Ex-IRA man Pearse McAuley told: 'You'll disappear in a bog if you ...
“He was setting out his stall for what he was going to do when he got out … when he got a visit to the prison during which he was informed he would not be welcome back in Cavan.”
Garda killer Pearse McAuley was warned he ‘wouldn’t be the first man to disappear in a bog’ if he returned to Cavan on completing his sentence for the horror assault on Pauline Tully.
Two separate prison sources this week confirmed the threat was made to McAuley in Castlerea Prison in 2021 – approximately 12 months before his June 2022 release.
There is no suggestion whatsoever that Sinn Féin or Pauline Tully knew anything of the threat.
After McAuley, who was found dead in his Strabane home on Monday last, did regain his freedom, he moved back to Strabane.
“It was about 12 months before he got out and McAuley was basically doing his homework,” a source told the Sunday World.
“He was setting out his stall for what he was going to do when he got out … when he got a visit to the prison during which he was informed he would not be welcome back in Cavan.
“It was to the effect, if he was seen in Cavan again, he wouldn’t be the first man to disappear in the bog.”
In the aftermath of this meeting, it’s understood McAuley entered into correspondence with officials in Northern Ireland in a bid to ensure he would have no difficulties setting up home in the north after his release.
In the two years since getting out, McAuley lived quietly in his hometown.
The 59-year-old, who was living in a flat close to the centre of the town, made few public appearances and never attended any Sinn Féin or republican-organised events.
One picture obtained by the Sunday World following his release shows him attending a country concert with his partner Mary Shiels.
Prison sources said McAuley’s existence in Castlerea Prison during the seven years he served for the horrific and near fatal attack on ex-wife Pauline Tully was markedly different from his previous lengthy stint behind bars for the murder of Garda Jerry McCabe.
“He went from Republican royalty to one of the lowest rungs of the ladder,” the source said, “a woman-beater who had stabbed his wife in front of their children.
“Everyone knew, because of the high regard Pauline Tully was held in by decent Republicans, that he no longer had the protection of the movement.”
Details of the attack on Pauline Tully, now a Sinn Féin TD for Cavan-Monaghan, shocked even hardened Republicans.
It was Christmas Eve, 2014 when McAuley had arrived at the home of his estranged wife.
On arriving at 11am in the morning, she opened the door and he immediately punched her.
Then over the next four hours he inflicted 13 stab wounds with a steak knife.
This was carried out at least in part in front of their two children, then aged just seven and four.
As McAuley nodded off his drunkenness and Ms Tully made the decision to escape from the house.
