A legacy of collusion and cover-up

New British legislation has been described as an “obscenity” as investigations and inquests into war crimes in the north of Ireland were cruelly terminated at midnight on Tuesday.

One of the most poignant rallies of the conflict took place outside the London government’s ‘Northern Ireland Office’ in Belfast at lunchtime on Wednesday.

Over a hundred bereaved family members held banners and photographs of loved ones killed during the North’s 30-year conflict, many of them due to the direct and indirect actions of British state forces, now apparently robbed of their chance for truth.

“Justice is dead”, said Daman Brown, the grandson of murdered Gaelic sports official Seán Brown, whose inquest is one of those most affected by the guillotine, one of 38 involving 77 people that have been halted by the new legislation.

A network of collusion has been uncovered in the murder, but the coroner has not been allowed to fully examine it and has called for a public inquiry into the killing.

“Its one achievement has been to unite all communities here,” Mr Brown said of the ‘Legacy’ legislation.

“It’s heartbreaking seeing all these families here; their lives have turned upside down and they’ve been hit with so many hurdles trying to get justice for their loved ones.

“What the British government is doing is totally wrong. When families do not have access to the court, justice is dead.”

A black coffin with justice emblazoned across it was held aloft surrounded by black-and-white photographs of victims. Under each photograph, innocent was written in block capitals. A minute’s silence was held for all those who died.

North Belfast MP John Finucane addressed the rally and said it was a “day of shame”.

The Sinn Féin MP was eight years old when loyalist gunmen burst into his family home and fired 14 shots at his father, the defence lawyer Pat Finucane, in front of him and his siblings in 1989. His mother was shot once in the attack and survived.

“This is a day when legal challenges in our courts officially come to an end,” he told the crowd.

“Challenges that have been taken by families who on some occasions have been waiting up to five decades for the simple right to ask their questions in a courtroom.

“For the very simple basic democratic right to have an inquest for their loved ones.

“We know the amount of inquests that have not been able to conclude. They haven’t been able to conclude because the British government and their agencies knew that this day was coming.

“The British government have today officially removed the independence of our courts in looking at our past.”

More than 330 Police Ombudsman cases will also not be investigated as a result of the new law.

In recent weeks around 240 letters have been sent by the Police Ombudsman’s office to people who have been seeking investigations for several yers.

“I am acutely aware that as my remit for historical investigations closes, regrettably my ability to provide answers to other families and victims also ends,” said Ombudsman Anderson.

Some of the complaints submitted to the Police Ombudsman have not been advanced in ten years. In some cases, relatives have died waiting for action.

Kevin Winters, of KRW Law, who represents many victims, said the letters “deliver the cold harsh reality of the new post - Legacy Act era”.

“The content of the letter betrays a state sleight of hand,” he said.

“They starved PONI (Police Ombudsman) of resources for years and then used that as a contrived basis to say current mechanisms aren’t working.”

Grainne Teggart, of Amnesty International, said the bill’s 1 May “guillotine” had “acted as an incentive for the state to frustrate legal proceedings and continue to grossly fail victims”.

“The UK government should be utterly ashamed of the suffering they have heaped on victims by this appalling act,” she said.

The deadline has had multiple negative effects across the North’s courts, with families of victims left only with a lingering hope that a future British government might repeal the legislation.

On Monday a coroner in the inquests of six people killed by the RUC in the 1980′s said the process was “not viable” as a result of PII (secrecy) orders by the British government.

Known as the Stalker/Sampson series, the inquests considered the RUC shooting of unarmed republicans Gervais McKerr, Eugene Toman and Sean Burns near Lurgan in County Armagh in November 1982.

Their shoot-to-kill murders were the first of six targeted ambushes carried out by the same RUC unit in north Armagh over a five-week period four decades ago.

The killing of Catholic teenager Michael Tighe at a hay shed near Craigavon was also related, as was the murder of unarmed INLA members Seamus Grew and Roddy Carroll, who were also unarmed, shot dead at Killylea Road, outside Armagh.

