Brandon Sullivan ✒ When the Icelandic volcano went off in 2010 and flights out of Belfast were cancelled, I was put up for a few days in a hotel in Antrim town, until I could get a ferry back to Scotland. 

The ferry was understandably very busy, and I was lucky to get a seat at a table, sitting beside two women, I’d guess in their late 60s or early 70s. One of them was a widow, and described how her husband had been shot in the Donegal Arms in the early 1990s, but had survived. She told me how her husband had shouted “that’s the bastard that shot me” when a news report showed a photo of the victim of the INLA feud of 1996. I’ve absolutely no idea if what she told me was true, or if her husband’s identification of his assailant was accurate. But it was certainly convincing, and I can’t see why she would lie.

The IPLO attack on the Donegal Arms, December 21st 1991

I skimmed over the report today, and haven’t taken the time to fully absorb it, but some details are strikingly interesting in the recent ombudsman reports. The IPLO shot up the Donegal Arms in 1991, murdering two politically uninvolved Protestants (Thomas Gorman 55, and Barry Watson 25), and wounding three. Two of the wounded, according to the Ombudsman, were UDA/UFF members. Given the age of the woman I talked to on the ferry, and the description of her husband, I would assume that the wounded man not in the UDA/UFF was him. I have never known that loyalist paramilitaries were wounded in this attack, not that is offers any excuse or justification for the act of terrorism. But it may explain the sheer, barbaric viciousness of one of the loyalist responses.

The UDA/UFF attack on the Devenish Arms, December 22nd 1991

The day after the IPLO attack on the Donegal Arms, the UDA’s C Company “retaliated” by attacking the Devenish Arms, in Belfast. A civil servant, Aidan Wallace 22, was shot dead. Wounded in the attack was 8 year old Christopher Lawless, who was shot in the face. The gunman is alleged to have been Stevie McKeague, who also shot and killed west Belfast pharmacist, Philomena Hanna, among many other residents of nationalist areas. The ombudsman quoted the UDA statement of responsibility, which stated:

The UFF admit responsibility for an attack on the Devenish Arms at Finaghy Road North. The UFF wish to state that the sole responsibility for the UFF carrying out such attacks lies with the IPLO and PIRA who over the last number of months have carried out a systematic sectarian murder campaign against loyalists. The UFF refute allegations that an 8 year old was deliberately shot in the attack. Our volunteers wish to make that clear.

Again, this is the first time that I have read that the UDA rejected the charge that they deliberately shot a child. To borrow a phrase, well, they would, wouldn’t they?

The murder of Larry Brennan, 19th January 1998

Information contained in the report surprised me, by stating that Larry Brennan had been a loyalist target for a number of years. The rationale for his targeting in the local press at the time was that he was engaged to be married to a Protestant woman, which would have outraged loyalist supremacists. The ombudsman report stating:

Between 1984 and 1994, police received repeated information concerning the targeting of Mr Brennan by Loyalist paramilitaries. This investigation did not identify any similar intelligence during the four years preceding Mr Brennan’s murder.

However, the catalyst for the murder was the INLA’s killing that day of UDA man Jim Guiney. This piece of intelligence was also received by the RUC:

An unidentified man from the Malone Road provided intelligence to Loyalists that Brennan assisted the IRA in setting up the shooting of Person AA and Person BBB. This information was passed to Person Y and Person BB. After the murder of Billy Wright, Brennan became a potential target. Person NN carried out the shooting sanctioned by Person II using a .38 Magnum.

Person AA and Person BBB could be Joe Bratty and Raymond Elder, senior UDA/UFF men who were shot dead by the IRA in July 1994. A man named Harold Porter was charged, but not convicted, of the murder of Larry Brennan.

Larry Brennan Brennan’s murder has been, rightly, described and condemned as sectarian. The coroner at the inquest of the IPLO’s Donegal Arms victims also described the murders, accurately, as sectarian. The ombudsman’s reports reveal something of the nature of paramilitary grudges, suspicions, motives, and praxis.

