The five-man gang dragged Andy Kearney out of his home and into the lift where he was shot three times in the legs. His assailants made sure to rip the telephone from the wall before eaving.
Kearney's girlfriend had to run to a friend's house to call an ambulance wasting valuable time. An artery in his leg had been severed and Andy Kearney bled to death. His mother, Maureen Kearney, has no doubt where the blame for her son's death lies.
He had been threatened several times in the past by the Provisionals. It is believed he had been involved in an altercation in a West Belfast bar with a senior Provo figure a few weeks ago. Maureen Kearney who describes herself as a Republican, said she had gone to prominent members of both the Provisionals political and military organisations to have them lift the threats on her son's life, and they had denied any involvement.
She denied her son was involved in any anti-social activity. Past threats on his life included one in the name of Direct Action Against Drugs -- a cover name for the Provos.
As the Provisionals further compromise with the British and their Unionist underlings, it is inevitable that they will indulge in personal vendettas and other strong-arm tactics on the ationalist community.
Britain has successfully corralled both loyalist and nationalist Irish into their allotted areas. Both the Provisionals and the loyalist death squads have gained a position of power in their communities, and what they have they intend to hold.
Meanwhile the sentinel British bulldog looks on knowing its Irish colony remains intact.
Frankie and Anthony Creane were watching television at their Garvagh Court home in the predominantly loyalist Caw estate when a gang of up to six men smashed the door shortly after 12.30am and cornered the brothers and immediately letting fire. Frankie Creane (53) was shot in the leg and was said to be in a stable condition that evening in Derry's Altnagelvin Hospital, while Anthony (49), who sustained bullet wounds to the upper leg and groin was taken to Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital where his condition was described as critical following surgery.
The shooting is believed to have been carried out by the pro-British UDA/UFF death squad. Although the death squad is allegedly on ceasefire, it is seen as a less stable body than the UVF. Following the attack UDA/UFF mouthpiece David Nicholl of their political front the UDP delivered a sinister get-out warning to nationalists in the area. "I am very concerned about Catholics living in the area," he said. Urging nationalists to consider vacating the area following these "grave threats", Nicholl warned, "I can't guarantee their future well-being."
Relatives of the victims claim the death squad were intend on killing the brothers. The men's niece, Jackie Lyons. said the gang put a gun to Frankie Creane's head but he escaped with his life in the melee.
Inquiries by concerned members of the public as to how the Dublin regime might mark the tragedy were treated with indifference by both offices. "The Taoiseach considered the situation to be so sensitive that it would not be appropriate for him or a representative to attend the funeral", confirmed a spokesperson for Bertie Ahern.
"The President is her own person. She could have decided for herself to go. It's not down to the Government to decide that for her", the spokesperson added and offered the pathetic excuse that an open letter of sympathy to the family displaying the state symbol would be inappropriate.
A similar response came from the office of Mary McAleese. Neither office sent a representative to the funeral on July 14. This despite the fact that the 26-County President Mary Robinson found no difficulty in attending a memorial service for Tim Parry and Jonathan Ball killed in a Provisional bombing in Warrington, England.
Irish children don't rate so high with the Dublin elite it seems. McAleese did not deem it "insensitive" or "inappropriate" to entertain over 100 Orangemen in the Vice-Royal lodge while nationalists were being burned out of their homes across occupied Ireland.
But then maybe she's just trying to prove she's not a croppy after all, but an equal British underling in a "Council of the British Isles."
O'Callaghan also met the British Prime Minister's chief of staff, Jonathan Powell. A Downing Street spokesman said it was O'Callaghan's first visit to No. 10. Chief of Staff Jonathan Powell is chairman of the proximity talks aimed at resolving the Drumcree stand-off.
The Provisional informer was involved with a number of prominent unionists in drafting a speech for Tony Blair in the midst of Drumcree Mark IV. It is said Blair refrained from using the speech because he thought it might encourage Orange intransigence.
It seems the speech was too obviously pro-imperialist for Tony Blair, but nevertheless the British premier is still amenable to ideas from the group. The pro-British think-tank was brought together by columnist and alleged historian, Ruth Dudley Edwards who feigning shyness said she had not been asked by Powell to prepare the speech but did admit to her cloak and dagger backing for the British premier. "I do provide the ideas .... one does things behind the scenes. There was a feeling thata possible speech might calm things down", she ventured.
Among those who were involved at the gathering held on July 9 at which the speech was drafted were unionist members of the Stormont Assembly, Chris McGimpsey and Paul Bew, a historian at Queen's University. Also at the six hour brain-storming session was Liam Kennedy also of Queens.
