Loyalists [Paperback ed.] 0747545197, 9780747545194

Citation preview

3R0" MARIN COUNTY FREE LIBRARY

.

BflTTRLION

3 1111 01909 6005

NORTH BELFRST

PREPARED FOR PEACE

A READY FOR

War and Peace in Nortliern Ireland

Peter Taylor

WAR

Canada $40.00

LOYALISTS War and Peace in Northern Ireland Terror

has gripped Northern Ireland for the past

three decades, the result of the violent conflict

between the Protestants and the Catholics. Loyalism loyalty to the Protestant faith, Queen,

—

and countr>^

—runs through the veins of

ever>- Protestant in

Now r\'

Northern

about

just

Ireland.

Peter Taylor's brilliant, comprehensive histo-

of the devastating struggle from the loyalists' per-

new

spective gives us

insights into

loyalist paramilitaries, their

cians act in the ways they have. a series of frank

and

what made the

community, and Loyalists

chilling interviews,

is

politi-

based on

both with

who mapped out loyalist gunmen who carried powerful narraThe killings. and bombings

the paramilitary' leaders strateg>'

out the

over the years and the

tion also includes revealing inter\'iews with loyalist

and unionist

politicians

who conducted

their busi-

ness center stage, while the paramilitaries remained

shadows.

in the

The

loyalists are

convinced

it

was

their clinically targeted offensive against senior

members of the IRA and Sinn Fein Republican

Movement

that brought the

to the negotiating table

and

made the 1998 Peace Accord possible. Like Peter Taylor's Behind

the

Mask on the IRA,

hjyahsts provides an eye-opening inside account ot

the thinking, strategies, and ruthless violence of

the paramilitaries. (As John White, a the Ulster Freedom Fighters

who

member

brutally

o(

murdered

Senator Paddy Wilson and yet almost twenty-five years later walked into 10

peace delegate, recounted:

Downmg

Street

aj»

a

Downing "I

member

Street as a

was proud to enter of the

UFF

fied the nature of loyalist violence, that

political not criminal.")

access to the

it

it

justi-

was

(jranted unprecedented

many members

of the Protestant

com-

munity, the author provides a unique record of

Troubles and of the peace proces.s that bring

them

is

finally

to an end.

h/yahsts, diligently researclioJ ten,

may

The

an indispensable volume

and

for

the conflict in Northern Ireland.

lucidly writ-

understanding

Civic Center New Books 941.67 Taylor Taylor, Peter, 1942Loyalists war and peace in Northern Ireland 31111019096005 :

DATE DUE

mi^nM 6 Zaou

iHAY fiAi

DEMCO

I

^^'^'^ ^'

ING 38-2971

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2010

http://www.archive.org/details/loyalistswarpeacOOtayl

Loyalists

Other TV Books by Peter Taylor Behind the Mask: The IRA and Sinn Fein

Loyalists War and

Peace in

Northern Ireland

PETER TAYLOR

Books New

York

© 1999 by

Copyright

Peter Taylor

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

All rights reserved.

Publisher's Cataloging-in-Publication

1942Loyalists war and peace

Data

Taylor, Peter,

:

p.

in

Northern Ireland

/

Peter Taylor.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 1-57500-047-4 1.

Unionism.

(Irish politics)

—20th century. Ireland — History. ment

I.

3. Ulster

2.

Northern Ireland

—

Politics

and governNorthern

Volunteer Force. 4. Terrorism

—

Title.

DA990.U46T39 1999

941.6

QBI99-416

Picture Sources David Barker: pages 1 bottom, 11 bottom, 14 top Courtesy of the Giles Family: page 1 top Courtesy of James Murdock: pages 4 bottom, 5 top PA News: pages 6, 12, 16 bottom Pacemaker: pages 7 top right and bottom, 8, 13, 14 bottom, 15, 16 top Public Records Office of Northern Ireland: page 3 bottom Courtesy of the PUP: page 9 Courtesy of Gusty Spence: pages 10, 11

UDA: page 7 top left Museum: pages 2 bottom,

Courtesy of the

The

Ulster

First

TV

published

in

3 top

Great Britain by Bloomsbury Publishing

Books, L.L.C.

Publishers serving the television industry.

1619 Broadway, Nmth Floor York, NY 10019

New

www.tvbooks.com Manufactured

in the

United States.

Pic.

To the people of Northern Ireland

Acknowledgements

had always intended to follow Behind the Mask with Loyalists, conscious that Behind the Mask only told the recent history of the conflict through one set of eyes. Those same events, when seen from a loyalist

I

perspective, invariably present a totally different picture, miliar to their

My

own community

but far

less

which

is

so to most people outside

fait.

in making the Loyalists BBC television series and in writbook was to provide an insight into what made the loyalist paramilitaries, their community and politicians act in the way they did. Thus people might gain a greater and more balanced understanding of recent history, which has tended to be told more from a nationalist and republican point of view. My hope is that Loyalists will add a new dimension to the account of the violent forces that have made the past three decades so bloody, in a conflict that now may finally be coming

purpose

ing this

to

an end. I

could not have

made

the television series or written the

out the help, trust and support of themselves.

gave

The paramilitary

me remarkable

many

book with-

people, primiarily the loyalists

UDA, UVF and others, men who had fought their

organisations, the

access to

many

of the

'war'. They spoke with astonishing and often chilling candour about what they did, and why, as I attempted to chronicle their remarkable journey from 'war' to peace. The same goes for the loyalist and unionist

politicians

attitudes

who

and

spoke with unaccustomed frankness about contentious

events.

I

am

grateful both to

them and

to the

many mem-

community for all their kindness and confidence in was trying to do, especially to John Beresford Ash for his family history, and to the Giles family in Belfast who helped me write 'Billy' at bers of the Protestant

what

I

a time of great grief.

I

am

also grateful to those in the

Ireland office and elsewhere

who

RUC, Northern

so generously gave their help.

As ever, I am indebted to my BBC colleagues in London and Belfast, and in particular the Loyalists production team who gave me the space and support without which I never could have written the book. Above all

my

thanks are due to

my

producer,

Sam CoUyns, who

generously gave

Vlll

me

the time to write at

*

LOYALISTS

.

no small cost

to himself

and whose patience, good

humour and perseverance with E-Mail, kept me and the television series on course; to Andy Kemp, our video-tape editor who, with Sam, produced miracles from the mountain of material; to

formed astonishing

feats

Julia

Hannis who per-

of research in addition to keeping us

organised; to Stuart Robertson for his mastery of archive film; to

Moss and

for her stunning titles

and graphics; to Yolanda Ayres, Maria

on the Panorama desk

their colleagues

all

Mary Ellis

for their back-up; to our ex-

ecutive producer, Peter Horrocks, for his support of the project (and the

book) and aged

me

fine editorial

judgement; to

and

to undertake Loyalists

to

Mark Damazer, who first encourwho carried his en-

Helen Boaden

Brian

BBC Northern Ireland's Chief Security Correspondent, Rowan, who shared his vast experience with me and made critical

initial

introductions to individuals on the Shankill Road; to the Con-

thusiasm on; to

BBC Northern Ireland, Pat Loughrey, and Keith Baker, Andrew Colman and their colleagues in the newsroom and elsewhere for their guidance, wisdom and advice; and to June Gamble and Danny Cooper in BBC Belfast News and Information for diligently searching out mountains of cuttings; and to Mark Thompson, Controller BBC2, for comtroller

missioning the

No

series.

more supportive, enthusiastic and Thanks to Alan Wherry who, encouraged me to write a book about the

writer could have asked for a

professional publisher than Bloomsbury. after

Behind the Mask,

loyalist paramilitaries: to it

knowing how

first

who confidently commissioned was; to Helena Drakakis who so

David Reynolds

tight the deadline

coolly and professionally co-ordinated the operation in a nail-bitingly tight schedule; to production it;

to editor Bela

and improved

it

manager

Polly

Cunha who turned my in the process; to

Napper who helped her do

manuscript round

Shane Weller

who

in

record time

so expertly read the

Murphy who compiled the index with lightning my agent, John Willcocks, who sorted out the contractual

proofs; to Ben

speed;

and to

details

with his customary Finally, greatest

Sam, not forgetting

efficiency.

thanks of 'Josh'

all

who

to

my

wife and family

barked to take

the fresh air and think. Without

them

I

me

for

— Sue,

Ben and

walks to breathe

would never have survived. Ben

and Sam were as supportive and encouraging as any sons could be whilst Sue always urged me on with the warning not to look at the summit whilst climbing the mountain,

the end.

I

am

and assured mc that

relieved to say that

I

finally did.

1

would

get there in

Contents

Introduction

BiUy

1

1.

Under

2.

Gathering Storm

29

3.

Murder

40

4.

Insurrection

47

5.

Explosion

58

6.

Defence

71

7.

Tit for Tat

85

8.

Escalation

9.

Killing Fields

107

10.

Returning the Serve

119

11.

Strike

127

12.

Inside

Siege

94

and Out

13.

Heroes and

14.

Bad Years

Villains

15. Betrayal

16.

Guns

17.

Killing

13

138

150 157 173

184

Time

18. Backstage

196 211

19.

Ceasefire

227

20.

Good

235

Friday

Notes

259

Glossary

269 271

Index

Introduction

Billy

Billy's story

typical

is

through the

thirty

of that of hundreds of young

who

known

of slaughter euphemistically

years

'Troubles'. Typical, that

loyalists

lived

as

the

except in one respect.

is,

William Alexander EUis Giles - 'BiUy' - was

bom

into a working-class

Protestant family in Island Street in the loyaHst heartland

of East

Belfast.

It

was 1957 and the IRA's border campaign was already one year old, not that it would have affected anyone in the back-to-back terrace houses where the Giles family lived in the

shadow of

shipyard.

-the

But

it

would have

To Protestants living in a state that had been bom out of conflict, IRA remained an ever present threat however distant the reality may

registered.

the

have been. Billy was the eldest of a close-knit family of brothers - Sam,

six,

with three

Thomas and Jim - and two sisters - Sylvia and Margaret. He

'a housewife' and there was no shame in that in untouched by poHtical correctness. His father, Sam, was refreshingly world a a plater in the Harland and Wolff shipyard which had provided the menfolk

described his mother, Lily, as

of East Belfast with employment since before the yard launched the Titanic in 1912. The number of Cathohcs who worked there could almost be

counted on the fingers on one hand. There were jobs for the boys under the giant gantries that dominated the Belfast skyHne - but only if they were Protestants. In those days the political vocabulary.

word

'We were

'discrimination'

had hardly entered the

a hard-working, ordinary family,' Billy told

me. 'Hard-working and quiet.' Loyalism - loyalty to the Protestant faith. Queen and country and the constitutional link with Britain - ran through the family, as it does through the veins of just about every Protestant in Northem Ireland. Sam was a member of the Orange Order, the Royal Black Preceptory and the Apprentice Boys of Deny, the masonic-Hke orders'

whose

centuries.

Royal

secret rituals

He was

Electrical

family and

all

also a

have bound together Protestant males

former British soldier and

and Mechanical Engineers

tie

still

'loyal

down the

proudly wears

his

today. Service Ufe ran in the

of Billy's brothers joined the British army. Photographs of the

boys in their army uniforms proudly

adom

the

Hving-room

walls.

2

'

LOYALISTS

•

Church lay at the heart of family Ufe, and for Billy and his brothers and Sunday school was obHgatory on the Sabbath. 'When you went on hoUday, you went with the church,' Billy remembers. 'You visited some seaside in the rain. It was a day away and the only holiday you had.' Although the family did not attend the Reverend Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian church, the 'Big Man' had a profound effect on the young sisters,

'He was the man,' he

Billy.

said.

Being affected by Paisley

true.

thought that whatever Paisley

'I

part

is

of being

a Protestant.

said

was

We went to his

Tens of thousands followed him, just to hear what he had to say. He was preaching about the situation as if it was the gospel or a biblical text and, because of our upbringing, we were a ready audience. When you're rallies.

young and caught up thing from another.

The

Giles family

in that

On

kind of atmosphere, you can't distinguish one

part

of it.

When

I

the same conditions. a toilet in

they

moved

a

it

It

it

Protestants

Billy

first

When

time they had had

saw the private housing

and Cathohcs but between the working and middle

Although the family

now Uved

loyalist estate, Billy's father,

the umbrella

body of the

Sam,

in the relative security

normal thmg

vigilante groups

for Protestant fathers

sort

of organization,'

became

the conflict

a

which had sprung up

and sons to do

Troubles. 'At that time, almost everyone

as

of

classes.

staunch

joined the Ulster Defence Association,

areas across the city as defence against the anticipated

But

lived in

two-bedroom house

as unfit to live in.

was the

was only when

all

his

next door that he realized there were differences, not between

estate

some

hate.'

Protestant

the status quo because they

was condemned

house in 1972,

bathroom.

of

all

thought he was better off than

if he

family was brought up in a

the yard until

full

that

was no difference since they

said there

The

to a council

hot water or

They accepted

asked Billy

Cathohc neighbours, he with

he was

realize

I

was not poUtical beyond the poUtics

working-class farmhes embraced.

were

now,

reflection

Billy said.

'It

in loyalist

IP^ attack.

It

was the

in the early days

of the

would have been involved

was

part

of growing up

increasingly bloody, he

in

in Belfast.'

found himself attending

more and more funerals of friends he had lost and people he had known. Day after day, he witnessed the horrors of the IRA's campaign. He saw a policeman 'shovelling bits of body into a bag' on 'Bloody Friday' when the II\A bhtzed Belfast in July 1972 with twenty-six bombs that slaughtered eleven people.

By

saw

'I

1975, Billy

the security forces

not

in the

army

to

fail

his

a lot

of things, just

like

everyone

else.'

he could no longer stand on the sidelines and watch

felt

come

to grips with the

brothers had joined.

Two

IRA. He too

enlisted,

but

days after his eighteenth

birthday, just after his holiday in Blackpool, he joined the illegal Ulster

Volunteer Force (UVF) - by invitation.

by

this

He

felt

the

UDA was too large -

time tens of thousands had enlisted - and he had always had a

BILLY

romantic admiration for the original loyalist hero, Sir

Edward Carson,

decision to give Ireland

he

said.

in

1913 to

Home Rule.

'They were people

I

UVF

which was founded by the

resist

the British Government's

'They were

soldiers.

A private army,'

could identify with in terms of my

history.'

what he had done and did everything he could from them. He knew they would paramihtary involvement keep his to have been horrified had they known, and his mother, Lily, would have been heartbroken. 'I was Uving a Ue,' he told me. 'After I'd been on the phone, they'd say "Who's that?" and I'd say "Nobody": When I was going Billy

never told

out, they'd ask

they

later

his parents

"Where

are

you going?" and

found out, they just cracked up.

was doing

to

them

Billy spent his

former British

at

first

soldiers,

I

I'd say

When

"Nowhere".

didn't really appreciate

what

I

the time.'

two years as a UVF Volunteer being trained by some of them veterans of Aden and Borneo. Many

had escaped the poverty of Northern Ireland in the sixties to see the world and make a better hfe elsewhere but had returned to the province once violence had erupted, to offer their military expertise to their fellow their hour of need. Billy was trained in how to use weapons and explosives. At the time he joined the UVF, there were genuine fears that a 'doomsday' situation was fast approaching when there would be civil

Ulstermen in

war.

The

British

Government was

to-face dialogue with the

IRA

already conducting a clandestine face-

via the Secret Intelligence Service,

MI6,

and there was growing concern among Protestants that they were about to be sold out to DubUn. LoyaHsts felt they had to be armed and ready to resist the anticipated

By

IRA

onslaught.

the early 1980s loyalist fears had intensified following the 1981

hunger

strike in

which ten republican

prisoners

demanding

to

IRA

be treated

as

The Prime give way. The

poUtical prisoners not criminals starved themselves to death.

was unbending and refused to result was cataclysmic and produced undreamed-of pohtical and propaganda

Minister, Margaret Thatcher,

dividends for the

RepubHcan Movement -

time of the hunger

strike,

the

IRA and

Sinn Fein.

BiUy had drifted away from the

UVF

By

the

but the

ancient fears reawakened by the deaths of the ten republican prisoners

brought him back again into

its

ranks. 'Protestants

were

fearful

of what was

going to happen,' Billy said. 'They feared there was going to be an uprising

and they were

all

going to be slaughtered. They would have appreciated the

Provos [the Provisional IRA] actually coming to war with them but they never did so. They never actually went to war in the "war" sense.' Sharing

became active again. 'Many of us whole mentality at that time would have been who had left, came back. My to prepare for war. We were expecting to fight along the border and we went off to train in fields.' But one attack made Billy go further. the forebodings of his community, BiUy

4

On

»

LOYALISTS

.

25 September 1982, a twenty-year-old Protestant woman, Karen

McKeown, was fatally wounded by a gunman from the republican splinter group, the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). Karen was a Sundayschool teacher and was outside a church hall in East Belfast when a gunman came up and shot her in the back of the head. She died in hospital three weeks later. Billy did not know the young woman but was profoundly affected by the callousness of the killing that had taken place in his own area. 'She was getting into a car and a guy stuck a gun in the back of her head and said, "You're dead",' at least that's how Billy remembers what happened. 'The story goes that she thought it was one of her friends

And

playing.

the guy shot her.

know why

don't

I

it

happened.

I

didn't

think. It was probably her innocence and she was coming out of church. It changed me dramatically.' Neither Billy nor his family was every sectarian.

Sam remembers BiUy called

home

often bringing

Michael Fay, with

whom

young Roman Catholic

a

he worked, for

cup of tea and

a

a video.

Billy admits that he became indifferent to the sectarian killing of CathoUcs

by the loyaHst

paramilitaries, as

community'.

his

'When

this

many

time were

like that until that particular shooting.

people killed over

You

only way.

IRA stopped,

wanted the

it. I

other

members of

would have thought, "So what?" I don't beUeve

Catholic shot there, they

was ever

by

they heard reports of a Catholic shot here or a

Now

and

I

I

wanted to see thought that was the I

can talk to repubHcans until you're blue in the face but they

go on killing innocent people.' Up to that point, Billy expected others puU the trigger as he felt that close-up kiUing was not the role he was cut out for. He had been training for 'doomsday' when he was prepared to defend his community and his country in the conventional military sense.

still

to

'I

had

a soldier's mentality.

road or in

behmd that

it.

a street,

but

had to be prepared to be fighting

The enemy would have been

would have been

prepanng bombs but after

I

I'd

I

all

nght.

I

all

over

that

was

to

The

a ditch or in a a

reason

I

for shooting with a

actually assassinating

her parents had asked for no retaliation.

on

there

fight

of an army with

and would have fought and

was prepared

was never into

Karen McKeown's death,

as part

rifle

or

someone.' But

change despite the

fact that

grieving family's plea was lost

'Now I wanted to kill the other side,' he told me. 'The only way them was to terrorize them. It was them and us.'

Billy.

to stop

Shortly after the killmg, Billy ran into another

had not seen for a long time. The man

said

UVF colleague whom he

how terrible it was about the 'wee

and thought they should be doing something about it. Billy got a gun and a target was selected. It was to be his friend and workmate, Michael Fay.

girl'

He was me,

a

guy the same age

like. It

as

myself

wouldn't have mattered

It

didn't matter

who

he was.

who

it

was to

BILLY

5

He was your workmate. He was someone knew, yes. lured him into a trap. I

You

That's right.

He

It's

not something I'm proud

of.

w^as a Catholic.

That was enough. It didn't matter because at the end of the day was thinking that if they could shoot us, we could shoot them. Them being?

I

CathoUcs, nationalists, republicans. Put whatever- slant you w^ant

upon it. They were aU the same. But they weren't all the same. They were different. They were all the same in my thinking then. But you're supposed to be non-sectarian. I know. But everything went out of the window. That's just the way it affected me. What would have been classed before as a decent young man, suddenly changed.

The plan was carefully laid, and the unsuspecting victim was to be lured into a trap at the end of November 1982, the month after Karen McKeown had died from her injuries. But on 1 6 November, Lenny Murphy, a senior UVF

who

and leader of the notorious 'Shankill Butchers',

figure

had been

from prison only four months earlier, was shot dead, presumably by IRA, outside his girlfriend's home. The UVF decided that retaliation

released

the

had to be

and the plan to kidnap Michael Fay was suddenly brought week. The Protestant Action Force - a pseudonym for the

swift,

forward by

a

UVF - issued a statement saying that three Cathohcs would die 'to avenge Murphy'. On 19 November 1982, the day of Lenny Murphy's funeral, Billy

put the plan into operation, driving off with Michael Fay in Fay's blue

Ford Escort. Michael's wife, Mary, thought her husband had gone to the hospital to visit their fourteen-month-old daughter, Jennifer,

When

sick.

who was

puUed out a gun and shot Fay through was quick and it was dirty and a guy lost his life.' His

the car stopped, Billy

the back of the head.

'It

body was then bundled into the boot, BiUy knew he was capable of killing and now he had done it - without hesitation. He told me how he thought this killing would be the last and that once it was done, the 'war' would be over.

The effect was traumatic. He described the impact with a pain that had

not diminished with the years. His face and eyes told

The

spht second

back.

You

hits

you.

my

insides out.

and

it's

I

it

happened,

hear the bang and felt

I

lost part

it's

too

it all.

of myself that

late.

I'll

never get

Standing over the body,

it

somebody had reached down inside me and ripped You've found somewhere you've never been before

that

not a very nice place.

You

can't stop

it.

It's

too

late.

6

'

LOYALISTS

•

Did you ever come back from

that place?

No. I a whole person again. I lost something that day that I never got back. How do you put that back? You can't. You'll never get that back no matter w^hat people say to you or what you say or think. I've done something and been involved in something that I can't ever change and I have to Uve with it. What would have been classed before as a decent young man, suddenly turned into a killer. That's Northern Ireland. But it wasn't the environment that turned you into a killer. never felt

You were

responsible for

it.

went out of the window. If I'd have been bom in wouldn't have killed somebody because of their politics or

All responsibihty

England,

I

their rehgion or anything else.

now

But

Up untO that time, it wasn't part of me.

it is.

Michael Fay's widow, Mary, was devastated.

more

kiUings,' she pleaded. 'If

heartbreak they cause. parents

no

were

only the

feel sorry for the

I

'Please,

God,

let

there be

no

could see the grief and

killers

who

people

horrified at the killing of Billy's fiiend

did

this.' Billy's

and workmate but had

idea that their son was responsible.

was

Billy

later arrested

pressure'.

was

It

and taken to the

made

Castlereagh where he

a

fiill

RUC

interrogation centre at

confession after

'just

reHef to unburden himself of his

a

a

guilt.

wee bit of 'My whole

upbringing was to respect the police. They were somebody to look up

When

they told

what

already

I

me

that

what

I

had done was wrong, they were

knew. There was no problem.

I

went

to

trial

telling

to.

me

and pleaded

were shattered. They could not believe that their son 'My mother blamed herself She felt guilty for what I

guilty.' Billy's parents

had become was.

a killer.

know was

I

I

was remanded

to

blame and not

two

for

years

her, but she didn't see

it

and seven months before

like that.' Billy finally

being

sentenced to hfe imprisonment for murder, conspiracy to murder, possession of firearms and

men were

membership of an

tned with him, charged with

cnmes, including

five

touched

At

in

the

Maze

my hand

first

prison,

pnson was

a relief, as I

organization. Eight other

catalogue of over eighty terronst

Before

Sam

Giles

Five his

of them received

son went off to serve

was allowed to

and just broke down,'

across the table

got that off my shoulders.

a

murders.

sectarian

sentences along with Billy Giles.

sentence

illegal

he no longer had to

didn't have to

tell lies

see him.

Billy

live a life

life

his

'He

remembers. of deceit.

any more. People

'I

knew

what was involved in and what was doing.' The people with whom he hved on the wings of the 'H-Blocks' - the cell units so called because of their shape - were Billy's own, the loyalist paramilitaries of the UVF and I

I

BILLY

UDA, who

ran their

own

Uves in the gaol and, like the republican

organized their wings along military

prisoners,

good use of his time. Education had never been

With hours, decided to make up

that changed.

all

before him, Billy

inside. Billy

he had

left

lifting a pen'. In

the

his strong point:

school without any qualifications and without 'hardly

Maze,

The command made

lines.

structures of the organizations outside were replicated

months and

days,

years stretching

for the opportunities

had or taken advantage of Encouraged by

a

A

he had never

nurhber of skilful and caring

«nd then went on to do an Open University degree in Social Sciences. 'Billy was remarkable,' one of his tutors told me. 'He very much struggled against the tide and was often the only person on his wing studying at that level. He just kept at it, he took several GCSEs, getting an

tutors,

in English,

flowering in a relationship with his tutors that he'd never experienced before.

It

wasn't

interaction

a

pupil-teacher relationship

between

equals. Billy really

at

It

all.

was very much an

pioneered education on the

loyalist

wings.' After taking his degree, he did a course in creative writing and

wrote

a play

in Belfast

about

with

work of a

the

his

childhood called Boy

UVF

Girl,

which was

of the audience aware of the

only a handflil

Sam and

prisoner.

Lily, Billy's

proud

later

produced

fact that

it

was

were

parents,

in

the audience. It

was seven years before

Maze, and

was then

it

the conflict

that

showed no

I

Billy finally first

signs

met him.

of abating, with the loyaUst paramilitaries

IRA entered the

intensifying their retaliatory kiUings as the its

campaign.

I

was making

a

became adjusted to life in the It was the summer of 1990 and

documentary

for the

BBC

third decade

inside the

of

Maze

prison and remarkably had been given unrestricted access to prisoners in

We spent several

both the repubUcan and loyahst wings of the 'H-Blocks'.

weeks

that

summer virtually living in

the prison, leaving only at 'lock up' in

the evening and returning for breakfast the following morning.

Our

Northern Ireland Office 'minder' never came on to the wings with us and left us alone to talk to the prisoners without someone in authority looking over our shoulders. The arrangement suited both parties. I

remember first meeting Billy in his cell. We sat and talked, with me on the metal chair by his desk and Billy propped up by a pillow at the head of his bed. Whereas most prisoners, clad in their blue Glasgow Rangers football shirts,

looked pictures of fitness and health, thanks to regular use of

modem multi-gym at the end of the wing, Billy was pale and drawn as if he had never seen the sun. He was quiet and softly spoken and at times it the

was

difficult to

darted from

everywhere,

me

make out what he

said.

to the ceiling to the

as if

His eyes were never

window of the

cell

permanently searching for something.

still

as

they

- anywhere and

It

may have been

nerves or just his manner conditioned by the years inside.

He

had

just

8

LOYALISTS

.

»

served around half his sentence and the other half seemed interminable. Gradually, Billy told me his story, rehving in graphic and painful detail what he had done and why. Billy, I thought, was a tortured soul and perhaps this was a form of catharsis. 1 visited his parents, Sam and Lily, and found them simple and dignified people, still trying to come to terms with what Billy had done and still

uncomprehending killer.

same the

knew

1

as

why

and

their son

could have become a

hundreds of parents from both communities

felt

the

they saw their sons arrested, tried and sentenced to long years inside

Maze

history

how

as to

that

prison.

and the

I

beUeved

that in

conflict itself that

most

made

cases

it

was not the parents but

the sons

what they were.

interviewed BiUy for the documentary and he was pleased with the

I

result.

He

said

was good for people outside,

it

throughout the

in particular

rest of the United Kingdom, to see men as they were, without masks, and reahze how ordinary they were underneath. I recaD once asking a young IRA prisoner from Derry, serving life on the repubhcan wings for murder, what an IRJV man was doing reading Tolstoy and Hardy, whose works I

had noticed hning the shelf of his said,

'Because an

IRA

cell.

He looked me straight in the eye and

man's normal just

like

everybody

else.'

When

I

pointed out that 'normal' people did not go around kiUing other people, he said 'normal'

apphed

people elsewhere did not

to loyaHst prisoners

— although

live in

Northern

Ireland.

their reading matter

The same

was not always

the same.

Most

years, Billy sent

himself and

how

me

Christmas card with a few words about

a

he was getting on, always asking too

thought

I

wondered what he

would do when he

years in gaol. Billy

was

threw himself into the

his

world

enormous problems of

many

years in gaol. Billy

outside

family was. its

end and

got out after spending fourteen

on 4 July 1997 and immediately of the UVF's pohtical wing, the particular, he focused his energies on

finally released

real

as part

Progressive Unionist Party (PUP). In

the

how my

sentence must be nearing

From, time to time

trying to rehabilitate loyahst prisoners after

was perfectly placed

government buildings

at

Good

Stomiont

to

do

so.

in the long,

Although

I

was

cold hours that led

Agreement on 10 April 1998, I was not aware that Billy was in the warmth inside as part of the PUP's negotiating team. He had gone there on the Monday and left on the Fnday just before the Agreement was signed. 'The job had been done,' he later told me. 'It felt good that it was over and here was a document that we all could hve with.' Billy said he now saw a future for the 'kids coming up'. up

to the signing

I

met

of the

Billy again in the early

CoUyns, and Loyalists senes.

Friday

summer of 1998 when my

were carrying out the

I

I

did a double-take

when

initial

Billy

Sam BBC'-TV

producer,

research for the

walked into the hotel lobby

BILLY

where we had arranged to meet him. I had told Sam all about Billy and he too was astonished at what he saw. Billy was utterly transformed. In place of the gaunt, haunted figure I had met in prison eight years earUer was a smart, middle-aged tie,

man

carrying a black executive

their release,

about

his

had put on

work

for

with white shirt and most prisoners following many as some. He talked

in a dark, neatly pressed suit briefcase. Billy, like

few pounds but not

a

EPIC

as

- the community -

(Ex-Prisoners Interpretative Centre)

organization that helps loyaUst prisoners to resettle in the

and of how the workload was increasing with the numbers of men soon to be released under the Good Friday Agreement. But he did so with

We talked once again about his life and how now. The remorse and the pain were still there. 'Getting out of the prison gates didn't stop me thinking about what I did. For me personally, it's never going to go away.' The soul, I felt, was still tortured. I recalled confidence not anxiety.

he

felt

again the phrase that the veteran former

UVF

leader and Hfe-sentence

when he announced the loyalist ceasefire and true remorse'. I felt that if ever it apphed to Giles. Whether Michael Fay's family would have

prisoner Gusty Spence had used in

October 1994 -

anyone,

it

accepted

'abject

applied to Billy

it is

another question. Billy seemed to have paid the price over the

years with intense emotional suffering.

anything to Michael Fay's family.

I

asked

He told me

him

if

he had ever

he had not because he

said

felt

he

would have been easy to take the remark as a Billy meant it. At the end of our conversation, I beheved cop-out but I asked Billy what he planned to do next. 'Be happy!' he said with a smile as he got up and left.

could never say enough.

On the

It

evening of Thursday 24 September 1998, Billy got ready to go

to Scotland the following day for a stag night organized for his future

brother-in-law, Steve. Steve was to

come round and

next morning from the house Billy shared with

collect

his partner,

him

early the

Cathy. Cathy

had taken her children by a previous marriage and gone ofi" to spend the night with her mother. At 9.10 that evening, with the house now empty, Billy lifted the telephone and ordered a Chinese take-away. Five minutes

pen and began to write. The first words he wrote were 'I'm sorry'. They were double underiined. 'Cathy and the children are at her mum's so I'm alone,' he continued. 'I wanted it that way because I've been working out what I've being going to do for a later,

he took out some Hned paper and

long time now.'

He

a

then wrote a four-page

letter.

As everyone knows, my Ufe is an open book. I was involved in something that is often described as 'the troubles' and I took Michael Fay's Ufe. I wanted to do it. I was so sick of hearing about the big, bad Protestants and hving every day with what the other side were doing

10 that

I

grew

moment

•

LOYALISTS

•

with a passion. My mind became diseased. The gun went off that day of 18 November '82, it was too

to hate

the

late.

