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The British government was aware of large-scale collusion between security forces and loyalist paramilitaries from as early as 1973, according to documents revealed today (Tuesday) in The Irish News .
The files show Downing Street knew that significant numbers of soldiers were linked to loyalist paramilitaries, but failed to act. The collusion file contains a detailed report on 'Subversion in the UDR' – including estimates of the numbers of soldiers linked to loyalists – while intelligence documents show how more than 200 British army rifles and sub machine guns were passed to loyalists. This is the first time evidence has emerged to show, not only the scale of collusion, but also that government was aware of it early in the Troubles. ... Read more
The collusion file obtained by The Irish News is made up of several documents, but the most important is a 14-page paper stamped 'secret' and entitled: 'Subversion in the UDR'. This is a detailed summary The 'Subversion in the UDR' document is accompanied by four letters of response from very senior officials. And although the document is described as a draft, it is significant that none of the letter writers disagree with its contents. ... Read more
Shocking documents show that as early as 1973 the British government knew security force collusion with loyalists was resulting in murder. In the second day of a series of special reports, we recount the murderous history of an army gun – as recorded by British military intelligence The single page of typed sentences looks like a common or garden shopping list, but its contents are chilling. ... Read more
Documents uncovered in the National Archives have shown for the first time that the government was aware of widespread collusion between Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers and loyalist paramilitaries.
The files - including one headed "Subversion in the UDR" - confirm that Whitehall knew that as many as 15% of the regiment's soldiers were involved in collusion as early as 1973 and suspected that as many as 200 army rifles and sub machine guns had been passed to loyalist groups. ... Read more
The British government wanted to increase the Ulster Defence Regiment's intelligence-gathering role in the mid-1970s, despite knowing that the group was infiltrated by loyalist paramilitaries.
The proposal is contained in a Ministry of Defence (MoD) memo from 1974, which has only recently come to light. It states: ‘‘We have agreed that the extension of the UDR's intelligence-gathering function is a good thing.” ... Read more
Margaret Thatcher was warned the Army suspected the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was heavily infiltrated by Protestant extremists in Northern Ireland four years before she became Prime Minister, it was claimed today.
According to files unearthed in the Public Records Office and published in a Belfast newspaper, Mrs Thatcher was alerted to the Army`s suspicions during a September 1975 Downing Street briefing when she was leader of the Opposition.
The meeting involved the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Northern Ireland Secretary Merlyn Rees. ... Read more
Their silence is deafening. Can you imagine the pitch of self-righteous frenzy that unionist politicians would by now have reached had it been revealed that the main source of the IRA's weapons in the early days of the Troubles had been the Irish army? That innocent Protestant civilians had been gunned down in the streets by terrorists using those weapons? That elements of the Garda were close to the IRA and were giving information to Gerry Adams? That the Irish government knew, and suppressed the information? ... Read more
(Martin McGuinness, Irish News) Collusion between British state forces and unionist death squads has been a consistent feature of the six-county state since its creation. State forces have shared information, weapons and membership with unionist paramilitaries. Ian Paisley loyalists within these state forces regularly supplied him with information. This week's revelations concerning the involvement of the UDR in collusion vindicates the position adopted by Sinn Féin for decades. ... Read more
There’s been a discovery of new evidence into collusion between security forces and loyalist paramilitaries in the North revealed over the past week. The Pat Finucane Centre discovered documents at the Public Records Office in London earlier this year while carrying out joint research with Justice for the Forgotten, an organisation which represents families of those killed in a number of loyalist attacks in the Republic including the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974 and the Dublin bombing of 1972. During several days at the Public Records Office in January this year the PFC uncovered a secret official intelligence briefing titled ‘Subversion in the UDR’ and other significant memos and papers. ... Read more
Documents showing the British government was aware of large scale collusion between security forces and loyalists from as early as 1973 were written by officials who "did not know what they were talking about", a leading Ulster Unionist has claimed. Ken Maginnis, now Lord Maginnis of Drumglass, a founder member of the UDR and former company major in the regiment, dismissed the documents, insisting military intelligence officers were "fishing in the dark" and that leading British politicians of the time were out of touch. His claims have led a nationalist counterpart to claim unionists were 'burying their heads in the sand'. ... Read more
