Posted by Jim on September 3, 2017
BBC NI ‘had bias against Catholics’ during Troubles, claims veteran journalist Dillon
Claire McNeilly. Belfast Telegraph. Saturday, September 2, 2017
A legendary BBC NI journalist has accused his former employers of being biased against Catholics and nationalists during the Troubles.
Martin Dillon, who worked as a reporter and producer at the corporation during the worst years of violence, claimed that the BBC “paid scant regard to Nationalist culture or social injustice” at that time, so much so that one of his colleagues described himself as the “token Catholic”.
The renowned author also revealed that, on getting to Ormeau Avenue, he was amazed to witness senior BBC NI executives holding an annual drinks party with Unionist politicians to celebrate the ‘Twelfth’ parade marching past the building.
And Mr. Dillon, an 18-year corporation veteran who introduced the then groundbreaking Talkback programme to Radio Ulster over 30 years ago, further claimed that the Beeb’s Northern Ireland newsroom “relied almost exclusively on information supplied by RUC and British Army press offices”.
His explosive claims, in a new book about his career out on Monday, were challenged by ex-Radio Ulster chief Don Anderson, who told the Belfast Telegraph that it was actually loyalists, not nationalists, who believed that the BBC was biased against them.
Mr Dillon left Northern Ireland 25 years ago following death threats from paramilitaries and now resides in the USA.
He wrote in Crossing The Line: My Life On The Edge that BBC NI tended to appoint mostly high-profile unionist figures – including a former NI Prime Minister’s wife – to the role of Governor, and further accused them of needlessly destroying precious archive film footage of the early days of the Troubles.
“I always felt the BBC did itself a disservice by appointing heavily politicised figures from one community to the role of overseeing broadcasting in Northern Ireland,” he writes. Recalling his attempts to retrieve BBC archive film of the late Brian Faulkner, who would become Northern Ireland’s most senior politician, marching through a predominantly Catholic area of Co Down in the Fifties – because he “believed the footage of Faulkner provided a singularly potent image of how Unionist and Orange Order triumphalism of the period asserted itself” – Mr Dillon said he was “reliably informed” that it had been gifted to his wife when she [Mrs. Faulkner] retired as BBC NI Governor.
He adds: “I informed Lady Faulkner I needed to locate the film. She was not helpful. At the same time, I discovered that most of BBC Northern Ireland’s archive film footage of past political events, including the early days of the Troubles, had been destroyed in the 1970s.”
Mr Dillon said that when he mentioned this, “others hinted the archive was destroyed ‘by mistake'”. They also said “‘somebody’ had given permission to get rid of unnecessary archive files, and the person charged with the task destroyed a large number of files representing a vitally important record.”
Another of the ‘Shankill Butchers’ author’s claims is that a senior BBC NI editorial figure was well-known for refusing to interview a priest in case he upset his friends in the Orange Order. And he reveals: “Others saw Catholics as the source of the violence. These views had the cumulative effect of ensuring BBC news personnel had no lines of communication into the Catholic community.”
Mr. Dillon said his then boss, Cecil Deeney, “was one of a small number of Catholics working in BBC NI programming, and that “there was some truth” when another colleague, Terry Sharkey, once joked about being a token Catholic at the Corporation.
He admits that he was “amazed” when BBC bosses gathered with Unionist politicians and dignitaries to celebrate the Twelfth on the sixth floor of Broadcasting House.
And, during the Ulster Workers Strike in the Seventies, he recalls being “asked by Dick Francis and Ronald Mason to use my paramilitary contacts to acquire UDA passes to get BBC executives through paramilitary roadblocks”.
But the award-winning Falls Road native reserved some of his harshest criticism for the late James Hawthorne, BBC Controller in the late Seventies and Eighties, whom he claimed tried to influence the way he reported the contentious Anglo-Irish Agreement.
“A year had passed since the implementation of the Agreement,” he writes. “Unionists bitterly opposed it, and I found myself facing criticism from some BBC figures for allowing Unionists to appear on the airwaves to voice their opposition to it.
