SAOIRSE32

Irish Times
15 July 2008

The British government should hand over files on one of the biggest massacres of the Northern Ireland conflict to resolve security force collusion allegations, it was claimed today.

Ministers must come clean on the December 1971 loyalist bombing of predominantly Catholic McGurk’s bar in Belfast that killed 15 innocent civilians including two children, a grandson of one of the victims said.

Northern Ireland Office (NIO) security minister Paul Goggins last night apologised in the House of Commons for officials at the time blaming McGurk’s on accidental detonation of an IRA device, when it was the work of the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).

However, Robert McClenaghan, whose grandfather Philip Garry died in the attack, said: “Now that they have openly admitted the innocence of our relatives, the logical next step for the British government is to open their files so that the truth about McGurk’s can finally be told.”

The case was raised in the House of Commons last night by the Labour Party’s Michael Connarty, whose great uncle was Mr Garry.

Mr McClenaghan, from republican anti-collusion group An Fhirinne, added: “The bombing on December 4th, 1971, is now well past the British government’s 30-year rule for the withholding of documents.

“Serious and sustained allegations about collusion and the involvement of the British army’s Military Reconnaissance Force still persist to the present day.

“In order to allay the concerns of families and the nationalist community in general the British government should publish the files of the old Stormont joint security committee as well as the British army’s and British government’s own files.”

In 1977 UVF gang member Robert Campbell was jailed for life for the bombing but has refused to name anyone else involved in the attack.

Mr Goggins told MPs preconceptions had been allowed to cloud the evidence.

“We are deeply sorry, not just for the appalling suffering and loss of life that occurred at McGurk’s bar but also for the extraordinary additional pain caused to both the immediate families and the wider community by the erroneous suggestions made in the immediate aftermath of the explosion as to who was responsible,” he added.

Mr Connarty said the Ulster Unionist Party’s Lord Kilclooney, who as John Taylor was then a home affairs spokesman in the Stormont parliament, claimed at the time there was no question of Protestant involvement.

He added briefings from the British army prompted press reports blaming the IRA.

Belfast Media
**Via Newshound
15 July 2008

A former British soldier who deserted in the aftermath of the brutal killing of Ardoyne father-of-two Jo-Jo Parker has claimed the shooting was covered up.

Former Queen’s Lancashire Regiment soldier Colin Demet was present on the night members of his regiment opened fire on a crowd of men and women dancing in Toby’s Hall on December 10, 1971.

Jo-Jo Parker, who was celebrating his wedding anniversary that night, was dancing with sister Theresa when the shots were fired. He later died in her arms.

According to the Demet’s new book – Ardoyne: The Pain Remains The Same – soldiers outside the dance hall believed their colleagues inside were being attacked and opened fire. Soldiers inside the hall then began firing too. Close to 30 shots were fired in total in the confusion – two of the bullets skimmed the heads of local people while Jo-Jo was fatally struck in the thigh.

“It was a gun battle between the soldiers,” Demet told the North Belfast News.

“This book is my story of what happened, the actual facts are there.”

Jo-Jo’s sister Theresa said she appreciated any effort to get at the truth.

“I don’t have anything against him [Demet]. He’s written the book now and I told him, I hope you do well out of it,” she said. “This book certainly won’t do me any good, I know that much. The bits I want to hear will be pushed under the carpet, the stuff about the government’s shoot-to-kill policy.

“He has admitted his part about that night.

“There are plenty of others who haven’t. Others who refused to take part in the Historical Enquiry Team’s inquiry.

“I want to know the truth. I would like to get closure before I go.

“I don’t want blood, I just want the truth.”

Demet deserted in February 1972, two weeks after Bloody Sunday. Within minutes of fleeing the regiment’s Flax Street Mill base, Demet was captured and taken hostage by the IRA. He was later released in Dundalk.

Demet lived in County Clare for over a year before giving himself up. He was court-martialled and handed a seven-year prison sentence which he served out in Wakefield maximum security prison.

“I’ll never forgive the army for that. In the end I went to jail for someone else’s mistake,” said Demet. “The person who ordered us into the hall that night got off scot-free. I joined the army to fight in wars, to do battle, not to see civilians beaten up for nothing and for innocent people to get killed.”

