Operation Flavius (also referred to as the Gibraltar killings) is a military operation in which three members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), Seán Savage, Daniel McCann and Mairéad Farrell, are shot dead by the British Special Air Service (SAS) in Gibraltar on March 6, 1988.

The trio is believed to be planning a car bomb attack on British military personnel in Gibraltar. They are shot dead while leaving the territory, having parked a car. All three are found to be unarmed, and no bomb is discovered in the car, leading to accusations that the British government conspired to murder them. An inquest in Gibraltar rules that the authorities had acted lawfully but the European Court of Human Rights holds that, although there had been no conspiracy, the planning and control of the operation is so flawed as to make the use of lethal force almost inevitable. The deaths are the first in a chain of violent events in a fourteen-day period. On March 16, the funeral of the three IRA members is attacked, leaving three mourners dead. At the funeral of one, two British soldiers are murdered after driving into the procession in error.

In late 1987, British authorities become aware of an IRA plan to detonate a bomb outside the governor’s residence in Gibraltar. On the day of the shootings, Savage, a known IRA member, is seen parking a car near the assembly area for the parade. Fellow members McCann and Farrell are seen crossing the border shortly afterward. As SAS personnel move to intercept the three, Savage splits from McCann and Farrell and runs south. Two soldiers pursue him while two others approach McCann and Farrell. The soldiers report seeing the IRA members make threatening movements when challenged, so the soldiers shoot them multiple times. All three are found to be unarmed, and Savage’s car does not contain a bomb.

When the bodies are searched, a set of car keys is found on Farrell. Spanish and British authorities conduct enquiries to trace the vehicle. Two days after the shootings, their enquiries lead them to a red Ford Fiesta in a car park in Marbella, fifty miles from Gibraltar. The car contains a large quantity of Semtex surrounded by 200 rounds of ammunition, along with four detonators and two timers.

The IRA notifies the McCann, Savage, and Farrell families of the deaths on the evening of March 6, and the following day publicly announces that the three were members of the IRA. A senior member of Sinn Féin, Joe Austin, is tasked with recovering the bodies. On March 9, he and Terence Farrell (Mairéad Farrell’s brother) travel to Gibraltar to identify the bodies. A charter aircraft flies the corpses to Dublin on March 14. Two thousand people wait to meet the coffins in Dublin, which are then driven north to Belfast. At the border, the Northern Irish authorities meet the procession with a large number of police and military vehicles, and insist on intervals between the hearses, causing tensions between police and members of the procession.

The joint funeral of McCann, Farrell and Savage takes place on March 16 at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast. The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) agree to maintain a minimal presence at the funeral in exchange for guarantees from the families that there will be no salute by masked gunmen. This agreement is leaked to Michael Stone, who describes himself as a “freelance Loyalist paramilitary.” During the burial, Stone throws grenades into the crowd and begins shooting with an automatic pistol, injuring 60 people. Several mourners chase Stone, throwing rocks and shouting abuse. Stone continues shooting and throwing grenades at his pursuers, killing three of them. He is chased onto a road and his pursuers beat him until the RUC arrive to extract and arrest him.

Two months after the shootings, the documentary “Death on the Rock” is broadcast on British television. Using reconstructions and eyewitness accounts, it presents the possibility that the three IRA members had been unlawfully killed.

The inquest into the deaths begins in September 1988. The authorities state that the IRA team had been tracked to Málaga, where they were lost by the Spanish police, and that the three did not re-emerge until Savage was seen parking his car in Gibraltar. The soldiers testify that they believed the suspected bombers had been reaching for weapons or a remote detonator. Several eyewitnesses recall seeing the three shot without warning, with their hands up, or while they were on the ground. One witness, who told “Death on the Rock” he saw a soldier fire at Savage repeatedly while he was on the ground, retracts his statement at the inquest, prompting an inquiry into the programme which largely vindicated it. The inquest returns a verdict of lawful killing. Dissatisfied, the families take the case to the European Court of Human Rights. Delivering its judgement in 1995, the court finds that the operation had been in violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights as the authorities’ failure to arrest the suspects at the border, combined with the information given to the soldiers, rendered the use of lethal force almost inevitable. The decision is cited as a landmark case in the use of force by the state.

(Pictured: The three IRA members shot in Gibraltar: (l to r) Sean Savage, Mairéad Farrell, Daniel McCann, PA Archive / PA Images)