Seán Savage () (26 January 1965 – 6 March 1988) was a member of 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 ...

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 ...

whilst being accused 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

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 in the Kashmir Street area of

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 ...

, Savage was educated at St. Gall's Primary School, and at St. Paul's Secondary School in the Falls Road area of West Belfast.

Paramilitary activity

In 1987 Savage and Daniel McCann shot 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 dead at

docks. Savage was the leader of an IRA attack that placed a booby-trap car bomb beneath the car of John McMichael, an

Ulster loyalist Ulster loyalism is a strand of Unionism in Ireland, 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 I ...

paramilitary, in

Lisburn Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...

in December 1987. McMichael died of his injuries two hours after the blast.

Gibraltar attack

In March 1988, Savage and McCann, along with another Provisional IRA member Mairéad Farrell, 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

band which paraded weekly in front of the Governors' residence. However, the

British Government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

had acquired information about the intended attack and specially dispatched a British Army detachment there to intercept it, in an operation that it 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 ...

''. On 6 March 1988 Savage, McCann and Farrell entered Gibraltar from across the Spanish border to carry out 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 ...

of the target. Having conducted it, they were leaving Gibraltar on foot approaching the Spanish border in two separate parties, when Savage saw ahead at eyesight distance McCann and Farrell being confronted and shot dead by 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. Savage turned about and fled, running back into Gibraltar town, closely pursued on foot by another SAS soldier, who after a 300-yard chase caught up with Savage and shot him dead beneath a

beech tree Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted species i ...

in Smith Dorrien Avenue. Civilian witnesses to the incident stated afterwards that Savage was repeatedly fired upon by the soldier that had run him down whilst he was lying on the ground seemingly incapacitated.ECHR Ruling on the killings
/ref>"1988: IRA gang shot dead in Gibraltar"
BBC News The IRA team was subsequently found to be unarmed at the time of their deaths. A hire car rented by them, converted into a

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 ceremony in Gibraltar, was found two days later by the Spanish Police, who had assisted the British Government in tracking the IRA team's movements in its territory before it had entered Gibraltar.

Milltown Cemetery attack

Savage's body, along with Farrell and McCann's were repatriated to Northern Ireland, where a collective IRA-sponsored funeral was held for them on 16 March 1988 at the IRA plot in Milltown Cemetery in West Belfast. As the coffins were being lowered into the ground, Michael Stone, an

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

, staged a single-handed attack upon the ceremony, throwing hand grenades and 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 ...

at mourners. The funeral immediately descended into chaos. One group of mourners pursued the retreating attacker, who continued to throw handgrenades and fire bullets, through cemetery grounds. Three of these unarmed mourners were killed and scores were injured. Stone retreated on to the adjoining M1 motorway, where he was arrested.

Subsequent events

A Gibraltar inquest into the deaths of Savage, McCann and Farrell concluded the three had been lawfully killed. In 1995, the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

ruled that the human rights of the three were infringed, and criticized the British authorities for lack of control in the arrest operation. They also ruled that the three had been engaged in an act of

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

, and consequently dismissed unanimously the applicants’ claims for damages, for costs and expenses incurred in the Gibraltar Inquest and the remainder of the claims for just satisfaction. A British television documentary, '' Death on the Rock'' (1988) was produced and broadcast about the failed IRA operation in Gibraltar, examining the details of the events, and raising doubts about aspects of the British Government's statements about the circumstances of the shootings of the IRA team, and questioning whether excessive force had been used in the confrontation in line with persistent rumours in the British media at that time of a " Shoot to Kill" strategy being used against the Provisional IRA by the British Government.Death on the Rock
The Museum of Broadcast Communications.

Early life

Paramilitary activity

Gibraltar attack

Milltown Cemetery attack

Subsequent events

References

Further reading