Brandon Sullivan ✍ Sectarian murder is usually, and with significant justification, associated with loyalist paramilitaries. I discussed loyalist violence in . . .  


. . . and in other articles on TPQ. 

The three killings discussed here are of Protestants killed by republican elements. Through other research, I felt I was close to getting an understanding of some of the personalities involved in the murder of Samuel White, discussed below. But the evidence I did find about those I initially thought could have been responsible suggested otherwise. Research into the murders of George Hall and Robert Campbell also led to something of an impasse, though I believe I have discovered information that was not in the public domain. I have nevertheless decided to publish what I have been able to ascertain.

As ever, I welcome respectful and insightful debate. I do not consider what I have written even my final word on any particular subject. I have received, for example, more information regarding the targeting of William Black, and will organise and make public that information soon. Your comments are welcome.

The excellent historical blog Balaclava Street (In the Shadow of the Butchers: Loyalist Paramilitaries on Film) wrote the following about some killings attributed to republicans, in which knives were used:

The early days of the conflict and advent of tit-for-tat sectarian killings saw a series of murders by the IRA or republican gangs involving torture and/or the use of knives, which for obvious reasons the republican movement has never admitted responsibility and probably never will. Though it does not excuse the response, which was equally savage and on a greater scale, the abduction and torture of Tommy Kells in October 1971 is cited by some loyalists as being an important driver for the so-called “Protestant backlash” and possible inspiration for similar attacks on Catholics. At least a dozen and possibly more victims were killed in such a manner by the IRA or associated groups around this time.

I am going to look into three knife murders committed by republicans. The paucity of information and discourse about these killings is in itself interesting.

The Murder of Samuel White – “What you can do, we can do.”

On the 6th December 1972, Samuel White was severely beaten, stabbed repeatedly, shot, and found dead in an alleyway near Lisbon Street, Short Strand, Belfast. He was 32, married, and the father of a 15 month old daughter. The book Political Murder in Northern Ireland (Dillon & Lehane, 1973) theorised that White was killed by the Provisional IRA in reprisal for the barbaric UDA murder of Patrick Benstead, which occurred a few days beforehand:

[Samuel White] was treated to a degree of torture unusual for an IRA killing. [he] lived in the quiet town of Newtownards outside Belfast, and travelled to work through East Belfast every day … he had been shot in the head, which was hooded. But before this he had been stabbed several times in the head and chest. These wounds were described by a detective as ‘horrible gashes’. In addition, White had been badly beaten. In this killing the IRA showed that they too could wield the knife. White’s death was a clear message to the men who killed Benstead. ‘What you can do, we can do’ is how a Provisional from the area spelled it out” (p144).

Political Murder in Northern Ireland was published a matter of months following the murders of Benstead and White, and whilst ground-breaking, I do not believe it can be fully trusted. Dillon was investigating sectarian murders at a time when the RUC were reluctant to acknowledge that they were taking place, and in an extremely dangerous and hostile environment. But I have been told from credible sources that the book contains errors. One of these errors may be linking Mr White's killing with that of Patrick Benstead, but I simply do not know.

What isn’t in doubt is that Samuel White was tortured and murdered by members of the CNR community, and it’s highly likely that the motive was sectarian. The Catholic Ex-Serviceman’s Association were active in the Short Strand at that time, and had access to some guns. They could have been responsible for Mr White’s murder. Or perhaps it was IRA members, or IRA auxiliaries, or perhaps a mixture of personalities from some or all of these groups.

The Belfast Telegraph (10/12/72) reported that:

Following the funeral service in his home at Carribeg Avenue, Newtownards, by the Rev. Noel Jackson, scores of men walked in drizzling rain to Movilla Cemetery.

Remembered by his widow and daughter, and by his friends and family, over 100 of whom attended his funeral, Samuel White's murder does not feature prominently in contemporaneous media, or histories of the conflict. And neither do the next two murders that I will next look at.

The murders of George Joseph Hall and Robert Campbell, July 1981

From Balaclava Street again:

Nearly a decade passed before the next wave of fatal stabbings took place in 1980 and ’81 during the tense months of the hunger strikes. A republican knife gang (or gangs) operating in west Belfast were responsible for at least four frenzied killings, including those of George Hall and Robert Campbell, and three attempted murders which for many years the RUC declined to class as Troubles-related.

