gun Down Unarmed Officers

Police (RUC) Officers Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan were returning to their station in south Armagh on a spring afternoon in 1989 when they were ambushed by up to five IRA gunmen. Their murderers lay in wait as the men, who were each married with two children, crossed into Northern Ireland on their way back from a meeting with senior gardai in Dundalk. The two policemen were unarmed as required by law in the Irish Republic and died on the road near Jonesborough, Co Armagh, when a heavy machine gun riddled their unmarked Vauxhall Cavalier with 25 bullets. Supt Buchanan, 55, who was driving, tried to escape the ambush by reversing and turning the car, but the vehicle's rear wheels became stuck in a ditch. When the scene was examined, the security forces found the car was still in reverse gear and Supt Buchanan's foot was still fully depressed on the accelerator pedal. Chief Supt Breen, 51, was lying in a pool of blood on the roadside. His pockets had been searched and the IRA claimed they had time to seize documents from the men's car. Allegations of collusion emerged due to the timing of the attack as the policemen made their way home from an informal and hastily arranged meeting with their southern counterparts. There were immediate calls from unionist politicians for an investigation into how the IRA appeared to have such precise knowledge of the two men's movements on the afternoon of March 20. The one-hour meeting in Dundalk which began at 2pm was only arranged that morning, while the two officers drove north shortly after it finished. Senior RUC officers discounted the notion that garda officers were involved at the time, however, allegations of their involvement have persisted and may now be cleared up only after a public inquiry. Recommending a public inquiry into the claims, Judge Peter Cory said he had considered three intelligence reports which suggested the existence of an IRA contact within the gardai which may have led to the murders. "I have concluded that the documents reveal evidence that, if accepted, could be found to constitute collusion,'' he said. "As a result there must be a public inquiry.'' News Letter 19th December 2003

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Help Us Resolve Border Murders Plea to Provos

The IRA was last night urged to cooperate with a major inquiry into the murders of two senior RUC officers shot dead near the border. The Republic's Justice Minister Michael McDowell called on the Provisionals to testify after confirming the setting up of a public inquiry into the murders, as recommended by Canadian Judge Peter Cory. Chief Supt Harry Breen, 51, and Supt Bob Buchanan, 55, died when their unmarked car was ambushed as they crossed into south Armagh after attending a meeting with senior garda officers in Dundalk in March 1989. Mr McDowell urged republicans to come forward to the inquiry into their deaths, insisting that its success or failure would depend on the degree of co-operation given by potential witnesses. "The material available to Judge Cory was limited. The perpetrators of the Breen and Buchanan murders will now face a simple choice,'' he said. "Do they expect others to co-operate fully-with all of the Cory inquiries? "If so, do they intend co-operating in like manner with the Breen and Buchanan inquiry? "That is the issue for the so-called republican movement to answer clearly.'' A senior Ulster Unionist last night claimed the report proved Irish police had plotted with the Provisionals in the double murder. Newry and Armagh Assembly member Danny Kennedy said: ''It is clear from Judge Cory's recommendations that there is a strong suggestion there was collusion between the IRA and the Garda in the murders of Supt Bob Buchanan and Chief Supt Harry Breen. "This confirms our worst fears over many years and it is right and proper that the matters be fully investigated to ascertain just who was involved in the murders.'' A separate report by Judge Cory found no necessity for a public inquiry into the deaths of Lord Justice Maurice Gibson and his wife Lady Cecily Gibson, who died when their car was blown up on the main Dublin to Belfast road near Newry as they returned from a holiday abroad in April 1987. Pressure is now growing on the Government to publish the reports it had received from Judge Cory into four other controversial murders in Northern Ireland. It is understood the judge has recommended a public inquiry into the deaths of Catholic lawyers Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, loyalist paramilitary chief Billy Wright and Robert Hamill, a Catholic man beaten to death by a mob in Portadown, Co Armagh. But London is holding back, claiming it is still considering the legal and security implications of publishing its reports. The families of some of the murder victims have called for the immediate publication of the documents, while five leading human rights organisations later increased the pressure on the Government. The groups - Amnesty International, British Irish Rights Watch, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, Human Rights Watch and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights - claimed the delay in releasing the reports was causing distress to the families and undermining public confidence. News Letter 19th December 2003

