SA5 TERRORISM.THE ASSASSIN'S GL.OVE

BYFR. DENIS FAULFR. RAVMOND MURRAY

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sAs

IERRORIS]ll

TheAssassin's

Glove

The SAS were found in Possessionof gloves with steel-lined fingers on

the night of 5-6 MaY 1976 when theYmade bn incursion into the Republicand were arrested. The Assassin'sGlove is an apt rePresentation ofhow they work. The steel tortureinstruments are concealed in cloth'ln the same way the terrorism of theSAS is hidden in the embroideredcloth of Westminster legislation.Terrorism is all the more shamefulwhen sheathed in legalitY.

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CONTENTS

THE SAS : A TERRORIST GROUP

THE KIDNAPPING OF SEAN MCKENNA

THE SHOOTING OF PETER CLEARY

THE SAS DEATH RAID

''SHOT ATTEMPTING TO ESCAPE'' _ THE BR ITISH ARMY

. REACTION

STATE M E NTS O F WI TN ESSES

MRS PATRICIA FAGAN

RAYMOND FAGAN

SHIRLEY HULME, HIS GIRL FRIEND

DAMIAN HULME

MRS KATHLEEN HULUE

AN SAGART DIARIIUID T'AC fOMHAIR

HARASSMENT OF THE CLEARY FAMILY

THE ARREST OF THE SAS

IN THE SPECIAL CRIMINAL COURT, DUBLIN

REACTION

BORDER INCURSIONS BY BRITISH TROOPS SINCE 1973

BBITISH ARMY MAP READING

VENGEANCE AGAINST AN IRISH ABMY SOLDIER

SAS PLOT TO MURDER _

The Case of Brendan MurraY

Printed and Published JulY, 1976

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THE

SAS A IERR'RTST GRouP

On 7 January, 1976, the BritlghPrime Minister Harold Wilsonannounced that units of the 22ndSpecial Air Service Regiment, thgSAS, were to be sent into southArmagh, after a Period of violencewhen both Catholics and Protestantshad been murdered in that area.The announcement aroused fear andapprehension. Small grouPs of SASattached to other units had alreadybeen used in the Northern lrelandcrisis and their ' name linked withLoyalist sectarian murder gangs.Mi. Wilson's statement that thesehighly irregular units would. operatern-unttorm was not believed. Whenfirst sighted the SAS were wearinga mixture of uniform garments andcivilian clothes. Later theY werearrested in CountY Louth in thelrish Republic wearing civilian outf its.When the SAS were sent intosbuth Armagh it was clear from theBritish press and TV bulletins at thetime - the media carried sPecialprogrammes and articles on the SAS -

inai tney were being sent in after theIRA only; no mention of theLoyalist misdeeds and murders inthe triangle of death, east Belfastand north Belfast. The action was adesperate effort. lt was the Britishmeihod of emPloYing the Nazi SAS.Thus it can be asserted from thestart that these irregular units werea further terrorist group inflicted onsouth Armagh and north Louth.The British sent in a death squad toput doUl terrorism. TheY chose toiose coitrol of their own militarYoperations. They undermined judicialmethods. They shattered the idea of acivilianised acceptable police force.What the real intentions of theBritish authorities were can only beguessed ?t, but the general idea

seems to have been to terrorisethe people by assassination, by nightlycalls to scattered families threateningassassination, by highly unorthodoxand criminal methods. One canreadily admit that the sorely triedpeople of the border area of southArmagh and north Louth could dowithout th'is addition to their troubles.

The presence ol such a lorcewith dubious credentials and criminalmethods demands that lheir activitiesbe closely monitored and that lhepeople be pul on their guardagainst them.

Both the Hague Regulations and theGeneva Conventions list four con-ditions which must be fulfilled bY

irregular f ighters if they are to qualifyfor the protection afforded bY theConventions :-

1. They must be commanded bya person responsible for his sub-ordinates.

2. They must have a fixed distinc-tive sign recognisable at a dis-tance.

3. They must carry their armsopenly.

4. They must conduct their oper-ations in accordance with the lawsand customs of war.

Article 3 of the Geneva Conven-tion of 1949 spells out the detail:-

"Persons taking no active Part inthe hostilities, including membersof armed forces who have laiddown their arms and those Placedhors de combat by sickness,wounds, detention, or any othercause shall in all circumstancesbe treated humanely, without anY

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adverse distinction founded onrace, colour, religion or faith,sex, birth or wealth or anysimilar criteria.

To this end, the following actsare and shall remain prohibited atany time and in place whatsoeverwith respect to the above mentionedpersons :-

a). violence to life and Person,in particular murder of all kinds,mutilation, cruel treatment andtorture.b). taking of hostages.c). outrages upon personal dignity'in particular humiliating and de-grading treatment.O). tne passing of sentences andthe carrying out of executionswithout previous judgement Pro:nounced by a regularly constitutedcourt, affbrding all the judicialouarantees which are recognised5s indisPensible bY civilisedpeoples. "

The operations of the SAS orSpecial Air Service as described intnis book leave a lot to bedesired from the Points of view ofthe Law of the Hague and the GenevaConvention. TheY have been foundoperating in civilian clothes, in

civilian cars and carrying shot guns,daggers and "assassins' gloves"lined with steel. These facts removothem from the group classified assoldiers andinto the group classifiedas Terrorists or as Mr. Rees wouldcall them, "criminal gangsters."lronic that Mr. Wilson should havesent in a group who now merit thedescription of criminal gangsters.

The unfortunate population alongthe Border on both sides mustdraw their own conelusions as to thepurposes of sending men out withassassins' equipment in civilianclotheq and in civilian cars withmaps marked with houses on bothsides of the Border. The leadingaim and intention appears to be toterrorise, to kill almost at random,to.kidnap, to blackmqil and to inflictfear - all activities of terrorists forpolitical purposes. When a body isdiscovered with shot gun wounds nearthe border the public cannot beblamed for suspecting SAS involve'ment. The use of the SAS assass-ins has been a step backwards frombringing into being protection forhuman rights and respect for therule of law. Any person who feelsconcerned for life and human rightsmust protest against the use of suchmen.

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KID}IAPPI]IG

ilIcKENNA

Sean Mc Kenna, NewrY, was kid-napped by the SAS from a house atEdentubber, the lrish Republic, onthe morning of the lah March 1976.This is a little two room cottagethat the Mc Kenna familY havealways used as a summer holidaYhouse for the children. lt was therethe father, also Sean Mc Kenna, diedon 5th June.1975 from the effects ofthe hooding interrogation in depthsuffered by him in 1971. The house isabout 200 Yards inside the border.The SAS kidnapping PartY was led bYone of the chief SAS men inBessbrook Army Post. All Catholicslifted and interrogated there ateseen by him. He takes a look atthem when theY are brought in andarranges the photograph i ng operation.He seems to give all the orders andis aggressive even with the soldiers.He is English, about 35, five foot eightin heighi, often wears a blue anorakwith red and white striPes on it. Heis the man who did all the sPeak-ing and who Put the 9mm Browningag-ainst Mc Kenna's head during thekidnapping.

tr.fmOers of Sean Mc Kenna'sfamily who have visited him inCrumlin Road Jail gave the followingsummarY account from Sean of hisarrest :-?

"l was arrested al 2.45 a.m. onFriday morning 12 March, 1976.I was in bed in mY home at

Edentu6ber, Flav€nsdale, Dundalk'Republic d lreland, when two mencarire in thror4h the bedroom win-dow. They carne through the kitchenand tried to open mY bedroom door -I had a cfiair 4ainct lt - but theYkicked the door open. One of themout a Slrort 4ainst mY head, it was ab mm Browning; he told me not tomove or he would blow mY headoff. He slrone a small flashlightin my fa and told me to get oql olbed ilowly. I got out and he walkedme into the kitcnen. I Put the lightoh. He asked for mY clothos andthen saw them on the chair. Hesearchod them roughlY, then handedtheni to me. I dressed and then oneof them said, "l want to exPlain thecase to you. Do You realise thalI could hlve shot You; if You- wantto put uP a struggle or lt YoYdon't want to oome say so. I

will have no hesitation about shootingvou now." I said that I would

iro with them. At this they t9o[Efrairs from the front door and I

saw another one standing outside witha sterling. He was wearing an

ordinary jacket, but had Brit trouserson. Th-ei took me out and acrossthe wall and dowtt the fields (2 or3) until we came to the FlorY River;h'e said that I wasn't to get wet,he stressed this. We walked untilwe came to a spot where we could

iump the river. 'We

walked through

another couple of fields untll we met3 Brits in uniform behind a wall.One had a radio and the officer toldhim to call in and say "We have ourfriend" and.to get the pick up arrang-for the same spot where they weredropped. lt was to be at 3.15 a.m.The ones who arrested me then tookoff their jackets and put on Armycombat jackets and put the civilianjackets in a holdall. The officer thentold all the men that if I made a wrongmove they were to shoot me. Wecrossed another fleld lnto the Northand we were at Kelly's Road, Killeen.I was made to kneel on the oround

with one Brit over me. He called theothers to a spot about 10 yardsaway and all I could hear him saywas something about the methodsof SAS. Then he said, "lf the wordgets out about this, the man respon-

sible will be shot." The officer thencame over and put his hand on myshoulder and informed me that he wasarresting me. A blue volkswagen vanpulled up. I was put inside it - 3 menalready inside - and then I wqgtaken to Bessbrook Station where I

was questioned. I said that I had beentaken illegally from the Republic andthe C.l.D. man said that this was aload of nonserise. He then said"So you relise your position, youcould have been shot tonight."I replied "Then you rcknowledge thatI was lifted in the Free State."He didn't answer but informed methat no one knw that I wG there andthat I could end up with a hole lnmy head, so I had better start talking.Realising the danger I was in, I

felt compelled to agrce to sign a state-ment'."

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THE SHOOIING

OT PEIER CTEARY

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Peter Joseph Cleary

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THE SHOOTING OT

PETER CTEARYOn the night of ThursdaY 15

April 1976 Peter Joseph Gleary' a manof 25 years of age, native of MageeTerrace, Beleeks, CountY Armagh,was taken from the house of hisoirl friend. Shirley Hulme, Tiffcrum'Forkhill, County Armagh, anU while a

orisoner was murdered by the patrolbf English SAS (Special Air Service)who had arrested him.

Arrangements had been made fortheir weOOing which w_as to take

olace within a few weeksTn TuesdaY2zin-Mav 1976. The SAS knew this.

IiS,3 tll ST i,i fi , 3l i[%1"i3*4"t?'n' titoula Strirteie You are, aren't you? - ltwon't be long tillthe wedding now, .-..I have news for You. You are notgoing to have one." Peter Cleary waswaked in his wedding suit.

Peter had come to see his girlfriendon the night of 15 APril. He ha{left his cai on the RePublic side ofthe border as was his wont, onlYfifty yards away. This was aboutten minutes to nine. He went to see afriend and came back about ten o'clock'Patricia Fagan, married to RaYmondfioan. wal a sister of ShirleY, andShirley lived with her. Damlan Hulmeand his wife Kathleen arrived atFagans. They were to buY a car fromRaimond. tr4rs. Mary Gallan a neigh-bodr had called. Lorraine, the sevenyear old daughter of RaYmond Fagan,was in the house too' The otherchildren, Mark aged six, and Rachelaged three, were in the

-grand-pirents' house iust behind Fagans'

new house. Around ten o'clock thembn had gathered round the caroutside. A last minute job was beingdone on the car before it f inallYoassed hands. Paul Mulkearns''a neighbour, had called over' He men-tionbi something about a helicopterincident being on tne news. Ravmond.Damian, and Peter went into the houseto watch the rest of the news ontelevision.'-

outJioe Patricia Fagan anri Paul

THE SASDEATH RAIDMulkearns were talking. The dogswere barking. They walkedacross the road. Paul stood uP onthe ditch and shone his torch. Twosoldiers were lYing on the otherside. They jumped up, and the officerfired a shot over their heads. lnsidethe house Peter said to Raymond whenthe raid was on - "l'm deadWhat will I do?" Peter ClearYsensed, like the others, that he wouldbe assdssinated rThe Sunday Preu of18 April reported - "P@Ple in theForXtiitl arei claimed that a group ofSAS men had visited houses in, thedistrict three weeks ago, 'disgulsedas Provisionals and weari4g masKs.'It was reported that they inquiredabout Cleary and said theY wereIRA men bui, according to one localman, some of the group had Britishaccents. Cleary was not in the area atthe time."l

The rest of the murder can beread in the statements of the wit-nesses. Peter Cleary was singled outfor brutal treatment. He was identi-fied by one of the SAS Patrol whowore 6nly an army tYPe jacket butfor'the r6st was dressed in civilianclothes. This man also carried no gun.Peter was dragged down to the otherhouse. Mrs. Fagan, senior, her daugh-ter Veronica, and Mark had alreadYbeen taken from the house. Rachel,the child, slept on in a room. Asoldier was seen kicking Peter as hewas led off. All, who had been madestand against the wall in the EnglishArmy search Position, were thenOrougnt into Raymond's house wherethey-were subjected to obscenitiesand insults by ttre "educated" officer.

Damian Hulme was brought outsldewhen he was asked about the car.The car was search-ed. He was

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SKEICH SH0WlllG IrlEtBnS0t FAItllLY 0UISlDt H0ilI

PIqn of Buildings

Lodrcd Door

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Bedroom aaer.h-\

Laving room

Bedroom ;J'oom

/Hall

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questioned about Peter. His headwas crushed into the ground by a red-headed soldier. Peter Cleary hethinks was about fifteen minutes inthe other house with soldiers. ltis evident that a good deal of beatingwent on there; a lot of the furniturewas disturbed and thrown around.Damian was still outside at the carwhen the soldiers collected and Peterwas dragged up past him by twoof them, moving very slowly. Theywere pulling him up by the arms withhis head down. Damian saw thisclearly as the outside light was on.They took him across the road.

Damian was sent back into thehouse. When the officer and the smallsoldier called George left, they brokethe outside light, after giving awarning not to move outside. ltseems there was a rattle of gunfireafter they broke the light.

Less than ten minutes after thesoldiers left the house three shotswere heard. Raymond Fagan hearda stone falling from the stone ditchat the top end of the little fieldopposite their house. lt is likelythat Peter Cleary was shot in thehollow of the f ield iust bevond.This was once the park of CaptainJohnston's estate. The trees havebeen removed. About 400 yardsfurther up is the garden of the oldhouse, surrounded in square shapeby stone walls. The garden is now alawn-like little field. lt is here thehelicopter landed. When the threeshots were heard the helicopters, oneof them with a searchlight, were stillin the air about 150 yards up the roadfrom Fagans' house. The shots werefired about 11 p.m. The soldierswere at Fagans' house from 10.20 pmuntilnearly 11 p.m.

