Brandon Sullivan ✒ with the second in a series of pieces on the Holy Cross School violent siege.

2001 Bombs, bigotry and murder.

Frazer Agnew said in Stormont (September 2001) that:

the Protestant people in isolated communities in north Belfast have been under constant attack for some time … this community has, for the large part, been forgotten because its suffering is regarded as if it were part of something sectarian. It is nothing of the sort.

In 2000, there more than 21 pipe-bomb attacks on Catholics by loyalist paramilitaries. Pipe-bombs were also used by rival loyalists to target Billy Hutchinson that year. Numerous injuries were recorded, and many families had to leave their homes.

Two days prior to the murder of Trevor Kell, there were two pipe-bomb attacks on Catholic families.

McDonald & Cusack wrote that:

In the first three months of 2001 barely a night went by without a pipe-bomb attack on Catholic homes and areas. The onslaught began on 2 January with bombs in North Belfast, and it continued throughout the year” (UDA, p344).

CAIN gathered details of some of this intensified loyalist campaign against the Catholic civilian population:

Jan – In excess of 20 pipe-bomb attacks on Catholic homes in Belfast, Larne, Derry, and Coleraine. One of these pipe-bomb attacks was on a Catholic family living on the same estate where three children were burned to death by loyalists during the Drumcree protests, in 1998. Of particular relevance to this piece is the following:

A Catholic worker at the Wishing Well Family Centre on the predominantly Protestant Alliance Road, Belfast, escaped injury when a pipe-bomb was hurled through her car window. The attack was carried out by Loyalist paramilitaries. At around the same time the RUC received two bomb warnings in the nearby Nationalist Ardoyne area.

Feb – There were more than 16 attacks on Catholic families in the first two weeks of February.

Ken Maginnis stated, by end of February in 2001 alone, "almost 50 pipe-bombs - the source almost certainly from among the ranks of loyalist militants" had been used against Catholics.

Fraser Agnew was silent on this subject.

It is important to note that loyalists across Northern Ireland were involved in the pipe-bomb campaign. This was not C Company alone, many communities and communities, as well as Greater Belfast and ‘Derry, were targeted relentlessly, mainly by the UDA.

“Whataboutery” is sadly commonplace in Northern Ireland. However, it is clear that by the summer of 2001, sectarian tensions were reaching fever pitch in north Belfast.

What is also clear is that whilst sectarian attacks were directed against Protestant homes during this period of time, as far as I was able to ascertain, explosive or firearms were rarely used. Republicans were responsible for eight bombings in the latter six months of 2001, compared to 120 by loyalists. It might reasonably be assumed that some republican bombings were against security force targets, but that some were also aimed at Protestant civilians and were sectarian in nature. While there is no evidence that Protestants were not targeted, there is substantial evidence that they were targeted considerably less frequently, and with dramatically reduced lethal intent.

The rationale for the pipe-bomb campaign

According to McDonald & Cusack, the campaign of pipe-bombing:

was directed at two sets of Catholic targets: vulnerable families living inside Protestant-dominated housing estates in mainly loyalist rural towns, and Catholic homes contiguous to the peace walls of North Belfast. (UDA, p344).

Catholic families were bombed out of their homes because the:

UDA was responding to a localised form of Protestant paranoia … the object of the pipe-bomb campaign was to secure territory on their side of the peace line” (UDA, p345).

North Belfast UDA “brigadier” Jimbo Simpson said, in relation to the pipe-bomb campaign:

I joined the UDA because there was no one to defend our streets from republicans in the New Lodge in the early seventies. What is going on now is the UDA doing the same thing. Stopping our area from being taken over by nationalists. (UDA, p346).

The UDA was using intimidation to keep Catholics out of Protestant areas.

The disputed spark alleged to have lit the inferno

Ian S Wood, in his superb book Crimes of Loyalty, noted the presence of houses in Glenbryn “damaged and boarded-up” by attacks from nationalist youths. He also wrote about how the killing of Trevor Kell had led to high tension in Glenbryn, made worse by the vandalising of floral tributes to the murdered taxi driver. Wood noted that as a gesture of defiance to “republican Ardoyne” loyalists “decked out their small area with more flags than ever” (p270).

It was during the placing of these flags (UDA and UFF) that an incident occurred which, shortly afterwards, saw the first “blockade” of children going to Holy Cross primary school.

What is not disputed is that loyalists were putting up flags outside Holy Cross primary, and that a car from republican Ardoyne rammed the ladder, causing a loyalist to crash to the ground. The loyalist, contrary to some reports, was an adult, not a child, and did not suffer serious injury (Wood, Cadawaller, McDonald & Cusack). What is also not disputed is that fighting broke out after this incident between Ardoyne and Glenbryn residents.

