The Gibraltar Killings

Send us Fan MailON 6 MARCH 1988, three unarmed members of the IRA were shot dead on the territory of Gibraltar by British Special Air Service (SAS) troops.The killings of Sean Savage, Daniel McCann, and Mairéad Farrell sparked weeks of increasing violence and  murders in Belfast.All three were killed as part of the controversial Operation Flavius, the British military operation targeted at preventing a planned bombing by the IRA in the territory.Despite the fact the three were unarmed, a subsequent inquest in September 1988 into the deaths returned a verdict of ‘lawful killing’, a decision that was subsequently appealed by the deceased’s families to the European Court of Human Rights, which decided that the operation had been in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.Support the showIrish Mythology - Mythical Cycle - Book of Invasions