Garda-IRA collusion question: ‘Refusal of Legacy Inquest for my brother confirms Dublin-IRA are untouchable for Troubles’

John Sproule, whose 23-year-old brother Ian was gunned down in a hail of bullets outside their Castlederg home in 1991, was speaking after Attorney General Brenda King turned down his family’s request for a legacy inquest into the murder.

After the killing, the IRA produced a Garda intelligence file on Ian to the media to try and defend their bloodshed, something his family says demonstrates collusion with the Garda.

The Sproules always denied the claim in the Garda file that Ian was a member of any terror group. They believe that someone in the Garda leaked the file to the IRA to have him murdered.

The Troubles reference work Lost Lives classes Ian as a 23-year-old civilian. It says the Garda file produced by the IRA classed Ian as UVF and said he was wanted in connection with three firebombings in Donegal four years before his murder. However it notes the bombings were actually claimed by the UFF - and that the Garda file wrongly linked the attacks to the UVF.

At the time of his funeral, John says, the family clergyman went public to say that after speaking to police officers, there was no suggestion Ian had any paramilitary connections.

“The two biggest players in the Troubles were the IRA and the Irish state and they are not being held accountable at all on anything,” Ian’s brother John told the News Letter. “That needs to change.”

Mr Sproule was speaking after the third criminal justice body he asked to look into the murder turned him down. The Sproule family have lobbied since 2019 for a legacy inquest into the murder. They did not get an Historical Enquiries Investigation and the Garda ombudsman also turned down their requests for an investigation last year, after almost five years of promises.

The Attorney General’s response comes shortly after the UUP lamented that none of the latest tranche of legacy inquests will probe murders by republicans; instead a significant proportion will examine the killing of armed IRA members who were killed on active service.

“If this had been the other way about, there would have been a huge outcry about it,” John said. “We are second class citizens.”

John says there are a string of other border murders similar to his Ian’s.

“They planned their attacks from across the border, they came, did their deeds and went back to the Republic for a safe haven. And yet the Irish state has not been held accountable.”

He will continue to campaign for justice for his brother, he said.

“I want no special treatment - just fair treatment.”

He says his brother and father were constantly driving across the border to work on a cousin’s farm and yet they were never stopped by the Garda - which does not make sense to him if he were a genuine terror suspect.

His brother was once mistakenly questioned about the theft of an RUC officer’s weapon but was never charged with any offence, he says.

In a letter to the Sproule family, Attorney General Brenda King said that none of the files or material submitted by the family makes the holding of a fresh inquest advisable.

“The Attorney appreciates that her decision will come as a disappointment to the Sproule family and she has enormous sympathy for them,” the letter says. “However, on the basis of the submissions, information and evidence provided the Attorney has formed the view that it would not be advisable for her to direct an inquest.

She added that her decision is not final and that she would be “happy to look at this matter afresh if further information or relevant evidence comes to light”.

The News Letter highlighted to the Attorney General that the family met Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney about the case in 2019 and that they were offered full cooperation with a legacy inquest in Northern Ireland.

At the time, spokesperson for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs said: “Officials of the Department of Justice and Equality confirmed in the meeting that Garda authorities remain open to co-operate with any further criminal investigation or inquest into Mr Sproule’s death that may take place in Northern Ireland.”

The Attorney General declined to offer any comment to the News Letter about the offer.

But John said the family are “very disappointed” by her refusal of an inquest.

“There were not many from my side of the community requesting an inquest,” he said. “No matter who I am talking to - my solicitor and [victims groups] SEFF - they said that we put a good case forward and they couldn’t see why it wouldn’t be accepted.”

He saw in the News Letter recently that the latest tranche of inquests will be into killings by security forces and loyalist terror groups - but none into murders by the IRA.

But what made him “even more angry” was that a number of the inquests are into the shooting of a range of armed IRA men who were killed while on active service.

“I have come to the conclusion that whatever deal Sinn Fein has done with the British government, the IRA and the Irish state are untouchable. That is the way it seems to be.”

A former RUC Deputy Assistant Chief Constable known as witness 68 spoke about Ian’s murder to the Dublin-based Smithwick Inquiry in 2012, which probed Garda-IRA collusion. He said that there was ample evidence of Garda-IRA collusion in Co Donegal, which is close to Ian Sproule’s home.

