Daniel McCann (30 November 1957 – 6 March 1988) was a member of the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

(IRA), who was shot dead by the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

on 6 March 1988 whilst being accused of attempting to plant a

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

Early life

McCann was born into an

Irish republican Irish republicanism () is the political movement for an Irish republic, void of any British rule. Throughout its centuries of existence, it has encompassed various tactics and identities, simultaneously elective and militant and has been both w ...

family from the Clonard area of West

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

. He was educated at primary level at St Gall's Primary School,

, and at St Mary's Grammar School, Belfast. McCann did not finish his education as he was arrested after becoming involved in rioting. He was charged and convicted of "riotous behaviour" and sentenced to six months in prison. Later that year McCann joined the

Provisional IRA The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

. He was later convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment for the possession of explosives.

Paramilitary activity

In 1987 McCann along with another IRA member, Sean Savage, murdered two

Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the ...

officers at Belfast docks. In 1988 McCann and Savage, along with Mairead Farrell, another IRA member, were sent to the

British overseas territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...

to plant a bomb in the town area, targeting a British Army band which paraded weekly in connection with the changing of the guard in front of the Governors' residence. The British Government knew in advance about the operation, and specially dispatched to Gibraltar a British Army detachment to intercept the IRA team. Whilst McCann, Savage and Farrell were engaged on 6 March 1988 on a

reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...

trip in Gibraltar before driving in a car-bomb, soldiers from the

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling, and in 1950 it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terr ...

Regiment wearing civilian clothes confronted them in the streets of the town. McCann was shot five times at close-range, the SAS soldiers later claiming that he had made an 'aggressive move' when approached. Farrell who was with McCann was also shot dead. Savage was walking separately behind McCann and Farrell within eyesight distance, and seeing them ahead being confronted and fired upon, fled, running several hundred yards back into Gibraltar town closely pursued on foot by another Special Air Service soldier, who caught up with him and shot him dead also. All three IRA members were subsequently found to be unarmed. A

ready to be driven into Gibraltar that had been created by McCann, Savage and Farrell was found 36 miles away in Spain by the Spanish Police two days after their deaths, containing of

Semtex Semtex is a general-purpose plastic explosive containing RDX and PETN. It is used in commercial blasting, demolition, and in certain military applications. Semtex was developed and manufactured in Czechoslovakia, originally under the name B 1 a ...

with a device timed to go off during the changing of the guard in Gibraltar.

Subsequent events

A documentary entitled '' Death on the Rock'', was produced and broadcast on British television about the failed IRA operation in Gibraltar shortly after it had taken place, detailing the British and Spanish Government's actions and that of the IRA team, in an operation that the British Government had code-named ''

Operation Flavius Operation Flavius (also referred to as the Gibraltar killings) was a military operation in which three members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) were shot dead by the British Special Air Service (SAS) in Gibraltar on 6 March 198 ...

''. The documentary also interviewed civilian eyewitnesses to the shooting of the Provisional IRA members, raising questions about the veracity of the British Government and its involved soldiers' accounts of it, focusing on whether the three IRA members had been offered the chance to surrender by the soldiers confronting them before they had been fired upon. It also questioned whether the violence used had been proportionate, in line with ongoing rumours in the British media of a purported "Shoot to Kill" policy that the British Government was at that point pursuing against the Provisional IRA in

The Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

Funeral

At an IRA-sponsored collective funeral on 16 March 1988 for McCann's body along with that of Savage and Farrell's at the IRA plot in Milltown Cemetery in West Belfast, as the bodies were being lowered into the ground the funeral party came under a hand-grenade attack from a lone

Loyalist paramilitary Ulster loyalism is a strand of Ulster unionism associated with working class Ulster Protestants in Northern Ireland. Like other unionists, loyalists support the continued existence of Northern Ireland (and formerly all of Ireland) within the U ...

. The funeral immediately descended into chaotic scenes, as a running fight occurred between the lone gunman firing a

handgun A handgun is a firearm designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun, long barreled gun (i.e., carbine, rifle, shotgun, submachine gun, or machine gun) which typically is intended to be held by both hands and br ...

and throwing more grenades at a group of mourners, as they pursued him through the cemetery's grounds. Three mourners were killed and scores wounded in the incident.

References

Bibliography

Gerry Adams Gerard Adams (; born 6 October 1948) is a retired Irish Republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. From 1983 to 19 ...