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The Racehorse and the IRA Season 1 Episode 2
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00:13There was no second in the races he won. No one remembers who was second because there was only
00:19one winner. So it was a huge celebration when it was announced that he would be coming to
00:25Belly Manny's stud at the caravan. A star was coming back home. The star happened to be a horse
00:31but that's what he was. He was a star. There was no security at the star. You and I could
00:38have just
00:38walked in. At the same time there was political instability. The IRA grew out of extinction in
00:46the early 1970s. In order to carry out a conflict against the British state they needed to undertake
00:53fundraising actions. So they start kidnapping. If you kidnap an individual it is essentially a
00:58political act. Nobody had conceived of the idea that a horse could be taken and held ransom.
01:05Shergar, one of the most highly valued horses in the world, was taken by gunmen from Belly Manny's stud
01:10near Newbridge in Caddy Cildare during the night. They reputedly said that they wanted two million
01:15for him so they were very clear about what was going on. The world and its mother in terms of
01:20the press pack descended on this small village in County Cildare in Ireland. Forensic experts
01:26visited the scene this afternoon but so far details of where the 10 million pounds horse was taken
01:33remain a mystery. Negotiations that were taking place at a higher level and ransom calls began to
01:40take this destroy in another direction. There's only one way of describing it. A shitshow.
02:04The men who stole Shergar came up this driveway in the darkness of last Tuesday night. Today its
02:11brightness belies the fact it leads to the beginning of the Shergar drama. For the government of the
02:17day this was an international story and we would have to say an international security embarrassment.
02:24What were the police doing? What were the on Garda Siakana doing? And then the question for the
02:29Guards, how are we going to handle what is going inevitably to become a big international story?
02:42It is open to anyone who offers a reward not to communicate with the GardaĂ. I have said that at
02:52all
02:53times the people who wish to give a reward is open to them not to communicate with the GardaĂ.
03:00Chief Superintendent Jim Murphy known as Spud Murphy led the investigation and truth be told he became
03:08something of a figure of fun. Chief Superintendent James Murphy is leading Garda investigations. I asked
03:14him if he thought the horse was being held in the region of the Curragh. It could be anywhere in
03:19the
03:19country. Could be anywhere. He wasn't one of the top hot shots in the police service. James Murphy was
03:28a kind of an enigmatic, philosophical, detached, quizzical man and he liked to indulge the Irish
03:35pastime of answering a question with a question or refusing to come to the point or talking around the
03:42subject as we do so well in this country. We are still continuing our inquiries and our investigations
03:48in our searches right through the country. Have you got any leads at all now? Are you any further ahead
03:54than you were yesterday? I regret to say that I am not. A journalist once commented that Chief
04:01Superintendent James Murphy was the most comical cop since Inspector Clouseau. Now that may be very unkind
04:09given some of the work that he had done previously. He was not someone who was completely wet behind the
04:14years when it came to dealing with the crimes of subversives. Nonetheless you have to think of the
04:20optics. He presided over press conferences wearing a three-piece suit and a trilby which was pushed
04:28slightly back on his head and cocked to one side. From the point of view of the international press and
04:34particularly journalists, reporters and cameramen from the UK, he came across like a stage Irishman.
04:41The first box was taken on Saturday, Sunday morning, Saturday night, Sunday morning.
04:46It is still outstanding. Therefore I am interested. There wasn't a sophisticated guard communications
04:55operation. So obviously it was a little bit of making it up on the hoof in terms of the PR
05:00and it was
05:01catastrophic. What we haven't got, he told the assembled journalists, is a clue. Now he was being honest and they
05:10hadn't got a clue. But that was not necessarily the best way to handle the beginning of the police investigation.
05:16He had no new information at any stage to go on. So he was never going to look like somebody
05:22who was
05:23in control of the situation. He was not a loser. Do you suspect that people officials at the
05:30start may be prepared to do a deal? That I could not say. As I have said from the start,
05:37that would be
05:38matter for themselves. I would be advising against the payment of the ransom.
05:44I got a phone call about two o'clock in the morning. I was asleep in my hotel. He was
05:49mumbling
05:49away. I just woke up. Hello, is that Derek Thompson? And it's Fleet Street. I thought it was somebody
05:55having a go, a silly laugh. So I put the phone down, rang back straight away. No, it's the Fleet
06:02Street.
