Brandon Sullivan ✒ concludes his two part series looking at Provisional IRA targeting of civilian contractors servicing the British Repressive State Apparatuses. 

A Circle of Killings – Belfast

The IRA also targeted Henry Brothers outside of Tyrone and South Derry. On the 21st October 1993, 51 year old John Gibson, a director of the company, became the fifth employee to be killed, shot dead at his home in Newtownabbey. The IRA claimed his killing and named and warned a further five firms that they would be targeted if they continued working for the security forces. Mr Gibson was a leading charity worker for those in the North who had diabetes.

The day after Mr Gibson was killed, loyalists shot a Catholic taxi driver in the head. The driver survived the ordeal, which took place less than 100 yards from where Mr Gibson lived and died. The day after the attack on the taxi driver, the IRA carried out the notorious Shankill bombing.

On Sunday, 5th December 1993, the North Belfast UDA, using their Ulster Freedom Fighters flag of convenience, carried out another sectarian attack on a Catholic taxi. This time the driver, a 31 year old man named John Todd, and a 15 year old boy named Brian Duffy were killed.

In July 1996, Brian Duffy’s 24 year old brother, Robert Duffy, was convicted of the murder of John Gibson. He was released under the Good Friday agreement.

In Hugh Jordan and David Lister’s book Mad Dog, they wrote of a cab firm called Circle Taxis being set up with £10k of UDA money, in 1991. The firm was set up by C Company’s Ian Truesdale, and was known to the police as “murder cars” because of the number of times its cars were “hijacked” and used in attacks.

The Sunday Life reported that “Republicans would have known that all Circle Taxis drivers are Protestant - including one who is the brother of a top UFF terrorist.” (Sunday Life, 10th Dec 2000)

In 2000, Trevor Kell, a member of the North Belfast UDA was shot dead by republicans. I have previously discussed the murder of Mr Kell here. The Belfast Telegraph described Robert Duffy as the “number one suspect” in the murder of Mr Kell. Duffy has never been charged with Kell’s killing, but the Daily Mail and the Irish News quoted Mr Kell’s brother saying that the police told them that Duffy made the call that lured Mr Kell to his death. The Kell family believe that the actual target was Johnny Adair’s brother, James. James Adair was convicted of attempting to murder a Catholic man in a hatchet attack in North Belfast, in 1992. Convicted with Adair for the attack was rapist and child murderer Trevor Hinton.

David Ervine asked of Mr Kell’s murder: “for what was he killed? And for what benefit to Ulster or Ireland?”

The Sunday Life reported that “Republicans would have known that all Circle Taxis drivers are Protestant - including one who is the brother of a top UFF terrorist.” (10th Dec 2000)

We are into the realms of conjecture, but given that Robert Duffy’s brother was murdered by the North Belfast UDA, it could be easy to suggest revenge as a motive for his alleged attack on Circle Taxis. Again, it has to be said, Duffy has not been charged with the attack. The murder of Kell was something of an anomaly. The IRA hadn’t carried out a killing like that in some time. Could it have been a bereaved, trigger happy brother looking to settle a score?

The nadir of the IRA’s campaign against security force contractors

The murder of Patsy Gillespie is, to my mind, the single most appalling act carried out by the IRA. To force a man to drive a live bomb into a checkpoint, or else have his family members murdered, can only be described as a war crime. Mr Gillespie was chosen to die, in a manner which meant no trace of his body would ever be found, because he worked as a cook in a nearby army base. Five soldiers also died: the last soldiers to be killed by the IRA in Derry. Ed Moloney wrote that:

As an operation calculated to undermine the IRA's armed struggle, alienate even its most loyal supporters and damage Sinn Féin politically, it had no equal; no other single act of violence perpetrated by the IRA during this phase of its campaign could match it.

Moloney and Peter Taylor both suggested that an operation as callous as the human bomb attacks could have been a deliberate tactical move by those wishing to reduce support for IRA “hawks.” Even if so, senior IRA commanders made a decision to obliterate the body of a man likely known to some of his killers, for the simple fact that he earned a meagre living at an army base.

