Anthony McIntyre
The victims of the Ballymurphy massacre were not in the wrong place. Their killers were. The victims were in their own place, their home place. They died at the hands of armed intruders whose right place was elsewhere, across a sea.

The Innocent

For fifty years the British state denied, blocked, deferred and lied about the facts of what took place in Ballymurphy over a three day period in August 1971. Contemptuous of the slain, their relatives and campaigners, the British objective for half a century was to conceal the role of a rogue regiment, "out of control, killing people on the street and knowing that they would be protected.” Comprised of psychopaths and psychotics, British paratroopers were unleashed upon an unarmed and unsuspecting civilian population. 

Their government sought to deprive the massacred of their innocence by transferring the culpability of the killers to the killed. Because of that, today’s ruling in a Belfast inquest that the victims of the Parachute Regiment massacre were blameless and that the soldiers who killed them had no justification is a damning verdict.

The inquest was a tribunal for truth. Many came to it and lied out of self-interest. To each and every liar who cynically lined up, shoulder to shoulder, to swear their fabricated evidence in the one truth forum available to the relatives, the coroner's verdict is a serious slap down. It shows that despite the best efforts of the dishonest, a determined group of people focused on the pursuit of justice can prevail.

The sustained effort by British and unionist politicians to mystify the past so that their troops and police might be exonerated, and the IRA blamed almost exclusively for the North’s politically violent conflict, is being stripped away layer by filthy layer. Theirs was a dirty war in which their security services murdered civilians without regard to gender or age, tortured prisoners, armed loyalist death squads and colluded in the execution of their homicidal sectarian strategy, and allowed their agents in all armed groups to take life on an industrial scale. Yet they refer to those who took up arms against them as terrorists. People died on hunger strike to make the point that armed resistance to British state terrorism and the atrocities it committed was not criminal.

Apologists for state terrorism like to blame the IRA for commissioning and prolonging the North’s political violence: were it not for armed republicans none of it would have happened - and like a good fairy tale we would all have lived happily ever after. There are no armed republicans in Iraq or Afghanistan but plenty of British state war criminals.

The door has again been kicked in, the rotten structure of British state policy in Ireland once more exposed in all its hideousness. And yet it is most unlikely that there will be any prosecutions of murderous Mike Jackson and his massacre men for their crime against humanity in Ballymurphy. That should not detract from today’s judgement. The relatives and friends who made it happen should not underestimate the ethical and political significance of what they have achieved. A resounding victory for the innocent over the guilty.

The Guilty

 ⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

The Innocent & The Guilty

Anthony McIntyre
The victims of the Ballymurphy massacre were not in the wrong place. Their killers were. The victims were in their own place, their home place. They died at the hands of armed intruders whose right place was elsewhere, across a sea.

The Innocent

For fifty years the British state denied, blocked, deferred and lied about the facts of what took place in Ballymurphy over a three day period in August 1971. Contemptuous of the slain, their relatives and campaigners, the British objective for half a century was to conceal the role of a rogue regiment, "out of control, killing people on the street and knowing that they would be protected.” Comprised of psychopaths and psychotics, British paratroopers were unleashed upon an unarmed and unsuspecting civilian population. 

Their government sought to deprive the massacred of their innocence by transferring the culpability of the killers to the killed. Because of that, today’s ruling in a Belfast inquest that the victims of the Parachute Regiment massacre were blameless and that the soldiers who killed them had no justification is a damning verdict.

The inquest was a tribunal for truth. Many came to it and lied out of self-interest. To each and every liar who cynically lined up, shoulder to shoulder, to swear their fabricated evidence in the one truth forum available to the relatives, the coroner's verdict is a serious slap down. It shows that despite the best efforts of the dishonest, a determined group of people focused on the pursuit of justice can prevail.

The sustained effort by British and unionist politicians to mystify the past so that their troops and police might be exonerated, and the IRA blamed almost exclusively for the North’s politically violent conflict, is being stripped away layer by filthy layer. Theirs was a dirty war in which their security services murdered civilians without regard to gender or age, tortured prisoners, armed loyalist death squads and colluded in the execution of their homicidal sectarian strategy, and allowed their agents in all armed groups to take life on an industrial scale. Yet they refer to those who took up arms against them as terrorists. People died on hunger strike to make the point that armed resistance to British state terrorism and the atrocities it committed was not criminal.

Apologists for state terrorism like to blame the IRA for commissioning and prolonging the North’s political violence: were it not for armed republicans none of it would have happened - and like a good fairy tale we would all have lived happily ever after. There are no armed republicans in Iraq or Afghanistan but plenty of British state war criminals.

The door has again been kicked in, the rotten structure of British state policy in Ireland once more exposed in all its hideousness. And yet it is most unlikely that there will be any prosecutions of murderous Mike Jackson and his massacre men for their crime against humanity in Ballymurphy. That should not detract from today’s judgement. The relatives and friends who made it happen should not underestimate the ethical and political significance of what they have achieved. A resounding victory for the innocent over the guilty.

The Guilty

 ⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

14 comments:

  1. Salute the tenacity of the Ballymurphy Families. Like the bereaved of Bloody Sunday and Hillsborough, they never gave up the search for the truth and today they emerged totally victorious. Truth shall set you free and I hope that the relatives can enjoy peace in the rest of their lives.

    Is it too much to hope that Massacre Mike Jackson shall be held to account in a court of law for his lies? The campaign to strip him of all his military and civil titles and honours should begin NOW.

    RIP The Ballymurphy Victims.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That will never happen for obvious reasons but my respect to the families.

