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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