The previous blog included the discovery and seizure of weapons and ammunition in arms dumps that belonged to the Provisional IRA (PIRA). If you recall, despite the use of black paint to conceal the origin of the ammunition, the words “Libyan Armed Forces” were still visible on the boxes (You can read the previous blog HERE).
My working assumption is that most (and probably none) of the people reading these blogs, have ever been involved in the business of smuggling weapons or the financing of terrorism. Before we move on to the actual smuggling of weapons from Libya, I thought it might be helpful if I introduced you to some members of a rogues gallery. By getting to know these rogues, you’ll hopefully be in a position to form opinions of your own, not only about them, but the activities in which they were involved, allegedly or otherwise.
~O~
The ongoing Disneyfication of terrorism by various apologists for terrorist groups, has produced a considerable amount of highly sanitised accounts of people and events. My intention is to offer an alternative perspective. I was born in Belfast, lived and worked in Northern Ireland during the ‘Troubles’ and I was therefore in a position to watch events unfold, before the terrorist propagandists had time to manufacture narratives and spin their lies. I thought it might be helpful if people, particularly anyone unfamiliar with the subject, had access to some unvarnished truth…. so I started blogging.
Nothing that I post in a blog or on Twitter, is intended to convert anyone to my way of thinking. These blogs are my perspective, based upon my experiences and information (and some wisdom) I acquired over the decades. I regularly encourage people to engage in critical thinking. You don’t have to accept my word on anything. Do your own research, if you wish. Think for yourself. Come to your own conclusions.
If these blogs spark an interest and you wish to explore further on your own, I would urge that you check your sources because the distortion of the truth regarding the Troubles, is on an industrial scale. For instance, I would suggest that you ignore ‘Troubles’ related content on Wikipedia, as it is remarkably bad. There is quite obvious politically motivated editing occurring. There are also various other sources, online and offline, that are supposedly independent and objective, but these sources are not only biased, some appear to be virtually functioning as proxies or propaganda units for extremist groups.
Internal Politics & Machinations
In addition to PIRA and its smuggling of weapons from Libya, I want to show how this importation of weapons and explosives was done with the intention of escalating the level of terrorist violence, but it occurred in parallel to what we shall call ‘the internal politics and machinations’ of PIRA and its political wing Sinn Fein.
Whilst PIRA was plotting to import hundreds of tonnes of weapons and plastic explosives, Sinn Fein’s increasing influence, post Maze hunger strike, was creating tensions within PIRA Sinn Fein. These tensions led to people being dismissed from PIRA, others leaving and some contemplating a split. All of these things are related.
In order to understand the Northern Ireland peace process, you need to examine what happened prior to the ceasefires and negotiations of the 1990s. What happened in the 1990s and after, was determined by decisions and actions, often taken in secret, years earlier.
To facilitate significant changes in PIRA Sinn Fein strategy, political objectives and positions, propaganda narratives were disseminated. Invariably the message was internalised by the majority of a target audience, that believed what it needed to believe. Embracing the propaganda narratives and admiring the emperor’s new clothes, was significantly less troubling for people than dwelling on the possibility that what they were buying into was a grand illusion. The nature of that grand illusion will hopefully become apparent, in this series of blogs.
An illusion may produce awe and wonder in an audience, but an illusion only works if the audience members can’t see how the magician performed the illusion.
~O~
In the previous blog I included declassified secret documents that clearly indicated the British government and intelligence services had knowledge of a faction within PIRA – prior to the 1981 hunger strike at the Maze prison – that was considering an end to the terrorist campaign and a shift towards political activity. There was clearly an interest within government circles to facilitate this faction in a way that would perhaps help them bring about an end to PIRA’s campaign of terrorism.
In general terms, that was a sound strategy, certainly from the perspective of anyone who opposes terrorism.
The British government was in contact with some PIRA Sinn Fein figures during the hunger strike, via a secret channel. An offer was made by the British in early July 1981, in the hope of providing PIRA a face-saving way of ending the hunger strike.
It has been claimed that some of the representatives of the PIRA prisoners outside the prison, preferred an alternative strategy.
Despite the offer from the British government, the hunger strike continued until early October, with six more prisoners dying during this period. Although some within PIRA opted for a strategy that meant more deaths inside the Maze, ultimately it brought about the same outcome that the British government had desired, namely the beginning of a shift within militant Irish Republicanism, away from terrorism and towards politics. Post 1981 hunger strike, Sinn Fein was in the ascendant.
On the final day of October 1981, the very same month that the hunger strike had ended, Sinn Fein’s ‘director of publicity’, Danny Morrison, gave a speech at the party’s ‘Ard Fheis’ (convention).
In front of an audience at the Ard Fheis, Morrison signposted the direction that he and like-minded individuals wished to take PIRA Sinn Fein. Morrison introduced what became known as the ‘Armalite and ballot box strategy’. He asked:
“Who here really believes we can win the war through the ballot box? But will anyone here object if, with a ballot paper in this hand and an Armalite in the other, we take power in Ireland.”
