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:
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.”
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.
