Dáil debates

Tuesday, 25 November 2008

Adjournment Debate

Northern Ireland Issues.

10:00 pm

Photo of Caoimhghín Ó CaoláinCaoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I begin by extending my deepest sympathy and continuing solidarity to the family of Aidan McAnespie. I wish to remember especially his late sister Eilish McCabe who died earlier this year. She never gave up her struggle for truth and justice. Go ndéana Dia trócaire orthu beirt.

Aidan McAnespie was shot dead as he walked from Aughnacloy in County Tyrone to a football match at Aghaloo Gaelic Football Club on Sunday afternoon, 21 February 1988. He had to pass through the permanent British army checkpoint at Aughnacloy, which, on that date, was occupied by the Grenadier Guards Regiment of the British army. Aidan was shot in the back after he had passed through the checkpoint. The weapon used was a general purpose machine gun fired from the sangar of the checkpoint. Aidan lay dead on the roadside.

The British soldier who fired the shot, Guardsman David Holden, claimed his finger slipped on the trigger of the gun. In a report published in June of this year the historical inquiries team of the PSNI has found this to be the least likely explanation of what happened. Effectively, it has given the lie to the British soldier's account. Nobody was ever charged with Aidan's murder.

Two decades have passed since Aidan was murdered at the age of 24. I personally remember the terrible day when we heard the news that this young man had been gunned down in Aughnacloy and the pall of gloom that descended over communities along the Border. We were shocked but not surprised that the British army had finally carried out the threat that it and its cohorts in the RUC had so frequently made to Aidan. The story of Aidan's death is not just the story of what happened on that Sunday afternoon, 21 February 1988. It is a story of unrelenting harassment by the British army, the RUC and, very often also, the Garda Síochána, which had been going on since 1981, when Aidan was 17.

What was Aidan's crime in the eyes of the British crown forces? He was a young worker who had to cross the British-imposed Border twice every day to travel to and return from his work at Monaghan Poultry Products. He was an honest, friendly and popular young man. He loved Gaelic games. He endured their harassment, stood up for his rights and protested against their conduct. He was Irish and he simply wanted to live his own life in his own country. That was his crime and for that his life was taken away.

I assisted Aidan and his family in their efforts to highlight his plight and to raise with the authorities in his State and with the Catholic church, including the late Cardinal Ó Fiaich, the constant harassment to which Aidan was subjected. Some were sympathetic and endeavoured to act. Others were silent. It must be recorded that the British army and the RUC were facilitated in their conduct towards Aidan by the attitude and actions of the forces of this State. This was because Aidan was also subject to harassment by members of the Garda Síochána, undermining any credibility the authorities in this State may have had in raising his case with the British Government. In the years following the Hillsborough Agreement of 1985, Border posts and checkpoints like those at Aughnacloy were greatly reinforced by the British army and RUC with full co-operation from Governments in this jurisdiction. We in the Border communities bore the brunt of that British military occupation.

Such was the outrage at Aidan's death that the then Fianna Fáil Government ordered a Garda inquiry. During the course of that inquiry, I met with Deputy Garda Commissioner Eugene Crowley and outlined the litany of harassment Aidan had endured. I recall that a spokesperson for the Progressive Democrats went on RTE radio to say that the Garda inquiry should not listen to anyone connected with Sinn Féin, even if he or she had witnessed the murder. That Progressive Democrats spokesperson was none other than the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney.

After many years of official silence, the historical inquiries team of the PSNI has published its report on the shooting of Aidan McAnespie. As I said, it found that the version offered by the British soldier who fired the fatal shot was the least likely explanation of what happened. The murder of Aidan was compounded by the lies that were told by the British army afterwards. The soldier who fired the fatal shot claimed his finger slipped onto the trigger when he was moving the general purpose machine gun. This lie has been exposed by the historical inquiries team report. The McAnespie family and the community have been vindicated.

However, the Crowley report has not been published. It should be opened immediately to the family and then published. Like others who participated in that inquiry, I find it totally unacceptable that the report is still being kept secret after more than 20 years. The Minister responsible and the Government collectively should immediately approve the release of that report.

Photo of Máire HoctorMáire Hoctor (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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On behalf of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. On 21 February 1988, Aidan McAnespie was fatally wounded by gunfire near a British army checkpoint at Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, on the Border with County Monaghan. The shooting gave rise to a great degree of public disquiet at the time. Consequently, at the request of the Government, Garda Commissioner E.J. Doherty appointed Deputy Commissioner Eugene Crowley to institute an immediate inquiry into the fatal shooting and the circumstances surrounding the fatality. The Deputy Commissioner's subsequent report was submitted to the Minister for Justice on 8 April 1989.

The Deputy Commissioner's inquiry was conducted on the basis that the wishes of the witnesses to have their statements and identities treated as confidential would be respected and that the report would not be made available to any party other than the Government. However, an associated post mortem report by the State pathologist was made available to Mr. McAnespie's family. In the years since 1988, members of Mr. McAnespie's family have met officials of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Department of Foreign Affairs, as well as relevant Ministers and the Taoiseach. Understandably, the McAnespie family has on these occasions requested the release of Deputy Commissioner Crowley's report. Undertakings were given to examine the possibility of publishing the main findings of the report without disclosing the identity of any person who gave evidence or the contents of any statement.

Arising from the Good Friday Agreement, the Government established a victims commission under the authority of the former Tánaiste, Mr. John Wilson. Mr. Wilson's resultant report, A Place and a Name, was published in 1999. In paragraph 4.5.5, it recommended that the Crowley report on the shooting of Aidan McAnespie be published, while accepting that in order to protect innocent parties or sources some degree of editing might be required before publication. The Government subsequently decided, in April 2002, to agree to the release by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to the McAnespie family of a summary of the Crowley report into the fatal shooting of Aidan McAnespie. As part of this decision, the Government approved the text of the summary to be released. The approved summary was released to Mr. McAnespie's family in August 2002.

The Minister is aware of the recent report of the historical inquiries team in Northern Ireland, which concluded that the official explanation given at the time, namely, that the weapon in question had been discharged accidentally and randomly, was the least likely of the possible explanations. The report concluded that it was more likely that the soldier in question had deliberately discharged a burst of aimed shots at the victim or in his vicinity, or that he was tracking Mr. McAnespie with the gun and being unaware that the gun was cocked and ready to fire, pulled the trigger, inadvertently discharging the shots.

The McAnespie family will be aware from the summary of the report that was released to them that Deputy Commissioner Crowley was unable to establish whether the shooting was deliberate. The historical inquiries team investigation has therefore already been able to draw a more detailed conclusion. This is no surprise given that its investigation had access to various sources of information within Northern Ireland that would not have been available to the Garda Síochána.

In regard to the inquiry carried out in this jurisdiction, the situation remains that it would not be proper to renege on the assurances of confidentiality given to witnesses. To do so would call into question the value of any assurances of confidentiality that may be given in the future. Calls have also been made to release the report in such a way that witnesses would remain anonymous. However, I am advised that the degree of editing that would be necessary to anonymise the report would be such as to be impracticable, particularly as this process would require much more than the mere omission of names, so as to avoid the ready identification of witnesses who live in the small locality where the shooting occurred. Thus, this approach was discounted and a decision taken instead to release a summary of the report's conclusions.

The Minister regrets it is not possible to accede to the Deputy's request. He has asked me to extend his sympathy to the McAnespie family and his hopes that the historical inquiries team report has helped bring them towards closure in regard to Aidan McAnespie's tragic death.