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The Family of Volunteer Patsy O'Hara, Irish National Liberation Army
• 11
August 2006 |
The Sinn Fein 81 Committee
have organised 'Night of Remembrance for Hunger Striker and INLA Volunteer
Mickey Devine', in Derry's Guildhall on the evening of August 19th.
We
call upon The Ex-Lord Mayor of Derry City, Lynn Fleming (Sinn Fein), to use this
opportunity to formally apologise, on behalf of the provisional Republican
movement, to the Devine and O Hara families for the harassment and attacks which
both suffered at the hands of their members, during many months, which in turn
contributed to the imprisonment of Patsy and Mickey in 1976.
It was due
to death threats from the provisional movement upon the Republican Socialist
Movement, which in turn directly led Mickey and Patsy to raid an arms shop in
Lifford Co Donegal. During this raid they took 28 medium to low calibre rifles,
to protect both themselves and the Movement to which they belonged.
Both
(along with two others) were later arrested in Derry and charged with possession
with intent.
The charges against Patsy were dropped due to no evidence.
The other 3, including Mickey, were later sentenced to 12 years.
If no
threats had been made upon the membership and extended families of the RSM, then
it would have been unlikely that Mickey would have found himself imprisoned
during this period in time.
Patsy had received a beating from a group of
up to 13 of the provisional movement a few weeks previous to these
threats.
As a family, we have enormous admiration for the Volunteers of
the IRA who fought the British war machine to a standstill. But the actions of
some of those members (including its Derry leadership) fell far short of the
noble aims, objectives, and conduct of that which a freedom fighter's should
be.
It is a truly sad reflection upon this organisation that they were
busier harassing, threatening and attempting to prevent Irish Republican
Socialist revolutionaries like Patsy and Mickey from conducting attacks against
British army and RUC personnel.....than they were persuing republican objectives
themselves.
We also acknowledge the genuine people involved in the above
committee who have worked tirelessly for months in setting up fitting
commemorations for the ten H Block Hunger Strikers.
And, as they have
taken it upon themselves to organise this night of remembrance for Republican
Socialist freedom fighter Mickey Devine — a leading member of the Irish National
Liberation Army (without, we may add, any invitation to the RSM to participate
in, or formally attend the event!), let them take the opportunity to formally
acknowledge and apologise to our families.
http://lark.phoblacht.net/OH13080616g.html
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| OMBUDSMAN EXPECTED TO PROVIDE DAMNING EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION
08/14/06 02:32 EST
A report due to be published by Northern Ireland police ombudsman Nuala O’Loan is expected to provide damning evidence that the RUC Special Branch allowed loyalist informers to carry out more than a dozen murders of innocent people.
O’Loan’s report is expected to be published in the coming weeks. It is understood to provide some of the most serious evidence ever uncovered on the murders.
The investigation is the culmination of a nine-year campaign by Belfast man Raymond McCord Sr to bring the killers of his 22-yearold son to justice. Raymond McCord Jr was beaten to death by a UVF gang at Ballyduff Quarry on the outskirts of north Belfast in November 1997.
The 22-year-old, who was himself linked to the UVF, is understood to have been murdered to protect a senior loyalist who was being investigated by the UVF leadership over involvement in drug dealing.
For most of the last nine years, the victim’s father fought a hopeless campaign claiming that his son’s killers were Special Branch informers who had been allowed to kill citizens with the full knowledge of their police handlers.
However, a UVF attack on Belfast doorman Trevor Gowdy in December 2002 was to bring a dramatic breakthrough in the case.
North Belfast UVF leader Mark Haddock and other members of the paramilitary organisation’s Mount Vernon unit were arrested and charged with Gowdy’s attempted murder.
The case and the publicity that came with it forced the RUC (renamed PSNI) Special Branch to cut loose one of its most prized agents.
While McCord continued to allege that Haddock was a police informer and had ordered the murder of his son, few took the claims seriously.
Little attention was paid to the news that O’Loan had agreed to investigate McCord’s allegations in 2003. However, it was the decision by former RUC detectives Johnson ‘Jonty’
Brown and Trevor McIlwrath to publicly endorse McCord’s allegations that put the first hole in the wall of silence.
Brown and McIlwrath had both been police officers for more than 30 years before they retired. More importantly, they were the men who had sent Johnny Adair to jail in 1994 after secretly recording him admitting to directing UDA terrorism.
