IRA ceasefire: Highland Radio scooped BBC to most historic Peace Process announcement

Former BBC correspondent Barney Rowan has revealed Highland Radio in Donegal scooped him to possibly the most historic announcement of the Peace Process - the IRA ceasefire.

On Thursday, July 28, 2005, the IRA declared its armed campaign would end at 4.00pm that day, in a pre-recorded statement read by Séanna Walsh.

Speaking at ‘The War is Over’, the concluding event of Derry’s Féile 2025 in Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin on Thursday evening, Mr Rowan recalled the events of the day, which began with him being contacted by IRA spokesperson P O’Neill.

“I was on my way to get the statement and the DVD that Séanna Walsh read to camera, although we didn’t know at that stage we were gong to get that video,” he said.

“But about a couple of minutes before I met P O’Neill, I got a call from the BBC to say that the story was out and certainly one of the outlets that was running it, if I remember everything correctly, was Highland Radio. And I thought to myself, ‘Surely not, surely not’.

“But as we came into the street in the Falls, where we were due to meet, I saw P O’Neill skipping a bit more quickly than normal and I knew then at that stage something was out. 

“We went into the house. He gave me the envelope. He gave me the statement. He gave me the DVD. He wanted to show me the DVD. I just wanted to get out.

“And I think I said in tonight’s event, I left the BBC with the glow of the Ready Brek man - feeling a bit smug about myself. I returned like a wet lettuce because this was a huge, huge, huge, huge story. It was one of those days when maybe Highland Radio put some manners on me in news terms. So, that’s my recollection of that event, one of the  biggest news days  - scooped."