Collusion – 100 Years of Partition
‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’, the Japanese proverb of the Three Wise Monkeys is a paradigm to Britain’s dirty war in Ireland. The bloodied hands of Britain’s war machine and all its gruesome facets have stained the hearts and minds of the Irish people, so much so, that the word collusion has become normalised.
Those born in the mid-90’s, during a ‘temporary cessation of hostilities’ – the IRA ceasefire – are often labelled ‘ceasefire babies’, born into peace, and during a time of supposed optimism. In those years just prior, the Irish people living within the borders of the imposed Six Counties state witnessed the most horrific month of the recent conflict to date. The British state and its puppet death squads facilitated the execution of twelve innocent Catholics, all within one week. To this day families have not achieved justice for those murders, simply because the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) has been complicit in the events leading up to many of the killings, were actively involved in many of the incidents and in the subsequent investigations.
During the partitioning of our island, Britain worked tirelessly behind the scenes to create a utopian state for Unionism. A key aspect of this was to solidify the first line of defence – The Royal Ulster Constabulary and the hated Ulster Special Constabulary (USC/Specials). Initially a third of all positions were reserved for Catholics, however the establishment at the time refused to honour this as they viewed Catholics as disloyal, provocateurs and second-class citizens. Fast forward 100 years and the religious makeup of the Six County police force is still a contentious issue, with less than a third defined as ‘Catholic’, a pale reflection of a state less than 50% Protestant – not that it matters anyway.
Therefore, it is not surprising that within months of the foundation of the RUC, they are accused of murdering six innocent Catholics in Belfast, later to be known as the McMahon murders. Survivors of the attack claimed that the gunmen wore police uniforms, which they recalled in detail, as they were new uniforms, different to that of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). A week later six more Catholics were to be murdered during the Arnon Street massacre. The period now known as ‘the pogroms’, illustrates how far the state was willing to go in order to cement British rule in the occupied Six Counties.
Years later, Nationalists would soon bear the brunt of the Orange state once more, when they took to the streets in demand of basic human rights and equality. The civil rights campaign led by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), marched to end Gerrymandering by the state, among other demands – one of which was the disbandment of the Specials. It is no surprise that once threatened, it was the very same USC/Specials thugs that attacked the civil rights marchers as they reached Burntollet, while the RUC did little, if nothing to intervene. The scenes at Burntollet sparked the flames that would later engulf Nationalist homes and from the ashes, it would invoke a risen people.
In the months that followed and as Nationalists continued to protest, the RUC, alongside the USC/Specials towed the state line and failed to protect protesters. As tensions began to build and the RUC’s subsequent entry into Derry’s Bogside on the 12th August 1969, the people of Derry asserted their right to defend themselves.
The RUC and Specials encountered organised resistance and were beaten back and responded with flooding the heavily populated area with 1091 canisters of CS gas. They engaged in hand to hand fighting, beat skulls with batons and threw missiles back at protesters.
Meanwhile in Belfast, Nationalists protested due to the actions of the RUC and the Specials. They, like their counterparts in Derry, met the same state response. Loyalists organised on interfaces and were given commands by the RUC and Specials. Locals reported that the Specials could be seen providing firearms to the Loyalist mob and took part in the burning of Nationalist homes.
By the end of the summer of 1969, under the boots of the RUC and the Specials, Nationalists and Republicans now understood that to ask the oppressor for basic human rights would now no longer suffice. Within those summer months five Catholics were murdered by the RUC, 15-year-old Fianna Gerard McAuley had been killed on active service, and 72 Catholics had sustained gunshot wounds, for the most part inflicted by the RUC. Additionally, over 150 Catholic homes and 275 businesses had been destroyed – 83% of those buildings were owned by Catholics. The history books tell us that over 1,505 Catholics had been forced to flee their homes at the behest of the state and their loyalist proxy gangs. This was the context within which the British Army was now deployed on Irish streets in order to maintain a so-called ‘peace’.
The deployment of those foreign troops alongside their intelligence networks including Mi5 would drastically change the Irish political landscape forever. Their developing relationship with the RUC and Loyalist death squads would see collusion on a scale never witnessed before in Ireland.