06:03We've had the kidnappers of Shergar on. They want you to fly over to Belfast. And that is how I
06:09heard
06:10at 2.30 in the morning. And they said they want you, Lord Oaxie, a former top jockey, former champion,
06:16amateur jockey, and Peter Campling, who is the tipping man from The Sun, the footballer,
06:21Kool's man, to negotiate for the release of Shergar. So we said, yes, we've got to go.
06:28Derek, do you really know what you're going into in Belfast today? No, and I don't think any of us
06:33do, actually. But I think our conscience has told us to get on this plane and come over. Because I
06:38think we all agree that if something did happen to the horse and we weren't there, then we'd live
06:43with that conscience for the rest of our life. And that would be very, very unfortunate. So that's
06:47the reason we're here. We got off the plane in Belfast and the whole place was surrounded by 100
06:53people to press people with cameras. And there was us guys, you know, thinking we hadn't heard
06:58anything. It was just incredible. This was the height of the troubles. It was a frightening experience.
07:07There were soldiers all around with guns, there were tanks, there was armored cars, there was
07:12everything, lots and lots of police. And I remember on the way from the airport to the hotel, the driver
07:19said, do you want me to show you a little bit what it's like at the moment? Um, yes, of
07:25course.
07:26I said, it'll only take a minute. Yeah, of course. And so we turned off the main road, we turned
07:30left.
07:31I'll never forget it. He said, lock your doors. He just drove around. And after 30 seconds, I said,
07:40I think we'd better get out of this area. It was frightening.
07:46Now, there were more interesting things going on behind the scenes in terms of trying to begin a
07:51search and trying to locate where Shergar might be. A lot of the ODCs, the ordinary decent criminals
07:59at the time, as the guards used to refer to them, they were involved in small gangs, a handful of
08:04people. An operation like this, you would have needed many more and you would need it to have been
08:08very sure of your escape route. The level of sophistication and planning here meant that it
08:14was the only game in town was that it was carried out by the provisional IRA.
08:19There is a propaganda battle ongoing constantly as part of the troubles. And the IRA was acutely
08:27aware of that, the perception of it and how its activities or its operations, as I'd like to call
08:33them, would be perceived. There was an awareness, of course, that this was not the kind of attention
08:38that they wanted. But what they were clearly looking at was the value. Now, Shergar was valued
08:43at £10 million, which is an extraordinary sum in the early 1980s. And if you consider the constant
08:49money worries and challenges that the IRA had, perhaps that idea of a ransom demand maybe of £2 million,
08:57that that could solve a lot of short-term problems for the IRA.
09:03Obviously, the hotel has changed a bit. This is new, the front. But in the old days, when I arrived,
09:08it had great big long windows, they're up about three storeys, and there were cracks in all the
09:13windows. And I said, what's this for? And the guy said, well, it's the most bombed hotel in Europe.
09:20And I remember going inside, walking through the front door,
09:23and the world's press were there as well. 60, 70 people with cameras and microphones
09:28were following me in and reporters. And when I got in through the front door,
09:34literally within a few seconds, the voice on the tannoy said, phone call for Mr. Thompson,
09:40please pick up the hotel phone. So I went just around the side there and picked up the hotel phone.
09:46And that's when it all started. And this voice, which I'll never, ever forget,
09:53said, we're watching you from across the street. This is what we want you to do with the kidnapses of
09:59Shergar. How far is that from Dublin? Yeah, from Belfast. 30 miles.
10:06Right. Who am I talking to, by the way? A man using the fitting code name of Arkel instructed the
10:14journalist to drive to an address in County Down, 30 miles outside the city. Bye-bye.
10:24Well, that's interesting.
10:33We were checked into a room. Police came up and we're discussing it. The police were there all the
10:37time. And he had told us to drive out to this farmhouse outside of Belfast, about 30 miles outside.
10:42They said, right, we'll get you out there. Your driver will take you. But tell you what the best
10:46thing to do, go through the kitchen of the hotel, because otherwise all the press will see you.
10:51So we did. We crept through the kitchen of the hotel, ran outside, jumped in the car and took off.
10:58The word farce is inevitably and justifiably used regarding the public spectacle. The three
11:05journalists, for example, who are becoming players, it seems, in ransom negotiations. The use of code
11:13words. The Europa Hotel, so often referred to as the most bombed hotel in Europe as a result of the
11:20troubles. Those who were making calls, could they be trusted? Who were they seeking to deal with?
11:26Why were they picking racing journalists? Was it because they wanted to get messages to other key
11:32individuals who actually had a stake in Shergar?