You may recall from the previous blog, that Morrison was part of the small PIRA Sinn Fein group outside the Maze prison, involved in the negotiations. As I detailed in the blog, the secret go-between known as ‘Soon’ or ‘Mountain Climber'(A local businessman Brendan Duddy), revealed in a telephone conversation to his British contacts, that only a small number of people within the PIRA Sinn Fein leadership knew of his role as a ‘channel’. Three people that he named were Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Danny Morrison.
Over the course of these blogs, we will see how this ‘Armalite and ballot box strategy’, created dissent within PIRA Sinn Fein.
~O~
The secret offer made by the British in early July 1981, was essentially what the prisoners accepted, a few months later when the hunger strike ended. It’s not hard to find PIRA apologists who are keen to dismiss the existence of an acceptable offer from the British in July, but their narrative doesn’t make sense if you have taken the time to study what we now know was happening in secret.
There is a school of thought that some people outside the Maze prison, felt that ending the hunger strike in early July would be premature and that additional time was required for radicalisation of the electorate and the building of political support. That school of thought believes that some people outside the prison took the view that that the ends justified the means and the price worth paying to boost support, was another six dead prisoners. If that wasn’t the case, then it is reasonable to ask why the hunger strike was prolonged for a further three months?
There are of course narratives that attempt to explain the prolongation of the hunger strike and shift blame onto the British government, but are those narratives credible? In light of what we now know, thanks to the declassification of once secret documents (such as the documents I supplied in the previous blog) and comments from the once secret go-between, I would suggest that the credibility of those narratives have been somewhat undermined.
~O~
It’s also worth noting that Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners were also on hunger strike, but they and their leadership outside the Maze prison were unaware of the fact that the British government and PIRA Sinn Fein had a secret channel for communication, or that an offer had been made in early July. The INLA only learned of the offer when former PIRA prisoner Richard O’Rawe wrote about it in a book, published in 2005.
It has been stated by INLA representatives, that if they had known about the content of the offer, they would have advised INLA prisoners to end the hunger strike in July 1981. Two INLA prisoners died on hunger strike in August 1981.
The facts, as we now know them, seem to undermine the often repeated PIRA Sinn Fein narrative about the hunger strike, regarding a supposedly inflexible British Prime Minister etc. As I have said before, perception and reality are not necessarily the same thing. As we shall see, the primary target for PIRA Sinn Fein propaganda, was their own members and supporters, rather than the British.
The British government and its intelligence services, actually knew more about the inner workings of the PIRA Sinn Fein cult than any of its followers and during the 1981 hunger strike, many members of PIRA, including some on its ruling Army Council, were clearly out of the loop and unaware of various things that were occurring or being discussed by their own representatives and the British State.
You may notice that this division within PIRA Sinn Fein and its need to manage perception and therefore people, is a recurring theme. As I have stated in previous blogs, it helps if you view PIRA Sinn Fein as a terrorist cult, in which cult leaders exploit the indoctrinated followers.
The Skipper
Adrian Hopkins has been described by some people as being an “adventurer” and a “risk-taker”. Less charitable people might say that he was a chancer with flexible morals, apparently untroubled by the idea of shipping a few hundred tonnes of weapons and plastic explosives on behalf of a terrorist group.
You can probably sense that I’m in the less charitable camp, on this matter.
Hopkins and his wife opened a travel agency in the late 1960s called ‘Bray Travel’. With the increasing popularity of foreign holidays in the sun, business was good and Bray Travel expanded, opening several other branches. The business however went into freefall in the early 1980s, when Spanish airlines and the Irish national airline, Air Lingus, refused to do business with them. It has been reported that this was due to issues regarding payments to the airlines. When the business finally collapsed, it owed around £300,000 to customers and another £50,000 to staff.
Adrian Hopkins, who had previously served in the merchant navy, then moved into the boat charter business, buying, selling and leasing boats. This new business venture would eventually lead to Hopkins entering the world of international arms smuggling.
PIRA needed a ship and a captain. Although not a member of PIRA, Hopkins was viewed by them as being the sort of man who would be willing to get involved in a business transaction, involving plastic bags stuffed with cash, terrorists and Libyan intelligence officers.
We’ll be returning in future blogs to the maritime adventures of the skipper for hire, Adrian Hopkins. Before that, I need to introduce you to some other people.
The Farmer
It has been reported in the news media that when interviewed by police, Adrian Hopkins claimed he was recruited into the PIRA arms smuggling operation by Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy. I am sure that Murphy would refute this claim and indeed, as far as I’m aware, he has never been charged in connection with any offences related to the smuggling of arms from Libya, or indeed any terrorist offences.
