Gabriel Cleary

{{Short description|Irish engineer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Multiple issues|

{{No footnotes|date=October 2015}}

{{Notability|Biographies|date=October 2015}}

}}{{Infobox military person

| name = Gabriel Cleary

| birth_date = {{circa|February 1945}} (aged 79)

| birth_place = Tallaght, Ireland

| branch = Provisional IRA

| branch_label = Paramilitary

| rank = Director of Engineering

| unit = General Headquarters (GHQ)

| battles = The Troubles

}}

Gabriel Cleary (born {{Circa|February 1945}}) is a former senior engineer in the Provisional IRA. A native of Tallaght, County Dublin, he was arrested in 1987 when the French and Irish governments intercepted a shipment of weapons from Libya aboard the Eksund.{{Cite news |date=1998-02-14 |title=Bomb-factory men get 20 years each |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/bomb-factory-men-get-20-years-each-1.135408 |access-date=2024-09-16 |work=The Irish Times}}

After spending five years in French prison, Cleary was freed in 1992.{{Cite news |date=1992-01-27 |title=Irish police free Dublin gunrunner |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/01/27/Irish-police-free-Dublin-gunrunner/1234696488400/ |access-date=2024-09-16 |work=UPI}} He was arrested again in a raid on an underground bomb factory in County Laois in 1996 and was sentenced to 20-years in February 1998;{{Cite news |date=1998-02-14 |title=Bomb factory one `of the biggest ever' |url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/bomb-factory-one-of-the-biggest-ever/26196316.html |access-date=2024-09-16 |work=Irish Independent}} though he was later released from Portlaoise prison the same year as part of the Northern Ireland peace process. {{Cite news |date=1998-10-31 |title=Dublin frees more IRA inmates |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/northern_ireland/latest_news/205148.stm |access-date=2024-09-16 |work=BBC News}}

Cleary was the Director of Engineering on the Provisional IRA's General Headquarters Staff (GHQ).{{Cite news |last=McDonald |first=Henry |date=2002-11-24 |title=Teething troubles |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/nov/24/politics |access-date=2024-09-16 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}