Conor Keane
THE ability of the gardaí to recruit members into its heavily armed Emergency Response Unit could evaporate if the Supreme Court decrees that gardaí involved in the shooting dead of an INLA man involved in an armed robbery are to be named.
And human rights group Amnesty International has taken a keen interest in the case of a dissident republican who was shot dead by gardaí during an armed robbery. INLA member John Morris, 26, of Sundale Close, Tallaght, Dublin, was shot by gardaí at the premises of Newspread, Goldenbridge Industrial Estate, Inchicore, Dublin, on June 4, 1997.
Real IRA activist Rónán MacLoughlain, 28, of Ballymun, Dublin, was shot dead by gardaí on May 1, 1998, during a failed robbery on a security van in Ashford, Co Wicklow.
The family of John Morris successfully appealed the ruling of Dublin Coroner Dr Brian Farrell that the gardaí involved in the shooting could give their evidence anonymously.
This judgement by Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen has been challenged by the State with the support of the gardaí involved and the case is to come before the Supreme Court in June.
In his judgement Mr Justice Kinlen said while anonymity may be necessary for national or personal security reasons, coroners had no power to grant it, and it was for the legislature, not the courts, to remedy the situation.
In the immediate aftermath of the death of John Morris, the INLA, who gave Mr Morris a military funeral, issued a statement through its political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, stating the death of its volunteer would not be forgotten. They accused the gardaí of a State execution.
The implied threat to the garda members in this statement prompted them and the State to seek anonymity when giving evidence at the inquest into the death of John Morris.
The ruling of the Supreme Court is awaited with interest and trepidation by the gardaí. If the court rules the officers involved should be identified then they and their families could be put in danger and subjected to retaliatory attack by the INLA.
This would make recruitment to the ERU and other armed sections of the force very problematic for the gardaí.
Three Tallaght men who were involved in the armed raid in which John Morris was shot pleaded guilty to a number of offences in relation to the incident.
Peter Maguire, 41, of Donomore Avenue, was given a seven year prison sentence with the final three years suspended. He was also jailed for four years after he admitted having a .22 rifle and telescopic sight.
Denis Thompson, 20, from Clonmore Drive, and Thomas Price, 29, of Bolbrook Drive, were each given seven years with the last five suspended.
Thompson and Price were also jailed for two years for having a .22 pistol.
During the case prosecuting counsel, Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, said the .22 pistol used in the robbery by John Morris was later examined by a garda ballistics expert who found that, while the hammer was half cocked, the magazine was empty.
The court also heard Morris pointed the unloaded gun directly at gardaí before he was shot.
Following the death of Rónán MacLochlain the Real IRA claimed him as a member and said he was acting under army orders at the time of the robbery.
Five men were given prison terms at the Special Criminal for their part in an attempted bank raid in which MacLoughlain was shot dead.
Pascal Burke, 34, of Marrowbone Lane, Dublin; Stephen Carney, 23, of Dolphin House, Dublin; Saoirse Breatnach, 24, of Cypress Court, Ballybrack, Co Dublin; Philip Forsythe, 25, of Rollins Villas, Sallynoggin, Co Dublin, and Danny McAllister 43, from Belfast, with an address at Cromlech Fields, Ballybrack, Co Dublin. Burke, Carney and McAllister were sentenced to eight years in prison and Breatnach and Forsythe to seven years for the attempted raid. The court took into account that Breathnach and Forsythe had no previous convictions.
All five pleaded guilty to having a Mossberg 12 gauge pump action sh

I is for internment of the innocent and free,

R is for resistance to the laws of tyranny.

E is for the english who have torn our land apart,

L is for the love and freedom in every irish heart

A is for the answers that were all looking for,

N is for one nation and an end to this long war,

D is for the dreams of millions longin to be free,

Family sue gardai over heist death
John Lee
RELATIVES of a republican terrorist killed by gardai during a bungled robbery are suing the state.
The parents of John Morris say they have compiled evidence to challenge the circumstances in which he was shot dead.

Twenty-six-year-old Morris was killed by a member of the garda siochana in June 1997 while carrying out an armed robbery at an industrial estate in Inchicore. Gardai testified that the shot was fired after Morris pointed his gun at them, a version of events the family disputes.

The Irish National Liberation Army admitted that the botched raid had been sanctioned by its leadership and Morris was given a full military funeral.

An inquest found in 2001, four years after the shooting, that he had died from gunshots fired by gardai.

The investigation had been held up by legal battles as the family fought for disclosure of garda documents and opposed requests by the force to maintain the anonymity of the gardai involved.

Now the family is seeking to have the coroner’s court verdict overturned because they believe some information about the circumstances of Morris’s death were not revealed.

The family withdrew from the inquest in 2001 because they were not given access to crucial papers until hours before.

Nor did they believe that the gardai who took part in the shooting should have been granted anonymity.

Anne Morris, the mother of the victim, said: “We do not want this to happen to anybody else. I have never condoned what John was involved with and I have no involvement with republican politics.”

She believes that new evidence will reveal a disturbingly different picture of what happened the day of her son’s death. The evidence cannot be made public for legal reasons.

Greg O’Neill, a human rights lawyer representing the family, said: “We want a new inquest to examine all the circumstances of the fatal shooting. The family’s concerns about the circumstances of the shooting would only be allayed by full disclosure of the facts” The High Court affidavit, which has been seen by The Sunday Times, alleges that the failure of the gardai and the coroner’s court to release “requisite information” about the shooting “accentuated (the family’s) concerns regarding the circumstances of the death of their late son”.

It also said: “(The Morris family) were concerned with rumours that they had heard that their son had been fired upon by the gardai at least on two occasions and had been fatally wounded.”

The gardai, who gave evidence behind screens at Dublin City Coroner’s Court after they were allegedly threatened, said they fired shots at Morris when he pointed a gun at one of them.

The inquest returned a finding rather than a verdict, which is more conclusive, that Morris was fatally injured at Goldenbridge industrial estate on June 4, 1997, and died from his injuries the following day.

Before he closed the inquest, Dr Brian Farrell, the coroner, said he regretted that the family of John Morris had withdrawn from the proceedings, as they would have had a greater insight into the death of their son.

The gardai giving evidence, referred to as garda A and garda B, said they had been in the area when they noticed a man crossing the road with his hand up his jumper. He was nearly hit by a car and his actions made them suspicious, they said.

Having gone into the estate, they saw two men with white balaclavas, one carrying a handgun and one carrying a knife. While garda A was at the other side of a nearby building, the two men came out of a fire door.

Garda B said that Morris turned towards him and pointed the gun at him. “I feared for my life and the life of my colleagues,” he said.

He fired three shots at Morris. Garda E, who was called to the scene, said he shot one round at Morris after seeing him point his gun at garda B. He said he shouted “armed gardai, stop”.

Garda