11:36We had no real idea what was going to happen. We'd been told by this voice on the phone to
11:43come to
11:44this place outside of Belfast. And it was, it was just incredible. We didn't know what was happening.
11:51You know, we were talking to supposed kidnappers, you know, not very nice people at all. And we were in
11:57a
11:57strange land, which we hadn't been to for a long time and didn't know much about.
12:04So we're now coming to the top of the hill. Three guys jump out in front of us here. This
12:12is incredible.
12:13This is just the same spot. Three guys jump out with balaclavas, machine guns, and one comes round to my
12:20side. Just stop the car for a second because this brings it all back. And he went like this with
12:27his
12:27gun, which meant wind the window down. Do you remember the old days when you would wind the window down?
12:34All I could see was two eyes, a mouth, and he had the balaclava and the machine gun, which is
12:42about
12:42a foot away from where I was. And I was sitting here. And he said, Are you Derek Thompson?
12:51And I said, Yes. And I thought they were just going to spray the car with bullets and killers.
13:03And he said the immortal words, We're the police. I said, God, for that, I might have used another
13:10word. He says, Drive over the top of the hill, run into the farmhouse, and you'll be contacted inside.
13:16Okay, let's go.
13:19As night fell, the action moved swiftly to a lonely farmhouse at Ard Glass, the home of one of Ulster's
13:25leading racehorse trainers, Jeremy Maxwell. The three would-be negotiators arrived to find the same
13:31anonymous Irishman who claims to have Shergar had already called Mrs. Judy Maxwell three times,
13:36saying the demand was now 40,000 pounds.
13:39He'd be a very rational, well-spoken man. There really doesn't seem to be a lot more
13:45to gather about it. We feel we should be negotiating a bit more. We'd like to go on a bit
13:49further with negotiations.
13:51But all they could do was wait anxiously for further instructions,
13:55still not knowing if the whole thing was a hoax.
14:01It was such a profoundly stupid thing to undertake that you have to wonder if this was something
14:09that was sanctioned at the senior levels of the IRA. Surely they would have been aware,
14:14A, that this could go very badly wrong very easily. B, that the public would obviously turn against
14:21anyone who was seen to be putting Shergar, this celebrity horse, this wonder horse in harm's way,
14:28and see what kind of a national and international focus would it bring on the IRA,
14:34a very negative focus on the IRA. When you begin to add up those different things,
14:38you have to question whether those who were running the IRA really thought this was a good idea,
14:44or whether they were actually made aware of this plan.
14:48One of the extraordinary things about this also involves a horse's head. I mean,
14:52it's almost like a motif from The Godfather, but it happened. A photograph arrives of the famous
14:58blaze down the nose of the wonder horse, and somebody is holding up a banner of the Irish news to
15:03show
15:04the date and that the horse is alive on this date. That was a Polaroid. In fact, a couple of
15:08Polaroids
15:09taken off the horse. From the syndicate's point of view, that was no guarantee that the horse was alive
15:13subsequent to that date. As this became an international story, the craziest, most lurid
15:22allegations were coming forward that the horse had been seen in Switzerland, that Lord Lucan was on its
15:27back on the veld of South Africa, and that the horse was already rendered and turning up as cat food
15:33in
15:33parts of Scotland. The longer he was kept, the more hopeless it seemed for him. We really didn't think that
15:40they'd pay up. Sad though it is, he was, he's a business asset. He's no longer a person, he's no
15:48longer Al Shergar.
15:51The unanimous view of the government was that we couldn't countenance the payment of ransom,
15:57for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that once you pay a ransom in
16:02one case,
16:03it kind of, it opens the door for further cases. And I mean, the bank robberies and robberies of
16:10various kinds were the way they were going about getting funding, apart from the kind of fundraising
16:15they always did among sympathisers. But the main concern was to make sure that the supply of money
16:20for the purchase of arms as far as possible should be dried up. And that was the reason why in
16:26the
16:26particular case of Shergar, since there might have been a link, that we were concerned to make sure
16:31that no ransom was paid. At the end of the day, there's a limited amount you can do to make
16:38sure
16:38that things turn out that way. As it happened, some attempts were made unsuccessfully to pay a ransom.
