You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time and almost all of the Irish, all of the time - Abraham Lincoln & Irish Blog
Martin McGuinness, like Gerry Adams is a religious zealot and a teetolaler. Unlike Gerry, whose father was well known, indeed infamous, we don't know who Martin's father was. Martin was an apprentice butcher. After the British massacre of Bloody Sunday on January 30th, 1972, a lot of young men from the south of Ireland, travelled up to Derry, to volunteer for the IRA. When they asked which IRA they were dealing with, Official or Provisional, the stock answer was, arragh, what does it matter. Martin Mcguinness was the person a lot of volunteers dealt with, when joining the IRA.
Under Martin's command, many atrocities happened, which were own goals, discredited the IRA and lost the considerbale support. Enniskillen and the Claudy massacres, are the best known examples, while later strapping drivers into lorries, carrying bombs to explode, brought further discredit to the IRA under McGuinness's orders. This man is the leader of British Sinn Fein today, in the loyalist parliament of Stormont. McGuinness, along with his enforcer Gerry Kelly, have both called on the Irish population, to join them as informers, to the British occupation in Ireland.
Prior to the death of the 10 hunger strikers in 1981, this writer was told by an IRA colleague and friend of Martin McGuinness, that a deal had already been done with the British, to end the armed struggle, in return for giving them a political platform instead. It naturally follows, that the subsequent 10 deaths, wer sacrifices made, which were simply used, to give British Sinn Fein, the initial electoral breakthrough, among the Irish working class, that led to them assuming power in the loyalist, Stormont junta of today and also on the threshold, of taking power in the south of Ireland, with British help.
The last time such an event happened in Ireland, was when the British helped the fascist Blueshirts, take power in the form of Fine Gael in the south, which led to the summary execution, without trial, of 77 of their former comrades in the IRA and a civil war that was particularly brutal. There is no reason to believe, that it will be any different on this occasion. It is simply a question, whether the will form a coalition with the fascists in the south and repeat history, by reintroducing internment without trial or execute working class activists along with their elected representatives or if they will be a little more subtle or underhand and undermine the present uprising from within, as they did the Civil Rights movement in the north.
They have already engaged in summary execution and along with their fellow political travellers, enforce draconian censorship in their corporate media, in both parts of Ireland. Along with their British agents and trolls, trawling platforms, such as Facebook, they ensure articles such as this, receive minimum exposure, complaining to moderators and Facebook, to prevent distribution. This is compounded by micro fascist groups, like astroturf 1916 societies and other British counter political groups engaged in fascist censorship, based on the bloody censorship of Charlie Hebdo with other counter gang activity. You can help defeat this by sharing this article and blog with your friends if you agree with it's contents.
Martin McGuinness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Martin McGuinness MLA | |
|---|---|
| Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 8 May 2007 | |
| First Minister | Ian Paisley Peter Robinson |
| Preceded by | Mark Durkan |
| Minister of Education | |
| In office 2 December 1999 – 14 October 2002 | |
| First Minister | David Trimble |
| Preceded by | Office created |
| Succeeded by | Caitríona Ruane |
| Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Mid Ulster | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 25 June 1998 | |
| Preceded by | Office Created |
| Member of Parliament for Mid Ulster | |
| In office 1 May 1997 – 2 January 2013 | |
| Preceded by | William McCrea |
| Succeeded by | Francie Molloy |
| Majority | 15,363 (37.6%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | James Martin Pacelli McGuinness 23 May 1950 Derry, Northern Ireland |
| Political party | Sinn Féin |
| Spouse(s) | Bernadette Canning |
| Children | 4 (2 sons/2 daughters) |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
| Website | Official website Sinn Féin profile |
James Martin Pacelli
McGuinness(Irish: Séamus Máirtín Pacelli Mag Aonghusa;[1]born 23 May 1950) is an Irish republican Sinn Féin politicianwho has been thedeputy First Minister of Northern Irelandsince 2007.[2] He was also Sinn Féin's unsuccessful candidate forPresident of Ireland in the2011 election.[3][4][5]
A formerProvisional Irish Republican Army(IRA) leader, McGuinness was the MP for Mid Ulster from 1997until his resignation on 2 January 2013.[6][7]Like all Sinn Féin MPs, McGuinness practisedabstentionism in relation to theWestminster Parliament. Following the St Andrews Agreement and the Assembly election in 2007, he became deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland on 8 May 2007, with theDemocratic Unionist Party(DUP) leader Ian Paisley becoming First Minister. On 5 June 2008 he was re-appointed as deputy First Minister to serve alongside Peter Robinson, who succeeded Paisley as First Minister.[8] McGuinness previously served as Minister of Education in the Northern Ireland Executive between 1999 and 2002.
Contents [hide]
1 Provisional IRA activity
2 Chief negotiator and Minister of Education
3 St Andrews Agreement and deputy First Minister
4 2011 Irish presidential campaign
5 Resignation from the House of Commons
6 Personal life
7 See also
8 Further reading
9 References
10 External links
Provisional IRA activity[edit]
McGuinness has acknowledged that he is a former IRA member but claims that he left the IRA in 1974.[9] He originally joined the Official IRA, unaware of the split at the December 1969 Army Convention, switching to the Provisional IRA soon after. By the start of 1972, at the age of 21, he was second-in-command of the IRA in Derry, a position he held at the time of Bloody Sunday, when 13 civil rights protesters were killed in the city by soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment.[10][11]
During the Saville Inquiry into the events of that day, Paddy Ward claimed to have been the leader of the Fianna, the youth wing of the IRA at the time of Bloody Sunday. He claimed that McGuinness and another anonymous IRA member gave him bomb parts that morning. He said that his organisation intended to attack city centre premises in Derry on the same day. In response, McGuinness said the claims were "fantasy", whileGerry O’Hara, a Derry Sinn Féin councillor, stated that he and not Ward was the Fianna leader at the time.[12]
The inquiry concluded that, although McGuinness was "engaged in paramilitary activity" at the time of Bloody Sunday and had probably been armed with a Thompson submachine gun, there was insufficient evidence to make any finding other than they were "sure that he did not engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire".[13]
McGuinness negotiated alongside Gerry Adamswith the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland,Willie Whitelaw, in 1972.
