UTV, 09 December 2005
Mr Ahern made little attempt to hide his anger about the Stormont police raid which brought the institutions
in the North of Ireland down:
Spy case 'a lot of grief for no prosecutions'
"This brought down the institutions ... We had hundreds of troops descending on the Stormont building for what we
were told at the time was irrefutable evidence. It vanished yesterday with no prosecutions.
It was a lot of grief for no prosecutions."
Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern expressed his bafflement today at the collapse of the Stormont spying trial.
Mr Ahern made little attempt to hide his anger over the prosecution of three
men, which led to the suspension of the devolved institutions in Northern
Ireland in 2002.
Speaking after talks with Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street, the Irish premier
said the affair had caused massive problems both for him and the British
Prime Minister, but had now "vanished like snow in June".
A judge at Belfast Crown Court yesterday acquitted Sinn Fein official Denis
Donaldson, his son-in-law Ciaran Kearney and civil servant William Mackessy
after the Public Prosecution Service said it would offer no further evidence.
The three men were arrested in October 2002 at the time of a police raid on
Sinn Fein`s offices at Stormont.
At a Sinn Fein press conference today, Mr Donaldson claimed the prosecution
was "a political policing operation" designed to save the position of then
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble.
Mr Ahern said he was unaware of the Sinn Fein conference.
He told reporters: "This brought down the institutions and created huge
grief for me and for the Prime Minister.
"We had hundreds of troops descending on the Stormont building for what we
were told at the time was irrefutable evidence.
"It vanished yesterday with no prosecutions. It was a lot of grief for no
prosecutions.
"I think it is all very interesting and I don`t quite understand."
