scarface
09-12-2007, 10:01 PM
Irish Republican Information Service (no. 118)
1. ‘The Flight of the Earls and its Consequences’
2. Republicans hit out at Maghaberry prison system
3. Loyalist claims UDA behind 11 new gun threats
4. Heavy-handed policing in Derry
5. New 'shoot-to-kill' hearings held
6. Coroners to gain access to PSNI files
7. Loyalist thugs target pregnant woman’s home
8. Belfast unsafe for nationalists
9. Match shelved due to sectarian tension
10. Robert Nairac in command at massacre says Miami guitarist
11. Garda criticised by Human Rights Commission
12. Fury as Basra troops appear in pro-UVF magazine
1. ‘THE FLIGHT OF THE EARLS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES’
The following is the text of a lecture in Donegal on September 7 by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Uachtarán, entitled “The Flight of the Earls and its Consequences”.
At the outset I would like to take issue with the expression “Flight of the Earls”. One dictionary explains “flight” as “to run away, as from danger.” I agree with Prof John McGurk of the University of Ulster when he spoke at Letterkenny on August 19 last.
Naming the event as a “flight’ was “pandering to the English interpretation” of what happened. He suggested that the departure of the Earls – who had intended to return – could have been termed a “strategic regrouping”. Cardinal Ó Fiaich, who was Professor of Modern Irish History at Maynooth at the time with Pádraig de Barra, entitled their book in 1972, Imeacht na n-Iarlaí. (The Departure of the Earls). Ó Fiaich stated: “Every schoolchild knows it as The Flight of the Earls, a phrase which deserves to be expunged from our vocabulary”.
The historian Micheline Kerney Walsh in her work “Destruction by Peace: Hugh O’Neill after Kinsale” published in 1986 writes “It has been generally assumed that he accepted defeat and, in despair, had gone into voluntary exile”, but this is not so. She states that according to recent research, his principal objective in leaving for Spain in 1607 was “to return at the head of an army designed to break English power in Ireland.”
Nollaig Ó Muráile, senior lecturer in Irish at NUI, Galway, is completing a new and comprehensive edition of Tadhg Ó Cianáin’s account at the time of the exile itinerary of the Ulster chiefs, Ó Neíll, Ó Dónaill agus Cúchonnacht Maguire of Fermanagh. He points out that Ó Fiaich and de Barra’s use of Imeacht (Departure) as opposed to Teiceadh (Flight) was because “the latter (term) reflected hostile contemporary English attitudes” and McGurk writes: “O’Neill’s correspondence from Rome gives the lie to the interpretation that he never intended to return.”
The 99 Irish exiles who sailed from Rathmullen, Co Donegal on September 14, 1607 were on a French ship procured for them by Cúchonnacht Maguire, chieftain of Fermanagh. They sailed for Spain and were within sight almost of the Spanish coast when an almighty storm blew them off course and back across the Bay of Biscay to France, where they landed on October 4.
Their journey from there to Rome took nine months, on foot, on horseback, by boat and coach. It was, Ó Muraíle writes “a tortuous, protracted journey that can be retraced in British, Spanish and Papal newsletters, diplomatic correspondence and spy networks.” It included crossing lakes in Switzerland and the mighty Alps where O’Neill lost his money in an accident.
Many honours were bestowed on them on the continent of Europe where they were well known and renowned. The Irish Press column “This Happened Today” by MJ McManus on September 4, 1957 records their journey. Nowhere were they received more warmly than by the Irish Franciscans at the College of St Anthony, Louvain in what is now Belgium. Founded the previous year, 1606, it offered schooling and practical hospitality to the younger generation of O’Neills, O’Donnells and Maguires, giving them back a new sense of belonging and a mission for the future. But within months in 1608 Maguire died in Genoa, Italy and the brothers Ruairí, Earl of Tírchonaill and Cathbhárr Ó Dónaill, as well as Hugh (Óg) O’Neill passed away in Rome. Supported by pensions from the Papacy and Philip III of Spain, the Great Ó Neill himself survived until 1616, still holding out for a renewal of armed conflict in Ireland. They were all buried in San Pietro di Montorio where Cardinal Ó Fiaich laid a commemorative slab to Hugh O’Neill in 1989. Irish tourists from all over the world visit the Church of San Pietro, ask to have the rug on the floor withdrawn and pay their respects to them all. Of all his titles, that preferred by Hugh O’Neill was the Irish one “The O’Neill” or simply “Ó Néill” as he signed himself.
At home in Ireland, the consequences of their departure from the scene were many and varied. With the Plantation of Ulster from 1608, the Gaelic order was eclipsed, and the great Irish Diaspora began. With that emigration to the continent over succeeding decades of tens of thousands of Irish people, was written “one of the most splendid pages of Irish history”, that of the Irish Abroad. In France, Spain, Austria and Prussia they rose to eminence in church, state and in the professions.
Also in Ireland began a great renaissance of culture and learning, in the Irish language of course, “Anocht is Uaigneach Éire” (Ireland is desolate tonight), by Aindrias MacMarcais is a poem famous for its description of the Irish following the Departure. “C’áit ar Ghabhadar Gaoidhil? (Where will the Irish go?) by Lochlainn Ó Dálaigh is another. “Mo Thruaighe mar táid Gaoidhil” (My Pity for the situation of the Irish) by Fear Flatha Ó Gnímh is another still. Poets: Fearghal Óg Mac a’Bháird, Eochaidh Ó h-Eodhasa, Eoghan Rua Mac a’Bháird and many others stand out.
But the big contribution was in prose. “Ánnála Rióghachta Éireann” (The Annals of the Four Masters), a history of Ireland up to the death of O’Neill in 1616 was compiled from 1632 to 1636 in Donegal Abbey and along the banks of the Drowes River which marks the border between counties Leitrim and Donegal. Franciscan lay brother Mícheál Ó Cléirigh and three assistants did the work. This was a massive contribution to the history of the Irish people.
Then from 1620 to 1634 Seathrún Céitinn (Geoffrey Keating) composed his “Foras Feasa ar Éirinn” (A Foundation of Knowledge about Ireland), described as the first narrative history of Ireland in Irish. To these poets and writers, Louvain was a second home. The Irish Franciscans there printed, published and circulated their work. The Irish College there also trained seminarians and sent them back to Ireland. It was a “power-house of the Counter-Reformation,” more accurately described as the “Catholic Reformation”.
The Plantation of Ulster, begun in 1608, was the greatest consequence of the Departure of the Earls. Their lands were confiscated by the English Crown. The revolt of Sir Cahir O’Doherty of Innishowen in January 1608 was initially successful in that he captured the city of Derry. But in July he was shot at Kilmacrennan, Co Donegal and his lands too were confiscated. Sir Arthur Chichester, ancestor of Captain Terence O’Neill, was Lord Lieutenant in Ireland of the English government and he now planned the plantation of Six Ulster Counties: Derry (known as Coleraine) Tyrone, Fermanagh, Armagh, Cavan and Donegal. Antrim and Down had earlier been saturated by settlers from England and Scotland.
