McLaverty is born on July 5, 1904, at Magheross, near Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, the son of Michael McLaverty, a waiter, and Kathleen McLaverty (née Brady). His father works in a hotel in the town until they move to Rathlin Island, and later to Belfast, when he is five years old. He attends St. Malachy’s College in the city, where an inspiring teacher instills in him a love of William Shakespeare‘s writings. He entered Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) in October 1924 and studies physics. He obtains a B.Sc. in 1928 and immediately takes his H.Dip.Ed., completing his teaching practice in St. Mary’s University College, Strawberry Hill, London. The following year he begins teaching at St. John’s Primary School in Colinward Street, west Belfast. He is admitted to the degree of M.Sc. at QUB in 1933.
In 1933, McLaverty marries Mary Conroy (formerly Giles), a young widow and fellow teacher at St. John’s. They have two sons and two daughters.
During his time at St. John’s, McLaverty writes his first five novels and fifteen short stories. In the 1930s he has developed a distinctive style in precise, unsentimental, but compassionate short stories. By the late 1930s, however, he switches his energies from short stories to the novel. Call My Brother Back (1939) contrasts the traditional world of Rathlin Island with the northern troubles in a family context. Another novel, Lost Fields (1941), and his collection of short stories, The White Mare (1943), explore the Belfast of his childhood and deal with the underlying tensions in Irish rural life. In the period 1949–55 he publishes five other novels: Three Brothers (1948), Truth in the Night (1951), School for Love (1954), The Choice (1958), and Brightening Day (1965). These novels deal with ordinary people and the dilemmas they encounter in their families and communities. His writings are influenced by Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Katherine Mansfield, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the Irish short story writers Liam O’Flaherty and Daniel Corkery.
As headmaster of St. Thomas’s intermediate school, a large school for boys in Ballymurphy, off the Falls Road, McLaverty gives his first job to the young Seamus Heaney, in whom he cultivates an interest in the writings of Chekhov and Tolstoy and the Irish writers Mary Lavin and Patrick Kavanagh. He deems Heaney to be the only genius he has ever met, and his work and success are a great source of pride and joy to him. His encouragement of the young John McGahern is of as much benefit to McLaverty himself, as their short but intense correspondence give him the energy to resume his writings.
Between his resignation from St. Thomas’s in 1963 and the early 1970s he teaches part-time at St. Joseph’s training college and St. Dominic’s High School, one of Belfast’s best-known grammar schools. In 1981 his old alma mater recognises his contribution to literature by awarding him an honorary master’s degree. In the same year he wins the American Irish literary fellowship, a prestigious literary award of $10,000, in recognition of his “impressive body of work as a short story writer and novelist.”
McLaverty dies on March 22, 1992, in County Down, Northern Ireland.
(From: “McLaverty, Michael” by Éamonn Ó Ciardha, Dictionary of Irish Biography, http://www.dib.ie, October 2009)
Kelly is the oldest child in a Roman Catholic family of five. He lives in Carrickfergus until he is sixteen, at which time the family returns to live in Dungannon. His uncle is the Irish Republican activist and elected official Liam Kelly.
Kelly becomes a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army at the beginning of the 1970s and becomes one of the most experienced IRA men in County Tyrone. He is arrested in February 1982 based on testimony from an informant named Patrick McGurk but is released in October 1983 due to lack of evidence, after a trial that lasts fifteen minutes.
In 1985, Kelly becomes brigade commander in East Tyrone and begins developing tactics for attacking isolated Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) bases in his area. Under his leadership the East Tyrone Brigade becomes the most active IRA unit.
In 1986, Kelly attends the IRA Army Convention where the main topic of discussion is the principle of abstentionism. Gerry Adams and others argue that the abstentionist rule should be dropped and the Provisional movement should become involved in constitutional politics. Kelly votes against dropping the rule, and a rift with the majority of the IRA Army Council ensues.
Kelly is killed by the Special Air Service (SAS) on May 8, 1987, while he is participating in an attack on Loughgall police station, in which seven other IRA men, Pádraig McKearney, Declan Arthurs, Seamus Donnelly, Tony Gormley, Eugene Kelly, Jim Lynagh, and Gerard O’Callaghan, also die. His funeral in Dungannon is one of the largest in Tyrone during the Troubles.
Kelly is buried in Edendork Cemetery, two miles from his home in Dungannon.
Peter Desmond Farrell, Irish footballer who plays as a right-half for, among others, Shamrock Rovers, Everton and Tranmere Rovers, dies in Dublin on March 16, 1999. As an international, he also plays for both Ireland teams – the FAI XI and the IFA XI. His playing career follows a similar path to that of Tommy Eglington. As well as teaming up at international level, they also play together at three clubs.
