Anthony McIntyre ruminates on the display of hostility towards Lower Ormeau Road nationalists commemorating the dead from a loyalist massacre that took place almost thirty years ago. 


29 years to the day from the UDA slaying of five men and boys at the Sean Graham Bookmaker premises on the Lower Ormeau Road, the betting shop was again in the news, this time because of another attack by hostile aggressors.

On this occasion thug life came in the official uniform of the British state PSNI rather than in the attire of the loyalist UDA, the relatives of dead and survivors of the massacre firmly in their sights. Niall Murphy, a Belfast solicitor, commented that:

The police attended for what reason I will never know, approached victims and survivors of an atrocity and commenced to harass push and assault man, woman and child.

The PSNI was not remotely interested in keeping the peace but in disturbing it. Even if the force suspected some breach of the law or Covid-19 guidelines it could easily have drawn on precedent and not intervened, opting to wait until emotions had passed before beginning intrusive investigations. 

Perhaps most infuriating of all was the manhandling and arrest of local man and massacre survivor, Mark Sykes. Shot seven times by the UDA, he had attended last week's small commemoration to lay flowers and pay homage to those who had lost their lives, including his brother in law Peter Magee. He had hardly arrived before being confronted with sectarian animosity and an urge to domineer. Mr Sykes described his ordeal: 

The only thing I had in my hands was flowers that my 3 year old grand daughter had lain at her uncle’s memorial. When I asked police what they were doing and had they notebooks out at Pitt Park, I was told if I swore again I would be arrested. I said this is a fucking disgrace as I walked away. The police then grabbed me and handcuffed me. The cuffs were as tight as possible, behind my back. The handcuffs were dug in tightly to the bullet wounds I suffered 29 years ago to the day. On top of the insult of donating the weapon to shoot me to a museum they have today literally rubbed the steel of their handcuffs as salt in my physical wounds.

Can there be a more damning and vivid indictment? 

Although not remotely comparable with the scale and viciousness of the 1992 attack, lurking behind the action was a similar sentiment – sectarianism: one community is considered a child of a lesser god.

The PSNI was recently described as institutionally racist by one of its serving officers. A stronger argument can be made that since its formation, and in the century since, it has been institutionally sectarian.

It is not persuasive enough to explain the Ormeau Road assault as a case of Trevor and Mervyn (Ciaran added for good effect optics) seizing the opportunity to vent their bigotry. It may well be that the PSNI officers involved were not attitudinally sectarian. This is besides the point as institutional sectarianism, much like institutional racism, is not reducible to attitudes. Institutional sectarianism is is to be found in the historical pattern of the structural relationship between the state's police and the nationalist community when compared against the relationship between the same state police and the unionist community. As Andy George, president of the National Black Police Association (NBPA), and a serving officer with the PSNI, explained:

Institutional racism doesn't mean that every single officer and staff member is racist ... It's more about the fact that, over time, systems and processes within policing have worked to the detriment of ethnic minority communities.

Same for institutional sectarianism: which is why Mark Thompson of Relatives For Justice is found making a damning assessment in calling for:

a major rethink on policing ... a Patton style commission mark two. On paper it looks fine in terms of accountability but in reality none of it works.

This is most salient against a contextual background of the PSNI taking absolutely no action other than to stand idly by when an aggressive mob of masked loyalists stomped their way through an East Belfast housing estate last week. With the PSNI wearing masks as well, the one difference a cynic might flag up is that of loyalists in uniform and loyalists not in uniform. There was certainly none of the hostility or aggression that was on display in the Lower Ormeau.

The event being commemorated by those subjected to PSNI assault is something I recall quite well. That very morning a resident from the area, a life-long friend, Tommy McReynolds, had visited me in Long Kesh. When news came through, my first thoughts were for his safety. He had left the prison early enough to have made it back to the Lower Ormeau prior to the killers striking. As it transpired he was safe but another person who had visited me previously wasn’t. Young Peter Magee was cut down. I hadn’t met him prior to the visit, on which he had accompanied his uncle, Willie Magee, out of curiosity I guess. In addition to many of the injured I also had known Willie McManus and Christy Doherty, both of whom died. In a community so small, and in which I had grown up, familiarity with some of the victims was always a certainty. I ended up writing a piece about the massacre for An Phoblacht Republican News which was published.

Since then, the families of the dead and the survivors have always been subjected to a state strategy of deception. The RUC under both its old and new name colluded in not just the massacre but the cover up as well. Information has been willfully held back, with the dog ate my homework-type excuses being proffered.  This week's aggression was symptomatic of a particular and deeply ingrained mindset towards Northern nationalists.

Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly fulminated:

it beggars belief that police have acted in such a heavy handed way with victims of loyalist violence in a week where the PSNI didn't as much as take a name or stop a single member of an East Belfast UVF criminal gang of more than 50 men whose intent was to violently intimidate people out of their homes.

It seems to have escaped Kelly that he might have inadvertently given the PSNI the green light with his call for a "full investigation" into the funeral of former republican prisoner, Eamon "Peggy" McCourt in Derry.

And while it might beggar belief for Kelly, others have been scathingly saying much the same since the RUC was renamed in 2001. A republican, long at odds with Sinn Fein's support for the PSNI, today on social media articulated a sentiment which sounds far less off the wall than it might have done 13 years ago when Sinn Fein support for the British police was something of a novelty:

I hate to be the one to say I told you so. For years I and others have experienced old style RUC policing by the new style PSNI. I described how my home was raided, property seized, children upset, and much more. Most of it fell on deaf ears or was ignored as the rantings of a trouble maker. Even my neighbours remained indoors as my family were persecuted. People can answer for themselves. 
Now a number of recent situations involving the police has produced an avalanche of criticism, and rightly so. The arrest of Mark Sykes on the Ormeau Road yesterday caused public outrage in nationalist communities forcing an apology from the RUC-PSNI today. Another video showing the police trailing a young man from a car whilst attending his grandmother's funeral went viral. Indeed the heavy police presence at Rita McKernan's funeral was described as being reminiscent of the past.
Even allowing for overstatement both events struck a chord in our collective consciousness. And those born after so-called policing reforms got a glimpse of the sectarian beast that lurks within. A better contrast could not have been provided than the video of a large crowd of loyalist paramilitaries stomping through Pitt Park as several cops watched on.

Gerry Kelly waxing surprise is the real surprise here. 

Currently, one of the PSNI attackers has been suspended and another recycled elsewhere, something like the Catholic Church does with its offending priests. There will be no cop hung out to dry on this one. Six months down the line, when the dust has settled, he will likely be judged to have done nothing unlawful or improper.

Whatever the outcome for the individual PSNI officer, for the PSNI as a police force, the message emitting is a Brechtian one: For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Baleful And Belligerent

Anthony McIntyre ruminates on the display of hostility towards Lower Ormeau Road nationalists commemorating the dead from a loyalist massacre that took place almost thirty years ago. 


29 years to the day from the UDA slaying of five men and boys at the Sean Graham Bookmaker premises on the Lower Ormeau Road, the betting shop was again in the news, this time because of another attack by hostile aggressors.

On this occasion thug life came in the official uniform of the British state PSNI rather than in the attire of the loyalist UDA, the relatives of dead and survivors of the massacre firmly in their sights. Niall Murphy, a Belfast solicitor, commented that:

The police attended for what reason I will never know, approached victims and survivors of an atrocity and commenced to harass push and assault man, woman and child.

The PSNI was not remotely interested in keeping the peace but in disturbing it. Even if the force suspected some breach of the law or Covid-19 guidelines it could easily have drawn on precedent and not intervened, opting to wait until emotions had passed before beginning intrusive investigations. 

Perhaps most infuriating of all was the manhandling and arrest of local man and massacre survivor, Mark Sykes. Shot seven times by the UDA, he had attended last week's small commemoration to lay flowers and pay homage to those who had lost their lives, including his brother in law Peter Magee. He had hardly arrived before being confronted with sectarian animosity and an urge to domineer. Mr Sykes described his ordeal: 

The only thing I had in my hands was flowers that my 3 year old grand daughter had lain at her uncle’s memorial. When I asked police what they were doing and had they notebooks out at Pitt Park, I was told if I swore again I would be arrested. I said this is a fucking disgrace as I walked away. The police then grabbed me and handcuffed me. The cuffs were as tight as possible, behind my back. The handcuffs were dug in tightly to the bullet wounds I suffered 29 years ago to the day. On top of the insult of donating the weapon to shoot me to a museum they have today literally rubbed the steel of their handcuffs as salt in my physical wounds.

Can there be a more damning and vivid indictment? 

Although not remotely comparable with the scale and viciousness of the 1992 attack, lurking behind the action was a similar sentiment – sectarianism: one community is considered a child of a lesser god.

The PSNI was recently described as institutionally racist by one of its serving officers. A stronger argument can be made that since its formation, and in the century since, it has been institutionally sectarian.

