Ciarán MacAirt

Press Release: CJI to investigate how PSNI deals with Ombudsman Findings

Ciarán — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:39:12 +0000

The Policing Board is to ask the Criminal Justice Inspectorate (CJI) “to carry out an investigation which will examine the relationship between the PSNI and the Police Ombudsman” following a complaint against the Chief Constable lodged on behalf of two NGOs, British Irish Rights Watch and the Pat Finucane Centre. The two Human Rights organisations had complained to the Board following the rejection by the Chief Constable of the OPONI report into the Loyalist bombing of Mc Gurk’s Bar in 1971.

The Board has confirmed to the NGOs that they have requested that the CJI investigation focus “on how the PSNI internalises and operationalizes findings and recommendations arising from OPONI investigations.”

Welcoming news of the investigation BIRW Director Jane Winter said:

“The Chief Constable has set a potentially dangerous precedent. In rejecting this report, he has undermined a fundamental building block in the infrastructure of policing post Patten. If he takes it upon himself to pick and choose the outcome of PONI reports then he is in effect usurping the independent investigatory function of the office. It is not the role or function of the Chief Constable to interpret this material – it is the role of the Ombudsman.”

PFC Director Paul O’Connor added:

“What was required of the PSNI in the wake of publication of the OPONI report was a response similar to that of the Metropolitan Police following the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. Acknowledgement and a willingness to learn the hard lessons. Instead there was a collective refusal at Command level to accept the evidence that the RUC was blind to loyalist violence and was institutionally sectarian in how it dealt with one of the worst loyalist atrocities of the conflict.”

Fallout from Mc Gurk’s controversy

Pat Irvine, whose mother was killed in the bombing, also welcomed news of the investigation, “Baggott set himself up as judge, jury, prosecutor and chief constable. How any reasonable, intelligent human being could argue there was no investigative bias is beyond belief. The RUC, with no evidential basis, blamed the IRA.”

Family campaigner Gerard Keenan who lost both his parents described the development as “long overdue – this Chief Constable has caused deep hurt to the families by trying to rewrite history.”

Contact BIRW @ 0208 7729161 Contact PFC @ 02871 268846

Note to Editors

In February 2011 the Police Ombudsman published his report into the Mc Gurk’s Bombing. The report found that RUC failure to investigate Loyalist involvement in the attack in which 15 people died amounted to ‘investigatory bias” by RUC officers during the 1971 investigation. Hours after the report was published the Chief Constable issued two public statements in which he rejected the key findings of the Ombudsman’s report . See www.patfinucanecentre.org individual cases or www.birw.org for full background.

McGurk’s Bar Commemoration Committee Give Thanks

Ciarán — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:28:43 +0000

The McGurk’s Bar Commemoration Committee wish to extend their great thanks for the support that they have had in realizing Ireland’s newest piece of art, an astonishing mural-relief that recreates the actual bar. Without your help we doubt if the mammoth project could have been completed.

As well as those we thanked on the night, the list is long but in no specific order:

The North Belfast News (who also sponsored us), the Irish News and the Belfast Telegraph for great coverage | The BBC and UTV for the same

Our local politicians

Belfast City Council

Aileen in the Rocktown Bar for all her help

Marie and Gary, Survivors of Trauma, for their hospitality and use of their premises

Seán Rafferty for use of the scaffolding

St Kevin’s Hall for their great hospitality

Glen Park and Dockers’ Club for hosting the fundraisers

Everyone who attended the fundraisers and/or donated prizes

Cairde na h-Éireann for their great support and sponsorship of the mural

Paul O’ Connor (Pat Finucane Centre) and Jane Winter (British Irish Rights Watch) as always

UnLtd

All the volunteers who gave the help without question and made it possible for us to complete the project on time

Paul, Whack, Michael, Mickey, Christopher, Ruarí, Geordie, Andrew, Edward, Gerard, Gavin, Sparky, Seán and Gary:

Everyone, including our own families, who donated their time and money

From the McGurk’s Bar Commemoration Committee

I would like to give personal thanks to Committee members themselves. Without Gerard, Alex, Robert, Tommy, Tom, Frank and Margaret, this project would never have been imagined nor realized.

Speech for the 40th Anniversary Commemoration

Ciarán — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:45:35 +0000

Dia daoibh agus fáilte romhaibh, welcome to the families and thank you very much for joining with them tonight to commemorate the lives of those we lost in the McGurk’s Bar Massacre, 4th December 1971.