George Joseph Hall was walking home from the 11th night celebrations in the early hours of the 12th July, 1981. George was 28 years old, a single man, who had work as a part-time baker. He had no interest in politics, and wasn’t a member of the Orange Order. He lived on Crumlin Gardens, and was yards from his house when a car pulled up beside him and three men got out. They attacked George, punching, kicking, and stabbing him. The attack was ferocious, and George died at the scene. His parents found his body. I was privileged enough to talk to a relative and friend of George, Paul Patrick, who described the effect this murder had:

George was never involved in the Troubles or politics … George was interested in his guitar & music. He was coming home from the 11th night when he was killed. A forgotten tragic killing that destroyed a family.

Paul Patrick also told me that Lyra McKee had been looking into George’s murder, and that of Robert Campbell a few days later, and was planning to discuss then with her police contacts. Sadly, we will never know what may have come from this.

The Belfast Telegraph (15/07/81) quoted an RUC spokesperson saying that:

Mr Robert Campbell was found lying in a pool of blood only yards from his Forthriver Road home at 1.20am. he was suffering from multiple stab sounds and died a short time later in hospital ... he was walking home when he was attacked and stabbed repeatedly by three men who then made off in a car driven by a fourth man.

Robert Campbell was 40 years old, a lorry driver, married, and the father of five children. He had recently become a grandfather. Like George Hall, he had no political or security force links. Robert’s assailants stopped their murderous assault only when people from nearby houses started to shout at them.

Robert and George lived close to the “Mountainview” streets, which suffered many sectarian murders in the 1970s.

The aftermath – “Cutlass”

I usually try to have at least two sources confirm a piece of information before including it in my writing, but on this occasion, and with due caution, I am relating what an IRA source told me, some years ago, what he had heard about an alleged member of the gang responsible for murdering George Hall and Robert Campbell. I was told that this particular man had a nickname – Cutlass – as a result of these two murders, and that he was arrested when Christopher Black turned “supergrass” in 1982. “Cutlass” was a member of the IRA, and came under some suspicion from other IRA members who suspected that, under pressure from the RUC over the murders of George Hall and Robert Campbell, he had become an informant for Special Branch.

I have no way of knowing if this is true, but I consider the source reliable.

The aftermath – The Woodvale UDA

A Lost Lives (p872) entry for George Hall’s murder had the following:

In 1981 … David McKittrick noted in a memo in his files: ‘these are important ones. [Loyalist] source says both believed to be killed by republicans, and there were two other stabbing incidents which went largely unreported at the same time. Shankill loyalists convinced republicans were responsible, and source says these incidents were a bit factor in the UDA, UVF and Red Hand coming to life and carrying out subsequent shootings.

The Woodvale UDA told the family of George Hall that they were going to “avenge” his murder. I have been told that this upset George’s parents deeply, and that they were totally opposed to violence. CAIN listed a 19 year old man, Liam Canning, as having been shot dead on 09/08/81 by the UDA/UFF on Alliance Avenue, not far from the sites of the murders “Cutlass” is reputed to have committed. I initially thought that this was the Woodvale UDA going against the expressed and sincere wishes of the Hall family. This was not actually the case.

Liam Canning was in fact murdered by a 34 year old UDR member, Bryan Roberts. Roberts was convicted of this murder, and a string of other random but non-fatal gun attacks on Catholics on the 12th of July and a few days following. Private Roberts apparently carried out his first sectarian shooting the actual day he was given his personal protection weapon. I do not believe that any of the shootings were related to the murders of George Hall and Robert Campbell.

Final reflections

The paucity of information available about the three murders detailed above perhaps tells a story, or stories. Samuel White’s brutal killing may well have been lost amid the grim, relentless tide of deaths in 1972 – and he was killed the same month that Jean McConville was “disappeared.” Sectarian murders involving torture was sadly commonplace in 1972, and would remain so for a number of years. With the passage of time, more is known about the perpetrators of some of these crimes, but as far as I know, only personalities involved in loyalist murders have become known in books on the Troubles, and among the proverbial “dogs on the streets.”

