20th January – Deaths & Events in Northern Ireland Troubles

Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles

20^th January

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Wednesday 20 January 1971

It was announced that an independent commissioner would decide on the boundaries of the new district council areas.

Saturday 20 January 1973

A car bomb exploded in Sackville Place, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, and killed one person and injured 17 others. The person killed was Thomas Douglas (25). The car used in the bombing had been hijacked at Agnes Street, Belfast.

[No organisation claimed responsibility but the bomb was believed to have been planted by one of the Loyalist paramilitary organisations.]

Monday 20 January 1975

[Public Records 1975 – Released 1 January 2006:

Telegram containing a note of a meeting between Galsworth, then of the British Embassy in Dublin, and Liam Cosgrave, then Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister). The telegram mentions the concerns of Cosgrave about the likely impact on public opinion if it became known that the British government was negotiating with the Irish Republican Army (IRA).]

[Public Records 1975 – Released 1 January 2006: Letter from Joel Barnett, then Chief Secretary to the Treasury, to Merlyn Rees, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, about the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.]

Tuesday 20 February 1979

Leader of the Shankill Butchers Lenny Murphy

 

‘Shankill Butchers’ Sentenced A group of 11 Loyalists known as the ‘Shankill butchers’ were sentenced to life imprisonment for 112 offences including 19 murders. The 11 men were given 42 life sentences and received 2,000 years imprisonment, in total, in the form of concurrent sentences.

[The Shankill Butchers had begun killing Catholics in July 1972 and were not arrested until May 1977. The Loyalist gang operated out of a number of Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) drinking dens in the Shankill Road area of Belfast. The gang was initially led by Lenny Murphy but it continued to operate following his imprisonment in 1976. The Shankill Butchers got their name because not only did they kill Catholics but they first abducted many of their victims, tortured them, mutilated them with butcher knives and axes, and then finally killed them.]

See Shankill Butchers

See Lenny Murphy

Tuesday 20 January 1981

Maurice Gilvarry (24), a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), was found shot dead near Jonesborough, County Armagh. He had been killed by other members of the IRA who alleged that he had acted as an informer.

A British soldier was shot dead by the IRA in Derry.

Sunday 20 January 1985

Douglas Hurd, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, was interviewed on Radio Telefis Éireann (RTE) during which he said that political arrangements could be created to improve Anglo-Irish relationships.

Tuesday 20 January 1987

Thomas Power

 

John O’Reilly

 

When two Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) members were shot dead by members of the Irish People’s Liberation Organisation (IPLO) in Drogheda, County Louth, Republic of Ireland, a feud began between the two organisations.

[The feud continued until 26 March 1987 with a final death toll of 11.]

The coalition government in the Republic of Ireland, led by Garret FitzGerald, ended after the Labour Party withdrew its support. John Taylor, then Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Northern Ireland, left the European Democratic Group to join the European Right Group.

The case of the ‘Birmingham Six’ was referred to the Court of Appeal by Douglas Hurd, then British Home Secretary.

Wednesday 20 January 1988

The British government opposed the classification of Northern Ireland as one of Europe’s poorest regions thus reducing the amount of regional structural funds that it received.

Saturday 20 January 1990

Brian Nelson appeared in court on charges relating to the Stevens Inquiry.

See Brian Nelson

[On 28 January 1990 the ‘Sunday Tribune’ (a newspaper published in the Republic of Ireland) alleged that Nelson had worked for British Army intelligence for a number of years.]

Monday 20 January 1992

John Major, then British Prime Minister, travelled to Northern Ireland and held meetings with senior members of the security services

Thursday 20 January 1994

The private secretary to John Major, then British Prime Minister, replied to a letter from Gerry Adams, then President of SF, to state that there “can be no question of renegotiation” of the Downing Street Declaration (DSD).

Monday 20 January 1997

A Catholic family escaped injury when a bomb exploded under their van in Larne.

[No group claimed responsibility but the incident was believed to be the work of the Loyalist Volunteer Force; LVF. ]

There was an attack on the Mountpottinger Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) station in Short Strand, Belfast. Two ‘coffee jar bombs’ were thrown at the station but there were no injuries. [The attack was believed to have been carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) (?).]

