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Northern Ireland: How a 1980s state killing cover-up is still relevant today

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26 February 2025

A review of ‘Decades of Deceit: The Stalker Affair and its Legacy’ by Paddy Hillyard (Beyond the Pale Books, 2024).

History in the present

This meticulously researched book focuses on events that took place more than 40 years ago. However, it is much more than a historical account of the “dirty war” conducted by the British police and security forces in Northern Ireland at that time. It has very contemporary resonance.

The forces that sought to cover up the events central to the book continue to prioritise the protection of intelligence sources and personnel over the investigation of criminal acts. They also continue to hide the truth about the events which lay behind many killings in Northern Ireland perpetrated by state actors and their agents.

Policy inquiry into killings

The book focuses on a series of shoot-to-kill incidents in 1982, and the extent to which state agents and informers derailed a senior British police officer’s official inquiry into those killings. That inquiry was supposedly set up to ensure the rule of law was respected in the future.

On 20 May 1984, John Stalker, the Deputy Chief Constable of the Greater Manchester Police was appointed to conduct an inquiry into three shoot-to-kill incidents in Northern Ireland.

The first was the killing of Sean Burns, Gervaise McKerr and Eugene Toman by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Headquarters Mobile Support Unit on 11 November 1982. The RUC was the police force in Northern Ireland at the time, now replaced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The three men were unarmed and driving down Tullygally East Road in Lurgan. An RUC press release asserted that the car had failed to stop at a check point. Forensic and witness evidence indicated that at least 109 rounds of bullets had entered the car when it was at a standstill.

Then, on 24 November 1982, Martin McCauley was seriously injured and Michael Tighe, who was 17 at the time, was killed in a hayshed close to the Ballynerry Road North near Lurgan. Members of the RUC alleged that they had entered the hayshed after observing suspicious activity, whilst on a patrol on a nearby road. However, local witnesses confirmed that the shed could not be observed from that road. Evidence later revealed that no warnings were given before they were shot. MI5 (the British domestic intelligence agency) had also bugged the hayshed.

Finally, Seamus Grew and Roddy Carroll, members of the Irish National Liberation Army, a republican paramilitary group, were alleged to have driven through an RUC roadblock on 12 December 1982. They were shot after being chased by police vehicles and failing to stop on Killylea Road near Armagh. This version was disputed by civilian witnesses. Forensic evidence showed that the two men had each been shot in the arm, chest and the back of the head.

Inquests into the deaths

Inquests into their deaths were opened later in that decade but adjourned whilst lawyers unsuccessfully sought access to essential evidence. The state’s failure to disclose evidence was one of the features of cases brought before the High Court in Northern Ireland, and appeals to the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights.

One key issue was the redaction by the state of any material they deemed to be “sensitive.” Public interest immunity certificates were served on High Court judges sitting as coroners to oversee the inquests, preventing the disclosure of relevant evidence. Another was the failure by the Northern Ireland Assembly, [1] then dominated by Loyalist parties, [2] to provide the necessary funding for the “legacy” inquests.

It was not until 2019 that the Westminster government provided sufficient funding to implement a five-year plan to complete all the legacy inquests. However, a number of these inquests, including those relating to the shoot-to-kill incidents were truncated in May 2024 by new legislation introduced by the Westminster government: the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act. The Act meant proceedings were transferred to a new body, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

Opposition to the new “legacy” system

There is significant opposition in Northern Ireland to the ICRIR. There is also strong opposition to the ongoing delay in restoring inquest into deaths during the so-called ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland.[3]

That opposition comes from families of ex-combatants and civilians alike, as well as lawyers, judges and a range of civil society organisations. These shoot-to-kill incidents and the subsequent cover-ups were part of an ongoing pattern of denial by the British state. The state has sought to prevent truth and justice for those who, from the mid-1960s onwards, sought civil and political rights in part of Britain’s first, and one of its last, colonies.

Despite promises to repeal and replace the Legacy Act, the current government has yet to do either. It has not restored legacy inquests and appears determined to retain the ICRIR system. This is a system in which the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is the final arbiter of what material can be disclosed. It does not provide families seeking the truth with legal aid or access to their own lawyers.

The legislation is the subject of a challenge before the European Court of Human Rights, in a case brought by Ireland against the UK. The Irish government argues that the Legacy Act breaches both the European Convention on Human Rights and the Good Friday Agreement, which ended the ‘Troubles’. The Westminster government continues to defend itself against those claims.

Back to the 1980s: the Stalker inquiry

As Paddy Hillyard recounts in meticulous detail in his book, John Stalker and his team found that the RUC, MI5 and other security agencies worked together to obscure key evidence. That evidence showed the involvement of members of the security forces and their agents, including members of Loyalist paramilitary groups, in the shoot-to-kill incidents.

Stalker also uncovered widespread practices that ensured certain officers and agents could act with impunity, in the knowledge that they would be exempt from investigation and prosecution.

Senior RUC officers, including the then-Chief Constable, sought to restrict the inquiry to a cursory review. When Stalker sought to uncover illegality and the policies which were leading to perversion of the course of justice, he was denied access to key evidence. The tape of events in the hayshed and other material was destroyed or “lost.”

When he persisted in trying to uncover truths uncomfortable for the security forces, further steps were taken against him. The state used local informers in his home city, Manchester, and senior officers, who were hostile to any criticism of the state, to create a false narrative. This narrative claimed it was Stalker, and not those he had been investigating, who was corrupt.

Stalker and a close friend, Kevin Taylor, were accused of criminality on account of their alleged association with the Quality Street Gang in Manchester. Stalker was suspended from duty and from the inquiry. He was eventually reinstated to his position as Deputy Chief Constable of the Greater Manchester Police in 1987, but chose to retire a few months later.

Colin Sampson, the Chief Constable of the West Yorkshire Police, then took over the Northern Ireland inquiry. He discovered that the cover-ups of the shoot-to-kill incidents complied with an order, in place since 1981, to protect informers and state agents from prosecution. This prioritised the protection of intelligence and the security agencies over the prosecution of crimes committed by the security forces. But the senior officers responsible for implementing the policy were never charged and prosecuted.

Paddy Hillyard’s book deserves very careful reading. The criticisms it makes of the extent to which the state has, and continues to, cover up its own wrongdoing is perhaps more relevant than ever. The authorities are arresting and charging individuals who seek to oppose the government’s own widespread complicity in breaches of domestic and international law. As has often been the case, policies developed and practiced in Ireland are being recycled to deal with the “enemy within.”

Author: Nadine Finch, Statewatch trustee

Notes

[1] The Northern Ireland Assembly is the legislature for Northern Ireland.

[2] In Northern Ireland, the term “loyalist” refers to those who wish to remain part of the United Kingdom.

[3] ‘The Troubles’ is a term used to refer to the period of conflict in Northern Ireland over the territory’s status as part of the United Kingdom. That period lasted from the 1960s until the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Further reading