But, perhaps, I think the nadir of the IRA’s campaign against contractors to the security forces was perhaps reached on the 13th May 1994, when a bomb was placed under the car of a man who worked as a cleaner in an RUC station, Fred Anthony. Mr Anthony’s wife and daughter were in the car, and suffered terrible injuries. His young daughter suffered two broken legs, and shrapnel in her head.

To endanger an innocent family to kill a cleaner brings to mind an RUC officer’s assessment of the closing stages of the IRA’s campaign as a “grubby, pathetic, little war.”

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

The IRA’s War Against Security Force Contractors – Part Ⅱ

Brandon Sullivan ✒ concludes his two part series looking at Provisional IRA targeting of civilian contractors servicing the British Repressive State Apparatuses. 

A Circle of Killings – Belfast

The IRA also targeted Henry Brothers outside of Tyrone and South Derry. On the 21st October 1993, 51 year old John Gibson, a director of the company, became the fifth employee to be killed, shot dead at his home in Newtownabbey. The IRA claimed his killing and named and warned a further five firms that they would be targeted if they continued working for the security forces. Mr Gibson was a leading charity worker for those in the North who had diabetes.

The day after Mr Gibson was killed, loyalists shot a Catholic taxi driver in the head. The driver survived the ordeal, which took place less than 100 yards from where Mr Gibson lived and died. The day after the attack on the taxi driver, the IRA carried out the notorious Shankill bombing.

On Sunday, 5th December 1993, the North Belfast UDA, using their Ulster Freedom Fighters flag of convenience, carried out another sectarian attack on a Catholic taxi. This time the driver, a 31 year old man named John Todd, and a 15 year old boy named Brian Duffy were killed.

In July 1996, Brian Duffy’s 24 year old brother, Robert Duffy, was convicted of the murder of John Gibson. He was released under the Good Friday agreement.

In Hugh Jordan and David Lister’s book Mad Dog, they wrote of a cab firm called Circle Taxis being set up with £10k of UDA money, in 1991. The firm was set up by C Company’s Ian Truesdale, and was known to the police as “murder cars” because of the number of times its cars were “hijacked” and used in attacks.

The Sunday Life reported that “Republicans would have known that all Circle Taxis drivers are Protestant - including one who is the brother of a top UFF terrorist.” (Sunday Life, 10th Dec 2000)

In 2000, Trevor Kell, a member of the North Belfast UDA was shot dead by republicans. I have previously discussed the murder of Mr Kell here. The Belfast Telegraph described Robert Duffy as the “number one suspect” in the murder of Mr Kell. Duffy has never been charged with Kell’s killing, but the Daily Mail and the Irish News quoted Mr Kell’s brother saying that the police told them that Duffy made the call that lured Mr Kell to his death. The Kell family believe that the actual target was Johnny Adair’s brother, James. James Adair was convicted of attempting to murder a Catholic man in a hatchet attack in North Belfast, in 1992. Convicted with Adair for the attack was rapist and child murderer Trevor Hinton.

David Ervine asked of Mr Kell’s murder: “for what was he killed? And for what benefit to Ulster or Ireland?”

The Sunday Life reported that “Republicans would have known that all Circle Taxis drivers are Protestant - including one who is the brother of a top UFF terrorist.” (10th Dec 2000)

We are into the realms of conjecture, but given that Robert Duffy’s brother was murdered by the North Belfast UDA, it could be easy to suggest revenge as a motive for his alleged attack on Circle Taxis. Again, it has to be said, Duffy has not been charged with the attack. The murder of Kell was something of an anomaly. The IRA hadn’t carried out a killing like that in some time. Could it have been a bereaved, trigger happy brother looking to settle a score?

The nadir of the IRA’s campaign against security force contractors

The murder of Patsy Gillespie is, to my mind, the single most appalling act carried out by the IRA. To force a man to drive a live bomb into a checkpoint, or else have his family members murdered, can only be described as a war crime. Mr Gillespie was chosen to die, in a manner which meant no trace of his body would ever be found, because he worked as a cook in a nearby army base. Five soldiers also died: the last soldiers to be killed by the IRA in Derry. Ed Moloney wrote that:

As an operation calculated to undermine the IRA's armed struggle, alienate even its most loyal supporters and damage Sinn Féin politically, it had no equal; no other single act of violence perpetrated by the IRA during this phase of its campaign could match it.