Farrell is born on August 16, 1922, and raised in the Convent Road area of Dalkey, County Dublin, and is educated at Harold Boy’s National School and the Christian Brothers in Dún Laoghaire, from which he wins a scholarship. He is playing football with Cabinteely Schoolboys when spotted by a Shamrock Rovers scout and subsequently joins Rovers on his 17th birthday in August 1939. Among his early teammates is the veteran Jimmy Dunne. With a team that also includes Jimmy Kelly, Tommy Eglington, Jimmy McAlinden and Paddy Coad, he later helps Rovers reach three successive FAI Cup finals. They win the competition in 1944 and 1945 and finish as runners up in 1946.
In July 1946, together with Tommy Eglington, Farrell signs for Everton. In eleven seasons with the club, he plays 421 league games and scores 14 goals. He also plays a further 31 games in the FA Cup and scores an additional four goals. In 1951 he is appointed Everton captain and during the 1953–54 season leads them to the runners up place in the Second Division, thus gaining promotion to the First Division. During his time with the club his teammates, apart from Eglington, also include Alex Stevenson, Peter Corr, Harry Catterick, Wally Fielding, Tommy E. Jones, Brian Labone and Dave Hickson. He is never sent off during his time at Goodison Park.
Farrell leaves Everton in October 1957 and follows Tommy Eglington to Tranmere Rovers where he becomes player-manager. He plays 114 league games for Tranmere, before leaving in December 1960. After a time as manager at Sligo Rovers, he becomes manager of Holyhead Town and, helped by a number of former Everton and Tranmere players, guides them to the Welsh Football League (North) title.
When Farrell begins his international career in 1946 there are, in effect, two Ireland teams, chosen by two rival associations. Both associations, the Northern Ireland–based IFA and the Ireland–based FAI claim jurisdiction over the whole of Ireland and select players from the entire island. As a result, several notable Irish players from this era, including Farrell, play for both teams.
Farrell makes 28 appearances and scores three goals for the FAI XI. While still at Shamrock Rovers, he captains the FAI XI on his international debut on June 16, 1946, against Portugal. On September 21, 1949, together with Johnny Carey and Con Martin, he is a member of the FAI XI that defeats England 2–0 at Goodison Park, becoming the first non-UK team to beat England at home. After Martin puts the FAI XI ahead with a penalty in the 33rd minute, Farrell makes victory certain in the 85th minute. Tommy O’Connor slips the ball to Farrell and as the English goalkeeper Bert Williams advances, he lofts the ball into the unguarded net. He scores his second goal for the FAI XI on October 9, 1949, a in 1–1 draw with Finland, a qualifier for the 1950 FIFA World Cup. His third goal comes on May 30, 1951, as Farrell scores the opening goal in a 3–2 win against Norway.
Farrell also makes seven appearances for the IFA XI between 1946 and 1949. On November 27, 1946, he makes his debut for the IFA XI in a 0–0 draw with Scotland. Together with Johnny Carey, Con Martin, Bill Gorman, Tommy Eglington, Alex Stevenson and Davy Walsh, he is one of seven players born in the Irish Free State to play for the IFA XI on that day. The draw helps the team finish as runners-up in the 1946-47 British Home Championship. He also helps the IFA XI gain some other respectable results, including a 2–0 win against Scotland on October 4, 1947, and a 2–2 draw with England at Goodison Park on November 5, 1947.
After returning to Ireland following his retirement, Farrell settles in Dublin and follows his father into the insurance business. He dies on March 16, 1999, following a long illness. He is buried in Dean’s Grange Cemetery in Deansgrange, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, County Dublin.
The Littlejohn brothers are jailed on August 3, 1973, for a £67,000 robbery at an Allied Irish Banks branch on Grafton Street, Dublin, in October 1972, the biggest to date in Irish history.
During their trial the brothers claim to have been working for the British Government against the IRA. They say they had been told to stage the robbery to discredit the republican organisation and force the Irish Government to introduce tougher measures against its members. The British Government, however, denies all knowledge of the brothers.
Kenneth is sentenced to twenty years while his brother receives a fifteen-year term. During their time in prison the brothers exhaust all the appeals processes, with their final appeal being turned down in January 1974.
The brothers escape from Mountjoy during an exercise period. They scale the 25-foot-high main prison wall with homemade ropes while other prisoners distract the guards. However, the pair is spotted as they climb an outer wall.
Keith, 29, who has injured his ankle, is recaptured near the prison. Kenneth, 32, however, disappears without trace and is believed to be heading for the border with Northern Ireland. He is recaptured in December 1974. The brothers are released early in 1981 on condition they leave the Republic of Ireland.
Keith’s successful bid for freedom comes as a surprise. He has been weakened by a hunger strike he has been conducting since February in support of a demand for political prisoner status.
