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00:03Shurgar, one of the most highly valued horses in the world, was taken by gunmen from Balimany
00:08Stud near Newbridge in County Kildare during the night. Forensic experts visited the scene this
00:13afternoon, but so far details of where the 10 million pounds horse was taken remain a mystery.
00:21Shurgar moving sweetly on the outside, takes up the running. Shurgar's going for the gun.
00:26There's only one horse in it. You need a chiller step to see the rest. Shurgar wins the army.
00:31Good horse is normally one by three lengths. Great horse is normally one by four lengths.
00:35Shurgar won by ten lengths. What? Come on. At that time, he was the most valuable racehorse in the world.
00:44A star was coming back home. The star happened to be a horse, but that's what he was. He was
00:50a star.
00:50Shurgar. For such a valuable horse to be outside and be so vulnerable, you couldn't make it up.
00:57If you kidnap an individual, it is essentially a political act. Nobody had conceived of the idea
01:03that a horse could be taken and held ransom. February 1983, it was about eight o'clock,
01:10half eight in the evening. Suddenly, a gang of subversives burst on the scene.
01:15And immediately started shouting, we're here for Shurgar, we're going to take him, we want two million.
01:21The world and its mother, in terms of the press pack, descended on this small village.
01:26I got a phone call, and this voice, which I'll never ever forget, said, we're watching you from across the
01:32street.
01:32A man using the fitting codename of Arkell instructed the journalist to drive to an address in County
01:38down 30 miles outside the city. Three guys jumped out with balacarvers, machine guns,
01:46and one comes round to my side. And I thought they were just going to spray the car and kill
01:51us.
01:52For the government of the day, this was an international security embarrassment.
01:57What were the police doing? When this guy who said he was from the IRA and the other ones who
02:02sold,
02:03used the code word, and immediately, that was the code word.
02:07And I'd never told anybody about it. And I realized then, that that was the guy who I've been talking
02:12to.
02:15There's only one way of describing it. A shitshow.
02:41On the 8th of February, 1983, Shurgar was just retiring for the night. He'd covered a mirror that day,
02:48very happy with himself, very well fed, automatically on the spot.
02:52And everything had quietened down from about 6 p.m.
02:56Don't forget, it's February, so nightfall had come early. We're talking about a very inaccessible and remote part of County
03:05Kildare.
03:05There were one road in, and one road out.
03:12Silence had fallen. There were barely any rocks crowing in the bleak trees.
03:17And then suddenly, a gang of subversives burst on the scene,
03:22and were suddenly barking orders descending, and individuals knowing exactly where to go.
03:28They knock on the door of Jim Fitzgerald, who is the head groom.
03:34He's inside the house. His son, Bernard, opens the door.
03:38And these couple of characters, wearing balaclabs, one of them reportedly dressed as a guard,
03:43push past the child, knocking him down, into the living room,
03:47and immediately start roaring and shouting,
03:49We're here for Shurgar, we're going to take him, we want two million.
03:53They usher all the family, several children, a wife, and Fitzpatrick, into the kitchen.
04:00Don't anybody call the guards? They're all armed, of course.
04:04And they take the sterile away, over to the stables, where Shurgar is.
04:10They have brought a horse box, towed by one of the vehicles, up to the stable.
04:16And it suddenly became clear that they were taking this wonder horse,
04:20and we had the letting down of a backboard, and the clattering of hooves going up,
04:24and people could not believe it.
04:27I'd imagine it equates to something like somebody walking into the Tower of London,
04:32and taking the Crown Jewels, with no security around, and walking straight out.
04:37Here's a piece of jewellery, worth 10 million pounds in 1983, with no security.
04:47Fitzgerald himself is bundled into another car.
04:50He's told to lie on the floor, a blanket or a coat or something is put over him.
04:54He's told to shut up, and that vehicle leaves as well,
04:57leaving the family, locked in this room, and told, say nothing to nobody.
05:03And within virtually no time, the horse was motoring down this long avenue,
05:09past those dark trees, and out into nothingness, into the void, never to be seen again.
05:28He's going to win by a big margin.
05:31Shergar going a long way clear now.
05:36What an amazingly comfortable trial for Shergar.
05:44Shergar going to the post, with an awful lot of money, resting between his ears.
05:51Shergar was one of the most athletic, middle-distance, derby-winning superstars,
05:58that had enormous stride, that simply pulverised the opposition.
06:03He was poetry in motion, at his best, in the summer of 1981.
06:09He was the superstar horse of the year.
06:11There was nothing to touch him.
06:13The thrill of the crowd, the roars of the people in the grandstand,
06:18as this unimaginable beast flashed past the winning post,
06:22and everybody celebrating a thoroughbred.
06:27There are 9,000 foals born every year in Ireland alone.
06:31He was one in 50,000.
06:34Shergar's going for the gun.
06:35There's only one horse in it.
06:37You need a silly script to see the rest.
06:39The old is gale.
06:40He's climbed this mountain.
06:42He has eased up.
06:43Shergar wins the army.
06:50Irish people have always been synonymous with horses down through the years,
06:54and those horsemanship skills have been passed down through generations for eons.
07:00It all really begins with Vincent O'Brien.
07:03Vincent O'Brien was a brilliant trainer of horses.
07:07He excelled in national hunt racing before he moved on to the flat.
