The scene commander at Abbeylara, Superintendent Joe Shelly, deliberately concealed information damaging to the Garda in a way that contributed directly to the death of John Carthy, according to the Barr tribunal report. It claims Joe Shelly did not pass on to Garda negotiators the history of bad relations between John Carthy and the local gardaí and that this failure hopelessly compromised the attempts to resolve the stand-off with John Carthy. By Frank Connolly