In 1973, he was convicted by the Republic of Ireland's Special Criminal Court, after being arrested near a car containing 250 pounds (110 kg) of explosives and nearly 5,000 rounds of ammunition. He refused to recognise the court, and was sentenced to six months imprisonment. In court, he declared his membership of the Provisional IRA without equivocation: 'We have fought against the killing of our people... I am a member of Óglaigh na hÉireann and very, very proud of it'.[14]
After his release, and another conviction in the Republic for IRA membership, he became increasingly prominent in Sinn Féin, the political wing of the republican movement. He was in indirect contact with British intelligence during the hunger strikes in the early 1980s, and again in the early 1990s.[15] He was elected to theNorthern Ireland Assembly at Stormont in 1982, representing Londonderry. He was the second candidate elected after John Hume. As with all elected members of Sinn Féin and the SDLP, he did not take up his seat.[16] On 9 December 1982, McGuinness, Gerry Adams and Danny Morrisonwere banned from entering Great Britain under the Prevention of Terrorism Act by William Whitelaw, by then Home Secretary.[17]
In August 1993, he was the subject of a two-part special by The Cook Report, a Central TVinvestigative documentary series presented byRoger Cook. It accused him of continuing involvement in IRA activity, of attending an interrogation and of encouraging Frank Hegarty, an informer, to return to Derry from a safe house in England. Hegarty's mother Rose appeared on the programme to tell of telephone calls to McGuinness and of Hegarty's subsequent murder. McGuinness denied her account and denounced the programme saying "I have never been in the IRA. I don't have any sway over the IRA".[18]
In 2005, Michael McDowell, the Irish Tánaiste, claimed McGuinness, along with Gerry Adams andMartin Ferris, were members of the seven-manIRA Army Council.[19] McGuinness denied the claims, saying he was no longer an IRA member. Experienced "Troubles" journalist Peter Taylorpresented further apparent evidence of McGuinness's role in the IRA in his documentaryAge of Terror, shown in April 2008.[20] In his documentary, Taylor alleges that McGuinness was the head of the IRA's Northern Command and had advance knowledge of the IRA's 1987 Enniskillen bombing, which left 11 civilians dead.
Chief negotiator and Minister of Education[edit]
He became Sinn Féin's chief negotiator in the time leading to the Good Friday Agreement. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996 representing Foyle. Having contested Foyle unsuccessfully at the 1983, 1987 and 1992 Westminster elections,[citation needed] he became MP for Mid Ulster in 1997 and after the Agreement was concluded, was returned as a member of the Assembly for the same constituency, and nominated by his party for a ministerial position in the power-sharingexecutive, where he became Minister of Education. One of his controversial acts as Minister of Education was his decision to scrap the 11-plus exam, which he himself had failed as a schoolchild.[21] He was re-elected to the Westminster Parliament in 2001, 2005 and 2010.
In May 2003, transcripts of telephone calls between McGuinness and British officials includingMo Mowlam, the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's Chief of Staff, were published in a biography of McGuinness entitled From Guns to Government. The tapes had been made by MI5and the authors of the book were arrested under the Official Secrets Act. The conversations showed an easy and friendly relationship between McGuinness and Powell. He joked with Powell about Unionist MPs while Mowlam referred to him as "babe" and discussed her difficulties with Blair. In another transcript, he praised Bill Clinton to Gerry Adams.[22]
McGuinness(Irish: Séamus Máirtín Pacelli Mag Aonghusa;[1]born 23 May 1950) is an Irish republican Sinn Féin politicianwho has been thedeputy First Minister of Northern Irelandsince 2007.[2] He was also Sinn Féin's unsuccessful candidate forPresident of Ireland in the2011 election.[3][4][5]
A formerProvisional Irish Republican Army(IRA) leader, McGuinness was the MP for Mid Ulster from 1997until his resignation on 2 January 2013.[6][7]Like all Sinn Féin MPs, McGuinness practisedabstentionism in relation to theWestminster Parliament. Following the St Andrews Agreement and the Assembly election in 2007, he became deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland on 8 May 2007, with theDemocratic Unionist Party(DUP) leader Ian Paisley becoming First Minister. On 5 June 2008 he was re-appointed as deputy First Minister to serve alongside Peter Robinson, who succeeded Paisley as First Minister.[8] McGuinness previously served as Minister of Education in the Northern Ireland Executive between 1999 and 2002.
Contents [hide]
1 Provisional IRA activity
2 Chief negotiator and Minister of Education
3 St Andrews Agreement and deputy First Minister
4 2011 Irish presidential campaign
5 Resignation from the House of Commons
6 Personal life
7 See also
8 Further reading
9 References
10 External links
Provisional IRA activity[edit]
McGuinness has acknowledged that he is a former IRA member but claims that he left the IRA in 1974.[9] He originally joined the Official IRA, unaware of the split at the December 1969 Army Convention, switching to the Provisional IRA soon after. By the start of 1972, at the age of 21, he was second-in-command of the IRA in Derry, a position he held at the time of Bloody Sunday, when 13 civil rights protesters were killed in the city by soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment.[10][11]
During the Saville Inquiry into the events of that day, Paddy Ward claimed to have been the leader of the Fianna, the youth wing of the IRA at the time of Bloody Sunday. He claimed that McGuinness and another anonymous IRA member gave him bomb parts that morning. He said that his organisation intended to attack city centre premises in Derry on the same day. In response, McGuinness said the claims were "fantasy", whileGerry O’Hara, a Derry Sinn Féin councillor, stated that he and not Ward was the Fianna leader at the time.[12]
The inquiry concluded that, although McGuinness was "engaged in paramilitary activity" at the time of Bloody Sunday and had probably been armed with a Thompson submachine gun, there was insufficient evidence to make any finding other than they were "sure that he did not engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire".[13]
McGuinness negotiated alongside Gerry Adamswith the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland,Willie Whitelaw, in 1972.