Moloney and Peter Taylor both suggested that an operation as callous as the human bomb attacks could have been a deliberate tactical move by those wishing to reduce support for IRA “hawks.” Even if so, senior IRA commanders made a decision to obliterate the body of a man likely known to some of his killers, for the simple fact that he earned a meagre living at an army base.

But, perhaps, I think the nadir of the IRA’s campaign against contractors to the security forces was perhaps reached on the 13th May 1994, when a bomb was placed under the car of a man who worked as a cleaner in an RUC station, Fred Anthony. Mr Anthony’s wife and daughter were in the car, and suffered terrible injuries. His young daughter suffered two broken legs, and shrapnel in her head.

To endanger an innocent family to kill a cleaner brings to mind an RUC officer’s assessment of the closing stages of the IRA’s campaign as a “grubby, pathetic, little war.”

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

43 comments:

  1. And Patsy Gillespie might have been executed to move the peace process forward ... possibly but more likely that's a running of history backwards.
    I have a buddy who says that those who provided services to the 'Imperialist colonisers' were equal to those 'Vichy Government types' who rolled over in the face of Nazi invaders. And those who called service providers to the Brits to account were akin to those who might have executed plumbing contractors who provided services to the the Nazis in creating the gas chambers.

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    1. Such comparisons are utterly obscene. I hope you have explained to your buddy why, Henry Joy.

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  2. The murder of Patsy Gillespie is, to my mind, the single most appalling act carried out by the IRA

    Fuck me, where were you living? Under a rock? There were plenty worse.

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  3. @ Stevie R

    The human bomb attacks are the only actions that I can think of that are unique to the IRA. Patsy was used to kill people, his life considered as expendable as the vehicle he was forced to drive.

    It's all subjective of course. The IRA using Frank Hegarty's mother to fool Frank into a false sense of security and coming home to a brutal death likewise sticks out as especially depraved.

    @ Henry Joy

    I think Patsy Gillespie may have been murdered to neuter the hawks, but like you say, it is easy to review history and see motivation and conspiracy. I find it hard to conceptualise that Northern Command didn't realise that the op would have led to a huge drop in support. Enniskillen could be portrayed, regardless of the actual truth, as a mistake. The intent evident in Patsy's sacrifice to kill soldiers was obvious.

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    1. It is as you say subjective. It is why one disaster impacts on us in a way that another might not. There is no denying that the death of Patsy Gillespie was a huge PR disaster because of the revulsion it generated, much like the killing of Sammy Llewellyn did. To be technical about it it was a bit like Mountbatten in that it took the shine of a very effective military strike.
      Henry Joy has a point - what might appear eminently reasonable after the fact might not have factored into the decisions at the time. The same sort of thing was said about Enniskillen - intentionally done to limit the military option - but it is hard to find evidence to support it.

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    2. It's hard to imagine that anyone working for the security forces didn't know the risks involved. Considering that he had previously been forced to deliver a proxy into a military base it is hard to comprehend why the unfortunate Gillespie persisted with his employment.

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    3. He knew the risks involved but might have been of the John Hume school of majority nationalist opinion at the time and felt his right to make a living was greater than the right of a minority to kill him. At the time I did not have a lot of sympathy for him, terming the tactic collaborator bombs rather than human bombs.
      The PR was disastrous - had they shot him at the door of his house, we might not even remember the incident or the name.

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    4. Unfortunately for Patsy, even though Hume was well-determined that Adams & Co would visit his tailor, they still hadn't fully got round to taking on his recommendation.

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  4. @ AM

    I've always thought Mountbatten could have been hit with relative ease and without killing the blameless and harmless people with him. I'm not sure the Derry Brigade could have killed five soldiers in one attack without doing what they did.

    Had the dead soldiers been Para's, perhaps the operation would have been viewed marginally differently.

    In War & an Irish Town, Eamon McCann spoke to confronting a "senior provisional" saying "that was a lousy fucking military operation.". The provisional replied "that was a perfect military operation."