The take-away

He

was no longer hungry.

arrived but Billy

sat

down

to

record what had happened in gaol and following his release.

When

went

glad. I tried to make amends by not was co-operative, educated myself and although I wouldn't have shamed the Lord by declaring myself to be a Christian, I tried to Hve as such. I saved 'screws" [prison officers] Hves on two occasions, once when another inmate and me stopped I

to gaol,

was

I

causing anyone any harm.

I

another prisoner from cutting an

- during

officer's throat

and the second time

- when I stopped the wrecking and quietened the bloodlust amongst my more militant and embittered colleagues and convinced them to allow free passage to the Block staff - they surely would have died a death that morning. Not a word was the

March

ever said about

Billy then

'95 riot

it.

went on

how

to describe

he was

'assaulted

and battered' by

prison staff later that day and 'treated like an animal' for days

He

that.

on end

after

described his anger and frustration and the compensation for his

injuries that

was

finally offered in

wrote. 'That was the

August 1998.

He

final straw.'

told of

how

'I

couldn't win,' he

he had put

his

time in

good use and the expectations he had on release of a 'good job good salary' that would enable him to buy things and give his

prison to

with

a

family and himself the chance to rime,'

he wrote, 'and

sentence means

all

I

He

hfe.'

'live a

wanted was

comfortable

a chance.' Billy

how

described

'I'd

life'.

served

never got

'wrecked' he

felt

it.

'A

my life

when

his

expectations were dashed, and he could not get a job despite his degree

and

his

newly acquired

He

skills.

did,

however, find government-assisted

employment at the Somme Heritage Centre but the wage amounted to little more than income support. After a prison sentence of fifteen years, Billy try

found himself living without

and make some extra money,

those

who would

not

and capable of better

let

'a all

him 'have

thing in the world'.

He gambled

the while hating himself the chance to prove that

to

more and I

was able

things'.

After about ten o'clock, Billy stopped writing and went to see his

mother. (Gripping the anns of the

how much

told her

mean and

I

really, really

Lily

chair,

he bent over and kissed her and

he loved her. She smiled and said she knew. 'No, love you,' he insisted.

thought he seemed

his

normal

self

He

then said goodbye.

and was going

home

I

Sam

to bed,

1

BILLY

presumably because of the

early

1

Scotland

for

start

the

following

morning.

home just after eleven o'clock and sat down again to continue his letter. By this time he had prepared a noose. 'I'm just back from visiting my mother. God love her,' he wrote. 'Tried on the noose for size. Cried some.' He took a second drink of alcohol. 'I hurt,' he Billy returned

continued.

been hurting

'I've

and soon the hurting and the is going to say, "fool". To me,

for years

pain and suffering will be over. Everyone it's

way

the easy

driving

the

that's

of suffering, soon

out. I'm sick

force

conscience and the recognition that

my

ment, during victim too

any kid

.

.

.

I

imprisonment and

now

hopefully

suffer the history

them our

going to pray to

me

watch over

free.

I

He

you's.'

and they

it

my

with

imprison-

my imprisonment. No more. Please

"troubles" free. I've decided to bring this to

that will set

my

was

I

don't

a

let

certainly

lives. Tell them of our them towards a life that is an end now. I'm tired.' He

regrets. Steer

offered his 'sincerest apologies' to to hurt. 'I'm

live

-

it all

normal

don't. Please let our next generation live

mistakes and admit to

to

of

last.

didn't deserve

I

free

a victim before

after

be the

I'll

have.

I

was

be

I'll

- freedom from having

all

God

whom he knew

those

before

when

feel sure that

then started to pray.

I

die,

He

he was going

he wrote. 'He's the one

die,'

I

go to heaven.

I'll

took

I'll

had

his shoes off,

a

few drinks, and fell asleep. He woke up at four o'clock, quite sober, and an hour later wrote his final words: 'Have just made myself a cup of tea, set things up, will pray and go back to sleep again.' He signed the letter, Billy Giles.

When found

Steve

Billy.

I

came

when

I

heard the news. BiUy had seemed so

confident, happy and in control of his Ufe

months

On Giles

earlier.

I

when I had

and the family.

dressed in his best

Billy

suit,

Sam CoUyns and

was lying

with

badge inscribed with the

his

went

I

in the sitting

white

words 'For

shirt

and

God and

tie.

He was just as remembered him from our last had gone. Lily

I

son's

sat at

in

Mr

a

few

and Mrs

an open

coffin,

small bronze

UVF

was pinned to

meeting but

the head of the coffin with her

brow. Her eyes were

his

now the

hand

resting

and red from crying as she side. His father's eyes were red

tired

vigil all night, refusing to leave his

too. We sat and talked of the BiUy whom they and at Billy's face

A

Ulster'

spirit

had kept

him only

to see

room

lapel.

on her

seen

even thought the demons might have gone.

the eve of the funeral,

gently

he

to collect his future brother-in-law at 6 a.m.,

was shattered

I

had known.

from which the colour had gone and thought

I

looked

that at last

he

had found peace. His eight-year-old niece, Ysabell, also came to say goodbye to her uncle whom she adored. As she sat by the coffin, she wrote the following verse:

12

LOYALISTS

.

Look out Look out If I

it

you don't look out the window

come

Uncle

on, and look out the

window,

Billy,

Look out his

window, now.

the

think you'U cry.

So,

Although

»

it

now.

death would never be recorded

written, a victim of the Troubles. that future generations

I

recalled the

would be spared

had gone through, and hoped that

as

such, Billy was, as he had

words

in his last testament,

the agony that Northern Ireland

his final

wish would come

true.

Chapter

One

Under Siege

John Beresford Ash's family is one of the four oldest Protestant fainilies in Northern Ireland. The ancestral home is Ashbrook, a graceful house of grey stone nestling in rhododendron-covered grounds between the River Faughan and the

foothills

of the western Sperrin mountains just outside

Londonderry. John was educated

at

Eton from 1951-6,

as

were

his father,

grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather, and does not

look or sound

like

family has lived at role

has

down

most people's idea of a Northern Ireland Protestant. The Ashbrook for over 400 years and has played a historic

those turbulent centuries. For the past three decades, violence

been on John's doorstep since he

of Londonderry, or in

1968

time,

when

John

dechne

as

Deny

only a few miles outside the city

as nationalists call

the civil rights

has

lives

watched the

it,

where the Troubles began

movement first erupted into violence. In number of his fellow Protestants in the

they fled what they saw

that city

the tide of Irish nationalism sweeping

as

Catholic families into traditionally Protestant areas. Loyalists have seen the pattern repeated

all

take-over of Ulster.

over the province in what they regard

The notion of siege

is

burned deep

as a nationalist

in the Protestant

psyche.

John and

his family

not surprising given

have not been

who

faced death at least twice.

Troubles,

when

immune from

they are and where they

The

first

the Troubles, live.

which

is

John himself has

occasion was in the early years of the

the violence in Derry was at

its

height and the

IRA had set

up the 'no-go' area of what it called 'Free Derry' in the nationalist Bogside and Creggan estates. These areas which had also sprung up in Belfast were so called because they had become IRA strongholds and were 'no-go' to the police and army. In Derry, the area was sealed off by barricades and patrolled by masked IRA men with guns, many of them under the direction of the young Martin McGuinness, who was then commander of the Provisional IRA's Derry Brigade. Late one

December

His unscheduled

visit

John found himself in 'Free Deny'. was prompted not by curiosity but necessity. 'I'd just night in 1972,

14

*

LOYALISTS

•

news and I looked at my packet of cigarettes and was empty,' he told me. 'I was a fifty-a-day man in

listened to the ten o'clock

my horror that it

saw to

those days and

I

thought, "Help!

What am going to do?" I

All the cigarette

machines were being blown up or robbed, the pubs used to close there

were no

hotels or cafes.

I

was simply dying

at

for a "gasper" so

ten and I

had to

go out and search for any place that was open.'

Without reahzing what he was doing or thinking of the danger John wandered into the Bogside in his desperate quest and suddenly found himself confronted in the pitch dark by a barricade and masked men. Faced with John Ash's military bearing and Eton accent, the IRA not unreasonably thought they had captured a British army spy. He was taken out of the car and escorted through the narrow streets to a house in the Creggan estate which stands above the Bogside. There he says he was confronted by the Brigade Staff of the Provisional IPJV. 'It was classic. A bare room with one armchair and the inevitable naked light bulb. I was involved,

made

my

to

sit

head.

in

it

Then

with two

They

rather unnerving.

and number but

as

I

interrogators

UK

who

one

Here was

holdmg submachine-guns to masked bar one. It was all

all

1

couldn't

I,

by asking

my

name, rank

them anything. It was an of the United Kingdom,

tell

a citizen

of the United Kingdom that wasn't under the

illegally in part

control of the

either side

started the interrogation

didn't have

extraordinary situation.

being held

men on

the Brigade Staff trooped in,

armed

forces.

It

was

totally unreal.'

John

told his

he was and what he was doing, that he was searching for

and not intelligence on the \KA. They probably thought unlikely story, but established it was true once they checked with the cigarettes

Catholic population. their people'.

'I

They

said his family

wouldn't say

it

an

local

had always been 'decent with

was treated with kindness but there was

I

a

amount of courtesy and there was certainly no physical violence at all.' The IRA admitted they had made a mistake and told him he could go. John returned to Ashbrook a relieved man - but without his cigarettes. certain

As the IRA had been told, their captive was well regarded by his Cathohc neighbours, some of whom he employed on his modest estate. Down the centuries, the family had never been absentee landlords who had left it to others to exploit their land and the people who worked it, and as a result

they had remained largely untouched since Ashbrook

the family

home

at

first

Ashbrook was onginally

a gift

from Queen Elizabeth

I

to John Beresford

he had rendered to the

Thomas Ash, in grateful recognition of the Crown in helping put down rebellion in

When

came

Ash's ancestor, General

the Cieneral

became

the end of the sixteenth century.

first

the hostile land then

to

known

Deny

in the late 159()s,

as Ulster,

he was

a

services Ireland.

stranger in

the most northern of the four

ancient provinces of Ireland - Leinster, Munster, C'onnaught and Ulster.

UNDER

The

he arrived

precise year

when

unknown

is

15

SIEGE

as

John's family records were

which housed the war that followed Public Record Office, were burned during the partition. General Ash had soldiered in Ireland in the wars at the end of the sixteenth century when Queen Elizabeth was confronted by a rebellion led destroyed in 1922

the Four Courts in Dublin, civil

by the O'Neills and the O'Donnells, the powerful Gaelic chieftains who wished to maintain their independence and resisted the Crown's attempt to bring them and their tribes under central Tudor control. Her Majesty gave the warlords the choice: surrender peacefully to the new order in which their lands

would be

confiscated and then regranted, or fight.

The

earls

war ensued, in which the rebels were seen as 'terrorists'. But Elizabeth's war with the Irish rebels had a sixteenth-century wider European dimension - as had most of Ireland's wars — because chose the

latter

course and

Protestant England's Catholic

enemy, Spain,

her great Armada, was the insurgents' persisted

down

ally.

still

smarting from the

England's abiding

fear,

the centuries and through the First and Second

Wars, was that Ireland would be used

as a

of

loss

which

World

base for a back-door attack

by

England's European enemies, be they Spanish, French or German. That

why

Government

the cardinal principle of British

is

policy was to keep

Ireland loyal and secure.

Thomas Ash served with honour in the war and Ashbrook was his reward. The rebel leaders admitted defeat and fled to the Continent, leaving behind their lands that became the Crown's spoils of victory. The General

ground was

now laid for what became known

under Elizabeth's successor, James

I,

at

as

the 'plantation' of Ulster

the beginning of the seventeenth

century, in which thousands of English and Scottish Protestants, many of them Presbyterians from the Scottish lowlands, flocked across the Irish Sea to make new lives for themselves in a new, albeit inhospitable, land. Most

of the Protestants of Northern Ireland today trace their ancestry back to

and others

that original plantation

From

the beginning, the settlers

native Catholic population

not just

a gift to the

and colonize

felt

soldier,'

this part

under

siege

who own

needed

provided

a certain it.

the place.'

kitchen and deep area

was

The

landowners were

The

It

from the dispossessed

now occupied. Ashbrook was defence for the new settlers. 'The

John

told

me. 'He'd been sent over to

of Northern Ireland.

population resented these intruders coming from settlers

I

imagine the local

a foreign

country and the

amount of protection. Thomas Ash was essential

come.

lands they

General but a

General was a professional pacify

whose

that followed in the decades to

from England's point of view

the fellow

to virtually

ruins of the old 'bawn', the fortified enclosure that

legally obliged to construct, are cellars at

still

visible

all

today in the

Ashbrook.

around Deny, the

city's original

name taken from

the Gaelic

•

16

word

meaning

'Doire'

rially profitable

with the oak

with

trees that

unpatriotically sold

of the

'place

oaks',

fertile soil, rivers

Ash, an entrepreneur

"•

LOYALISTS

were

them

demand

in great

well

as

was

especially rich

teeming with

to the Spanish.

and potenforests thick

for building ships. General

cut

as a soldier,

and

fish

down

thousands

Deny became

a natural

- and magnet

not only for the setders but for the merchant companies of the City of

London who saw

its

mouthwatering commercial opportunities. 'The

plantation was a successfiil effort

by the

British to exploit the natural

make money,' — the merchant adventurers. say John. 'It was started by the "Young Turks" I suppose one would have said, as with the Wild West, "Go West, young man!" There were fortunes to be made and that's how Northern Ireland was colonized. The settlers had this thing called the Protestant work ethic and they made the thing a great success.' Soon, three-quarters of the resources of this part of Ireland and a natural opportunity to

inhabitants of the

previous

ties,

now

land they

Another

newly

interest or

settled parts

of Ulster were Protestants with no

connection with the original inhabitants of the

worked.

ancestor. Sir Tristram Beresford, fi-om

Beresford part of the family name, became the

whom John

first

London merchant companies, looking after administration as

well as providing protection for the

new

settlers.

takes the

land agent for the as their interests

In 1613,

when

the

Royal Charter was granted enabling the merchant adventurers to colonize Ulster, the

name of the

city

was changed to Londonderry. John thought

it

home. '1 think it was to give some encouragement to the people working here because rather naturally they found It rather unpleasant. They were constantly being attacked and never bemg paid. It was a sort of bribe to make them think that they were doing was to make the

something for

settlers

their

feel

at

own home

town.'

A

contemporary account of the

plantation records that revolt was inevitable as the dispossessed Catholics

withdrew 'upon

to the

whom

assault'.'

In

woods from where they became

they descended

when

the occasion offered to plunder and

1641, the 22,000 Protestants of the

colony saw their enduring nightmare attacked the

settlers.

The

throughout the country

England

come

now

well-established

true as embittered Catholics

rising

was part of a wider rebellion by Catholics

who

had seen the

new

Puritan parliament in

pass a decree suppressing the Catholic religion in Ireland.

Great Rebellion, civil

the scourge of the settlers

as

it

became known, marked

The

the beginning of the English

war, which claimed the hves of about one-third of the native Insh

dunng the eleven years in which it raged on both sides What began as a political upnsing by Irish and English

Catholic population

of the Insh Sea."

Catholics throughout Ireland - the Enghsh had settled in the other three ancient provinces long before the plantation

- descended

into an orgy of

UNDER

17

SIEGE

where 4,000 settlers were murdered in Portadown. Catholics were massacred by Protestants in reprisal. The events of

sectarian killing in Ulster

1641 reinforced the idea in the mind of every they were defenders of their natives

who would

years later,

To

faith in

shrink from

no

settler

and

his family that

an aHen country besieged by hostile atrocity to retrieve their lands. Fifty

in Derry, the siege became

real.

defend the Londonderry plantation and their commercial

interests,

the merchant companies had fortified the city with huge walls designed to

keep even the most determined enemy

bay. In 1689 rtiey served their

at

purpose dramatically during an epic siege of the

by the army of the

city

during the war for the EngHsh throne. Ireland was

CathoHc King James caught up in the wider European power struggle in which CathoUc France and Protestant Holland were the superpowers and deadly rivals of the time. Fearing that England was becoming a Cathohc satellite of King Louis XIV of France, the Dutch Prince William of Orange invaded England, chased King James from the throne, became King William III and proclaimed the II

'Glorious Revolution' of 1688 in

which the Protestant

were

assured. In panic, James fled to France

came army

to Ireland to attack (the

word

England from the

for the supporters

faith

and then with

rear —

which

is

and succession

his

French aUies

how his Jacobite

of King James's Stuart dynasty) came to

be laying siege to Derry.

The city which had a peacetime population of around 2,000 was swollen from the surrounding countryside sought from the advancing army of King James. 'My family Ashbrook,' John recaUs, 'and there was obviously no security

to an estimated 30,000 as families

refuge within

was Uving

at

walls

its

house.

at all in a private

sort

You had

to have a friU-scale castle to survive those

of troubles. So they did what everybody

December

1688,

when

as best

they could.'

The

thirteen

the gates in the face of the

Robert Lundy, decided

they went inside the

else did,

siege began on 7 young Protestant Apprentice Boys closed enemy after the Governor of Derry, Colonel

walled city and rode out the siege

that resistance

was

ftitile

and proposed to negotiate

terms of surrender. Lundy was deposed and smuggled out of the city cries

of 'No Surrender' echoed from the

'Lundy' entered the

loyalist

vocabulary

walls.

as a

As

a result, the

as

word

term of abuse for anyone

prepared to betray Ulster. Conditions during the siege were horrendous, as

another of John's ancestors. Captain

contemporary

diary.

On

Thomas

Ash, recorded in a famous

26 July, almost eight months into the

siege,

wrote the following entry:

God knows, we

not one week's provisions in the garrison. surrender the

now there is Of necessity we must

never stood in such need of supply; for

city,

and make the best terms

we can for ourselves. Next

he

Wednesday is our cows and horses,

last, if

relief

that

they are

of the horses killed

all

does not arrive before

sixteen of the

slaughtered; the blood of the

and

•

LOYALISTS

•

18

.

.

This day the

and twelve of the

first,

cows was

two pence

at

it.

.

last,

were

sold at four pence per quart,

There

is

not a dog to be seen,

and eaten.

Other contemporary accounts describe unburied corpses being devoured rats and the rats then being devoured by desperate humans. Everything had its price: a dog's head was two shillings and sixpence; a cat was four shiUings and sixpence; a rat was a shilling; and a mouse, sixpence. Fifteen thousand men, women and children are estimated to have died through starvation, malnutrition and disease. The day after Captain Ash wrote that by

entry,

two

with suppHes - the Protestant

ships loaded

fifth

cavalry

- broke

the 'boom' that the besiegers had placed across the neck of Loch Foyle to

prevent re-supply of the besieged

city.

The

captain of the flagship of the

who was

squadron, the Aiountjoy, was Michael Browning,

who

the aid of his wife, EUzabeth Ash,

had taken

shelter

also

coming

to

with her mother

Ashbrook had been overrun by the advancing Jacobite army. But Captain Browning never saw his wife or mother-in-law. 'It was rather sad really,' explained John, 'because almost within sight of the walls of Deny, he stopped a bullet and so never had this joyfiil reunion.' Captain inside the walls after

Thomas Ash recorded

the scene in his diary:

Captam Browning stood upon encouraging the

enemy

WUham

his

men

struck

did his

with great

him

the deck with his cheerftilness;

in the head,

widow

the

a fatal bullet

and he died on the

honour of tying

her neck, and settled on her

sword drawn,

from King diamond chain round

but

a

spot.

pension.

a

A

copy of a famous painting. The Relief of Deny, now hangs in Ashbrook showing Governor Walker (who replaced the disgraced Colonel Lundy) surrounded by

joyfijl citizens,

the 'boom'. Elizabeth

Ash

is

pointing to the Mountjoy

The

siege

is

unaware of the

fate

diarist

Captain

Thomas

of her husband, Captain Browning.

of Derry became one of the most powerful symbols

Protestant history. 'They were hard

women

the ship broke

depicted in the foreground tending the sick

and the dying alongside her mother and son, the Ash. Elizabeth

as

and they stuck

it

men

in those days

in

and even harder

out and became national heroes,' said John. 'The

notion of Derry, the "Maiden C^ity" - because her walls were never

breached - has been built up and

have been

a catastrophic defeat.'

built

up

to

commemorate what would

The Apprentice Boys became

the symbol

of Protestant defiance, the name 'Lundy' synonymous with treachery and

UNDER 'No

down

Surrender!' the battle cry of loyalists as

the Brotherhood founded

the

effigy

memory, commemorate of Lundy to mark its start

mark

its

their

the centuries.

start

the siege by burning a sixteen-foot-high in

December and march round

reUef the following August.

provoked the

siege

of the nineteenth century to cherish

It

the walls to

was the Apprentice Boys' parade on

12 August 1969 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the that

The

every year the Apprentice Boys of Deny,

remains living history today, at

19

SIEGE

lifting

of the siege

rioting that led to the deploymerit of British troops

and

the effective beginning of the current conflict.

The their

Protestants' victor)^

was sealed

champion. King William

III

a year later

on

11 July

when

1690

of Orange, defeated King James

II's

army

The Protestant succession to the EngHsh throne was now secure and 'Remember 1690' entered the handbook of Protestant slogans alongside 'No Surrender!' The Orange Order was founded over a at

the Battle of the Boyne.

century later in 1795, following a skirmish with Catholics near the village

of Loughgall

in Counrv'

Armagh,

and immortal

to sustain 'the glorious

memory' of King William and the Boyne. The huge parades throughout areas of Northern Ireland on 12 July every year celebrate 'King Billy's' famous

victory, traditionally seen

by many working-class loyahsts

victory of the 'Prods' over the 'Taigs'

Cathohcs), which

With

is

the siege

(a

traditional

as a

term of abuse for

why marching is such a poHtically sensitive issue today. of Derry over and King William III now firmly

estabhshed on the throne of England, John's family returned to Ashbrook

and

rebuilt the

century

later,

in the Irish

house that the Jacobite troops had burned.

another of his ancestors, John Beresford,

parHament

in

DubHn

that ran Ireland

More

who was

than

a

a minister

on behalf of the Crown,

achieved lasting fame by writing the Act of Union of 1800 that created the

Umted Kingdom

of Great Britain and Ireland. After another rebellion in

1798 had underhned not only

Ireland's instability but

its

vulnerability to

foreign invasion, once again at the hands of the French, William

Pitt,

the

EngHsh Pnme Minister of the day, decided that Ireland should be brought under direct control. The Irish parHament in DubHn was to be aboHshed and Insh members were to be elected to the House of Commons at Westminster. 'John Beresford was Commissioner of the Revenue in DubHn, a Privy Councillor and the power behind the throne,' John explains. 'In fact he was known as the "uncrowned king of Ireland". He was a member of the Irish parliament and had a finger in almost every pie there was. He was also an extremely forceful character. There was tremendous opposition to the change among the British aristocracy over here and the Anglo-Irish gentry because they rather naturaUy thought they

could run the countr\' to their

own

ference firom London. But he finally

advantage

managed

far better

without inter-

to cajole the

landowners

20

LOYALISTS

•

into voting for the Act of

would be

Ireland

far better

parliament in Dublin.

Union, the principle being that the island of governed by a parliament in London than a

My

ancestor,

small print of the Act of Union.

of tremendous

We now

strategic

"•

The

John Beresford,

significance

wrote the

actually

of the Act was

vast. It

was

importance to have Ireland under British control.

had garrisons here and troops to defend the

place.'

But despite - or perhaps because of - the Act of Union, Ireland was never at peace. The nineteenth century was marked by constant political

economic and constitutional grievances forced their on successive British governments faced with the growing emergence of Irish nationalism and widespread violence and civil unrest. The greater the nationalist menace, the more determined Protestants became to resist, fearing for all they held dear should the constitutional position of Ireland be changed and they become thrall to the Roman agitation as social,

unwelcome

attention

Cathohc Church. Sectarian after

and

riots in Belfast

Deny

broke out

in

decade

decade in the second half of the century, often fuelled by the

Hugh Hanna, a ninewho was one of the Reverend Ian

inflammatory speeches of the Reverend 'Roaring' teenth-century fundamentahst preacher Paisley's predecessors.

By

the end of the century, the Irish Question

continued to dominate British domestic ster

taking sides

Gladstone,

who

on the

issue.

The

politics

British

with

parties at

recognized that Ireland had

a separate national identity,

twice endeavoured to solve the Question by introducing

Home

1893 to grant both

bills

m

second

Ireland as

spht his

House of

Liberal Party

servative Party

House of Commons and

in the

first

the

also

proved to be. In the process he had

and forged the

alliance

between the Con-

and the Ulster Unionists from which the Conservative and

Unionist Party

finally

emerged. The Conservative champion of the

unionist cause at Westminster was Lord

queathed to

1886 and

Lords. Gladstone finally resigned, defeated by

most of his successors

own

bills in

Rule, a form of semi-independence, to Ireland, but

were defeated - the the

Westmin-

Prime Minister, William Ewart

loyalists yet

Randolph Churchill who be-

another historic slogan, 'Ulster will fight and

Ulster will be nght'.

But the cause of

Home

Rule did not

successor as Prime Minister, Herbert

die with Gladstone. His Liberal

Henry Asquith, who was John's

aunt's

grandfather, also took up the Insh challenge and in 1912 attempted to push a third

Home

Rule

bill

success as veto by the

through parliament,

this

time with every chance of

House of Lords had been removed by

the Parliament

Act of the previous year, under which their lordships could only veto legislation a question

realization

from the House of C Commons three times.

Home

Now

it

was no longer

Rule would be introduced but when. With that came the cntical question for Asquith's (ioveninutit; would of

if

UNDER Ulster Protestants

and

resist

21

SIEGE

how? The

if so,

question was soon to be

answered.

In 1912, a

new champion emerged

for Ulster loyalists, beleaguered yet

a Protestant barrister from DubHn who was also a unionist MP for Trinity College Dublin in the Westminster

form of Sir Edward Carson,

again, in the

Home

Rule became an issue once again, Carson had acquired a high public profile by his acclaimed 'defence of the Marquis of Queensbury in the 1895 trial of Oscar Wilde. In 1910 he became leader parliament.

Even before

of the

Unionist Parliamentary Party and spoke eloquently against the

third

Irish

Home

Rule

bill,

but he came into

and

led over half a million Ulster

League and Covenant against

own two

his

years later

Home

Rule.

It

Solemn

was the climax of eleven

over ten days in September 1912 in what became

raUies held

when he

signing the

Irish Protestants in

'Covenant Campaign' (imitated by Ian Paisley in

his

known

as

the

'Carson Trail' of

which Carson addressed cheering crowds aU over the North, 'It is you who are prepared to break the law and it is I who am prepared to resist you when you break it.' On 28 September 1912, Carson marched through tens of thousands of cheering loyaHsts thronging Belfast's Royal Avenue and Donegal Square and into the foyer of the magnificent City Hall, to sign the Covenant with a special silver pen. To Protestants, the Covenant was the equivalent of 1981), in

having warned Asquith's Government,

Magna

England's

Carta or America's Declaration of Independence.

It set

out Ulster's position in one extremely long sentence.

Being convinced

in

our consciences that

Home

Rule would be whole of

disastrous to the material well-being of Ulster as well as the Ireland, subversive

of our

civil

and reUgious freedom, destructive of

our citizenship, and perilous to the unity of the empire, we, whose

names

are underwritten,

men

of Ulster, loyal subjects of his gracious

Majesty King George V, humbly relying on the fathers in days

of stress and

trial confidently trusted,

God whom

our

do hereby pledge

ourselves in solemn covenant throughout this our time of threatened

calamity to stand by one another in defending for ourselves and our children our cherished position within the United using

all

means

that

may

Kingdom, and

in

be found necessary [author's emphasis] to defeat

the present conspiracy to set up a

Home Rule parliament in

Ireland.

John's grandfather and grandmother both signed Carson's Covenant. All those

who

did so also pledged to refuse to recognize the authority of any

Home Rule pariiament that was set up. in the phrase

'all

means

that

But

may be found

it

was the

scarcely veiled threat

necessary' that caused greatest

22

LOYALISTS

.

concern to Asquith and

^

Govemment.

his

Effectively Ulster Protestants

w^ere threatening rebellion against the wishes of the sovereign

parUament

of the United Kingdom. The sentiment was to be often repeated

at

various

by Ian Paisley and other loyahst leaders, who Government was bent on selling them out to a united

stages in the present conflict

beheved the

British

Ireland.

Carson was

Paisley's hero.

Northern Ireland the for

all

my pohtical Life,'

dom own

and Crown,

1

that taught the people

that although

i§

many who would

their it.

first

loyalty has

That

is

why

been

that

is

not.

state.'

describe

to the preservation

the British

Govemment and

pohticians frequently clashed. Carson's speeches put into

Covenant did

of

have espoused and fought

have always professed loyalty to the United King-

as loyahsts

position within

unionism that

he told me. 'He's the founding father of our

The paradox of loyahsm themselves

'He was the man

traditional

The word was

the object of victory, and

force.

we

are

'We have one

of their loyalist

words what the

object in view and

going to win,' he told

his audience.

you [the Govemment] have treated us with fraud, if necessary we will treat you with force.' By 1913 Carson had raised a pnvate army of around 100,000 men between the ages of seventeen and sixty-five, drawn exclusively from those who had signed the Covenant - proof positive that 'all means that may be found necessary' meant military resistance. It was known as the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and given the blessing of the Ulster Unionist Council, which was - and still is - the governing body of the Ulster Unionist Party. Finance was never a problem since it was underwritten to the sum of over a million pounds by the Ulster business community. Regiments were raised all over Ulster, some trained by former British soldiers in Orange Halls and fields across the province. In the words of one partisan historian, class distinctions were set aside. 'As

Such was the measure of their commitment that after a hard day's toil men walked for miles to attend parades and dnlls. Social distinctions were forgotten. Gentry cheerfully in the fields or the factories,

obeyed orders from

their tenants

and company directors from

their

employees.

The

UVF

Itself

was commanded by an

illustrious senior officer

Lieutenant-General Sir George Richardson. ture

and the anxiety

in

Carson

of the day,

raised the

tempera-

Downing Street still further when he announced that

he had 'pledges and promises from some of the greatest generals

in the

amiy,

who have given their word that, when the time conies, is necessary, they will come over and help us keep the old flag flying'. He criss-crossed Ulster it it

'

inspecting Volunteers drilling with

wooden

nfles, telling

them they were

'a

UNDER great army'

and asking for

their trust

the most opportune methods, or

23

SIEGE

with the assurance that 'we will

if necessary

take over ourselves the

government ot this community in which we Hve'. It was seditious talk, but nothing was done to stop plans for the Ulster Unionist Council to

become

ment with Carson

at

was

a flirther

March,

sixtv^

at its

head. Moreover,

development

that

it.

select

whole

There were even

a Provisional

Govern-

the beginning of 1914, there

gladdened the hearts of Ulster loyaHsts. In

British cavalry officers based at the

Cutfagh camp near Kildare

resigned their commissions rather than face the prospect of being used to

UVF. The War

coerce Ulster unionists and take on the

accept their resignations and declared that

any

operations

militarv'

against

it

Office refused to

did not intend to undertake

recalcitrant

Ulster

unionists,

but the

assurance was given without the authority of the Cabinet and the Secretary

of War and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff Both were forced to resign. ^ Nevertheless, the

British soldiers a loyaHst

would obey

clear: there

was no guarantee

orders should they be called

upon

to put

that

down

rebeUion in Ulster.

