The Nemesis File - The True Story of an SAS Execution Squad by Bruce Paul

Author:Bruce, Paul [Bruce, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781782198765
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2010-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

That weekend the fury of the Catholic backlash erupted in Newry. Not since the policy of internment had been introduced in August, three months earlier, had the mass of the Catholic population made their feelings known in such a violent way.

The spark that ignited the whole town occurred when a local businessman strolled towards a bank in Newry town centre to deposit his day’s takings in the night safe. As he approached the bank, three men rushed him and tried to snatch the bag holding the takings.

The man screamed for help, refusing to hand over the money. With great determination and courage, he held on to the bag as the three hit and kicked him in an effort to force the bag out of his hand.

Overlooking the bank, however, a British Army marksman had been placed on duty to watch for just such an attack. Alerted by the man shouting for help, he saw what was happening and, as the three men ran from the scene, he shouted at them to stop. They continued running and the soldier opened fire, killing all three.

Within an hour, the centre of Newry became filled with angry Catholics demanding that the soldier be strung up for killing innocent men. Two hours later, more than 10,000 chanting, angry, rioting Catholics would not be calmed by the army’s loudspeaker appeals for order.

Determined to avenge their dead friends and get even with their Protestant foes, other Catholics torched shops, homes and government buildings in and around the town. Fire brigades from towns twenty miles away were called in to deal with the flames that threatened, at one point, to race through the entire centre of Newry. Army reinforcements were called in from Belfast as the rioters stormed around the town far into the night.

Not since the troubles began had the Catholic minority in one town reacted with such venom and such determination to burn down every building they targeted as belonging to the enemy. The strength of feeling manifested itself three days later when more than 15,000 people attended the funerals of the three men.

It seemed to us in our Portakabin at Long Kesh that the IRA was far from being on the edge of defeat. From that one incident, it seemed likely that they would win over a few thousand more recruits to their cause. What we had hoped would be a quick tour of duty in Northern Ireland now threatened to stretch into months, if not longer. I wondered how many more people we would be ordered to kill.

During that same weekend of 23–24 October, we were also surprised to read that the security forces had shot dead four men and two women who had been planting bombs in Belfast. The six had been an IRA squad intent on bombing the city centre’s premier hotel, The Europa, and the famous Celebrity Club in Donegall Place. Those killings would also be roundly condemned because not one of the six people shot dead had been carrying a weapon.

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