Vincent McKenna Peace Process
In the early days of the Peace Process when Gerry Adams and John Hume were having exploratory talks, many of the people and political personalities who now claim ownership of the Peace Process were in fact opposed to the Hume/Adams Initiative that became public knowledge in 1993.
The Irish Government were fearful that Sinn Fein could make substantial electoral gains in the south if Sinn Fein were to de-commission the PIRA and follow a peaceful path. The British Government were as always at the dictate of unionists and the USA was always fearful of being made look foolish if they fell in with a Peace Plan that might literally 'blow-up' in their face.
Left to Right: Vincent McKenna, Ed Curran, Paul McMinamin, Peter O'Neil, Tom Collins, John Hume and Prof Simon Lee as reported in Belfast Telegraph.
It was during these early days of the Peace Process that Vincent McKenna was asked by John Hume to draft a document that could be used as a Blue-print for multi-party talks and possible agreement. Vincent McKenna sought out a concept known as Consociational Democracy and began a process of engaging with a variety of groups and individuals involved in the conflict.
In 1994, Vincent McKenna lead a Peace Run to The Sinn Fein/PIRA National Conference in Dublin, and handed in a petition from 13000 Catholic and Protestant students at Queens University demanding that The PIRA end their campaign of Human Rights abuses against the people of Ireland. Letter below from Gerry Adams to Vincent McKenna.
McKenna set-up public platforms at Queens University Belfast where for the first-time such areas as policing, parades, prisoners and so forth were discussed in an open and honest manner. McKenna even managed to get the first round table discussions between The Orange Order, The Pardaes Commission and The Garvaghy Roads Residents Association during a two-day conference at Queens University's Politics Department.
By the summer of 1994 McKenna had prepared the first draft of a document that set out how the key stake-holders in the north including Sinn Fein and The DUP could meet on common ground in relation to the bread and butter issues, while remaining quietly at odds in relation to the 'National Question'.
From Left to Right: Vincent McKenna, Ed Curran, Paul McMinimin, Peter O'Neil, Tom Collins, John Hume and Prof Simon Lee in 1994
In the early days of the Peace Process when Gerry Adams and John Hume were having exploratory talks, many of the people and political personalities who now claim ownership of the Peace Process were in fact opposed to the Hume/Adams Initiative that became public knowledge in 1993.
The Irish Government were fearful that Sinn Fein could make substantial electoral gains in the south if Sinn Fein were to de-commission the PIRA and follow a peaceful path. The British Government were as always at the dictate of unionists and the USA was always fearful of being made look foolish if they fell in with a Peace Plan that might literally 'blow-up' in their face.
Left to Right: Vincent McKenna, Ed Curran, Paul McMinamin, Peter O'Neil, Tom Collins, John Hume and Prof Simon Lee as reported in Belfast Telegraph.
It was during these early days of the Peace Process that Vincent McKenna was asked by John Hume to draft a document that could be used as a Blue-print for multi-party talks and possible agreement. Vincent McKenna sought out a concept known as Consociational Democracy and began a process of engaging with a variety of groups and individuals involved in the conflict.
In 1994, Vincent McKenna lead a Peace Run to The Sinn Fein/PIRA National Conference in Dublin, and handed in a petition from 13000 Catholic and Protestant students at Queens University demanding that The PIRA end their campaign of Human Rights abuses against the people of Ireland. Letter below from Gerry Adams to Vincent McKenna.
By the summer of 1994 McKenna had prepared the first draft of a document that set out how the key stake-holders in the north including Sinn Fein and The DUP could meet on common ground in relation to the bread and butter issues, while remaining quietly at odds in relation to the 'National Question'.
From Left to Right: Vincent McKenna, Ed Curran, Paul McMinimin, Peter O'Neil, Tom Collins, John Hume and Prof Simon Lee in 1994
When Vincent McKenna graduated from Queens University with a degree in Politics and Information Management in 1996 he was asked to continue with his work by John Hume, Brian Lenihan TD Snr and a senior official from The NIO.
McKenna was given Post-Graduate funding and at the beginning of 1998 McKenna presented his final draft of the document that would be brought forward for cross-party discussion in the north.
Left to Right: Vincent McKenna, William Smyth (PUP) and Barry McElduff (Sinn Fein) during a debate at Queens on political prisoners organised by Vincent McKenna
Left to Right: Raymond McCartney (Ex-POW), Danny McCloskey and Bronagh McGahan (ex-POW) as reported in The Irish News and organised by Vincent McKenna
Left to Right: Vincent McKenna, William Smyth (PUP) and Barry McElduff (Sinn Fein) during a debate at Queens on political prisoners organised by Vincent McKenna
Left to Right: Raymond McCartney (Ex-POW), Danny McCloskey and Bronagh McGahan (ex-POW) as reported in The Irish News and organised by Vincent McKenna
Omagh Bomb 22nd Anniversary
Background and Key Milestones
The most important thing to remember about The Omagh Bomb is that, there were a great many agendas at play, the victims were of little concern to those agendas, as had been the case from 1969. However, the people of Ireland were told exactly what was happening before, during and after Omagh, but nobody wanted to listen.
