British state put safety of ‘touts’ before ‘preservation of life’
Sister of Eugene Simons speaks out
Eugene Simons (26) disappeared in 1981
By Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent
August 09, 2025 at 6:00am BST
The sister of a man shot dead and secretly buried by the IRA has said the state put the safety of informers before “the preservation of life”.
Moira Todd was speaking after it emerged the RUC made no attempt to save the life of her brother Eugene Simons while he was being held captive by the Provisional IRA.
A father-of-three, Mr Simons was one of ‘The Disappeared’ – a group of people abducted, killed and secretly buried by republicans during the recent conflict.
Originally from the Castlewellan area of Co Down, the 26-year-old was taken across the border by the IRA after going missing on New Year’s Day 1981.
His remains were accidently discovered buried in a bog near Dundalk, Co Louth, in May 1984, by a man walking a dog.
New details about the circumstances of his death have emerged in a private report recently provided to the Simons family by Operation Kenova.
It was set up in 2016 to investigate the activities of the British agent known as Stakeknife – identified as Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci in 2003.
A former commander of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit (ISU), Scappaticci has been linked to 14 murders and 15 abductions.
Also known as the ‘Nutting Squad’, the ISU was responsible for hunting down and killing informers during the Troubles.
The report has revealed that authorities in the south of Ireland lost Mr Simons’ skull, which was recovered when his remains were found more than 40 years ago.
The IRA has never claimed responsibility or provided an explanation for why Mr Simons, who was also questioned by the republican group in 1980, was killed and secretly buried.
Operation Kenova has now confirmed “the role of the agent known as Stakeknife in the interrogation of Eugene in August 1980 and the planning of his abduction/murder on New Year’s Day 1981”.
The report says information was received that the IRA was investigating the possibility that there was two “touts” in its south Down unit after the arrests of four suspects, including Mr Simons, in May 1980.
It has now been revealed that after being ‘lifted’ by the IRA in 1981, Mr Simons was taken to a farmyard in Co Cavan for interrogation.
In its new report, Operation Kenova confirms that no intelligence has been recovered to suggest that the RUC or British army had prior knowledge that Mr Simons was to be taken away by the ISU.
The report also states that “despite the reliable information being received by the security sources, Kenova has found no evidence of any attempts being made by the Security Forces to try and locate Eugene”.
“It was the responsibility of the RUC to instigate such an operation,” the report states.
“We have also found no evidence of any liaison with the AGS (An Garda Síochána) by the RUC.”
Ms Todd was scathing of the RUC response to the disappearance of her brother.
“It’s unbelievable, it’s the state putting their intelligence and their touts before the preservation of life,” she said.
“Again, I say, Eugene was charged with nothing, ever, never claimed by the IRA, nothing, and yet they (RUC) had him in Castlereagh four times.
“One of those times he was taken out of the custody suite for something like three hours – what happened in those three hours?”
Despite having intelligence that Mr Simons was dead, this information was not passed on to his family by police, which continued to treat his disappearance as a missing persons case.
Ms Todd said the recent report shows “how little was done” for her brother by the RUC.
“No forensics, no nothing,” she said.
“And they kept up the pretence that he was still alive.”
Operation Kenova also highlights the RUC’s failure to tell the Simons family that their loved one had been killed.
“The most shocking element of our findings is that the family of Eugene were not officially informed by the RUC of the reliable information that Eugene had been abducted and murdered by PIRA,” the report said.
Kenova said there is evidence Mr Simons was “warned about his safety by the RUC” after he was interrogated by the IRA in 1980.
Ms Todd is not convinced her brother was warned that he was at risk.
“These were just standard (warnings), it’s a box ticked, if they did it at all,” she said.
Ms Todd has concerns about how police approached several suspects in the case, highlighting why some were “arrested, declined to speak (and) released”.
“Why were the main suspects handled with velvet gloves…they seem to have been?”