Hopkins’ allegation about Thomas Murphy is in the public domain and whilst Murphy may refute what Hopkins told police, I can’t write a blog of this nature and ignore what Hopkins said. I’m also conscious of the fact that many people who read these blogs, live outside Northern Ireland and are unfamiliar with various events, locations or individuals who feature in the blogs. Without contextual information, readers may find it difficult to assess, for example, the validity or credibility of Hopkins’ claim.
In the remainder of this blog, I will supply some details about Thomas Murphy and South Armagh. Hopefully you will find what follows illuminating and by the end of the blog, you can reach your own conclusions about a variety of things, including Adrian Hopkins’ allegation.
~O~
If you saw Thomas Murphy in his natural habitat of the Armagh and Louth border area, you would probably consider him to be unremarkable. He inherited the family farm in the late 1960s and he very much looks like a stereotype of an Irish farmer, complete with a flat cap.
It was probably a court case in 1990 and another in 1998 that increased public awareness about Murphy. In 1985 the Sunday Times newspaper alleged Murphy was a senior member of PIRA. In 1990, Murphy sued the newspaper for libel, but he lost the case. I believe that Murphy successfully appealed the decision, but at a retrial in 1998, Murphy again lost the case. A jury in Dublin took less than an hour to reject his claim.
Obviously the outcome of the libel action, was not the one Murphy desired. If you sue a national newspaper when it claims you are a senior member of a terrorist group, and a jury returns a verdict that the newspaper didn’t libel you, that is somewhat awkward.
I should also add that it has been alleged in the news media and books that Murphy was for a time PIRA’s ‘chief of staff’, or in other words, the person in-charge. Prior to that, it has been alleged that for a number of years, he was on PIRA’s seven man ruling ‘Army Council’. Again, I’m pretty sure Murphy would say none of this is true, but many journalists, police officers, soldiers and various informed commentators on both sides of the Irish border, seem to disagree with him. I’ll leave it to you to decide, who is telling the truth.
During the hearings of the libel case, the Sunday Times called a number of witnesses, including Irish police officers, a British Army officer and customs officers. The jury was provided with aerial photographs of Murphy’s farm which straddles the Irish border. Part of his farm is in South Armagh, Northern Ireland and part in County Louth, in the Republic of Ireland. Due to its location, the farm was ideally located for anyone contemplating smuggling and tax evasion.
This video is an excerpt from a 1969 news report on pig smuggling across the Irish border. Two of the people confronted by the journalist, are Thomas Murphy and his brother Patrick:
*NOTE: In 2016, Murphy was imprisoned for eighteen months after a conviction for tax evasion. You can read a BBC news article about the conviction HERE. As you can see from the 2016 article, police on both sides of the Irish border considered Murphy to be the head of a multi-million pound smuggling operation.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland has stated that an HM Revenue and Customs report in 2002, estimated that the smuggling related to Murphy’s farm in the year 2000, resulted in lost revenue to the UK government, of somewhere between half a billion to nearly one billion pounds. I think that will give you some sense of the scale of what was occurring. This wasn’t a small-time, amateur operation.
I will ask you now to ponder on a question: Where did all of the profits from this smuggling operation go?
Here is a picture of the Murphy family farm:
As you can see below, Ballybinbaby is next to the border.
You may have previously heard of the town of Crossmaglen in South Armagh. In police and military terminology, the town was referred to as XMG. Due to the level of the terrorist threat in the area such as roadside bombs, police and military personnel travelled to the fortified police station and elsewhere in the area by helicopter or in foot patrols that were often across fields, attempting to avoid setting a predictable pattern of behaviour, that would make them more vulnerable to a terrorist bomb or sniper attack.
In the mid 1980s, in an effort to counter terrorist activity the British Army constructed watchtowers in the area. Here is one overlooking Crossmaglen:
The next watchtower is one of a number that were on hilltops:
~O~
The exploits of Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy could fill a series of blogs, but for now I will focus on what is relevant to the topic we are covering. For instance, during the 1998 hearing of the libel case, a piece of evidence presented by one of the Irish police officers, was that during a search of a house belonging to Murphy’s mother in June 1989, on the Irish or County Louth side of the farm, police found three passports.
The search was in relation to an investigation about the murder of two police officers in Northern Ireland. The intention had been to arrest and question Thomas Murphy, but he was spotted in a yard that was on the northern side of the border and therefore the Irish police, the Garda, couldn’t apprehend him.
Of the three passports found, one had recently expired but contained a number of stamps, including Athens, Greece. A second passport was new, valid from May 1989.
The third passport contained Murphy’s photograph, but it was in the name of Jim Faughey and with a date of birth that was different to Murphy’s. This third passport had been issued in November 1983, was valid for ten years and contained a number of stamps, including Athens in May and November 1986 and Split in Yugoslavia in May 1989.
