Republican News · Thursday 29 January 1998

[An Phoblacht]

Fear and anger as loyalist killings continue

by Laura Friel

ger displaced despair, as Northern nationalists faced another onslaught of sectarian murders by loyalist gangs. Funerals followed shootings, shootings followed funerals in a week which witnessed five nationalists killed, four seriously injured, one murder bid and a pipe bomb attack.

On Wednesday evening, as television footage of the funeral of Fergal McCusker was viewed with sadness in thousands of homes across the North, reports were broadcast of another loyalist murder attack. The scene shifted from Maghera to Belfast.

Benedict Hughes, a 55-year-old Catholic from West Belfast was shot dead by a lone gunman in the loyalist Donegall Road as he left work shortly after 5pm. At 5.30pm Jean Hughes was still waiting for her husband to pick her up outside Belfast's City Hospital where she works as an auxiliary nurse. Returning home alone, Jean discovered from television news reports that Ben had been murdered.

This was the second loyalist killing in Belfast in 48 hours. Catholic taxi driver, Larry Brennan from the Markets area of the city had been shot dead outside a taxi depot on the Ormeau Road on Monday night.

Within three hours of the murder of Ben Hughes, a second Belfast Catholic narrowly escaped death. 37-year-old John McFarland, a taxi driver from Whitewell Road, was shot in the head by a loyalist gunman after being lured to pick up a fare in the Donegall Road. The injured man drove himself to the nearby Mater hospital where his condition was described as ``serious but not life threatening.'' In a third gun attack in Belfast on the same night, loyalist gunmen smashed their way into a home in the mainly Protestant Belvoir estate. Their victim was shot several times and rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital where his condition was described as ``critical''.

Just hours before, Fr Seamus O'Connell described Fergal McCusker as a ``totally innocent man whose only crime was to fall into the hands of criminals'', his murder was ``an act of bigotry'' and the killers' motivation ``to instil fear into the community''.

As darkness fell, the despair of Maghera had turned to dread on the streets of Belfast. Grey skies overshadowed mourners gathering in Belfast's Friendly Street for the funeral of Larry Brennan on Thursday morning. At nearby St. Malachy's Church, Fr. Michael Sheehan said people were ``weary, sad and broken''. ``Who did these marauding murderers claim to represent?'' he asked.

Within hours loyalist killers struck again. ``Why me?'' said the North Belfast Catholic as he lay injured. Shortly after 6pm. 30-year-old Chris McMahon was shot by a lone gunman as he locked the Carnmoney bakery where he worked. The father of two, was rushed for emergency surgery to Whiteabbey Hospital. His condition was later described as ``serious but stable''. Friday night the traffic stopped in West Belfast as hundreds of people escorted the coffin of Ben Hughes from his Suffolk home to St. Michael the Archangel, on Finaghy Road. It was 4.30pm.

At 4.45pm loyalist killers struck again, killing Liam Conway. Hours earlier in a statement using the cover name UFF, the UDA admitted involvement in sectarian killings. The statement was prompted after RUC Chief Ronnie Flanagan was forced to admit forensic evidence linked the UDA with the murders of Ben Hughes, Larry Brennan and Eddie Treanor. The admission by the UDA and RUC confirmed what nationalists had known for weeks. UDA murder gangs were facilitating and participating in sectarian killings under the banner of the LVF. The UDA statement dismissed its campaign of terror as ``a measured response''. Within the nationalist community, anger replaced anxiety, determination displaced despair. Community groups called a rally to be held on Sunday afternoon.

As news of yet another killing filtered through the streets of Belfast, just hours after the UDA reaffirmed its ceasefire, nationalist anger hardened into outrage. 39-year-old Liam Conway was shot twice in the head and chest as he sat at the wheel of a mechanical digger at Hesketh Road, off the Crumlin Road. A lone loyalist gunman had selected his Catholic victim after walking past a number of other workmen digging up the road. Liam Conway was working less than a hundred yards from the nationalist community, Ardoyne, where he lived with his two brothers and sister. The fatally injured man was rushed to Mater Hospital where he died without regaining consciousness.