The people were told loudly and clearly that the Sinn Fein/PIRA Leadership had armed The Real IRA in order to use them as proxies, to do their dirty-work while the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership presented themselves to the world as ‘peace-makers’. This was a tactic used many times, for example, following The Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Fein/PIRA used Direct Action Against Drugs, to murder those drug dealers who were refusing to pay protection money to Sinn Fein/PIRA.
Background and Key Milestones
The most important thing to remember about The Omagh Bomb is that, there were a great many agendas at play, the victims were of little concern to those agendas, as had been the case from 1969. However, the people of Ireland were told exactly what was happening before, during and after Omagh, but nobody wanted to listen.
The people were told loudly and clearly that the Sinn Fein/PIRA Leadership had armed The Real IRA in order to use them as proxies, to do their dirty-work while the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership presented themselves to the world as ‘peace-makers’. This was a tactic used many times, for example, following The Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Fein/PIRA used Direct Action Against Drugs, to murder those drug dealers who were refusing to pay protection money to Sinn Fein/PIRA.
The Good Friday Agreement
Following The Good Friday Agreement Sinn Fein/PIRA used shootings, beatings and murder to silence those who offered any challenge to their authority, this included Sinn Fein/PIRA Rape victims. This violence by Sinn Fein/PIRA post-Good Friday Agreement was described by British Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam as “Internal House-keeping” and was not viewed as a breach of the agreed Sinn Fein/PIRA cease-fire.
This determination by Mowlam, while an outrage against civil society, God and man, was technically correct, as Sinn Fein/PIRA had deliberately excluded Catholics from the Terms and Conditions of their agreed cease-fire, The Irish Republic including its Armed Forces were also excluded from the Sinn Fein/PIRA Terms and Conditions. Effectively, Sinn Fein/PIRA had been given a licence to murder, as long as those murders were within the Catholic community. If State sponsored collusion ever existed in Northern Ireland, then this is its greatest example, fully exposed in the light of day, yet those who should have known better turned a blind eye.
Between 1992-1997 this Author was a runner between, his cousin, PIRA Chief of Staff, Kevin McKenna and Martin McGuinness, PIRA Army Council.
Kevin McKenna was also using another member of Sinn Fein/PIRA as a runner with Northern Command; however, McKenna was concerned that the second runner may have been compromised. As I had a genuine reason for visiting Monaghan each week and a genuine reason for visiting Derry each week, the security forces were less likely to take me under their notice, or so Kevin McKenna believed. I meet with McGuinness at a safe-house on The Culmore Road in Derry on a regular basis.
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 carry-out any successful operations in Aughnacloy from 1980 onwards.
Martin McGuinness is a very different kettle of fish; McGuinness had been groomed by MI6 from those early days in the 1970s when the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership meet with British Officials. According to Sean O’Callaghan (a Garda and MI5 Agent) who was in regular phone contact with McGuinness in the 1990s, McGuinness was formerly recruited by MI6 in the mid-1980s. O’Callaghan claimed that he witnessed many meetings between McGuinness and MI6 Officer Oatley during a period that the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership claim there was no contact between the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership and The British. O’Callaghan also claimed that when Oatley used Irish in his communications to McGuinness, it was O’Callaghan who provided the Irish, anyone who knew McGuinness, will know that his IQ was not overwhelming.
This is the actual Communication from MI6 Officer Oatley to MI6 Agent Martin McGuinness in 1993, it was initially hand-written by Oatley and then typed up by MI6 Officer Robert, so that Guinness's name could be removed from the top and Oatley's name removed from the bottom. Read the content and see the total disregard for those who had just been murdered by Sinn Fein/PIRA in England and Northern Ireland.
In 2017, David Trimble, who had become friendly with McGuinness admitted that he was with Sean O’Callaghan when Sean O’Callaghan received a long and detailed phone call from Martin McGuinness in the 1990s. However, the greatest indictment against McGuinness is the communication below, the provenance of which the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership continue to deny, to accept its provenance as set out here is to accept that McGuinness, ‘the republican hero’, was in fact an MI6 Agent who had a free hand from his Handlers to engage in and direct murder, nothing new there when we look at all the other British Agents/informers/touts who did and continue to sit at the top of Sinn Fein/PIRA.
Following The Good Friday Agreement Sinn Fein/PIRA used shootings, beatings and murder to silence those who offered any challenge to their authority, this included Sinn Fein/PIRA Rape victims. This violence by Sinn Fein/PIRA post-Good Friday Agreement was described by British Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam as “Internal House-keeping” and was not viewed as a breach of the agreed Sinn Fein/PIRA cease-fire.
This determination by Mowlam, while an outrage against civil society, God and man, was technically correct, as Sinn Fein/PIRA had deliberately excluded Catholics from the Terms and Conditions of their agreed cease-fire, The Irish Republic including its Armed Forces were also excluded from the Sinn Fein/PIRA Terms and Conditions. Effectively, Sinn Fein/PIRA had been given a licence to murder, as long as those murders were within the Catholic community. If State sponsored collusion ever existed in Northern Ireland, then this is its greatest example, fully exposed in the light of day, yet those who should have known better turned a blind eye.