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    1. to the extent to which that is correct, we are left with the fact that both Mountbatten and Gillespie took the shine of what were - had they not died - seriously prestigious military successes.
      Marginally - it is probably as generous as it gets.

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  5. This also stirs the subconscious belief amongst the PUL community that there exists a palpable exercise in minimisation in the CNR community whereby any action taken that was PR disaster was simply fobbed off as being under direction of the Brits. The belief in my community is that absolutely no responsibility for any action is countenanced by the Northern Republican movement either retrospectively nor faithfully. Gillespie, Enniskillen or Omagh. I've heard plenty of deflection of responsibility to the Brits and not one person came out and owned it. No wonder howls for enquiries just piss us off. Remember Bloody Friday? Can we get the a 10th of the money spent on Bloody Sunday on that please? Obviously there's a hierarchy of victims, just ask the Shinners.

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  6. where has it been suggested that Mountbatten, Patsy Gillespie or Enniskillen was under the control of the Brits? There is enough evidence to show that the Brits were up to their neck in running agents and could have stopped operations but chose not to. In Derry in the same era there were accusations from the families of dead British soldiers that two of them had been sacrificed to protect an agent.
    Omagh was the responsibility of the people who planted the bomb. What needs further exploration is if the Brits could have prevented. it given their access to agents with some degree of foreknowledge.
    The money spent on Bloody Sunday was aimed towards exonerating the victims from false allegations. There are no such allegations against those killed on Bloody Friday. What the Bloody Sunday money established was that the victims on Bloody Sunday were as innocent of those on Bloody Friday.

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  7. @ Stevie R

    I don't think anyone is suggesting Brit involvement in Gillespie's murder: just that the revulsion it generated was a bonus to the 'doves' in the Provisionals.

    Bloody Friday is almost universally described as a crime, and was investigated at the time, resulting in a conviction. To this day people view Bloody Sunday as being non-criminal. An inquiry was needed to establish that lies and criminality were covered up.

    Bloody Friday warrants a thorough investigation, but an inquiry isn't needed to establish what happened.

    The subconscious tendency you noted is present in loyalism and unionism. On the Quill, Holy Cross is blamed on republicans, and support for loyalist paramilitaries is excused on the basis that that support was for killing militant republicans.

    Both sides have their myths and avoidant beliefs.

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  8. "we are left with the fact that both Mountbatten and Gillespie took the shine of what were - had they not died - seriously prestigious military successes"

    I can't recall where I read it but there was theory put forward that a very senior Republican, who was suspected of being an agent, authorised/devised the 'human bomb' with encouragement from his handlers. The idea was to create a backlash against the Provos and help path the way to end of their campaign.

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    1. it is a possibility but without something substantial to back it up it has more the ring of a conspiracy theory. If the British allowed that to happen to steer their agent through there is a lot to answer for.

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    2. From memory that was released by Martin ingram allegedly documenting a conversation between MMG, his handler and referencing his brother in Derry.

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  9. It's curious the 'Hawks' in s.armagh and Tyrone gave their abducted drivers a chance to escape I.e refused to tie them into the vehicles allthewhile the Derry attack group, that was riddled and 'wiped out'(according to top cop Martindale, he who bragged he had done thus) carried it out to the letter. Just saying.

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    1. "Cloghoge
      In tandem with the Coshquin operation, members of the IRA's South Down Brigade took over the house of a Catholic man, James McAvoy, 65, in Newry. He was allegedly targeted because he served RUC officers at his filling station, which was beside the house. He was driven away in a Toyota HiAce van while his family was held at gunpoint. At Flagstaff Hill, near the Irish border, members of the IRA's South Armagh Brigade loaded the van with one ton of explosives. McAvoy was strapped into the driver's seat and told to drive the van to the accommodation block at Cloghoge permanent vehicle checkpoint. Before he drove off, a senior IRA member seemed "to have a pang of conscience" and whispered in McAvoy's ear "don't open the door; go out through the window".

      An IRA team followed the van in a car and turned into a side road shortly before it reached the checkpoint. When McAvoy stopped the van and climbed out of the window, a soldier came over and began shouting at him to move the vehicle. Moments later, a timer detonated the bomb. The soldier was killed outright and 13 other soldiers were injured. McAvoy survived but suffered a broken leg.

