Far from being neutral peacekeepers, a new documentary exposes the involvement of British security members in civilian murders during the Troubles.
Bereaved family members sat in the front row. On screen, Alan Brecknell spoke of his father being sprayed with bullets. Margaret Campbell described watching her husband’s execution. Priests raised the alarm about a “murder triangle,” where attacks were mounting but investigations were superficial.
Desiring to confront the past, director Seán Murray travelled to South Africa to speak with John Weir, a former Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Patrol Group officer and member of the gang. Murray came away with the impression not of a monster but of a man shaped by the conditions of a conflict. Haunting closeups of Weir’s face punctuate the feature-length documentary as he answers Murray’s questions.
In 1999, a sworn affidavit was made public in which Weir admitted his role in loyalist murders and identified the farm, owned by RUC Officer James Mitchell, as the base for planning the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings that killed 33 people. The bombings happened two days after the loyalist Ulster Workers Council strike to collapse the Sunningdale Agreement, which strove to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and cross-border Council of Ireland.
Weir linked British special branch agent Robin Jackson, known as “the Jackal,” to the 1975 Miami Showband Massacre by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an attack in County Down involving two gunmen who were active soldiers in the British Army and one former solider, which killed three members of a popular cabaret band. Weir says superior officers were aware of the gang’s operations. The farm was eventually raided in 1978; weapons found included two submachine guns. The same year, Weir was arrested for the murder of a Catholic man after fellow officer William McCaughy confessed to their crime.
British forces are often portrayed as neutral peacekeepers in the conflict. This week, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley claimed that killings by security forces during the Troubles “were not crimes,” and that the military were “acting under orders and under instruction and fulfilling their duty in a dignified and appropriate way”. But evidence shows that security force members were involved in loyalist murders and the bombings of civilians.
Alan Brecknell was just seven when his father was killed in a loyalist attack on Donnelly’s Bar in 1975. Unquiet Graves follows his search for answers about his father’s murder, supported by the Pat Finucane Centre, which together with another human rights group Justice For the Forgotten, met with Weir in Paris in 2001 and brought Brecknell closer to the truth. Weir told the groups he believed that intelligence officers had wanted the Troubles to spiral into a full civil war, forcing moderates to take sides so the British military could crush the nationalist movement.
Members of the security forces involved in loyalist attacks were named in the book Lethal Allies, written by Anne Cadwallader, a veteran journalist and caseworker for the Pat Finucance center. The book was a touchstone for Murray’s film. She analyses how British colonial rule attempted to divide in order to conquer; British officer Frank Kitson, who was stationed in Northern Ireland from 1970-72, developed a strategy using “gangs” to fight independence movements, and described the law as “little more than a propaganda cover for the disposal of unwanted members of the public.”
This exploitation of sectarian violence is disturbingly present in Unquiet Graves. Weir repeats the claim that British military intelligence tried to manipulate loyalists into shooting up a Catholic primary school outside the small village of Belleeks. Was the aim to kill primary school children? Weir is adamant: “Children, teachers, yes, yes.”
I asked Murray if he faced criticism over the making of Unquiet Graves. “Of course you have people saying you shouldn’t be making these films, it’s only dragging up the past, but I don’t look at it that way,” Murray explains. “We need to listen to each other’s stories, we need to realise there were many truths and many untruths, we need to unpick that for the future.” For Murray, who was raised in a republican family in West Belfast, security forces were a paramilitary threat – the “enemy of the people”. He believes trust needs to be restored.
“If we don’t [restore] confidence in the police it’s going to lead to radicalising young people,” he added. “We don’t want that.”
The film ended with a live reading of Seamus Heaney’s poem The Strand at Lough Beg, delivered by the film’s narrator Stephen Rea, whose cousin was killed in an attack linked to the Glenanne Gang. The audience drew breath. As the lights came on and the room emptied out, three women stayed to finish drinks among the seats.
The youngest said that when she visited England people knew about IRA attacks but nothing about British collusion. Helen Murphy, a woman in her fifties taking drags from a vape, told me that her brother was in the Hillcrest bar when it was bombed on St Patrick’s Day in 1976, another attack linked to the Glenanne Gang. “He held two kids together,” she said, their bodies horribly injured in the blast. It haunted him still.
March 6, 2019 Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
A blessed Ash Wednesday everybody! I’m wearing my ashes and I hope you are too. But what do they mean? If I can borrow just a minute of your time, I’d like to offer two explanations.
A blessed Lent, everybody. We need it!