My name is Ciarán MacAirt. I am a grandson of John and Kathleen Irvine.

I am especially glad to speak here as it gives me the opportunity to thank you all. So many of you have leant your support over these last four decades, though, that if I forget anyone, please forgive me.

Straight away a special thanks to the local community who have bestowed a great honour on the families by naming their street McGurk’s Way. We also thank friends from the New Lodge, North Belfast, Greater Belfast and beyond.

We welcome our local religious leaders from the Protestant and Roman Catholic faith who will lead us in prayer in a few minutes. I also see around me families from other campaigns – the likes of the Ballymurphy, Loughinisland and New Lodge 6 families to name but a few. We welcome you all and give you great thanks as we have gained great strength from all of your support.

We are eternally grateful too to our local politicians who campaign hard for us and the local media as well.

Tonight we are joined by representatives from the Pat Finucane Centre and British Irish Rights Watch. We are extremely lucky to count the likes of Paul O’ Connor and Jane Winter as great friends and supporters. Without their help I dread to think where we would be today. I also extend thanks to the other organisations continue to help our struggle.

My warmest welcome and thanks, of course, go to our families who have campaigned ceaselessly for two generations. They have chipped away at a monolith of State intransigence and lies.

This fitting monument has been created due to the very hard work of the McGurk’s Commemoration Committee: especially Gerard, Alex and Robert and Tommy. Our families have been down here every day for weeks to create what we will see in a moment. I should also include, of course, renowned Irish artist Risteard O’ Murchú who has done an amazing job for which he should be very proud. As too should the volunteers who helped us at various stages with the hard graft and fundraising.

I think that this great piece of art will stand as testimony not only to the lives of those we commemorate tonight but also our families’ campaign for truth. Anyway special thanks to all the campaigning family members as you have been great heroes of mine since I was a child.

Kitty, as her family and friends called her, was one of fifteen innocent civilians, women, men and children, who were slain in the McGurk’s Bar Massacre, 4th December 1971. Over a dozen injured were lucky to escape with their lives. It was the single greatest loss of civilian life in Ireland since the Nazi Blitz of World War 2 but we have had to fight for our story to be heard.

The bomb attack was carried out by Loyalist extremists of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) but blamed by the authorities on a Republican bomb-in-transit. Therefore, the innocent victims were despoiled of not only life, but also their good name. Successive administrations have withheld the full truth from us for two generations. Our families have had to campaign relentlessly, constitutionally and with great dignity for nearly four decades to clear the names of our loved ones.

It is a fight that continues to this very day.

My grandparents were enjoying a quiet drink with old friends, Edward and Sarah Keenan in the family-run public house, McGurk’s Bar. McGurk’s Bar was a old-style bar, passed from father to son, which was frequented by those members of the north Belfast community who were more interested in a punt or a pint rather than the sectarian politics of the day. As the family home was in the rooms upstairs, Mr. And Mrs. McGurk had created an environment that was not only fitting for a well-run pub, but also one that was appropriate for the raising of their children.

Looking across the bar and into the main lounge Kitty recognised every single one of the customers who sat around talking or reading a paper. She would have smiled and nodded acknowledgement to anyone whose eyes she happened to meet. Thomas Kane, Robert Spotswood and James Smyth had taken up their usual seats along the bar. Further along, Thomas McLaughlin, his uncle and two of their friends were busy chatting and laughing. Behind them, Philip Garry, who even at 73 still kept himself busy as a school-crossing patrolman, was having a quiet pint. Near to him Francis Bradley and David Milligan relaxed after labouring week-long in the docks. In the corner she could not see, Edward Kane was entertaining his friend, Roderick McCorley, and 80 year-old Mr. Griffin with lively chat over a quick drink before heading home to his young family.

That night, as the regular customers chatted and laughed amongst themselves, upstairs the McGurk boys and a young 13 year old friend, James Cromie, were having a raucous game of table football. Mr. McGurk’s brother-in-law, John Colton, was getting ready to help out in the bar below when his sister, Philomena McGurk arrived home with the McGurk’s only daughter, 14 year old Maria. They were returning home from confession in nearby St Patrick’s Church.

A bomb ripped through this scene, bringing walls and roof down upon everyone. Those who were not crushed or slowly asphyxiated by masonry were horrifically burned when shattered gas mains burst into flames beneath the rubble. The lifeless bodies of fifteen innocent men, women and children were dragged from the ruins. Thirteen others escaped with their lives.

