Patsy O’Hara was born on July 11th, 1957 at Bishop Street in Derry cityIn 1970, Patsy joined na Fianna Eireann, drilled and trained in Celtic Park. Early in 1971, and though he was very young, he joined the Patrick Pearse Sinn Fein cumann in the Bogside, selling Easter lilies and newspapers. Internment, introduced in August 1971, hit the O’Hara family particularly severely with the arrest of Sean Seamus in October.Shortly after Sean’s arrest Patsy, one night, went over to a friend’s house in Southway where there were barricades. But coming out of the house, British soldiers opened fire, for no apparent reason, and shot Patsy in the leg. He was only fourteen years of age and spent several weeks in hospital and then several more weeks on crutches. On January 30th, 1972, his father took him to watch the big anti-internment march as it wound its way down from the Creggan. “I struggled across a banking but was unable to go any further. I watched the march go up into the Brandywell. I could see that it was massive. The rest of my friends went to meet it but I could only go back to my mother’s house and listen to it on the radio,” said Patsy. Shortly after Bloody Sunday, Patsy joined the ‘Republican Clubs’ and was active until 1973. From this time onwards he was continually harassed, taken in for interrogation and assaulted.
One day, he and a friend were arrested on the Briemoor Road. Two saracens screeched to a halt beside them. Patsy later described this arrest: “We were thrown onto the floor and as they were bringing us to the arrest centre, we were given a beating with their batons and rifles. When we arrived and were getting out of the vehicles we were tripped and fell on our faces”.
In October 1974, O’Hara was interned in Long Kesh, and on his release in April 1975 he joined the IRSP and INLA. He was arrested in Derry in June 1975 and held on remand for six months. In September 1976, he was arrested again and once more held on remand for four months.
O’Hara went to live in Dublin for a number of months and was an active member of the IRSP’s Ard Comhairle. On 10 May 1978, he was arrested on under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, and was released 18 hours later. He returned to Derry in January 1979 and was active in the INLA. On 14 May 1979 he was arrested and was convicted of possessing a hand grenade and sentenced to eight years in prison in January 1980. He went on the blanketin the Maze, where his brother, Tony was already on protest.
He became O.C of the INLA prisoners at the beginning of the first hunger strike in 1980, and he joined the 1981 strike on 22 March.
On Thursday, 21 May, at 11.29 p.m., he died after 61 days on hunger strike at the age of 23. His parents decided not to get him the medical intervention needed to save his life. His last words were “let the fight go on!” Even in death his torturers would not let him rest.His corpse bore several burn marks inflicted after his death.
Flowers have been laid at a memorial for the victims of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings – as victims’ families and survivors called for full disclosure of all sensitive documents relating to the atrocities.
A wreath-laying ceremony took place on Friday at a Dublin memorial to remember the 33 people killed by loyalist bombers. Among those who laid wreaths were rock stars Larry Mullen Jnr and Gavin Friday.
It marked the 45th anniversary of the blasts, when UVF paramilitaries acting in collusion with British forces detonated four no-warning bombs in Dublin and Monaghan on May 17 1974.
Their families want the British government to release classified security files relating to the deaths.
The Justice for the Forgotten lobby group has fought a long-running campaign for an open inquiry into allegations that British Crown agents colluded with the UVF to plot the co-ordinated and sophisticated attacks.
There have also been calls for the Dublin government to release their secret files about the attack.
Martha O’Neill, the widow of victim Edward O’Neill, said that files deposited with the Taoiseach’s office could assist families. There was a sense of cynicism when Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan told those gathered at Friday’s commemoration that he appreciated it was “another difficult day for each person who is here to remember loved ones lost in the atrocity” as well as those injured in the bombings.
He again claimed his government would “persevere relentlessly” in its efforts to seek the truth behind the events.
He said: “The Government has worked consistently on all-party motions which call on the British Government to allow access by an independent international judicial figure to all of the original documents in their possession.