“One evening, James Hawthorne summoned me to his office to express his displeasure with my coverage of the Agreement. He stressed that I should not forget I was employed by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
“Without issuing an editorial edict, he was in effect telling me, in an underhand way, to get in line with British government policy.”
Don Anderson, who was Mr Dillon’s immediate editorial boss at one time, told the Belfast Telegraph that “loyalists did not like the BBC”.
“Reporters and camera crews working on the streets were quite often attacked by loyalist crowds because they believed the BBC was biased against them,” he said.
“When I was a reporter I was shot at by a loyalist with a revolver. Luckily, it missed.”
Mr Anderson added: “Only Martin can say whether or not James Hawthorne told him to adhere to British policy when it came to reporting on the peace process.”
Dr Hawthorne, who was controller from 1979 to 1989, died in 2006.
Mr Dillon, now in his late 60s, is one of the foremost chroniclers of the Troubles.
A former Belfast Telegraph reporter, he wrote his first book, Political Murder in Northern Ireland, when he was still working for newspapers.
He joined the BBC in the Seventies as a reporter and was later promoted to programme editor. His books include The Shankill Butchers, The Dirty War and God and the Gun.
A BBC spokesman said: “BBC Northern Ireland is proud of its role in reflecting and serving the entire community.
“Accounts of people and events in the past will sometimes differ – and may even be disputed. We cannot comment on the specifics of an unpublished book at this stage.”
Posted by Jim on September 2, 2017
IRA Volunteer Tom Williams was hanged at age 19 by the British on 2
September 1942, 75 years ago today, for his part in a gun battle with
the RUC which left one RUC man dead
‘Executed: Tom Williams and the IRA’, was written by Jim McVeigh. He
writes: “If the history of this small island were compared to a rich
tapestry, then Tom Williams’ story would only be the faintest of
threads. Yet it is a remarkable story and deserves to be told.” The
following are extracts from the book.
Boyhood
Thomas Joseph Williams was born in number 6 Amcomri Street in the
Beechmount area of Belfast on the 12th May 1923. This was a year of
pogroms. Through 1920, 1921, 1922 and into 1923, small Catholic enclaves
right across Belfast came under vicious attack from rampaging Orange
mobs, sometimes with the support of the new forces of the state. Before
moving to Beechmount, Tom’s family had fled the small Catholic enclave
in the Shore Road area of Belfast after their houses were attacked and
burnt.
Tom’s uncle, Terry Williams had been jailed for helping to defend the
Shore Road area from sectarian attack and from his earliest age Tom grew
up hearing these stories of persecution and resistance. But this was
more than folklore – discrimination and sectarian violence continued to
be a daily reality for Catholics in the northern state.
Tom was the third child of a family of six. His brother Richard was the
eldest, followed by Mary, who died of meningitis at the age of three.
Tom was next and then baby Sheila, who died shortly after birth. Indeed
Tom’s mother Mary died shortly after giving birth to Sheila at the young
age of 29, leaving Tom in the care of his father, Thomas. Life was hard
and early death commonplace at that time, especially among children.
Tom, who was still only a toddler, and his brother Richard went to live
with their Granny Fay at 46 Bombay Street in the Clonard area of
Belfast. A great bond of love and affection was to develop between Tom
and his granny and it was upon her knee and in this small district that
he began to learn of the struggle for Irish independence.
As soon as he was old enough, Tom joined Na Fianna Eireann, the
republican scout organisation founded by Countess Markievicz in 1909,
becoming a member of the Con Culbert slua in the Clonard area. Alfie
Hannaway, a boyhood friend of Tom’s and his OC in Na Fianna, remembers
appointing Tom to the rank of Quarter Master for the Company.
The C Company slua, which comprised over 30 boys from the district,
spent much of their time drilling, in fitness activities and on occasion
scouting for the IRA.
Manhood
For most working class Catholics, discrimination meant that employment
opportunities were limited, and Tom was only able to find work as a
message boy and as a labourer. He worked for a period in Greeves’ mill
and even found work in the Docks area in the aircraft factory there.