Several suspects were personally known to Mr Simons and his wider family.
The Kenova report reveals how his father Walter, who died in 2019, made his own enquiries “including approaching Suspect D in bars to ask them directly what had happened to Eugene”.
“Walter was met by silence,” the report said.
Ms Todd said her family knows the identities of several people connected with the disappearance of her brother.
“Although we don’t have their names formally given to us, we have identified quite a few of them and we know who they are,” she said.
She said her family has lost trust in the police and while Kenova has provided fresh information, the contents of the report also raises new questions.
“No, how can we trust them anymore?
“We have been lied to for so long and then finally the Kenova family reports come out and it does not give us the information we had hoped for.
“It’s another big disappointment.
“I will say Kenova has given us much more information than we had ever had, but I was hoping for something more in the report.”
She also paid tribute to her mother Mary, who pre-deceased her father.
“I just feel for my mother, who never spoke out, who just held Eugene in her heart but who suffered desperately because of this, suffered in silence,” she said.
“You (IRA) kept us going for three and a half years, you would have kept us going for longer only Eugene’s bones were found, and the suffering that caused the family, my mother in particular, it’s hard to come to terms with.”
On Friday, The Irish News revealed that the Simons case featured in a “sensitive investigation” into the leaking of information by an RUC officer to the Provisional IRA.
Operation Kenova has confirmed the case was considered by an probe headed by an assistant chief constable “from a force outside the RUC”.
Solicitor Kevin Winters, of KRW Law, has now contacted the PSNI.
“The revelation about RUC leaks to PIRA allied to the delay in letting the Simons family know Eugene was dead takes this investigation to another level altogether,” he said.
“We have contacted PSNI for more details on the original inquiry into internal leaks to see if this was a systemic issue.
“Standing back from it, this latest Kenova report, whilst helping the family, actually raises more questions than answers.”
Videos posted to social media this week show more than a dozen men patrolling areas in the east of the city while stopping and questioning foreign nationals on their behavior.
Footage from a social media video which purports to show a group patrolling the streets of east Belfast
By Conor Coyle
August 09, 2025 at 8:33am BST
Vigilante groups patrolling streets and public spaces in east Belfast nightly while targeting migrants is “greatly concerning”, a member of the Policing Board has said.
The issue is to be raised with Chief Constable Jon Boutcher.
Videos posted to social media show more than a dozen men patrolling areas in the east of the city.
They are stopping and questioning foreign nationals on their behaviour while asking for proof of their right to live in the north.
Some videos have also shown children taking part.
A member of the Policing Board and MLA for the area said he will raise the issue with the chief constable at the “earliest opportunity”.
One video posted online of a man approaching another man in a public park says the group represents “concerned parents” in the area.
Another video sees the poster telling a Syrian man “no more hanging about east Belfast, you have no reason to be there”.
In another encounter on the street, a migrant is told “too many of you are running around here and you’re stealing. There are women that are scared to leave their houses”.
Other videos make reference to there being “too many undocumented men” living in the area and comment on a lack of social housing due to the number of migrants that have moved in.
A social media page uploading videos of the confrontations claims to have set up a “rapid response team” to attend reports of suspicious behaviour within five minutes.
Alliance East Belfast MLA and Policing Board spokesperson Peter McReynolds said it was “greatly concerning”.
“There is absolutely no place for vigilantism in our society, or anyone taking the law into their own hands,” Mr McReynolds said.
“Reports of intimidation and harassment are greatly concerning. It’s never acceptable, and we must be unequivocal as a community in condemning such actions.
“I have been engaging with the PSNI about these matters as they have developed and will be raising it at the earliest opportunity with the chief constable at the Policing Board.”
The patrols come after two summers of violence in the north sparked by anti-migration protests which saw the businesses and homes of immigrants attacked and disorder on the streets of Belfast, Ballymena and other areas.
