The British Army in Northern Ireland 1975-77

by Ken Wharton

  On the 18th, a former or cusp member of the UVF was killed, more than likely by the UDA/UFF as a result of comments he had made. Robert Walker (32) a father of four children had, in the words of his wife, had enough of the punishment beatings, romper rooms and murders. He had been a one-time member of the UDA/UFF and had gone across to the UVF. During his paramilitary career, he had fallen foul of both Loyalist factions and it is not known which of the two killed him. It is clear that he was bound, tortured and beaten before being shot and then dumped at Whitebrae, Ligoniel on the north-western outskirts of Belfast. His car from whence he had been abducted was found abandoned at Hopewell Crescent, just off the Loyalist Shankill Road.

  The Provisionals were responsible for the next three Troubles-related deaths over seven days of violence in West Belfast. On the 19th, a stolen car carrying PIRA members pulled up at a garage near Finaghy Crossroads on the Upper Lisburn Road, south of the Musgrave Park Hospital. The men, from the West Belfast Brigade, attempted to plant a bomb, but the owner – William Creighton (77) – wrestled with the men, who shot him dead. They then left an explosive device and drove off along Upper Lisburn Road; it exploded shortly afterwards, partly demolishing the petrol station. They were seen by the Army and chased towards a house in Cranmore Gardens, south of Drumglass Park. After a siege, the men were arrested. The garage was bombed several times during the Troubles, including the ‘Bloody Friday’ outrages. If the reader looks at the front cover of David Barzilay’s The British Army in Ulster Volume 1 the garage is shown.

  On Monday 23rd, the Provisionals again blitzed parts of Belfast’s commercial heart and adjoining areas with a series of bombs. Four shops were wrecked in Glengormley Shopping Centre, destroying goods and also causing peripheral damage to nearby residences. Next, a bombing unit, flanked by armed men planted two bombs in adjoining warehouses on the Kilwee Industrial Estate at Dunmurry, south of the city centre, severely damaging Atlas Parcels and Brown’s Tractors. The bombers then targeted Gillespie & Waring’s, a furniture shop in the Loyalist heartland of Shankill Road. Army EOD managed to defuse both devices without damage or injury. They then targeted Electronix Sales on the Lisburn Road and planted three bombs, all of which exploded, totally gutting the premises. The Army was then called upon again to defuse several devices at Dunlop & Hamilton’s Wholesalers, in Franklin Street; the devices were successfully made harmless. Hours later, an Army mobile patrol in the Ballymurphy area was attacked near Divismore Way and a soldier shot and seriously wounded in the stomach. That day ended with a PIRA gun attack on Army bomb-disposal experts in the Creggan Estate, Londonderry. A suspect device was planted at Circular Road in the notorious Nationalist estate and as EOD men were working on it, gunmen fired several shots. An Army sniper was on duty and fired several shots at the PIRA men. One man was observed to fall and a later follow-up search revealed several bloodstains at the firing point. With the Irish border a little over a mile away and only several fields to cross, the gunmen were probably safely inside the Republic before the evidence of a successful shoot was even found.

  On the 25th, a PIRA murder gang went to the home of a leading officer of the Orange Order in order to carry out a sectarian murder of one their fiercest critics. When they barged into the house on the West Circular Road, they found that he wasn’t in and instead, shot his father, Thomas Passmore (68), attempted to shoot his mother and seriously wounded a friend who was visiting the house at the time. The intended target – Thomas Passmore, Junior – returned later to a scene of bloody devastation.

  The following day, in what can only be described as either a foolhardy move or at best, a naive act which backfired, another policeman was killed. RUC Constable James ‘Jim’ Heaney (20) was one of a rare breed; a Catholic who was also a policeman. His widowed mother lived in Andersonstown and it was to there that he journeyed to work in a Fiat car which he had just acquired. He was spotted by dickers and recognised as a hated ‘Peeler’ and a gunman was sent for. At least two gunmen approached the policeman as he was engrossed in his work outside the house in Andersonstown Grove. The gunmen shot him five times in the head at very close range and mortally wounded him; he died shortly afterwards. His death brought police fatalities to a staggering 11 in a little over 16 weeks.