From the time the brothers are jailed the British Government steadfastly continues to deny all knowledge of them.
But the brothers’ tale does receive partial validation the prior year. Ireland’s former Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, admits he had been given diplomatic reports from the British authorities in January 1973 about the UK’s contact with the Littlejohn brothers.
In 1982, Nottingham Crown Court jails Kenneth Littlejohn for six years for his part in a £1,300 armed robbery at the Old Manor House, North Wingfield, Chesterfield, England. Keith Littlejohn, however, is cleared of a similar offence.
The 1973 Northern Ireland border poll is a referendum held in Northern Ireland on March 8, 1973, on whether Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom or join with the Republic of Ireland to form a united Ireland. It is the first time that a major referendum has been held in any region of the United Kingdom. The referendum is boycotted by nationalists and results in a conclusive victory for remaining in the UK. On a voter turnout of 58.7 percent, 98.9 percent vote to remain in the United Kingdom, meaning the outcome among registered voters is not affected by the boycott.
The Unionist parties support the “UK” option, as do the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI). However, the Alliance Party is also critical of the poll. While it supports the holding of periodic plebiscites on the constitutional link with Great Britain, the party feels that to avoid the border poll becoming a “sectarian head count,” it should ask other relevant questions such as whether the people support the UK’s white paper on Northern Ireland. Nevertheless, on February 5, 1973, the party’s chairman, Jim Hendron, states that “Support for the position of Northern Ireland as an integral part of the United Kingdom is a fundamental principle of the Alliance Party, not only for economic reasons but also because we firmly believe that a peaceful solution to our present tragic problems is only possible within a United Kingdom context. Either a Sinn Féin all-Ireland republic or a Vanguard-style Ulster republic would lead to disaster for all our people.”
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), however, calls for a boycott of the referendum, urging its members on January 23, 1973 “to ignore completely the referendum and reject this extremely irresponsible decision by the British Government.” Gerry Fitt, leader of the SDLP, says he has organised a boycott to stop an escalation in violence.
The civil authorities are prepared for violence on polling day. They put in place mobile polling stations which can be rushed into use if there is bomb damage to scheduled poll buildings. Two days before the referendum a British soldier, Guardsman Anton Brown of the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards, is shot dead in Belfast as the army searches for weapons and explosives which can be used to disrupt the upcoming referendum.
As a political response to the referendum, the Provisional Irish Republican Army also plants four car bombs in London that day, two of which detonate, causing one death and injuring over two hundred.
The vote results in an overwhelming majority of those who voted stating they wish to remain in the UK. The nationalist boycott contributes to a turnout of only 58.7% of the electorate. In addition to taking a majority of votes cast, the UK option receives the support of 57.5% of the total electorate. According to the BBC, less than 1% of the Catholic population turn out to vote.
The referendum electorate consists of 1,030,084 adults registered to vote out of a total population of approximately 1,529,993.
The Government of the United Kingdom takes no action on receipt of the referendum result, as the result is in favour of the status quo (Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK). It is followed by an Assembly election on June 28, 1973.
Brian Faulkner, who had been the sixth and last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, claims the result leaves “no doubt in any one’s mind what the wishes of Ulster’s people are. Despite an attempted boycott by some, almost 600,000 electors voted for the maintenance of the union with Great Britain.” He also claims that the poll showed that a “quarter of the [N.I.] Catholic population who voted … voted for the maintenance of the union” and that the result is a “blow … against IRA mythology.”
(Pictured: Map of Northern Ireland (yellow) within the United Kingdom.)
Although nobody is ever charged in connection with the killings, it is widely believed by nationalists and much of the press that the attack had been planned and led by Billy Wright, the leader of the Mid-Ulster Brigade’s Portadown unit. Wright himself takes credit for this and boasts to The Guardian newspaper, “I would look back and say Cappagh was probably our best,” though some sources are sceptical about his claim.
On the evening of Sunday, March 3, 1991, a unit of the UVF’s Mid-Ulster Brigade drive into the heartland of the East Tyrone IRA, intent on wiping out an entire IRA unit that is based in the County Tyrone village of Cappagh. One team of the UVF men wait outside Boyle’s Bar, while a second team waits on the outskirts of the town. At 10:30 p.m. a car pulls into the car park outside the bar and the UVF gunmen open fire with vz. 58assault rifles, killing Provisional IRA volunteers John Quinn (23), Dwayne O’Donnell (17) and Malcolm Nugent (20). The victims and car are riddled with bullets. According to author Thomas G. Mitchell, Quinn, O’Donnell and Nugent are part of an IRA active service unit (ASU). The gunmen then attempt to enter the pub but are unable to after the civilians inside realise what is happening and barricade the door. Unable to get into the bar, a UVF gunman shoots through a high open toilet window killing local civilian, Thomas Armstrong (50) and badly wounding a 21-year-old man. Their intended target, IRA commander Brian Arthurs, escapes with his life by crouching behind the bar during the shooting. According to the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN), the three IRA volunteers chose to go to the pub “on the spur of the moment,” thus are unlikely to be the UVF’s original target.
