Martin McGuinness personally set up the rendezvous which led to the brutal murder of a suspected IRA informer, the Government was told in 1987.

BreakingNews.ie
29 Dec 2017



Previously secret files in the Department of Foreign Affairs reveal the then Bishop of Derry Edward Daly made the damning claim seven months after the killing of Frank Hegarty.

Bishop Daly said Mr McGuinness normally did not get his "hands dirty" but had run out of henchmen in the city.

Mr Hegarty, a Provo quartermaster in Derry, was abducted from Buncrana, Co Donegal, and shot in the head in May 1986 after he had been lured home with claims he would be safe.

His body was dumped on the side of a border road with his eyes taped.

A typed letter, marked secret, was filed to the Department of Foreign Affairs by an official who had met Bishop Eddie Daly and talked about the execution.

Released under the 30 year rule, it said: "The Bishop understands that, far from using a henchman (as he would ordinarily do), McGuinness personally arranged the rendez-vous with Hegarty from which the latter did not return."

Bishop Daly said the former IRA commander turned peacemaker had been doing "reckless things" at the time.

He said these actions would make Mr McGuinness "vulnerable if he were to come under media scrutiny".

Over the years Mr McGuinness, who died last March, faced repeated questions over the Hegarty murder but always insisted he had "no role whatsoever".

The dead man's family have said the former Deputy First Minister persuaded Mr Hegarty to come home. And Bishop Daly believed them.

It is understood Mr Hegarty fled to England, protected by British intelligence, and is reported to have given information on a dump of IRA arms smuggled from Libya before being lured home.

Bishop Daly said Mr McGuinness assured relatives on a number of occasions that Mr Hegarty would not be harmed.

The Bishop was reported to have said: "McGuinness would usually try to 'keep his own hands clean' in an affairs of this sort but, with the number of Provo volunteers in Derry reduced... by rumours that Hegarty had 'squealed', McGuinness was left in a position for several months last year in which he had to do much of 'the dirty work' on his own."

Bishop Daly said he was certain Mr McGuinness was a Provisional IRA Chief of Staff "at least for the North-West if not for the entire North".

The letter was dated January 22 1987, about seven months after the murder.

It was sent to Dublin and copied to the Tánaiste and the Ambassador in London, as well as the secretary of the Irish Government's Anglo-Irish Secretariat.

It has been reported Mr McGuinness met Mr Hegarty's mother Rose on numerous occasions as he tried to coerce him to return home, including a claim he went down on bended knee.

A sister of Mr Hegarty is also said to have unwittingly driven him to the rendez-vous in Buncrana.

The documents can be read in the 2017/20/17 file from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Martin McGuinness also threatened to hold a dead IRA man's body for a week amid tensions over paramilitary shows of strength at funerals, the state papers have revealed.

He personally delivered the chilling message to Bishop Cahal Daly's secretary as a stand-off ensued over the burial of Larry Marley in Belfast in April 1987.

Marley, the mastermind of the 1983 Maze escape, was shot dead by the UVF in front of his wife and newborn son at their home in Ardoyne.

Amid a huge security operation, his funeral was delayed for three days and there were two failed attempts to bury him as a heavily armed police cordon stepped in each time to stop shots being fired.

At one point during the stand-off Marley's body had to be embalmed for second time while in the family home and the RUC threatened to seize the remains under public health laws.

Documents released from the Department of Foreign Affairs reveal Mr McGuinness issued the warning to the bishop's emissary Fr Hugh Starkey as he mediated between the Marley family and the RUC.

He said McGuinness told Cahal Daly's secretary: "We have the body and will keep it for a week, if necessary, until the Bishop speaks."

The papers claimed Mr McGuinness was smarting over comments made by Bishop of Derry Edward Daly about restricting IRA funerals amid paramilitary shows of strength.

Bishop Edward Daly had raised concerns that he had to say "enough is enough" and feared that if he did not take "strong and dramatic" action that some Provos might be emboldened enough to fire shots inside a church rather than outside.

A Foreign Affairs official said Mr McGuinness wanted to force Bishop Cahal Daly to make a public statement, "preferably a rebuke to the police and sympathy with the predicament of the family".

He noted that the Bishop "wisely refused to be drawn into this trap".

"Bishop Daly's refusal to act according to Sinn Fein's bidding has created a resentment towards the Church in that section of the nationalist community which Fr Starkey hopes will only be temporary," the file said.

Marley's funeral and burial lasted seven hours. A Foreign Affairs official watching the events said it was the "biggest propaganda coup since the 1981 hunger strike".

In the days after the funeral, Cahal Daly, then Bishop of Down and Connor, called on the RUC to rethink its approach to dealing with paramilitary funerals.

