:00:08. > :00:15.This is a story that begins with a double murder. The victims were
:00:16. > :00:20.officers Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan. The highest ranking
:00:21. > :00:26.members of the RUC killed by the IRA and all with help from within the
:00:27. > :00:33.Garda. That's the shattering conclusion of the Smithwick
:00:34. > :00:36.Tribunal. An inquiry into collusion between the Irish police and the
:00:37. > :00:41.IRA. The findings were really staggering. They were shocking.
:00:42. > :00:45.Smithwick points to evidence of collusion in the murder of a High
:00:46. > :00:49.Court judge, Lord Justice Gibson. If there is an inquiry in the Gibson
:00:50. > :00:52.case and it comes to the same conclusion then the authorities in
:00:53. > :00:58.Dublin are going to have to face the fact that they have systemic problem
:00:59. > :01:03.not just individual cases. Years of Unionist suspicion abouts the Guards
:01:04. > :01:08.have been fuelled by a series of scandals. Exposing a culture of
:01:09. > :01:12.cover-up going back decades. It is all done with the sole intention of
:01:13. > :01:15.protecting the reputation of the force of the it is just the way they
:01:16. > :01:20.operate. Of course, the one organisation we can be sure knows
:01:21. > :01:23.the extent of collusion is the IRA and tonight we ask - is this the man
:01:24. > :01:47.who knows the truth? It is six months since the smit wick
:01:48. > :01:54.Report was published after an eight year investigation. It found that
:01:55. > :01:59.there was Garda-IRA in the 1989 murders of RUC members Harry Breen
:02:00. > :02:03.and Bob Buchanan. But it could not identify the officer or officers
:02:04. > :02:09.involved. The findings received a mixed reaction from the Guards. The
:02:10. > :02:14.commissioner rejected a key conclusion which suggested the force
:02:15. > :02:20.had a culture of hiding the truth. The police force that's described is
:02:21. > :02:32.not the police force that I lead and Garda Siochana at all times seeks to
:02:33. > :02:40.establish the truth. Dud But since then, attention has
:02:41. > :02:45.shifted to a series of IRA murders. Jean and Beatty Doak had suspicion
:02:46. > :02:50.since the day their daughter was murdered. As soon as the Smithwick
:02:51. > :02:55.Inquiry was finished I thought the same thing could have happened
:02:56. > :03:01.Tracy. Constable Tracy Doak was killed by
:03:02. > :03:10.the IRA in 1985, she was 21. That's her there. Yeah. Tracy followed her
:03:11. > :03:13.brother and father into the RUC. I don't think she thought she was
:03:14. > :03:17.brave. I think she just thought she was doing a job. She might have been
:03:18. > :03:28.scared from time to time, but she never talked much about it. Tracy
:03:29. > :03:41.had been part of an RUC pa tral taking over from the Garda Siochana
:03:42. > :03:51.to escort a Brink's-Mat van. A bomb was detonated. The plast killed
:03:52. > :03:57.three of Tracy's colleagues. News of her death reached her father in
:03:58. > :04:02.North Antrim hours later. We had a thorn hedge up the lane and I was
:04:03. > :04:09.cutting the hedge and I noticed the police car coming up the lane. The
:04:10. > :04:14.Chief Superintendent got out of the car. I knew then that something had
:04:15. > :04:18.happened and I said, "You're coming to tell me that Tracy has been
:04:19. > :04:30.killed." And the superintendent said there is no easy way of telling you.
:04:31. > :04:34.She was getting married and wanted to transfer out of Newry and she
:04:35. > :04:41.phoned me the morning she was killed and I could see that I could get her
:04:42. > :04:49.into Antrim Traffic Branch. And that was the last conversation we had
:04:50. > :04:55.with her. I could have got her out of Newry. I'm sure I could. There is
:04:56. > :05:07.not a day passes that I don't think about it. Less than two years after
:05:08. > :05:11.the murders, Mr Doak left the RUC, disillusioned with the handling of
:05:12. > :05:17.the case. He wondered how the IRA pinpointed the movements of the RUC
:05:18. > :05:23.officers. Here we are on the border between north and south. It is about
:05:24. > :05:26.200 yards up that road where Tracy Doak and her colleagues were killed,
:05:27. > :05:31.but the question is how did the IRA know the RUC were going to be here?
