“A Moral Quagmire, Punctuated by Political
Indifference”
When the rape of a 4-year-old child and
the murder of countless citizens is viewed by a political and security elite as
nothing more than “Internal House-keeping” (Mowlam, 1999).
Martin McGuinness MP opening the new Sinn Fein Office in Dundalk with Child Rapist Liam Adams, this
at a time when Liam Adams had admitted to McGuinness that he had Raped his 4-year-old
daughter Aine. Liam Adams had been promoted to Chairman of Louth Sinn Fein
Comhairle Ceanntair, at a time when Gerry Adams TD admits that he knew his
brother Liam was a child rapist and had Ghosted Liam to Dundalk. Liam was also
nominated to run for Sinn Fein/PIRA in the general election of 1997, but lost
out on that nomination to another member of Sinn Fein/PIRA, rumours were
emerging that Liam was molesting child members of Na Fianna Eireann in Dundalk.
Liam Adams would later return to Belfast to work with vulnerable children.
Party representatives
including Mary Lou McDonald - who had rightly rallied against the Catholic
Church's response to paedophile priests, disgracefully failed to rebuke her
Chief of Staff, Gerry Adams TD, and still does to this very day.
On the 17th
November 2003 Gerry Adams TD afforded his Father Gerry Adams Snr a full style
Sinn Fein/PIRA funeral, at a time when Gerry Adams TD knew his Father was a
serial child rapist, whose crimes, in number and deed, mirrored those of
paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth. In 2009, and in order to distract from
public criticism of Sinn Fein/PIRA protecting hundreds of sex criminals within
their own ranks, Gerry Adams TD went public about his Father being a serial
child rapist.
Conor Murphy is Sinn
Fein/PIRA Finance Minister in The Northern Ireland Assembly, Murphy gave
political cover to the south Armagh Command Staff of The PIRA when that Command
Staff murdered Paul Quinn in Monaghan in 2007. The picture above shows Conor
Murphy and PIRA Commander Frank McCabe socialising together in December 2019.
Frank McCabe was the PIRA Commanding Officer of those who murdered Paul Quinn
in 2007.
Truth and Lies,
The Strange Story of Sinn Fein/PIRA
It was 1999, and clear to
anyone who had a pulse that both Sinn Fein/PIRA and their Loyalist counterparts
were taking wholesale control of their respective territories, there was no
mention of a United Ireland, other than for the ill-informed who were trying to
fill column inches to make their daily deadline. This was/is about power and
control, Sinn Fein/PIRA and their ‘loyalist’ counterparts had enjoyed 30 years
of determining life and death and they were not going to let that go, they had
gone from Myth to Mafia.
Following the initial
Sinn Fein/PIRA and loyalist ‘cease-fires’ of August and October 1994
respectively, the leadership of those organisations knew that they would have
to maintain power and control over their territories if their income streams
were to continue. Following the Sinn Fein/PIRA cease-fire of August 1994, some
drug-dealers felt that they no longer needed to pay protection money to Sinn
Fein/PIRA as Sinn Fein/PIRA would be unable to take action against them for
refusing to pay. The drug-dealers were wrong, they had not read the small print
on the Sinn Fein/PIRA cease-fire that had been agreed between MI6 and the Sinn
Fein/PIRA leadership. The Sinn Fein/PIRA cease-fires agreed in 1994/1997 only
applied to targeting members of the British Security Forces, British
politicians and loyalist terrorists, the Sinn Fein/PIRA cease-fire did not
include protection for Catholics, members of The Irish Security Forces and so
forth.
This duplicity led to the
cold-blooded murder of Garda Jerry McCabe by Kevin Walsh in 1996, at a time when
The PIRA Army Council had ordered PIRA units operating in The Republic not to
be arrested by Gardai at a politically sensitive time. Kevin Walsh was
on-the-run for two-years and living in a safe house in Cavan after he murdered
Garda McCabe, Walsh was visited on three occasions by Gerry Adams and Martin
McGuinness. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness offered Walsh assurances that if
they (The PIRA Army Council) could not silence the witnesses against Walsh and
his co-accused for the murder of Garda McCabe, Walsh would be freed under the
terms of a fast approaching ‘peace’ deal with The British.
PIRA Chief of Staff,
Kevin McKenna (based in Monaghan) was delegated with the task of establishing
the identity of and silencing witnesses. Kevin McKenna was receiving regular
updates from a corrupt Garda Officer based in Cavan, McKenna referred to such
Gardai as Provo-cops (a take on the movie Robo-cop). It should be made clear,
the number of corrupt Gardai were small, without the efforts of An Garda
Siochana who often operated without political support, many more hundreds of people
would have been murdered by Sinn Fein/PIRA.
Sinn Fein/PIRA murdered
at will and created proxy groups such as Direct Action Against Drugs to take
the political pressure off. It was business as usual, although they
periodically wound down their activity when it was politically expedient to do
so. The screams of child rape victims being silenced went unheard in Provo
controlled territories in Derry, Belfast, Armagh, Monaghan, Louth, Dublin and
so forth.
Loyalist terrorist groups
continued with their criminal activity including murder. Thursday 22nd
December 1994, a Catholic, Noel Lyness (47), a Catholic civilian, was found
beaten to death in an entry, off Ebor Street, Village, Belfast. Lyness who was
a mature student at Queen's University Belfast was the victim of a sectarian
attack and had been killed by Loyalists but no paramilitary group claimed
responsibility. In the following years there were to be dozens of Catholics murdered
by both Loyalist and Sinn Fein/PIRA paramilitary groups (who were supposed to
be on cease-fire) which were followed by the policy of 'no claim, no blame'.
This meant that if Sinn Fein/PIRA or no Loyalist paramilitary group claimed the
killing, there could be no political sanctions taken against them. In an effort
to further hide their identity Sinn Fein/PIRA and their Loyalist counterparts
resorted to beating their victims to death, or stabbing with knives, or
shooting with shotguns (this method meant there were no bullets for the police
to trace by ballistics).
Human Rights in Northern
Ireland: Congressional Hearing in 1997, described many of the forms of
mutilation attacks (which continue in 2020) carried out by Sinn Fein/PIRA on
thousands of people in their own communities. The acts of savagery described by
Human Rights in Northern Ireland: Congressional Hearing in 1997, mirrored the
actions of the British militia known as The Black and Tans that were recruited
in the early 20th Century to suppress Nationalist opposition to
British rule.
The Black and Tans with the Collusion of their British
Paymasters, murdered Irish Catholics, mutilated Irish Catholics with bayonets,
used iron bars to beat Irish Catholics to death, they raped Catholic women and
children, they tied Catholic women to lamp-posts and cut off their hair, they
tared and feathered Catholic women and so forth. The modus-operandi of Sinn
Fein/PIRA mirrors that of The Black and Tans.
