Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland by Cadwallader Anne

Author:Cadwallader, Anne [Cadwallader, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: collusion, ireland human rights, what is the northern ireland conflict, pat finucane, british collusion, Northern Ireland, ireland and the troubles, about Ireland, loyalist paramilitaries
Publisher: Mercier Press
Published: 2013-10-17T16:00:00+00:00

RUC man James Mitchell’s central involvement was ‘evident’ says the HET. That Mitchell remained on as a serving RUC Reservist for a further ten months is unconscionable. It wasn’t until after his arrest in December 1978 that police finally raided his home, finding two home-made SMGs, reels of Cordtex,ae ammunition and other related items.48 Incredibly, for these very serious offences – perpetrated by a former RUC officer – a one-year sentence was imposed by the courts, suspended for two years.

The RUC knew of John Weir’s involvement in the double murder at the Step Inn by October 1976, the same month as he received a promotion to sergeant. Yet, also incredibly, he was not arrested until two years later, nor dismissed from the RUC for his role in the Step Inn conspiracy.af When police did finally arrest Mitchell, Weir, Laurence McClure and other RUC men, says the HET, despite obvious links to other attacks such as Donnelly’s Bar, ‘only cursory efforts were made to investigate them further’. The limited interview records show ‘no determined efforts were made to investigate them in a meaningful fashion, despite the recovery of explosives and weapons from Mitchell’s farm and despite all the intelligence that was available’.49 The families have lodged an official complaint with the NI police ombudsman, to whose office the HET has also referred its findings.

The ramifications from the Step Inn bombing continued. In the early 1980s, the then RUC Chief Constable, Sir Jack Hermon, unexpectedly asked to see the Step Inn file.50 Why? Had he heard of RUC involvement? Why else would he ask for this particular file? What he was given, it appears, was the date-limited intelligence ending in September 1976 – coincidentally or not, the month before the RUC says it became aware of Weir’s involvement. Even then, disturbingly, Hermon neither ordered a thorough re-investigation of RUC involvement in the Step Inn attack or a high-level external, possibly public, enquiry into why and how intelligence had been suppressed from the original police investigation.

Paddy McGleenan, Gerard’s father, discovered years after his son’s death that a police officer who had taken a statement from him after the bombing had been involved in the Rock Bar gun-and-bomb attack two months previously. Paddy and RUC Constable Ian Mitchell had travelled together to Dungannon for work years previously. Paddy considered him a friend. It was a shocking discovery that a man, to whom he had spoken privately of the death of his beloved son, had been involved in bombing a local bar.

Both the McGleenan and McDonald families, whose lives have been irretrievably damaged by the Step Inn explosion, have found it difficult to come to terms with the revelations contained in the HET Report. Those who investigated the case within the HET are also stunned at what they discovered. During a meeting with the McGleenan family (held in the Keady GAA club named after Gerard) an HET investigator bluntly summed up his own response: ‘This is as bad as it gets.’ag

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Two months after

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