      The soldier killed was Ranger Cyril J. Smith, from B Company, 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Rangers. Smith, who was also a Northern Ireland Catholic, was posthumously awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal, as he tried to warn his comrades about the bomb, rather than running for cover.

      Omagh
      At about the same time, there was a third attempted proxy bombing in County Tyrone. A third man was strapped into a car and forced to drive it to Lisanelly Camp in Omagh while his family was held at gunpoint. The third bomb weighed 1,500 pounds (680 kg), only exploded partially because of a faulty detonator."

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    2. HJ - humanity still bubbled up in that advice to go through the window. Can't recall hearing that before. Good stuff.

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    3. "When Gillespie reached the checkpoint, at 3:55 AM,[11] he tried to get out and warn the soldiers, but the bomb detonated when he attempted to open the door. IRA bomb makers had installed a detonation device linked to the van's courtesy light, which came on whenever the van door opened."

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_bomb

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  10. @ Terry

    I'm going from a vague recollection here, but I think it was a Kevin Fulton type who made that claim. I don't think it's credible.

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  11. Would it be a 'conspiracy theory' to suggest Bertie Duffy's kid brother was murdered in order to tempt Bertie across the border? Going by court reports it was alleged Mr Duffy's blood was left at the scene of the Gibson shooting and if I recall Bertie was arrested attending his kid brothers wake.

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  12. That's just the point. British agent controllers do have a lot to answer for. How many people were sacrificed to keeps the likes of Freddie Scappaticci and Brian Nelson in place? The spooks worked by the code of the end justifies the means.

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  13. @ AM

    Re Samuel Llewellyn, did this effect support for the IRA/Sinn Fein in any tangible way, or was it more a general distaste among the support base?

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    1. hard to measure at this stage but probably not - the feud with the Officials a few months later would probably have been more subversive of support within the community

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  14. I don't know how the divine virtue signalers will square this circle from condemning IRA tactics of targeting crown forces employed construction companies etc to praising the recent announcement by plucky divine Ukraine that anyone distributing Russian humanitarian aid is a 'collaborater'. And the gold medal for mental gymnastics goes to?.............

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    1. Russia invaded, without provocation, a neighbouring and sovereign country whose democracy provided a "threat of a good example" to the kleptocratic ultra-nationalist imperialist regime in the Kremlin. Ukraine has the right to resist under international law; law which did not apply to the IRA. Besides what's the source of this allegation of that threat.

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  15. @ MickO

    You seem to have a degree of knowledge about the murders of Brian Duffy, and Trevor Kell.

    I have never read a single source that suggested Mr Kell was the intended target, and one report said that he had only been working for Circle Cabs for two days prior to his murder. I found the theory that he was mistaken for James 'Archie' Adair plausible.

    I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

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    1. @brandon Sullivan
      I couldn't possibly comment due to the risk the thought police would come knocking. All I can say is there is strong speculation the murder of Bertie Duffy's young brother wasn't as 'random' as was suggested at the time but rather was possibly an attempt to flush out a suspect that the cops were possibly looking for in connection to the Gibson shooting(considering the suspect's blood was allegedly left at the scene, according to court reports).
      Of course the Brit/NATO state apologists on here would label such a claim as a 'conspiracy theory' cos the Brits etc never ever conspire or perform black ops etc......only the bad guys do that!

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  16. Barry,

    Russia invaded, without provocation, a neighbouring and sovereign country whose democracy provided a "threat of a good example" to the kleptocratic ultra-nationalist imperialist regime in the Kremlin.

    When you use academic buzz words to make what ever you are saying sound important it generally falls flat and sounds impotent.....and for you to say Russia wasn''t provoked tells not only me, TPQ but whoever else reads your post just how much you don't understand about the war in Ukraine and it's origins....

    Ukraine has the right to resist under international law; law which did not apply to the IRA. Besides what's the source of this allegation of that threat.

    International Law and the ICC....? I don't know if they applied to the Provisionals/INLA or not but I do know the USA, Russia and Israel believe International law and the ICC don't apply to them... ICC FAQ...