Playwright Lady Gregory
wrote reports on the activities of the Black and Tans around Coole in Galway,
where she resided, under the title, “A week in Ireland”, for The Nation in
London, though they were not published under her name. She also referred to
them in her journals and depicted them as a “terrible class… the standard
reduced, little chaps of 5 foot 6 and with no character”.
“Beatings, hair cuttings
and worse... which included women in night attire being assaulted by drunken
Black and Tans”.
In Gort in December 1920,
as observed by historian Roy Foster, “a new level was plumbed” when two local
boys with no IRA connections were murdered by the Black and Tans for “impudence”.
Their bodies were thrown into a ditch “after being dragged behind one of the
dreaded lorries until they were unrecognisably mangled”. This was just one
example of what poet WB Yeats referred to in his poem Reprisals as “Half-drunk
or whole-mad soldiery”.
Eamon Collins, a former
member of Sinn Fein/PIRA, showed such “impudence”, when he published a book
about his time in Sinn Fein/PIRA, called, “Killing Rage”, for that “impudence”
Eamon Collins was beaten and stabbed to death in his 45th year by members
of Sinn Fein/PIRA early in the morning of 27th January 1999, whilst
walking his dogs near the Barcroft Park Estate in Newry along a quiet stretch
of country lane at Doran's Hill, just within sight of Sliabh gCuircin (Camlough
Mountain). The Sinn Fein/PIRA member who ran the smear campaign against Eamon
Collins in preparation for his murder, was Michael Marron, Barcroft Park, who
was a protected Sinn Fein/PIRA child rapist who would only face the criminal
justice system after one of his rape victims moved out of Barcroft Park and
made statements to police, Marron would plead guilty to child rape, and Sinn
Fein/PIRA, including Conor Murphy, had no comment. Marron was a member of a
Sinn Fein/PIRA paedophile ring.
Germ Warfare
In 1983 senior members of
Sinn Fein/PIRA in Belfast recruited student of Micro-Biology, at Queens
University, Basil Henry, as they wanted to create a dirty-bomb for the London
underground, however, Basil Henry was caught with a brother of Gerry Adams
while in possession of a booby-trap bomb and imprisoned. In 1984, The PIRA Army
Council continued with their search for a dirty-bomb and so they had a long
shopping list for their friend Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi in Libya
including Semtex and Mustard Gas.
Sinn Fein/PIRA Murders,
some recent examples
Sinn Fein/PIRA members
lead by PIRA Commander, Gerard ‘Jock’ Davidson, did beat and stab to death a
Catholic, Robert McCartney,
on the 31st January 2005, the Sinn Fein/PIRA members were able to
silence 70 witnesses who were in the vicinity at the time of the murder, Sinn
Fein/PIRA removed all CCTV footage from the area. As Robert McCartney’s family
called for justice they were driven out of their homes.
Gareth O'Connor
disappeared after driving through Newtownhamilton, County Armagh, in 2003. On
11th June 2005, his badly decomposed body was discovered in his car
in Newry Canal, County Down. His father, Mark, believes that the Provisional
IRA were responsible for the murder, as the PIRA had threatened father and son.
A Sinn Fein Spokesman told media outlets that Gareth O’Connor may have been
working for the police, but that the PIRA did not kill him. Gareth O’Connor
never worked for the police and his murder was a warning to those who would
engage in the simplest dispute with Sinn Fein/PIRA members.
Paul Quinn a 21-year-old
Catholic was beaten to death by 15 members of Sinn Fein/PIRA on the 20th
October 2007 in County Monaghan in The Irish Republic. On the 12th
November 2007, The International Monitoring Commission, an independent
monitoring group set up to monitor paramilitary activity, said that current and
former members of the PIRA may have been involved in the murder of Paul Quinn.
It was in fact the Command Staff of Sinn Fein/PIRA in south Armagh who ordered
Paul Quinn’s murder and this had been sanctioned by The PIRA Army Council in
Belfast. Periodic, savagery and murder, allows Sinn Fein/PIRA to maintain power
and control in large geographical areas.
In August 2015, The PIRA
Army Council ordered the murder of Kevin McGuigan Sr in Belfast. While Sinn
Fein spokesmen briefed the media that McGuigan was the gunman who had shot dead
Gerard ‘Jock’ Davidson earlier in 2015, it is widely believed that both
Davidson and his life-long friend McGuigan were both murdered on the orders of
The PIRA Army Council as both men were unable to answer questions about the
whereabouts of £500,000 from the Northern Bank Robbery that had been carried
out by The PIRA on the 20th December 2004. While Sinn Fein have
always denied the Northern Bank Robbery was carried out by Sinn Fein/PIRA,
in
an RTE Prime Time Programme aired 10th December 2019, relating
to William
E. Hampton, a Sinn Fein/PIRA member from Monaghan who murdered Sir Norman
Strong and his son James in 1981, claims that Sinn Fein/PIRA did carry out the
Northern Bank Robbery.
In October 2018 a man who
had been questioned by the PSNI in relation to the throwing of a fire-work at
the homes of Gerry Adams TD and Bobby Storey (PIRA Intelligence Officer, PIRA
Army Council) was shot and crippled on the direct orders of The PIRA Army
Council, the man was later taken to hospital with injuries
police said were “potentially life changing”. The PIRA gunman also fired a shot
through the Sinn Fein office on the street opposite where he had shot his
victim, this was a ruse to distract attention away from Sinn Fein/PIRA for the
shooting. The ruse is perverse, to suggest that a person shooting the person
who allegedly threw a firework at the home of Gerry Adams is in some way
opposed to Sinn Fein/PIRA.
Politicians of all shades
of opinion have been subject to murder and savagery by Sinn Fein/PIRA and in
March 1994 SDLP Councillor for Crossmaglen in south Armagh, John Fee, was set
upon and severely beaten by a gang of Sinn Fein/PIRA members as he had the
“impudence” to question on-going Sinn Fein/PIRA violence against the Catholic
community.
In 2020 as Sinn Fein/PIRA
try to woe the middle-classes in The Irish Republic, they seek sympathy by
stating that they are under threat from ‘Dissident Republican’ groups, this of
course if total nonsense:
“Saoradh, National
Executive member Alan Lundy, whose own father also Alan was a Sinn Féin member
and PIRA Volunteer who was shot dead by the UFF (cover name for UDA) in 1993,
commented;
“These
threats are non-existent and totally bogus”.
Sinn Fein/PIRA struggle
to explain to a national and international media, how, they, as ‘sole defenders’
of the nationalist community, are being subject to attacks by members of that
nationalist community. The reality is that many victims raped (and their
families) by Sinn Fein/PIRA members and then silenced by Sinn Fein/PIRA
Kangaroo Courts, remain angry at their treatment. Many victims and their
families continue to struggle in communities that remain under the control of
Sinn Fein/PIRA.