By Seamus McKinney
Irish News
**Via Newshound
14/07/08

THE family of a Catholic civil servant who is still in a near-coma state two years after suffering horrific head injuries in a sectarian attack say he is “in a state worse than death”.

The Irish News today publishes for the first time a picture which shows the full horror of the head injuries sustained by the young Derry man.

Two years ago this Wednesday, father-of-one Paul McCauley (31) and two friends were attacked by a seven-strong gang while they were clearing up after a barbecue in the city.

While his two friends have recovered, Mr McCauley has remained in an absolute coma for more than a year. He is now in a “low-responsive state”.

His father Jim says this means that while Mr McCauley’s eyes are now open, he is still without the ability to communicate or move.

Doctors also recently delivered the devastating news that the Derry man has been diagnosed as blind as a result of the attack.

“He is really in a state worse than death in many ways,” Mr McCauley snr said.

“The Paul we knew is no longer there.”

So vicious was the attack on Mr McCauley that doctors were able to make out the trace of the boot used to kick him on the head.

Two years on, part of his skull still has not been replaced.

“The attack was so vicious that the skull was crushed and shattered to the stage it couldn’t be replaced,” Mr McCauley snr said.

“There’s approximately five square inches of his skull missing; the only protection between the outside world and his brain is a layer of skin.”

A 15-year-old boy was charged with attempted murder in the days after the attack. He has yet to come to trial.

Mr McCauley snr said the delay in the trial was placing huge pressure on his family as they await the trauma of the court case and of hearing in court for the first time the details of what happened to their son.

“We are coming to terms with the fact that Paul will not recover,” he said.

“Two years down the line with a brain injury, the chances of a recovery are greatly minimised.”

He said the family was also concerned that only one person has been charged with the attack.

Mr McCauley snr said the attack on his son was a crime that other people must have known about because of the large amount of blood he lost.

“There must have been stained clothes so there’s an assumption that there’s people who know about it,” he said.

The severity of Mr McCauley’s injuries mean his family have changed their way of life to spend as much time as possible with him.

News Letter
15 July 2008

THREE men have been arrested on Tuesday by detectives investigating a gun attack on an off-duty police officer last year.

The 43-year-old Catholic officer, from the Bogside area of Londonderry, was shot and wounded in November after dropping his son off at school in Bishop Street.

The Real IRA admitted responsibility for the shooting at the time.

Despite his injuries, the victim was able to drive himself to a nearby PSNI station to receive first aid.

The three men are being questioned at Antrim serious crime suite, a police spokesperson confirmed.

News Letter
15 July 2008

A 1971 loyalist bar bombing which killed 15 people is to be raised in the House of Commons.

The Historical Enquiries Team’s report on the massacre at McGurk’s bar is being put on the spotlight by a Scottish MP whose great-uncle died in the blast.

Child deaths

The UVF’s December bomb killed 15 Catholic civilians in the New Lodge area of north Belfast - the largest loss of civilian life in a single incident until the Omagh bomb.

Two children and three women were among those killed as the no-warning blast ripped through the bar, including the proprieter’s 14-year-old girl.

Innacurate

An HET document dismissed British Army claims at the time that it was an IRA device which went off prematurely as “irresponsible and innacurate”.

The group - which is investigating more than 2,000 unsolved murders during the Troubles - found the authorities’ claim “could not be based on facts but instead reflected a desired outcome”.

A UVF getaway driver received 15 life sentences in 1978 over the bombing.

Grief

The Army claims at the time that it was down to the IRA upset grief-stricken relatives of the victims.

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward has already written to apologise to Scottish Labour MP Michael Connarty.

He said the gesture was also to show his concern for all victims of the Troubles.

Apology

Mr Woodward added: “The tragedy of the Troubles is that any of those people died, and one of the things that politicians have to get much better at is actually taking on their responsibility as a secretary of state and saying, I’m sorry.

“Michael has a relative who was in that bar. I am sorry his relative died. I am sorry for the extraordinary additional pain they suffered from the descriptions at the time of who was behind the bomb.”

The Army claim it was a botched IRA job came despite eye-witness evidence which pointed to loyalists.

Documents recently emerged to show that military advisers told politicians the bomb was in the hands of one of the customers and urged them to make this public.