Tag: Northern Ireland
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Missing UVF Bomb Massacre Files.
On 4 December 8:45 p.m., a UVF gang set out on a bombing mission. One of those involved was Robert James Campbell. The UVF bomb exploded outside a small pub in Belfast called McGurk’s, a cosy place where Catholics and Protestants from the same neighbourhood – all of whom knew each other well – met…
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Kitson’s foreknowledge of a third massacre.
New evidence has emerged about the UVF’s bombing of McGurk’s Bar in Belfast in December 1971. The explosion caused the entire structure of the premises to collapse, killing fifteen Catholic civilians – including two children – and wounding seventeen more. It was the deadliest attack in Belfast during the Troubles. Brigadier (later General Sir) Frank…
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From the Vaults: Kitson’s War with the I.R.A by Sean Boyne.
Sean Boyne, the Dublin-based author of the highly regarded volume, ‘Gunrunners, the Covert Arms Trail to Ireland 2006’, had a distinguished career as an investigative journalist. In 1972 he was writing for This Week magazine. On the 8th of June that year, he produced the cover story, ‘Kitson’s war with the I.R.A.’. People reading this…
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From the Vaults: NOW magazine May 1990. Linking MI5 agents to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974. By Frank Doherty and David Burke.
At the end of the 1980s, the late Frank Doherty set up NOW magazine. It published a number of stories about MI5 malfeasance. Two of them stick out in my mind. First, one which linked Mountbatten to the abuse of boys at Kincora which Frank and I wrote together. MI5 ran Kincora as a ‘honey…
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McGurks:
Fifteen civilians – including two children – were massacred in a no-warning UVF bomb attack on 4 December 1971 at McGurk’s Bar Massacre. Even before all the victims were identified, the British state briefed the media with lies about the massacre and its innocent victims. They claimed the pub was controlled by the IRA and that…
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Best (and worst).
Dolphin Square VIP sex abuse. Dolphin Square was opened in London’s Pimlico in 1936. It soon became a magnet for all sorts of scandal and intrigue: espionage, political, sexual, not to mention mysterious deaths. ‘Scandal at Dolphin Square’ provides a riveting account of the lives of a rolling maul of fascinating and complex characters. As…
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Le Carré
John le Carré spent most of his career exploring the British psyche through the lens of its secret service. You’d think he might have mentioned Ireland once or twice.
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From the Vaults Ted Heath:
In the wake of last week’s revelations about the inquiry into former British Prime Minister Ted Heath, Joseph de Búrca looks at a scandal which implicated figures on both sides of the Irish Sea.