In a statement of July 15 the Dean of Christ's Church Cathedral, Dublin, the very Rev John Patterson said: "These young children died, deliberately burned to death in their homes and all because of a couple of yards of road".
While accepting that members of the order were not directly involved in the children's deaths, the Dean commented: "but their unyielding attitude and the support they are accepting from off-line thugs means their hands are not clean."
In a sermon on Sunday July 12, the day of the massacre, Dean Patterson spoke of shame: "The Church of Ireland says it has no links with the Orange Order. That's only a sort of half-truth we should be ashamed to make. Of course there is no official link. Nor do the Presbyterian or Methodist Churches have direct links. But many of their members condone this on the grounds that most Orangemen are quiet and peaceable members of the community."
Dean Patterson went on, "but what cannot be condoned, and what must be condemned is the official attitude of the Order that claims the right to walk wherever and whenever it wishes. That claim has never been cleanly condemned by any Church Synod, Presbyterian Assembly or Methodist Conference."
He accused the Churches of having "funked" the issue and said that until we come to accept "the common name of Irish men and women, whatever their political or religious affiliations, these troubles would continue."
More than 150 peers congregated in the usually desolate upper house of the British parliament on July 20 to agree without a vote to a motion calling on the Queen of England to release Mark Wright (24) and James Fisher (29). The Guardsmen were convicted of the murder of 18-year-old Peter McBride who was shot in the back shortly after being abused and terrorised by a four-man British army patrol in Belfast's Spamour Street on September 4, 1992.
Among the old empire merchants assembled for this non-debate was Tory Lord Vivian, a former member of Defence Intelligence staff who had served in Occupied Ireland. Lord Vivian told the press there had been a "gross miscarriage of justice and it must be put right as soon as possible". "Are these men who merely carried out their duty for the nation to languish in prison when others who have committed unspeakable crimes are to be released," he fumed.
Note the killing of an Irish teenager by members of the British Crown Forces is merely carrying out "their duty for the nation" while actions by Irish people are "unspeakable crimes". Also speaking in this non-debate was fellow British military man, Field Marshal Lord Bramell, who is a former chief of defence staff. The imperious field marshal also assured the assembly that "the men had been carrying out their duty", and had simply made a "tragic split-second error of judgement and should be released forthwith".
Speaking on Co Wicklow's East Coast Radio on July 23, Frank Massey who lost his daughter, Anna, in the Dublin explosions on May 17, 1974, was reacting to a judgement of the Dublin Supreme Court to deny relatives of the carnage to 26-County police files. Frank Massey said the relatives had contacted three successive ministers for justice and had got nowhere with them.
An attempt on behalf of the relatives to have the files released was made in the Dublin Supreme Court on July 22 by Joseph Doyle whose daughter and two granddaughters were killed in the Dublin bombings. The High Court in a decision of August last year rejected Joseph Doyle's application for release of the documents and the five-judge Supreme Court dismissed his appeal.
Three bombs exploded in parked cars at 5.30pm in Dublin's Parnell Street, Talbot Street and South Leinster Street, killing 26 people. Ninety minutes later another carbomb exploded in Monaghan town centre killing another seven people.
All the cars were hijacked that day in Belfast and Portadown, Co Armagh. Among the Dublin dead were Joseph Doyle's daughter Anne O'Brien and his granddaughters, Jacqueline and Anne-Marie O'Brien. The production and discovery of the files was being sought to enable the families to use them in their case against the British government, which is before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Delivering the Dublin Supreme Court judgement, Justice Barrington said Joseph Doyle arising out of the 1974 bombings had lodged a complaint against Britain in the ECHR. He had complained that Britain was in breach to take the necessary and appropriate measures to investigate events leading to and associated with the deaths of members of his family. Justice Barrington accepted that Joseph Doyle had established the 26-County police had documents relating to the 1974 massacre and endorsed the pathetic excuse of the police commissioner that he was opposed to producing any documents at all "on a point of principle".
The commissioner maintained it was of paramount importance that information gathered by the police in the course of an investigation remain confidential. Summing up the court's ruling Justice Barrington, covering up the 26-County State's embarrassment, said the Dublin Supreme Court had no jurisdiction over a sovereign British government. But Joseph Doyle simply wanted the release of documents. What are they afraid of? And finally Justice Barrington absurdly claimed: "Mr Doyle had produced no evidence admissible in an Irish court to establish even a prima-facie case that the UK had been guilty on any wrongdoing".
The relatives have consistently claimed that British Military Intelligence was involved in the Dublin/Monaghan atrocities. Among the information in the hands of lawyers for the families are the names of British intelligence agents supplied by a senior military figure in the 26-County Establishment who says the involvement of these people was known all along. He claims that 25 members of the pro0British death squad, the UVF, were trained for the attacks by British Military Intelligence.
