Shooting Crows by Trevor Birney is a work of extraordinary importance and inestimable value. While focusing on his mistreatment by the state as a result of him investigating the Loughinisland killings, at the same time this book reveals the ruthless machinations deployed by Britain in the North of Ireland. The fact that the author has employed his years of experience as an honest investigative journalist is obvious throughout by his meticulous research and provision of incontrovertible evidence. The result is a damning indictment of Britain’s intelligence services, British policing and ultimately, the British state itself.
The event that first set Trevor Birney and his colleague Barry McCaffrey at odds with the authorities took place in the small County Down village of Loughinsland in June 1994. On that fateful day, members of the Ulster Volunteer Force shot dead 6 local men who were watching a football match in the Heights Bar. The victims were chosen, not for having a role in the then Northern Irish conflict (they had none) but because they were members of the Catholic community.
Notwithstanding the many assurances from the RUC in the days following the attack that, ‘no stone would be left unturned’ in pursuit of the gunmen, years passed with no progress on the case. Nevertheless and indicative of the virtually apolitical nature of the deceased’s relatives, they were willing for long to believe that the police were applying due diligence to the investigation.
Eventually, however, with increasing evidence emerging of collusion between state agents and loyalist death squads their patience expired. Twelve years after the atrocity, Clare and Emma Rogan, widow and daughter respectively of the murdered Adrian Rogan, convened a press conference.They told the assembled press corps, including the Irish News’ Barry McCaffery, what the families wanted. Put bluntly, they demanded a ’rigorous, exhaustive police investigation’ as well as an examination of ‘serious and evidenced allegations’ of state collusion with loyalist assassins.
Impressed by the strength of the women’s commitment, colleagues of Birney began to explore the events of that night in 1994. Thanks to diligent research, inspired investigative journalism coupled with invaluable assistance from anonymous whistleblowers, the author and his team of colleagues constructed a detailed picture of what lay behind the Loughinisland massacre. And what an astonishing, not to mention sinister story was revealed.
The list of revelations included the fact that in 1987 British intelligence agents had facilitated the importation to loyalist death squads of a consignment of VZ-58 assault rifles, one of which was used for the attack on the Heights Bar. Shockingly too, the Birney team discovered that the RUC was aware that an attack on the bar was planned for that evening and even knew the make and registration of the getaway vehicle, yet took no preventative measures.
Moreover, within hours of the killings a local RUC station received a phone call naming the killers, all of whom were ‘known to the police’. Difficult as it may be to believe but the call was made by the wife of one of the gunmen, a woman who worked in that same police station and whose voice was surely recognised. Yet it was to be six weeks later before any of the suspects were detained by which time forensic evidence was virtually impossible to recover and alibis more difficult to check or contradict. It was later discovered that the getaway vehicle had been destroyed by order of the RUC.
Having produced the documentary No Stone Unturned in 2017 which detailed state agents complicity in the massacre, it would have been reasonable to expect swift and stern action against the miscreants. This did not happen. Instead, the new and supposedly reformed Police Service of Norther Ireland (PSNI) launched an investigation into how Birney and McCafferty had acquired their information. Eventually, both men were arrested, detained in custody for questioning and but for sterling work by their legal team, would have been charged.
Taken in its entirety i.e. state agents being complicit in murder coupled with a strenuous attempt at the highest level to conceal the truth, begs the question why. What had they to hide that required such an intense effort at cover-up?
The answer is provided through an incisive reading of Shooting Crows and it amounts to nothing less than a British orchestrated counterinsurgency strategy that involved a systematic murder campaign. No other explanation accounts for the approved importation of arms, extensive intelligence assets shared by RUC Special Branch and senior MI5 officers used to protect assassins. And all scrupulously covered-up by every organ of the state.
Trevor Birney has provided a precious service to the cause of press freedom. Possibly even more important, he has opened the door to a true, honest and accurate telling of the narrative of the Northern Irish conflict.
In his own words;
The legal facts of that truth have been judicially endorsed time and time again in Northern Ireland’s courts. Despite this, the British state remains so concerned by the emergence of the real picture of systemic collusion and the role of the security forces in the deaths of so many victims that it introduced the Legacy Act in the Spring of 2024 to shut down access to truth and justice.
History will record the debt owed to Trevor Birney for creating this masterpiece that will foil the duplicitous behaviour of ever Perfidious Albion by setting the record straight.
Buy this book, read it and then store it safely for the enlightenment of future generations.
