Call for Irish army ‘collusion inquiry’
AN MP has called for an inquiry by the Irish government into “possible collusion”, after it emerged that a man charged with the attempted murder of a PSNI officer in Co Fermanagh was a part-time member of the Irish army.
East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell said the revelation that Gerard James McManus was only dismissed from the Irish Reserve on Tuesday would cause widespread alarm “throughout the community” in Northern Ireland.
The 26-year-old, from Fern Hill in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, was arrested after shots were fired during an undercover police operation in Garrison village last Saturday night.
McManus appeared in court on Wednesday, charged with attempting to murder a trainee officer.
“There are now serious questions which must be answered in relation to the training provided to this terror suspect by the defence forces in the Irish Republic,” Mr Campbell said last night.
“Collusion between the Irish authorities and the Provisional IRA during the worst years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland was long suspected of having taken place. I am calling upon the government of the Irish Republic to establish an immediate, thorough and in-depth inquiry into possible collusion between their defence forces and dissident republican terror gangs.”
The DUP MP said people here must be “reassured that the Republic is not reverting to the bad old ways of the past”.