16:49In County Clare, a man had come forward who was a local detective who had been cultivating an IRA
16:55informant. And this man had told him before any horse was kidnapped, he had heard about an IRA dry
17:03run involving a horse box. And they had simulated the taking of a horse. He had passed it on to
17:11his
17:11superiors, but it had been just been shrugged out because it didn't seem to mean anything. And then
17:16as soon as the horse was taken, this gentleman became very important to the investigation. He was
17:22asked, could he get in contact via his source with the kidnappers? So there was a back channel going on
17:29there. Well, word then came back from the kidnappers. They revealed that the horse had actually been
17:37suffering from thrush. And when this was fed back to headquarters and the vet, Stan Cosgrove,
17:44was consulted, he immediately realized this was the truth. To him, this meant that this back channel
17:50was true. They were absolutely in contact with the real kidnappers.
17:56That then led to a very interesting situation whereby there was a proposal to produce hello money
18:02to the kidnappers. A bank in central Dublin was opened on a Sunday, most unusually, and cash was
18:09taken out. And this sum, £80,000, it would have been a down payment, but it was a serious amount
18:14of
18:14money. And that was channeled down to the contact guard, Martin Ken Irons, in South West Ireland. And he
18:22was empowered to meet with a representative group from the IRA and begin negotiations through his contact.
18:29But unfortunately, the money disappeared from the boot of his car outside his house. And Mr. Ken Irons
18:36would say that he then became the second victim of the Shurgarh kidnap, because ultimately, Garda
18:42headquarters suspected that he must have been in cahoots with his contacts and he was dismissed from the force.
18:51The international, you know, image of Ireland, of Keystone's cops in rural Ireland,
18:58in an unsophisticated way, did not reassure people that Shurgarh was going to be found.
19:05You had, via superintendent Spud Murphy, all of this stuff about clairvoyance.
19:12Between divinist clairvoyance and psychic persons, in three different categories,
19:18there must be running into the 50 now.
19:22You have to have an individual like Murphy, using the kind of language that Murphy used,
19:29and creating the impression that Murphy created, that was not a good look for Ireland. And it lent
19:37the stereotype of the bungling Irish, of the innocent, guileless Irish. Complete ineptitude,
19:45was the image that was being portrayed.
19:47But it really reached the point of ludicrousness when a bunch of photographers turned up for one
19:53of his press conferences, all wearing trilby hats like his.
19:58If you were a journalist filing copy about this sensational development in Ireland,
20:03and you had that raw material to deal with, you were going to make a meal out of it.
20:10There was some irreverent comment around the idea that the GardaĂ were stopping cars and
20:15and checking the boots of cars, as if Shergar would be in the boot of a car. But it does
20:21raise that
20:22question, of course, as to where you could put Shergar during this period.
20:30One of the problems on the day of the kidnapping, that February day, was also a day when there had
20:35been a big sale at Goths, the blood stock trading business ring, which was only down the road from
20:42where the kidnapping happened. So the roads were filled with horse boxes and people moving horses
20:49around. So it wasn't as though the horse box carrying Shergar would have seemed out of place or
20:56been odd on the roads at that time. The whole horse industry was out there buying and selling and moving
21:02animals around. So that was that was the first problem for the guards. But they did set up roadblocks and
21:08they asked the usual questions of motorists and did anybody see anything unusual?
21:12But literally, the horse had bolted, if you could put it that way.
21:18Quite separate to all of that, you have Ballymany Stud being telephoned, Fitzgerald,
21:25Jim Fitzgerald being telephoned. And when the kidnapping happened, he was told,
21:30there's a code word you will hear from us. The code word is King Neptune. So somebody rang him,
21:35used the code word King Neptune. And again, there was a demand for two million ransom and they wanted
21:41a deal via the Aga Khan's office in Paris. And the entire circus transfers to Paris.
21:58Hello. Hello. This is King Neptune. Yes, hello. Just listen. I want you to answer some questions. Yes. Are you
22:06the man with the sole power to hand over the money?
22:08No, the shareholders have to decide. I have to refer to the shareholders.
22:13You get the person who is the sole power to negotiate and hand over the money?
22:17Yes. In five minutes time. I am the only one capable of being on that phone.
22:24Right. Will you get the full power to negotiate?
22:26Yes. You get it. Will you have it in five minutes?
22:29The money? The sole power to negotiate. I can try to get it. You'd better get it.
22:36Unless the person with the sole power to negotiate hands over the money is on the phone in five minutes,
22:41the whole deal is off. Do you understand that? Well, I understand that, but I have to...
22:46I have to contact the shareholders. I can't. They have the sole authority because...
22:51How long will it take you to contact the shareholders? Sorry?