I think that the aftermath of this is perhaps best captured by McDonald & Cusack in the following account (UDA, p355 – 356):

The skirmish had brought residents from both sides of the Ardoyne Road on to the streets and within minutes a dangerous stand-off emerged between the two communities. It took eight police Land Rovers to separate the growing crowds on either side of the dividing line. But the police operation was bungled because their lines were pushed so far up the Ardoyne Road that it left one Protestant street, Glenbryn Park, surrounded by nationalists. At this stage the houses in Glenbryn Park came under attack.
Unfortunately the row, and subsequent mini-riot, took place at school closing time, leaving the children inside Holy Cross cut off from their parents and families, given that the school is located on the Protestant side of the invisible line dividing the Ardoyne Road.

This account accurately depicts how quickly street violence can occur in Belfast, and how damaging the fallout can be. McDonald & Cusack continued:

From all the available evidence it seems that it was not the UDA’s original intention to bar the children access to their school along the Ardoyne Road. Instead it appears that once the stand-off began some of the main organisers of the loyalist protest decided to use the location of Holy Cross as a weapon in their fight to secure their territory.

This account, by two esteemed investigative journalists with impeccable loyalist sources, contradicts myths which emerged from Holy Cross, such as it being a response to IRA intelligence gathering missions (a “parade of Provos” according to Fraser Agnew). Schoolgirls appear to have been blockaded inside the school pretty much by mistake. Loyalists, however, correctly identified that preventing the schoolgirls from attending Holy Cross would cause significant distress to Catholic residents of Ardoyne. Confusingly, Andy Cooper, one of the organisers of the protest, later claimed that “the people walking their children to Holy Cross school are the ones involved in the attack on the 19th of June (ladder incident)."

Cooper also claimed that the parents and children walking to school had "spent ten weeks provoking this community" (Holy Cross BBC Documentary). Immediately following Cooper’s statement, footage of prominent UFF C Company gunman Winky Dodds was shown in the group of protesters. It appears that the same people furious at alleged republicans being on “their” road and no such qualms about active loyalist paramilitaries being present. Considering C Company’s deep involvement in displacing and murdering Protestants, this attitude, like Andy Cooper’s commentary, suggests a chronic lack of self-awareness regarding base sectarianism. It is also worth noting that, among the “protestors” at Holy Cross, Cooper is something of a voice of reason, as well as being considerably more articulate than the lumpen personalities hurling abuse and missiles at those on their way to school.

The Protest

Much has been written about the behaviour of the protesters. Sexualised slurs, pornographic imagery, urine filled balloons, stones, hot tea, and fireworks were thrown at the schoolgirls and their parents. The protestors sometimes used Halloween masks to hide their identities and to further frighten the children. The names and addresses of families were shouted out to Catholics as they walked to school, and known UDA men lined the streets. Fraser Agnew chose not to acknowledge the presence of loyalist paramilitaries at Holy Cross, preferring instead to concentrate on supposed republicans – much like he ignored loyalist bombs, preferring to concentrate on alleged republican ones.

One morning, the protestors opted to slow clap instead of the usual hurling of items and sectarian/sexualised insults at the children and parents. That morning, a UDA man hurled a blast bomb at police lines, close to the children and parents. Video footage shows the terror visible on the faces of schoolgirls aged as young as four, many of whom wet themselves with terror.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the relentless abuse, parents and children went to Holy Cross every day. In that sense, the protest failed.

Cause & Effect

Holy Cross was not the first time loyalists very publicly sought to intimidate Catholic civilians going about their day-to-day business. With a somewhat confused rationale (protesting against restrictions on Orange parades at Drumcree and elsewhere), loyalists began picketing a Catholic church at Harryville. Prominent among the pickets, and alleged to be an organiser, was former RUC officer and convicted UVF murderer Billy McCaughey. McCaughey, nicknamed “the Protestant boy”, struck his brave blow for Ulster by being “part of a gang which tricked the kindly shopkeeper, William Strathearn, out of his bed one night in 1977 to get medicine for a sick child, only to be murdered on his doorstep.” Whilst in HMP Maze serving a life sentence for this squalid crime, McCaughey told BBC journalist Peter Taylor that he had changed his views on the use of violence. However, following his release, McCaughey could be seen wearing a “Harryville on Tour” T-shirt at various loyalist protests.