New figures this week reported by The Detail show that almost half of those arrested in connection with race-related disorder that broke out in Belfast last summer had previously been reported to police for domestic abuse.
The PSNI says it is aware of videos circulating on social media and that it “does not tolerate any type of vigilante activity”.
It added it “would caution any individual or group against taking the law into their own hands”.
“It is the responsibility of the police service to enforce the law in Northern Ireland and we are committed to supporting the needs of all of our diverse communities.
“We will robustly review and deal with any offences reported to us.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said “a range of measures are in place to support vulnerable groups from threatening and violent behaviour”.
“The minister has always been very clear there is no place for hate in any part of our society,” the spokesperson said.
“The Department of Justice, together with the Northern Ireland Policing Board, provides annual funding to Policing and Community Safety Partnerships to address local community safety issues, including hate crime, in each of the council areas.
“In addition, the Department of Justice jointly fund the Hate Crime Advocacy Service with the PSNI, to assist reporting of hate incidents to the police and provide support to victims throughout the investigative/criminal justice system process.
“If any individual suspects that a crime has been committed, I would encourage them to report it to the PSNI.”
Thomas McElwee – Died on 8 August 1981 after 62 days on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh
THOMAS McELWEE, aged 23, was born in Bellaghy, south Derry, on 30 November 1957.
Thomas was arrested following a premature explosion in an IRA operation in October 1976 in which he lost the sight of one eye. His younger brother, Benedict, was arrested in the same incident. Thomas received a 20-year sentence in September 1977.
He spent 62 days on hunger strike from 8 June. He died on 8 August 1981.
The death of Thomas McElwee
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• Thomas McElwee’s eight sisters – Kathleen, Mary, Bernadette, Annie, Enda, Nora, Pauline and Majella – carry the coffin of their brother
Thomas McElwee, at the age of 23, was the tenth man to join the 1981 Hunger Strike. From Bellaghy in south Derry, he was imprisoned in 1976 after a premature bomb explosion in which he lost an eye.
Thomas was a cousin of another hunger striker, Francis Hughes, also from Bellaghy. They had been boyhood friends, both going on to join the IRA. On 10 August 1981, for the second time, Bellaghy was visited by thousands of mourners gathered to pay their respects to a deceased Hunger Striker.
McElwee died on 8 August on the 62nd day of his fast. Francis Hughes had died three months earlier, on 12 May.
The RUC and British Army converged on the roads around Bellaghy and six British Army helicopters hovered overhead. Thomas’s brother, Benedict, had been denied a visit with his brother the previous week and was then callously asked to identify the body when he died.
IRA and Cumann na mBan guards of honor lined the path to the McElwee home as the coffin was carried out by his eight sisters. A volley of shots was fired as the cortege reached the road. The crowd in the fields and hillsides cheered as the firing party disappeared out of range of the British crown forces.
Two pipers led the cortege along the five-mile route to the church for Requiem Mass. Thomas’s brother, Benedict, was allowed 10 hours parole for the funeral. In another instance of church interference in the Hunger Strike, the priest at the Mass in Bellaghy Parish Church criticised the Hunger Strikers and called for an end to the fast. Some women in the congregation got up and walked out, disgusted that the priest would use the pulpit on such a tragic occasion to deliver an insulting political speech.
Thomas McElwee’s dying wish was to be buried beside Francis Hughes.
The graveside oration was given by Danny Morrison, then Sinn Féin Director of Publicity.
Thomas McElwee has been described by friends as being “sincere, easy-going and full of fun”. He was also intelligent and determined, something Morrison captured in his remarks on the young Volunteer:
“I know that the McElwee family will understand, just as the families of other dead Hunger Strikers will know what I mean, when I say that their son was invincible from beginning to end, in life as well as in death.”