The CAIN website (Conflict Archive on the INternet) is an invaluable resource. But, like Lost Lives, it is imperfect. The RUC did not list the murders of Hall and Campbell as “security related.” This is perhaps understandable – during the intense weeks and months of the hunger strike, an upswing in sectarian murder was always a present danger, and given the atmosphere, civil war might not have been implausible. But more than 40 years on, I think that these killing should be recognised for what they were: sectarian murders and part of the conflict. CAIN should have George Hall and Robert Campbell on the list of victims of 1981. And, of course, update their entry for Liam Canning’s murder – it was a member of the UDR that killed him, not the UDA/UFF.

The murders of Samuel White, George Hall, and Robert Campbell achieved nothing, except grief and misery for the families and friends of the three men. Six children left without a father. The warped logic that sectarian murder somehow intimidates communities into reducing support for “their” paramilitary groups is shown by a quote from a friend of Liam Canning (Sunday Tribune, 22/02/04):

A complete pacifist, like me. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We'd started primary school together. If I went out with a girl, he went out with her friend, that type of thing. Many of our mutual friends joined the Provos after Liam's death. 

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

Overlooked History 🙈 Sectarian Murders in Belfast – 1972, and 1981

Brandon Sullivan ✍ Sectarian murder is usually, and with significant justification, associated with loyalist paramilitaries. I discussed loyalist violence in . . .  


. . . and in other articles on TPQ. 

The three killings discussed here are of Protestants killed by republican elements. Through other research, I felt I was close to getting an understanding of some of the personalities involved in the murder of Samuel White, discussed below. But the evidence I did find about those I initially thought could have been responsible suggested otherwise. Research into the murders of George Hall and Robert Campbell also led to something of an impasse, though I believe I have discovered information that was not in the public domain. I have nevertheless decided to publish what I have been able to ascertain.

As ever, I welcome respectful and insightful debate. I do not consider what I have written even my final word on any particular subject. I have received, for example, more information regarding the targeting of William Black, and will organise and make public that information soon. Your comments are welcome.

The excellent historical blog Balaclava Street (In the Shadow of the Butchers: Loyalist Paramilitaries on Film) wrote the following about some killings attributed to republicans, in which knives were used:

The early days of the conflict and advent of tit-for-tat sectarian killings saw a series of murders by the IRA or republican gangs involving torture and/or the use of knives, which for obvious reasons the republican movement has never admitted responsibility and probably never will. Though it does not excuse the response, which was equally savage and on a greater scale, the abduction and torture of Tommy Kells in October 1971 is cited by some loyalists as being an important driver for the so-called “Protestant backlash” and possible inspiration for similar attacks on Catholics. At least a dozen and possibly more victims were killed in such a manner by the IRA or associated groups around this time.

I am going to look into three knife murders committed by republicans. The paucity of information and discourse about these killings is in itself interesting.

The Murder of Samuel White – “What you can do, we can do.”

On the 6th December 1972, Samuel White was severely beaten, stabbed repeatedly, shot, and found dead in an alleyway near Lisbon Street, Short Strand, Belfast. He was 32, married, and the father of a 15 month old daughter. The book Political Murder in Northern Ireland (Dillon & Lehane, 1973) theorised that White was killed by the Provisional IRA in reprisal for the barbaric UDA murder of Patrick Benstead, which occurred a few days beforehand:

[Samuel White] was treated to a degree of torture unusual for an IRA killing. [he] lived in the quiet town of Newtownards outside Belfast, and travelled to work through East Belfast every day … he had been shot in the head, which was hooded. But before this he had been stabbed several times in the head and chest. These wounds were described by a detective as ‘horrible gashes’. In addition, White had been badly beaten. In this killing the IRA showed that they too could wield the knife. White’s death was a clear message to the men who killed Benstead. ‘What you can do, we can do’ is how a Provisional from the area spelled it out” (p144).