One might ask, why don’t
they move out of those areas controlled by the terrorists? The reality is that
these are vast urban housing networks in which 20 strands of the one family can
live in 20 different houses, for an individual to walk away in order to give
evidence against their Sinn Fein/PIRA rapist, they will never be able to return
to family and friends. The same applies to rural parts of Monaghan, Cavan,
Kerry and so forth where Sinn Fein/PIRA have a presence.
Sinn Fein/PIRA, the Rapists and the Patriots
In 2014 Sinn Fein/PIRA were
coming under intense pressure to name the Sinn Fein/PIRA rapists and
paedophiles that they had Ghosted into unsuspecting communities in The Irish
Republic. Gerry Adams, then President of Sinn Fein/PIRA and Patriarch of The
PIRA Army Council (the Supreme Ruling Authority of Sinn Fein/PIRA), produced a
list of 27 Sinn Fein/PIRA rapists and paedophiles that the Sinn Fein/PIRA
leadership had Ghosted into The Irish Republic, to areas such as Dublin
Central, Dublin Bay South and so forth. Adams said that the list of 27 Sinn
Fein/PIRA sex criminals had been mysteriously posted through the letter box of
his home in west Belfast and he had no knowledge of the list before that
mysterious appearance, although Adams has had 24/7 CCTV coverage at his home
for decades.
Gerry Adams TD had of
course been less than truthful about the list of Sinn Fein/PIRA sex criminals.
The list of 27 Sinn Fein/PIRA sex criminals was in fact one-quarter of a list
of 100 Sinn Fein/PIRA sex criminals that had been named and press released in
1998 by someone who was trying to highlight the hypocrisy of Sinn Fein/PIRA who
were claiming to be ‘policing’ the nationalist community. The same 27 Sinn
Fein/PIRA rapists would appear in 1999 on the list of 41 On-The-Runs that were
to receive ‘Comfort Letters’ from the British Government at the request of Gerry
Adams TD and The PIRA Army Council.
While the 27 Sinn
Fein/PIRA rapists were not wanted by The Police in the north for terrorist
activity, The PIRA Army Council were concerned to protect the rapists against
arrest on the basis of any testimony from rape victims and the potential
political fall-out from that. The 27 were only a percentage of the total number
of Sinn Fein/PIRA sex criminals who were and continue to be ghosted into The
Irish Republic. The other 14 OTRs on the original list of 41 included Garda
killer Pearse McAuley, now serving 12 years for stabbing his wife 12 times in
front of their two children.
Following the exposé of
Sinn Fein/PIRA sex criminals (The list of 100) in 1998 two senior members of
Sinn Fein/PIRA were delegated to establish the extent of sex crime throughout
Sinn Fein/PIRA. This Sinn Fein/PIRA Internal-audit was to establish how
damaging any exposure could be to Sinn Fein/PIRA if the full extent of sex crime
within Sinn Fein/PIRA were to be exposed. The two senior Sinn Fein/PIRA members
visited Sinn Fein Offices across the country including 44 Parnell Square
Dublin, while files on Sinn Fein/PIRA sex criminals were examined, they were in
fact returned to the filing cabinets where they were being held. The two senior Sinn Fein/PIRA members established that at
least 5,000 women and children had been raped by Sinn Fein/PIRA sex criminals,
all offenders had been protected while most victims had been silenced.
Sinn Fein/PIRA claimed
that they were anti-joy-riding, yet it was two members of Sinn Fein/PIRA, Danny
Lennon and John Chillingworth, who killed Joanne Maguire (aged 8) John Maguire
(aged 2) and Andrew Maguire (aged 6 weeks), while Lennon and Chillingworth were
driving a stolen car in west Belfast.
Pat Finucane’s (shot dead
by loyalists in 1989) brother John and another member of Sinn Fein/PIRA were
killed when they crashed a car that they had stolen in west Belfast. While Pat
Finucane’s family have always claimed that Solicitor Pat Finucane was not a
member of The PIRA, Pat Finucane was in fact a member of The PIRA as were his
brothers Seamus, Dermot and John.
In 1984 Pat Finucane
visited prisoners, who were not his clients, in Crumlin Road Jail, as PIRA
Chief of Staff in Crumlin Road Jail, Joseph Haughey was planning an escape, Pat
Finucane was bringing information into and away from members of the escape
committee, who included this author.
Sinn Fein/PIRA claimed
that they were anti - ‘sex crime’, while the reality was that the Sinn
Fein/PIRA leadership were protecting the most prolific rapists and paedophiles
on the Island of Ireland and they were Ghosting Sinn Fein/PIRA sex criminals
from Northern Ireland into the Republic of Ireland and sometimes visa-vis, when
the activity of the rapists became known in the community. The vast majority of
criminality carried out in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland was/and
continues to be carried out by Sinn Fein/PIRA. It is worth noting that Sinn
Fein/PIRA did not simply protect rapists and paedophiles within their own
ranks, if Sinn Fein/PIRA believed that someone could be of some value to them,
then they would protect that person no matter what they had done. When Fr Brendan Smyth was accused by two families in
Belfast of abusing their children at Nazareth House on the Ormeau Road, it was
the accusing families that were forced out of the area by Sinn Fein/PIRA and
not Fr Brendan Smyth.
Sinn Fein/PIRA drew their
greatest strength from knowing people’s dark secrets. If a person was accused
of being an informer/rapist, he/she would be questioned by Sinn Fein/PIRA
members, if the accused person admitted that they were in fact an informer/rapist
they were normally allowed to continue to operate within Sinn Fein/PIRA. This
knowledge meant that if such a person was ever to question the Sinn Fein/PIRA
leadership, the same leadership would let the community know that the person
was an informer/rapist and only then would they be murdered, shot, mutilated,
exiled and so forth. Eamon Collins would be a case in point.
Other informers who had
done much more damage to Sinn Fein/PIRA activity than Eamon Collins such as Caoimhghín
Ó Caoláin’s brother-in-law Bernard McGinn was able to live out his days in
Castleblaney, County Monaghan free from reprisal. The treatment of Sinn
Fein/PIRA Informers, rapists and so forth by the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership
was/is dependent on their family connections and so forth, rather than the
gravity of their crimes. If you see a person offering public support to Sinn
Fein/PIRA and you cannot easily understand that support, you may ask yourself,
what do Sinn Fein/PIRA know about that person. Sinn Fein/PIRA will drill deep
into any person or grouping in which they have an interest. Sean Gallagher in
The Irish Presidential election of 2011 being a case in point. In the same Irish
Presidential election in 2011 Sinn Fein/PIRA were briefing certain journalists
that Dana Rosemary Scanlon was trying to cover-up the fact that her brother was
facing child sex abuse charges in the UK, Sinn Fein/PIRA were concerned that
Dana with her Derry City connections could take much needed votes from Martin
McGuinness. This at a time when Sinn Fein/PIRA were and continue to protect
some of Ireland’s most prolific child rapists.