:05:32. > :05:38.Tonight, Spotlight can reveal details of a historical inquiry team
:05:39. > :05:43.reports into the Doak case never before made public. It says IRA
:05:44. > :05:47.surveillance could have predicted where this RUC patrol would be, but
:05:48. > :05:51.not only did the IRA seem to know the exact route the officers would
:05:52. > :05:55.take, witness evidence in the report indicates that they also knew the
:05:56. > :06:00.day the patrol would be on the road. This new information has
:06:01. > :06:04.strengthened the Doak's belief that a Gardai mole may have been
:06:05. > :06:10.involved. I just didn't believe it at the time, but as time has went
:06:11. > :06:15.on, I think there must have been. There is a lot of questions to be
:06:16. > :06:27.asked about that. Which I have no answer for. This is the old Belfast
:06:28. > :06:33.to Dublin road. So much of what happened here seems to belong to the
:06:34. > :06:35.past. So many murders shrouded in mystery. But that is something that
:06:36. > :06:52.has begun to change. Just two years after Tracy Doak and
:06:53. > :06:58.her colleagues died and on the same stretch of road, Lord Justice Gibson
:06:59. > :07:05.and Lady Gibson were killed. Again, it raised the question of Gardai
:07:06. > :07:10.leaks. The couple were killed after they left their Gardai escort. The
:07:11. > :07:15.judge was the most senior member of the judiciary to be killed by the
:07:16. > :07:27.IRA during the troubles. The Gibson case and the issue of ga
:07:28. > :07:33.Gardai collusion became part of the talks. Demands were met with counter
:07:34. > :07:38.demands from Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble. It was clear to us
:07:39. > :07:41.that the Prime Minister was going to grant the requests of republican
:07:42. > :07:46.movement that some inyrries that they want -- inquiries they wanted
:07:47. > :07:52.to see would take place. We said we have got to balance the book and we
:07:53. > :07:56.looked around and Breen and Buchanan was an obvious case and the Gibson
:07:57. > :08:00.case because of the circumstances there as well.
:08:01. > :08:09.As a result of the deal at Western Park, retired Canadian judge, Peter
:08:10. > :08:16.Cory was appointed to investigate cases of collusion. The Gibson case
:08:17. > :08:22.was the only one not recommended for a full public inquiry. In reaching
:08:23. > :08:26.his decision, Judge Cory re-examined the evidence. His report retraced
:08:27. > :08:30.the final journey of Lord and Lady Gibson. They had taken a ferry to
:08:31. > :08:35.Dublin after a holiday in England. The report noted the trip had been
:08:36. > :08:40.booked in their own names. It was concluded the travel arrangements
:08:41. > :08:51.were widely known. The IRA could have learned of Judge Gibson's plans
:08:52. > :08:58.without a Gardai leak. At the time of the murders, the
:08:59. > :09:05.Garda dismissed claims of collusion. Judge Cory discovered at a later
:09:06. > :09:15.stage, the Garda did obtain intelligence that one their officers
:09:16. > :09:19.helped kill the Gibsons. He said the intelligence was supplied over ten
:09:20. > :09:27.years after the murders and came from a source whose reliability he
:09:28. > :09:31.questioned. But we now know the Cory Report was wrong because Smithwick
:09:32. > :09:36.discovered a mistake. Intelligence wasn't gathered over a decade after
:09:37. > :09:42.the murders, but just three years later. And importantly, Smithwick
:09:43. > :09:46.found the source of the information was very reliable. This was after he
:09:47. > :09:54.spoke to the handler of the source himself. Lord Trimble is calling for
:09:55. > :09:58.the Irish Government to review Cory's decision. It is quite clear
:09:59. > :10:04.now that a mistake was made and that mistake should be put right. It is
:10:05. > :10:08.not the figurement of unionist imagination. There is clear evidence
:10:09. > :10:13.that points towards collusion again. Do you think there should be an
