Myers exposed in official report

Conjecture and hypothesis presented as fact in a column by Kevin Myers alleging garda involvement in the murder of a judge, his wife and two RUC officers, Vincent Browne reports

Tuesday's gaffe in The Irish Times is not the first time that Kevin Myers has misrepresented his opinion by using language recklessly. In May 2000 he was asked to provide details of any evidence in his possession to the Garda that constituted the basis for his statement that a member or members of the Garda Síochána were directly responsible for a number of IRA murders

On 10 March 2000, Kevin Myers in his "Irishman's Diary" column in The Irish Times asked: "What is the Government going to do about the retired member of the Garda Síochána, now contentedly living on a handsome State pension, who as an agent of the IRA was directly responsible for the murders of six RUC officers, the entire Hanna family from Northern Ireland, and Tom Oliver, a citizen and resident of this Republic?"

He continued: "While in the Garda Síochána, he passed vast amounts of intelligence to the IRA, and even recruited for the IRA from within the force. When this betrayal of his force and of his country was uncovered – by the RUC – far from being prosecuted, the man was merely given a posting which minimised the danger he posed to others... And that really is perfectly amazing, because so many of the killings which he, in essence, organised, were identical, essentially involving cross-border traffic, of which the Garda Síochána and the RUC had information, but virtually no-one else.

"The first such operation took place in May 1985, when a Garda escort for a Brinks Mat security van passed responsibility for the vehicle to an unmarked RUC two-car patrol. Precise information about the intended hand-over had already been passed to the IRA by the rogue garda, and a bomb was detonated as an RUC vehicle passed it.

"Four officers were killed. One was a 21-year-old woman officer, Tracy Doak. Her dead colleagues were Steven Rodgers (19), David Baird (22), and William Wilson (28)...

"Two years later, the information he gave the IRA enabled it to murder Lord Justice Gibson and his wife Cecily. Very possibly Lord Gibson had made life easier for his murderers by booking a holiday through Dun Laoghaire in his own name; but as was to be revealed within a year, the garda mole was vital. No travel agent's computer could have told the killers where precisely the garda escort was going to hand over responsibility for the Gibsons's safety to the RUC. The bomb was waiting there, and the two were killed instantly when it was detonated...

"Two years later, RUC Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan were ambushed while returning from a liaison meeting with Dundalk gardaí. In order to comply with the law of the Republic, they were unarmed; and so, unarmed, went to their deaths in an IRA ambush set-up by the garda mole...

"His next target was Tom Oliver, who had passed on information about IRA activities in the Cooley Peninsula to the Garda Síochána. Nine years ago, this native, citizen and resident of the Republic, was abducted, tortured and murdered by the IRA. We can say two things about this death. One was that no member of the Fianna Fáil Government attended his funeral, though the Fine Gael leader John Bruton did: the other was that even his murder did not trigger even a minor internal inquiry into the garda.

"That occurred only when RUC intelligence discovered the identity of the mole and informed Dublin. The traitor was then posted to a relatively harmless station."

All of this was asserted as fact. No sources were cited.

Following the agreement reached between the British and Irish Governments at Weston Park in 2001, Justice Peter Cory, a retired Canadian Supreme Court judge, was appointed to undertake an investigation of allegations of collusion between British and Irish security forces and paramilitaries in six particular cases in Northern Ireland. These included the murders of Lord and Lady Gibson and the murders of the two RUC officers, Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan.

The report of Mr Justice Cory was published on 18 December 2003. The report dealt with the allegations of Garda involvement in these murders and also similar allegations made in a book, Bandit Country by journalist, Toby Harnden, published in 1999.

The Cory report stated the following concerning Kevin Myers:

"Myers was interviewed by the Garda investigating team on 10 and 24 May 2000. He was asked to provide any information or evidence in his possession that provided the basis for his statement that a member of the Garda was directly responsible for the murders referred to in his article. These murders included those of Chief Superintendent Breen and Superintendent Buchanan and Lord Justice Gibson and Lady Gibson.

"Myers responded that he had information but no evidence. When he was asked to identify the retired member of the Garda that he referred to in his article, Myers stated that he did not wish to name the retired officer. He went on to say that since writing the article he had learned that more than one Garda was involved in leaking information to the IRA. He referred to an 'active cell operating in the Dundalk Garda Station'.