Between 1992-1997 this Author was a runner between, his cousin, PIRA Chief of Staff, Kevin McKenna and Martin McGuinness, PIRA Army Council.
Kevin McKenna was also using another member of Sinn Fein/PIRA as a runner with Northern Command; however, McKenna was concerned that the second runner may have been compromised. As I had a genuine reason for visiting Monaghan each week and a genuine reason for visiting Derry each week, the security forces were less likely to take me under their notice, or so Kevin McKenna believed. I meet with McGuinness at a safe-house on The Culmore Road in Derry on a regular basis.
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 carry-out any successful operations in Aughnacloy from 1980 onwards.
Martin McGuinness is a very different kettle of fish; McGuinness had been groomed by MI6 from those early days in the 1970s when the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership meet with British Officials. According to Sean O’Callaghan (a Garda and MI5 Agent) who was in regular phone contact with McGuinness in the 1990s, McGuinness was formerly recruited by MI6 in the mid-1980s. O’Callaghan claimed that he witnessed many meetings between McGuinness and MI6 Officer Oatley during a period that the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership claim there was no contact between the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership and The British. O’Callaghan also claimed that when Oatley used Irish in his communications to McGuinness, it was O’Callaghan who provided the Irish, anyone who knew McGuinness, will know that his IQ was not overwhelming.
This is the actual Communication from MI6 Officer Oatley to MI6 Agent Martin McGuinness in 1993, it was initially hand-written by Oatley and then typed up by MI6 Officer Robert, so that Guinness's name could be removed from the top and Oatley's name removed from the bottom. Read the content and see the total disregard for those who had just been murdered by Sinn Fein/PIRA in England and Northern Ireland.
In 2017, David Trimble, who had become friendly with McGuinness admitted that he was with Sean O’Callaghan when Sean O’Callaghan received a long and detailed phone call from Martin McGuinness in the 1990s. However, the greatest indictment against McGuinness is the communication below, the provenance of which the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership continue to deny, to accept its provenance as set out here is to accept that McGuinness, ‘the republican hero’, was in fact an MI6 Agent who had a free hand from his Handlers to engage in and direct murder, nothing new there when we look at all the other British Agents/informers/touts who did and continue to sit at the top of Sinn Fein/PIRA.
PIRA Cease-fire, August 1994
In August, 1994, The PIRA Army Council declared a cease-fire, the Terms and Conditions of that cease-fire have never been seen by anyone other than members of The PIRA Army Council and MI6 Officers reporting to The British Prime Minister. This author had sight of several communications between Kevin McKenna and Martin McGuinness.
On Friday, 9th February, 1996: one hour after a statement ending their ceasefire, the Provisional IRA detonated a large lorry bomb near South Quay DLR station in the London Docklands, killing two people, injuring 40, and causing £150 million worth of damage. The IRA ceasefire had lasted 17 months and 9 days. It is not too much of a stretch to imagine that those running McGuinness, where happy to allow this bombing to go ahead and force Unionists into Government with Sinn Fein/PIRA. The tone of the communication from MI6 Officer Oatley, supports this view.
On the 20th July, 1997, The PIRA Army Council restored their 1994 cease-fire, stating:
“We have ordered the unequivocal restoration of the ceasefire of August 1994. All units have been instructed accordingly”.
This “Restoration” of the 1994 cease-fire means that there was only one cease-fire, it broke down and was restored. This means that the Terms and Conditions agreed between Martin McGuinness and MI6 Officer, Michael Oatley, in 1994 never changed.
So, while Sinn Fein/PIRA would sign up to The Mitchel Principles in 1997, those Principles had no effect on the Terms and Conditions of the 1994 cease-fire. The 1994 Terms and Conditions excluded Catholics and The Irish Republic, including members of An Garda Siochana.
On 10th October 1997 a Provisional IRA General Army Convention was held in Falcarragh, County Donegal, and was attended by Kevin McKenna, Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Pat Doherty, Michael McKevitt, Bernadette McKevitt Sands and so forth.
By the time the Sinn Fein/PIRA Army Convention was held in Donegal in October 1997, the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership were infiltrated to the point that Agents, Informers and Touts outnumbered actual Sinn Fein/PIRA members. This level of infiltration was fully exposed when Bobby Storey, raided Castlereagh RUC Holding Centre, in 2002, however, no action could be taken as several levels of the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership would have had to be wiped out.
In August, 1994, The PIRA Army Council declared a cease-fire, the Terms and Conditions of that cease-fire have never been seen by anyone other than members of The PIRA Army Council and MI6 Officers reporting to The British Prime Minister. This author had sight of several communications between Kevin McKenna and Martin McGuinness.
On Friday, 9th February, 1996: one hour after a statement ending their ceasefire, the Provisional IRA detonated a large lorry bomb near South Quay DLR station in the London Docklands, killing two people, injuring 40, and causing £150 million worth of damage. The IRA ceasefire had lasted 17 months and 9 days. It is not too much of a stretch to imagine that those running McGuinness, where happy to allow this bombing to go ahead and force Unionists into Government with Sinn Fein/PIRA. The tone of the communication from MI6 Officer Oatley, supports this view.