Peter Clearyis body was taken tothe Mortuary at Daisy HillHospital, Newry, where- a post-mort-em was carried out on 16 April. ShirleyHulme describes going to Beleeksand helping Mrs. Cleary comb Peter'shair in his own style in the coffin.She noticed the top of his head allpushed in. His left eye was cut; hiseye-lid as if it was split open. Hiseye-lashes and inside his eyes wereall hard blood. On the left side hehad a bruise above the eye. Hismouth was split inside and morehardened blood around it. On the

left side he had a bruise above theeye. His father, Hugh Gleary, saysthat there was a lump above hisleft ear; the right side lock had beenpulled out; his hair was loose andcoming out.

News of Peter Cleary's death wasbroken to them by Fr. Patrick MacEnroe who had contacted BessbrookMilitary Post. This was at 4 a.m.Friday. The Fqgans had gone to Fr.Diarmuid Mac lomhair, Cill an Ghurr-aigh, and he had got in touchwith Fr. Mac Enroe. The familywere give to understand from'reports that Peter had been shottllree times in the chest. TheBellast Telegraph of 17 April reportedthat he was "hit by three bulletS,it was revealed today. A securityforces' spokesman confirmed that apost mortem-examination carried outon 2$-yearold Cleary showed thathe was shot three times. An inquestis to be held into the circumstancessurroundino his death." the SundevPress of 25 April said he died frorfithree bullet wounds to the chest- "Thepathologist's report on Cleary's bodysays that he was killed by threehigh-velocity bullets which enteredhim from the front rather thanthe back. There was also evidenceof slight bruising to the facealthough there was nothing toindicate the full scale beating whichthe Provisional IRA insists Clearyhad undergone." These newspaper.reports must be regarded withsome reserve as the pathologist'sreport will not be made availableuntil.the inquest.

Witnesses saw Peter Clearybeing roughed and kicked thenight he was arrested. Damian Hulmesaw him being dragged away justbefore he was shot and he didnot seem to be conscious then. Theknowledge that Gardal took intopossession steel-lined single glovesf rom the SAS when they werearrested in County Louth on 6 May1976 may lead to the conclusion thatPeter Cleary was hit on the lefttemple by a mailed fist.

Seven soldiers were counted in allduring the raid on Fagans' home.there may have been a few morecbncealed in the backgiound. Allthe witnesses agree that the soldierswere dressed in an army uniform

that was alrncst black. lt was coveredin srnali black cheeks. They woreno caBs or badges. Their faces werevery blackened. lt is clear from adescription of his gun that the officerin charge of the SAS group wascarnying a pump-action shot gun. The

others carried a variety of weapons -a machine gun, and George a Pistolwith something on the top that seemedlike a silencer. According to thereport in The News Letter 17 APril1976 the soldier who shot PeterCleary was armed with an SLR.

The hollow where Peter Cleary was shot

Field opposite Fagan's. Just beyond the stone ditch Atthe topPeier ClearY was shot

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Raymond Fagan's house, the shed and his Parents' hcuse

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Raymond Fagan's house

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The walled garden where helicopter landed

,sHOT ATTEMPTINGTO ESCAPE'-rur BRtrrH ARmy

On Friday 16 April the BrtttshArmy in lreland lssued an offlclalstatement from its headquarterg lnLisburn. This is the full statement:

"Late on Wednegday nlght, nearForkhill in South Armagh, a patrolot the Special Air Services arreeteda maR yvanted for questlonlng by thepolicb ln connection wtttr

-s€veiaiserious crimes in the aroa. Heresisted arrest but, after an ungu@eEg-ful attempt to escape, the man,Peter Joseph Cleary, was taken to apoint where a helicopter had beencalled in to take him to a securltyforces base.

While the other members of thepatrol were deployed to secure thehelieopter landing zone, Cleary, ln afurther attempt to €scape, assault€dthe soldier guarding him and ln th€ensuing struggle he was shot dead.!'{e was taken to Besbrook by hell-eopter and was confirmed by a medlcaloff icer to be dead on arrival.

e leary had apeared before a

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court in Dublin in October, 1975,when he was given a three yearsuspended s€ntenc€d after beingcharged with possessing armd andammunition."

A number of observatlons mustbe made about this statement:

1. Previously the Brltlsh Army haralways refused to commsnt aboutSAS tactics or operatlons. Thle lsthe first official account of an $ASoperation since a contlngent (reck-oned as 60 The Tlmel 17 Aprll1975, but more probably a fewdozen), was sent to Armagh in mid-January after the Kingsmills' murd€rEand the murders of the Reaveybrothers.2. The British Army says PeterGleary resisted arrest, attempted toescape and in a further att€mpt toescape assaulted a soldler andwas shot dead. Thls le the stubbornclassic story used in lreland downthe ages by the .English Governmsntwhen they murder a prlsoner ln cold

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blood. The callous murdor of PatrlckMcElhone at hmeroy on 7 August1974 is still fresh ln the mlnds oflrlsh people.

ln'thii munt the Brltish ArmYattempts some subtlgty - "a. furthsrattemlt to escaPe" - lmplying . apatience and forbearance on thepart of the SAS. Gleary unr@son-ibly inslstlng on escaPe! Of oursethey fail to thlnk that, if theY.saYa inan had already attemPted toesoape, it sounds foollsh to leavehim guarded bY a slngle soldler.Furthermore - how does an escaplngman get shot bY his guard threetimes in the chest? lt is clearfrom the statements of the wltnessesin Fagans' house that Peter GlearYwas in a state of great fear; he neverresisted arrest or attempted to escapeat the house. lt ls hardly llkely thathe-would attemPt to escaPe ln thefield - he had also been badlYbeaten. Further - how does a prlsonerget shot three times in a struggle?3. lt is part of the PolicY of theBritish Army and the RUG to imPlYthat Gathollcs'murdered by securltyforces or Loyalist Assasslns deservewhat they get. When Gatholics aremurdered in their homes or in publlchouses by local known LoyallstA$assins the RUC ln Publlc state-ments announco that the kllllngs were"retaliation," or that they have noeVldence that the tictims wero con-nected with illegal organlsatlons, orthat some relative of the vlctim wasconnected wlth an lllegal organisatlon.ln the case of Peter Cleary theEritlsh ArmY wer€ gulltY of aserlous slander. ln thelr statemontirrei

-irrro* out a gendral ^and -aparilcular reference to Peter Cleary'sionnection wlth an lllegal organlo'ation. "Late on WednesdaY nlghta patrol of the Speclal Alr Servlcearrested a man wanted for quos-tloning in connectlon wlth goreral

serioub crlmeg in the area," and"Cleary had appeared before a courtln Dublin in October, 1975, when hewas given a three year suspended sen-tenc6 after being charged withpossessing arms and ammunltion."The Army knerv that lt could relYon the scandalous Press AsEoclatlonand their own loose spokcmen toelaborate the sm€ar agalnst PeterCleary, while theY would stlck totheir "yellow card" theory.

ReqctionNotice the elaboration ln the English

gutter Press:-

John Ware of The Sun under alarge heading "Storm after SASshoot killer" writes - "ClearY,aged 25, was a member of the gangwhich slaughtered 10 Protestants atBessbrook. He also killed threesoldiers with a landmine in March,and was wanted over the massacre offive Protestants at an Orange hallin September."

The Nwsletler RePorter under theheading "Man shot bY SAS was NCOin Provos" quoted Harold Mc Cuskerand Douglas Hutchinson - "Mr.Harold Mc Gukser, MP for Armagh,said: 'lt's nice to see the SAS onthe iob, on top of the job, anddoing the iob theY were sent hereto do.' Mr. Douglas Hutchinson,former loyalist Convention member,said: '@ngratulations to the securityforces on behalf of the law-abidingcitizens of C.o. Armagh for prevent-ing the escape of a noted terrorist'. "

ttr6 lristr Press which itself care-fully reported the killing in itsedition 17 APril qucted thefamous Press Association :

"The Press Association said lastnight that the sAs unit whichkilfed Gleary are.understood to haveknown he was a member of theProvos and to have been sPecific-ally 'searching for him. PA alsosaid that Cleary was wanted for ques-tioning in connection with the murderof Protestant workers who were shotdead in a min-bus in South Armagh inJanuary, and also for questioningabout the murder of Protestants in theTullyvallen Orange Hall, SouthArmagh, last SePtember. "

The Daily ExPress, 17 APril, undera front page heading "SAS Goes OnAttack" said in a report bY RobertBrady and GhristoPher Lee : "fheSAS has been kept in low Profilesince it officially went to Ulsterthree months ago. But on ThursdaYnight they went on the offensivein- the '6andit countrY' of SouthArmagh, graveyard of more than 20ambushed troops, part-time soldiers

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and police over lhe Past Y@r." lnother words afterftuch activity by theIRA was the SAS not iustified in its"attack?"

The LoYalist orientated BellaltTeleoraPh

-on 16 APril had a front

pag; heading ' " 'Wanted' Manbn6t uv SAs.i'The reporters wrote :-"Police said today that Gleary 'hadbeen on the run for the Past 12

months' and was wanted for question-ino in connection with serious terror-ist-+ype crimes in the south Armagharea.i' The lrlgh Tlmec is moreaccurate and does not omit an

important Phrase in the RUC state-ment. On 17 APril ' tllel! KielY.wrote :- "The RUC Press Office saioyesterday that the police wanted to

iuestion- Cleary, who lived south oftire Border in recent Years' inconnection with a number of terroristincidents in Go. Armagh. A sPokes-man added that he was wanted forouestioning, which did not mean thatlie was guilty of anY crime."

The report in The lrlrh Tlmecconcerning the RUG statement fits lnwith the attitude of the RUCtowards the witnesses. As is clearfrom Patricia Fagan's statement"The RUC told me that theY had nocharge against Peter - that he waswanted for questioning but as faras they were concerned he wasan innocent man until Provenguilty." After the killlng RUC detec-tives based in Newry investigatedthe detalls of the killing." Roisin McAulev headed her account in The CorkExarilner 17 April - "RUC inquirYinto killing of Provisional." NiallKiely reports in The lrlrh'Tlmes17 April: - "Soon about 20 Parasare spotted in the fields north ofTiffcrum. They are escortlng six RUCplainclothes men investigating theCleary shooting. Houses and roadsare measured and maPPed, some ofthe locals tell a chief inspector whathappened. Then the Paratroopers andthe detectives beat a careful retreatover a field at the foot of a hill:hardly a house in sight, surroundedalmost entirely 9V oPen country-side. More measuring and map-ping takes placd." The BellactTelegraph 16 April briefly reported -

' "Today detectives were interviewingthe soldiers involved in the inci-cident. "

It is clear also from the Minutesof the Twenty Seventh Meeting olthe Police Division 'H' Local SecurityCommittee held at Newry on Tuesday11 May 1976 that Mr. J. Murphy,Councillor, was assured that in nostatement by the RUC or the ArmYhad Cleary's name been associatedwith Kingsmills; the Press Releasehad said he was wanted in connec-tion with unspecified serious crimes.(Paragraph gt. This document ismarked (Xl! t I l, Standard Distribution,and carries the address - Headquart-ers, 3 lnfantry Brigade, BritishForces Fost Offioo &)l). This meetingwas attended, atnong others, byCol l.D.B. iiennell, Dep Comd 3ldf Bde, Ch Snpt R.H. Mc Atomney,Comd H Folice Div, Lt Col P.S.Morton @ 3 PARA, Lt Col A.M.Hinings, @ I QLR, Lt Col T.G.Elliot, CO 2 UDR, Mai D. Faulkner,3 UDR, Supt A.J. Anderson, RUCNewry. The point is that the Brit-ish Army will der Feter Cleary'sname in privde, but they left itopen to the gutter press to connecthim with specific crimes, and havingdone so did not corrst the PressAssociation in their slander.

Further twisting of the BritishArmy in their statements is revealedin their spokeoman's referen@ to theuniform the SAS were wearing..Derek Brown in The Guardlan writes17 April:- "lt is known that theoatrol involved in the Cleary shoot-ing was in uniform, the uniform of theTtrird Battalion Parachute Regiment,the main infantrY unit in SouthArmagh." The lrlsh Pre8s, 17 April,says - "The SAS which arrestedCI6ary was wearing the beret of theThird- Battalion, the Parachute Regi-ment, which moved into the Bessbrookarmy post at the beginning of_thismonth to relieve the RoYal ScotsRegiment. According to a.n armyspokesman, the patrol would be w-ear-ing a uniform similar to that ofordinary soldier, apart from

anthe

ber-et." A similar statement was made onBritish television. The Army state-ment is false. On the night of the mur-der the SAS did not wear ordlnary

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Daratrooper uniform, nor did theywear beiets. "Britain's feared cloak-and-dagger soldiers," as John Waredescribed them in The Sun weredressed to kill.

After the killing of Peter ClearY,as in the case of other similarmurders by the British ArmY, therewas much resentment. Local politic-ians and residents called for aninquiry, among them Seamus Mallona member of the Social Democraticand Labour Party who from JanuarYhad bben a critlc of the decision tosend the SAS into South Armagh,calling it a new form of summaryjustice to be meted out bY BritishArmy in areas of high ProvisionalIRA activity. He said - "l am deeplysuspicious and apprehensive aboutthis killing.'A number of importantquestione are still unanswered, includ-ing why the man was taken outalone dnd whY an SAS man, wasunable to subdue him without havingto shoot him dead." Some headlines

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emphasise the controversy - "Dis-pute grows over Provo shot by .S q"ifne lristr Pressl: "Shooting Adds toTension [The Dally Telegraphl,-_SPvForce in Murder Storm" - [DailYMlrror - Joe Gorrod wrote - "Thecrack troops of the Special AlrService were accused yesterday ofdeliberately murdering Provo susp€ctPeter Cleary."l, "Socret Troops lnDeath Row" lDally Mail].

The Cork Examlner dnder the tltle"An Act of Utter Folly" said in ltseditorialof 17 Aprll :-

"lt is tragically true to descrlbeEastertide as a potentially explosivetime in Northern lreland .... ln thls@ntext, the shooting by the SAS ofa prominent member of the Provlslon-al IRA in South Armagh was anact of stupldity, particularly at thlstime. 'Shot while trying to escape' lsone of the oldest and least credlbleexcuses put forward by armlesthroughout the world down the years.It has usually been greeted wlthcynicism and desorvedly so.

There is always tho remote'pogsi-bility that. the Brltish Army's ver-sion of thls incident mlght be @rrect,but it is hard to glve lt thebenefit of the doubt and foronce the Provisional IRA gtatementgivlng its verslon of what happenedis likely to be more accurate. ln

passing, it should be recorded thatthis was the flrst tlme that lt hadbeen officially admltted that . theSAS unit was 6perating in power-kegarea of South Armagh.

