Relatives for Justice (RFJ) welcomes the publication of the Police Ombudsman’s report into the RUC’s deliberate mishandling of the 1993 murder of Peter Gallagher. We are privileged to have supported the Gallagher family in this long and challenging journey for truth and accountability.
While the report sheds some light on the circumstances surrounding Peter’s murder, it also highlights the scale and depth of state failure. It exposes a disturbing pattern – one of systemic collusion between the RUC and loyalist paramilitaries. What emerges is not closure, but a compelling argument for a full, independent, and human rights-compliant investigation, which the state has so far failed to deliver.
Peter Gallagher, a 44-year-old father of seven and grandfather, was murdered by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) on 24 March 1993. A native of Toome, County Antrim, Peter was shot as he arrived for work at the Westlink Enterprise Centre on Distillery Street, just off Belfast’s Falls Road. He was a long standing member of Sinn Féin, and a highly respected pillar of his community and an active member of Cargin CLG. At the time of his death, he was a husband and father to young children; today, had he lived, he would have been the proud grandfather of seventeen.
His killing was part of a broader UDA campaign of sectarian violence, carried out with the knowledge and, at times, the facilitation of state agencies. Like so many others, Peter was murdered in circumstances that bore all the hallmarks of collusion: prior intelligence not acted upon, suspects not arrested, forensic evidence not pursued, and a consistent failure to investigate or prosecute.
His case bears striking similarities to the murder of Damien Walsh, who was also killed by the UDA just weeks earlier. In both cases, the Police Ombudsman identified deeply disturbing failures by the RUC, including the deliberate withdrawal of surveillance, prior intelligence about threats, and the absence of any meaningful action to protect life or pursue justice. Though the term “collusive behaviour” is now legally constrained following a High Court ruling earlier this year, the actions (and inactions) documented speak for themselves.
RFJ rejects the artificial barriers erected to avoid naming the role of the state for what it was: collusion.
For decades, state agencies and organisations such as the Retired Police Officers Association have attempted to silence those who tell the truth about collusion, including the Office of the Police Ombudsman. The British government’s Legacy Act is merely the latest attempt to do so. It strips the very bodies capable of uncovering the truth of their powers, replaces them with structures that lack independence, and ensures that future reports like this one will never see the light of day. This is not accountability. It is institutionalised impunity.
The Ombudsman’s newly published report today revealed:
- Although there were a total of 12 people who should have been of interest to the murder investigation, none were arrested.
- Surveillance of the UDA was withdrawn two days before the killing, which, according to the Ombudsman, had “unintended but significant consequences.”
- The murder weapon, a Browning pistol, had been used in other attacks, including Damien Walsh’s murder. Links between these cases were not pursued.
- The murder weapon was removed from the scene by British military and brought to Girdwood Barracks to ‘clear it’.
- Key forensic and vehicle evidence was ignored, and no serious efforts were made to trace suspects.
- The family was misled, given repeated assurances that a meaningful investigation was ongoing when in reality it was not.
- The investigation lacked rigour, ignored intelligence, and displayed a consistent failure to pursue viable leads, amounting to a complete failure of duty.
Peter’s wife, Bernadette “Bridie” Gallagher, passed away in 2021 without the answers she had spent nearly three decades demanding. Her death is a stark reminder of the generational impact of denial and delay. RFJ pays tribute to her strength, and to her son Seamus and the rest of the family, whose determination and dignity have ensured that this report could finally be published in the name of truth.
That this report may be among the last to emerge under the Police Ombudsman’s now-dismantled powers is a sobering thought. The Legacy Act has shut down future investigations, closed hundreds of similar cases, and sent a clear message to families: the truth will not be tolerated.
The Gallagher family’s long campaign reflects the experience of so many across the North – families failed not just once by the violence that took their loved ones, but again and again by the state’s refusal to investigate and to tell the truth. Collusion is not merely a matter of historical record. It is alive in every legal and political effort to deny what happened, and to suppress the evidence.
RFJ stands with the Gallagher family and all families who continue to fight for justice. This report is not the end. It must be the basis for further action which the family will now actively consider.
