Death on the Rock (1988) (3 of 4)

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[Part 3 of 4]
Broadcast (New Zealand): 18th May, 1988.

Death On The Rock was a controversial and British Academy Television Award-winning episode of Thames Television's current affairs strand This Week, screened by the British television network ITV on 28 April 1988.

On 6 March 1988, the three IRA members, Danny McCann, Sean Savage and Mairéad Farrell, were shot dead. The programme examined the shootings and asked why there was no attempt to arrest the IRA members.

The documentary, produced by Roger Bolton and presented by Jonathan Dimbleby, investigated Operation Flavius: an SAS mission in Gibraltar which ended in the deaths of three Provisional IRA members. The reporter was Julian Manyon.

The brief of the mission had been to arrest three IRA members who were suspected by the Joint Intelligence Committee of being in the process of organising a bomb attack on the changing of the guard at The Convent in Gibraltar, before such an attack could take place. The SAS were authorised the use of deadly force 'if those using them had reasonable grounds for believing an act was being committed, or about to be committed, which would endanger life or lives and if there was no other way of preventing that, other than the use of firearms'.

The SAS stated that McCann had made an 'aggressive move' towards a bag he was carrying. They had presumed he was intending to trigger a car bomb using a remote control device. After McCann was killed, Farrell made a move towards her handbag and was therefore killed on similar grounds. Faced with arrest, Savage moved his hand to his pocket; the SAS therefore killed him. In all, McCann was shot five times, Farrell eight times, and Savage between 16 and 18 times. All three were subsequently found to be unarmed. Ingredients for a bomb, including 100 pounds of Semtex, were later found in a car in Spain, identified by keys found in Farrell's handbag.

The documentary interviews witnesses who claimed that the SAS had given no warning prior to shooting, and that the event had been carried out 'in cold blood'. In addition, the defence that the IRA team may have had the capacity to trigger a car bomb by remote control, was subject to criticism, including that of an Army bomb disposal expert.