The recently released Kenova Report refers to the Dublin-Monaghan bombs in 1974, the murderous activities of Fred Scappatici from West Belfast working for British Intelligence and the actions of the Glenanne gang involved in the Dublin-Monaghan bombings in 1974.
The Kenova Report took more than 10 years to write and cost more than £40 million pounds. Are we any the wiser? I don’t think so. We have known about the covert actions of MI5 and the secret agents for many years. We have known about Frank Kitson’s counter-insurgency tactics and we have known about the Glenanne gang. I think it’s important to remember that even though the IRA has gone, the MI5 are still around – collecting information and using local touts to do so.
The British government will never reveal the whole truth about their covert activities here in Ireland.
Some years before all of this stuff in Kenova came out, MI5 was already active in Ireland -north and south. On the 28th December 1972, three bombs went off along the border at Clones, Belturbet and Pettigo at around the same time late in the evening. The bomb at a pub in Fermanagh Street in Clones caused much damage but luckily nobody was killed. Two innocent young people were killed in the explosion in Belturbet. The bomb at a pub near Pettigo, Co Donegal, belonging to my cousins, the Brittons, caused much damage to the pub and adjoining house. The family was traumatised but, fortunately, none of the ten occupants of the house was seriously injured.
All of these murderous actions were directed by MI5/British intelligence using local loyalist and UDR activists -and informers. Their main intention was to put pressure on the Dublin government to step up security and seal the border. Dublin duly obliged.
It is clear from the list of British army, RUC and loyalists killings and bombings in County Fermanagh alone that British Intelligence was active from an early stage in ‘the Troubles’ in an attempt to suppress the movement for Civil rights in the 6 counties.
On 12th December 1971, the murder of young Louis Leonard, in his own butcher shop in Derrylin was one of the first killings carried out in the 6 Counties by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) acting along with British MI5 Intelligence and with the full approval of the British government.
The Tory government led by Heath in London at the time was being advised by Brigadier Frank Kitson, the so-called expert on counter-insurgency. Government policy was to suppress the demand for equal rights and teach the Catholic community a lesson. By selecting certain people for assassination they wanted to show that it was dangerous to be associated with the Civil Rights movement or any movement opposed to Internment without trial.
The British SAS regiment had the full support of the British Tory government to go into Ballymurphy in Belfast in 1971 and into the Bogside in Derry in January 1972 to carry out the murders of innocent civilians.
The British had implemented the same policy in Aden, Kenya and their other colonies. This is the context in which the assassination of Catholics and those identified by MI5 as republicans were targeted by pseudo gangs like the UDA which were managed by British Intelligence.
We learned later that Louis Leonard was assassinated by a 36 year old Protestant/loyalist Billy McMurray from Newtownabbey, Co Antrim who was a member of the UDA and a friend of well-known UDA leader Sammy Duddy. He was being managed by British agents on behalf of MI5 and the British government.
The car he used to travel to and from Derrylin was later dumped near Belfast International Airport. McMurray, who had been charged in 1964 with house-breaking, was being managed by a high ranking British army operator called Colonel Reece from the Queens Royal Lancers. He was based at the British base in St Angelo near Enniskillen. Another undercover unit of the British army the Force Reconnaissance Unit (FRU) was also based at the newly established British army base at St Angelo, a disused airport three miles north of Enniskillen.
Louis Leonard was only one of many local people in Fermanagh to be assassinated by British forces and loyalists acting on behalf of British Intelligence.
Naan/Murray –the so-called ‘Pitchfork killings’.In October 1972, farmer Michael Naan and his neighbour Andrew Murray were assassinated by members of the Argyll and Sutherland regiment of the British army at Naan’s farm Aughnahinch near Newtownbutler. By a strange set of circumstances, the killers of Naan and Murray were later discovered to be members of the British army Argyll regiment –based in Yorkshire. Four of them were found guilty in 1978 of the murder of Naan and Murray. They received short sentences.
Michael Leonard -May 1973 :On 17 May 1973, my cousin Michael Leonard was shot and killed by the RUC a short distance from the border on his way home to Pettigo in county Donegal. His killing by the RUC has never been properly investigated. At first, the British army claimed he was a member of PIRA –a blatant lie.
Jim Murphy –April 1974:On 21 April 1974, Jim Murphy, a friend of Louis Leonard, was assassinated in his garage in Corraveigha on the main Enniskillen -Derrylin road. It is reasonable to speculate that the murder of Jim Murphy, a friend of Louis Leonard, would have been prevented if even the most basic of investigations had taken place into Louis’ murder.
Patsy Kelly –August 1974: On 13 August 1974, Patsy Kelly was abducted by a UDR patrol while he made his way from his pub on Main St in Trillick, Co Tyrone to his home a few miles away. His body was found some weeks later in a lake (Lough Eyes) near Lisbellaw in County Fermanagh. He had been shot dead by members of the UDR. His body was tied with iron weights so that he would never be found. However, some weeks later, his body was discovered by two fishermen on the lake.
Patsy Kelly was an elected Councillor in Omagh District Council and was a member of the newly formed Irish Independence Party. One of the founders of the Irish Independence Party, Frank McManus, an elected MP, had been injured in a gun attack on his way home in Enniskillen in 1973. A local member of the UDA was charged and convicted. He was acting for MI5/British intelligence.
John Turnly –June 1980:On 4th June 1980, another founding member of the Irish Independence party, John Turnly, was assassinated in Carnlough, Co Antrim by the UDA/UFF. MI5 provided the killers with information on his movements.
These are just some instances of the murderous activities of MI5 and loyalist agents working with the full support of the British government. Their aim was to undermine the movement for Justice and equal rights.
It is important that we are aware that MI5 are still about the place. They will do all they can to undermine the Good Friday Agreemen and obstruct the demand by Irish democrats for a Border referendum. It is safe to assume that MI5 agents are influential in Dublin government circles and in the Dublin -based media.
They must not be allowed to succeed. Justice must be done. The Truth must be told about the murderous activities of the British government. All the political parties in Dublin must demand that the British fulfil their obligations under the Good Friday Agreement. It is time to prepare for the Border poll.
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