Widow of IRA victim reacts to Coagh ambush verdict: 'They were murderers. They were shot. A lot of money has been spent to get the result we always knew was right'

Wendy Gibson said a lot of money had been expended to get a verdict which was obvious: namely, that the ambush of the gang was justified.

Mrs Gibson would have been celebrating the 40th anniversary of her wedding to Ned this Sunday, were it not for the fact he was shot to death in 1988 by an IRA team belonging to the especially-active east Tyrone brigade.

No-one was convicted of Ned’s shooting, but it was rumoured his killers were later shot dead themselves – with two of them dying in what has since become known as the 1991 Coagh Ambush.

An inquest into the 1991 Coagh Ambush ended on Thursday, with the coroner saying that the “use of lethal force was justified” against the three dead IRA men: Larry McNally, Tony Doris, and Michael Ryan.

The IRA men’s families complained they should have been arrested, but the coroner has now ruled the use of force was “reasonable” in the circumstances.

The east Tyrone brigade was especially violent during the Troubles, being among the most active sections alongside the south Armagh and Belfast brigades.

Ned Gibson was a binman from Coagh who joined the UDR as a part-time member.

On April 26, 1988, unarmed and just two weeks after he joined, the IRA killed him in the nearby east Tyrone hamlet of Ardboe while he was collecting rubbish.

She had heard that Michael Ryan and Larry McNally had been among those involved in her husband’s death, and speaking of this week’s findings into the Coagh Ambush, she told the News Letter: “I have to say it's the right result. They were armed and were going to shoot another UDR man.

"I'm glad it's turned out that way; at least to me, justice has been done properly this time.”

As for the time and money spent on the inquest, she said: “Would it not have been better spent on the NHS? It's for everybody, Catholic and Protestant. To me that's wasted money to get a result we knew was right in the first place.”

She noted that a number of former soldiers have been prosecuted in recent years for Troubles era crimes.

But whilst she said “I know people have been on the wrong side of the law who were supposed to be keeping the law,” people forget that most followed the rules, whilst “the IRA just did what they wanted to do”.

Whilst the legal officers involved in the case will move on to the next one now, for her, she said, “nothing has changed”.

"They [the IRA gang] committed murder. They've been shot – they want to say ‘killed in action’. Nothing changes.

"I still have to cope. The anger isn't the same as what it was. It just seems to be real sadness of what we lost out on. It just feels like yesterday.”

Like many other victims, she has stitched his name onto a Troubles memorial quilt organised by the victims’ group MUVE (Mid Ulster Victims Empowerment).

Ned’s patch bears four red roses, because when Mrs Gibson gave birth to their daughter he turned up in hospital with those flowers.

The midwives had enquired why only four roses.

“I didn’t say it was probably all he could afford,” said Mrs Gibson, who instead told them that the four roses stood for “I / Love / You / Forever”.

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