Like Holy Cross and Drumcree, Harryville was a focused campaign of intimidation against the Catholic population, which took part in full view of the world’s media, and which resulted in attacks on the police, Catholic civilians, petrol and pipe bombs directed at Catholic homes, and a calcifying of sectarian hatred. Prominent loyalist paramilitaries, like McCaughey at Harryville, Billy Wright at Drumcree, and various C Company personalities at Holy Cross, left no doubt in Catholic minds what could happen.

Drumcree had quietened down by 2000, whilst Harryville was called off in 1998. Both protests failed to achieve what loyalists wanted to achieve. The pipe-bomb campaign by loyalists against Catholics, continued throughout 2001.

Ian S Wood described a “well-orchestrated” riot by republicans in July 2001, in north Belfast in which “two blast bombs and 263 petrol bombs were thrown.” The riot was supposedly a protest against an Orange march passing close to Catholic Ardoyne. During this riot, 113 police officers and 10 local people were injured (p270). Whilst the schoolgirls of Holy Cross were on summer holiday at the time, it is quite easy to imagine how these actions affected the residents of Glenbryn.

McDonald & Cusack also wrote that:

over the summer of 2001 there were widespread sectarian clashes in North Belfast … there were several incursions into Protestant areas including a mass republican attack on Twaddel Avenue, in which houses were vandalised, windows smashed, and cars destroyed” (UDA, p353). 

The INLA also shot a loyalist, Mark Blaney during clashes at Ardoyne. Blaney survived. Loyalists launched a number of “retaliatory” murder attempts, finally shooting dead a politically uninvolved Catholic, 19 year old Gerard Lawlor.

It would be naïve to analyse the actions of loyalists at Holy Cross in isolation from the actions of loyalists at Drumcree and Harryville. Commenters on TPQ, and other students of the conflict, often look to localised tensions. But it seems clear that loyalism was engaged in a widespread, systematic, and highly public campaign of sectarian intimidation. That is not to say that local issues had no effect: they did. But to consider Holy Cross simply on the actions of a car driving at a ladder, or vandalised houses in Glenbryn, would be to ignore a much bigger story.

Part 3, Reflections on Holy Cross, to follow.

⏩ Brandon Sullivan is a middle aged, middle management, centre-left Belfast man. Would prefer people focused on the actual bad guys.

Holy Cross ➖ An Exceptionally Troubling Episode (2)

Brandon Sullivan ✒ with the second in a series of pieces on the Holy Cross School violent siege.

2001 Bombs, bigotry and murder.

Frazer Agnew said in Stormont (September 2001) that:

the Protestant people in isolated communities in north Belfast have been under constant attack for some time … this community has, for the large part, been forgotten because its suffering is regarded as if it were part of something sectarian. It is nothing of the sort.

In 2000, there more than 21 pipe-bomb attacks on Catholics by loyalist paramilitaries. Pipe-bombs were also used by rival loyalists to target Billy Hutchinson that year. Numerous injuries were recorded, and many families had to leave their homes.

Two days prior to the murder of Trevor Kell, there were two pipe-bomb attacks on Catholic families.

McDonald & Cusack wrote that:

In the first three months of 2001 barely a night went by without a pipe-bomb attack on Catholic homes and areas. The onslaught began on 2 January with bombs in North Belfast, and it continued throughout the year” (UDA, p344).

CAIN gathered details of some of this intensified loyalist campaign against the Catholic civilian population:

Jan – In excess of 20 pipe-bomb attacks on Catholic homes in Belfast, Larne, Derry, and Coleraine. One of these pipe-bomb attacks was on a Catholic family living on the same estate where three children were burned to death by loyalists during the Drumcree protests, in 1998. Of particular relevance to this piece is the following:

A Catholic worker at the Wishing Well Family Centre on the predominantly Protestant Alliance Road, Belfast, escaped injury when a pipe-bomb was hurled through her car window. The attack was carried out by Loyalist paramilitaries. At around the same time the RUC received two bomb warnings in the nearby Nationalist Ardoyne area.

Feb – There were more than 16 attacks on Catholic families in the first two weeks of February.

Ken Maginnis stated, by end of February in 2001 alone, "almost 50 pipe-bombs - the source almost certainly from among the ranks of loyalist militants" had been used against Catholics.

Fraser Agnew was silent on this subject.

It is important to note that loyalists across Northern Ireland were involved in the pipe-bomb campaign. This was not C Company alone, many communities and communities, as well as Greater Belfast and ‘Derry, were targeted relentlessly, mainly by the UDA.

“Whataboutery” is sadly commonplace in Northern Ireland. However, it is clear that by the summer of 2001, sectarian tensions were reaching fever pitch in north Belfast.