In the months before his arrest, he worked in a printing firm. Almost
everywhere he worked his sincere and friendly personality as well as his
willingness to work hard, endeared him to his workmates and employers.
These were qualities which would impress almost all who met him.
As soon as he was of age, Tom joined the IRA and at 17 became a
Volunteer in C Company in the Clonard area where he lived. At the time,
C Company’s area of command ran the length of the Lower Springfield
Road, along the Falls Road from Beechmount to Conway Street,
encompassing the streets in between. By the time Tom joined the IRA in
1940, it was already two years into its campaign and feeling the effects
of arrests on both sides of the border.
Like most other young Volunteers, Tom was an enthusiastic supporter of
this campaign and was probably ignorant of the growing difficulties the
IRA leadership were facing. When Britain declared war on Germany on
Sunday 3 September 1939, many republicans, including the young Tom,
believed that the war presented the IRA with an opportunity to strike.
Tom was soon appointed Adjutant of C Company and in the months before
his final arrest, at the young age of 18, he became the officer
Commanding. In 1942 C Company had seven Sections with around ten
Volunteers in each Section. His appointment to the rank of Company OC
was a considerable responsibility for one so young.
Comrade
Easter has an important place in the republican calendar, and in 1942,
Belfast republicans were determined to commemorate the 1916 Rising. The
problem was that since the 1920s republican parades of any description
had been banned. It was decided by the IRA leadership in Belfast that
three separate Easter parades would be held and that a number of
diversionary operations would be carried out in other areas across
Belfast.
Tom, as the OC of C Company, was instructed by his Battalion staff to
make the necessary preparations for an operation in the Clonard area. A
volley of shots was to be fired over an RUC patrol car that regularly
passed by the corner of Clonard Gardens and the Kashmir Road and the
Volunteers were to withdraw safely.
In the days preceding the operation, Tom selected and briefed those
Volunteers who would take part; eight in total, including Tom himself.
The youngest of the group, Margaret Nolan, was just 16 years old, the
oldest 21. They met on the day of the operation and around 2.30pm took
up their allotted positions.
Shortly after 3pm, an RUC patrol car carrying four constables turned
into Clonard Street and headed towards the junction of Clonard gardens
and the Kashmir Road. All four [RUC men] were armed with their service
revolvers; in addition McMahon carried a pump action shotgun.
As the Ford V Light car passed the junction into Clonard Gardens, Tom
and his comrades opened fire. One of the bullets struck the car,
smashing a rear window but missing the occupants.
Constable Williamson accelerated into Clonard Gardens, where instead of
hastily driving away, Lappin, McMahon and Murphy alighted, drew their
weapons and set off at a run back towards Cawnpore Street and the scene
of the shooting. The stage was now set for a confrontation that would
have far reaching and tragic circumstances.
As the last of the IRA group entered the back kitchen [of number 53],
they alerted Tom and the rest of the group to the presence of the RUC on
their tail, within seconds all hell broke loose in the tiny back kitchen
and scullery. In the controversial statement that Tom later made to the
RUC while in hospital, he described what happened:
“I ran into the scullery.There is a little glass enclosure in the yard
and from the scullery window I could see a policeman coming into this
enclosure with his gun drawn. When he was about three yards from me and
beside the kitchen window, I pointed my revolver at his body and fired
one shot. He staggered and fired back and I fired four or five more
shots at his body.”
At least two other weapons were fired. According to forensic evidence
given at the trial, three of the rounds that struck Murphy were fired
from a Webley revolver, the weapon fired by Tom, and two others from the
short Webley. Before being fatally wounded in the heart, Murphy fired
three rounds from his revolver, whilst the fourth misfired. All three
rounds found their mark, striking Tom in his left thigh and once in his
left forearm.”
Prisoner
“Following their arrest, all eight were eventually charged with
Murphy’s killing. The two young women were moved to Armagh Jail, while
the men were taken to Crumlin Road Jail, except for Tom, who for the
moment lay under armed guard in the Royal Victoria Hospital.
