15 April 2005. O writes:

Let me start by thanking you for the huge amount of free publicity you and Peter Keeley (otherwise known as Kevin Fulton) have given the Dundalk Examiner over the last number of weeks. Both of you should seriously consider joining our payroll in between manufacturing your latest spy thrillers. What worries me though is the serious infatuation you both have with the paper and whether or not it exists. Sadly Cryptome has fallen victim to Peter Keeley once again, what is it you want to know about the paper. You have my number why didnt you have the courtesy to contact me and check out details before publishing your latest material. Is it the case that anything that Peter Keeley forwards you is published on your site, surely you would check some of it out, or maybe not. Keeley has been described in the media here in Ireland as a Walter Mitty, an attention seeker and a nuisance, as you can see he continues to live up to this reputation. Because Keeley's life is supposedly in danger we decided not to publish unmasked pictures of him, now he has left us no option but to give him our full undivided attention. If you require any further details about the paper please dont hesitate to contact us. As a good will gesture for all you have done for us I am going to give you a free advertisement in our next edition calling on anyone with good quality material to forward it to Cryptome as it seems you are publishing just anything that comes your way. If anyone requires a copy please call us and we can tell you were to purchase one. 04293-56842

Cryptome was accosted by O by telephone, endured the bellyaching, and suggested the "paper":

Publish the names and means of contact of the backer(s), publisher and editor.

Register as a legitimate business.

Make it available in public places, and set up a web site.

Invite reader responses for publication.

Answer reader inquiries and criticism.

Avoid bitching about criticism and skepticism.

Don't whine that NI is different from the rest of the world, that you can't do things there.

Best, publish a courageous paper: violate the Official Secrets Act, libel laws, the rigged censorship, the ancient authoritarianism, risk jail, earn reader trust.

15 April 2005. C writes:

Don't know what the big mystery is all about, I have a copy of the paper which I bought in Dundalk last night.

15 April 2005. A writes:

Owen Brennan [http://cryptome.org/garda-dis.htm] telephone numbers:

0879142774 mobile

0429356842 office

15 April 2005. M writes:

If the "Dundalk Examiner" is a hoax, a sting or disinformation then someone has gone to alot of trouble.  I have just recieved a hard copy of the paper. 

The paper was pushed through local letterboxes in certain housing estates around the town. 

You're more than welcome to have it but if you want to dig deeper into whos running it try ringing one of the various local companies who advertised in it!

15 April 2005. F writes:

I had wondered how the "Dundalk Examiner" had interviewed Toby Harnden (Journalist, author of Bandit Country).  Toby's been in prison in Zimbabwe (former Rhodesia) for several weeks.  He was released today. See BBC story from 2005/04/15 11:01:28 GMT:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4448193.stm

[Excerpt] 

Zimbabwe court clears journalists

The Zimbabwean authorities have dropped visa-related charges against two British journalists. The two were cleared on Thursday of illegally reporting on elections, but faced separate charges for allegedly overstaying their visas. Sunday Telegraph correspondent Toby Harnden, 37, and photographer Julian Simmonds, 46, were arrested in March. Outside the court, they were hugged by well-wishers, including their parents, who had flown in from the UK.

15 April 2005. The "Dundalk Examiner" may not exist as an established newspaper, instead it may be a a hoax, a sting or disinformation. A person in Dundalk, Ireland has searched newspaper outlets throughout the town for a copy of the "paper" and has not been able to find one. Confirmation of the existence of the paper is invited; send to: jya [at] pipeline.com.

April 15, 2005, message:

After going to every newsagent in Dundalk I could not come up with a single copy of the paper or any newsagent who had seen a copy. I was walking past the Court House and bingo there it was resting on the side of the road. It was basically a computer print out of whats on Cryptome printed out and stapled together. It appears that Cryptome is the publisher of the Dundalk Examiner!

April 14, 2005, message:

I stomped around all the newsagents in Dunalk today and could not get a copy or found anybody who had seen it on the news stands. A mate in Dublin says he has a copy he's going to post it to me, if its a full newspaper I will scan/send you a copy. At the moment my opinion is at best this is some self-published flyer.

I tried to find them by phoning yellow pages but no reference. No registered office.

The more and more I look at this case the more confused I get. I checked out your http://cryptome.org/corrigan.htm reference. The dates are all out of wack.

http://www.victims.org.uk/26-4-00a.html claims Donaldson named the DS in or around 26-4 but the Hansard reference is 20th of December 2000, how does that work?

Was the A who put two and two together a trusted source or is this all the same guy dermotahern@hotmail.com, Larry Carberry and Owen Brennan.

I like a good sting. Will let you know if I turn anything else up.

April 13, 2005, message:

I still cannot find a copy of the Dundalk Examiner in any of the paper shops. Looking at the paper's heading I noticed that the picture of Andrea Corr is from the 1998 Landsdown Road Concert which is not a current image, the Bandit Country is badly cropped and the name of the ex-Garda is incorrectly spelt. The picture is I would guess some 10 years old.

Can I ask did you get a copy of the newspaper or just an electronic "scan" of the front page and the text? [Electronic.]

I'm trying to find out who the distributor of the paper is to see if I can track down a physical copy.

April 12, 2005, message:

After reading http://cryptome.org/garda-dis.htm I rushed off to my local paper shop to bag me a copy and it was not on the shelf. I was told there is a new paper with this title to be published sometime in April but as yet its not hit the newstands.