Chichester and Sir John Davies, the Attorney-General at Dublin Castle felt that war would never be at an end until there was “one king, one allegiance and one law”. The king would, of course, be the king of England and English ‘common law’ would replace the Irish Brehon code. This would be the new framework for Ulster. The crown escheated, or confiscated the lands of the six counties, declaring the earls to have laid down their loyalty to the king (of England) by leaving the kingdom without his permission.
The scheme adopted was not simply to redistribute the land seized but to build a new society – an exercise in social engineering. This is how the Ulster Plantation differed from earlier plantations elsewhere in Ireland and why it lasted so much longer. A homogeneous society at all levels was to be created, with English law, English courts and an English army in the background.
“Undertakers” received 40% of the land. These were English and Scottish gentry in equal numbers who were required to remove the native Irish and introduce settlers onto their lands within two years, and to erect a castle on their holding before 1613. Towns and villages were to be created. ‘Servitors’ or former soldiers and English government officials received 13% and these men, unlike the ‘undertakers’, could employ native Irish as tenants – paying substantial rents of course. English and Scottish tenants were in the low rent category. Thirdly, the established state Church of Ireland acquired 18% of the confiscated land to support their ministry.
Finally 1% of land was assigned to support schools to educate the sons of settlers and to ‘civilise’ the sons of the surviving native elite. I should add that 14% went to native free holders, including some who had remained loyal to the English Crown, and others who became prominent following the Departure of the Earls. Estates were parcelled out in holdings of 2,000, 1,500 and 1,000 acre lots. Co Derry in its entirety was given to the City of London and would be managed by a new body to be known as the Irish Society. Estates here would be 3,000 acres each in the renamed county of Londonderry and the land would be divided among twelve groups of London trade guilds.
In 1641 and again in 1689 the Irish rose up in support of the worthless Stuart kings, only to find themselves left on their own to face Cromwell, the Williamite onslaught and the long night of the Penal Laws. The settlers and colonists and their descendents at ordinary level proved industrious with the full support of the English State. They too had their diaspora in the 18th Century, in their case to North America. The Presbyterians, who were the majority in that community, also suffered disabilities on account of their religion. Their marriages were not recognised, for instance.
Inspired by the American and French Revolutions, Protestants, Catholics and Dissenters came together in the 1790s as the United Irishmen. A democratic programme and independence from England were their objectives. However with the defeat of the United Irish movement and the Act of Union in 1800, the English government were more clever. The disabilities on Presbyterians were removed and a ‘regium donum’ was paid directly to their ministers. The ‘Ulster Custom’ as developed meant that the tenant’s saleable interest in his holding was recognised. Land agitation was, as a result, lesser in that province and with greater stability capital accumulated. The Industrial Revolution therefore, took place in Ulster which marked
it out from the rest of Ireland.
The present Belfast and St Andrews Agreements are just that – agreements. They are not a settlement. An artificial arrangement at Stormont gives us a temporary and enforced vertical power-sharing, but under English rule. The alternative is a nine-county Ulster which would give the unionist-oriented population a clear working majority but with the nationalists within reach of power. Strong regional councils and powerful local councils would be controlled according to local majorities, with maximum devolution of power and decision-making. This would give natural horizontal power-sharing.
It could be permanent within a four province federation where all power would be exercised at provincial level – or beneath - except foreign affairs, national defence and overall financing. This proposal, known as ÉIRE NUA – a New Ireland – was outlined face-to-face at confidential meetings with all shades of unionism in the 1970s. In all cases the reaction was the same. If the English government disengaged from Ireland, then our proposal would be the second choice of unionists. Their first choice would be an independent Six-County state. We felt that that model would not be viable.
Nationalists have never sought to undo the Plantation of Ulster which next year will be four centuries old. They seek equal rights and equal opportunities within an Ireland where there is room for all – where all its inhabitants can feel comfortable and have their place in the sun. Such an Ireland has been outlined here tonight.
A final word on the Earls: Maguire did not have a chronicler. Aodh Mór Ó Néill was fortunate in that Tadhg Óg Ó Cianaín accompanied him all the way to Rome and recorded his story. Aodh Rua Ó Dónaill died at Simancas Castle, near Valladolid in north central Spain in 1602. He had sought renewed aid but was poisoned by an English agent, Blake from Galway. He was 29. Red Hugh was a superb soldier. Pádraic Pearse wrote of the Great O’Neill: “Ní raibh le thaoiseach ná de threóraí ag Gaeil riamh ó theacht do na Normánaigh fear a b’inchurtha le Wolfe Tone ach Aodh Ó Néill” (Príomh-alt An Barr Buadh 25 Bealtaine 1912).
(The Irish never had a leader or a guide since the coming of the Normans who was comparable to Wolfe Tone except Hugh O’Neill).
2. REPUBLICANS HIT OUT AT MAGHABERRY PRISON SYSTEM
IN A statement on September 9 Richard Walsh, Derry Ard Chomhairle member and PRO of Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive) said that families of Republican visitors to Maghaberry jail are being made to share transportation and waiting areas with well-known loyalists housed on integrated wings.
He said that despite recommendations made in the Steele Report in relation to segregation, prisoners are still being treated unfairly.
“Ever since the introduction of segregation within Maghaberry the British and their screws have continued to act in bad faith.”
The Steele Report published in 2003 said that separation of paramilitary prisoners was necessary in the interests of safety. He said he reached this view after much soul-searching and on the basis that the government would never again concede complete control of the wings to prisoners as happened at the Maghaberry.
Richard Walsh said prison warders had been abusing system and control checks.
“Sniffer dogs have also recently been manipulated to prevent a visit from four people to a Republican prisoner including his sister and young nephew,” he said.
“This came only a couple of weeks after another prisoner was placed in solitary confinement for a period of 48-hours, again owing to abuse of the sniffer dogs.
“The screws are well aware of the fact that Republican prisoners are completely opposed to the use of illicit drugs, and that none of their visitors have ever been found to be in possession of such substances. Neither have any been discovered within the prisoners' landings.
“Ordinary people must stand up for the rights of the Republican prisoners in Maghaberry, and demand an end to the vindictive tactics of the prison authorities in the Six Occupied Counties.”
Meanwhile tensions in the jail were still high this week after clashes between rival UDA prisoners.
Greysteel killer Stephen Irwin and one-time Orange Order District Master Harry Spears are understood to have been injured in the clashes which broke out during recreation between loyalist prisoners inside Bush House last Friday night.
3. LOYALIST CLAIMS UDA BEHIND 11 NEW GUN THREATS
IT was reported on September 9 that eleven families were warned by the RUC/PSNI that their homes are under threat of a gun attack this week.
Loyalists in south-east Antrim claimed the threat comes from mainstream UDA. The warnings were delivered to eight homes in Carrickfergus and three in Whitehead on September 7.
Representatives of the Beyond Conflict group said the RUC/PSNI said they had information “that there is going to be a gun attack at your home over the next week”.
Beyond Conflict representative John McDowell said the RUC/PSNI advised those warned that the threat came from the UDA's ‘inner council’ faction which is in dispute with the UDA's south east Antrim ‘brigade’.
“The message is so stark that it is presumably intended to worry entire families because anyone could be in a home when it is attacked, a woman, a child, even a baby,” he said.
