European Court rules on NI human rights violations

European judges will rule today on whether the Government was guilty of violating the human rights of IRA members shot dead in Northern Ireland by British troops and the RUC.

The four shootings under investigation by the European Court were:

LOUGHGALL:

The IRA suffered its worst single loss of men when eight members of the East Tyrone brigade were shot dead by the SAS in a fierce gun battle at Loughgall, Co Armagh on May 8 1987.

They were killed in a hail of bullets when troops opened fire on them as they launched a bomb and gun attack on the village RUC station.

The IRA men who died were the East Tyrone IRA Commander Patrick Kelly, 32; Declan Arthurs, 21; Seamus Donnelly, 19; Michael Gormley, 25; Eugene Kelly, 25; James Lynagh, 31, Patrick McKearney, 32 and Gerard O’Callaghan, 29.

A civilian, Anthony Hughes, 36, was killed and his brother badly wounded when they were caught up in the crossfire.

The SAS laid a careful ambush for the terrorists after learning of the attack in advance.

A squad of 24 soldiers from the elite regiment, split into six groups, took up position around and inside the part-time police station.

They opened fire from several different directions when the heavily armed IRA unit approached the station with a 200lb bomb, its fuse lit, in the bucket of a hijacked JCB digger.

The firing started as the digger smashed through the gates of the station and the bomb detonated, injuring two RUC men.

The IRA men died, all of head wounds, when the soldiers fired more than 600 bullets. The terrorists fired 70 shots before they were cut down - no soldiers were hit.

PATRICK SHANAGHAN:

Patrick Shanaghan, 31, a member of Sinn Fein was ambushed and shot dead behind the wheel of his van by the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA) as he drove to work.

The bachelor from Killen outside Castlederg, Co Tyrone, was a part-time aide to a Strabane Sinn Fein councillor.

Nine months before his murder he was told by police that his name and other personal details were in the hands of loyalists after a photo montage was lost from an Army vehicle.

His mother claimed he had been interrogated by police on 10 different occasions between 1985 and his death in August 1991, spending a total of 42 days in custody.

The Shanaghan family maintained there was security force collusion in the murder and a public inquiry staged at Castlederg in 1996 heard strong criticism of the RUC.

The American lawyer who presided, Andrew Somers Jnr, concluded: ‘‘I have never seen a case where all the evidence loudly points to one conclusion.

‘‘Patrick Shanaghan was murdered by the British Government and more specifically with the collusion of the police. I would not hesitate to indict members of the RUC from top to bottom.’’

PEARSE JORDAN:

An IRA man from the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast, Pearse Jordan, 23, was shot dead by the RUC in disputed circumstances after a car collision on the Falls Road on November 25, 1992.

Witnesses claimed the stolen car he was driving was rammed and that, as he attempted to run away, he was shot three times in the back.

There was widespread controversy about the killing, with the dead man’s family saying they would have no confidence in any police investigation.

The then RUC Chief Constable Sir Hugh Annesley, invited the independent Police Complaints Commission to investigate the shooting.

Security sources said later that detectives had linked the car Jordan had been driving, through explosives traces, to the discovery of bomb-making materials found at a house in the Glen Road area of west Belfast.

At the time of the shooting the security forces were on full alert to try to prevent any pre-Christmas bombing campaign in Belfast.

It was alleged the dead man had been photographed some days earlier at a security checkpoint in the city.

Twenty years before his death, Pearse’s uncle Tony Jordan was one of two IRA men killed when the stolen car they were in crashed in west Belfast.

The other IRA man was John James Finucane, brother of leading solicitor Patrick Finucane, who was himself shot dead by loyalists at his north Belfast home in 1989.

GERVAISE McKERR:

Gervaise McKerr, 31, was one of three IRA men from Lurgan, Co Armagh, shot dead by a special RUC unit in the first of a series of incidents which led to claims about a ‘‘shoot-to-kill’’ policy being operated by the security forces.

McKerr, Sean Burns and Eugene Toman were in a Ford Escort which police fired 109 shots into it in Lurgan on November 11 1982.

McKerr was driving a vehicle which police opened fire on and chased after it crashed through a roadblock.

It emerged later that Burns and Toman were suspected of involvement in the murder of three RUC men a fortnight earlier and had been under observation.

Families of the dead men strongly disputed the police version of events and the controversy led to the appointment of John Stalker, then the deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, to investigate the incident and two others.

Mr Stalker, who claimed his inquiries were hampered, was later removed from the inquiry in controversial circumstances when disciplinary charges were brought against him in Manchester. They were later dropped.

Three policemen were charged with murdering the IRA men but were acquitted by Lord Justice Gibson, who said after hearing the Crown’s case that he found the men ‘‘absolutely blameless’’.

One of the policemen later took his own life.

Lord Justice Gibson, one of Northern Ireland’s most senior judges, was killed along with his wife in 1987 when a 500lb IRA bomb exploded under their car as they crossed the border while returning home from holiday.

The IRA, in claiming responsibility, specifically cited his acquittal of the three policemen accused of murdering McKerr, Burns and Toman.

The inquest into the deaths became a protracted affair with five different coroners appointed to hear the case at various stages.

National security and public interest immunity certificates were granted at the inquest to prevent the police officers being called to give evidence.

Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, acting for one of the families, won a High Court action effectively forcing the officers to testify, but the Government challenged the ruling in the High Court.

Mr Finucane was shot dead in his north Belfast home by loyalists - there are continuing allegations of security force collusion being investigated - a month after the decision to challenge the ruling. The House of Lords later ruled in favour of the authorities.

Legal wrangles continued and in 1994 a coroner announced he was abandoning the inquest.