Soon Tom was discharged from the jail hospital and joined his comrades
on the Wing. Joe Cahill recalls their first meeting. Tom appeared to be
`standoffish”. Sensing that something was wrong he spoke to Tom alone.
Upset, Tom explained that he had broken an IRA order and had made and
signed a statement to the RUC.
Tom said that while lying injured, he had been told by a doctor and by
members of the RUC that he was dying from loss of blood. Then, as now,
the IRA ordered its captured volunteers not to cooperate in any way with
the enemy authorities. Despite this, Tom decided to make a statement
accepting sole responsibility for the killing in the hope that it would
save the lives of his comrades.
The trial began on 28 July in number one court, Crumlin Road Courthouse.
Seated in the dock were Tom and his five comrades. Weeks before, the
charges of murder against their two women comrades had been dropped. The
younger of the two, Margaret Nolan, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge
and was released with a recorded sentence. Marge Burns was immediately
rearrested and interned in Armagh prison.
The defendants were represented by Cecil Lavery, reputed to be one of
the best defence barristers in Ireland at the time. On the prosecutors’
bench sat John Clarke McDermott, attorney general for the Six Counties.
McDermott was an ex Unionist MP and Stormont minister. Having served as
a British officer during the First World War, his unionist sympathies
prompted him to join the B Specials in the 1920s.
The trial judge’s unionist credentials were no less impeccable. A
committed unionist, Edward Sullivan Murphy was elected unionist MP for
Derry City in 1929. A proud and devoted Orangeman, he held the position
of deputy Grand Master within the Order for a number of years.”
Condemned
“The court was silent as the foreman, Thomas Stevenson, rose to read
the verdict. He declared, by a unanimous decision, that all six men were
guilty of murder but that in the case of Pat Simpson they were
recommending mercy because of his youth. On receiving the verdict of the
jury, all six young men stood to attention one by one and made a brief
statement.
Tom was the last to speak. In a loud and steady voice he declared: “I
am not guilty of murder. I am not afraid to die.” The black cap was
then placed on Murphy’s head and he passed sentence on the six. Almost
immediately an appeal was lodged on behalf of the six and the date of
execution was postponed pending its outcome.
Within a few short weeks of the trial, their appeal was heard by Judges
Babington, Andrews and Brown. On 21 August the previous verdict of the
court was upheld and the new date of execution set for 2 September.
Their only hope now lay with the Reprieve Campaign that was being
mounted on their behalf outside the prison.
The first act of the campaign was the gathering of a petition calling
for clemency. When the petition was handed to the Minister of Home
Affairs at Stormont on 21 August, it contained almost a quarter of a
million signatures. It was signed by prominent personalities such as
Cardinal McRory, three other Catholic bishops, hundreds of Catholic
priests and a large number of Protestant clergy, as well as Sean
MacBride and a considerable number of MPs and TDs.
Under pressure, de Valera instructed his government officials to
intervene on behalf of the six young IRA volunteers. U.S. Secretary of
State Cordell Hull took up the case with the British government. The
U.S. State Department was urged by Senate and Congressional leaders to
intervene. Even the Vatican intervened, pressing the British government
to reprieve the men.
On Sunday 30 August the Stormont government issued a statement through
the Governor of Northern Ireland. Shortly before the statement was
issued, Tom and his comrades were called to a legal visit. When they
entered the room they were sombrely greeted by their solicitor D.P.
Marrinan. He looked at each of them in turn and finally turned to Tom
and said: “I’ve good news for everyone except Tom.”
He then told them that all but Tom had been reprieved. There was a
stunned silence for a few moments, and then Tom was the first to speak:
“Don’t grieve for me, remember, from day on this is how I wanted it. I
wanted to die and I’m happy that you five are going to live.”
