by Ken Wharton
Those killed instantly or who died shortly afterwards were: Wesley Armstrong (62) and his wife Bertha (55); Kitchener Johnston (71) and his wife Jessie (62); William Mullan (74) and his wife Nessie (73); John Megaw (67); Nurse Georgina Alberta Quinton (72); Marie Wilson (20); Samuel Gault (49); RUCR Officer Edward Armstrong (52); and Ronnie Hill (55). Marie – who was a nurse – was still alive and trapped under the rubble along with her father, Gordon; she died holding his hand. One man – Ronnie Hill – was so badly injured that he never recovered, dying some thirteen years later.
Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers – women as well as men – along with shocked survivors began to tear at the rubble trying to rescue those still alive as well as recover the dead. Survivor Tommy Halliwell** told the author:
You just get stuck in and do what you have to do. It could be a mother, brother, sister, anybody lying in there. They need help, but you don’t think; you just do it. We were just throwing the rubble back, but it was the wrong thing to do because we were just hitting the people behind with it. The first body I saw was Johnny Megaw. We lifted Johnny and Ted Armstrong – at the time we didn’t know who first, your mind was playing tricks. We lifted Johnny and put him on the pavement. The next one was Ted; his coat was blew inside out ... his overcoat ... unbelievable ... he had a big black heavy coat and it was blown inside out. Then we got Sammy Gault; Sammy was in tight to the fence, but we got him out. His watch was still going.
UDR soldier Brent Weir said:
I was actually up and could touch the faces that were squeezed into the metal bars. There could’ve been a hundred people around us trying to get the wall off and there was there were these big planks and there was one boy and he was roaring, roaring, roaring: ‘... don’t take the plank ...’ Whatever was going into his body as we were lifting the wall. It must have been just ripping into him, but we had to get it up. There was no blood, but there was that much dust.
Charles Caulfield, widely thought to be the OC of PIRA’s Monaghan/Clones unit, fled to the USA, where for years he was supported by Irish American businesses, politicians and other supporters as he successfully resisted extradition back to the UK to face charges of murder. The operation was carried out by two PIRA units from both Co. Fermanagh and Co. Tyrone. There has been much speculation that the men were acting independently in defiance of Army Council orders, but there seems very little doubt that the orders to carry out what became known as the Poppy Day massacre could only have come from the very highest ranks of the Provisional IRA.
The funeral of Marie Wilson, killed along with ten others in the no-warning explosion during a Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen cenotaph on 8 November 1987.
Caring for the survivors of the Poppy Day massacre.
UDR soldiers helping the emergency services with the wounded.
The following day, PIRA released a statement purporting to express their ‘... deep regret ...’, further claiming: ‘We were trying to convince people there that what’s happening in the North is a legitimate armed struggle.’ Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams refused to condemn the bombing, before adding: ‘I think the IRA, in accepting responsibility, has signalled that they are going to ensure that there are no more Enniskillens.’
This was, of course, a political disaster for the Provisionals: it was sectarian, it was indiscriminate and it targeted civilians – there could be no excuse. They attempted a damage limitation process but even their claim of disbanding the units responsible was hollow: the personnel of the ‘disbanded’ units were simply merged into others, the killings continued and, particularly in that border area, the ‘genocide’ programme continued. The events damaged Sinn Féin electorally in the Co. Fermanagh area for at least a decade afterwards. There appeared to be a wave of reconciliation in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement that saw sworn enemies such as Loyalist Ian Paisley and former PIRA Commander Martin McGuinness shaking hands and smiling as they did so; the latter also later shook hands with the Queen. However, opinions changed as people on the Republican side began rewriting the history of the Troubles. If one reads Orwell’s dystopian black novel 1984 I wonder who had the more difficult job of rewriting history: Winston Smith or Gerry Adams?
Given the virtually ever-present violence that occurred throughout most of Northern Ireland during the Troubles, it is small wonder that the ordinary civilian strived to maintain any semblance of normality in their lives. For the working man of Ulster – Catholic and Protestant alike – having a ‘flutter on the gee-gees’ ranked up there with watching football or rugby, or, for the Catholics, Gaelic games such as hurling. Consequently, a place of refuge and a place to win a ‘few bob’, was the bookmakers, or the ‘bookies’. One of the biggest chains through the island of Ireland was Sean Graham, with a branch being found in most districts of the North. It attracted young and old, Catholic and Protestant males like nectar attracts bees; by the same token it also attracted Loyalist murder gangs.
