Fionnán Sheehan

As well as Pierce Macaulay, who you point out was from Tyrone, there was three other...

from Limerick, Kevin Walsh, Jeremiah Sheehy, Michael O'Neill.

And all four of them then served prison sentences because they pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Now, this is controversial because it ultimately wasn't a murder conviction.

Why not?

Yeah, this begs more questions than there are formal answers.

We'll set the scene.

By the time this comes into court in 1999, the non-jury special criminal court, we already have the Good Friday Agreement.

We already have a feeling, do we really need this dragged around the place forever?

We already have perhaps some doubt about the actual circumstances.

I think with a great sense of relief,

The authorities generally were pleased to hear of guilty pleas and that on that basis, manslaughter seemed to be quite a palatable option because it could basically tidy things away.

The politics of all of this had moved on.

Yeah, and also it's quite a complicated case for the Republican movement because initially the IRA say this wasn't an authorized operation.

They then say subsequently, oh, well, it was at a local level.

Then Sinn Féin get involved in seeking the release of Jerry McCabe's killers under the Good Friday Agreement in

even though this incident was subsequent to and effectively the period of the troubles that were covered by that amnesty.

So it becomes quite politically murky, doesn't it?

It does.

It becomes, I suppose, the kind phrase, but it covers a multitude, is this was very politically inconvenient for very many people.