The ombudsman’s report will gather media attention for the findings of “collusive actions.” Most people involved in the collusion debate will have made their minds up about it prior to the reports being written or released. That’s unfortunate. But an important lesson to be learned from the publications is that rumour, gossip, jealousy, and the most base of human instincts and emotions can lead to the murders of everyday people, going about their day-to-day lives, at work, or socialising. The targeting of Larry Brennan in particular seems to have been haphazard, but enduring and sustained, and utterly devoid of strategic or tactical forethought. The IPLO’s mercifully short campaign could be described in similar terms.

With tensions rising in the North, and the political temperature and tempo being manipulated by the DUP and “my cousin Binny” and other Twitter loyalists, it’s important to recognise that the victims of their violence will be just like Larry Brennan, or Aidan Wallace, or young Christopher Lawless, who survived his encounter with a member of the then legal UDA only after extensive medical interventions.

We don’t have to look far back to see what could be lying in wait for the people of the six counties.

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

Some Thoughts On The Ombudsman’s Report

Brandon Sullivan ✒ When the Icelandic volcano went off in 2010 and flights out of Belfast were cancelled, I was put up for a few days in a hotel in Antrim town, until I could get a ferry back to Scotland. 

The ferry was understandably very busy, and I was lucky to get a seat at a table, sitting beside two women, I’d guess in their late 60s or early 70s. One of them was a widow, and described how her husband had been shot in the Donegal Arms in the early 1990s, but had survived. She told me how her husband had shouted “that’s the bastard that shot me” when a news report showed a photo of the victim of the INLA feud of 1996. I’ve absolutely no idea if what she told me was true, or if her husband’s identification of his assailant was accurate. But it was certainly convincing, and I can’t see why she would lie.

The IPLO attack on the Donegal Arms, December 21st 1991

I skimmed over the report today, and haven’t taken the time to fully absorb it, but some details are strikingly interesting in the recent ombudsman reports. The IPLO shot up the Donegal Arms in 1991, murdering two politically uninvolved Protestants (Thomas Gorman 55, and Barry Watson 25), and wounding three. Two of the wounded, according to the Ombudsman, were UDA/UFF members. Given the age of the woman I talked to on the ferry, and the description of her husband, I would assume that the wounded man not in the UDA/UFF was him. I have never known that loyalist paramilitaries were wounded in this attack, not that is offers any excuse or justification for the act of terrorism. But it may explain the sheer, barbaric viciousness of one of the loyalist responses.

The UDA/UFF attack on the Devenish Arms, December 22nd 1991

The day after the IPLO attack on the Donegal Arms, the UDA’s C Company “retaliated” by attacking the Devenish Arms, in Belfast. A civil servant, Aidan Wallace 22, was shot dead. Wounded in the attack was 8 year old Christopher Lawless, who was shot in the face. The gunman is alleged to have been Stevie McKeague, who also shot and killed west Belfast pharmacist, Philomena Hanna, among many other residents of nationalist areas. The ombudsman quoted the UDA statement of responsibility, which stated:

The UFF admit responsibility for an attack on the Devenish Arms at Finaghy Road North. The UFF wish to state that the sole responsibility for the UFF carrying out such attacks lies with the IPLO and PIRA who over the last number of months have carried out a systematic sectarian murder campaign against loyalists. The UFF refute allegations that an 8 year old was deliberately shot in the attack. Our volunteers wish to make that clear.

Again, this is the first time that I have read that the UDA rejected the charge that they deliberately shot a child. To borrow a phrase, well, they would, wouldn’t they?

The murder of Larry Brennan, 19th January 1998

Information contained in the report surprised me, by stating that Larry Brennan had been a loyalist target for a number of years. The rationale for his targeting in the local press at the time was that he was engaged to be married to a Protestant woman, which would have outraged loyalist supremacists. The ombudsman report stating:

Between 1984 and 1994, police received repeated information concerning the targeting of Mr Brennan by Loyalist paramilitaries. This investigation did not identify any similar intelligence during the four years preceding Mr Brennan’s murder.

