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