Tuesday 20 January 1998

Gerry Adams, then President of Sinn Féin (SF), accused the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) / Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) of “actively” collaborating with the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) in some of the recent killings of Catholics. However, Adams said that the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), the political representatives of the UDA / UFF, should not be expelled from the multi-party Stormont talks.

Wednesday 20 January 1999

Kenny McClinton, then acting as Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) representative to the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), said that the LVF was considering a second round of decommissioning.

[To date this second act of decommissioning had not taken place.]

Patrick Harty, a farmer from Toomevara, County Tipperary, refused to give evidence as a prosecution witness in the trial of the four men accused of the killing of Jerry McCabe, who was a Detective in the Garda Síochána (the Irish police). Harty said he could not give a reason for his refusal to give evidence and was jailed for 18 months.

Sunday 20 January 2002

There were disturbances in the Serpentine Gardens and White City areas of north Belfast. Catholic homes in the Serpentine Gardens area were petrol-bombed between midnight and approximately 1.30am (0130GMT). The devices were thrown from the Loyalist White City area.

In follow-up searches in White City the police found a crate of petrol-bombs – some with fireworks inside. At approximately 4.30am (0430GMT) the home of a Protestant family in White City was attacked with petrol-bombs. There was scorch damage to the house but no injuries. The petrol-bombs were thrown from the Nationalist Serpentine Gardens. The family of six said they would leave the area.

Shore Road Riots

There was also rioting in the nearby Shore Road and the Whitewell Road areas of north Belfast. Nationalists threw a petrol-bomb into a Protestant house on the Whitewell Road. The house was empty at the time and there were no injuries. There were then further disturbances involving Loyalists and Nationalists. Nationalists crowds throwing petrol-bombs, stones, and blast-bombs attacked police and fire officers who were dealing with burning barricades.

 

Nigel Dodds (DUP), then Member of Parliament (MP) for north Belfast, held a meeting with Alan McQuillan, then Assistant Chief Constable, to ask for 24-hour police patrols.

Independent Television (ITV) in the United Kingdom (UK) broadcast a film entitled ‘Bloody Sunday‘ that portrayed the events in Derry on 30 January 1972.

[Prior to broadcast the film had been criticised by some Unionists in Northern Ireland and by some members of the Conservative party in Britain. The film was also given a limited cinema release.]

 

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Remembering all innocent victims of the Troubles

Today is the anniversary of the death of the following  people killed as a results of the conflict in Northern Ireland

“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die

– Thomas Campbell

To the innocent on the list – Your memory will live  forever

– To  the Paramilitaries  –

There are many things worth living for, a few things worth dying for, but nothing worth killing for.

 10 People   lost their lives on the 20th January  between  1973 – 1987

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20 January 1973
Thomas Douglas  (21)

nfNIRI
Status: Civilian (Civ),

Killed by: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
Orginally from Scotland. Killed when car bomb exploded, Sackville Place, off O’Connell Street, Dublin.

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20 January 1974
Desmond Mullan,   (33)

Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),

Killed by: non-specific Loyalist group (LOY)
Shot while walking along Maple Gardens, Carrickfergus, County Antrim.

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20 January 1974

Cormac McCabe,   (42)

Protestant
Status: Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Off duty. Found shot in field, Altadaven, near Clogher, County Tyrone.

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20 January 1975

Kevin Coen,   (28)

nfNI
Status: Irish Republican Army (IRA),

Killed by: British Army (BA)
From County Sligo. Shot during attempted hijacking of bus, Kinawley, County Fermanagh.

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20 January 1981
 Christopher Shenton,   (21)

nfNI
Status: British Army (BA),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot by sniper while in British Army (BA) observation post overlooking Bogside, City Walls, Derry

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20 January 1981

Maurice Gilvarry,  (24)

Catholic
Status: Irish Republican Army (IRA),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Found shot near Jonesborough, County Armagh. Alleged informer

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20 January 1983

Frank McColgan,  (31)

Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),

Killed by: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)
Shot during car chase, shortly after being involved in robbery, Black’s Road, Dunmurry, near Belfast, County Antrim.

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20 January 1984
Colin Houston,  (30)

Protestant
Status: Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR),

Killed by: Irish National Liberation Army (INLA)
Off duty. Shot at his home, Sunnymede Avenue, Dunmurry, near Belfast, County Antrim

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20 January 1987

Thomas Power,  (34)

Catholic
Status: Irish National Liberation Army (INLA),

Killed by: Irish People’s Liberation Organisation (IPLO)
Shot while in Rossnaree Hotel, Drogheda, County Louth. Irish National Liberation Army / Irish People’s Liberation Organisation feud.

