Hundreds attend Caraher vigil
Saturday 30 December was the tenth anniversary, to the day, of the killing of Fergal Caraher. The 20-year-old South Armagh republican was shot dead by British Royal Marines on Sunday 30 December 1990 as he drove from the car park of the Lite and Easy pub in the South Armagh village of Cullyhanna.
There was no warning given and the British soldiers attempted to justify the killing, in which Fergal's 23 year old brother Micéal was seriously wounded, by saying the men had driven through a checkpoint.
In June 1991, the Cullyhanna Justice Group held an open, public inquiry into the shootings. They took the decision to hold their own inquiry because of their lack of faith in any inquiry the British might hold.
Their fears proved well founded. On 23 December 1994, the two marines charged in relation to the shooting, Elkington and Callaghan, were acquitted of all charges. Nationalists believe the pair were only charged as part of a PR exercise designed to counter the adverse publicity created by the findings of the public inquiry, which demonstrated that the two brothers were shot for no reason.
Former Sinn Féin councillor Jim McAllister, who is from Cullyhanna, addressed the large crowd that attended the tenth anniversary vigil. Micéal Caraher, recently released from Long Kesh, and Brendan, Fergal's ten-year-old son, who was just weeks old when his father was killed, laid wreaths at the monument erected near the scene of the incident.
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