Terror and the Right to Life in Gibraltar:

Monsters, Martyrs and Competing Memories

Jonathan Cooper Doughty Street Chambers Who were the ‘Gibraltar Three’? Daniel McCann Seán Savage

‘High Ranking Intelligence Operative’ ‘Explosives Expert’

“You have to be realistic. You realise that you’re either going to be dead or end up in jail. It’s one or the other. You’re not going to run forever.” The Target Why Gibraltar? • An attempt to counter widespread shock and anger in wake of Enniskillen. • A symbol of enduring British imperialism. • A ‘thank you’ to Colonial Gaddafi? • Tactic of ‘scaling up operations’ Operation Flavius The Events: A Timeline

Three meet Families take Savage ‘Death on British aware by parked unsuccessful drives over the Rock’ of planned car, leave on action in HC border broadcast IRA attack on foot Northern Spanish soil 1:00pm 3.30pm 28 April Ireland 6 March 6 March 1988 March 1990 Late 1987 1988 1988

12:00 2.30pm 4:00pm 30 September 6 March 6 March 6 March 1988 1988 1988 1988 Three set McCann Three shot Gibraltar Inquest off and Farrell by SAS Verdict: towards cross border soldiers Lawful Killing Gibraltar on foot British Government’s Shifting Stories

6th March @ 16:45: ‘a suspected bomb found in Gibraltar and three suspects shot by civilian police’ (MoD statement) 6th March @ 21:00: Security forces involved in shooting and had ‘dealt with a suspect bomb’. (MoD statement) 7th March @ AM: Large bomb found in Gibraltar and defused. (Minister of Armed Forces, radio) 7th March @ PM: No bomb, three killed made threatening movements but were unarmed. (Foreign Secretary, Parliament)

Media Misreporting: The Immediate Response  ‘They were challenged by, it appears, plain clothed policemen.…then the shoot out happened’ BBC1, 6th March  ‘A fierce gun battle broke out’ ITN 6th March  ‘Army experts used a report to defuse the bomb’ ITN 7th March  ‘A 500 pound bomb was later diffused’ Guardian 7th March  ‘they were both armed’ Today 7th March

‘Welcome to Beirut’ 14 Dark Days in Northern Ireland Gibraltar marked the beginning of a traumatic 14 day cycle of violence and one of the lowest points of the Troubles.

‘Each one of these events was extraordinary. The fact that they all came in the space of two weeks made you feel - what the hell is going to happen next? What kind of cliff edge are we really at in Northern Ireland?’ -Bill Neely, Belfast journalist reporting for BBC.

Reaction in Ireland: Misgivings and Martyrs

• Hostile Public mood towards British policy. • Republican perspective: propaganda harvest, operational failure. • Outpouring of sympathy in diaspora communities. • Irish government ‘gravely perturbed’.

Reaction in the UK: Shady SAS or Heroic Soldiers?

Impact of ECtHR on Collective Memory

Republican Narrative: • ‘Now the entire military and legal apparatus which has been used to fight Britain’s war has been challenged before the world’ (Republican News, 1995) • Collective Memory as Selective Memory: Over simplification and amnesia Impact of ECtHR on Collective Memory

British Narrative • Government maintained judgment ‘defied common sense’ and was ‘incomprehensible’. • ‘If we were faced with similar circumstances as those in Gibraltar, I have not the slighted doubt that the same decisions would be taken.’ (Michael Heseltine,1995)