Sir, - The Irish Times quite correctly marked the anniversaries of the Enniskillen and La Mon bombings. It was perhaps foolish of me to expect that the 10th anniversary of the Gibraltar killings on March 6th would receive equal treatment. That would, of course, run in opposition to your newspaper's political agenda.
The significance of the killing of my sister Mairead and her two comrades, all of whom were unarmed, was not lost on the European Court of Human Rights. In order for a case to qualify to be heard in Strasbourg, the domestic remedies must first be exhausted. Due to the corrupt judicial system in Northern Ireland, which postpones controversial cases almost indefinitely, the Gibraltar killings was the first shoot-to-kill case to come before the Strasbourg Court. And in a unique verdict the British government was found guilty of having unlawfully killed all three and having contravened Article 2 of the European Convention, the Right to Life.
However, it is not only the blood of Mairead, Sean and Dan that the British government has shed. There are strong parallels between the Gibraltar killings and many of the other shoot-to-kill incidents involving the British security forces, not least the murders in late 1982 which John Stalker was brought in to investigate. The latter is another anniversary The Irish Times "forgot" to mark: it is 10 years since Patrick Mayhew, then Attorney General, announced that the Stalker/Sampson report would not be published.
When it comes to the role of the British government in the Northern conflict The Irish Times motto seems to be: see no evil, hear no evil, write no evil. - Yours, etc.
Mac Bride Avenue, Mervue, Galway.
The Gibraltar killings and subsequent events are the subject of an article which appears today in Page 8. - Ed, IT.