Gibraltar Three
Seán Savage (26 January 1965 - 6 March 1988), Daniel McCann (30 November 1957 - 6 March 1988) and Mairéad Farrell (3 March 1957 - 6 March 1988), collectively known as the Gibraltar Three, were three members of the Irish Republican Army who were shot dead by the SAS in 1988 while plotting a terrorist attack in Gibraltar. The killings are controversial, with the documentary Death on the Rock accusing British authorities of conspiring to murder Savage, McCann and Farrell.
History edit
All three were high-ranking members of the Irish Republican Army, a terrorist organization which fought for Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and join the Republic of Ireland. Savage and McCann had together murdered two Irish police officers in Belfast in 1987, and Savage also led the IRA team that killed Ulster Defence Association commander John McMichael with a car bomb that same year.
Mairéad Farrell was jailed for fourteen years in 1967 after being arrested trying to plant a bomb at the Conway Hotel in Dunmurry in order to kill British soldiers who were staying there. While serving her sentence she was the official leader of the female republican prisoners in Armagh prison, leading a hunger strike and "dirty protest" (smearing excrement and menstrual blood over the walls of the cells) in protest of the treatment of republican prisoners. She was released in 1986.
Operation Flavius edit
From late 1987, British authorities in the Gibraltar territory had suspected that the IRA were planning to attack the changing of the Governor of Gibraltar's guard by bombing the car park where the ceremony took place. A known IRA member had been observed watching the ceremony several times, and three high-ranking IRA operatives - Seán Savage, Daniel McCann and Mairéad Farrell - had been detected travelling to Spain under false identities. In response, British and Gibraltarian authorities launched Operation Flavius, a military surveillance operation to observe and apprehend the three before they could launch their attack.
In late February 1988, Savage, McCann and Farrell travelled to the Spanish city of Málaga (90 miles from Gibraltar) and each rented three cars. By early March, authorities were convinced the attack was imminent and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher personally approved the deployment of an SAS team to Gibraltar to assist the Gibraltar territorial police in arresting the suspects.
On 6 March 1988, Seán Savage entered Gibraltar in a white Renault Five, tailed by an MI5 agent. McCann and Farrell also crossed the border a few hours later and met up with Savage in the car park where the ceremony was to take place, where the three left the car. A bomb-disposal expert examined the car and declared it a suspected car bomb, at which point the SAS team were sent to arrest the suspects. Two moved up behind McCann and Farrell, while two more shadowed Savage, who had split off from the other two. However, as the team were about to arrest McCann and Farrell, a Gibraltarian police officer who was unaware of Operation Flavius switched on his vehicle's siren in an attempt to bypass heavy traffic, causing McCann and Farrell to turn round and see the SAS officers. At this point, they allegedly both reached into their clothing and the soldiers, believing them to be carrying guns or remote detonators, shot them. Hearing the shooting, Savage turned round, saw the two soldiers following him and reached into his jacket, at which point he too was gunned down. All three IRA members were killed. No bombs were found in Savage's car, but a key found on Farrell's body led authorities to her hired car, which contained explosives, remote detonators and timers set for the time of the changing of the guard, confirming that they had indeed been planning to bomb the ceremony; they had likely been staking out the area when they were killed.
Aftermath edit
The bodies of the Gibraltar Three were repatriated to Northern Ireland, where they were buried at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast on 16 March. Ulster Defence Association member Michael Stone attacked the funeral with guns and hand grenades, killing three mourners and injuring 50. The funeral of one of the mourners, held on 19 March, was itself host to a violent incident when British Army corporals Derek Wood and David Howes accidentally drove into the funeral and were lynched by mourners in an event known as the corporals killings.
Although an inquest ruled that Savage, McCann and Farrell had been lawfully killed, controversy over the killings persisted. The documentary Death on the Rock, which aired two months after the shootings, featured interviews with several eyewitnesses who contradicted aspects of the official version of events. It was claimed that the three had been shot without warning and after they were already on the ground, and that it should have been immediately obvious that Savage's car did not contain a bomb. The documentary alleged that the actual goal of Operation Flavius had been to kill Savage, McCann and Farrell. In 1990, after the inquest ruled that the Gibraltar Three were killed lawfully, the families of those killed brought a case to the European Court of Human Rights accusing the British and Gibraltarian governments of violating Savage, McCann and Farrell's right to life. The ECtHR ultimately ruled that, while the shootings themselves were lawful, control of the operation had violated the right to life because planning rendered the use of lethal force almost inevitable. The British government did not have to pay compensation, but was ordered to pay the families legal costs.