Crowley report questions British claims around McAnespie shooting

A REPORT by the Irish Government into the killing of Aidan McAnespie just after he crossed the border checkpoint at Aughnacloy in 1988 questioned the British army’s version of events, it has emerged.

The 23-year-old was shot while on his way to play for Aghaloo against Killeeshil in a Tyrone GAA match in February 1988.

Late last year, 52-year-old David Holden, then a member of the Grenadier Guards, admitted firing the fatal shot.

He was convicted of manslaughter, and will be sentenced at the High Court in Belfast during the next few weeks.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the government in Dublin launched the Crowley Report. Now, papers released under the 30-year rule, have revealed that the Irish Government also raised questions over the version of events put forward by the British.

Assistant Garda Commissioner, Eugene Crowley, expressed the view that the defence forward by Holden represented ‘too much of a coincidence’.

“I would find it difficult to accept the press report that his fingers slipped when cleaning the gun. It would be too much of a coincidence that McAnespie happened to be in the line of fire at the time,” the Deputy Commissioner wrote.

“There can be no doubt about the fact that he was being singled out for particular attention and harassment at the Aughnacloy checkpoint… if the final intention were to kill him, I would consider that the Security Forces could have chosen a more surreptitious occasion and time.”

HARASSMENT

The document also reveals how statements were taken from 49 people, with some of them ‘clearly indicating’ that Aidan McAnespie was being subject to an excessive amount of harassment by security force personnel prior to the killing.

There were also complaints about harassment, mainly of the young male population of the Aughnacloy at the time.

Additionally, there were increased tensions between Dublin and London as a result of the shooting. The then Taoiseach, Charlie Haughey, said the explanation by the British ‘gave rise to disbelief’.

The then-Secretary of State in the North, Tom King, admitted to Foreign Affairs Minister, Brian Lenihan, that the Irish Government should have been kept better informed of the decision in 1988 to drop the charges against David Holden.