In a provisional ruling, coroner John O’Hara, who is also High Court judge, said he was unable to complete the PII process in all the cases adding that his “provisional view is that these inquests cannot adequately investigate the deaths where such disclosure is withheld”.

Outside court Fearghál Shiels of Madden and Finucane, said: the coroner’s decision was “premature and speculative” and may be subject to a legal challenge.

Jonathan McKerr, son of Gervaise, said: “They’re doing everything they can to stop the truth from coming out. The cover up and dishonesty continues but our resolve in the fight for truth has never wavered.”

A coroner has said that he has been prevented from delivering a narrative around the events surrounding of the murder of four people killed in two loyalist attacks in County Tyrone in 1992 following a legal challenge from the British government.

Judge Richard Greene also said he had reached a provisional view that an inquest into the four deaths cannot proceed because of the withholding of files on the grounds of British ‘national security’.

Kevin McKearney was shot dead by a UVF gunman inside his family-run butcher shop in the village of Moy, County Tyrone, in January 1992. His uncle Jack McKearney was wounded in the same attack and died in hospital three months later.

Later that year, Kevin McKearney’s mother-in-law and father-in-law, Charlie and Tess Fox – who were 63 and 54 respectively – were shot dead by the same gang inside their home in Moy.

The coroner said there had been “rumours and suspicion of state collusion for some time”.

He said he had planned to provide a “short narrative or gist” as part of his ruling on the state secrecy bid at Laganside Courthouse on Friday.

But he added: “A significant intervening event has occurred which prevents me from delivering my ruling this afternoon.

“The proposed gist is not accepted by the Security Service and the Northern Ireland Office, who object to its release in open (court).”

It is one of several legal actions by the British governmen against inquests providing gists which involve collusion.

The coroner said he had reached a provisional view that his inquiry into the deaths is “seriously compromised because relevant information on issues central to the scope of the inquest cannot be disclosed”.

He added: “As a result, my provisional view is that I cannot continue with these inquests.”

The coroner said he believed a public inquiry was now the “appropriate way to consider the full circumstances of these deaths”.

He said: “That is because in such a forum the closed material can be considered by the inquiry panel.”

The McKearney and Fox families reacted angrily to the development and said they would be launching their own counter legal challenges against the London government.

“Who is the Secretary of State protecting?” asked Paddy Fox, whose parents were killed. “Why is he going to court?

Mr Fox welcomed the call for a public inquiry but expressed disappointment that the coroner didn’t deliver the planned summary.

“He was anticipating an appeal but he has no idea (one was coming). You only know when one was put out there.”

“He gave them an out when there shouldn’t have been an out. It’s one of those things, publish and be damned.”

Speaking outside court his lawyer Gavin Booth, of Phoenix Law, accused Mr Heaton-Harris of “intercepting” the coroner’s ruling.

“This is a disgraceful attempt by the secretary of state to stop justice being done and being seen to be done,” he said.

“The coroner endorsed the fact that these inquests need to be a public inquiry. He said that he cannot continue with the inquest due to what has been disclosed by the state parties in this inquest.

“But rather than accepting that and endorsing the families’ calls for a public inquiry, the secretary of state has now told the families that he will take them to court like every other family. This is a disgraceful attempt to divert justice for families. It’s absolutely disgusting.”

He added he will lodge urgent court proceedings in the High Court “to get the ruling in full for the families so that they can finally get the information that proves that there was collusion in these murders”.

An inquest into the death of Sam Marshall, who was shot by two masked loyalists moments after leaving a police station after signing bail on March 7, 1990, has also been stopped, with secrecy requests by British forces again blamed.

Coroner Philip Gilpin said that he cannot hold “an adequate inquest into the death” of Mr Marshall and said he will be writing to the British government urging a public inquiry.

Mr Marshall’s brother, John Marshall, said the “development comes as no surprise” to his family.