A clergyman who pioneered research into security force activities during the troubles has said the collusion documents revealed in The Irish News point to a "terrible cover-up". Fr Raymond Murray worked with Monsignor Denis Faul and Fr Brian Brady to catalogue allegations of wrongdoing in the police and army, plus IRA activities, during the worst years of the troubles. He pointed to what he said was a longstanding tradition of the British government suppressing evidence of security force wrongdoing. ... Read more
The emergence of the first documented evidence of large scale collusion and government knowledge of it, represented "final proof" for nationalists of a long-standing grievance, according to one media observer. As the story unfolded it sparked a lengthy debate on the north's leading internet platform for political discussion. Mick Fealty, editor of the Slugger O'Toole site said the publication of the documents saw contributors post more than 250 comments within two days. The Slugger debate, he said, seemed particularly important to nationalists. He noted how some sought to use the new information as a "silver bullet" – using it to support a range of nationalist theories over the troubles – but he pointed to one contribution that summed-up the wider nationalist reaction. ... Read more
New information unearthed in London by the Justice for the Forgotten group on collusion makes case for a public inquiry into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings even stronger It is hard to imagine the scene now. Over 30 people lay dead on the streets of Dublin and Monaghan following a series of bombings on Friday, May 17, 1974, which left 33 people dead and almost 300 injured. However, the Republic did not call a national day of mourning. Families of victims were visited by few politicians and no government initiative was set up to fund dependants of those murdered. .... Read more
After official files linked loyalists to security forces one man identified by the documents tells how he moved from the loyalist UDA, to the British army and then the RUC The 'Subversion in the UDR' document paints a picture of large-scale collusion between security forces and loyalists but equally revealing is the official reaction to this revelation. Letters accompanying the document see a senior Ministry of Defence official write: "I wish I could say that its contents come as a surprise but I am afraid they do not." When The Irish News initially revealed the contents of the 'Subversion' document, one section was withheld for legal reasons. In it, the report's authors comment on the ease with which unionism, loyalism and the security forces can overlap in Northern Ireland. ... Read more
This week marks the 32nd anniversary of the Dublin/ Monaghan bombings. While relatives of those killed or injured in 1974 are still forced to campaign for the truth about what happened, the atrocity is but the worst example of a range of incidents involving British state collusion with unionist paramilitaries or direct operations by British forces in which civilians were killed in the 26 Counties. There is a wide range of such incidents but they include:
- The bombing of Belturbet, County Cavan in December 1972 in which two teenage civilians were killed.
- The Dublin bombings of December 1972 and January 1973 in which three bus workers were killed.
- The Dublin and Monaghan bombings of May 1974 in which 33 people died - 26 in Dublin and 7 in Monaghan.
- The killing of IRA Volunteer John Francis Green in County Monaghan in January 1975.
- The Dundalk bombing of December 1975 in which two civilians were killed.
- The Castleblayney bombing of March 1976 in which one civilian, Patrick Mone, was killed.
- The murder of Seamus Ludlow by the UDR in County Louth in May 1976.
- The murder of Sinn Féin Councillor Eddie Fullerton, in Buncrana, County Donegal in 1991.
- The shooting dead of IRA Vol Martin Doherty in May 1994, having foiled an attempted bombing of the Widow Scallan's pub in Dublin.
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Political unionism's relationship with violence has been further highlighted after secret British government documents revealed the ease with which a unionist politician in the early 1970's, with dual membership in a loyalist paramilitary group and the UDR, moved into the ranks of the RUC. A 1973 British Military Intelligence document, entitled Subversion in the UDR, claimed that up to 15% of UDR soldiers were also members of the UVF or UDA and that the regiment was the "best single source" of weaponry for the death squads. One of a series of separate reports identifies a serving UDR soldier who was also a unionist politician, deputy chairperson of Ballymena district council and the so-called Commanding Officer of the UDA in the town. According to the document the UDR soldier had passed ammunition and was suspected of supplying guns to the UDA.
... Read more
The RUC knew within two months of the Loughinisland massacre that a police agent had been involved but failed to arrest him, security sources confirmed yesterday.
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) informant code-named ‘Mechanic', who provided the getaway car used in the June 1994 murder of six Catholics, told his handlers of his role in the killing spree in August 1994. ... Read more
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