He said the threats were being taken very seriously but people in the area were prepared to stand up to those behind them.
4. HEAVY-HANDED POLICING IN DERRY
ON September 6 the Derry Journal highlighted numerous allegations about heavy handed British colonial policing and cases that can be described as nothing other than police brutality.
The paper said: “The previous week a story of a man in Cornshell Fields with cerebral palsy, allegedly being assaulted, arrested and then in the words of the [RUC/]PSNI ‘dearrested’. This in itself is an admission that the man should never have been detained in the first place.
“There have been numerous allegations of the British colonial police simply not responding to calls in connection with crimes. There was a report of a man exposing himself to schoolchildren and when a mother phoned the [RUC/]PSNI she waited almost a week before anyone came to see her.
“Two Derry Journal reporters contacted the RUC/PSNI seeing a body lying in a car park and they simply never came out. Thankfully the man was ill and not the victim of crime but the [RUC/]PSNI could not have known that.
“Then there is the issue of their behaviour. Some [RUC/]PSNI members seem to feel their uniform gives them the right to bully, badger and in some cases assault members of the public.
“There are too many complaints against the [RUC/]PSNI for them to be dismissed. Remember back in the days of Castlereagh the RUC claimed that all the complaints were simply propaganda and we all know how wrong that was.”
5. NEW 'SHOOT-TO-KILL' HEARINGS HELD
NEW HEARINGS are to be held into six controversial killings at the centre of an RUC shoot-to-kill policy 25 years ago.
Six-County Coroner John Leckey announced he will begin examining the cases in October.
IRA members Seán Burns, Gervaise McKerr and Eugene Toman were shot dead by members of a specialist RUC unit near Lurgan in November 1982.
The killings provoked huge controversy and John Stalker was brought in to investigate.
However, his report was never published and earlier inquests into the killings were abandoned.
On September 7 John Leckey said he would hold a preliminary hearing in October.
He will also examine the killing of nationalist teenager Michael Tighe, shot dead at a hayshed near Craigavon the same month.
The other killings to be re-examined are those of INLA members Peter Grew and Roddy Carroll, who were shot dead near Armagh in December 1982 after being followed across the border by an RUC hit squad.
6. CORONERS TO GAIN ACCESS TO RUC/PSNI FILES
IT was reported on September 8 that inquests into Troubles-related deaths more than 20 years ago are to come under the spotlight again following a judgment in the British House of Lords.
Legal challenges are to be heard in the High Court in Belfast in the cases of a victim of loyalist gunmen and a man shot dead by the British army’s SAS. A further judicial review concerns a man shot dead in 1992 but whose inquest has still to finish.
The common point is a judgment by British law lords that the RUC/PSNI is obliged to provide coroners with all the relevant documentation relating to each victim.
The two deaths where inquests were held were those of Gerard Casey (29), who was shot by loyalists in his home at Rasharkin in Co Antrim in 1989, and Danny Doherty, who was killed by the SAS in the grounds of Gransha Hospital in Derry in 1984.
Solicitor Peter Madden, who is acting for Gerard Casey's daughter Tara and Danny Doherty's widow Julie, said: “These applications for judicial review were lodged when it emerged that the RUC failed to provide full disclosure to the coroner.
“The PSNI will no longer be permitted to choose what information it decides to disclose.”
The application in respect of the inquest not yet completed relates to the killing of Kevin McKearney (32) in a butcher's shop in Moy, Co Tyrone in 1992. His uncle Jack (70) also died later from gunshot wounds.
Richie McRitchie, who is acting for Kevin McKearney's widow Bernadette, said that the challenge related to the difficulties imposed on the coroner.
“After the authorities show him the relevant documents he has to decide what is relevant before it can be passed on to the next of kin,” he said. “But how can he be expected to make such a decision when the conditions in which he is shown the material are so restrictive that he will not be given copies and any notes he makes have to be approved?”
Two days have been allocated for the hearing in November. The outcome is expected to have a bearing on a host of other historic inquests which have been opened and repeatedly adjourned over the years.
7. LOYALIST THUGS TARGET PREGNANT WOMAN’S HOME
ON September 6 a pregnant north Belfast woman whose house and car were destroyed in a sectarian attack in the early hours of this morning (Thursday) claimed the RUC/PSNI made her feel “like the villain”.
Michelle O’Connor and her husband Joseph awoke shortly after 1.30am to find their living room destroyed and a mallet through the back windscreen of their car. The vulnerable Kerrera Street couple said they were completely distraught when they came down the stairs in the middle of the night to find their family room destroyed in black paint.
Michelle, who is almost four months pregnant, said she is disgusted by the reaction of RUC/PSNI who arrived at the house after the attack.
She said members at the scene made her and her husband feel like they were the culprits and the couple plan to make an official complaint to the British Police Ombudsman.
“I am absolutely devastated that my home has been destroyed but more than that I just can't believe how we have been treated by police,” Michelle said. “I was made feel like I had done something wrong in my own home, like I was a criminal and in my state I just can't cope with that.
“We are outraged and upset by the treatment we have encountered this morning and I won't accept being made feel like a villain.”
The Ardoyne couple claim a member of the RUC/PSNI on the scene asked them if they had ever been involved in sectarian fighting in the area and then he allegedly asked Michelle to estimate the cost of damage to her home and car.
According to the O’Connors, this is the first time the house has been attacked in the 24 years Michelle has lived there and they feel they were attacked because they are “easy targets”.
An elderly deaf neighbour of the O’Connors also had the front of her home destroyed by paint bombs. The woman had no idea her home had been attacked until Fr Aidan Troy informed her this morning, according to Michelle.
“I can't understand why this happened to us or our neighbour,” Michelle said. “He wouldn't hurt a fly. But at the end of the day the response we got from the police has stunned me and we will be making a complaint.”
8. BELFAST UNSAFE FOR NATIONALISTS
A NORTH Belfast priest warned that it is not safe for nationalist men to walk alone, while another cleric has hit out at the British colonial police following a loyalist attack on homes.
Fr Dan Whyte, parish priest of St Mary's on the Hill in Glengormley, said a recent series of attacks in the area meant that he had a duty of care to issue the warning.
In the latest assault, a 20-year-old man was attacked by two men and robbed as he walked home on August 24.
An RUC/PSNI spokesman said there was no evidence to suggest that it was sectarian.
However, Fr Whyte said that he felt it necessary to warn parishioners that dangers still existed in the area, which has seen many sectarian attacks – including murders – in recent years.
“Some people think that the bad days are over and that young people are now safe walking the streets alone, but unfortunately it appears those bad days aren't over yet,” he said.
“My message is that young people on nights out should get taxis home so that they know they are going to be safe. I want all young people to be able to walk the streets in safety but I don't feel that time has yet come.”
9. MATCH SHELVED DUE TO SECTARIAN TENSION
IT was reported on September 5 that two soccer clubs in Ballymena were forced to call off a game at the weekend amid growing sectarian tensions in the town.
The Saturday Morning League match between Broadway Celtic, from the town's predominantly nationalist north end, and Harryville Homers, from the loyalist Harryville area, was axed after an alleged sectarian attack in the town on August 30.