Brown and McIlwrath, however, were not afraid to speak out about the Special Branch allowing informers to murder with impunity.
In 1991, they secretly taped UDA man Ken Barrett admitting the murder of human rights attorney Pat Finucane.
However, they claimed that when RUC Special Branch became involved in the case, the confession tape went missing and they were blocked from charging Barrett with Finucane’s murder.
Crucially, Brown and McIlwrath recruited the 16-yearold Mark Haddock to become an informer in 1985 after he was arrested for petrol bombing a bus.
For six years, Haddock fed them information about low-level crime, but in 1990, when he told them he had joined the UVF, Special Branch took over control of the agent. What took place over the next decade will be the subject of O’Loan’s report.
Haddock is alleged to have shot dead Catholic taxi driver Sharon McKenna in north Belfast in January 1991 after the UVF suspected she might be an informer.
Brown and McIlwrath would later claim that, within days, they had enough evidence to charge Haddock with McKenna’s murder.
However, they claim that Special Branch blocked them from moving against the agent.
Over the next decade, Haddock is alleged to have been involved in more than a dozen murders, yet no charges were ever brought against him.
When he was charged with the attempted murder of Trevor Gowdy in August 2003, the Special Branch could no longer protect Haddock. In February of this year he was shot and seriously wounded by UVF gunmen for being a Special Branch informer.
He is on remand on a hospital wing inside Maghaberry prison awaiting judgment in the Gowdy trial.
In October last year, Irish Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte used Dail privilege to name Haddock as a Special Branch informer who had been involved in murder.
In May, Sir Reg Empey, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), was widely criticised after he allowed Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine to join his party’s assembly team at Stormont.
Ervine’s party is accepted as having close ties to the UVF.
In an ironic twist, Brown, McIlwrath and a third former police officer were arrested by O’Loan’s detectives earlier this week and questioned about alleged attempts to pervert the course of justice.
All three were later released without charge.
The arrest of Brown and McIlwrath is seen as a technicality.
Their questioning is understood to have related to the fact that they had provided evidence of Haddock’s alleged involvement in McKenna’s murder but were blocked from pursuing him by Special Branch.
It is understood O’Loan’s investigators will now seek to question senior police officers in the coming weeks over the allegation that Haddock was protected by the highest ranks within RUC (PSNI) Special Branch.
O’Loan is understood to be preparing to recommend charges against a number of senior Special Branch officers.
If, as expected, she concludes that senior police officers allowed state agents to carry out more than a dozen murders with impunity, the implications for both the PSNI and the UUP will be immense.
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The Irish American Information Service is a non-profit organization providing up-to-the-minute political news from Ireland to the world.
The IAIS is funded entirely by your contributions. Please send your tax-deductible contributions to IAIS at the 907 F St NE, Washington DC 20002. You can visit us on the Web at http://www.iais.org
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| COLLUSION SUSPECT SHOT OUTSIDE BELFAST
05/30/06 11:07 EST
A leading Ulster Volunteer Force paramilitary member is critical after being shot in County Antrim.
The attack happened just before 4PM local time this afternoon in Newtownabbey. It is understood Mark Haddock, 36, has been taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast with multiple wounds.
Mr. Haddock was questioned by detectives about the murder in
1997 of 22-year-old Raymond McCord, whose killing is the focus of a major RUC collusion investigation by the Police Ombudsman.
The inquiry is the biggest ever carried out by Nuala O`Loan`s officers.
The Ombudsman`s report is due to be published within weeks.
Mark Haddock`s former associates in the UVF are the chief suspects in what police are treating as a murder attempt.
He is currently on bail on a charge of attempting to murder doorman, Trevor Gowdy, at a social club in Monkstown nearly four years ago.
Haddock was named in that court case as a leading UVF member. Judgement in the trial has been reserved.
Part of the Doagh Road has been sealed off as police carry out a follow up investigation.
North Belfast DUP MP Nigel Dodds said he was shocked at the shooting.
"This is an appalling incident which will be condemned by all right thinking people," he said.
"Regardless of circumstances no one has the right to take the law into their own hands and I would call upon anyone with information to assist the police in order to bring those responsible to justice."
__________________________________________________________
The Irish American Information Service is a non-profit organization providing up-to-the-minute political news from Ireland to the world.
The IAIS is funded entirely by your contributions. Please send your tax-deductible contributions to IAIS at the 907 F St NE, Washington DC 20002. You can visit us on the Web at http://www.iais.org
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Wild-Irish