On the 20th July, 1997, The PIRA Army Council restored their 1994 cease-fire, stating:
“We have ordered the unequivocal restoration of the ceasefire of August 1994. All units have been instructed accordingly”.
This “Restoration” of the 1994 cease-fire means that there was only one cease-fire, it broke down and was restored. This means that the Terms and Conditions agreed between Martin McGuinness and MI6 Officer, Michael Oatley, in 1994 never changed.
So, while Sinn Fein/PIRA would sign up to The Mitchel Principles in 1997, those Principles had no effect on the Terms and Conditions of the 1994 cease-fire. The 1994 Terms and Conditions excluded Catholics and The Irish Republic, including members of An Garda Siochana.
On 10th October 1997 a Provisional IRA General Army Convention was held in Falcarragh, County Donegal, and was attended by Kevin McKenna, Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Pat Doherty, Michael McKevitt, Bernadette McKevitt Sands and so forth.
By the time the Sinn Fein/PIRA Army Convention was held in Donegal in October 1997, the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership were infiltrated to the point that Agents, Informers and Touts outnumbered actual Sinn Fein/PIRA members. This level of infiltration was fully exposed when Bobby Storey, raided Castlereagh RUC Holding Centre, in 2002, however, no action could be taken as several levels of the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership would have had to be wiped out.
The Real IRA
Following, the Sinn Fein/PIRA Convention in Donegal in October 1997, Michael McKevitt who had been Quarter-Master General on The PIRA Army Council, created The Real IRA at a shed in Oldcastle, County Meath. McKevitt was surrounded by members of The PIRA who wanted to continue with a campaign of violence against the British presence in Ireland.
Interestingly, I only parted company with Martin McGuinness following the Sinn Fein/Provisional IRA General Army Convention which was held in Falcarragh, County Donegal, On 10th October 1997. I parted company with McGuinness as I was advised by members of my extended paternal family in Dundalk and south Armagh, that Michael McKevitt and others were being allowed, by The Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership, including Kevin McKenna, Martin McGuinness and Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy, to empty PIRA arms dumps as they prepared to set-up The Real IRA.
I travelled from Belfast to Monaghan at the end of 1997 to ask Kevin McKenna (Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy had just been appointed Chief of Staff of the PIRA – Murphy was no less ruthless than Kevin McKenna but he was easily bought as he was promised by MI6 that his criminal empire would remain untouched by the security forces in the north) why the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership were allowing McKevitt to take explosives, weapons, ammunition and personnel without sanction. Kevin McKenna said that;
“The odd bomb going off here and there would help keep Unionists focused on working with the ‘Doves’”.
Kevin McKenna, PIRA Chief of Staff, 1983-1997/98
Normally anyone who misused or misappropriated as much a bullet belonging to The PIRA was court-martialled and punishment administered, two of the disappeared had allegedly mis-used a single gun belonging to the PIRA.
I was devastated by Kevin’s answer as I had put a lot of work into the peace-process and I had convinced a lot of people to give Sinn Fein a chance to move away from violence. Kevin McKenna and the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership had decided to use The Real IRA as proxies to do their dirty-work, just as they had done with many proxy groups over the years. This tactic would back-fire with the Omagh Bomb, and only then did the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership condemn the so called ‘Dissidents’.
Martina Anderson MLA used her position as MEP to lobby The Irish Government not to extradite Omagh Bomber, Liam Campbell, yet again exposing the lie of so called ‘Dissidents’. Sinn Fein members on Fermanagh and Omagh District Council supported a call by Republican Sinn Fein/CIRA not to extradite Omagh Bomber, Liam Campbell. While there are many examples of the hand in glove relationship between Sinn Fein/PIRA and so called ‘dissidents’, the examples above, are good recent examples, that expose the Truth about The Omagh Bomb in 1998.
When Kevin McKenna told me that Sinn Fein/PIRA were arming The Real IRA to use them as proxies, I changed tactic, in March 1998, I gave an exclusive front-page story to The Sunday Times in which I described my time in Sinn Fein/PIRA in Monaghan and the Ethnic Cleansing strategy developed and operationalised by Jim Lynagh and the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership in 1986.
In March 1998, I went to war with Sinn Fein/PIRA on the parades issue, I had known from 1996 that Sinn Fein/PIRA had manufactured opposition to Loyal Order parades and I had tried to convince them that this was wrong on all levels. I had initially engaged with all parties involved in the parades issue and some good work was done, however, Sinn Fein/PIRA were not reciprocating the bold moves being made by the Loyal Orders.
Over the following months and years, I would be subject to many attacks for the stand I had taken, as it was not simply a stand against Sinn Fein/PIRA but also a stand against the See, Hear and Speak no Evil Brigade.
Following, the Sinn Fein/PIRA Convention in Donegal in October 1997, Michael McKevitt who had been Quarter-Master General on The PIRA Army Council, created The Real IRA at a shed in Oldcastle, County Meath. McKevitt was surrounded by members of The PIRA who wanted to continue with a campaign of violence against the British presence in Ireland.