Political Murder in Northern Ireland was published a matter of months following the murders of Benstead and White, and whilst ground-breaking, I do not believe it can be fully trusted. Dillon was investigating sectarian murders at a time when the RUC were reluctant to acknowledge that they were taking place, and in an extremely dangerous and hostile environment. But I have been told from credible sources that the book contains errors. One of these errors may be linking Mr White's killing with that of Patrick Benstead, but I simply do not know.

What isn’t in doubt is that Samuel White was tortured and murdered by members of the CNR community, and it’s highly likely that the motive was sectarian. The Catholic Ex-Serviceman’s Association were active in the Short Strand at that time, and had access to some guns. They could have been responsible for Mr White’s murder. Or perhaps it was IRA members, or IRA auxiliaries, or perhaps a mixture of personalities from some or all of these groups.

The Belfast Telegraph (10/12/72) reported that:

Following the funeral service in his home at Carribeg Avenue, Newtownards, by the Rev. Noel Jackson, scores of men walked in drizzling rain to Movilla Cemetery.

Remembered by his widow and daughter, and by his friends and family, over 100 of whom attended his funeral, Samuel White's murder does not feature prominently in contemporaneous media, or histories of the conflict. And neither do the next two murders that I will next look at.

The murders of George Joseph Hall and Robert Campbell, July 1981

From Balaclava Street again:

Nearly a decade passed before the next wave of fatal stabbings took place in 1980 and ’81 during the tense months of the hunger strikes. A republican knife gang (or gangs) operating in west Belfast were responsible for at least four frenzied killings, including those of George Hall and Robert Campbell, and three attempted murders which for many years the RUC declined to class as Troubles-related.

George Joseph Hall was walking home from the 11th night celebrations in the early hours of the 12th July, 1981. George was 28 years old, a single man, who had work as a part-time baker. He had no interest in politics, and wasn’t a member of the Orange Order. He lived on Crumlin Gardens, and was yards from his house when a car pulled up beside him and three men got out. They attacked George, punching, kicking, and stabbing him. The attack was ferocious, and George died at the scene. His parents found his body. I was privileged enough to talk to a relative and friend of George, Paul Patrick, who described the effect this murder had:

George was never involved in the Troubles or politics … George was interested in his guitar & music. He was coming home from the 11th night when he was killed. A forgotten tragic killing that destroyed a family.

Paul Patrick also told me that Lyra McKee had been looking into George’s murder, and that of Robert Campbell a few days later, and was planning to discuss then with her police contacts. Sadly, we will never know what may have come from this.

The Belfast Telegraph (15/07/81) quoted an RUC spokesperson saying that:

Mr Robert Campbell was found lying in a pool of blood only yards from his Forthriver Road home at 1.20am. he was suffering from multiple stab sounds and died a short time later in hospital ... he was walking home when he was attacked and stabbed repeatedly by three men who then made off in a car driven by a fourth man.

Robert Campbell was 40 years old, a lorry driver, married, and the father of five children. He had recently become a grandfather. Like George Hall, he had no political or security force links. Robert’s assailants stopped their murderous assault only when people from nearby houses started to shout at them.

Robert and George lived close to the “Mountainview” streets, which suffered many sectarian murders in the 1970s.

The aftermath – “Cutlass”

I usually try to have at least two sources confirm a piece of information before including it in my writing, but on this occasion, and with due caution, I am relating what an IRA source told me, some years ago, what he had heard about an alleged member of the gang responsible for murdering George Hall and Robert Campbell. I was told that this particular man had a nickname – Cutlass – as a result of these two murders, and that he was arrested when Christopher Black turned “supergrass” in 1982. “Cutlass” was a member of the IRA, and came under some suspicion from other IRA members who suspected that, under pressure from the RUC over the murders of George Hall and Robert Campbell, he had become an informant for Special Branch.

I have no way of knowing if this is true, but I consider the source reliable.

The aftermath – The Woodvale UDA

A Lost Lives (p872) entry for George Hall’s murder had the following:

In 1981 … David McKittrick noted in a memo in his files: ‘these are important ones. [Loyalist] source says both believed to be killed by republicans, and there were two other stabbing incidents which went largely unreported at the same time. Shankill loyalists convinced republicans were responsible, and source says these incidents were a bit factor in the UDA, UVF and Red Hand coming to life and carrying out subsequent shootings.

