THE kidnap of Shergar in 1983, one of Ireland’s most notorious unsolved crimes, could have been prevented, classified files reveal.

An investigation by the Irish Mail on Sunday reveals gardaí were warned months in advance about the IRA’s plan to steal the racehorse, but the crucial information was not acted upon because of a previous intelligence leak.

The explosive revelation is contained in a sworn protected disclosure to the Garda Ombudsman (GSOC) by a former Garda detective who has also provided an accompanying dossier of evidence to substantiate his concerns.

The dossier., which has been seen by the MoS, confirms:

• A trusted informant gave more than six months warning that the IRA was planning to steal a valuable horse for ransom;

• The informant provided specific details of the plan and named some of the operatives involved;

• He also told how a horsebox had already been stolen and how dummy runs had been practised.

However, a prior intelligence failure had compromised the informant and prevented his Garda handler from taking action about the warnings before Shergar was taken.

The 33-page disclosure detailing these and other events was made in a formal statement by former Clare-based Garda Detective, Martin Kenirons, in late 2019.

Aside from concerns about the Shergar case, the GSOC dossier details matters relating to other historical cases Det Kenirons asked GSOC to investigate in the public interest.

But in February this year, GSOC confirmed it had decided not to open a full investigation into any of these cases.

‘The Commission cannot overlook the passage of time and the difficulties arising that flow from this time gap,’ concluded the chairperson, Judge Mary Ellen Ring.

Det Kenirons’ dossier details how his informant, horse trader Denis Minogue, had a track record before he provided the tip-off that a high-value horse like Shergar was to be taken.

A prior tip-off from Minogue had enabled Det Kenirons to solve a bank robbery and detain the INLA subversives responsible.

But Minogue, who died in 2018, was compromised as a source when he told Det Kenirons that a Garda officer’s son was involved with the IRA. When Det Kenirons fed that information to Garda intelligence it was leaked back to the IRA, resulting in Minogue being abducted and tortured.

Because Minogue had been compromised as a source, Det Kenirons felt he could not pass on any further tip-offs to Garda intelligence.

The dossier confirms Det Kenirons was supported in his decision to protect his source by Detective Inspector Seán O’Connell, who died in June this year. Sworn statements from him are included in the dossier.

According to his GSOC disclosure, Minogue first told Det Kenirons about subversives’ plans to steal a horse for ransom in August/September 1982. That means gardaí could have been in a position to warn stud farms – and potentially catch any thieves red-handed – six months before Shergar was sensationally seized from the Aga Khan’s Ballymany Stud overlooking the Curragh on February 8, 1983.

According to the GSOC dossier, Minogue also spoke of named subversive individuals holding meetings in his house during which they discussed taking a horse from a stud in Wicklow. None of this information was provided to Garda intelligence before the theft of Shergar.

As outlined in the dossier, the team subsequently met with Minogue and Shergar shareholder and vet Stan Cosgrove, who died in 2019, aged 90.

At these meetings, Minogue purported to be an intermediary with the kidnappers and said he had seen Shergar after being taken on a blindfolded journey. Details about a hoof condition – only known to Shergar’s medical team – convinced Cosgrove of Minogue’s legitimacy and he prepared to fund a ransom.

However, this led to a botched ransom attempt which resulted in £80,000 being stolen from the boot of Det Kenirons’ car.

The botched operation was covered up and publicly denied by Cosgrove until many months later when a letter he had sent to Minogue about the money was discovered during an unrelated Garda search.

In a subsequent disciplinary inquiry in 1986, Det Kenirons was admonished for his role in the ransom and sacked.

GSOC this weekend said it ‘has no comment to make on this matter’ when contacted by the MoS.

A Garda spokesperson also declined to comment, saying: ‘An Garda Síochána is precluded from commenting on matters relating to or information contained in protected disclosures. An Garda Síochána does not comment on decisions of GSOC.’

Garda: ‘I was warned racehorse would be kidnapped

THERE is a good reason why Detective Martin Kenirons stopped trusting the integrity of the Garda intelligence system.

It all stems back to October 20, 1981, when he sat down at his desk in Killaloe Garda Station to type out a secret intelligence report.

On foot of information provided by an informant, the report named a Garda officer’s son as being associated with the IRA.