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• IRA Volunteers prepare to fire a volley of shots over the coffin of Thomas McElwee
Morrison went on to criticise the Catholic Church and the SDLP for cultivating defeatism throughout the Hunger Strike rather than pressurising the British Government to come to a just resolution of the protest. He referred back to the sermon delivered earlier at Thomas’s Requiem Mass.
“Those of you who were able to hear Fr Flanagan’s sermon today will have been struck by what is wrong with the Church’s politics. We were asked to pray for an end to the Hunger Strike, for an end to violence and for peace,” he remarked, adding that certainly people should pray for those things. “But there is a bigger prayer which we have to make, and that is a prayer for an end to the cause of violence: the British occupation of our country. It is time the Church prayed and called for that.”
In his oration, Morrison also called for decisive and effective action at ambassadorial and international levels on the part of the Irish Government, who, he said “like many other influential bodies in Ireland which represent the vested interests, have not got the welfare of the prisoners at heart and would quite frankly like to see the hunger strike collapse”.
Morrison also noted and condemned the increasing tendency at the time to blame the republican leadership for the crisis.
“For some time now it has been open season for apportioning blame for the continuation of the Hunger Strike on the leadership of the Republican Movement.” This was, he said, just a variation of former Secretary of State Roy Mason’s theme in 1976 and 1977, in which the implication was that those on the outside had forced the prisoners onto the Blanket Protest.
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Identifying the real cause of the problem, Morrison said:
“The roots of the Hunger Strike were built into the British H-Blocks, into the British policy of criminalisation which forced the men on the Blanket five years ago and which led ultimately to republicans resorting to the traditional weapon of hunger strike as the ultimate means of gaining their demands.”
Nor was Danny in any doubt as to the continued determination of the republican POWs in the H-Blocks.
“Their determination has not waned,” he said, stressing that neither should their supporters on the outside lose resolve. “Despair is easy, our enemies want us to despair; to struggle on is a harder task but the reward is there at the end of the road – and Thomas McElwee will be proud of us, as we are proud of him, if we play our full part in winning this prison struggle, in winning, as he set out to win, Irish freedom from the ruins of British rule.”
KIERAN DOHERTY, aged 25, was born in Andersonstown, west
Belfast, on 16 October 1955.
Kieran was a teenage internee between February 1973 and
November 1975. On his release he was an extremely active IRA Volunteer and was
finally captured in August 1976. Kieran received an 18-year sentence in January
1978 for possession of weapons.
On 11 June 1981, Kieran was elected as TD for the
Cavan/Monaghan constituency in the Dáil general election, receiving over 9,000
first-preference votes.
He spent 73 days on hunger strike from 22 May. He died on
2 August 1981.
Big Doc’s final journey
• The funeral of Kieran Doherty TD passes through
west Belfast
IRA Volunteer Kieran Doherty, TD for Cavan/Monaghan, died
at 7:15pm on Sunday 2 August 1981, the day after Kevin Lynch’s death. Kieran
had joined the hunger strike one day before Kevin Lynch and survived one day
longer.
Kieran Doherty embarked on his fast upon the death of
Raymond McCreesh. He managed, with difficulty, to speak to his family almost to
the end though his sight had almost completely gone. Kieran (or ‘Big Doc’ as
his comrades affectionately called him) had a strong spirit of survival which
kept him conscious for most of his 73 days on hunger strike.
Kieran’s body was brought out of Long Kesh and through
Andersonstown to his parents’ home in Commedagh Drive at two o’clock in the
morning. About a thousand mourners accompanied the coffin and even larger
crowds came out on Monday morning to pay their respects. The next day, hundreds
of stewards took position on the funeral route as Kieran’s coffin was carried
out of his parents’ house, escorted by an IRA guard of honour. An IRA firing
party came out of the crowd and, lining the side of the coffin, fired a volley
of shots. As British Army helicopters hovered overhead, the crowd cheered at
the Brits’ inability to prevent the firing party from honouring their dead
comrade.
