From the Ancient Order of Hibernians notification of events promoting the latest book on British state collusion in the killing of Irish citizens. 



A ground-breaking new book shows Britain armed, directed, paid and protected loyalist agents to carry out murders in Tyrone and Derry, then denied blame. Professor Mark McGovern, joined by Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice, will begin a seven state American launch of Collusion Counterinsurgency In Northern Ireland, on June 2nd.They will present shocking new findings in public events and Congressional meetings in a tour organized by the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Relatives for Justice, but now supported by a growing list of Irish-American groups.

At Stake

A central claim used by British officials to justify their campaign during the Troubles is the statistic that crown forces were only responsible for 10% of the North's killings. This figure, compiled decades ago, accounts for only those directly killed by British troopers or the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

The number gets cited to claim the British played an impartial role in a sectarian war between nationalists and unionists. It is also used to claim that legacy investigations of killings should be artificially limited to a 10% fraction of conflict related inquiries.

Meanwhile nationalists in Tyrone, south Derry and across the north saw a pattern of murders committed with hallmarks of deep British state force collusion. Loyalist killers travelled freely in heavily patrolled areas where nationalists could not move without being stopped. Crown patrols often spiked hours before murders then vanished. Covert camera surveillance was disabled. Loyalists had precise intelligence of the sort only available to British forces, from searches of locations

Hallmarks

Mark McGovern, Professor of Sociology at Edge Hill University in England, studied dozens of these killings in Tyrone and South Derry, applying academic research standards. Helped by Mark Thompson and Relatives for Justice, Professor McGovern combined original eyewitness accounts, and unpublished materials, with court transcripts and British military studies to put together a shocking new look at British collusion. His findings raises questions on hundreds of murders that were attributed to loyalists, but may have been carried out as part of an overall British strategy.

Anyone familiar with any loyalist murders in Tyrone or South Derry during the late 1980s and early 1990s will find new facts detailed here. There is even new information about the murder of my own close friend, American citizen and Bronx resident Liam Ryan.

Professor McGovern and Mark Thompson will appear at a series of not to be missed events, that will include New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Rutherford New Jersey, Boston, Newport, Rhode Island, Fairfield, Connecticut and Albany. They will reveal startling new facts and personally signed books will be available for purchase.


AOH Freedom for All Ireland Chair Martin Galvin added:

The British deny using loyalist criminals to commit murders. Again and again victims' families asked how else could low level loyalist killers get away with so many murders? How could criminals get through heavily patrolled areas undetected and undetectable? How did they turn off cameras, wipe tapes, and make British patrols vanish, unless these loyalist criminals were backed by planning, approval, and direction at a high level within the British military and constabulary? Victims' families deserve to have the shocking truth told. The AOH is proud to help bring that truth to Americans who need to hear it.

Schedule

They will premiere in Philadelphia on Sunday June 2nd at the MacSwiney Club, 510 Greenwood Avenue, Jenkintown Philadelphia, beginning at 1:30pm, organized by Gerry McHale and Pearse Kerr.(267-767-7854).This venue was specifically chosen in memory of Liam Ryan, the former Clan na Gael member, whose murder is one of those investigated in the book, and who attended events there.

On Monday June 3rd. Professor McGovern and Mark Thompson will be in New York City for an event at O'Lunneys Time Square, 145 West 45th street starting at 7pm.

They travel to Washington DC for a series of key Congressional briefings on Wednesday June 4th and Thursday June 5th and are arranging an event at the prestigious National Press Club. Malachy McAllister's case will also be highlighted during these briefings.

On Thursday June 6th, they will appear in Rutherford, New Jersey at an event now being organized by Malachy McAllister.

Professor McGovern and Mark Thompson will speak on Friday ,June 7th at the Watertown AOH Hall, 151 Watertown Street, near Boston, organized by Jack Lahey-(603-560--8192) and starting at 7pm.

They go to the Newport Rhode Island AOH Hall, from 1pm to 3pm on Saturday, June 8th organized by Kevin Doyle.(401-641-8183).