What is also clear is that whilst sectarian attacks were directed against Protestant homes during this period of time, as far as I was able to ascertain, explosive or firearms were rarely used. Republicans were responsible for eight bombings in the latter six months of 2001, compared to 120 by loyalists. It might reasonably be assumed that some republican bombings were against security force targets, but that some were also aimed at Protestant civilians and were sectarian in nature. While there is no evidence that Protestants were not targeted, there is substantial evidence that they were targeted considerably less frequently, and with dramatically reduced lethal intent.

The rationale for the pipe-bomb campaign

According to McDonald & Cusack, the campaign of pipe-bombing:

was directed at two sets of Catholic targets: vulnerable families living inside Protestant-dominated housing estates in mainly loyalist rural towns, and Catholic homes contiguous to the peace walls of North Belfast. (UDA, p344).

Catholic families were bombed out of their homes because the:

UDA was responding to a localised form of Protestant paranoia … the object of the pipe-bomb campaign was to secure territory on their side of the peace line” (UDA, p345).

North Belfast UDA “brigadier” Jimbo Simpson said, in relation to the pipe-bomb campaign:

I joined the UDA because there was no one to defend our streets from republicans in the New Lodge in the early seventies. What is going on now is the UDA doing the same thing. Stopping our area from being taken over by nationalists. (UDA, p346).

The UDA was using intimidation to keep Catholics out of Protestant areas.

The disputed spark alleged to have lit the inferno

Ian S Wood, in his superb book Crimes of Loyalty, noted the presence of houses in Glenbryn “damaged and boarded-up” by attacks from nationalist youths. He also wrote about how the killing of Trevor Kell had led to high tension in Glenbryn, made worse by the vandalising of floral tributes to the murdered taxi driver. Wood noted that as a gesture of defiance to “republican Ardoyne” loyalists “decked out their small area with more flags than ever” (p270).

It was during the placing of these flags (UDA and UFF) that an incident occurred which, shortly afterwards, saw the first “blockade” of children going to Holy Cross primary school.

What is not disputed is that loyalists were putting up flags outside Holy Cross primary, and that a car from republican Ardoyne rammed the ladder, causing a loyalist to crash to the ground. The loyalist, contrary to some reports, was an adult, not a child, and did not suffer serious injury (Wood, Cadawaller, McDonald & Cusack). What is also not disputed is that fighting broke out after this incident between Ardoyne and Glenbryn residents.

I think that the aftermath of this is perhaps best captured by McDonald & Cusack in the following account (UDA, p355 – 356):

The skirmish had brought residents from both sides of the Ardoyne Road on to the streets and within minutes a dangerous stand-off emerged between the two communities. It took eight police Land Rovers to separate the growing crowds on either side of the dividing line. But the police operation was bungled because their lines were pushed so far up the Ardoyne Road that it left one Protestant street, Glenbryn Park, surrounded by nationalists. At this stage the houses in Glenbryn Park came under attack.
Unfortunately the row, and subsequent mini-riot, took place at school closing time, leaving the children inside Holy Cross cut off from their parents and families, given that the school is located on the Protestant side of the invisible line dividing the Ardoyne Road.

This account accurately depicts how quickly street violence can occur in Belfast, and how damaging the fallout can be. McDonald & Cusack continued:

From all the available evidence it seems that it was not the UDA’s original intention to bar the children access to their school along the Ardoyne Road. Instead it appears that once the stand-off began some of the main organisers of the loyalist protest decided to use the location of Holy Cross as a weapon in their fight to secure their territory.

This account, by two esteemed investigative journalists with impeccable loyalist sources, contradicts myths which emerged from Holy Cross, such as it being a response to IRA intelligence gathering missions (a “parade of Provos” according to Fraser Agnew). Schoolgirls appear to have been blockaded inside the school pretty much by mistake. Loyalists, however, correctly identified that preventing the schoolgirls from attending Holy Cross would cause significant distress to Catholic residents of Ardoyne. Confusingly, Andy Cooper, one of the organisers of the protest, later claimed that “the people walking their children to Holy Cross school are the ones involved in the attack on the 19th of June (ladder incident)."

Cooper also claimed that the parents and children walking to school had "spent ten weeks provoking this community" (Holy Cross BBC Documentary). Immediately following Cooper’s statement, footage of prominent UFF C Company gunman Winky Dodds was shown in the group of protesters. It appears that the same people furious at alleged republicans being on “their” road and no such qualms about active loyalist paramilitaries being present. Considering C Company’s deep involvement in displacing and murdering Protestants, this attitude, like Andy Cooper’s commentary, suggests a chronic lack of self-awareness regarding base sectarianism. It is also worth noting that, among the “protestors” at Holy Cross, Cooper is something of a voice of reason, as well as being considerably more articulate than the lumpen personalities hurling abuse and missiles at those on their way to school.

