Dublin Spied On Gibraltar Three: Adams

Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams has further stoked the existing controversy over his party's plans to commemorate an IRA bomber in Stormont by claiming that the IRA 'unit' concerned was gunned down by the SAS after the Irish Government passed on information about their movements.

This comes against a background of indecision on Sinn Fein's pending application to hold a commemoration of one of the shot IRA bombers, Mairead Farrell, in Stormont's Long Gallery as part of International Womens Day celebrations on March 8.

The west Belfast trio were shot dead by undercover soldiers as they prepared to launch a car bomb attack on troops based on The Rock.

It was claimed they had been under surveillance by British intelligence and the authorities in Spain who monitored their movements as they crossed the border into Gibraltar, apparently after leaving Ireland on a flight out of Dublin.

The Sinn Fein president declared: "It is my strong view that the killings in Gibraltar were authorised by Margaret Thatcher, and it is my strong view that the Irish government of the day passed information to the authorities about the movements of those killed.

"I cannot prove that, but that is my conviction."

Meanwhile, the DUP has put on hold an application for a commemoration of the SAS - which shot Ms Farrell with two other IRA members, Danny McCann and Sean Savage, in Gibraltar in 1988 - until an Assembly Commission reaches a decision on the dual applications.

The NI Assembly Commission is currently on a visit to Dublin, which in itself, is likely to delay a decision

The Commission, which is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Assembly, travelled across the border yesterday to meet its counterpart body in Dublin.

The two-day visit includes talks with the body which organises the Dail in Leinster House and senior TDs from all parties in the Republic.

To further complicate things, it is now thought that if the Commission refuses permission to use the Long Gallery, Sinn Fein will stage the contentious event in its own Stormont offices.

(BMcC)