Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Taoiseach refuses to take bodies of IRA gang shot dead in Gibraltar by SAS
EX-TAOISEACH Charles Haughey did not want the bodies of three IRA members shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar to be taken home through the Republic, archived papers have disclosed.
An elite team opened fire in March 1988 because they believed the republicans were about to detonate a remotecontrolled bomb in the tiny British territory in the Mediterranean.
The Irish leader wanted the RAF to fly their remains to Belfast rather than allowing their families to bring them through Dublin, which would have been a propaganda coup for Sinn Fein. A Northern Ireland Office official wrote: “Haughey this afternoon implored us personally through the ambassador in Dublin to ensure the bodies of the three IRA terrorists shot in Gibraltar were kept out of the Republic at all costs.
“He made clear he would not admit to this request in public.”
Mr Haughey’s secret intervention was disclosed in documents newly released by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
An inquest found the SAS acted within the law when they shot dead the unarmed republicans, who were hailed as martyrs by IRA supporters.
Daniel Mccann, 30, Sean Savage, 24, and Mairead Farrell, 31, were gunned down as they walked towards the Spanish border.
Critics of Margaret Thatcher’s government claimed it was part of an unofficial shoot-to-kill policy pursued against the Provisionals.
Mr Haughey was once charged but acquitted of conspiracy to import arms for the IRA at the start of the Troubles.
The file, released as part of the disclosure of 1991 papers, said his idea following the Gibraltar killings was that the RAF would fly the bodies to Belfast rather than via a charter flight to Dublin organised by the families.
A civil servant claimed: “This proposal is clearly designed to solve a problem confronting Mr Haughey. It has however the attraction for us that it could short-circuit the current plans