:10:14. > :10:16.inquiry into the Gibson case? Ye They should have initially, but
:10:17. > :10:22.especially now when we've got the Smithwick report there and what's
:10:23. > :10:27.contained within that, there is an overwhelming case. There is an
:10:28. > :10:32.overriding reason for doing this and that's the Garda commissioner and
:10:33. > :10:35.other officers reacted poorly to the Smithwick case. They were reluctant
:10:36. > :10:41.to accept the conclusion that there had been collusion and if we only
:10:42. > :10:46.have Breen and Buchanan they could go around saying, "It was an
:10:47. > :10:50.isolated case." If there is an inquiry in the Gibson case and it
:10:51. > :10:54.comes to the same conclusion the authorities in Dublin are going to
:10:55. > :11:02.have to face the fact that they have a systemic problem, not just
:11:03. > :11:04.individual cases. there was a real worry that IRA terrorist might
:11:05. > :11:11.attempted to stop this establishment general... Rosemary Dixon, seen here
:11:12. > :11:16.at parents funeral, has never commented publicly on the murders.
:11:17. > :11:22.Many years it was thought the family did not want an enquiry. In a
:11:23. > :11:25.statement to Spotlight, breaking a 27 year silence, Rosemary has called
:11:26. > :11:30.for the case to be reopened. She said had never accepted the Corrie
:11:31. > :11:37.report and said he had mishandled the crucial evidence. She also added
:11:38. > :11:41.that mistakes made by Judge Cory denied their family a public enquiry
:11:42. > :11:46.and then no pressure was brought on those who were responsible for the
:11:47. > :11:51.death of her parents. The British and Irish governments told us they
:11:52. > :11:57.had no plans to reopen the case. Judge Cory and his team said the
:11:58. > :12:02.original report must speak for itself. The Smethwick inquiry heard
:12:03. > :12:05.even more damning information about the Gibson case. An Assistant Chief
:12:06. > :12:11.Constable from Northern Ireland to the enquiry that the PSNI had
:12:12. > :12:20.reliable intelligence to stay that a rogue Garda colluded. John McBurney
:12:21. > :12:27.sap but -- sat through all but one day of the hearings. Had Judge Cory
:12:28. > :12:33.know in this recent intelligence, I have no doubts that he would have
:12:34. > :12:41.recommended an enquiry, a full-scale enquiry into the awful murder of the
:12:42. > :12:45.Gibsons. John McBurney believes that the evidence in the Smethwick
:12:46. > :12:51.inquiry, in conjunction with other evidence, adds to previous concerns
:12:52. > :12:56.about pollution, and not just in the Gibson and Tracey Doak case. If you
:12:57. > :13:07.look closely at the border incidents, you begin to have very
:13:08. > :13:14.troublesome thoughts about a series of other border incidents, where
:13:15. > :13:26.information seem to have filtered out to paramilitaries. The murder of
:13:27. > :13:29.the Hammer family is one such case. In 1988 the IRA stepped off a huge
:13:30. > :13:36.bomb on the border. Their target was another High Court judge who had
:13:37. > :13:41.flown into Dublin and was met by her Garda escort. The IRA admitted they
:13:42. > :13:46.were targeting the judge later and they knew his travel plans, but they
:13:47. > :13:53.made a mistake in identifying his car. Instead, they killed Robin
:13:54. > :13:58.Hammer, his wife Maureen and their six-year-old son, David. In the
:13:59. > :14:03.space of four years, 11 people had been killed in remarkably similar
:14:04. > :14:08.circumstances. Time and again, the IRA carried out a series of attacks
:14:09. > :14:11.in this area and with each murder concerns and rumours group that they
:14:12. > :14:18.had access to information from within the Irish police. In 1989,
:14:19. > :14:25.the Garda, with support from the RUC, was adamant there was no Garda
:14:26. > :14:32.Leake. I reject any suggestion of that kind. Categorically, the