    Infamously, the late British foreign secretary Robin Cook (one of the principal forces behind the creation of the court) said: "This is not a court set up to bring to book prime ministers of the United Kingdom or presidents of the United States."

    Another thing to throw into your equation Barry is how similar the tactics Ukrainians are using to the tactics the Provisionals/INLA used....And that's down in part because they are using tactics found in the IRA Green Book. Belfast Telegraph ......

    "The IRA’s ‘Green Book’ has been distributed amongst Ukrainian soldiers to help them prepare for guerrilla warfare.

    The Sunday World has revealed that the Provo's infamous code of conduct was translated into Ukrainian in 2018 and given to new recruits to study. It has been circulated for the past four years in a bid to educate soldiers on the best tactics and strategies to be used in a successful military campaign. It is believed an army general researching war came across the ‘Green Book’ online and ordered for it to be translated and republished."

    Do you think 4 years ago the Ukrainian General was worried about the ICC or gave a second thought about international law when he first read 'The Green Book'......? Another thing for your equation, knowing now 'The Green Book' is in play, isn't it possible a Ukrainian ASU put an 'up an under' that led to Darya Dugina being blown to pieces in a car bomb meant for her father.....?

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    1. Ok Frankie I will put it more simply. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 in clear violation of international law and then proceeded to send troops into Eastern Ukraine. It then invaded the remainder of Ukraine in February 2022. The motive for the invasion was Putin's belief informed by the ultra-nationalist ideology of Alexandra Duguin that Ukraine has no right to exist as an independent nation. As non-state actors, PIRA and INLA are/were not governed by international law governing inter-state relations. I have no information as to the perps of the murder of Darya Dugina but I do know that Putin has form when it comes to false flag operations e.g. the blowing up of apartment blocks in Moscow in 2000 by the FSB to make it appear that Chechen separatists were responsible so as to provide a pretext for a fresh Chechen war.

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  17. Barry/ Brandon/Terry...

    Barry.....
    If I understand you Ukrainian men and women are heroes for fighting the Russians ( an occupying ) but Irish men and women who decide to fight the British (an occupying force) are what exactly 'murdering sectarian bastards'.....?

    Brandon/Terry.....

    I'm going from a vague recollection here, but I think it was a Kevin Fulton type who made that claim. I don't think it's credible

    IRA searches for proof that agent J118 existed

    "
    The IRA has launched an internal investigation into the existence of an alleged MI6 agent codenamed 'J118', The Observer has learnt.

    Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein's chief negotiator and former IRA commanding officer, has publicly denied he is the agent. The Mid Ulster MP was responding to allegations from former British Army intelligence officer Martin Ingram who claimed McGuinness was MI6's top asset inside the IRA. 'Regardless of the validity of this claim, it is IRA standard operating procedure to investigate,' a top republican source said this weekend."

    Here is a link to the Cryptome site. It is kinda of wikileak dump....

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    1. There is now no occupying British force in NI due to the GFA. Russia invaded a sovereign democracy in order to suppress Uranian nationhood and so Ukrainian resistance has democratic and international legitimacy which PIRA and INLA never had.

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  18. Barry..........

    There is now no occupying British force in NI due to the GFA.

    Then why have MI5 not only have a very big foot hold in all things security in the still occupied 6 counties but a very big command post just outside of Belfast? Why is there still British troops stationed here. Why does a British police force patrol the streets.Why are post boxes red or why is the post service called Royal Mail? Why is the is the state media called BBC and not RTE....Why are whoever elected go to either a regional British assembly or Westminster and not The Dail....Why is the head of State for the six counties a British monarch.....The list is endless.
    No occupying force? Really.....

    Russia invaded a sovereign democracy in order to suppress Uranian nationhood

    Read up on Operation Aerodynamics and then come back and talk to me about what really has been going on in Ukraine since at least the early/mid 1950's....


    Ukrainian resistance has democratic and international legitimacy which PIRA and INLA never had.

    If it wasn't for volunteers of the local PIRA protecting Ardoyne the place would have been razed. Loyalists tried to raze Ardoyne. I will say it again, Irish republicans of all shades left me alone during the conflict. British state forces didn't.