In 1973, he was convicted by the Republic of Ireland's Special Criminal Court, after being arrested near a car containing 250 pounds (110 kg) of explosives and nearly 5,000 rounds of ammunition. He refused to recognise the court, and was sentenced to six months imprisonment. In court, he declared his membership of the Provisional IRA without equivocation: 'We have fought against the killing of our people... I am a member of Óglaigh na hÉireann and very, very proud of it'.[14]
After his release, and another conviction in the Republic for IRA membership, he became increasingly prominent in Sinn Féin, the political wing of the republican movement. He was in indirect contact with British intelligence during the hunger strikes in the early 1980s, and again in the early 1990s.[15] He was elected to theNorthern Ireland Assembly at Stormont in 1982, representing Londonderry. He was the second candidate elected after John Hume. As with all elected members of Sinn Féin and the SDLP, he did not take up his seat.[16] On 9 December 1982, McGuinness, Gerry Adams and Danny Morrisonwere banned from entering Great Britain under the Prevention of Terrorism Act by William Whitelaw, by then Home Secretary.[17]
In August 1993, he was the subject of a two-part special by The Cook Report, a Central TVinvestigative documentary series presented byRoger Cook. It accused him of continuing involvement in IRA activity, of attending an interrogation and of encouraging Frank Hegarty, an informer, to return to Derry from a safe house in England. Hegarty's mother Rose appeared on the programme to tell of telephone calls to McGuinness and of Hegarty's subsequent murder. McGuinness denied her account and denounced the programme saying "I have never been in the IRA. I don't have any sway over the IRA".[18]
In 2005, Michael McDowell, the Irish Tánaiste, claimed McGuinness, along with Gerry Adams andMartin Ferris, were members of the seven-manIRA Army Council.[19] McGuinness denied the claims, saying he was no longer an IRA member. Experienced "Troubles" journalist Peter Taylorpresented further apparent evidence of McGuinness's role in the IRA in his documentaryAge of Terror, shown in April 2008.[20] In his documentary, Taylor alleges that McGuinness was the head of the IRA's Northern Command and had advance knowledge of the IRA's 1987 Enniskillen bombing, which left 11 civilians dead.
Chief negotiator and Minister of Education[edit]
He became Sinn Féin's chief negotiator in the time leading to the Good Friday Agreement. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996 representing Foyle. Having contested Foyle unsuccessfully at the 1983, 1987 and 1992 Westminster elections,[citation needed] he became MP for Mid Ulster in 1997 and after the Agreement was concluded, was returned as a member of the Assembly for the same constituency, and nominated by his party for a ministerial position in the power-sharingexecutive, where he became Minister of Education. One of his controversial acts as Minister of Education was his decision to scrap the 11-plus exam, which he himself had failed as a schoolchild.[21] He was re-elected to the Westminster Parliament in 2001, 2005 and 2010.
In May 2003, transcripts of telephone calls between McGuinness and British officials includingMo Mowlam, the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's Chief of Staff, were published in a biography of McGuinness entitled From Guns to Government. The tapes had been made by MI5and the authors of the book were arrested under the Official Secrets Act. The conversations showed an easy and friendly relationship between McGuinness and Powell. He joked with Powell about Unionist MPs while Mowlam referred to him as "babe" and discussed her difficulties with Blair. In another transcript, he praised Bill Clinton to Gerry Adams.[22]
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lenny Murphy
Lenny Murphy in 1982
Born Hugh Leonard Thompson Murphy
2 March 1952
Shankill Road,Belfast, Northern Ireland
Died 16 November 1982 (aged 30)
Glencairn, upper Shankill Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Cause of death Over 20 fatal gunshot wounds
Nationality British
Other names Lenny or Lennie
Known for Leader of Shankill Butchers
Ulster Volunteer Force member
Religion Protestantism
Hugh Leonard Thompson Murphy, who commonly went by the nameLenny (or Lennie) (2 March 1952 – 16 November 1982), was anUlster loyalistfrom Belfast,Northern Ireland. Murphy was a member of theUlster Volunteer Force (UVF) and leader of the infamous Shankill Butchers gang which became notorious for its torture and murder of Roman Catholic men. Although never convicted ofmurder, Murphy is thought to have been responsible for many deaths.[1] Murphy spent long periods in custody from late 1972 to July 1982, being free for a total of only thirteen months during that time. He was shot dead by the Provisional IRA in November 1982.
A Protestant, Murphy had a fanatical hatred of Roman Catholics. In his book The Shankill Butchers, Belfast journalist Martin Dillon suggests that Murphy's visceral loathing of Catholics may have stemmed from his own family being suspected of having recent Catholic ancestry, because of his traditionally Irish surname which is more often associated with the other side of the religious divide in Northern Ireland.[2] After his death, his mother commented: "I don't honestly believe he was a bad man"; however, an unnamed loyalist from the rival Ulster Defence Association described Murphy as a "typical psychopath".[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 First crimes
3 Shankill Butchers murders
4 Imprisonment
5 Last months on the Shankill
6 Death
7 References
8 Sources
Early life[edit]
Murphy was the youngest of three sons of Joyce and William Murphy from the loyalist Shankill Road, Belfast. William was originally from Fleet Street, Sailortown in the Belfast docks area. This was where he had met Joyce Thompson, who came from the Shankill. Like his own father (also named William), he worked as a dock labourer.[4]
The Murphy family changed their residence several times; in 1957 they returned to Joyce's family home in the lower Shankill, at 28 Percy Street. Murphy's father was reclusive which led to a rumour that he was not the same man and that Joyce was now living with a different 'William Murphy', one who was a Catholic. Lenny Murphy did not use his given first name because Hugh was perceived as Catholic-sounding, especially when coupled with the surname Murphy. Prior to the erection of a peace wall in the 1970s, Percy Street ran from the lower Shankill area to theFalls Road. A hoodlum at school (Argyle Primary), where he was known for the use of a knife and had his elder brothers to back him up, Murphy logged his first conviction at the age of twelve for theft. After leaving the Belfast Boys' Model School at sixteen, he joined the Ulster Volunteer Force and was involved in the rioting that broke out in Belfast in August 1969.
