State Violence and Collusion Timeline 1988
Events related to state violence and collusion in Northern Ireland in 1988.
Contents
February
- 11 An RUC paper on agent-handling prepared for submission to the NIO states: "major problems do arise when it comes to the application of the guidelines to the terrorist scene, for here it rapidly becomes apparent that strict adherence to the guidelines would result in a far from comprehensive or effective intelligence network ever being recognised."[1]
- 24 - A submission to the Minister of State at the NIO, John Stanley MP, attached a paper received from the RUC. The covering minute stated, "[i]t leans rather more towards an analysis of the admitted problems than towards actual proposals".[1]
March
- 3 - The NIO wrote to the Home Office on the subject of agent-handling guidelines.[1]
- 6 - The SAS shot dead three members of the IRA, Mairead Farrell, Danny McCann and Sean Savage, in Gibraltar.[2]
- 16 - Three people killed and sixteen wounded by loyalist Michael Stone at Milltown Cemetery funeral of the IRA members killed in Gibraltar.
- 19 - British Army corporals Derek Wood and David Howes killed by the IRA after driving into the funeral procession of Caoimhín Mac Brádaigh, one of Stone's victims from three days earlier.
- 22 - The NIO again wrote to the Home Office noting that "the sense of the correspondence so far is that neither [the Home Office] nor [the Scottish Home and Health Department] are attracted by mounting a major exercise to produce new guidelines for the UK police force as a whole"[40]and that, accordingly, the NIO would consider how matters could be moved forward.[1]
April
- 22 - A letter from the NIO dated 22 April 1988 indicated that "Ministers are fully seized of the problem" of agent-handling guidelines, but that "the question is what we do about it".[1]
- 27 NIO officials prepared an agreed note, which was sent to Ministers under a covering submission of this date. The note concluded that "it was … clear that some form of Ministerial intervention is necessary if any progress is to be made" on agent-handling guidelines.[1]
May
- 3 - A Military Intelligence Source Report on Brian Nelson (6137) stated:
- 10 - Terry McDaid shot dead.[4] He died after Nelson sent UFF gunmen to the wrong address. Nelson made four phone calls to the FRU on the night of the murder but when the Stevens Inquiry team sought the transcripts they were missing.[5]
June
- 15 - An unmarked military van carrying six British Army soldiers was blown up by the Provisional IRA in Lisburn, after a charity marathon run in which the soldiers had participated.
July
- Undated July - Nelson called his handlers to check details of Alex Maskey's car registration on the same day as a planned UDA attack on the Sinn Féin councillor. His handler is alleged to have said: "You're not wrong about the car.[6]
August
- Undated August - Brian Nelson was subjected to a violent interrogation by the UDA, who suspected that he was passing information to the IRA.[7]
- Undated August - UDA chairman ousted.[2]
- 20 - The disagreements between the Army and the RUC were evident when the Prime Minister was being briefed following a Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) bomb attack in County Tyrone which killed eight soldiers. The meeting was attended by Secretary of State for Defence Tom King, the Chief of the General Staff (CGS), the GOC, the Chief Constable and a number of others.[8]
- 24 - A note from the Prime Minister's Office to the Northern Ireland Office dated 24 August 1988 included the comment that better co-ordination of intelligence "is not an organisational matter, but a question of trust between those concerned, which can only be gained by working together".[8]
September
- 23 - The UFF shot dead Gerard Slane in his home, claiming he had been involved in an IPLO attack on UDA man William Quee. The RUC denied there was any evidence of this. Nelson had provided the intelligence for the killers. Peter Taylor reports that although Nelson had warned his handlers that Slane was being targeted ten days beforehand, and on the day of the killing itself, no action was taken.[9] Harkin and Ingram report that FRU handlers had actually helped prepare the targeting file.[10]
October
December
- Undated December - Brian Nelson informed his handlers of a threat to the life of solicitor Pat Finucane.[12]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Sir Desmond de Silva, Volume 1 - Chapter 4: Agent-handling, Pat Finucane Review, 12 December 2012.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sir Desmond de Silva, Volume 1 - Chapter 2: The historical and political context, Pat Finucane Review, 12 December 2012.
- ↑ Peter Taylor, Brits: The War Against the IRA, Bloomsbury, 2002, p.290.
- ↑ David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton, and David McVea, Lost Lives: The stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the Northern Ireland Troubles, Mainstream Publishing, 2004, p.1127.
- ↑ Barry McCaffrey, At least 29 killings blamed on actions of double agent;The secrets that died with Brian Nelson THE DEATH OF BRITISH ARMY AGENT 6137, Irish News, 14 April 2003.
- ↑ Barry McCaffrey, At least 29 killings blamed on actions of double agent;The secrets that died with Brian Nelson THE DEATH OF BRITISH ARMY AGENT 6137, Irish News, 14 April 2003.
- ↑ Peter Taylor, Brits: The War Against the IRA, Bloomsbury, 2002, p.294-295.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Sir Desmond de Silva, Volume 1 - Chapter 3: Intelligence structures, Pat Finucane Review, 12 December 2012.
- ↑ Peter Taylor, Brits: The War Against the IRA, Bloomsbury, 2002, p.289.
- ↑ Martin Ingram and Greg Harkin, Stakeknife, O'Brien Press, 2004, p. 185.
- ↑ David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton and David McVea, Lost Lives, Mainstream Publishing, 2004, p.1149.
- ↑ Barry McCaffrey, At least 29 killings blamed on actions of double agent;The secrets that died with Brian Nelson THE DEATH OF BRITISH ARMY AGENT 6137, Irish News, 14 April 2003.