In 1993 Yorkshire Television screened a documentary revealing how loyalists were trained in the use of explosives by the secret Fourth Field Unit of the British army based in Castledillon, Co Armagh and that the bomb which killed five people in Monaghan was assembled by the same British army unit in a vacant house in Portadown, Co Armagh. The UVF death squad in the Lurgan and Portadown area was at that time run by Billy Hanna who was under the control of British Military Intelligence from their Six-County HQ in Lurgan, Co Armagh. It was the death squad under his command that carried out the Dublin/Monaghan bombings. Hanna was killed by the UVF in 1975 who mistakenly thought he was supplying information to the IRA.
Several windows were smashed when an Orange mob using catapults from the loyalist Shankill area on July 21. Residents are fearful that the attacks which have increased in frequency might cause a pile-up on the motorway and result in death or injury to drivers in the local community.
Carrick Hill residents association spokesperson, Frank Dempsey, speaking on July 25 said: "This is an ongoing problem but it tends to get worse during the summer months and the Drumcree situation made things even worse. "The nuts smashed through a number of windows and if there had any children or even adults standing there they could have been seriously injured."
He said unless something is done it will only be a "matter of time" before somebody is killed. Frank Dempsey has contacted the colonial housing committee to install hardened glass in the flats.
Eimear Harrison, who works in a taxi depot in the nationalist district, claimed a plainclothes RUC man told her he could "sweep the matter under the carpet" if she supplied him with information about certain people in the area. "I just felt sick and thought I was going to pass out," she said. The young mother claimed the incident had made her "fearful and paranoid".
The poster – pinned onto a board inside a glass case and advertising 'Operation Roadside' and a police recruitment ad – called for unity between loyalists and Occupation Forces. It counselled "Do not become involved in violence . . . Do not confront the security forces." Such activity was "alienating those who support us. We need to be a united people. Ask local Orange leaders how you can help."
When journalists from a Belfast newspaper visited the barracks for an explanation an RUC sergeant responded. "Well. That's a bit of a coincidence isn't it. You get a call this morning thenthis appears. It wasn't here yesterday." Later the RUC informed journalists the blame lay with "a member of the public who took advantage of the noticeboard's faulty lock".
Dana and Jason Averill were in bed with their two-year-old son when they were startled by the sound of a 16-strong gang who smashed in the front door of their Eastvale Avenue home in Dungannon. As the Orange mob smashed items of furniture, Dana Averill immediately turned to protect her child. The gang then laid into her husband, beating him several times about the head. The Tyrone mother has no doubt why her family was targeted. She has many friends from the nationalist community and has consistently declined to donate to door-to-door collections in support of the Drumcree stand-off.
"They just burst in and ran through the house," Dana Averill said. "It was a terrifying experience." She described it as a "disgrace" that people could behave in such a manner towards members of their own community and added: "They did this in front of our two-year-old child and it was a terrible experience for all of us. We're now homeless and we don't know what to do."
A prestigious Catholic girls' school towards the north of Liverpool centre was attacked by arsonists for the second time in a month leaving the gymnasium gutted. Notre Dame High School in Everton is situated in a Catholic area, the building lies on the edge of a densely-populated loyalist district.
On July 5 as Liverpool's Orange lodge announced it was sending "hundreds" of marchers to support their brethren on the Garvaghy Road, Portadown (this was the beginning of the Drumcree stand-off). Loyalists using a rubbish dump which borders a housing estate were able to gain access to the rear of the school. The incendiaries forced their way in a back door and doused the area with inflammable liquid. The ensuing blaze completely engulfed the gymnasium.
The Everton Valley site was first attacked on June 16 as the British moved into top gearputting the final touches on the Stormont Assembly. The season of Orange Order marches in the Everton area started a week earlier. It is known that loyalists in Britain keep in regular contact with the Orange Order and their death squad allies in Ireland.
The Order's Everton headquarters maintains constant links with their brethren in the Six Counties. At the time of the blaze the front of the school wall was daubed with a UVF death squad slogan. While the writing on the wall of a nearby housing estate exclaimed "Ulster Says No". Other anti-Irish and anti-Catholic messages were pasted up along the parade routes urging "Remember 1690", "No Popery" and "Ulster is British".
The following day in that party's weekly, Brian Campbell waffled about percentages and the amount of young voters they gained at the expense of the SDLP. Playing it safe, Campbell opined: "But the SDLP now has the opportunity to rebuild. The prospect of salaried political careers is likely to see an influx of personally ambitious young people into the party in the coming years."
Let's not upset the poor man by relating the fable of the pot and the kettle. Let us instead be charitable and trust that the beverage being poured from these vessels is Earl Grey tea.
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