His character was marked by a pathological hatred of Catholics which he brought into all of his conversations, often referring to them as "scum and animals".[5] He held a steady job as a shop assistant, although his increasing criminal activities enabled him to indulge in a more high profile and flamboyant lifestyle which involved socialising with an array of young women and heavy drinking.[6]
Dillon wrote that it is "incredible to think that Murphy was in fact a murderer at the age of twenty" (1972). There were many people at the time who would have found it hard to believe as physically he did not differ from most young men of his age. Below average height, of slim build and sallow complexion, Murphy was blue eyed and had curly dark brown hair. He sported several tattoos; most of them bearing Ulster loyalistimages.[7] He was a flashy dresser, too, often wearing a leather jacket and scarf, and occasionally a pair of leather driving-gloves, such that it reminded one contact of the time of a World War I fighter-pilot.[8]
First crimes[edit]
The Lawnbrook Social Club in Shankill Road's Centurion Street, one of Murphy's drinking haunts. It has since been demolished
According to Dillon, Murphy was involved in the torture and murder of four Catholic men as early as 1972. On 28 September of that year, a Protestant man named William Edward Pavis who had gone bird shooting with a Catholic priest, was killed at his home in East Belfast. Pavis had been threatened by loyalists who accused him of selling firearms to the IRA. Murphy was arrested for this crime along with an accomplice, Mervyn Connor.[9]
During pre-trial investigations, Murphy was placed in a line-up for possible identification by witnesses to Pavis' shooting. Before the process began formally, he created a disturbance and stepped out of the line-up. However, two witnesses picked him out when order was restored.[9]
Connor and Murphy were held in prison together but, in April 1973, before the trial, Connor died after ingesting cyanide in his cell. He had written a suicide note in which he confessed to the crime and exonerated Murphy. It is believed Connor was forced to write the note and take the cyanide. Murphy was sent to trial for the murder of Pavis in June 1973. Although two witnesses identified him as the gunman, he was acquitted on the basis that their evidence may have been affected by the disturbance during the police line-up inquiry. However, Murphy was re-arrested and jailed for attempted escapes.[10]
By May 1975, Murphy, now aged twenty-three, was back on the streets of Belfast. On 5 May 1973, inside the Crumlin Road prison, he had married 19-year-old Margaret Gillespie, with whom he had a daughter.[11] He moved his wife and child to Brookmount Street in the upper Shankill where his parents also had a new home; however, he spent much of his time drinking in Shankill pubs such as The Brown Bear and Lawnbrook Social Club. He also regularly frequented the Bayardo Bar in Aberdeen Street.[12] Murphy later told a Provisional IRAinmate that on 13 August 1975 he had just left the Bayardo ten minutes before the IRA carried out a gun and bombing attack against the pub which killed a UVF man and four other Protestants and left over 50 injured.[13]
With his brother William he soon formed a gang of more than twenty men that would become known as the Shankill Butchers, one of his lieutenants being William Moore.
Brookmount Street (2009), where Murphy lived close to the top of the Shankill Road
Shankill Butchers murders[edit]
The gang shot dead four Catholics (two men and two women) during a robbery at a warehouse in October 1975. Over the next few months Murphy and his accomplices began to abduct, torture and murder random Catholic men they dragged off the streets late at night. Murphy regarded the use of a blade as the "ultimate way to kill", ending the torture by hacking each victim's throat open with a butcher's knife. By February 1976 the gang had killed three Catholic men in this manner. Murphy achieved status though his paramilitary activity and was widely known in the Shankill. Many regarded his crimes as shaming the community but feared the consequences of testifying against him.[14][15] None of the victims had any connection to the IRA, and there was suspicion among some of their families that the murders were not properly investigated because those being killed were Catholics.[14]
The Butchers were also involved in the murder of Noel Shaw, a loyalist from a rival UVF unit, who had shot dead Butcher gang-member Archie Waller in Downing Street, off the Shankill Road, in November 1975. Four days before his death, Waller had been involved in the abduction and murder of the Butchers' first victim, Francis Crossen. One day after Waller's death, Shaw was beaten and pistol-whipped by Murphy while strapped to a chair, then shot. His body was later dumped in a back street off the Shankill.[16]
By the end of 1975, the UVF Brigade Staff had a new leadership of "moderates", but Murphy refused to submit to their authority, preferring to carry out attacks by his own methods. Dillon suggested that whilst some of the Brigade Staff knew about Murphy's activities (albeit not the precise details), they were too frightened of him and his gang to put a stop to them.[17]
On 10 January 1976, Murphy and Moore killed a Catholic man, Edward McQuaid (25), on the Cliftonville Road. Murphy, alighting from Moore's taxi in the small hours, shot the man six times at close range.
Imprisonment[edit]
Early on 11 March 1976, Murphy shot and injured a young Catholic woman, once again on the Cliftonville. Arrested the next day after attempting to retrieve the gun used, Murphy was charged with attempted murder and remanded in custody for a prolonged period. However, he was able to plea bargain whereby he was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of a firearms offence, and received twelve years' imprisonment on 11 October 1977. Dillon notes that the police believed Murphy was involved in the Shankill Butcher murders. To divert suspicion from himself Murphy ordered the rest of the gang to continue the cut-throat murders while he was in prison. The Butchers, now under the operational command of William Moore, went on to kill and mutilate at least three more Catholics.