07:11The Cheltenham rivalry between the Irish and the British,
07:13that began with Vincent O'Brien bringing horses over on the cattle boats over to Cheltenham
07:18and racing them over there and winning the goal goal and winning the champion hurdle.
07:20It was a time when Irish racing just began to start to make inroads into being able to be competitive
07:29at the highest level internationally.
07:31If you go into most pubs in Ireland,
07:34there will be on the wall a picture of Dawn Run or Istabrack or Arkell.
07:40No country does it better.
07:43Despite our size, despite our population, we can win.
07:47I think that's why people regard the Irish horse as probably the best in the world,
07:55and they have been consistently so for decades.
08:01I suppose a quantum leap for horses in Ireland was the stallion tax exemption that was introduced in 1969.
08:12The former prime minister, Charles J. Hawley, he was a Trumpian figure.
08:18He was transactional, he was get things done, but he had a great passion for horses.
08:25He was the one, when he was minister for finance, before he was prime minister,
08:29he introduced a remarkable tax concession, which was all the stallion income was tax-free.
08:37In hindsight, it was a brilliant move for the bloodstock industry in Ireland.
08:42It meant that stallion owners could have stallions here,
08:45and when the stallions are here, then the mares follow them,
08:49and then the foals from the mares are born here and stay in Ireland.
08:52And that'd be God's side as well as in Galileo and Honshia and Carlyon,
08:55and all those top-class horses who went on.
08:57And, you know, even now, the ripples of that time and of those horses they're seeing in Irish racing today.
09:03Shargar was born and reared and bred in Ireland because of that strategy.
09:11At the same time, there was political instability in the Republic of Ireland.
09:16There were three general elections between 1981 and 1982.
09:19There are serious political rows about managing the national finances.
09:23The unemployment rate went over 15% in 1983.
09:28There was a sense of crisis around the essence of the state and whether it was working.
09:35And then overlaying all of that was this existential threat to the state itself,
09:42coming from the IRA, from the violence in Northern Ireland spilling over into the Republic.
09:51In order to carry out a conflict and to wage war against the British state,
09:56the IRA needed millions of pounds annually,
10:00and they were sucking it up from everywhere,
10:04and they needed to undertake fundraising action.
10:08Some of it's perfectly legitimate.
10:10Most of it is not.
10:11And it involves extortion and protection rackets in Northern Ireland.
10:14Some of it came from pubs all over Ireland and Friday nights and Saturday nights,
10:20fellows going around with tin cans collecting money for the prisoners, quote-unquote, for the IRA.
10:25There was also massive donations coming in from the United States.
10:30There was an organisation called NorAid, which was involved in fundraising.
10:35Went around the Irish pubs and clubs to show loyalty to the old country.
10:40And a lot of it came from bank robberies.
10:43There were a lot of bank robberies in Northern Ireland,
10:44and there were a lot of bank robberies and post office robberies in the Republic.
10:49It was a common sight in the 1980s to see post office vans and Brinksmart vans and Securicore vans
10:57being escorted from the central bank to banks distributing money,
11:01escorted by armed troops and armed guardee,
11:05because they were constantly being attacked by the IRA.
11:08As the security tightens on cash transits and tightens around banks and post offices,
11:13they have to get new ways, so they start kidnapping.
11:17Executives like Don Tidy of supermarket chain,
11:20and indeed a Ferenca factory boss in Limit called Tieda Haramau,
11:25which led to a long siege at a house in Monaster Evan.
11:29There was a very prominent Irish supermarket businessman, Ben Dunn.
11:34He was travelling to Northern Ireland to open a new supermarket there,
11:37and he was kidnapped in South Armagh by the IRA,
11:40and he was held for a number of days.
11:42He was released unharmed, and it's a very murky business.
11:46Some people say 1.5 million was paid over,
11:49some people say 300,000.
11:50It's just not known, but certainly some money was paid.
11:54They were moving from robbery and extortion into kidnappings.
12:00Figures who were seen as popular
12:01and are also regarded as individuals
12:05who should not be any part of this struggle
12:08and should not be victims of this struggle,
12:10those kind of operations could not only go wrong,
12:13but they could also, of course, generate all the wrong headlines for the IRA.
12:17If you kidnap an individual, it is essentially a political act,
12:20and it's understood by your fellow men and women that that's what it is.
12:25However, horses don't hold political opinions.
12:28Nobody had conceived of the idea
12:30that a horse could be taken and held ransom.
12:42Shilgar carried the famous green-red epaulets
12:45of one of the richest men in the world
12:46and the biggest racehorse owners in the world,
12:48his highness, the Argy Khan.
12:51His stud farms were strategically placed,
12:54one in Normandy and two here in Kildare.
12:59The Argy Khan's involvement goes back
13:02to the early decades of the 20th century,
13:04when his grandfather became involved in bloodstock
13:08and of breeding in Ireland.
13:11Mumtaz Mahal was one of the first horses that he owned.
13:15She was a great racehorse, but she also retired to stud and founded a great dynasty.
13:21Shilgar came from that dynasty.
13:25This Colt emerges, he's a homebred of the Aga Khan's, he's sent to Sir Michael Stout's in Newmarket to be
13:31trained,
13:32and the story goes that they were always working back from Epsom.