Spying by Sinn Fein/PIRA
is not restricted to Northern Ireland, in 2004, card carrying members of
Provisional Sinn Fein/Provisional IRA were caught in Bray in County Wicklow
during a planned robbery. During the Garda investigation into those involved in
the planned robbery, an extensive Spy-ring was uncovered and that spy-ring lead
directly to the leadership of Sinn Fein/PIRA. Bizarrely, even as this spying case
unfolded before The Special Criminal Court in Dublin, Berty Ahern was denying
knowledge of the spying scandal. Ahern did not want a media spotlight on him at
this time as he had other matters to attend to.
Sinn Fein/PIRA claimed
that they were anti-drugs, yet, it was very clear that drug-dealers who wished
to deal in areas controlled by Sinn Fein/PIRA had/continue to pay a tax to Sinn
Fein/PIRA for that access. Only those in chronic denial of Sinn Fein/PIRA
criminality believe that Sinn Fein/PIRA do not profit from drug money, be that
from middle-dealers in Belfast/Dublin or from the cartels of Columbia in
exchange for training and weapons development. James ‘Mortar’ Monaghan
a member of The PIRA Army Council (Head of Engineering) and Sinn Fein Ard
Chomhairle was joined in Columbia by convicted PIRA member and weapons engineer
Martin McCauley.
Sinn Fein/PIRA Liaison
Officer in Cuba, Niall Connolly accompanied The PIRA bomb makers as Connolly
had fluent Spanish and was able to deliver weapons lectures to The FARC
Narco-Terrorists. Following the training and weapons development delivered by
The Sinn Fein/PIRA delegation, hundreds of civilians were murdered with various
Mortar types that had been developed by James Monaghan since the 1970s and had
not be used prior to the arrival of The Sinn Fein/PIRA team in Columbia.
Numerous drug dealers convicted in Ireland and connected with Irish based drug
cartels; have told how they meet with Sinn Fein/PIRA men in Columbia to arrange
the importation of Cocaine.
People ask me, “Why did
it take 15 members of Sinn Fein/PIRA to murder Paul Quinn in Monaghan in 2007”,
to which I reply, “It did not take 15 Sinn Fein/PIRA members to murder Paul
Quinn, it took 15 members of Sinn Fein/PIRA to remind the community that even
the smallest challenge to their Mafia like grip on the community would result
in untold murder, mutilation and torture, this was a time when young people who
had been raped by Sinn Fein/PIRA members and those rapists protected by the
Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership, believed that they could now break their silence and
name their Sinn Fein/PIRA rapists”.
Collusion between Sinn
Fein/PIRA and The British Security Services, that Collusion sanctioned by The
British Government
British Prime Minister,
Tony Blair, offered a false sense of security to those who has suffered at the
hands of Sinn Fein/PIRA and Loyalist terrorists for decades when on, Wednesday
20th May 1998, Blair delivered a speech at the Coleraine campus of
the University of Ulster in which he unveiled a hand-written set of pledges to the
people of Ireland in advance of the Referendum on 22nd May 1998. The
text of the pledges was as follows:
“I pledge to the people
of Northern Ireland:
1. No change in the status of Northern
Ireland without the express consent of the people of Northern Ireland.
2. Power to take decisions returned to a
Northern Ireland Assembly, with accountable North/South co-operation.
3.
Fairness and equality guaranteed for all.
4. Those who use or threaten violence
excluded from the Government of Northern Ireland.
5. Prisoners kept in unless violence is given
up for good”.
Blair’s pledges were soon
to be realised as nothing more than political rhetoric, Catholics continued and
continue to bare the brunt of both loyalist and Sinn Fein/PIRA terrorism, as
the political elite told the world of a new political dispensation, Sinn
Fein/PIRA were murdering and breaking the limbs of those who had the
“impudence” to believe that they could tell someone that they had been raped by
members of Sinn Fein/PIRA.
It would be the
determination of Sinn Fein/PIRA to silence their victims and critics that would
expose the true extent of the Collusion between Sinn Fein/PIRA and The British
Government in suppressing any challenge to the supremacy of Sinn Fein/PIRA in
the areas they controlled and beyond.
On Friday 30th
July 1999, Charles Bennett was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by members of
Sinn Fein/PIRA in Belfast, the murder had been sanctioned by the PIRA Army
Council. Sinn Fein/PIRA initially denied that they had murdered Charles Bennett
(22). Charles Bennett had been abducted by The PIRA and held for four days
before being bound and then shot twice in the head. Bennett was a taxi-driver
from New Lodge and his body, which showed evidence of him having been tortured,
was found off the Falls Road. One-year earlier the same Sinn Fein/PIRA murder
squad had murdered another innocent Catholic, Andrew Kearney in the New Lodge
as he held his six-week-old baby. The person leading this murder squad is a
prolific rapist and is again protected by The Sinn Fein/PIRA Leadership.
Charles Bennett had been
raped by a well-known member of Sinn Fein/PIRA, Seamus Marley, when Charles was
a child, Marley was one of the many rapists protected by the Sinn Fein/PIRA
leadership in Belfast as his father was Laurence Marley a senior member of Sinn
Fein/PIRA. Seamus Marley was one of the 27 Sinn Fein/PIRA rapists on the
original list of 41 OTRs.
Charles Bennett had been
brought before a Sinn Fein/PIRA Kangaroo Court and warned to keep his mouth
shut about his rape by Marley or he would be shot dead. In 1999 Charles Bennett
believed that the time was right to challenge a senior member of Sinn Fein/PIRA
who had presided over the Kangaroo Court that he had been subjected to. The
Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership believed that Charles Bennett was about to talk to
the media about his rape by Marley and the Sinn Fein/PIRA cover-up.
When kidnapped, Charles
Bennett was tortured as his Sinn Fein/PIRA interrogators believed that Charles
had spoken to at least one journalist about his rape, after 4 days of torture
his interrogators realised that he was telling the truth when he said he had
not spoken to any journalist, however, his interrogators had done so much
physical damage to Charles that they decided to shot him and shut him up
permanently. Charles Bennett’s Father called for justice for his son, and his
Father was savagely beaten by a gang of Sinn Fein/PIRA members.
Sinn Fein/PIRA continued
to deny that they had murdered Charles Bennett, Sinn Fein/PIRA believed that
the murder of Charles would simply disappear in the mist of the moral quagmire
that had been created by Collusion between Sinn Fein/PIRA and The British
Government. There were also ongoing investigations into the attempt to import
weapons by post from Florida, USA. Sinn Féin/PIRA insisted that the Irish
Republican Army (PIRA) ceasefire remained intact.
The collusion between
Sinn Fein/PIRA and The British Government had allowed for the retaining and
importation of ‘defensive’ weapons, for fear of reprisals by loyalists, this
was a lie, the guns were used to silence rape victims, at a later date some
Sinn Fein/PIRA members were given licences to legally carry personal fire-arms.
