RUC now in the Republic. England get out of Ireland! NOW!
Posted by Jim on September 16, 2018
Analysis: British state let off the hook
Posted by Jim on September 15, 2018
By Eamonn McCann
The exposure of Michael Jackson in Channel 4’s Ballymurphy documentary
makes it necessary to look back on his performance at The Bloody Sunday
Inquiry – and at the Inquiry’s refusal to draw proper conclusions about
his participation in the murders, his role in the cover-up, and his
perjury to the Inquiry.
His word isn’t worth its weight in dirt.
Jackson was present in Ballymurphy throughout the three days in August
1971 when the paras turned the area into killing fields. He was quoted
in the documentary saying that he had been “dealing with the press” when
the shooting was at its height and hadn’t seen a thing.
He put on exactly the same performance in the Bogside five months later.
He is a murderer, a liar and a coward.
Even before the smoke had cleared from Rossville Street on Bloody
Sunday, Jackson was writing out fake accounts of every single killing
and wounding. His script was then typed out and distributed by British
Army chiefs and the Ministry of Defence and sent by the Foreign Office
to every British embassy and consulate in the world as the basis for
answering any questions from local politicians or media.
Jackson’s lies were effectively repeated in the House of Commons by Home
Secretary Reginald Maudling. It will be remembered that Bernadette
Devlin rushed across the chamber and didn’t hit him half hard enough.
All this was laid out in detail in “Go On The Paras!” published three
years ago by the Bloody Sunday March Committee. “Go On The Paras!” will
be republished next January.
The fact that Bloody Sunday was a repeat performance in Derry of what
had happened in Belfast links Ballymurphy and the Bogside together
forever. We pledge the Ballymurphy families our full support until
justice is done.
The Ballymurphy families have marched with us every year. Next January
we hope that they and representatives of all other families bereaved by
State killers will join with us and shout out with one voice our demand
for truth and justice.
Ballymurphy and Bloody Sunday directly contradict the official narrative
of the Troubles which has implicitly been accepted by mainstream opinion
North and South – that the problem here has to do with ancient hatreds
between Protestants and Catholics and that the solution lies in a system
of government in which Protestants and Catholics agree to bite their
lips and “share power.”
This lets State killers off the hook.
We ask British journalists to ensure that we will never again have to
watch Michael Jackson on television mouthing off about morality in war.
It’s like Jack the Ripper giving us his opinion on violence against
women
Ballymurphy story must be told
Posted by Jim on
Before Bloody Sunday there was Ballymurphy. Its story must be told,
according to Callum Macrae, the director of The Ballymurphy Precedent,
a shorter version of which was broadcast on Channel 4 last weekend.
(For the Guardian)
Investigations into the actions of British soldiers during the Troubles
were branded a “macabre charade” by Lord Bramall, Britain’s former
defence chief, earlier this month. Sir Nick Carter, the current head of
the armed forces, also weighed in against “a clutch of vexatious claims”
against soldiers, and warned against what he reportedly dismissed as
attempts to “rewrite history”.
There is a very real problem with these comments. I have just made a
film that is not an attempt to rewrite history, but an attempt to tell a
hidden history. Neither Bramall nor Carter will like it, but this is a
story that needs to be told. Not just for the record, not just to help
redress a terrible damage done to the victims and their families, but
because the failure to acknowledge this history remains a block on
Northern Ireland’s painful road to peace and reconciliation.
On 10 September, a renewed inquest begins into the Ballymurphy deaths.
It can establish whether violence was justified
My film, The Ballymurphy Precedent, investigates a shocking series of
killings that took place over three days in west Belfast’s Ballymurphy
estate in 1971.
The incident is doubly significant because most, if not all, of those
killings were carried out by members of Britain’s elite Parachute
Regiment less than six months before Bloody Sunday, when the same
regiment shot dead 13 unarmed people in Derry’s Bogside.
The victims in Ballymurphy included a priest who was attending another
man who had been shot (the other man survived) – and a mother of eight
children. Several of the dead were shot more than once – some several
times. No credible evidence has been presented suggesting they were
armed. Autopsy reports reveal that several were shot in the back as they
ran away from the paratroopers. Ten of the victims died of gunshot
wounds – an 11th died of a heart attack during a confrontation with an
armed Para patrol.
Just as they did on Bloody Sunday, the army immediately released
statements describing the victims as gunmen and terrorists. Those claims
have never been withdrawn.