Interestingly, I only parted company with Martin McGuinness following the Sinn Fein/Provisional IRA General Army Convention which was held in Falcarragh, County Donegal, On 10th October 1997. I parted company with McGuinness as I was advised by members of my extended paternal family in Dundalk and south Armagh, that Michael McKevitt and others were being allowed, by The Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership, including Kevin McKenna, Martin McGuinness and Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy, to empty PIRA arms dumps as they prepared to set-up The Real IRA.
I travelled from Belfast to Monaghan at the end of 1997 to ask Kevin McKenna (Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy had just been appointed Chief of Staff of the PIRA – Murphy was no less ruthless than Kevin McKenna but he was easily bought as he was promised by MI6 that his criminal empire would remain untouched by the security forces in the north) why the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership were allowing McKevitt to take explosives, weapons, ammunition and personnel without sanction. Kevin McKenna said that;
“The odd bomb going off here and there would help keep Unionists focused on working with the ‘Doves’”.
Kevin McKenna, PIRA Chief of Staff, 1983-1997/98
Normally anyone who misused or misappropriated as much a bullet belonging to The PIRA was court-martialled and punishment administered, two of the disappeared had allegedly mis-used a single gun belonging to the PIRA.
I was devastated by Kevin’s answer as I had put a lot of work into the peace-process and I had convinced a lot of people to give Sinn Fein a chance to move away from violence. Kevin McKenna and the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership had decided to use The Real IRA as proxies to do their dirty-work, just as they had done with many proxy groups over the years. This tactic would back-fire with the Omagh Bomb, and only then did the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership condemn the so called ‘Dissidents’.
Martina Anderson MLA used her position as MEP to lobby The Irish Government not to extradite Omagh Bomber, Liam Campbell, yet again exposing the lie of so called ‘Dissidents’. Sinn Fein members on Fermanagh and Omagh District Council supported a call by Republican Sinn Fein/CIRA not to extradite Omagh Bomber, Liam Campbell. While there are many examples of the hand in glove relationship between Sinn Fein/PIRA and so called ‘dissidents’, the examples above, are good recent examples, that expose the Truth about The Omagh Bomb in 1998.
When Kevin McKenna told me that Sinn Fein/PIRA were arming The Real IRA to use them as proxies, I changed tactic, in March 1998, I gave an exclusive front-page story to The Sunday Times in which I described my time in Sinn Fein/PIRA in Monaghan and the Ethnic Cleansing strategy developed and operationalised by Jim Lynagh and the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership in 1986.
In March 1998, I went to war with Sinn Fein/PIRA on the parades issue, I had known from 1996 that Sinn Fein/PIRA had manufactured opposition to Loyal Order parades and I had tried to convince them that this was wrong on all levels. I had initially engaged with all parties involved in the parades issue and some good work was done, however, Sinn Fein/PIRA were not reciprocating the bold moves being made by the Loyal Orders.
Over the following months and years, I would be subject to many attacks for the stand I had taken, as it was not simply a stand against Sinn Fein/PIRA but also a stand against the See, Hear and Speak no Evil Brigade.
Real IRA as Proxies
While on the 31st of August 1994 The PIRA Army Council issued a general press statement declaring their cease-fire, through P.O’Neil, This press statement did not contain any meat on the bones of the Terms and Conditions of the PIRA cease-fire, the detailed Terms and Conditions which have never been altered to this day were delivered by Martin McGuinness to MI6.
There was in fact a twin-track approach, The Good Friday Agreement did not mirror the Terms and Conditions of The PIRA cease-fire. The Good Friday Agreement did not contain any detail about ‘Comfort Letters’, it did not contain any detail about Sinn Fein/PIRA being allowed to continue Human Rights abuses against the Catholic community (including murder and rape) and so forth. The latter is why, The British Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam, stated in 1999 that the murder of Charles Bennett by The PIRA was not viewed as a breach of The PIRA cease-fire but was viewed by the British as “Internal-House-keeping”.
British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, tried to under-mine my efforts and the efforts of others, by offering 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”.
While on the 31st of August 1994 The PIRA Army Council issued a general press statement declaring their cease-fire, through P.O’Neil, This press statement did not contain any meat on the bones of the Terms and Conditions of the PIRA cease-fire, the detailed Terms and Conditions which have never been altered to this day were delivered by Martin McGuinness to MI6.
There was in fact a twin-track approach, The Good Friday Agreement did not mirror the Terms and Conditions of The PIRA cease-fire. The Good Friday Agreement did not contain any detail about ‘Comfort Letters’, it did not contain any detail about Sinn Fein/PIRA being allowed to continue Human Rights abuses against the Catholic community (including murder and rape) and so forth. The latter is why, The British Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam, stated in 1999 that the murder of Charles Bennett by The PIRA was not viewed as a breach of The PIRA cease-fire but was viewed by the British as “Internal-House-keeping”.
British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, tried to under-mine my efforts and the efforts of others, by offering 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”.