Initially

with

message was

the English press

dummy

rifles,

made

a

mockery of Ulstermen

drilling in fields

but soon began to take them more seriously once the

wooden guns became

danng plot approved by Carson, 35,000 rifles and 3 million rounds of ammunition were secredy smuggled into the port of Lame fi-om Germany on board a freighter called the Clyde Valley. The consignment was landed during the night of 24/25 April 1914 and its contents distributed to the UVF throughout Ulster, much of them being stowed away in the roofs of Orange Halls. The chief gun-runner was one of Carson's lieutenants. Major Frederick Crawford, who had signed the Covenant in his own blood. But battle was never joined as, just over three months later, on 4 August 1914, Britain was at war with Germany. The showdown was postponed.

The

real.

In a

Ulster Volunteer Force did go to

had expected. Three days

War

after the

war but not

opening of

against the

hostilities,

enemy

the

it

newly

'I want the Ulster Volunthem and 10,000 new uniforms were ordered from Moss Bros, in London. The Volunteers went into battle not as the LJVF but as the 36th Ulster Division, but as long as the word 'Ulster' was in their title, few of them complained. Thousands of Ulstermen enlisted to tight for King and Country', answering Lord Kitchener's famous poster call 'Your Countr\' Needs You!' Many never returned. John Beresford Ash's family paid a heavy price. Seventeen of them were either killed, gassed or wounded during the course of the war. On 1 July 1916 - the original calendar anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne - the 36th Ulster Division

appointed teers.'

He

Minister, Lord Kitchener, said,

finally

was thrown

at

got

the

German

lines in the Battle

of the

Somme. Some

are

24

LOYALISTS

.

,

recorded to have rushed from the trenches with

'Remember

cries

of 'No Surrender' and

1690' into a barrage of enemy shells and deadly machine-gun

fire.

Many wore Orange

The

loss

ribbons and one sergeant wore an Orange sash.

of hfe was awesome.

Two thousand Ulster Volunteers were killed

and over 3,000 wounded. The West Belfast battaUon of the UVF, known as 'the Shankill Boys', was 700 strong when it left the trenches. When the slaughter was over, only seventy

were

was

a professional soldier

and fought

the

Royal

as

entirely I

not

Fusiliers,

why

asked John

an ofiicer in

Somme

the

beheved they had

against the evil

had such an emotional place

were

of Kaiserism. In

lost that first day.

all,

They were

men from

nearly 100,000

think 20,000 were lost in the

I

always say that patriotism died on the

and they

their country

higher duty to perform.

a

in loyalist

'They were not

volunteers,' he said.

They had joined out of love of

regular soldiers.

were

the

of volunteers.

history. 'Don't forget, they

really

John Beresford Ash's father Somnie as a junior captain in the UVF which was made up

left.

at

all

first

Somme. People just

fighting

regiments

hour.

They

did not beheve

that such carnage could take place.'

The memory of the Somme remains still fresh in the minds of loyalists today, especially those who became members of the reincarnated but illegal Ulster Volunteer Force in the present conflict, 'terrorists'.

the legendary leader of the

modem UVF

His father was

murder.

took

in the history

his small

and

bungalow

his fellow

something

like

member of the

a

of loyalism 'with off the Shankill

Ulstermen 5,200

his

casualties,'

and served original

sentence for

a life

UVF

and he

says

he

mother's milk'. Today the study in

Road

who made

whom successive British and

Augustus 'Gusty' Spence became

Insh governments branded

stands as a shrine to the

Somme

the ultimate sacrifice. 'There was

he told me.

'Now one

can imagine in

a

place like Belfast - or as small as Northern Ireland - that the telegrams and lists of the dead and wounded, the killed and the missing, had a profound impact. The whole province was plunged into mourning. We were bom and reared with the sacnfice of the Somme.'

Nineteen sixteen was the great watershed year

both

in

loyalist

and

marked by two dramatic events that were to condition the paths the two traditions were to take for the remainder of the century. repubhcan

history,

The Somme was

one.

1916, republicans

The

Easter Rising

who were

(IRA) seized the Post Office hc.

With the country

at

was the other.

the forerunners of the in

Dublin and proclaimed the

martyrs and the notion of 'blood

made

their

own

Easter

Monday Amiy

Republican Irish

Rcpub-

war, the rebellion was seen as a stab in the back

and Bntain executed the leaders of the Rising loyalists

On

Irish

blood

for treason, thus creating

sacrifice', just

sacrifice at the

over two months

Somme.

later,

UNDER

When

War

the Great

25

SIEGE

they had

volunteered to

initially

who

was over and the Ulstermen

returned home, they discovered that the issue of

Home

had not gone away. They

fight,

survived

Rule, which

now saw

the old enemy, Irish repubUcanism, with a new name, the Irish RepubHcan Army, fighting a savage guerrilla campaign to force Britain to leave the whole of Ireland. To Irish nationalists it became known as the War of Independence. The British would have regarded it as a war against

although the British auxiUary forces*

'terrorism',

and Tans' indulged

known

in savagery every bit as vicious

—

if

as

the 'Black

not more so —

than that of their enemy. After two years of bloody fighting, a compromise

was reached and

Treaty signed on 6

a

partition of Ireland

December 1921

that recognized the

under which Bntain was to withdraw from twenty-six

ot Ireland's thirty-tw^o counties.

The Treaty

independence but what the IRA's

leader,

did not give Ireland her

Michael Collins, called

'the

fireedom to achieve freedom' in the form of the semi-independent 'Eire' or Irish

Free State. Eire had

its

Eireann and no longer sent 'Free State'

is still

'Free State'

The

own parHament in Dublin known as Dail MPs to Westminster. Even today the term

used disparagingly by

became

the Irish

many

RepubUc

of Ireland that had been

partition

loyaHsts despite the fact that

in 1937. ratified

by the Government of

Ireland Act before the signing of the Treaty, divided the country and

created for unionists the state of Northern Ireland that was to remain an integral part

of the United Kingdom. Partition was brought about because

of the continuing threat of a loyahst rebellion that had not been diminished

by the intervention of the Great War. But from the artificial.

Only

were excluded within the

new

regarded, with

six

outset, the division

was

of the nine counties of the ancient province of Ulster

to guarantee Protestants an overriding two-thirds majority

new parUament

state.

Northern

good

reason, as a 'Protestant

Ireland's

parHament

at

Stormont was

for a Protestant

people'.

From

its

birth.

Northern Ireland was

a state

under

siege

bom

amidst

widespread sectarian violence, in particular in Belfast and Deny. In the

two

years of

rioring

- 303

its

existence,

557 people were

Catholics, 172 Protestants

British army. Belfast witnessed the

killed in

first

inter-communal

and 82 members of the pohce and

most vicious

sectarian rioting

of all that

led to mass expulsions of CathoUc workers from the Protestant-dominated shipyards and engineering works.

CathoUc workers were put out of driven out of their homes."

It

is

estimated that around

their jobs

The IRA was

10,000

and 23,000 Cathohcs were

active too, trying to destabilize

the state from the very beginning and complete the business that partition

had left unfinished. To most loyahsts, the minority nationalist population was seen as the IP^'s sleeping partner as it shared the same aim of achieving

26

LOYALISTS

.

a united Ireland. Nationalists

IRA

horse for the

were regarded

Partition

as

the

enemy

and the Dublin Government

convinced was plotting with state.


ok, Noel,

don't want you

I

messing around with guns' or any of that sort of stufP? No. same account of the

Billy Mitchell gives the

today has any love for Paisley, and neither other, there truth.

is

no reason

to believe they are being

Dr

questioned

also

1

home. As neither man I was interviewing the

trip

knew

economical with the

about that return journey from

Paisley

Loughgall.

Did you ask them Avhat they had been had been up to? No.

If

it

was

a

certainly

I

way, and

on such

UPV

me

they never told

was not

meeting,

I

would

talking about,

ask

them how

what they

it

went, but

were discussing any such matters, and any way aware of it, nor was I associated in any

that they

in

I'd be very surprised

at this

longjuncture

now

that

I

was

in

a thing.

Did you have any suspicions about what Noel Docherty was up to? Yes,

had suspicions about

I

they were up

to,

and

There were

path.

would happen

a lot

was trying

I

a lot

that they

of people

of people to direct

in those days

them along

who were

were prepared

and what

the poUtical

so angry about

to take the law into their

what

own

hands.

The meeting Billy Mitchell,

Loughgall proved Noel Docherty 's undoing. Through

at

he subsequently helped the Shankill Road

gelignite that had

been mentioned

members

Portadown

to the

at

He

the meeting.

area, blindfolded

UVF acquire the

took three of their

them and took them

Loughgall where they were shown the gelignite. 'Whether they took that night,

I

don't know.

connection came to in the possession

light

I

was probably having

tea

when James Murdock's

with the fanner.'

to it

The

business card was found

of one of the members of the UVF,

who

h.ni t.ikcii

it

from

home. 'It was that business card that coiinei ted me and the - which was Paisley - to the UVF on the Shankill Road,' Docherty

the farmer's

UPV

remembers ruefully. On 18 October 1966, Docherty was sentenced

to

two

years'

imprison-

39

GATHERING STORM

The fanner, James Murdock, was acquitted was fined quarryman and the ;C200- Paisley was greatly embarrassed when the local press began to run stories that a senior member of his organization was involved in terrorism. At Docherty's trial, the activities of the secretary of the UCDC, the organizer of the Ulster Protestant Volunteers and member of Paisley's church came to hght. Paisley expelled Docherty from ment

for explosives offences.

the organizations he had helped found and told joumalists outside Crumlin

where Docherty was incarcerated that 'his disciple had been disowned. Docherty remembers the moment with some bitterness.

Road

It

gaol

would have been

nice

if Paisley

had taken

you've been up to no good and you

know

me

and

aside

the price.

You

said,

'Look,

have to go.

You're caught now. Disappear. Bye-bye. But he didn't do that. He just ignored me and changed the lock on the printing house doors. Close friends of mine became strangers.

when

I

eventually did go into gaol, the

outside the prison and said,

done.

I

wash

my

'I

I

was

first

just ostracized.

And

night he had a meeting

knew nothing of what

this

man

has

hands of him.' That was worse than the two-year

gaol sentence.

Were you using Dr I

think

it's

six

Paisley or

was he using you?

of one and half a dozen of the other.

merry-go-rounds. Yes,

I

It's

was trying to use Paisley and he

swings and

certainly

was

using me.

Despite Paisley's denial of knowledge of the clandestine

activities in

which

were involved, what happened at of members of the UPV and prosecution subsequent the Loughgall and UVF clearly illustrate just how close to the wind Paisley was saihng, even in

Noel Docherty and

Billy Mitchell

those early days, in associating with

men who were

prepared to use

was to happen again on more than one occasion in the future. At the conclusion of the interview, I asked Noel Docherty if he had started the Troubles, as his was one of the very first convictions. 'I may

violence.

It

hope I didn't start pulling the first trigger. If I can be held responsible for what happened, then I'm just as guilty as the rest.' He put on his hat, said good-bye and disappeared into the anonymity he had enjoyed for the past thirty years. Part of loyalist history had gone.

have,' he said.

'I

hope

I

didn't.

I

Chapter Three

Murder

In the aftermath of the Easter Commemoration in 1966, the Shankill Road UVF, with whom Noel Docherty and Billy Mitchell had begun to associate, started

IP.A.

campaign of sectarian intimidation under the guise of attacking the

its

One of their targets was thought to have been an Road that was owned by a Roman Catholic.

Shankill

Shankill was not as exclusively Protestant as

it

became

off-licence off the

In those days, the later

divided into clearly defined Catholic and Protestant areas

as

when

Belfast

the violence

and each community sought safety in the company of its own. The house next door to the off-licence, like the vast majority in the Shankill, was rented by Protestants, a seventy-seven-year-old widow called Mrs Matilda Gould and her son, Samuel. The walls of their home had already been daubed with the familiar sectanan slogans, 'Remember 1690', 'Popehead' and 'This house is owned by a Taig', presumably by bigots who intensified

thought that Mrs Gould's house was part of the Catholic-run off-licence. At 10.40 on the evening of 7 May 1966, a petrol bomb was thrown through Mrs Gould's window while she was asleep in bed. The house went up in flames and Mrs Gould died in hospital from her injuries seven weeks later.

At the inquest, the an

RUC officer who investigated the attack. Detective

McComb, said, organization known

James

'I

think the act was part and parcel of the activities of, as

the Ulster Volunteer Force.' Samuel

awarded /]336 compensation assistance.

by the

the

loss

of

his

mother's care and

Makmg the award, Mr Justice Gibson, who was later assassinated

IRA on

seditious

for

Gould was

25 Apnl 1987,

said the attack

had been carried out by

combination or unlawful organization whose

activities

'a

were

directed to asserting and maintaining Protestant ascendancy in areas of

the city

where there was

a

predominantly Protestant majority of the

population, by overt acts of terror.'' Historically, victim of the current Troubles.

A

Mrs Gould was

fortnight later, the

UVF issued

the

first

a chilling

statement to the Belfast newspapers from '(!aptain William Johnson, (^hief

of Staff of the UVF'. The name, paramilitaries

on both

sides,

was

as

with

fictitious.

all

such statements from the

MURDER

From this

day,

we

tion. Less

war

declare

Known IRA men

will

against the

IRA and its sphnter groups.

be executed mercilessly and without hesita-

extreme measures will be taken against anyone sheltering or

helping them, but

they persist in giving them

if

extreme methods will be adopted authorities to

heavily

41

armed

.

.

.

we

aid,

then more

solemnly warn the

make no more speeches of appeasement.

We

are

Protestants dedicated to this cause."

Although Gusty Spence was a member of the UVF when the statement was issued, he insists he was only 'a reasonably small cog in a big piece of machinery', but nevertheless does not distance himself from

it.

That statement would be made in your name because you were a member of the organization. Oh, yes, yes, yes. And did you agree with that statement? Well, at that time, yes. Oh, absolutely, yes. 'Executed mercilessly and without hesitation'? Yes.

The

UVF

Shankill

appears a

met

in a

back room of the Standard Bar, where

decision was made to

was beUeved to be

a leading

kill a

republican called Leo Martin,

member of the

Belfast

it

who

IRA. Four men were

ordered to carry out the operation and trawled the Clonard area off the Catholic

Falls

Road where Martin was thought

to live.

They

failed to find

him. Presumably not wishing to return to the Standard Bar with mission

unaccomplished, they shot a Catholic called John Patrick Scullion,

whom

they had encountered in the area drunk and allegedly singing republican songs. Like the victims of the hundreds of loyalist murders that

follow, John Scullion was an innocent Catholic

wrong

to

wrong time when loyalist paramilitaries were looking Astonishingly, when his body was discovered, it was assumed

place at the

for a victim. that

were

who happened to be in the

he had

fallen

over in a drunken stupor, injured himself and subse-

quently died. Three weeks

later,

'Captain William Johnson'

Belfast press again and, claiming that

of the Ulster Volunteer Force', appeared to have been

a

he was 'Adjutant of the

said that Scullion

was

phoned the

First

Battalion

their victim.

What

case of death by misadventure suddenly became a

murder hunt. ScuUion's body was exhumed and the belated discovery was made that the abdominal wound was the result of a gunshot. In June 1966, the loyalist marching season began and the tensions, as always, started to

of the

first six

rise,

but

now perhaps more so

months of the

year.

On

than usual given the events

the evening of Saturday 25 June,

42

LOYALISTS

.

"•

after a parade down the Shankill, Gusty Spence went to the Standard Bar where he met other members of the UVF. It appears that it was decided that a second attempt should be made to hit Leo Martin, who was named as 'the target for the night'. Two UVF men were ordered to go to Martin's house to kill him. But Martin was not at home. For the second time, the UVF had failed to find and shoot him. The two men returned to the

Standard Bar and later in the evening, with Spence and the others,

on

to the Malvem Arms, a pub well known for its after-hours drinking. That night, three young CathoHc barmen — Peter Ward, Richard

Leppington and Liam Doyle — had been working Hotel it

moved

in Belfast city centre, a mile or so

had been

away. As

late in

it

Andrew

long and busy evening, their manager,

a

the International

was Saturday night and Kelly, also a

The only pub that he knew was time of night was the Malvem Arms off the

Catholic, suggested they go off for a drink.

open, albeit unofficiaUy,

at that

Road. In those

Shankill

Shankill or Protestants

had no problem going up the

days. Catholics

up the

Falls. 'I'd

been there before without any

knocked on the door - the door in those days was kept closed at night - and the publican, who knew me, took us in. It was around midnight. There was no problem at all. We had a drink and stayed in our own company. The bar was quite busy that particular night.' I asked him how the regulars would have known that they were

Andrew

problems,'

Roman

CathoUcs.

Peter Ward.

them

I

Kelly told me.

'I

don't

understood that some of them had been talking to

know what the

he came from the

that

'I

Falls

may have

told

UVF men who

had

conversation was and he

Road.'

One

of the

gone to the Malvem Arms with Gusty Spence was Hugh McClean who subsequently made a statement to the police about what happened that night.

The

came up about the religion of these fellows. Spence Spence then went asked the company if they would be Catholics up to the bar beside the four lads to buy a drink. When he returned to conversation

.

our

table,

he

said, 'I've

been

'These

four

young

listening to their conversation

(Catholics left the

side door, with Peter

Ward

'Somebody gave

a signal to start

Apparently the bullet went

in

.

.

.

and they

Spence

said,

Malvern Arms about 1.45 a.m. by the

leading the

him. Kelly remembers suddenly seeing gunfire.

.

IRA men.' We had some more dnnks are IRA men, they will have to go.'

are four

The

.

way and Andrew flashes

shooting. Peter

through the

fifth

Kelly behind

and heanng the sound of

Ward was

hit

first.

nb and came out through

He was dead when he hit the ground. was shot too and dropped down but they kept on shooting at me. There were four gunmen. the ninth.

I

MURDER

43

They didn't say anything. All I remember are the flashes and the shooting.' Andrew Leppington and Liam Doyle, who were following Peter Ward and Andrew Kelly out of the bar, were also shot and seriously wounded. Doyle survived because he rolled up into a ball when he hit the ground and made himself a more difficult target. Miraculously, Andrew KeUy also survived.

know why they did it. We were ordinary working IRA connections. We were shot just because we were

don't

'I

people with no Cathohcs.'

Peter Ward's mother, Mary, was sitting

bedroom window, waitmg

for her son to

at

home

looking out of her

come m. Although

knew

she

were often late-night fiinctions at the International Hotel on a Saturday evening, she had started to worry because it was getting so late. there

Then

a priest

knocked

at

and gradually explained remains so to shot

this day.

him and he was

Cathohc.

My

the door and said he had 'bad news' about Peter

that

he had been shot. Mary was devastated and

'They shot

Peter and Peter

at

fell. It

Peter had nothing against any religion.

UVF

was the

Roman

shot for nothing, just because he was a

He worked

with

everybody, Cathohcs and Protestants. Everybody was Peter's friend.

He

I asked Mary Ward what the past thirty years had been a heartbreak,' she said. 'I never go anywhere or never go anywhere because Peter's always there.'

never had no enemies.'

been

like. 'It has

look to

Gusty Spence,

man were

Hugh McClean and Robert

In the course ot

McCIean was asked how he had come pohce, he rephed, to follow him. said,

'I

am

Williamson, another

UVF

murder hunt in the province's history. the interview during which he made his confession,

arrested after the biggest

'I

was asked did

said that

I

terribly sorry

I

I

I

to join the

UVF. According

agree with Paisley and was

was.' After being charged, he

ever heard of that

man

is

to the

prepared

1

alleged to have

Paisley or decided to

follow him.' Paisley immediately repudiated the

murder of Peter Ward and

Protestant daily paper, the Belfast Newsletter, 'Like everyone else,

and condemn

this killing, as all

I

told the

deplore

right-thinking people must.' His

made

own

'Mr Paisley been associated with the UVF and has always opposed the hell-soaked hquor traffic which constituted the background to this murder.' paper, the Protestant Telegraph,

clear

its

leader's position:

has never advocated violence, has never

Gusty Spence was charged with the murders of Peter

Ward and John

ScuUion, the UVF's inebriated victim of earlier that summer. After

complex legal wranglings, the charge of murdering Scullion was dropped, and Spence and two of his colleagues, Hugh McClean, a former naval seaman, and Robert Williamson, a former British soldier, stood trial for the murder of Peter Ward. The Crown's star witness was a man called

44

LOYALISTS

.

Desmond

who

»

had been

at the initial meeting with Spence and on the night of the murder. Reid had come to the attention of the poHce in the round-up that followed the murder, when gelignite had been found at his home, gelignite which Reid had coUected from the quarryman who had been at the Loughgall meeting earlier that year to which Paisley had driven Noel Docherty and Billy Mitchell. Reid struck a deal with the poHce whereby he agreed to give

Reid,

others at the Standard Bar

evidence against Spence in return for the police dropping the explosives charge. In his statement

Reid

said that

he had been sent out to

of the gehgnite and then returned to Spence's

collect

house

sister's

some

later that

McClean had come in where Reid overheard one of them say, 'That

evening. After 1.30 a.m. Spence, Williamson and

and gone into the scullery

was not

On

a

bad job.'

McClean and Williamson were found guilry- after a week's trial and given a minimum recommended sentence of twenty years by Lord Chief Justice McDermott. Four days later, after a much longer trial, Noel Docherty was sentenced to two years for possession of explosives. The two trials indirectly tied in the UVF and the UVP.

To

14 October 1966, Spence,

this day.

Gusty Spence maintains

Ward, which may be

UVF members

the other former that they

were

and many of them were but

insists

gun

a

all

for

killing

of Peter

with barely an exception,

all

interviewed for Loyalists freely admitted

I

murder. Spence admitted to

that day'

he was not there

UCDC

appeal and the

innocence of the

of the offences for which they had been sentenced -

guilry

been 'carrying

his

significant given that,

and had been 'carrying

when

Peter

Ward was

a

me gun

shot.

petitioned for his release or

that

for weeks',

He

retrial.

he had

lodged an

Both were

turned down.

Spence was released from the Maze prison

in

eighteen years of his sentence, and went on to play

UVF's

political

a

1985, having served

prominent

wing, the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP).

who was chosen

to deliver the ceasefire statement

It

role in the

was Spence

of the combined

loyalist

which he expressed 'abject and true' remorse for the victims of loyalist violence. asked him if that included Mrs Mary Ward. 'The most important thing to do was to apologize to Peter

on 13 October 1994

paramilitanes

in

I

Ward's mother,' he

said,

'and to apologize to

all

the mothers'.

Mary Ward

he wanted me to forgive told me that Spence had telephoned her. 'He him. I said, "Yes, I'll forgive you on one condition, that you bring peace to don't want any other mother to go through what this country, because said

I

I

have gone through." said,

"I

know

peace here." did.

it's

'

I

My

Peter

not going to

asked

Mary

is

in

my mind

bnng Peter

if she

now

every day and every night.

back, but please try and

1

bnng

forgave Gusty Spence. She said she

MURDER The murder of law-abiding

paramilitaries

Ward shocked both communities, not least of the Shankill Road and elsewhere. Many of

the

Peter

loyalists

young men who

45

later

became involved

were barely teenagers

at

at

the

various levels with the loyalist

the time and had been brought

up

by their parents to be courteous to their elders, respectful of the poHce and Sunday school. To Protestants, the thought of a murder committed by members of their own community on their own doorstep was deeply shocking. Such things were unthinkable in the mid-sixties when crime of any kind was virtually non-existent in regular attenders at sectarian

Northem

Even those who

Ireland.

Andy

loyahst paramilitaries, hke

commander of the

who

Tyrie,

became the supreme (UDA), had an upbringing become. Tyrie remembers his later

Ulster Defence Association

that bore Httle relation to

childhood and what

My

rose to the highest ranks within the

what they were

his parents

taught

to

him with

affection.

were very hard-working people. They them very well. We had a very good childhood. My parents always said you had to do as you're told. We were taught manners and how to behave yourself when you went visiting anybody else's home. We were taught to

mother and

provided for

all

father

the family and looked after

respect other communities.

My mother used to do a lot of handicrafts

- quilt-making and embroidery and skills

with the Catholic community

stuff

Uke

who Hved

that.

She shared her

around the comer in

were no sectarian attitudes from our family. People in the Shankill Road and the Falls Road had to work to survive. It was almost like a market economy at the bottom end of the the Falls

Road,

so there

Shankill and the

out

as

much

Falls.

They exchanged

On occasions like the

1

and helped each other

2th ofJuly or republican commemorations,

we could actually look down the remember any

things

they possibly could.

as

street

and see each other. But

real bitterness. If there was,

seasonal and then everybody things and normal

ways of

went back

it

didn't

to their

last. It

I

don't

was almost

normal ways of doing

living.

also bom and reared on the Shankill and remembers an upbringing that was just as typically strict. Because there was said to be some native American blood in his family, he was known from an early age as 'Plum', after a character in the Beano comic known at 'Little Plum - Your Redskin Chum'. The name stuck. 'Plum' went on to join the

William 'Plum' Smith was

Red Hand Commando, a paramilitary organization associated with the UVF, and was later sentenced to ten years for attempted murder. 'The concern for

my

mother was getting her dinner ready

that night.

The

46 concern for

my

So

weren't

politics

*

LOYALISTS

•

was trying to get the money to pay

father

about

really talked

as

such in

my

for that dinner.

house. All the

were taught to be very law-abiding types. I went to Sunday school and I went to church like many of the kids from round about the area. If you were playing football in the street and the policeman came along, everybody would run. You wouldn't really do anything outside the law. Everybody was brought up in that strict way.' Billy MitcheU, who came from an earher generation, had an even tougher Protestant kids

upbringing but one that

up

Billy

and

his

still

inculcated in

when he was two

values. His father died

him

all

the traditional Protestant

years old and his

mother brought

brother single-handed, relying on the few shillings she

eamed from her work

as a stitcher

and the ten shiUings

a

week

she received

home' with a mother who was a Baptist Sunday-school teacher. He was a regular churchgoer. Some time in the late sixties, BiDy MitcheU joined the UVF, and he was later sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of two members of the rival UDA. How was it then that people Uke Billy from National

Assistance. Billy

Andy

MitcheU, 'Plum' Smith and

young

from

loyahsts

farrulies,

came

came from

similar

good

Christian

Tyrie, and literaUy hundreds of other

law-abiding and God-fearing Protestant

Northern

to fiU

'a

went by?

Ireland's prisons as the years

BiUy MitcheU gave an explanation, no doubt speaking for the vast majority of

his

contemporaries:

Northern Ireland and drop some sort of 'loony gas' and suddenly people woke up one morning as kiUers. We didn't go to bed one night as ordinary famUy men and wake up the

Someone

didn't fly over

next morning

as kiUers.

whereby people did

Conditions were created

accept responsibUity for what

I

have personaUy done,

responsibUity for creating the conditions that that

aUowed other people

to

do

Although history had already made centuries Ireland

would

it

sides,

I

country

WhUe

I'U

won't accept

aUowed me

inevitable that

to

do

it

and

penodicaUy

down

the

erupt into violence, the particular conditions that

the

UVF. The

weU

became

killers.

estabHshed by the time Peter

foUow

in the

'ordinary

famUy

events that were to

years ahead only accelerated the process as

men', on both

this

it.

sparked the current conflict were already

Ward was murdered by

in

things they shouldn't have done.

more and more

Chapter Four

Insurrection

On

29 January 1967, three months

the

murder of Peter Ward,

a

civil

Ireland's

movement

rights

Roman

demand

to

in Belfast that

treatment for Northern

fair

The group

that

hands of the unionist

was formed

at that

state

(NIGRA), and

over the foUowing three years would have

a

been confined

Campaign

Patricia,

profound

its

local

known

its

as

activities

on

effect

the

instability in the province.

The notion of agitating the

and

meeting became

the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association

growing

would have

Catholic minority and an end to the discrimination

nationalists felt they suffered at the

authorities.

Gusty Spence was sentenced for

A decision was made that day to set up a broad-

far-reaching consequences.

based

after

meeting took place

from

to a

for civil rights

was not new, but had hitherto

predominantly middle-class pressure group,

known

as

by Dr Conn McCluskey and his wife, Dungannon, County Tyrone. They endea-

for Social Justice, run their

home

in

voured to draw the attention of

a

wider audience,

in particular British

pubhc opinion, to the way politics worked in their own town where, although there was a narrow Catholic majority (53 per cent), the electoral system was rigged in such a way that the local council consisted of fourteen Protestants and only seven Catholics. The system whereby electoral boundaries were rigged to produce

of the community was

of Northern Ireland

drawn

known

itself

was

a result that defied

'gerrymandering'. Historically, the state

a

gerrymander since

its

deliberately to guarantee a Protestant majority.

gerrymander of aU was in

the composition

as

Deny where

border had been

The most

blatant

14,000 CathoHc voters elected eight

councillors, while 9,000 Protestant voters elected twelve.

As

a result,

Londonderry City Council was controlled by unionists although there was an overwhelming nationalist majority in the city. The anomaly was achieved because most of the Catholics were concentrated in one of the three electoral wards of the city

two wards had

known

as

the Bogside. As the other

Protestant majorities, a Protestant council was elected.

NationaHsts also complained that the voting system was rigged against

48

LOYALISTS

.

them

as

only householders or lease owners had the vote and therefore,

the CathoUc

more

*

community was

more impoverished,

the

as

Protestants had

votes.

There was

also

widespread discrimination in housing and jobs. Because

local authorities allocated council housing, Protestant councils

— although

tended to

Newry, where there was a nationalist council, the majority of houses went to CathoUcs. Although in some cases discrimination worked both ways, in jobs it did not. Because most of the businesses in Northern Ireland were Protestant-owned, most of the jobs went to Protestants. Often giving your address on a job application or at an interview was enough to provide houses for Protestants

in areas like

The most

guarantee acceptance or rejection.

notorious example of job

discrimination lay with the largest employer in the province, the Belfast

whose workforce

shipbuilders Harland and Wolff,

w^orkers only 400 of

consisted of 10,000

whom were CathoUcs. The shipyard lay at the heart of

where most of its workers came from. The McCluskeys tried to make Harold Wilson's Labour Government at Westminster sit up and take notice of the injustices that were endemic in part of the United Kingdom, but Westminster declined to do so. The Labour Government, which coincidentally had been elected in the year that the Campaign for Social Justice had been formed, 1964, and raised Protestant East Belfast and that

is

great expectations of reform, also turned a deaf ear to warnings of the

trouble in store. Paul Rose, one of the Labour

MPs who

had taken up the

McCluskeys' cause, was parliamentary private secretary to the Labour Cabinet Minister Barbara Castle, and was told to put

when he I

raised the subject

his energies

elsewhere

with her.

patting me on the head and saying, 'Why is a young you concerned about Northern Ireland? What about

remember her

man

like

Vietnam? What about Rhodesia?' prehension and

said,

'You'll

see

I

just

another.' She was totally oblivious to

were focused on other things blinded

as to

But most Protestants did not see the

have been

this.

I

at

her with incom-

start

first-class.

in their

issue

own

fact that

insist,

were

totally

backyard."

of civil nghts

citizens, Protestants,

Nothing, they

Ortainly the

shooting one

think their priorities

in the

same way

as

because Catholics

bitterly resented the suggestion that

claimed they were second-class

truth.

they

to the extent that they

what was going on

most Catholics and

looked

when

by definition, must

could have been further from the

most of the Protestant working

class

was

equally impoverished in terms of social conditions tended to be con-

veniently ignored by

many of

those

who

agitated for

c

hangc.

Ihc

issue

INSURRECTION remains a sore point with

49

loyalists today. Billy

Mitchell was brought up

wooden hut'; he was not prepared to grace his dwelling

outside Belfast 'in a

with the term 'wooden bungalow'.

I

remember in

the kitchen one time the cooker

because the floorboards were rotten.

We had an outside

was

It

fell

through the floor

infested with

woodworm.