The Garda inspector stated that he later interviewed Murphy at Dundalk Garda station. Murphy was held for approximately twenty-four hours, during which time he was questioned about his activities at around the time of the murder of the two Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers. The inspector advised the court in 1998, that he was not aware of any explanation regarding Murphy’s photograph on the ‘Jim Faughey’ passport. A file had been prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
According to news reports, under cross examination during the libel case, Tom Murphy admitted travelling on the stolen passport and claimed that he had purchased it from a man in Dundalk. Murphy was never charged in relation to this offence.
*NOTE: The two murdered RUC Officers were Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan. The two officers were shot dead in an ambush as they drove back to Northern Ireland, shortly after leaving a meeting in Dundalk Garda station. In 2011 during the Smithwick Tribunal, which was established to investigate allegations of collusion between members of the Garda and PIRA, a retired RUC Special Branch detective gave evidence regarding the murders. In an Irish Times article that you can read HERE, the RUC officer identified the individual who he believed was the leader of the PIRA unit involved in this double murder and up to 80 other murders. As you will see, the officer also referred to Thomas Murphy’s alleged position.
~O~
The Irish Passport Office informed the court that there was no record of a passport being issued to a Jim or James Faughey. The Passport Office official informed the court, that a batch of one hundred, numbered but unissued passports, had disappeared in 1984. The ‘Jim Faughey’ passport found during the search, was one of the missing passports.
The court was also advised that three of the missing passports had been recovered in Amsterdam, during a police raid in January 1986. They were amongst seventeen passports found, in the possession of PIRA terrorists, Gerard Kelly, William Kelly and Brendan McFarlane. At the time of their arrest in Amsterdam, Gerard Kelly and Brendan McFarlane were ‘on the run’ (OTR), following their escape from the Maze prison in Northern Ireland, in September 1983.
*NOTE: If you read my previous blog, you might be interested to know that the ‘officer commanding’ (OC) of PIRA prisoners during the 1981 hunger strike at the Maze, was Brendan McFarlane. That role meant he was involved in communications between the prisoners and the PIRA Sinn Fein representatives outside the prison. McFarlane has disputed the account of the hunger strike – some would say unconvincingly – by fellow PIRA prisoner Richard O’Rawe. I think it would be correct to say that McFarlane is a loyal friend and supporter of Gerry Adams, as is Gerry Kelly, who participated in the 1973 PIRA bombing of the Old Bailey court in London, but is now a Sinn Fein politician and the party’s spokesman on policing and justice (Welcome to the surreal world of Northern Ireland politics).
Other passports from the missing batch of one hundred, were recovered in June 1985, following a police raid in Glasgow, Scotland. A number of PIRA terrorists were arrested during the raid. They were:
Patrick Magee (Later convicted for his role in the 1984 bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton, during the Conservative Party conference); Gerald McDonnell (The terrorist cell’s leader, a bomb maker and another Maze escapee); Peter Sherry (An OC of PIRA’s East Tyrone Brigade and a Sinn Fein member / unsuccessful party candidate); Ella O’Dwyer and Martina Anderson (Later became a Sinn Fein politician and sat on the Policing Board for Northern Ireland along with Gerry Kelly – again, welcome to the surreal world of Northern Ireland politics).
A police surveillance operation in which officers were following Peter Sherry, led them to a train station in Carlisle, where Sherry met Patrick Magee, who was wanted in connection with the Brighton bomb. Magee’s palm and fingerprint had been found on a registration card at the Grand Hotel, where he had stayed as a guest in order to plant the bomb.
Police followed the two PIRA suspects to the Glasgow apartment in which the terrorist cell was living.
Apart from weapons and explosives, there was also various items related to bomb making and thousands of pounds in cash. There were also plans found regarding a plot to detonate four bombs in London, as well as bomb attacks in hotels and on beaches at eleven English seaside resorts, during July and August 1985.
The terrorists were subsequently convicted in relation to this 1985 bomb plot and Magee was additionally convicted for the bomb attack and murders committed in Brighton.
~O~
During the 1998 libel case, the Garda inspector also helpfully informed the court that in 1988, he had also participated in a police search of land owned by Thomas Murphy’s mother. Whilst searching, the Garda found an oil tank buried in the ground, below a derelict building that was 200 yards from the Murphy family home. The oil tank could be accessed via a trapdoor on top. Objects were found submerged in water at the bottom of the tank. This included a number of bullets around 3.5 to 4 inches long. Some bullets were in a clip and others were loose. There was also “fin-like” objects, of a type used with mortars. The Army was tasked and they blew up the tank.
No charges were preferred against Thomas Murphy, in relation to what was found inside the oil tank.
*NOTE: A 1998 article from the Irish ‘Independent’ newspaper, regarding the police searches, the discovery of passports and the buried oil tank, is available HERE. A 2002 article from the same newspaper regarding the stolen passport is available HERE.