The Omagh Bomb
On the 15th August 1998, 29 people were murdered and over 200 injured in Omagh, County Tyrone, by a Real IRA Bomb that had the DNA of three organisations.
The Leadership of Sinn Fein/PIRA would reinstate their agreed cease-fire with MI6, and while Sinn Fein/PIRA would no longer attack British Military, their Racist campaign against the Protestant community would continue, although by means of different tactics.
Sinn Fein/PIRA would also use their now redundant murders to take iron fist control of those communities in which Sinn Fein/PIRA engaged in whole sale criminality including murder and rape.
The Omagh bombing was a car bombing on 15 August 1998 in the town of Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It was carried out by a group calling themselves the Real Irish Republican Army, a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) splinter group who opposed the IRA's ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement. The bombing killed 29 people (including a woman pregnant with twins) and injured some 220 others, making it the deadliest single incident of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Telephoned warnings had been sent almost 40 minutes beforehand but were inaccurate, and police had inadvertently moved people toward the bomb.
The bombing caused outrage both locally and internationally, and in that outrage the Truth was lost, and political spin directed from Whitehall won the day. The Real IRA denied that the bomb was intended to kill civilians and apologised, shortly after, the group declared a ceasefire. The victims included people of many backgrounds and ages, Protestants, Catholics, six teenagers, six children, a woman pregnant with twins, two Spanish tourists and others on a day trip from the Republic of Ireland. Both unionists and Irish nationalists were killed and injured. As a result of the bombing, new anti-terrorism laws were swiftly enacted by both the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.
The Sinn Fein/PIRA tactic of using The Real IRA as proxies to force unionists into a power-sharing Assembly had back-fired, although the political spin did present Sinn Fein/PIRA as The 'Doves', in the 'republican' menagerie of murder.
It has been alleged that the British, Irish and US intelligence agencies had information which could have prevented the bombing, most of which came from double agents inside the Real IRA, but this information was not given to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). In 2008, the BBC reported that British intelligence agency GCHQ was monitoring conversations between the bombers as the bomb was being driven into Omagh.
A 2001 report by the Police Ombudsman said that the RUC Special Branch failed to act on prior warnings and criticised the RUC's investigation of the bombing. Police reportedly obtained circumstantial and coincidental evidence against some suspects, but they were unable to convict anyone of the bombing. Colm Murphy was tried, and convicted. He was released on appeal after it was revealed that Garda Special Branch Detectives, Donnelly and Fahy based in Monaghan Town, forged interview notes used in the case.
Murphy's nephew Sean Hoey, was also tried but was acquitted. In June 2009, the victims' families won a £1.6 million civil action settlement against four defendants, who were found liable for the bombing. In 2014, Seamus Daly was charged with the murder of 29 people; however, the case against him was withdrawn in 2016. All of the above had been named by this Author in 1998.
The Real IRA's tactics were the same as those of the IRA before it. It targeted the British security forces and also carried out bombings of symbolic or economic targets. The goal was to damage the economy and cause severe disruption, to put pressure on the British government to withdraw. Warnings were sent before such bombings, along with a code-word so that the authorities would know it was genuine. The Real IRA began its paramilitary campaign with an attempted car bombing in Banbridge, County Down on 7th January 1998.
The 300 pounds (140 kg) explosive was defused by security forces. Over the following months, it mounted several car bomb and mortar attacks. There were attacks or attempted attacks in Moira, Portadown, Armagh, Newry, Lisburn, Belfast, and Belleek, as well as another car bombing in Banbridge on 1st August, 1998, which caused thirty-five injuries but no deaths. Banbridge was not condemned by Sinn Fein/PIRA.
The Omagh bombing took place 13 weeks after the Good Friday Agreement of April 1998 was signed. Intended to be a comprehensive solution to the Troubles, it had broad support both in Ireland and internationally. While The Good Friday Agreement offered a blue-print for an agreed settlement, it was the Dirty-Deal done between the Sinn Fein/PIRA Leadership and MI6 that would and continues to under-mine confidence in The Good Friday Agreement.
On 13th August, a maroon Vauxhall Cavalier was stolen from outside a block of flats in Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, by Paddy Dixon, a Garda informer, who was being handled by Garda Sgt John White. At that time, it bore the County Donegal registration number of 91 DL 2554. The bombers replaced its Republic of Ireland number plates with fake Northern Ireland plates (MDZ 5211), and loaded the car with about 500 pounds (230 kg) of fertiliser-based explosives. The boaster pack was filled with Provisional IRA commercial explosives.
On Saturday 15th August, the bomb car was driven from County Monaghan, by Seamus McKenna, across the Irish border to Omagh, travelling north and west. A 'scout car' drove ahead of the bomb car to warn it of any checkpoints, and the two cars were in constant contact by mobile phone. At 14:19, the bomb car was parked outside S.D. Kells' clothes shop on Omagh's Market Street, at the eastern edge of the town centre, near the crossroads with Dublin Road. The driver, Seamus McKenna, could not find a parking space near the intended target, Omagh Courthouse, the scene of previous Provisional IRA attacks.