In 2005, a match between the two clubs was called off by league bosses after claims that the UDA was going to disrupt the game. On this occasion the clubs took a joint decision to call off the game on September 1 amid fears sectarian tensions could spill over.
In May of the same year, a youth team from the mainly Catholic village of Carnlough pulled out of a Ballymena league after their minibus was attacked following a match in the mainly loyalist Ballykeel estate in Ballymena.
10. ROBERT NAIRAC IN COMMAND AT MASSACRE SAYS MIAMI GUITARIST
HE WAS a guitar player in one of Ireland's biggest bands but after their tour bus was stopped at a checkpoint on a lonely country road near Newry on July 31 1975, nothing would ever be the same for Stephen Travers.
The Miami Showband had been returning to Dublin after a gig at the Castle Ballroom in Banbridge, Co Down, when they pulled up at the apparent British army roadblock.
“I remember our trumpet player Brian McCoy telling me not to worry as we stood against the ditch with our hands on our heads," he said. “[The soldiers] were laughing and joking with us until this guy with an English accent appeared and suddenly things turned serious.”
Seconds later Stephen was thrown through the air, landing badly injured in the adjacent field. Days afterwards it emerged that the British soldiers were also members of the Mid-Ulster UVF, most, if not all of the gang, were also members of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) of the British army. Harris Boyle and Wesley Sommerville had been secretly planting a bomb on the band's bus when it exploded prematurely, killing them both.
Stephen Travers, who now lives in Cork, still vividly remembers the slaughter after the blast as the gang then singled out each of his friends and shot them dead.
“I had been shot and I remember Fran O'Toole and Tony Geraghty trying to lift me seconds before they were shot dead,” he said. “I remember listening to each of my friends dying, as one gang member went around each body to check they were dead. He shot anyone he thought might be alive.
“I lay with my face down in the dirt pretending to be dead. I heard him shooting Brian beside me and felt him walking towards me. Then one of them told him to finish as they were leaving and he turned and left me.”
Fran O'Toole (29), Tony Geraghty (23) and Brian McCoy (32) were all killed.
UDR men James Somerville, Thomas Crozier and James McDowell were each sentenced to life for the massacre.
Stephen Travers and Des McAlea survived but underwent emergency surgery at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry. However, fears for their safety led to them being transferred to hospitals in the 26-Counties. By the end of the year the pair had reformed the Miami along with the third surviving member, Ray Millar, largely as a tribute to their dead colleagues.
Stephen Travers could never fully come to terms with the atrocity and moved to Britain soon afterwards.
“I didn't want to be associated with the Miami Showband massacre,” he said. “When people asked me about it I spoke but it was as if it had all happened to someone else.”
However, in recent years Stephen Travers (56) became more convinced that he had an obligation to his former friends to write the story of the massacre – culminating in a book to be launched in Dublin on September 11.
“Over the years much of what has been written has either been distorted or just wrong,” he said. “There was also a lot of official apathy. I remember one Irish government minister giving me the distinct impression that he would have been happier airbrushing the whole atrocity out of history. But I firmly believe that unless we learn from past mistakes there is no hope for future generations.”
In an effort to come to terms with what happened Stephen Travers also travelled to Belfast last year for a secret meeting with the UVF leadership.
“It was all very James Bond stuff – we met in secret in a church,” he said. “The UVF man only identified himself as the 'Craftsman'. The meeting was supposed to take 20 minutes but lasted five hours. He apologised for the massacre and said that their people had panicked. I got the impression that the UVF wanted to unburden itself from some of the terrible things they have done in the past. They seemed to want to lighten the burden of responsibility.”
However, Stephen Travers believes the UVF gang was directly controlled by more sinister elements.
“I never blamed the people who carried out the atrocity, although I condemn what they did,” he said. “They were pawns being manipulated by a much bigger agenda. I never wanted to tar the unionist people with what was done to us that night.”
He strongly believes that the Englishman who gave the order for their murders was in fact SAS-trained British army Captain Robert Nairac, who two years later was abducted, killed and his body secretly disposed of by the IRA in south Armagh.
“The guy who gave the orders was definitely a well-educated English, military man,” he said. “I remember hearing his clipped English tones and seeing him standing there like an action man in his fatigues. He was definitely the man in charge. I am convinced it was Robert Nairac.”
He also believes that the massacre had been sanctioned at high levels in the British establishment.
“They didn't just allow it to happen – they ordered it to happen. Yet the British government still refuses to apologise. I want them to say that they were wrong and that this kind of thing will not be allowed to happen again.”
Stephen Travers recalls how he travelled to the home of one UVF gang member after hearing that he wanted to publicly apologise for his part in the murders.
“I heard that Thomas Crozier was sorry for what he had done. I tried to meet him but when it didn't happen we drove to his home and knocked on the door. No-one answered but I am sure someone was inside. I hope we can meet and reconcile some day. For me the door will always be open to the people who want to apologise and learn from their mistakes.”
Stephen Travers is convinced it was the Miami band's ability to cross the political divide that led to their murders.
“We were legitimate targets because we didn't care about politics or religion. The showbands' common enemy was sectarianism. We were bringing people together and that's what they couldn't stomach.”
11. GARDA CRITICISED BY HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
THE Irish Human Rights Commission has criticised the26-County police, claiming it does not fully guarantee human rights.
The Commission says the Garda is some distance from being fully human rights compliant.
The Commission published its annual report on September 11.Advertisement The Human Rights Commission says it has a mandate to review the law and its practice to ensure that it is in line with human rights standards.
The Commission feels that the Garda Síochána is not fully compliant when it comes to human rights and it says it will monitor its future progress.
Commission President Dr Maurice Manning said effective 26-County policing and a respect for human rights do not have to clash.
The Commission says it has a role to not only monitor policing legislation, but also Garda operational policies and how they are implemented.
In relation to immigration issues, the Commission said the 26-County administration must amend its current policy to remove any legal uncertainty.
The Commission is concerned that legislation is not examined in detail and often not discussed by the 26-County assembly at Leinster House.
It also says that research into the rights of unmarried couples makes a compelling case for the provision of appropriate legal protection.
12. FURY AS BRITISH TROOPS APPEAR IN PRO-UVF MAGAZINE
THE BRITISH ARMY faced demands on September 8 to investigate how images of troops serving in southern Iraq ended up in a pro-loyalist magazine.
Six photographs of British soldiers in desert fatigues have been printed in the current edition of The Purple Standard, a publication which praises the exploits of loyalist death squad the Ulster Volunteer Force.
The Purple Standard, which used to be known as the UVF magazine Combat, said the British soldiers posted the images of themselves wearing orange sashes and playing flutes to its office. It praises the self-styled 'Rising Sons of Basra' and adds: 'We thank the guys for sending us these wonderful shots and we wish them well in the months ahead. You are all in our thoughts!'
The six images include a banner with a loyalist, British union jack and Iraqi flags under the legend: 'Rising sons of Basra.' They also show the British soldiers marching to the beat of a drum and playing the flute. The Purple Standard has printed the loyalist slogan 'No Surrender' underneath the images. Most of the rest of the issue is comprised of statements praising UVF men killed during the conflict in the Six-Counties.