On Sunday June 9th,Bridgeport AOH will hold an event at the Gaelic American Club, 74 Beech Road in Fairfield, Connecticut starting at 2pm. (Tom Keane-203-256-8033-203-913-0375)

They will finish in Albany with a Monday evening June 10th event at the Irish American Heritage Museum,370 Broadway, at 7pm before meeting Irish American Legislators on Tuesday morning at the State Capitol.

McGovern-Thompson Launch Groundbreaking Book On American Tour


From the Ancient Order of Hibernians notification of events promoting the latest book on British state collusion in the killing of Irish citizens. 



A ground-breaking new book shows Britain armed, directed, paid and protected loyalist agents to carry out murders in Tyrone and Derry, then denied blame. Professor Mark McGovern, joined by Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice, will begin a seven state American launch of Collusion Counterinsurgency In Northern Ireland, on June 2nd.They will present shocking new findings in public events and Congressional meetings in a tour organized by the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Relatives for Justice, but now supported by a growing list of Irish-American groups.

At Stake

A central claim used by British officials to justify their campaign during the Troubles is the statistic that crown forces were only responsible for 10% of the North's killings. This figure, compiled decades ago, accounts for only those directly killed by British troopers or the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

The number gets cited to claim the British played an impartial role in a sectarian war between nationalists and unionists. It is also used to claim that legacy investigations of killings should be artificially limited to a 10% fraction of conflict related inquiries.

Meanwhile nationalists in Tyrone, south Derry and across the north saw a pattern of murders committed with hallmarks of deep British state force collusion. Loyalist killers travelled freely in heavily patrolled areas where nationalists could not move without being stopped. Crown patrols often spiked hours before murders then vanished. Covert camera surveillance was disabled. Loyalists had precise intelligence of the sort only available to British forces, from searches of locations

Hallmarks

Mark McGovern, Professor of Sociology at Edge Hill University in England, studied dozens of these killings in Tyrone and South Derry, applying academic research standards. Helped by Mark Thompson and Relatives for Justice, Professor McGovern combined original eyewitness accounts, and unpublished materials, with court transcripts and British military studies to put together a shocking new look at British collusion. His findings raises questions on hundreds of murders that were attributed to loyalists, but may have been carried out as part of an overall British strategy.

Anyone familiar with any loyalist murders in Tyrone or South Derry during the late 1980s and early 1990s will find new facts detailed here. There is even new information about the murder of my own close friend, American citizen and Bronx resident Liam Ryan.

Professor McGovern and Mark Thompson will appear at a series of not to be missed events, that will include New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Rutherford New Jersey, Boston, Newport, Rhode Island, Fairfield, Connecticut and Albany. They will reveal startling new facts and personally signed books will be available for purchase.


AOH Freedom for All Ireland Chair Martin Galvin added:

The British deny using loyalist criminals to commit murders. Again and again victims' families asked how else could low level loyalist killers get away with so many murders? How could criminals get through heavily patrolled areas undetected and undetectable? How did they turn off cameras, wipe tapes, and make British patrols vanish, unless these loyalist criminals were backed by planning, approval, and direction at a high level within the British military and constabulary? Victims' families deserve to have the shocking truth told. The AOH is proud to help bring that truth to Americans who need to hear it.

Schedule

They will premiere in Philadelphia on Sunday June 2nd at the MacSwiney Club, 510 Greenwood Avenue, Jenkintown Philadelphia, beginning at 1:30pm, organized by Gerry McHale and Pearse Kerr.(267-767-7854).This venue was specifically chosen in memory of Liam Ryan, the former Clan na Gael member, whose murder is one of those investigated in the book, and who attended events there.

On Monday June 3rd. Professor McGovern and Mark Thompson will be in New York City for an event at O'Lunneys Time Square, 145 West 45th street starting at 7pm.

They travel to Washington DC for a series of key Congressional briefings on Wednesday June 4th and Thursday June 5th and are arranging an event at the prestigious National Press Club. Malachy McAllister's case will also be highlighted during these briefings.