It was a stupld *tlon bY theBritish forces. Any incldent on thlsweekend whlch could contrlbuteto further violence would be a mlg-take and thls particular one appear-ed to be an *t of shoer callous-ness as well as grave lndlgcretion..."

The lrlrh Newr carrled an edltorlalon the sublect in lts lssue of 19 Aprll :-

The right0nswersnecded

"The killing of Peter Joeeph Glearyby the SAS, in South Armagh,raises many questlons to which ltis hoped the present lnvestlgatlon bythe RUC will provide the rlghtanswers.

What has already been eotabllgh€dis that Gleary was taken from a housenear the Bordgr ln whlcfi hls flanceewas staying, b€aten, and then draggedtowards a helicopter and later shot.A SAS sergeant has aald that Cloaryassaulted another soldler and wasshot while attemptlng to escape durlnga struggle.

Naturally, condeinnatlon of the tac-tics employed by thls notorloub ele-ment of the Britlsh Army lrr already,been discounted; but the manner ofCleary's death requires more thanan Army statement to establlsh wherethe truth lies.

Undeniably, South Armagh ls anarea in which the Brltlsh Army s€emsunable to cope wlth the guerrlllatactics of the IRA and there have beensome stark and bloody horrors aB aresult of the enounters between them.But lt is hard to lmaglne a worst tlmethan the Easter perlod for the employ-ment of trlgger-hapy soldle( ln an"arrest and detentlon for quqtlon-ing" exerclse.

Violence by prlvate citlzens whlchtakes away human rlghte ls lmmoral;violence ls no less abomlnable whenit is carried out by the forcea under

thecontrol of th€ Brltlsh Government.The SAS may'have cause to con-

gratulate itself on havlng scoredanother sucoeos agalnst the IRA lnSouth Armagh; but ln the clrcum-stances admltted by lts sPokeomanthat Cleary was taken out of a housewhich contalned hls flancee and othermembers of his famlly, his subsequentkilling needs a fuller explanatlon thanthe one already glven.

Gharges agalnst the SAS patrolwill contlnue to be denled, but meredenials do not banlsh the evidence

forthcoming from thos€ who wlt-nessed the taking awaY of Cleary.

Such circumstances aro not new lnthe story of bloodshed and vlolencewhich continues to be told ln SouthArmagh. Nor is there llkelY to beany compunction shown bY the SASat Cieary's death. But the waY ltwas brought about must be told plalnlyand straightforwardly. The BrltlshArmy can lose nothing bY belnghonest.

Mr. Seamus Mallon, the SDLPmember for the area, ls right to callfor a public inquiry."

HT SAID 'IHER['S }IOI

GO}IG IO BT A WEDDI]IG'

Mrg. Patricia Fagan.Tiffcrum. Forkhill. 3Lorraine (7), Mark (6),

Sister of ShlrleY Hulme.

26 years.childrenRachel (3).

On Thursday night 15 APril 1976Damian, my brother, and Raymond,my husband, were fixing our caroutside the house. I had tea in herefor Peter Gleary, Shirley, my sister,and the kids. Peter was ShirleY'sboyfriend; they were engaged. He hadarrived at our house about 9 P.m.in a car but had left it on theRepublic side as he usually dld, andwalked up. He seldom took the car up.He went to see a friend and came backabout 10 p.m. I told Raymond andDamian to come in for some tea, -andMr. Paul Mulkearns, our neighbour,who lives opposite our house, hadiust come over. That was about fivepast ten. Peter came out and wastalking to us - outside at the car.

^So Damian, Raymond, 'Peter, PaulTvtulkearns, and myself were altogeth-er outside at the car. Paul was sayingthere was something on the news,something about a helicoPter, and

Peter came b*k in, and RaYnlondand Damian oame bsk in afterhim to see the news on television.

I was standing talking to Pauloutside. Kathleen Hulme, Ebmlan'lwife, was ln the housa at thls tlme.She had oome up with her hqsbandDamian, my brother, at about 7 P.m.Mrs. Mary Callan was also in thehouse - she had only been in aboqtten minutes; she is a neighbour frierflof ours. Mark was down in mYmother-in-law's house to see tele-vision - the house is just beside us.The child Rachel was in bed in mYmother-in-law's. Lorraine was gettingready for bed and she had heinightclothes on.

I was outside then with Paul Mul-kearns. He was saying about thenoise the dogs were making. Generallyhe would always go when he heardthe dogs barking. His dog alwaYsbarked when the army were around.We walked from the street of thehouse across the road, across to thehedge,'and Paul stodd uP on theditch and shone a flashlamP. Therewere two soldiers lYing on theground on the other side of the hedge.they jumped up and one of them fireda shot iust over our heads. He told

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20

us to stand or he woulcl shoot. He toldone soldier to stand and guard us andhe ran over into the street. Raymondran out of tlle house and met him atthe front door. He told him to stand orhe would shoot him too.

The one who. fired the shot was theofficer in charge. He was tall, wellover six foot, well built, though hisface wasn't very fat, clean cut, cleanshaven. He had no cap on him at all.All the soldiers' faces were blackened'very blackened. The other soldier leftto guard us was small, fairhaired,moustache. He was called George.

Raymond stood at the side of thedoor. Damian was out after hlm. Theofficer ordered everybody to get out.George had us out on the road at thistime. Everybody then seemed to comeout at once, the kids and Mrs. Gallan.Peter must have been the last to comeout. I didn't actually see him comingout. When I saw him he was lying on,the ground, and they were searchinghim. At the same time they went downand took the people out of the otherhouse - I saw them coming up, Mrs.Mary Fagan, her daughter Veronica,and Mark. The husband John wasdown in Morgans'shop at the time.

Peter was up at this time and theyhad the whole lot of us standing withour hands against the wall, everybody,even Mrs. Fagan, Lorraine, and Mark.Lorraine was in her bare feet. Damianlifted her uo then. Thev went to gearchthe men. They told Dainian to put herdown and Shirley took her.

I was there with Raymond and MaryCallan on the right side of the wall,facing in. They were whispering and I

was listening to what they were saying.She was saying - "Are they going toshoot us?" The officer told her toshut up - none of the rest of thesoldiers spoke to us, only him. He wasusing bad language all the time, f-ingfrom bad to worse. They went tosearch Damian and then Shirley liftedLorraine who was crying. Shirley wascrying too. The officer said "Stopthat child crying or I'll shoot you" orsomething like that. He was usingfierce language.

Just then I turned and I saw Peterlying on the ground at the entrance tothe road. One of the soldiers wasstanding beside him with a gun to hishead - it looked like a machine gun,but I wouldn't be sure. He was amassive fairhaired fella, desperate

big. There was another soldier to theright of the house down on theground with a machine4un. The dogMonty was going round barking atthem. The big soldier put the gun tothe dog's head and sald - "Shut thatdog up or I will." Damlan put hlm lnto.the car then.

I saw five soldiers in all brt therewas rustling in the hedges - there wasmore - you could hear them movingabout. The fifth was on the road.

Peter was saying something to thesoldier like "Alright," "Alrlqht.l'"Alright." They put him back againstthe wall again. I thought he wastalking to Shirley - he was standingwith his hands against the wallbut it was a special prayer. He wassaying it.

The officer told us all to keeP ourheads turned to the wall. He said toPeter - "You." The big fair-hairedsoldier - ,he must have been seven,foot - took him by the shoulders and'started to walk him down towards theother house. Shirley was crying. Theofficer fella said to' Shirley -"Shut uo. madam. or you'll bo next."They hdd us 'the?e for aboutanother five minutes and then he toldus all to come in.

We were just in when Raymond'sfather came up from the shop. The,soldiers searched him at the gate'and they made him stand with hishands against the wall there but hewas only there for a minute. So he,told us all to oome inside. Just beforewe came in the last thing I heardPeter saying at the oorner of thehouse where there is a big open shed -"No. No. I'm not." His voice soundedvery high, actually I think he wascrying. I think he was brought to theother house and there must have beena struggle there because when I wentdown to the house later all the chairswere scattered everywhere, doorsopened, ornaments knocked, table-cloth was off , press lying open.

The off icer put us all round in a half-moon in the house and he came in andclosed the door. He said - "Which ofyou is Shirley?" That was the eecondtime he had asked her - he had askedher outside too. She said - "l am."He said - "lt's not long to Yourwedding now, is it?" He said"there'$ not going to be a wedding,"or something like that. I thought itwas the cruelest thing anybody could'

21

ll

frLiFI

Fr

r

say and her standing ther'e crying.I said - "Can I go down and take mylittle girl up - she's down in thehouse?" He said - "No, you can't."And I said - "But I just want to godown and take her up, she's on herown." And he said - "Nothing willhappen to your little girl. You can't godown." I felt a terrible hatred for himafter that and what he said toShirley.

The soldier George was standing atthe door, half lying in with a gun inhis hand - a small thing with whatlooked like a silencer or something ontop of it. He seemed very afraid -the same fear was in his eyes as lnPeter's when they were dragglng hlmaway. That's why I said to myself -"He is afraid." But the other fellawasn't - he didn't seem to blinkonce - there was no movement in hiseyes, even when he was jeering aboutthe wedding - | don't know what it wasbut I never saw anything like it before.

The tray of teacups was sitting onthe stool. He said - "Sit down andenjoy your tea" - after telling noneof {rs to move! Then he says"Who owns that car outside?"None of us answered for a minute,because we had been about to sell thecar to Damian. Damian says - "lt'smine." He took him out to searchthe car. They literally pulled it apart,tools and all thrown out, seatstumbled.

After that I don't know whathappened outside - the officer was inand out all the time. The little fellaGeorge had already searched the bed-rooms and he went back down again tosearch. I said to Raymond - "ls thatfella down in my room," and theofficer told me to shut up. Paul askedcould he have a cigarette. The doorwas open at the time. Hq looked atPagl for a couple of minuteg.'"No," hg said, "you can't." Helooked back in again and said - "lcan't." I thought it a strange thingto say - he seemed to think before hesaid it. Then Paulsaid could he go out-side and collect his wallet becausethey had thrown all the men's thingson the ground when they searchedthem. He said - "Why?" Paul saidthere was a lot of money in it not hisown. He said - "We don't want yourf.... money, mate, we got what wewanted." He asked us had we any

telephones - was there a telephonehere. We said - "No." Then he says -"What's these f.... wires coming upthat garden?" We said o"lt's for theelectricity." He said - "Pull out anyf .... wires coming into this place."

Then he called George. He had tocall him three times before he cameup. He made some remark to himwhen he came up but I don't knowwhat it was. He iust said"Anybody moves out of this housewithin 15 minutes we'll spray thehouse." So he went out and bangedthe door. The outside light had beenon all night during all this. We heardhim smashing it. He carried a strangegun, about two and a half foot long,short barrelled, and green sac*ingwrapped round half the barrel. Hekept it under his arm. All had blackgloves on them. Their uniform wasdark green but had little black checksall over it. I had never seen this uni-form before on television or anywhere.

Shirley made a run for the doorand'she fell on the floor. WlththatRaymond said - ''Get down on thefloor. There's shooting. Quick. "Raymond was standing at the frontwall beside the door and we weretrying to pull Shirley up at the time.It was afterwards I heard the threeshots, like the shots were fired overour tieads, only they didn't sound sonear.

We were all on the ground. Wewaited a.couple of minutes. Then I

ran out and Damlan ran after me tothe child in the other house. Thehouse below was ransacked. So wewent down the room and the childwas sound asleep.

We came back up. The kids werejust hysterical. They were cryingand shouting. Then we heard the heli-copters coming - not much timebetween the helicopters and threshooting, less than f ive minutes.With the sound of them you don'treally know how far away they are.I saw the helicopters. One had a

searchlight. We all went down to theshop' We thought they were golng troarrest all the men here. One of thennlanded up there-as we thought art

the foot of the mountaln, up beoldathe demense wall. But then there arethe hollows ln the field between hereand the walls of th€ demenso garden.I think he was shot lust at the whlte

'lFl

22

wagon at the 'top of thefield on the other side ofroad facing us.

We took Shirley away and left herover with Damian at Bellurgan forthe night. We came back here; itmust have been three o'clock in themorning. lt must have been threethirty when we went to bed,Raymond and l. All got up about8.30 the next morning, maybe justbefore it. I was just up when a neigh-bour Mrs. Haughey came over theroad to me. She came in and shejust said - "lsn't that awful what theydone to Peter?" And I said"Yes, we were waiting for the newsto come on now to see if he had been

charged wlth anything." Sheiust said:"Sure Pat, he's dead." After that itwas just a blurr, people started tocome and his family came.

On Friday at dinner time the Armyand RUC came. The RUG told me thatthey had no charge against Peter -that he wis wanted for questioningbut as far as they were concerned hewas an lnnocent man until provenguilty.

Signed: Patricia Faoan30 April 1976

WLtleps: fr._ @ymond M urray30Aprilt976.

littlethe

PTTTR SAID I.I'TI

DEAD'

Raymond Fagan. Tiffcrum, Forkhill28 years.

That night, myself and Damlanwere out fixing the car in the yard.Peter came out and went back intothe house. Mr. Mulkearns had comeover and said something about thenews. My wife came out. She wastalking to Paul Mulkearns. Paul saidsomething above moving out there.I passed no remarks. I had the carclosed at this time. I came into thehouse with Damian and went into thekitchen to wash my hands. I came-out and was drying my hands andwas watching the news with Peter.This bang went off outside. Peterlooked at me and I went to the door tosee what it was and I still had thetowel in my hands. With that I sawthe wife, Patricia, and Paul Mulkearnsacrosss the road at theditch. I saw twosoldiers at the top of the ditch aboutto jump into the road. One of themran into the street towards the sand.then towards the door, and I wasstanding at the door at this time. He

shouted at me . "Elon't move orl'll blow your brains. out." .l ran backinto Peter and Her sald - "l'm dead.What will I do?" I told him to standhis oround - "ltg onlv a rald. Pgter."With that this soldier grabbe<l meand pushed me outside and PUt meagainst the window of the front room.

They came in and Put everYbodYout and lined us against the wallincluding Peter. TheY threw Peterout. He kind of stumbled lnto theyard. They gave him a couple of kicksand searched him lying on the street.They picked him uP and Put himstanding against the wall, on theleft hand side of the wall facing in.Two of the soldiers ran down theyard and came back with someoneelse. One of the soldiers caughtPeter by the left side of the face andpulled him round. The man who ranup, who wasn.'t PfoPerlY dressed asa soldler, gaid - ."That'g him," I

dm not sure if one of the soldierssaid to him - "ls that him?"