In its incarnation as Combat the magazine regularly celebrated UVF killings, especially of Republicans.
1. ‘The Flight of the Earls and its Consequences’
2. Republicans hit out at Maghaberry prison system
3. Loyalist claims UDA behind 11 new gun threats
4. Heavy-handed policing in Derry
5. New 'shoot-to-kill' hearings held
6. Coroners to gain access to PSNI files
7. Loyalist thugs target pregnant woman’s home
8. Belfast unsafe for nationalists
9. Match shelved due to sectarian tension
10. Robert Nairac in command at massacre says Miami guitarist
11. Garda criticised by Human Rights Commission
12. Fury as Basra troops appear in pro-UVF magazine
1. ‘THE FLIGHT OF THE EARLS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES’
The following is the text of a lecture in Donegal on September 7 by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Uachtarán, entitled “The Flight of the Earls and its Consequences”.
At the outset I would like to take issue with the expression “Flight of the Earls”. One dictionary explains “flight” as “to run away, as from danger.” I agree with Prof John McGurk of the University of Ulster when he spoke at Letterkenny on August 19 last.
Naming the event as a “flight’ was “pandering to the English interpretation” of what happened. He suggested that the departure of the Earls – who had intended to return – could have been termed a “strategic regrouping”. Cardinal Ó Fiaich, who was Professor of Modern Irish History at Maynooth at the time with Pádraig de Barra, entitled their book in 1972, Imeacht na n-Iarlaí. (The Departure of the Earls). Ó Fiaich stated: “Every schoolchild knows it as The Flight of the Earls, a phrase which deserves to be expunged from our vocabulary”.
The historian Micheline Kerney Walsh in her work “Destruction by Peace: Hugh O’Neill after Kinsale” published in 1986 writes “It has been generally assumed that he accepted defeat and, in despair, had gone into voluntary exile”, but this is not so. She states that according to recent research, his principal objective in leaving for Spain in 1607 was “to return at the head of an army designed to break English power in Ireland.”
Nollaig Ó Muráile, senior lecturer in Irish at NUI, Galway, is completing a new and comprehensive edition of Tadhg Ó Cianáin’s account at the time of the exile itinerary of the Ulster chiefs, Ó Neíll, Ó Dónaill agus Cúchonnacht Maguire of Fermanagh. He points out that Ó Fiaich and de Barra’s use of Imeacht (Departure) as opposed to Teiceadh (Flight) was because “the latter (term) reflected hostile contemporary English attitudes” and McGurk writes: “O’Neill’s correspondence from Rome gives the lie to the interpretation that he never intended to return.”
The 99 Irish exiles who sailed from Rathmullen, Co Donegal on September 14, 1607 were on a French ship procured for them by Cúchonnacht Maguire, chieftain of Fermanagh. They sailed for Spain and were within sight almost of the Spanish coast when an almighty storm blew them off course and back across the Bay of Biscay to France, where they landed on October 4.
Their journey from there to Rome took nine months, on foot, on horseback, by boat and coach. It was, Ó Muraíle writes “a tortuous, protracted journey that can be retraced in British, Spanish and Papal newsletters, diplomatic correspondence and spy networks.” It included crossing lakes in Switzerland and the mighty Alps where O’Neill lost his money in an accident.
Many honours were bestowed on them on the continent of Europe where they were well known and renowned. The Irish Press column “This Happened Today” by MJ McManus on September 4, 1957 records their journey. Nowhere were they received more warmly than by the Irish Franciscans at the College of St Anthony, Louvain in what is now Belgium. Founded the previous year, 1606, it offered schooling and practical hospitality to the younger generation of O’Neills, O’Donnells and Maguires, giving them back a new sense of belonging and a mission for the future. But within months in 1608 Maguire died in Genoa, Italy and the brothers Ruairí, Earl of Tírchonaill and Cathbhárr Ó Dónaill, as well as Hugh (Óg) O’Neill passed away in Rome. Supported by pensions from the Papacy and Philip III of Spain, the Great Ó Neill himself survived until 1616, still holding out for a renewal of armed conflict in Ireland. They were all buried in San Pietro di Montorio where Cardinal Ó Fiaich laid a commemorative slab to Hugh O’Neill in 1989. Irish tourists from all over the world visit the Church of San Pietro, ask to have the rug on the floor withdrawn and pay their respects to them all. Of all his titles, that preferred by Hugh O’Neill was the Irish one “The O’Neill” or simply “Ó Néill” as he signed himself.
At home in Ireland, the consequences of their departure from the scene were many and varied. With the Plantation of Ulster from 1608, the Gaelic order was eclipsed, and the great Irish Diaspora began. With that emigration to the continent over succeeding decades of tens of thousands of Irish people, was written “one of the most splendid pages of Irish history”, that of the Irish Abroad. In France, Spain, Austria and Prussia they rose to eminence in church, state and in the professions.
Also in Ireland began a great renaissance of culture and learning, in the Irish language of course, “Anocht is Uaigneach Éire” (Ireland is desolate tonight), by Aindrias MacMarcais is a poem famous for its description of the Irish following the Departure. “C’áit ar Ghabhadar Gaoidhil? (Where will the Irish go?) by Lochlainn Ó Dálaigh is another. “Mo Thruaighe mar táid Gaoidhil” (My Pity for the situation of the Irish) by Fear Flatha Ó Gnímh is another still. Poets: Fearghal Óg Mac a’Bháird, Eochaidh Ó h-Eodhasa, Eoghan Rua Mac a’Bháird and many others stand out.
But the big contribution was in prose. “Ánnála Rióghachta Éireann” (The Annals of the Four Masters), a history of Ireland up to the death of O’Neill in 1616 was compiled from 1632 to 1636 in Donegal Abbey and along the banks of the Drowes River which marks the border between counties Leitrim and Donegal. Franciscan lay brother Mícheál Ó Cléirigh and three assistants did the work. This was a massive contribution to the history of the Irish people.
Then from 1620 to 1634 Seathrún Céitinn (Geoffrey Keating) composed his “Foras Feasa ar Éirinn” (A Foundation of Knowledge about Ireland), described as the first narrative history of Ireland in Irish. To these poets and writers, Louvain was a second home. The Irish Franciscans there printed, published and circulated their work. The Irish College there also trained seminarians and sent them back to Ireland. It was a “power-house of the Counter-Reformation,” more accurately described as the “Catholic Reformation”.
The Plantation of Ulster, begun in 1608, was the greatest consequence of the Departure of the Earls. Their lands were confiscated by the English Crown. The revolt of Sir Cahir O’Doherty of Innishowen in January 1608 was initially successful in that he captured the city of Derry. But in July he was shot at Kilmacrennan, Co Donegal and his lands too were confiscated. Sir Arthur Chichester, ancestor of Captain Terence O’Neill, was Lord Lieutenant in Ireland of the English government and he now planned the plantation of Six Ulster Counties: Derry (known as Coleraine) Tyrone, Fermanagh, Armagh, Cavan and Donegal. Antrim and Down had earlier been saturated by settlers from England and Scotland.