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20 January 1987

John O’Reilly,   (26)

Catholic
Status: Irish National Liberation Army (INLA),

Killed by: Irish People’s Liberation Organisation (IPLO)
Shot while in Rossnaree Hotel, Drogheda, County Louth. Irish National Liberation Army / Irish People’s Liberation Organisation feud.

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Brian Nelson – Loyalist Informer

Brian Nelson (30 September 1947 – 11 April 2003) was an Ulster loyalist during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. He was simultaneously an informant for the British Army‘s Intelligence Corps and the intelligence chief of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a terrorist organisation.

 

Early life

Nelson, a Protestant from the Shankill Road, Belfast, served with the Black Watch regiment before joining the Ulster Defence Association in the early 1970s, where he was a low-level informant for the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

In 1974 he was jailed for seven years for the kidnap and torture of a Catholic man, Gerald Higgins, who died several weeks later from his injuries. Nelson served three years. After his release, Nelson resigned from the UDA and left for a construction job in West Germany. In 1985, however, the Intelligence Corps asked Nelson to rejoin and infiltrate the UDA. He rose to become the UDA’s senior intelligence officer while receiving assistance from his handlers. In one instance, IC operatives allegedly organised, streamlined and returned to Nelson a suitcase full of disorganised UDA intelligence.

Stevens Inquiry

In the early 1990s, following the shooting death of Loughlin Maginn, John Stevens was named to investigate allegations of collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Stevens was able to use advanced fingerprint technology, then unavailable to the RUC. The Inquiry team uncovered Nelson’s fingerprints on some security force documents. The team began an investigation that, despite the obstructions encountered, would lead to Nelson’s arrest.

When the Stevens Inquiry Team arrested and interrogated Nelson, he claimed that he had been acting on behalf on the British government. Stevens spoke to John Deverell, head of MI5 in Belfast, who confirmed that Nelson had worked for Army Intelligence and not the RUC. Sharp disagreements developed between the two security branches as the extent of Nelson’s illegal activities within the Force Research Unit (FRU) was uncovered.

Over a period of two months, Nelson dictated a police statement covering 650 pages. He claimed that he had been tasked by the British Army to make the UDA a more effective killing machine. Using information that should have been confidential to his handlers he produced dossiers or “Intelligence Packages” including backgrounds, addresses, photos and movements on proposed targets, which were passed on to UDA assassins.^[6]

Blue card index system

Nelson had a blue card index system whereby he would pick out information on individuals from the mass of information reaching him. The selection of names for the index was Nelson’s alone and Stevens concluded that Nelson was actually choosing the people who were going to be shot. Nelson passed on the names of only ten people to his FRU handlers, claiming he could not remember the others.

Those ten were never targeted. Four others, including solicitor Pat Finucane, were all shot dead. In Stevens’ words “the FRU had been inexcusably careless in failing to protect the four who lost their lives”. Nelson handed out his blue cards, between twenty and fifty at a time, to members of the Ulster Volunteer Force. The FRU had no agents within the UVF and these targeted people were consequently unprotected. Many loyalists never bothered to destroy their blue cards, however, and the Stevens team was able to obtain fingerprint evidence.

Brian Nelson represented as a silhouette holding a placard in a Belfast mural (February 2006).

Trial

At his trial in 1992,  the prosecution alleged that he failed to alert his handlers to all the assassination plans of which he was aware.  Gordon Kerr (“Colonel J”), a senior officer, who was later investigated himself, testified on Nelson’s behalf.

Kerr claimed that Nelson had warned the Intelligence Corps of more than 200 murder plots by loyalist death squads, including one which targeted Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams. Kerr claimed that Nelson’s warnings allowed the British Army to prevent all murders but three.

Nelson claimed that, in 1989, he had warned his handlers of UDA plans to murder solicitor Pat Finucane, who had been successfully representing IRA suspects in court. According to Nelson, Finucane was given no warning and was fatally shot in front of his wife and children.

Eventually Nelson pled guilty to 20 charges, including five of conspiracy to murder and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. A number of charges, including two counts of first degree murder, were dropped as part of his plea bargain.