22:54How long will it take you to contact the shareholders? 35 people and they are all in Ireland. Most of
23:02them.
23:02Well, listen. You have exactly 60 minutes. Yes. 60 minutes. 60 minutes.
23:10And that question again of who are we dealing with here? Is this really somebody who has Shargar?
23:16Is Shargar not dead at this stage? Who can prove that Shargar is alive? Can we trust these people who
23:23are
23:23communicating these messages? And who are they actually ultimately trying to get to?
23:28I'm fed up being messed around. Hmm. We're fed up being messed around.
23:34Listen. Don't get fucking smart. Just listen.
23:38Yes. We're fed up being messed around. Okay?
23:42Okay. We know that all you're doing is delaying us.
23:46No. You may have some idea that the police will get your horse back. That's not the case.
23:51No. The police will never get your horse back. We believe that the horse is dead. I'll ring in an
23:58hour.
23:58Yes. You. You should have the... The person there with the sole power to negotiate and hand over the money.
24:04I will try to get this power myself. Yeah. And you got one hour. That's the limit. Yes.
24:12No more discussion. No more deals after one hour. Unless you've that power, there's no more deals. You'll never see
24:19the fucking horse again. You don't want to deal in Ireland? No. If this person is empowered in Ireland,
24:26what happens? If he is in Ireland, you have his name and address and phone number. Yes. You ring and
24:33get him to Paris.
24:35Okay. By the next time I ring, you'll have him there. Okay. You have one hour to have that person
24:40there at that phone.
24:42And we don't care how you do it. Yes. You have a person there at that phone in one hour
24:46with total negotiating power.
24:48Okay. Okay. I'm fed up. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Understood.
24:53It makes you wonder, was there an assumption before this kidnapping that the Aga Khan was really the only person
25:00that they would be dealing with?
25:02And the Aga Khan, of course, so spectacularly wealthy and so well known. Did they think of Shargar's ownership in
25:09terms of that figurehead, that one individual, that they would ultimately have to find a channel of communication directly with
25:18the Aga Khan. But then they discovered that that, of course, is not going to be remotely straightforward.
25:24Hello. Hello. Hello. This is King Neptune. Have you got the money ready?
25:28No, the money is not ready. I always told you. Listen. Yes. If you don't have the money ready by
25:34tonight. Sorry, I can't hear you.
25:36Why have you not got the money ready? I told you I have to have the agreement of the shareholders.
25:42That's bullshit. Okay. What I want to know, are you going to pay money for the horse? Yes or no?
25:48No. We have to have the proof the horse is alive and has not been harmed because we are not
25:54going to pay and the shareholders are not going to pay.
25:57Are they not going to pay up the money?
25:59If the horse has been harmed and they are not going to pay for the huntsless horse. Listen.
26:05They are certainly not going to pay for the huntsless horse. You can be sure of that.
26:10If we have to kill this horse, it'll be you that killed him.
26:13Yes, but you will be responsible to your country for that.
26:16What? You are going to damage the reputation of your country and the economy.
26:23Do you think I give a shite about it?
26:25Oh, in that case, that's another matter.
26:27That's another matter, right?
26:29Right.
26:30All I'm interested in is getting that money. You're either willing to pay the money or you're not willing to
26:35pay the money.
26:36Okay, I will convey this message immediately, but it takes me some time to get it all of these people.
26:42Listen, just let me make one more point to you.
26:46Yes.
26:47You may not pay for this horse, but you definitely will pay for the next one when you see what
26:52we do to this one.
26:53Do you understand that?
26:55For the Aga Khan and the shareholders to pay a ransom would have set a very, very dangerous precedent.
27:01If that happened, then that probably would have put all valuable stallions all over the world in jeopardy from then
27:09on.
27:10The space becomes so crowded in relation to calls and messages and demands, of course, for proof that Shergar is
27:18alive.
27:19The longer this drags on, the less likely Shergar is alive or is going to be found alive.
27:25And there would have been a growing skepticism on the part of those who had an interest in Shergar,
27:29that there was actually any point in dealing with multiple supposed kidnappers or those speaking on behalf of the kidnappers.
27:38Mr. Dryon is not satisfied with the proof, and I am sure the shareholders will not be satisfied with it.
27:45But if you're not satisfied, well, that's it.
27:55I'd taken a number of phone calls throughout the afternoon and evening from the supposed kidnapper of Shergar.
28:03It was very difficult.
28:06What we were trying to do was save the world's best racehorse from possible death to try and get him
28:11back.