Seamus McKenna and his young Real IRA apprentice, armed the bomb and set the timer to detonate it in 40 minutes. They left the car and walked east down-Market Street towards Campsie Road, before leaving Omagh in the scout car. A family of Spanish tourists happened to take photos by the car. The photographer died in the bombing, but the man and child in the photograph survived.
At around 14:30, three phone calls were made warning of a bomb in Omagh, using the same codeword that had been used in the Real IRA's bombing in Banbridge two weeks earlier: "Martha Pope”, it is believed that this code=word was chosen by a female member of The Real IRA Leadership. The calls were made from telephone boxes many miles away in south County Armagh. The first warning was telephoned to Ulster Television saying, "There's a bomb, courthouse, Omagh, main street, 500lb, explosion 30 minutes". One minute later, the office received a second warning saying, "Bomb, Omagh town, 15 minutes". The caller claimed the warning on behalf of "Óglaigh na hÉireann". The next minute, the Coleraine office of the Samaritans received a call stating that a bomb would go off on the "main street" of Omagh "about 200 yards" (180 m) from the courthouse. The recipients passed on the information to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
The BBC News stated that police "were clearing an area near the local courthouse, 40 minutes after receiving a telephone warning, when the bomb detonated. But the warning was unclear and the wrong area was evacuated". The warnings mentioned "main street" when there was no street by that name in Omagh, although Market Street–High Street was the town's main shopping street. It runs for hundreds of yards east–west from the site of the bomb to the courthouse. Given the warnings, police believed the bomb was near the courthouse, so they evacuated the surrounding buildings and streets. As it happened, they moved people away from the courthouse and towards the site of the bomb, placing a cordon at Scarffe's Entry. The courthouse is roughly 365 yards (334 m) from the spot where the car bomb was parked. During the later Special Criminal Court trial of Real IRA director Michael McKevitt, witnesses for the prosecution said that the inaccurate warnings were accidental.
On the 15th August 1998, 29 people were murdered and over 200 injured in Omagh, County Tyrone, by a Real IRA Bomb that had the DNA of three organisations.
The Leadership of Sinn Fein/PIRA would reinstate their agreed cease-fire with MI6, and while Sinn Fein/PIRA would no longer attack British Military, their Racist campaign against the Protestant community would continue, although by means of different tactics.
Sinn Fein/PIRA would also use their now redundant murders to take iron fist control of those communities in which Sinn Fein/PIRA engaged in whole sale criminality including murder and rape.
The Omagh bombing was a car bombing on 15 August 1998 in the town of Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It was carried out by a group calling themselves the Real Irish Republican Army, a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) splinter group who opposed the IRA's ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement. The bombing killed 29 people (including a woman pregnant with twins) and injured some 220 others, making it the deadliest single incident of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Telephoned warnings had been sent almost 40 minutes beforehand but were inaccurate, and police had inadvertently moved people toward the bomb.
The bombing caused outrage both locally and internationally, and in that outrage the Truth was lost, and political spin directed from Whitehall won the day. The Real IRA denied that the bomb was intended to kill civilians and apologised, shortly after, the group declared a ceasefire. The victims included people of many backgrounds and ages, Protestants, Catholics, six teenagers, six children, a woman pregnant with twins, two Spanish tourists and others on a day trip from the Republic of Ireland. Both unionists and Irish nationalists were killed and injured. As a result of the bombing, new anti-terrorism laws were swiftly enacted by both the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.
The Sinn Fein/PIRA tactic of using The Real IRA as proxies to force unionists into a power-sharing Assembly had back-fired, although the political spin did present Sinn Fein/PIRA as The 'Doves', in the 'republican' menagerie of murder.
It has been alleged that the British, Irish and US intelligence agencies had information which could have prevented the bombing, most of which came from double agents inside the Real IRA, but this information was not given to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). In 2008, the BBC reported that British intelligence agency GCHQ was monitoring conversations between the bombers as the bomb was being driven into Omagh.
A 2001 report by the Police Ombudsman said that the RUC Special Branch failed to act on prior warnings and criticised the RUC's investigation of the bombing. Police reportedly obtained circumstantial and coincidental evidence against some suspects, but they were unable to convict anyone of the bombing. Colm Murphy was tried, and convicted. He was released on appeal after it was revealed that Garda Special Branch Detectives, Donnelly and Fahy based in Monaghan Town, forged interview notes used in the case.
Murphy's nephew Sean Hoey, was also tried but was acquitted. In June 2009, the victims' families won a £1.6 million civil action settlement against four defendants, who were found liable for the bombing. In 2014, Seamus Daly was charged with the murder of 29 people; however, the case against him was withdrawn in 2016. All of the above had been named by this Author in 1998.
The Real IRA's tactics were the same as those of the IRA before it. It targeted the British security forces and also carried out bombings of symbolic or economic targets. The goal was to damage the economy and cause severe disruption, to put pressure on the British government to withdraw. Warnings were sent before such bombings, along with a code-word so that the authorities would know it was genuine. The Real IRA began its paramilitary campaign with an attempted car bombing in Banbridge, County Down on 7th January 1998.