You went

to the toilet in a bucket and was hard going. The fresh water was about two miles away. It had to be carried in buckets and mother had to go to the well to draw the water. And there was no hot water. Your bath was one of those big galvanized things that was filled with

emptied the crap

dry

in

toilet.

your

boiling kettles. That

pit. It

was the way

we were

brought up.

Conditions for Protestants in Belfast were materially Norris was brought up in the

was

a

mixed

where Catholics and

area

better.

little

Lower Ormeau Road, which,

drank together. Today, the Lower the sectarian flashpoints since

all

worked, played and

Protestants

Ormeau

is

Bobby

in the sixties,

entirely Catholic

and one of

Protestants have long fled.

Our housing was the same as our Catholic next-door neighbour two-up and two-down with an outside toilet. It irks me when I hear about the disadvantages that the Catholics had and the agenda for equality that they

go on about now.

that equality as well because

much

just as

But

as

it

it

I

affected the Catholics

as a Protestant,

wish that

just

we had some

certainly affected myself and

who

weren't you a as

I

did.

door to me.

lived next

first-class citizen?

Absolutely not. There was no difference.

with had the same conditions

of

my family

The guys

that

I

ran about

So please don't

call

me

advantaged.

Bath night? Tin bath and

a

rub

down

like the

people next door. There was

discrimination but not just against Catholics.

were discriminated

class

much

against just as

The as

ordinary working

any Catholic.

But you were supposed to feel superior, weren't you, because you were Protestants, that's what the politicians were telling you. Yes, those they called 'politicians'. We were election fodder. They'd come down every four or five years with their 'kick the Pope' bands and we were happy enough to cheer them on. They'd

wave

their

people like

Union Jacks and that.

flags at us

At the end of the

and they went back to

night,

their big houses.

my

parents and

we went back to

our ghettos

and wind up

Then we

didn't see

them

for

50 another four or

'

LOYALISTS

•

five years.

We

didn't realize

the time.

at

it

taken

It's

years for us to evolve this sort of thinking.

Deny,

In

were

too,

little

where Protestants controlled the council, living conditions Gregory Campbell, who was to become one of Ian

better.

most articulate poHtical spokesmen, still resents the way his community was portrayed as the civil rights movement gained strength. Paisley's

I was fi-om very much a working-class background. We had two small rooms downstairs, two bedrooms upstairs, no hot running water and

the old outside

We

toilet.

lived in small, steep streets with terraced

You almost felt that if you took the bottom one away, all the would collapse like a deck of cards. Not only was I not a first-class citizen, I remember the absolute sense of indignation and outrage was accused of being one. There was this exphcit whenever houses.

rest

I

inference to CathoUcs being second-class citizens and therefore this inference that

I

was

some way depriving them of their

in

even

surroundmgs

at

home and

ship,

wouldn't want to meet the

I

really

as a

But Protestants resented the thought felt

a

it

rights.

saying, 'Well, if this

civil rights

is

I

can

my humble

sixteen-year-old, looking round

distinctly recall,

second-class citizen-

third-class citizens.'

movement not

misrepresented their social conditions —

a

just because they

misrepresentation they

- but because they saw it as representing The Cameron Commission, the Government's

the media willingly swallowed

challenge to their

official

state.

inquiry into the violence that was to follow, understood

majonty community

It

was

in the

how

the

felt.

circumstances inevitable that the

civil

movement

nghts

should be mainly (though not exclusively) supported by Catholics and also attract support fi-om alist

and Republican

campaigned only on

many who had been prominent

politics. civil

nghts

but in practice

issues,

tended to polanze the Northern Ireland community directions.

Unionists

It

was bound to

who saw

attract

opposition from

or professed to see

supremacy, indeed to their survival

From

its

as a

its

IRA

Nation-

(NI(^RA|

its

activities

in traditional

many

Protestant

success as a threat to their

community.

the beginning, unionist politicians saw the

in particular

in

Officially, the Association

civil rights

umbrella body, the Northern Ireland

CJivil

campaign, and

Rights Associa-

whose purpose was to destabilize Northern Ireland and achieve by political agitation on the streets what it had failed to achieve tion, as an

front,

INSURRECTION

51

by force of arms. Barely five years earlier, the IRA had called off, the campaign it had waged along the border between 1956 and 1962, recognizing that it had been a failure. It had never managed to ignite

IRA in its

partition as an issue and, unlike the

any

to mobilize

way

to further

Protestant

significant support.

its

unionism, stripped of

classes so that

would simply

bore

it

little

fall

civil rights

There

is

However

apart.

grass-roots

its

attractive the analysis

practical relevance to the increasingly sectarian

of Northern Ireland, so that

politics

current campaign, had failed

leadership had then decided that the

goal of uniting Ireland was to mobilize the Catholic and

working

electoral support,

in theory,

Its

far

from uniting the working

classes,

only drove them further apart.

no doubt

that the IRJV

was involved

in the civil rights

campaign

fi-om the outset, although never to the extent that loyalists believed.

It

was

not an IPJ\. conspiracy, and there were genuine grievances to be addressed. Certainly, the

IRA was prominently

represented

at

NICRA's

first

Annual

RUC

Special

General Meeting in February 1968 when, according to

Branch

reports, nearly half of those

who

were 'known republicans or IRA' and

attended -

thirty

out of seventy

-

of the fourteen members of

six

-

again nearly half - were 'members of the RepubHcan Movement'.^ The fact that other organizations represented on the executive, such as trade unions and the Campaign

NICRA's

subsequent national executive

for Social Justice,

had nothing to do with republicans

broadly based the

movement

was. That

determined to use and exploit the

That was an

integral part

of its

NICRA's executive, and the marches, was

is

evidence of how

not to say that the

civil rights issue in

by

IRA was way

every

it

not

could.

composition of

strategy. Nevertheless, the

role played

more than enough

IRJ\ was masterminding the

is

IRA members in stewarding its

to confirm loyalists' conviction that the

civil rights

campaign to further

its

own

ends.

This was certainly the view of the Stormont Government of the day. John

who

Taylor, still

today

is

Deputy Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP),

holds the same view of

when he became

civil rights as

he held almost

thirty years

ago

Minister of State in the Department of Home Affairs.

'It

was seen by myself and fellow Unionists as a new means of overthrowing Northern Ireland and forcing Northern Ireland into a united Ireland,' he told

me.

'It

was seen

as a

nationaHst plot to overthrow the

critical its

Affairs at this

period in Northern Ireland's history and went on to

become one of

most controversial

political figures.

hardliner' for nothing.

He

first

Craig was not

effectively retired

from

known

as a 'unionist

political life in the late

and ill, became a recluse, tending his roses and dog in the peace and solitude of County Down. In 1998, when approached him, there were many who thought that William Craig

seventies and, exhausted

walking I

state.'

Home

William Craig was the Stormont Minister for

his

52

LOYALISTS

.

was no longer alive, but was, although

now

he was strong and door.

1

asked in

but

fit,

name and memory from a turbulent past. But he man. I had met him in the early seventies when I

how

had forgotten

voice was

a

a frail

»

who came to the now drawn and his

barely recognized the person tall

he was, but

was

his face

Standing on the doorstep, 1 explained what 1 was doing and would talk to me about that period in Northern Ireland's history

faint.

if he

which he had played such a leading role. He said he had never talked It before and had no wish to talk about it now: it was all in the past

about

and, anyway, he was not feelmg well.

asked

if

could

I

come back

1

apologized for the intrusion and

when he might be

again

feeling better.

He

nodded and said I could try. 1 wrote to him, paid him two more calls, which also terminated at the doorstep, and then a final visit when he asked

my colleague, Sam Collyns and myself in and, after much discussion, finally agreed to an interview. Although he was not strong and he sometimes had

drawing breath,

difficulty in

sharp.

He made no

towards

mind and his

recollection

own

supporters for his direct, no-nonsense approach, and that

were

razor

still

history or his attitude

Craig had always been admired by his

rights.

civil

his

attempt to rewrite

it

loyalist

soon became

clear

nothing had changed.

To me

it

entirely

by the

was the beginning of

IRA

previous campaign.

It

and

was

it

was

a

republican campaign organized

much more

a deliberate efibrt

significant than

IRA

by the

bigger part in the poHtics of Northern Ireland and the

Of course, but

it

would

I

would have

said quite categorically that

Did you know Minister for Yes, within

reading up on

that the

Home two or this

clear recollection

was

exploit and use local figureheads

received.

Republic.

where

it

could,

was the guiding hand.

involved

when you were

Affairs? three

weeks of joining the Ministry

new campaign

to exploit civil rights

of the astonishment that

a little suspicious

observers.

IRA was

it

Irish

any

to play a

I

felt at

of the authenticity of the

and

I

started

I've a very

the time. In fact

earlier reports

I

I

had

Some were from Special Branch and others from political But when one related it to things on the ground, became I

quite satisfied that it was authentic and would end in violence. Although the IRA was involved in the civil rights movement, did not the movement itself have a justified grievance? Justified m the sense of a republican nationalist community that wanted to exert its weight, but it did not merit the attention it

subsequently got because of the violence.

Did you state?

see the civil rights

movement

as a threat to the

INSURRECTION

then.

The

I

No

think

civil rights

NIGRA

we

early

IRA

always was a threat to the state. The made was not taking enough notice of it preparations were made to deal with civil disorder.

Anything involving the mistake

53

probably

movement exploded

had planned

a

march

in

into violence

Deny,

on

October 1968.

5

the city that to nationalists had

long been the symbol of Protestant supremacy.

The marchers planned

to

by assembling on the largely Protestant east bank of the River Foyle that divides the city and marching across the Craigavon Bridge and into the Diamond, the Protestant heart of the city, which lies within its challenge

it

ancient walls. or, in the

By

so doing, they

would

assert their right to

equal treatment

To

republican language of today, 'parity of esteem'.

such a route would be an

assault

on

their inner

Protestants,

sanctum and tantamount to

breaking the siege. In response, the Apprentice Boys of Derry announced

march on the same day, thus virtually guaranteeing trouble. In response, Craig ruled that no parade could be held on the east bank or within the city walls. His ruling in eflfect was a ban on the civil rights demonstration. Nevertheless the marchers assembled, and in the resulting confrontation with the poUce, w^ho were enforcing the Minister's order, unprecedented violence erupted and was captured by the world's media whose camera teams had flocked to Derry in anticipation of dramatic pictures. They were not disappointed, and viewers, most of whom were unaware of what was happening in Northern Ireland, watched in horror as poHcemen laid into marchers and beat them to the ground with their batons. Even today, William Craig has no regrets. that they

I

were going

to

was quite pleased with the way the

made

a mistake

mistake that was

and

we

made by

RUC

reacted.

Maybe we'd RUC. The

should have strengthened the the

RUC was to amend the original plans

they had for coping with the disorder.

It

was approached with

a

would end in disorder. How did you react to the scenes of policemen beating demonstrators over the head? They were a few that caught the attention of the media. I didn't see

virtually certain

knowledge

anything Avrong with

that

it

it.

You didn't see anything wrong with poHcemen batoning marchers? People were involved in violence, they weren't marching. Most loyalists would have agreed with Craig that the violence in Derry was caused not by the police, who were acting under acute provocation, but by republicans who were bent on fomenting civil disorder. Whoever was to

54

LOYALISTS

.

blame, disorder was the result and

it

,

did not stop

at

throughout the province. Loyalists in general and tant Volunteers in particular

were determined

marchers did not have their

way

they continued to

'Lundy',

assail as a

again. If

Derry but soon spread Paisley's Ulster Protes-

to see that the civil rights

Prime Minister O'Neill,

would not

whom

stand up to the marchers,

UPV

made it clear that they would. The next confrontation came almost two months later in Armagh on 30 November 1968, by which time the UPV and its umbrella organization, the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee (UCDC), had their plans in Ian Paisley and his

place. Paisley

longer

its

still

chairman of the

had gone

secretary as he

UCDC but Noel Docherty was no

to gaol after getting involved

with

and the UVF. Nevertheless, despite Docherty's absence, the

explosives

UPV

was

was ready for

announced

march

a

Docherty had

action.

When

circumstances in mind. for

set

Armagh's

up with

it

local

30 November 1968,

precisely such

rights

civil

committee

Paisley's organizations

were

it, not least because they would be directly enemy as several prominent local republicans were members of the Armagh civil nghts committee and some of them were actually members of the IRA.

determined to confront standing up to the

Eleven days before the march. Paisley had

poUce and metaphorically

laid

down

not contemplate letting such

Londonderry of the

situation.

had made

showed

clearly

He

a

meeting with the

said that his

According to the subsequent

report, Paisley's attitude to the local constabulary

threatening'.

Fein election office

to

RUC obhged.

if

In

It

was the

the police did not

Armagh

go ahead. Traditionally the

and

Roman

tactic Paisley

do

they did not.

which

city,

is

it

had used

community

'ag-

themselves. In Divis Street,

The march was

to be allowed

the seat of both the little

Anghcan sectarian

generally tolerated the traditions and parades

of the other. As the police had no reason to believe that going to be any

was

in 1964,

removed from the Sinn

Catholic churches in Ireland, had expenenced

trouble, as each

local

that they could

march go ahead, as recent events in Government had lost control Ulster Constitution Defence Committee

threatening to take action to get the Irish Tricolour

the

them

that O'Neill's

their plans for 'appropriate action'.

government gressive and

a

the law, telling

different, they

were not

in the

mood

to

this

ban

it

march was and give

in

Here Paisley could argue he was not an outsider, as Armagh was the city where he was bom, in a two-storey terrace house on 6 Apnl 1926.'* Over the next few days, red printed notices were pushed through the letter boxes of many of Armagh's shops, a 'Friendly Waniing' from to Paisley's bluster.

'Ulster's Defenders'.

women

'Board up your windows,' they said

and children from the

city

'Kcniove

on Saturday 30 Novtinlxr.

(

all

)'Ncill

INSURRECTION

must

55

go.' Despite impressions to the contrary,

peaceful

civil rights

approached, posters suddenly appeared in the

SOS,' they read. 'To

and

all

Armagh on

in

of

replied that he

When

It

UCDC

was signed

The poHce took

rtiany

morning of the march.

his supporters

planned to climax.

God and

Ulster.

-

the Ulster

of the offending

was not to be thwarted.

Paisley

In the early hours of the thirty cars

'For

city.

a

march

make Armagh another Londonderry.

it.

Constitution Defence Committee.

down. But

the day of the

Saturday 30 November.' This time there was no

doubt whose hand was behind posters

as

Protestant reUgions. Don't let RepubUcans, IPJV

CRA [Civil Rights Association]

Assemble

Armagh was expecting

march not Armageddon. Then,

Paisley

and twenty to

drove into the area where the march was

the police inquired

was going to hold

a reUgious

what

Paisley

was up

to,

he

meeting and did not plan to

with anyone. The poHce were not taken in, especially as they up roadblocks around the city and intercepted hundreds of Paisley's supporters who were pouring into Armagh. Among them, they had uncovered two revolvers and 220 other weapons including billinterfere

had

set

hooks, pipes avoid

hammered

to a point,

a potentially violent

cordon sanitaire

scythes.^

between 5,000 incoming

hymn-singing Paisley supporters.

members of

and

the

The poHce managed

to

confrontation by placing a seventy-five-yard

UPV, were

Many

civil rights

of the

carrying cudgels,

marchers and 2,000

Paisleyites,

presumably

some of which were the civil rights demon-

nails. There was no evidence that were carrying weapons of any kind. Thanks to the firm handling of the situation by the police and their refusal to be intimidated by Paisley and the UPV, the day passed off relatively peaceflilly, despite a few minor

studded with strators

skirmishes as marchers and counter-demonstrators prepared to return

home.

By the end of 1968 as the season of goodwill approached, it seemed for a moment that the forces of law and order and good sense might be winning. O'Neill introduced some reforms, although they

NICRA Craig,

was

was demanding, and sacked

who

also

his

Home

was advocating not reform but

about to see

a

far short

of what

Affairs Minister,

William

fell

much tougher

his fiercest critic, Ian Paisley,

line.

O'Neill

appear before

Armagh

But O'Neill's actions and the prospect of Paisley's incarceration only raised not lowered the temperature. The marchers were now even more resolved to push their point home and the UPV was even more determined to resist. Such pressures made violence seem almost inevitable. O'Neill was fully aware of the dangers when, in a famous television broadcast on 9 December 1968, he told viewers in Northern Ireland that 'Ulster stands at the crossroads', and warned that 'as matters stand today, we are on the brink of chaos where magistrates charged with 'unlawful assembly' in the city.

56

LOYALISTS

.

neighbour could be

moving and

»

neighbour'. In a peroration that was both

set against

prophetic, he outlined the choice the province faced.

What kind of Ulster do you want? A happy and respected province in good standing with the rest of the United Kingdom? Or a place continually torn apart by riots and demonstrations and regarded

by

the rest of Britain as a political outcast?

It

was two days

later that

O'Neill sacked Craig from

Perhaps

his Cabinet.

he thought he was winning.

But the most violent

of

clash

all

was

still

to

come. The

campaign had gained more young blood and impetus from

a

civil rights

group

known

formed by left-wing students from Queens University, Belfast. They proposed to use different tactics from NICRA and make their point province-wide by marching the eighty miles from as

'People's Democracy',

Belfast to

Deny, taking their cue from America and Martin Luther King's march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. In

great civil rights

so doing, they also deliberately planned to stretch the

poHce to the Umit.

Naively, the organizers had expected only token resistance in which loyahsts

what

would simply

say 'Boo!'

and 'Go Home!'

They had no

idea

lay in store.

The march left Belfast on 1 January 1969 with around eighty students prepared to make the eighty-mile trek. The beginning was good humoured, with one of

army

officer

Volunteers.

men. Major Ronald Bunting, Union Jack. Bunting was a former regular

Paisley's right-hand

taunting the procession with a

who had become one of the leaders of the Ulster Protestant He had been a prominent figure at Paisley's side in Armagh

and was about

to appear before

Armagh

magistrates with him.

then went ahead of the march and met Paisley in Derry

approached the

city three days later.

that evening following

sectanamsm proving inaccurately

a

a religious

A riot broke

"

Bunting

the marchers

as

out outside the Guildhall

meeting held by

Paisley, alcohol

and

potent mix. Major Bunting, whose car was burned,

mob' and urged loyalists to morning near few miles outside Derry, 'to see the marchers on their

blamed the not on

'a civil

rights

join the Ulster Protestant Volunteers and assemble next

BumtoUet Bridge, 14 way

a

.

.

The

following morning, 4 January 1969, the marchers were warned by

the pohce that they continued the

last

stage

of their journey

given the violent disturbances and threats the previous night the marchers ignv what your agenda was. Yes, I think I made no excuse that I wanted to see them

putting

away their arms. That was where I was going. I was prepared to assist them in any way I could within the law to get them any assurances which they might have wanted in relation to their British ethos and identity. That was the thing that was worrying them so much. The whole issue of the 'consent' principle was coming into the picture, and I assured them that I was willing to do anything to try to get them satisfaction on those issues.

The 'consent' principle was, for loyalists and unionists alike, critical, as it meant that there would be no constitutional change in the position of Northern Ireland without the consent of the majority of its people. This was the principle that had to underpin any settlement if it were to be acceptable to Protestants and work. But Magee knew that he could only go so far and there was a limit to the pohtical clout he could carry. If the loyalist paramilitaries wanted assurances, they would have to be given with a higher authority than his. With the approval - or it may even have been at the suggestion - of the CLMC, the Reverend Magee approached

Robm

Archbishop

Eames, the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh and

Primate of All Ireland, to see

if

he would be prepared to offer

his services

high-level intermediary with the British and Irish Governments.

as a

was

familiar

with the

loyalist paramilitaries,

which the

the parishes in

UDA was bom.

Eames

having been rector of one of

'When

the request came,

had

I

tremendous heart searching,' he told me. 'Having condemned violence years and years, having spoken against

comfort

had

I

who

of those

relatives

militaries,

end the

Eames

killing

had been butchered,

finally

fact

things

and bring peace, however

were afoot civil

could to

literally,

by para-

you meet people sends

that

decided that he had to do distasteful

to face with those responsible for murder.

bloody

have led us

that could

war. At that stage

because in the position that

I

I

would be

of what was being told ever found

loyalist

its

way

down

signals in

true [about

the path into really

what

was being told

I

some

sort

I

felt

somebody

of peace

But the Archbishop

deal.

I

insisted that if he

cannot

at

I

knew

with

live

has got to get to the

happens that they've approached me, it.'

what Dublin had

people of Northern Ireland couldn't

chose reasons

to talk face

was pnvileged to hold, people talked to me.

me was into

own try to

had reason to believe that

'I

straight

saw danger

it

its

he could to

all

People shared thoughts with me, people shared ideas with me.

if it

for

I

the right to give even anything that could be interpreted as

encouragement? The very message.'

having done what

it,

in

And

if

half

mind) then

the Protestant/

it.

And

so for

bottom of this, and

all

if

it

the end of the day shirk

was going to

talk to

anyone,

it

had

BACKSTAGE be the military leadership of the

to

223

in

Armagh towards

paramilitaries.

loyalist

interested in intermediaries,' he said. Meetings

were held

wasn't

'I

at his residence

the end of 1993 and the Archbishop remembers

them

well.

When knew I

saw

a

they were coming,

group of

men

I

wasn't sure what

would

I

well groomed, well dressed, nervous,

I

see.

I

think

knowing what they were going

to meet when they met men with a sense of urgency, which encouraged me. I saw a group of men who had obviously agreed an agenda before they came to see me and were in agreement with it, which encouraged me. But most of all saw a group of men who said, 'Look, the time

possibly not

me. But

saw

I

I

come

has

The time

to talk.

wasn't a reaction

this

-

as

mayhem

if

perfectly capable

wreaking

has

come

we

think

I

They said

to seek an alternative.'

the IRA's peace noises] because they were

[to

all

they wished

knew to.

at

the time

So therefore

-

I

to

go on

took their

intentions very, very seriously.

Each

side

was blunt with the other

CLMC's

Archbishop listened to the shared,

and knew

that

as

they explored their position.

The

concerns, most of which he himself

he had to ensure they registered where

it

mattered.

In Dublin.

summer of

Eames

meet Albert on the thinking of John Hume and Gerry Adams, who had been working together with their respective parties on a solution since 1988. The document they drew up, generally known as 'Hume-Adams', outlined the nationalist and repubhcan solution to the problem. Reynolds showed his version of it In the early

Reynolds,

1993,

who was working on

to the Archbishop,

told the Taoisach

of evidence

it

who was was

in this draft

horrified that

you've shown is

it

was 'greener than green' and

recipe for disaster'.

'a

importance of consent

travelled south to

the draft of a paper based

there,'

me

'I

don't see one single piece

that leads

me to beUeve that the He said its contents

he told Reynolds.

would never be acceptable to the Protestant majority. 'If you really feel that you can make a long-term contribution to peace in Northern Ireland,' he went on, 'please think again and more deeply.' Reynolds said he would. But

in six

Ireland

been.

and

bloody days

came

as close to

in

October 1993,

The Chief Constable

Sir

Hugh

was

civil

notorious

West

Road crowded with

it

Belfast

war

as

it

had ever

staring into the abyss

Annesley was not one to exaggerate.

planned to blow up what its

was almost lost and Northern

said the province

October, with the Shankill

and

all

the frequently prophesied

On

—

Saturday 23

shoppers, the

IRA

thought was the leadership of the UFF,

Commander, Johnny 'Mad Dog'

Adair,

224

whom

would be meeting

believed

it

room was

'

LOYALISTS

.

in a

room above

shop.

a fish

The

the office of the Loyalist Prisoners' Association (LP A) and

Saturday morning was the time to prisoners' families.

it

was usually busy

Two IRA men

fi^om

money was

as

Ardoyne

the fish shop with customers at the counter and

it

paid out

bomb

carried a

into

exploded prematurely,

Thomas Begley (23), and nine Protestant owner and his daughter. But the IRA's mtelligence

kilhng one of the bombers, civilians,

including the

command were not since the IRA's bomb

was hopelessly wrong and Adair and the LJFF's high

The

Shankill had never seen anything like it on the Balmoral Furnishing Company in 1971. Billy 'Twister' McQuiston, who had recently been released fi-om the Maze, was on the Shankill Road at the time doing some LPA business - but not in the LPA office — and had just gone into the pub on the next comer. 'Twister' had witnessed the Balmoral explosion aU those years before and had helped rescue the wounded and dying. This time it was even worse. there.

attack

We were only in the door and the explosion went off. The windows of the bar came

in

and automatically everyone there knew

that the

LPA offices had been blown up. So everyone ran out into the street. You couldn't see in fi^ont of you. There was dust everywhere. As the dust started to clear, everyone started to pull at the rubble. There

people in there. There was

People were on top of

total confusion.

each other trying to dig people out. There were

women

and crying and people walking about dazed. There was and so

I

started shouting, 'Look,

because part of the building was it

was about

to

form still

just

come down. Then my

screaming

mayhem

total

and get back from

a line

hanging there and

father

were

I

there!'

thought

came out of the building

and came over to me. He was crying. He had just helped to drag someone out and he was covered in blood. He was numb and he just looked

at

me

and the

tears

were

rolling

down

his

cheeks and he

walked away.

how people

'Anybody on the Shankill Road that day fi-om a Boy Scout to a granny, if you'd given them a gun they would have gone out and retaliated,' he said. Loyalists were even further outraged I

asked 'Twister'

when

felt.

Adams carrying IRA bomber.

they saw Cierry

Begley, the dead

The

horror was not over.

Two

days later the

two-year-old C^atholic. Sean Fox, following day the

Mark Rodgers

UFF

the coffin

at his

home

at

the funeral of Thomas

UVF shot in

dead

a

seventy-

Cjlengonniey, and the

two CathoHcs, James Cameron (54) and council depot where they worked m Ander-

killed

(28), at the

sonstown. But the worst was

still

to

come, (^n Halloween

night, .^0

BACKSTAGE October 1993, masked

UFF gunmen

225

in boiler suits burst into the Rising

Sun bar

in the village of Greysteel just outside Deny, shouted 'Trick or and opened up on the customers with an AK 47 and a Browning pistol. Yet again, as at Sean Graham's betting shop, the weapons had almost certainly come from the Lebanese consignment. Six CathoHcs, one of treat'

them aged eighty-one, and one Protestant were mown down. Billy McQuiston shed no tears. 'On that particular day, if the UFF had walked into a picture house or something on the Falls Road and killed 300 people I would have been quite happy to be honest with you at that particular point in time.' Among loyalists, that feeling was not unique. Roy Magee was devastated. These were the men he had trusted and with he was finally making political progress. 'Greysteel blasted water completely,' he

bomb, how

the

UFF

said.

He

could have done what they did.

also

it

out of the

could not understand, despite the Shankill

finished but they pleaded with

Archbishop Fames

whom he felt

him

to

come

He

told

them he was

back. Eventually he did.

courageously stayed on board, recognizing that the

alternative to not talking

was unthinkable.

when, on Major and Albert Reynolds, stood together outside Number Ten and announced they had agreed a set of principles for a settlement. The document became known as the Downing Street Declaration. To Fames' and Magee's delight, they saw the principle of 'consent' enshrined five times within it. It was a meticulously balanced document with its every word weighed and measured by mandarins in London and Dublin. For nationalists the principle of 'self-determination' was established but, with separate referendums to be held North and South, only on the basis of consent. This meant that a majority of people in the North had to agree to any final settlement. But when Archbishop Fames next spoke to the CLMC leaders But the

15

spirits

of the two clergymen were

December 1993,

hfi;ed six

weeks

later

the British and Irish Prime Ministers, John

he was greeted not with rehef but grave concern. Shortly before the Downing Street Declaration had been announced, word had leaked out incomparable Eamonn MaUie of the Belfast press corps that the Government had been conducting a top-secret dialogue with the IRA. It was the culmination of the process that Michael Oadey had begun when he first met Martin McGuinness in January 1991. Immediately loyalists felt that the British Government had done a secret deal behind their backs. To reassure them - and presumably himself- the Archbishop went to Downing Street to see the Prime Minister. 'I looked John Major straight in the eye and said, "Can I go back to these people and can I tell them that you have not done a secret deal with the IPj\? Can you give me your word of honour? I am an Archbishop and you're Prime Minister of the United Kingdom." I simply said, "Please, John, don't He to me." He via the British

226

LOYALISTS

•

looked "That's

"You have my word."

me

straight in the

all I

want. History will judge us both." I went back and I met them

CLMC]

eye and

said,

I

said,

am convinced the Prime Minister of Great done a secret deal with the IRA," and they said, "That's all we want to know." End of question.' The crisis that had almost brought the province to the brink of civil war was over and now, with the Downing Street Declaration in place, the stage seemed set for the final stretch of the road to peace. But the prize was still a [the

again and said, "I

Britain has not

long way

off.

Chapter Nineteen

Ceasefire

wake of the

In the

bomb, an unidentified figure gave an interview The man was shown in silhouette and introduced as a UVF. The interview was brief but the message was

Shankill

to Ulster Television.

spokesman clear:

for the

IRA and the loyalists had to down your weapons,' he said. 'The LoyaHst paramilitaries will lay down theirs. Call their bluff. Let our people move

the slaughter was madness and both the

stop. 'Please lay

have

on

said

they

The shadowy figure was David Ervine making asked him how he felt at the time.

together.'

debut.

I

his television

Angry. Filled with anger and a sense of frustration because

it

was

me that we could do this to each other all day and twice on a Sunday - the Shankill bomb, Greysteel. You could effectively do that to each other any time you liked. That's how easy it would be. But evident to

where does that take us? Where does it ever end? Somebody had to put it up to the Provos and say, 'Where do you think you're taking us? Where is this going to go? Where does it end?' And I only hope that that interview was in some small way a contribution to maybe making people think, 'What are we doing here?' because that's what it was sent out to day. 'We're going over the edge here.

Do we

have

to?'

But although David Ervine was the voice of the UVF talking about peace in that interview and basically saying to the IRA, 'If you stop, we will', the

UVF was preparing for an intensification

of the 'war'

in case Ervine's plea

came to nothing. It had sent one of its men to Europe to try to procure more arms with sights set on the Eastern European countries that had been Soviet satellites until the Berlin Wall came down. They were awash with arms desperately short of hard currency and some people there were ready do business with anyone, even with loyalist 'terrorists' from Northern Ireland if they had the network and the money. Poland was the UVF's main hunting ground. It not only had arms but ports on its northern coast from which they could be shipped. On 24 November 1993, almost a week to

228

*

LOYALISTS

•

to the day after the Shankill

bomb,

a

PoHsh

freighter, the

MV Inowroclaw,

docked at Teesport in Cleveland on the north-east coast of England. It had left Gdynia on 19 November, called at London two days later and then made its way up the coast to its destination. The ship was bound to attract the attention of customs officers as their intelligence records

had

a history

of smuggling vodka and

caviar.

showed

and opened container number 2030255, they found 'ceramic for a builder in East Belfast.

might have rung caviar but over

To customs cognoscenti,

AK

300

It

47s,

tiles'

bound

the words 'ceramic

tiles'

20 tons of Semtex explosive and 60,000

was the biggest arms

The weapons had been bound

for the

seizure ever

made

in Britain.

UVF in Belfast, who were eagerly

awaiting delivery of the goods that had cost them over ^^200,000.

never got the arms or their

it

they found not vodka and

a bell. Inside the container

rounds of ammunition.

that

When they searched the vessel

money

back.

