Imatim
Well-known member
With thanks to a Bhoy on CQN
AN TEARMANN on 5TH MAY 2021 1:20 AM
1.17
40 years on Bobby Sands Rip.
hh
AN TEARMANN on 5TH MAY 2021 1:20 AM
1.17
40 years on Bobby Sands Rip.
hh
On a side note, I see the 2 British paratroopers that murdered Joe McCann in 1972, unarmed and shot in the back, got off on a technicality, cowardly murdering bastards
I read judge O Haras ruling. The statements given by the soldiers,in 1972 and again to the Historical Enquires Team in 2010, were ruled inadmissible because no one told them the statements could be used against them. Statements in which they admitted what they had done.On a side note, I see the 2 British paratroopers that murdered Joe McCann in 1972, unarmed and shot in the back, got off on a technicality, cowardly murdering bastards
Yes he was going away from them no danger to them just like the Belgrano it was sailing away from them when they sunk it, backstabbing bastardsOn a side note, I see the 2 British paratroopers that murdered Joe McCann in 1972, unarmed and shot in the back, got off on a technicality, cowardly murdering bastards
Really good readTen Men Dead by David Beresford is a good balanced account of what happened. Beresford was given access to the "comms" between Sands ( marcella) Hughes (The Dark) McFarlane (Bik) and Adams (Brownie).
Well worth a read and cheap on i books.
another whitewashReport condemns RUC for firing into flats in 1969, killing four people
British troops on Divis Street in Belfast on 16 August 1969, two days after fatal shootings by the RUC.Photograph: PA
Rory Carroll Ireland correspondent
@rorycarroll72
Thu 6 May 2021 00.01 BST
Police blundered at the dawn of Northern Ireland’s Troubles by using vehicle-mounted machine guns in residential areas and not effectively investigating the ensuing deaths, including that of the first child killed in the conflict, according to a new report.
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) committed “significant operational and investigative failures” during the killing of four people in Belfast on 14 and 15 August 1969, the police ombudsman said in a report published on Thursday.
Patrick Rooney, nine, Hugh McCabe, 20, Samuel McLarnon, 27, and Michael Lynch, 28, died after officers opened fire during disturbances in the Divis and Ardoyne areas.
Using vehicle-mounted machine guns in an area of tower blocks such as Divis was “fundamentally flawed” and the RUC failed to effectively investigate any of the deaths, said the ombudsman, Marie Anderson.
Sharon Moore, sister of Patrick Rooney who was nine when he was killed in Divis flats in 1969, holds a cross with his photo during a Time for Truth march in Belfast in 2018. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA
Rooney was shot in the head while sheltering with five siblings and his parents in their ground-floor flat in the Divis complex.
Fresh forensic scientific examination of ballistic material recovered from the Rooney home confirmed a Browning machine gun mounted on an RUC Shorland vehicle fired the fatal bullet.
However, investigators could not identify which vehicle the shot had been fired from.
“The evidence also indicates that the officers who crewed the Shorlands were insufficiently trained in the use of the Browning machine guns, and that there was a lack of clear instruction as to how the weapons could be used to control public order without risking the lives of innocent bystanders,” said the report.
Lack of evidence means none of the surviving officers linked with the deaths are to face trial.
The ombudsman criticised police marksmen for firing more than 20 shots from the roof of a police station towards the Divis flats. She also faulted the RUC for allocating some guns in a way that prevented linking them to individual officers.
Deputy chief constable Mark Hamilton of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, which succeeded the RUC, acknowledged the report.
“Our thoughts today are first and foremost with the families of Patrick Rooney, Hugh McCabe, Samuel McLarnon and Michael Lynch,” he said.
“We respect and acknowledge the hurt and suffering of each of the bereaved families, and we offer our sincerest and heartfelt sympathies to them for the loss they endured.”
So-called legacy cases have bedevilled Northern Ireland’s politics and legal system. Two former army soldiers accused of murdering an Official IRA member in 1972 walked free from court this week after their trial collapsed.