The RUC chief superintendant whose murder by the IRA is to be the subject of a tribunal of inquiry because of allegations of gardai collusion, was himself deeply involved in collusion with loyalist paramilitaries. This is according to evidence given to the Oireachtas committee considering the Barron report.
Chief superintendant Harry Breen was murdered along with his RUC colleague, Bob Buchanan in March 1989 in an IRA ambush at Jonesborough, north of the border. They were returning to Newry from a meeting with Gardai in Dundalk.
The government last year agreed to establish an inquiry into the allegations of gardai collusion in the murders. This followed a recommendation by Judge Peter Cory.
However, Justice for the Forgotten, the group representing relatives of the 34 people murdered in the Dublin-Monaghan bombs of May 1974, has revealed that the allegations that Breen himself colluded with paramilitaries were put to the government in 1999. Breen's family denied them at the time.
The allegations were among those which led to the establishment of the Hamilton inquiry, which was taken over and completed by Mr Justice Henry Barron.
They were made by former RUC man, John Weir. Although Weir is himself a convicted loyalist murderer, Barron concluded his evidence should be taken seriously. Weir claimed Breen, and other RUC officers, helped supply guns to the UVF in Portadown. He said Breen brought guns to a farm in Glennanne belonging to a former RUC reservist.
Members and associates of this "Glenanne group" carried out the Dublin-Monaghan bombs, as well as multiple sectarian murders of catholics during the 1970's. According to Justice for the Forgotten: "It would be untenable to hold an inquiry in to the murder of Harry Breen while refusing to order a public inquiry into the murder of 34 people in the Dublin-Monaghan bombs."
Justice for the Forgotten has also revealed that Colin Wallace, former senior British Army information officer, supplied the Oireachtas committee with evidence of collusion between the RUC's special branch and the same loyalist/security forces gang.
In June 1974, just weeks after the bombs, Wallace applied for permission to "target" a list of named loyalist paramilitaries. This process was aimed at using disinformation to compromise individuals, possibly setting them up for assassination.
Special Branch vetoed permission in the cases of several of those on the list – including some of the chief suspects for the Dublin- Monaghan bombs.
Some of these men, including UDR man Harris Boyle, and the notorious Robin Jackson, went on to carry out many murders. "In the light of all this evidence, we are confident it will call for a tribunal of inquiry," said Greg O'Neill, solicitor for Justice for the Forgotten.