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Assembly calls for 'collusion' inquiry

The Northern Ireland Assembly has passed a motion calling for a public inquiry into allegations of collusion between the Irish police and the IRA. The two main unionist parties, the Ulster Unionists and Democratic Unionists, united to ensure the motion was passed, by 46 votes to 32 on Tuesday The motion called on the Northern Ireland secretary to take up with the Irish government allegations that some members of the Garda Siochana colluded with the IRA over a number of murders. It was tabled by Ulster Unionist Newry and Armagh member Danny Kennedy. Speaking during the debate he said: "I'm not interested in politicising items of this nature, but simply to draw attention to the fact that these events have taken place and they require to be investigated. "It is very clear that incidents of this nature could not have taken place without some involvement by Garda officers at some point in time." Mr Kennedy's motion followed accusations by UUP leader David Trimble earlier this month, that the Irish government was dragging its feet over the allegations. David Trimble has also called for investigation Mr Trimble said he had been promised by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern an inquiry into a number of murders spanning the last three decades. He said he wanted such an inquiry to include the Kingsmills murders in 1976, when gunmen stopped a mini-bus carrying Protestant workers, lined them up and shot 10 of them dead.
He said Mr Ahern had promised a justice department inquiry into the allegations of collusion by Gardai with republican paramilitaries last year, but that he had heard nothing since. Commenting on the assembly's decision to back the motion, Sinn Fein member Alex Maskey said inquiries needed to be held into all collusion allegations. He said: "I would not want to take away at all from the intentions of Danny Kennedy. Alex Maskey: "Inquiries also needed on loyalist collusion allegations" "But his intentions are clearly very narrow. I would also welcome his support for inquiries into collusion between the RUC and loyalists and also the British Army FRU and loyalists." Meanwhile, earlier during the debate, Mid-Ulster Sinn Fein assembly member John Kelly said he would make "no apology" for having been a member of the IRA.
In reply to a demand by UUP member Roy Beggs jnr that members should make any IRA interests known, Mr Kelly told the house that he had already served his sentence for IRA membership. 'IRA mole' allegation In April last year, Irish Justice Minister John O'Donoghue launched a new investigation into claims that IRA moles in the Garda Siochana colluded in the murder of 12 people. The allegations were made in a book by the Daily Telegraph newspaper's former Ireland correspondent, Toby Harnden. In Bandit Country, Harnden says that two Garda officers passed on information to the IRA. He says the information aided the murders of Lord Justice Gibson and his wife, members of the Hanna family from Hillsborough, County Antrim, two Royal Ulster Constabulary superintendents, four RUC officers, and County Louth farmer Tom Oliver, between 1987 and 1995. Announcing the new investigation in the Dail, Mr O'Donoghue said the claims had previously been investigated with no tangible evidence, but that public confidence necessitated another inquiry. The republic's main opposition party, Fine Gael, said in the Irish legislature that the allegations were that a uniformed officer and a plain clothes officer were IRA agents. The party said one Garda was later moved to a quieter station away from the border with Northern Ireland, and has since retired. 30th January 2001

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Dublin Split over Collusion Report