Such was the carnage of the McGurk’s Bar Massacre.

I was at this point that our Campaign for Truth began as we had to fight against State disinformation from the moment the bomb exploded.
[There followed a thoughtful and moving speech by Reverend Bill Shaw]

If I may read out the names of the loved ones we lost before a two minute silence in their honour:
James Francis Cromie (13 years old)
Maria McGurk (14 years old)
Edward Laurence Kane (29 years old)
Robert Charles Spotswood (38 years old)
Elizabeth Philomena McGurk (46 years old)
Thomas Kane (48 years old)
John Colton (49 years old)
David Milligan (53 years old)
Kathleen Irvine (53 years old)
Thomas McLaughlin (55 years old)
Sarah Keenan (58 years old)
James Patrick Smyth (58 years old)
Francis Bradley (63 years old)
Edward Keenan (69 years old)
Phillip Garry (73 years old)
All those who were injured
The victims’ only crime was their faith.

Our Campaign for Truth is not simply about closure for fellow human beings. This is about historical and moral rectitude.

History informs the present and from it we learn our mores as a society. Without the truth regarding our recent conflict, our shared future together cannot be ensured. I fear, you see, that the present authorities may prove that they too are condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past.

McGurk’s Bar: 40th Anniversary Commemoration

Ciarán — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:26:09 +0000

A sneak peek at Belfast's newest piece of commemorative art

The families of those killed and injured in the McGurk’s Bar Massacre will be holding a a series of events to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the bombing on Saturday 3rd December (the attack occurred on Saturday 4th December 1971 though). This is a public, cross-community event so please feel free to pay us a visit at any stage during the night.

The running order for the night is as follows:

700 pm Commemorative Mass at St Patrick’s Church, Donegall Street
745 pm Solemn procession from the Church to the site of the bomb in North Queen Street
800 pm Gathering at the site
815 pm Welcome/Fáilte, Context of the bombing

Prayers by local Catholic Priest and Protestant Minister

Unveiling of our commemorative mural-relief

Wreath-laying ceremony

847 pm Two minutes’ silence to coincide with the time that the bomb exploded on that Saturday night
900 pm Exhibition of our Campaign for Truth in nearby St Kevin’s Hall

We hope to meet you there.

McGurk’s Mural Fundraiser

Ciarán — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:22:49 +0000

If you pass along North Queen Street you will notice that work on the mural to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the McGurk’s Bar Massacre is at an advanced stage and already attracting great interest.
The families have been busy raising funds and have already hosted a very successful event in the Dockers’ Club last month which helped raise well over £2K.

This Friday, the Glen Park will be playing host to a night of live music and great craic in order to help raise money for the final stage of work for the commemorative mural. Doors open at 8 pm and all door money will go to the commemoration fund.

Alex McLaughlin who lost his father, Thomas, in the atrocity, says they are expecting another great turnout as the last event was so successful.

We have a great live band lined up and a disco after, so make sure to come early to avoid disappointment. Tickets are only £5 although you can pay at the door. All this money will help us in the final push to finish this fine piece of art which will be the centrepiece of our commemoration on 4th December this year.

The community has already been very supportive and turned out in droves at the Dockers’ event. Judging by the interest we’ve already for the event in the Glen Park, it will be another great night. We will also be exhibiting photographs, archives and newspaper articles that charts the four decades from the moment the bomb exploded, the cover-up in its aftermath and the families’ campaign for truth.

Venue: Glen Park (map)

Pay at door: £5 only and all door receipts go to mural fund

Date: Tonight, 18.11.1

Time: 8pm til Late

Live music and disco, craic agus ceol

Forum for Victims, Wednesday 26th October

Ciarán — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:48:09 +0000

A Victims-led Forum has been organised for Wednesday 26th October in Conway Mill from 1 pm – 5pm.

Family representatives from victims’ campaigns will be in attendance, including: The McGurk’s Bar Massacre, The Loughinisland Massacre, The Ballymurphy and Springhill Massacres, Raymond McCord, Paul McIlwaine, and over 20 families represented by solicitor, Patrick Murray. The event is supported by the Relatives for Justice.

The purpose of the Forum is to give victims and survivors an opportunity to discuss their particular case and agree a collective way forward as they continue to campaign for Truth and Justice. This is after a successful cross-community protest of the Police Ombudsman’s Office last week which was attended by over 100 family campaigners.

