kingsmills

The Crumlin Road Canteen

In the series “Life on Mars’ the boss calls a meeting. The shock is that his colleagues are smoking, drinking, , eating pies and generally behaving in a way that nobody under 55 could remember.

I have read the Police Ombudsman’s report into the Loughinisland killings and , hopefully, I will write about it. But the point which is missed by him is the historical context. It is as if two men went into a pub in leafy Surrey and carried out an atrocity and the local Bobbies, with time on their hands, screwed up.

Let me describe the Crumlin Road courthouse in the 1980s. I do this  for two reasons. First , because, as a matter of policy, anyone associated with prosecuting for the Crown in those days has been erased from history as part of the deal with SF/IRA and secondly to explain what life was really like.

As one approached the courthouse from the city direction, there was frequently a RUC or army road stop. Only the bold prosecutor approached from the Ardoyne direction. This I did occasionally. More frequently I drove my GTI Golf at 90 mph down the M2 and then came up from the city centre.

At the entrance to the courthouse there was a security team who wanted to inspect your car, including boot and engine compartment.

This team was covered both from the open ground and from the heavily armed sangar.

Once inside the grounds, a further check might be carried out.

The Director of Public Prosecutions had its offices on the top floor of the building. Not a problem when one is fit.

More important was the canteen, to be found on the left hand side of the ground floor. Here was a microcosm of the Troubles. It was a small room, a counter at the far end and a number of tables. Behind the counter Etta presided. She had been at school with my Dad. She and her staff produced a wide array of food. From the black coffee and a possible scone for the barrister to the fry for the constable.

Why is this story important?

Because each morning the fug in that room had to be seen to be believed. There was no ban on smoking. Officers who had been out all night on duty and who were now required to attend court to give evidence in a terrorist trial , were trying to dry off their uniforms while having a fag and an fry. Later they would try to get home for a few hours sleep before another spell of duty.

Sometimes it was hard to see across the room. I recall chatting to colleges about how nice it would be to get away to the Med. One said, “isn’t it great to walk down to the local shop and buy croissants and yesterday’s paper and come back and read them in the sun?” Another described how beads of water ran down the outside of a bottle of white wine, placed on your table.

That was just escapism. On a day when the great and the good have joined together to mark the first day of the Somme, it is important that we do not wait one hundred years to mark what ordinary men did to protect society in Northern Ireland.

As , Dear Reader, you judge the acts and omissions of policemen and lawyers and read the Police Ombudsman’s report, prepared at length, in a non smoking environment, reflect on what life was really like and how the Crumlin Road canteen, shared with police officers, prosecutors, witnesses, paramilitaries ,Patrick Finucane, Paddy McGrory, Oliver Kelly and Seamus Tracey was a microcosm of how the troubles was really played  out.

 

 

 

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…….

 

Four things you didn’t see by today

On 28th March I predicted that, before today,  you would not see a female High Court Judge, an apology from the Irish News re Winkie Rea , disclosure in the Kingsmills case and a Willie march in Dublin.

Four out of four isn’t bad.

I’m sure Dec will fulfil his promise to the Assembly soon, though , given the apparent separation of powers , so loved by constitutional lawyers and almost entirely absent here, I’m not sure why he had to make that promise and where that takes us. Look out for ‘the people’ [that is the assembly]  taking over the disciplining of lawyers and their appointments to the Bench. Will this break the stranglehold of the big flagship grammar schools? Don’t hold your breath!

Poor old Willie is battling two states, not one. If he thinks that the Republic is likely to disclose more than his beloved Queen, he is living in a dream world.

Re Winkie, the fight is not yet over.

The Orange Donkey

It seems meet that this subject should be now aired.

it used to be said that the Unionist party could field a donkey for election and it would win.

Has anything changed? Well, looking at loyalist areas of North Belfast, certainly not. Deprivation is everywhere. But so long as the marches are uppermost in the minds of the masses, all will be well.

Let’s look at a few Orange Donkeys.

Nigel Dodds and Jeffrey Donaldson. Compensation for victims of PIRA crimes. Twenty five years on, all we hear are the same old promises. I and others are at least walking wounded. Many victims live appalling lives of suffering. This duo of donkeys just witter.

Jamie Bryson. Did he shake hands with McGuinness? I have asked him twice, but he has not replied. What has this man done for the lives of the loyalist community?

Saving the best for last. Willie Frazer, that flim flam man of loyalism. Carpet Bagger extraordinaire. Seller of fake medicines to loyalism. That man , with no visible means of support and no visible results. Does Willie draw a salary from FAIR? If so how much? Can anyone tell me of any victim of the troubles who has received practical support from him, apart from a second hand cooker?

Let’s look at the Kingsmills project. if there was not a start to disclosure to the Coroner by 27 March , Willie was marching in Dublin. Well, the date has come and gone and there is no sign of Willie’s Dublin march and no sign of documents.  But, you see, he met the Irish Prime Minister. So that’s all right then.

Somehow, he is again the voice of FAIR, an organisation which is supposed to be non-sectarian. Let’s examine some recent Willie posts. Amnesty International is part of the Republican movement, apparently. The Irish Government financed the IRA murders of innocents, according to Willie.

Why was Willie not in Ballymurphy, supporting the claims of innocent victims there?

Did his handlers advise against it?

The point of this article is to draw attention, if such were needed , to the Big House Unionism which still prevails and to the followers on their coat tails, who , like Bryson and Frazer , make no practical difference to the most vulnerable in our society.