Enniskillen survivor Richard Wilson after his recovery from the PIRA bomb blast.
On a cold winter’s day in 1992, five Catholics set off for the Lower Ormeau Road branch of Sean Graham. It was Wednesday, 5 February, at around 14.20 hours as the punters, having placed their bets, gathered around the several television sets to watch the 2.30 race. Just outside in University Avenue, a blue Ford Escort containing four men parked up, leaving the engine running; they were a combination of UFF members from Johnny Adair’s ‘C’ Company from the Shankill and at least one man from the local Annandale flats unit, under the then command of Joe ‘Chinky’ Bratty. Two of the men exited the car – one of whom is alleged to be Raymond Elder – and walked into the shop where fifteen men were concentrating on winning a few pounds to bring some cheer into their lives.
One of them was armed with the Czech equivalent of the AK-47 – a VZ-58 – while the other carried a 9mm Browning pistol. They gave no warning whatsoever, simply firing into the packed throng of innocent Catholics. In all, they fired forty-six rounds, hitting virtually everyone in the rooms. One survivor told the press:
At first I thought it was a hold-up, but then somebody yelled: Hit the deck! I tried to but got hit in the leg on the way down. I just lay there and prayed that the shooting would stop. It seemed to go on for a lifetime. I don’t pray that often, but I can tell you I prayed then – Please God, let the shooting stop. There wasn’t a sound for seconds, everybody was so stunned, but then the screaming started. People were yelling out in agony, others were crying. You could hardly see anything. The room was filled with gun smoke and the smell would have choked you.
Four men were already dead, and a fifth, 15-year-old James Kennedy, was mortally wounded, dying just before the ambulance that raced to save his young life could reach hospital. The murdered men were: Peter Magee (18); Christy Doherty (51); William McManus (54), a father of four; and Jack Duffin (66), a father of three grown up children. Jack Duffin was found lying on top of another wounded man, his back was riddled with bullets, dying as he tried to protect his friend.
McDonald and Cusack’s excellent and informative UDA: Inside the Heart of Loyalist Terror captures in perfect and poignant detail the immediate aftermath of this appalling act: ‘... men groaning and screaming, blood splattered on the walls and the air filled with the sour reek of cordite. And while some of the victims lay dying, the horse race they had been watching at the time of the shooting was coming to a finish on the television, the cries of the victims competing to be heard above the frenzied voice-over from the race meeting.’* Bratty and Elder were later shot dead by PIRA gunmen in the Kimberley Bar off the Ormeau Road on 31 July 1994.
The atrocity at the bookies was, however, merely a blueprint for a repeat outrage in another branch. This took place some eight months later at James Murray’s Bookies (part of the Sean Graham empire) located on the corner of the Oldpark Road and Rosapenna Street. The UFF’s ‘C’ Company was again involved as they mounted a gun and grenade attack on the Ardoyne bookies, which sat in the interf
ace area with the Loyalist Cliftonville area. Close by is the Lower Shankill Road, known locally as ‘Beirut’.
The attack, which was led by Stephen ‘Top Gun’ McKeag and allegedly included Norman Truesdale, was timed to coincide with the 4 o’clock from Cheltenham, when it was rightly assumed that the attention of the punters would have been on the televised race. The men inside – in the main Catholics but known to include some Protestants – watched anxiously as their brew (dole money) metaphorically raced along with their preferred horses. A stolen taxi parked close to the shop entrance and two men jumped out, making a beeline for their target. McKeag kicked the door open, immediately opening fire with a Czech VZ.58 – possibly the same one used in the Lower Ormeau Road attack – indiscriminately spraying the mass of humanity inside the shop. At the same time, one of the men, thought to have been Truesdale, smashed the front window before tossing in a Soviet-manufactured hand grenade to further add to the carnage. According to survivors, McKeag appeared to be in a frenzy, in a world of his own, as he fired round after round into skin, muscle and bone, on one occasion hitting two people with the same high-velocity round.
The scene outside Sean Graham bookmakers, North Queen Street, on 29 April 1993 after a shooting in which five men were injured.