All the soldiers wore black-type gearno badges, no caps. This soldier whocame 'round the corner to identifYPeter wore ordinarY trousers, darktrousers, but he wore a chequerediacket which was lYing oPen. Wellthis man ran uP and he ran back. I

23

could only look under my arm. He wasprobably down the yard and he ranback to a dark spot. lt was after thatPatricia heard Peter say - "No. No.I'm not" when he was going by thisfella again, when they were draggingPeter down the yard. The soldiersdidn't know who Peter was until thisfella identified him when he came up,because I remember when Peter wasasked his name I heard him gavesome queer name, Eamonn some-thins.They searched Paul Mulkearns andthrew his money and stuff on to thestreet. Then they searched me. Theycame over to Peter. I don't know theexact words they said but it was atthis stage that they dragged hlmdown the yard towards the house andthey started to kick him. I saw oneof them booting him at the corner.That was the last I know ofPeter. I think Peter was brought tothe house down below and he musthave been there about a quarterof an hour or twenty minutes.

Shirley started to cry. The soldiersaid iomething like - "You shutup, Madam, or you will get thesame." Then the wee lassie wasstanding beside me. She was roaringand crying. He ran over with thegun to her head. - "lf you don'tshut up," he said, "l'll blow-your f...head off ." She stopped crying.

Then one of the soldiers stoodback at the tar end of the doorand said - "Right, you lot, when I

say walk into that room-get ln."We all walked into the room in aline and he stood at the door. Atthis time this fella who was with himcalled George was below pulling thetwo rooms apart. This boyo who wasat the door must have been over him -three times he called into theroom "George." George eventuallycame up to him. He cursed Gerogebecause he didn't iumP to his shoutrightaway. He ordered Georo-e. to-goin-to the kitcnen and pull any of the f "'wires he saw out. George wag golng

in and I went to light a clgare'tte' t;

was standing at the TV and wlth thatoiOov cam6 uP the road and theyran 6ut and took him in andsearched him. TheY told him thentwhen they searched him "To sit overthere Grandpa." Then the officersaid to me - "Put that f... cigarette

out. lf I can't smoke why can you."I think then he reached uP andpulled the blinds down. George cameback out of the kltchen and wasstanding at the hall. The big fellaasked - "Who owns that @r?" .llooked at Damlan and was about tosay it was my car. But Damlan had.allhis stuff transferred into it - he hadonly bought it from me iust beforethis thing happened, and we had Justdone a' job on it. Ebmlan sald"lt's mine." The next wordg he said -"Outsid€." So Damlan went out.About one minute tater I tieard this'rattling. I didn't know what lt was untllafterwards - it was my tool boxemptied into the street. They had

'Damian outside - I iust couldn'tsay how long. ln the end he cameback in. The big fella lay acrotsthe door and says - "Whgre doyou put off thls outside light?"

'l think three or four us sald at thlsstage - "The witch is beslde you."He pirt his finger up and swltched ltoff. Then he said - "Any of you f....people move out ol this house withlnfifteen minutes and we'll spray thehouse." They banged the dmr andslammed the front dmr. Next thingI heard the front llght golng lnbits. They must have put the end olthe gun through it.

Then there was a rattle of gunflrejust after they broke the light. ltSeemed to be one burst of automaticfire. I made them all lie on the ground;the front light was out and I thoughtthey were shooting at the house.Shirley was hystericalat this tlme. Shewas going to the door after theYleft. When everyihing was quiet wewent out. Patrlcia and Ebmlan wentout first.

Less than ten minutes after theYleft the house three shots were flred.A lot of people round here heard thethree shots. A lot of people told meabout it next day. I heard a..stonsfalllng at the end of the llttle fleld0pposite o0r house, iust belore theshots, a minute before the shots. Ithink Peter was shot in the firstbig hollow just over that stone dltch.The helicopters were coming in atthis time, just over the bungalow uPthe road when the three shots werefired, that is about 150 Yards uPthe road. One of the helicopters hada searchlight. We were all outside on

24

lI

the road when the three shotswere fired. Eamonn Woods, aneighbour, saw the helicopter landingat the old walls of the garden of theestate. The helicopters landed aboutfive or ten minutes past eleven. Thethree shots were fired about fourminutes before that. The shots werefired then about 11 p.m. The soldierswere here then from 10.20 until nearly11 p.m.

After that we went to Dundalk tosee Peter's friend to tell him aboutPeter. Then we went to Fr. Maciomhair. We thought Peter would betaken to Bessbrook and we wanted to

see could he get a priest orsolicitor to go to Bessbrook or getin touch with them. Fr. Maclomhair rang Fr. MacEnroe in New-townhamilton. He wouldn't.be ableto get through the barriers at thattime. He got a phone call throughto Bessbrook after 4 a.m. They toldhim Peter was dead. We didn't knowuntil the next morning when a neigh-bour came up.

Signed:Raymond Fagan 3 May 1976Witness: Fr. Raymond Murray3 May 1976

.I TETT PTIER WAS GO}fi'

I was Peter Cleary's girl-frlend. Onthe night of Thursday 15 Aprll 1976Peter Cleary came to see me about10 o'clock - the n€ws was iuststarting. Damian and Raymond wereout at the Grr, flxing it; lt wagfacing the door. Peter and I were inthe sitting room. Mrs. Mary Callanand Damian's wlfe Kathleen werealso in the room. Mrs. PatriciaFagan was also in the room. Wewere after having tea and Pat askedhim would he like some. She wentinto the kitchen and was maklng thetea and he sat down. He was spoakingto Mary and myself about a housewe hoped to live in. Pat came in withthe tea and sandwlches to u8.Raymond, Pat's husband, came in -the front door was open all the tlme.Raymond came in and went into thekitchen and was washing his hands;he went back out almost immediatelyto the car. Peter had finlsh€d his teaand he followed him out. The s€condpart of the ITN news was starting.Peter came in to listen to thesecond half . I was sitting down;he came over and stood betJndat the chair. I asked him had he to

go away. He said he had and hehadn't to.He was after writing downthe name of somebody living besidehim, an invitation card. He handedthat to me. He said - "Why did youask me had I to go away." I said -"Mary's husband might not be homeuntil late, and I might Oo up to herfor an hour or two." Pat had goneout - I did not notice her. Hesaid ' "l'[l skite up that far" (to MaryCallan's, - about a mile into theState.)" Myself and Mary stood up.At that the shot was fired outside.

I screamed. Raymond was standingat the door with the towel in hishand and Peter went over to him.He said "What was that?" Some'body said it was like a car back-firing. There was shouting at RaY-mond who was still standing in thefront door. Peter walked back againinto the hall beside Raymond. Onesoldier without a beret (none hadberets) ran in with a revolver. I raninto the hall standing beside RaY-mond; Peter was standing behindhim. The next thing, the head manpushed Ray into the sitting rq)m.I fell in with him. Peter wasstill standing in the hall. The headman shouted "No{ne move or I

shoot." I saw Peter being pushed outthe door. I ran out to go Past theman that was over them. I seen Peter

Shirley H.ulme, Tiffcrum, Forkhill.

II

25

half running, half falling wlth thepush. The man over them ran outafter them. One of the soldlorshad him knocked lnto the sand.The head man was standlng behindhim with a gun to the back ofhis neck. I ran ovor to them;one of them pushed me back and hesaid - "Get back against the wall."When I turned around, evoryone waslined up at that time.

A few seconds later Peter was putup against the wall beslde fit€,legs klcked apart. He sald some-thing about Glarke or Callan. Thehead man was shoutlng to be quiet -no talking. The llttle girl Lorhlnestarted to cry and.. I turnedaround and said to Damlan - "Glveher to me." I took her stlll crying;I was crying and praying at thesame time. A soldier cams overand he said - "Shut that chlld or I'llshoot her." There was a lot ofrunning up and down. I kept watchlngPeter. He was standlng wlth hlshands up - he was praylng thellttle praler (St. Joseph's prayer)which he always carried wlth a medal.Then somebody Was talklng on thebther side of the door. PeteranO I and the child' were the onlyones on the left hand side of the.door and Raymond's mbther. I could .

hear her coughing. He shouted toRay to shut their f....lng mouthg,screaming all the time. The head manwas standing at the sand about 5yards from the door. He heardsomeone movlng in the caravan atthe corner of the sand and he saidfor someone to check it out.There was a lot of running about;then he sald-"Tell Bert I want hlm."A few seconds later a soldier cameup and the soldier who was stand-ing at the corner of the house and.Bert walked over and they tookPeter from the wall by the corner wlththe gun in his b*k. They took hlmpast me moving fast down to Ray-mond's mother'g house.

Peter said somethlng to me. I

could not catch lt. I shouted after him.I was crylng. The man ln chargeshouted. "Shut your f...ing mouth oryou'll go too." I saw the last of'him golng around the corner. The manin charge walted for about twominutes and he gald: "You flrst lot(on right hand slde) get @k lnto the

house." They went-in and he left meand Lorraine standing in front ofthe bathroom window. I heard some-thing like shouting from the parents'house, but I do not know what ltwas. Everyone was in the front roomand he said to me: "You movg." I

said - "Where?" He said. "lnto thof...ing house." When I came in therest of the people were lined uParound the fireplace. I went over and.l stood between Pat and MarY'Callan. I had to let the chllddown. He called a soldier calledGeorge who was searching the houseand he said - "Which of you lsShirley?" Neither of us angwered.Pat nor l. He said to me. "Youare, aren't you?" He said - "ltwon't be long till the weddlngnow."l turned away and looked atthe TV - the prieot was on. I

looked back at him. He gaid. "l havenews for you, you are not golng tohave one." The outside llght waron. I asked him to talo the gunoff the child, he was lrightening her.

r He lifted the gun over the chlld'ghead to me.

i llookedouttheslttlng rcom window\ and I saw Ray's father walkingdown towards hls own houss. I

said "There'g Raymond's fathermind him." He shouted aomethlng

. outside and Ray's father was broughtin, hands in the air, and searched.He said "Get over there, Grandadand sit down." He gaid - "Who owngthat car outside?" lt was Raymond'scar and he had sold it to Damlan thatbvening. They looked at each other.Damian said - "l do." He sald"You, out" Damlan went out andPaul Mulkearns said - "My wallelwas dropped outside and there'smoney in it." He said - "We don'twant your f ...ing money. We got whatwe came for." Pat said - "Thorois a child in that house, I wantto get her." He said - "No.""But if she wakes up..." He sald -"Shut your f....ing mouth." Some-body said - "Can we smoke?" -He said'l'd like to but I can't." He calledGeorge again and i

f ...ing well up here,f ...ing upagain and "@meGeorge." George

"@me

came up and stood at the doorbeside him. He said - "Where's yourf....ing telephone?" I said we had notgot one. "Why are these f....lngwires coming across the yard then?"

26

Ray said - "Th€se are the electric-Ity wires from my mother's house."He said - "Pull any f...ing wires youget your hand on down." He sentGeorge into the kitchen to searchir.

Damian was taken back in then.George came back. The head manpulled the curtains. "Now" he said,''Sit down and enjoy your tea." Hesaid - "How do you switch this Yardlight off," just as theY were readYto go out the door. Ray said"The switch there beside your hand."They went out and closed the frontdoor behind them. He said"Anyone who puts his head throughthat front door in the next fifteenminutes will be shot." They closedthe frcnt door and theY broke theglass and the bulb of the light out-slde. Some were running about out-slde and Mr. Mulkearns said"Everyone on the floor." I got up torun out. I got as lar as thehallway and Ray and Damian caughtme - | thought I heard shots. Thenext thlng we all went out and I waslying on the sand. Ray picked me uP.I don't remember anvthing: I was

down in the shop; I felt Peter wasgone.

I saw his bodY in the morguein Daisy Hill in the coffln. I nevertouched a &ad Person before nor acoffin, not even mY tather andmother. I went over to hlm eE

they were wheeling hlm out- Hishaii was wrong; lt was brushed backfrom his face; he always wore lt side-fringe. lfainted.

I went to Beleeks and he was lnthe room. I told Mrs. GlearY abouthis hair being wrong and we fixed ltthen. I noticed the top of his headas if it was all Pushed in. Higleft eye was cut; his eYe-lld as lf itwas split open. His eYe lashes andinside his eyes - there was all hardblood. On the left side he had abruise above the eye. Hls mouth wasall inside split and more hardenedblood around it. He had hlswedding suit on him. All you could seewas his face.

Signed: Shirley Hulme30April 1976Witness: Fr. Denls Faul30 April 1976

.IHEY WERE PUIII}IG

HIiI BY IHE ARiIS

TTITH HIS HEAD DOWN'

Damian Hulme (26) married,Bellurgan Point. Dundalk.

On the night of Thursday 15 April1976 I was working at a car in front ofRaymond Fagan's house. I went intothe house about ten when the newswas starting. Raymond and Mrs.Fagan, Peter Cleary, Shirley, Mrs.Callan and the children were there.

I heard a shot. Peter was justleaving. He was at the door. He walk-ed straight into one of the soldiers.Raymond was behind him going outthe door. I was following Raymond -Peter was lying on the sand - a

soldier was over him with a gun - onewas kicking him at the far side. Theytold us to get out of the house. Wewere all taken out of the house andput against the wall. They searchedthe men - they went to Peter twice -the second time they went back theyasked him his name. One came overand put the gun to the head of thechild who was crYing. He told her ifshe did not stop crying he would blowher head off.

One soldier came up behind me -the boss asked him was that he - hesaid. "Yes." Then they took Peteraway. We were all put back into thehouse. Both doors of the house wereclosed - one soldier was ransacking -one soldier was holding a rifle at thedoqr.

Ff-

I{i

27

Paul asked about his money. Theysaid -."We're not interested

-in youi

money - we got what we wanted. "I was a couple of minutes in the

house - one soldier came back andsaid whoever owned the car to gooutside. He told me to open t[eboot of the car - there were tools inthe back. He told me to take a box ofspanners out and made me emotvthem on the ground. A second solO'ie'r9ary9 up from the house where theyhad Peter. He asked me did I live here.I said "No." "What was I doing?"I told him about buying the car. Heasked who was that fefiow they tookdown - | said I Cidn't irnow.that it was the first time I was up here _

say, in four months. I said I ihoughthis name was Eamonn. The he told ireto get down on the ground. Hesaid - "You're a liar, you know rightwellwho he is." One pushed me do-wnon the ground. He said he wasarres_ting me and asked - ,,Can youpray?" I said I could. He put a ounto my head, and said - ,,You beiterstart praying. or, you will get thesame." He started asking me ques_tions about who he was, ind pui frisfoot right across the back of mv necf.and he pressed my head as far intothe ground as he could. Everytime Ianswered he kept putting hls footheavier on my neck. A soldier camefrom the house - he said somethinoto the red-headed feilow. White thiiwas going on there were screamscoming from the house below in theyard. They went on for about fiveminutes. Then it stopped and all thesoldiers collected up. The red-headedfellow asked was he going withShirley. I said - ,,yes.i' H; said"That is what we wanted to know.It does not mattir whai you say."

