Sallins Petition awaits government response

PB February 2024 February 2024 33

he Sallins Train robbery occurred in

Ireland on 31 March 1976. The Cork to

Dublin mail train was robbed near

Sallins in County Kildare.

Approximately £300,000 was stolen.

Five members of the Irish Republican Socialist

Party, Osgur Breatnach, Nicky Kelly, Mick

Plunkett, John Fitzpatrick, Michael Barrett, and a

former member Brian McNally, were arrested in

connection with the robbery. The subsequent

arrest of a large number of members and persons

associated with the IRSP constituted an assault

on a registered political party.

During incommunicado detention and

interrogation in Garda Síochána custody, all

except Plunkett and Michael Barrett signed

alleged confessions, all presenting with

extensive bruising and injuries they claimed were

inﬂ icted by members of the gardaí.

All the Sallins Men denied their involvement in

the robbery. In 1980 the Provisional IRA claimed

responsibility for it.

The Sallins men are long resigned from the

IRSP.

All the Sallins Men claimed they were held

unconstitutionally and illegally; threatened with

assault on themselves and their families; all

su ered psychological and physical torture to

obtain compliance in signing statements.

All claimed untrue inculpatory verbal

statements were attributed to them.

Some of the Sallins Men were told that their

arrest was to ensure people did not join the

political party of which they were members or

supporters.

The Sallins Men claim that gardaí conspired to

maliciously prosecute them.

The Garda File presented to the DPP included

forgeries and omissions.

The police station evidence of the

interrogations (including the names of Garda

o cers) was unlawfully removed.

The Sallins Men claim they were denied bail for

a period that coincided with their bruises

diminishing.

The trial of Plunkett, McNally, Kelly, and

Breatnach in the Special Criminal Court became

the longest-running trial in Irish criminal history,

at 65 days, before it collapsed due to the death

of one of the three judges, Judge John O’Connor

of the Circuit Court. Complaints that the judge

slept throughout the case were ruled against by

the trial court (including the ‘sleeping judge’) and

subsequently, on the basis of res judicata, by the

High Court and Supreme Court.

In e ect, an evidential requirement of proving

innocence was placed on the Sallins Men, thus

branding them guilty until proven innocent.

Pursuing their civil cases, all were denied the

right to sue for assault and battery by use of the

notorious Birmingham Six judgment of estoppel

and res judicata based on unfair trial judgements.

In 1993, the State, without any admission of

liability, entered into a monetary settlement of

the civil actions. At the time of settlement internal

state papers, including a case review of the

criminal prosecution carried out by the Director

of Public Prosecutions, were not openly disclosed

by the State.

The State has never apologised, admitted any

culpability or disclosed implicatory

documentation in its possession.

At no stage has it sought to hold their own

o cers and agents to account, at all times

maintaining that the o cers and agents had not

engaged in wrongdoing.

All legal costs were guaranteed by the State to

gardai being sued by the Sallins Men and for any

future Sallins related cases.

Irrational and damaging ﬁ ndings by the trial

court still stand due to res judicata (e.g., that the

Sallins Men conspired to lie about their torture to

blacken the gardai; that the injuries sustained by

the Sallins Men were self-inﬂ icted or inﬂ icted

Sallins Petition awaits government response

By Suzie Mélange

upon each other).

A Petition on the Sallins Case was submitted

to the Minister for Justice in November 2023 but

remains unanswered.

It is an application to the Minister for Justice

and Equality made by the Irish Council for Civil

Liberties (ICCL), Pat Finucane Centre (PFC) and

Committee for the Administration of Justice (CAJ)

to establish a Statutory Inquiry into the

convictions following the Sallins Train Robbery

1976.

The men are now elderly and vulnerable.

Their treatment constitutes inhuman or

degrading treatment and punishment and

oppression.

Financial compensation does not equate to

truth, justice, and accountability.

The investigation would be conducted in

accordance with the human rights standards

demanded by the United National Convention

against Torture (UNCAT) and the European

Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and must be

e ective, independent and enable the e ective

participation of those who su ered abuse.

There has never been a public statutory,

inquiry into the Sallins Case.

As Supreme Court Justice Adrian Hardiman

noted in 2007:

“Twenty years ago, when Irish society was

gripped by the fate of the Birmingham Six, the

Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven, those

principles would, I think, have been widely

acknowledged. But even in those days there was

a contradiction in our attitudes: miscarriages of

justice, lies or other short-cuts by the investigators

– these were things which took place in other

countries, by corrupt or racist police – and were

smugly criticised here, where, of course,

everything was perfect. The fact is that, during

much the same time as these miscarriages of

justice were unfolding, so too, in Ireland, was the

Sallins mail trail robbery case which led to

massive settlements and grave damage to the

reputation of our policing and criminal justice

systems.

But we have never, as a country or as a

community, internalised the lessons of that event

or of the other declared miscarriages of justice

which have taken place since”.

Men have never received

apology and many illicit

ﬁ ndings remain undisturbed

Some of the Sallins Men were told that their arrest

was to ensure people did not join the political party

of which they were members or supporters

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