Sam Marshall remembered in Lurgan

Sam Marshall

The 16th anniversary of the murder of Lurgan man Sam Marshall by British state forces was marked by a picket of the RUC/PSNI barracks in the town on Tuesday evening, 7 March. Several dozen people took part.

Sam Marshall was a former republican prisoner, and at the time of his death was out on bail on charges of possession of ammunition. Shortly before his death he was told by the RUC that his files were in the hands of unionist paramilitaries. On another occasion RUC members threatened him with death.

On the night of 7 March 1990, Sam Marshall was shot dead when he and another two men were coming from Lurgan's RUC barracks, where they had to sign in as part of their bail conditions. The shooting took place within a short distance of the RUC barracks.

A Channel Four Dispatches TV documentary broadcast in 1991, revealed that a British military surveillance camera was found facing the home of one of the men who had been with Sam Marshall when he was killed.

At an extradition hearing of an Irish republican in the United States in 1994, a senior RUC officer admitted that one of three unmarked cars in the area at the time of the murder was in fact an RUC vehicle. The officer declined to explain the reason for its presence on the grounds of 'national security'.

Speaking at last week's protest, Sinn Féin MLA John O'Dowd said: "Sixteen years on, the role of the Special Branch in the murder of Sam Marshall still remains hidden by the British Government. Literally scores of people died in the Murder Triangle around north Armagh and south Tyrone, as a result of the collusion and outright co-operation which took place between British forces, including the RUC, and loyalist death squads. It is time that the British government permitted the spotlight of truth to be shone on all of those cases."