The Woodvale UDA told the family of George Hall that they were going to “avenge” his murder. I have been told that this upset George’s parents deeply, and that they were totally opposed to violence. CAIN listed a 19 year old man, Liam Canning, as having been shot dead on 09/08/81 by the UDA/UFF on Alliance Avenue, not far from the sites of the murders “Cutlass” is reputed to have committed. I initially thought that this was the Woodvale UDA going against the expressed and sincere wishes of the Hall family. This was not actually the case.

Liam Canning was in fact murdered by a 34 year old UDR member, Bryan Roberts. Roberts was convicted of this murder, and a string of other random but non-fatal gun attacks on Catholics on the 12th of July and a few days following. Private Roberts apparently carried out his first sectarian shooting the actual day he was given his personal protection weapon. I do not believe that any of the shootings were related to the murders of George Hall and Robert Campbell.

Final reflections

The paucity of information available about the three murders detailed above perhaps tells a story, or stories. Samuel White’s brutal killing may well have been lost amid the grim, relentless tide of deaths in 1972 – and he was killed the same month that Jean McConville was “disappeared.” Sectarian murders involving torture was sadly commonplace in 1972, and would remain so for a number of years. With the passage of time, more is known about the perpetrators of some of these crimes, but as far as I know, only personalities involved in loyalist murders have become known in books on the Troubles, and among the proverbial “dogs on the streets.”

The CAIN website (Conflict Archive on the INternet) is an invaluable resource. But, like Lost Lives, it is imperfect. The RUC did not list the murders of Hall and Campbell as “security related.” This is perhaps understandable – during the intense weeks and months of the hunger strike, an upswing in sectarian murder was always a present danger, and given the atmosphere, civil war might not have been implausible. But more than 40 years on, I think that these killing should be recognised for what they were: sectarian murders and part of the conflict. CAIN should have George Hall and Robert Campbell on the list of victims of 1981. And, of course, update their entry for Liam Canning’s murder – it was a member of the UDR that killed him, not the UDA/UFF.

The murders of Samuel White, George Hall, and Robert Campbell achieved nothing, except grief and misery for the families and friends of the three men. Six children left without a father. The warped logic that sectarian murder somehow intimidates communities into reducing support for “their” paramilitary groups is shown by a quote from a friend of Liam Canning (Sunday Tribune, 22/02/04):

A complete pacifist, like me. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We'd started primary school together. If I went out with a girl, he went out with her friend, that type of thing. Many of our mutual friends joined the Provos after Liam's death. 

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

9 comments:

  1. Christy Walsh comments

    BS

    It's a worthy subject matter but I am going to give my reasons why I would discount IRA involvement.

    From an early age I understood the IRA were very conscious of how they conducted themselves. My first experience of that was watching rioting at the top of my street and they stopped people from taking stuff from hijacked lorries lest it be branded looting and not civil unrest.

    And main reason, many people were frustrated with the IRA for not responding to loyalist attacks. The IRA issued a number of press releases stating that they would not be drawn into a sectarian war. Further, I shared cells with INLA guys who told me that frustrated IRA vols gave them the Intel on loyalist details that they attacked. The ordinary vols were using the INLA as a proxy because the IRA would not sanction attacks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Christy,

      I'm not sure what bubble you lived in but Belfast PIRA was well known for having a big problem with sectarianism, just ask AM.

      Delete
    2. Steve - in Belfast from the end of 74 to the end of 76 there was a concerted sectarian campaign. But it was wider than Belfast. Kingsmill and Tullyvallen would illustrate that point. Outside of that period there were a number of incidents more prior to it than after it. I believe Brandon is right when he says that for the most part, post-77, the IRA did not select targets merely because of their religion.

      Delete
    3. If I recall even Gerry Bradley admitted this was a problem in Belfast. For us, the 'mistaken identity' murders were no such thing- they knew exactly who they took out. Blood lust thirst for revenge is understandable. We look at Teebane, the Shankill and Enniskillen as further proof no matter the attempt to portray it as anything else.

      Brandon I have to be honest and say I don't remember them specifically. Absolutely appalling murders all around.