“I know that you’re frustrated that these motions have not yet been adequately responded to. I want to assure you that we will not give up in our efforts.”
A minute silence was held and prayers were led by Fr Tom Clowe and Reverend Trevor Sargent.
Dublin Lord Mayor Nial Ring told those gathered on Talbot Street that he vividly remembered the day and the sense of fear it created. He said: “We were playing football on the street in Ballybough and heard the Dublin bombs exploding.
“My mother was working in Olhausen’s Butchers at the time and, although I was young, I recall the sense of anxiety and fear in the whole area as people waited for loved ones to come home.
“My mam did – unfortunately many others did not.”
Dublin mother Maeve Taylor and her three daughters were among those injured in the attack.
The family had been in the city shopping for Holy Communion shoes when the bombs were detonated.
Ms Taylor, now 92, attended Friday’s commemoration with her daughter Michele Keane to lay a wreath for the victims.
She said she had never missed a commemoration.
Ms Keane, who was 11 at the time, said: “I get shivers every time I come up the street.”
She recalled: “We heard the first bomb and mum had a big black coat on and she looked to the right, and she saw a car with a gas tankard with nails sticking out of it. She just wrapped us in this big black coat and said run.
“We had only got ten yards and it blew up.”
Ms Keane said they wanted both the Irish and British governments to release any information they have, so the families could get the justice they deserve.
She said: “I can’t see it happening any day soon though. It’s been 45 years now and it hasn’t been released.
“We would like answers, but in saying that, a lot of the perpetrators apparently aren’t around any more.”
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, who attended the events, said the Glennane gang based in South Armagh which included UVF, MI5, RUC, as well as UDR members, had carried out the attack. She paid tribute to to the families and to Justice for the Forgotten.
“Their struggle and search for truth and justice has been a long and a difficult one and continues to be delayed by this British government,” she said. “This must end.”
An MI5 report on policing compiled at the height of the conflict in the early 1970s must remain secret, a British official has ruled.
The Morton Report, which examined operating practices of the RUC Special Branch police in 1973, is understood to contain details of illegal activities which were recommended for use by the RUC as a “counter-insurgency” strategy.
The decision appears to confirm the importance of MI5 officer Jack Morton and his report in laying the groundwork for the Special Branch’s Dirty War.
A year after the report was issued, loyalist paramilitaries acting in collusion with Special Branch and other British forces killed 33 people and an unborn child in a series of terror attacks against nationalist civilians across Dublin and Monaghan. It was the deadliest attack of the conflict.
Britain’s Information Commissioner said the report was instigated by the head of MI5, Michael Hanley, who suggested to then RUC Chief Constable Graham Shillington that a senior ‘Security Service’ officer conduct a review of Special Branch in June 1973.
The officer chosen was Jack Morton, once a former colonial police chief in India who eventually rose to become a high-ranking figure in British military intelligence.
Over 20 academics from Britain and Ireland have called for the Morton Report to be made available for their research, but to no avail. The Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, declared the report should stay secret because it was supplied by MI5, without any further justification.
Reacting to the decision, Daniel Holder, deputy director of the Committee for the Administration of Jutice (CAJ) said: “It is difficult to conceive how the 1973 Morton report can’t be released by the PSNI for national security reasons when the PSNI did – eventually – release most of the 1980 Walker Report to CAJ in a similar case.
The Walker Report notoriously advised the RUC to maintain paid informers instead of prosecuting them for any offences they had committed, including murder.
“Both relate to the structures of RUC Special Branch, and both were authored by MI5 officers,” Mr Holder said, adding that such reports “reveal wrongdoing by the state.”
Mr Holder said that the public has a right to know about the past. “The application of blanket national security vetoes over historic information is not human rights compliant,” he warned. “Particularly when the documents in question may contain evidence of past security policies and practices that involved or facilitated human rights violations.”