~O~
Thomas Murphy went to court to refute the claim that he was a senior member of PIRA, but clearly it didn’t help his case, that his photograph was in a passport with a false name. A passport that was from the same batch of passports, from which several were also found in the possession of PIRA terrorists.
It is certainly intriguing that the photograph of a farmer from the Armagh / Louth border area, was in a passport inscribed with a name that didn’t match the photograph, and the passport was from a batch of passports that went missing before being issued.
It is safe to say without fear of contradiction, that this is quite far removed from the normal process regarding the issuing or acquisition of passports.
~O~
It also didn’t help Thomas Murphy, that during the hearing of the libel case, two former members of PIRA, Sean O’Callaghan and Eamon Collins, gave evidence about Murphy and PIRA.
Sean O’Callaghan was a former senior member of PIRA, the OC of PIRA’s ‘Southern Command’. O’Callaghan became disillusioned and sickened by terrorist violence and offered to act as an agent, or ‘informer’, in order to help counter PIRA’s terrorist campaign.
It has been reported in the news media that O’Callaghan said:
“If someone crossed Slab and Slab wanted them down a hole, they would go down that hole. Tom Murphy is not to be messed with.”
During the libel case, O’Callaghan informed the jury that he had been present in meetings at which Murphy attended in his role as OC of PIRA’s Northern Command and a member of the PIRA Army Council.
*NOTE: A 2005 Guardian news article containing details of Sean O’Callaghan’s evidence at the libel case, including the above quote, is available HERE
*NOTE: Sean O’Callaghan also wrote a book entitled ‘The Informer’, about his time in PIRA.
~O~
Eamon Collins was formerly the ‘intelligence officer’ for South Down PIRA. The south of County Down is an area that is adjacent to the south of Armagh. For a time, Collins was also a member of PIRA’s ‘internal security unit’, known as the ‘Nutting Squad’.
As with Sean O’Callaghan, Collins also became disillusioned with PIRA and after leaving the terrorist group, he wrote a book entitled ‘Killing Rage’. The book was about his time in PIRA and although he refrained from using the real names of some of the PIRA terrorists, anyone familiar with PIRA in that part of the country, would have been able to figure out the identity of people such as ‘Scap’ or ‘Hardbap’.
Collins detailed in the book, his contact with members of South Armagh PIRA and how they cooperated with South Down PIRA. As the book was critical of PIRA, it was unlikely to endear Collins to former PIRA associates who already had a reason to think ill of him.
A few years prior to Collins writing his book, PIRA carried out a mortar attack in February 1985, on the RUC station in Newry. Homemade mortars were launched from the back of a lorry. Nine RUC officers were murdered in the attack and nearly forty police and civilian personnel were injured. Newry is in the South Down area and the RUC knew that Collins was a member of the local PIRA unit. Shortly after the terrorist attack, Collins was arrested and taken in for questioning.
Collins claimed at the time and later in his book, that he was uninvolved in the mortar attack on Newry RUC station and that he had not been told in advance about the plan. Collins said that it was only later that day, during a telephone conversation with another PIRA member, that he had been told it was a joint enterprise between PIRA in South Armagh and South Down.
After several days in custody, Eamon Collins turned and decided to provide information to the police about his role and actions within PIRA, as well as information about PIRA members in South Down and South Armagh. He agreed to become what was commonly known at the time as a “supergrass” and give evidence against his former PIRA associates. Collins later retracted his evidence and it would appear this happened, after he was assured that PIRA would forgive him if he did.
Although Collins retracted and the accused terrorists who had been held in prison awaiting trial were released, he had still provided the police with a considerable amount of intelligence information about fellow terrorists and the crimes they had committed. Although he had been told that he wouldn’t be harmed, Collins had to relocate and live outside Northern Ireland. As we shall see later, there are limits to PIRA’s willingness to forgive and their ability to hold a grudge is beyond parallel.
~O~
During the hearing of the libel case in 1998, Collins said that Thomas Murphy was the most senior PIRA member that he had met. Collins also told the court that the first time he met Murphy, was in November 1983 at a social function held in an upstairs room of a bar in Dundalk. Collins told the jury that during a conversation with two other PIRA members – who he identified as being his ‘commanding officer’ in South Down named Leonard Hardy and a second individual named Brendan Burns – he was told that the event had been organised to “impress the generals” – the generals being Thomas Murphy and another man present at the event.
*NOTE: Brendan Burns died in February 1988 near Crossmaglen in South Armagh, along with a second PIRA terrorist, when a bomb exploded as they were loading it into the back of a van. Burns is also believed to have been involved in the August 1979 bomb atrocity that murdered eighteen soldiers at Warrenpoint, as well as other terrorist attacks, such as a 1981 landmine explosion that murdered five British soldiers in Camlough, County Armagh.
