Dublin ‘washing hands’ of Garda-IRA collusion case

Ian Sproule, 24, was gunned down by two IRA men as he drove his car into the garage at his family home in Castlederg in 1991.

Shortly afterwards, the IRA justified the murder by showing a Garda intelligence file, which claimed their victim was a UVF member, to a Londonderry newspaper.

The Sproule family said they have pressed for years to meet the Garda commissioner and Irish justice minister.

Ian’s brother, John, said he had been angered by Irish government ministers visiting Northern Ireland to call for a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, while at the same time refusing to meet him.

A spokesman for the Irish Department of Justice it was “unable to comment on individual cases”. He added that Dublin is waiting for the implementation of the Stormont House Agreement before cooperating on legacy cases.

“The government is, and always has been fully and unequivocally committed to the provisions of the Stormont House Agreement on addressing the history of the violent conflict in Northern Ireland,” he said.

“It is a matter of regret that the political impasse in Northern Ireland has significantly delayed the establishment of the framework of measures set out in the Stormont House Agreement.

“That said, the government remains fully committed to their implementation and we are continuing to work with the British government and the parties in Northern Ireland to give effect to those measures.

“We are hopeful that once the measures provided for in the Stormont House Agreement have been put in place they will provide an opportunity for the families of the many persons killed during the Troubles to access further information about those deaths where they wish to do so.”

But Mr Sproule said Dublin was trying to “wash its hands” of the case.

“I was expecting them to send us a right bit of information but at the end of the day, what was it? Five or six lines,” he said.

“We have been trying to meet the Irish government for five or six years. Two years ago the Garda ombudsman told us that they thought there was a case to answer but it seems to me that the Irish government want to wash their hands of it.

“It seems to blame everybody else for what happened in Northern Ireland, that it was the people in Northern Ireland that caused the problem or that Britain caused the problem. But this is not going away. The family will not stop until we get truth and justice.”

Ken Funston, advocacy manager with victims’ group South East Fermanagh Foundation, said the “lack of response and obstruction” by Irish government departments on the case “prove that they are failing in the obligations under the Belfast Agreement”.

He and Mr Sproule recently handed in a comprehensive file to NI’s attorney general, calling for a legacy inquest on the case.