Mairéad Farrell was born in Belfast into a republican family. Her grandfather had been active in the 1919–1921 War of Independence, and had been imprisoned by the British. Mairéad joined the IRA at eighteen years of age, straight after leaving school. Soon after that, in 1976, she was convicted of involvement in bomb-making and imprisoned for fourteen years.
In prison in Armagh, Mairéad studied political science and economics and refined her political beliefs – later she was to refer to herself as a socialist as well as a republican. She became the officer-in-command of the women, a position she described as ‘lonely’. On 1 December 1980, in a gesture of solidarity, Mairéad and two other women joined a hunger strike started six weeks earlier by seven male IRA prisoners in the Maze prison. The men, apparently believing their demands for political-prisoner status would be met, called off their strike on 18 December, followed by the women the day after. However, the demands were not met and Bobby Sands resumed his hunger strike on 1 March 1981. The hunger strike resulted in the deaths of ten IRA men before the IRA finally called it off in October of that year.
Mairéad was freed in 1986. She immediately became politically active, touring Northern Ireland, lecturing and campaigning with other women against the practice of strip-searching in prisons. She also resumed her involvement as an active member of the IRA.
In March 1988 an SAS surveillance operation focussed on the island of Gibraltar, which Mairéad and two IRA men, Sean Savage and Danny McCann, had been recorded visiting on several occasions. The British Army suspected that they were planning to car-bomb a British military ceremony on 9 March. In the middle of the day on Sunday, 6 March an SAS team followed Mairéad, Sean and Danny as they walked down a Gibraltar street. The soldiers approached the three and shot them dead at point-blank range. This bloody and controversial event was to have tragic repercussions.
The three IRA members were flown home to Belfast to be buried in the same grave in Milltown cemetery. Some 10,000 mourners attended the funeral procession on 16 March, but during the graveside service the cemetery became the scene of new horror when a convicted criminal, Michael Stone from east Belfast, threw four hand grenades at the mourners and then opened fire. He killed three people and wounded about sixty before running away.
This particular trail of death was not yet over. Three days later two British soldiers mistakenly turned onto the street where the funeral of one Stone’s victims was being held. Enraged mourners, believing their appearance was deliberate and aggressive, dragged them from their car, beat them up and handed them over to the IRA, who shot them.
Meanwhile, controversy about the manner of Mairéad’s, Sean’s and Danny’s deaths continued to rage. The IRA admitted that all three had indeed been on ‘active service’ in Gibraltar, so the suspicions of the British authorities were confirmed. However, they had all been unarmed at the time of the shooting and, according to some eyewitness reports, had not been given a chance to surrender had they had arms. It was felt in some quarters that the authorities could and should have arrested the suspects, which could have been done at any time in the preceding month since they had been under continual surveillance.
The SAS gave a confusing and inconsistent version of the events of 6 March, which some commentators felt lent credibility to the accusation that they were trying to cover up a ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy. The British press made matters worse by victimising some witnesses who had contradicted the SAS version of events. This eventually resulted in large libel payouts by the papers. Margaret Thatcher’s government then imposed a broadcasting ban on all paramilitary organisations, denying them what she called ‘the oxygen of publicity’.
The issues arising from this case resulted in a judgement some seven years after the event by the European Court of Human Rights, which stated that the SAS, with their alleged ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy, had violated the right to life of Mairéad, Sean and Danny. It was judged that they had been ‘unlawfully killed’. In Belfast, it is felt in some quarters that, had she lived, Mairéad Farrell would have moved away from guerrilla warfare and become prominent in the constitutional nationalism of the current peace process in Northern Ireland.