Anne Cadwallader - Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland

MERCIER PRESS

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Anne Cadwallader, 2013

ISBN: 978 1 78117 188 2

Epub ISBN: 978 1 78117 237 7

Mobi ISBN: 978 1 78117 238 4

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Contents

This book is the outcome of a search for the truth by bereaved families and a group of human rights activists, beginning in the autumn of 1999. Those involved include the families of the dead and the volunteers and staff of the Pat Finucane Centre (PFC) and Justice for the Forgotten (JFF). These two organisations have plundered archives, national and local newspaper libraries, and taken witness statements. This has involved hundreds of hours researching in the National Archives in London and Dublin, interviewing grieving families, and meeting agencies such as the Historical Enquiries Team (HET).

Among those involved are Alan Brecknell (son of Trevor Brecknell RIP), Paul OConnor (PFC), Margaret Urwin (JFF), Johanna Keenan (PFC), Shane OCurry (PFC), Stephanie English (PFC), Adrian Kerr (PFC), Professor Robbie McVeigh (former chair of the PFC), Tom Griffin (Spinwatch), Cormac Dlachin (Senior Counsel for JFF since 1996) and Greg ONeill (JFFs solicitor). I have had the privilege of trying to put the outcome of all this work into the printed word.

I would like to thank Monsignor Denis Faul (RIP) and Monsignor Dr Ramonn Muireadhaigh, whose courageous and ground-breaking work, The Triangle of Death , made a first (and, alas, vain) attempt to persuade the authorities to act; Roddy Hegarty, director of the Cardinal Toms Fiaich Memorial Library and Archive (Armagh); the staff of the Linen Hall Library Political Collection; and Professor Douglass Cassel of Notre Dame Law School, who, along with Susie Kemp, Piers Pigou and Stephen Sawyer, compiled the October 2006 Report of the Independent International Panel on Alleged Collusion in Sectarian Killings in Northern Ireland .

Those who assisted greatly during the writing of the book include: T. L. Thousand (Los Angeles), Caroline Casey (Perth, Australia and granddaughter of Patrick Molloy, RIP), Sorcha OHare (Warrenpoint), Susan McKay, Seaneen White (Armagh, and another granddaughter of Patrick Molloy), Professor Paddy Hillyard (Belfast and Italy), Maura Martin (sister-in-law of Marian Bowen, Seamus and Michael McKenna), Chris McAuley (Armagh) and many others who prefer to remain anonymous.

Needless to say, I take responsibility for all errors and would ask those who notice them to alert Mercier Press for future editions.

Those most closely involved would like to thank their families for enduring their many absences from home and the neglect of domestic duties. Alan Brecknell would like thank Patricia, Paul OConnor would like to thank Laura Pozo-Rodriguez, and Margaret Urwin would like to thank Mark. I would like to thank principally my husband, Gerry OHare, also my sister Jane (Madrid), her children Ana, Georgie and Teresa, and my niece Helena. Thanks also to my good friends Mary, Jude, Les, Dan, John g and Liz. Their support and confidence in me, however ill-founded, kept me going. In addition, thanks to Messrs Beethoven, Mozart, Sibelius and J. S. Bach for keeping me sane during the daily ArmaghBelfast commute.

Without one individual in particular, the research on which this book is based would never have begun. When Alan Brecknell first heard that RUC and UDR men may have been among those who killed his father, Trevor, he might well have been shocked but made the decision to move on. That would have been a very understandable reaction. Instead, however, he embarked on a long search for the truth and has since discovered more about Trevors death than he ever thought possible. He has gone on to extend his search on behalf of dozens of other families, who have benefited from his honesty and diligence. More than the efforts of anyone else, this book is the result of his personal courage and determination.

Anne Cadwallader began her career working for the BBC after an apprenticeship with Westminster Press in Yorkshire, holding a scholarship at City University in London and completing an English degree at Exeter University, where she was Vice-President of the Guild of Students and Editor of the student newspaper.

In Ireland, she worked for the BBC in Belfast and Dublin from 1981 to 1987, before becoming a parliamentary reporter for the Irish Press Group and a producer at Raidi Teilifs ireann (RT) in 1990 . She returned to Belfast in 1991 as Northern Editor of the Irish Press Group, before becoming Northern Editor for Independent Network News from 1997 to 2009.

She is the author of Holy Cross The Untold Story (Brehon Press, 2004) and has worked for Reuters, The Christian Science Monitor , Irish Examiner , The Irish Echo (New York), Ireland on Sunday and others. She is now a case worker with the Pat Finucane Centre for Human Rights, based in Armagh.

Anne was born in London and now lives in Belfast. Married to a former Irish Republican prisoner, her parents, Peter and Catherine, and her sister, Susan, all served in the British Army, and her brother, Charles, is a retired police officer.

NOTE: As used throughout the book, the terms Catholic and nationalist should be regarded as interchangeable. Likewise Protestant and unionist. The term loyalist generally refers to those who supported the main paramilitary groups (the UDA and UVF) and the term republican likewise to the main republican paramilitary group (the Provisional IRA).

B Specials: Members of the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) a part-time force disbanded in 1970.

CID: Criminal Investigations Department of the RUC.

CI: Cras Iompair ireann public transport company in the Republic.

Dil/Dil ireann: The main house of the parliament of the Republic of Ireland (Oireachtas).

DUP: Democratic Unionist Party the more radical of the two main unionist parties.

ECHR: European Court of Human Rights.

Fianna Fil: Irish political party originally formed from those who opposed the Treaty with Britain signed in December 1921.

Fine Gael: Irish political party originally formed from those who supported the Treaty of 1921.

GAA: Gaelic Athletic Association (in Irish, Cumann Lthchleas Gael), an influential amateur sporting and cultural organisation with over one million members, sometimes accused by unionists of being political as it supports the Irish language, music and dancing. Until 2001 it banned members of the RUC or British Army from membership.

Garda Sochna: The police force of the Republic of Ireland.

Glenanne: The name of a townland (see below) in South Armagh, where a farmhouse belonging to RUC Reservist James Mitchell was situated. The Glenanne Gang was the name used to describe the group of UVF men, RUC officers and UDR soldiers who colluded in murders across Counties Armagh, Tyrone, Down and across the border in the mid-1970s.