The

operation was a

They

'sting' set

up

by MI5. Apparently, the UVF 'buyer' had been 'clocked' in a European capital, possibly Paris, and set up by the intelligence services, who had persuaded their PoHsh counterparts not only to go along with the sting but to help at

them

set

up.

it

The

Polish

Government was not overly enthusiastic would result from Polish

the prospect of being faced with the outcry that

arms being found future

in the

NATO ally,

it

hands of loyalist

terrorists,

but eager to please

its

agreed to go along with the plan. Whether or not the

Lebanese consignment had been anticipated by sufficient

number of AK

to cause

mayhem

at

47s and

Browning

MIS and MI6

9mm

pistols

in 1987, a

had got through

Milltown cemetery, Sean Graham's and Greysteel.

British Intelligence could not take the

same

risk

again and apparently

weapons would never get to They were true to their word. MI5's Polish equivalent, UOP (Urzad Ochrony Panstwa), helped set up a front company called 'Eloks' based in Warsaw in a small flat rented by an elderly pensioner who

assured the Polish authorities that the

Northern

Ireland.

to know much about Northern Ireland let alone black-market The weapons were duly ordered by the UVF emissary, supplied apparently from Polish Government stores and shipped to Gdynia by a reputable Warsaw company called 'Fast Baltic'. It was a perfect sting. But what was the point when no arrests of loyalists were made, although the intelligence services would have known the UVF personnel involved? The likely e.xplanation is that to have let the coiisigiiiiient run through to Belfast would have been too risky given what hatl happened to the

was unlikely arms.

Lebanese shipment, and the undertaking that

it

MIS

was out of the question anyway because or

M16

of

appeared to have given the Pohsh

Government. An even greater danger would have been the risk of exposing the MIS source who had no doubt put them on to the case in the first place. The protection of that person's identity and life would

CEASEFIRE

have been the top

priority. Nevertheless, as

admitted to me, the

of

229

UVF was damaged,

money - and never

one of its senior commanders

not only by losing a large amount

- but by

getting the arms

the internal suspicions

aroused by the sting that there was a British agent, a Brian Nelson-type

enemy is

within their ranks. Paranoia in the ranks of the

figure,

a powerflil

weapon. Disappointed but defiant, the UVF issued a statement it wished 'to make it clear to the people of Ulster that whilst it

intelligence

saying that

was

it in no way diminishes our ability nor our on the war against the IRA. For as long as we

a logistical setback,

determination, to carry are in receipt

of the support of the

used in

loyalist

people, in whatever form, so

we

our Volunteers to scour the world for arms to be their defence and for that of our country.'^

will continue to

put

at risk

Some six months later, such protestations sounded empty as the UVF matched the UFF in blatant sectarian savagery. On 16 June 1994, one of the UVF's senior battaUon commanders, 'Lt Colonel' Trevor King, was comer of the

standing on a

Road

Shankill

by the empty space where two other men, one of

close

the fish shop had once been. King was talking to

them,

CoUn

Craig, also a

member of the UVF, who was posthumously name

disgraced in the eyes of the organization as an informer. As a result his

was removed by and

Old Boyne

fi-om the

INLA gunmen

Magee was

in the

Island Heroes' bannerette.

shot the three

men

UVF's headquarters about

dead. a

others,

I

ran

down

already dead and the others

The road was

in

pandemonium

leadership of the

to

were

car drove

hundred yards away

time discussing business for an imminent meeting of the

With some

A

The Reverend Roy at

the

CLMC.

where the men were. One was

in a very, very

You

at that stage.

bad physical

state.

could see that the

UVF

was quite naturally very, very broken and disturbed about the shooting of their colleague. He was a senior

commander. Trevor King was on a life-support machine and lived for weeks or so. He himself took the decision that the life-support machine should be turned off, which was traumatic. I had visited him two days or so before and I was at the hospital that night when it three

happened.

One

doesn't easily forget those moments.

Retahation was expected and came two days night

when most of the

Ireland play Italy in

America

in the football

into the Heights Bar in the tiny

opened

fire

on

later at

province was glued to

the customers

its

10.20 on a Saturday

television sets

World Cup.

watching

UVF gunmen burst

County Down village of Loughinisland and

who were

having

a drink

and watching the

match. Six Catholics were gunned down, one of whom, Barney Green, was eighty-seven years old. People

who

thought Greysteel had represented the

230

now saw

ultimate evil

*

LOYALISTS

.

And

repeated.

it

they believed the

To

Declaration was supposed to bring peace.

Downing

Street

the vast majority, the attack

to the UVF it was simply what they — and the UFF had been doing for years, retaliating for an attack on them or what they saw as their community by kiUing innocent Catholics.

was incomprehensible, but

who had put so much effort into now saw his own organization

David Ervine,

trying to bring the

doing what he was

slaughter to an end, trying to stop.

how

I

was the worst day of my

'It

could remotely describe

really felt

we were

beginning to

getting

how

I

life,'

don't

'I

somewhere.

It

was beginning

We

to happen,

- then bang! I thought we'd lost it. didn't someone who was saying we need a had gone. But that day it became evident that it

into place

fall

know

how many around me felt.

or

felt

he told me.

I

think that there was any point in being ceasefire.

I

thought

just

it

hadn't gone — it hadn't. There were people who were saying, "This is not the end - don't see this as you think you see it." I have to be circumspect about my comments, but I'd have to say that very quickly it became not something that was to damage us but something that was effectively to be

an impetus for that

it

was

an end.

UVF little

all

a ceasefire.' In

part

of the

by no means

It is

coded language Ervine appeared

be saying

to

loyalist strategy to escalate the 'war' to

bring

it

to

were authorized by the give such an order would seem to have made

certain that the killings

leadership because to

what David Ervine was implying, in the Hght of the were still ongoing backstage. In the event of an 'enemy'

sense, despite

peace moves that attack, local

deemed

UVF units had general autonomy to retaliate against what they

to be an appropnate target

One UVF

Loughmisland.

been given was

faulty

He

and

figure told

this

me

is

what may have happened

that the intelligence they

and they had expected to find

IRA men

at

had

in the

had always been good before.

It

might well have been an excuse or there might have been something

in

Heights Bar.

what he

said the intelligence

was no consolation

said. It

to the dead.

Chris Hudson, who, with David Ervine, had done so

much

to push the

me

peace process forward, was equally homfied. 'David contacted really told

(the

him

that

UVF] had

I

felt like

used honeyed words.

they were saying and

something

walking away from

that

was

felt

false.

I

that

I

it

because

I

felt

and

1

that they

was beginning not to believe what

maybe

I

was

being sucked into

just

had to question what

I

was doing from the

point of view of meeting with these people (again] because this was just too

horrendous to comprehend. However, David reassured

had

initially said to

peace and for

me

me was

true, that

not to walk away from

to continue the process even

Loughmisland

for the six

me

what they were trying

though

it. I

So

I

that

what he

to achieve

was

agreed to meet them again

was going

men who were murdered.

to attend a mass in I

found

it

extremely

CEASEFIRE

difficult.'

Archbishop Eames

too was wasting

his time.

talking peace?"

And

was

in

it

my

to

me

contact

words were

if you

this to

me

forget about

because

it."

I

you don't

understood

I

them they were

happening if

later

already trying to

can possibly understand ..."

I

think the

"We did not commission this" or "We did not authorize this",

some words

"You must

like that.

our intentions

me,

you can

tried to contact

I

"Look,

to say,

"Explain

say,

satisfaction,

that in fact before

"How can this be when they are

so within hours of that dreadful atrocity

touch with them to

explain

thought of walking away, feeling that he

also

said to myself,

'I

231

in talking to

believe us" and "This dots not thwart

you." At any

whatever words were used to

rate,

my contacts were sufficiently sure in their own minds that it was worth

going on with

Archbishop Eames decided to carry on.

it.'

of my Christian

belief,'

killing, to save a

few

then. risks

I

had to go

that

all

had to because

he told me. 'Here was an opportunity to stop the

lives, to

on.'

'I

It is

stop the

mayhem.

I

my mind shown and the

couldn't change

easy to forget the great courage

took - and to the same degree on the republican and

nationalist side too

-

to bring about the real possibility

After the horror of Loughinisland, the the initiative and declaring

own

its

of peace.

CLMC was on the brink of seizing

ceasefire

ahead of the IRA, partly to

own agenda and was not simply responding to the Republican Movement's. But the killing by the IRA of three prominent UDA/UFF members - Ray Smallwoods, Joe Bratty and Raymond Elder in the weeks after Loughinisland put an end to the idea. To have declared a demonstrate that

it

ceasefire after this

had

its

would have been seen

as a sign

of weakness. Bratty and

Ormeau Road on 31 July

Elder were shot together on the

1994. Bratty had

UFF attack on Sean Graham's betting withdrawn. Smallwoods, who was subsequently shop but the charges were

been charged

in

connection with the

Lisbum on 11 July 1994, was a spokesman for the Ulster Democratic Party and a close friend and political colleague of David Adams. Smallwoods had been gaoled for the attempted murder of Bemadette McAliskey by the UFF in 1981, but on his release from the Maze prison, he had continued the poHtical work that Andy Tyrie, Glen Barr and John McMichael had begun with 'Beyond the Religious Divide' (1979) and shot dead in

'Common Sense' friend,

(1987).

When

I

asked David

he almost broke down. 'On

Adams about the

a personal level,

I

death of his

was really devastated as

my family, who knew him very well. think republicans felt that Ray was an articulate voice for loyalism. He posed a real danger in terms of having were

I

a real articulate political voice against

developing. that the

They

felt also that

them

in the situation that they

by murdering Ray,

it

saw

would almost ensure

UDA and UFF couldn't move to a ceasefire situation.' In political

terms David Adams, like

all

his fellow political/paramilitary colleagues,

believed that the strategy of escalating the 'war' to end

it

was working. 'The

232

LOYALISTS

.

'

of the UFF's campaign helped drive republicans to a position where they decided that the war had to be brought to an end. They had created a situation whereby those who they had been attacking for years had begun to attack them back in the same terms. To say the least, I think it was unsettling for them and I think their own communities were starting to put heavy pressure on Sinn Fein and the IRA to start thinking in terms of bringing their campaign to an end.' On 30 August 1994, the IRA finally announced a 'cessation of military operations' from midnight that night. The loyalist paramihtaries' offensive, although repubhcans would deny it, undoubtedly played some part in the decision. Despite graffiti that sprung up in loyalist areas accepting 'The intensification

IRA

Unconditional Surrender of the IRA',^ the

The

first

remained undefeated.

building block of the final stage of the peace process was in place.

now

of fixing the second — the

It

was

in

By this time, late summer of 1 994, the CLMC and their political associates the UDP and PUP had asked Andy Tyrie and Glen Barr to come out of

a case

loyalist ceasefire.

retirement and with the benefit of their long experience give advice stage

critical

in

September 1994, shortly

after the start

of the

IRA

called a three-day conference at Belfast's Park

strategy in response to the life

respectable in

IRA's

cessation.

and death were discussed, such

any

years,

money

do

to discuss

But matters other than those of

the question of funding. If the their

message

across,

Barr and Tyrie were asked

so.

said they

would see what they could

Catholic businessman in Belfast

met him

ceasefire, the loyalists

Avenue Hotel

if

new

they needed

they could help

way, given the extensive contacts they had forged over the

practical

and they

to

as

were to get

loyalist political parties

at this

Both men agreed. At the beginning of

the process.

in his office.

'He

is

do.

They approached a

whom they had known for a long time and

a very

devout Christian person who's always

believed in supporting causes that are worthwhile and to bring about

compromise and

reconciliation,' Barr told

money could be made to

them and

On

available

actually gave us

me. 'He indicated

yes, that

and was prepared to make /^25,()00 available

jQ6,()()i)

there and then in cash.'

the spot?

On of the

the spot,

which we brought back and gave

to the representative

UDP.

With what words?

He

was just delighted with anything

that

was gong

to bring about

peace and reconciliation and he certainly wanted to make contribution to

do

as

much

as

it

and wished us

all

the best.

he possibly could to help.

He

his

was prepared to

CEASEFIRE

Glen Barr told

me

that the

233

CathoHc businessman was true

to his

word and

the balance of ;4^19,000 appears to have followed later as promised.

But the

UVF

and

UDA/UFF

could not contemplate caUing

without consulting their prisoners

in the

Maze. The

first

vote

a ceasefire

among

the

UDA and UFF prisoners showed that there was great hostihty to the idea and ominously the opposition was led by the organization's Officer Commanding in the Maze, Adrian 'Adie' Bird. When the initial vote

was taken, only three prisoners were in favour of calling a ceasefire and the rest were against. The general feeling was, 'Why should we fet the IRJV off

hook when we've got them on the run?' It reflected slogans that began to appear on some of the walls inside the prison and out: 'Stuff" your Doves'. However, after much pohticking and manoeuvring, engineered largely by the UDA/UFF on the Shankill Road, the vote was turned the

round. In the words of one of the

from

Belfast, there

Adair took over

was

a

trial

a separate

now in

gaol. Bird

remand wing, was apparently communicating

charge, a subsequent vote was held

little

who was not

was ousted and Johnny

the sentenced wings via mobile phone.

turned and only around

was no or

to,

OC. At the time Adair was in the Maze on on the new charge of 'directing terrorism' and,

remand awaiting

men on

spoke

I

as effective

because he was on

with

loyalist prisoners

coup within the

a

on the

ceasefire the tables

dozen prisoners opposed

debate. Adair was found guilty

When, with Adair

it.

I

were

understand there

on 6 September 1995 and

sentenced to sixteen years. Like Michael Stone, John Adair was one of the last

prisoners to be released under the

Good

Friday Agreement.

of Femhill House in Protestant West Edward Carson had reviewed the West Belfast contingent of the UVF, the Combined Loyalist Military Command declared its ceasefire. Gusty Spence made the announcement. At his side were Gary McMichael, David Adams and John White of the UDP and David Ervine, William 'Plum' Smith and Jim McDonald of the PUP. The mihtary commanders who had engaged in the critical dialogue with Archbishop Fames, and had made the ceasefire possible, chose not to stand in the Finally, in the historic setting

where

Belfast,

spotlight.

which In

it

all

It

Sir

was an emotional moment and as historic as the location held. Gusty Spence read the prepared announcement.

was

sincerity,

we

offer to the loved ones

of all innocent victims over

the past twenty-five years abject and true remorse. will

compensate for the intolerable

suflfering

No

words of ours

they have undergone

during the conflict. Let us firmly resolve to respect our differing views of freedom, culture and aspiration

and never again permit our poHtical circum-

stances to degenerate into

bloody warfare.

in

234

'

LOYALISTS

•

We are on the threshold of a new and exciting beginning with our batdes in the future being poUtical battles, fought on the side of honesty, decency and democracy against the negativity of mistrust,

misunderstanding and malevolence, so

will

we

that, together,

wholesome society in which our know the meaning of true peace.

forth a

and

children,

can bring

their children,

The significance of the fact that is was Gusty Spence who made the announcement was not lost on David Ervine. 'Here was the alpha and omega, perceived by many to be the first of the violent men of this recent era, reading out a statement that pulled the curtain dow^n, or we hoped would pull the curtain down, on a brutal and awful past.' Did Gusty Spence speak for David Ervine? 'Absolutely. Without doubt,' he said. The Deputy Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, John Taylor, who had lived through the Troubles with Gusty Spence, was loyahsts' ceasefire

The

significant

aware of the significance of the

and the impact of their long and bloody campaign. achieved something which perhaps the

loyalist paramilitaries

security forces

also

would never have

contribution

to

the

achieved, and that was they were a IPJ\.

finally

accepting that they

couldn't win.

Why The

do you say

that?

loyalist paramilitaries,

operating outside the law and

of course, were

illegal

organizations

we disapproved of that. However, it has

- and sometimes people don't like to face this reality and some people say you shouldn't say it, but I always think it's important to say what is correct - that the loyalist paramilitaries, in their illegal to

be

said

activity,

actually

began to overtake the

IRA

as

being the major

paramilitary organization and terrorist organization in Northern Ireland.

Indeed

in the

year before the ceasefire by the

more people

IRA

the loyalist

IR^. So I no longer were they just gomg to be the one and only terrorist organization. There was a comparable one now on the loyalist side which was actually being more effective, and think that would help people realize that there is going to be no victory in terronsm. Paramilitary killings are not going to win the day in Northern Ireland. paramilitaries

thmk

this

had

killed

got a message over to the

that year than the

IRA

that

I

Remarkably,

at

the time of writing, the loyalist ceasefire has lasted

- with some

notable murderous infnngemenLs - for Well over four years despite intense

provocation such

as the 'Real'

twenty-nine innocent people

IRA's in

bomb

in

August 1998

Omagh. The IRA's

that slaughtered

ceasefire ditl not.

Chapter Twenty

Good Friday

IRA and loyalist ceasefires in place, I who had been one of the backstage To my surprise he told me it would be

In the early

autumn of 1994, with

was talking

to a senior British official

of the peace process.

architects

the

on which he and his colleagues had fi-uition. He warned that there would

'about five years' before the process

worked

so tirelessly

be many

He

good.

would come

difficulties

clearly

to

ahead and doubted that the violence was over for

had

a

good

crystal ball.

Prime Minister, John Major, who had welcomed both ceasefires, was to keep the process moving by getting the mainstream unionist parties, James Molyneaux's Ulster Unionists and Ian Paisley's

The first hurdle

DUP,

to

for the

go along with the process and become involved. Ian Paisley

refiised to

have anything to do with

it,

flatly

beheving the Government was

dancing to the IP^'s tune. At one stage he found himself being escorted firom the

Pnme

Mmister's

room

after refiising to accept John

Major's

word

that no deal had been struck with the IRA. The meeting had been cut short. Paisley returned to his tent where he waited for the opportunity to ambush his political opponents should they, like the Government, be

what

enticed into

As

the lead up to the IRJ\.

Paisley

was convinced was the IRA's

trap.

of the secret dialogue conducted through an

a result

Downing

had been encouraged

to call a ceasefire

being admitted to all-party resolve the conflict. Gerry

Street Declaration in

talks that

MIS

officer in

December 1993,

the

with the prospect of Smn Fein

would be

set

up

in

an attempt to

Adams and Martin McGuinness, who, with

the

close circle of repubhcans around them, had been the main advocates of the Repubhcan Movement's strategy, were anxious to gain their admission ticket as

there

soon

were

assurances. sionals

as possible to

demonstrate to the doubters

good many -

a

that the

For months there was no

became

another was

increasingly resdess as they

bemg Govemment and

path by both

Govemment was political

placed in their

in the

IRA - and

delivering

movement and

beheved one hurdle

way. The

first

Unionists

who wanted

on

its

the Proviafter

hurdle, planted in their to

cause the

236

'

LOYALISTS

•

Movement as much discomfort as possible, was the insistence IRA should declare that their ceasefire was 'permanent'. This the

Republican that the

IRA

refused to do, the reality being that only the supreme authority of a

Army Convention —

General

future generations. In the

of the IRA's put on the

ceasefire as

'a

from

consisting of delegates

throughout Ireland - could do

that,

and even then

it

IP^

all

units

could not speak for

end the Government accepted the 'permanency' working assumption'. No such pressure was ever and

loyalist paramilitaries

their poUtical parties.

But the biggest hurdle of all was what became known as 'decommishanding over of 'terrorist' weapons. It was the issue that was to haunt the peace process for months and years to come. Again, although it was meant to apply to both sides since loyalists too had amassed a sioning', the

formidable and deadly arsenal of weapons and explosives over the years, all

the pressure was placed

on

When

republicans.

Provisionals around that time, they

made

it

I

spoke to senior

IRA would

clear that the

surrender 'not one bullet'. 'Surrender' was the apposite word. That was the republican

fear: that

and, as the

IRA

reminded people

handing over weapons would be seen

pointed out,

as

surrender

had not been defeated. Republicans

it

that in 'conflict resolution situations'

also

over the world,

all

ANC in South SWAPO in Namibia

decommissioning had never been part of the process. The Africa had never

decommissioned

its

arsenal,

nor had

ZANU

in Rhodesia nor the PLO in Gaza and the West Bank. The which had never in its history handed over weapons at the end of its several campaigns, was not going to act any differently now. The arguments became fierce. The logic of the Government and the unionists was that if the Republican Movement was sincere about wanting peace and if, even as a working assumption, its ceasefire was 'permanent', then it had no

nor

IRj\,

need of guns.

To

refuse to

hand them over,

its

critics

charged, was proof of

the Provisionals' insincerity. Ian Paisley had a field day.

UVF

UDA/UFF

and the

Once more,

the

got off lightly, although they too had said they

would not hand over a single weapon. In reality, decommissioning was more a political issue than a security one. Even if the IRA and the loyalists handed in every weapon and ounce of Semtex or Powergel (the loyalists' equivalent) in their lockers, they could still go out and buy more. Furthermore, most of the IRA's 'big boomers', the huge bombs that had devastated the City of London in 1992 and 1993, were made with

home-made micals,

explosives

(HME),

a

potent mixture of

fertilizers

both of which were readily available and produced

bang. Even the Chief Constable, Sir

surpnsed

it

Hugh

Annesley, told

had been allowed to become such

perfectly clear

from the intelligence assessments

not going to hand

in their anns,'

he

said. 'In

a

a

dominant

and chevery large

me

issue.

he was 'It

that the Provisionals

was

were

pragmatic terms, the issue of

GOOD FRIDAY decommissioning was and the more

The

On

it

less

important for the security forces than

For both

the pohtical front'.

sides,

the issue

was discussed the more

best solution,

237

some wise

became

intractable

it

a

it

was on

powerful symbol,

seemed

observers said, was a four-letter

to

become.

word —

rust.

March 1995, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Sir Patrick May hew, seemed to make a resolution even more unlikely when he said that the IRA would have to decommission some of its weapons at the beginning of 8

the all-party talks as

'a

tangible, confidence-building measure'." Again, the

emphasis was on republicans not their

In

enemies being given

a

December 1995, with

loyalists

- not

that they

minded watching

hard time. President Clinton about to

amve

m

Belfast,

well over a year into the ceasefires and with no sign of political progress,

John Major opted for a 'twin-track' approach in the hope of putting decommissioning on the back burner while talks about talks continued. An International Body was established to try to solve the problem that reflased to go away and draw up a list of principles of non-violence to which all those participating in the proposed all-party talks would have to agree. The chairman was the former United States Senator, George Mitchell, who was to work alongside General John de Chastelain, the Canadian Chief of the and Harry Holkeri, a former Finnish Prime Minister. These three wise men were posed a difficult task and when they accepted the Defence

Staff,

would be so long. Senator Mitchell some experience of Northern Ireland as President Clinton had appointed him his Special Adviser on economic initiatives in the province. 'It was supposed to be for six months, a day or two a month and maybe one trip to Northern Ireland and that would be it', he told me. 'Little did I know what was in store for me.' When he amved in Northem Ireland, he challenge had no idea their contracts did have

knew

that

with the

loyalist ceasefire

ceasefires in place

was very important,

many

there had been

efforts to

never before had there been,

at

as

he faced

was the

a

unique

IRA

situation.

'The

ceasefire. In the past,

bring about a resolution of the confUct but the same time, negotiations and a ceasefire.

There had been negotiations without a ceasefire. There had been a ceasefire without negotiations, but it was not until most recently that both were able to exist at the same time.' Decommissioning was the knot he and his colleagues had to untie to end the stalemate and move forward the situation that the twin ceasefires had

would not be

The want

possible. Mitchell

knew

easy.

Unionists quite nghtly wanted to

made

have

talks

occur in

some reassurance. They did not which the threat of violence or

a setting in

the use of violence influenced the negotiarions. That's the reason for the request for prior decommissioning.

It

became obvious

to us, very

it

238

'

LOYALISTS

•

soon into our consultation, that prior decommissioning, however

was simply not

desirable,

The

a practical

approach.

wasn't going to

It

Government wanted prior decommissioning and they wanted inclusive negotiations and it became clear that they could not have both. And so we sought a way to provide to the Unionists the reassurance that they were appropriately seeking to come into the talks — that there would not be negotiations under the gun, so to happen.

British

speak, or subject to the threat or use of violence.

And

process that the [Mitchell] 'principles' emerged.

We

could get

a

as

commitment

to

it

was from

that

we

thought that

requirement to participate in the negotiations

a

of democracy and non-violence and

principles

thereby provide the assurance and eUminate the threat of violence

We made that suggestion

as

an influence on the negotiation process.

in

our report and those principles of course were eventually embraced

by the

British

negotiations,

The

issue

and

Irish

and became

was fudged but

eighteen months into the

Governments, a

analysis,

the joint sponsors of the

requirement for participation in the

it

ceasefire

talks.

By February

refused to go away.

IRA

without any sign of

1996,

political

had had enough. They were

progress, the Provisionals decided they

according to their

as

of being strung along by

a

tired,

Government and

Prime Minister whose wafer-thin parliamentary majority at Westminster meant their survival depended on Unionist support. However neat the theory, the reality was far more complex than that. John Major realized that getting Sinn Fein to the negotiating table was one thing, getting the Ulster Unionists to join them was another. The Prime Minister pursued a hard line, not just because he believed in what he said — that if the IRA was genuinely serious, decommissioning should not pose a problem - but to

would join in too. He had to create the so. Without it, the peace process the IRA, the issue was black and white. At

ensure that in the end Unionists

circumstances in which they would do

simply would not work. But to

7.10 p.m. on 9 February 1996, the

been placed

IRA

exploded

a

huge

bomb

that

had

park of a building near Canary Wharf in two men, injured more than a hundred and worth of damage. Showing great restraint, the loyalists

in a vehicle in the car

London's Docklands. caused /^85 million

It

killed

did not respond. Perhaps the fact that the

bomb was

in

England -

as

were

the IRA's other attacks, such as the one that devastated the centre of

Manchester on 17 June 1996 - made

it

easier for the

UVF and UDA/UFF

to resist the temptation to take out their guns.

By

the early

summer of

1996, the frozen political process had

move. On 30 May elections were held was intended to draw those who would

at last

Forum from

started to

to a Peace

which

finally participate in all-

It

GOOD FRIDAY

239

talks. Although Sinn Fein won seventeen seats, the party was automatically ruled out of any such talks because the IRj\ had returned to its campaign and the inclusion of its poHtical wing would have been a

party

breach of the Mitchell Principles. deliberately engineered to

PUP

and other fringe

Coalition.

parties

The PUP and

the

like

voting system was

UDP

and

Women's Compared with

the increasingly visible

UDP won

the Ulster Unionists' thirty, the

DUP's

two

seats each.

twenty-four, the SDLP's twenty-

of the UVF UDA/UFF were a small minority - but, critically, they were there.

one and the Alliance and the

The complex

guarantee the inclusion of the

Party's seven, the political representatives

To

the loyalists' miUtary commanders, their strategy had not been in vain. But one event threatened to disrupt the progress that now appeared to

be gradually getting under way. The name became synonymous with loyahst defiance - Drumcree. The issue of the Orangemen's return march

from

at Drumcree had first surfaced in 1985 when their was changed from the nationalist flashpoint of Obins the nearby Garvaghy Road. But only the route, not the problem,

their

church service

traditional route

Street to

had been moved, running through

most of the Garvaghy Road was

as

nationalist too,

by Sinn Fein. happen. As Orangemen saw the IRA

estates largely controlled

frontation waiting to

It

was

a

con-

call a ceasefire

and the British Government seemingly follow a 'green' agenda, Drumcree became the issue around which all loyalist frustrations exploded. Frustrations on the Garvaghy Road exploded too as its residents saw Sinn Fein excluded from the

political process because, in their eyes, the

been forced back to the

'war'

by

British

down

had

as

Orangemen were

Road

until they finally

previous year, in July 1995, there had been violence prohibited from returning

IRA

and unionist intransigence. The

the Garvaghy

agreed to do so in silence, without the thunder of fifes and drums.

When

they reached the bottom of the road and the haven of Protestant territory, there

were triumphant scenes of wild

local

Unionist

MP

for

rejoicing led

by Ian

Paisley

Upper Bann, David Trimble. To

and the

nationalists,

it

meant that the 'croppies' (ancient Irish peasants) had been forced to lie down. As July 1996 approached, Drumcree looked like being even more explosive. Joel Patton, a member of Vanguard in the seventies, of the Ulster Clubs in the eighties and in the nineties the founder of a radical

movement known meant In It's

as

the 'Spirit of Drumcree', explained

what Drumcree

to Protestants.

many ways

it's

not about 800

Orangemen marching down

a road.

about the survival of a culture, of an identity, of a way of life.

about our

ability to

still

hold on to parts of the country.

people have their backs to the wall. They're in

retreat.

It's

The Ulster They have

240

LOYALISTS

•

been chased from quite

a large area

••

of the country and they

[Portadown], the citadel of Orangism, where Orangism was years ago, that

Drumcree

the place

is

where they want

feel that

bom 200

to take their stand.

represents that.

But the vast majority of people cannot understand >vhy marching a fe^v hundred yards down a road is such an issue. But it isn't about marching a few hundred yards down a road. It's about the freedom of people to come from a church into a town, a Protestant town where they feel that they can express their culture in an open and free manner. They believe intensely that if it's taken away from them safe.

anywhere

there, then there isn't

in Ulster that will

be

If they're beaten in Portadown then they believe that they can be

beaten anywhere and

that's

why

I

don't think they're about to give

in.

Orangemen were prohibited from marching down Road and this time the mid-Ulster UVF, under its charis-

Again, in July 1996, the the Garvaghy

matic leader, Billy Wright, were present in force on the ground. Again,

as

Orangemen from all over the province flocked to the fields around Drumcree church to put pressure on the authorities to let them in

1995,

UVF

through. There was intelligence that Billy Wright and his

were about

to light the

frise

by attacking the police

heavies

and army who were

blocking the Orangemen's way, which would have been risking another

'Bloody Sunday' in which Protestants not CathoHcs would have been the

church hall at Drumcree at the time, drinking tea army of Orangemen's wives who were providing sandwiches and scones for their menfolk, dug in for the long wait outside. Suddenly the crowd inside the hall parted as a short, muscular man with

victims.

was

I

in the

supplied by the

close-cropped

hair,

gold earring, cnsp white tee-shirt and neatly pressed

jeans walked in with guards.

It

was

Billy

passed by without a hall.

His minders

two much

Wright.

larger

Young boys and

word and went

sat at

stairs

hall, attracting

clearly his

looked on

girls

upstairs to a

the top of the

David Trimble entered the

men who were room

at

in

body-

awe

as

he

the back of the

outside. Shortly afterwards,

comparatively

little

attention,

as meet Wnght. Tnmble had always said he would never talk to 'terrorists'. The meeting went on a long time. Despite what some might have thought, suspected

and went

upstairs to

I

was astonished to see

happen

it

1

Tnmble was asking Wright and his men to 'cool it' and not ignite the powder keg that was waiting to explode outside. If that was the case, he succeeded. At Drumcree no guns were

in sight.

But blood was

spilled

elsewhere.

On

8 July 1996, the

body of

McCfoldnck, was found

a

a

Roman

Catholic taxi driver, Michael

few miles away near

I.urgan.

Although no

GOOD FRIDAY

241

organization claimed responsibility, few had

dead by

UVF.

Billy Wright's

by the UVF's Brigade

little

doubt he had been shot

Shortly afterwards, Wright was stood

Staff in Belfast, perhaps

more

down

for internal poUtical

men might have broken the ceasefire. When the Portadown unit was ordered to stand down, Wright took most of its members with him and set up a rival organization, the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). Wright was now establishing an alternative centre of power to the UVF in mid-Ulster which, in the eyes of the leadership in Belfast, came close to treason. On 1 September 1996, he was sefved with an reasons than because his

ultimatum: leave the country or be

with the contempt he thought

enhancing

his reputation

In 1996, the

with

a

still

killed. Typically,

he treated the threat

deserved and stayed in Portadown,

it

further.

Orangemen were

finally

allowed

down the Garvaghy Road

heavy police escort to protect them from the fury of the

crowd who

marchers with triumphant.