*NOTE: Leonard ‘Bap’ Hardy and his wife Donna Maguire (Once known as the ‘Angel of Death’), were both convicted in relation to their involvement in a PIRA bomb attack on a British Army base in Osnabruck, Germany, in 1989. The bomb plot involved the use of five bombs, containing a total of 330lbs of Semtex plastic explosives. A civilian employee surprised the terrorists and only one bomb exploded, causing considerable damage but no injuries. The Semtex would have of course been shipped a few years earlier by PIRA, from Libya to Ireland, and then later smuggled into continental Europe for use in terrorist attacks.
Collins also recounted during the libel case, that the second time he met Thomas Murphy, was at meeting in a house in Dundalk, during which Murphy said he was a representative of the ‘Army Council’. The meeting was in relation to the murder of a Catholic civilian in Newry, in October 1983. The victim was shot dead by PIRA, when they were attempting to murder an RUC detective. The meeting was part of PIRA’s version of an inquiry. Collins stated in his book (page 193) that he was informed by “a leading south Armagh man – one of the so-called generals” and a “member of the IRA’s ruling army council” that he had been “exonerated”, in relation to the death of the civilian.
During the libel case, Collins also told the court that he was taking on a very senior man in the organisation. Collins said:
“If Tom Murphy decided I should be killed, I would be killed and that’s the power he had at his fingertips.”
*NOTE: A 1998 news article from the Irish ‘Independent’ newspaper, regarding Eamon Collin’s evidence at the libel case, is available HERE. The article includes the above quote.
~O~
In January 1999, Eamon Collins was murdered whilst walking his dog near his home in Newry. It is believed that he was deliberately knocked down by a car, before being stabbed repeatedly in the head and face by his attackers. It is believed that a hunting knife was used in the murder and that one of the attackers sustained a wound, as blood not belonging to Eamon Collins was found at the scene.
Eamon Collins was so badly disfigured that he was unrecognisable and his family were unable to have an open coffin for the funeral. At the inquest into Collins’ murder, the coroner said it was, “…one of the most ghastly, brutal murders” that he had ever seen and he hoped the, “sub-human thugs” responsible would be identified.
*NOTE: A Belfast Telegraph article from 2019, regarding the investigation into Eamon Collins’ murder, including the above quote, is available HERE.
Collins had returned to Northern Ireland following the PIRA ceasefire and the peace process. He had wrongly believed that the supposed end to PIRA violence meant that his life wouldn’t be in danger.
I have written in previous blogs about PIRA murdering people during ceasefires and the peace process. You can read about some of the murders in part 3 of this series, in a blog entitled ‘Internal Housekeeping’ and you can read it HERE. I also wrote about the 2015 murder of Kevin McGuigan in part 4 of this series and you can read it HERE.
~O~
The level of brutality exhibited in Eamon Collins’ murder by PIRA, was not unique to this case. I would also suggest that you consider, for example, the savagery of the attack on Paul Quinn, who was beaten to death in 2007. Virtually every bone in Paul’s body was broken, when a group of thugs beat him with iron bars and nail-studded clubs. Despite their denials, it is widely believed that members of South Armagh PIRA, were involved in Paul’s murder.
*NOTE: You can read a BBC news article from 2020, about Paul Quinn’s murder HERE.
South Armagh
Quite a few people reading this blog would probably have difficulty in locating County Armagh on a map and even greater difficulty in quickly locating certain place names along the Armagh / Louth border. It’s a rural area, with small towns and villages. It looks like an unlikely source of the terrorist violence for which it became infamous and that violence was not confined to Northern Ireland.
In upcoming blogs we will see that in the 1980s, other PIRA units along the border hoped to emulate South Armagh PIRA. South Armagh was known as ‘bandit country’ due to the level of terrorist / criminal activity and the related dangers and difficulties that the police and military faced when operating in the area.
The ultimate objective of other hardliners in PIRA, was to make the entire border region virtually ungovernable. One of my blogs in the near future will be about PIRA’s ‘East Tyrone Brigade’ and how their desire to escalate their campaign of terrorism, ultimately led to the death of eight terrorists outside Loughgall RUC station in May 1987.
As we are already on a virtual visit of South Armagh, this might be an appropriate time to give people who are unfamiliar with the area, a brief introduction to the nature of the terrorist threat that existed, as well as how it was countered by the security forces.
~O~
The following three terrorist bomb attacks in the 1990s, are just some examples of what came out of South Armagh. This might give you a sense of what the security forces in Northern Ireland were dealing with each day, whilst engaged in counter-terrorism. It might also give you some understanding of what hardliners in PIRA had been hoping to achieve, when they plotted to smuggle three hundred tonnes of weapons and plastic explosives from Libya. Thankfully, their smuggling operation only managed to import around half of the intended armaments.
In April 1992, PIRA detonated a bomb in London that consisted of approximately 1000lbs of ammonium nitrate. Around 100lbs of Semtex plastic explosives was used as a trigger or booster. The bomb had been transported inside a lorry. The Baltic Exchange building was partially demolished and other buildings nearby were badly damaged. Three people were murdered, one of whom was a fifteen year old girl who had been siting in a parked car. Over ninety people injured.
