Taoiseach Micheal Martin facing claims he is ‘snubbing’ victims of alleged Garda-IRA collusion - despite promising ‘no hiding place’ for those involved

Taoiseach Michael Martin has remained silent on claims he has repeatedly snubbed a family who believe they are victims of Garda-IRA collusion - after promising that there would be “no hiding place” for anyone involved in such crimes in the Republic.
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Ian Sproule, who was 23, was gunned down in a hail of IRA bullets outside his west Tyrone home in 1991. The IRA went on to try and justify their bloodshed by presenting a Garda intelligence file to journalists which alleged that he was a UVF member who was wanted in connection with three firebombs in Donegal four years previously.

Ian’s brother, John, strongly rejects any suggestion his brother was linked to terror groups, and says the IRA possession of a Garda intelligence file on his brother demonstrates clear Irish state collusion in the murder.

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In December 2020 Mr Martin promised to meet then First Minister Arlene Foster in response to her call for a “fresh examination” into allegations that the Irish state armed and assisted the IRA - and of Garda-IRA collusion in a string of specific murders.

Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin is accused of snubbing victims of Garda-IRA collusion.Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin is accused of snubbing victims of Garda-IRA collusion.
Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin is accused of snubbing victims of Garda-IRA collusion.

Last August Mr Martin told current DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson there would be “no hiding place for anyone involved in collusion” in the Republic. The Taoiseach also said he would consider “setting up the necessary processes” to investigate alleged collusion between the State and the IRA.

However Ian Sproule’s brother, John, says he has been seeking a meeting with Mr Martin for some time without success; The DUP’s Diane Dodds told the News Letter this week she has been repeatedly “snubbed” by the Taoiseach regarding the case.

John told the News Letter: “We have asked repeatedly for a meeting with the Taoiseach. This has been going on for years but there is no response.”

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He is particularly keen to see the internal Garda ‘Conroy Report’ into alleged Garda-IRA collusion in Co Donegal which was privately ordered in 1991 after his brother’s murder. John only became aware of the report over 20 years later when it was inadvertently mentioned in the Smithwick Tribunal into Garda-IRA collusion in Dublin in 2012.

John said: “We want to see this report. This is all so uneven. There is no such thing as fair play or balance. I just don’t know how it has got to this stage. Everybody is saying the same thing - the Protestant community has been forgotten about.

“It doesn’t matter if it is British state, the Irish state, loyalist terrorists or republican - if you do wrong you must be held accountable. But at the minute the only people being held accountable are the British state and some loyalist terrorists.You never hear the Irish state mentioned.

“If you go around all the border towns the IRA always came over the border murdered somebody or left a bomb and went back over again. But there is no accountability. To me there is a big cover up.”

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The DUP’s Diane Dodds told the News Letter she has repeatedly been snubbed by Mr Martin on the issue - despite the Irish government’s loud pronouncements over alleged collusion in NI.

“I had written to Michael Martin asking him to meet the Sproule family yet this latest request has again been snubbed,” she said. “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 News Letter contacted Mr Martin’s office on Wednesday and Thursday morning this week about the alleged snubs.

This paper asked why he told the Sproules in a letter - seen by the News Letter - that there is no evidence of collusion in Ian’s murder when the IRA produced a Garda intelligence file on the victim to defend his killing? We also asked Mr Martin if he had read the Conroy Report into alleged Garda-IRA collusion in Donegal before claiming there was no collusion in the shooting? Finally the News Letter also asked Mr Martin why he is allegedly snubbing the Sproule family.

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There has been no acknowledgement from the Taoiseach’s press office to several enquiries over the past two days. Mr Martin’s constituency office and his party press office - Fianna Fail - have also been invited to comment.

In 2020 then DUP leader Arlene Foster wrote to Michael Martin, calling for a fresh examination of reports that the Irish state armed and assisted the IRA during the Troubles.

She referred to the Smithwick Inquiry which found that gardai leaked information to the IRA about two RUC officers. Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan were murdered in 1989 as they crossed the border following a meeting at a garda station in Dundalk.

Mrs Foster said that while the tribunal reported in December 2013, she claimed no further action has been taken.

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Mrs Foster said she was writing to the Taoiseach following a tweet sent by Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley which appeared to glorify historical killings of British soldiers by the IRA.

She said she has received letters from “innocent victims” about the tweet and the publicity surrounding the British government’s decision not to hold an immediate inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane.

Referring to other IRA attacks, Mrs Foster wrote about the Kingsmill massacre in 1976, the murder of Ian Sproule in 1991, as well as the murders of Lord Justice Maurice Gibson Pc and his wife Lady Cecily in 1987.

Her letter also quotes comments made by Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney who said that there needs to be “real recognition (for victims) on the basis of truth”.

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She also raised meetings that Mr Coveney had with the families of the Kingsmill massacre and with Ian Sproule’s brother John, saying that “nothing happened” following these talks.

She wrote: “I believe strongly that if your government wants to play its role in getting to the truth and thereby assisting reconciliation, then it should seek to urgently assist in the above cases and supply the necessary documentation, as well as examining the recommendations of, and the new evidence that came to light in, the Smithwick Tribunal.

“There are many unanswered questions regarding the role of the Irish state in arming and assisting the IRA in its campaign of terror during ‘the Troubles’ and there can be no doubt that all these matters need a fresh examination if we are all to get to the truth of what happened in our shared past. I would like to discuss these matters with you and look forward to an opportunity to do so in the near future.”

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