13:38He arrived at Michael's Beechhurst stables in Newmarket as a very young two-year-old in the spring.
13:45Michael Stout, he was only getting going then, but he's been one of the most successful trainers ever in Britain.
13:51And up there with Sir Henry Cecily, he was a brilliant trainer of racehorses,
13:55and it wasn't surprising that the Aga Khan would choose to have horses with them at the time.
14:02Shilgar was seen as an Irish horse, despite, obviously, the flavour of its name owed more to the Aga Khan,
14:08but he was delighted to invest in Ireland.
14:10And this was the one bright spot in the 1980s, that we had the confidence of international investors in relation
14:16to our bloodstock,
14:17when factories were closing down all over the place.
14:20And we were just hoping for an economic break, but it seemed things were getting worse and worse.
14:30Ireland was part of Britain politically up to 1921, when what is now the Republic of Ireland gained independence.
14:38The reality of the situation is that for the 50 years after that break,
14:44Northern Ireland was essentially a sectarian state.
14:49The truth is the Catholics in Northern Ireland had a very, very bad deal for 50 years.
14:56State jobs, state services, roles, universities, houses were not accessible to the Catholic minority.
15:04They were treated as second-class citizens.
15:06That boiled over in the late 1960s, inspired by the civil rights movement in America.
15:13The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, NICRA, started marching, demanding equality in education,
15:19demanding equality in houses, demanding equality full stop.
15:23And they were met, unfortunately, by state violence.
15:28They were battened off the streets by the police.
15:30When the British Army was sent to Northern Ireland, they were welcomed by the nationalist people, by the Catholic people,
15:37because the British Army came in initially to try and keep the peace.
15:41That quickly turned when the IRA grew out of extinction, if you like,
15:46revived itself in a new form in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s,
15:51and started what became, in effect, a war.
15:54There were 83 people killed as a result of the Troubles in 1983 alone,
15:59and more than 100 the year before that.
16:01There was obviously huge concern about the impact and capability of the IRA as a terrorist organisation.
16:09The relationship with Britain was difficult, to put it mildly.
16:13There were a couple of areas in life where those tensions didn't exist,
16:17or they were put to one side.
16:18One was rugby.
16:19The Irish rugby team is an all-Ireland rugby team.
16:23And the other area, of course, was horse racing.
16:33I first saw Shergarn as a two-year-old at Newbury.
16:37He ran in September in the Cris Plain,
16:43which was over a mile, which is quite an extreme distance for a young two-year-old.
16:49He won that day by about two and a half lengths.
16:52He was quite impressed if he went into everybody's notebooks.
16:56Shergarn made the progress that you would expect him to make,
16:59and then ran in the stand-down classic trial.
17:05And he won it by ten lengths.
17:08For an Irish horse to be competitive in an English classic was kind of the dream.
17:14That's when people started to talk about him as a potential classic horse,
17:18maybe a potential derby horse.
17:21The Epsom Derby is one of the oldest classics,
17:24and it is deemed and regarded as the breed-shaping race.
17:28The race that if a colt can win that,
17:31they have firmly established themselves as a stallion prospect to stand at stud.
17:36If you can win that and win it impressively,
17:38you're probably the best in your class.
17:42Walter Swinburne gave him the perfect ride,
17:43just behind the pace towards the outside with options everywhere.
17:46He wasn't going to get boxed in.
17:48It wasn't until really about two and a half furlongs out
17:50that Walter Swinburne just got down and started to ride him,
17:52and when he did, like, the pace that he showed to pick up
17:55and come away from his rivals.
17:59It's like he turns into a Ferrari.
18:02He just races off, and it looks effortless.
18:08I almost felt like saying,
18:10has there been a false start?
18:12Because this horse was so far in front.
18:20Wow, it was...
18:22It was one of those.
18:29This is the derby.
18:30Best horses in the world.
18:32And the one horse is miles clear.
18:33Horses normally win by two lengths.
18:35Good horses normally win by three lengths.
18:37Great horses normally win by four lengths.
18:39Shergar won by ten lengths.
18:41What?
18:42Come on.
18:43This season.
18:43What was it like out there?
18:45Well, I was just a passenger on a very good horse.
18:47You were always country.
18:49Yes.
18:49It was my first derby for ITV.
18:51I was the first man to get to him,
18:54apart from the stable.
18:55Then I went up with the microphone and said,
18:57hey, what was that like winning the derby by ten lengths?
19:00And it was the first derby interview
19:02that had ever been put out on TV.
19:04Because in the old days,
19:06you wait till the jockey weighed in.
19:07But we decided we had to do him.
19:09And we got him live on the back of Shergar.
19:12Even now, that's still the record for a derby win.
19:15No horse has won the race by ten lengths since then,
19:17and we've had lots of top-class derby winners in the meantime.
19:21It was just phenomenal.
19:28Margaret Thatcher, as British Prime Minister,
19:30has declared war on the IRA.
19:32She's not going to treat them as having legitimate political aims,
19:36and she's not going to treat their prisoners
19:37as legitimate political prisoners.
19:39And, of course, that had led to the hunger strikes as well,
19:41which captured attention not just in Ireland but internationally.
19:45I will never forget the palpable tension,
19:49a kind of darkness about politics,
19:52because this was the time when Shergar was winning his races,
19:55that the hunger, H-Block hunger strike, was on.