The documents also state that Fr Starkey reported suspicions that Marley had been "set up by his own people" as part of an internal Provo feud.

The priest recalled one visit to the Marley home during the stand-off as "unsettling and macabre".

With the coffin in the house, Fr Starkey said prayers while an IRA guard of honour stood by.

The funeral eventually took place with the RUC keeping three feet from the mourners who flanked the coffin.

Fr Starkey told Foreign Affairs he felt he pulled a "master stroke" just before the coffin was taken from the house when he told everyone in the house to get on their knees and recite the rosary.

He said it reminded them it was a religious ceremony not a political event.


- PA

Kent Online
29 October 2016



Raymond Gilmour

An IRA informer living under an assumed name in Kent has been found dead at his flat.

Raymond Gilmour's body was found at his home, where it had lain undiscovered for up to a week, according to reports.

The 55-year-old former IRA member was forced to leave his native Derry after giving evidence in one of the republican supergrass trials in the 1980s.



Raymond Gilmour in 1984 (Image source: Belfast Telegraph)

When the case brought against 31 people collapsed in 1984, MI5 moved him to England for his own protection.

Gilmour first joined the IRA in 1980 and was involved in several operations, mainly as a getaway driver.

He was arrested in 1981 after he and several others were intercepted on their way to attack police.



Gilmour's cousin was one of those killed on Bloody Sunday.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, friends said Gilmour had never got over being separated from his family in Northern Ireland, and had suffered from alcoholism and mental health problems prior to his death.

Thy blamed MI5 for 'abandoning' Gilmour, and failing to provide him with proper support (See: 'Raymond Gilmour: The lonely death of a Derry Catholic...').

His funeral will take place next week.

By Eamon Sweeney
Derry Journal
5 August 2016

**There are more photos on-site



Johnny McAnnaney, Derryman, is pictured on the back row, second from the left.

A film version of the forgotten story of 156 soldiers who held a 3,000 strong force at bay during a battle in the Congo fifty-five years ago is to be released by US media giant Netflix next month.

The lead character will be played by Jamie Dornan, the Co. Down born star of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ and Belfast set thriller ‘The Fall’.

However, behind the glitz of the Hollywood sheen placed on this story lies the shameful post-conflict treatment of the Irish combatants by Irish Army top brass after they returned from Africa.

The battle which took place in September, 1961 has drawn comparison in its scale with the British defence of Rourke’s Drift - an event of course immortalised in the film ‘Zulu’.

And, as always seems to be the case with conflicts down the historical ladder of the centuries, whether by accident or by design, a Derry man was in thick of the action in the Congo.

The story goes as follows:

On September 13, 1961, the United Nations (UN) gave permission for its forces to launch a military offensive, code named Operation Morthor, against mainly mercenary military units working for the State of Katanga which had broken away from Congo-Leopoldville the previous year.

Under UN rules, its force in the Congo was to remain strictly impartial in the conflict.

Yet, the Katangese political leadership believed that the UN had broken its mandate and was siding with its opponents-the central Congolese Government. Soon after the launch of Operation Morthor, the Katangese led an attack on an isolated UN military unit based at the mining town of Jadotville.

The 156 strong contingent of Irish troops under the auspices of the UN were stationed at Jadotville.


"God, my men were fine. Ireland never reared better sons."

--Cmdt Pat Quinlan

Their leader was Commandant Pat Quinlan.

The positioning of the Irish men had come about after an angry phone call from the Belgian Foreign Minister to the UN Secretary General complaining that Belgian settlers within the local population had been left unprotected and open to attack from the anti-colonialist Kantagese.

Yet, when the Irish troops arrived it transpired that they were not welcome and there was in fact strong support for the insurgents.

The initial attack took place whilst the Irish men were at an open air Mass.

Expecting to take full advantage of the element of surprise, the attackers were however seen by an Irish sentry. His warning shot alerted the members of the 35th Irish battalion and the battle had begun.

A combined force of between 3,000-5,000 Belgian, French and Rhodesian mercenaries with local Luba tribesmen spearheaded the assault carrying light and heavy weaponry and they also used a Fouga Meister fighter jet carrying underwing bombs and machine guns.

The Irish men carried only light weapons and antiquated Vickers machine guns.

When the battle commenced the Irish radioed their headquarters. The message said: “We will hold out until our last bullet is spent. Could do with some whiskey.”

Astonishingly, whilst the Katangese attacked in 600 strong waves, having previously bombarded the area with heavy mortar fire, the Irish lost no men in the five day long siege. Instead, only five men were reported injured.

In return the attackers suffered an estimated death toll of around 300 and an indeterminate number of them were wounded. This has always been attributed to the tenacity of the Irish soldiers but also was due in great part to the brilliant tactical capability of Commandant Pat Quinlan.