      Delete
    4. I don't recall what Gerry said but post 77 the sectarian instinct was well marshalled.

      Teebane was against people working or building security force bases. I thought at the time it was an operation best not done. The people killed were not targeted because they were Protestants travelling in a van. At the same time I wonder would the same operation have been carried out had the van been filled with Catholic workers. Refracted sectarianism?

      Enniskillen - it was the abandonment of every civilised value. In terms of indifference it was infinitely worse than the Shankill. The Shankill team hoped to get in and out and kill only loyalists - that they got caught up in it themselves shows the extent of miscalculation. Those who hit the button at Enniskillen knew exactly who was likely to be killed.


      Delete
  2. @ Christy Walsh

    I was careful not to say that the three murders I discussed were IRA operations. In the case of Samuel White, one of the persons I initially suspected could have been involved was a PIRA axillary who was dismissed and kneecapped, and later shot dead by the OIRA. Like I wrote, I realised it probably could not have been him. In 1972, I think many sectarian murders were carried out on the spur of the moment, many as and when a potential target became available. Motive is hard to pin down, but paranoia mixed with sectarian animus probably led to scores of murders.

    I do believe an IRA member was involved in the murder of George Hall and Robert Campbell. I do *not* believe that it was an authorised IRA operation. I also do not know if the other men involved in the murders were IRA members. I would not be surprised either way.

    Interestingly, Mr Hall and Mr Campbell were murdered less than a two minute drive from where Trevor Kell was killed in 2000. Kell was killed by IRA members, probably using IRA weapons, but it most certainly wasn't IRA authorised. The key difference between the 1981 knife murders and the 2000 shooting of Kell was that Kell was a UDA member and targeted, I believe, because he was a UDA member. Two men were subjected to very severe punishment shootings for killing Trevor Kell.

    George Hall and Robert Campbell were knifed to death for walking in a Protestant area, and for no other reason. I suspect IRA staff officers probably knew the identity of at least one of their killers, and as far as I know, no action was taken against him.

    I don't think any level of IRA leadership authorised an overtly sectarian attack from at least early 1977, maybe before.

    The INLA, or INLA members acting on their own initiative carried out two heinous sectarian murders in 1982, Karen McKeown, a Sunday School teacher (16/10/1982), and 68 year old William Nixon (26/09/82). I have been able to find out very little about either killing.

    The INLA killed a large number of loyalist militants, particularly in the early 90s. To this day, some of those killed by the INLA are still claimed as Protestant civilians, but I believe were loyalist militants.

    I think republicans committed at least 15% of the overtly sectarian assassinations of the Troubles. That they were outnumbered in scale by loyalists doesn't diminish the historical case for examining the phenomena.

    BTW - I have been looking at your case. Was it 3 Para involved in it? The same battalion that contained Lee Clegg?

    ReplyDelete
  3. "I don't think any level of IRA leadership authorised an overtly sectarian attack from at least early 1977, maybe before"

    Sure as fuck didn't feel that way to us!

    ReplyDelete
  4. So is there no way and I might be wrong could be wrong Protestant killed Protestant in any of the 3 murders mentioned.Your article on black interesting but all it showed was what the law keepers were capable of look at murder of hall 12/12/81 early hours of 12th middle of hunger strike car full off nationalist murders driving about in loyalist district let's kill a prod?Would they if it was not be more interested in protecting there homes and district it's not as if they had a free helping hand.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @ Martin

    I think there is close to zero chance that Samuel White was killed by anyone from the PUL community. He was found in the Short Strand.

    Regarding the 1981 murders - tensions were high, nationalists were furious. Some may have been interested in defending their homes and areas. Perhaps "Cutlass" and his associates felt that by killing Protestants in the heart of loyalist Belfast they were defending nationalists. I think this is a warped, misguided, and self-serving concept, but it existed.

    I do think however that there is a reticence within the CNR community to acknowledge that we did indeed produce sectarian murderers, sometimes as vicious as those produced from the PUL community.

    @ Steve R

    Do you recall the July 1981 murders? Any comments on their effect on loyalism?

    The nuances of IRA policy were understandably lost on most from the PUL community. The reverse is true, of course.

    ReplyDelete