Outside Sean Graham bookies on the Ormeau Road, scene of the massacre of innocent Catholics.
Francis Burns (62), a father of four grown-up children, and Peter Orderly (47), also a father of four, were killed instantly; both men slumped to the ground dead, oblivious to the continuing sound of the automatic gunfire and screams of pain that continued for a few seconds after their deaths. John Lovett (72) was also hit; he was fatally wounded and died in hospital the following day. A further thirteen men were injured, some very seriously; they were rushed to the Mater Hospital. There were sixteen people in the small shop, with twelve of them being injured and one man having his leg blown off in the grenade attack. Hugh Jordan described the premises as being a ‘... pathetically easy target ...’ One survivor was quoted as saying: ‘I counted about six bodies on the floor. They were all moaning and only one man spoke. He said to me: “Will we be alright?”’
In another chapter we looked at the Kingsmills attack, when ten workmen were gunned down by the Provisional IRA in January 1976. The same tactics had been tried on at least three occasions by Loyalist paramilitaries but had achieved only mixed results. In early 1992, PIRA decided to carry out another ‘spectacular’ on those who worked for what they termed ‘Crown Forces’. The target would naturally be vulnerable, relatively easy to hit and, while less prestigious than hitting a large SF base, would still demonstrate their supposedly waning military prowess. The target was a minibus carrying Protestant workmen from their renovation work at Lisanelly Barracks in Omagh, after they finished their work for the day. The company carrying out the work was Karl Construction, named in honour of Karl Blackbourne, an RUC officer killed by the IRA in Newry on 26 July 1986.
The route to and from the construction site had been staked out by PIRA dickers for some time before the attack took place on 17 January 1992. During the course of that day, a PIRA bombing team, allegedly led by James Kelly, had assembled two explosive devices weighing 1,500lb (680kg) in plastic bins close to the main Omagh–Cookstown Road. The landmine was to be triggered by a command wire that led to a quarry approximately 200 yards away from Teebane crossroads. The workers’ minibus set off from Lisanelly – the barracks are now part of one of Northern Ireland’s new ‘super schools’ – in the early evening darkness; it was a cold, drizzly day. At some stage, a car driven by a known female PIRA operative overtook the vehicle, keeping a consistent but apparently innocent distance ahead. As she reached a spot close to the crossroads, she flashed her lights several times to alert the team that the target vehicle was just behind her. On cue, the massive bomb exploded, the blast hurled the minibus into the air, landing on its side before skidding more than 100ft down the road. Seven of the men inside the vehicle were killed instantly; all of the others were badly injured, with wreckage, bodies and body parts being hurled 30 to 100ft away from the mangled vehicle. The explosion was heard from as far away as 10 miles.
Those killed at the scene were William Gary Bleeks (25), Cecil James Caldwell (37), Robert Dunseath (25), who was a part-time soldier, David Harkness (23), John Richard McConnell (38), Nigel McKee (22) and Robert Irons (61); Oswald Gilchrist (44), who was driving, died four days later in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. One of the injured men – Bobby O’Neill – later spoke of lying in the road on a bitterly cold evening; as he lay there, a man with a beard walked slowly through the debris, pausing only to look at the faces of the dead, dying and injured; the man’s manner was described as ‘dispassionate’. It seems highly likely that he was a member of the bombing team surveying the results of his ‘handiwork’.
A fleet of ambulances were soon at the scene, ferrying the casualties to several hospitals. One of the rescue workers said at the time: ‘They were blown to pieces and would not have known what hit them. It’s sickening. I hope those who did this are proud of themselves.’ One other survivor was reported as saying:
I was screeching, and it was an experience I had never come through before ... fire was coming out of my eyes ... I just squealed for breath and I just seemed to be heading away ... I said a prayer: Lord, don’t let me die, save me ... I was lying on the broad of my back and I couldn’t see down to my legs and I couldn’t feel them. I looked across the road and I saw a big sign – Omagh 17 miles. There were people lying on the ground. I couldn’t tell you if there were two or three, or five lying there.