The team of CID detectives investigating the murders was led by Detective Chief InspectorJimmy Nesbitt who headed C Division based at Tennent Street off the Shankill Road. However the police were overworked during this period and little progress was made in the investigation until one victim, Gerard McLaverty survived his assault. Detectives were driving him down the Shankill Road on the way to the scene of his abduction where he recognized two of his assailants walking in the street. This identification of Sam McAllister and Benjamin Edwards led to the arrest of many of the gang in May 1977 and, in February 1979, they were imprisoned for long periods. Confessions of gang members had named Murphy as the leader but statements incriminating him were later retracted. He was questioned once again about the Butcher murders but denied involvement.
The total of sentences handed down to the gang at Belfast Crown Court was the longest in legal history in the United Kingdom.
Last months on the Shankill[edit]
On completing his sentence for the firearms charge, Lenny Murphy walked out of the Maze prison on Friday, 16 July 1982. During his term inside, his wife Margaret had initiated divorce proceedings which were being finalised at the time of his death. Murphy returned to his old ways, killing at least four more people over the next four months. He beat to death a partially disabled man one day after returning to the Shankill. Another victim sold him a car and was shot dead after demanding full payment.[18]Murphy also attempted to extort money from local businessmen who had been sympathetic in the past; however, this encroached on Loyalist figures with established protection rackets.[19]
In late August 1982, Murphy killed a part-timeUDR soldier from the Lower Shankill area who was closely involved with the UVF in Ballymena and was allegedly an informer. The man's body was not discovered for almost a year.[1] In mid-October, Murphy and several associates kidnapped a Catholic man who was then tortured and beaten to death in Murphy's own house (temporally vacated due to renovations). Murphy, who had left the house strewn with the victim's blood and teeth, was arrested for questioning the next morning but later released. The sadism of the widely publicised killing led to Loyalism receiving a great deal of bad publicity, and paramilitary figures concluded that Murphy's horrific methods of sectarian murder had made him too much of a liability.[9]
Death[edit]
On 16 November 1982, Murphy had just pulled up outside the rear of his girlfriend's house in the Glencairn area of the upper Shankill when twoProvisional IRA gunmen emerged from a black van nearby and opened fire with an assault rifle and a 9 mm pistol. Murphy was hit by more than twenty rounds and died instantly.[20]Coincidentally, he was gunned down just around the corner from where the bodies of many of the Butchers' victims had been dumped. A few days after his death the IRA claimed responsibility. According to RUC reports, the UVF had provided the IRA hit team with the details of Murphy's habits and movements, which allowed them to assassinate him at that particular location. Another line of inquiry ends at UDA leader James Craig,[19] who saw Murphy as a serious threat to his widespread racketeering and provided the IRA with key information on Murphy's movements. Craig was known to meet IRA commanders to discuss their racketeering activities - he was later killed by his comrades for "treason".[21]
Murphy was given a large paramilitary funeral by the UVF with a guard of honour wearing the UVF uniform and balaclavas. A volley of three shots was fired over his coffin as it was brought out of his house and a piper played "Abide With Me". He was buried in Carnmoney Cemetery; on his tombstone the following words were inscribed: "Here Lies a Soldier".[22] The tombstone was smashed in 1989.[23] His photograph was displayed inside "The Eagle", the UVF Brigade Staff's headquarters over a chip shop in the Shankill Road. According to investigative journalist Paul Larkin, it graced the walls as a "fallen officer" up until the late 1990s.[24]
References[edit]
^ Jump up to:a b "Exposure sealed fate of notorious activists",The Independent, 24 August 2000
Jump up^ Dillon, Shankill Butchers, pp 4-9
Jump up^ News Letter, November 18, 1982
Jump up^ Dillon, pp.1-2
Jump up^ Dillon, p.8
Jump up^ Dillon, Martin (1989). The Shankill Butchers: the real story of cold-blooded mass murder. New York: Routledge. pp.17-18 ISBN 0-415-92231-3
Jump up^ Dillon, Martin (1989). The Shankill Butchers: the real story of cold-blooded mass murder. New York: Routledge. p.20
Jump up^ Dillon, p.21
^ Jump up to:a b c Dillon, Martin (1989). The Shankill Butchers. ISBN 0-415-92231-3
Jump up^ Dillon and Lehane,Political Murder in Northern Ireland(1973), pp 125-27
Jump up^ Dillon, p.54
Jump up^ Dillon, Martin (1989). The Shankill Butchers: the real story of cold-blooded mass murder. New York: Routledge. p.7
Jump up^ Stevenson, Jonathan (1996). We Wrecked the Place: contemplating an end to the Northern Irish Troubles. Free Press. p.54
^ Jump up to:a b BBC TV programme, 2011,Shankill Butchers, 60 mins,
Jump up^ Dillon, Martin (1989). Shankill Butchers. pp 66-69, 115-31
Jump up^ Jordan, Milestones in Murder (centre pages with image of Shaw's body in basket)
Jump up^ Dillon, pp.53-54
Jump up^ Dillon, p.291
^ Jump up to:a b Dillon, Martin (1989). The Shankill Butchers. p.263
Jump up^ McKittrick, David & McVea, David (2002).Making Sense of the Troubles: the story of the conflict in Northern Ireland. New Amsterdam Books. p.149
Jump up^ Dillon, pp 312-16
Jump up^ Moloney, Ed (2010).Voices From the Grave: Two men's war in Ireland. Faber & Faber. pp.381-382
Jump up^ McKittrick et al.Lost Lives Page 924
Jump up^ Larkin, Paul (2004).A Very British Jihad: collusion, conspiracy and cover-up in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Beyond the Pale publications. p.124
Sources[edit]
The Shankill Butchers, Martin Dillon, 1989 ISBN 0-415-92231-3
Crime Library's Through a Veil of Blood and Tears article
Political Murder in Northern Ireland Martin Dillon and Denis Lehane (Penguin, 1973)
"Murdered Man was not the Shankill Butcher, says mother", News Letter, 18 November 1982
[hide]
v
t
e
Ulster Volunteer Force
during the Troubles
Chiefs of Staff
Gusty Spence (1966)
Samuel McClelland (1966-1973)
Jim Hanna (1973-1974)
Ken Gibson(1974)
Unnamed Chief of Staff (1974-1975)
Tommy West (1975-1976)
John "Bunter" Graham (1976-date)
Belfast Brigade members
Robert Bates
John Bingham
Frankie Curry
David Ervine
Billy Giles
Mark Haddock
Billy Hutchinson
Trevor King
Bobby McKee
Jackie Mahood
William "Frenchie" Marchant
Billy Mitchell
William Moore
John Murphy
Lenny Murphy
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Brian Robinson
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William Smith
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James "Tonto" Watt