The reality was that the percentage of actual Sinn Fein/PIRA terrorists
attacked by loyalist terrorists when compared to the number of innocent
Catholics attacked by loyalists was less than 0.5%. However, Sinn Fein/PIRA
wanted a national and international audience to believe that they, Sinn
Fein/PIRA, were victims rather than serial killers and sex criminals.
In 1984 when Gerry Adams
was shot and wounded by loyalists, it transpired that there was in place a,
“Topman Agreement”, between Sinn Fein/PIRA and The UDA/UFF – UVF. The
leadership of the loyalist terrorist groups had done a deal with the Sinn
Fein/PIRA leadership that neither side would attack each other’s leaders,
however, everyone else was fair game. This underhand agreement was exposed in a
communication between Tommy English (UDA, Commander) and Joseph ‘Joe’ Haughey
(PIRA Commander), following the shooting of Adams in 1984.
John Gregg had told
fellow prisoners in Crumlin Road Jail in 1984 that when he opened fire on Adams
there was no real-kick of the gun, he felt he was firing blanks. It later
transpired that The RUC had accessed the ammunition in the UDA's
Rathcoole weapons dump and replaced high-velocity ammunition with very
low-velocity bullets, meaning that there was never any serious threat to Adams
from the shooting. Shortly after the shooting Adams would attend a meeting of
The PIRA Army Council at 21 Dublin Street, Monaghan.
On Sunday 1st
August 1999 and in the aftermath of the killing of Charles Bennett on 30th
July 1999, John Bruton, then Leader of Fine Gael, called upon Bertie Ahern,
then Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), to make "an authoritative
statement" on the relationship between Sinn Féin (SF) and the Irish
Republican Army (PIRA).
On
Monday 2nd August 1999, Gerry Adams, then President of Sinn Féin
(SF), accused the Fine Gael leader, John Bruton, of "pandering to
Unionism" following his comments on 1st August 1999. He
claimed Bruton had failed to see "the big picture". Here again, Gerry
Adams as a member of The PIRA Army Council and President of Sinn Fein accuses
those who critique Sinn Fein/PIRA murder and rape as being pro-unionist,
anti-peace-process, dissident and failing to fall silent while Sinn Fein/PIRA
go about their business of murder and rape.
On Tuesday 3rd
August 1999, Security sources, using their sources such as Gerry Adams driver
Roy McShane within Sinn Fein/PIRA, confirmed that the Irish Republican Army (PIRA)
was responsible for the cowardly murder of Charles Bennett on 30th
July 1999. In relation to the speculation around the killing of Charles Bennett
on 30th July 1999, The PIRA said "there had been no breaches of
the PIRA cessation". This was as close as Sinn Fein/PIRA could come to
admitting that they had murdered Charles Bennett, but such a murder was not a
breach of their agreed cease-fire with The British Government.
On Tuesday 17th
August 1999, Marjorie (Mo) Mowlam, then Secretary of State for Northern
Ireland, met Martin McGuinness, then Vice-President of Sinn Féin and member of
The PIRA Army Council, at Stormont. She was seeking further information from US
and Irish authorities on the attempt by Sinn Fein/PIRA to import arms from
Florida and the recent murder in west Belfast of Charles Bennett, before
deciding if the Irish Republican Army (IRA) had broken its ceasefire.
On Wednesday 25th
August 1999, Ronnie Flanagan, then Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster
Constabulary (RUC), said he had no doubt that the Irish Republican Army (PIRA)
was responsible for the murder of Charles Bennett. Sir Ronnie was speaking to
an audience of students on local TV and this author had asked one of the
students to ask Sir Ronnie a very definitive question, “Who murdered Charles
Bennett?”.
Mowlam had nowhere to
hide, the Collusion between Sinn Fein/PIRA and The British Government had been
exposed. On Thursday 26th August 1999, Marjorie (Mo) Mowlam, then
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, ruled that the Provisional Irish
Republican Army (IRA) ceasefire had not broken down. However, she said she was
in no doubt the PIRA had murdered Charles Bennett and said there was clear information
about the organisation being implicated in the Florida gun-running operation.
On Friday 27th
August 1999, a Belfast Journalist was doing the usual round of Friday calls to various
groups and individuals to establish facts for various articles he was writing
for various media. The journalist, who is not un-friendly to Sinn Fein, called
The Office of The Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam, to establish the official
position in relation to The PIRA cease-fire. The Spokesperson read from an
official response on her computer, “The Secretary of State must look at things
in the round, she must establish if an attack is an attack on the entire
community, i.e. The Omagh Bomb or Internal House-keeping, i.e. the murder of
Charles Bennett by The PIRA”.
The journalist was
shocked, yet he felt unable to publish, for reasons only known to him. The
journalist phoned this author, knowing this author, would not be bound by
professional ethnics such as off the record conversations. This author
immediately phoned the NIO and recorded the telephone call. The Spokesperson
for The Secretary of State repeated what she had said to the journalist. This
author now had a recording of The Secretary of State’s view on the cease-fire, and
this author press released the content of the recording. BBC 2 Newsnight sent a
team over to Belfast immediately, the recording was given to Mark Mardell, BBC
2, Newsnight and it was broadcast that night. This was, for the first time,
empirical evidence that there was Collusion between Sinn Fein/PIRA and the
British Government in the murder of Catholics.
On Saturday 28th
August, The Irish Republican Army (IRA) ordered four young men from Dungannon
to leave Northern Ireland or be shot. The young men had been accused of
"anti-social activities", in fact their young female friend had been
raped by a senior member of Sinn Fein/PIRA in south Tyrone and they had
challenged that Sinn Fein/PIRA rapist. Unionist and Conservative politicians
described the "expulsion orders" as a direct snub to Marjorie (Mo)
Mowlam, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. David Trimble, then
leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), said he was in no doubt that the
expulsion orders were linked to Mowlam's assertion that the IRA ceasefire was
intact, despite recent violence, including murders.
On Tuesday 31st
August 1999, Tony Blair, then British Prime Minister, resisted Ulster Unionist
Party (UUP) demands for a postponement of the review of the Good Friday
Agreement. He made it clear to Mr Trimble that he supported the decision by
Marjorie (Mo) Mowlam, then Secretary of State of Northern Ireland, that the IRA
ceasefire was still intact. Blair was now confirming that there was collusion
at the highest level of The British Government with Sinn Fein/PIRA’s campaign
of murder, kidnap, rape, mutilation and torture against their own community.
Many years later Blair would express some regret for what he had allowed under
his watch.
However, as much as Sinn
Fein/PIRA wanted to keep Mowlam in her position, she was persona non grata, for
anyone with an ounce of decency in their body. On Monday 11th
October 1999 Mowlam was removed from her office and replaced by Peter Mandelson.