After the attack, the UVF issues a statement: “This was not a sectarian attack on the Catholic community, but was an operation directed at the very roots of the Provisional IRA command structure in the Armagh–Tyrone area.” The statement concludes with the promise that “if the Provisional IRA were to cease its campaign of terror, the Ulster Volunteer Force would no longer deem it necessary to continue with their military operations.” Privately the UVF are hugely pleased with the attack in a republican heartland and Billy Wright, leader of the Portadown unit of the UVF’s Mid-Ulster Brigade, who is alleged to be centrally involved, tells Jim Cusack and Henry McDonald the killings were “one of things we did militarily in thirty years. We proved we could take the war to the Provos in one of their strongest areas.” Cusack and McDonald assert that a wealthy UVF supporter with a business in South Belfast helped the UVF purchase the cars used in the attack at auctions in the city.
The Provisional IRA initially does not acknowledge that three of the victims are within its ranks, apparently with the aim of garnering sympathy from the wider world, particularly in the Republic of Ireland, toward nationalists in Northern Ireland.
The first reprisal takes place on April 9, 1991, when alleged UVF member Derek Ferguson, a cousin of local MP Reverend William McCrea, is shot and killed in Coagh by members of the East Tyrone Brigade. His family denies any paramilitary links. In the months following the 1991 shootings, two former UDR soldiers are killed by the IRA near Cappagh. One of them is shot dead while driving along Altmore Road on August 5, 1991. The other former soldier is blown up by an IRA bomb planted inside his car at Kildress on April 25, 1993. It is claimed that he has loyalist paramilitary connections. The 1993 bombing leads to allegations that the IRA is killing Protestant landowners in Tyrone and Fermanagh in an orchestrated campaign to drive Protestants out of the region. There are at least five botched IRA attempts against the life of Billy Wright before the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) succeeds in killing him in 1997 inside the Maze Prison.
This is not the first time the UVF carries out an attack on Boyle’s Bar in Cappagh. On January 17, 1974, at around 7:40 p.m. two masked UVF gunmen enter the pub and open fire indiscriminately on the customers with a Sterling submachine gun and a Smith & Wessonrevolver, firing at least 35 shots. A Catholic civilian and retired farmer Daniel Hughes (73) is shot eleven times and killed in the attack and three other people are injured. A group calling itself the “Donaghmore-Pomeroy Battalion of the UVF” claim responsibility for the shooting. The attack is linked to the notorious Glenanne gang.
(Pictured: The scene of the UVF attack outside Boyle’s Bar in Cappagh in March 1991. Photo: Pacemaker Archive Belfast 153-91-BW)
A series of riots in Dublin on February 25, 2006, is precipitated by a proposed march down O’Connell Street of a unionist demonstration. The disturbances begin when members of the Garda Síochána attempt to disperse a group of counterdemonstrators blocking the route of the proposed march. The situation escalates as local youths join forces with the counterdemonstrators.
The march of this group in Dublin is viewed as provocative by some Irish nationalists and many Irish republicans, particularly in the context of an Orange Order march. The Orange Order is accused of being a sectarian organisation known for its anti-Catholicism. The right to march is supported by the main Irish political parties and the march is authorised by the Garda Síochána. Love Ulster had organised a similar rally in Belfast in October 2005.
At previous FAIR rallies, a picture of an Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) member who was allegedly involved in the murder of 26 people in Dublin in the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, and who was himself killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1976, had been displayed. An organiser of the Love Ulster demonstration tells a republican newspaper that he cannot guarantee that images of the murder suspect will not be displayed during the demonstration.
Sinn Féin, an Irish republican political party, does not organise a protest and says that the march should be allowed to go ahead, calling for republicans to ignore the march. Republican Sinn Féin, a splinter political party no longer affiliated with Sinn Féin, has an organised presence.
Their protest blocks the northeastern junction of O’Connell Street and Parnell Street. The small Republican Sinn Féin group (and some activists from the Irish Republican Socialist Party) are joined by several hundred local youths. Before the violence breaks out, they chant republican chants. Several thousand bystanders are also on the scene but take no part in the subsequent rioting. When the marchers form up at the top of Parnell Square and their bands begin to play in anticipation of the start of the march, gardaí attempt to disperse the protest at around 12:45 p.m. At this point, scuffles break out between protesters and Gardaí.
