Alison Morris

Indeed, other Republicans he had, there's a host of people he said to have represented, including former hunger striker Pat McGeown, after he was charged with the IRA killing of two army corporals, successfully defended him.

And as you said, his city centre practice was only one of a handful of firms which specialised in

in these sort of cases.

He had been regarded with suspicion by the security forces and indeed by unionists perhaps to this day since his brother John, who died in a car accident in 1972, had been claimed by the IRA as one of their members.

And because of this unpopularity in police and military circles, and this was well known, that even within days of his murder, there were these allegations made that the loyalist gunmen who killed him had been assisted by intelligence personnel indeed, and that there was what we would call collusion.

This was from the beginning.

Pat Finucane was murdered on the 12th of February 1989 after UDA gunmen broke into his house with a sledgehammer as the family were eating dinner.

He was killed in front of his wife and three children.

That shocked a lot of people.

He was shot 14 times, twice in the body and then the other 12 rounds into his face at close range.

Frenzied attack, if you want to put it like that.

The UFF, the Ulster Freedom Fighters, they admitted responsibility the day after the murder.

In a statement claiming the killing, they said they killed Pat Finucane, the IRA officer.

Now, his family have always denied that allegation.

And that is part of the story, of course.

In May 2003, loyalist Ken Barrett was arrested and charged with the murder of Pat Finucane.

He drove the getaway car.

He later confessed and was sentenced to 22 years of imprisonment in September 2004.

He was freed two years later under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Of course, there were many other people aside from this pair involved.