10 April 2005

Related:

http://cryptome.org/garda-dis.htm
http://cryptome.org/corrigan.htm

[PDFs of pages 1 and 4 provided by A. and Dundalk Examiner. dundalkexaminer@online.ie]

Dundalk Examiner (Page 1 dated Friday, April 8, 2005) (Page 4 dated 26 March, 2005)

EXCLUSIVE

DETECTIVE TO FIGHT SPY CLAIMS

Ex-Garda says tribunal allegations are fiction

By Larry Carberry

A Garda detective alleged to be an IRA spy has said he is delighted that a government inquiry which will clear his name is being set up.

Former Special Branch Det. Sgt. Eoin Corrigan has described claims that he worked for the IRA while serving as a Special Branch officer in Dundalk as "total fiction." Mr. Corrigan is to be a key figure in the judicial tribunal chaired by Judge Peter Smithwick into the killing of RUC men Chief Supt. Harry Breen and Supt. Bob Buchanan at Edenappa in March 1989.

They had just crossed the Border on a return journey from Dundalk Garda Station when their car was ambushed Claims that a rogue garda had set up the operation were made in the British media.

Later, Eoin Corrigan was named by Jeffery Donaldson in the House of Commons. Because of Parliamentary privilege, the former garda officer could not take legal action.

Det. Sgt. Corrigan, now Drogheda businessman, has until now refused to speak to the media since the allegations were first made.

He has spoken exclusively to The Dundalk Examiner.

PAISLEY

"Ian Paisley was the first man to shout that there was Garda collusion in the Breen-Buchanan ambush. After that, a lot of people jumped on the band-wagon," said Mr. Corrigan.

"I am absolutely confident that some of those who made these claims will be shown up."

Two of those who reported the allegations of Garda collusion, journalists Kevin Myers and Toby Harnden, are expected to refuse to appear at the tribunal, where they would be questioned about their sources. Both have already been criticised by Judge Peter Cory, the Canadian investigator who examined their claims at the request of the Irish Government.

Det. Sgt Corrigan is confident that the truth about him would emerge from the Smithwick inquiry. But he is uncertain if the whole truth will emerge.

"I don't rule out that, for their own reasons, false information about me may have been fed to the RUC by certain Garda members. How else would Paisley and the others have got my name?"

SUBVERSIVES

At the time, there was friction among Garda officers in Dundalk. "Some of the things that were said about me were very hurtful," said Mr. Corrigan.

"Nobody was more opposed to the IRA than me. I had 30 years of service, in and out of the Special Criminal Court, and keeping surveillance on subversives at great personal risk. I am hurt at the suggestion that I conspired in the Breen-Buchanan killings."

The ex-sergeant said: "Nobody gave the IRA more hassle than I did."

The former Special Branch man also spoke about a Newry convict, Peter Keeley, who provided information to unionist MPs and to Judge Peter Cory.

Keeley who uses the name Kevin Fulton is quoted by Judge Cory as making allegations about Garda collusion.

Fulton appears on British TV regularly wearing a mask and claiming to be a former British spy.

"My lawyers have said they cannot wait to get him in the tribunal witness box. They believe they will take him to pieces - if he turns up," Mr. Corrigan told The Dundalk Examiner.

DROMAD

The former Special Branch officer also revealed that gardai had no advance information which would have allowed the IRA to set up the ambush.

He said the two RUC men had said before leaving Dundalk Garda Station that they intended to return the way they come - travelling on the N1 from Newry through Dromad. There was an escort waiting for them at Killeen, but they went up a back road.

"This may have been for security reasons. Or they may have changed their minds on the journey, and decided to go the Edenappa way. But one thing is certain, they were followed all the way from Dundalk," said Mr. Corrigan.

The IRA had every Border crossing covered long before those RUC men arrived. Breen was their target. The IRA wanted him because he appeared on TV to talk about the SAS killings of 8 IRA men at Loughgall. He was in charge of that operation, he said.

Speaking exclusively to The Dundalk Examiner, author of Bandit Country Toby Harnden gave us the following statement in relation to Garda collusion allegations...

Author of the book ‘Bandit Country’, Toby Harnden, speaks exclusively to the Examiner

"I have always said that I would be happy to assist any inquiry into the circumstances of the Breen and Buchanan killings, subject, of course, to my duty as a journalist to protect confidential sources. That remains the case."

"I willingly assisted both the Garda and the RUC on separate occasions in 2000 when two officers from each force flew out to speak to me informally. No one from Judge Peter Cory's inquiry team saw fit to contact me, an omission that clearly calls into question the thoroughness of his investigation."

"In 'Bandit Country', I identified the two Garda officers suspected of collusion with the IRA as Garda X and Garda Y. At this stage I am not going to make any comment as to their names."

"As far as I can recall, before publication of my book in November 1999 I had never met or spoken to Kevin Myers."

"My book is a serious work of scholarship based on extensive research as well as interviews with British Army, RUC, Garda and IRA members, amongst others. The section on the killings of Ch Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan - by far the most detailed account of what happened - speaks for itself and I would urge anyone interested in this issue to read it carefully before rushing to any judgements."

"The section is, however, only one element of the history of South Armagh. About 150,000 copies of 'Bandit Country' have been bought in Ireland, the UK and elsewhere in the world and I have no doubt that the publicity surrounding the Breen and Buchanan killings - the overwhelming majority of it not generated by me - has played but a small part in this."

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