In conclusion to the Collusion
between The British Government and Sinn Fein/PIRA in the murder of Charles
Bennett and violence against the nationalist community in general, on Friday 24th
December 1999, A man who was being held in prison accused of the murder of
Charles Bennett on 30th July 1999 was released after charges were
withdrawn. No explanation was given by The British for the withdrawal of
charges against the man. The man released was Thomas Allsop, from Ludlow Square
in the New Lodge area of North Belfast, a close associate of Gerry Kelly MLA
and other Sinn Fein/PIRA terrorists.
The PIRA Army Council in
2020
Kevin McKenna was PIRA
Chief of Staff from 1983-1997, Kevin McKenna died in 2019, Kevin McKenna had
during his time as Chief of Staff sanctioned operations that resulted in the
murders of over 1,200 people, mainly civilians. However, Kevin McKenna was not
an Island within Sinn Fein/PIRA, the majority of murderous operations
sanctioned by McKenna were given the stamp of approval by Gerry Adams TD,
Martin McGuinness MP, Martin Ferris TD, Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy, Pat Doherty MP
and often communicated to Northern Command of The PIRA by an enthusiastic
Caoimhghín
Ó Caoláin TD. There was fierce competition between McGuinness (Chief of Staff,
1978-82) and McKenna to achieve the greatest number kills in a single action,
McGuinness held the record with Narrow-Water in 1979 when 18 British Soldiers
were killed on the same day that Louis Mountbatton and two children were murdered
by The PIRA in Sligo.
This competition lead to The
PIRA Army Council officially adopting a campaign of ‘Ethnic cleansing’ in 1986
and McGuinness proposing and having sanctioned the use of Human Bomb attacks in
the 1990s. Anyone within Sinn Fein/PIRA who ever sat in the company of Kevin
McKenna and Martin McGuinness, as I did, were left in no doubt that both men
were united in their hatred of Protestants. The new Ethnic Cleansing policy
would include a tactic of deliberately murdering Protestant civilians and then
The PIRA would issue statements through Sinn Fein stating that they believed
that the innocent Protestant murdered was a member of the British Security
services, when they knew well, they were not. This was simply one of the
tactics used to terrorise the Protestant community. Sinn Fein/PIRA wanted every
Protestant to fear leaving their homes or getting into their cars for fear of a
booby-trap bomb or being shot.
Kevin McKenna could trace
his heritage back to Niall McKenna of 1641, who had massacred over 2,000
Protestants in the Monaghan/Tyrone region while stripping thousands more
Protestants of their belongings and driving them from their homes. While Kevin
McKenna was happy to kill British military personnel, he derived his greatest
pleasure from purely sectarian operations such as Kingsmill (10 Protestants),
Enniskillen (12 Protestants), Teebane (8 Protestants) Shankill (10 Protestants
dead, 57 Protestants injured). Kevin McKenna never tired of targeting
Protestants in his native Aughnacloy, County Tyrone and while he had murdered a
number of Protestants in Aughnacloy and Monaghan in the 1970s, McKenna failed
to carryout any successful operations in Aughnacloy from 1980 onwards.
Martin McGuinness Agent
of Death or Man of Peace
In 1993 rumours began to
emerge of secret talks between The British Government and The Sinn Fein/PIRA
leadership. There were immediate British Government and Sinn Fein/PIRA denials.
The leaks led to the breaking of the story on 8th November 1993, by Belfast
journalist, Eamon Mallie. Eventually both the British and Sinn Fein/PIRA
admitted that there was contact and each side gave their own account of such
contact to minimise outrage from various quarters on both sides. Sinn Fein/PIRA
persistently denied a document that was produced at that time by this author (see,
Exhibit x), and purported to be a communication between MI6 Agent Michael
Oatley and Martin McGuinness, the communication, when subjected to discourse
analysis, appeared to show that McGuinness was in fact an MI6 Agent.
The Sinn Fein/PIRA
leadership continued to state that only Sinn Fein had spoken to the British,
however, in 1994, PIRA Chief of Staff, Kevin McKenna gave a rare interview to
Eamon Mallie on Downtown Radio, in which he said, “As long as the boys with the
balaclavas are at the table I am happy”, McKenna was referring to Gerry Adams
and Martin McGuinness, yet at all times, including in 2020 on their official
website, Sinn Fein/PIRA claimed that it was Sinn Fein who was negotiating with
The British.
There is no contradiction
in the claims that Martin McGuinness was an MI6 Agent from the mid-1980s and
his direct involvement in directing acts of violence including the mass murder
of civilians. A communication from MI6 Agent Michael Oatley on 3rd
June 1993 (see, Exhibit, x) to Martin McGuinness highlights this Moral
Quagmire, when Oatley says:
“Your unfortunate
headline events of April have made acceptance of your offer much more risky for
him. You and I may think this should not matter, but the fact is that it does
and it is that which is holding things up – if you like, human characteristics
rather than anything more sinister”.
When MI6 Agent Oakley
says, “Your unfortunate headline events of April…” he is talking about April
24th, 1993, when The PIRA bombed Bishopsgate and devastated the
heart of the City of London, one person was killed, 44 were injured and £350
million of damage was caused.
When Oatley says, “much
more risky for him”, he is referring to The British Prime Minister, John Major,
the same John Major who told Parliament that it would make his stomach sick to
even think that any British official would be talking to The PIRA.
Shortly before the
headline events of April 1993, Tim Parry (aged 12) and three-year-old Johnathan
Ball died and 54 others were injured after the Provisional IRA detonated bombs
that had been hidden inside high street litter bins in Warrington in England on
the eve of Mother's Day that year. In 1999 loyalist terrorists, Orange
Volunteers, were preparing to copy-cat the Warrington attack in Dublin but
these attacks were thwarted.
The most significant
component of this communication, between McGuinness and what many believe to be
his Handler, MI6 Agent Oatley, is when he says, “You and I may think this
should not matter, but the fact is that it does and it is that which is holding
things up – if you like, human characteristics rather than anything more
sinister”. Oatley suggests that while he and McGuinness cannot understand why
the murder of women and children should delay negotiations, it is the human
characteristics of Prime Minister, John Major that is preoccupying him with
concern about the murder of women and children.
On the official Sinn
Fein/PIRA website in 2020, Sinn Fein/PIRA claim that they received a letter from
a British government representative on June 3rd, 1993,
and that the said letter was initialled and they have removed the initials for
security reasons. However, the letter was not from a British Government
official and it was not for the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership, but was a personal
communication from MI6 Agent Michael Oatley to Martin McGuinness. The PIRA Army
Council fear the implications of anyone establishing the ‘true’ provenance of
the communication, however, here it is. The communication had been sent by
Oatley to the British Agent (Robert) who had replaced him, Robert had Oatley’s
handwritten communication typed so that he could remove McGuinness’s name from
the top of the communication, and Robert completed the typed version with R.