It was four decades before the Saville inquiry concluded that all the
victims of the Bloody Sunday killings in Derry were innocent. But
Saville also emphatically rejected any suggestion that the army sent 1
Para to Derry knowing what they were likely to do, or even that they
intended to do it. That effectively suggested Bloody Sunday was not the
fault of either the government or the Ministry of Defence, and largely
placed the blame on the commander of 1 Para.
Scuffles at Ballymurphy memorial hall in August 1971 I believe that what
happened in Ballymurphy makes that conclusion unsustainable. The army
chiefs in Belfast who decided to send 1 Para to Derry in January 1972
(to help control a massive anti-internment march), knew only too well
what the Paras had already done in Ballymurphy – and if they didn’t they
certainly should have. Police and British army commanders in Derry,
committed to a more conciliatory approach than those in Belfast, had
also warned of the dangers posed by importing the Paras’ hardline
tactics.
But I would suggest that Belfast’s hardline strategy was an inevitable
product of Britain’s whole approach to “peacekeeping” in Northern
Ireland. The Northern Ireland civil rights movement, which evolved in
the late 60s, had virtually identical demands to those of Martin Luther
King in the US. They boiled down to an end to discrimination and a
demand for an end to anti-Catholic gerrymandering – “one man, one vote”
as it was quaintly known in those days.
When loyalist mobs and unionist police responded to those civil rights
marches with violence and repression, rather like their white
equivalents in the deep south of the US, the UK sent in the army
ostensibly to “restore law and order”. They were welcomed by most
Catholics. In my film, Briege Voyle, the daughter of Joan Connolly, the
mother of eight who would later be shot dead in Ballymurphy by the
Paras, remembers her mother giving the soldiers tea and biscuits when
they first arrived. Voyle’s sister married one of the soldiers.
But where federal forces in the US effectively (albeit inadequately and
belatedly) took the side of the civil rights marches and enforced laws
banning segregation, the UK’s “federal forces” – the army – set about
restoring “law and order”. This was the law and order of an avowedly
sectarian, Protestant state, with all its panoply of discriminatory
practices.
It was therefore inevitable that many Catholics who had initially
welcomed the army as protectors soon began to see them as oppressors.
And after events like Ballymurphy and Bloody Sunday, it was equally
inevitable that many began to turn to the IRA.
There is another reason why the truth about Ballymurphy needs to be
told; and in the long term, it is probably the most important reason of
all. If the culture of impunity, licence and, frankly, indiscipline that
allowed these killings to happen is not acknowledged and addressed then
the clear danger is that these kind of events could happen again.
For that reason alone, I would suggest, Carter – as chief of the defence
staff – should stand wholeheartedly behind the search for truth and
justice over Ballymurphy, and all other incidents of concern involving
British forces during the troubles. Anything else would be an abdication
of his responsibilities.
On 10 September a renewed inquest begins into the Ballymurphy deaths.
While an inquest cannot establish criminal responsibility, it can
establish whether the violence was justified. For the relatives that
would be a start.
A shocking exposition as Ballymurphy massacre inquest advances
Posted by Jim on
An outpouring of emotion at the broadcast of a new documentary has
inspired hope that justice is finally within reach for the victims of an
infamous British Army killing spree.
Supporters walked from Belfast City Hall to the Belfast High Court on
Monday in a show of encouragement and solidarity for the families of the
eleven people who were killed as they attended a preliminary hearing for
a new inquest into the Ballymurphy massacre.
They were given a detailed timetable for the new inquest, which will get
underway on November 12th.
The shootings, which took place in the Ballymurphy estate in west
Belfast between August 9th and 11th, 1971, were carried out by the
British army as they sought to take control of republican areas in the
wake of the introduction of internment without trial.
A Catholic priest and a mother-of-eight were among those killed during
three days of gunfire by the Parachute Regiment. Another man died of a
heart attack following a violent confrontation with the troops in the
west Belfast estate.
The new date for the inquest was issued by Presiding Coroner Siobhan
Keegan, and comes after years of preliminary inquiries. A long campaign
for a public inquiry was refused by the British government in 2011.
The Coroner’s Office is currently examining a database of the names of
almost 5,000 former British soldiers it received from the Ministry of
Defence just two weeks ago. It had been attempting to trace former
soldiers who may have been at Ballymurphy during the shootings to call
as witnesses to the inquest.
Around 100 supporters gathered outside Belfast High Court on Monday in
solidarity with the families before the hearing. Speaking outside court
Briege Voyle, whose mother Joan Connolly died in the shootings, said
they are determined to get the truth from the inquest.