Martyr
“By all accounts, that September morning was shaded by a dark sullen
sky overheard. A silence lay across the jail. from the evening before, a
large crowd had gathered near the jail and in the hours before the
execution many of them knelt quietly in prayer. Throughout Ireland,
Catholic churches were filled to capacity for morning mass. In many
towns and cities, streets were blocked as hundreds and in some cases
thousands stood in silence as a mark of respect.
Tom rose early that morning, dressed, washed and shaved. At around
6.30am he celebrated mass with Fathers Alexis and Oliver and again at
7.15am with Fathers McAllister and McEnaney. Shortly before the stroke
of eight, the cell door opened and the two executioners entered,
accompanied by the prison governor and a number of prison and city
officials.
The main executioner, an Englishman, was Thomas Pierrepoint, assisted by
his nephew Albert. Pierrepoint bound Tom’s arms behind his back with a
long leather strap. As the buckle of the leather strap was fastened, the
two prison guards present moved to either side of a large wooden locker
which stood against one of the walls. The locker was lifted to reveal a
door – the door to the gallows. Without a falter in his step, Tom calmly
walked the last few paces of his life.
A half an hour after the execution, Tom’s five comrades were led from
their cells to the prison chapel. The jail was silent. So too was the
chapel, except for the sobs of the small group. One of the priests
present began to say Mass but broke down weeping. Another priest stood
up and continued with the Mass. When the ceremony was over, all present
gathered in the sacristy. It was Father Alexis who spoke. “I met the
bravest of the brave this morning.”
Posted by Jim on
The oration delivered by Padraig Garvey, of Republican Sinn Fein in
Kerry, at the annual hunger strike commeration organised by the
independent Bundoran / Ballyshannon 1981 H-Block Commemoration
Committee.
Here today we remember all those who died and who took part in the 1981
H-Block hunger strike. Hunger strike is an ancient form of protest in
Ireland. In more recent times it has been used by the suffragettes in
their struggle to gain votes for women as well as by Irish Republicans
in the struggle for political status and the freedom of our country.”It
is the most dramatic form of protest, the last resort; it shows huge
courage and commitment. It destroys the oppressor’s narrative of
criminality and selfish motives on the part of the jailed which the
oppressor used to justify their methods.
We see the elements that drove the 1981 hunger strike. British injustice
in Ireland; Britain’s attempts to portray freedom fighters as criminals
and the resistance of the Irish people to this. The resistance, I feel,
we can learn from.
The first point is the commitment of the prisoners. These were the
people at the sharp edge of the British oppression and without their
determination nothing could have happened.
Next is popular public support. Most Irish people knew in their hearts
that the protest was right. A well-organised, committed movement to
drive the protest on the outside.
Adherence to long-standing Republican principles gave the protest an
inner strength. The basic beliefs that ‘England had no right in Ireland,
never had a right in Ireland and never will have a right in Ireland’.
The belief that through the All-Ireland Republic the Irish people had
the best means of living in peace, fairness and prosperity together. If
we look back at history we see those basic elements of the H-Block
protests were there that brought success to the Republican Movement.
Between the 1916 Rising and the Tan War it was welcome home rallies for
freed prisoners, protests against conscription, the hunger strike of
Thomas Ashe, and the running of abstentionist candidates in by-elections
that built on the support gained from the Rising up to the general
election of 1918 and the establishment of the First Dail Eireann in
January 1919. The establishment of the All-Ireland Republic smashed any
notion of legitimate British rule in Ireland.
It was from this broad support that the IRA were able to wage a
successful campaign. It took threats, treachery, betrayal and the
dropping of principle by some to over throw what had been achieved.
Again, in the late 1940s and early 1950s it was the commitment that
drove the revival of the Movement from a very low ebb. They raided for
arms and ran in council elections and as abstentionist candidates in
Leinster House and Westminster elections. This built a nationwide
support base for later campaigns. Although the Border Campaign was not
successful it did create the core which led to the Provisional campaign
from 1969 on. It was with that ousting of that leadership that
abstentionism was dropped in 1986 and the road to Stormont taken.
