Gadaffi to CJ: Theories rage in equine whodunnit
There was even a suggestion in whispering circles that the syndicate themselves orchestrated the kidnapping because the horse was turning out to be less of a stud than anticipated. However, given that most of the insurance policies were void without proof of the animal’s death, that one didn’t get up to a gallop.
The most plausible and enduring explanation points the finger at the IRA. There is no doubt that the organisation was in need of cash and that it was one of the few groupings with the expertise, firepower and audacity to carry out a kidnapping. It seems more than coincidence that its members were involved in kidnapping Quinnsworth boss Don Tidey and the attempted kidnapping of businessman Galen Weston later that year.
The IRA also knew the back roads and border counties like the back of their hands and if, as many believe, Shergar is buried in Co Leitrim, there would have been no better scouts to find a safe plot.
At the time, however, there was some doubt, given the uncharacteristically sloppy research done by the kidnappers who don’t seem to have known Shergar was not owned outright by the Aga Khan but by 35 disparate shareholders.
Some days after Shergar was taken, however, although it was not revealed by gardaí for many years, a loaded magazine from an automatic rifle of the type used by IRA units operating in South Armagh was found by a boundary wall near the main gate of Ballymany Stud. Former IRA activist and killer turned police informer, Sean O’Callaghan from Tralee, backed the theory in his book “The Informer” and again in an interview for a Mint Productions documentary on the Shergar mystery for RTÉ in 2004.
He claimed to know the kidnap gang, naming among them convicted killer and former senior IRA man Kevin Mallon and former Sinn Féin councillor for Dublin, Nicky Kehoe. Mallon has been less than communicative on the issue and Kehoe doesn’t take the allegation seriously.
In recent years Sinn Féin has used its contacts in efforts to recover the remains of The Disappeared, people buried in secret after their abduction and murder by the IRA, but a spokesman said no such approach had ever been made about helping to find Shergar.
Asked if the party would be open to such an approach, he said: “We don’t expect anybody would ever make that request.”
A Garda spokeswoman said the file on the case, still located at Naas Garda Station where Chief Supt Murphy created it, remains open but, “No-one has any appetite for discussing it.”
THE more bizarre theories include: nColonel Gadaffi of Libya had the IRA steal Shergar in exchange for weapons, because he opposed the Aga Khan’s role as Muslim spiritual leader.
The New Orleans Mafia took Shergar because they believed they were owed a horse after an investor failed to honour a loan made available to him to buy another Aga Khan horse in a deal which fell through.
A rival horse dealer stole Shergar in revenge, because he blamed the Aga Khan for raising doubts as to his ownership of some other bloodstock after the death of the original owner.
The Haughey link is just one of the outlandish claims made by a veteran criminal in Britain who says the late Taoiseach shared the company of a man who proposed the kidnapping to alleviate a cashflow problem.
The man, who apparently made the claims from prison to lawyer Giovanni di Stefano, says Shergar was painted black as a disguise and later shot by the late INLA man, Dominic ‘Mad Dog’ McGlinchey.
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