:14:33. > :14:38.evidence which we have firmly confirms to us that there was no
:14:39. > :14:44.more. 24 years later, Judge Smethwick find that certain officers
:14:45. > :14:47.in Dundalk were close to the IRA and utterly from the station led
:14:48. > :14:52.directly to the deaths of Harry Breen and Robert Buchanan. He
:14:53. > :14:56.dismissed efforts that the gardai had made to investigate the
:14:57. > :15:00.allegations over the years and in relation to the tribunal, well he
:15:01. > :15:04.plays some individual guards for their honest evidence, he found that
:15:05. > :15:11.are part of a culture which simply sought to deny any suggestion of
:15:12. > :15:16.collusion. These were two very singular RUC officers. They were
:15:17. > :15:19.murdered in brutal circumstances by the IRA, he seemed to have an
:15:20. > :15:24.incredible amount of information on their movements. If you follow on
:15:25. > :15:30.from that, there were other killings that have taken place. If it had
:15:31. > :15:33.emerged that the gardai had assisted the IRA to carry out several
:15:34. > :15:38.different murders, the consequences of that entering the public we were
:15:39. > :15:47.too much -- the public domain, were too much for the forced to bear. It
:15:48. > :15:54.was a culture that is said continues to this day. In the opinion of Judge
:15:55. > :16:02.Smethwick, the Garda Siochana is of course that's praises loyalty more
:16:03. > :16:08.than honesty. It wasn't just around some dork that collusion surfaced.
:16:09. > :16:13.New evidence of a separate Garda-IRA collusion is emerging in another
:16:14. > :16:24.border area. The border is three miles in that direction. John lives
:16:25. > :16:28.outside Castle Jurgen County Tyrone. The minority Protestant community
:16:29. > :16:32.here is miles from the County Dunning border. In April 1991 his
:16:33. > :16:41.brother was killed as he sat in a car at his parent -- parents's
:16:42. > :16:45.home. He was 23. My father heard the shooting, heard the car speeding
:16:46. > :16:52.off, went out to find his son slumped over the steering wheel. His
:16:53. > :17:00.son was dead. He came back into the house. My mother was in hysterics.
:17:01. > :17:06.They tried to phone us. Somebody from the IRA phoned to say have you
:17:07. > :17:18.been I get to see what we have done. Until it happens to yourself, you
:17:19. > :17:21.don't know what it is like. Our past are present. What happened 23 years
:17:22. > :17:31.ago is just like it happened yesterday. That is the truth. The
:17:32. > :17:38.document, given to a journalist reports to show that Mr Sproule was
:17:39. > :17:46.a suspected member of the UVF and was wanted for questioning. I Garda
:17:47. > :17:49.document identifying him as a suspected Loyalist paramilitary
:17:50. > :17:58.ended up in the hands of the IRA. His family has always denied the
:17:59. > :18:04.accusation. It wasn't true, but unfortunately it is cost up, if you
:18:05. > :18:10.name a person, it goes all around the area. His name was blackened. It
:18:11. > :18:18.emerged during the Smethwick earrings that both the gardai and
:18:19. > :18:26.the RUC carried out investigations into how the IRA got hold of this
:18:27. > :18:31.document. We have a copy of the RUC investigation. It reveals that the
:18:32. > :18:36.gardai and Donny G would taking an entry interest and Ian Sproule in
:18:37. > :18:44.the weeks before he was killed. It concluded it was, beyond doubt, that
:18:45. > :18:48.there was I gardai leak to the IRA. In fact, we have been told some of
:18:49. > :18:54.the information about alleged collusion supplied to the RUC came
:18:55. > :18:58.from gardai who were concerned that some of their colleagues might have
:18:59. > :19:02.been core operating with the IRA. Form over two decades, John and
:19:03. > :19:08.Jennifer were totally unaware of the RUC report. The parallel gardai
:19:09. > :19:15.investigation at the time reported that it could not find the leak.