19:58What you had was a conflict over prison status.
20:03People who were convicted of terrorist-related crimes
20:05demanded to be treated, as they would see it,
20:08as political prisoners, and did not want to wear a prison uniform.
20:13Those demands manifested themselves inside the prisons
20:17in terms of refusing to wear a prison uniform.
20:20There was a thing called the blanket protest,
20:23where prisoners simply wrapped themselves in blankets.
20:27There was then the appalling dirty protest,
20:30which was prisoners refusing to use lavatory facilities
20:33and smearing the walls of their cells with their own excrement.
20:37And then they went on hunger strike in 1981,
20:40at the time of the elections,
20:42to heighten the pressure on the government.
20:45And then they started dying.
20:48Bobby Sands has died after 66 days of hunger strike.
20:53The hunger strike period was the moment
20:56that Ireland teetered on the brink.
20:59There was a visceral atmosphere of hatred
21:02towards the British government
21:04and the single persona of Margaret Thatcher,
21:07whom Irish people in general perceived
21:10was allowing political prisoners to die.
21:14People came out onto the streets willy-nilly
21:17and wearing black armbands.
21:19They appeared from nowhere
21:21and there were demonstrations outside the GPO.
21:24And, of course, the funeral was gigantic.
21:27But the succession of these deaths
21:29and coffins being exploited
21:32had turned the political situation
21:34into a powder keg.
21:36And, of course, it acted as a recruiting sergeant
21:39for the IRA.
21:41The IRA needed £3 to £4 million a year
21:45to conduct its campaign.
21:46And they were very concerned, obviously,
21:49the authorities about where they were going
21:50to get that money from.
21:51Now, Schergar was valued at £10 million,
21:54which is an extraordinary sum in the early 1980s.
21:57And if you consider the constant money worries
22:00and challenges that the IRA had,
22:02perhaps that idea of a monetary price,
22:05that that could solve a lot of short-term problems
22:08for the IRA.
22:10Someone comes up with the idea
22:12that they're going to kidnap a racehorse.
22:21People would always be looking out
22:23for a double Derby winner,
22:24to do the Epsom and the Curragh double,
22:26because not many horses do that.
22:28The fact of the matter is
22:29that the Aga Khan would very much like
22:32to have success on Irish tracks.
22:35I said, I'm going to get my sorry ass
22:37to the Curragh on the 30th of June in 1981.
22:42I was there that day,
22:44and the whole sense of awe
22:46that this was one of the best horses ever.
22:50Lester said he's never ridden a horse
22:53that was travelling so easy in a Derby,
22:56so comfortable.
22:57It took his breath away
22:58that the horse was just cruising with him.
23:01He only won by four lengths,
23:03but he was stopping at that point.
23:05You know, he was literally just countering home.
23:08He was then the best of his age group.
23:12The big question mark was
23:14whether he could beat the older horses,
23:16the older generation.
23:18That would be the real test of Shurgar.
23:22He walked into the parade ring,
23:24and everybody recognised him straight away,
23:26and there was just a spontaneous round of applause.
23:29And he hadn't won at that point.
23:32People were just so overcome.
23:35What he did that day to older horses
23:36in the King George was what set him apart.
23:40Shurgar probably had to step up again
23:42on what he did in the Derby
23:43to go and take on the older horses
23:45in the King George,
23:45and he won by four lengths in the end.
23:48There was no second in the races he won.
23:50No one remembers who was second,
23:52because there was only one winner.
23:55He was on track for the Arc de Triomphe,
23:57the Piedl'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in France,
23:59but they wanted to give him another run before that,
24:01so he went to the St. Ledger.
24:04It's a tough race to St. Ledger,
24:06over a mile and six and a half furlongs.
24:09Doncaster's home straight.
24:10It's a long home straight.
24:11They usually get racing early,
24:12so you really need to see out a mile
24:14and six and a half furlongs
24:15in order to win a St. Ledger.
24:16And, I mean, there were various reports beforehand
24:19that he wasn't just training as well
24:20as he had been before Epsom
24:21or before the Curl or before Ascot.
24:24And he was actually weak in the market
24:25early in the week,
24:27but then he strengthened up again on the day,
24:30I guess because of his popularity
24:31and because of the trainer and the jockey.
24:34Because he won his races so easily,
24:36they were very confident
24:37that he'd stay the extra quarter mile.
24:40And Walter rode him carefully,
24:44looked after him.
24:44He was conscious he wanted to get him home
24:46over the extra distance.
24:48And I think maybe that was the downfall.
24:51He only finished fourth,
24:52which was a disappointment,
24:54but it didn't really reflect on his career to date.
24:58You know, he'd done everything.
24:59We could forgive him that one failing.
25:03And after that,
25:04they decided not to go to the Ark
25:05to retire in there and then.
25:07So that was the end of his racing career.
25:19The big question was,
25:21where would he go to stud?
25:22Would it be France or would it be Ireland?
25:26So it was a huge celebration
25:28when it was announced
25:29that he would be coming to Bellymani stud.
25:32at the Curragh.
25:32And he literally came out of training,
25:36stepped onto the plane,
25:39straight to Ireland in October 1981.
25:42And there was a big homecoming party for him.
25:46They lined the streets
25:48to cheer his horse box
25:49as it was passing through the principal towns.