The 300 pounds (140 kg) explosive was defused by security forces. Over the following months, it mounted several car bomb and mortar attacks. There were attacks or attempted attacks in Moira, Portadown, Armagh, Newry, Lisburn, Belfast, and Belleek, as well as another car bombing in Banbridge on 1st August, 1998, which caused thirty-five injuries but no deaths. Banbridge was not condemned by Sinn Fein/PIRA.
The Omagh bombing took place 13 weeks after the Good Friday Agreement of April 1998 was signed. Intended to be a comprehensive solution to the Troubles, it had broad support both in Ireland and internationally. While The Good Friday Agreement offered a blue-print for an agreed settlement, it was the Dirty-Deal done between the Sinn Fein/PIRA Leadership and MI6 that would and continues to under-mine confidence in The Good Friday Agreement.
On 13th August, a maroon Vauxhall Cavalier was stolen from outside a block of flats in Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, by Paddy Dixon, a Garda informer, who was being handled by Garda Sgt John White. At that time, it bore the County Donegal registration number of 91 DL 2554. The bombers replaced its Republic of Ireland number plates with fake Northern Ireland plates (MDZ 5211), and loaded the car with about 500 pounds (230 kg) of fertiliser-based explosives. The boaster pack was filled with Provisional IRA commercial explosives.
On Saturday 15th August, the bomb car was driven from County Monaghan, by Seamus McKenna, across the Irish border to Omagh, travelling north and west. A 'scout car' drove ahead of the bomb car to warn it of any checkpoints, and the two cars were in constant contact by mobile phone. At 14:19, the bomb car was parked outside S.D. Kells' clothes shop on Omagh's Market Street, at the eastern edge of the town centre, near the crossroads with Dublin Road. The driver, Seamus McKenna, could not find a parking space near the intended target, Omagh Courthouse, the scene of previous Provisional IRA attacks.
Seamus McKenna and his young Real IRA apprentice, armed the bomb and set the timer to detonate it in 40 minutes. They left the car and walked east down-Market Street towards Campsie Road, before leaving Omagh in the scout car. A family of Spanish tourists happened to take photos by the car. The photographer died in the bombing, but the man and child in the photograph survived.
At around 14:30, three phone calls were made warning of a bomb in Omagh, using the same codeword that had been used in the Real IRA's bombing in Banbridge two weeks earlier: "Martha Pope”, it is believed that this code=word was chosen by a female member of The Real IRA Leadership. The calls were made from telephone boxes many miles away in south County Armagh. The first warning was telephoned to Ulster Television saying, "There's a bomb, courthouse, Omagh, main street, 500lb, explosion 30 minutes". One minute later, the office received a second warning saying, "Bomb, Omagh town, 15 minutes". The caller claimed the warning on behalf of "Óglaigh na hÉireann". The next minute, the Coleraine office of the Samaritans received a call stating that a bomb would go off on the "main street" of Omagh "about 200 yards" (180 m) from the courthouse. The recipients passed on the information to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
The BBC News stated that police "were clearing an area near the local courthouse, 40 minutes after receiving a telephone warning, when the bomb detonated. But the warning was unclear and the wrong area was evacuated". The warnings mentioned "main street" when there was no street by that name in Omagh, although Market Street–High Street was the town's main shopping street. It runs for hundreds of yards east–west from the site of the bomb to the courthouse. Given the warnings, police believed the bomb was near the courthouse, so they evacuated the surrounding buildings and streets. As it happened, they moved people away from the courthouse and towards the site of the bomb, placing a cordon at Scarffe's Entry. The courthouse is roughly 365 yards (334 m) from the spot where the car bomb was parked. During the later Special Criminal Court trial of Real IRA director Michael McKevitt, witnesses for the prosecution said that the inaccurate warnings were accidental.
Conclusion
On the 22nd Anniversary of Omagh, this article is as close as anyone will ever get to the truth, the information in this article was made fully available in 1998, but the Truth was buried for political expediency.
In 1998 great efforts were made to silence this author, this author told you, that the Sinn Fein/PIRA Leadership had armed The Real IRA to use them as proxies, this author publicly named those involved in The Omagh Bomb including those at Leadership level in Sinn Fein/PIRA who had taken the decision to arm The Real IRA, this author also told you publicly that nobody would ever be convicted of The Omagh Bomb, 22 years later, who is the liar now?
You can continue to be believe the Liars, the Spin Doctors, those who have much to hide and those who are simply ashamed that they allowed the Truth to be buried for political expediency.
On the 22nd Anniversary of Omagh, this article is as close as anyone will ever get to the truth, the information in this article was made fully available in 1998, but the Truth was buried for political expediency.
In 1998 great efforts were made to silence this author, this author told you, that the Sinn Fein/PIRA Leadership had armed The Real IRA to use them as proxies, this author publicly named those involved in The Omagh Bomb including those at Leadership level in Sinn Fein/PIRA who had taken the decision to arm The Real IRA, this author also told you publicly that nobody would ever be convicted of The Omagh Bomb, 22 years later, who is the liar now?
You can continue to be believe the Liars, the Spin Doctors, those who have much to hide and those who are simply ashamed that they allowed the Truth to be buried for political expediency.