Those who spread anti-Catholic hatred are as guilty of murder as those who pull the trigger, Bishop Patrick Walsh told mourners at the funeral of Ben Hughes on Saturday morning. ``Tragic as this death is, we will not allow the men of violence to prevail,'' said local priest Fr Sean McCartney. On Saturday night a loyalist murder gang was to strike at the very heart of West Belfast. Tragically, the victim, a taxi driver, had assured his wife he was safe because the UDA statement reinstated their ceasefire. 33-year-old John McColgan was lured to his death after the killers hailed his cab on the Andersonstown Road. Shortly before 9pm three men entered Network taxi depot facing the Whitefort and asked to be taken to the Sloans, a club in the Whiterock area. After a 20 minute delay, the three men left the depot and hailed a passing taxi from `STS'. The taxi driver stopped to pick up a passenger but said he would radio for a second taxi. John McColgan picked up two of the three men, the third walked away. John radioed the `STS' depot and said his passengeres had changed their destination to Mourne View, on the Hannahstown hill.

John McColgan's body was discovered by a passer-by around 9.30pm at the side of a country road on the Hannahstown hill, just yards away from where Larry Brennan had been buried on Friday. The dead man had five gunshot wounds to the back of the head. His taxi was found burnt out at the Giant's Ring, a loyalist area of South Belfast.

``He was my life and they have taken away a precious thing,'' said Lorraine McColgan speaking after her husband's death. The couple's three children, Sean (11), Mairead (9) and three-year-old Gavin were described as devastated. At a rally in West Belfast's Dunville Park, the mood was angry as thousands of people turned out on a cold Sunday afternoon. ``I'm a Catholic, I'm a target,'' read a homemade placard. ``Unionist cheerleaders for loyalist death squads,'' and ``retaliation a myth'' read other placards held by people in the crowd.

Loyalist attacks continued, shifting this time to Lurgan, with a shooting in the nationalist Taghnevan estate. A Catholic in his thirties was shot early on Sunday morning by a lone gunman as he sat in his lorry outside his home. The man sustained a gunshot to the shoulder before his assailant ran off in the direction of the Old Portadown Road.

In a second sectarian attack, a Catholic family was forced to leave their home after it was targeted by a pipe bomb attack. Over 30 families were evacuated after the device was discovered in the driveway of a Catholic family living in Prospect Heights in Carrickfergus.

The funeral of Liam Conway was held in North Belfast on Monday morning. His sister Marion was supported by her brother Brian in the short journey from their home to The Sacred Heart Church on the Old Park Road. A second brother, Patsy was too distressed to attend the funeral. ``Our anger is a just anger,'' Fr Sean Gilmore told mourners, ``As Liam worked to keep his family an evil coward came out of the dark, took his life and ran back into the shadows,'' said the priest. Tuesday morning at 3am and a Catholic working in a North Belfast Taxi depot escaped death when his assailant's gun jammed. As details of the murder bid at Metro Cabs hit the news, thousands of nationalists had begun to gather outside John McColgan's Westrock home. The night before hundreds of people had silently queued for hours to leave their cards and condolences.

Loyalist killers, Fr Denis McKinlay told mourners, ``thrive on the vilification of the whole Catholic community. Their peddling of death is a result of a hatred born of careful nurturing, sadly even from those who claim to be in positions of leadership.'' As the funeral cortege moved off, a child's sobbing was the only accompaniment. Inconsolable in her mother's arms, her persistent screams seemed wholly appropriate amid a community crying out for justice but finding little comfort. Wednesday morning and nationalists awoke after a killing-free night. A pale sun hung over Belfast city, its cold light barely dispelling the shadows, its rays devoid of warmth.


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