‘Full co-operation’ on legacy probe - garda commissioner

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has assured that “full co-operation” has been provided “within the bounds” of international agreements in respect of handing over information dealing with the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

Last month the High Court in Dublin granted leave for a judicial review challenging the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice over an alleged failure to co-operate with the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland’s investigation into the atrocities.

Part of Operation Newham, the Police Ombudsman is said to be in the final stages of preparing a thematic inquiry into wider allegations of collusion between the so-called Glennane Gang and British security forces in the mid-1970s.

Belfast-based firm KRW LAW LLP acts on behalf of families and survivors of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

‘Stakeknife’

Back in August, PSNI chief constable said it was “unacceptable” that MI5 has provided material about an agent operating within the IRA to an investigation team so late. Those files, concern ‘Stakeknife’, thought to be the British Army’s top agent inside the IRA. He is widely believed to be West Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, who died last year age 77.

Scappaticci is the focus of a new investigative podcast titled ‘Stakeknife’, written and produced for BBC Sounds by Second Captains’ Mark Horgan and Cavan’s Ciarán Cassidy of Little Wing.

In their second episode ‘Sin É’, the pair who previously worked on the award winning series ‘Where is George Gibney?’, delve into the role Scappaticci had as a senior member of the IRA’s secret disciplinary unit - the infamous ‘nutting squad’ - and what it had to do with the murder of 19-year-old Michael ‘Mick’ Carney who was now found to have been executed at Leggykelly on the border with Fermanagh in July 1979.

New files

It has emerged MI5 handed over previously undisclosed material in April and July, eight years after the Kenova probe first started. It is now being headed up by former Police Scotland Chief Constable, Sir Iain Livingstone.

Boucher previously led the independent Kenova investigation and he appeared alongside Comm Harris at a two-day Cross Border Police Conference at Cavan’s Farnham Estate last Monday.

Asked by the Celt how the two police services could expect to move forward collaboratively with legacy issues still looming large in the background, Comm Harris said because the issue of information sharing on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings is before the courts it would not be appropriate to comment “at this point”.

However, he stated: “When I step back from that particular case, there is full co-operation between ourselves and the Police Service of Northern Ireland within the bounds of the international agreements that we have.”

Comm Harris went on to say that measures facilitating the sharing of information are being “pursued, they are active and that’s ongoing at all times”.

Agreement

Chief Constable Jon Boutcher added that High Level Agreement, which supports mutual co-operation and exchange of information with the Operation Kenova Investigation Team in the context of criminal investigations, “enabled” him during his time at the head of the probe “to get access to the material about the Dublin and Monaghan attacks.

“My successor Iain Livingtone still works really closely and positively with An Garda Síochána, and there has been full and unfettered access to material for that inquiry, under the umbrella of Kenova.”