Chichester and Sir John Davies, the Attorney-General at Dublin Castle felt that war would never be at an end until there was “one king, one allegiance and one law”. The king would, of course, be the king of England and English ‘common law’ would replace the Irish Brehon code. This would be the new framework for Ulster. The crown escheated, or confiscated the lands of the six counties, declaring the earls to have laid down their loyalty to the king (of England) by leaving the kingdom without his permission.
The scheme adopted was not simply to redistribute the land seized but to build a new society – an exercise in social engineering. This is how the Ulster Plantation differed from earlier plantations elsewhere in Ireland and why it lasted so much longer. A homogeneous society at all levels was to be created, with English law, English courts and an English army in the background.
“Undertakers” received 40% of the land. These were English and Scottish gentry in equal numbers who were required to remove the native Irish and introduce settlers onto their lands within two years, and to erect a castle on their holding before 1613. Towns and villages were to be created. ‘Servitors’ or former soldiers and English government officials received 13% and these men, unlike the ‘undertakers’, could employ native Irish as tenants – paying substantial rents of course. English and Scottish tenants were in the low rent category. Thirdly, the established state Church of Ireland acquired 18% of the confiscated land to support their ministry.
Finally 1% of land was assigned to support schools to educate the sons of settlers and to ‘civilise’ the sons of the surviving native elite. I should add that 14% went to native free holders, including some who had remained loyal to the English Crown, and others who became prominent following the Departure of the Earls. Estates were parcelled out in holdings of 2,000, 1,500 and 1,000 acre lots. Co Derry in its entirety was given to the City of London and would be managed by a new body to be known as the Irish Society. Estates here would be 3,000 acres each in the renamed county of Londonderry and the land would be divided among twelve groups of London trade guilds.
In 1641 and again in 1689 the Irish rose up in support of the worthless Stuart kings, only to find themselves left on their own to face Cromwell, the Williamite onslaught and the long night of the Penal Laws. The settlers and colonists and their descendents at ordinary level proved industrious with the full support of the English State. They too had their diaspora in the 18th Century, in their case to North America. The Presbyterians, who were the majority in that community, also suffered disabilities on account of their religion. Their marriages were not recognised, for instance.
Inspired by the American and French Revolutions, Protestants, Catholics and Dissenters came together in the 1790s as the United Irishmen. A democratic programme and independence from England were their objectives. However with the defeat of the United Irish movement and the Act of Union in 1800, the English government were more clever. The disabilities on Presbyterians were removed and a ‘regium donum’ was paid directly to their ministers. The ‘Ulster Custom’ as developed meant that the tenant’s saleable interest in his holding was recognised. Land agitation was, as a result, lesser in that province and with greater stability capital accumulated. The Industrial Revolution therefore, took place in Ulster which marked
it out from the rest of Ireland.
The present Belfast and St Andrews Agreements are just that – agreements. They are not a settlement. An artificial arrangement at Stormont gives us a temporary and enforced vertical power-sharing, but under English rule. The alternative is a nine-county Ulster which would give the unionist-oriented population a clear working majority but with the nationalists within reach of power. Strong regional councils and powerful local councils would be controlled according to local majorities, with maximum devolution of power and decision-making. This would give natural horizontal power-sharing.
It could be permanent within a four province federation where all power would be exercised at provincial level – or beneath - except foreign affairs, national defence and overall financing. This proposal, known as ÉIRE NUA – a New Ireland – was outlined face-to-face at confidential meetings with all shades of unionism in the 1970s. In all cases the reaction was the same. If the English government disengaged from Ireland, then our proposal would be the second choice of unionists. Their first choice would be an independent Six-County state. We felt that that model would not be viable.
Nationalists have never sought to undo the Plantation of Ulster which next year will be four centuries old. They seek equal rights and equal opportunities within an Ireland where there is room for all – where all its inhabitants can feel comfortable and have their place in the sun. Such an Ireland has been outlined here tonight.
A final word on the Earls: Maguire did not have a chronicler. Aodh Mór Ó Néill was fortunate in that Tadhg Óg Ó Cianaín accompanied him all the way to Rome and recorded his story. Aodh Rua Ó Dónaill died at Simancas Castle, near Valladolid in north central Spain in 1602. He had sought renewed aid but was poisoned by an English agent, Blake from Galway. He was 29. Red Hugh was a superb soldier. Pádraic Pearse wrote of the Great O’Neill: “Ní raibh le thaoiseach ná de threóraí ag Gaeil riamh ó theacht do na Normánaigh fear a b’inchurtha le Wolfe Tone ach Aodh Ó Néill” (Príomh-alt An Barr Buadh 25 Bealtaine 1912).
(The Irish never had a leader or a guide since the coming of the Normans who was comparable to Wolfe Tone except Hugh O’Neill).
2. REPUBLICANS HIT OUT AT MAGHABERRY PRISON SYSTEM
IN A statement on September 9 Richard Walsh, Derry Ard Chomhairle member and PRO of Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive) said that families of Republican visitors to Maghaberry jail are being made to share transportation and waiting areas with well-known loyalists housed on integrated wings.
He said that despite recommendations made in the Steele Report in relation to segregation, prisoners are still being treated unfairly.
“Ever since the introduction of segregation within Maghaberry the British and their screws have continued to act in bad faith.”
The Steele Report published in 2003 said that separation of paramilitary prisoners was necessary in the interests of safety. He said he reached this view after much soul-searching and on the basis that the government would never again concede complete control of the wings to prisoners as happened at the Maghaberry.
Richard Walsh said prison warders had been abusing system and control checks.
“Sniffer dogs have also recently been manipulated to prevent a visit from four people to a Republican prisoner including his sister and young nephew,” he said.
“This came only a couple of weeks after another prisoner was placed in solitary confinement for a period of 48-hours, again owing to abuse of the sniffer dogs.
“The screws are well aware of the fact that Republican prisoners are completely opposed to the use of illicit drugs, and that none of their visitors have ever been found to be in possession of such substances. Neither have any been discovered within the prisoners' landings.
“Ordinary people must stand up for the rights of the Republican prisoners in Maghaberry, and demand an end to the vindictive tactics of the prison authorities in the Six Occupied Counties.”
Meanwhile tensions in the jail were still high this week after clashes between rival UDA prisoners.
Greysteel killer Stephen Irwin and one-time Orange Order District Master Harry Spears are understood to have been injured in the clashes which broke out during recreation between loyalist prisoners inside Bush House last Friday night.
3. LOYALIST CLAIMS UDA BEHIND 11 NEW GUN THREATS
IT was reported on September 9 that eleven families were warned by the RUC/PSNI that their homes are under threat of a gun attack this week.
Loyalists in south-east Antrim claimed the threat comes from mainstream UDA. The warnings were delivered to eight homes in Carrickfergus and three in Whitehead on September 7.
Representatives of the Beyond Conflict group said the RUC/PSNI said they had information “that there is going to be a gun attack at your home over the next week”.
Beyond Conflict representative John McDowell said the RUC/PSNI advised those warned that the threat came from the UDA's ‘inner council’ faction which is in dispute with the UDA's south east Antrim ‘brigade’.
“The message is so stark that it is presumably intended to worry entire families because anyone could be in a home when it is attacked, a woman, a child, even a baby,” he said.
He said the threats were being taken very seriously but people in the area were prepared to stand up to those behind them.