  Hillman Street, close to where British soldier Gunner Rob Curtis was murdered in 1971 by the IRA. (Author’s photo)

  On the 27th, the evil which is sectarianism raised its insidious head yet again and thugs from the UFF killed a family including a tiny baby in their efforts to kill more Catholics. The Dempseys lived in Hillman Street in the Nationalist New Lodge. It is one of what Royal Artilleryman Mick Pickford coined ‘the long streets’ and consists of two sides of dirty-bricked terracing which runs north-west from Lepper Street. The immediate vicinity cemented its place in the annals of the Troubles as the site of the first official death of a British soldier in Northern Ireland. On the night of 6 February 1971, Gunner Robert ‘Geordie’ Curtis was standing in Lepper Street when shots were fired from Templar House, one of the New Lodge’s high-rise blocks; he died at the scene. In reality as this author has proven, he was in fact the 22nd soldier to die in the Troubles.

  Some 54 months – and 1,800 deaths – later, Hillman Street was again involved when a Loyalist murder gang fire-bombed the house where Joseph Dempsey (22), his wife Jeanette (19) and their baby daughter Bridget (10 months) were sleeping. The baby is referred to as Brigeen in some publications. Mr Dempsey was a labourer and the area in which he lived was very close to the Loyalist interface, making his dwelling a little extra vulnerable. In the early hours of the morning, Loyalist thugs smashed his front window and hurled petrol bombs inside the house. The flames quickly engulfed the property and a brave effort by a neighbour – who received severe burns – was beaten back. When firemen entered the house, all three of the family were dead, with the tiny baby lying in her father’s arms. I leave the final words to Lost Lives:

  Women and children wept openly as the funeral took place. The three coffins were brought from the grandfather’s home, close to the burnt-out shell of the Dempsey home. The baby was carried in a small white coffin. Hundreds of women, many of them pushing prams, walked side by side with men along North Queen Street, while other friends and neighbours filed slowly out of the surrounding streets to pay their last respects’ [p.674].

  It is also worth noting that on the same night, a murder gang from the UFF carried out a similar attack with petrol bombs on a house in Gardiner Street, in the Nationalist Markets area. A 46-year old man and his sister were asleep in the house at the time of the attack and they were only able to escape by jumping from an upstairs window. Three more people were injured when another gang hurled several petrol bombs into a Catholic home in Sicily Park in Finaghy. Another petrol bomb attack on a house in Buncranna Gardens, Suffolk Estate in West Belfast caused fire damage but no injuries. The Provisionals also tried to kill a former British soldier who, having left the Army had returned to Belfast in order to marry his sweetheart; the 25-year old was shot several times at his house in the Loyalist Tiger Bay area of North Belfast, lightly wounding him.

  Lost in this latest tragedy, another soldier from the UDR was killed in an RTA whilst on duty; Captain William Robert Eric Scott (37) lost his life on the 28th. He was from Co Fermanagh and is buried at Monea Graveyard.

  The bombing was not over for the month, however, and the UVF attacked the Glen Inn, a Catholic-frequented pub in Glengormley on the evening after the Dempsey tragedy. A device was left in the bar and it exploded, maiming one man – Mark Kelly, later awarded the MBE – and injuring many others. The Belfast Telegraph interviewed the terribly injured man who said:

  The actual blast I can’t recall. Luckily, there were no fatalities. I remember coming round and the place was in darkness – I couldn’t see anything, but I remember the smell of burning beer. I tried to move, but couldn’t. I shouted “help!” but there was no response. I tried to move again, but still couldn’t. So I shouted again f
or help … and, again, there was no response. The third time I tried to move and failed, I shouted: “Help! I want my mummy.” At that stage I could hear voices. I could tell by how strained they sounded that they were concerned. They were trying to get into the building through the rubble, but thought there might be another explosion. An RUC officer led the way through the debris and carried me out to safety (I met him later on in life and thanked him for saving me). It was when the cool hit me that I first felt pain. I didn’t know the extent of my injuries and asked could I go to the toilet. I didn’t know that I had lost my lower legs – my left below the knee and the right above it.