(l think Peter was about 15 minutesdown in the house). With that peteiyas dragged past me by two ofthem - moving very slowlv. Thevpulled him past me. His two arm6were up. They were pullino him bvthe arms with his head down. I haia clear view as the light was on.They took him across the road _ |do not know whether they took himover the titfle wall or throujh the gate.The red head said, ,,Wiil we tafjfrimwith it?" "No, we don't want him."I was told then to get up and letback into the house. Thdy had -no

9aps, berets, badges or numbers.One soldier had not a soldier's uni-form - he was the one the boss asieOwas that him? This man was about30,-quietish, he had no gun - aOoui7 of them were out the fiont in Oiiiuniform, with blackened faces.I was $ent back into the house.One of them came in and saiO some_thing to Shirley. He asked ner was inlmarrying that chap. She said"Yes." He said - ,,it will ue a Lnotime" or "lt won't happen."

-H;called one soldier called b'eorge. Hecame and they headed out the door.The chief man was saying ,,lf any oiyou moves within 15 minutes we'ltblow his head off." About 3 minuteClater there was a bang. .lt could havebeen a shot or it could have been theoutside. lamp breaking. Shirley wasqgreamin-g in the house and trfing toget out after him. They were trlring tohold her back. 7 or 8 minutei liteiwe went. out and heard 3 shots.Between the time they passed me andthe shots was at least iCi minutes.

Signed: Damian HulmeWitness: Fr. Denis Faul3 May 1976

'TH[ IAl,l, ilAl{}TAS ilOT TRIGHTEJ{ED'

They came down for Damian andme. I came up with Damian, shorily

after 7'p.m. After 10 p.m. I was in thehouse - I heard a shot. We all lumpeOto run. The next thing a big tati fellowwas stand.ing at the door. One grabbedPeter and the next thing he-was onthe sand. We were all lined up againstllg ry"|I. The tansuage of

'tnE oistall feilow was veri bad. Thei

Mrs. Damian Hulme, Bellurgan p;"t,Dundalk.

28

searched the men. Damian was hold-ing Lorraine and they told him toleave the child down. Shirley took thechild.

They grabbed Peter by the shoulderand pushed him along, down past me.We were all put back into thehouse - a few minutes after that wewere all lined up against the fire. Thebig tall fellowsaid-"Enjoy your tea."We were in the house about 8 or 9minutes. Then Pat and Damian wentdown to the house to see the child.I did not hear anything like a shot -I was on the far side of the room.

We went out and down as far as thepub. We did not see any soldiers whenwe went out.

The tall soldier seemed to beeducated. The other did not talk to us.None of them had berets - no badges,no numbers. The small fellow Georgeappeared to be more frightened thanwe were. The tall man was notfrightened.

Signed: Mrs. Kathleen Hulme30 April 1976Witness: Fr. Denis Faul30 April 1976

.SHIRLEY TXPRESSTD FEAR

IO IITT THAI PffER'S

DEAD BODY IUOUTD BT [OUJ{D'

An Sagatt Diarmuid Mac fomhairS.P. Cillan

Holy Thursday, 15 -4.76. Just beforeor at midnight, I was visited byRaymond Fagan of Tiffcrum, ShirleyHulme, at present lodging withFagans, and her brother DamianHulme. They told me that, shortlybefore, Peter Cleary of Belleek,Shirley's intended husband, had beenseized by British soldiers in a raid onthe Fagan house, and taken away.They thought I might know someone,a priest or other, who could get in con-tact with the prisoner immediately, sothat he would be saved from rough

treatment. I rang uP Father MacEnroe at Newtownhamilton, and PutShirley on the line to him. ShirleYexpressed the fear to me that Peter'sdead body would be found.

Good Friday, 1.6.4.76. Having heardfrom my housekeeper that there wasnews on the radio that Peter ClearYhad been killed while attempting toescape, I made my way to RaYmondFagan's house, where I met RaY-mond's mother, a sister of Peter,Raymond's wife, and a neighbour.After a while Shirley arrived, fetchedfrom the house of her brother Damianin Bellurgah, where she had prefdrredto spend the night, in case the militarywith female personnel would returnlooking for her.

29

HARASSMENT OF THECLEARY FAMILY

Belore and after the murder olPeter Joseph Cleary the Gleary lamilysullered severe harassment from theBritlsh Army. When paratroopersshot Martin Walsh in the head on 7Aprll 1973, lntending to murder him,Peter Cleary and some neighbourswero taken to Bessbrook militaryBaracks alter they had called onWalshs to inquire afler Martin. Onthat occasion the soldiers kickedPeter Cleary on the legs when he wasnot able to follow their Englishaccents.

On Wednesday 31st March 1976,a few weeks belore the SAS shoiPeter, the British Army raided theCleary home. They isked aboutPeter. They were miOe up ol pari.troopers and Scots. On Sundav 4thfp{l a group of paratrooperj anJSAS raided the home again at g.30a.m. when they were preparlng to goro Mass. The SAS men ryorb bticthelmets. They drew lhe curtalns bnCproceeded to tear up the lloor-boards with hammers, chlsels, andaxes.

HARASSMENT OF FBANCIS CLEARY, (15)

Father's Statement: He was in a fieldin the afternoon early in Mqy at

. Ummerican near Silver6ridge anl theParatroopers asked him his name anddate of birth and religion and askedhim to run down the field and herefused. Then they said, ,,you areonly a couple months more until you

On Friday 7 May we were going toNewry and when we came to Beleek,there had been a bomb and we stop-ped. My boy friend had been in thepub before the bomb and he came uphere to get me; we came back up hereto home. About 11 p.m. the army kick-ed the door; Francis opened the door.The soldier put his foot in the doorand used abusive language. He askedfor the f....ing so and so who ownsthe car at the gate. My boy friendcame out and the rest lof us. I wentdown with him. Daddy said hewould have to come if they-were tak-ing me. The soldier said - "Get backor I'll put a f....ing one in you likeyour son." "You are quite capableof that," I said. A soldier was talkingto Francis giving him very abusivelanguage. The soldier that had beentalking, gave away his rifle and want-ed to fight Francis (aged 15).

Francis turned his back on him andhe followed Francis to the house.We all.went in. After half an hour

are the age, then W6'il;get you too."They made him tatk into a tape

recorder about Peter and who killbdPeter and why he was killed.They made him do it at the point of agun. They took several pictuies of him,four, two front and two side - onewith his hat off and one with hishat on.

STATEMENT OF JOSEPHINE CLEARY, (20)

or more, my boy friend said he had afew drinks in the car.,,Don't goon your own." I stood in the dool.The soldiers jumped from behindthe pump wall and frightened us.Malachy went to open the bootdoor.A soldier stopped him. ,.What haveyou here?" "Some bottles of stout.""You are going to have a oartv."When Daddy put the cord on ihegate, one of them took the cord offthe gate. "We're not finished with youyet.:'They had been lying in inegarden tor an hour. I would notlet my boyfriend'leave the house thatnight. His father and mother wereout of their minds with worry. Hewent home the next morning. OnSunday morning they came to? nimand arrested him and kept him untilWednesday. "What was he doino ata murderer's funeral ?" they asli<eOhim.

Signed: Josephine Cleary. 16 May1976Witness: Fr. Denis Faul. 16 May 1g76

, ri.L

30

STATTilEI{I O]

HUGH CTTARYI went in on Monday 24-5-76 to

Newtownhamilton Barracks, then I

went to Armagh to the Coroner'soffice. When I came home, Francis,my 15 year old son, had been liftedby the army at about 1 p.m. At 3 p.m.4 soldiers appeared at the gate andwhen I met them at the gate, I said -"Your presence is no longer requiredaround here." One fired a piece ofpaper at me and said - "Your f-ingson is arrested and is in NewtownBarracks." I said - "Do you know thatlad is under age?" He said - "lf yougive any more cheek, we'll lift youtoo." I said - "l'm sure you would.I've had enough trouble from you.One of my boys was shot and that'senough. "

They wore red caps, they wereparas. One came out with a lot of badlanguage and they said "Come downoff the path." I went out to the roadand one of them hit me a slap on theear and said - "l'm arresting youunder such an act." I said - "Anytimeyou want me I'll be in my own house,"and I walked back up to the house.The child went down the garden andwent out to close the gate. When I

went to the gate, one of them reachedfor me by the hand and pulled medown on to the road. One says -

"Go along with that soldier, youf....ing so and so." They took medown the wee lane into the field infront of my own house and he said -"Put your back up against thatgate." Another soldier came and hitme a wallop in the stomach. Hesaid - "You know I would shoot you,you bastard you." I told him I wasnot one. He reached and pulled my tieand pulled it as tight as he could.Two soldiers walked 5 or 10 yardsbackwards down the fieild. "You canthink whatever you like, " he says,"But you are going to be shot."They talked to each other and oneleft me and he came back in 20minutes with another man and he says"l've got orders from H.Q. to re-lease you." I said nothing. As I wentback to my own home, one of themused bad talk and one of them hit me aslap on the face. They told me to goup the lane, came behind me clickingtheir rif les. I asked them not todo that. "Mind your own f....ingbusiness, " he said. They walkedaway and left me.

Signed: Hugh Cleary 25 May 1976

Witness: Fr. Denis Faul.25 May 1976

Later that day Hugh Cleary waslgmoved by ambulance to CraigavonHospital and detained there lor ireat-ment made necessary by his exper-iences.

t,

31

THE ARREST

OF THE SASI}I THT SPTCIAI. CRITII]IAI COURT, DUBI.I}I

.-On the nig-ht of 5th May 1976 at10.50 p.m. two SAS men-from theBritish Irmy post at Bessbrook,uounty Armagh, crossed the borderinto the Republic at Cornamuckla onthe little road known as the FlagstaffRoad which runs from the NEwrv-Dundalk Road down to Omeath.They were lllisoni Vanioni Ligari and!.onl.Michael Lawsen. nccoiOing toThe lrish lndependent (7th Mav) [he;were in a Triumph Toledo witn anArmagh registration. One was antEnglishman, the other from Fiji.They were arrested at a permane'ntGardai-trish Army post iome niiimile inside the border, a permanentpost set up after an agreehent withthe British who were not to blockthe..road as they had been doingon the northern side. Six other SASmen were arrested at the sameplace at 2.15 a.m. on the mornino of

lii, "?,l

aY,.?h' r,rBJ,,,,Hn"'"n n SiSSjMalcolm James' Rees, otherwisdJames Reader, Ronald lan Nicholson,Vincent Thompson, and Neil GarvockMcOlean. The eight members otthe SAS were chaiged at an extra-ordinary sitting of the Special Criminal9grrJ,. Dub_ljn, tate on fhursday night6th May. The court was to[O tFatthe men were arrested under Section30 of the Offences Against the SthteAct, 1939. Evidence of the arrest ofseven of the accused was given byGarda Calm Murray, Omeath GardaStation, and the evi-dence against the

eighth man by Sergeant patrick McLoughlin, Omeath. All eight faced twocounts of possessing weapons andammunition with intent to danger lifeand with having no firearms tertifi-cate. The following descriptions of themen were culled by pressmen.

Private lllisoni Vanlonl Llgart t37lA negro., He was dressed In a wnifeovercoat and green shirt.

Private John Mlchael Lawton tgTlHe was dressed in brown jerseiand white shirt.

Stafl Sergeant Malcolm Jamer Reeot341 He was the only one tospeak in court. He agreed that hehad given the name JamesReader when he wasRees is red-haired and

arrested.slightlycombatbalding. He wore a green

style jacket and green scarf.

Colporal Ronald lan l{lcholron [321Dark-haired, moustached. He wclr6a combat style camouflage jacket.

Private Nigel Anthony Burcfiell [2SlMoustached. He wore a greisweater.

Private Carsten Rhodet [201Fair-haired. He wore - a purplesweater.

Private Vincent ThompronHe wore a sweater.

t32!

Private Neill Garvock McClean [261He wore a black leather jacket.

The SAS men were representedin court by Mr. Peter Sutherland,barrister-at-law. He applied for bailand Mr. Laurence Farrell, Chief StateSolicitor, said there was no objectionto this. Mr. Justice Pringle, presiding,then fixed bail at 85,000 each, which,he said would have to be lodged ineach man's name in cash. The 50minute hearing was attended by theMilitary Attachd to the BritishEmbassy in Dublin, Brigadier FrankMc Mullen.

Evidence was given that Ligari andLawson were taken to OmeathGarda Station before being trans-lerrd to Dundalk. The otlrer sixdefendants were tat<en straight toDundalk Garda Stdim. Edr ol themen were cfiarged and granted bailindividually.

Sergeant Patrick Mc Loughlin frwrOmeath gave evidence of arrestingLigari at 10.50 p.m. on Wednesdayunder Section 30 of the Offen-ces against ,the State Act. Hewas later taken to Dundatk GardaStation.

Detective Sergeant Owen Corrigansaid he had informed Ligari inDundalk Garda Station that underSection 47 of the Offences Against theState Act, on the lnstructions ofthe Director of Public Prosecutions,he would be taken before theSpecial Criminal Court to be chargedwith offences under the FirearinsAct (1925). He said he had givenhim a copy of the charge. Similarevidence was given in the case ofall the others. The charges werethen read out.

Ligari and Lawson were chargedthat on May Sth at Omeath, theyeach had in their possession oneSterling sub-machine gun, one Brown-ing pistol and 82 rounds of ammuni-tion with intent to danger life. Theywere also charged with having theweapons and ammunition without afirearms certificate.

Burchell and Rhodes were eachcharged with having two Sterling sub-machine guns and 116 rounds ofammunltion on May 6th with intentto endanger life and without author-isation under the Firearms Acts.Rees, Nicholson, Thompson and Mc

32

Clean were each chargeil with havingone Sterling Sub-machinegun, twoBrowning automatic pistols, oneBrowning pump action shotgun and106 rounds of ammunition with intentto endanger life and without author-isation.

Other important weapons in theirpossession were not mentioned in thecharges. The SAS carried knives anddaggers. Each had a glove, steel-linedat the top to suit him according as hewas left handed or right handed.This steel glove is mailed first with avengeance - the weapon of themedieval assassin that would cutyou to pieces. The SAS man carriedmaps on which certain houses southof the border were marked.