The need to build popular support based on Republican principles is as
important today as ever. Often the talk of popular support ism used with
talk of dropping principles or joining with other groups. The principles
we hold underpin the Irish Republic. We cannot see the Irish Republic as
the legitimate government authority in Ireland and also give some
support to other institutions who would claim authority in Ireland.
Abstentionism from Stormont, Leinster House and Westminster is not just
some old hard- line, dead-end principle but is necessary if we are to
call ourselves Republican. Abstentionism must not be used as an excuse
not to engage with public debate. We can run in council elections in the
Free State and take seats and use these, along with pickets, protests to
put Eire Nua, SAOL NUA and the wider Republican position to the people.
Terence MacSwiney was Lord Mayor of Cork and elected to the First Dail
and Bobby Sands and Kieran Doherty were also elected TDs.
When we look back on 1981 we remember those who gave their lives and
those who were prepared to give their lives for a principle. Principles
are powerful things. They keep you on the true path. When discarded you
are directionless. By holding true to our principles, the principles of
the 22 martyr hunger strikers; by openly and proudly promoting them, a
free, united and socialist Ireland is guaranteed.
Posted by Jim on
Two women who lost loved ones in the conflict have occupied the Museum
of Free Derry in the city’s Bogside, refusing to get out at closing time
and sleeping overnight on the floor after a row over a notorious
exhibition which equates Bloody Sunday victims with their killers.
Helen Deery, whose 15-year-old brother Manus was shot dead by a British
soldier in 1972, and Linda Nash, whose 19-year-old brother William was
killed on Bloody Sunday in the same year, are outraged that their loved
ones names are part of an exhibition which also names dead British
soldiers.
The names of everyone killed in the conflict from 1969 to 1972 – IRA
Volunteers, civilians, British Army and police – flash up on a screen on
one visual exhibition at the Bogside Museum.
This week, the women brought overnight bags, sleeping bags and pyjamas
into the museum, sat in the foyer with ‘victims betrayed’ placards and
refused to leave at closing time. They slept on the concrete floor
overnight and say they will do so every night until the exhibition is
taken down.
“We are occupying the Museum of Free Derry and we are not coming out
until that display is down,” said Ms Deery.
“We have tried every other form of protest to have them take our loved
one’s names down. I have told them on numerous occasions of the hurt and
anxiety that this is causing me and other family members. I am staying
here until they take this down.
“I have my pyjamas and a sleeping bag with me. I slept on the concrete
floor last night.
“I have eight pins in my legs and a spine injury and am very sore this
morning. But I am adamant that I am not leaving.
“I am Manus’ voice now. His next of kin. I want to keep his name sacred.
He was just a child.”
Linda Nash, whose brother William was shot dead on Bloody Sunday, says
the presence of her loved ones name alongside British soldiers who died
is ‘hurtful’.
“This is another thing that keeps me awake at night,” she said. “It is
wrong. I am staying here until I see them physically take the exhibition
down. I want to see them delete my brother’s name from it.
“We are here to hold a peaceful protest. We don’t want any confrontation
at all. We are just sitting down. We have even been giving tourists an
explanation as to what we are doing when they asked.
“We are not going to make a fuss, we’re just going to live here until
they take it down. If we are arrested, we will let the police take us
out, but as soon as we are released we will be going back in. This has
to end now.”
In early June the museum received a petition of over 1,000 names in
protest at the display, with a promise that it would respond.
“We have been repeatedly rebuffed and can withstand the insult to the
memory of our relatives no longer,” the women said.
“We will remain inside the Museum in peaceful protest until the
offending exhibit has been permanently removed.
“The management at the museum have been given since the beginning of
June to respond to our concerns and have repeatedly sought to ignore the
hurt they have caused or to delay a mature response. They have pushed us
to this action and we will now see it through.”
Republican Sinn Fein offered its solidarity to the two women and claimed
Sinn Fein of being behind the exhibition and the museum “by proxy
through its membership”.
