Thank God Dave Cullen doesn’t know me

Posted by Jim on September 16, 2017

By Cait (for Damn Your Concessions)

 

Tout, informer, snitch, rat, grass and I am sure there are more terms
used, all have the same meaning in Ireland, someone who gives
information to the British forces, some of these people may be involved
themselves in the acts they inform on, they may work closely with the
people they will one day see imprisoned, or worse killed. Some may be
just local snoops, 50p touts as they are known in Armagh, and they give
anything ranging from very valuable information, such as surveying the
movements of someone of interest to the Police, to informing that
someone had an argument with their wife.

Then we have what is known as the super-grass, this is an informer on
speed! The Super grass is generally someone who is involved with those
they inform on, someone who has been around a while and is trusted; they
are not your commoner garden 50p tout. What makes them “super” is the
sizable numbers of people they implicate, the trials that follow are
usually show trials, with the super grass divulging a lot of
information, some of it may be true, much of it lies. The trials
generally have major protests outside and a lot of media interest. In
Ireland being a tout makes you pond life, scum of the earth some people
will say, lower than whale shite is a term I particularly enjoy.

The term super grass came into popular use in Ireland in 1981,
Christopher Black a member of the Provisional IRA was arrested. After
securing assurances that he would have protection from prosecution,
saving his own skin like the coward that he is, Black gave statements
which led to 38 arrests of alleged IRA members. This was the first big
super grass trial. Two years later on 5th August 1983 22 members of the
Provisional IRA were sentenced to a total of more than 4,000 cumulative
years in prison, based on Black’s testimonies alone.

18 of those convicted on Black’s evidence had their conviction
subsequently overturned in 1986, such is the reliability of super-grass
tainted evidence. It is well established that Supergrasses lie, their
motivating factor being providing “evidence” to avoid prosecution.

Black, however, would not be the last big supergrass, nor would it only
affect the Republican community, in all, over 500 people from both
Loyalist and Republican backgrounds were put on trial on the word of a
super-grass, It was a corrupt system of course, supergrasses were
seduced into telling lies and implicating innocent people to save their
own skins, given large cash inducements and promises of an anonymous new
life.

By the mid-1980s, the super-grass system had collapsed, public concerns
about the credibility of the evidence could no longer be ignored and
even members of the judiciary complained they were being used as
political tools to implement government security policy.

So there we are, all ancient history, super-grass trials are proven to
be flawed, the evidence provided by these cretins is known to be
non-credible, thank God we don’t have to worry about super-grass trials
in 2017 and the prospect of innocent men and women going to jail on the
word of a fantasist…….

Uh-oh! Not the case at all, today in 2017 we have a new super-grass, and
his name is Dave Cullen.

In March 2013 Dave Cullen was arrested and remanded to Portlaoise Prison
charged in connection with the fatal shooting in Gormanstown of Peter
Butterly. Just over a year later, in June 2014 Dave Cullen offered to
turn state witness in return for the charge to be dropped, two days
later Dave Cullen was removed from Portlaoise Prison under the
protection of armed Guards, this secured Dave Cullen’s status as
Ireland’s most recent super-grass.

To date based on the statements of Dave Cullen 9 men in total have been
arrested, so far 2 of them have been convicted and are serving lengthy
sentences, the rest are either remanded in Portlaoise or on bail while
one man is currently unaccounted for (on the run).

Dave Cullen like many supergrasses before him has brazenly given
evidence to the special criminal court; the special criminal court is a
non-jury Diplock court in the 26 counties. It is believed that in return
for this Cullen has secured immunity from the murder charge, has been
assigned a new identity and has been given a cash lump sum along with a
monthly stipend. Anyone who knows anything about Irish politics knows
this is a recipe for disaster.

The arrests did not come in a flurry after Cullen turning super-grass,
the arrests have continued right up until this current month (September
2017), he has to justify his payments somehow, like all touts anything
he says should be taken with a bucket of salt. It appears that the State
has learned nothing, that so intent are they on breaking Republicanism
that they are prepared to employ the services of the most despised and
reviled creature of all, the Super-grass!

The fate of the tout is never pleasant, they generally go on to live a
desperate lonely life, the money runs out, and their usefulness expires.
They live out the rest of their lives looking over their shoulder as
they are all too aware that they are marked men.

Their state protection only goes so far because the reality of the
situation is that no one likes a tout, a deceiver, a liar, not even the
people they are touting to as they have proven they cannot be trusted.
They are a commodity for a short period of time and when they outlive
their usefulness they are thrown to the mercy of the waves by their
handlers. Touts like Martin McGartland and Kevin Fulton (real name Peter
Keeley) have been very open about their unimportance after the fact,
even going to court to try and secure money that was promised to them.
So it would seem on top of being liars and cretins we can add stupid to
the list.

As per my previous blog published in July where I spoke about the
upsurge in IRA membership charges, it is clear that the 26 County state
is intent on smashing Republicanism, if they are not using the word of a
superintendent to jail political activists, they are prepared to use the
word of an even more despicable type which is the super-grass. For our
part we must do what those before us did and protest these sham show
trials with every fibre of our being.