Commandant Pat Quinlan pictured with his men in the aftermath of the Siege of Jadotville.

However, whilst Pat Quinlan retired a full Colonel in the Irish Defence Forces he was never to serve overseas again.

Eventually, after running out of ammunition, water and food the Irish had no choice but to surrender. Despite the fact they had outfought a vastly numerically superior force, their surrender rankled with the Irish Army hierarchy.

The soldiers who fought at Jadotville regarded Quinlan as an exceptional leader who saved their lives. Eventually in 2004, then Minister of Defence Willie O’Dea held an inquiry that cleared Pat Quinlan and A Company of any notion of misconduct.

A commemorative stone honouring the soldiers was erected in Athlone Barracks in 2005 and a portrait of Comdt Quinlan now hangs in the Congo Room of the Irish Army UN School.

Born in 1921, John McAnaney hailed from Derry’s Bishop Street.

On joining the Irish Army he was initially stationed in Athlone before being shifted to the now defunct Collins Barracks in Mullingar where he later married Pauline O’Mahony. They had five children.

By the time the Irish Army reached the Congo in 1961 John had attained the rank of Corporal.

John’s daughter Kathleen Lafferty still lives in Mullingar told the ‘Journal’: “When he came home from the Congo, I was only about two-and-a-half years old, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember being handed up to this man on the back of a lorry. I didn’t have a clue who he was. I thought I was being given away and remember saying ‘I promise, I’ll be good!’.

Whilst Kathleen says that her father wasn’t one to talk in detail about what happened in the Congo she does recall that he spoke about what happened during his time in captivity,

“He said that while they were being held, the local women were worse than the men as they would poke them through the compound wire with sticks. As well as that, my father and a Private Peppard were singled out for particularly bad beatings by their captors.”

Whilst letters were sent home from the Congo by her dad, Kathleen says that what happened and what will be seen in the film are worlds apart in terms of what her father wrote.

“Of course, nothing was ever wrong and everything was always fine in the letters.

“Another memory I have is sitting on the floor watching ‘Jackanory’ on TV with my brother and mum was making dinner. when a big breadknife was thrust between both of us and pointed at the TV and mum shouted: ‘There’s your father on the news!’

“That’s how we knew he was home.”

The subsequent shoddy treatment of the men who fought so valiantly at Jadotville by the Irish Army hierarchy who unspokenly ‘frowned’ upon the fact that the men had surrendered - even thought they had no choice - still rankles with the families of many of the men.

Kathleen Lafferty said: “It was heart wrenching and stomach churning. It grew with me. Now, I have the greatest respect for the the Army lads on the ground. It was those upstairs in the top brass that I had the problem with.

“It was awful to grow up as a daughter thinking that my father was treated like that. He was a very proud man. He walked upright with his shoulders back. We still have the morals he gave us to this day.

“He loved Derry so much. I still remember sitting on his knee on the bus to Derry and him singing about the town even as we neared it. I am very proud of what these men did-all of them.”

Despite the treatment received by her father and his comrades by the upper echelons of the Irish Defence Forces it not deter Kathleen Lafferty’s brothers, Tony, Martin and Paul McAnaney following their father into military service. All of them also saw overseas service during their careers in both Cyprus and the Lebanon.

Sadly, John McAnaney passed away suddenly in 1967 at the age of 45.

The shock of this and the fact that her mother was left to raise five children alone caused great distress.

“Dad was buried with full military honours, but after he died there was no contact from the Army-no support at all,” she said.

Asked if she is looking forward to watching the Netflix film ‘The Siege of Jadotville’ next month, Kathleen told the ‘Journal’: “I am, but I am fearful of looking at it too. It will be extremely emotional.

“I remember my dad as a wonderful, loving father. One thing I do remember was that Army overcoat cast over the chair at home. Chocolate was a rare treat in those days, but he always had a Kit-Kat or something in it.

“The game was that he’d leave it there to see if my friends and I could find it hidden somewhere in the coat without him seeing us.

“There was no central heating in those days and that coat would also be put around us at night over the top of the Army blankets. The coat was so big and so heavy.

“Imagine being sent out to Africa with this type of clothes.”

‘The Siege of Jadotville’ is a feature length movie that will be available for viewing on Nextflix in September. For details go to the Netflix website.

After their surrender, the Irish contingent were held for around a month. It is believed that their captivity lasted so long because the Katangese used them as a bargaining tool to improve their political bargaining power.

The ‘Derry Journal’ reported on the situation in the Congo on Tuesday, September 19, 1961.

Under the headline ‘Jadotville Garrison is being treated well’, the report said: “Reports on the situation in the Congo continue to be confused, but an Irish Government announcement yesterday stated that Irish troops at Jadotville, which had been overwhelmed by vastly superior numbers, were being treated well by their captors and that there were no further casualties among them.