~O~
In April 1993, PIRA detonated a bomb in Bishopsgate, London. The one tonne bomb contained ammonium nitrate. The bomb had been smuggled into England from South Armagh, then placed in a truck and concealed under tarmac. The bomb caused extensive damage to surrounding buildings, with a final repair bill estimated to be around one billion pounds. A press photographer was killed by the blast and over forty people were injured.
~O~
In February 1996, PIRA announced the end of a seventeen month ceasefire with the detonation of a huge bomb in London’s Docklands area. The ceasefire ended because PIRA were unwilling to begin the decommissioning of their weapons prior to entering negotiations in the peace process. This requirement for decommissioning was intended to prevent PIRA using violence or the threat of violence, as leverage in the negotiations.
Two men who worked in a newsagents shop were killed in the explosion and two hundred and fifty people were injured.
When President Bill Clinton visited Belfast in November 1995 to lend his support to the peace process and discourage a return to violence, South Armagh PIRA were already preparing for the Docklands bomb attack.
Police investigating the Docklands bombing, recovered fingerprints belonging to one of the terrorists, but at the time they didn’t match any fingerprints that were currently held by the RUC.
Following a public appeal for information regarding the type of truck used in the bombing, the police received a call about a truck that fitted the description. The caller had seen the truck in Barking, England.
Police went to the location in Barking that the caller had provided and on waste ground they found evidence that the terrorists had attempted to set fire to some small items, including a magazine and the truck’s tachograph. This was an attempt to destroy forensic evidence, but for some reason, possibly because they were interrupted by members of the public, the items were not burnt. The police managed to lift a thumbprint from the magazine.
After the discovery of the evidence found in Barking, the police were able to track the route of the truck and found another thumbprint in a room at a truck stop in Carlisle and then another thumbprint on a ferry ticket in Stranraer, Scotland. The terrorists had used the ferry from Larne in Northern Ireland to Stranraer in Scotland, to travel over with the truck.
~O~
Between August 1992 and February 1997, seven soldiers and two police officers had been murdered in sniper attacks in South Armagh. The ninth victim was Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick, the last soldier killed during the Troubles.
Stephen was twenty-three years old. He had been manning a vehicle check point (VCP) in Bessbrook, County Armagh. Stephen had been talking to a woman in a car at the VCP and was smiling as he handed back her driver’s licence. Stephen was shot by a sniper armed with a high velocity rifle. The woman in the car narrowly escaped death when the bullet skimmed her forehead.
Early in the afternoon of the 10th April 1997, as a result of a prolonged surveillance operation directed against a PIRA unit responsible for at least some of the nine murders, four members of PIRA were arrested during a raid on a farmhouse.
Two unmarked vehicles carrying sixteen British soldiers arrived at the farmhouse. There were two soldiers in plain clothes in the front of each vehicle and a further six uniformed soldiers in the rear of both vehicles. RUC officers arrived shortly after the military.
The four terrorists were caught completely off-guard. They clearly didn’t expect the sudden arrival of military and police personnel. When soldiers entered the barn, they found three very startled PIRA terrorists: Martin Mines, James McArdle and Bernard McGinn.
The three terrorists were standing near to a Mazda car that had originally been a maroon colour but was repainted blue. The car also had false number plates. Inside the car was a CB radio and behind the rear seat was a metal platform upon which a sniper could fire a rifle, whilst lying down, with the hatch and tailgate open. After firing the rifle, the hatch and tailgate would be closed quickly and steel plates attached to the platform would provide some cover from any return fire.
A fourth terrorist, Michael Caraher was spotted walking between two buildings. Caraher attempted to run away but was pursued and apprehended by two soldiers. Caraher gave a false name and provided an excuse for his presence at the farm. When questioned shortly after by an RUC constable, Caraher didn’t respond when asked why he ran away, or why he hid in gorse bushes, or why he was wearing two layers of clothing on a warm day.
Caraher was wearing khaki coloured overalls with a jacket, pullover and jeans underneath (Other members of the terrorist cell were also wearing two layers of clothing). To the untrained eye, this might seem like normal apparel for people on a farm, but overalls or ‘boiler suits’ are also standard kit for terrorists in that part of the world.
When Caraher was searched, a prayer card was found with the name ‘Michael’ on it. When asked again for his name, he didn’t answer.
Outside the barn was a Ford Sierra that belonged to Michael Mines. Inside the Sierra was another CB radio. A subsequent forensic examination of the Sierra found traces of PETN in the boot of the car, which is a component of explosives such as Semtex. The car previously had false number plates attached. A mobile phone found in the car and another one in the barn were only capable of receiving calls, neither could make out-going calls.