It then detailed how the officer’s son had been seeking to buy milk churns and use a yard in which trucks of fertiliser could be secretly stored.

The tip-off, involving information about commonly used bomb-making materials, was something that required complete secrecy.

‘The matter should be handled very delicately and no action should be taken except in consultation with this branch,’ was how Garda intelligence in HQ responded as the report was noted on file a few days later.

But somehow the information was leaked, resulting in the abduction and torture by the IRA of Det. Kenirons’ source, local horse trader Denis Minogue, as they sought to identify the mole in their ranks.

The interrogation took place at sea on a boat launched from Cappagh pier, near Kilrush in west Clare.

The far-reaching consequences of this leak have now, decades later, been outlined for the first time in an explosive protected disclosure and sworn statement that Det. Kenirons has made to Garda Ombudsman (GSOC).

‘I was shocked at the injuries he had to his face,’ the sworn GSOC disclosure reads as the beating administered to his informant is described by Det. Kenirons.

‘One of his eyes was closed and his face was disfigured… He then showed me his index finger on his right hand where they had attempted to pull out his fingernail. His finger was severely injured.’

The statement, taken from Det. Kenirons by two GSOC investigators over four days in October and November 2019, goes on to describe how Minogue then pulled a Kalashnikov bullet from his pocket.

‘This is what I was told I would be shot with,’ his informant had told him.

• 

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By now Det. Kenirons had lost faith in the ability of the force to keep secrets. And a valuable informant was compromised.

On the advice of one Garda he knew was not responsible for the leak, Shannonbased Detective Inspector Seán O’Connell, Det. Kenirons then resolved to stay silent to protect Minogue as a valuable source.

‘The following morning Detective Inspector Seán O’Connell met me at a pub in Bunratty,’ the disclosure reads.

‘I informed him what had happened and he told me not to, under any circumstances, file a confidential report from that person [Minogue] … as I will finish up finding him in a plastic bag. After this incident I questioned everything I was doing in the Garda and developed a mistrust for authority.’

As a result of his source being compromised, Det. Kenirons was unable to act on future information provided, including details of IRA arms hidden in horse trucks.

‘I informed Detective Inspector Seán

O’Connell of this information and of the source of the information,’ the disclosure reads. ‘Detective Inspector O’Connell told me if it’s the same source we will only get him shot.’

On other occasions, Minogue passed on secret Garda intelligence files the IRA had obtained and discussed at meetings in his house. But to protect him, Det. Kenirons had to stay silent.

Not all, however, was lost. Sometimes fate and some creative thinking allowed for a middle ground.

One such occasion presented itself on the evening of Thursday, June 10, 1982, when Minogue told Det. Kenirons he’d been asked to give a lift to a man who had left a Ford car at Two Mile Gate, a popular picnic spot near Killaloe on the banks of Lough Derg. The man had left the key under the front wheel arch and, with the help of Minogue’s lift, had caught the train back to Dublin.

Checking out the location that night, Det. Kenirons and a colleague, who was unaware of the Minogue tip-off, found the key and secretly disabled the vehicle.

The following morning, at 7.10am, Det. Kenirons returned in a patrol car driven by another colleague. And as they approached they spotted two men with wet trousers walking down the road.

‘I recognised one of the men as Henry Doherty [a notorious INLA figurehead],’ the GSOC disclosure reads. ‘I got out and was armed with an Uzi machine gun. I arrested Doherty and the other man William Browning under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.’

The arrest would soon make national headlines and solve a £56,000 armed bank robbery that had taken place the previous day at an AIB branch in Tipperary town.

In a follow up search a third man – Gerry Roche – was later arrested by Det. Kenirons as he slept nearby on the banks of the Shannon.

Henry Doherty, who had £1,494 wrapped in a black plastic bag when arrested, was ultimately convicted of the bank robbery and received a six-year sentence.

Today, Roche remains on the run for the murder of Garda Jerry McCabe in 1996.

But just how the bank robbers came to be detained with the help of information provided by Minogue has been kept secret ever since.

Det. Kenirons never told anyone beyond discussing the matter with Det. Insp O’Connell, who continued to advise discretion.

But as far as Det. Kenirons was concerned, his informant had been a vital element in the detention of subversive bank robbers – even after the Garda intelligence system. had nearly seen him exposed as a double agent and killed.

This is why Det. Kenirons had every good reason to trust the information Minogue was providing.