4. HEAVY-HANDED POLICING IN DERRY
ON September 6 the Derry Journal highlighted numerous allegations about heavy handed British colonial policing and cases that can be described as nothing other than police brutality.
The paper said: “The previous week a story of a man in Cornshell Fields with cerebral palsy, allegedly being assaulted, arrested and then in the words of the [RUC/]PSNI ‘dearrested’. This in itself is an admission that the man should never have been detained in the first place.
“There have been numerous allegations of the British colonial police simply not responding to calls in connection with crimes. There was a report of a man exposing himself to schoolchildren and when a mother phoned the [RUC/]PSNI she waited almost a week before anyone came to see her.
“Two Derry Journal reporters contacted the RUC/PSNI seeing a body lying in a car park and they simply never came out. Thankfully the man was ill and not the victim of crime but the [RUC/]PSNI could not have known that.
“Then there is the issue of their behaviour. Some [RUC/]PSNI members seem to feel their uniform gives them the right to bully, badger and in some cases assault members of the public.
“There are too many complaints against the [RUC/]PSNI for them to be dismissed. Remember back in the days of Castlereagh the RUC claimed that all the complaints were simply propaganda and we all know how wrong that was.”
5. NEW 'SHOOT-TO-KILL' HEARINGS HELD
NEW HEARINGS are to be held into six controversial killings at the centre of an RUC shoot-to-kill policy 25 years ago.
Six-County Coroner John Leckey announced he will begin examining the cases in October.
IRA members Seán Burns, Gervaise McKerr and Eugene Toman were shot dead by members of a specialist RUC unit near Lurgan in November 1982.
The killings provoked huge controversy and John Stalker was brought in to investigate.
However, his report was never published and earlier inquests into the killings were abandoned.
On September 7 John Leckey said he would hold a preliminary hearing in October.
He will also examine the killing of nationalist teenager Michael Tighe, shot dead at a hayshed near Craigavon the same month.
The other killings to be re-examined are those of INLA members Peter Grew and Roddy Carroll, who were shot dead near Armagh in December 1982 after being followed across the border by an RUC hit squad.
6. CORONERS TO GAIN ACCESS TO RUC/PSNI FILES
IT was reported on September 8 that inquests into Troubles-related deaths more than 20 years ago are to come under the spotlight again following a judgment in the British House of Lords.
Legal challenges are to be heard in the High Court in Belfast in the cases of a victim of loyalist gunmen and a man shot dead by the British army’s SAS. A further judicial review concerns a man shot dead in 1992 but whose inquest has still to finish.
The common point is a judgment by British law lords that the RUC/PSNI is obliged to provide coroners with all the relevant documentation relating to each victim.
The two deaths where inquests were held were those of Gerard Casey (29), who was shot by loyalists in his home at Rasharkin in Co Antrim in 1989, and Danny Doherty, who was killed by the SAS in the grounds of Gransha Hospital in Derry in 1984.
Solicitor Peter Madden, who is acting for Gerard Casey's daughter Tara and Danny Doherty's widow Julie, said: “These applications for judicial review were lodged when it emerged that the RUC failed to provide full disclosure to the coroner.
“The PSNI will no longer be permitted to choose what information it decides to disclose.”
The application in respect of the inquest not yet completed relates to the killing of Kevin McKearney (32) in a butcher's shop in Moy, Co Tyrone in 1992. His uncle Jack (70) also died later from gunshot wounds.
Richie McRitchie, who is acting for Kevin McKearney's widow Bernadette, said that the challenge related to the difficulties imposed on the coroner.
“After the authorities show him the relevant documents he has to decide what is relevant before it can be passed on to the next of kin,” he said. “But how can he be expected to make such a decision when the conditions in which he is shown the material are so restrictive that he will not be given copies and any notes he makes have to be approved?”
Two days have been allocated for the hearing in November. The outcome is expected to have a bearing on a host of other historic inquests which have been opened and repeatedly adjourned over the years.
7. LOYALIST THUGS TARGET PREGNANT WOMAN’S HOME
ON September 6 a pregnant north Belfast woman whose house and car were destroyed in a sectarian attack in the early hours of this morning (Thursday) claimed the RUC/PSNI made her feel “like the villain”.
Michelle O’Connor and her husband Joseph awoke shortly after 1.30am to find their living room destroyed and a mallet through the back windscreen of their car. The vulnerable Kerrera Street couple said they were completely distraught when they came down the stairs in the middle of the night to find their family room destroyed in black paint.
Michelle, who is almost four months pregnant, said she is disgusted by the reaction of RUC/PSNI who arrived at the house after the attack.
She said members at the scene made her and her husband feel like they were the culprits and the couple plan to make an official complaint to the British Police Ombudsman.
“I am absolutely devastated that my home has been destroyed but more than that I just can't believe how we have been treated by police,” Michelle said. “I was made feel like I had done something wrong in my own home, like I was a criminal and in my state I just can't cope with that.
“We are outraged and upset by the treatment we have encountered this morning and I won't accept being made feel like a villain.”
The Ardoyne couple claim a member of the RUC/PSNI on the scene asked them if they had ever been involved in sectarian fighting in the area and then he allegedly asked Michelle to estimate the cost of damage to her home and car.
According to the O’Connors, this is the first time the house has been attacked in the 24 years Michelle has lived there and they feel they were attacked because they are “easy targets”.
An elderly deaf neighbour of the O’Connors also had the front of her home destroyed by paint bombs. The woman had no idea her home had been attacked until Fr Aidan Troy informed her this morning, according to Michelle.
“I can't understand why this happened to us or our neighbour,” Michelle said. “He wouldn't hurt a fly. But at the end of the day the response we got from the police has stunned me and we will be making a complaint.”
8. BELFAST UNSAFE FOR NATIONALISTS
A NORTH Belfast priest warned that it is not safe for nationalist men to walk alone, while another cleric has hit out at the British colonial police following a loyalist attack on homes.
Fr Dan Whyte, parish priest of St Mary's on the Hill in Glengormley, said a recent series of attacks in the area meant that he had a duty of care to issue the warning.
In the latest assault, a 20-year-old man was attacked by two men and robbed as he walked home on August 24.
An RUC/PSNI spokesman said there was no evidence to suggest that it was sectarian.
However, Fr Whyte said that he felt it necessary to warn parishioners that dangers still existed in the area, which has seen many sectarian attacks – including murders – in recent years.
“Some people think that the bad days are over and that young people are now safe walking the streets alone, but unfortunately it appears those bad days aren't over yet,” he said.
“My message is that young people on nights out should get taxis home so that they know they are going to be safe. I want all young people to be able to walk the streets in safety but I don't feel that time has yet come.”
9. MATCH SHELVED DUE TO SECTARIAN TENSION
IT was reported on September 5 that two soccer clubs in Ballymena were forced to call off a game at the weekend amid growing sectarian tensions in the town.
The Saturday Morning League match between Broadway Celtic, from the town's predominantly nationalist north end, and Harryville Homers, from the loyalist Harryville area, was axed after an alleged sectarian attack in the town on August 30.
