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More Questions Raised about Sam Marshall Murder

05/03/12

Rúnaí ginearálta éirígí Breandán Mac Cionnaith has said that new facts about the murder of Sam Marshall in Lurgan in 1990 raise even more questions about the death.

Mac Cionnaith said, “The fact that at least nine armed members of a British Army undercover unit using six cars were actively targeting Sam Marshall when he was murdered on March 7th 1990 demonstrates once again how the British state facilitated the murder of Irish civilians through the use of shadowy death squads in the Six Counties.

“Many people will undoubtedly be shocked when they learn that members of the armed undercover British military unit were only yards away from Sam when he was shot.

“Indeed, we have no doubt that many people will be asking why those armed undercover British soldiers did not intervene to protect Sam or to apprehend his killers.

“The questions must be asked – were those British soldiers working in collaboration with those who shot Sam and was that British Army unit deployed to protect the gunmen and to facilitate the murder?

“It’s now clear that the British government and the RUC/PSNI have been involved in covering up many of the facts about Sam’s murder for twenty two years. The government and the police lied to the Marshall family, lied to the public and lied to the press when they repeatedly denied that Sam and his two companions were being monitored by British forces on the night of the murder.

“The former British Secretary of State Patrick Mayhew also lied to his fellow members of Parliament when he told them in 1994 that there was no surveillance of Sam at the time of his death.

“We in éirígí fully support the Marshall family’s campaign to uncover the truth behind Sam’s murder. It is time that they and many other families who lost fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters were given the full truth about Britain’s death squads in Ireland.”

• The Marshall family will be holding a vigil and wreath-laying ceremony in Kilmaine Street, Lurgan, on Wednesday 7th March at 7.30pm. This will be followed by the launch of the book The Murder of Sam Marshall in St Peter's GAC, North Street at 8pm.
• There will also be an event to launch The Murder of Sam Marshall in Conway Mill, Conway Street, Belfast on Wednesday 14th March at 7.30pm.