With best wishes, I am, Faithfully in Christ,
Timothy Michael Cardinal DolanArchbishop of New York
2019 NEW YORK KNICKS 9/11 MEMORIAL STAIR CLIMBThis year’s New York Knicks 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb Presented by Chase will be held on Sunday, April 7, at Madison Square Garden. The Stair Climb is a way to honor and remember the FDNY members who selflessly gave their lives so that others might live on 9-11-2001. Madison Square Garden, the Garden of Dreams and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation have asked us to provide volunteers to assist with the Stair Climb. About 25 members are needed. If interested, please email RecordingSecretary@ufanyc.org. Participants pay tribute to an FDNY firefighter by climbing the equivalent of the 110 stories of the World Trade Center. Through firefighter and community participation, we can ensure that each of the 343 firefighters is honored and that the world knows that we will never forget. Onsite check-in begins at 11:00 AM. The climb is scheduled to start at 12:00 PM and end at 2:00 PM. To donate or to register, visit events.firehero.org/2019NYKnicks. Cost to climb is $50 and includes a t-shirt, 343 honor badge and entrance for up to 3 guests. See the flyer below for fundraising incentives. The Stair Climb benefits the UFA Widows and Children’s Fund, FDNY CSU, and the programs provided by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation to support the families of our nation’s fallen firefighters. After the Stair Climb, the Knicks will be hosting First Responders Night vs. Washington Wizards at 7:30 PM. Tickets can be purchased through the link https://www.fevo.com/edp/2019-Knicks-First-Responder-Night-fs4zCk9?referrer_hash=6mnnQqmd. A portion of each ticket purchased through this link is donated to the UFA Widows and Children’s Fund.
John Manley, Irish News. Belfast. Thursday, March 7, 2019
SECRETARY of State Karen Bradley last night faced mounting calls to resign for saying security-force killings during the Troubles were “not crimes”.
Mrs Bradley was forced to clarify the remarks in the House of Commons within hours of telling MPs that British soldiers and police who shot civilians were “fulfilling their duty”.
Her statement, which came days before an expected announcement on the prosecution of British soldiers over the Bloody Sunday killings, was branded “outrageous and offensive” by Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O’Neill.
She said she spoke to Ms Bradley and “told her in the strongest possible terms that her comments today are beyond unacceptable. Told her it is a resignation matter”.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood also called for Mrs Bradley’s to resign, while his Alliance counterpart Naomi Long said if she “does not withdraw her comments and apologise to the families, her position will be untenable”.
Last year, Conservative leader Theresa May sparked nationalist anger after claiming that the process for probing Troubles-related killings is “patently unfair” to soldiers and police.
Despite PSNI figure showing that investigations into deaths by the British army accounted for only 30 per cent of its legacy workload, the prime minister claimed the “only people being investigated for these issues are those in our armed forces or those who served in law
enforcement”.
In 2017 Mrs Bradley’s predecessor James Brokenshire also claimed Troubles inquiries were placing too much focus on ex-soldiers and former RUC officers.
Reports at the weekend suggested British defence secretary Gavin Williamson was set to introduce legislation that would impose a 10-year limit on new prosecutions of security force members for alleged historic abuses.
Mrs. May confirmed yesterday that the Ministry of Defence was considering legislation to ensure service personnel are not “unfairly pursued through the courts”.
Mrs. Bradley made her initial statement in response to a question from DUP MP Emma Little-Pengelly, who asked when she planned to put a mechanism in place to investigate unsolved paramilitary killings.
The secretary of state said that more 90 per cent of the killings during the conflict were “at the hands of terrorists” and each one was a “crime”.
“The fewer than 10 per cent that were at the hands of the military and police were not crimes,” she added.
“They were people acting under orders and under instruction and fulfilling their duty in a dignified and appropriate way.”
Within hours Mrs Bradley was back on her feet in the chamber, saying her comments “might have been open to misinterpretation”.
“The point I was seeking to convey was that the overwhelming majority of those who served carried out their duties with courage, professionalism, and integrity and within the law,” she said.
“I was not referring to any specific cases but expressing a general view. Of course, where there is evidence of wrongdoing it should always be investigated whoever is responsible – these are of course matters for the police and prosecuting authorities who are independent of government.”
Ms. O’Neill said Mrs Bradley had insulted families who had lost loved ones at the hands of the security forces.
“No-one can be above the law and bereaved families, some of whom have been campaigning for almost five decades, are entitled to access to truth and justice,” she said.
Colum Eastwood said Ms Bradley had again exhibited “her stunning ignorance about the past” and her comments were particularly insensitive ahead of the Bloody Sunday announcement.
Mrs. Long said the secretary of state had “massively overstepped the mark”.
“This interference in due process is unwarranted, unjustified and wholly inappropriate.”
Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice called for Ms Bradley to resign, describing the comments as “odious, disgusting and deeply offensive – they add further hurt to those affected by state violence and collusion”.
DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said it was important to have mechanisms in place to investigate paramilitary killings and he was opposed to “witch hunts” against former British army and RUC personnel.
“However, no-one should be above the law and all innocent victims deserve justice,” the Lagan Valley representative said.
Tánaiste Simon Coveney was due to meet Mrs Bradley in London last night where he would seek clarification of the comments.