Mid-Ulster Brigade members
Harris Boyle
Mark "Swinger" Fulton
William James Fulton
Billy Hanna
Robin Jackson
Richard Jameson
Robin King
Billy McCaughey
Robert McConnell
David Alexander Mulholland
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Combined Loyalist Military Command
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1952 births
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Lenny Murphy
Lenny Murphy in 1982
Born Hugh Leonard Thompson Murphy
2 March 1952
Shankill Road,Belfast, Northern Ireland
Died 16 November 1982 (aged 30)
Glencairn, upper Shankill Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Cause of death Over 20 fatal gunshot wounds
Nationality British
Other names Lenny or Lennie
Known for Leader of Shankill Butchers
Ulster Volunteer Force member
Religion Protestantism
Hugh Leonard Thompson Murphy, who commonly went by the nameLenny (or Lennie) (2 March 1952 – 16 November 1982), was anUlster loyalistfrom Belfast,Northern Ireland. Murphy was a member of theUlster Volunteer Force (UVF) and leader of the infamous Shankill Butchers gang which became notorious for its torture and murder of Roman Catholic men. Although never convicted ofmurder, Murphy is thought to have been responsible for many deaths.[1] Murphy spent long periods in custody from late 1972 to July 1982, being free for a total of only thirteen months during that time. He was shot dead by the Provisional IRA in November 1982.
A Protestant, Murphy had a fanatical hatred of Roman Catholics. In his book The Shankill Butchers, Belfast journalist Martin Dillon suggests that Murphy's visceral loathing of Catholics may have stemmed from his own family being suspected of having recent Catholic ancestry, because of his traditionally Irish surname which is more often associated with the other side of the religious divide in Northern Ireland.[2] After his death, his mother commented: "I don't honestly believe he was a bad man"; however, an unnamed loyalist from the rival Ulster Defence Association described Murphy as a "typical psychopath".[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 First crimes
3 Shankill Butchers murders
4 Imprisonment
5 Last months on the Shankill
6 Death
7 References
8 Sources
Early life[edit]
Murphy was the youngest of three sons of Joyce and William Murphy from the loyalist Shankill Road, Belfast. William was originally from Fleet Street, Sailortown in the Belfast docks area. This was where he had met Joyce Thompson, who came from the Shankill. Like his own father (also named William), he worked as a dock labourer.[4]
The Murphy family changed their residence several times; in 1957 they returned to Joyce's family home in the lower Shankill, at 28 Percy Street. Murphy's father was reclusive which led to a rumour that he was not the same man and that Joyce was now living with a different 'William Murphy', one who was a Catholic. Lenny Murphy did not use his given first name because Hugh was perceived as Catholic-sounding, especially when coupled with the surname Murphy. Prior to the erection of a peace wall in the 1970s, Percy Street ran from the lower Shankill area to theFalls Road. A hoodlum at school (Argyle Primary), where he was known for the use of a knife and had his elder brothers to back him up, Murphy logged his first conviction at the age of twelve for theft. After leaving the Belfast Boys' Model School at sixteen, he joined the Ulster Volunteer Force and was involved in the rioting that broke out in Belfast in August 1969.
His character was marked by a pathological hatred of Catholics which he brought into all of his conversations, often referring to them as "scum and animals".[5] He held a steady job as a shop assistant, although his increasing criminal activities enabled him to indulge in a more high profile and flamboyant lifestyle which involved socialising with an array of young women and heavy drinking.[6]
Dillon wrote that it is "incredible to think that Murphy was in fact a murderer at the age of twenty" (1972). There were many people at the time who would have found it hard to believe as physically he did not differ from most young men of his age. Below average height, of slim build and sallow complexion, Murphy was blue eyed and had curly dark brown hair. He sported several tattoos; most of them bearing Ulster loyalistimages.[7] He was a flashy dresser, too, often wearing a leather jacket and scarf, and occasionally a pair of leather driving-gloves, such that it reminded one contact of the time of a World War I fighter-pilot.[8]
First crimes[edit]
The Lawnbrook Social Club in Shankill Road's Centurion Street, one of Murphy's drinking haunts. It has since been demolished
According to Dillon, Murphy was involved in the torture and murder of four Catholic men as early as 1972. On 28 September of that year, a Protestant man named William Edward Pavis who had gone bird shooting with a Catholic priest, was killed at his home in East Belfast. Pavis had been threatened by loyalists who accused him of selling firearms to the IRA. Murphy was arrested for this crime along with an accomplice, Mervyn Connor.[9]
During pre-trial investigations, Murphy was placed in a line-up for possible identification by witnesses to Pavis' shooting. Before the process began formally, he created a disturbance and stepped out of the line-up. However, two witnesses picked him out when order was restored.[9]
Connor and Murphy were held in prison together but, in April 1973, before the trial, Connor died after ingesting cyanide in his cell. He had written a suicide note in which he confessed to the crime and exonerated Murphy. It is believed Connor was forced to write the note and take the cyanide. Murphy was sent to trial for the murder of Pavis in June 1973. Although two witnesses identified him as the gunman, he was acquitted on the basis that their evidence may have been affected by the disturbance during the police line-up inquiry. However, Murphy was re-arrested and jailed for attempted escapes.[10]
By May 1975, Murphy, now aged twenty-three, was back on the streets of Belfast. On 5 May 1973, inside the Crumlin Road prison, he had married 19-year-old Margaret Gillespie, with whom he had a daughter.[11] He moved his wife and child to Brookmount Street in the upper Shankill where his parents also had a new home; however, he spent much of his time drinking in Shankill pubs such as The Brown Bear and Lawnbrook Social Club. He also regularly frequented the Bayardo Bar in Aberdeen Street.[12] Murphy later told a Provisional IRAinmate that on 13 August 1975 he had just left the Bayardo ten minutes before the IRA carried out a gun and bombing attack against the pub which killed a UVF man and four other Protestants and left over 50 injured.[13]
With his brother William he soon formed a gang of more than twenty men that would become known as the Shankill Butchers, one of his lieutenants being William Moore.