:19:16. > :19:19.Spotlight has been told that the forces to exchange reports, but
:19:20. > :19:24.nothing happened. It is a revelation that has shocked the family. We are
:19:25. > :19:30.lost for words. We can't understand that. Common sense would say that
:19:31. > :19:33.something is up here. The police force and justice system should be
:19:34. > :19:41.doing something for us. This needs to be lived into. It seems to be
:19:42. > :19:50.brushed under the carpet. I feel that the RUC and the 25 Micro have
:19:51. > :20:00.wanted to hide this because if the truth that, got the time, it was
:20:01. > :20:04.going to frighten people. When the Smithwick Tribunal investigated
:20:05. > :20:13.collusion in the murders of Harry Breen and Robert Buchanan, its focus
:20:14. > :20:21.turned to three guard I -- 25 Micro stationed in Dundalk. They were
:20:22. > :20:24.former Sergeant Finbar Hickey. Hickey was convicted in 2001 other
:20:25. > :20:31.signing applications for forced -- for false passports that end up in
:20:32. > :20:37.the hands of IRA members. He has denied knowing that the passport
:20:38. > :20:40.went to the IRA. The Smithwick Tribunal was satisfied he had no
:20:41. > :20:47.involvement in the murders of the two policeman, based on the fact he
:20:48. > :20:58.was not on duty that day. Smethwick accepted that this man helped the
:20:59. > :21:02.IRA. Colton has always categorically denied having any associations with
:21:03. > :21:07.the IRA. Smethwick said there was insufficient evidence to connect him
:21:08. > :21:11.to the murders of Harry Breen and Robert Buchanan. Both Hickey and
:21:12. > :21:21.Colton declined to speak to this programme. Owen Corrigan. Smethwick
:21:22. > :21:26.find that he had a series of inappropriate dealings with the IRA
:21:27. > :21:31.over a number of years. The judge said there was insufficient evidence
:21:32. > :21:36.that Corrigan ticked off the IRA in the murders of Harry Breen and
:21:37. > :21:40.Robert Buchanan. Corrigan declined to appear in this programme, citing
:21:41. > :21:45.ill-health. In a statement he said any evidence presented to the
:21:46. > :21:50.enquiry suggesting he had any inappropriate relationship with the
:21:51. > :21:56.IRA was rumour and gossip. Totally unsubstantiated and did not
:21:57. > :22:00.constitute legal evidence. Judge Smethwick did not find the source of
:22:01. > :22:08.the collusion, but he did expose major problems in the ranks of done
:22:09. > :22:12.dark Gardai station. The station at Dundalk, trying to police an area
:22:13. > :22:19.that was almost ungovernable. He had a high concentration of Republican
:22:20. > :22:23.paramilitaries, organised crime was rife. Anybody standing back could
:22:24. > :22:26.see that police officers are vulnerable in those circumstances,
:22:27. > :22:30.particularly if you're dealing with an organisation like the IRA. The
:22:31. > :22:38.fact that there were certain individual officers heavily involved
:22:39. > :22:42.in corruption and wrong doing does not come as a surprise to me. The
:22:43. > :22:46.fact that no one took them on and tried to stop it and that this
:22:47. > :22:50.indiscipline continued, that does not surprise me either. It is not a
:22:51. > :22:52.huge problem within the force, but it has been uncertain divisions. It
:22:53. > :23:09.happens. In 1989, businessman John Mack on
:23:10. > :23:15.old team was shot dead by the IRA. He was a cross-border smuggler and a
:23:16. > :23:23.RUC informer. Smethwick heard that for years before his death he told
:23:24. > :23:31.his RUC handlers that are 24 Micro in special Branch was helping the
:23:32. > :23:36.IRA. He named Owen Corrigan. In a statement to Spotlight, Owen
:23:37. > :23:41.Corrigan rejected this entirely. He said that the police intelligence
:23:42. > :23:51.naming him as a link to the IRA was impossible to verify. That it was
:23:52. > :24:02.mere rumour and hearsay. Tom Oliver was also killed by the IRA. He was a
:24:03. > :24:07.farmer in County Louth. Judge Smethwick excepted witness accounts
:24:08. > :24:13.that Owen Corrigan had told the IRA that Oliver had been passing
:24:14. > :24:17.information on IRA had to do these to the gardai. It is one of the most
:24:18. > :24:22.controversial aspects to the report. Owen Corrigan believed it implicated
:24:23. > :24:30.him directly in the murder of Oliver. He rejects this entirely. He
:24:31. > :24:35.has been granted permission to challenge the section of the report.