A statement issued by the Government Information Bureau in Dublin yesterday afternoon said that the message was received from Leopoldville at 1.20pm from the Commander of the 35th Irish Battalion: “All ranks of the battalion in Elizabethville fit and well. Morale tip-top. We now have two channels of communication through another source.”

“The Jadotville garrison is reported to be well housed and it appears they are being well treated.

“They have been allowed to retain their light arms without ammunition.

“There are no more casualties than they have already reported. It is still three wounded and two shell-shocked. But, my men are showing the signs of the strain that they have been through since they went to Jadotville.”

Derry Journal
18 July 2015



Photo by Hugh Gallagher

There was a large turnout for the funeral of the late Peggy O’Hara in Derry as people from across the country gathered at the Long Tower chapel to say farewell to the much loved mother of INLA hunger striker Patsy who died in Long Kesh in May 1981, 61 days into his protest.

The remains of Mrs O’Hara, 86, were brought to the funeral mass in a horse drawn carriage; a tricolour flower arrangement on top said simply “friend”.

In his eulogy the Reverend Brendan Collins said that he had learned much about Peggy as he sat with he family during the wake and added that he had been particularly struck by the “high esteem” in which she was held by all who had known her.

“She was well known in the community and beyond, with people coming to today’s funeral from far and wide and was a huge source of comfort and support for so many,” he said.

“When we reflect on Peggy’s life we think of the question ‘how did she do it’?

“How did she keep her spirits up? She was a strong person of great faith. Father Paddy O’Kane who brought communion to Peggy every month and is in Lourdes today told me that he is celebrating mass there for her as well. He told me that he first met Peggy when her son Patsy was in prison just a few days before he died. He described Peggy as a very kind, sincere and good natured lady. A woman who loved her family and whose strong faith had sustained her through the darker days in her life.”

Mrs O’Hara’s remains were flanked by a 50 man colour party who escorted her to her final resting place in the city cemetery via Bishop Street and the Brandywell.

A man has been charged with the murder of Paul McCauley in Derry.

Story by UTV Staff, Belfast
:::u.tv:::
17 July 2015

**See also: Paul McCauley dies after being beaten by loyalist thugs in 2006 sectarian attack in Waterside, Derry



Paul, before the brutal attack

Mr McCauley died last month in a care facility almost nine years after he was attacked by a mob in July 2006.

Police said they arrested a 24-year-old man in the Fountain Street area of the city on Thursday morning.

The man has been charged with murder to appear at Londonderry Magistrates Court on Saturday.

A short statement from the PSNI said: “A 24-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Paul McCauley and is to appear at Londonderry Magistrates’ Court on Saturday.”

Paul McCauley never recovered after he suffered severe brain injuries when he was viciously set upon by a loyalist gang while attending a barbecue in the Waterside area on 16 July 2006.

The Catholic civil servant, who was 29 years old at the time, had remained in a persistent vegetative state since the attack, unable to move or communicate, and needing 24-hour nursing care.

Police on Thursday said the investigation had “taken on a renewed impetus” since Paul’s death last month.

Detective Chief Inspector Michael Harvey, from Serious Crime Branch, said: “This is a very challenging investigation, especially with the passing of time, but we are fully committed to exploring all avenues and opportunities and I would appeal to everyone in the community, if they have any information, come forward and contact detectives.”

BBC
12 Nov 2014

A number of Derry City Council staff have been withdrawn from duty following claims of threats from dissident republicans.

The council said the threats were made to 11 community safety wardens, who are employed to deal with low-level anti-social behaviour.

They said the threats were delivered on Tuesday and were being treated very seriously.

The police said it did not discuss the security of individuals.

DUP councillor Drew Thompson is chairman of the city's Policing and Community Safety Partnership (PCSP), which runs the warden scheme.

'Totally unfounded'

Speaking on BBC Radio Foyle on Wednesday, Mr Thompson said he had called for the threats to be lifted immediately.

"I would appeal and say to these people responsible to get off the backs of the people and withdraw this threat, because it is totally unfounded and there's no justification for it," he said.

Sinn Féin councillor Paul Fleming said the "vast majority" of people in the city wanted the wardens to continue working.

Derry City Council is expected to hold a special meeting on Wednesday to discuss the threats.
'Vitally important'

The council's chief executive, Sharon O'Connor, said the wardens played a "pivotal role in providing peace of mind to many" in Derry.

She said: "These allegations must be refuted and every effort made to have the threat immediately withdrawn.

"We want the support of the public in calling for an immediate removal of this threat, so these people can return to work to continue to provide this vitally important community work."