Brookmount Street (2009), where Murphy lived close to the top of the Shankill Road
Shankill Butchers murders[edit]
The gang shot dead four Catholics (two men and two women) during a robbery at a warehouse in October 1975. Over the next few months Murphy and his accomplices began to abduct, torture and murder random Catholic men they dragged off the streets late at night. Murphy regarded the use of a blade as the "ultimate way to kill", ending the torture by hacking each victim's throat open with a butcher's knife. By February 1976 the gang had killed three Catholic men in this manner. Murphy achieved status though his paramilitary activity and was widely known in the Shankill. Many regarded his crimes as shaming the community but feared the consequences of testifying against him.[14][15] None of the victims had any connection to the IRA, and there was suspicion among some of their families that the murders were not properly investigated because those being killed were Catholics.[14]
The Butchers were also involved in the murder of Noel Shaw, a loyalist from a rival UVF unit, who had shot dead Butcher gang-member Archie Waller in Downing Street, off the Shankill Road, in November 1975. Four days before his death, Waller had been involved in the abduction and murder of the Butchers' first victim, Francis Crossen. One day after Waller's death, Shaw was beaten and pistol-whipped by Murphy while strapped to a chair, then shot. His body was later dumped in a back street off the Shankill.[16]
By the end of 1975, the UVF Brigade Staff had a new leadership of "moderates", but Murphy refused to submit to their authority, preferring to carry out attacks by his own methods. Dillon suggested that whilst some of the Brigade Staff knew about Murphy's activities (albeit not the precise details), they were too frightened of him and his gang to put a stop to them.[17]
On 10 January 1976, Murphy and Moore killed a Catholic man, Edward McQuaid (25), on the Cliftonville Road. Murphy, alighting from Moore's taxi in the small hours, shot the man six times at close range.
Imprisonment[edit]
Early on 11 March 1976, Murphy shot and injured a young Catholic woman, once again on the Cliftonville. Arrested the next day after attempting to retrieve the gun used, Murphy was charged with attempted murder and remanded in custody for a prolonged period. However, he was able to plea bargain whereby he was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of a firearms offence, and received twelve years' imprisonment on 11 October 1977. Dillon notes that the police believed Murphy was involved in the Shankill Butcher murders. To divert suspicion from himself Murphy ordered the rest of the gang to continue the cut-throat murders while he was in prison. The Butchers, now under the operational command of William Moore, went on to kill and mutilate at least three more Catholics.
The team of CID detectives investigating the murders was led by Detective Chief InspectorJimmy Nesbitt who headed C Division based at Tennent Street off the Shankill Road. However the police were overworked during this period and little progress was made in the investigation until one victim, Gerard McLaverty survived his assault. Detectives were driving him down the Shankill Road on the way to the scene of his abduction where he recognized two of his assailants walking in the street. This identification of Sam McAllister and Benjamin Edwards led to the arrest of many of the gang in May 1977 and, in February 1979, they were imprisoned for long periods. Confessions of gang members had named Murphy as the leader but statements incriminating him were later retracted. He was questioned once again about the Butcher murders but denied involvement.
The total of sentences handed down to the gang at Belfast Crown Court was the longest in legal history in the United Kingdom.
Last months on the Shankill[edit]
On completing his sentence for the firearms charge, Lenny Murphy walked out of the Maze prison on Friday, 16 July 1982. During his term inside, his wife Margaret had initiated divorce proceedings which were being finalised at the time of his death. Murphy returned to his old ways, killing at least four more people over the next four months. He beat to death a partially disabled man one day after returning to the Shankill. Another victim sold him a car and was shot dead after demanding full payment.[18]Murphy also attempted to extort money from local businessmen who had been sympathetic in the past; however, this encroached on Loyalist figures with established protection rackets.[19]
In late August 1982, Murphy killed a part-timeUDR soldier from the Lower Shankill area who was closely involved with the UVF in Ballymena and was allegedly an informer. The man's body was not discovered for almost a year.[1] In mid-October, Murphy and several associates kidnapped a Catholic man who was then tortured and beaten to death in Murphy's own house (temporally vacated due to renovations). Murphy, who had left the house strewn with the victim's blood and teeth, was arrested for questioning the next morning but later released. The sadism of the widely publicised killing led to Loyalism receiving a great deal of bad publicity, and paramilitary figures concluded that Murphy's horrific methods of sectarian murder had made him too much of a liability.[9]
Death[edit]
