Maurice Gibson

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Lord Justice of Appeal
In office
1975–1987
Personal details
Born(1913-05-01)1 May 1913
Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland (now Northern Ireland)
Died25 April 1987(1987-04-25) (aged 73)
Killean, County Armagh, Northern Ireland
Spouse(s)Cecily Winifred Johnson, Lady Gibson
Children2
Alma materQueen's University Belfast

Lord Justice of Appeal in Northern Ireland. He was killed, along with his wife Cecily, Lady Gibson by the Provisional Irish Republican Army
(IRA).

Biography

Sir Maurice was born in Montpelier House, Belfast. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and graduated with a law degree from Queen's University Belfast. He was called to the bar in 1937 and subsequently elected a bencher in 1961 and described by Lord MacDermott in 1968 as the best lawyer at the Bar. In 1968 he became Chancery Judge and in 1977 Lord Justice of Appeal. The couple had two children.[1]

In 1977, he acquitted the soldier who shot

Majella O'Hare, a 12-year-old girl. The UK government apologised for this killing in 2011 and said the justification Gibson accepted was "unlikely".[2]

Death

Lord Justice Gibson and his wife were killed by a remote-controlled car bomb as they drove over the Irish border back into Northern Ireland on 25 April 1987 after a holiday in the USA. As the judge's car reached Drumad, the townland on the County Louth side of the border, he stopped to shake hands with the Garda Síochána security escort who had completed their part of the assignment. The couple had only a short drive to meet the Royal Ulster Constabulary escort to Belfast.

Between the two points lay the bomb, near a

petrol station near Killean in County Armagh. The explosion threw the Gibsons' vehicle across the road, killing the couple immediately.[1][3] The explosion also injured Ireland national rugby union team players Nigel Carr, David Irwin and Philip Rainey who were in a car on the same road.[4]

The case was investigated by the

Lord Trimble called for an inquiry into whether there was collusion.[5]

References
  1. ^ a b "Cory Collusion Inquiry Report - Lord Justice Gibson and Lady Gibson" (PDF). Irish Times. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-23. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
  2. ^ "Ministry of Defence says sorry for killing of Majella O'Hare". The Guardian. 27 March 2011. Archived from the original on 17 August 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  3. ^ "Unresolved deaths: A question of collusion?". BBC News. 2 August 2001. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  4. ^ O'Hara, Victoria (2007-02-19). "Historic clash small step to shared future". The Belfast Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2009-06-26. Retrieved 2009-12-09.
  5. ^ Dempster, Stephen (27 May 2014). "Inquiry call over collusion claims". BBC News. Archived from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maurice_Gibson&oldid=1221621479"