| "Indisputable evidence of security forces’ involvement with loyalist paramilitary murderers … should have rung alarm bells all the way to the top of Government. Nothing was done. The murderous cycle continued," Historical Enquiries Team Between 1970 and 1978, a loyalist gang (or permutations of it) rampaged through Ireland brutally killing over 120 people, the majority of them selected at random. All bar one were nationalists with no republican links. In almost all cases, no arrest was made and little was done to put a halt to the bloodshed. The question is why. The answer, as Anne Cadwallader's explosive new book confirms, is because the killings were taking place with the knowledge and consent of the authorities, from the RUC and UDR (the book reveals that a significant number of the gang were serving members of these forces) to officials in Dublin, right up to government officials in London. Backing up her claims with classified/non-classified government documents, personal accounts, forensic evidence and previously unpublished reports prepared for families by the Historic Enquiries Team (sheet 1), Lethal Allies starts by setting the political scene before providing, often harrowing details of individual killings and the subsequent RUC investigations. Here we find misplaced and ignored evidence, a failure to speak to witnesses, cases suddenly dropped and a shortage of arrests (see sheet 2 for more details). Throughout, where legally possible, perpetrators are named. Lethal Allies also includes detailed first-hand accounts from members of the victims' families, most of whom had little contact with the police following the murders and, forty years on, are still seeking the truth. It goes on to analyse the motivations for the atrocities and provides comprehensive and credible links between some of the main paramilitary personnel and the authorities. As a result of the HET reports and other research, more than 20 families have now taken formal complaints to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. Their cases are pending. But, as Anne concludes, it's our duty to find out the truth - "The inescapable fact, established beyond doubt by these events, is that successive British governments and their law enforcement agencies entered into a collusive counter-insurgency campaign with loyalist paramilitaries. It was thoroughly unethical – and it failed dismally. It was also illegal under international law." Anne Cadwallader is an experienced journalist who has worked for the BBC, Reuters, RTE, The Irish Press and more. She has spent much of her time reporting from Northern Ireland, giving up journalism in 2009 to work for The Pat Finucane Centre for Human Rights (http://www.patfinucanecentre.org/) in Armagh as an investigator and case worker. Anne is the author of Holy Cross - The Untold Story. If you would like to arrange an interview with Anne or for a review copy of Lethal Allies, please contact: Kate Shepherd or Gary Hall, The Oxford Publicity Partnership Ltd, 2 Lucas Bridge Business Park, Old Greens Norton Road, Towcester, NN12 8AX, UK Tel: 01327 357770/email: kate.shepherd@oppuk.co.uk or gary.hall@oppuk.co.uk Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland - Anne Cadwallader - ISBN: 978-1-78117-188-2 - Paperback - £12.99 About Mercier Mercier Press is Ireland's oldest independent publishing house, based in Cork. It was founded in 1944 by Captain Seán and Mary Feehan. The publishing house was named for Cardinal Mercier of Belgium, a man who in his day, proved himself not only a man of thought, whose mind ranged over every subject of vital interest to humanity, but a man of action in the varying circumstances of a life that shone before the eyes of a watching world. The voice of Cardinal Mercier could not be stilled and Mercier Press is proud to borrow from him the inspiration for its publishing programme, which is a belief in the importance of Ireland's ability to provide accessible histories and cultural books for Irish readers and all who are interested in Irish cultural life. DC |
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