Further allegations

Following Nelson’s conviction, the BBC Panorama programme Dirty War, broadcast on 8 June 1992, made new claims about Nelson’s involvement in further murders and conspiracies. One allegation was that, following a tip off from Nelson, the Intelligence Corps kept secret a plot to murder Paddy McGrory, a solicitor representing the families of the Gibraltar Three.

In January 1993, Gerry Adams claimed the British government was fully aware of Nelson’s involvement in Ulster Resistance‘s January 1988 importation of weapons from South Africa including 200 AK47 rifles; 90 Browning pistols; 500 fragmentation grenades and 12 RPG 7 rocket launchers. This, together with the reliance by loyalists on leaked, although often outdated, military and police intelligence files on potential targets, meant that by 1992 loyalists were killing more than the republicans, a situation not seen since 1975.

Jimmy Smyth extradition case

Sir Patrick Mayhew, Northern Ireland Secretary, declared the Nelson affair was dead and buried. However, in May 1993, a San Francisco, California judge, in the extradition case of a Maze prisoner escapee, James Joseph “Jimmy” Smyth, who had used the alias “Jimmy Lynch”, demanded disclosure in court of suppressed reports, including documents on Nelson, or risk having the case dismissed.

The papers were not produced, but Smyth was eventually extradited back to Northern Ireland and to jail on 17 August 1996.

Francisco Notarantonio

Frederico Scappatici

Nelson was accused of setting up the killing of an Irish republican, Francisco Notarantonio, to divert the UDA from targeting Frederico Scappatici, an alleged IRA informer. Loyalist Sam McCrory shot Notarantonio, aged 66, who had been interned in 1971.  but had not been active for many years, dead at his home in Ballymurphy, West Belfast on 9 October 1987.

 

Death

Nelson died, reportedly from a brain haemorrhage, on 11 April 2003, aged 55, after suffering a heart attack a fortnight before his death. Although news reports described Nelson as living in a secret location in England, it was not disclosed whether he had been granted witness protection as part of the supergrass policy

The Shankill Butchers – Documentary & Background

Source: The Shankill Butchers – Documentary & Background

Spike Lee is a Racist & needs to shut up

Lee said on Instagram he “cannot support” the “lily white” awards show.

That sounds like racism to me!

Maybe I’m missing something here – but shouldn’t awards and accolades be based on performance and critical acclaim and not on the colour of your skin?

Not according to Mr. Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith’s gut retching display on the News today had me reaching for the off-button  – see below for full story.

Regardless of who you are, what colour you are or which  god you worship , no one has the right to demand special attention due to their race or creed.

I mean imagine if  Liam Neeson didn’t win an award or recognition for one of his movies , you wouldn’t  hear him  banging on about “Not enough Irish leprechaun’s are being given awards etc. ” or anything ridiculous like that , so why should the likes of Lee feel they have a god given right to an advantage over others.

For years the racist card has been overplayed and abused by all and  sundry and rightly so racism has no place in  modern democracies  like the UK and USA , but when it is abused and Reverse Racism is at play no one want to hear  about it and everyone is so paranoid about how they will perceived if they speak out against being accused of racism.

At the end of the day the best and most deserving actor’s/actress’s should be awarded Oscar’s based on performance and critical acclaim , regardless of colour or creed and it may just be the case that this year none of those nominated were black and all were white. So what?

Lee and his deluded supporters are a disgrace for calling the race card and I sincerely hope that someone with some balls in Hollywood stands up to them and Oscars head Cheryl Boone is big enough to tell him and his supporters the plain truth , they weren’t considered good enough this season – Get over it.

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Oscars head acts over lack of nominees’ diversity

Oscars head Cheryl Boone Isaacs is taking action to “alter the make-up” of their membership, after Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith’s refusal to attend because of the mostly white nominees.

Boone Isaacs praised the “wonderful work” of the nominees but said she was “heartbroken” at the lack of diversity.

Lee said on Instagram he “cannot support” the “lily white” awards show.

Jada Pinkett Smith said in a video message on Facebook that she would not be attending the awards ceremony.

• How to become an Academy member
• The film stars who snubbed the Oscars

Boone Isaacs added that “dramatic steps” were being taken, saying: “In the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond.”

See BBC News for full story