|
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
Death on the Rock
|
|
(Thames TV 1988) Controversial documentary about a controversial event in 1988, the killing of three suspected *IRA terrorists – Daniel McCann, Sean Savage and Mairead Farrell – by the *SAS in *Gibraltar. The deaths sparked off a terrifying escalation of violence in *Northern Ireland; a loyalist gunman fired on the funeral of the three and killed three of the mourners; a few days later, at the funeral of one of those three victims, two British off-duty corporals, David Howes and Derek Wood, were dragged from their car (they were in the path of the funeral) and were gruesomely murdered.
|
|
|
|
The documentary accused the *SAS of having shot the three in Gibraltar when they could have arrested them; this enraged the government, which tried and failed to prevent the programme from being transmitted. In 1994 the European Commission of Human Rights decided, by a majority of 11 to 6, that the SAS were justified in the level of force used; but they kept the case open by referring it to the European Court of Human Rights.
|
|
|
|