    And exactly what legal rights did the west have in the recent middle east wars, Afghanistan...? And I have already ready shown and sourced the USA, Russia, China and Israel don't care about international law or the ICC

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  19. Frankie, the GFA with its consent principle to Irish unity was overwhelmingly endorsed by the electorate in both NI and the Republic. During the course of the Troubles, the majority of the CRN electorate always voted SDLP. Besides, up until the 1986 split at least, the Provos took their mandate not from contemporary ballots but the 1918 General Election and the Army Council considered itself to be the legitimate govt of all Ireland. But facts never get in the way of your emotion-driven spiel.

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  20. Barry you said there is no occupying force because of the GFA. I gave clear examples of how the north eastern 6 counties of Ireland are still occupied by Britian. The GFA rubber stamped the occupation...Even the dogs in the street know that.

    Ukraine/Russia.....read up on OPERATION BELLADONNA , it was the fore-runner to Operation Areodynamics.

    If you want to think because of the GFA there is no occupation in the 6 counties or the war in Ukraine was started because of what Putin did in 2014...Be my guest. I will just follow the evidence.....

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    1. "Barry you said there is no occupying force because of the GFA. I gave clear examples of how the north eastern 6 counties of Ireland are still occupied by Britian. "

      They probably wouldn't still be there if 1, The majority of people over the past 100 years didn't want them, 2, The population couldn't be trusted not to bomb and shoot the shite out of each other over who got slums first.

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    2. Frankie, whatever about the accuracies of Operations Aerodynamics and Belladona, you provide no hard evidence of any connection between them and the current war in Ukraine. It was Putin (the modern lodestar for Europe's far right who illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and proceeded to not so covertly intervene in the Donbass on spurious Sudetenland grounds of protecting Russian speaking population most of whom were happy with an independent Ukraine. Putin tried to finish the job this year because he wants to return to the Greater Rus fold. It was the supreme crime of waging aggressive war. Do you believe that or not or are you an apologist for Putin (like so many in the conspiratorial, anti-globalist far right and left)? NI is not occupied territory in the sense that the West Bank and Western Sahara are because both electorates in both parts of Ireland have freely consented to its position in the UK and the unity by consent principle. You do not really like the upholding of international law, do you. You are entitled to your opinions but not to your "alternative" facts.

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  21. Stevie,

    1, The majority of people over the past 100 years didn't want them,
    May have something to do with the 6 county state was set up to have a protestant majority and catholics/nationalist's were second class citizens and it took almost 60yrs before there was equality on housing, votes, employment.........It is only in the very recent past that the head count has almost levelled itself out...

    The only person who is stopping any kind of OIOV is a British SOS...!!!!!!


    2, The population couldn't be trusted not to bomb and shoot the shite out of each other over who got slums first.

    No one is bombing the 'shite' out of each other today for the same slums....And the British troops are more or less off the streets (at least overtly)...Go figure....

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  22. Barry,

    whatever about the accuracies of Operations Aerodynamics and Belladona, you provide no hard evidence of any connection between them and the current war in Ukraine.

    All I am doing is linking official CIA documents...I can't really get anynore accurate. An example is for you to open the link to PDF of a CIA declassified dated 28th August 1953 about the renewal of Operation Aerodynamics. At the top of page 3 it reads....

    "1, Area of Operations ........Ukrainian SSR
    2, Purpose...... The purpose of Project AERODYNAMIC is to provide for the exploitation and expansion of the anti-Soviet Ukrainian resistance movement for cold war and hot war purposes.."

    If you want to buy into the MSM narrative again be my guest...(Quillers, I guess you can take a horse to water but can't make it think)

    Do you believe that or not or are you an apologist for Putin (like so many in the conspiratorial, anti-globalist far right and left)?

    I am not an apologist for anyone. I am an unapologetic Ardoyne rockabilly. I have no idea what 'conspiratorial, anti-globalist far right and left' means. I read the official documents and make my own mind up....

    NI is not occupied territory in the sense that the West Bank and Western Sahara are ...