It is not persuasive enough to explain the Ormeau Road assault as a case of Trevor and Mervyn (Ciaran added for good effect optics) seizing the opportunity to vent their bigotry. It may well be that the PSNI officers involved were not attitudinally sectarian. This is besides the point as institutional sectarianism, much like institutional racism, is not reducible to attitudes. Institutional sectarianism is is to be found in the historical pattern of the structural relationship between the state's police and the nationalist community when compared against the relationship between the same state police and the unionist community. As Andy George, president of the National Black Police Association (NBPA), and a serving officer with the PSNI, explained:

Institutional racism doesn't mean that every single officer and staff member is racist ... It's more about the fact that, over time, systems and processes within policing have worked to the detriment of ethnic minority communities.

Same for institutional sectarianism: which is why Mark Thompson of Relatives For Justice is found making a damning assessment in calling for:

a major rethink on policing ... a Patton style commission mark two. On paper it looks fine in terms of accountability but in reality none of it works.

This is most salient against a contextual background of the PSNI taking absolutely no action other than to stand idly by when an aggressive mob of masked loyalists stomped their way through an East Belfast housing estate last week. With the PSNI wearing masks as well, the one difference a cynic might flag up is that of loyalists in uniform and loyalists not in uniform. There was certainly none of the hostility or aggression that was on display in the Lower Ormeau.

The event being commemorated by those subjected to PSNI assault is something I recall quite well. That very morning a resident from the area, a life-long friend, Tommy McReynolds, had visited me in Long Kesh. When news came through, my first thoughts were for his safety. He had left the prison early enough to have made it back to the Lower Ormeau prior to the killers striking. As it transpired he was safe but another person who had visited me previously wasn’t. Young Peter Magee was cut down. I hadn’t met him prior to the visit, on which he had accompanied his uncle, Willie Magee, out of curiosity I guess. In addition to many of the injured I also had known Willie McManus and Christy Doherty, both of whom died. In a community so small, and in which I had grown up, familiarity with some of the victims was always a certainty. I ended up writing a piece about the massacre for An Phoblacht Republican News which was published.

Since then, the families of the dead and the survivors have always been subjected to a state strategy of deception. The RUC under both its old and new name colluded in not just the massacre but the cover up as well. Information has been willfully held back, with the dog ate my homework-type excuses being proffered.  This week's aggression was symptomatic of a particular and deeply ingrained mindset towards Northern nationalists.

Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly fulminated:

it beggars belief that police have acted in such a heavy handed way with victims of loyalist violence in a week where the PSNI didn't as much as take a name or stop a single member of an East Belfast UVF criminal gang of more than 50 men whose intent was to violently intimidate people out of their homes.

It seems to have escaped Kelly that he might have inadvertently given the PSNI the green light with his call for a "full investigation" into the funeral of former republican prisoner, Eamon "Peggy" McCourt in Derry.

And while it might beggar belief for Kelly, others have been scathingly saying much the same since the RUC was renamed in 2001. A republican, long at odds with Sinn Fein's support for the PSNI, today on social media articulated a sentiment which sounds far less off the wall than it might have done 13 years ago when Sinn Fein support for the British police was something of a novelty:

I hate to be the one to say I told you so. For years I and others have experienced old style RUC policing by the new style PSNI. I described how my home was raided, property seized, children upset, and much more. Most of it fell on deaf ears or was ignored as the rantings of a trouble maker. Even my neighbours remained indoors as my family were persecuted. People can answer for themselves. 
Now a number of recent situations involving the police has produced an avalanche of criticism, and rightly so. The arrest of Mark Sykes on the Ormeau Road yesterday caused public outrage in nationalist communities forcing an apology from the RUC-PSNI today. Another video showing the police trailing a young man from a car whilst attending his grandmother's funeral went viral. Indeed the heavy police presence at Rita McKernan's funeral was described as being reminiscent of the past.
Even allowing for overstatement both events struck a chord in our collective consciousness. And those born after so-called policing reforms got a glimpse of the sectarian beast that lurks within. A better contrast could not have been provided than the video of a large crowd of loyalist paramilitaries stomping through Pitt Park as several cops watched on.

Gerry Kelly waxing surprise is the real surprise here. 

Currently, one of the PSNI attackers has been suspended and another recycled elsewhere, something like the Catholic Church does with its offending priests. There will be no cop hung out to dry on this one. Six months down the line, when the dust has settled, he will likely be judged to have done nothing unlawful or improper.

Whatever the outcome for the individual PSNI officer, for the PSNI as a police force, the message emitting is a Brechtian one: For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

2 comments:

  1. Brilliant article. Very harrowing scenes on the anniversary of one of the most notorious incidents of the troubles ,the behaviour of the PSNI to the residents of the Lower Ormeau Road and to Mark Sykes really shows how far they have come as a so called impartial Police force since 2001. The RUC havent gone away you know

    ReplyDelete
  2. The cops clearly got their arse kicked over Storey's funeral and wanted to be seen to do something. Pity they didn't use commonsense and compassion.

    ReplyDelete