Republican News · Thursday 28 November 2002

Normal life does not exist

BY JIM GIBNEY

"We don't know what normal life is like anymore", Deborah Devenney told the Mayor of Hamilton, New Jersey, Glen Gilmore, in the living room of her Clandeboye Avenue home last Saturday afternoon.

Her house had been taken over, not for the first time, by visitors observing or reporting on the ongoing attacks since May by loyalists on the Short Strand area of east Belfast.

When I arrived she was simultaneously talking to the Mayor and speaking with a representative from the Police Ombudsman's office, who was investigating an attack on an American woman by the PSNI during the summer.

The mayor was visiting the Short Strand as a result of an invitation to do so from Deborah, who met him while she was on a recent NORAID tour of the US and from Gerry Adams, who also invited him over.

Deborah explained to the mayor that normal life has been replaced with uncertainty, with fear. No one knows from one minute to the next what will happen. Ordinary everyday activity like making dinners, cleaning the house, going shopping is done with one ear to the street. All the time listening for a cry for help or a scream of pain as yet another person is injured by a brick, iron bolt, golf ball; or terrified by an exploding firecracker.

d as if on cue, a young boy stuck his head in the door with the message that the loyalists were stoning again. Deborah and Danny immediately rushed out into the street to investigate.

The lad's face was very familiar, although I didn't know who he was. Later Danny explained he was Jackie McMahon's nephew. The resemblance between them was striking. And the similarities didn't end there either.

Jackie McMahon is one of the victims of the conflict, although you will not see his name on any of the official or unofficial lists recording those who died as a result of violence. (He is, however, on the republican Roll of Honour.) Yet Jackie died as a deliberate act of violence. Indeed his family and friends believe he was murdered by the UDR.

On the night of 18 January 1978, Jackie and two of his pals were chased by loyalists along the Laganbank Road towards the Albertbridge, close to the Short Strand where all three lived. A passing RUC patrol stopped Jackie and one of his pals watched as the RUC men put Jackie into the back of their Land Rover.

They arrested him and took him to Musgrave Street barracks, a short distance away from the Laganbank Road. They admitted arresting him but later claimed they released Jackie after detaining him for a few hours.

Jackie McMahon was never seen alive again. Five months later his body was washed up a short distance away from Musgrave barracks in the river Lagan.

At the beginning of Jackie's disappearance his family were not too worried about his absence from the family home because he would often stay with friends in Unity Flats in north Belfast for a few days at a time. But on this occasion, a few days gave way to a week, a week to a month and so on.

The situation was further complicated because the family got reports of people seeing and indeed talking with Jackie. This created a false situation for them; they thought he was safe.

The Short Strand was rife with rumours about Jackie's fate but most people quickly settled on the view that Jackie ended up in the Lagan with the help of the crown forces, in particular the UDR.

If Jackie was released from Musgrave barracks he had two ways home: over the Queen's bridge or the Albert bridge. Both routes were dangerous, especially late at night, from loyalists but the main threat came from the UDR, who had stationary checkpoints on both bridges.

Jackie was no stranger to the river Lagan. He grew up beside its banks and as a boy and teenager played there; although familiar with it he knew its dangers because he couldn't swim.

Jackie was a known republican activist. He had been a member of Na Fianna and later joined the IRA. The crown forces were aware of his connections.

The RUC and indeed the British authorities never satisfied Jackie's family when they asked them a simple question: How did Jackie end up in the river Lagan when he was last in the custody of the RUC?

Will the truth ever be known about Jackie Mc Mahon's last moments on this earth? Perhaps when the situation in the Short Strand settles down the people of the area could hold a community inquiry into his disappearance, similar to the one held last week by the people of the New Lodge Road into the massacre there of six people by the British Army and loyalists in 1973.

The relevance of this story to Jackie's nephew is that Jackie experienced exactly the same set of circumstances as a young boy growing up in the Short Strand that led to his nephew sticking his head through the door last Saturday afternoon.

On BBC's popular 'Let's Talk' programme last Thursday night, Deborah described these circumstances; "We can't use the doctor's, the dentist's, the post office. We can't shop in any part of east Belfast. If we were black the world would be outraged at such racism."

But there is no anger, let alone outrage, from any of the unionist politicians. They reserve their criticism for the people of the Short Strand.

Following the latest attack on the Short Strand by loyalists a few days before my visit, the media reported it in the context of a 'lull over a ten-day period'. The people I spoke to on the street knew nothing about a 'lull'.

They told me the media are only interested when there are bombs going off or shots are being fired. When the cameras go home, they have to bear the brunt of a constant and low level bombardment, which happens without warning at all hours of the day and night.

While I was standing in the street several missiles came over the roofs from Cluan Place thrown by loyalists. Several women, one after another, came out to their doors complaining about their homes being stoned.

One man walked casually from an entry with a silver coloured object in his hand. One of the women had sent for him to check out the object in her back yard. She thought it was a pipe bomb. It was a bomb all right but it was filled with gunpowder, not gelignite.

other man brought an object forward which had just landed outside his back door. It was a heavy duty bolt with a long piece of plastic clothes line tied onto it to give the thrower more leverage to get the device over the newly erected high fencing separating the two streets.

The Mayor of Hamiliton told me that he had 180 policemen under his command. He reckoned that eight police, four at either end of Cluan Place on a 24-hour watch, could speedily end the attacks on Calndeboye Avenue.

He wasn't surprised that no one in the PSNI or the 'NIO' had thought of that simple yet direct approach. Perhaps that is because there is another agenda and the people of Cluan Place and Clandeboye are pawns in a much bigger game played out by the securocrats.

The people of Cluan Place and Clandeboye are pawns in a much bigger game played out by the securocrats