• Scene during the funeral Mass at St Theresa’s
Church; (below) Kieran Doherty’s coffin is carried by his sister Mairéad (left)
a family friend Siobhán McKenna (centre) and sister-in-law Betty Doherty
(right)
The cortege then moved through Andersonstown, led by two
pipers. It may be recalled that during the Hunger Strike some of the clergy had
set out to undermine the prisoners’ protest. In contrast to the attitude of the
priest celebrating Mass at Kevin Lynch’s funeral, Fr Hansen’s sermon
demonstrated a fundamental understanding of the issues at the core of the
Hunger Strikers’ protest. While the presiding priest at the Lynch funeral
refused to wear his vestments at the graveside because of the presence of a
firing party, the priest at Kieran’s funeral recalled having visited Doherty on
the 13th day of his fast and remembered it to be a cheerful event. He went on
to recount Kieran’s words when he asked him if he would consider coming off the
hunger strike. Kieran replied:
“Look, Father, I could not give up. If I did I would go
back to criminal status. I am not a criminal. I never was and never will be
one.”
Recalling those words at the funeral of Kieran Doherty,
the priest said:
“Basically, I had to agree with him.”
He finished off by saying:
“Kieran was very much his own man. He died quietly and
very determined, serene and dignified.”
Fr Toner, who was criticised by Bobby Sands in his diary,
was in the congregation, listening but apparently unmoved by Fr Hansen’s words.
It was estimated that a crowd of about 20,000 attended
Kieran’s funeral.
Chairing the event, Sinn Féin member Jimmy Drumm referred
to the ongoing pursuit of the prisoners’ ‘Five Demands’.
“The British Government needs to be moved on the issues
of work, association and segregation.” He finished by saying that with the
basis of a just settlement “then we and the families will be spared the anguish
and suffering of such funerals as this, and the prisoners who have suffered so
much will be able to live in tolerable conditions.” Kieran Doherty was the
eighth man to die on hunger strike in 1981 and two more would follow.
The oration at Volunteer Doherty’s funeral was given by
Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Kieran’s Director of Elections during the 1981 general
election in the 26 Counties.
Ó Caoláin said that the people of Cavan/Monaghan had
taken the 26-year-old to their hearts and that they were proud to elect him as
their public representative. Ó Caoláin criticised the Irish Government’s
handling of the Hunger Strike, saying:
“Their gamesmanship for petty political scores has been a
major factor in the continuing deaths in Long Kesh. The people of
Cavan/Monaghan hold the present coalition government directly responsible,
through firstly their inactivity and afterwards their open support for pressure
to be placed on the Hunger Strikers and their families.”
Ó Caoláin recalled all the other Irish hunger strikers
who had died as a result of British intransigence, three of them elected
representatives: Terence MacSwiney, Bobby Sands and Kieran Doherty. Again of
Doherty, he added that Kieran had taken his place amongst all those who fought
for the three tenets of republicanism: “Equality, as embodied by James
Connolly, who struggled to achieve a classless society; liberty, the liberty of
Patrick Pearse; and the fraternity of Wolfe Tone.”
Kevin Lynch – Died on 1 August 1981 after 71 days on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh
KEVIN LYNCH, aged 25, was born in Park, north Derry, on 25 May 1956.
Kevin, an INLA Volunteer, was arrested in December 1976 and charged with conspiracy to obtain arms. He received a ten-year sentence in December 1977.
Kevin excelled at Gaelic games and had captained the under-16 Derry team which won an all-Ireland hurling trophy in 1972.
He stood as a H-Block/Armagh candidate in the Waterford constituency during the June 1981 general election in the South and polled extremely well despite missing out on election.
He spent 71 days on hunger strike from 23 May 1981. He died on 1 August 1981.
Kevin Lynch laid to rest in Dungiven
THE death of INLA Volunteer Kevin Lynch after 71 days on hunger strike occurred on 1 August 1981. It was followed the next day by that of IRA Volunteer Kieran Doherty.
