Donegal couple break silence on true story behind Heathrow mortar attack

In 1994, on three separate days in March, mortar shells were fired into Heathrow Airport in IRA strikes from remote-controlled launchers, sending shockwaves across the globe.

For Michael Gallagher and Mary Attenborough, a couple now living in Falcarragh, the true fallout was only beginning.

On 28 October 1996, Gallagher was arrested in an armed dawn raid on the London flat he shared with long-time partner, Mary.

Accused of playing a role in the attack on Heathrow, Gallagher proclaimed his innocence with Mary launching herself into a battle to free her partner - and prove his innocence by raising bail money and using her scientific background to debunk the forensic evidence.

Their new joint memoir, Unbroken: Secrets, Lies and Enduring Love, traces the couple’s harrowing journey from the moment armed police smashed through their door where, six weeks earlier and less than two miles away, London Irishman Diarmuid O’Neill was shot dead. 

During this frantic and violent time in British counterterrorism, Michael was tailed by MI5, with 29 operatives tracking his movements on one morning alone, and their home was bugged for over two years.

The front cover of the book

Following his arrest Michael maintained his innocence all through his period of remand and a high-profile, six-week long trial. 

Throughout the entire process Mary never stopped fighting, defending her man she believed was innocent and just one of a long line of cases, including the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four, who had been victims of miscarriages of justice, but, after a trial verdict, he was convicted, by an 11-1 majority, of conspiring to cause explosions. 

Mary insisted that there was not just circumstantial evidence used, but second-hand evidence, pointing out that it was “not clear” that a garage linked to Michael was involved in the incidents. 

“It was a show trial,” she says.

However, Michael had been lying - not only to the world, but to the woman who had risked everything to defend him. 

“I was guilty,” he revealed to Donegal Live ahead of the launch of their memoir this week.

It was only the day after his conviction at Woolwich Crown Court that he told Mary the truth: “I couldn’t have told her beforehand. My whole defence was based on not being guilty.”

“When I found out he was involved, I thought that I had to leave him,” Mary says. “I thought it was too much. We had been together for 11 years and it was devastating. 

“My brother put up his house as a surety for his bail. All our friends and family who also put up bail sureties might have thought that I had known all along. It was a terrible deception that he hadn’t told me, but to leave him would have been like cutting off my arm.”

Michael, described in court as an IRA ‘fixer’ claims the attacks were a purely symbolic action timed to coincide with the debate in the British Parliament for the renewal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. 

The police and prosecution had claimed it was a botched attack, and that it was only good luck that prevented multiple casualties. That wasn’t the case at all, Michael tells Donegal Live.

“It actually did go to plan insofar as there were no casualties,” he says. “The mortars weren’t armed and that was deliberately so."

 
Mary Attenborough and Michael Gallagher

Michael, a Glaswegian with Donegal roots (both his parents were from Gort an Choirce) was offered a bribe, this being witnessed by his lawyer and stated by him later in court: £1 million and ‘a place in the sun’ in exchange for names of those involved in the IRA operation. 

This happened during his six-day long interrogation during which he maintained a “no comment” position. 

“They offered me a million pounds for just a couple of names,” he says.

In spite of the offer, and the questioning Michael remained unbowed.

Sentenced eventually to 20 years in prison by Mr Justice Richard Tucker, Michael was imprisoned initially inside Belmarsh’s notorious special secure unit where he faced brutal conditions - including what he described as “sexual violence” under the guise of invasive searches. 

He recalls: “On the first day, while waiting to be searched I read a notice on the wall giving search guidelines for staff. The first item stated: ‘Searches of body orifices e.g., intrusive exploration of the anus, should not be performed with the use of instruments’.

“The implication I took here was that the prison officer was allowed to use his hand during the search while the prisoner, naked from the waist down, was forced to crouch above a mirror placed on the ground’.

“They were meant to degrade and dehumanise.  The prison officers had power to do what they wanted. There was never-ending tension.

“I got a hard time from the screws. They obviously had no sympathy for me. The prisoners themselves were mainly okay.”

Six weeks after his conviction, the Good Friday Agreement was signed and Michael was eligible for early release under its terms.  When these became public knowledge, Michael began to receive lots of sly, snide comments and veiled threats from other inmates, including some aligned to the British National Party, a far-right anti-immigrant organisation. 

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Before any threats could be acted upon, he was repatriated to Ireland and spent the remainder of his time in Portlaoise and Castlerea Prison until his release in 2000.

Unbroken is a joint memoir; a raw, alternating account that moves dramatically between their respective experiences.

“The book, a two-voice multi-faceted narrative,” Mary said. “It is a story of the difficulties of being in prison, including Belmarsh, in the special secure unit, which is notorious and was pretty much recognised as torturous, whereas I was on the outside campaigning for his release, believing that it was a potential miscarriage of justice.

“It tells of deception, of mending fractured relationship, and of the politically charged atmosphere during the last years of the Troubles.”

Unbroken is the gripping true story of a couple whose love endured under the most unthinkable circumstances.

Michael was released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement in 2000.

Now living in Falcarragh, the couple have jointly run a web development business, The Webbery, since 2000.

Unbroken: Secrets, Lies & Enduring Love by Donegal-based couple Mary Attenborough and Michael Gallagher will be launched on Friday, July 4 at 7pm in Óstán Loch Altan, Gort an Choirce. Pearse Doherty TD will be present on the evening to help launch the book.