Also inside the barn was a small cattle trailer with straw on the floor. A wheel was missing and there was some damage to the axle. There was a mark on the road next to the farm and the mark led into the barn. The trailer had obviously be towed along the road for a couple of hundred yards and into the farm, whilst the wheel was missing. There was a hidden compartment in the floor of the trailer, inside which was an AKM rifle and a Browning .50 inch calibre rifle with a telescopic sight attached and a magazine containing three rounds. An additional fifty rounds of .50 ammunition was found.
The wooden panel under which the rifles were hidden, was attached to the frame by a single nut and bolt. Michael Caraher and James McArdle were both found to be carrying a spanner that was the appropriate size for the nut on the panel.
On the day prior to the raid on the farm, PIRA terrorists had used the car and trailer during an attempt to murder a member of the security forces in a sniper attack. When the terrorists were unsuccessful in finding an opportunity to commit a murder, they had aborted the planned attack.
Whilst driving away, possibly with the intention of crossing the border, one of the wheels came off the trailer. The terrorists were forced to take the car and trailer to the farm rather than cross the border into the Republic of Ireland. They left the car and trailer in the barn overnight and returned the next day.
What the four terrorists didn’t realise was that the wheel coming off hadn’t just been a stroke of bad luck. The military had covertly accessed the trailer and loosened the wheel nuts.
When the four terrorists returned to the farm the next day, the military and RUC had arranged a surprise for them.
When the four terrorists were fingerprinted later that day, the fingerprints of James McArdle, produced a match for the thumbprints retrieved during the Docklands bombing investigation.
It didn’t come as a surprise that PIRA in South Armagh had been involved in the Docklands bomb attack. The terrorist attack had their metaphorical fingerprints all over it and thanks to McArdle, also his actual fingerprints.
~O~
In a news article that you can read HERE, about the conviction and sentencing of the four terrorists in 1999, you can see that they received a total of six hundred years imprisonment, for a variety of offences. They laughed and shouted to friends and family in the court.
Thanks to the terms of the ‘Good Friday / Belfast Agreement’ and the early release of terrorist prisoners, the four terrorists knew they would be eligible for release within sixteen months. A couple of months prior to this, the Irish government had barred four terrorists from benefiting from the early release scheme. They had been involved in the 1996 murder of a police officer, Garda Jerry McCabe. As you see in a news article HERE, there was controversy in 2004, regarding the release of those terrorists.
In a news article that you can read HERE, you will see that in the year 2000, the then Northern Ireland Secretary of State Peter Mandelson, used the royal prerogative to allow McArdle to leave prison at the same time as the other three terrorists. McArdle could have been detained for two years, but apparently someone at the NIO thought that wasn’t a sufficiently short enough sentence.
In another news article that you can read HERE, you can read about some of the crimes the four terrorists committed and the prison sentences they were given. You will also see that Bernard McGinn broke under questioning and claimed to police that it was Michael Caraher who was the sniper. McGinn claimed that his role was to ‘ride shotgun’. The police lacked the evidence necessary to prosecute Caraher and the judge ruled his statement as being inadmissible. Caraher did receive lengthy prison sentences on a number of other charges, including the attempted murder of an RUC officer at Forkhill in South Armagh. The officer had sustained a severe injury when he was shot in the leg.
Bernard McGinn was found guilty of murdering Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick. He was also found guilty of murdering Lance Bombardier Garrett in December 1993 and Thomas Johnston, a former member of the Ulster Defence Regiment, in August 1978. McGinn was also convicted for his role in mixing the explosives used in bomb attacks including the explosions at the Baltic Exchange and Docklands.
McGinn died in December 2013, it would appear from natural causes. You can read an article HERE.
~O~
This is obviously just a snapshot of people and events from three decades of terrorism and counter-terrorism in Northern Ireland and beyond, but thankfully we can continue this virtual tour in future blogs. Hopefully you found the content of this blog interesting and as I said previously, I will let you draw your own conclusions about various people and the activities described above. These blogs are just my perspective, based on my experiences, some knowledge acquired across the decades and perhaps a small amount of wisdom that developed along the way.
I know it may seem that we are on a meandering journey and at times it is possibly difficult to see how certain things are connected, but as pieces of the jigsaw fall into place, it should all become clear.
In the next blog I will be introducing you to some more characters from the rogues gallery. There’s quite a few to choose from, such as a mad priest, a Libyan intelligence officer and a supposedly rogue CIA agent (who was certainly a rogue, but not perhaps a rogue in the way we were supposed to believe he was). But all of that is for another day and another blog, or several.
Thanks for taking the time to click and read this blog. I know it was long, but dear reader, this isn’t really a short blog kind of subject. Thanks for your patience.
If this blog wasn’t enough, there are quite a few others available. Just click on the links in the various menus. The previous blog is HERE.
And if all of that wasn’t enough, you can also find me on Twitter, at @SageDespatches
Sage Despatches 