After the failure of the initial garda effort to disperse the protesters, the violence escalates. The Garda Public Order Unit is deployed, and stones and metal railings are thrown at gardaí by protesters, as are fireworks, bricks, crude petrol bombs, and other missiles. As the rioting continues, the ranks of the rioters are swelled by many local teenagers who had not taken part in the initial protest. Several barricades are constructed from building materials on the street to impede the march and the Gardaí. The march is due to start at 12:30 p.m., but as the violence goes on the gardaí decide against trying to escort the marchers through O’Connell Street. At about 1:30 p.m. the assembled marchers return to the coaches that had brought them to Dublin from Northern Ireland. The three coaches are then driven to Leinster House, where a small parade is carried out, and a letter is handed to Irish Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell. They are then escorted out of the city. One of the coaches is attacked by stone throwers on the way home.
Violence continues sporadically on O’Connell Street for another hour or so. The Gardaí, advancing from the northern end of the street gradually push the rioters back southward. The most sustained violence takes place around the General Post Office building, where the rioters initially sit down in protest and then, after several of them have been batoned, regroup behind burning barricades and throw rocks, paving slabs and one or possibly two petrol bombs at Gardaí. Several Gardaí, protesters and a number of journalists from RTÉ and TV3 are injured.
While the standoff on O’Connell Street is still going on, several hundred rioters follow the Unionist coaches to the Nassau Street area where they set a number of cars on fire and damage several businesses. Further skirmishes break out around the River Liffey at O’Connell Bridge, Aston Quay, Fleet Street and Temple Bar, as the Gardaí retake O’Connell street, before the rioters disperse.
Having dispersed the rioters, the gardaí then closes O’Connell Street to facilitate a cleanup of the scene by building workers. Media reports estimate the cost of the cleanup job at €50,000, and Dublin Chamber of Commerce places loss of earnings for businesses in the city due to the riots at €10,000,000.
Estimates for the number of unionist marchers before the event are predicted to be over 1,000. However, only eight coach loads turn up in Dublin, indicating a far smaller number, possibly 300 to 400. Estimates for the number of counterdemonstrators vary between 300 and 7,000. The number is made much more difficult to determine by the presence of the several thousand bystanders at the scene who do not take part. Most of the rioters appear to be local youths, though some who brandished leaflets and other political literature are clearly political activists.
A total of 14 people, including six gardaí and a small number of journalists and photographers, are hospitalised as a result of the rioting. A further 41 people are arrested, according to RTÉ news. As of February 27, 2006, thirteen have been charged. Twenty-six people are convicted in January 2009 for their part in the disturbances and given sentences of up to five years. Two are described as “alcoholics.” One of them and a teenage boy are “homeless.” Three are not Irish – a Georgian, a Romanian and a Moldovan are convicted of looting shops on O’Connell Street. Two have travelled from County Offaly, one from County Galway and one from County Donegal for the riot. All the rest come from Dublin.
(Pictured: The Public Order Unit on O’Connell Street during the 2006 Dublin Riots)
Ford stands unsuccessfully for Antrim Borough Council in 1989 and enters politics full-time when he becomes general secretary of the Alliance Party. In that role, he is best known as a strong supporter of the then-leader John Alderdice and an advocate of better political organisation and community politics. He is elected to Antrim Borough Council in 1993, 1997 and – after leaving the Council in 2001 to concentrate on Assembly business – again in 2005.
In 2001, Seán Neeson resigns from the Party leadership following poor election results. Ford wins the leadership election on October 6 by 86 votes to 45, ahead of Eileen Bell.
Ford gives Alliance a stability which it has lacked since the departure of John Alderdice, but the Party has declined seriously in the late 1990s and all he can do is stabilise the situation. Within a month of taking over the leadership, however, he has a chance to establish Alliance’s relevancy in the post-Good Friday Agreement environment. On November 6, 2001, the Northern Ireland Executive is to be re-established. Due to defections within his own Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), First MinisterDavid Trimble has insufficient support within the Unionist bloc in the Assembly to be re-elected to his post. Ford and two of his five colleagues re-designate as Unionist for just 22 minutes in order to secure Trimble’s position and thereby enable the devolved institutions to operate for another year. However, Alliance fails to make any political gains from their move, and the UUP and Sinn Féin fail to reach agreement on the decommissioning issue, ensuring that the institutions collapse again in October 2002.
In the 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election, Ford’s seat in the Assembly is perceived to be under severe threat from Sinn Féin’s Martin Meehan, with many commentators expecting him to lose it. However, his expertise in nuts-and-bolts electioneering stands him in good stead. Although Alliance’s vote almost halved, his own vote in South Antrim increases from 8.6% to 9.1%. Meehan’s vote increases dramatically, from 7.3% to 11.5%, and he starts the election count ahead. Ford has much greater transfer appeal and finishes 180 votes ahead of Meehan at the end of a dramatic three-way fight for the last two seats, with Thomas Burns of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) just 14 votes ahead of Ford. Despite the dramatic fall in vote, Alliance holds on to its six seats in the Assembly, which remains suspended.