They were the seventh and eighth men to die on the fast.
Kevin had been lapsing into frequent periods of unconsciousness in the last four days, having already lost his sight, hearing and speech. His family were at his bedside throughout the final days until he died in the early hours of Saturday morning.
His funeral took place the following Monday in his home town of Dungiven in County Derry. Between the return of his body to his home and the removal for Requiem Mass on Monday afternoon, a constant stream of mourners queued outside to pay their respects. The road was decorated with Tricolours and black flags, along with posters of Kevin Lynch.
The RUC and the Ulster Defence Regiment made every effort to disrupt the funeral, holding up cars and forcing buses to park outside of town so that the passengers would have to make their way on foot. Ulsterbus in Belfast cancelled bookings at the last minute. Nevertheless, mourners came in convoys of cars and black taxis.
At mid-day, the coffin, bearing the Tricolour, Starry Plough, gloves and beret, was carried to the nearby church. The procession was led by a lone piper, followed by the Lynch family, relatives of other Hunger Strikers, and senior representatives of the IRSP and the broad republican movement, along with the National H-Block/Armagh Committee.
Five British Army helicopters flew overhead as the coffin entered the church grounds. Applause broke out momentarily as an 18-strong INLA guard of honour marched up to escort the coffin to the church door.
The priest who celebrated the Mass, Fr John Quinn, expressed outrage later when the INLA Volunteers escorting the coffin fired three volleys after it had left the church. So enraged was he that he refused to wear his vestments at the graveside.
This same priest had failed to refer to the suffering of the Hunger Strikers themselves and failed to condemn British intransigence. He tried to imply that the family had been opposed to the military funeral – an opinion later refuted by family members, who criticised the press and those who had made unsolicited comments on their behalf.
At the graveside, the piper played I’ll Wear No Convict’s Uniform. The Last Post was also played and wreaths were laid, including from both the INLA and IRA Army Councils.
• A lone piper leads the cortege; (below) The funeral of Kevin Lynch makes its way through Dungiven
A uniformed INLA Volunteer then read a statement on behalf of the INLA Army Council, stating regret at Kevin’s death and applauding his heroism.
“Kevin Lynch has made the greatest sacrifice, and he has done it in the face of the repressive machinery of British imperialism and in the wake of the greatest gesture of defiance against those who control the prisons and those who rule and ravage our country,” he said.
A short oration was given by Councillor Seán Flynn from Belfast, Vice-Chair of the IRSP:
“Kevin epitomised all that is good in a young Irishman. Playing our national sports of hurling and football, he excelled at both and in 1972 captained his native county to win an All-Ireland medal at hurling.”
He went on to contrast Lynch’s Gaelic spirit with the performance of the Gaelic Athletic Association leadership off the field.
“Yesterday, the Derry County Board and South Antrim County Board asked for a minute’s silence before the All-Ireland Hurling Semi-Final between Limerick and Galway. It was no surprise to me when Croke Park refused. President Mac Floinn last week declared that no clubs, grounds or units were to be used for H-Block activity as it contravenes Rule 7.”
He added that work would be done to encourage support for the prisoners’ ‘Five Demands’ amongst the GAA.
Of Kevin’s courage and determination, Seán said:
“It must be remembered that if Kevin had conformed to the British authority he would be a free man today; but to Kevin, Kieran Doherty, Patsy O’Hara, Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson and the continuing Hunger Strikers, they knew if the political prisoners were criminalised then the British Government would attempt to criminalise the struggle on the outside.”
He added that Kevin Lynch knew the consequences of going on hunger strike.
“Deprived of every other means of defending his political integrity, he defended it with his life. Those who imply that he might have been ordered to do so, or could be ordered to cease to do so, fail to understand the depths or the personal integrity – the individual courage and the dedication to the principles he believed in – that made Kevin Lynch the person he was.”