Trevor Birney, 2024, Shooting Crows: Mass Murder, Collusion and Press Freedom. Merrion Press. ISBN-13: 978-1785375255
The event that first set Trevor Birney and his colleague Barry McCaffrey at odds with the authorities took place in the small County Down village of Loughinsland in June 1994. On that fateful day, members of the Ulster Volunteer Force shot dead 6 local men who were watching a football match in the Heights Bar. The victims were chosen, not for having a role in the then Northern Irish conflict (they had none) but because they were members of the Catholic community.
Notwithstanding the many assurances from the RUC in the days following the attack that, ‘no stone would be left unturned’ in pursuit of the gunmen, years passed with no progress on the case. Nevertheless and indicative of the virtually apolitical nature of the deceased’s relatives, they were willing for long to believe that the police were applying due diligence to the investigation.
Eventually, however, with increasing evidence emerging of collusion between state agents and loyalist death squads their patience expired. Twelve years after the atrocity, Clare and Emma Rogan, widow and daughter respectively of the murdered Adrian Rogan, convened a press conference.They told the assembled press corps, including the Irish News’ Barry McCaffery, what the families wanted. Put bluntly, they demanded a ’rigorous, exhaustive police investigation’ as well as an examination of ‘serious and evidenced allegations’ of state collusion with loyalist assassins.
Impressed by the strength of the women’s commitment, colleagues of Birney began to explore the events of that night in 1994. Thanks to diligent research, inspired investigative journalism coupled with invaluable assistance from anonymous whistleblowers, the author and his team of colleagues constructed a detailed picture of what lay behind the Loughinisland massacre. And what an astonishing, not to mention sinister story was revealed.
The list of revelations included the fact that in 1987 British intelligence agents had facilitated the importation to loyalist death squads of a consignment of VZ-58 assault rifles, one of which was used for the attack on the Heights Bar. Shockingly too, the Birney team discovered that the RUC was aware that an attack on the bar was planned for that evening and even knew the make and registration of the getaway vehicle, yet took no preventative measures.
Moreover, within hours of the killings a local RUC station received a phone call naming the killers, all of whom were ‘known to the police’. Difficult as it may be to believe but the call was made by the wife of one of the gunmen, a woman who worked in that same police station and whose voice was surely recognised. Yet it was to be six weeks later before any of the suspects were detained by which time forensic evidence was virtually impossible to recover and alibis more difficult to check or contradict. It was later discovered that the getaway vehicle had been destroyed by order of the RUC.
Having produced the documentary No Stone Unturned in 2017 which detailed state agents complicity in the massacre, it would have been reasonable to expect swift and stern action against the miscreants. This did not happen. Instead, the new and supposedly reformed Police Service of Norther Ireland (PSNI) launched an investigation into how Birney and McCafferty had acquired their information. Eventually, both men were arrested, detained in custody for questioning and but for sterling work by their legal team, would have been charged.
Taken in its entirety i.e. state agents being complicit in murder coupled with a strenuous attempt at the highest level to conceal the truth, begs the question why. What had they to hide that required such an intense effort at cover-up?
The answer is provided through an incisive reading of Shooting Crows and it amounts to nothing less than a British orchestrated counterinsurgency strategy that involved a systematic murder campaign. No other explanation accounts for the approved importation of arms, extensive intelligence assets shared by RUC Special Branch and senior MI5 officers used to protect assassins. And all scrupulously covered-up by every organ of the state.
Trevor Birney has provided a precious service to the cause of press freedom. Possibly even more important, he has opened the door to a true, honest and accurate telling of the narrative of the Northern Irish conflict.
In his own words;
The legal facts of that truth have been judicially endorsed time and time again in Northern Ireland’s courts. Despite this, the British state remains so concerned by the emergence of the real picture of systemic collusion and the role of the security forces in the deaths of so many victims that it introduced the Legacy Act in the Spring of 2024 to shut down access to truth and justice.
History will record the debt owed to Trevor Birney for creating this masterpiece that will foil the duplicitous behaviour of ever Perfidious Albion by setting the record straight.
Buy this book, read it and then store it safely for the enlightenment of future generations.
Trevor Birney, 2024, Shooting Crows: Mass Murder, Collusion and Press Freedom. Merrion Press. ISBN-13: 978-1785375255
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Tommy McKearney is a left wing and trade union activist. He is author of The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament. Follow on Twitter @Tommymckearney |
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