The Irish government is split over whether to censor the names of Garda officers and republicans identified in a report on IRA border murders. Dublin sources say officials are at loggerheads over the contents of Judge Peter Cory's report into alleged collusion in the IRA double murder of two senior RUC officers, in 1989. The Canadian ex-Supreme Court judge handed over his reports on two IRA murder cases to Irish Premier Bertie Ahern, earlier this month and they are due to be made public in December. But some senior officials want to remove names from the pub lished versions. The news has angered a sooth Armagh victims group, which handed Judge Cory a dossier on IRA border killings. Willie Frazer — of Families Acting for Innocent Relatives — is now threatening to publish the dossier, which contains the names of up to 30 alleged IRA members, accused of involvement to a 'series of terrorist attacks on the Armagh/Louth bonier Mr Ahern has already admitted that there are "serious matters" in the reports received from Judge Cory Reports in Dublin have indicated that the judge has said there is evidence that rogue members of the Garda Siochana may have provided information that led to the murder of RUC officers Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan, in 1989. Mr Frazer, a project officer with FAIR, told Sunday Life: "If the Irish Government alter or remove parts of the Cory Report in an attempt to protect certain people, then FAIR will publish the dossier it gave to Judge Cory "That document will certainly name the individuals that some in the Irish government appear intent of protecting." He added that Judge Cory had been provided with detailed information on a specific Garda officer, who had been based on the Co Louth area for over 20 years.
FAIR claims the officer had been actively involved in passing on vital intelligence material to the IRA and its active service units in south Armagh Mr Frazer claimed a second Garda officer had also been passing information to the IRA in Co Louth. He claimed the officer was at one stage transferred following complaints from the RUC, but later returned to the border area. FAIR'S dossier contains reports on collusion in the 1979 Narrow Water bomb attack, which killed 18 members of the Parachute Regiment and the IRA ambush of RUC officers, Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan, near Jonesboro, in March 1989. Mr Frazer also revealed FAIR had provided Judge Cory with details of two houses near the Co Louth village of Omeath, where it is claimed the IRAs so- called internal security unit interrogated and shot dead alleged security force informants. FAIR said it would not allow the Irish authorities to whitewash over Judge Cory's findings. "If the Judge's report is diluted or altered in any way, we will go public," said Mr Frazer. 19-10-2003

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Inquiry into Garda 'IRA mole' claims

A new investigation is being launched into claims that IRA moles in the Irish police force colluded in the murder of 12 people. Irish Justice Minister, John O'Donoghue announced the investigation of the allegations - contained in a book by the Daily Telegraph's former Ireland Correspondent Toby Harnden - in the Irish Parliament on Thursday. John 'Donoghue: "Understandable concern over allegations" In Bandit Country, Harnden says that two Garda officers passed on information to the IRA. He says the information aided the murders of Lord Justice Gibson and his wife, members of the Hanna family from Hillsborough, County Antrim, two Royal Ulster Constabulary superintendents, four RUC officers, and County Omeath farmer Tom Oliver between 1987 and 1995. Mr O'Donoghue said the claims had previously been investigated with no tangible evidence, but that public confidence necessitated another inquiry. "The allegations do raise issues of the utmost seriousness and their recent repetition in the media has caused understandable concern. "I believe that even though there is no evidence to substantiate the allegations, every effort must be made to assure and reassure the public that they have been investigated." The Irish Opposition party Fine Gael said in the Dail that the allegations are that an uniformed officer and a plain clothes officer were IRA agents. The party said one Garda was later moved to a quieter station away from the Northern Ireland border and has been living out a life of retirement on his pension. Garda sources have told the BBC that Detective Chief Superintendent Sean Camion of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigations will re-examine all the files relating to the five cases and that he will also investigate all of the allegations relating to the cases. The allegations were raised with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern last month in a letter from Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble. Mr Trimble has yet to receive a response. 13th April 2000

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DUP appalled at Garda incursion into Northern Ireland

DUP representative for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Cllr Maurice Morrow, has expressed his horror at learning of the news that Garda officers yesterday conducted investigations into the attempted theft and hijacking of a transit van in the Rosslea area of County Fermanagh. It is understood that Garda officers crossed the border and talked to a number of individuals about the attempted theft, telling those they interviewed that they were undertaking the investigation because the area was too dangerous a one for the Police Service of Northern Ireland to operate in. Maurice Morrow said, “I cannot express how horrified I am at learning of this incursion by the Garda into Northern Ireland. Plain and simple, the Garda should not be crossing the border and performing investigations including the interviewing of Northern Ireland citizens. The all-Ireland agenda may be continuing apace, but Northern Ireland is still an integral part of the United Kingdom. The Garda have no jurisdiction here whatsoever. If this happened anywhere else in the world there would be an outcry at the highest levels of government, but we hear nothing from the NIO. On the mainland, police forces are not allowed to operate outside their own areas and they are part of the same country. This incident is just appalling. It is particularly galling when I think of the many times the RUC were prevented from pursuing terrorist suspects across the border and into the Irish Republic. We now can see clearly what the all-Ireland policing and justice co-operation proposed in the Joint Declaration will mean in practice. The Garda will, I am certain, be permitted to perform more and more operations on this side of the border. I have long said that Government policy was to cede certain parts of the province to the IRA. Now it would seem that the Garda are to be allowed in on the game as well. I will be taking this matter up with the relevant authorities, including the Garda station concerned, and I expect a full explanation and a promise that this will not happen again." 6th October 2003

