Two Former Garda Members To Face Tribunal

It has been known for some time that former Dundalk Detective Sergeant Owen Corrigan, now a publican in nearby Drogheda, would be facing the Smithwick tribunal to answer questions that members of the Gardai colluded with paramilitaries in the fatal shootings of RUC Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and RUC Superintendent Robert Buchanan on March 20 1989, at Edenappa Road Jonesboro, just outside Dundalk, but during the week the name of retired Sergeant Leo Colton was added to the list.

Corrigan has been named in a statement made under parliamentary privilege in the House of Commons in 2000 by then Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson, now a member of the DUP. Mr Donaldson had claimed that Mr Corrigan had passed on information to the Provisional IRA which led to the killing of the two RUC officers, as they made their way back to Belfast after a meeting with their counterparts in the Crescent Garda Station in Dundalk.

It's probably no big surprise to many that Colton's name is now involved, since he was allowed to retire, unblemished, with full pension, despite being embroiled in a scandal, involving a young girl, which centred around the tennis club on the Ramparts.

Some years ago his name was mentioned as being the person who put pressure on ex Garda Finbar Hickey, when he was on the force, to process passport applications for persons who would not have succeeded in having their applications approved through the normal channels, a story which must seem to tie in with the current accusation.