7m
12 May 2021

Family of Official IRA man Joe McCann call for inquest into his death

The family of Official IRA man Joe McCann, who was shot in Belfast in 1972, want an inquest into his death. Their demand follows the collapse last week of a murder trial of two soldiers allegedly involved.

This programme can report on previously unseen British Army files detailing the incident all those years ago.

Yesterday an inquest into the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971 showed the dead there to be completely innocent, for which the prime minister apologised today in a telephone call with the first and deputy first ministers at Stormont.

But the killing of Joe McCann is a much more complicated affair and it highlights the challenge facing Northern Ireland as it wrestles with its past.