Adams: Government aided SAS in killing of Gibraltar three
Thursday February 28 2008
The three IRA members shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar were gunned down after the Irish Government passed on information about their movements, Gerry Adams claimed last night.
The Sinn Fein president declared: "I cannot prove that, but that is my conviction.''
Mairead Farrell (31) Danny McCann (30) and Sean Savage (23), all from west Belfast, were shot by undercover soldiers as they prepared to launch a car bomb attack on troops based on The Rock almost 20 years ago.
It was claimed the three had been under surveillance by British intelligence and the authorities in Spain who monitored their movements as they crossed into Gibraltar, apparently after leaving Ireland on a flight out of Dublin.
All three were unarmed when they were shot and later a car with 140lbs of explosives was found.
Charles Haughey was Taoiseach at the time with Brian Lenihan as his foreign minister. Margaret Thatcher was in power at Downing Street.
Mr Adams said last night: "It is my strong view that the killings in Gibraltar were authorised by Margaret Thatcher, and it is my strong view that the Irish Government of the day passed information to the authorities about the movements of those killed.
"I cannot prove that, but that it my conviction.''
Killings
Sinn Fein is planning a series of events to commemorate the deaths of the three as well as four killings which followed back in Belfast in the days which followed -- an IRA man Kevin McCracken (31) shot dead by British soldiers in Turf Lodge, and the three mourners killed by loyalist Michael Stone when he launched a gun and grenade attack at the Milltown Cemetery funerals of the Gibraltar victims.
The ruling body of the Northern Ireland Assembly is to decide whether an international women's day event organised by Sinn Fein MLA Jennifer McCann, commemorating Mairead Farrell, will go ahead inside Parliament Buildings at Stormont.
It will also make a decision on a request by DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson who has proposed an event in the Long Gallery to acknowledge the work of the SAS.
- Mark Lammey