(handwritten), to show that this was a very personal communication.
It is believed that The
British included this communication by ‘mistake’ when Sir Patrick Mayhew, on
Monday, 29th November, 1993, the British Minister with Chief
responsibility for the Six Counties, lodged in the Library and Vote office at
Westminster, what he claimed to be all messages "received and
dispatched" in the course of the British government's protracted contact
and dialogue with Sinn Fein/PIRA. His 'record' covered the period of 22nd
February 1993 - 5th November 1993. He claimed this to be the
totality of the period involved.
Sinn Fein/PIRA TDs
People often ask me if a
Sinn Fein/PIRA TD must be a sworn member of The PIRA, and the answer is no,
however, several Sinn Fein/PIRA TDs are sworn members of The PIRA.
Many people wrongly
believed that when Gerry Adams TD, Martin Ferris and Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin
retired from The Dail in 2020 that this would be the removal of the final
members of The PIRA from The Dail, in fact there are more sworn members of The
PIRA in The Dail now than ever before, some are elected Sinn Fein/PIRA TDs and
some are support staff. Following the unforeseen fortunes of Sinn Fein/PIRA in
the General Election of 2020, The PIRA Army Council will be moving more people
from the north to Dublin to ensure control over their new political
representation in The Dail. The most recent member of Sinn Fein/PIRA to be
sworn onto The PIRA Army Council in Belfast is John xxxxxxx.
John Finucane MP joy-riding
with Gerry Adams TD and Gerry Kelly MLA in a child’s play park in Belfast.
Close by, John Finucane MP would be cautioned by The PSNI for indecent exposure.
Gerry Adams TD would tell Newstalk's, Seán Moncrieff, “I like to bounce naked
with my dog on my trampoline”.
What I can say from my
personal knowledge is that both The President and Vice-President of Sinn
Fein/PIRA must be sworn members of The PIRA, this is clearly set-out in the
Rules of The PIRA Army Council, and I first learned of this requirement in 1975
when I sat as a child in the company of Sinn Fein/PIRA President, Ruairi
O'Bradaigh and Vice-President, Marie Drumm (murdered in 1976) in 1975,
following the funeral of my uncle who was a PIRA Commander. The Constitution of
The PIRA Army Council has never been amended since 1975 to take account of any
so-called ‘new political dispensation’, that dispensation will only come with
the disbandment of The Freestate according to Gerry Adams TD.
Only those with selective
memory or out and out denial of Sinn Fein/PIRA criminality, do not accept the
reality that Sinn Fein/PIRA are one and the same. Of course, it suits some to
turn a blind eye to Sinn Fein/PIRA criminality, such political silence may be
due to the significant number of vote transfers from Sinn Fein/PIRA to certain
individuals and marginal political groupings. At the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis in
1986 both Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinnes told the audience in full glare of
the media, “The PIRA Freedom Fighters and The Sinn Fein Freedom Fighters are
one and the same thing”.
The one valuable
disclosure made during the RHI inquiry at Stormont was the fact that Sinn Féin Finance
Minister, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir was taking his orders from The PIRA Army Council
and in particular long serving Sinn Fein/PIRA Finance and weapons procurement
officer, Ted Howell. Ted Howell has been a long-time confidante of Gerry Adams
TD and Ted has been fully aware of the fact that Sinn Fein/PIRA have been
ghosting their rapists into The Irish Republic for decades.
In 2025 following another
5 years of self-isolation Sinn Fein/PIRA in The Irish Republic may finally be
in a position to stand up to The PIRA Army Council which is exclusively based
in Belfast and play a role in the democratic processes of a Government in The
Republic.
I am constantly asked, if
Sinn Fein and The PIRA are separate organisations, and I have to say no. The
PIRA Army Council is the Supreme Ruling authority of Sinn Fein/PIRA, the term
Sinn Fein/PIRA is not propaganda, it is shown beyond reasonable doubt in The
Green Book (Sinn Fein/PIRA Bible):
"An O.C.'s
(Operations Commander) might know how to put a unit on a military footing; an
I.O.'s (Intelligence Officer) might know how to create an effective
intelligence network; a Cumann Chairman's (Sinn Fein) how best to mount a
campaign on a given issue, e.g. H Blocks etc., and for all members of the
movement regardless of which branch we belong to, to enhance our commitment to
and participation in the struggle through gaining as comprehensive an
understanding as possible of our present society and the proposed Republican
alternative through self and group education".
This explanation of Sinn
Fein/PIRA being a singular organisation with The PIRA Army Council providing an
over-arching strategy was clearly set-out during the Sinn Fein/PIRA Ard Fheis
in 1986 when both Martin McGuinness (MI6 Agent) and Gerry Adams (Steward and
Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead) said, a Sinn Fein activist is the same as a
PIRA activist, they are one and the same, there is only one Sinn Fein/PIRA.
This mantra was echo at Sinn Fein/PIRA functions around the country as
Republican Sinn Fein had just split from Sinn Fein/PIRA.
While you do not have to
be a member of The PIRA to become a Sinn Fein/PIRA TD, senior officer holders
in Sinn Fein must be sworn members of The PIRA as they are directly answerable
to The PIRA Army Council.
Norman Strong Murder 21st
January 1981
The majority of people
who have commented on the murder of 86-year-old Norman Stronge and his 48-year-old
sons James at Tynan Abbey on the 21st of January, 1981, have done so
from two perspectives. Firstly, there were those people who knew the Stronge
family personally and were simply outraged by the cowardice of their murders.
Secondly, there were those who simply reported the facts as it was their job to
do. In this article, I would like to offer a view of the murderers from within
the ranks of Sinn Fein/PIRA in Monaghan at that time when the murders were
sanctioned.
The Sinn Fein/PIRA view
of the murders of the Stronge Family were best summed up by, a member of The
PIRA Army Council, Gerry Adams when he said:
“The only complaint I have heard from nationalists or anti-unionists is that he
(Sir Norman) was not shot 40 years ago.”
Gerry Adams was/is
someone who murders women and children, in contrast to, Sir Norman Stronge,
former Speaker of the Stormont Parliament who had fought at the Somme and had
been awarded the Military Cross and the Belgian Croix de Guerre for bravery.
Murder at The Abbey
In 1980, a significant
event took place that has never been mentioned in relation to the lead up to
the murders of Norman Stronge and his son James at Tynan Abbey. In October
1980, Jim Lynagh, who had recently served a sentence in The Maze/Long Kesh for
possession of explosives was before The High Court in Dublin facing extradition
back to Northern Ireland in relation to the recent murder of a UDR member.
In October 1980 Lynagh
was a Sinn Fein Councillor on Monaghan Urban Council and he was also OC
(Officer Commanding) Monaghan/East Tyrone PIRA. Jim Lynagh was an experienced
and intelligent PIRA operative; he made no apology for those who died at his
hand.