28:12And we don't know to this day whether we were talking to the real kidnappers or whether it was somebody
28:19else to try and divert the world's press from what was happening elsewhere.
28:26There was a phone call at 7 o'clock.
28:28I didn't take it because I was asleep.
28:31And apparently the voice said, with a simple phone call, the horse has had an accident.
28:38He's dead.
28:40And the phone went dead.
28:44And that's the last we heard from the supposed kidnappers.
28:50This is a town of horses, of horse lovers, indeed almost of horse worshippers.
28:56And today everyone here is desperately trying to convince themselves that the appalling phone calls in Belfast this morning will
29:03turn out to be nothing more than an obscene hopes.
29:06The man in charge of the investigation here in Newbridge, Chief Superintendent James Murphy, was non-committal when asked about
29:14the calls today.
29:15It is very difficult to say at this stage, it would appear from the reports on last night's news bulletin,
29:23during the interview with Mr. Maxwell, that the people were the people concerned.
29:29This morning, I am beginning to doubt that.
29:32And to be honest, I do not know.
29:37It was a big story in the one, two, three, four days afterwards.
29:41The problem is that after that, there's very little facts to be reported.
29:46And for a journalist like myself in the Irish Times, the story kind of lost legs after a few days.
29:54In truth, what happened probably happened within a couple of hours of the horse being taken.
30:01He's been shot.
30:02He's dead.
30:03That wasn't a surprise.
30:04You know, that was going to happen.
30:07Without somebody who understood stallions, not just horses, but a thoroughbred stallion, it was inevitable that at some point, the
30:15longer he was kept, the more hopeless it seemed for him.
30:21You couldn't make it up in some senses.
30:23It was daring to do it.
30:25Had it worked, it would have been brilliant.
30:27It was also incredibly stupid.
30:29I mean, these were characters who kidnapped this horse who clearly hadn't a clue how to handle a really seasoned
30:35stallion that needed very careful management and careful looking after.
30:40All the stuff about code names, you know, King Neptune.
30:44There were all sorts of bizarre things about it from the IRA side.
30:47The double attempt to get a ransom negotiation going, one in Belfast and the other in Dublin via Paris, et
30:54cetera, et cetera.
30:55The fact that Shergar was such a winner.
30:57I mean, he won the Epsom Derby by 10 lengths, never equaled before or since.
31:03He was a magnificent animal.
31:05He was part of a world that was filled with aristocracy, with glamour.
31:09It had so much going for it as a story.
31:12As was famously said, the guards didn't have a clue.
31:17In the absence of a clue, there's a blank canvas there.
31:20And onto that blank canvas can be painted all sorts of different theories and ideas and an awful lot of
31:27speculation as to who planned this, what they had in mind, how they carried it out and what the fallout
31:35was.
31:35You cannot prove definitively any of those things, but you can speculate, and sometimes you can speculate widely.
31:51I've heard many theories.
31:54The one that I think is the most plausible, the horse wasn't simple to manage.
31:59I wouldn't be surprised if they underestimated what they took on.
32:04You absolutely need somebody who's skilled and experienced in the management of stallions.
32:09And if you don't have somebody like that to look after a horse like Shergar at the time, then you're
32:16possibly going to end up in trouble.
32:20You can have a very sophisticated plan on paper in relation to a heist or a kidnapping.
32:27When you put it into practice, human frailty, human mistakes, emotion, a small twist or turn can throw the entire
32:35plan into disarray.
32:36And then you have the question of the personality and the temperament, both of the kidnappers and those they are
32:43kidnapping, and how that might affect the plan they have.
32:47So it can very easily go wrong.
32:49Imagine trying to do that with a horse.
32:54One day, I talked to the owner of a golf club, who was a racing man, and he rang me.
33:02He said, Tommy, you'll never believe what I've just heard.
33:04I said, well, what if you just did?
33:06Because the horse had a white blaze down the front of his face, they had to put something over it
33:14to get rid of the white blaze.
33:18So apparently, they put boot polish over the white blaze, and apparently that burnt the horse's head.
33:29And not surprisingly, the horse went crazy if he felt his face was burning, like we would.
33:35And that's why then, they shot him.
33:42An IRA source interviewed by the Daily Telegraph, not terribly long after all this as well, said yes, that the
33:49horse injured himself.
33:52We, the IRA, machine-gunned it to death, and he describes an awful scene of blood and mayhem as they
34:00tried to kill the horse.