The Protest

Much has been written about the behaviour of the protesters. Sexualised slurs, pornographic imagery, urine filled balloons, stones, hot tea, and fireworks were thrown at the schoolgirls and their parents. The protestors sometimes used Halloween masks to hide their identities and to further frighten the children. The names and addresses of families were shouted out to Catholics as they walked to school, and known UDA men lined the streets. Fraser Agnew chose not to acknowledge the presence of loyalist paramilitaries at Holy Cross, preferring instead to concentrate on supposed republicans – much like he ignored loyalist bombs, preferring to concentrate on alleged republican ones.

One morning, the protestors opted to slow clap instead of the usual hurling of items and sectarian/sexualised insults at the children and parents. That morning, a UDA man hurled a blast bomb at police lines, close to the children and parents. Video footage shows the terror visible on the faces of schoolgirls aged as young as four, many of whom wet themselves with terror.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the relentless abuse, parents and children went to Holy Cross every day. In that sense, the protest failed.

Cause & Effect

Holy Cross was not the first time loyalists very publicly sought to intimidate Catholic civilians going about their day-to-day business. With a somewhat confused rationale (protesting against restrictions on Orange parades at Drumcree and elsewhere), loyalists began picketing a Catholic church at Harryville. Prominent among the pickets, and alleged to be an organiser, was former RUC officer and convicted UVF murderer Billy McCaughey. McCaughey, nicknamed “the Protestant boy”, struck his brave blow for Ulster by being “part of a gang which tricked the kindly shopkeeper, William Strathearn, out of his bed one night in 1977 to get medicine for a sick child, only to be murdered on his doorstep.” Whilst in HMP Maze serving a life sentence for this squalid crime, McCaughey told BBC journalist Peter Taylor that he had changed his views on the use of violence. However, following his release, McCaughey could be seen wearing a “Harryville on Tour” T-shirt at various loyalist protests.

Like Holy Cross and Drumcree, Harryville was a focused campaign of intimidation against the Catholic population, which took part in full view of the world’s media, and which resulted in attacks on the police, Catholic civilians, petrol and pipe bombs directed at Catholic homes, and a calcifying of sectarian hatred. Prominent loyalist paramilitaries, like McCaughey at Harryville, Billy Wright at Drumcree, and various C Company personalities at Holy Cross, left no doubt in Catholic minds what could happen.

Drumcree had quietened down by 2000, whilst Harryville was called off in 1998. Both protests failed to achieve what loyalists wanted to achieve. The pipe-bomb campaign by loyalists against Catholics, continued throughout 2001.

Ian S Wood described a “well-orchestrated” riot by republicans in July 2001, in north Belfast in which “two blast bombs and 263 petrol bombs were thrown.” The riot was supposedly a protest against an Orange march passing close to Catholic Ardoyne. During this riot, 113 police officers and 10 local people were injured (p270). Whilst the schoolgirls of Holy Cross were on summer holiday at the time, it is quite easy to imagine how these actions affected the residents of Glenbryn.

McDonald & Cusack also wrote that:

over the summer of 2001 there were widespread sectarian clashes in North Belfast … there were several incursions into Protestant areas including a mass republican attack on Twaddel Avenue, in which houses were vandalised, windows smashed, and cars destroyed” (UDA, p353). 

The INLA also shot a loyalist, Mark Blaney during clashes at Ardoyne. Blaney survived. Loyalists launched a number of “retaliatory” murder attempts, finally shooting dead a politically uninvolved Catholic, 19 year old Gerard Lawlor.

It would be naïve to analyse the actions of loyalists at Holy Cross in isolation from the actions of loyalists at Drumcree and Harryville. Commenters on TPQ, and other students of the conflict, often look to localised tensions. But it seems clear that loyalism was engaged in a widespread, systematic, and highly public campaign of sectarian intimidation. That is not to say that local issues had no effect: they did. But to consider Holy Cross simply on the actions of a car driving at a ladder, or vandalised houses in Glenbryn, would be to ignore a much bigger story.

Part 3, Reflections on Holy Cross, to follow.

⏩ Brandon Sullivan is a middle aged, middle management, centre-left Belfast man. Would prefer people focused on the actual bad guys.

4 comments:

  1. Another reason for thinking that the politicians are often worse than those on the front line

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown - if your comment is for publication please sign off on it

    ReplyDelete
  3. Regardless of the political context at the time, to shout abuse and terrorise children on their way to school was simply unforgivable.

    I wonder how these children are now coping psychologically as young adults.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Context would offer no alibi on this one. Naked sectarian hatred of children.

      Delete