      Delete
  2. Once again Anthony Mc Intyre has demonstrated his incisive ability to lay bare the squalid facts for all to see and ponder. In the midst of all the Britsh lies and squalor shines the light of a determined community to show the fundamental power of truth. ...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Seems the soldiers viewed the Catholic civilians as collaborators with the IRA, and murdered them accordingly.

    The IRA viewed Protestant and Catholic civilians as collaborators if they were married to, or children of, state forces - or indeed if they worked on army/police bases as cooks, cleaners, tradesmen.

    I see no difference between murder by the Army or by the IRA.

    Strange no calls for Army Council apologies, and no demands that they reveal who did the murders carried out by the IRA.

    Is murder by a stranger (the British Army) worse than murder by a neighbour (the IRA)?

    If reconciliation is ever to come between our two communities, we need to weep with those who weep, on all sides.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Murdered them accordingly" is the apt phrase. The IRA did not view children or wives of security force personnel as collaborators. They regarded those who worked for the security forces as collaborators and carried out some heinous acts against them.
      You see no difference between murder by the IRA and by the British Army. A good point because for years apologists were trying to tell the world that there was a difference.
      The IRA has apologised for a lot of its actions and also lied about a lot of its actions such as the Kingsmill massacre - no less an evil than Ballymurphy.
      Future generations will reconcile - ours won't.

      Delete
  4. Good ruling for the families, the area and the North as a whole.

    These soldiers and others in the security forces who colluded, murdered, tortured, fired plastic bullets at children, used heavy machine guns in Divis and framed innocents will be eligible for a Troubles pension whilst an IRA member who may never have pulled a trigger will be ineligible purely for being a member.

    The only fair and equitable Troubles pension would be for all victims as investigating peoples' past is impossible given the lack of evidence and passage of time. The corrupt and bloodthirsty members of the security forces are lumped in with innocent victims purely because of their membership.

    But that is British justice for you

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Simon

      The corrupt and bloodthirsty members of the security forces are lumped in with innocent victims purely because of their membership.

      As well as members and leaders of paramilitary organisations some of whom have gone on to serve in government.

      But yes a universal pension for all victims' relatives may well be the only equitable and practicable solution to the legacy imbroglio.

      Delete
    2. Simon / Barry - I think we are long past the point where much truth will be recovered through prosecutions. I do not believe for a second that the SF / DUP and Tory political leaderships value prosecutions for the justice that they will bring but for the truth that they will not bring. Prosecutions bring only a scenes of crime perspective to any killing. How many of those who directed these things were ever at the scene? They are happy for the volunteer / private / constable to take the hit with prosecutions which at the same time steer well clear of their role.

      Delete
  5. Caoimhin O'Muraile

    I watched a documentary about the Ballymurphy Massacre. On it a certain Captain, I think, Mike Jackson, the Brit Armys press officer, was lying through his teeth to the media. At the same time he was struggling not to laugh. Any charges brought against Jackson, and be charged he should be, should use the footage from that documentary as evidence against. These were the days of Brigadier Frank Kitson, Low Inteligence Survellance I think he called it, and the Parachute Regiment, actually hated by other British regiments, were Kitsons "private army". Kitson is dead, I believe but Jackson is not. Jackson was the British Army's answer to Joseph Goebells, propaganda minister in the Third Reich.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Caoimhin O'Muraile comments


    I stand corrected, Kitson is not dead and therefore should be charged with Jackson. According to the documentary, Kitson gave the paras certain imunities or lattitude outside the so-called normal rules, so implied a member of another regiment, Engineers I think.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As I have said before, a campaign should start now to strip Massacre Mike of all his civil and military honours.

      A feature of Kitson's Low Intensity Operations was the promulgation of disinformation and misinformation strategies to sow division amongst anti-colonial forces. So it is worth remembering that dissemination of fake news, black propaganda and conspiracist narratives did not originate with Putin, Trump and Cambridge Analytica.

      Delete
    2. Barry - I doubt the British will do that. Corbyn alone - who I know you don't rate - would probably have been the only one, if PM, who would have had the cojones to do that. You can hardly see Johnson or Starmer moving in that direction.

      Delete
  7. Anthony - I would row in behind Jezza if he started a campaign.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have always said no British soldier will go to jail for murder committed during the conflict. British soldiers didn't go to jail during the conflict and the British authorities aren't going to change a modus operandi spanning centuries now.

    There might have been the very odd exception which proves the rule but during the conflict those in charge weren't going to pursue underlings never mind those in power as it's bad for morale and not conducive to loyalty or keeping hearts and minds of current personnel.

    It is called Victor's Justice and explains why the USA didn't go to the Hague for Hiroshima or Nagasaki. It explains why allies of the USA and UK, and themselves, currently get away with murder on a grand scale.

    Victor's Justice is when a losing side in a war gets punished in the courts and the winner gets off lightly. We saw that being played out here. The unfounded claim about a bias against state actors was designed to foment protest which would lead to the current situation of discussion of a statute of limitations.

    If the British could wrangle impunity only for state actors they would, but violating international law isn't a good look. They would accept the bad press if they thought they could get away with it.

    British soldiers and others didn't go to jail during the conflict and there is no way in the world the British authorities are going to start pursuing them now.

    Witnesses are dead, evidence wasn't gathered or is hidden, time generally makes prosecutions less likely and the will to do so isn't even there.

    This is a horrible thought for victims' families and it is shockingly sad but that is where the evidence points.

    Anthony is possibly correct about a truth commission being a non-starter, due once again to Victor's Justice. Why on earth would they want to spill the beans?

    ReplyDelete