34:01The horse wouldn't die, but eventually, they did kill the horse.
34:06And this source believed that the body was probably buried in Ballinamore in County Leecham.
34:15You know, when I look around here, and I wonder, did they bury the horse in a place like this?
34:24Rumor has it that lots of things are buried around here, but they're just rumors.
34:33I tried to think what happened to the horse, but I'll tell you something.
34:37This is the bleakest of bleak places.
34:39It really is.
34:40I know the IRA used to dump arms and hide bodies and things like that in here, but it's absolutely
34:48unbelievable.
34:49Look, I mean, you could just go five yards.
34:51You wouldn't even find it.
34:53It's as simple as that.
34:54If you don't stay on the track, if you walk in the trees, nobody would find it for a hundred
34:59years.
35:01It took on a sinister meaning when this guy who said he was from the IRA and they're the ones
35:06who sell used the code word.
35:09And I immediately, that was the code word.
35:12And I'd never told anybody about it.
35:15And he used King Neptune.
35:17And I realized then that that was the guy who I'd been talking to.
35:21So I had been talking to the kidnappers of Suga.
35:26And all these years later, I realized they were part of it.
35:33It's actually really quite distressing, the idea of this beautiful animal, this aristocratic animal, being terrified, as he must have
35:44been.
35:44And being riddled with bullets and probably not dying in the first wave of bullets that were fired into him.
35:51Falling on the floor, blood everywhere, writhing in agony, and then being finished off with more machine gun fire.
35:58It's horrible.
36:02What happens over the course of decades is that certain theories grow wings, certain stories are embellished.
36:09One question we do need to consider, who authorized this?
36:12If you are undertaking something on this scale, has it been authorized at the very top?
36:17We have conflicting accounts as to whether it was or not.
36:20Was this somebody within the lower ranks of the IRA trying to make an impact, trying to prove their worth,
36:27trying to impress the hierarchy of the IRA?
36:30You cannot discount the fact that there are very strong-minded individuals within the Republican Organization
36:35who may be nurturing their own ideas as a result, perhaps, even of their own interests.
36:40Or may be hugely influenced by the scale of media coverage around, in this case, sugar or a horse
36:47or what the potential might be there to create an impact.
36:51The IRA terrified because they were in the business of terror and they were in the business of inflicting terror.
36:59And, you know, these were people who, they would kidnap people, put plastic bags over their heads,
37:08blow their brains out, dump their bodies on a border or dig a hole in a bog and dump them.
37:12And even to this day, there are efforts to try and find the bodies that the IRA disappeared.
37:18You know, you talk about death squads in Latin America.
37:20We had death squads here on both sides.
37:23The IRA put no warning bombs in public houses, hotels, shopping centers, murdered children, murdered women, civilians all over the
37:32place.
37:32They killed more people in Northern Ireland than the British Army.
37:35So, you know, when I was thinking back about the Shergar thing and thinking to myself, how could you do
37:41that to an animal?
37:43They wouldn't have thought twice about that.
37:45These are people who murdered civilians, women and children.
37:48They wouldn't have cared one shit about a horse.
37:55I tried to write a book to mark the 30th anniversary of the taking of Shergar, and I wanted to
38:00call it Taking Shergar.
38:03My idea was to tell the story from the inside out.
38:06By this stage, peace had descended.
38:08We were all getting on with our lives.
38:10There were old men that knew what happened to the horse.
38:14And I let out word because I wanted to write the story from their point of view so that they
38:20could tell it.
38:21And, of course, we'd give different names to the individuals in the active service unit who were involved.
38:26And this would write a wrong.
38:27It would write a wrong because so many people were wronged by the taking of Shergar.
38:31Innocent shareholders, a poor vet, the Irish racing public, the British racing public.
38:38At the end of it, I would be able to give a location for the remains, the skeleton, to be
38:44dug up wherever it was.
38:48So I let out word, and on a particular Saturday, two members of the Republican movement turned up and sat
38:56around my kitchen table.
38:57And one of them was young, and so I immediately knew that he had very little to do with the
39:03case.
39:03Could only have been a schoolboy at the time.
39:05And the other was an old, gnarled, hard man with a mask of a visage on him who was impassive,
39:15to say the least.
39:15And the young man was asking all the questions.
39:18Why do you want to write this book?
39:20How are you going to do it?
39:22What's your proposal?
39:23And the other chap was just sitting back and regarding me coldly.
39:28But it gradually dawned on me that the bones could not be produced.
