EILÍS McCABE:EILÍS McCABE, who has died at her home in Aughnacloy, Co Tyrone, after a long illness, spent 20 years fighting for justice for her brother, Aidan McAnespie. Six weeks before her death she saw the British army's version of the killing overturned.
The 1988 killing of 24-year-old Aidan McAnespie was hugely controversial. A soldier shot him as he walked out of a match at the GAA pitch in Aughnacloy to get sweets. The soldier was in an observation post at a permanent vehicle checkpoint. McAnespie had been regularly detained for long periods, searched and verbally abused at that checkpoint. The Garda set up an investigation under deputy commissioner Eugene Crowley to take evidence from witnesses reluctant to deal with the Northern authorities.
The army's version was that the soldier's hands were wet, he was moving a machine-gun, and his finger slipped. Criminal charges were dropped. The soldier was, fined for negligent discharge of a weapon. Eilís lobbied politicians in Ireland and Britain. In 1997 she confronted the then British prime minister Tony Blair on television.When the Historical Enquiries Team was set up to investigate past Troubles-related killings, she approached it through the Pat Finucane Centre in Derry. In June, the team issued a report overturning the official version.
It established the soldier's hands were unlikely to have been wet, the machine-gun had earlier been moved by another soldier and the nature of the trigger meant deliberate pressure was needed to fire the gun.
Illness prevented Eilís attending the press conference where these findings were made public. Paul O'Connor, of the Pat Finucane Centre, said the sour note was the failure of the Irish authorities to co-operate. "The one bit of unfinished business was the lack of flexibility in the Department of Justice in Dublin on the Crowley Report," O'Connor said. "They refused to release it."
Eilís was born in Aughnacloy.She is survived by her husband Paul, children Una and Finbarr, grandchildren Grace and Senan, parents John and Liz McAnespie, and siblings Seán, Gerard, Vincent and Margo (Loughran).
Eilís McCabe: born April 11th 1958; died August 4th, 2008