:24:36. > :24:40.Spotlight has contacted a number of gardai who worked in Dundalk at that
:24:41. > :24:44.time. Privately, all of them except that there was a problem at the
:24:45. > :24:49.station but some are very critical of the Smithwick Report, believing
:24:50. > :24:53.there was not enough direct evidence to be a finding of collusion. They
:24:54. > :24:57.also felt that all of them have been left under a cloud of suspicion, but
:24:58. > :25:02.none would agree to talk on camera. Since Smethwick published his
:25:03. > :25:06.report, and a number of plays and scandals in the South has revealed
:25:07. > :25:11.allegations of corruption and cover-up in the modern-day force and
:25:12. > :25:16.amid a public eye cry over pleasing standards, the Commissioner and the
:25:17. > :25:21.Irish Justice Minister have both resign. Among the present-day
:25:22. > :25:27.scandals, it emerged that gardai had recordings of conversations at some
:25:28. > :25:31.police stations for over 30 years. These could have been of real
:25:32. > :25:37.importance to Judge Smethwick, but we can confirm that the gardai never
:25:38. > :25:42.told him about the tapes. Our wholesale review of police and
:25:43. > :25:47.failure is now proposed. Observers in the South said the scandals have
:25:48. > :25:51.still a way to go. They have claimed the head of the Minister, I gardai
:25:52. > :25:57.Commissioner, and independent ombudsman. There are police boards
:25:58. > :26:01.coming in because of that. This is still ongoing. There are still
:26:02. > :26:05.reports to come out on investigations launched as a result
:26:06. > :26:10.of the scandals. Elsewhere, there are calls for the gardai to deal
:26:11. > :26:16.with the claims of collusion bonds and parole. It will be important for
:26:17. > :26:20.the families of the bereaved, showing that a proper enquiry has
:26:21. > :26:28.been done and they now know more about the did beforehand is -- than
:26:29. > :26:32.they did beforehand. It should be welcomed by the Irish police because
:26:33. > :26:37.it plays their problems and we have all made the mistake of thinking
:26:38. > :26:42.that problems can be brushed aside, or that it is only a small case and
:26:43. > :26:51.not a systemic problem. That is not healthy in the long run. Of all the
:26:52. > :26:54.cases of alleged collusion, Spotlight understands there is only
:26:55. > :27:00.one being investigated. Terence McKeever was killed by the IRA in
:27:01. > :27:13.South Armagh in 1986 and 28 years later, the Gardai is accused of
:27:14. > :27:23.hindering a current investigation. The firm did work for RUC stations
:27:24. > :27:28.and the Garda. He was a businessman carrying out a day's work. He had no
:27:29. > :27:32.political ideals. Terence had friends both sides of the border,
:27:33. > :27:37.all religions, so it was a big shock.
