When an Irish republican dies in British police custody it is certain to give rise to an atmosphere of suspicion and recrimination. Over the past four decades republicans have undergone no small measure of abuse and deprivation while in the hands of their police custodians. There are still enough republicans around who remember the death by hanging of Brian Maguire in Castlereagh Interrogation centre in 1978 at the height of an RUC torture onslaught. When they learn that a republican is found hanging in a police cell they suspect the worst.