One of the most notorious parts of the British murder machine were those cowards often referred to as the ‘Glenanne Gang’. This group included British soldiers, RUC officers, members of the UVF and British Military Intelligence – MI5. The name of the gang itself came from the base from which they operated, a farm owned by former RUC officer James Mitchell. It is estimated that they were responsible for the sectarian murders of over 120 people, almost all of whom were Catholic civilians with no links to Republicanism. The Cassel Report, published in 2006, investigated 76 murders attributed to the gang and found evidence that British soldiers and RUC officers were complicit in at least 74 of these barbaric acts of cowardice. The report also made clear that senior officers within RUC Special Branch had known that double agents were working with the gang but did absolutely nothing to prevent, investigate or punish those involved.
Some of the most lethal and highly publicised attacks attributed to the group included the Dublin and Monaghan bombings which murdered 34 innocent people and injured over 300. They were also responsible for the Miami Showband massacre in 1975, and the Hillcrest Bar bombing which murdered two innocent children during St Patrick’s Day celebrations in 1976.
RUC Sergeant William ‘Billy’ McCaughey was a senior member of the gang and was convicted of taking part in the murder of father-of-seven William Strathearn at his home in Ahoghill, County Antrim in April 1977. In later life he would be arrested and sent back to jail for his involvement in harassing Catholics attempting to attend mass in Harryville, Ballymena. He said that the British government were aware of the activities of the Glennane Gang and stated “Some of these men, they were connected to Parliament. Nobody wants a truth commission and that’s why the truth always stops at a few dirty apples, as they call them, no matter what the investigation is about. They will never come out and tell the truth – and the truth is MI5 and RUC Special Branch ran the civil war for X number of years”.
Unfortunately, the real extent of the involvement of the British state will never be known, and the families of those murdered will likely not receive justice on behalf of their loved ones, as the British state continues to obfuscate on the issue and protect its own interests in the face of those families fighting for that justice.
The web of collusion covers most aspects of Policing within the Six Counties and the state would go to incredible efforts in order to cement its pseudo legitimacy. We have seen this web exposed and littered throughout the pages of reports launched by families and justice groups. This is the same web of deceit and corruption that had crept its way into the rotten ranks of the PSNI, who promote a ‘friendly police force’ with one hand and withhold the key to truth with the other.
The RUC have been complicit in destroying evidence, protecting loyalist death squads and systematic covering up of truth for decades. Some of the most notable cases have been The Loughinisland Massacre, The Sean Graham Massacre, amongst 100s of others. The PSNI have carried that torch of corruption and collusion on to the present day.
This isn’t a surprise, for when we look at the make-up of the RUC during its inception and compare it to the current statistics of the PSNI – Nothing has changed. Statistics published by the PSNI in 2020, stated their religious make-up comprised 67% perceived as ‘Protestant’ and 32% perceived as ‘Catholic. Compare this with the reformed RUC Special Branch, now known as C3 Intelligence Branch, a huge 79% of which are protestant personnel, of which 92% are former RUC officers, further cementing the truth that they ‘haven’t gone away you know’.
C3 Intelligence Branch continues to work closely with its foot-soldiers in the heavily armed Tactical Support Group (TSG). Both are responsible for the continued use and implementation of various forms of anti-community legislation aimed at repressing and harassing genuine political and community activism.
One hundred years later, in the centenary year of this rotten little statelet, we continue to see the true face of Britain’s colonial police force; during a recent commemoration for those murdered at Sean Graham bookmakers, widely held to have been as a result of state collusion, the PSNI harassed and antagonised families who gathered to remember their loved ones, arresting one survivor of the atrocity. It came days after they escorted and facilitated a massive loyalist paramilitary death-squad show of strength, conducted by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
This centenary year has seen a surge in Loyalist violence with sustained attacks on Nationalist areas, in Belfast, Loyalist gangs smashed through the ‘peace gate’ at Lanark Way in Belfast, using a hijacked car as a battering ram. Rioters hijacked buses, attacked Nationalist homes with rocks and petrol bombs. As residents watched on, many noted the absence of the supposed ‘police force’ as rioting Loyalists bayed for blood for almost three hours before the PSNI decided to act – and when they did, they battened charged Nationalists, and threatened to discharge plastic bullets. In the days that followed they deployed attack dogs and water cannons on Nationalist youth, a new generation dammed to two tier policing, aided by former Stormont parties spearheading the PSNI’s normalisation agenda.
As the state prepares to celebrate their white-washed history, let us remember the real story of this rotten little statelet; a story of collusion and state sanctioned murder.
