BRITISH WAR CRIME ON THE SHANKILL
Posted by Jim on February 1, 2016
There has been a shocked reaction to evidence that the 1993 Shankill
Road bomb, in which nine civilians and one IRA Volunteer died in a
premature explosion, was planned by a double-agent working in concert
with the British Crown forces.
It is believed that an informer working for the RUC Special Branch
police may have deliberately tampered with the device to cause an
outrage which would weaken the Provisional IRA ahead of negotiations
with the British.
With the announcement of a complaint to the Ombudsman, the Shankill
bombing has now joined a list of atrocities that are being investigated
over covert Crown force involvement, including the Omagh bombing in
1998, the Dublin-Monaghan bombings in 1974, Bloody Sunday, Bloody
Friday, and the killings carried out another IRA double-agent, codenamed
Stakenife.
Although the informer — known by his security force code of AA — was
involved in a number of successful IRA operations as a leading figure in
the Ardoyne IRA, questions have been asked about to what extent IRA
Volunteers were set up for capture or death.
In October 1993, Volunteers Thomas Begley and Sean Kelly walked into a
fish-shop on the loyalist Shankill Road with orders to clear it of
customers and then detonate an explosive device, aimed at a meeting of
paramilitary leaders believed to be taking place upstairs.
The device is understood to have been a directional device, intended
to explode upwards, towards the meeting of the UDA death squad
‘brigadiers’. But it exploded virtually as soon as Begley carried it to
the counter, killing him and eight others and injuring Kelly, as well as
dozens of passersby.
Anger over the ‘botched’ mission heralded a series of loyalist reprisals
in which 14 people were murdered and scores more injured.
It is now reported that ‘AA’ was identified by the IRA as early as 2002
or 2003, shortly after the IRA deciphered Special Branch files on agents
recovered from the RUC base at Castlereagh. Leaks from the stolen papers
suggest ‘AA’ had extensively briefed his MI5 and Special Branch handlers
on the aim and likely timing of the attack on the UDA, who may have been
warned in advance.
The alleged double-agent is reported to have admitted recently that he
had possession of the bomb used in the Shankill Road in October 1993
before it was handed over to Begley and Kelly.
Former republican prisoners say they strongly believe AA was given the
go-ahead by his handlers to manipulate the device so that it exploded
without any possibility of clearing the area around the device.
One ex-Belfast prisoner said: It raises massive questions for the
state, as to what extent it allowed its own citizens to die, who made
those decisions and can they ever be made amenable.
But for the IRA the questions will now start to re-emerge as to what
extent volunteers and supporters were sacrificed by agents in the ranks,
and what has the IRA done to rectify this, if anything?
Still living in Ardoyne, the alleged double-agent refused to attend a
commemoration in memory of Thomas Beagley on the 20th anniversary of the
blast in 2013.
Relatives of the victims called for a full investigation. Charlie
Butler, who lost three members of his family, said he and other families
were devastated by the development.
He said: Collusion is not a nice word for anyone but when it is
collusion with innocent people losing their lives to protect someone
else there has to be a line drawn to say that is wrong.
[The security forces] were there to do a job, to protect people. If
they knew about [the bombing] then they should pay.
Sinn Fein, the DUP and both governments have declined to comment on the
development, while PSNI chief George Hamilton has denied any knowledge
of the plot. He said he did not want to “prejudge the outcome” of the
ombudsman’s investigation.
“We dont want to do anything that is going to traumatise families
further and add to their grief and pain which will still be very real
after all of these years,” he said.
The journalist who reported the revelations, Allison Morris, said that
any confirmation by the Police Ombudsman that the Shankill bomb was
“preventable” would change the understanding of that period of the
conflict.
“This development raises allegations of collusion that overshadows all
that has gone before it,” she said. “Was a botched attack allowed to go
ahead and did the State allow civilians to die to shame republicans into
a ceasefire?
“That’s now a question for the police ombudsman to answer.”