SAS Ambush at Coagh County Tyrone 1991

SAS Ambush at Coagh County Tyrone 1991

Monaghan Town was a very strange place when it came to Sinn Fein/PIRA, Monaghan Town had been a dumping ground for all sorts of Sinn Fein/PIRA ‘activists’ who would arrive in Monaghan Town and claim to be On-the-Run. In the 1980s-1990s the majority of information was gathered manually, so if someone did arrive in Monaghan and claim to be OTR it could take months to check them out with Sinn Fein/PIRA in the north.

Some people arriving in Monaghan and claiming to be Sinn Fein/PIRA OTR were in fact Sinn Fein/PIRA members who had admitted to Sinn Fein/PIRA in the north that they had engaged in sexual crime and they were sent OTR so that there would be no embarrassing police investigation. 

More often than not the children being abused by Sinn Fein/PIRA members were the children of Sinn Fein/PIRA members or supporters, so if a victim or their family could not be silenced then the perpetrator would be moved to The Republic.

Sometimes those alleging to be OTR were in fact RUC or British Agents, George Poytz in Castleblaney being a good example, he had infiltrated The PIRA in Castleblaney to the very top. And sometimes there were genuine OTRs who could be of some value to Sinn Fein/PIRA in Monaghan Town.

Michael ‘Pete’ Ryan had arrived in Monaghan Town OTR in 1981 after he escaped from Crumlin Road Jail, Pete was a serial killer and he simply enjoyed killing Protestants, this made him a welcome PIRA member in Monaghan Town. From the mid-1980s Sinn Fein/PIRA was being pulled in two different directions, all sorts of agendas were at work. In Monaghan Town Sinn Fein/PIRA had gained some political momentum, and this meant that as Sinn Fein/PIRA reached out for ‘softer’ votes, the Sinn Fein/PIRA sectarian murder campaign was viewed as unhelpful by some.

Michael ‘Pete’ Ryan, whether he knew it or not had made enemies within Sinn Fein/PIRA, while many cheered his sectarian kills, others, within the ranks felt that both his personal behavior and his thirst for sectarian murder were not in keeping with the ‘new’ face of politics.

Michael ‘Pete’ Ryan was having sexual relationships with a number of women in Monaghan, and that was not unusual for Sinn Fein/PIRA members in Monaghan, there was a well-established Harem. 

However, Michael ‘Pete’ Ryan was doing his dirty laundry in public, he was having a sexual relationship with Dr Marian Smyth, who was sister-in-law of Owen Smyth (who had murdered Norman Stronge and his son James). Pete Ryan was also having sexual relationships with other women and children.

Pete Ryan would park his motorbike overnight on the public footpath outside Marian Smyth’s house/surgery, this was seen by dozens of parents each morning as they left their children to school, back then this was viewed as unsavory behavior by middle-class parents, the same parents Sinn Fein/PIRA were trying to woo.

Michael ‘Pete’ Ryan was not only making a show of Dr Marian Smyth’s in-laws, but he was making a show of Sinn Fein/PIRA as everyone knew he was involved with several females. When Michael ‘Pete’ Ryan was shot dead, he had left Dr Marian Smyth pregnant and a woman from Ballybay called Mary pregnant. When Dr Marian Smyth gave birth to her son Michael, she falsified his birth certificate and placed her former husband’s name Brian Smyth on it.

Dr Marian Smyth was the person who initiated the allegations of sexual abuse against Vincent McKenna and who drugged the alleged victim with a mind-altering drug called Serotax.

The Ambush who, when where

As the evening sun began to set over Monaghan Town on Sunday 2nd  June 1991, there was virtual silence. A 28-year-old member of Sinn Fein/PIRA made his way to work in Monaghan Mushrooms in Tyholland on his Kawasaki 250 motor bike. This Sinn Fein/PIRA member had to check the computers on the tunnels in the compost yard to ensure that the pasteurization temperature in the tunnels was correct.

Michael 'Pete' Ryan, Laurence McNally and Tony Doris

The Sinn Fein/PIRA member meet very small numbers of vehicles on the road out of Monaghan Town and towards Tyholland, he was surprised when he met a car being driven by a female, which was carrying two very seasoned PIRA members, all three in the car were in deep conversation so it is unlikely that they even noticed the motor bike.

Laurence McNally and Michael ‘Pete’ Ryan were on their way to murder a young Protestant man in Tyrone. The third man in The PIRA Unit would be Tony Doris who would join them in a stolen Vauxhall Cavalier later that evening.

At 7.30am on Monday 3^rd June 1991, Laurence McNally, Michael ‘Pete’ Ryan and Tony Doris, arrived at their destination in Coagh and they prepared their weapons to kill the young Protestant. 

However, The SAS armed with Grade A Intelligence and high-power weapons were waiting on the would be killers.

The SAS were in position along the main street in Coagh and in a red Bedford lorry positioned at the scene. As Tony Doris drove the stolen car towards the centre of the village it was under close surveillance from the ground and in the air, it had been tracked all the way from Moneymore.

At the scene of the ambush the British Army had set up a "decoy" target for the IRA to go for in the form of an SAS soldier who was pretending to be their intended victim, sitting in his car at a regular spot while waiting to pick up a friend on their way to work, IRA intelligence had established the routine of the young Protestant.

When the stolen car carrying the IRA men approached the scene the Special Air Service detachment opened sustained automatic fire upon it from close range. Doris was immediately hit, and the out-of-control car crashed into two nearby parked cars. The shooting continued until the car exploded in flames and set one of the parked vehicles it had crashed into alight. According to an eyewitness, one of the IRA men in the car returned fire from within the vehicle after the crash.

Some reports claim at least two of the IRA men attempted to exit the crashed car and were subsequently found lying half out of its doors by the later police investigation of the scene. Relatives of the IRA men subsequently stated that they had received information from the scene that two of the IRA attackers had fled on foot from the car after the crash, but had been pursued after and shot down by the British Army in the vicinity, with their bodies being taken back to the car, which was subsequently reported to be riddled with over 200 bullet holes.

A Royal Ulster Constabulary crime-scene report stated that a balaclava belonging to one of the IRA men was found some distance away from the vehicle.

The bodies of Doris, Ryan and McNally were badly burnt by the car fire, and had to be identified by police using their dental records. Two rifles were recovered from within the burnt-out stolen car, subsequent police forensic examination of them revealing that they had both been used in the multiple murders at Leslie Dallas's garage in March 1989.

Truth and Lies, The Strange Story of Sinn Fein/PIRA

“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 17^th 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 22^nd 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 20^th 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 45^th year by members of Sinn Fein/PIRA early in the morning of 27^th 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 31^st 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 11^th 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 20^th October 2007 in County Monaghan in The Irish Republic. On the 12^th 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 20^th 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 10^th 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 20^th 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 22^nd 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 30^th 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 1^st August 1999 and in the aftermath of the killing of Charles Bennett on 30^th 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 2^nd 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 1^st 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 3^rd 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 30^th July 1999. In relation to the speculation around the killing of Charles Bennett on 30^th 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 17^th 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 25^th 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 26^th 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 27^th 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 28^th 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 31^st 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 11^th 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 24^th December 1999, A man who was being held in prison accused of the murder of Charles Bennett on 30^th 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 3^rd 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 24^th, 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 3^rd, 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, 29^th 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 22^nd February 1993 - 5^th 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 21^st 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 21^st 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 16^th 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 21^st 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 22^nd 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.