 The security conference with Gardaí in Dundalk had been set up after a dinner at Stormont House on 6 March, which had been attended by both Breen and Buchanan.It was there that Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Tom King had suggested the meeting after receiving reports from a British Army colonel about the cross-border smuggling activities of a well-known IRA man whose property straddled the Armagh/Louth border.According to Sgt Alan Mains, Breen was "specifically directed to speak with the Guards [Gardai] and the Army, and to come up with some kind of reply for the Chief Constable and the Secretary of State".