For the second year running,

missiles.

The

crisis

loyalists

were

continued for the summers of 1997 and 1998 with

each confrontation threatening to derail the peace process. the yearly stand-oflf seemed as remote as agreement

But

nationalist

lined the road behind the police barricades and pelted the

in 1996, despite the ugliness

of the

A resolution to

on decommissioning.

clashes, the kilUng

of Michael

IRA violence, John Major pushed ahead, would play into the hands of those who wished

McGoldrick, and the continuing

knowing

that not to

do

so

to destroy the peace process. Shortly afterwards,

he invited the

PUP

and

UDP to Downing Street for talks. On the fine, sunny moming of 22 July a smiling delegation consisting of

John White, Gary McMichael, David

Hugh Smyth walked into Number Ten for an hour's meeting with the Prime Minister. He was anxious to keep the loyalist ceasefire intact and perhaps show the RepubHcan Movement that the Govemment Ervine and

was prepared to engage

down

their guns.

in dialogue

with

'terrorists'

once they had put

Encouragingly for John Major, the sky did not

fall

in at

John White, who had savagely murdered Senator Paddy Wilson and Irene Andrews in 1973, and his colleagues walking cheerily into Downing Street, smartly dressed in suits, collars and ties. For John White and the process itself it was a historic moment that showed that the sight of

given the absence of violence, nothing was ruled out. In previous decades

other 'terrorist' leaders from Britain's former colonies and elsewhere had walked through the doors of Number Ten; now those from Northern Ireland were doing the same. It took courage on John Major's part given his slender parliamentary majority and the fierce opposition he was facing

many

fi-om the Eurosceptic

wing of

his

terrorism as they did about Europe:

shook hands with John Major.

own it

party,

who

felt

the same about

should not be dealt with. John White

242 I

LOYALISTS

.

proud

certainly felt very

that

I

••

was going there

to represent the

community, and also because of my background. It sort of of loyalist violence, that it was political and not criminal. Here was a long-term member of the UFF gong to meet the British Prime Minister and despite all the criminalization poUcy, I Loyalist

justified the nature

think this sent a message clearly to people like myself that the conflict

they were caught up in was pohtical and wasn't criminal.

Did the Prime Minister knoAv he was shaking hands

>vith a

double murderer? I

and saw

way

as a

it

to divert attention fi-om

but I'm certain that he knew.

But

homed

think he did because obviously the press

I

think he also

about the

what

in

on

that issue

was about

that visit

He was well briefed on my background.

knew of the

positive role

loyalist ceasefire in the first place

was playing

I

and

in bringing

also sustaining

and

it

bringing the prisoners and the loyalist paramilitaries along the line of

democratic dialogue rather than violence.

political,

Do you done? No.

I

Good

think that there could have been a

Agreement without the groundwork

think John Major was under extreme pressure to collapse the

talks at a

very early stage and

I

think he held out. Without his

determination, there wouldn't have been a conclusion and is

Friday

John Major had

that

something

that really hasn't

started the process

I

think this

He was the man who

been recognized.

and endeavoured to persevere through very, very

difficult times.

Nevertheless,

there

was an outcry

comparison with what

it

the

in

press,

although muted in

might have been. Most of what had once been opponents

Fleet Street, like Major's potential political

at

Westminster,

were broadly supportive of his controversial initiative. The son of Paddy Wilson, John White's victim, was outraged at the sight of his father's murderer being welcomed by John Major. 'How could the Bntish Prime

man who

knifed

can think about

when

Minister shake hands with a times?' he asked. 'All

father

I

must have fought

in vain for his

my I

When

life.

about the screams of pain he must have listened to

my

father.

The

John Major's

screams must haunt him efforts to

.

.

.

father to death thirty

see that I

look

man

is

how my

at his face,

when he was

I

think

mutilating

mustn't they?'

bring the peace process to fruition continued.

way at Stonnont the previous month, June 1996, under the chairmanship of Senator Mitchell but they were not 'inclusive' since Sinn Fein was excluded because of the resumption of the IRA's Talks had got under

campaign, and progress was hampered by the continuing

failure to reach

GOOD FRIDAY agreement on decommissioning. For almost

nowhere

243 a year the

talks

dragged

The loyalist ceasefire, however, remained intact. On 1 May 1997, Tony Blair took over following Labour's sweeping election victory. With a crushing majority of 179, Tony Blair did not face the problems of parliamentary arithmetic that had so restricted John Major's room to manoeuvre - and not just on Ireland. From the very beginning, Northern Ireland was the priority for the new Prime Minister and his Secretary of State, 'Dr Maureen 'Mo' Mowlam, who stunned everyone with her energy and unconventional pohtical approach. Whereas her predecessor, Sir Patrick Mayhew, had seemed aloof and patrician. Mo was warm and accessible. She would conduct meetings with her shoes off, rubbing cream on her face. Some thought it was a deliberate act but Mo Mowlam was for real. The on, getting

as

the violence continued.

who had emerged from the streets related to her away but the Ulster Unionists, accustomed to the formaUties of her predecessor, were not quite sure what to make of her. Tony Blair signalled his commitment to carrying on where John Major had left off by visiting Northern Ireland almost immediately and making it clear that the Government would talk to Sinn Fein once the IRA had reinstated its ceasefire. He also hinted that decommissioning would not become an obstacle. On 19 July 1997, almost three months after Blair's election victory, the IR^ declared its second ceasefire on the basis of the assurances that Sinn Fein had received from the new Government. A date - 15 September 1997 - was set for the resumption of the all-party talks. Now, with Sinn Fein province's poUricians straight

admitted, they were for the violence' firom both sides politicians.

With

first

were

time

sitting

great difficulty

fully inclusive as the

round the

table

former 'men of

with the mainstream

and no small degree of political courage,

new leader of the Ulster Unionists, David Trimble, sat down with Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, although he refiised to address them directly. But his own grave reservations were nothing compared with those entertained by many members of his party. Following James Molyneaux's retirement in 1995, David Trimble had won the the

leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party

(UUP) over John Taylor not

least

because of the highly visible stand he had taken over Drumcree that

summer, when

had shown him triumphantly joining Orangemen had finally marched down the

television cameras

hands with Ian Paisley

after the

Garvaghy Road. But one loyalist politician was not at the table. Two days after the IRA's new ceasefire, Ian Paisley and the DUP walked out in protest at the

Government's

Once

clear intention to fudge the issue

of de-

was outside the tent, a dangerous focus for unionist opposition to the road down which Tony Blair and Mo Mowlam were taking the peace process. The 'Big Man' had been written commissioning.

again. Paisley

244 off

LOYALISTS

.

many

,

now

times over almost three decades, but although

in his

The joke was that What Paisley had predicted finally happened when, on 11 December 1997, Adams and McGuinness walked into Downing Street to meet Tony Blair. They were the first Irish republican leaders to do so since the legendary IRA leader, Michael seventies he remained a force to be reckoned with.

he had had more comebacks than Lazurus.

Collins,

met

the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, during the Treaty

To

negotiations of 1921.

and

He

IRA.

Paisley, this

final

surrender to the

had been sounding the warnings since 1966 and few could say

they had not heard him. But, although a

encounter between Prime Minister

symbolized the Brirish Government's

'terrorists'

now

outside. Paisley

would remain

major player in the drama that was about to unfold, triggered by

Maze

seconds in the

a

few

prison.

The law had finally caught up with Billy Wright, at whose door popular myth had laid many atrocities but for which there was little evidence. The police had charged him with menacing behaviour and he was sentenced to the H-Blocks of the maze where he demanded - and got - a separate wing for the other

had

LVF

men were moved time. It

and those

prisoners

members of the UFF who

dissident

Wright and his was the only available wing at the

cast their votes against the loyalist ceasefire in 1994.

was

ceasefire.

sitting in a visit,

van

INLA

as that

m the block was already occupied by INLA prisoners.

combustible mixture. Neither the

a potentially

were on

H-Block 6

to

The other one

INLA

At 9.15 a.m. on 27 December 1997,

in the forecourt outside the

prisoners

who

LVF

nor the

Wright was

as

block waiting to be taken for

had escaped from

their

overlooking the exercise yard shot him several times point-blank range. Wright died fifty-four minutes

a

wing via the roof few seconds at

in a

The gunmen The killing

later.

then returned to their wing and admitted what they had done.

of Billy Wright provoked yet another awful cycle of tit-for-tat dragged

in

both the

I

It

Fein, being suspended, albeit temporanly,

was deeply concerned. It

was

first

diflficult

time, high.

tions than

We

I

from

moment. would be December of

that there

think that the setback of

of all to take because hopes had been, for

had got not

all

but

more

inclusive negotia-

before with the entry of Sinn Fein into the talks in

September of 1997. preliminary agenda in the fonnat.

difficult

knew immediately

I

inevitable.

1997 was the most

killings that

resulted in their respective political

was Senator Mitchell's most

retaliation.

the

IRA and

and

UDP and Sinn

parties, the

the talks.

UFF

I

We

hadn't been able to get agreement on a

December of .'97.

I

tried very hard.

restncted the meetings to just

made them much

less

fonnal and

we

two

I

changed

political leaders.

I

tncd to get an agreement just on

GOOD FRIDAY

245

the key questions to be asked and answered and

Well,

that.

if you can't

on the

get agreement

ever hope to get agreement on the answers?

we

couldn't even get

how can you remember flying home

questions, I

for Christmas in 1997, feeling particularly discouraged because I'd

been so hopeful before and then when I got the news - I was in the United States at the time for the Christmas break - of Billy Wright's death,

knew

I

As 1997 drew to with

that there

a close,

the Secretary of State,

a political crisis as well as a security

death, the

prisoner

LVF

in retahation shot

working

later,

on

in the Clifton

one

Mo

doorman

as a

dead

at a

a

Mowlam, was

wake of the

in the

Wright's death had provoked.

killings that Billy

days

were troubled times ahead.

On

faced

sectarian

the evening of his

CathoHc, Seamus Dillon, an ex-

hotel just outside

Dungannon. Four

New Year's Eve, another Catholic, Eddie Treanor, was killed Tavern

in

North

Belfast.

At

first it

was

also

thought to be the

work of Wright's LVF, but forensic tests on the weapon showed that the UFF was responsible. Not only were the UFF's gunmen outside getting restless, but their comrades inside the Maze were on the point of mutiny. On 4 January 1998, the UDA and UFF loyalist prisoners voted by two to one

to

for the

House

withdraw support from the peace process and UDP to leave the talks which were about in

The

sent out an instruction to

move

to Lancaster

London.

leaders

of the

UDP, Gary McMichael, David Adams and John UFF in general and their prisoners in knew the situation was critical. 'We got to a point negotiate with the prisoners who had said that they

White, whose influence over the

was limited, where we had tried to were withdrawing support from the peace process and quite frankly we'd failed which was an indictment upon us,' McMichael admitted. He particular

travelled to

London with

his colleagues to see

and outline to her face to face Secretary of State instinctively

how

just

Mo Mowlam

in her office

serious the situation was.

knew her visitors were not bluffing.

very, very difficult time. Absolutely

no doubt about

it,'

The was

'It

she told me.

a

'We

had infighting then between the loyahst groups, minimal but it was there, and there was a real anger among loyalism that they were getting treated unfairly

compared

to the nationalists.

I

think the murder of Billy Wright

difficulties. It was tough and in the end, it was on the UDP and Gary McMichael. By this time, we'd been talking for six months and I was convinced they were serious about wanting to find another way other than the violent route. They said, "The

was symptomatic of those particularly hard

prisoners don't

beUeve us and

if

we

don't take the prisoners with

in very serious trouble." I've seen negotiating ploys of "This

before but this was different.

They were

seriously in trouble

and

is

us,

we're

serious"

to say they

'

246

LOYALISTS

.

were "deeply concerned" doesn't express what was almost fear. And they said, "We can't make the prisoners believe what we're saying. You say it to us, but they don't believe us. Will you go and say it to them?" The Secretary of State consulted her officials and made the highly controversial decision to go to the Maze and meet Johnny Adair, Michael Stone and the leadership of the UFF in the prison. It was an unprecedented scene: the hard men of the Shankill and East Belfast talking across a table in '

a bare

room

talking

was done and,

was no

in the prison

'sell-out'

with the Secretary of

and the Union was

impressed, not only that she had

A

of

lot

straight

Adair and his colleagues were meet them on their playing field

safe.

come

to

what critics said, was not the purpose of the exercise — but she had been genuine in what she had said. They believed her and

- which, that

State.

Mo Mowlam convinced them that there

in the end.

despite

reinstated their support for the

Mowlam

UDP and

had not taken the huge

its

role in the all-party talks. If

political risk

Mo

of talking to the prisoners

face to face

— which would probably have been

succeeded —

the process might well have collapsed. But although the talks

now back on course with all

were

the participants

continued to threaten to tear the peace process

With

loyalists

that the killings

of the

INLA,

once again that

was not on

by shooting dead

nationalist

killing Catholics, the

Billy

at

still

role that

IRA

and had

Although the

IRA

had

the table, violence

apart. retaliated,

first

concerned

started the tit-for-tat

Wright, was presenting

community, the

into being in 1969.

ceasefire

temiinal had she not

itself as

the defender

brought the Provisionals

took out

its

guns again,

never

it

no blame'. The IP^ wanted so, on to have it both ways: to maintain the ceasefire which gave Sinn Fein its ticket to the talks and to take reprisals for the loyalist killings whether they be perpetrated by the LVF or the UFF. In one retaliatory shooting on 10 February 1 998, the lYKA shot dead Robert Dougan, a member of the UDA's South Belfast Brigade, as he sat in a car outside a factory in Dunmurry. Jackie McDonald, who came fi-om the same area as Bobby Dougan, knew admitted doing

him

well.

the basis

of 'no claim,

He also knew another victim who had been shot dead by

Jim Guiney,

19 January outside

his carpet shop.

fi-om the

the

INLA

South three

Eight hours after the

Belfast Brigade,

weeks

on the Ormeau Road. McDonald had no problem

UFF

killing, the

shot dead a C^atholic taxi dnver, Larry Brennan (52), as he

on

earlier

sat in

his

in justifying the

cab

UFF's

retaliation.

It's

the nature of the beast.

Some

people would

call

it

a

knee-jerk

reaction but it'sjust a product of the times. If somebody attacks us,

we

have to attack back.

But there was

a ceasefire.

Your

political party, the

UDP,

is

GOOD FRIDAY

247

talks. The ceasefire is broken and the UFF goes kiUing Catholics again. Yes. Again, I have to repeat, it's the nature of the beast. We developed because of IRA violence. We came into being because of what the IRA was doing to this country. We agreed to hold a

involved in the

out and

starts

ceasefire,

but once people attack

still

As

a result

of the

killings that

were

we

although

us,

have to respond against the people

a clear

who

are

on

ceasefire,

we

attacked us.

breach of the Mitchell Principles,

UDP and Sinn Fein were both suspended from the talks - but for only a few weeks. The UDP walked before was officially suspended in January the

it

1998 for

a

month. The

UFF

The IRA never did. The Government and

admitted responsibility.

Sinn Fein was suspended in February for two weeks.

Senator Mitchell wanted both parties back as soon as possible as there would only have been three legs on the stool. 'The Governments made it clear to

me

that they regarded an important part

keeping the process going, keeping hope

view of

it,'

he told me. 'Among those

alive,

of my job description

as

keeping some optimistic

who were most

keeping the process going, for precisely the reasons

I

about

insistent

have suggested, were

McMichael many times said to me, you have to keep this process going because the alternative is conflict", as did David Ervine and many others.' Senator Mitchell told me that he regarded David Ervine as 'one of the most impressive political figures I've met, in Northern Ireland or anywhere else. I think he made a the loyalist political leaders. Gary

"Senator,

very powerful contribution to the process and

I

think he will be a political

leader in Northern Ireland for a long time to come.'

After the suspensions. Senator Mitchell flew back to America, con-

were increasingly vulnerable to being destabilized by had just been through two meetings in London and Dublin, each of three days, and seen all the valuable time taken up with cerned that the

talks

outside violence.

He

discussing expulsions rather than an agreement. disintegrate unless there

commitment back to

to reach an

my home

calendar and

I

sat

is

a

specific

agreement by

in the

United

and looked

at

it

'I

felt this

process

deadline, unless there a certain time.

States

And

I

and the next day

is

would a

firm

recall getting I

took out

for a long time, thinking about

a

how and

where is the best place to bring this to a conclusion.' Mitchell's first thought was to make Easter Sunday 1 998 the deadline on the basis that relating it to some external event, hke Easter, helped concentrate minds even more. Then it occurred to him that Easter Sunday would give him no margin for error, so he thought of Easter Saturday, then midnight on Good Friday and finally, to provide the greatest flexibility possible, midnight on Thursday.

When

he returned to

Belfast,

he discussed

his proposal

with

all

the parties

248

.

who,

to his surprise,

responded

LOYALISTS

-

positively.

Midnight on Thursday 9 April

was the agreed deadline. The talks continued with the

by

the violence outside caused

UDP

and Sinn Fein

associates

of the

Predictably, as the deadline approached, there

temperature inside the

political

LVF and INLA,

by the

destabilize the process.

talks

was

little

'On

the floor

you

1998, masked

LVF gunmen burst into County Armagh and

Trainor

(25). Philip

grown up together

was

shooting dead two innocent

bastards!' before

young men who were having

a drink, Philip Allen (34)

a Protestant

in a village that

and the

progress,

raised

the Railway Bar in the tiny village of Poyntzpass,

shouted,

back again and

by a flirther series of killings were not on ceasefire, designed to

was

who

groups

On 3 March

now

parties inside largely absent.

and Damien

had never

a

known

and Damien

CathoHc. They had sectarian hatred,

and

were close fhends. Mrs Allen was at her son's side as life slowly left him. 'He was just lying on the floor of the pub,' she told me. 'I just kept talking to him. I asked him if he was all right and he just said, "I'm dying, I'm dying." peace.

Their parents - simple, dignified people - made moving pleas for

'

Many

had done the same before and some were to do so

after.

Among those who came to pay their respects were the Leader of the Ulster Unionist

Part\',

David Trimble, and the Deputy Leader of the SDLP,

Seamus Mallon. Together, united in sorrow before the television cameras, the two men who were traditional poUtical opponents echoed the families' plea for the violence to stop.

LVF

suspects

afterwards.

from the nearby town of Banbridge were arrested shortly one of them, David Keys (26), was

A fortnight after the killings,

found hanging

in his cell in the

tortured and

murdered by

Two

operation. also struck,

Maze

his

prison.

LVF

He was thought to

have been

on the

colleagues for 'grassing'

days before the Thursday midnight deadline, the

shooting dead Trevor Deeney (34) in

his car outside his

INLA home

UFF massacre

in

Deny. His

at

Greysteel and his other brother, Robert (30), had been sentenced to nine

years

m

brother, Geoffrey (27), was serving

1992 for possession of ammunition. But the

and Derry, perpetrated by gunmen of both only brought

home more

starkly the

Aheme, who was now buildings at Stormont,

last

I

told

so but gave

Pnme

amved

them

a

Tony Blair and Bertie come to the Government

was being conducted, George Mitchell was happy to

leg of the talks

warning.

Minister Blair and

in Belfast, that the

Poyntzpass

Ministers,

to see if they could assist in the final stages.

them do

killings in

sides, far fi-om derailing the talks

Taoisach, offered to

where the

for the

urgency of reaching agreement.

Pnme

As the clock ticked, the two

see

life

Pnme

one thing

I

Minister

ask

Aheme, when they

of you, the one thing

I

insist

GOOD FRIDAY

249

when we go into session on Thursday April 9th, we will we finish. There will be no breaks. We will either agreement or we will fail to get an agreement but told them

upon,

is

that

stay in session until

get an

I

not even consider

will

now.

there, we're tired

by anyone

a request

Let's break

I

to say, 'Well, we're nearly

and come back next week.' And

they were very willing, eager.

Did you I

them

tell

didn't have to

to bring their toothbrush?

them

tell

that.

They were both

terrific.

I

had not

personally seen a finer example of leadership in a democtatic society

than that exhibited by

modem

leaders get involved.

what

is

Tony

Blair

Aheme

and Bertie

in these talks. In

diplomacy usually everything's scripted before national

They go

signatures

down and

case here.

When

have

in after the assistants

be signed and they

to

effectively finalize

all

drafted

They put

it.

their

they have a large celebration. That was not the

Bertie

Aheme

and Tony Blair came here, there was

no agreement. They worked. They

didn't supervise the negotiations,

word by word, sentence by sentence, There would not have been an agreement

they conducted the negotiations, provision by provision.

without them. They both were superb.

But without George diplomatic

skills,

it

is

Mitchells'

patience

unlikely that the

political and Agreement would

and personal,

Good

Friday

ever have been finalized.

The

deadline

came and went

Stormont and the

as

the Ughts burned through the night in

press shivered in the cold Portakabins outside.

hot drinks machine had broken down, which seemed to

mood

as

the various parties and

Tony

Blair's

Even the

reflect the general

spokesman came and went 'spins' to the press. There

through the long hours giving their particular

was no

mood

of optimism.

Dawn broke, moming came and the snow and

the sleet lashed down. By lunchtime there were reports of a breakthrough, which were dashed a few hours later when we heard that final agreement had stumbled over the hurdle of decommissioning. Again, the issue was fiidged when Tony Blair handed David Trimble a letter promising him that

if

the

'intention'

of decommissioning implicit

agreement was not met, the

Govemment would

in

the

emerging

introduce legislation

David Trimble bought it. His colleague and rival for his leadership job, Jeffrey Donaldson MP, did not and walked out, putting down a dramatic marker for the succession should Trimble ever to

make

fall.

it

more

effective.^

David Ervine

John

said

Donaldson's action 'took the cream

off"

my

bun.'

Taylor stayed by his leader's side. Senator Mitchell finally received the

confirmatory Friday.

call

from David Trimble

at

4.45 in the afternoon of

Good

250 I

LOYALISTS

.

picked up the phone and he told

congratulated him.

said, 'Well,

I

me that they were ready to go and I David, don't think we ought to I

wait.

My experience always told me, when you've got the votes, you

vote,

you don't wait because

By then

mind.'

meeting for

there might be a last-minute change of

was nearly ten

it

How's

five o'clock.

to five.

I

said, 'I'd like to call a

that suit you?'

He

said, 'That's fine

And said I'd like to have a short meeting. 'We can do all we want afterwards but let's get the agreement approved.' He agreed and we went in at five o'clock and we had an agreement by

with me.'

I

the talking

5.30 and

I

happiness.

come

felt a I

have spent three and

know

to

great sense of relief, gratification a half years in

the people very well.

like

I

and

Northern them.

genuine

really

Ireland. I've

admire them.

I

They're tremendously energetic and productive. They're good

They

people.

deserve better than the violence and the anxiety and

the fear that they've had over the past several decades, and feeling that I

had been able to be

helpflil to

them

great sense of relief and satisfaction

When

I

asked

for elation. Billy

What

I

had been

'I

said, 'It

room

Adams was more upbeat,

how

it

least for

It

felt,

she

tired

remember

efforts

a clear

I

over those two years

smooth road

the fortunes of his

as in all things in

me and

own

ahead.' His

party. It

David

was almost

Northem

Ireland,

it

was only three-quarters of an hour before the

agreement was actually signed that to

she

was too

just

I

was exhausted and delighted.

'I

happened, and

right to the wire.

were going

a

every opportunity afterwards.'

our

that

I

was very important to

But there was by no means

words were prophetic, not

went

at

hard slog and

was very emotionally drained and

think to everyone around that

miraculous

a long,

mainly did was sleep

said,

breaking down.' Gary McMichael

fruit.

how

charming and no doubt bullying,

said, 'Tired! It

Hutchinson

had borne

agreement was

Mo Mowlam, who had played an equally important part in

cajoling, persuading,

laughed and

in reaching this

and happiness.

go along with

it.

all

of us knew that the Ulster Unionists

We were

all

so exhausted that

all

we

really

wanted to do was get the agreement signed, get home and get to bed. And had a brief couple of days away with it was only a day or two later, when my wife and family, that it actually dawned on me the magnitude of what had been achieved.' But Ian Paisley, who had disassociated himself and his I

party from the talks

the

IRA,

felt

months

earlier

very differently.

He

because he saw them

told

me

the

as capitulation to

Agreement was

day that Ulster has seen since the founding of the province.

thought

I

'the saddest

A lot of people

was mad.'

What became known as the Good Downing Street Declaration on whose

Friday

Agreement was,

principles

it

was based,

a

like the

meticu-

GOOD FRIDAY

251

lously worded document that remarkably gave both sides just enough of what they wanted to make a deal possible. Most important of all to loyalists and unionists, it guaranteed the security of the Union as long as the

majority of the people of Northern Ireland wanted to remain part of the

United Kingdom. For

thirty years, this

been fighting

loyalist paramilitaries

for

and

was what unionist pohticians had had been killing for. Andy

who had survived for so long as leader of the UDA, saw the efforts he and John McMichael had made over the years" finally show results. The Union is secure,' he told me. 'The Union is the people themselves

Tyrie, that

and

we

can get the two communities to

work together, the Union become important any more, neither does the link with the rest of Ireland. It doesn't become important. People become important in what they do for the betterment of that community. These two things are no longer important and they won't be important in the future.' I asked him if he thought his community had won. 'Yes,' he said. Jackie McDonald also had no doubt the Union was secure, nor any doubt about who had helped make it so. 'I would take great pride in beheving and thinking and saying that our organization [the UDA and UFF] has played a great part in this.' A if

doesn't

of the Agreement for Protestants was that the

critical part

ment for the

first

indicated

willingness to change the articles in

territorial

its

Irish

time recognized the right of Northern Ireland to

claim to Northern Ireland.

pinned the Union.

'In

republicanism because

I

my

To John

opinion,

the

believe that the

its

constitution that laid

Taylor

this

Agreement

Union

is

is

now accepted by

Dublin for the

now a

under-

defeat

now more

and the [1800] Act of Union remains intact. We were told to be renegotiated. It hasn't been touched. Northern Ireland United Kingdom and

Governexist and

first

for

secure

it

was going

is

part

time.'

of the

Nor had

the IRA had by giving Sinn Fein dispensation to sit in the new Northern Ireland assembly. Such an idea would have been unimaginable only a few years earlier. It was a measure of how far the Republican Movement had come to reach an accommodation that it beheved would lead them on to the united Ireland they had fought the astonishing fact been lost

on

unionists

and

loyalists that

effectively accepted partition, at least for the time being,

for.

Republicans and nationalists terms of the

Irish

also got

much of what

Dimension which both saw

road to a united Ireland. There was to be (although that emotive fi-om politicians

There was bodies

set

to

up

of all

be

a

word was never

parties in

stepping stone on the

power-sharing assembly

used) with an executive

drawn

proportion to their strength in the assembly.

North-South

Ministerial Council

to oversee matters such as

social security, health,

as a

a

they wanted in

and cross-border

agriculture, education, transport,

environment and urban and

rural

development.

252

to

LOYALISTS

.

»

However, the most controversial aspects of the Agreement had nothing do with pohtical structures but were gut issues that every person in

Northern Ireland could

identify with and had intense and passionate about — the release of prisoners and decommissioning. As far as

feelings

Government was concerned, although it never openly said so, it w^hich the paramilitaries on both sides would agree to give up arms in return for the release of their prisoners. Although the word

the British

was

a deal in

their

'amnesty' was never used (for that, like 'power sharing', had emotional it was. Prisoners were to be which could be revoked were they ever to transgress. Technically, therefore, it was not amnesty. These releases were specifically set out in the Agreement. Decommissioning was not and again the issue was flidged. All the Agreement itself says on the subject is that parties (that is the loyalist UDP and PUP and Sinn Fein) agree 'to use any influence

connotations), effectively that was w^hat released

on

licence,

may have

they

decommissioning of

to achieve the

within two

years.'

UDA/UFF

or

There was no

UVF)

all

paramilitary arms

IRA

clause that said that the

(or the

had to decommission, nor was there any specified

linkage betw^een Sinn Fein taking seats in the executive (should their

and the handover of weapons. This

election results merit their inclusion) critical issue

office

was blurred even more with the words, 'Those

who hold who do

should only use democratic, non-violent means, and those

not should be excluded or removed from office under these provisions.' In response to this Sinn Fein that

would simply

committed

party was

its

to

means'. Although the Agreement the fudging of decommissioning, seeds of its

own

destruction

if the

say that

it

was not the

IRA and

using only 'democratic, non-violent

would never have been possible without did mean that potentially it carried the

it

IRA

refused to decommission and David

Trimble's Unionists refused to accept Sinn Fein in the executive without

some

on the IRA's

gesture

part.

But such grim thoughts were not

entertained in the euphoria and exhaustion of

The other key and South to

section of the

ratify

Agreement

the

both

sides

that the

IRA

claimed the legitimacy of

of the border voted for peace, the

IRA would

exercise

was

Irish

North

be seen

to

it

in

claimed to

people.

date set for the dual referendums was 2

May

1998.

The campaign

was intensely fought, with Ian Paisley and Robert McC'artney of the Unionist Party, once Paisley's foe but opposition to the Agreement.

powers.

To most

as

whose 'war'. If the vast majority on two Governments calculated whole of Ireland,

be stnpped of whatever moral authonty

be acting on behalf of the

The

its

Friday.

stipulated referendums

what had been agreed. The

the expression of the will of the people of the

name

Good

The

now

his

ally,

UK

representing the

years had hardly blunted Paisley's

people, in particular those outside the province, he was

GOOD FRIDAY

253

man fighting yesterday's batdes, but they wrote him off at their put to him the question that seemed to sum up most people's feelings about him, especially those in the rest of the United Kingdom. yesterday's peril.

I

Many would

you

see

as the

person

who

who was

the Troubles, the person

fanned the flames of

the wrecker, the person

Avho always said *No'. Well, they can say what they Hke about me.

when

they're saying that so

whereabouts. to

tell

1

you the

my

lived

truth,

I

Anyone who

I

I

me

affect

before God, before

couldn't care

me, either when I'm changing.

life

not

it'll

less

nor 'my etemal

my

country and,

about what people say about

living or dead. All

I

can say

go to the grave with the convictions

will

not be here

will

thinks they can change Ian Paisley

is

is, I

not be

I'll

have.

simply wasting his or her

time.

After a campaign in

running, the

which

'yes' parties,

Paisley

who were

and the

'no'

camp made most of the

in the majority, finally got their act

who came to the what had been achieved on Good Friday might be slipping away. He knew the result was finely balanced, not least after the IRA's 'Balcombe Street Gang', who had terrorized London in 1975, appeared in the glare of television cameras on 10 May at Sinn Fein's special conference in Dublin. They had been transferred from prison in England to custody in the South as part of the lead up to the Agreement and as a gesture to the peace process had been given leave for a few days, together in the

few

last

province to lend

days,

encouraged by Tony Blair

his support, sensing that

which they used

to

make

their

tumultuous appearance before the packed

of Sinn Fein delegates. They were given an

hall

cheering and stamping of feet that last

thing the

later

when

'yes'

campaign needed. Equal unease was caused

the loyalist Michael Stone,

Milltown cemetery Hall.

He

it

ecstatic reception,

seemed would never end.

in 1988,

too received

a

who

appeared

rapturous

had attacked the

at a

UDP

It

a

few days

IRA funeral at

rally at Belfast's

welcome but

with

was the

Ulster

certainly not stage-

managed by the UDP and UDA leaders who were on the platform. The last thing they wanted was a loyalist hero returning in triumph like the 'Balcombe Street Gang' had done in Dubhn because they knew the electoral damage such scenes might cause. Their assessment was correct. On referendum day, 22 May 1998, the pro-Agreement parties managed 70 per cent figure but only just - by 1 per cent. Anything less than 70 per cent would have been seen as a defeat. Voters in the Irish 11 Republic endorsed the Agreement with a staggering 94 per cent. to pass the critical

Without having time

to catch breath or recharge their emotional

and

254

then launched themselves into the campaign

political batteries, the parties

new Northern

to elect the

province

after

climactic, as if

on 25 June that was to run the devolved Westminster powers. The campaign was anti-

all

To

show^down.