He said the Morton report should be disclosed to prevent “a repetition of past practices that fuelled conflict.”
Sinn Féin’s European election candidate in the Six Counties, Martina Anderson, clashed with hardline unionist Jim Allister on live television as campaigning for the European elections to be held across Ireland reached a climax.
Ms Anderson appeared on UTV’s politics programme ‘The View from Stormont’ with five other European election candidates standing in the North: Diane Dodds (DUP), Naomi Long (Alliance Party), Danny Kennedy (UUP), Colum Eastwood (SDLP) and Jim Allister (TUV).
Ms Anderson reminded Allister, whose party lost half of its elected councillors in local elections earlier this month, that the North of Ireland voted clearly against Brexit in the 2016 referendum.
But Allister reacted angrily, waving his hand up towards Ms Anderson’s face. “Don’t you talk to me about democracy – you set out with the bomb and the bullet,” he said. “You are a vicious bomber.”
“I think Jim needs some manners,” said Ms Anderson, before raising her hand in a ‘body space’ gesture. “That’s twice Jim and I am going to ask Jim, who is sitting beside me, to please have a little bit of manners because you are in my face – no more!”
Thursday’s election to the European election will be closely watched to see how Brexit politics has altered the traditional nationalist/unionist split in the three-seat northern constituency.
A slight demographic shift since the last election in 2014 could improve the prospect of a historic change from two unionist seats to two nationalists. That could happen if Martina Anderson retains her seat and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood wins enough first preferences to avoid being eliminated before the moderate unionist (and anti-Brexit) Alliance Party, who are also competing for the third seat against the Ulster Unionist Party.
The stakes are high for both Irish unity and peace — the election of two nationalists to one unionist would make the demand for a border poll on reunification, a key element of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, irrefutable. That in turn could potentially bring about an end to the armed actions of breakaway IRA groups.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald called for Martina Anderson to be given the number one preference, before transferring to “pro-remain, progressive candidates”.
“Brexit changes everything for all of us, and it’s for that reason that we identify this as maybe a unique and unifying moment of solidarity for people who want what is best for all of us right across Ireland,” she said.
The SDLP parked their ‘battle bus’ symbolically on the Derry/Donegal border on Wednesday as they launched their campaign to “take back [former SDLP leader] John Hume’s seat in the European Parliament and deliver a second pro-Europe MEP”.
Colum Eastwood was joined by Fianna Fáil TD, Charlie McConalogue, a sign that the two parties are still on course for a future coalition.
“This is a critical election,” said Eastwood. “For three years, the voice of the pro-Europe majority in northern Ireland has been silenced, sidelined and ignored. That ends here and it ends now. This campaign is an opportunity to reassert our demand to remain in the European Union.
“The European Union is proof that the simplest of ideas are always the most powerful. After centuries of division and conflict, people across Europe made a lasting choice. We decided that bridges work so much better than borders.”
Also contesting the Six County Euro election on Thursday May 23 are Claire Bailey of the Green party, Tory candidate Amandeep Singh Bhogal, UKIP’s Robert Hill, and Independents Jane Morrice and Neil McCann. European parliament elections also take place in the 26 Counties on the following day.
Coverage of these, as well as the 26 County local elections also being held on Friday, will begin here beginning on Thursday evening, with full news of all the results as they emerge over the weekend.
McGOVERN-THOMPSON LAUNCH GROUNDBREAKING BOOK ON BRITISH COLLUSION IN AMERICAN TOUR
A groundbreaking new book shows Britain armed, directed, paid and protected loyalist agents to carry out murders in Tyrone and Derry, then denied blame. Professor Mark McGovern, joined by Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice, will begin a seven state American launch of COLLUSION COUNTERINSURGENCY in NORTHERN IRELAND, on June 2nd.They will present shocking new findings in public events and Congressional meetings in a tour organized by the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Relatives for Justice, but now supported by a growing list of Irish-American groups. AT STAKE A central claim used by British officials to justify their campaign during the Troubles is the statistic that crown forces were only responsible for 10% of the north’s killings. This figure, compiled decades ago, accounts for only those directly killed by British troopers or the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The number gets cited to claim the British played an impartial role in a sectarian war between nationalists and unionists. It is also used to claim that legacy investigations of killings should be artificially limited to a 10% fraction of conflict related inquiries.