In 2004, Ford makes good his leadership election pledge to work with other parties, as Alliance joins with the Workers’ Party, Northern Ireland Conservatives and elements of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition to support Independent candidate John Gilliland in the European elections, achieving the best result for the centre ground for 25 years.
Ford’s greatest triumph comes in the 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election, when the party achieves its highest vote share since Alderdice’s departure and picks up a seat in what is an otherwise poor election for the moderates. Despite media predictions once again of his demise, Ford himself is elected third in South Antrim, with over 13% of the poll.
On April 12, 2010, Ford is chosen by the Assembly to become Northern Ireland’s first Justice Minister in 38 years. He is supported in the Assembly by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Sinn Féin, the Alliance Party, the Green Party and the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP). Separate candidates for the position are put forward by both the UUP and the SDLP, being Danny Kennedy and Alban Maginness respectively.
Ford announces his resignation as Leader in October 2016 on the fifteenth anniversary of his election as leader noting, “The team is working well, and I think it’s an appropriate time to hand over to a new leader who will lead the party forward in the next stage of its development and growth.”
Ford and his wife Anne have four grown children and live in rural County Antrim. Until the spring of 2013, he is an elder in the Second Donegore congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. He is removed from his role as a ruling elder over differences with fellow congregants on the subject of same-sex marriage. In a 2016 interview he says he is still hurt by the decision by his fellow elders who chose not to work with him because of his support for equal marriage. “It saddened me that there was, if I may put it, a lack of understanding from some people about the role I had as a legislator, compared to the role I have within the church.”
The band is briefly named the Fast, but as there is already a group of that name, they change it to Stiff Little Fingers, taken from the song of the same name that had appeared on Pure Mania, the 1977 album by the Vibrators. Apart from a five-year gap from 1983 to 1987, Stiff Little Fingers has been active since 1977 to the present day and have released ten studio albums.
In 1981, Burns makes his acting debut in an episode of the BBC‘s Play for Today series entitled Iris in the Traffic, Ruby in the Rain, written by Belfast-born poet and playwrightStewart Parker, which also features the rest of Stiff Little Fingers effectively playing themselves as “The Band.”
After the breakup of Stiff Little Fingers in 1983, Burns forms Jake Burns and the Big Wheel. The band consists of Burns on vocals and guitar, Steve Grantley on drums, Sean Martin on bass guitar, and Pete Saunders on keyboards. Big Wheel records a total of three singles, “On Fortune Street,” “She Grew Up” and “Breathless.” A compilation album, also called On Fortune Street, is released in 2002 after the band’s demise.
In 1987, Burns disbands Big Wheel, and Stiff Little Fingers reforms, because they are “skint and wanted to make a bit of cash to get back to Ireland for Christmas.”
From about 2001 to 2005, Burns is involved in a side project with Pauline Black of the Selecter, called 3 Men and Black. This involves Black touring with three male artists from the late 1970s and early 1980s doing acoustic versions of songs they are famous for and talking a little about how they came to write the songs. The lineup for the concerts is fairly fluid, and includes such people as Bruce Foxton, Jean-Jacques Burnel, Eric Faulkner and Nick Welsh.
On March 27, 2006, Burns releases a solo album titled Drinkin’ Again.
Burns lives in London for over ten years from 1978 after Stiff Little Fingers relocates there. His first wife lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, and after their marriage, he moves to Newcastle, where he lives for 16 years, becoming a supporter of Newcastle United F.C. He is also an avid supporter of the Northern Ireland national football team.
Burns’s second wife, Shirley, is American and they have lived in Chicago since 2004. Burns eventually becomes a U.S. citizen, partially so he can help vote out Donald Trump.
(Pictured: Jake Burns, performing with Stiff Little Fingers in 2019)
The Tandragee killings take place in the early hours of Saturday, February 19, 2000, on an isolated country road outside Tandragee, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Two young Protestant men, Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine, are beaten and repeatedly stabbed to death in what is part of a Loyalist feud between the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and their rivals, the breakaway Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). The men are not members of any loyalist paramilitary organisation. It later emerges in court hearings that Robb had made disparaging remarks about the killing of UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade leader Richard Jameson by an LVF gunman the previous month. This had angered the killers, themselves members of the Mid-Ulster UVF, and in retaliation they lure the two men to the remote lane on the outskirts of town, where they kill and mutilate them. The UVF’s Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership) does not sanction the killings.