  I was asked my name and address, so that I wouldn’t lose consciousness. I remember repeating it over and over again. In the ambulance, the paramedics kept trying to put a mask on me for pain relief. I kept pushing it away. I felt like it was suffocating me. Belfast was covered in ramps erected to slow down terrorists escaping from attacks. Each time the ambulance went up over a ramp, the pain was unbearable. There were a lot of ramps from Glengormley to the Royal Victoria Hospital, I can tell you.’

  On Monday 30th, a Loyalist bombing crew – thought to have been UVF – embarked on a mini blitz in Dublin once more, in retaliation for a recent series of attacks by PIRA in Belfast. Bombs were left in cinemas, hotels, bars and restaurants as they took the ‘war’ to the Republic. Dublin was still raw from the attacks in May 1974 which, in tandem with Monaghan, left 30 dead. Amongst places hit were Mooney’s Bar, Parnell Square and their branch in Abbey Street; the Suffolk House Pub on Suffolk Street; and two cinemas – the Aldelphi and the Carlton – on O’Connor Street. There were no major casualties.

  Finally, on the last day of the month, Patrick Cunningham a Catholic from Dromara, Co Down who had come to Belfast to look for work, was found fatally wounded near the Shankill Road. He had gone, naively, into a UDA club and was seized and taken to a back room, where he was tortured, before being bound and eventually shot. He died 48 hours later in hospital. There was a narrow escape for an RUC mobile patrol in Magherafelt, Co Londonderry. As the vehicle travelled along Hospital Road, PIRA gunmen, from concealed positions, opened fire with automatic weapons and fired 10 rounds at the officers; there were no injuries.

  August was over, and whilst the toll was down from previous months, it was doubly tragic, taking as it did, the lives of five children, including two babies. In all, 22 more people were killed. The Army had lost five soldiers; two at the hands of the Provisionals and three more in RTAs. One policeman had been killed. A total of 15 civilians had been killed; 12 Catholics and three Protestants. Five civilians were killed either in cross-fire or terror-related incidents. One Loyalist and one Republican paramilitary were killed. Ten of the deaths had been overtly sectarian. Republicans were responsible for six deaths this month and the Loyalists for seven.

  21

  September

  September would prove to be a month of fewer deaths than any other one since the escalation of the Troubles in late 1970. One uses the term ‘only’ most advisedly, but only 14 people died and for the first time in several years, there were no military fatalities. PIRA however killed another policeman as the toll of RUC and RUCR continued to rise.

  On Wednesday 1 September, the Irish Government declared that a state of emergency existed. This allowed the Gardaí Siochana to hold people for seven days without having to bring a charge against them. For many British observers, it was too little, too late and certainly six years later than it should have been. On the same day, Gardaí officers investigating what was thought to be a routine RTA arrested five members of the UVF – including two women – after their car crashed on the Clones to Monaghan road. Explosives were discovered and the Monoghan Gardaí handed them over to Dublin police who were investigating the recent spate of attacks on the city centre the previous month.

  In the heart of ‘bandit country,’ the Provisionals launched a savage attack against the RUC station in Crossmaglen. Using Rathview Park, some 100 yards away, a mortar unit fired five high explosive charges at the heavily fortified base where Para James Borucki had been killed the month before. Three of the five rounds which hit, exploded and five Royal Marines were hit by shrapnel and flying glass, causing some bad injuries, especially from above, as they detonated on impact with the roof. In a psychological show of strength, armed and masked PIRA members had stopped traffic from entering the village on the four main roads and had, under the eyes of the Army and RUC, evacuated homes near the SF base. In Cookstown, Co Tyrone a similar attack on the RUC station there was foiled when soldiers discovered primed mortar rounds before an attack could be launched. The discovery was at Molesworth Road, just 300 yards away from the station.

  The following day, there was a blow for the Callaghan Labour Government when the European Commission on Human Rights decided that Britain had to answer a case of ill-treatment of internees in 1971 before the European Court of Human Rights. The Commission found that the interrogation techniques did involve a breach of the Convention on Human Rights because they not only involved inhuman and degrading treatment but also torture. The case had been initially referred to the Commission by the Irish government on 10 March 1976. The European Court of Human Rights made its ruling on 18 January 1978.

