Murphy blasts ``sick joke''
Sinn Féin's Newry and Armagh Assembly member, Conor Murphy, has
branded the presentation of a peace prize to the Royal Irish Regiment
(formerly known as the Ulster Defence Regiment) as a ``sick joke''.
The 8th (County Armagh and County Tyrone) Battalion of the Royal Irish
Regiment, which was renamed after the merger of the Ulster Defence
Regiment and the Royal Irish Rangers, is to be presented with ``The
Wilkinson Sword of Peace'' in the Armagh Council Offices on Friday 26
November 1999. The Wilkinson Sword company regularly awards the prize
to a branch of the British military.
That the RIR are to receive a peace prize will be a particularly
bitter pill for nationalists to swallow, given that regiment's role in
terrorising the nationalist community.
The track record of the UDR/RIR does not make for pretty reading. They
have been involved in drunken brawls, sectarian murders, sexual
assaults and robberies.
That the 8th Battalion, based in Drumadd Barracks in Armagh City has
been chosen to receive a peace award is even more distressing, given
that this battalion has housed some of the worst that the regiment has
to offer.
In 1974, two UDR members were charged with bombing incidents which
were connected to the UVF. In 1975, another two were jailed for
bombing a Catholic bar in Dungannon. In 1976, UDR member Derek Kennedy
was jailed for burning a Catholic school.
Probably the most infamous incident involving members of the 8th
Battalion was the murder of 24-year-old Adrian Carroll in November
1983. Carroll was shot dead by a lone gunman with his murder being
claimed by the ``Protestant Action Force''. At the time of the murder,
Carroll's brother, Noel, said: ``The Protestant Action Force consists
of off-duty members of the crown forces.''
It was not long before he was proved right but with one exception; his
brother's killers were not off duty.
Neil Latimer, Noel Bell, James Hagen and Alfred Allen were all UDR
members when they were convicted of killing Adrian Carroll. Three were
subsequently acquitted, but Latimer's conviction stands.
Sinn Féin member Peter Corrigan, also from Armagh City, was shot dead
by the PAF in 1982, a killing many believe was the work of UDR men and
in the same year, Anthony Harker was shot dead by a UDR patrol. His
killing came after years of harassment, which he had dared to speak
out against, at the hands of the UDR.
Conor Murphy was particularly scathing of the SDLP, whose Mayor of
Armagh, Councillor Tom Canavan, sent out the invitations.
``This affair also raises questions for the SDLP. I'd like to ask the
SDLP what their position is towards the RIR? Do they believe they
deserve a peace award?'' asked Murphy.