inquest

Palmgate

As told to our reporter by “CSI5”.

“Well it was like any other morning in the fingerprint branch. I had done a couple of TADAs and three burglaries. So, like, it’s break time and I’m in the canteen, having a bacon bap and a mug of tea. I was reading the Sun, just for the sport, you know. Anyway , somebody threw the News Letter on the table and I saw the word ‘Kingsmill’. My dad used to be a bread server with Barney Hughes and I just thought it was an ad for bread. I like bread, so I looked more closely. It turns out it’s all about a massacre that took place in the seventies, before I was born. That’s probably why I knew nothing about it and had never, ever heard of it, even in the last six months. So I got to thinking, what if I could help? How could I help? Maybe there’s  a palm print un-identified since 1976, happens all the time.

So I said ‘Boss, any chance I could do the Kingsmill?’ He laughed. ‘You bored?’ he said.  ‘Go on then’ So fortunately, even though it hasn’t been investigated in yonks, I was able to find the file very quickly and there was indeed an unidentified palm print. My hands were trembling as I put it through the system. Within minutes I had matched it to a set of famous republican dabs.

I said ‘Boss, look at this’. Two of my mates confirmed it.

Now I’m the talk of the department, the Boy Wonder of prints!

I’ve had requests for help from the Lucan investigation and from the Kennedys. I thought that bakery had gone out of business.

Funny old [forensic] world.”

Whom to trust?

When I was a boy, long time ago now, I used to go for walks with my Dad on  a Sunday morning. One thing he said , which struck me was ‘note how many trade union leaders become Lords’.

This started me on the path of believing that  nothing is ever as it seems.

If I were the controller of MI5 I would seek to bring within my purview every renegade and rebel in the Kingdom. I would black mail them with their peccadilloes . Sex, money, drugs, terrorism [that should cover most Ulster politicians].

Which brings me to Willie Frazer.

I have tried to love Willie, God knows.

I have followed his talking head series.

I have watched him pop up in every conceivable point of tension in the Six Counties.

I have followed his dyslexic ramblings.

I have hoped for a successful  outcome to just one of the many causes that he has espoused.

Willie was of course identified by the High Court as an associate of loyalist terrorist organisations. See re F 2005 NI 280.

Why is it that he reminds me of the unionists of old who promised the stars and delivered nothing? Think of the recent documentary on the shooting of an entirely innocent man on the Shankill Road. Which unionist ever took up that case?

Let’s consider the killings at Kingsmills. Nothing that Willie has done over the last several years has produced one document to assist the families. Now, after threats to march in Dublin and reports that he was bought off, the initial hearing into the deaths has produced nothing.

The outcome for the families? Nothing.

The consequence for Willie? He continues to rampage about without any visible means of support.

Or perhaps I’m being too naive…….