:27:38. > :27:42.Spotlight has seen the report into the killing which reveals that the
:27:43. > :27:50.gun used was also use in the murders of Breen and Buchanan. It reveals
:27:51. > :27:55.that 16 items of forensic evidence linked to the murder and stored by
:27:56. > :27:59.the Garda went missing. Karen refuses to believe this was an
:28:00. > :28:03.accident. This is a murder case. It is not like a packet of sweets going
:28:04. > :28:09.missing from a shop. That shouldn't happen. If people are doing their
:28:10. > :28:12.job properly and not incompetent that wouldn't have happened. No
:28:13. > :28:17.walks in off the street and lifts those items so an inside was
:28:18. > :28:25.involved so it is a member of the Gardai. I feel like the Gardai
:28:26. > :28:29.should be investigated. In 2009, she asked the Gardai ombudsman's office
:28:30. > :28:33.to investigate. Five years later, she is still waiting for a report in
:28:34. > :28:38.its findings and in the letter to Karen the ombudsman's office reveals
:28:39. > :28:43.a problem. It has been a lack of co-operation. Not only from former
:28:44. > :28:49.Guards but in dealing with the present day force. The Garda told
:28:50. > :28:55.Spotlight it could not comment as the ombudsman's inquiry is ongoing.
:28:56. > :28:59.They haven't co-operated otherwise it wouldn't have taken five years to
:29:00. > :29:07.complete a report. It makes me angry. I thought the Guards upheld
:29:08. > :29:15.law and order and didn't obstruct the course of jus of justice and
:29:16. > :29:23.because Terence worked with them I thought they would respect his case.
:29:24. > :29:30.It is thought the ombudsman is likely to clund clund conclude soon.
:29:31. > :29:39.It said: John ma burny is calling for an
:29:40. > :29:49.inquiry into the cases of alleged collusion. It makes you think that
:29:50. > :29:53.when Judge Smithwick finds in March 199 a guard or guards provided the
:29:54. > :30:00.information to the same terrorist grouping that in 1988 who was
:30:01. > :30:06.providing information which led to the murder by mistake of the Hanna
:30:07. > :30:13.family who was providing information which led to the murder of Lord
:30:14. > :30:19.Justice Gibson and Lady Gibson who perhaps was assisting in the
:30:20. > :30:25.disposal of forensics in the murder of Terence McKeever and the
:30:26. > :30:31.movements of the Brink's-Mat van in 1985, all of those events could have
:30:32. > :30:37.been contaminated by information from a guard or guards. That leaves
:30:38. > :30:42.you asking the question -- do we not need to probe each and everyone of
:30:43. > :30:58.those incidents in an organised and structured way in order to identify
:30:59. > :31:08.precisely who the ka colluder or Colluders are?
:31:09. > :31:12.This is Sean Gerrard Hughes. He is a leading South Armagh republican.
:31:13. > :31:15.During the Smithwick Tribunal a former RUC Special Branch officer
:31:16. > :31:24.named him as the leader of an IRA unit which carried out 80 murders in
:31:25. > :31:32.the Armagh Louth border region. That unit has been linked to all of the
:31:33. > :31:36.murders in which collusion is suspected in that area. We asked him
:31:37. > :31:42.to speak to the programme. Through his solicitor he declined stating
:31:43. > :31:46.any broadcast of such allegations would be prejudicial. He has never
:31:47. > :31:53.been charged in connection with any of these murders and denies any
:31:54. > :31:58.participation in IRA activities. But Spotlight understands that Sean
:31:59. > :32:04.Gerrard Hughes led a three-man IRA delegation which met with the
:32:05. > :32:07.Smithwick Tribunal. We asked him about this allegation which was
:32:08. > :32:13.reported in the media while the tribunal was ongoing. He declined to
:32:14. > :32:16.comment. I think the IRA in South Armagh believed this could be a
:32:17. > :32:20.moment where they would come across as co-operating with the tribunal in
:32:21. > :32:23.a definitive moment in their own history. It didn't work out that way
:32:24. > :32:27.for them. In his report, Smithwick said parts