The origins of the lethal 2000–01 loyalist feud which erupts between the UVF and the LVF begins when a brawl breaks out in the Portadown F.C. Society Club on December 27, 1999. The leader of the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade, Richard Jameson, is jostled and insulted by members of the LVF who are holding a celebration at the club to commemorate the second anniversary of the shooting death of their former leader and founder, Billy Wright, inside the Maze Prison by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA).
Shortly after Jameson leaves the club, he returns with a number of UVF men armed with baseball bats and pickaxe handles. A violent altercation breaks out in which 12 people are seriously injured including three LVF prisoners out on Christmas parole. The LVF decides to retaliate and sends a gunman to assassinate Jameson in the driveway outside his home on January 10, 2000. The UVF’s Brigade Staff in Belfast immediately convenes a “war council” at “the Eagle,” their headquarters over a chip shop on the Shankill Road, where they discuss plans to avenge Jameson’s killing. The LVF’s leader, Mark “Swinger” Fulton, who is imprisoned at the time, claims to no avail that his organisation is not involved in the shooting.
At 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, February 19, 2000, Protestant acquaintances, Andrew Robb, a 19-year-old unmarried father, and David McIlwaine, an 18-year-old graphic design student at Lurgan Tech, both of Portadown, leave “The Spot” nightclub in Tandragee together with three others after spending Friday night out. The club is managed by Willie Frazer, well known as a loyalist victims’ advocate and political activist, who has since suggested that the killings were linked to a threat posed to him by the UVF. Billy Wright had reportedly frequented the nightclub before his imprisonment and death.
The group of three men and two women attempt to enter a taxi, but regulations stipulate that no more than four passengers can travel together. Robb and McIlwaine get out of the vehicle and head in search of a house party. The pair knocks on the door of a house in Sinton Park belonging to Mid-Ulster UVF member Stephen Leslie Brown, 19, also known as “Stephen Leslie Revels.” They are invited inside where other UVF members Noel Dillon and Mark Burcombe are also present. Alcoholic beverages are consumed at the party.
The atmosphere inside the house suddenly turns ugly when Dillon asks the teenagers how they feel about the LVF killing of UVF Mid-Ulster brigadier Richard Jameson. McIlwaine remains silent, however Robb replies, “So fucking what, it’s got fuck all to do with me,” to which Dillon takes exception. When he informs Robb that Jameson had been his good friend, Robb makes further disparaging comments which also anger Brown. Brown, out of earshot of the teenagers, decides to assault Robb in retaliation, saying he will “punch the head off Andrew.” Neither Robb nor McIlwaine has been a member of any loyalist paramilitary organisation, although Robb has tenuous links to the LVF having been an associate of Billy Wright and even photographed in 1996 at a march led by Wright. Writers Henry McDonald and Ian S. Wood allege that, unknown to the teenagers, a UVF unit had gone to “The Spot” to seek out two known LVF individuals rumoured to have been involved in Jameson’s killing; however, they had already left the nightclub by the time the UVF arrived. The UVF men encounter Robb and McIlwaine instead and target them as LVF members implicated in Jameson’s death.
Under the pretense of another party elsewhere, Brown lures Robb and McIlwaine into his car along with Dillon and Burcombe. Brown drives off toward Druminure Road where he stops the car at a gate leading to a field and orders the passengers to get out. Burcombe leads McIlwaine away from the vehicle. As they are walking downhill, Burcombe informs McIlwaine that the other two men are going to “give Andrew Robb a beating for slabbering about Richard Jameson. Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing to do with you.” Brown and Dillon proceed to attack Robb with a series of savage kicks. He is then stabbed deeply in the abdomen and throat and dies instantly. He also sustains wounds and gashes to his face and head.
The two perpetrators return, both “walking with a swagger” to where McIlwaine waits downhill from the parked car with Burcombe. McIlwaine makes an attempt to run away but Brown, Dillon, and Burcombe catch up with him as he falls to the ground. Brown gives him a severe kicking, mostly in the head. Dillon produces a butcher’s knife and cuts McIlwaine’s throat while Brown shouts encouragement and Burcombe overlooks the scene from about five feet away. Brown and Dillon leave McIlwaine still breathing on the ground. Once they are back inside the car, Brown proposes to drive the car over his head, but Dillon dissuades him. Brown halts the vehicle, takes the knife and walks back over to where McIlwaine is lying on the road making a “wheezing” sound. Brown stabs McIlwaine repeatedly in the face and chest. When he notices that McIlwaine appears to be looking up at him, Brown stabs him deeply in his left eye, the wound penetrating his brain, killing him. According to Burcombe’s later testimony, Brown appears “crazed” as he hands the knife back to Dillon and says he is “buzzing.” He subsequently goes on to recount stabbing McIlwaine in the eye. He threatens to cut Burcombe’s throat or kill a member of his family if he tells anyone what happened.