25:51That's extraordinary.
25:53A star was coming back home.
25:56The star happened to be a horse.
25:57But that's what he was.
25:59But that's what he was.
25:59He was a star
25:59and he was much loved.
26:01He was the FA Cup winner
26:03and he was the local FA Cup winner.
26:06It was just a great celebration.
26:09It was more of a celebration
26:11of welcoming him home to Ireland
26:13than it had been for the stable,
26:15welcoming him back as a derby winner.
26:18You know, their own private party.
26:20This outshone it.
26:22It was an honour
26:23and a privilege
26:24to have him here.
26:26It was a brilliant fill-up
26:27for the Irish plus stock industry
26:29to have a stallion of his quality,
26:31to have a champion racehorse,
26:32to have the best three-year-old colt
26:34of his generation
26:35standing as a stallion in Ireland.
26:38You have to remember
26:39at that time
26:40he was the most valuable racehorse
26:42in the world.
26:45He was such a sought-after commodity.
26:47The Shargar is a stallion.
26:49Vega Khan syndicated him.
26:50He kept six shares himself,
26:52sold the other 34.
26:53And those 34 shares,
26:55they were bought
26:55by some of the top breeders
26:57in the world.
26:58They were sold for 250,000 each,
27:00which valued the horse
27:02at 10 million.
27:04The maths of this were
27:05if he stands for five seasons
27:07at around about 70,000 or 80,000
27:09a cover,
27:11then by the end of the fourth year
27:13the people who,
27:15the owners, basically,
27:16the people who own the shares,
27:17they would be in profit.
27:19So that's 40 marries every year
27:20at 60,000 or 70,000 or 80,000.
27:23By the end of the fourth year
27:24you'd be in profit.
27:25So that was the plan.
27:25And that's, you know,
27:26it's a stand plan.
27:29By the time the 8th of February
27:30rolled around, 1983,
27:32he's had one season
27:33that's thought he's covered
27:3343 mares.
27:35He was only just a five-year-old,
27:37so very, very young stallion
27:38with, you know,
27:39lots more potential ahead.
27:41They're starting to walk him more
27:43up his feed,
27:44preparing him
27:45for the breeding season.
27:47The horse world
27:49is matriarchal.
27:51It's led by the matriarchs.
27:53The mares
27:54are the ones
27:55who keep control.
27:56The stallion's job
27:57is only to protect them
27:58and to fight off
27:59other stallions.
28:01So there's one stallion,
28:02one group of brood mares.
28:04So they become
28:06very masculine,
28:08very territorial.
28:09They won't mix
28:10with other stallions.
28:12You know,
28:12these are their mares
28:13and they look after them.
28:14That's their sole job in life.
28:16So that's it.
28:18He's full-on
28:19big man stallion mode.
28:21I was told
28:22that he became
28:23not aggressive,
28:25but, you know,
28:26he became a big boy.
28:27He was grown up now.
28:28He wasn't the nice,
28:29quiet school boy
28:31that we'd known.
28:32So I would imagine
28:33he would have been
28:34quite difficult
28:35to handle
28:36at that point.
28:37He needed his groom.
28:39He needed somebody
28:40he trusted.
28:42What was incredible
28:43in those days
28:44is that there was
28:45no security
28:45at the stud.
28:47He had the best people
28:48in the world
28:48to look after him,
28:49obviously,
28:50and the top people
28:51at the stud,
28:52but there was no security.
28:54You and I
28:54could have just walked in.
29:04February 1983
29:06was a cold month.
29:08It was about
29:09eight o'clock,
29:10half eight in the evening
29:11when the kidnappers
29:12arrived in Ballymanie.
29:19Jim Fitzgerald,
29:20who was the head groom there,
29:21was living with his family.
29:23His big family
29:23had six children
29:24and his wife,
29:25Madge.
29:25They were looking for him,
29:26knocked on the door
29:27and wanted to be taken
29:29to Shergar.
29:31They knew what
29:32they were looking for.
29:33They reputedly said
29:34that they wanted
29:34two million for him,
29:36so they were very clear
29:37about what was going on.
29:38It seems to have only
29:38taken a half an hour.
29:40Fitzgerald would have
29:40shown them to Shergar.
29:42Shergar was then loaded
29:43and taken away.
29:46For the head groom
29:47of the stud
29:47for something like that
29:49to happen,
29:49it was unprecedented.
29:51Again, in hindsight,
29:52there probably weren't
29:53the measures in place
29:54to prevent something
29:55like that happening.
29:56For such a valuable horse
29:58to be outside
29:59and to be so vulnerable,
30:02the levels of security
30:03obviously weren't as high
30:03as they should have been.
30:05For his family,
30:06it must have been
30:06absolutely horrendous.
30:08The kidnappers had taken
30:09with them Jim Fitzgerald
30:10and they'd done so
30:11not only to quiet the horse,
30:13this highly wired thoroughbred,
30:16but also as a bargaining chip,
30:17if you like,
30:18to let the others know
30:19that this man too
30:21was a hostage
30:22and that if they tried
30:24to do anything
30:25peremptory,
30:25like to bring in the police,
30:27that he would be in danger
30:28of forfeiting his life.