Invites have been sent to all political parties, the HET and Police Ombudsman’s Office, campaign groups such as VAST and WAVE, the Victims’
Commissioners, the NIO and Irish Government, and the Memorial Fund.

Print and TV media are invited to cover the event.

For further information contact Raymond Mc Cord 07881476933 or Robert Mc Clenaghan 07752500513

McGurk’s Mural Fundraising Event

Ciarán — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:02:32 +0000

This Friday, October 7th, the families of the McGurk’s Commemoration Committee have organised a fundraising event in the Docker’s Club, Pilot Street Belfast.

Sponsored by the North Belfast News , the event promises to be a great night of live music and craic. You might just be lucky enough to win one of the cash prizes we will drawing too. Everyone is welcome!

Tickets are flying out so make sure to come down early to avoid disappointment - doors open at 8pm and you can pay £6 at the door. All monies (except for the bar receipts, of course!) will go towards a mural that we plan to unveil on the 40th Anniversary of the atrocity on 4th December 2011.

As we are gathering ideas for our exhibition and research, we would be particularly interested meeting you if you have memories or experience of those dark days. You will also get to hear the stories of many of the families there on the night.

Feel free to invite your friends and family too. Make sure you have your glad-rags on too as the ubiquitous North Belfast News photographer no doubt will be happily snapping the best-looking ones

If you wish further details, email me. Otherwise, we will look forward to seeing you there.

Map for The Dockers

Blinkered Eye of the Newt

Ciarán — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 09:17:06 +0000

I would agree with Newton Emerson’s header that “We need [an] ombudsman who’s prepared to bite” (Thursday 8th September 2011) and that includes telling victims’ families their claims can in no way be substantiated. Nevertheless, with regards to the McGurk’s Bar Massacre campaign, I find his copy flippant at best and grossly misleading at worst.

Considering the Police Ombudsman’s aborted first report, Mr. Emerson asserts that “the bereaved relatives [were] unhappy first with the slapdash presentation”. Wrong. We were disgusted at factual errors and gross misinterpretation of hard evidence. Of course, we have since learned, as we immediately suspected, that the first report was changed to redact any criticism of the police. How this whitewash was presented merely compounded the attempt to railroad family campaigners, many of whom are aged, into accepting this travesty.

Mr Emerson next considers “whether assuming a Loyalist bomb was Republican then failing to pursue the murderers of 15 people with utmost vigour constituted `collusion’”. That is one of the most over-simplified reviews of the RUC’s abject lack of investigation I have read and I am sure it is beneath Mr. Emerson’s intelligence. The McGurk’s Bar Massacre at that time was the most murderous loss of civilian life in Ireland since the Nazi Blitz of Belfast over 30 years before. Mr. Emerson obviously has not taken the time to read the archive evidence that we – not the authorities – found. We have put these documents into the public domain after breaking them in this paper (the Irish News). We have proved that the IRA bomb-in-transit fabrication originated with the RUC (RUC Duty Officers Report 5th December 1971, reported in the Irish News 28th October 2009). They then used this lie, without substance or substantiation, as a pretext for their subsequent “investigation”. We – not the authorities – traced this lie through archives as it was drip-fed into the intelligence stream, into the media and into the public consciousness. I have been able to place all of these archives into the public domain as it was the families, the Pat Finucane Centre and the British Irish Rights Watch who found them – not the authorities. Mr Emerson ought to have read this research too before he submitted his copy as it featured in the Police Ombudsman’s answers to the Justice Committee on the day the article was published.

Then Mr Emerson raises the bogeyman of Frank Kitson, Brigadier in charge of British forces in Belfast at this time, and his book, Low Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency and Peacekeeping (1971). I would question whether he has actually read the book he references as Kitson’s Gangs and Counter-Gangs, published in 1960, would have suited the context of his copy better. His reference to this book is a stereotypical response by ill-researched commentators.

Nevertheless, the former book does feature in our research, though not as he has considered, as it lays bare the importance of information policy to British military primacy in any theatre of low intensity warfare. The consolidation of the Information Research Department and Information Policy Unit occurred at this time effecting “the co-ordination of overall Whitehall activity in both overt and discreet information fields” (a secret archive for circulation to the Northern Ireland Policy Committee, dated 7th December 1971, to be released by the author in a study). How to build and maintain synchronicity between the military, police, media, government and judiciary is what makes this book essential reading to any student of this period – even him.