Several hours later, at 9:30 a.m., the mutilated bodies of Robb and McIlwaine are discovered lying in pools of blood on the roadside 100 metres apart from one another by a woman taking her children to dancing lessons. Because of the devastating stab wounds inflicted upon the teenagers, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) assumes that McIlwaine had received a shotgun blast to his face. Both of their throats are slashed so deeply that the teenagers are nearly decapitated. The RUC immediately sets up an inquiry into the killings. Postmortems reveal that Robb had sustained a severe cut to the neck and three penetrating wounds to the abdomen. There are no defence injuries. McIlwaine received a severe throat injury, seven penetrating wounds to the chest and penetrating wounds to the face and to the left eye. Both teenagers were intoxicated at the time of their deaths.
The killings deeply shock the community and are strongly condemned by local politicians. The young men’s funerals attract hundreds of mourners. They are buried in adjacent graves at Kernan Cemetery in Portadown.
After the attacks Adair brands the UVF “Protestant killers” and even produces a newssheet in which he lists McIlwaine and Robb as Protestant victims of the UVF along with the likes of the murdered Frankie Curry and regular targets Jackie Mahood, Kenny McClinton and Clifford Peeples. The UVF Brigade Staff in Belfast does not sanction the killings of Robb and McIlwaine. The LVF leadership, however, maintains that the blame for the killings lies with the UVF and threatens to strike back against carefully selected targets in the Belfast UVF.
The day after the homicides, a number of people are arrested in connection with the crime, including Noel Dillon. The arrests are not made under anti-terrorist legislation, and the suspects are all released unconditionally the same evening. On February 27, 2000, Stephen Brown is brought before the Armagh magistrate’s court after he is charged with both murders. The police tell the court they have plenty of forensic evidence connecting him to the homicides. Ten months later, Brown is released on bail after the court is told the prosecution has expressed doubts about their principal witness and the forensic evidence is not sufficient to secure a conviction. On February 6, 2001, the charges against Brown are unexpectedly dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions. In April 2001, Mark Burcombe is arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Acts in relation to his UVF activities but is released without charge.
David McIlwaine’s father, Paul, campaigns for nine years to obtain justice for his son. He enlists the aid of a nationalist human rights group and sets up his own online support group, “Justice for David McIlwaine.”
On November 2, 2005, the Tandragee double killing is reconstructed and featured on the BBC One programme Crimewatch in which a £10,000 award is offered. After viewing the programme, Mark Burcombe consults a clergyman and solicitor and subsequently presents himself to police outside Hillsborough Castle to give them information regarding the events which took place on February 19, 2000. He is interviewed about the killings over a period of four days and admits to having known both Robb and McIlwaine. He is arrested and charged with the murders along with Stephen Brown, who had also been arrested on November 7, 2005, in connection with the double killing. Noel Dillon had committed suicide in January of that same year. When Detective Chief Inspector Tim Hanley charges Brown with the murders, the latter pleads not guilty to each charge. In January 2008, shortly before his trial is due to start, Burcombe decides to turn “Queen’s evidence.” He formally agrees to admit to and give a full account of his own role in the murders and to give evidence against Stephen Brown. He signs an Agreement under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 to receive a reduced sentence in return for giving evidence against his co-defendant.
Burcombe pleads guilty to the offence of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm to Andrew Robb and is sentenced to 28 months’ imprisonment with two months consecutive for an unrelated suspended sentence. The Robb and McIlwaine families are outraged and disappointed at the leniency shown to Burcombe. Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams asks Patricia Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, the Attorney General for Northern Ireland, to review the case and consider an appeal to impose a heavier sentence, writing that “all records before the courts on this crime verify it was a barbaric act.” Adams also goes on to affirm that he shares the McIlwaine family’s belief that a state agent was involved in the homicides and was being protected. Lady Scotland, however, backs the plea bargain deal.
Stephen Brown is found guilty of the murders on March 3, 2009. The trial, which commences on November 25, 2008, is held at the Belfast Crown Court without a jury. The prosecution relies upon three pieces of evidence to prove Brown’s culpability. These are the testimony of Mark Burcombe, the forensic material found by the RUC at the crime scene, and the hearsay evidence of Brown’s former girlfriend who claims he had admitted to her that he had killed McIlwaine. Burcombe declares that McIlwaine was murdered because he had witnessed Robb’s killing.
One month later, April 3, Brown is sentenced to 35 years in prison for each count of murder. The trial judge, who had passed sentence on Brown, declares that the murders are “among the most gruesome of the past 40 years.” He goes on to add, “they represent unbridled mindless violence and a total disregard for the value and dignity of human life.” Brown makes an unsuccessful appeal to have his murder conviction overturned on May 24, 2011.
seamus dubhghaill 