39:32They were beyond use, as the decommissioning phrase has it.
39:37And as I gently probed further, it wasn't a matter of digging anything up.
39:42I was given to understand that, in fact, the horse could have been buried at sea.
39:49At one level, it's a surprise, and it's another crazy theory.
39:53But if you dwell on it, you realize that makes a hell of a lot of sense.
39:57The IRA already were master gunrunners.
40:00They've had lots of shipments of arms into Ireland.
40:03Large trawlers sailing from Gaddafi's Libya.
40:06So ships were no problem to them, little trawlers with derricks.
40:12I mean, it would have been a very easy thing to crane a weighty carcass onto the deck of a
40:18trawler
40:18and to put out from some fishing port north of the border that's solidly Republican,
40:24and then a big splash to take place a couple of miles off the coast.
40:29How could you possibly return any bones in that circumstance?
40:35It's something I'll never, ever forget.
40:39I can remember it as if it was yesterday.
40:42It is that clear in my mind over 40 years on.
40:46I would love it to be a happy ending.
40:49You know, we watch a film or we read a book.
40:51There's nothing like a happy ending.
40:53Ah, that was lovely.
40:55You close the book and you put it down.
40:57You've enjoyed it.
40:58But here, I'd love to have known basically what had happened to the horse.
41:03I hope it was instant.
41:05I hope it was all right.
41:08I know it's over 40 years since we saw him,
41:12but I'll never, ever forget him.
41:15There was a time when people used to watch out
41:18for possible Shergar codes or fillings.
41:21If a new entrant on the scene was doing well,
41:24somebody would always see,
41:25is there possibly a link back there to Shergar?
41:28But it was never found.
41:30Eventually, the Shergar story just became a regrettable part of history.
41:36Shergar's going for the guns.
41:37He's gone for the guns.
41:38Shergar was a hero to the public.
41:41He crossed over that horse racing threshold.
41:45So he became a news feature even before he was kidnapped.
41:49He was a beautiful horse.
41:51No horse has won the derby by 10 lengths before or since.
41:55He was just a very special racehorse.
41:58You need a telescope to see the wreck.
42:00There have been many great racehorses and there's no doubt that Shergar was one of them.
42:05But his story, his disappearance, have ensured that his name is going to be forever remembered,
42:15not only as a racehorse, but as folklore within the country.
42:20He was such a superstar himself.
42:22The racehorse Shergar, the athlete Shergar, to win a classic trial, to win the Chester Vals,
42:27to win the derby by 10 lengths, a distance that hasn't been bettered since and hadn't been bettered before,
42:33than to go on and win the Irish derby and the King George as well.
42:36To achieve all that, that's very, very unusual.
42:39A horse who had so much more to give as a stallion, whose impact on the bloodsock industry
42:47could have been so much bigger and better and more significant than it was.
42:52It's very, very sad for all the reasons a beautiful animal like that should meet his end in that manner.
42:59I've been a farmer myself and you have livestock losses.
43:02It's the loss of, you know, generations, future derby winners, classic winners and so on,
43:09being deprived of that.
43:14Because Shergar's don't come along every day.
43:19It will continue to leak into the news and current affairs in different ways.
43:25Because somebody will turn up with a skull.
43:29Or somebody will say, I have a suspicion.
43:32That Shergar is buried there.
43:34Or I heard it from X, who heard it from Y.
43:38That this is definitely where it happened.
43:40And it does, it prolongs a story.
43:43It prolongs a legacy.
43:45Again, in the absence of concrete proof,
43:47you can't push Shergar to bed as a story and as a drama.
44:00Politics, policy and the issues making headlines.
44:04Take a closer look at the stories driving the national conversation.
44:07Monday with Gavin Riley.
44:09Monday night at 10 on Virgin Media Play and Virgin Media 1.
44:12Monday night at 10 on Virgin Media 2.
44:14Monday night at 10 on Virgin Media 2.
44:15Monday night at 10 on Virgin Media 2.
44:17Monday night at 10 on Virgin Media 3.
44:17Monday night at 10 on Virgin Media 3.
44:19Monday night at 10 on Virgin Media 3.
44:23Monday night at 10 on Virgin Media 3.
44:27Monday night at 10 on Virgin Media 3.
44:28Monday night at 10 on Virgin Media 3.
44:28Monday night at 10 on Virgin Media 3.
44:29Monday night at 10 on Virgin Media 3.
44:30Monday night at 10 on Virgin Media 3.
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