30:33Fitzgerald is driven around
30:34in this car
30:35on the floor
30:36for some time
30:37and he's eventually
30:39let out
30:39at the side of the road
30:4020, 30 kilometres
30:41away from Ballymanistud.
30:45And warned
30:46in the strongest terms
30:47not to make any contact
30:49with the police.
30:51James Fitzgerald,
30:52and we have to appreciate
30:53the terror
30:54that he would have been in
30:55at that point,
30:56not just in relation
30:56to the horse
30:57but also in relation
30:58to his own family
30:59and being told
31:00if you contact anyone,
31:01your family are going
31:02to be harmed
31:02as well as yourself.
31:03I mean, the IRA,
31:05given its reputation,
31:06given its ruthlessness,
31:08given the way
31:08in which it dealt
31:09with inconveniences
31:10and those it regarded
31:11as a threat
31:12to its operations,
31:13James Fitzgerald
31:14had every reason
31:14to be very fearful.
31:17Fitzgerald manages
31:17to get to a phone,
31:19rings up the stud,
31:20manager Ghislaine Drian,
31:22who's a Frenchman,
31:23tells him what's happened.
31:25Ghislaine sends a car
31:26picks Fitzgerald up
31:28and brings him back
31:29to Ballymally
31:30and at that point
31:31they have to decide
31:32what are we going to do.
31:34If you were threatened
31:35by the IRA,
31:36you had good reason
31:37to believe they would
31:38make good on their word
31:39and everybody in Ireland
31:40knew that
31:40because the IRA
31:41did pay people back
31:44if they informed
31:45and in fact,
31:46the bodies of informers,
31:48I'm afraid to say,
31:49littered the laneways
31:50of Northern Ireland.
31:51If anything was done
31:52to thwart what the
31:53abductors wanted to do,
31:55there could be
31:55sure and swift
31:56retribution.
31:57I mean,
31:57the very idea
31:58of guns being produced
31:59and held to people's heads
32:01immediately interferes
32:03with your ability
32:04to think logically.
32:05So the safest thing
32:06to do
32:06is to do exactly
32:07as you're told.
32:17Some hours went by
32:18and eventually
32:19poor Jim Fitzgerald
32:20was abandoned
32:21and thrown out
32:22of the horseback
32:23and following the vehicle.
32:25Obviously,
32:26it's an extremely
32:27fraught situation.
32:28Fitzgerald has to
32:29release his wife
32:30and children
32:30who've been locked
32:31in a room in the house
32:32and Drian
32:33and he have to decide
32:34what are they going to do.
32:38Jim Fitzgerald
32:38was told not to contact
32:39the Gardaí.
32:40So, you know,
32:41it made sense
32:42that he should contact
32:42Ilan Drian,
32:43who's the Aga Khan's
32:44manager in Ireland
32:45and tell him what happened.
32:47And then the wheels
32:48started going into motion
32:49with various other people
32:50being contacted.
32:51They don't call the Gardaí.
32:54Drian calls
32:55Stan Cosgrove,
32:56who is a vet
32:57who looked after
32:58Shergar
32:59and is also one of the
33:00syndicate holders
33:01in the animal.
33:02Cosgrove, in turn,
33:04rings a friend of his
33:05called Sean Berry.
33:06Sean Berry is
33:08an ex-army captain
33:09and he runs
33:10the Thoroughbred
33:11Horse Breeders Association
33:13at that time.
33:14So he was part of
33:15the circle
33:15around Shergar
33:17and the whole industry.
33:19I was fast asleep
33:20when he touched it.
33:22Sean, he says,
33:23Shergar was kidnapped
33:24at that time.
33:26He'd be cracking a joke,
33:28but that's all I got.
33:30And he then makes a call
33:32to the Minister for Finance,
33:33Alan Dukes.
33:34The young Alan Dukes
33:36at that stage
33:36is the Minister for Finance
33:38who's preparing
33:38at the time
33:39a budget speech
33:40and is now taking a call,
33:42a panicked call,
33:44about Shergar.
33:46At three o'clock
33:48on that morning,
33:49I got a phone call
33:50from two very agitated
33:52gentlemen
33:52to tell me
33:54that Shergar
33:54had been stolen,
33:56was missing from the stud.
33:58They were extremely upset.
34:01This was a superstar horse
34:03and they were clearly
34:04very concerned
34:05for its welfare.
34:07I asked them first
34:08if they had informed
34:08the guards
34:09and they said no,
34:10they were afraid
34:10to inform the guards.
34:11So I said,
34:12you have no alternative.
34:13The guards have to be
34:14informed of this.
34:15I didn't see immediately
34:17what I could do
34:18as Minister for Finance
34:20between then
34:21and a budget speech
34:22the following afternoon.
34:24I just thought,
34:25what the hell
34:26am I going to do?
34:27You didn't often get calls
34:28at three o'clock
34:29in the morning
34:29and the phone
34:31was on the bedside locker
34:32and happily
34:33my little directory
34:35of cabinet members'
34:36phone numbers
34:36was just beside it
34:37and I gave them
34:38a phone number
34:39for the Minister
34:40for Justice,
34:41Michael Noonan,
34:42and said,
34:42that's the man
34:43you need to talk to
34:44and he'll talk
34:45to the guards
34:46and get things
34:47in operation
34:47and I went back
34:49to sleep.
