IT has been almost 30 years since a senior member of the republican movement has died in violent circumstances.
A former leader of the IRA in south Belfast, Gerard ‘Jock’ Davison was a key figure in the organisation until he was sidelined following the killing of Robert McCartney in January 2005.
A motive for Mr Davison’s murder has not been confirmed but his death has sent shockwaves through republican communities across the north where he was well known.
The last senior figure in the republican movement killed in the north is believed to be Jim Lynagh who died in an SAS ambush at Loughgall in May 1987.
An IRA commander in east Tyrone, Lynagh was the driving force behind an IRA strategy to create “liberated zones” by destroying rural RUC stations.
A year later the Provos received another blow when three members of the organisation’s GHQ staff, Mairead Farrell, Dan McCann and Sean Savage, were shot dead by undercover British soldiers in Gibraltar.
Other significant figures were killed in the years between 1988 and the IRA’s 1994 ceasefire including Tyrone man Kevin Barry O’Donnell, who died along with three other republicans when they were ambushed by the SAS near Coalisland in February 1992.
Senior Sinn Féin member Denis Donaldson, who was exposed as an informer in December 2005, was shot dead by the Real IRA several months later.
Although a high profile figure, he had been ostracised by the wider republican movement at the time of his death.
The last member of the Provisional IRA to be killed in violent circumstances was Keith Rogers who was shot dead in south Armagh in March 2003.
