Post-Smithwick: five questions

 

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Explosive. That seemed to be the favourite word of the newsbreakers as they outlined the content of the Smickwick Report  last night.  Mr Justice Peter Smithwick concluded after some seven years that there was a garda mole or moles in Dundalk Garda Station, which the two RUC men visited, and that the IRA were tipped off that the men were visiting. On their way back, the two RUC men were ambushed and shot dead.

Not having read the report and relying on TV excerpts and comments, I find myself with five questions.

  1. Mr Justice Smithwick makes it clear that two garda sergeants who were in touch with the IRA were not, repeat not the people who tipped off the IRA about the RUC men.  He says there was garda collusion but he doesn’t know who did it. How then does he know there was collusion? Or that the tip-off came from within Dundalk Garda Station?
  2. Prior to the ambush, Superintendent Bob Buchanan made frequent trips to Dundalk Garda Station, using the same car and not bothering even  to change the number plates. Why was this?
  3. What were two such high-ranking RUC men doing travelling without back-up on a remote South Armagh road known to be highly dangerous for security forces?
  4. Chief Superintendent Harry Breen  looked after Complaints and Discipline in the RUC. and was Divisional Commander of H Division: that is, he was in charge of operations in South Armagh and South Down. That’s why he was the RUC presence at the press conference following the shooting dead of eight IRA men at Loughgall in a 1987 ambush by the SAS. Does Mr Justice Smithwick conclude that the killing of Breen and Buchanan may have been seen by the IRA as revenge for Loughgall?
  5. While all deaths in the conflict were primitive and brutal, does the high rank held by Breen and Buchanan make their deaths any more tragic than the violent deaths of less high-ranking RUC officers or British Army personnel or IRA volunteers?

10 Responses to Post-Smithwick: five questions

  1. paul December 4, 2013 at 11:59 am #

    Great column. After reading the news briefs about the report, I had to wonder about the deafening silence from the Dail, Tanaiste and Mr Kenny about collusion in the North. Where is the outrage about the MRF shooting random innocent people, about the attack on the Rock Bar, done with/by serving RUC members? Every victim deserves our prayers, however it seems that in the eyes of both Britain and Ireland, some victims are more deserving than others.

  2. Bewildered December 4, 2013 at 4:45 pm #

    Jude, I agree with the valid questions you raise. I also wonder who was actually behind the murders and what truth actually came out of this enquiry. Is this another glimpse of the dirty war? If so, where does it start or even end?
    I’ve just listed below some publications that the media seem to miss time and time again or perhaps would like to forget.

    1. Panorama program about the Military Reaction Force (MRF)
    2. Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland by Anne Cadwallader,
    3. Statements of John Weir which can be accessed at the web link
    http://www.politics.ie/forum/northern-ireland/40727-statements-john-weir.html , Part 20 & 27 perhaps hold some relevance to this article.
    4. The RAF helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre in which 25 senior counterinsurgency personnel were killed, http://www.globalresearch.ca/britain-s-cover-up-of-inside-job-in-fatal-raf-chinook-crash

    I pose the question, does anyone really know what has been going on here for the last 40 years?

    • giordanobuno December 4, 2013 at 8:42 pm #

      Bewildered
      Is Panorama not part of the media?

      • Bewildered December 5, 2013 at 12:24 am #

        Giordanobuno, Panorama is part of the media. I probably should have been a bit clearer however I did add ‘…perhaps would like to forget’. It was a disturbing program; I’m absolutely sure you thought the same and are appalled.

        • giordanobuno December 5, 2013 at 10:36 am #

          Bewildered
          Yes the stuff that came out in that Panorama was indeed appalling.I believe it is being investigated and I hope prosecutions will follow, though without the full cooperation of the army hierarchy I think it unlikely.
          But this is how the media works, (and we follow). They all picked up on the Panorama story at the time. Then they move on.
          This week it is Smithwick,next week it will be some other report or inquiry.
          It is better to focus on the issue at hand and not be distracted by all the others that come and go. Otherwise we can discuss nothing.

  3. giordanobuno December 4, 2013 at 8:48 pm #

    Jude
    What I am wondering is how those supporters of physical force republicanism (not you obviously) feel about Gardaí collusion in these executions?
    Presumably they were grateful for the information provided and would applaud the efforts of any guard in providing intelligence against the brits.
    Yet I don’t hear anyone from Sinn Fein saying so.
    And yes Jude I know they are on twitter and I could ask them myself.

  4. Murt December 5, 2013 at 8:58 am #

    Jude, in relation to your point 1, Mr Justice Smithwick did not state that the two main Gardai involved had not tipped off the IRA on the day, merely that there is no direct evidence against them. Clearly they still stand as the main suspects. Only in the case of the third Garda, Finbarr Hickey, was it clearly stated that he was not the one.

    • Jude Collins December 5, 2013 at 10:58 am #

      Thanks for comment, Murt. “Smithwick did not state that the two main gardaí involved had not tipped off the IRA on the day, merely that there is no direct evidence against them”. Mmm. Funny sort of sentence construction, that. Couldn’t Smithwick (if he knew we existed) have said the same thing about you or me? And what’s the difference in direct and indirect evidence?

  5. Cal December 5, 2013 at 6:46 pm #

    In such circumstances it was impossible for Smithwick to state the obvious – there was no evidence of collusion. Instead we got a sop to unionists. After 8 years one would have hoped for something more concrete as opposed to balance of probability nonsense.

  6. Paul December 6, 2013 at 4:47 pm #

    Well done Jude for missing the whole point of the Smithwick report and acting as a PR agent for the masked gangs of South Armagh. We see the tunnel you want us to go down but there is no light there.

    If you were serious about your quest for the facts, I would have expected you to note the inconsistencies at the heart of the SF/IRA claim that they were an ‘army’ prosecuting a just war when they murdered an unarmed middle aged police officer attempting to surrender. A wee bit more head scratching you would also have noted that the same weapon used in the Breen/Buchannan murders was used to kill, like dogs in the street, 10 Protestant workmen at Kingsmill. If the IRA were an army they must have been the worst animals in history to engage in warfare.

    For 30 years the IRA murdered our neighbours and relatives in the churches and as they went shopping with their families. It was a grubby sectarian war that sought to reverse the effects of the Plantation of Ireland dressed up in the clothes of a struggle for independence to overthrow the shackles of colonial oppression.

    As someone from the Unionist tradition, I welcome the dignified and mature responses from the Southern politicians. They have made a huge step in reaching out the hand of friendship to northern unionists. Perhaps that is the only good thing to come out of the Smithwick report. Unionists realise they have more in common with many southerners than those who share the green fields of Ulster and vice versa. What an irony that is.

    Jude Collins should heed the example of the Edna Kennys of this world.