ReocticnThe arrest of the SAS men brought a

gry of rage from even the prestigeBritish press. The Times' editorial of gMay wrote under the heading ,,WrongSide of the Border" :-

" r he taw off icers of the lrishstate have done a disservice to thecause of peace and constitutionalrule in lreland. No doubt they actedwith full propriety in preferringcharges against eight soldiers of theSpecial Air Service Regiment whowere arrested at Gornamuckla just thewrong side of lreland's invisibleborder. But they acted with defectivejudgement - assuming that theyhave a 'public policy' discretion in theperformance of their f unction.

lf the Gardaf formed the opinionthat these soldiers had straydd in-advertently on to Republican soilthey should have sent them back againwith a wigging,

" or with whateverthe precedents (of which there areplenty) prescribe as the appropriateform 6f dismissal. lf on the otherhand, the Gardai formed a reasonablesuspicion that the soldiers were benton some kind of undercover operationwithin the Republic, a much moreserious view of the incident wasbound to be taken. The lrish Govern-ment would have every reason toprotest, and to demand and receiveassurances from the British Govern-ment that no such operations arepermitted or will occur. But still in-

I

structions should have been glven torelease the soldiers without charglngthem. Diplomatic, not legal channelsare the means by which the mattershould have been pursued.

A trial, in a special court establlghedfor the express purpose of brlngingsubversives and terrorists to lustice,will take on some of the char*ter-istics of a show trlal. The dramatiz-ation and prolongatlon of the incldentwill be a propaganda glft to theProvisional lRA, whlch has exploltedthe secrecy in which the SAS isshrouded to spread rumour that ithunts and kills on Republlcan terri-tory. A trial and all surroundlngit will tend to stir in mglylrishmen suspicions bred in themabout nefarious work by Brltlshagents.

The SAS, whatever else may bethought ot lt, ls a formldablecounter-insurgency fore. So long asit is employed legltlmately to sorvothe common qbFctlves of rootingout active terrorlsts, it deoerve tobe facilitated by the authoritles lnDublin; and on the question of thelegitimacy of lts operatlons lt deservesany benefit of doubt. After theinitial misjudgement by the lrlsh lawofficers in preferring charges, the bestthat both gov€rnments can noW dow is

to permit the incident tb subsidise withas little fuss and recrimlnatlon 'as

possible. "The Sunday Tlmc r€turned to thesubject in an editorlal "No way towin a war" on 5 May. lt linked lt withthe persistence of the lrlsh Govern-ment with the torture cas€ ln theEuropean Court at Strasbourg - "lfthe lrish Government belleves theseactions necegsary as exerclEe in'balance,' it shows a low regard forthe intelligence of lrigh pople. l(the claim is that lrlsh lawyerp pursuethe path of law without allowing theleast whiff of political reallty to deflectthem, then lrlsh lawyers have changedvery suddenly. Dlplomatlc effort onboth sides must now ensure thatthe bailed SAS men are not broughtback to stand trlal."

The Dally Mall edltorial "Whoblundered South of the Border?" of7 May iudges the lncurglon thus -

the only thing they did wrong waE roallow themselves to get caught. .ltis worth printing the absurdity in totbif only to reveal how the British mindwill set aside law and morallty when ltsuits them, as they did when theyofficially ordered torture in the northof lreland:-

"Eight SAS men, armed and parilyat least, in Civilian clothes, arearrested by lrish security forces somehundreds of yards inside the republlc.

It is a most'acute embarrassinent tothe Governments of both lreland andBritain.

The terrorists cross and re+ross thismeandering border as easlly asants swarming over a crack in thepavement. lt would be naive toimagine that the SAS, if they areto do their job effectively as under-cover sqldiers do not cross it, too, bothaccidentally and del iberately.

Of course, they do so at their perll.Bgt peril is their element. The onlything they did wrong, in our view, wailto allow themselves to get caught.

What of the lrish police and soldlerswho nabbed them?

A fine day's work, no doubt, in theeyes of many lrish people. Butcouldn't the authorities have used abit of discretion?

Couldn't they have warned the SASmen off; escorted them back to theUlster side of the border as they havedone, to their credit, more than once inthe past when uniformed British sol-diers have found themselves inr theRepublic because of 'map reerdingerrors?'

Where's all that 'improved hlrderliasion' Mr. Patrick Gooney, the lrishJustice Minister was talking etboutwhen he came over here earlier thisyear?

Millions of lrish men and women arefree to come over here into our UnltedKingdom in search of work as we arefree to go into the Republic.

No passports are needed. They canvote in our elections. There is a won-derful freedom about it all.

Unless, that lg, you're chasing mur-derers. Then, if you set one foot overthe border, you risk arrest.

It's crazy. lt's provoking. lt'sr theAnglo-lrish relationship at its mostexasperating. "

Under "Border 'pantomin€' "The Guardlan editorial of 8 May said -

il

l:.ti

{*,,mrilfllllilr[il

34

"lf in pursuit of a Provo the SAS didhappen to cross the border by a fewhundred yards there would be noclamour in this country for them tobe court-martialled for invading aforeign Power .....A political decisionwas almost certainly needed inDublin before the men were charged(with possessing weapons with intentto endanger life - a nice irony) andintercession from Mr. CallaghAn toMr. Cosgrave could not deflect thecourse of justice. "

This hysteria, not only of thepopular but the prestige press in Brit-ain, regarding the arrest of the SASindicates that the pride of Britain intheir crack regiment was hurt. Buttheir call for amelioration is not on.It is not possible to condone illegal-ities. Apart from the circumstanceswhere there was an internationalelement in the incident, a seriousbre*h in the relations between twocountries, it is scandalous thatBritish papers and politicians shouldcondone a cloak and dagger deathsquad using terrorism to f ightterrorism. The British Governmentcondones extra-ludicial punishment ofsuspected IRA men. Mr. MerlynRees himself tried to soften this upby branding South Armagh as "banditcountry." Are the SAS who wearcivilian dress, who arm themselveswith pump-action shot guns, daggers,and mailed gloves, and who infringethe border, not bandits? The nick-name is rebounding. lf Britain usesillegalities to combat terrorism whyscream at the independence of thelegal authorities in the Republic, andwhy not wait until the full facts ofthe case emeroe in court?

It has been- satd in commentarieson the incident, in both lrish andEnglish newspapers, that the use ofthe SAS has been an opening to theIRA to attribute many crimes to theBritish Army. But hot merety anopening to the lRA. The public ofSouth Down, South Armagh, andNorth Louth have been gravely dis-turbed by the activity of the SAS. Wepublish in this book statistics regard-ing incursions of the British Army intothe Republic, some in civilian dress,the kidnapping of Sean Mc Kenna,(son of the Sean Mc Kenna who wasone of the "hooded men") from theRepublic side by SAS, and an SAS plot

to murder Brendan Murray in Hill-town. The hurt pride of the BritishArmy at the arrest of the SAS is shownin the arrest and ill-treatment ofSean Fay, a member of th'e lrishArmy. Not least among the anxietiesof the people of North Louth was themurder of Seamus Ludlow, aged 48years, a single man of Thistlecross,Mount Pleasant, Dundalk. His bodywas found on Sunday 2 May around3 p.m. by a visitor on his way toa local tourist attraction, the ProleekStone. lt was lying in a laneway justoff the Culfore Road linking the mainDublin Road with Ballymascanlon.The spot is about half a mile fromwhere he lived with his marriedsister and widowed mother. He work-ed in a sawmill at Rivensdale. Hisbody was lying face upwards on thehedge. He had three wounds in hischest which appeared to be inflictedby a'shot gun.

Seamus Ludlow was last seen aliveon Saturday night, Ist May, outsideSmith's garage iust north of Dundalk,thumbing a lift as he had so oftendone before. About t7 was found inhis pocket, hic ahoes were clean,and there wis no sgn of a struggle,facts which led &6 Gardai investigat-ing the crime to .teli€ve that hewas murdered elsetlhsrc. SeamusLudlow was a qulet person, un-connected with politie, and known forhis charitable activities. The fact thathe died by shot gun wounds, andwas dumped by a number of men,assumed because he was lyingacr.oss a hedge, has led people toassociate his murder with the SAS.The Provisional IRA claimed that theSAS were rrisponsible for his death.John Keane writing in The SundayWorld, 16 May 1976, put forward thetheory that he may have been murder-ed as a result of mistaken identity,that he was the "double" of a TopProvisional IRA man who was on thewanted list of the sAs.

Further suspicion was arousedabout British Army involvement inSeamus Ludlow's murder when theycalled on his sister Mrs. Donegan,Dromintee, four or five days afterthe burial. The British soldiers saidthey were acting on the instructionsof the Gardai and wanted to askquestions. Mr. and Mrs. Donegan re-fused and said they would talk to

i.l

35

:he Dolice but not to the ArmY' TheY

wanied to take Mr. Donegan over toForfnilr barracks. He said he wouldgo ouer on his bicYcle. {Pn neilent there he saw no Policemen'He was taken bY heiicoPter ,toBessbrook ArmY Post, notorious torSAS interrogatlon. There he was

iu"stioneO a--bout his brother-in-lawd;il"; Ltdlow, the whole attitude of

tne RrmY being that Seamus was

invotvect in the lRA. Mrs' Donegan.rno .tates MurPhY, a local Gou-n-

cillo-r. She was in great distress' rur.'

Murohv rang the ArmY in Bessbro.ox

and'wis told to get in touch wlrnMaior Gulbertson. He expresseo

iii"'ui"* that it had nothing to qq

*iin-Mi. MurPhY. Mr' MurPhY.saidn"'*"t a CoJncillor - he asked the'lrrf'aioi

wny they were acting outsideiii"'Jt"t",' and had no instructionsirot- in"' Gardai. The ArmY .

then

Jenleo in"t theY had .mentionedGarOaf instruclions, calling Mrs'Oon*an a liar' M/' MurPhY--wasIr,en iirt on to the Inidllgence officer'

Mr. Mt*ptly'tolb him that nlauyoeood'in- nrmaOn, Louth, and in

i*t' the wholo of lreland' were

eonvinced thet the Britlsh Army were

iivdr""o-in Ludlow's murder, and

i'n"i tneir golng to relatives and que3-

iibrii"g in-em iooeo weight.-to this;it wo'lrtd soem to them that tle'Ariti;h'Army naO killed Ludlg-w Pvti.t"f" and were trying to iultify the

action to themselves' Mr' Elonegan

*iilit"" released and James Murphy

This Bessbrook ArmY Post is the'ugly spider at the centre of the web

oi -SnS

teiritory. The activities. ofintelligence Officer TIM are notorious'

For examPle - a Young CountYDown Gatholic from the Parish olLeitrim was arrested on Easter Mon-Jii at 11.20 P.m. at Killen andbr6ught to Besbrook- 99m.P: l!9 wasinteriiewed by an SAS lntelllgenceOttl.er called TlM, age 30, withiizzy red' hair. Tim tried to bribehim

-and then brought in two Para-

troooers who kicked him, hit him on

the ear, and clicked their guns. ,atnim. m'ere was a dark alley outside'Tim threatened that he would throwhim out there with a few big Parasfor companY - "tho(e are a lot olstones iner-e anO You could easilYget cut uP. You had better worKior us. Alree before I smoke thiscigarette."

The poor Catholic agreed and wastold tb have information beforeMay 3. Tnen "Ring Bessbrook.640and ask for TlM." "lf not, you will bepicked uP within two hours and Youban ouess the regt." The YoungCatho'iic man left after Promisingco-operation. He came straight toFr. Faul, Dungannooand comPlainedabout his treatment. Fr. Faul con-veyed the official complaintr

-bt1t. itwas answered with the usual BritishArmy lies which are the stock intradd of the government terrorist.

Families threatened bY the SASin South Armgh have been told toget in touch with TIM at Bess9rogL--

im home.

BONDTN IITGUNSIOilS BYBnrTrsH TnooPS sIilGE r97g

that everYthing Possible would bedone to prevent British military per-sonnel frbm crossing the border with-out permission. He assured the Housethat the Government took a seriousview of all unauthorised crossings.

He added that all rePorted incur-sions were carefully examined. Wheresuff iciently specific and reliableinformation wis available, the inci-dents, unless theY had first been

reporied on and regretted bY theBiitish authorities themselves' weroraised with the British authorities

There have been 304 cross-Borderincursions into the Republic by Britishsoldiers since January 1973. This was

revealed by Dr. Garret Fitzgeralo inthe Dail

-13 MaY 1976. He was

i"pf ving to a series of questions

on Eiritish incursions put down !V tneOooosition SPdkesman on Defence'V?i Joe Dowling. This contrasted withiilu zz incursi6ns into the North ofil;l'a^d bv the lrish ArmY in thesame peri6d. Dr. Fitzgerald said.thaton a number of occasions he [ad been

assured bY the British Govtrnment

36

from whom an expianation wass9tlght. He gave the foilowing detailssf the total number of cases discussed

with the British : 47 in 1g73; 121fi-979; 68 (1975); and 25 so tar ln1976. As in the foltowing tabte :-

TOTAL

76132

.7t25

304

The Minister said these matterswere sub judice, but there were otheraspects of the question he would behappy to answer.

Mr. Dowling said surely the ques-tion of national security could ndt besub judice.

The Minister said it was inappropri-are to use the House to make state-ments to which a reply could not begiven.

When PSdraig Faulkner (FF.Louth), mentioned the question ofciviliah clothing being worn by thetroops, Dr. Fitzgerald said that themethods employed in Northern lrelandwere primarily the responsibility ofthe Northern authorities although onoccasion situations had arisen whichwe had had to deplore. He addedthat the particular difficulties thatcouid arise from the deployment ofthese forces had been taken up withthe British Government, and theyhad received the firmest assurancesthat these troops would be confinedto the other side of the Borderand would operate entirely within thelaw of Northern lreland.

Mr. Gerry Collins, OppositionSpokesman on Justice, askdd if thegroup in question had been issuedwith sawn-off shot-g uns.Dr. Fitzgerald - I am sorry, I

cannot make any statement on that.The Minister told Mr. Ruairi

Brugha, Opposition Spokesman onNorthern lreland, that, off-hand, hecould not say how many of the 25incursions this year were in civilianattire, but he knew of four inaddition to the case which wasat present sub judice.

Mr. James Leonard, Opposition

lnarfitoured

\/ear On Foot vehiclesYEA R:i973 18 47974 24 71975 13 61976 tol2Mav 8 1

Total: rr? ra

r 3:ne.3 ns90rl

l122).1

5

55

Of that total, the British had ex-pressed regret for 144 cases, 19 caseswere the subject of discussion andit was not possible to agree on thefacts in relation to the other cases.Dr. Fitzgerald pointed out thatState troops might not, under inter-national law, operate within theterritory of another,state, except withthat State's permission. This wasirrespective of whether those troopswere claC in civilian or militaryattire.

The total number of incursions re-ported to his Department, between1973 and May 12th last, were: 63 onfoot; 18 in armoured vehicles; 55 inrther transport (of these groups fivecases related to civilian attire); 151by helicopter and 17 in other aiicraft.This was a total of 304.

Mr. Dowling wanted to know if, inhis discussion with the British, theMinister had raised the question oftroops crossing the Border in civilianattire. He also asked if the SAS menapprehended recently near the Borderwere in possession of "pump-type"guns. These guns, he added, werenot issued by any army in theworld, but were used mainly bythugs and criminals.