“This is a very very big day for us, we have struggled hard for this for
the last 20 years,” she said.
“At the end of the day, our loved ones were murdered, cold blooded
murder and they have to admit it. Those soldiers are no different to
anyone else, they have to answer for it.”
Last Saturday, September 8, there was a huge online reaction to the
broadcast of a documentary on the subject by award-winning film maker
Callum Macrea, which was screened on Channel 4 at the weekend.
The documentary, which is a shorter version of his full-length film ‘The
Ballymurphy Precedent’, presents a reconstruction and forensic
examination of the grisly murders. It contains personal and
heart-rending accounts of the events from the relatives of those shot
dead.
At the preliminary hearing, Justice Keegan told the victims’ families
that “a new page has been turned” after decades of struggle. While the
inquest begins in November, the military witnesses are still not
expected to be called until January at the earliest.
The court has also heard criticism of the British Ministry of Defence,
with the coroner stating she “couldn’t understand why information could
not be provided sooner” and that the nature of the information coming
from the MoD was “not acceptable”.
John Teggart, whose father Daniel was shot 14 times, believes the
Ministry of Defence decision to hand over the information had again been
deliberately delayed.
“The MoD has put this forward to swamp the coroner with information that
she is duty bound to look at,” he said.
“The families are devastated, they didn’t need that and don’t need
this.”
Justice Keegan has promised to challenge any further prevarication by
the British military. Following the preliminary hearing, the families
thanked the judge and applauded as she left the courtroom.
A shocking exposition as Ballymurphy massacre inquest advances
Posted by Jim on
An outpouring of emotion at the broadcast of a new documentary has
inspired hope that justice is finally within reach for the victims of an
infamous British Army killing spree.
Supporters walked from Belfast City Hall to the Belfast High Court on
Monday in a show of encouragement and solidarity for the families of the
eleven people who were killed as they attended a preliminary hearing for
a new inquest into the Ballymurphy massacre.
They were given a detailed timetable for the new inquest, which will get
underway on November 12th.
The shootings, which took place in the Ballymurphy estate in west
Belfast between August 9th and 11th, 1971, were carried out by the
British army as they sought to take control of republican areas in the
wake of the introduction of internment without trial.
A Catholic priest and a mother-of-eight were among those killed during
three days of gunfire by the Parachute Regiment. Another man died of a
heart attack following a violent confrontation with the troops in the
west Belfast estate.
The new date for the inquest was issued by Presiding Coroner Siobhan
Keegan, and comes after years of preliminary inquiries. A long campaign
for a public inquiry was refused by the British government in 2011.
The Coroner’s Office is currently examining a database of the names of
almost 5,000 former British soldiers it received from the Ministry of
Defence just two weeks ago. It had been attempting to trace former
soldiers who may have been at Ballymurphy during the shootings to call
as witnesses to the inquest.
Around 100 supporters gathered outside Belfast High Court on Monday in
solidarity with the families before the hearing. Speaking outside court
Briege Voyle, whose mother Joan Connolly died in the shootings, said
they are determined to get the truth from the inquest.
“This is a very very big day for us, we have struggled hard for this for
the last 20 years,” she said.
“At the end of the day, our loved ones were murdered, cold blooded
murder and they have to admit it. Those soldiers are no different to
anyone else, they have to answer for it.”
Last Saturday, September 8, there was a huge online reaction to the
broadcast of a documentary on the subject by award-winning film maker
Callum Macrea, which was screened on Channel 4 at the weekend.
The documentary, which is a shorter version of his full-length film ‘The
Ballymurphy Precedent’, presents a reconstruction and forensic
examination of the grisly murders. It contains personal and
heart-rending accounts of the events from the relatives of those shot
dead.
At the preliminary hearing, Justice Keegan told the victims’ families
that “a new page has been turned” after decades of struggle. While the
inquest begins in November, the military witnesses are still not
expected to be called until January at the earliest.
The court has also heard criticism of the British Ministry of Defence,
with the coroner stating she “couldn’t understand why information could
not be provided sooner” and that the nature of the information coming
from the MoD was “not acceptable”.
John Teggart, whose father Daniel was shot 14 times, believes the
Ministry of Defence decision to hand over the information had again been
deliberately delayed.
“The MoD has put this forward to swamp the coroner with information that
she is duty bound to look at,” he said.
“The families are devastated, they didn’t need that and don’t need
this.”
Justice Keegan has promised to challenge any further prevarication by
the British military. Following the preliminary hearing, the families
thanked the judge and applauded as she left the courtroom.