  On the second day of the month, Patrick Cunningham (30) who had been found fatally wounded on the Shankill after being shot by the UDA/UFF died in hospital (see previous chapter). On the 3rd, UDA/UFF member Samuel Hunt (22) was drinking in the Crescent bar in the heart of the Loyalist Sandy Row in Belfast. It appears that there were heated words between himself and a former British soldier and he was shot and fatally wounded. He died three days later in hospital, killed apparently because the man he attacked was in fear of being killed by the UDA and carried a weapon for protection.

  On Saturday 4th, there was a Peace People’s rally in Londonderry which was attended by approximately 25,000 people. During the following weeks there were a number of rallies all over Ireland and Britain. Ciaran McKeown directed the movement. The Peace People were criticised by both Republicans and Loyalists and some of those taking part suffered intimidation. Later, the leaders of the main churches in Ireland issued a statement supporting the Women’s Peace Movement. Also that day, at Workman Avenue, just off Belfast’s Springfield Road, a house was firebombed by Loyalists – thought to have been UVF from either Woodvale or the Shankill – and badly damaged. The house where a Catholic family lived was in the sectarian interface with Woodvale; the family was uninjured. Shortly afterwards, a Loyalist gang threw a blast bomb into the Holy Cross Primary School in the Ardoyne; there was some damage and houses nearby were also affected; a second device was defused by the Army. One wonders how the residents of the Ardoyne perceived the sight of the hated British soldiers, risking their own lives in order to ensure the safety of their children. Very, very shortly afterwards, soldiers came under fire from a PIRA gunman at the Springfield roundabout but there were no injuries.

  Two days later, an IRA bomb was placed at the Central Motor Works in Newtownstewart, Co Tyrone. The 10lb bomb which later exploded caused the RUC to evacuate nearby houses; as this was taking place, Sarah McGarvey (69) collapsed and died. She was a victim of an IRA bomb as surely as if the shrapnel had pierced her heart. On the same day, the IRA hijacked several buses in the Shantallow area of Londonderry and forced their drivers to take them to Racecourse Road where they were loaded with primed explosive devices. In turn the drivers were forced at gunpoint to abandon them at the Pennyburn Industrial Estate where they later exploded before the Army could reach them.

  On the 8th, the last of the Whitefort bombing victims – Thomas Hall (62) – died of the wounds he received in the UVF attack in Andersonstown (see Chapter 19).

  On Friday 10th, in a Cabinet re-shuffle, Merlyn Rees was appointed Home Secretary, and was succeeded by Barnsley MP Roy Mason as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Mason was a fiercely proud ex-miner who despised the IRA and was contemptuous of his predecessor’s �
��conciliatory’ ways.’ He boasted of squeezing the terrorists like a ‘….tube of toothpaste’ and his avowed intention was to smash the IRA. Within 48 hours, he had his first Troubles-related fatality to deal with when the UVF – or individual members – shot and mortally wounded Charles Moody (18) and left him dying in Disraeli Street in the Shankill. It is uncertain if the shooting was a Loyalist feud – Moody was connected with the Woodvale Defence Association – or if it was a personal score when he and friends angered UVF members in a drinking den. He died in the Mater Hospital on Crumlin Road shortly afterwards. Also on the 10th, a Catholic postman, routinely cycling on his rounds was killed by a Loyalist murder gang who may have been targeting a specific person on the Tonagh estate in Lisburn. It would seem that, frustrated with not being able to kill their intended victim, they spotted Seamus Muldoon (29) and vented their frustrations on him and shot and fatally wounded him; he died 11 days later on 21 September.

  On the next day – Saturday – the Provisionals attempted to kill another policeman this time in Lurgan. The 46-year old RUCR Constable was on routine patrol in Queen Street, close to the town centre, when a stolen car containing one gunman and a driver exited a car park where it had been awaiting his approach. As they turned onto the main road, several shots were fired at the officer and he was wounded by a round which smashed his wrist; he suffered no further injuries. Forty-eight hours later, yet another carelessly discarded piece of PIRA ordnance found its way into the hands of innocents. In Dungannon, young children playing on a golf course found a live hand grenade and RUC and Army EOD were called to render the device harmless.