The Minister said that the questionof British troops in civilian attirehad been raised at times with theBritish. The other matter raised by theDeputy was sub judice and could notbe referred to.

Mr. Dowling asked if these troopswere on "a search and destroy"and were there any indications onthe maps they were carrying of thehomes of certain periple.

NUMBER OF BRITISH ARMV BORDER INCURSIONS REPORTED TO THEDEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS I973-1976

(b) (c) (d)No. of

(e )

lnstancesunder (a){b) & (c)in whichcivilian attirewas worn Heticop- Other

ter. aircraftI 38 5

o 72 7i 37 4

3

5

10

15r

1

l7

*"'uFr

37

Spokesman on Tourism, said that th.e

Minister had alwaYs exPressed hisoersonal concern and that of thebouernment and the lrish PeoPle,about the incursions, but theY con-tinued - each time with more seriousconsequences. The people w9r.e Oet-ting more concerned about this andit ivas time that some firm actionwas taken.

The Minister said that this matterwas of great concern to the Govern-ment, is it was to the PreviousGovernment, but there were obviousproblems in relation to the Border'' He added that there had beencrossings bY our own trooPs

- for

instance: six in 1973; 10 in 1974;two in 1975 and four this Year'These numbers contrasted markedlywith the number of incursions from theother side. Our troops made mistakesin a number of cases and a smallnumber of incursions were reported bythe British Government'

The Leader of the OPPosition'Mr. Lynch, asked if the Ministerwould

-accept his assurance that the

Opposition'was very apprehensivea6dut Army Personnel travellingon either dide of the Border innon-conventional garb and carryingnon-conventional weapons' Could theMinister now say, without contraven-ing the sub judice rule, holv l.ar

th; SAS had crossed the Borderwhen they were apprehended.

Dr. Fitzgerald said he was Pre-cluded from making anY statementon that matter.

The Royal Air Force, overflew theBorder with permission on 58 occas-

ions since januarY 1st, 1973, Dr'Fitzgerald told Mr. Dowling, in replyto a"nother question. However, therewas a total of 209 overflights au-thorised in the same Period whenoermitted flishts by British Army air-iraft were

-included in the totalnumber.

of the 58 by the RAF, 43 le.ttwithin a programme of photographicreconnaissance for the Northern lre-land Ordinance SurveY which was'updating its maPs, 0n six occas'

.

sions, RAF Planes had been used

for transPort between Belfast andDublirl and on one occasion an RAFplane was used to PhotograPh sus-pected explosive objects or incen-diary devices lYing on the Border.

Permission had b€en granted foreight RAF overflights as Part ol agiitisn programme of meteorologicalresearch.

The Minister added that he wasnot aware of any details relatingto the f light, which landed atCasement AirPort, and which trang-ported the SAS men back to theNorth. ObviouslY they had to bebrought back some waY, he toldMr. Dowling.

(sEFr - tlAlt- HEpon'r, TllFl tRlsH rlMt'ls' 14th' \1AY 1976)

BRITISH ARMYMAP READING

The arrest of SAS men in the

Republic embarassed senior BritishAriny officers, and the news did not

leak out for some time' ChristopherWalker wrote in The Times 7

MaY 1976 :-

"The news of the arrests didnot leak out for some time' Eighteenhours after theY occured the ArmY

flatly refused t6 provide any infor-mation bevond a statement saYing:-

'We believe there has been an acciden-

tal intrusion into the Republic' An

investigation is being carried out'""The Army said later: 'During the nighttnree se'curity forces' cars inadver-

tently crossed the border no-rth. ofOunOatX. lt appears that a patrol in acar itrayeo abross the border and

iwo others sent to find it made therame mistake. The eight men in

the cars were members of tlt",SAS and were stoPPed bY the Garoal

about 500 metres south of the borcler'

Sot" *"t" in uniform and some in.iuif i"n clothes. These men are stillO"ino held bY the lrish Government,"0 ir" understand that they are going

io taXe tegat action. Therefore wecannot comment further.' Accordingto a statement made to the Com-mons by Mr. Brown Under-SecretarYof Stat6 for Defence for the ArmY'

38

the soldiers had made a map readingerror and had accidentally crossedthe border. " On the night of 6May Mr. Brown repeated his earliercomment - "There can be no doubtit resulted pur:ely and simply from amap-reading error on the part of themen concerned. "

The British Army exptanation thatthe incursion of the SAS was a mapreading error was an occasion ofderision by commentators. WilliamEllsworth-Jones wrote in The SundayTimes 9 May 1976 that it was avery difficult to take this border roadby mistake :

"The border road on which eightsoldiers from the Special Air Serviceregiment blundered into the arms oflrish police and troops last week isquiet and beautif ul. runs along aridge.- and is very diff icult to take bymistake.

The men, now awaiting a Dublintrial on firearms chargeslust made almplg map-reading error', says theBritish Army. The f irst SAS car.carrying two men, made the errorlate on Wednesday night. Three anda half hours later, two more cars

containing six more men who werelooking for their comrades madeexactly the same error on the roadfrom Newry to Omeath.

This means that two sets of troops!rom Britain's most highly trainedfighting unit made tnl 'tottowintmistakes:I ffrey missed a faded but stiilvisible large yellow cross in thenarrow road painted by the army towarn troops they were coming to-theborder.f-They missed the change in roactsurface and the large piles of debrisbeside the road - relics of when theArmy had blocked off the borderto stop terrorists usinq,the,road as asupply route (Since the road is"unapproved" there was no customspost).f They were going in almost exacilythe opposite direction to their wayhome, towards the south-east insteadof north-west.fThey missed two road signs at acrossroads just before they werecaught and, if they were comingfrom the north-east, took a sharp turnleft straight towards the border,and an lrish checkpoint. "

British Armv lW l,:heckpoint !,'.i'-='

SIS men orossed\iri;ft;;ffi;l

7 hish police checkpoint

/SAS nen stopped here

millffi;P1n{**1'

MAP-READIIR'S l/tEW OI; THE I-A.I.EI;LtL BOITD/iR 1tO.41).

39

Derek Brown wrote in The Guardian7 May 1976 :- " lt has beenpointed out that the cross-borderroad to Omeath where the menwere arrested is not exactly an un-marked country lane. The border it-self is marked with bombed wreckageof an old British Army checkpoint,and the road is deeply pitted byabortive British attempts to close theunauthorised crossing point withbarricades, and by subsequent, moresuccessful operations by local peopleto remove the obstructions. The cross-ing is, in fact, one of the mostnoticeable along the entire border."The writer also gives the localfeeling:- "When the SAS detachmentwas sent to Ulster in January, in thewake of vicious sectarian massacres,the lrish Government sought, andreceived assurances, that they wouldbe conf ined to Northern lrelandterritory. [This is disputed]. But in thefour months of SAS operations therehave been repeated claims f rompeople on both sides of the borderthat the SAS have sent plain-clothes patrols into the South. "

The excuse of a map reading errorwas deemed incredulous even by thepopular British Press. The Daily Mir-ror of 7 May 1976 said: "Borderblunder by SAS - 'Shock' " TrooPsSeized By RePublic" - "A squad oftsritain's elite tipecial Air Servicesoldiers were arrested in the Republicyesterday after an incredible doubleblunder. For after two of thephantom soldiers accidentally strayedacross the border, six of their com-rades took off after them in arescue bid. And they, too, walkedstraight into a f loodlit checkpointmanned by troops of the lrishArmy and civic guards." The Sunwrote :- "SAS Men Blunder lnto Jail -Map reading boob, says Britain - butDublin plans to put eight armedsoldiers on trial." The Daily Mailheading of 7 May read - "Blunderat Flagstaff Hill."

The lrish Minister for ForeignAffairs Dr. Garret Fitzgerald, wheninterviewed on the BBC 2 Programme,'Newsday" on the night of 7 May,said that the decision to prosecutethe eight SAS members after theyhad been arrested had been takenby the Director of Public Prosecutionsand that no political confrontation

whatever had occured about thematter. He said that there wereover 100 border crossings by Britishtt'oops each year and he said"for some reason map reading pro-cedures in the British Army seem tobe somewhat defectiv€" - "how youfind terrorists, but can't find yourway on the map, I don't know."

The Daily Express was absurd onthe SAS incursion. William Hunterand John Ley writing on 7 May 1976said, and this was printed initalics:- "A misleading blaze of lightin the night sky led the eight soldiersinto the arms of the lrish police.ln the early morning darkness, it isthought they mistook the glare offloodlights for a British Army check-point on the Newry-Omeath Road.lnstead the lights belonged to apermanent lrish Republic securityforce checkpoint - just half a mileaway. The soldiers thinking theywere heading back to base at Bess-brook, drove along the narrowcountry lane towards the lrish securitypost and were arrested. They hadstrayed just N yards across theborder. lt was around midnight thatthe first two men in a car drew upand told civic guards they were Britishsoldiers. An hour later at the check-point two other cars approached thecheckpoint. The six occupants saidthey were looking for the othertwo. They too were arrested."

On 9 May Alex Lindsay under thefront oaoe headline "Rees Accuses€ire bt

- sns Blunder" wrote onMerlyn Rees' visit to British soldiersin south Armagh on 8 tvlay :

"Ulster Secretary Mr. Merlyn Reesdelivered a stern rebuke to the lrishGovernment yesterday over the arrestof the eight undercover soldiers ofthe elite Special Air Service Regi-ment." Rees' Bessbrook speech was afamiliar one - what is all the rowabout, the IRA have committedcrimes in this area, counter extra-judicial terror by English troops isjustif ied.. Also absurd was the writino of

The Belfast Telegraph. Like the DailyExpress, The Daily Mail and the loyal-ist orientated Radio Ulster they sawthe incident as the mistake of thelrish Government and primarily theirembarassment. ln their MaY 7 issuethe Political Staff of The Belfast

40

Telegraph applied a new motive tothe SAS operation - they were trying torecapture the prisoners who tunnelledout of the Maze on 5 May 1976. ln ananxiety to help the British Armv outof a tight spot the Telegraph leakeda report from "some security sources";the army, however, having committeditself to map-reading errors could notgb back on it. A British Army spokes-man had to deny the Telegraph'sreport.

The British Army had anothertrick up their sleeves. Not a verysubtle one. They planned to crossthe border again - twice, and takethe RUC with them. This was anabsurd attempt to imply that it wasvery easy to cross the borderaccidentally.. Dealing with lrish footsthey thought this would bolster upthe mistake of the map-reading SAS.Accordingly on 7 May a joini RUC-British Army patrol drove a quarterof a milg into the Republic on the mainBelfast to Dublin Road, and in theafternoo,n seven soldiers of the RoyalScots Dragoon Guards went two milesinside the border at Emyvale, CountyMonaghan. The British Army issuedits "accidental" statement, and gotMerlyn the Magician Rees in on theact to point out how notoriously diffi-cult the border is to define. The mainBelfast-Dublin Road! Nobody washaving anything. The RUC and BritishArmy were quietly told to go home.

By the 10th May the British werein a more apologetic mood. Mr. DonConcannon the Northern lrelandMinister of State said in the Houseof Cornmons that the SAS incursion

was a lapse and that the wider impli-cations of the incident were beingstudied. Enoch Powell said in theCommons that such incidents shouldbe reduced to the absolute minimum.He commented that map readingshould be improved so that peoplecould not observe that "those who donot know where they are" wereunlikely to find terrorists.

On 29 May 1976 Mr. Jack Lynch metthe Northern Secretary of State,Merlyn Rees, in Dublin. The Oppos-ition Leader Mr. Lynch accompaniedby the Opposition spokes,man onnorthern affairs, Mr. Ruairi Brugha,covered the whole range of northernaffairs during the hour and a halfdiscussion. Mr. Lynch expresseddeep concern about SAS operationsin general. lt is understood thathe stressed to Mr. Rees the factthat people in border areas wereliving in fear that highly-trainedplainclothes men, equipped withsophisticated and unconventionalweapons werg operating in theirmidst. Radio Eireann carried a reporton the discussion on its news bulletins.

POSTSCRIPT

B.A. Younq in his bookThe Artists and the SAS [1960)writing on the skills of each man inthe SAS says :- "he must be ableto navigate across country at night,and the Regiment's overall standardsof map-reading are regarded bymilitary authorities at home andabroad as outstanding. "

VEI{GTANCT AGAI}IST

AN IF.ISH ARilIY SOTDIER

Siatement ofHill, Belfast.

Fay (18), Sawel

_*1 joined the lrish Army in January1976 and have been stationed atthe Curragh Camp, Co. Kildare andCollins Barracks, Dublin City.

Friday May 14th, 1976. I came back

to my home in the Andersonstownarea of Belfast. When I got off thetaxi at the Busy Bee, ShoppingCentre at about 6 p.m. I wasstopped by soldiers beside two parkedjeeps. They made me turn out mypockets and count my money whichthey then took from me. They saw mylrish Army passes. As I stood therein the street in f ull view of thepublic I had to take off myshoes and jacket. Then I was question-ed:

dean

41

- Did you ever shoot at us? No.- Who caught the SAS cver the Border

ldon't know.- Do they teach You in th9 lrish

Army tohate British soldiers? No.

Aftei about 15-20 minutes mY'prbberty was returned to me and I

was allowed to go home. As I

walked away the soldier in chargecalled the other soldiers over to havea good look at me.

Sunday 23 MaY 1976: I was due tomove

- to Dundalk on FridaY 2'l

May 1976 but the transPort didn'tturn up at Collins Barracks. I gotweekend leave and was due to re-port back at 10 a.m' MondaY 24

May. I came home on the 2'30 P'm.traih f rom Dublin on FridaY. OnSunday at about 12'50 I was comingalong Slievebahn Drive near my homeon my way to the 1 P:m. Maqsin St.- Agn'es' Church. MY friendsDermot Adams (CorbY WaY), PeterMcGinnity (CorbY WaY) John Quinn(Bearnagh Drive) Anne'-Holly (lnish-more Crescent) hnd M6ire Harrison(lnishmore CreScent) were with me'

We were stoPPed bY a footpatrol of British soldiers' They tookitl our names. Again I had mY lrishArmy passes. Dermot Adams andI were arrested: "As a member ofHer Majesty's Forces I arrest you"(Dermot was released after a fewhours). I was Put in a ieeP gndtaken' to Fort Monagh. At FortMonagh I was made to stand againsta wall in a cubicle in the yard - handson top of head and knees bent - forabout an hour. Whenever I straight-ened up a soldier kicked me in theback of the leg.