In 2005, a match between the two clubs was called off by league bosses after claims that the UDA was going to disrupt the game. On this occasion the clubs took a joint decision to call off the game on September 1 amid fears sectarian tensions could spill over.
In May of the same year, a youth team from the mainly Catholic village of Carnlough pulled out of a Ballymena league after their minibus was attacked following a match in the mainly loyalist Ballykeel estate in Ballymena.
10. ROBERT NAIRAC IN COMMAND AT MASSACRE SAYS MIAMI GUITARIST
HE WAS a guitar player in one of Ireland's biggest bands but after their tour bus was stopped at a checkpoint on a lonely country road near Newry on July 31 1975, nothing would ever be the same for Stephen Travers.
The Miami Showband had been returning to Dublin after a gig at the Castle Ballroom in Banbridge, Co Down, when they pulled up at the apparent British army roadblock.
“I remember our trumpet player Brian McCoy telling me not to worry as we stood against the ditch with our hands on our heads," he said. “[The soldiers] were laughing and joking with us until this guy with an English accent appeared and suddenly things turned serious.”
Seconds later Stephen was thrown through the air, landing badly injured in the adjacent field. Days afterwards it emerged that the British soldiers were also members of the Mid-Ulster UVF, most, if not all of the gang, were also members of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) of the British army. Harris Boyle and Wesley Sommerville had been secretly planting a bomb on the band's bus when it exploded prematurely, killing them both.
Stephen Travers, who now lives in Cork, still vividly remembers the slaughter after the blast as the gang then singled out each of his friends and shot them dead.
“I had been shot and I remember Fran O'Toole and Tony Geraghty trying to lift me seconds before they were shot dead,” he said. “I remember listening to each of my friends dying, as one gang member went around each body to check they were dead. He shot anyone he thought might be alive.
“I lay with my face down in the dirt pretending to be dead. I heard him shooting Brian beside me and felt him walking towards me. Then one of them told him to finish as they were leaving and he turned and left me.”
Fran O'Toole (29), Tony Geraghty (23) and Brian McCoy (32) were all killed.
UDR men James Somerville, Thomas Crozier and James McDowell were each sentenced to life for the massacre.
Stephen Travers and Des McAlea survived but underwent emergency surgery at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry. However, fears for their safety led to them being transferred to hospitals in the 26-Counties. By the end of the year the pair had reformed the Miami along with the third surviving member, Ray Millar, largely as a tribute to their dead colleagues.
Stephen Travers could never fully come to terms with the atrocity and moved to Britain soon afterwards.
“I didn't want to be associated with the Miami Showband massacre,” he said. “When people asked me about it I spoke but it was as if it had all happened to someone else.”
However, in recent years Stephen Travers (56) became more convinced that he had an obligation to his former friends to write the story of the massacre – culminating in a book to be launched in Dublin on September 11.
“Over the years much of what has been written has either been distorted or just wrong,” he said. “There was also a lot of official apathy. I remember one Irish government minister giving me the distinct impression that he would have been happier airbrushing the whole atrocity out of history. But I firmly believe that unless we learn from past mistakes there is no hope for future generations.”
In an effort to come to terms with what happened Stephen Travers also travelled to Belfast last year for a secret meeting with the UVF leadership.
“It was all very James Bond stuff – we met in secret in a church,” he said. “The UVF man only identified himself as the 'Craftsman'. The meeting was supposed to take 20 minutes but lasted five hours. He apologised for the massacre and said that their people had panicked. I got the impression that the UVF wanted to unburden itself from some of the terrible things they have done in the past. They seemed to want to lighten the burden of responsibility.”
However, Stephen Travers believes the UVF gang was directly controlled by more sinister elements.
“I never blamed the people who carried out the atrocity, although I condemn what they did,” he said. “They were pawns being manipulated by a much bigger agenda. I never wanted to tar the unionist people with what was done to us that night.”
He strongly believes that the Englishman who gave the order for their murders was in fact SAS-trained British army Captain Robert Nairac, who two years later was abducted, killed and his body secretly disposed of by the IRA in south Armagh.
“The guy who gave the orders was definitely a well-educated English, military man,” he said. “I remember hearing his clipped English tones and seeing him standing there like an action man in his fatigues. He was definitely the man in charge. I am convinced it was Robert Nairac.”
He also believes that the massacre had been sanctioned at high levels in the British establishment.
“They didn't just allow it to happen – they ordered it to happen. Yet the British government still refuses to apologise. I want them to say that they were wrong and that this kind of thing will not be allowed to happen again.”
Stephen Travers recalls how he travelled to the home of one UVF gang member after hearing that he wanted to publicly apologise for his part in the murders.
“I heard that Thomas Crozier was sorry for what he had done. I tried to meet him but when it didn't happen we drove to his home and knocked on the door. No-one answered but I am sure someone was inside. I hope we can meet and reconcile some day. For me the door will always be open to the people who want to apologise and learn from their mistakes.”
Stephen Travers is convinced it was the Miami band's ability to cross the political divide that led to their murders.
“We were legitimate targets because we didn't care about politics or religion. The showbands' common enemy was sectarianism. We were bringing people together and that's what they couldn't stomach.”
11. GARDA CRITICISED BY HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
THE Irish Human Rights Commission has criticised the26-County police, claiming it does not fully guarantee human rights.
The Commission says the Garda is some distance from being fully human rights compliant.
The Commission published its annual report on September 11.Advertisement The Human Rights Commission says it has a mandate to review the law and its practice to ensure that it is in line with human rights standards.
The Commission feels that the Garda Síochána is not fully compliant when it comes to human rights and it says it will monitor its future progress.
Commission President Dr Maurice Manning said effective 26-County policing and a respect for human rights do not have to clash.
The Commission says it has a role to not only monitor policing legislation, but also Garda operational policies and how they are implemented.
In relation to immigration issues, the Commission said the 26-County administration must amend its current policy to remove any legal uncertainty.
The Commission is concerned that legislation is not examined in detail and often not discussed by the 26-County assembly at Leinster House.
It also says that research into the rights of unmarried couples makes a compelling case for the provision of appropriate legal protection.
12. FURY AS BRITISH TROOPS APPEAR IN PRO-UVF MAGAZINE
THE BRITISH ARMY faced demands on September 8 to investigate how images of troops serving in southern Iraq ended up in a pro-loyalist magazine.
Six photographs of British soldiers in desert fatigues have been printed in the current edition of The Purple Standard, a publication which praises the exploits of loyalist death squad the Ulster Volunteer Force.
The Purple Standard, which used to be known as the UVF magazine Combat, said the British soldiers posted the images of themselves wearing orange sashes and playing flutes to its office. It praises the self-styled 'Rising Sons of Basra' and adds: 'We thank the guys for sending us these wonderful shots and we wish them well in the months ahead. You are all in our thoughts!'
The six images include a banner with a loyalist, British union jack and Iraqi flags under the legend: 'Rising sons of Basra.' They also show the British soldiers marching to the beat of a drum and playing the flute. The Purple Standard has printed the loyalist slogan 'No Surrender' underneath the images. Most of the rest of the issue is comprised of statements praising UVF men killed during the conflict in the Six-Counties.
In its incarnation as Combat the magazine regularly celebrated UVF killings, especially of Republicans.