*

LOYALISTS

•

Ireland Assembly

passion and energy had been spent in the referendum

the

relief

of the two Governments and the

parties

endorsing the Agreement, the result indicated 75 per cent support for

what had been achieved on Good Friday. No one could have been more relieved than David Trimble, whose party won the greatest number of seats — twenty-eight — thus making him the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (or First Minister, as he was called) for more than a quarter of a century. Ian Paisley and his supporters, however, followed close behind with a combined total of twenty-seven seats. Trimble's majority, given the problems that inevitably lay ahead, was dangerously thin. Sinn Fein made the greatest advance of any party, receiving

17.6 per cent and winning eighteen

vote

at

have

at least

one place

in the

new

highest percentage of the

its

seats,

thus giving

execurive. David Trimble

it

the right to

now faced the

prospect of having Gerry Adams, and possibly Martin McGuinness

him

as well,

whose efforts had made the loyahst ceasefire possible - without which there would have been no Agreement - did not fare as well as expected, or as they had hoped given the efforts they had made. David Ervine and Billy Hutchinson won two seats in the assembly for the PUP but the UDP did not win any. David sittmg alongside

Adams was I

felt

in Cabinet.

But the

parties

bitterly disappointed.

dejected and rejected. In personal terms

over.

felt

I

almost

as

though

I

found

very hard to get

it

the effort and risks that people like

all

myself and John White and Gary McMichael have taken over these last few years counted for nothing. was tempted for a while just to say, I

'That's

there

it,

bye-bye.' But

is still

much work

I

much into this process and be done for the UDP. What we'll do

put

to

far

too

I

continue to work for the people on the ground and continue to

push the process forward and

in the direction

we

feel

it

think is

just

try

and

should go.

danger also because you didn't win any seats that the UDA and the UFF feel left out in the way that you do and not part of the process? Isn't there a

Well,

I

think that

that the views

it's

of the

up to

Northern Ireland aren't that organization isn't

left

It's

a

will

danger.

It is

a

the leadership of the loyalist

UDP,

to ensure

paramilitary organization in

outside the door in the process, that

allowed to

That's a danger, isn't

we

us,

largest

feel as

though

it's

been

isolated.

it?

danger that we're aware of and

be trying our best to counter.

that's

one

that

GOOD FRIDAY

255

The first test of unionist and loyalist support for the Agreement came a week later over the now regular July showdown at Drumcree. The Government had set the election date so close to the referendum to ensure that the result was not affected by the emotions generated by the issue

which, for

many loyalists, had come to epitomize everything that Ian - that the IRA had won and Ulster was finished.

Paisley articulated

Drumcree was the also a test

of the

loyalists'

Alamo,

loyalist ceasefire

Drumcree 1998 was

their last stand.

and the commitment by

means. They passed the

their para-

and anxieties that the UDA/UFF, having seen their politicians emerge from the election without a single seat, would abandon the peace process and take out their guns again, were ill-founded. Again the Orangemen mustered at Drumcree and militaries to peaceful

test

down

time they were stopped permanently from marching

this

Garvaghy Road by

McCartney came

the

phalanx of police and army. Ian Paisley and Robert

a

to lend their support,

and so too did Jeffrey Donaldson,

who had made the dramatic eleventh hour exit on Good Friday. But David Trimble, the local MP, was nowhere to be seen. In 1995, he had been the hero marching with Ian Paisley down the Garvaghy Road and at the end clasping hands with

who

the 'Lundy'

him

in triumph. In 1998,

had sold out both

his

Trimble was the

own Orangemen

he put in an appearance, few could have vouched for the stand-off

Then,

seemed

Ulster.

his safety.

Yet

Had

again,

set to escalate.

violence spread around the province, three

as

arch-traitor,

and

little

boys, the

Quinn brothers, were burned alive in their beds in a petrol-bomb attack on their home near Ballymena. Most people, including the Government, put two and two together and connected their deaths with Drumcree, although that was not necessarily the case. The mood immediately changed. In his sermon the Reverend William Bingham, the Orange

Order chaplain of County Armagh

in

whose

area

Drumcree

lies,

bravely

attacked the violence that he believed had arisen from the protest and declared with great emotion from the pulpit that 'no road

However strong his for

the

I

-

his

grandfather and great-grandfather had both been

summer of 1998 beheved

in

is

worth

devotion to the Orange Order and behef in the Rev.

Bingham put other

all it

a life'.

stood

Orangemen -

things

first.

my heart and before God that the time had come where

the protests had got out of our control and were actually damaging that

stood for and undermining considerably our just cause

we

because

I

certainly

And you

said

beheve that the cause

no road

is

worth

a

is

just.

life.

Yes. I've been a Presbyterian minister for about seven years

and

all

I've buried

members of my

congregation, people

who

now

have been

in

256

blown up by

the

IRA.

I

restored to

have had to bury children,

and for me

folk killed in accidents,

Portadown

'

LOYALISTS

•

life is

hope they go down the Garvaghy Road. We

district

has the right and

but

until that happens,

life is

more

I've

had

very, very precious.

I

I

to

bury

believe

will

have that right

will

work

tirelessly

precious.

Orangemen were now allowed The area was saturated with an even more of pohcemen and troops and it was clear that the

This time, unlike in previous years, the

down

the Garvaghy Road.

formidable array

Government was not going to let the Orange Order and the individuals attracted - not all of whom were welcome to its leaders - destabilize the

it

Good

The

Friday Agreement.

be beaten and vowed march down the road.

protesters refused to

they were going to say there and

some

at

stage

When asked how long they were prepared to wait, takes'.

Like their Protestant ancestors

were ready

to hold out against

at

they

said, 'As

the Siege of Derry, the

what they regard

as

long

as it

Orangemen

the same threat. Again,

the loyalist paramilitaries passed the test of Drumcree, maintaining their ceasefire

and refusing

to

common

expressed a

abandon them

as

become involved

in the stand-off

they had so

learned their lesson and were not getting dragged

The following month,

when

Their leaders

would use, and then many times before. They said they had

thought, that politicians

the

UFF

they did not retaliate in the

and the

in.

UVF passed an

wake of the

even bigger

'Real' IRA's

test

Omagh bomb

on Saturday 15 August, when twenty-nine people died and more than 200 were injured. (The 'Real' IRA was a splmter group that had left the Provisional

with as

its

IRA

along with

its

Quarter Master General

after disagreeing

support of the peace process). ^^

they had done so often before in the

The temptation to retaliate in kind, wake of IRA atrocities, was resisted.

Times and strategies had changed. Through the autumn and early winter months of 1998, the Agreement not only seemed to be working despite the inevitable odd hiccup but also had a knock-on effect, with both the INLA and LVF declaring ceasefires.

They

Agreement but because they IRA was concerned, the universal condemnation heaped upon it after (^niagh - and the draconian legislation the two (iovcniments nishcd through in its wake - effectively did so not because they supported the

too wanted their prisoners out. As

put an end to

its

its

the 'Real'

time being. But at the tune of few days away, the (iood Friday Agreement is

activities, at least for the

writing, with 1999 only a

about to face

far as

biggest

test.

David Trimble has

said that

enter the C^abinet of Northern Ireland unless the

Sinn Fein cannot

IRA makes some

gesture

on decommissioning. On three occasions during 1998 - April, September and December - the IRA has made it lear it will not he handing in any (

GOOD FRIDAY

257

weapons. The

loyalist paramilitaries are adamant too and say they will not up any arms as long as there is a threat to their community from the IRA. The issue has been fudged many times before but it will soon have to be confronted and resolved if the Agreement is to survive. Nineteen ninety-nine, the year that marks the thirtieth anniversary of the deployment of British troops and the re-involvement of the British

give

Government

in the Troubles, will decide the friture

Good

Agreement and perhaps even of Ulster

Friday

of David Trimble, the itself

But despite the grave problems that the loyahst pararrfilitaries always knew would He ahead, most agree with Tony Blair that all parties, not least their own, have come too far to turn back. Gusty Spence, the 'alpha and omega' of their violent tradition, agrees. 'As far as loyalists are concerned, the war is over. There is no need to prosecute it any more. Of course the war is over.' Bobby Morton, the UVF gunman who was almost killed in a hail of RUG bullets, has no wish to return to being a 'soldier' again. 'I'll be glad to see the back of it.

'The important

issue

is

I

think

I

am not the important issue here,' he said.

our children.

A

better future

- jobs,

security

-

a

way of life for them, especially those who have known nothing but bombs and bullets. If there's never another shot fired, it w^ill not be too soon.' I asked him would he not miss the excitement, and the danger, and different

the adrenahne. 'No,

I

will not,'

he

said emphatically. 'If

someone on

all

sides Nvill declare the war over, I will rejoice. And I look forward to the day - whether it will ever come in my lifetime I don't know — when I can even have a pint on the Falls Road. Now that would be something to look

forward

to,

wouldn't

it?'

I

i

.

Notes

Introduction: Billy 1.

IRA

See Prouos. The

and Sinn Fein, Peter Taylor, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1997,

Chapter Thirteen. 2.

See Chapter Thirteen.

3.

Irish

Independent,

22 November 1982.

4.

Belfast Telegraph,

22 November 1982.

5.

Ibid.,

28

May

1985;

Times, 15

Irish

June 1985.

Chapter One: Under Siege 1.

No

Surrender.

The Siege of Londonderry 1689,

Tony

Gray, Macdonald and Jane's, 1965,

p. 21. 2.

The Green

Flag.

A

History of

Irish

Nationalism,

Robert Kee, Weidenfeld

&

Nicolson,

1972, pp. 16-17. 3.

A

Circumstantial Journal of the Siege of Londonderry, Captain

Thomas

the edition of 1792; thought to have been reprinted in 1888

Ash, reprinted from

on the bicentenary of the

siege, p. 98. 4.

No

5.

A

6.

There had long been

Surrender, op.

cit., p.

175.

Circumstantial Journal of the Siege of Londonderry, op.

known

Protestants

as

sectarian fighting

the 'Peep o'

'Defenden'. Following an exchange

cit., p.

99.

around County Armagh between gangs of

Day Boys' and the Catholics known as the known as the 'Batde of the Diamond' near

the village of Loughgall, the victorious Protestants

withdrew

to an inn

and formed the

Orange Order. 7.

The

Ulster Covenant.

Lucy, 8.

The

A

Pictorial History

Ulster Society,

Irish Historical

New

Documents 1172-1922,

Co. Ltd, reprinted 1977, 9.

The

Ulster Covenant, op. cit., p.

The

Ulster Crisis. Resistance to

The

Ibid., p. 89.

The

14.

Ibid., p. 72.

Ulster Crisis, op.

Rule

Crisis,

edited by

Gordon

Curtis and

R

B McDowell, Methuen and

1 1

Ulster Covenant, op. cit., p. 88.

13.

TC

Home Rule 1912-14, A T

reissued paperback 1997, p. 77.

12.

Home

p. 304.

10.

11.

of the 19i2

Ulster (Publications) Ltd, 1989, p. 10.

cit., p.

78.

Q Stewart, The BlackstafF Press;

260 1

5.

LOYALISTS

•

The Oxford Companion

to Irish

History, edited

"*

by S J Connolly, Oxford University

Press,

1998, p. 131. 16.

The

17.

Ibid., p.

18.

Ulster Crisis, op. dt., pp.

233-5.

240.

Technically, the rebels

who

took over the Post Office were members of the

Volunteers, originally formed to counter Carson's Ulster Volunteers.

1919

Collins at 19.

A

were

that they

officially constituted as

Irish

was only

in

Army with Michael

the Irish Republican

head.

its

1920-1996, Thomas Hennessey, Macmillan Press Ltd,

History of Northern Ireland

1997, p.

It

6.

20. Ibid., p. 11. 21.

The

The background

Troubles.

the

to

Dowmng, Thames/MacDonald

question

by Taylor

of Northern Ireland, edited

Futura, 1980, p. 110.

Chapter Two: Gathering Storm 1.

Paisley,

2.

Ibid., p.

Ed Moloney and Andy HI.

3.

Paisley.

Man

4.

Persecuting Zeal.

5.

Paisley, op. cit., p.

6.

Persecuting Z^al, op.

7.

Proves.

The IFL^ and Sinn

8.

Paisley.

Man

Poolbeg Press Ltd, 1986,

PoUalc,

of Wrath, Patnck Marrinan, Anvil

A

Books

p. 125.

Ltd, 1973, p. 82.

Dennis Cooke, Brandon Book Publishers Ltd,

Portrait of Ian Paisley,

1996, p. 142. 117.

144.

cit., p.

of IVrath, op.

Fein, op. cit., p.

p. 25.

cit.,

94.

Chapter Three: Murder 1.

UVF, }im Cusack and Henry MacDonald, Poolbeg

2.

The

VVF

An

1966-73.

anatomy of loyalist

Press, 1997, pp. 5-7.

David Boulton, Tore Books, 1973,

rebellion,

p. 40. 3.

UVF,

4.

The

5.

Ibid., pp.

49-50.

6.

Ibid., pp.

50-53.

7.

Ibid., p. 57.

op.

UlT

cit.,

p. 9.

1966-73, op.

cit., p.

49.

Chapter Four: Insurrection The IRA and Sinn

1.

Proves.

2.

Ibid., p. 31.

3.

Ibid., p. 32.

4.

known Violerue

as

566.

1

969. Belfast

the C'amcron Report after

and Civil

p.

31.

p. 53. Tills

its

HMSO. Cnid.

is

Mr Justice

also

known

52, p.

1

1

as

the Scarman Report. cit

.

para

1

2.

This

969 Report of the Tnhunal

Scarman, Vol 2 (Appendices).

Disturbarues in Northern Ireland, op.

5.

is

often

C^hairman. Lord Cameron.

I^isturbances in Northern Ireland in

Chairman the Hon. 6.

cit.,

Disturbarues in Northern Ireland. Report of the Commission appointed by the Governor of

Northern Ireland. September

5.

Fein, op.

p. 38.

Belfast

of Inquiry,

HM.SC), Cnid.

M "

..

NOTES 7.

Ibid., p. 39.

8.

Paisley, op. cit., p. 8.

9.

Disturbances in Northern Ireland, op.

10.

Ibid.

\\.

A

12.

Disturbances in Northern Ireland, op.

13.

261

1920-1996, op.

History of Northern Ireland.

Major Bunting's

Ironically,

p. 40.

cit.,

cit.,

p. 148.

p. 44.

cit.,

son, Ronald, did not adopt his father's loyalist politics but

became

a

(IRSP).

He was shot dead by the

republican political activist and joined the Irish Republican Socialist Party

Freedom

Ulster

14.

Disturbances in Northern Ireland, op.

15.

Ibid., p. 47.

16.

Ibid., pp.

cit.,

Fighters (UFF)

on 15 Oaober 1980.

p. 46.

89-90.

Chapter Five: Explosion 1.

Paisley, op. cit., pp.

2.

The Lambeg roar.

3.

was

It

is

incessantly with twin canes to

William McGrath was subsequently

McGrath and Ireland,

5.

170-71.

huge drum beaten

traditionally regarded as the Protestants' 'war'

Kincora boys'

4.

a

home

in Belfast

others. See

at

produce

a

mighty

drum.

the centre of the scandal surrounding the

whose young

The Kincora Scandal.

residents

Political

were sexually abused by

Cover-Up and

Intrigue in Northern

Chris Moore, Merino Books, 1996.

John McKeague was shot dead by the INLA on 29 January 1982. Belfast Telegraph, 18 February 1970. Account of the trial of Samuel Stevenson and coaccused.

UVF

1966-73.

An

6.

The

7.

Ibid., p. 98.

8.

Belfast Telegraph,

9.

Ibid.,

25 October 1969.

10.

Ibid.,

24 October 1969.

1 1

Provos.

12.

Ibid., p. 48.

13.

p. 84.

cit.,

rebellion,

and Sinn Fein, op.

Also

in

known

cit., p.

my

Ibid., p. 84.

15.

Ibid., p.

16.

Provos.

The

17.

Violence

and Civil Disturbances

Northern Ireland in 1969. Report of the Tribunal of Inquiry, as

the Scarman Report,

IRA

it

the most accurate and

is

week.

I

use

it

as

the

framework

Ibid., p. 123.

19.

Ibid., p. 126.

20.

Ibid., p.

21

For

in

cit.,

p. 50.

Northern Ireland

in

1969. Report of the Tribunal of Inquiry,

135.

more

IRA and

and Sinn Fein, op.

p. 120.

18.

22.

critical

119.

cit.,

a

92.

account.

14.

op.

cit., p.

44.

comprehensive account of this contentious and for

op.

23 October 1969.

and Civil Disturbances

Violence

op.

IRA

The

anatomy of loyalist

detailed account of the state

Sinn Fein, op.

77ie Last Post. Details

and

cit.,

Stories

Association, Dublin, p. 173.

of the

IRA in Belfast at the time see

Provos.

The

pp. 52-3. of the

Irish

Republican

Dead 1916-1985, National Graves

..

262

LOYALISTS

.

Chapter 1

2.

more

For

a

The

IRA

detailed account of the

and Sinn Fein, op.

3.

Ibid., p. 63.

Ibid., p. 66.

For more

IRA and

Fail

de Valera

is

States of Terror, Ibid., p.

who

Six.

UVF

The

11.

Ibid., p. 123.

For

is

split

cit..

over the principle of

Chapter Five.

the party founded in 1926 by

was one of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising.

PeterTaylor,

IRA

The

10.

BBC Books, reprinted as Penguin paperback

Goverment

and Sinn

I96&-73, op.

a detailed

1994, p. 214.

cit.,

Ministers for gun-running see ibid.. Chapter Seven.

Fein., op. cit., p. 62.

114.

cit., p.

account of these

Sinn Fein., op. 13.

of the Provisionals see Prows.

230. For a detailed account of these financial complexities that led to the

prosecution of Dublin Provos.

Sinn Fein, op.

the Irish for 'Soldiers of Ireland' and

Fianna

Eamon 8.

12.

rise

about the ideological reasons for the

details

7.

9.

emergence and

Chapters Four, Five and

cit..

'abstentionism' see Provos. The 6.

Defence

Six:

Ibid., p. 53.

4. 5.

•

beginning of 1970, see Provos. The

riots at the

IRA

and

pp. 72-4.

Ibid., p. 91.

Chapter Seven: Tit for Tat 1.

Memoirs of a Statesman, Brian Faulkner, Weidenfeld

2.

Provos.

IRA and

The

3.

Ibid., p. 93.

4.

An

Sinn Fein, op.

Index of Deaths from the Conflict

Beyond

cit.,

Belfast Telegraph, 'Inquest told

6.

Ibid.,

Nicolson, 1978, p. 78.

1969-1993, compiled by Malcolm Sutton,

in Ireland

the Pale Publications, 1994. This

5.

&

p. 92.

an invaluable work of reference.

is

of Four Step

blast horror',

16

December

1971.

2 October 1971.

December

Times, 6

1971.

7.

Irish

8.

Memoirs of a Revolutionary, Sean MacStiofain, Gordon Cremonesi, 1975,

9.

Belfast Telegraph,

10.

p.

222.

6 September 1978.

Memoirs of a Revolutionary, op.

cit., p.

243.

Chapter Eight: Escalation 1

For

a detailed

Sinn Fetn, op.

account of 'Bloody Sunday' see Chapter Nine of Provos. The

2.

Hansard. Vol. 833.

3.

\orthem

5.

Ireland

A

c.

1860. 24

March 1972.

Chronology of the Troubles

196H-1993, Paul

Bew

and Gordon

and Macmillan, 1993. pp. 47-8. Sunday Times, 28 January 1973. Interview with Denis Hcrbstcm.

Gillespie, 4.

IRA and

cit.

77jf

(Jill

Red Hand.

Univenity 6.

Ibid.

7.

The

Press.

Official

IKA

I^otestant

1992.

ceasefire

the Officials' killing of

Dcrry's Crcggan estate

ParamiUlanes

in

Northern

Ireland,

Steve

Bruce. Oxford

p. 59.

was declared following widespread

Ranger William

who was home on

Best, a

young

leave

the time.

at

nationalist revulsion at

serving Bntish soldier

The

Offiiial

IRA

frt)iii

said they

.

NOTES

263

had ordered an immediate cessation of hostilities people they represented.

Its

statement

said:

in

accordance with the wishes of the

'The overwhelming desire of the great

majority of all people in the North is for an end to military actions by all sides.' be more than another twenty years before that happened. But although the

put their guns away,

Army (INLA) Irish

Republican

breakaway group

a

carried

on

was

to

Officials

thai called itself the Irish National Liberation

campaign with support from

a military

It

its

political

wing, the

(IRSP), of which Bemadette McAliskey (formerly

Socialist Party

Bemadette Devlin) became the most prominent member. 8.

For

a detailed

IRA

account of the

and Sinn Fein, op.

IRA

ceasefire

and the Whitelaw meeting see

Prouos.

The

Chapter Ten.

cit.,

Chapter Nine: Killing Fields 1.

Prouos.

2.

77ie

3.

The IRA and Sinn

UVF

1966-73, op.

Northern Ireland 1968-73.

Vivien

Magowan,

Fein,

op

cit., p.

A

cit.,

p. 149.

168.

Chronology of Events, Vol. 2, 1972-3, Richard Deutsch and

BlackstafF Press, 1974, p. 236.

4.

The Red Hand, op.

5.

Belfast Telegraph,

pp. 106-8.

cit.,

26 June 1973.

Chapter Ten: Returning the Serve 1

The Oxford Companion

to Irish History,

edited by S J

ConnoUy, Oxford University

Press,

1998, p. 526.

A

Chronology of the Troubles 1968-1993, op.

2.

Northern Ireland.

3.

Northern Ireland 1968-73.

4.

Ibid.

5.

Ibid., p.

6.

Ibid., pp.

7.

Ibid., p. 76.

8.

UVF,

9.

This Week: The Price of Peace. The Protestants,

A

Chronology of Events, Vol. 2, op.

cit.,

p. 61.

cit., p.

314.

270.

op.

356-7.

cit., p.

129.

10.

Northern Ireland 1968-74.

11.

Ibid., p. 54.

12.

Ibid., p. 39.

13.

Ibid., p. 44.

A

Thamas

Television, January 1974.

Chronology of Events, Vol. 3, 1974, op.

cit.,

pp. 4-5.

Chapter Eleven: Strike 1.

The Point of No Return. The

Strike which broke the British in Ulster,

Books, Andre Deutsch, 1975, 2.

14

May

Robert

Fisk,

Times

p. 19.

Days. The Inside Story of the Loyalist Strike of 1974,

Don

Anderson, Gill and

Macmillan, 1974, p. 20. 3.

Ibid., p. 27.

4.

Five Long Years, This

Week

Special,

Thames

The Point of No Return, op.

cit., p.

5.

The Point of No Return, op.

cit.,

6.

Northern Ireland.

7.

The Point of No Return, op.

A

Television, 8 August 1974. Also quoted in

152.

p. 109.

Chronology of the Troubles 1968-1993, op. cit.,

p.

201.

cit., p.

86.

..

264

LOYALISTS

.

*

Chapter Twelve: Inside and Out 1.

UVF,

2.

Belfast Telegraph,

3.

For

op.

150.

cit., p.

a detailed

May

8

1975.

account of the

IRA ceasefire and the

Government see Provos. The IRA and News, 18 March 1975.

British 4.

Irish

5.

Ibid.,

6.

The

7.

Combat— The Jot4mal

20 October 1976 and

SAS

in Ireland,

Belfast Telegraph,

Raymond

IRA's

secret talks

Sinn Fein, op.

cit.,

MI6 and

with

the

Chapter Thirteen.

19 October 1976.

Murray, Mercier

Press, 1990, p. 138.

of the Ulster Volunteer Force, August 1975.

Chapter Thirteen: Heroes and Villains 1

'The Sash

My

Father

Wore'

the best

is

known and most

songs and refers to the Orange sash that 2.

all

of all the Orange

traditional

Orangemen wear around

their necks.

two-man UVF team that had killed a Catholic from McKenna (43), and made their getaway on a motorcycle. The UVF

Brian Robinson was part of a

Ardoyne, Patrick

McKenna was a member of the Provisional IRA, a fact his family denied. would appear that an undercover unit of the British army had been monitoring the operation and opened fire on the motorcycle as the gunmen were escaping. Cohn Craig was shot down by the INLA on the ShankUl Road with the UVF's battalion commander for West Belfast, Trevor King, on 16 June 1994. Their kilHngs claimed that It

3.

provoked the UVF's 4.

retaliation at Loughinisland.

Lenny Murphy had been sentenced escape.

who

His accomplice,

to three years

on 20 June 1973

for the attempted

had faced the same murder charge and had been

tum Queen's evidence, was Mervyn Connor. The murder tor which Murphy was charged and acquitted was that of a Protestant, Edward Pavis, on 28 September 1972. The killing had been ordered by the UVF. The best and most detailed account of Lenny Murphy and his gang is in Martin Dillon's definitive book, persuaded to

77if Shankill Butchers. 5.

Ibid., p. 41.

6.

Ibid., pp.

7.

Ibid., p.

8.

It

A

Case Study of Mass Murder, Hutchinson, 1989.

55-7.

226.

was the shooting of Lenny Murphy

Michael Fay. See Introduction 9.

The Shankill

Butchers, op.

p.

that

made

Billy Giles bring

forward

his killing

of

00.

p. 53.

cit.,

Chapter Fourteen: Bad Years 1

Special category sutus

following

a

had been granted by William Whitelaw on

hunger stnke

in

1

3 June

Crumlin Road gaol by the veteran IRA

1

973

leader, Billy

McKce. It gave both republican and loyalist pnsonen special privileges, among them more visits and letter*, but the most important concession was the nght to wear their

own

clothes. This

was the

issue that led to the

IRA hunger

stnkes of 1980 and 1981.

TTie prisoncn saw the Government's granting of special category status as an admission that they 2.

For

were

a detailed

political pnsoners.

account of

Terrorists? Interrogation

1980.

m

this

The Govemment never

period and the abuses

Omagh, Csough and

accepted the

at C^astlereagh see

Castlereagh, Peter Taylor,

fact.

Beating ihc

Penguin Special,

NOTES 3.

Ibid., pp. 76-7. The case in point was that of a young man from Derry called Michael McNaught. The case is covered in detail in Chapter Three of Beating the Terrorists?

Omagh, Gough and

Interrogation in 4.

Provos.

The

IRA and

Ibid., pp.

Northern Ireland.

7.

Ibid., p. 119.

Chronology

The

March

cit.

p. 205.

cit.,

oj the Troubles

The

11.

Northern Ireland.

12.

Provos.

13.

Belfast Telegraph,

14.

The Red Hand.

A

Sinn Fein, op.

16

Sinn Fein, op.

May

p.

389.

201.

Chronology of the Troubles. 1968-1993, op.

IRA and

On

122.

Ulster Political Research Group, Paper for

cit., p.

cit., p.

133.

228.

cit., p.

1980.

Protestant Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, op.

Joe Bennett was released and secretly

Graham.

cit., p.

1979.

IRA and

Provos.

The

New

1968-1993, op.

IRA, Patrick Bishop and Eamonn Mallie, Corgi Books, 1993,

Provisional

10.

15.

A

'Beyond the Religious Divide', Discussion,

9.

Castlereagh, op.

Sinn Fein., op.

206-7.

5.

6.

8.

265

resettled in

22 July 1986, he was sentenced

cit., p.

142.

England under another name, John

armed robbery

to ten years for

at

Nottingham Crown Court. 16.

These were the

killings that

John

Stalker, the

Manchester, investigated and that led to fijll

17.

details see Stalker.

The Search for

Deputy Chief Constable of Greater

a highly controversial series

the Truth,

of events. For the

Peter Taylor, Faber and Faber, 1987. Also

John Stalker's own book. Stalker, Harrap, 1988. INLA. Deadly Divisions, Jack Holland and Henry McDonald, Tore Poolbeg Enterprises Ltd, 1994,

p.

A

division of

154.

158-9.

18.

Ibid., pp.

19.

The

SAS

20.

Man

of War,

Raymond

in Ireland,

Man

Murray, The Mercier

Press, 1993, p. 264.

of Peace? The Unauthorised Biography of Gerry Adams, David Sharrock

and Mark Devenport, Macmillan, 1997,

p. 220.

222.

21.

Ibid., p.

22.

The Red Hand, op.

p.

cit.,

245.

Chapter Fifteen: Betrayal 1.

Paisley, op. cit., p.

2.

Northern Ireland.

3.

Paisley, op. cit., p.

381.

A

Chronology of the Troubles 1968-1993, op.

4.

Persecuting Zeal, op.

5.

Fine Gael race'. Its

is,

like

cit., p.

158.

387. cit.,

Fianna

pp. 191-2.

Fail, a

party that

grew out of the Insh

civil

war and means

'Irish

founders had supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.

6.

Northern Ireland.

7.

Ibid., p.

8.

Provos.

A

Chronology of the Troubles. 1968-1993, op.

cit., p.

181.

184.

The

IRA

and Sinn Fein, op.

cit., p.

285.

Chapter Sixteen: Guns 1.

Unionist Politics and the Politics of Unionism since the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Feargal

Cochrane, Cork University

Combat magazine. 2.

Ibid., p. 157.

Press,

1997,

p.

158. Reference to

UVF

statement in

266 157-8.

3.

Ibid., pp.

4.

Ibid, p. 159.

5.

Ibid.

6.

Ibid., p. 154.

A

7.

Xortltem Ireland.

8.

Three Ulstermen

who

Chronology of the Troubles 1968-1993, op.

living in

in

cit., p.

200.

Howard Wright and Albert Watt Canada, were arrested. WUliam Cubbon was

Billy Taylor,

in

Liverpool for the part he played in the

in

of UVF gun-running

Scodand and Canada

see

UVF conspiracy.

UW,

op.

For

fiarther details

Chapter Seven, pp.

cit..

ff.

Review,

9. Jane's Intelligence

10.

Daily Telegraph, 22

11.

Ibid.,

12.

The

1

November

1997.

Apnl 1989.

24 Apnl 1989.

British Broadcasting Corporation

SAP A 13.

Canada -

had organized the shipments

picked up

195

"*

LOYALISTS

•

Summary of World

May

Broadcasts, 5

1989. Source:

(South African Press Association).

29 October 1991.

Independent,

Chapter Seventeen: Killing Time 1.

Ul^,

2.

Belfast Telegraph,

3.

UVF,

4.

BBC

5.

Unionist

6.

Stone Cold. The True Story of Michael Stone and the Milltoum Massacre, Martin Dillon,

op.

op.

cit.,

cit.,

p.

244.

May

9

p.

1988.

247.

Northern Ireland news Politics,

op.

cit.,

p.

report, 2

June 1988.

V

218.

Arrow, 1993, pp. 142-3. 146.

7.

Ibid., p.

8.

Ibid., p. 184.

9.

Provos.

The

IRA and

10.

Daily Telegraph,

11.

Ibid.,

12.

Daily Mail, 4

13.

I

Sinn Fein, op.

cit.,

pp. 298-301.

September 1989.

1

22 September 1989.

March 1992.

indebted to the remarkable work of my colleague John

am

Ware who

has

made

the

own, along with his former Panorama producer, Geoffrey Seed. Most of my account is based on their work, notably their joint article for the Sunday Telegraph on 29 March 1998 and John Ware's article for the New Statesman on 24 Apnl 1998. Nelson story

14.