:32:28. > :32:31.of what the IRA told him about the Breen and Buchanan murders was
:32:32. > :32:37.accepted. He said other parts of their
:32:38. > :32:43.evidence did not stand up. In many ways the statement he made to
:32:44. > :32:48.tribunal made a mockery of the claims for ommissions and inquiries
:32:49. > :32:51.where the truth will be revealed about these matters. This was a
:32:52. > :32:56.classic case where the IRA could have shown some good faith and told
:32:57. > :33:01.the truth about what happened, but it went back that they had people
:33:02. > :33:05.within the Guards and they had to protect them. Unionist and
:33:06. > :33:12.nationalist politicians simply said the IRA lied. If the Smithwick
:33:13. > :33:17.Tribunal is a test case for the IRA to participate in some truth
:33:18. > :33:20.commission, it really failed abysmally because they came back to
:33:21. > :33:24.defending their members and covering up what happened. The IRA can't come
:33:25. > :33:30.out and say what it did because then we're getting into who knew what and
:33:31. > :33:34.when? That could be dynamite for Sinn Fein and destroy their
:33:35. > :33:37.leadership for once and for all if they were to tell the truth and
:33:38. > :33:41.that's why they never will and they never can.
:33:42. > :33:45.As the dust settles on the Smithwick Report, the families of the victims
:33:46. > :33:51.in these cases are demanding the Irish Government does not draw a
:33:52. > :33:55.veil over their murders. The victims group which John Sproule is a member
:33:56. > :34:02.of has been trying for over a year to get a meeting with the Irish
:34:03. > :34:09.Government without success. The Smithwick Tribunal has brought Ian
:34:10. > :34:17.back into the limelight and I'm glad that happened. We want to stay open
:34:18. > :34:22.and sort it out once and for all and whoever dealt with the Garda ka
:34:23. > :34:29.conclusion needs to be dealt with in the Irish State.
:34:30. > :34:32.We asked both the Garda commissioner and the Irish Justice Minister to
:34:33. > :34:37.take part in this programme, but they declined. And a spokeswoman for
:34:38. > :34:48.the Taoiseach said he had already met and will continue to engage with
:34:49. > :34:53.many victims groups. But some observers say dealing with the past
:34:54. > :34:57.is not a priority in the south. The Smithwick Tribunal report at this
:34:58. > :35:02.stage is history in the south of Ireland. It was something that was
:35:03. > :35:07.seen as being far away and long ago. These are still live political
:35:08. > :35:12.issues in Northern Irish politics specifically. I don't think we'll
:35:13. > :35:17.ever know those things. Maybe in 75 years there will be some archives
:35:18. > :35:21.that will be opened in the National Archives and we can read some
:35:22. > :35:28.reports of some things, but for now, we'll never know.
:35:29. > :35:33.Telling the full story of what happened in this border area will
:35:34. > :35:39.depend on truthful accounts from north and south. The most recent
:35:40. > :35:47.proposals for dealing with the past said the Irish State will have to
:35:48. > :35:51.play its role. Something John Mc Birney says is overdue. The innocent
:35:52. > :36:00.victims in all of this carry hurt with them every day. The hurt is
:36:01. > :36:05.compounded when someone says, "We need to move beyond your hurt." That
:36:06. > :36:10.doubles the hurt and the sense of vulnerability, and the sense of
:36:11. > :36:18.isolation and the sense of not being able to make any progress in what
:36:19. > :36:23.for many people has become almost a lifetime endeavour to get
:36:24. > :36:27.scratchings of information to piece together what happened their loved
:36:28. > :36:32.ones. People who have lost so much over these years, that's what
:36:33. > :36:41.they're longing for. Those details. And that acknowledgement. In the
:36:42. > :36:50.meantime, the victims are left wondering. You just try to show a
:36:51. > :37:00.brave face when you're talking to people, but in the back of your mind
:37:01. > 0:30:06you can see Trady's face -- Tracy Tracy's face.