However, the catalyst for the murder was the INLA’s killing that day of UDA man Jim Guiney. This piece of intelligence was also received by the RUC:

An unidentified man from the Malone Road provided intelligence to Loyalists that Brennan assisted the IRA in setting up the shooting of Person AA and Person BBB. This information was passed to Person Y and Person BB. After the murder of Billy Wright, Brennan became a potential target. Person NN carried out the shooting sanctioned by Person II using a .38 Magnum.

Person AA and Person BBB could be Joe Bratty and Raymond Elder, senior UDA/UFF men who were shot dead by the IRA in July 1994. A man named Harold Porter was charged, but not convicted, of the murder of Larry Brennan.

Larry Brennan Brennan’s murder has been, rightly, described and condemned as sectarian. The coroner at the inquest of the IPLO’s Donegal Arms victims also described the murders, accurately, as sectarian. The ombudsman’s reports reveal something of the nature of paramilitary grudges, suspicions, motives, and praxis.

The ombudsman’s report will gather media attention for the findings of “collusive actions.” Most people involved in the collusion debate will have made their minds up about it prior to the reports being written or released. That’s unfortunate. But an important lesson to be learned from the publications is that rumour, gossip, jealousy, and the most base of human instincts and emotions can lead to the murders of everyday people, going about their day-to-day lives, at work, or socialising. The targeting of Larry Brennan in particular seems to have been haphazard, but enduring and sustained, and utterly devoid of strategic or tactical forethought. The IPLO’s mercifully short campaign could be described in similar terms.

With tensions rising in the North, and the political temperature and tempo being manipulated by the DUP and “my cousin Binny” and other Twitter loyalists, it’s important to recognise that the victims of their violence will be just like Larry Brennan, or Aidan Wallace, or young Christopher Lawless, who survived his encounter with a member of the then legal UDA only after extensive medical interventions.

We don’t have to look far back to see what could be lying in wait for the people of the six counties.

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

3 comments:

  1. The report leaves the PSNI with a lot to answer for. Given its willingness to cover up the question needs to be asked as to what it will do if the vista referred to by the author comes to pass? I think it would do exactly as it did when called the RUC.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think a limitation to the ombudsman's reports is a comparison with actions the RUC took with regards to agents and informers within republican organisations, though that is outside of their terms of reference.

    One RUC officer, Harry Beckett, was shot dead by the IRA in 1990. The pistol used to kill him had been handed back to an IRA informer. I have been unable to find the original source, but there are rumours that four uniformed RUC officers were killed by a massive IRA landmine in the early 1980s, despite Special Branch having knowledge of the bomb being made and planted.

    I think that elements of the RUC, in particular Special Branch allowed numerous killings to happen, and facilitated many more killers to operate by withholding evidence. Not all of those who died as a result of these were nationalists or republicans, though a substantial majority were.

    The word collusion was already being overused, and had become contentious - most people have made their minds up about what it is/was, and how much truth there were in the allegations.

    I think that within elements of the RUC, tactical decisions were frequently made that in effect saved some people's lives (often agents or informers), whilst allowing others to die. I think that there was a hierarchy of value attached to citizens of the North - but uniformed RUC officers and British soldiers were also allowed to die to protect agents/informers.

    What is apparent is that the decision to recruit and protect loyalist informers and apparently doing little with the information gleaned leaves a position that is extremely hard to justify. An organisation which allowed one its own officers to die to protect an informer is unlikely to care much about ordinary nationalists placing a bet.

    There is far more nuance to collusion, and collusive activates, than is generally allowed.

    I think of it like this. If D Company, 2nd Battalion, Belfast Brigade IRA decided to target the unionist communities of the Shankill and Sandy Row, they would not have lasted as long as Adair's C Company did.

    By the same token, despite the IRA accounting for some C Company personnel, it was the RUC who put them out of business prior to the 1994 ceasefire. And the RUC statistically convicted more loyalists than republicans.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Republicans have sought to contain the collusion description to security services / loyalism. I think that is much too narrow. Those republicans who covered up for Stakeknife have no high ground to stand on and look down their noses at RUC cover up.
      Collusion between the state and loyalism was the consequence of a hybrid, the two main components being a security imperative that gave rise to certain tactical and strategic calculations, and an ideological antipathy towards republicans and nationalists.

      Delete