Then, in mid-1982, Minogue provided a fateful tip-off that would change Det. Kenirons’ life and ultimately see him fired.

‘Sometime in August/September 1982, I had received information from Denis Minogue that he’d been asked to take part in the theft of a racehor Seánd that a dummy run had already taken place and that a horse box had already been stolen,’ the GSOC statement reads.

Once again, Det. Kenirons discussed the matter with Det. Insp O’Connell, who advised ‘not to pass this information on’.

Even when Minogue referred to the plan again several months later, Det. Kenirons remained silent.

Then, at 8.40pm on February 8, 1983, Shergar was stolen by a group of armed men, one of whom was wearing a Garda uniform.

‘Following the robbery’Detective Inspector Seán O’Connell contacted me and asked me to find out if my informant was involved in the theft of Shergar,’ the GSOC statement reads.

‘I made contact with Minogue… and he stated that he was not involved but it was an exact replica of the plan he had informed me of previously.’

Det Kenirons and Det. Insp O’Connellnow knew they had to act.

On February 12, 1983 – four days after the robbery – Det. Kenirons once again sat down to type out a fateful intelligence report. based on information from Minogue.

The report outlined how Minogue had spoken of named subversive individuals holding meetings in his house which discussed stealing a valuable horse for ransom.

It outlined how those present were considering a stud in Wicklow and that a ransom was to be demanded for the safe return of the horse.

The report described dummy runs that had been practised involving a stolen horse box travelling behind an advance car with a two-way radio to warn of any gardaí ahead.

It described how the plan involved the stolen horse being exchanged at a rendezvous point in Birr, Co. Offaly, before being brought to Minogue’s yard for safekeeping.

What would have happened if this information had been reported through the Garda intelligence system six months earlier?

Would it have been compromised – as before – resulting in Minogue being exposed as a double agent and killed? Or could it have prevented one of Ireland’s most notorious unsolved crimes and potentially seen the culprits caught redhanded?

At the very least the intelligence, if made known to stud farms, would have allowed the owners of potential high-value targets such as Shergar to better secure their valuable assets.

Prior to Shergar’s theft, the idea of holding a racehorse for ransom was unheard of anywhere. The sheer novelty of the idea – combined with the global superstar status of Shergar – rocked the equine world.

In the 1980s Ireland was undergoing a terrifying and violent wave of audacious armed raids and kidnappings for ransom as the IRA ramped up its fundraising activities.

In 1981, for example, as the H Block hunger strike was in full swing, supermarket heir Ben Dunne was kidnapped’ and a £500,000 ransom was demanded.

In 1982, the daughters of two Louth bank managers were kidnapped’ and released after a £50,000 payment was sought.

Shergar’s February 1983 theft was followed by a spate of other kidnappings including those of publisher Albert Folens in March 1983 and the wife and daughter of steel importer Peter Simms in April 1983.

That was followed in November 1983 by kidnapping of Quinnsworth executive Don Tidey, which ended in a shoot-out that took the lives of a trainee garda and a member of the Defence Forces.

Anything deemed of value – paintings, artwork, businessmen and their families – were all targets of IRA raids. Why not a thoroughbred horse – especially one that had been paraded through the streets of Newbridge as the world’s most valuable animal upon his arrival at Ballymany Stud in October 1981?

In hindsight, it was probably only a matter of time before someone thought of stealing a horse such as Shergar.

‘Although no one recognised it at the time the theft of Shergar, or another valuable thoroughbred like him, was inevitable under the circumstances,’ concluded award-winning racing journalist Milton C. Toby, in his definitive 2018 book Taking Shergar; Thoroughbred Racing’s Most Famous Cold Case.

Now we know that not only was such a theft inevitable – it could have been prevented entirely had the Garda intelligence system not been fatally compromised.

Proof that such crimes can be prevented if the authorities, armed with the appropriate intelligence, are able to identify and protect a potential target in advance came in August 1983.

Just six months after the theft of Shergar, the attempted abduction of multi-millionaire Galen Weston was foiled when gardaí lying in wait opened fire on the gang arriving to seize him.

We will never know what could have been had Det. Kenirons’ informant not been compromised.

But Shergar may have had a chance to avoid his tragic fate and the history of the world’s most famous lost racehorse might have been written very differently.