Sunday

15.

Ibid.

16.

Sew

17.

Sunday

his

Telegraph,

29 March 1998.

Apnl 1998.

Statesman, 24 Telegraph,

29 March 1998.

Chapter Eighteen: Backstage BBCl, 20 November

1.

The Maze. Enemies Withm,

2.

For deuils of Cappagh and Loughgall see Chapter Nineteen of Sinn Fein, op.

3.

Ibid

.

p.

4

Ibid

.

p.

5.

Behind

cit.,

pp.

266

Inside Story Special,

1990.

Provos.

The IRA and

ff^^

318.

320. the

Unes.

The Story of

the

IRA and

Ijoyalist

Ceasefires,

Brian

Rowan, The

I

NOTES Blackstaff Press, 1995, p. 20. This

work of reference 6.

is

267

an invaluable and authoritative first-hand source

for the period.

Ibid., p. 23.

7.

Belfast Telegraph,

8.

Irish

9.

'Towards

9 March 1992.

News, 6 February 1995. a Lasting

Peace in

Ireland',

Sinn Fein, February 1992,

p. 14.

Chapter Nineteen: Ceasefire 1.

Euening Standard,

'How M15

spiked the loyalist guns', Keith Dovkaats, 22

December

1993. 2.

The Herald (Glasgow), 25

3.

Behind

4.

Ibid., p.

124.

5.

Ibid., p.

127.

November

the Lines, op. cit., p.

1993.

111.

Chapter Twenty: The IRA and Sinn

1.

Provos.

2.

Ibid., p.

350.

3.

Ibid., p.

352.

4.

Belfast Telegraph,

5.

Prouos.

Tlie

IRA

Fein, op.

cit.,

p.

Good

Friday

349.

25 July 1996. and Sinn Fein, updated paperback edition, Bloomsbury, 1998, pp.

366-7. 6.

Newsletter, 17 February 1998.

7.

Provos.

8.

Ibid., p.

The

IRA

and Sinn Fein, updated paperback, op.

cit., p.

372.

374.

9.

Ibid.

10.

Ibid.

11.

Ibid., p.

12.

For the background to the 'Real'

377.

paperback, op.

cit..

IRA

see Provos. Tlie

Chapter Twenty-five.

IRA

and Sinn Fein, updated

Glossary

ADI

Assaults

ASU

Active Service Unit

CIA

Central Intelligence Agency

CLMC CRA CSM

Combined

DCI

Director and Controller of Intelligence

DST

Direction de

DUP

Democratic Unionist Party

ECM

Electronic Counter Measures

FBI

Federal Bureau of Investigation

FRU

Force Research Unit

GHQ GOC GPMG HME HMG

IP^'s General Headquarters

During Interview

Loyalist Military

Command

Civil Rights Association

Company

Sergeant Major

la

Surveillance

General Officer

du

Territoire

Commanding Gun

General Purpose Machine

Home Made

Explosives

ICJP

Irish

Government Commission of Justice and Peace

INLA IRA IRB

Irish

National Liberation

Irish

Republican

Irish

Republican Brotherhood

IRSP

Irish

Republican

LPA LVF

Loyalist Prisoners Association

Her

Majesty's

Loyalist

Army

Army Socialist Party

Volunteer Force

MOD

Ministry of Defence

NICPj\

Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association

NIO NLF

Northern Ireland Office

Noraid

Irish

OC

Officer

PAC

Provisional

National Liberation Front

Northern Aid (Committee)

Commanding Army Council

LOYALISTS

270

IR^

PIRA

Provisional

PO POA POTA

Prison Officer

POW

Prisoner of

PRO

Public Relarions' Officer

PUP

Progressive Unionist Party

R£ME

Royal

RHC

Red Hand Commando

RIC RSF

RTE

Royal Irish Constabulary Republican Sinn Fein (Irish Television Network)

RUC

Royal Ulster Constabulary

SAM

Surface-to-air missile

SAS SBS

Special Air Service

SDA

Shankill Defence Association

SDLP SLR SPG

Social

SYT

Shankill

TCG TUC

Tasking and Co-ordinating Group

UCDC UDA

Ulster Constitution Defence

UDF UDP

Ulster Defence Force

UDR

Ulster Defence

UFF

UOP

Prison Officers' Association

Prevention of Terrorism Act

War

Electrical

Mechanical Engineers

Special Boat Service

and Democratic Labour Party

Self-loadmg nfle Special Patrol

Group

Young

Tartan

Trades Union Congress

Committee

Ulster Defence Association

Democradc Party Regiment Ulster Freedom Fighters Urzad Ochrony Panstwa - The Ulster

Polish Security Service

UPV use

Ulster Protestant Volunteers

UUP

Ulster Unionist Party

UUUC

United Ulster Unionist Coalition

UVF

Ulster Volunteer Force

UWC

Ulster Workers' Council

UYN

Ulster

VPP

Volunteer

WD A

Woodvalc Defence

YCV

Young

Ulster Special Constabulary

Young

Militants

Political Party

Association

Citizens Volunteers

1

1

Index

Abercom

restaurant

bomb

95,

105

Act of Union (1801) 19-20, 251 Adair,

Johnnv 'Mad Dog' 204.

223-24.' 233. 246 Adams. Da\id 215. 232, 233, 245 on death of Ra\Tnond Smallwoods 231 on DUP and PUP pertormance in Assembly elections 254-55 on Good Fndav Agreement 250 Adams, Gerry- 33, 105, 106, 146. 163, 197, 201, 202, 207,

209, 219, 223, 224, 235, 243, 244

attempt on his

life

169

African National Congess see

ANC

and Dublin Government 76 and IRA 112 and UDA 102. 171 and Ulster Resistance 188-95 and UVF 112, 201 decommissioning of 236-38, 249, 252, 256 from Canada 189 from Lebanon 191-95, 198, 201, 209, 212. 218. 225,

228 from Poland 227-28 from within Northern Ireland 112

Armscor 188-89, 194, 195 Armstrong, Sir Robert 181 Armstrong, Thomas 214 Ashbrook''l3-15. 17. 19. 26-7 Ash, Elizabeth 18 Ash. Genera]

Aheme, Berae 248-49

Thomas 14—16

diary of 17-18

AUen, Phihp 248 Allen, William "Budgie' 164-64, 197

Ash, John Beresford 13-14, 1921, 23.

26-8

Asquith, Herbert

239 236 Anderson, Jim 103, 114 Anderson. Sean 213 Andrews, Alexander 87-8 Andrews, Irene 118, 120, 241 Anglo-Insh Agreement 174, Alliance Party 121,

Atkins.

Henry

20,

70

Humphrey 174

ANC

181, 184-85, 188, 196.

203. 204. 216 Article

One

181,

206, 223,

236 Apprentice Bovs of Derrv19, 53,

parade (1970) 79-80, 100-1 Arbuckle, Constable Viaor 72, 86

Red Hand Commando' 80

on on

UDA

120

232-33 stnke (1974) 128-

loyalist frinding

UWC

87-8

Robert 'Basher' 151-52, 154—55 Bayardo Bar bombing 149 BBC 7, 206 Bates,

Beatne, Reverend William 121 Begley,

Thomas 224

Belfast

nots (1922) 25-6 riots

(1969) 65-6, 102, 103

Belfjst Seu'sletter

Mr Justice

158

Bereen, Janet 95 Beresford,

John 19-20

Beresford, Sir Tristram 16

Bernhardt. Douglas 190. 194.

195 Berry. Sir

Anthony 179

"Beyond the Religous Divide' (UDA document) 162, 168, 198, 231

Bingham. John 151, 189, 196-97 Bingham, Reverend William on Drumcree (1998) 255-56 Bird, Adnan 'Adie' 233 Birmingham pub bombmgs 142 'Black and Tans' 25 •Black StutF 93 Black Watch regiment 207 Blair. Tony 243, 248-49, 253 Blaney, Neil 76 on Jack Lynch 75 Blow-pipe missile 194, 195

•Bloody Fnday' (1972) 116

2.

106-9,

Bloodv Sunday' (1972) 94, 104, 108, 112. 240 Boa], Desmond 124 Bogside 13-14, 47 Batde of the 64-6, 168 riots

(1969) 63

riots

(1970)

see iibo

'Bloody Sunday'

(1972)

Boland, Kevin 76

Boulton, David

1 1

Boyle's Bar 214

Boyle,

Hams

148

Boyne, Battle of the 150

19, 23,

Reverend Robert 176-77 Brady, Kevin 201. 202 Branboume. Lady 163 Bradford,

Loyalisls 8

17,

parade (1969) 19, 63-7

arms and 'The

and the

Bates. Ernest

Anglo-Insh Conference 181-82 Anglo-Insh Treaty- (1921) 25 Anglo-Insh War (1919-21) 214

Hugh

Glenn 231

Barr.

31. 133-34. 136-37. 162

222

opposition to 181-96

Annesley. Sir

"Balcombe Street Gang' 253 Balmoral Furnishing Company bomb 90-1, 102, 109, 224

Bennett,

43

BeU, Ivor 105 Bennett. Joe 165-66, 196

Branboume, Nicholas 163 Joe 23 Brennan. Larry 246

Bratt>',

Bnghton bomb Bntish

Amiv

178, 182,

77, 168,

257

202

272

LOYALISTS

and 'Bloody Sunday' 94, 104,

Carson, Sir Edward

112 arrives in

Northen

69-

Ireland

70 Force Research Unit (FRU) 207, 209

228

Davy, John 213

De

Thomas 213 Casey's Wholesale Wine and

Deeney, Geoffrey 248 Deeney, Robert 248 Deeney, Trevor 248 Democratic Unionist Party

CESA

Rule 98-9

Government 70

CESA

riots

105

on Belfast nots (1969) 69-70 on the Hunt Report 71-2 Christian Phalange 191

relationship wnth

Dublin Government 173-74, 178, 179, 181-83, 225 sends troops to Northen Ireland (1969) 70 see abo Labour Party; Conservative Party; Liberal

Churchill, Lord

Randolph 20

and 1993) 236 civil rights

movement 47—57,

61

Clark, Terence 'Cleaky' 146

Clinton,

CLMC

237

Bill

Loyalist Military

Command 'Colonel

(CLMC)

- An Agreed

Sense

Process"

58, 77, 168

see

207, 209

J'

'Common

Constabulary Bunting, Major Ronald 56, 57,

(UDA

document)

198. 231

Bunting, Ronnie 168

Conservative and Unionist Party

Bumtollet Bndge 56-7

John on the murder of John Hardy 163-65 Dillon, Seamus 245 Diplock Courts 113, 157-58 Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire see

20

Docherty, Noel 30-1, 40, 44, 63 and the UPV 35-9, 59, 61

on

Cameron Commission

50, 57

Cameron Report 56 Campaign for Social Justice

47,

48, 51

Campbell, Gregory

on the Batde of the Bo^^ide 64-5 on avil nghts movement 50 on Ulster Clubs 180 on Ulster Resistance 186-87 Campbell, John U)2 Campbell. Robert Jame» 89 Campbell. Sheena 213 Cappagh 214 'Capuin Black' 118

Car bomb binh of the 93

178-79 Governments 20, 79, 85-6 Conway, Cardinal 31-2 Council of Ireland 121, 127-28 Counterpowi 176 Courtney, William 'Mo'

Downing

(1972) 98

Street Declararion

225-26, 230, 235, 250 Doyle, Liam 42, 43 Doyle, Mane 145—46 Dnimcree 179-80, 239-40, abo 'Spint of Drumcree'

see

Drumm, Jimmy 162 Drumm, Maire 162-63

DST

194-95

Dublin

bombings (1974) 125-27,

Craig. James Pratt 170-71. 199 Craig, William 85, 95, 99, 12(>-

Dunseith, David 176

204-05

21, 124, 128, 134. 162.

DUP

95, 121, 175, 180, 184, 185, 216, 235, 239.

221

and

civil

nghts

movement 51-

131,

139, 144

Duddy, Sammy on Ian Paisley 134-35 on joining the UDA 84

leadership

Craig, Colin 151, 229

birth

243

of 87-8

3. 55-f>

and the Ulster Vanguard 958,

11'>-2()

on David Tnmbic 96 on Terence O'Niell 58

Ormeau

Park speech (1972) 97-8, 177

C;oleraine (1973) 116, 120

IRA'j firu - Donegal Street

UDA

on

62

255-56

Brighton Conference (1984)

Cameron, James 224

Ian Paisley 30-1, 36-9,

Docklands bomb 238 Donaghy, Thomas 213 Donaldson, Jeffi-ey 249, 255 Dougan, Roben 246 Douglas, David 146—47

Conservative Party

CahUl, Joe 74 Callaghan, James 64, 69, 71

DST

Divis Rats 66, 68

Clyde Valley 23 Coleman, Anthony 113 Collins, Michael 25, 244 CoUyns. Sam 8, 11, 52 Combat 149

Combined

'B' Specials see Ulster Special

of (1689) 17-19, 63, 256 The Relief of Deny 18 De Valera, Eamon 220 Devenney, Samuel 63 Dickie, George 72 siege

216, 221-23, 225-26,

229, 231-34

Brown, Sam 141 Browne, Andrew 206 Browning, Michael 18 Bruce, Hugh 90

64

(1969) 65, 103

Dillon,

City of London bombings (1992

Party

Brooke, Peter 215, 216, 217 Brown Bear Pub 153 Brown, George 144—45

nots (1969) 56

'Free Derry' 13,

61, 64, 69, 85

with Stormont

see

15

civil rights

Caufield, Margaret 196

elecaon (1997) 243 introduces Direct

Deny

Catholic ex-Servicemen's

Chichester-Clark, Major James

election (1979) 173

John 237

DUP

Association see

139-40

Chastelain, General

Casde, Barbara 48

225, 235

relations

Danny 213

Cassidy,

disbands the 'B' Specials 71

Busters' 151

'Carson Trail' 21

Spints 153, 159

173

and 'Bloody Sunday' 103-4 dialogue with IRA 3, 142-43,

election (1974)

'Dam

Davidson, Anthony 107

Casey, Gerard 213

Government

'Belfast Bypass'

Daly, Miriam 167

182, 193, 211, 233

Casey,

Intelligence 126, 206,

Bntish

21-3, 29,

3,

95-6, 150, 175, 177, 179,

Earnes, Archbishop kobiii 225,

231. 233 on meeting the 23, 225-26 Easter

CLMC

Commemoration

34-7,

222-

(1966)

4((

C^rawford, Major Fredcnck 23

Easter Rising (1916) 24, 34

Oouan,

Eire

Francis

Carry, Malachy 213

CS

Camngton. Lord 174

Curtis, (Junner

CJai

1

54

64

Nuj (Republican iiu)vcnieni doiuiiient) 124

Robert 81. 82

Elder,

Raymond

231

I

1

1

INDEX I, Queen 14 Emie 'Duke' 101-2, 114

Elizabeth Elliott,

'Empire

Loyalists'

Good

Enniskillen

bomb

89 201, 202

Interpretative Centre) 9

Ervine, David 141-42, 215, 219,

221, 241, 247, 249, 254 on 'Bloody Fnday' 108-9 on Dublin and Moneghan bombings (1974) 126 on Loughinisland shootings 230-31 on loyalist ceasefires 217, 227, 234

Eskund 192 European Parliament 29

177, 181, 198, 202, 233, 242, 247-57

Gould, Alexander 79 Gould, Matilda 40 Gould, Samuel 40 Goveinment of Ireland Act (1920) 25 Graham, Alan 'Buttons' 151 Graham, Sean 218-220, 225,

Falls

war 194

Road

45, 68, 257

Mairead 201 Baltic' 228

Farrel, 'Fast

Bnan

Faulkner,

120-22, 124, 127-28, 137

Fay, Michael 4-6, 9

Fianna

Fail 75,

220

Arms 190

Field

Fine Gael 178 Finlay, Fergus 221

Finucane, Pat 205, 207, 209 Fitt,

Gerry 118, 121. 122

Dr Garret 178, 181 Flags and Emblems Act 32 Fogel, Dave 100-3, 114-5 Fitzgerald,

Four Step Inn 87-90, 102, 109 Fox, Charles 213 Fox, Leonard 213 Fox, Sean 224 Fox, Teresa 213 Free Presbyterian church 2, 31, 59 FuUerton, Eddie 213, 216 Gallagher, Peter 213

Garvahy Road 239-41, 243, 255-56 'gerrymandering' 27, 47—8 Gibraltar 200-01 Gibson, John 176 Gibson, Ken 138. 139 Giles, Giles, Giles,

Boy

on

Mr Justice

40 Lily 1, 3, 8, 10-11 Sam 1, 2, 6, 8, 10-11 William 1-12

Gibson,

Girl 1

his

murder of Michael Fay

4-6

on

Ian Paisley 2

suicide letter 9—1

Gladstone, William Ewart 20,

70 Glorious Revolurion (1688) 17

on

Shankill

Road

riots

(1969)

72

on the Four Step Inn bomb 89

87,

on the McGurk's Bar bomb 89 on the murders of Michael Loughran and Edward

Morgan 140

Mr Justice

Hutton,

198

Great Rebellion (1641) 16-17 Great War (1914-18) 23-5

INLA

Green, Barney 229 Green, John Francis 143 Green, Leo 143 Gregg, John

Internment 86-7, 120

his

attempt on Gerry

Adams'

life

169

4,

156, 165-67, 229, 244,

246,

im. 256

War

Insh Civil

(1922-3) 15

Insh Dimension 119, 121, 146,

251 Free State 25

Irish

National Liberation

Irish

Greysteel 225, 227, 228, 229-30

see

Guilford pub bombings 142

Irish

Guiney, Jim 246

IRA

61, 85, 86, 95, 99,

and internment 85—6 Fawzi, Joseph 190-91 Fay, Mary 5—6

Agreement

Friday

250

228, 231

on Falklands

on Good

106, 120, 141, 162, 174,

Emprey, Reg 96

EPIC (Ex-Pnsoners

Agreement 8—9,

Friday

273

Army

INLA

News 146 7-8, 25-6, 31, 40, 57.

2, 5,

60, 84, 85-7, 89-90, 92.

Hanlon, John 1 1 Hanna, Reverend 'Roaring' Hugh 20 Hannis, Julia 30 Harding-Smith, Charies 100-3, 113-15, 170 Hardy, John Patnck 164 Hardy, Thomas 8 Harland and Wolff 48, 120-21, 135-36, 150

Haughey, Charles J 181 and IRA gun-running scandal 76, 173

and Margaret Thatcher 17375, 178 Hawe, Herbert 72 Heath, Edward 98-9, 120-22 Hermon, Sir John 171-72, 18283 Herron,

103, 122, 125-6, 163, 173.

178-79, 194-99, 208, 214217-220, 227, 232

15,

and 'Bloody Sunday' 94 and Dublin Government 74—6 and the British Army 89 and the civil rights movement 51-4 and the War of Independence 25 Army Convention (1969) 73 Army Council 72, 83, 86, 105, 124 at Belfast nots (1969) 73 at the Battle of the Bogside 67, 68-9 32 campaign (1956—64) 32. 33,

Belfast Brigade

51

Tommy

114-15

ceasefire (1972) 105-7,

118

142-44, 146

Hillen, Ivan 194

ceasefire (1974)

Hitler, Adolph 96 Holken, Hany 237 Home Rule 3, 20-1, 25, 179 Homley, Sir Arnold 119

ceasefire (1994) 232,

Howe, Geoffrey 174

Cumann

Howes, David 202 Hudson, Chris on meering the UVF 220-21,

dialogue with the British

230-31 Hughes, Anthony 'Booster' 19798 Hughes, Brendan on the IRA m 1969 73 Hull, Billy 120-21

intelligence 206,

211-13 'Hume-Adams' document 223 Hume, John 92, 181, 223 Hunt Report 71 Hurson, Martin 214 Hutchinson, BUly 141, 215, 254 and YCV 82

Provisional see Provisional

Hull, Stephen

234-35,

237-38, 239, 242 ceasefire (1997) 243,

Chnstmas

246

ceasefire (1990)

215

na hBan 146

Government

3,

105—6. 225,

235

224

'mistakes' 116, 163

Na

Fianna Eireann 68 'no-go areas 103-5 'Ofl^cial' 75, 94, 99, 101, 105,

109, 138

IRA Quarter Master General 256 'Real' 125, 234, 256

73 Third Battalion 196 Split

training

camps 34—5

LOYALISTS

274 Irish

Republic of 25

Club 68, 81

Linfield Football

Noel 193-95

Little,

and the IRA 75, 86, 121, 173-74

Lloyd George, David 70, 244 Londonderry City Council 47 discrimination in 47 history of 13, 17 Long Kesh 113, 120, 138-43, 149, 154, 215 aUo Maze

referendum (1998) 253-54 constitution 33, 251 Gardai 143 Pubhc Accounts Committee 76 relations with Bntish Government 173-74. 178, 181-83, 225 Irish Republican Army see IRA

Repubhcan IRSP IRSP 167-68 Irish

Socialist Party

James James

II,

Jenkins,

Roy

XXm,

Jones,

Louis XIV, King 17

McAlea. Des 148 McAleese. David 113 McAliskey, Bemadette 168, 231 McAliskey, Michael 168 McAuley, Gerald 68 McCabe, Hugh 68

Pope 31

see

see

224, 227-28

Lundy, Alan 213 Lundy, Colonel Robert 17-19 LVF 244, 246, 248 birth of 241 ceasefire (1998)

256

Lynch, Jack 67, 75

on the Stormont Government (1969) 66 Lynch, Michael 68 Lyttle.

Tommy

165

of British troops

arrival

Ireland (1969)

in

on bombing Peter Conway's bar 144-46 on joining the YCV 92 on the Balmoral Furnishing Company bomb 91-2 on the Battle of the Bogside 67, 68 Kitchener, Lord 23

Governments 34-5, 48, 64, 124. 127. 158. 243 La Men House hotel bomb 163, 121

Ixppington, Richard 42, 43 Liberal Party

20

44

UDA

and

Magee, Reverend Roy 96, 220, 229 on meeting the UDA 221-22 on Greysteel 225 Maginn, LoughHn 205-06, 213 Major, John 225-26. 235. 237.

199, 208, 218,

racketeering 170-

71

on

loyalist attacks

on

RUC

182

on murder of Loughlin Maginn 206 on the murder of Bemadette McAliskey 168 strike (1974) on the 33-34

UWC

238. 241-43

Malan, (Jcneral Magnus 195

1

UWC

Eamonn 225

Manhall. Samuel 213 Manin. Leo 41. 42 Maryfield 181-82

stnkc (1977) on the 161-62 on UFF breaking the loyalist ceasefire (1997) 246-47 on Ulster Resistance arms deals 189-90 McDonald, Jim 233 McDowell, James 148 McDowell, Thomas 59. 60. 62-

Maikcy. Alex 198. 207 Mawm. Roy 157-58. 160-61,

McF.rlcjn.

Mallie.

Mallon, Seamus 248

197 Marlcy, Ijurence 'Larry' 197-98

•

l^mau, Sean 33

147, 148

McCrory, Patnck 105 McCullough, Geoffrey 206 McCume, James 80 McDemiott, Lord Chief Justice

251

Manchester bomb 238 Marchant. William 'Frenchic'

Labour Parry

202

McCoy, Bnan

MacStiofain, Sean 87, 89, 105

70

196

McCartney, Robert 177, 252 McClean. Denis 211 McClean. Hugh 43. 44 on Gusty Spence 42 on Ian Paisley's 43 McClenaghan. David 107 McCluskey, Dr Conn 47, 48 McCluskey, Patncia 47, 48 McComb, James 40 McConville, Sean 105

McDonald, Jackie

Colonel' Trevor 229

Nonhcn

Colm

McCann, Danny 201 McCann,Joe 109-10

'Tucker' 199,

209 Lyttle, Noel 168

Kinner, Eddie 81, 142, 150

LAW

Volunteer Force

LPA bombing

56

on

LAW

LVF

King, Reverend Martin Luther

'Lc

McCallan,

LPA

Keenan, Bnan 124 Kelly. Andrew 42 Kelly, James 213 Kelly, John 76 Kelly, Lord Justice 206 Kennedy. James 218 Keys, David 248 Kincaid, William 79 King, Sir Frank 131, 132 King, Harold 90 King, James 194-95

King,

McCabe, Jack 93, 107 McCallum, James 93

Loyalist Prisoners' Association see

Loyalist

Tom

206

situation' 3—4, 37,

29-30, 44. 80, 123 Loyalist Association of Workers

Edward 206

King,

216-17, 232-34,

Loyalists

Johnson, Captain William 40-1

Long Kesh

McAdam. Eddie 150-51

conference 199

142

(1995) 10

Loughran, Michael 140

Park Avenue Hotel

Jobhng, Paul 106

John

see also

'doomsday 203

116-18

'Jim'

riot

Loughinisland 229-31

'death squads' 113,

King 15 King 17, 19

I,

'H-Blocks' 6-8, 157, 167-68,

Loughins, Daniel 79

Prison

237, 238, 242, 254

Party 21

233. 245. 246. 248 'Great Escape' (1983) 149

LoughaU 214

ceasefires

Insh Unionist Parliamentary

Mayhew, Sir Patrick 237, 243 Maze prison 202, 209, 213, 231.

211, 244 Republican hunger strike (1981) 3, 143. 167-68. 174. 176. 178

loyalist

see

Anna 125-26

Maxwell, Paul 163

Dail Eireann 25, 121

general elections 178

Massey,

Massey, Frank 125-26

Linton, David 68

birth

163

3

Ihoiius 201

M.ljrijiie. Hreiidan

Bik' 149

INDEX McGoldrick, Michael 240-41 McGonigal, Lord Justice 158 McGrath, WiUiam 59 McGuinness, Martin 13, 105, 106, 201, 202, 215, 225,

235, 243-44

McGurk, Patrick 8&-9 McGurk's Bar 88-90, 109 Mcllhone, Henry 80 McKeague, John 59

SDA

77 on Ian Paisley 77

and the

McKeamey, John 213 McKeamey, Kevin 213 McKeamey, Tommy 159 McKee, Billy 80 on the

birth

of the Provisional

IRA 73-4 McKeown, Karen

4

McKnight, CecU 216, 217 McLamon, Samuel 68 McLaughlan's bar bombmg 146 McMichael, Gary 215, 233, 241, 245-47, 254 on Good Friday Agreement 250 on John McMichael 169 McMichael, John 162, 168-71, 180, 188-89, 191, 198-202,

215, 218, 231, 251

McMillen, Liam 32 McMullan, Gorman on Castlereagh holding centre 159-6 on the 'ShankiU Butchers' 155, 159

McQuade, Johnny 139-40 McQuistan, Billy 'Twister' 20809, 225 on Bnan Nelson 207-10 90-1 on joining the

UYM

on LPA bomb 224 on the Balmoral Furnishing Company bomb 90 McShane, Rory 205 McViegh, Hugh 146-47 Meehan, Alan 'Rocky' 118 Meehan, Martin on Billy McKee 74 on loyalist Crumlin Road parade (1970) 79

MI5 MI6

103, 112, 191,

194,228,235

105, 119, 192, 194, 228

Miami Showband, The 147—49, 220 Milltown cemetery 201-02, 228, 253 miners' strike 122 MitcheU, Billy 36-9, 40, 44, 46, 49, 146-7, 160 on the UVF meeting the IRA 123-24 on UVF 1973 ceasefire 12223, 138

George 237, 242 Mitchell Principles 247

Mitchell,

275

on decommissioning 237-38 on Good Friday Agreement 247-50 on the killing of Billy Wright 244-45 on Tony Blair 248-49 Molyneaux, James 182, 235, 243

Moneghan bombings

(1974)

Northern Ireland all-party talks 235, 238, 243,

246-48, 252 of 25 Cabinet of 256 Covention 146 Direct Rule 98-99, 161 elections 58-9, 85, 122 electoral practices 47-8, 61 birth

125-27, 131, 139, 144 Moore, Chris 206

Government

Moore, William 'Billy' 153-155 Morgan, Edward 140—41 Morton, Bobby 97, 141 on Joe Bennett 167 on 'shoot to kill' poHcy 16667 on the future of Northern Ireland 257 on the shooting of Billy

Jiousing policies 27, 48

Miller 166

25, 27, 64, 86,

98 25 power-sharing 127-28, 146, partition

251, 252 referendum (1998) 253-54 see also Ulster

Northen

Northen Ireland

Civil Rights

Association see

Mossad 191 Mountain View Tavern

87, 146 Mountbatten, Lord Louis 163, 173 Mountjoy 18

120254

Ireland Assembly

22, 127, 180, 251,

NIGRA

'Northen Ireland Constitution Proposals' (white paper,

1972) 119-20

Northen

Ireland

Emergency

Provisions Act (1974) 127

Mowlam, Dr Maureen 'Mo' 243, 245^6, 250 Munn, Tracey 90

Northen Ireland Office see NIO Northen Ireland Prison Service

Murdock, James Murphy, Lenny

Nugent, Malcolm 213, 214

37, 61 'the Butcher' 5,

153-56, 159

Oatley, Michael 119, 142, 215,

Murray, Harry 128-30 Murray, John 201 Murray, Len 135-36 Murtagh's bar bombing 93—4 Inowroclaw 228

MV

Nairac, Captain Robert 144

NATO

141

225 6'Bradaigh, Ruairi 124

O'Connell, David 105, 124 O'Donnell, Dwayne 213, 214 O'Hagan, Bernard 213 Old Boyne Island Heroes 150152, 155.

229

Omagh bombing

228

Neill,

Joseph 125

Neill,

Robert 80

(1998) 125,

234, 256

0'Niell,John 196

Nelson, Bnan 188, 190, 206-08, 213, 214, 229

O'Niell, Captain Terence 31-2, 33, 35, 37, 54-6, 59-61,

Nesbitt, Detective Inspector

63, 95, 175

Jimmy 154-55 Newman, Kenneth 158

O'Prey, Martin 213

New

Orange order/Orangemen

Ulster Political Research

88, 150-52, 179-80,

Group 162 Nichol, Colin 90

NIGRA

'Operation Demetrius' 86

41, 243,

50, 55, 56, 87

and the Battle of the Bogside 66 Annual General Meeting

255-56

O'Seanachain, Padraig 213

O'Toole, Fran 220 Owens, Anne 95 Paisley,

(1968) 51

Armagh march

79,

238-

Reverend

Ian 20, 29,

(1968) 54

30, 35, 95, 96, 120, 124.

of 47 Derry march (1968) 53 NIO 99, 133 'no-go' areas 13, 103—5 Noms, Bobby 165-67 on 'Bloody Friday' 107-8

160, 239, 244 and Anglo-Irish Agreement 182-83, 185-87

birth

on

civil rights

movement 49—

50 North Adantic Treaty Organization

see

NATO

and

civil rights

movement 54—

7

and decommissioning of terrorist arms 236, 243 and Drumcree (1998) 255 and DUP 87-8 and John McKeague 77

276

LOYALISTS

and Northern Ireland Assembly 120 and Stormont elecnon (1969) 59 and Sunningdale 127-28 and the Free Presbyterian church 29. 59 and the UDA 160-62, 177 and 'Third Force' 176-7 and Tricolour riots 32-3 and UCDC 35 and Ulster Resistance 183, 189, 192-93

Government 142-43

dialogue with the 138

UVF

123,

PUP

8, 44,

232-33, 239, 241, 252 Puntan Pnnting Press 30

legalises

William 19

236 Poets, David 107 Powergel 236 Poyntzpass 248 191,

Prouslanl Telegraph 30, 43.

6st accurate

account of the republican side

*>f

the tonflict so far."

—

I

SBN

1

7815

Irish

-0A7-4

Times

90000>

75

www.tvbooks.com