Published on: December 16, 2025, 01:13h.
Updated on: December 16, 2025, 01:42h.
- Media highlights link between lottery winner Joe Clarke and IRA getaway role
- Kenova report uncovers intelligence failures tied to the 1988 police murder
- IRA internal review named suspects but led to no prosecutions
A resident of Belfast, Northern Ireland, who won £10.2 million (US$13.6 million) in the EuroMillions Lottery in 2013, has been named in media reports as the alleged getaway driver in a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) operation that resulted in the death of an off-duty police officer.
The Provisional IRA was a paramilitary group classified as a terrorist entity by the British government, aiming to bring an end to British governance in Northern Ireland amid the late-20th-century sectarian conflict commonly referred to as the Troubles.
Joe Clarke, who passed away in 2023, has been identified by journalists as the suspected driver for the IRA faction responsible for the murder of Constable John Larmour, who was shot in his brother’s ice-cream shop in south Belfast on October 11, 1988. Although Clarke is not specifically mentioned in the official Operation Kenova findings, reporting has connected him to the described role.
Operation Kenova was a comprehensive nine-year inquiry initiated by the Police Service of Northern Ireland to investigate the activities of Freddie Scappaticci, a prominent IRA member who secretly operated as a British Army informant under the alias Stakeknife.
As the second-in-command of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit, Scappaticci was tasked with pinpointing and interrogating suspected informants within the organization.
Scappaticci, who also died in 2023, has been associated with at least 14 murders and 15 abductions during the Troubles according to the investigation. The report asserts that he was engaged in “serious and unjustifiable criminal acts” while under the protection of British intelligence services.
Civilians Affected
The Kenova findings indicate that three IRA members participated in the killing of Larmour: two shooters and a driver. After the incident, the perpetrators underwent internal debriefing by the IRA’s Internal Security Unit; this information was subsequently relayed by Scappaticci to his British Army supervisors and later shared with police intelligence officials.
Constable Larmour, a 42-year-old Protestant father, was substituting for his brother at Barnam’s ice-cream shop on Belfast’s Lisburn Road when two armed individuals entered shortly before closing time.
One of the attackers fatally shot Larmour, while the other opened fire on patrons, causing severe injuries to two civilians.
The Kenova report does not disclose the identities of the involved individuals. It notes that one of the gunmen is still living but suffers from dementia and could not be interrogated, while the other shooter is deceased. No charges have been brought against anyone for the murder.
The targeting of civilians during the attack led to an internal investigation by Scappaticci’s unit.
Hooded Man
At the time of his lottery victory in 2013, Clarke, who worked as a car mechanic, was characterized in media as a “well-liked individual” in west Belfast.
He was part of a group known as the “Hooded Men,” a collective of Irish republicans apprehended by British authorities in 1971 and subjected to what the European Court of Human Rights later deemed inhumane and degrading treatment during military interrogations.
Clarke received £12,500 in compensation related to his internment and mistreatment, along with an official apology from the British government delivered shortly before his death in 2023.