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House of Commons Hansard debates for the 10th May 1999 (pt 13)

House of Commons Hansard debates for the 10 th May 1999 (pt 13)

http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199899/cmhansrd/vo990510/debtext/90510-13.htm

Mr. Andrew Hunter (Basingstoke) rose --

Mr. Maginnis: Francie Molloy is the same person who told us that, if members of the IRA did not get their way, they would go back to doing what they do best. I give way to the hon. Member for Basingstoke (Mr. Hunter).

Mr. Hunter: The hon. Gentleman has just made the point I had intended to make.

Mr. Maginnis: It is always good to know that I answer questions before they are asked.

The reality today is that we must consider whether to make a deal, even though its conditions are not properly defined, with the IRA. Have the Government received a total and unequivocal commitment from the IRA that, when this legislation is passed, those nine bodies will be delivered to their families? I do not believe that the Minister can give me an unequivocal assurance on that point.

At present, many things are happening in Northern Ireland. We have a commission--led by Chris Patten, a former Member of the House--to consider the future of policing in Northern Ireland based on normality. His original mandate was based on what policing in Northern Ireland would be if normality were achieved. What has that been changed into? It has been changed into a demand by Sinn Fein-IRA that dominates our press: that the RUC should be disbanded. Everything we have heard from the IRA supports that view, including the ultimate of all statements from Father Desmond Wilson, who said that if one existing member of the RUC was recruited to a new police force, that police force would be unacceptable. What sort of accommodation, realism or concern for society as a whole does that display? None; nothing.

I went to one of the public hearings of the Patten commission and I listened to the families of those who had committed the sort of atrocities that led to the deaths of "The Disappeared", and I heard them tell how their family members had been murdered--people who were killed carrying out a bomb and gun attack on Loughgall police station. I began to wonder whether I lived on the same plane as those people--I probably do not. They wondered why the police, if they knew that Loughgall was to be attacked, had not walked up, tapped the attackers on the shoulder and taken them into custody for their own safety. In effect, that was the view expressed. We all know what happens to our soldiers when they confront terrorists, because so many have died as a result of doing so.

However, I suppose there was some virtue in all that, for during those hearings, the IRA overplayed its hand and revealed the nonsense of its arguments, not prior to the agreement but in its wake, when people were supposed to accommodate one another for the good of society. Society's interests had been discarded within the short

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few months between the signing of the agreement and those public hearings. Sinn Fein-IRA recognised that they had oversold themselves and pleaded for the commission to hear them in private. Speaking on behalf of the Ulster Unionist party, I did not require or request a private hearing, but gave my evidence to the commission in public and made myself available to be questioned by the commissioners in public. Why did Sinn Fein-IRA need those private hearings? That must be carefully considered when Patten finally reports.

Having oversold themselves, did Sinn Fein-IRA go away and rethink their obligation to society--not to Ken Maginnis or the Ulster Unionist party, but to the society they claim to represent and care for? On that subject let me ask, is there any evidence that Sinn Fein-IRA care even for their own tradition? I discovered quite recently that during the troubles, 190 IRA activists had been murdered--not killed carrying out illegal acts, but assassinated. Having heard a great deal about collusion, I expected most of them to have been killed by loyalist paramilitaries. Surprise, surprise, I found that although loyalist paramilitaries were responsible for murdering 26 of them, other IRA members were responsible for murdering 164 of those 190 IRA activists.

Let us look at other figures that are available. Of the 1,543 Roman Catholics killed--I am ashamed that many were killed by people from my tradition who call themselves "loyalists"--381 were killed by republican paramilitaries. The combined total--which comprises the innocent and the guilty--killed by the RUC, the Ulster Defence Regiment, the Royal Irish Regiment and other Regular Army units was 316. In other words, more Roman Catholics were killed by republican paramilitaries than by the Army, the RUC and other legitimate forces combined. As we know, most were killed by the legitimate forces in their actions against terrorists.

