The Murder of John Corcoran:
Dick Spring aptly characterised the statement in the Dáil on Wednesday, January 28 last, by the minister for justice, John O'Donoghue, on the 1985 murder of John Corcoran. Dick Spring said the reply was “an absolute disgrace.” The whole conduct of this case has been an absolute disgrace all along.
Those implicated in that disgrace are the Garda Síochána right up to the highest levels, the Department of Justice (of course), and now, most spectacularly, Mr O'Donoghue.
In his reply to Dick Spring in an adjournment debate on January 28 (see page 8), John O'Donoghue made an intriguing disclosure. It was that in late 1988 or 1989 “a garda investigation file was forwarded to the director of public prosecutions with a view to prosecuting the person involved [Sean O'Callaghan] in Northern Ireland under the provisions of the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act 1976.” Mr O'Donoghue went on to say that “this aspect was subsequently overtaken by events when the person was convicted on a charge of murder in Northern Ireland and received two life sentences there.”
But if in 1989 the gardaí wanted Sean O'Callaghan prosecuted for the murder of John Corcoran, why was it that they showed no interest at all in the case when Sean O'Callaghan was released from prison in Northern Ireland in late 1996?
John O'Donoghue apparently has bought the line that the investigation of the case has been “hampered by the continued absence” outside the jurisdiction of Sean O'Callaghan.
But they made no attempt at all to contact Sean O'Callaghan on his release from jail. Indeed, even though Magill made Sean O'Callaghan's mobile-telephone number available to the garda officer supposedly investigating this case, he couldn't be bothered pursuing the matter, at least until the end of January last, once his first attempt to telephone the number had failed to elicit an answer.
As we reported in the February issue of Magill, the much-trumpeted report into the case had been completed and given to the Department of Justice before any contact had been made with Sean'O Callaghan or any contact had been attempted. In spite of this,
John O'Donoghue declared to the Dáil: “I am satisfied from a report I recently received from the garda that they are pursuing the investigations as far as they can.”
Is there not an extraordinary co-incidence between the garda reluctance to pursue this case at all and the existence of evidence that they themselves were complicit in the murder of John Corcoran? This evidence again comes from Sean O'Callaghan, and, in this respect at least, it is compelling.
O'Callaghan has said repeatedly that prior to the murder of John Corcoran, he (O'Callaghan), who was a top level garda informer at the time, told the gardaí of the imminent fate of John Corcoran and of where he was being held. We have been informed by garda sources that the gardaí at the time decided not to intervene to save the life of John Corcoran because by doing so they would blow the “cover” of their most valuable informer ever, Sean O'Callaghan.
Given that, at the time (1985), O'Callaghan was supplying the gardaí with the most valuable information on what was going on within the IRA, it would have been inconceivable that he would have withheld information on the imminent execution of a low-level garda informant.
John Corcoran had been such an informant, and, as such, one would have expected the gardaí to be particularly solicitous about his welfare.
There is clear evidence of a concerted cover-up over what happened to John Corcoran. It is obvious that those involved in the cover-up are the gardaí, the Department of Justice and, now, John O'Donoghue himself, who less than a year ago was promising full disclosure of what occurred.
We should expect a further twist to this case in the next few months, with the publication in May of Sean O'Callaghan's account of his life in the IRA and his role as a garda informer. It is obvious that O'Callaghan will deny his involvement in the murder of John Corcoran and that he will have some elaborate but ultimately unbelievable explanation of why he earlier said he was involved. However incredible that explanation will be, it will be seized upon by the gardaí as yet another reason for closing the file on the
John Corcoran case forever.
So, for the record, let us recall what O'Callaghan said previously about his involvement in that murder.
According to the Kerryman of November 29, 1988, O'Callaghan said in an interview (with the editor of that newspaper, Gerard Colleran):
“I personally shot Corcoran using a machine gun. I felt no remorse for the murder….
“I had to travel to Monaghan to meet the IRA's chief of staff to get permission to shoot [Corcoran]….
“[Leading up to the murder,] John Corcoran spoke to me. I taped most of what he said. I sent the tape to his family. [Prior to the murder,] we were sitting in a field chatting for three or four hours.
“He didn't try to get away. He was not arguing. He was not blindfolded. He knelt down on the ground and I shot. I said a prayer, an act of contrition before I shot him. He turned his back. He was shot in the back of the head.
“Corcoran said ‘go easy'. That was it.”
He gave similar accounts in interviews later with the Sunday Times and the Boston Globe, detailing in these interviews how he had informed the gardaí of where Corcoran was being held and of the imminence of his murder.