A few days back the The Irish Times carried a powerful letter written by a Catholic priest who is the brother of a young man shot dead by loyalist gunmen in North Belfast in 1972. In his letter Joseph McCullough shows how all queries have 'drawn a complete blank from the RUC/PSNI.' He described their response as abysmal.
On the basis of this letter Ed Moloney in his blog Broken Elbow penned a piece entitled No Subpoenas For Patrick McCullough. In it Moloney raises some very serious questions of the PSNI and HET, contrasting their vigorous pursuit of the Boston College archive with their indifference to solving the killing of Patrick McCullough.
Then Chris Moore in The Detail writes a fascinating article on the State and the North of Ireland's past which shows how the PSNI has no intention of investigating collusion which led to many deaths in the Northern conflict. With serious input from Mark Thompson, Kevin Winters and Denis Bradley the article is a must read that cannot be recommended highly enough.
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That article from the Detail was superb and is a must read, I,m no lover of Bradley but he was imo spot on here,this conflict /dirty war was controlled by government agencies and their puppets in all organisations both legal and paramilitary,and this was all in place for many years I think most would agree,so the question that jumps out at me is why was this whole stinking affair allowed to continue for as long as it did? a brilliant post Anthony with so much meat on it that I also ask myself why the so called free state governments sat back and allowed its citizens to be slaughtered,when it was glaringly obvious just what was going on here,
ReplyDeleteWe are Getting nowhere fast.
ReplyDeleteex ruc, who received redundancy payments, are now working through an agency,which is run by the psni, "FOR THE PSNI", they are working on top secret special branch files, in THE OTHER ROOM, that is the hidden room, which psni deny exists. Some of these are retired special branch, now, these could be the very handlers of the touts on both sides of the fence, i wonder if they will be cooking chips and having HADDOCK with them, but on a more serious note, these are the scum who let murderous touts on the loose to reek havoc, now they are back in the OTHER ROOM, which they occupied to destroy all evidence of collusion. it beggars belief, PSF MLA's may be able to claim bigger exspenses for keeping theire traps shut, this whole fiasco needs a properly formed demonstration, demanding the release of all the secret special branch documents and for the instant dismissal of all ex ruc, naturally no mi5/6 documents will be in that same room. JUSTICE FOR ALL, NOT FOR THE FEW.
I was a friend and in the same class as Patrick at school.He was a very decent and well liked young lad.I hope the scum that murdered him burn for eternity in hell!We are supposed to belive that the Orange filth in the RUC have changed when then became the PSNI!This place is an Orange State run by Anti Catholic vermin.Decommisioning was the worst insult to our murdered Catholic dead!
ReplyDeleteBoth sides did wretched things.Why does this site only represent one view ? Th IRA killed more civilians than anyone else.Warrington was rotten, planting a bomb detonated to explode @ 3pm on a high street.Time to move on.The Irish govt treats it's own people even worse, 50,000 a year emigrating, zero net emigration this year frm the 6 counties.Fact, not opinion.
ReplyDeleteDave,
ReplyDeleteThe Quill is an open door and is fair when it comes to printing posts with the understandable exception of libelous comments and comments in poor taste on obituaries.
The rest is fair game for those who choose to express and opinion I am certain you would find no objection from what you term as its biased patronage if other differing opinions showed up from any interested view, including your own.
I find your reasoning a little confusing as you begin with a fair statement about both sides. I am not sure if you include British army murders as belonging to one of the sides.
Then you expose your honest opinion directed at the one side the IRA.
I have to assume the Warrington bombings affected you personally, as you specifically mention it and neglect to condemn all bombings.
I sincerely doubt you would find anyone who would disagree with your opinion on the bombing that killed a young child and maimed many other innocent civilians.
Your next statement is more confusing “Time to move on.”
Would that not cancel out your question?
Why would we not discuss a conflict that has affected us for the better part of our lives and still does?
Then the following rant on Irish migration, which is not relevant to your point, highlights your own not so well disguised views on the Irish as a whole.
Reading an article on the BBC it looks like the cops are not only investigating half the past but are not so diligent and appear to be investigating only half the present.