"He used the word 'cell' because he believed that there was more than one Garda involved and the Gardaí were not working alone. When he was pressed with regard to this, he stated that it was his belief that there were 'a very tiny number of Gardaí inside Dundalk Garda Station who were leaking information to the IRA and that they may or may not have been working together'.

"With regard to his allegation in the article that a Garda officer 'passed vast amounts of intelligence to the IRA and even recruited for the IRA from within the force', Myers stated that he based this statement on the Bandit Country book and then made further inquiries of other journalists, RUC officers and Gardaí.

"When he was asked to identify the intelligence referred to, Myers stated that the entire Narrow Water investigation had been compromised by an individual or individuals within the Dundalk station. This was a reference to an IRA bomb attack in 1979 which killed 18 British soldiers. Two men were arrested by the Gardaí but released and the items seized during their arrest could not be located when the RUC asked for them.

"While Myers attributed a sinister motive to the disposal of the items, the Garda investigation report observed that all indications were that they had been inadvertently disposed of by the Gardaí.

"In his second interview Myers acknowledged that there was a long time span between Narrow Water and the other incidents and that there may be no connection between them. He acknowledged in his interview that his instinct then was that it was not a conspiracy to destroy forensic evidence; rather that it may be more in the line of incompetence and he did not have any reason to suspect a Garda mole.When asked about the matter that, if established, would have been a disciplinary offence of relevance, Myers stated that he was dealing with the story before the matter came to light and could not recall when the information came to him.

"Myers was asked to provide the Gardaí with any evidence he had to support his statement that ex-Gardaí passed on precise information to the IRA regarding the movements of a Brinks Mat security van in May 1985 and the handover of the escort of that vehicle from the Garda to the RUC. Myers responded with a very general statement that he had been told by his informant that all border transactions which had gone wrong had been compromised. The same response was given when he was asked for evidence to support the claim that there had been a Garda mole who was active in connection with the murder of the Gibsons.

"The statement Myers made that 'but as was revealed within a year, the Garda mole was vital' was simply his hypothesis that it was not a mole within the travel agents that brought about the murders, but information that came from elsewhere.

"With regard to Myers' statement that ex-Gardaí had told the IRA of the precise handover point from the Garda to the RUC of an escort for Lord Justice Higgins resulting in the murder of the Hanna family, he once again responded with the general statement that he had been told that all handovers to the RUC had been compromised.

"In his second interview he stated that 'nobody spoke to him in relation to all of the incidents referred to in the article, that each one was compromised in a particular way'.

"Myers stated that there were elements of 'conjecture, hypothesis, etc. and that he wrote about the pattern'.

"When further pressed with regard to this, he confirmed that he had no specific information in relation to each incident referred to. He added: 'I wrote from my overview. I may have stated it in a more authoritative way than I should. I probably wrote it as a fact, where if I wrote the article now I probably would not write it as fact'.

"When he was asked about his references to a mole in the Dundalk station and if this was a matter of conjecture, Myers stated that sources had stated it to him. He said he did not question or interrogate them about this, but they knew things. He did not question them about the details of their knowledge. He stated: 'I was told that handovers at the border were compromised but did not question this – perhaps I should have. I presumed that these persons were telling the truth and that they had no reason to lie. I would have asked if they were sure about what they were saying'.

"When asked about his allegations that Breen and Buchanan were set up by the Garda mole, Myers stated that he relied on Harnden's book which he took to be hard information. He had also made inquiries north and south and obtained information that was 'anecdotal but sufficient for me to say and justify this statement in the article'.

"In the second interview he once again said that he had relied upon Harnden's book. In relation to other sources, he said that he did not think that any of them had lied 'but they may have told me untruths believing them to be the truth. But I do not believe this'.

"When asked, he stated that he did not have any evidence to present which supported his statement that an ex-Garda mole had passed on information to the IRA regarding the movements of Breen and Buchanan.

"With regard to the murder of Tom Oliver and allegations of a Garda mole in Dundalk, he stated: 'This is what Toby Harnden told me. I say RUC intelligence – it could be MI5/MI6. While I mention not even a minor Garda inquiry did not take place, I don't know, I could be entirely wrong.'"

The report carefully observed that, while Myers attributed this information to Toby Harnden, there were no allegations of Garda collusion in the murder of Tom Oliver referred to in the first edition of Harnden's book Bandit Country. There was a reference in the second edition, although this was published after Myers's article and appeared to refer to a different officer than the one identified by Myers.