On 16 November 1982, Murphy had just pulled up outside the rear of his girlfriend's house in the Glencairn area of the upper Shankill when twoProvisional IRA gunmen emerged from a black van nearby and opened fire with an assault rifle and a 9 mm pistol. Murphy was hit by more than twenty rounds and died instantly.[20]Coincidentally, he was gunned down just around the corner from where the bodies of many of the Butchers' victims had been dumped. A few days after his death the IRA claimed responsibility. According to RUC reports, the UVF had provided the IRA hit team with the details of Murphy's habits and movements, which allowed them to assassinate him at that particular location. Another line of inquiry ends at UDA leader James Craig,[19] who saw Murphy as a serious threat to his widespread racketeering and provided the IRA with key information on Murphy's movements. Craig was known to meet IRA commanders to discuss their racketeering activities - he was later killed by his comrades for "treason".[21]
Murphy was given a large paramilitary funeral by the UVF with a guard of honour wearing the UVF uniform and balaclavas. A volley of three shots was fired over his coffin as it was brought out of his house and a piper played "Abide With Me". He was buried in Carnmoney Cemetery; on his tombstone the following words were inscribed: "Here Lies a Soldier".[22] The tombstone was smashed in 1989.[23] His photograph was displayed inside "The Eagle", the UVF Brigade Staff's headquarters over a chip shop in the Shankill Road. According to investigative journalist Paul Larkin, it graced the walls as a "fallen officer" up until the late 1990s.[24]
References[edit]
^ Jump up to:a b "Exposure sealed fate of notorious activists",The Independent, 24 August 2000
Jump up^ Dillon, Shankill Butchers, pp 4-9
Jump up^ News Letter, November 18, 1982
Jump up^ Dillon, pp.1-2
Jump up^ Dillon, p.8
Jump up^ Dillon, Martin (1989). The Shankill Butchers: the real story of cold-blooded mass murder. New York: Routledge. pp.17-18 ISBN 0-415-92231-3
Jump up^ Dillon, Martin (1989). The Shankill Butchers: the real story of cold-blooded mass murder. New York: Routledge. p.20
Jump up^ Dillon, p.21
^ Jump up to:a b c Dillon, Martin (1989). The Shankill Butchers. ISBN 0-415-92231-3
Jump up^ Dillon and Lehane,Political Murder in Northern Ireland(1973), pp 125-27
Jump up^ Dillon, p.54
Jump up^ Dillon, Martin (1989). The Shankill Butchers: the real story of cold-blooded mass murder. New York: Routledge. p.7
Jump up^ Stevenson, Jonathan (1996). We Wrecked the Place: contemplating an end to the Northern Irish Troubles. Free Press. p.54
^ Jump up to:a b BBC TV programme, 2011,Shankill Butchers, 60 mins,
Jump up^ Dillon, Martin (1989). Shankill Butchers. pp 66-69, 115-31
Jump up^ Jordan, Milestones in Murder (centre pages with image of Shaw's body in basket)
Jump up^ Dillon, pp.53-54
Jump up^ Dillon, p.291
^ Jump up to:a b Dillon, Martin (1989). The Shankill Butchers. p.263
Jump up^ McKittrick, David & McVea, David (2002).Making Sense of the Troubles: the story of the conflict in Northern Ireland. New Amsterdam Books. p.149
Jump up^ Dillon, pp 312-16
Jump up^ Moloney, Ed (2010).Voices From the Grave: Two men's war in Ireland. Faber & Faber. pp.381-382
Jump up^ McKittrick et al.Lost Lives Page 924
Jump up^ Larkin, Paul (2004).A Very British Jihad: collusion, conspiracy and cover-up in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Beyond the Pale publications. p.124
Sources[edit]
The Shankill Butchers, Martin Dillon, 1989 ISBN 0-415-92231-3
Crime Library's Through a Veil of Blood and Tears article
Political Murder in Northern Ireland Martin Dillon and Denis Lehane (Penguin, 1973)
"Murdered Man was not the Shankill Butcher, says mother", News Letter, 18 November 1982
[hide]
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Ulster Volunteer Force
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Unnamed Chief of Staff (1974-1975)
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Belfast Brigade members
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Jackie Mahood
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Billy Mitchell
William Moore
John Murphy
Lenny Murphy
Clifford Peeples
Brian Robinson
George Seawright
Robert "Squeak" Seymour
William Smith
Billy Spence
Harry "Harmless" Stockman
James "Tonto" Watt
Mid-Ulster Brigade members
Harris Boyle
Mark "Swinger" Fulton
William James Fulton
Billy Hanna
Robin Jackson
Richard Jameson
Robin King
Billy McCaughey
Robert McConnell
David Alexander Mulholland
Lindsay Robb
Wesley Somerville
John Weir
Billy Wright
Red Hand Commando members
Frankie Curry
Billy Elliot
John McKeague
Winston Churchill Rea
Wiliam Smith
Michael Stone
Units and groups
Glenanne gang
Shankill Butchers
Protestant Action Group
Young Citizen Volunteers
Actions
Battle of St Matthew's (1970)
McGurk's Bar bombing (1971)
Battle at Springmartin (1972)
Dublin bombings(1972-3)
Dublin and Monaghan bombings(1974)
Miami Showband killings (1975)
Reavey and O'Dowd killings (1976)
Chlorane Bar attack (1976)
Ramble Inn attack(1976)
Cappagh killings (1991)
Loughinisland massacre (1994)
Quinn brothers' killings (1998)
Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine killings (2000)
Prominent victims
Jim Hanna
John Francis Green
Billy Hanna
The Miami Showband
Maire Drumm
Larry Marley
Martin Doherty
Jackie Coulter
Tommy English
Related articles
Combined Loyalist Military Command
Loyalist feud
Loyalist Volunteer Force
Progressive Unionist Party
Tara
Ulster Army Council
Ulster Constitution Defence Committee
Ulster loyalism
Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee
Ulster Volunteers
Ulster Workers' Council strike
Volunteer (Ulster loyalist)
Volunteer Political Party
bold indicates Brigadiers and commanders
Authority control
VIAF: 23772202
Categories:
1952 births
1982 deaths
People from Belfast
Shankill Butchers
People killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army
People murdered in Northern Ireland
People with antisocial personality disorder
Ulster loyalists imprisoned on charges of terrorism
Ulster loyalists imprisoned by non-jury courts
Ulster Volunteer Force members
Deaths by firearm in Northern Ireland
Anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland
People convicted of murder by Northern Irelan
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