ReplyDelete“Raymond McCord calls for action over UVF.”
I wonder if they will take his very legitimate fears seriously. It is almost laughable that the cops dedicate a special task force to hunt down and catch a bunch a car-hijackers and Mr. McCord has to go pleading for help on investigating the far more serious issue of the UVF.
It seems the delicate issue of keeping a fresh coat of paint on the peace accord is more important than addressing the still very militant control the UVF hold.
And who controls the uvf Tain bo nudge nudge..And have you any idea how much a respray costs ?cremation is much cheaper,and policing is all about cost is it not?
ReplyDeleteDave I thought Dublin and Monaghan bombings were much worse if such a thing is possible to equate, those bombs were planted many believe at the behest of the british government.Sammy Smyth mouthpiece for the uda and qsf friend said at the time that he was happy with the bombing, TPQ is an open forum and Anthony is as liberal as the law lets him be.as for myself I make no bones or apologies for my distaste for qsf and their betrayal of the republican cause...
ReplyDeleteMarty,
ReplyDeleteWho controls the UVF the same ringmasters who control qsf.
The cracks in the glossy peace accord seem to be getting wider and harder to fill in and cover up.
You are right Marty it is much cheaper for a coffin and policing is about saving money and not lives by protecting the needs of the few and ignoring the many.
Tain bo I thought it hilarious the statements from messers,Wilson and Robinson telling the unions to shut up about their warnings of massive public sector job losses,it wasnt going to happen these people really do think people are eejits..and do you know something a cara they are right,the people continue to elect these wasters.
ReplyDeleteHET and Ombudsman were quick to invoke legal advice to dodge any inconvenient investigation (i.e. that might expose security force use of loyalists as a cover). At the same time the Belfast Project archive is unusableas evidence but there appears to be no legal advice. Hardly a surprise that the PSNI is loaded with retirees from RUC. They have a real stake in burying the past and the lie that it is republicans have most to fear.
ReplyDeleteMarty,
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely beyond a joke but unfortunately, the joke is on us as you say these wasters continue to get elected makes me wonder why people even bother to vote.
Scraping Stormont would save a hell of a lot of public money.
John Joe O’Neill,
ReplyDeleteYou are spot on the PSNI/RUC certainly have a lot to keep buried and they don’t mind who they bury in the interest of keeping their murky dealings under wraps.
Did anyone see the interview with the ex ruc man on bbc,s newsline.he took early retirement from the ruc because it was changing its name,he got £180k plus £24K a year pension and no doubt the dla. then headhunted by a recruitment agency,and after four phone calls he said he would take a part time job in the psni as a civilian worker, on the morning he started there was up to 30 ex ruc and army starting as well, no interviews no advertising of posts just the old boy network at work,he mentions a sgt in the ruc leaving on a Friday and starting again as a civilian in the same or similar position on the following Monday,and not a word from qsf, it get worse by the day, next we will hear that qsf is really the fenian wing of the uvf and always has been..so much for qsf and their equality agenda,
ReplyDeleteMarty,
ReplyDeleteI did not see the interview it must have been a tough decision for the auld RUC man to set aside his loyalty to the RUC and go work with his former colleagues in the RUC. I am sure his wages will ease his pain working for the PSNI.
It must be nice to enjoy the benefits of the old boy networks.
British State Investigating Half The Past. The British find it necessary to pursue an academic archive in a university in another jurisdiction thousands of miles away to get something on some republicans but they’d hardly have to look that far to identify those involved in British / Loyalist collaborations during the Troubles. Surely a few keystrokes by a spook or two and the names will be right there in black and white.
ReplyDeleteIt’s inconceivable that the security services won’t have that info to hand. After all, they pride themselves on their high level of competence. How can this possibly be achieved without knowledge and understanding? The British surely must have in-depth knowledge of the who/how/why/what/where and everything else for all of their NI operations. If they didn’t, how could they possibly learn or improve? If they did not have such an approach, how could they have such a high reputation for counter-insurgency?
Maybe the question is not the Brits investigating… but which Brits? If the PSNI HET team dig up this Boston College archive, they ultimately may pose as many awkward questions for the UK security services as for republicans.