34:50The Minister
34:51for Justice,
34:52Michael Noonan,
34:53who was then contacted,
34:54it's then
34:55that the Irish police force,
34:57the guard,
34:57they are contacted.
34:59Now at that stage,
35:00seven or eight hours
35:01had elapsed
35:02since the kidnapping
35:03of Shurgar
35:04and it's reasonable
35:06to ask the question
35:07as to why the guards
35:08were not the first call
35:11that was made
35:12but that was the sequence
35:13of calls
35:14and in a way,
35:16of course,
35:16it gave the kidnappers
35:17a very significant head start.
35:25There was a news blackout
35:26for a time
35:27and eventually
35:27the news
35:28was let out
35:29in time
35:30for the evening bulletins
35:31and people realised
35:33that this superstar equine
35:35had been taken
35:36from under their noses
35:38and furthermore
35:38there'd been
35:38this terrible delay
35:40in the police
35:41becoming aware.
35:43Shurgar,
35:44one of the most
35:44highly valued horses
35:45in the world,
35:46was taken by gunmen
35:47from Balamany Stud
35:48near Newbridge
35:49in Canticle Dare
35:50during the night.
35:52Gunmen entered
35:53the stud
35:53around nine o'clock
35:54last night.
35:55They held
35:55Mr. John Fitzgerald
35:57and his family
35:58in a back room
35:58at gunpoint.
35:59Forensic experts
36:01visited the scene
36:02this afternoon
36:02but so far
36:04details of where
36:05the £10 billion horse
36:06was taken
36:07remain a mystery.
36:11The world
36:12and its mother
36:12in terms of the press
36:13pack
36:13descended on this
36:15small village
36:16in County Kildare.
36:17It was
36:19phantasmagorical
36:19and unworldly
36:21in its nature.
36:22I was in Sussex
36:24working on a stud farm
36:26and we didn't
36:27have internet.
36:29You know,
36:29you had a couple
36:30of TV channels,
36:31you didn't have
36:32live streaming
36:33or anything
36:33but the first
36:34we knew
36:35was we saw
36:35it in the
36:36sporting life.
36:37There was that
36:37horror
36:38that we might
36:39not see him again
36:42and I'm just
36:44thinking
36:44it's tragic.
36:46You know,
36:46I remembered him
36:48two years ago
36:49as a nice
36:49sweet horse
36:50and now he's
36:51been taken away
36:52and he's also
36:53a stallion.
36:54You know,
36:55he's going to be
36:55difficult to handle.
36:57You can't put him
36:57into a little
36:58horse box
36:59and a little
36:59stable somewhere.
37:01It was very vivid
37:02in the mind
37:03at that point
37:04that what a
37:05dangerous situation
37:06he was in.
37:08Stallions are
37:09high octane
37:11thoroughbreds.
37:12They're not
37:13simple beings
37:14even if people
37:15will say their
37:16temperaments are
37:16brilliant or this
37:17or that or the
37:18other.
37:18They're bred for
37:19a really
37:20competitive sport
37:21and they are
37:22very muscular.
37:23They're half
37:24tonne,
37:25so they're around
37:25500 kilos on
37:26average and they
37:27are strong.
37:28So if they want
37:29to do something,
37:31no man will
37:32stop them.
37:34Stallions are
37:34more highly
37:35strung than
37:36normal horses
37:37because they
37:38can get a bit
37:39excited,
37:40quote unquote.
37:41And I know
37:42Shergar was a
37:43nice, nice
37:44sort of guy.
37:45He was a
37:46stallion.
37:46And when he's
37:48taken out of his
37:48routine, it would
37:50be like us.
37:51Oh, I'm in the
37:52back of a horse
37:52box I've never
37:53been in before.
37:54Where are you
37:54taking me?
37:55You know, he
37:56doesn't know that.
37:57So it was all a
37:59bit different for
38:00him.
38:02And at one level,
38:03while this was an
38:04extraordinary run of
38:05color for every
38:06newspaper in every
38:08country under the
38:09sun, at another
38:10level it was just,
38:11it was sad, it was
38:14bonkers, it was
38:15ludicrous, it was
38:16embarrassing.
38:18I think at the
38:19time I asked my
38:21parents and my
38:21grandparents, what
38:22was the feeling, what
38:23was the understanding
38:24of the whole coverage
38:25because everybody went
38:26bananas about this.
38:27It was fearful of
38:28what it would mean for
38:30the industry that this
38:31was a possibility and
38:33I think it changed
38:34regardless of the
38:36particular story
38:37itself, it changed
38:39the landscape of how
38:40stud farms were run and
38:42how these horses were
38:43regarded.
38:44The level of planning
38:45and sophistication and
38:47simply casing the joint
38:48that would be involved
38:49in preparing for an
38:51operation like this
38:52would require expertise
38:54and skill and manpower,
38:57heavy degrees of
38:58manpower.
38:59And I think Irish people
39:00immediately assumed that
39:02the level of
39:02professionalism involved
39:03here had to mean that
39:05it was carried out by
39:06republican subversives.
39:08And Irish people really
39:09believed that a Rubicon
39:11had been crossed.
39:12Whatever about kidnapping
39:13people and intimidating
39:15your fellow humans.
39:17And it was in fact an
39:18assault on every person
39:19who went to the bookies
39:21on a Saturday to have a
39:22little flutter in these
39:24islands.