    So the 6 counties are occupied (you told the world it wasn't)...It wasn't that long ago Barry that West Belfast looked very much like the West Bank. The main difference between ' yesterday and today' in the occupied 6 is the surveillance is more covert and hi-tech. If there was another out break of violence on the scale of the last conflict...British troop would be back on the streets in a heartbeat....

    You do not really like the upholding of international law, do you. You are entitled to your opinions but not to your "alternative" facts.

    It's not me who doesn't uphold international law, again it is America, Israel, China and Russia...Most other countries flout international law when it suits their agendas....Aint me...I don't do 'alt' anything, everything I link has been 'Frankie fact checked'....

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  23. Frankie, you signally to provide any connection between the CIA's use of Ukrainian nationalism as a weapon in the Cold War with the USSR in the 1950s and 60s and the conflict in Ukraine today. I guess that you want to lay the blame for it at the hands of the USA and NATO but citing CIA documents from more than a half century ago and then hinting at a connection without using any empirical evidence just does not cut the mustard.

    I am not going to repeat the legal status of NI as a part of the UK vis-a-viz legally occupied territories such as the West Bank of the Jordan and the Western Sahara but your comment about "another out break of violence on the scale of the last conflict" begs the question of what could trigger such a conflict - extremists who want the Troubles to start again and would like to use Brexit or some other seismic mistake as a pretext.

    You may claim to be ignorant of far-right and far-left conspiratorial ideologies but so much of the themes of your comments such as the MSM, Rothschilds, Pizzagate, bat flu and Zionism draw at least unconsciously upon their ideological tropes.

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  24. Frankie, you signally to provide any connection between the CIA's use of Ukrainian nationalism as a weapon in the Cold War with the USSR in the 1950s and 60s and the conflict in Ukraine today.

    Barry all I can do is source official documents and link them....You could read what Gerald Sussman who is a professor of international relations and author of numerous books, including Branding Democracy: U.S. Regime Change in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe, has to in a piece called Ukraine: The CIA’s 75-year-old Proxy....Again if you or anyone wants to buy into the MSM bullcrap about how the origins of the Ukraine/Russia war started in 2014...Go for it..........

    I am not going to repeat the legal status of NI as a part of the UK

    You started off saying the 6 counties wasn't occupied, then not occupied like the West Bank and now you talk 'legal status'. Anymore hoops you want to jump through? The 6 counties are occupied, no matter what way you dress it up.

    but your comment about "another out break of violence on the scale of the last conflict" begs the question of what could trigger such a conflict - extremists who want the Troubles to start again and would like to use Brexit or some other seismic mistake as a pretext.

    That says more about your mindset than mine. I am not hung up on Brexit or anyone who wants the conflict to re-start. I am thinking more along the line of Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter coming together like the Belfast relief riots in the 1930's.By most accounts this winter is going to be cold, long and hard and people will be faced with the stark choice to pay rent and make mortgage payments or feed their kids, themselves and heat homes.....


    your comments such as the MSM, Rothschilds, Pizzagate, bat flu and Zionism draw at least unconsciously upon their ideological tropes.

    All I do is look at the evidence and join the dots.. And talk about things that MSM refuse that most people whisper about because they don't want to upset people or they are afraid of being called an alt right-left conspiracy theorist.

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  25. Frankie, again you provide no hard evidence about the Ukraine war being the outcome of CIA machinations beyond mere speculation and anti-American and anti-Western reflex response. Your denial of the right of the Ukrainian people to independent nationhood and democracy or at least the denial of agency to Ukraine (and Putin) is stark and contrasts with your constant incantations of the "Occupied Six Counties" and quasi-racist slurs such as "pro-British" to those who point out facts such as the widespread assent to the GFA/BA throughout the island of Ireland.

    All you do is to add two and two to make a multiple of five by adding together coincidences, obscure events and half-baked theories to make (yes) grand meta-conspiracist narratives. We have seen it on this blog from you with 9/11, climate change Covid, Bill Gates, David Icke and now Ukraine. It is good that the so-called MSM does not collaborate in the promotion of post-truth (part of the Triple P virus that threatens global democracy). Long may its print and online journalists expose the charlatans, liars and hate entrepreneurs which circle around our stricken world like flies around a carcass.

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