Meanwhile nationalists in Tyrone, south Derry and across the north saw a pattern of murders committed with hallmarks of deep British state force collusion. Loyalist killers traveled freely in heavily patrolled areas where nationalists could not move without being stopped. Crown patrols often spiked hours before murders then vanished. Covert camera surveillance was disabled. Loyalists had precise intelligence of the sort only available to British forces, from searches of locations. HALLMARKS Mark McGovern, Professor of Sociology at Edge Hill University in England, studied dozens of these killings in Tyrone and South Derry, applying academic research standards. Helped by Mark Thompson and Relatives for Justice, Professor McGovern combined original eyewitness accounts, and unpublished materials, with court transcripts and British military studies to put together a shocking new look at British collusion. His findings raises questions on hundreds of murders that were attributed to loyalists, but may have been carried out as part of an overall British strategy.
Anyone familiar with any loyalist murders in Tyrone or South Derry during the late 1980s and early 1990s will find new facts detailed here. There is even new information about the murder of my own close friend, American citizen and Bronx resident Liam Ryan.
Professor McGovern and Mark Thompson will appear at a series of not to be missed events, that will include New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Rutherford New Jersey, Boston, Newport, Rhode Island, Fairfield, Connecticut and Albany. They will reveal startling new facts and personally signed books will be available for purchase.
AOH Freedom for All Ireland Chair Martin Galvin added:
“The British deny using loyalist criminals to commit murders. Again and again victims’ families asked how else could low level loyalist killers get away with so many murders? How could criminals get through heavily patrolled areas undetected and undetectable? How did they turn off cameras, wipe tapes, and make British patrols vanish, unless these loyalist criminals were backed by planning, approval, and direction at a high level within the British military and constabulary? Victims’ families deserve to have the shocking truth told. The AOH is proud to help bring that truth to Americans who need to hear it.” SCHEDULE They will premiere in Philadelphia on Sunday June 2nd at the MacSwiney Club,510 Greenwood Avenue, Jenkintown Philadelphia, beginning at 1:30pm,organized by Gerry McHale and Pearse Kerr.(267-767-7854).This venue was specifically chosen in memory of Liam Ryan, the former Clan na Gael member, whose murder is one of those investigated in the book, and who attended events there . On Tuesday June 3rd. Professor McGovern and Mark Thompson will be in New York City for an event at O’Lunneys Time Square, 145 West 45th street starting at 7pm. They travel to Washington DC for a series of key Congressional briefings on Wednesday June 4th and Thursday June 5th and are arranging an event at the prestigious National Press Club. Malachy McAllister’s case will also be highlighted during these briefings. On Thursday June 6th,they will appear in Rutherford, New Jersey at an event now being organized by Malachy McAllister. Professor McGovern and Mark Thompson will speak on Friday ,June 7th at the Watertown AOH Hall, 151 Watertown Street, near Boston, organized by Jack Lahey-(603-560–8192)and starting at 7pm. They go to the Newport Rhode Island AOH Hall, from 1pm to 3pm on Saturday, June 9th organized by Kevin Doyle.(401-641-8183) On Sunday June 9th,Bridgeport AOH will hold an event at the Gaelic American Club, 74 Beech Road in Fairfield, Connecticut starting at 2pm. They will finish in Albany with a Monday evening June 10th event at the Irish American Heritage Museum,370 Broadway, at 7pm before meeting Irish American Legislators on Tuesday morning at the State Capitol.