39:27This was hugely embarrassing.
39:29Bally Mani was not remotely
39:31well protected.
39:32It wasn't remotely secure.
39:34The ease of access
39:35was actually astounding
39:37when you consider
39:38Shergar and the value of
39:40Shergar.
39:40But then there was no
39:41precedent for a horse
39:43being kidnapped
39:44in this way in Ireland.
39:46Nonetheless, you have to
39:47wonder about the security
39:48and I'm sure many did
39:49afterwards.
39:50And then the question
39:51for the guards
39:51how are we going
39:52to handle
39:53what is going
39:54inevitably
39:55to become
39:56a big international story?
39:58To ordinary Irish people
40:00I remember
40:00this was not only
40:01a humiliation
40:02but it was also
40:03a breach of trust
40:04if you like
40:05because the one area
40:06of British-Irish relations
40:08that had not been
40:08poisoned by the troubles
40:09was sport.
40:10People felt personally
40:12offended by this action
40:13including many people
40:14who were
40:14republican sympathisers
40:15thought this was wrong.
40:17And so the question arose
40:18did the IRA really do this?
40:20Could they have been
40:21that bone stupid
40:22to have attempted
40:24to pull this off?
40:27When news of this broke
40:28at MI5 level
40:30they were in no doubt
40:31the only people
40:32who could have carried
40:33this out
40:33were the provisional IRA.
40:38It was such a profoundly
40:40stupid thing
40:41to undertake
40:42that you have to wonder
40:44if this was something
40:46that was sanctioned
40:47at the senior levels
40:48of the IRA
40:49surely they would have
40:50been aware
40:50A. that this could go
40:52very badly wrong
40:53very easily
40:54B. that the public
40:57would obviously
40:58turn against anyone
40:59who was seen
41:00to be putting
41:00Shergar this celebrity horse
41:02this wonder horse
41:03in harm's way
41:05and C. what kind
41:07of a national
41:07and international focus
41:09would it bring
41:10on the IRA
41:10a very negative focus
41:12on the IRA.
41:13When you begin
41:13to add up
41:14those different things
41:15you have to question
41:17whether those
41:18who were running
41:19the IRA
41:20really thought
41:21this was a good idea
41:21or whether
41:22they were actually
41:23made aware
41:24of this plan.
41:25Very quickly
41:26the story
41:27goes into
41:28all sorts of
41:29as we would say
41:30today
41:30rabbit holes
41:31involving clairvoyance
41:32and mystics
41:33and anonymous
41:35tip-offs
41:35and what have you.
41:36The tabloid media
41:37goes crazy.
41:39It's an unbelievable story
41:41and when I use
41:42the word unbelievable
41:43I mean it
41:44fancy stealing
41:46a horse
41:47fancy stealing
41:48a Derby winner
41:49you have
41:50Ballymanny Stud
41:51being telephoned
41:53Jim Fitzgerald
41:54being telephoned
41:55and when the
41:56kidnapping happened
41:57he was told
41:58there's a code word
42:00you will hear from us
42:01the code word
42:02is King Neptune
42:02so somebody rang him
42:05used the code word
42:06King Neptune
42:07there was a demand
42:08for two million ransom
42:10and gradually
42:12negotiations
42:13that were taking place
42:14at a higher level
42:15and ransom calls
42:16began to take
42:17this story
42:18in another direction.
42:21The word farce
42:22is inevitably
42:23and justifiably
42:24used
42:25regarding the
42:26public spectacle.
42:28Chief Superintendent
42:29Jim Murphy
42:30led the investigation
42:31he became
42:32something
42:33of a figure
42:33of fun.
42:34It could be
42:35anywhere in the country
42:36it could be any of that.
42:38I got a phone call
42:39about two o'clock
42:40in the morning
42:41it's the Fleet Street
42:42we've had the kidnappers
42:44with Shergar on
42:44they want you
42:45to fly over to Belfast.
42:47Who am I talking to
42:48by the way?
42:49A man had come forward
42:50who was a local detective
42:51he had heard about
42:53an IRA dry run
42:54involving a horse box
42:56there was a proposal
42:58to produce
42:5980,000 pounds
43:01it would have been
43:01a down payment
43:02but it was a serious
43:03amount of money.
43:04You can have
43:05a very sophisticated
43:06plan on paper
43:07in relation to a heist
43:08a small twist or turn
43:10can throw the entire
43:11plan into disarray.
43:14The craziest
43:15most lurid
43:16allegations were
43:17coming forward
43:17and the entire circus
43:19transfers to Paris.
43:21Unless the person
43:22with the sole power
43:23to negotiate
43:23hands over the money
43:24is on the phone
43:25in five minutes
43:26the whole deal is off
43:27and fed up
43:28being messed around.
43:29There's only one way
43:30of describing it
43:31a shit show.
43:37The moon så at the
43:39the moon so
43:41if you're with the
43:48There's only one way
43:48of the moon so
43:48the moon so
43:52that a lot of
43:52nothing to do.
43:52And now
43:54we might
43:54have a chance
43:54to have
43:54a little bit
43:54of the sun.
43:55We might
43:55going to
43:55to get
43:55And now
44:00we'll be
44:00gonna have
44:00the moon so
44:03You
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