On Thursday June 6th, they will appear in Rutherford, New Jersey at an event now being organized by Malachy McAllister.

Professor McGovern and Mark Thompson will speak on Friday ,June 7th at the Watertown AOH Hall, 151 Watertown Street, near Boston, organized by Jack Lahey-(603-560--8192) and starting at 7pm.

They go to the Newport Rhode Island AOH Hall, from 1pm to 3pm on Saturday, June 8th organized by Kevin Doyle.(401-641-8183).

On Sunday June 9th,Bridgeport AOH will hold an event at the Gaelic American Club, 74 Beech Road in Fairfield, Connecticut starting at 2pm. (Tom Keane-203-256-8033-203-913-0375)

They will finish in Albany with a Monday evening June 10th event at the Irish American Heritage Museum,370 Broadway, at 7pm before meeting Irish American Legislators on Tuesday morning at the State Capitol.

9 comments:

  1. Galvin's partisanship aside, the old maxim of 'My enemies enemy is my friend'.

    Did they really expect people who Republicans targeted to not take preventative measures if the chance arose?

    And don't give me that bollocks of 'supposed to uphold the law', the law was ignored by physical force Republicanism completely so it's not a cloak to try to hide behind now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve R

    not a view held by

    Colonel David Benest

    A comparison with supposed amnesties regarding terrorists is simply missing an obvious point: the armed forces are intended to represent the law in situations where law has been absent through usual means.

    The civilians killed had every right to the protection of the law. Their families have every right to keep pointing it out. The authors have every right to investigate it.

    If those who are supposed to uphold are in serious breach the law, there is no rule of law but only the rule of law enforcement. The preventative measures you refer to are banned in international law and are often characterised as war crimes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Was this a war? When are there rules in war? Every nation or grouping in a conflict dispenses with legality as and when it suits.

    My point being is that Galvin and the authors are trying to call all Loyalist combantants as 'criminals' when physical force Republicans ignored the exact same Laws. You can't have it both ways, that's akin to a revisionist history bordering on the dreaded 'F' word.

    None of this will shed light on anything, it's just another bitter tome from a one eyed view of history on the wee small green dot in the North Atlantic.

    ReplyDelete
  4. There are always rules in war - otherwise there would be no such thing as war crimes. That soldiers often disobey the rules proves that rules exist but are not always followed. Galvin and the authors are focused on what the state did - it colluded with loyalists. What have the authors done that was wrong?

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  5. Soldiers serving in NI broke the criminal law on Bloody Sunday, Ballymurphy and in other instances not the laws of war and should thus be held to account under the criminal law.

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  6. Perhaps for balance Galvin and the authors could review the 'crimes' of Republicans in the same locale and the same era.

    Collusion is an obvious and overt fact, that I am not disputing.

    But simply labelling a Loyalist combatant as a 'criminal' is missing the saliant point that in large part they were reactionary. I don't view ex Provo's as 'criminals', perhaps that is what really is sticking in my craw.

    If a Provo in 1984 was handed a dossier full of Intel on prime target would they have used it? Would you expect the Loyalists to say no?

    If Galvin hadn't chipped in with his two bobs worth I'd have probably read the book!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Balance would be showing where republicans and the state colluded. But the authors are not obligated to do any such thing. As long as they are scrupulous within their own remit and do not falsify evidence, nor seek to suppress the type of research you suggested being conducted by others. The authors are no more required to look at republicanism than evolutionists are required to look at creationism.

    Little is served by labelling loyalists as criminals - republicans did not object in the slightest when loyalists were granted political status in the jails.

    Nor is it expecting the loyalists to say no: the point of the work I guess, without having read it, is to show that there is a legitimate expectation on the part of the state to say no when asked to provide information that could result in the deaths of its citizens.

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  8. Hmm, worthy of further research. Think I'll buy it and have a read, despite Galvin's comments.

    ReplyDelete