Clonoe gang: Ruling on deaths of IRA gang branded 'grave injustice and slur' on SAS in Westminster
A ruling that the SAS weren’t justified in using lethal force on an armed IRA gang minutes after their machine gun attack on a police station has been branded a “grave injustice and slur” in Westminster.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson MP made the comments in the House of Commons, with Defence Secretary John Healey replying that British veterans who fought in the Troubles “deserve, and they will have, our fullest support”.
His words came as a prominent Tory ex-minister said soldiers are being “persecuted” by ongoing legacy court cases, while TUV MP Jim Allister complained that Troubles veterans “find themselves vilified 30 years later by the coroner’s service”.
Last week a coroner ruled the SAS weren’t justified in using lethal force during an incident on February 16. 1992.
That night, four IRA gang members were killed around 15 minutes after pumping 30 rounds of armour-piercing tracer ammunition from a Soviet-made heavy machine gun into a Coalisland police station.
Still armed with assault rifles and speeding their hijacked lorry into a church car park in the nearby village of Clonoe, where their getaway vehicles were stashed, the paramilitaries were surprised by an SAS squad waiting in ambush and shot dead.
The coroner’s ruling has left the spectre of criminal prosecutions hanging over all British soldiers who were involved in the ambush, a prospect that has earned the ire of unionists.
Yesterday (Monday), Mr Robinson took the opportunity to press Mr Healey over the UK government’s support for Troubles veterans.
Describing the coroner’s judgment as a “grave injustice and slur that was delivered upon SAS personnel”, he demanded: “Will the Secretary of State take this opportunity to indicate not only to [the House of Commons] but to service personnel and the nation that he, as Defence Secretary, supports those who bravely served in Northern Ireland and stood on the precipice between peace and tyranny?”
Stating that he is “glad to accept the invitation to do just that”, Mr Healey replied: “It behoves us all to remember that those who served in our forces in Northern Ireland were part of a campaign that led to more deaths of UK security personnel in Northern Ireland than in Afghanistan.
"They deserve, and they will have, our fullest support.”
The Westminster comments came shortly after several MPs suggested Troubles legacy court cases will cause a serious hit to army recruitment.
During a debate on the issue, the TUV’s Jim Allister and DUP’s Jim Shannon called for soldiers to be protected, with Mr Allister complaining that veterans who braved life-or-death combat situations “find themselves vilified 30 years later by the coroner’s service”.
And prominent Tory ex-Minister, Sir David Davis, stated that the Clonoe verdict plays “right into the IRA’s attempt to rewrite the history of Northern Ireland”.
Said Sir David: “Soldiers will be leaving the army, not being recruited, if we continue to allow the persecution of soldiers who served in Northern Ireland.”
Without legislation in place to protect soldiers, he said, dealing with the legacy of the Troubles will turn “what should be a process of peace and reconciliation into a vindictive, vengeful pursuit of men whose only sin was to serve their country with honour, heroism and skill, and in the most terrifying conditions”.