This synchronicity, of course, was showcased to devastating effect in the aftermath of the McGurk’s Bar Massacre 4th December 1971 and this is why we reference it. By the 13th December 1971, in another secret document to be released by the author in the study, the Northern Ireland Policy Group, which included the Secretary of State for Defence, Lord Carrington, was told by the Assistant Under Secretary (General Staff), Arthur Hockaday, “that in the past few weeks the publicity machine had begun to work much more smoothly”. This publicity machine, of course, included the Northern Ireland Information Service, the RUC Information Office and Headquarters Northern Ireland. Again, I would question whether Mr. Emerson has read how we – not the authorities – have traced the co-ordination of black propaganda regarding our loved ones through these departments. I would refer him to my written testimony to the US Helsinki Commission (16th March 2011) so he is better informed.

In review, I would agree with Mr Emerson that we do indeed need a more robust Office of the Police Ombudsman with a stronger manager. Nevertheless, I would caution readers, although I am sure they are well aware, that his particular reading of the RUC investigation into the McGurk’s Bar Massacre veers between over-simplification and wrong. His opinion is underpinned not only by his stereotypical referencing but also by weak research.

The above post was a letter written in response to an article by Newton Emerson in the Irish News (8th September 2011). It would have been too long to appear in the paper (I assume) so I have posted it here.

Families Demand To See Original McGurk’s Report

Ciarán — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:34:34 +0000

Below is piece by myself that featured in an article by Kieran Hughes in the North Belfast News (17th September 2011).

Last Thursday (8th September 2011) some of the McGurk’s campaigners visited Stormont to hear what the Police Ombudsman, Al Hutchinson, had to say for himself in front of the Justice Committee. He was answering damning criticisms from the Criminal Justice Inspection levelled at his management of the statutory office that we have to hold the police accountable.

It beggars belief that Mr. Hutchinson has not walked straight away or been fired. The Office of the Police Ombudsman is an essential statutory body that we have as a safeguard against police primacy. The Justice Minister, Mr Ford, was wrong to accept anything less than his immediate departure.

Mr Ford wishes him to stay in the interests of continuity. The only continuity will be in bad management and a loss of public confidence.

The Criminal Justice Inspection (CJI) report was a damning indictment of Al Hutchinson’s tenure as Police Ombudsman. It confirmed grave concerns that we had regarding the independence of the office when Mr Hutchinson tried to railroad our families into accepting a whitewash in July of last year. The CJI investigation asserts that the report was sanitized to redact any criticism of the RUC. No reason was given for the changes. We also learn that a senior manager of the Police Ombudsman’s Office believed that there was an understanding not to criticize Special Branch in further reports.

Even after two generations of fighting RUC intransigence and lies, we are still left with disquiet. We are particularly concerned about the negative influence that certain members of our “reformed” Police Service Northern Ireland may have had on this débacle.
As this was another attempt to bury the truth, we will be demanding to see the original report that was changed so we can judge for ourselves.

Picture above: The families were joined at Stormont by families who lost loved ones in the Ballymurphy Massacre and the Loughinisland Massacre.

Press Release: McGurk’s Families Attend Assembly Justice Committee

Ciarán — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:13:28 +0000

The families of those killed in the McGurk’s Bar Massacre of December 1971 are to attend today’s hearing of the Assembly Justice Committee at Stormont.

The Justice Committee will be questioning the Police Ombudsman, Al Hutchinson following a report by Michael Maguire from the Criminal Justice Inspectorate into the running of the Police Ombudman’s Office.

Robert Mc Clenaghan, on behalf of the families said:

“For many years now we have engaged with the Police Ombudman’s Office, both when it was headed by Nuala O Loan and now by Al Hutchinson. We have invested considerable amounts of time, effort and energy as we try to establish the truth about what happened in the McGurk’s Bar bombing.

Following the report of Michael Maguire our confidence, faith and trust in the Police Ombudsman’s office have been severly undermined. We have read reports of historical cases, including the McGurk’s Bar case, being changed before publication so as not to embarass the RUC. Indeed, vital intelligence was withheld from the investigating officers.

We have been left shocked and stunned by all these revelations.

Some of the families have decided to be on the steps at Stormont today (Thursday 8th) at 1.30 pm to speak to the media before going in to listen at first hand to Al Hutchinson in the Justice Committee room at 2 pm.

All media are welcome to come and ask questions.

Hopefully, the Loughinisland and Ballymurphy Massacre Families will also be there so we are not alone in demanding the truth about what has been going on in the Police Ombudsman’s Office”

For further information please ring Robert on 07752500513