They accused Sinn Fein of rewriting history, “whitewashing the
bloodstained pavements and trying to cover the cracks of this abnormal
society.
“Included in this process was their attempt to end the Bloody Sunday
marches despite the fact that there still has not been a single
conviction against any member of the British murder squad who carried
out the execution of innocent civilians on that day.”
“They have seen it appropriate now to include those innocent people
killed on Bloody Sunday along with other victims of British murder
squads such as Manus Deery, in an electronic memorial with the same
people who murdered them, also there are IRA volunteers included on this
memorial.”
Posted by Jim on
A former RUC police officer this week said he believed the British
government was aware of the activities of the Glenanne Gang’s death
squads at the very highest level.
The gang, made up of members of the RUC, UDR and UVF, operated across
the Mid-Ulster area in the mid 1970s. It is believed to have carried out
around 120 murders, the majority of which were innocent Catholics.
It included Robin ‘The Jackal’ Jackson, a notorious unionist
paramilitary commander and RUC (now PSNI) Special Branch agent linked to
scores of murders.
John Weir, who held the rank of sergeant and became involved in the
activities of the notorious gang, said that senior officials in Downing
Street would have been aware of their operations.
His comments came just weeks after a High Court judge ruled that the
PSNI had unlawfully frustrated any chance of an effective investigation
into the gang.
“They were feeding information direct to government,” he said.
“Obviously some of it was going through their senior officers but not
all. Some of those men, they themselves were connected to parliament.
“And I know that and I also know that they know that even the very
bottom of army intelligence, which I don’t think in a way were that
capable a lot of them, but they knew all about Glenanne.”
“Glenanne was watched, every movement from there was watched and that’s
when I was in that area, I know that, every car that went in and out of
the place, they had the number of the cars.
“So what I’d say – why didn’t anybody make any effort to stop it?
Everything stops at the people who were operating rather than see where
it was really coming from and why it was allowed to go on. “If they knew
this was going on why did they allow it to continue?”
He said the truth behind many events that took place during the conflict
are already known, but that the authorities will resist the truth
emerging.
“Everybody knows who did what and who’s behind what,” he said. “But at
this present time it all stops with….. a few rotten apples at the bottom
of the barrel. But it goes much, much higher than that. If people have
nothing to hide, let them bring the truth out.”
“And when I’m talking about governments, I mean the Irish government as
well as the British government.”
Sinn Fein representative Linda Dillon said in light of the comments
there needed to be a thorough investigation into collusion between the
British state and the Glenanne Gang.
“There is a greater onus than ever on the PSNI to come back to the
courts and set out how it intends to address the families’ concerns,”
she said.
DISCLOSURE ORDERED
Meanwhile, the British Army and PSNI police have been ordered to
disclose intelligence files in a major legal action over collusion
behind the Miami Showband Massacre, which has been linked to the
Glenanne Gang.
Three members of the popular band were taken from their tour bus and
shot dead on a country road after a gig in Banbridge, County Down in
July 1975. Band members were made to line up at the side of the road
while attempts were made to hide a bomb on the bus.
The device exploded prematurely, killing some of the murder gang. The
remainder then opened fire on the band members, murdering three of them.
Two others were also injured, but survived the atrocity.
A lawyer representing survivors and relatives of murdered group members
confirmed that the High Court has directed more than 80 categories of
documents are to be made available on the attack.
They are understood to include material held on ‘The Jackal’. The UVF
boss Jackson, a one-time UDR member who operated with the Glenanne Gang,
was linked to one of the murder weapons by fingerprints. Before he died
in 1998, Jackson admitted he had been tipped off by a senior RUC man to
lie low after the killings.
Despite facing the order to hand over the files, the British authorities
may still try to retain some files by securing a ‘Public Interest
Immunity’ order for secrecy in the name of “national security”.
Following the development, lawyer Michael Flanigan said: “This is a case
in which collusion is self-evident.
“The documents which the court has ordered disclosure of will go some
way to explaining how that collusion came into effect, resulting in the
loss of the lives of these innocent, talented young men.”