Also, before The High
Court in Dublin in October 1980, in relation to the same murder and facing
extradition, were Aidan McGuirk and Laurence McNally, two very seasoned PIRA
operatives. The High Court in Dublin refused to extradite the three PIRA
fugitives. The rules and regulations around extradition were very tight at that
time.
The release of Jim
Lynagh, Aidan McGuirk and Laurence McNally were very significant, these were
three very seasoned operatives, although one did not have to be Special Forces
to murder an 86-year-old as he sat in his armchair watching TV.
Lynagh, McGuirk and
McNally reported back to The PIRA Command Staff in Monaghan Town. In 1980 The
PIRA Command Staff included Kevin McKenna (PIRA Chief of Staff 1983-1997), J.B.
O’Hagan (Asst Chief of Staff), Brendan McKenna (Adjutant), Vincent Conlon
(Finance) and so forth. There was an overinflated number of PIRA activists in
Monaghan Town, this was mainly due to the numbers that had arrived in Monaghan
from Tyrone, Derry, Armagh and so forth and claimed to be On-the-Run (OTR).
In the 1970s/1980s Goggle
did not exist and there were very few telephones. This lack of communication
and knowledge meant it could take weeks to check out someone who arrived in
Monaghan Town and claimed to be On The Run (OTR). For example, George Poytz
arrived in Castleblaney and claimed to be On the Run, he was in fact a British
Agent. The majority of Sinn Fein/PIRA activists in Monaghan Town were on Social
Welfare in the 1980s, this was mainly due to the economy being very depressed.
While there were
significant numbers of PIRA activists in Monaghan Town, only a few were of any
real value for the type of campaign being waged by Kevin McKenna. Kevin McKenna
was from outside the border town of Aughnacloy in County Tyrone, he was On The
Run and living in Monaghan from the 1970s. All non-loyalist murders committed
in and around Aughnacloy between 1970 and 1980 would have had Kevin McKenna’s
finger-prints on them. McKenna had no success in and around Aughnacloy from
1980 onwards (success being measured in death).
Kevin McKenna had
personally murdered Cormac McCabe from Aughnacloy, when Cormac McCabe was
kidnapped from the Four Seasons Hotel, murdered and his body dumped at the
border. Kevin McKenna had also personally murdered school boy Columbia McVeigh,
Columbia McVeigh was not an informer, however, Columbia had been so badly
tortured that they decided to kill him and secretly bury him, his body has
never been found.
Kevin McKenna was a
sectarian killer and derived his greatest pleasure from murdering Protestants.
I had known Kevin from I was a small child as he was a good deal older than me.
The decision to murder Norman Stronge and James Stronge was taken very quickly,
the Stronge Family had not been high on PIRA hit list, however, The PIRA in
Monaghan Town had a great deal of information about The Stronge Family and
their routine.
The decision to murder
Norman Stronge and his son James was taken immediately after the attempted
murder of Bernadette McAliskey in Coalisland, County Tyrone, by The Ulster
Freedom Fighters. On the 16th of January 1981 Bernadette
McAliskey (nee, Devlin) and her husband were shot by members of the Ulster
Freedom Fighters, who broke into their home near Coalisland, County Tyrone. The
gunmen shot Bernadette Devlin nine times in front of her children. The UFF
members who carried out this attack must have known that it would be the local
Protestant population that would pay the price for their actions.
Following the shooting of
Bernadette McAliskey and her husband by the UFF, The PIRA quickly convened a
meeting in Monaghan Town and the decision was taken to take out a high-profile
target. The most high-profile target immediately at hand to The PIRA in
Monaghan was Norman Strong and his son James. The 8-man PIRA Unit led by Jim
Lynagh were ordered to kill everyone in Tynan Abbey and to burn the Abbey to
the ground.
Murder Most Foul
On the evening of the 21st
January 1981 the 8-man PIRA Unit lead by Jim Lynagh were driven to the border
between Monaghan and Armagh. Members of The PIRA Unit held two families hostage
and stole their family cars for the return journey to Monaghan. The 8-man PIRA
unit made their way to The Abbey where they blew of the heavy front doors with
bombs that had been made over the previous days by Jim Lynagh and Charlie.
When The PIRA members
entered the library they, Jim Lynagh and Seamus Shannon, summarily executed Sir
Norman and his son James as they sat watching TV. The PIRA Unit then planted
incendiary devices so that The Abbey and the bodies of Sir Norman and James
would be burned beyond recognition and could not avail of normal funeral
arrangement, for example, where their family could view the bodies during a
traditional wake and Christian funeral.
As the PIRA Unit left the
scene in their stolen cars, RUC officers arrived and were fired upon by The
PIRA Unit, Lynagh, Shannon (Lynagh’s brother-in-law) McNally and McGuirk
focused heavy fire on the wind-screen of the RUC cars to try and kill the
officers inside. Later, both Lynagh and Shannon expressed frustration that they
did not know that the roofs of the RUC cars were not bullet proof, if they had
known this they could have climbed onto the roof of the RUC cars and killed the
officers inside. The RUC returned some fire, but the PIRA Unit made their
escape across fields and forest and into near-by Glaslough in County Monaghan.
The PIRA Unit made their
way to the home of Mr Harry Lavery in Glasslough and arrangements were made for
the PIRA Unit to return to Monaghan Town. On the morning of the 22nd
of January 1981 members of the Garda Special Branch Unit raided The Round House
Bar in Church Square in Monaghan Town and found some of The PIRA Unit hiding in
the basement. While The Round House Bar was owned by Mr Robert Loane, it was
being managed and operated by Owen/Eoin Smyth who was involved in the planning
of the Stronge murders.
Th remaining members of
The PIRA Unit had made their way back to Mullaghamatt Council Housing Estate,
where their uniforms were washed in a safe house and the weapons (one lost at
the scene of the murders) were returned to a PIRA Arms Dump in Rossmore Forest
Park, close to Mullaghmatt Council Housing Estate.
While An Garda Siochana
arrested most of the murder gang, there was no evidence available to the Gardai
in Monaghan other than a finger-print belonging to Seamus Shannon on one of the
cars used. While Owen/Eoin Smyth had been warned by Jim Lynagh not to go back
into the north again, as he would be arrested for the murders. Smyth, went into
the north and was arrested by The RUC, Smyth squealed like a rat to save
himself and would eventually only serve a few months in The Maze/Long Kesh
after admitting his role in two high-profile murders.
Seamus Shannon would face
extradition due to the finger-print evidence and Smyth’s touting. The Republic
of Ireland Supreme Court later rejected an appeal by Seamus Shannon against his
extradition to Northern Ireland to face charges of involvement in the Stronge
double murder. The Court rejected the defense that these were political
offences, saying that they were:
“so brutal, cowardly and
callous that it would be a distortion of language if they were to be accorded
the status of a political offence”. Shannon was extradited but later acquitted.