Then I was taken into the Fort'My property was taken and I wasphotographed with the arrestingsoldier. Then I was sent back out tostand against the wall. They tried toget me to do exercises. I had to holdi large paving stone above mY head.Afteia iittte wnite I threw it down andrefused. Then theY brought out achair and asked me to do PressuPskneeling on the chair and hands onthe ground. After a few of these I

refus-ed to do any more' Then I wasspreadeagled against the wall - fingertips of ohe hand touching the.walland the other hand behind mY back.

The RMP's then came' I was Photo-

graphed again. TheY asked me ques-

tions about the lrish ArmY:- What weapons do theY use?- What is your Personal weaPon?- Are you a good shot?

They then Put me in a jeeP- folthe journey to Springfield Road RUC

statLon and returned mY ProPertYto rne. They threatened to shoot meif I jumped out of the jeep. They saidtnai tney were good shots' We arrivedabout 3.30 to 4 P.m.

At Springfield Road, a detectivetook me upstairs and questioned mefor about 5 minutes :

- How many weekends was I at homeduring the Past month? OnlY mY

. second.- Were you home on MaY 9th? No.- You are suspected of organising

an attempt on the life of an RUCman on the Glen Road on MaY 9.I was not at home.

He said that he would check that withmy platoon at the Curragh. I told himthat' Lieut. Moore was in charge ofthe platoon, He said: " lf You arealright, we'll let you go; if you are notyoutll be in trouble." This is the onlyquestioning I had until I was released.

I was then taken to a cell' MYproperty and shoelaces were taken.The cell had a bed which was Plankson a sloping slab of concrete. Nomattress. A pillow like a small punchbag and 2 hall blankets. The police-man guarding me was quite unfriend-ly. A few times he said in a loudvoice to one of his colleagues:"There's one for the SAS." He wasreferring to me. He refused me Per-mission to make a Phone call to mY

mother to ask her to get me a

solicitor. The onlY drink I got wasfrom the tap in the toilet on oneoccasion. I was ref used cigarettes'Some time after I got to the cell I

was given a meal - mashed Potatoes'steak and kidneY Pie and carrots.I ate all except the carrots. Nothingto drink with it. I slept for a coupleof hours during the night.

Monday 24 MaY: I got breakfast about8 p.m. - egg, fried bread, sausageand bacon but nothing to drink.During the daY theY gave me a Pack-et of biscuits, an aPPle and 4

cigarettes (one at a time) which mY

mother had left in. lgot nothingto drink nor was I offered lunch. ln

42

the evening I was offered somethingto eat but I refused it.

About 8 p.m. I was told that I wasgetting released. My property wasgiven to me minus 36p'fol my meal

STATEMENT of Rev.St. Joseph's CollegeBelfast 11 .

Brian J. Bradyof Education,

"l witnessed the above statement,I find the harassment of this youngman by the British Army and theinhuman and degrading treatment atthe hands of police and soldiersquite unacceptable. ln particular.tne tollowing aspects are in vtolationof the various international conven-tions on human rights:

1. Public humilation on the highway.2. Debilitating physical exercises.3. Threats both direct and indirect

that he would be killed.4. Undue delay in checking his alibi

with the army of a country whichis co-operating fully with the N.

on Sunday ancj l1p for my breakfasttoday.

_ All told, I was in custody of theBritish Army for about 31 houig. "24 May 1976 Sean Fay

lreland security forces in theircommon campaign.

5. lnadequate nourishment, espec-ially in regard to drink, whili incustody.

6. Refusal of reasonable access to alegaladvisor.

7. The charges for meals.. ln my view, this young man wasfalsely imprisoned foi about 2g hoursof the period which he was in thecustody of the security forces in Bel-fast.

. I know the agony experienced byhis widowed mother ariO the othei11 members of his immediate familyduring the time he was held. ln th6past week more than 30 young boysand girls in this area of Belfasf alonehave been held in this way, some ofthem for much longer periods.Most, like Sean Fay, were ieleasedwithout being charged., )

SAS PLOI TO

'UURDTR- IHE CASE OT BRE}IDAN iIURRAY

Statement of BrendanBallymaghery, Hilltown,Down.

My mother Annie Murray (68),my wife Kathleen and myself live dtthe above address, on a 30 acrefarm. My wife and I both work inNewry and my aged mother is alone inthe house all day. Since my work takesme away from home, it is my brotherSean, who lives near at hand, whouses the farm to graze his cattle. Theonly farm work I do is somegardening and in recent weeks I havebeen planting trees to provide shelterbelts because of the rather hilly ex-

posure and exposed position in whichwe live.

I have already suffered more thanmy fair share of injustice since thepresent troubles in N. lreland. I

have already served two prison sen-tences, as a special category pris-oner.

a). 3't July 1972 lo December 1973(a 2 year sentence) for possessionof ammunitlon, which I did nothave in my possession with myknowledge. I firmly believe thatit was planted in order to incrimin-ate me.

b). 5 January, 1975 to 25 February1976 (an 18 months sentence) forkidnapping. The alleged victinis of

the kidnapping are now serving 5

Murray,Newry, Co.

year prison sentences.Within three weeks of my release

last February I was back at myold job and have been workingsteadily ever since. Despite this, I

am subject to constant harassmentby the British Army as outlined be-low. The very sinister nature of thisharassment is causing severe dis-tress to me and the other rnembersof my household. lt has now reachedthe point where I fear that it may bea matter of 'life and death.'Hence I have taken the extra-ordinary steps outlined in my state-ment.

The facts on this harassment areas follows :-

1. About 7-10 days alter my releasein February 1976 soldiers came to nnyhome to take a 'census' which I

understand to be quite illegal. Mymother was alone in the house. Shegave them the information whichthey required. They also lookedaround the outbuildings on the farm.On this occasion the attitude of thesoldiers could be described asofficially polite.

2. Some days later more Britishsoldiers came. This time my wifeKathleen dealt with them. She iefusedto give them the information whichthey already had from their previousvisit. They then took the regis-tration numbers of my car, a tractor,and the bus belonging to the Clon-duff Band which is always parkedin our yard. On this occasion' theattitude of the soldiers was morehostile.

3. On the afternoon of March 23,1976 my mother was alone in thehouse when more soldiers came.Once again they demanded a census.On lhis occasion the questions weremuch more detailed and very sinisterindeed. For example :-

-Who are Brendan's companions?-Where does he do his drinking andwith whom?-ls he involved with the elon-duff Band?-Where does he work?-At what exact times does he leavefor work and return from work?-What is the religion of membersof the household?

My mother answered the questionsas best she could. She said that mybrother Cahal drove the bus for theband, that my wife took more to dowith the band than I did, that I merelyhad an interest in it. She did object tothem asking questions about religion.She was also very worried about thequestions about times related to mywork. All told, it was quite an upset-ting experience for her.

4. On the evening ol March 25,1976 soldiers arrived in a jeep anda saracen which parked at the end ofthe lane leading to my home.Six of them came up to the home.They knocked on the front door andmy brother Cahal, who happened tobe visiting, answered the knock.I was in the back yard. They askedwas I in and then proceeded tosearch the house. My mother accom-panied them upstairs and Cahal re-mained with the others downstairs.I came in and went upstairs. I

objected to the search. There were twosoldiers there. I said: "What are youdoing?" The one in charge replied:"Doing my job." I said: "Go ahead."He ordered me down. I refused togo first. An argument developed.The reason for my objection was thatI feared another case of 'plantedammunition'if lleft behind. Thesoldier then threatened to shoot me.He cocked his gun. My wife wit-nessed this. I was obliged to go downto the kitchen.

He then came to the kitchen andinterviewed me in the presence ofmy mother. He refused to allow mywife to be present. I was asked thesame questions as my mother hadbeen asked earlier in the dayunder the gee of two menacingsoldiers with guns. I answered themwith extreme relugtance as I felt thewhole situation was quite unjust.I said that I as not a member of theClonduff Band. He turned to mymother and called her a liar at thatpoint although she had never said thatI was a member, merely that I

had an interest in it. He then said:"Where were you when we arrived?"I told them that I was plantingtrees three f ields away. He thenmarched me to the exact spot where I

had been working. On the way heabiused me of being a "Top Provision-al" and said: "One chance and I'll

44

put a bullet through your head."My mother was unable tb accompanyme on this unpleasant journey and mywife was not allowed. I quiteexpected to meet the same fate asthe man recently shot by the SAS ,inForkhill. When we got back to thehouse he questioned my mother remy brother Cahal - ?g€, where hevisited at night etc. She answeredthe questions and then the soldiersleft.

5. On March 31 all three of us were atthe wake of my nephew; Garry (10)who had been killed in a tragic acci:dent by the bus which his own father(my brother Cahal) had been driving.While we were 6bsent my brotherSean came to our farm to lookafter his cattle. He saw soldiers leav-ing rny house and farm.

q. On April 1, i926, the day ofGarry's f uneral one of my n6ign-bours saw soldiers driving through myfarm in vehicles. lt was obvious fromthe tracks of the vehicles and fromstones removed from the fences thatthey had been searching it.

7. On Aprll 30, 1926. soldiers:alled at McEvoys' pub close by andasked where I lived. A neighbourinformed my wife Kathleen of this.It is obvious from the attention I havebeen getting recently that they knowright well where I live. This ispart of their terror campaign againstme and mir family.

8. On May 2, 1976 at about 11.30a.m. 5/6 soldiers arrived at the housein a jeep. Others remained in asaracen at the road. My mother metthern at the front door. They askedher for a general description of me -colour of hair and eyes etc. They alsoasked how many brothers and sistersI had and where they lived. Theythen asked her our religion. Shabaulked at this and said:',1'm.Scottish (obvious from her accent)and that's enough." At this point m1iwife, Kathleen, appeared on thascene. She demanded to know whythey were harassing us. The bosssaid: "Orders." She asked: ,,Whois your boss?" NO answer. Shethen said: "Why are we being singledout?" No answer. They then saiO

that they would take details of ourcar and leave. Kathleen overheardone.. soldier saying as they left:"What religion are thev?" Anothersaid: "R.C." I was out .in thegarden during all this but was notbothered with.

9. May 6, 1976a. About 11 a.m. two of my neigh-

bourg saw helicopter activity in lnetownland of Ballyanny not too tarfrorn the border r5t mi, tarm. Wnenthey saw the 'copter it seemed to betaking off .

b. ln the middle of the afternoon myneighbour's dog started to bark madli.He was obviously agitated by someoneor something in the vicinity of theplace where I have been

-olantino

trees on the edgeof the farm.c. About 7.90 p.m. my brother

Cahal arrived in his van.

My wife, Kathleen, was working inthe back kitchen heard his -van

coming to the front of ilie house and.at the same moment she saw twoBritish soldiers running up the bacilane.behind the house-in b crouched:position. She ran to the front ofthe house thinking that Cahat;svan was an army vehicle. She wassurprised to see that itwas Cahal and said to him: ,,1'llswear I saw two soldiers runnino uothe lane; go and get Brendan wi'o i'sworking in the field in front of thehouse. " Kathleen went back to theback kitchen and saw one soldiercoming back down the lane.

I arrived on the scene. I had a soadein my hand with which t naO beJnworking in the front field. Cinatand I went to the garden behind anouthouse. There we saw 2 soldierswith blackened faces, in camouflageuniform, helmets etc. One soldiirhad a rifle. I said: ,,What are'ioudoing?" One of them said: ,,Waitinofor a pickup." l said: ,,tto oickuihere." The one with the gun 6ockelit and asked me my name. I said"What is your name?" He refusedto give me his name. I said: ,,What

?.r.e. you planting?" He replied:"Honest, llr planting noining;h.onest, I'm planting nothing." I said:"See this spade; if I thoughlyou.wereplaniing somethlng you would feelIt." We exchanged mutual threats.

I then asked: "How did You comehere?" He said: "Across the fields,through the gates." This was a lieas they couldn't have oPened tfegates which are tied and cannot beopened. I comPlained about themciimbing over gates and breakingdown fences. He couldn't answer howthey got there. I told them to get outot ine garden and not to come back.Then they moved off and Cahal andI watched them as theY retreatedout of sight.

Kathleen, Cahal and I waited atthe scenej Two soldiers reappeared,

thinking we had gone' Onerera. He shouted: "Smile."

behind the fence son't photograPh us. TheY

back up the f ield and crossedinto the lane.

I arrd' I decided to movequietly in the 'direction of the pointof di-sappearance of the soldiers.Cahal walked behind the fence oe theleft side of the lane; I walked on therioht hand side. As I reached thecr-oss fence in the field I saw about5 British soldiers in the laneway andI signalled to Cahal. I heard on.q

soldler say: "There he is, shoot now."I got behind the f'ence and movedawav from them and into the nextf ielci where there were cattle grazing.Once again I heard one of themshouting: "There he is; shoot thebastard." I staYed where I was forabout 10 minutes. I then came backinto the first field where I met Cahaland' Kathleen. The 5 soldiers werestill in the lane and theY saw us.We saw them Put large kits ontheir backs. The kits were like verylarge hikers kits. TheY had twoshort-handled shovels. Then theYmoved off away from us. We saw themcrossing a gate. BY this time wecounted at least 7 in the grouP' Wewere afraid to follow.I went straight away to our local

curate, Father. Bradley. I did so be-cause I susPected that I was theobject of an SAS-type plot to murderm6 at the Place where I had beenworking on mY farm duringthe prevlous weeks. I wanted a

CL)

^^f1'=f, It,/qT6rponrible person in the communitY

to know this. I hoPed that he couldeither have this harassment stoppedor that he would be able to tellthe true story if anYthing un-toward should haPPen to me at thehands of the British soldiers engagedin a cloak and dagger oPeration. lnview of recent murders in the SouthDown / South Armagh I North Loutharea I am quite certain that my fearsare not unfounded.

10. May 9, 1976: About noon to-day, my wife, Kathleen, was in thekitchen preparing dinner. She heardthe front door bell and answeredit. There were 2 soldiers at thedoor. She said: "What do Youwant?" They replied: "Search."She said: "WhY?" The rePlY was:"Orders." She then told me. I wasin the sittingroom ' I went to thedoor. Kathleen followed one of thesoldiers who went uP the Yard. Hestarted to take the numbers ofSean's car and asked Sean hisname. I had the usual argumentwith the soldiers at the door. Oneof them had been here on 23March last. The house was notsearched. TheY asked Sean who hadjust arrived who was in the houee.He said that he didn't know as hehadn't been in. The whole ePisodelasted about 10/15 minutes.

I believe that this constant har-assment is a deliberate and gus-

tained attemPt to Prevent me and mYfamily from living a normal life. ltis an attemPt to so terrorise methat I will be forced to leave mY'place of work and give uP mY hpme.Due to previous planting of evidenceand a whole Process of framing, I

am now branded as a threat to law andorder. I am now either to beierpelled from mY home or worsestilleliminated.

9 MaY, 1976

Signed: Brendan MurraYWitness: Rev. A. BradleY

thet'thenthe f