BRITISH OFFICIALS SAID they were “perplexed” by the Irish government’s unwillingness to release Detective Garda Jerry McCabe’s killers from prison under the Good Friday Agreement.
They claimed that the life of a garda was being “valued differently from that of a British policeman or a member of the RUC”, according to newly-released State Papers.
In general State Papers – official documents from Government departments and the President’s Office – are declassified and released to the public 30 years after the fact. However, some records are released before or after that timeframe for various reasons.
The UK changed its law in 2010 to provide public access to the archival records of government after 20 years. Due to the close shared history of Ireland and the UK, the decision was made to release Irish documents about Anglo-Irish relations and the peace process in Northern Ireland that are over 20 years old.
In a meeting between British and Irish officials regarding the release of prisoners, the Irish contingent noted “the apparently unauthorised nature of the Adare operation, its timing, and the fact that nobody had yet been convicted” as of May 1998, arguing that the rules of the Good Friday Agreement didn’t necessarily apply in this case.
Early release for paramilitary prisoners was one of the key provisions of the Agreement and Britain wanted uniform principles to be applied to all.
McCabe was killed in Adare, Co Limerick during the attempted robbery of a post office van in June 1996 , four months after the breakdown of the first ceasefire.
His colleague Detective Garda Ben O’Sullivan was seriously injured.
The IRA initially denied involvement, but then claimed that the operation was “not authorised by the Army Council, but authorised at a lower level by an authorised person”. Sinn Féin later lobbied for an early release for those convicted.
British officials argued that “pointed questions would undoubtedly be asked if there seemed to be contradictions between the British and Irish situations”.
“There could be no question of the life of a Garda seeming to be valued differently from that of a British policeman or a member of the RUC.”
Senior advisor to Bertie Ahern Martin Mansergh said that the Taoiseach was “well aware of the wider ramifications of the case”.
There were concerns that the move would “complicate” talks with the RUC and the Northern Ireland Police Service.
In a meeting with Mo Mowlam’s Private Parliamentary Secretary Helen Jackson, Irish Diplomat Philip McDonagh was told that decommissioning may “prove politically difficult” without a “full programme of early releases”.
But the Irish Government made clear, before and after the Agreement was signed, that it would not apply to the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, who were then awaiting trial.
In the end, the Irish government did not change its position.
Four men – Pearse McAuley, Jeremiah Sheehy, Michael O’Neill and Kevin Walsh – were convicted by the Special Criminal Court in February 1999 after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
O’Neill was released from prison in May 2007, Sheehy in February 2008, and McAuley and Walsh in August 2009, after serving their full sentences.
The reference numbers for these State Papers are 2022/45/96 and 2022/45/423
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