North of Ireland Politics

Prime time last night covered these bombings. 

A bit of talk about the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in the media over the last few days. One of the minds behind the bombings was Billy Hanna, who as a former British Army soldier and avowed head of the UVF, would've been a crucial intermediary between Army intelligence and grunts like Harris Boyle in terms of the planning. He was purported to have experienced remorse over the casualties. Was his death at the hands of Robin Jackson a simple case of internecine strife or was it another example of housekeeping and wanting to eliminate someone who they thought might have loose lips?

I have not yet read Wharton’s book but Bandit Country is worth the read. I was sceptical when it came out given Harnden’s background but his sources are genuine all right. I’m not sure how he got to some of them but the book shines a light on the South Armagh IRA and the unique characters organising its numerous operations.

Anyone read The Long Long War by Ken Wharton? Want to read something from the British Army perspective next. Either that or Bandit Country by Toby Harnden.

Wallace was a contemporary of Jim Allister, Sammy Wilson and a few other less astute alumni of QUB. Unlike them, he was always a very civil guy as long as you didn’t get him started on religion or politics, as he would then transform into a clone of Paisley Snr, hunching his shoulders and putting on a booming preachy voice in unconscious imitation of his guru while ranting about “rebels” and suchlike. He is still an evangelical Prod but it is fair to say he has changed a lot over the years. The points he made in this interview do reflect a lot of the new thinking that is going on within unionism these days, painful though it may be for some.

Martin Dillon’s book “ The Trigger Men” has an illuminating section on Wright, who was certainly a tout-even his former commander, Robin “ The Jackal” Jackson, himself an agent and one of the most prolific sectarian murderers of the Troubles era, alleged that. He was a tool of not just his handlers but vile politicians from the DUP including McCrea and Paisley Jnr and the likes of Bob McCartney, who are all mentioned in the article. There are a couple of minor errors in it-the taxi driver victim was not Eddie McGoldrick ( an Arsenal and Ireland footballer ) but Michael McGoldrick, his killer was loyalist supergrass Clifford McKeown ( not MacKeown), who is still in jail for it as far as I know. He described the murder as “ a present for Billy Wright.” Wright was more intelligent than the bulk of the lumpen knuckledraggers who made up the ranks of the LVF and planned to go to university in England at one point. That said, he was a damaged individual ( read Dillon ) who inflicted a lot of damage on other people for raw sectarian reasons and for all his delusions and self-aggrandisement is now just a footnote in the history of the Troubles.

Green Cockade wrote: Could have been the work of a splinter group.

Could have been the work of a splinter group.

It’s Dr. Patrick Magee these days, he got a Ph.D in jail. Very nice guy and highly intelligent. Though I never did understand why he used the alias “ Roy Walsh” when that was the real name of a high level Provo. UVF supergrass the late Joe Bennett did something similar when he was arrested in Derby for armed robbery in the 80s, having gone there to retire well away from vengeful ex comrades in Belfast. He called himself “John Graham”( real name of UVF Chief of Staff ).