Mr. William Ross (East Londonderry): Is my hon. Friend aware that Brendan "Speedy" Fegan, who was shot dead in Newry yesterday, would appear to be another addition to that total? As he lay dying, the alleged drug dealer said, "It was the Provies, it was the Provies."

Mr. Maginnis: My hon. Friend is probably right: very few illegal activities in Newry are not controlled by the Provisional IRA. While I do not want to jump to conclusions, I have no doubt that Mr. Fegan would have known and been able to identify his attackers.

I mention these issues, which are not related directly to the Bill, because of the specific understanding that somehow, those who are connected with militant republicanism can behave normally and can assimilate back into society. Many of us wish that such people were willing to do that and that we could move towards the new millennium in the way in which we have dreamed about for the past three decades. However, I hear nothing but propaganda from Sinn Fein-IRA. Having tried recently to pervert the work of the Patten commission--I am confident that they will not succeed--those same people are now claiming that the RUC and others are in collusion.

I have been associated with the Royal Ulster Constabulary since about 1958, and I know that it is, and has been, in possession of very specific details about

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militant terrorist activists on both sides of the community. If the RUC had colluded even half-effectively with one terrorist group or another, one might expect to have seen the top terrorists removed from society. We would have expected to see many terrorist leaders killed in the past 30 years. However, the figures that I have cited show that that is not so: in fact, few top terrorist leaders have been assassinated by the opposing side. The same is true of loyalist paramilitaries. About 30 per cent. of loyalist activists were killed by republicans and two thirds by their own loyalist paramilitary colleagues.

One case that is receiving a great deal of publicity at the moment is that of a solicitor, Pat Finucane. I have dealt very publicly outside the House with Pat Finucane and the implications of all the activities of the Finucane family. Rather than go over that ground, I want to draw to the attention of the House the fact that during the terrorist period in Northern Ireland, a considerable number of people in the judiciary and the legal profession have been murdered.

Three judges have been killed: Lord Justice Gibson, Judge Rory Conaghan and Judge William Doyle. Three resident magistrates have been attacked: William Staunton and William McBirnie were killed, and Mary Travers was killed while protecting her resident magistrate father, Tom Travers. Rory O'Kelly, a constituent of mine and a Crown prosecutor, was murdered, as was Edgar Graham, who was a friend of mine, a law lecturer and a very active member of my party. Last, but not least, solicitor John Donaldson was killed. I know that Rosemary Nelson was horrifically murdered recently, but I am referring to past murders, the last of which occurred in about 1987.

Those nine murders were carried out by the IRA, yet I have not heard any of that band of professional, middle-class solicitors, who are now highlighting the Finucane case, ask whether there was any collusion when Lord Justice Gibson was killed on the very border while crossing from the Irish Republic into Northern Ireland. I have not heard any cry about whether Superintendents Breen or Buchanan, returning from a conference with the Garda Siochana, were killed as a result of collusion. In neither case am I questioning the integrity of the Garda Siochana--and just as I exercise that discretion, so I believe society must exercise discretion and judgment when people point the finger, in an organised and malicious way, at the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Those matters concern me when we propose to introduce a Bill that is tantamount to, if not technically, an amnesty for those who have committed murder. It is understandable that, in our sympathy for those who have suffered, we seek a solution, but we must do that not emotionally or in isolation, but while considering the interests of society as a whole.

There will be those who will say to me after I have spoken, "Well, you agreed to the release of prisoners." Reluctantly, I did so, but those prisoners have been brought before the courts and convicted, their sentences have been determined and those who are released early will serve the outstanding part of their sentence on licence. Murderers are on licence for the rest of their lives. That is an accommodation. I believe that the Bill is a travesty and it would be wrong of me not to point out those facts to right hon. and hon. Members.

I remember that in that past, we heard a great clamour to get Sinn Fein-IRA back on our television screens. People told us that if only they were back on the air,

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the presenters, the interlocutors and those who produce programmes would put Sinn Fein-IRA to the sword, would test them and would reveal the true nature of terrorism. Where have all the people who said that gone? The terrorists are treated by Ministers in the Northern Ireland Office with greater courtesy than elected Members of Parliament, and the same is true of presenters on television. There is no reality attached to the enormity of the crimes that those terrorists have committed.