Ruth Forrest, brother of David Harkness, told the author:
At approximately 8:30 p.m., my sister Louise phoned me; she said, ‘Ruth, I want you to prepare yourself for the worst; my husband has checked every hospital in Northern Ireland and no one has David.’ I naively thought he could be helping someone at the roadside. She then stated, ‘The hospitals don’t accept the dead.’ I was praying that David would be alive, no matter how serious his injuries were. How selfish of me. At exactly 9 p.m., my sister Heather phoned; her exact words were ‘Ruth, it’s all over, David is dead.’
A spokesman for PIRA later said:
The IRA reiterates its long-standing call to those who continue to provide services or materials to the forces of occupation to desist immediately. Since 1985 the IRA has adopted a policy of taking military action aimed at ending Britain’s cynical use of non-military personnel for the servicing and maintenance of British Crown Forces’ bases and installations ... for our part, we in the IRA will not tolerate a situation where military personnel are freed from essential services and maintenance tasks and then deployed where they can carry out wholesale repression within our community.
Gerry Adams, former President of Sinn Féin, was callous in the extreme, saying that the attack was ‘... a horrific reminder of the failure of British policy in Ireland’.
Willie Frazer, leader of Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR), claimed: ‘This act of terrorism was carried out by Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams Sinn Féin/ IRA, yes the same people who today sit in government and call us extremists. They did this cowardly act and they will never be allowed to wash their hands of it.’
It is indeed difficult to argue with Mr Frazer’s words, given that such an operation had to be sanctioned at the highest levels of the Provisionals. It is difficult to believe that the Army Council were unaware of the plan; further, it is difficult to accept that Gerry Adams, as well as the late Martin McGuinness, were not part of the decision. By 1992, PIRA/INLA operations had begun to have less and less impact in terms of targeting and killing members of the SF; they began hitting more vulnerable targets such as civilians who were working for the RUC/Army. It was perceived that this would involve less risk for the PIRA bombing/shooting teams involved, but with possibly more ‘spectacular’ results. However, the converse was also true that, by implication, they were forced to reveal that thei
r motives were purely sectarian, targeting Protestant workmen.
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams pictured canvassing with Martin McGuinness, Alex Maskey and Danny Morrison shortly after he was shot and injured in a UDA gun attack in Belfast city centre.
The propensity and willingness of the Loyalist paramilitaries to emulate and in most cases outdo their Republican counterparts was illustrated perfectly on the evening of 18 June 1994. In what has become known as both the Loughinisland massacre and the ‘World Cup massacre’, gunmen from the UVF burst into a crowded bar in Co. Down, shooting eleven people, six of whom died. Two days earlier, the INLA had killed three leading UVF members outside a pub in the Shankill Road, Belfast. The Loyalists had demanded revenge, with calls of incitement that included ‘kill any Catholic’ and ‘blood on the streets of Ulster’. With this type of atmosphere, it was only a matter of time before innocent Catholics would pay the price of INLA audacity.
The draw for the 1994 Football World Cup to be held in the USA had been made some months earlier; it was known that the Republic of Ireland would face one of the pre-tournament favourites, Italy. It did not take a genius to work out that this game would be watched by millions in both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland with a huge Catholic audience. Equally, it was known that the game would be shown live on TV, being well attended in Catholic-owned and -frequented pubs throughout Ulster.
The game kicked off at 21.00 (16.00 US time) in Giants Stadium in New York as twenty-four drinkers settled down to watch in the Heights Bar, run and owned by the O’Toole family in Loughinisland, Co. Down. Just twelve minutes into the game, Ray Houghton scored what transpired to be the winning goal for Ireland, sending the drinkers into raptures. At exactly 22.10 (17.10 in New York), shortly after the start of the second half, two UVF gunmen clad in boiler suits and balaclavas burst into the bar. There was a cry of ‘Fenian bastards’ before the gunmen, one of whom was armed with a Czech-manufactured VZ-58 (similar to the one used the previous October at the Rising Sun pub attack), opened fire. Around sixty rounds were fired, with eleven people being hit. Six men were either killed instantly or so badly wounded that they died within seconds. The gunmen then ran back to their waiting car before racing off into the night. Several eyewitnesses reported that they were laughing and cheering as they did so. Those killed were: Barney Green (87), Daniel McCreanor (59), Eamon Byrne (39), Patrick O’Hare (35), Adrian Rogan (34) and Malcolm Jenkinson (52); five others were badly wounded.
