Gerard Casey

Gerard Casey (c. 1960 – 4 April 1989) was a member of the 1st North Antrim Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

Casey, a Catholic, first joined the IRA in 1985. Like some of his colleagues, his membership was clandestine. The funeral was attended by a crowd of up to 500 mourners despite a police presence of around 200 officers. A minor altercation between police and mourners occurred. Neighbours described him as "a quiet family man with no interest in any political activities". Even though his membership was relatively unknown, Casey remains one of if not the most prominent figure to have been killed in North Antrim. And even Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley condemned the killing as "a diabolical crime showing devilish viciousness" such was the lack of knowledge about Casey's IRA membership.

Casey's brother Liam, also a member of the IRA, had been killed in a car accident two years previously in 1987.

Sinn Féin have called for a full and independent investigation into his death.

In 2005 Gerard Casey's wife Una and the relatives of other murdered Irish republicans criticised Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) member John Dallat for not condemning the murders at the time but later raising them for political benefit. Dallat responded by saying he condemned all murders.

Soon after coming to office in 2010 Attorney General for Northern Ireland John Larkin ordered a new inquest into Casey's death.

The fact that Casey's IRA membership had not been well-known led to the suggestions that the security forces had passed on information about his membership to the loyalists. Casey said before his death that his life had been threatened by the RUC.