The RUC officer told the inquiry that a full and frank discussion with a senior Garda officer “established beyond doubt that there is a garda leak to the IRA from a number of garda stations in in Co Donegal and that the IRA is in possession of a greater deal more information on alleged loyalist group members in Co Tyrone. Recent IRA statements confirm this”.

This testimony made up part of the file submitted to - but rejected by - the Attorney General as not worthy of further investigation in the inquest - despite the offer of full cooperation by the Irish government.

Kenny Donaldson, SEFF’s Director of Services, responded that fresh Inquests are being held into cases involving “many notorious terrorists who were found to have been killed legitimately by the security forces” as well as other cases which allege wrongdoing by the UK State and its’s security Forces.

“Cases involving victims of loyalist terrorism are also on the Coronial Inquest waiting list but there is an absence of cases impacting those grievously wronged by Irish Republican terrorists,” he said.

“The Ian Sproule case connects into issues of alleged collaborative activities between members of An Garda Siochana and Provisional IRA terrorists and the family strongly feel that the threshold needing met in order to have a fresh Inquest permitted, was more than met.

“The Sproule family - with the support of our Advocacy service and legal input - are now considering possible next steps open to them.”

The DUP’s Diane Dodds, who has lobbied extensively for the Sproules, said that the family “need and deserve” answers from authorities in the United Kingdom and from the Republic of Ireland.

“Ian’s murder was justified by the IRA on the basis of a Garda intelligence file and the allegations of collusion were strengthened further by the Smithwick Tribunal,” she said. “I have supported the Sproule family in their campaign over many years and this latest decision by the Attorney General is just the latest example of authorities here apparently doing all in their power to avoid investigating the case.

“The decision not to grant an inquest stands in stark contrast to countless others which appear to have no problem meeting the requirements for an inquest to be held. People should rightly ask why this case is so different?

“The Attorney General however has said additional information could unlock an inquest. That information lies within the Republic of Ireland but there is a continued attempt to sweep that truth away.

“I had written to Michael Martin asking him to meet the Sproule family yet this latest request has again been snubbed. This refusal also stands in stark contrast to Dublin’s loud pronouncements on many other cases of alleged collusion. The Taoiseach should explain why he is afraid to meet the family of an innocent man murdered by the PIRA.”

The Taoiseach was invited to respond to her challenge but no response has been received.

TUV West Tyrone Assembly candidate Trevor Clarke said he too was “deeply disappointed” by the Attorney General’s decision.

“Castlederg suffered dreadfully during the IRA’s terror campaign but even by their standards this murder was particularly callous,” he said. “Ian was just 23 when he died in a hail of 44 bullets. In a particularly cruel twist the family home received a phone call telling them to go out and see what the IRA had left them on the street.

“That was bad enough but in the aftermath of the murder an inaccurate Garda file was leaked to the press in a vain attempt to justify the unjustifiable.

“There has never been justice for Ian Sproule and his family. The questions about how a Garda file made its way into the hands of IRA terrorists have never been answered. Yet in the blizzard of legacy inquests currently before the courts and coming before them in the weeks and months ahead there will be none for the Sproule family.

“This does nothing to increase confidence in the judicial process and feeds not just disappointment but anger among innocent victims who have been failed by the state once again.”

He said that “selective justice is fundamentally wrong” and is “compounding the hurt suffered by the families of innocent victims of terrorism”.

In 2015 Taoiseach Enda Kenny promised the Kingsmills families in Bessbrook full Garda cooperation with the Kingsmills legacy inquest. The Irish government has since passed legislation to facilitate this.

The Irish government also made commitments in the Stormont House Agreement to give full cooperation with Troubles legacy processes.

And indeed, when discussing these matters with the media the Irish government by default always issues assurances that it will cooperate in full with legacy processes in NI.

However, families such as the Sproules and those from the Kingsmills Massacre of 1976 still maintain they have made no significant progress in acquiring any significant information from the Republic on any troubles related murders - despite years of lobbying.

The Attorney General was given an opportunity to respond to all the above statements. She told the News Letter it would be inappropriate to comment on individual cases to the media.

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