“We recently received so-called sensitive disclosure which makes clear that when our brother Sam first appeared in Court in January 1990 seeking bail for low level possession of ammunition charges that an undercover soldier and a special branch officer appeared in the same court to familiarise themselves with Sam’s physical appearance,” he said.

“For the next two months, Sam was followed twice weekly to and from Lurgan police station in order to sign bail whilst under intense surveillance from undercover soldiers.”

Mr Marshall said eleven undercover British soldiers were operating in a area around Lurgan RUC station when he was killed.

“Two armed loyalist gunmen were allowed to easily infiltrate the area patrolled by heavily armed soldiers and shoot Sam dead and make good their getaway,” he said.

“The guns used to murder Sam were imported into Ireland by loyalist gun runners who were also paid British agents.

“Anyone with any knowledge of this case will know why the British government will want to stop this case in its tracks, because it stinks of collusion from the high heavens and it demands the explanations that the government has fought hard for the last 34 years to hide.”

Another inquest halted on Monday was that of Seamus Dillon, a former republican prisoner. He was shot dead by the LVF as he worked on the door at the Glengannon Hotel, near Dungannon, in December 1997.

Mr Dillon’s widow is currently a lead case in a High Court challenge against the Legacy Act.

It emerged during the hearing that the PII process had not been completed and Coroner Richard Greene said it was his provisional view that it is not now possible to hold an inquest.

He also placed on record that it was a “very great personal and professional disappointment” that he was unable to complete the inquest” and described the death of Mr Dillon as “brutal and wholly unnecessary murder of a wholly innocent man”.

After the hearing Ms Dillon said she felt “deflated”

“I’ll fight until I get the answers, until I get the truth and justice that my husband is entitled to,” she said.

Gerard Slane’s murder by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in west Belfast involved a British Army agent, Brian Nelson.

A new inquest was ordered in 2011, but it was hit by multiple delays, including over the disclosure of security force documents. It has now been halted by the legacy legislation.

“It was just delaying tactics the whole way through,” his son, Sean, said.

A British Army checkpoint was set up outside their home in Waterville Street, Clonard, about an hour before the shooting, in an apparent act of collusion.

“It woke me up. I went into my parents’ bedroom to sleep beside them,” he recalls.

“Then, at 4am, the door came in. I can still see my daddy lying on the stairs not moving. I lay down beside him and told him to wake up. A neighbour had to pull me off him.

“I remember standing in the broken glass in the front garden — the sledge hammer just lying there. I received counselling and, over the years, I tried to deal with what happened by putting it to the back of my head.

“My mother campaigned tirelessly for justice, but I saw her worn down by it all and her anxiety levels go through the roof.

“I have one parent six foot under, I don’t want another one there. That’s why I’m speaking out. The only thing that will help this country move forward is the truth. Our family, and so many others, need full disclosure.”

Dessie Trainor’s mother and two brothers were murdered by loyalists in the 1970s. He says the legacy legislation will deny families simple answers about the deaths of their loved ones.

Members of the notorious loyalist/British Glenanne gang, whose membership included members of the Crown forces, are suspected in the attacks which killed his family members.

Mr Trainor said his life was “ruined” from the moment his mother was shot dead.

“The British Government says everything’s going to be OK, everything’s going to be rosy, but if we say ‘tell us the truth’ then it’s ‘oh no, we can’t do that’,” he said.

“That’s all I am looking for – all I am looking for is the truth of what happened to my mum and my two brothers.

“It’s all behind that big wall that the British Government has put up, all the truth, it’s all there, but they won’t give us it.

“Why not tell the people that have been affected? I just don’t understand it.”

Mr Trainor questioned whether ministers were expecting him to reconcile with those responsible for the murders of his family members.

“Who am I going to reconcile with? Who am I going to reconcile myself with?” he asked.

“I would love to go to somebody and say ‘OK, you were the people who’ve done this, can I reconcile with you?’. They’re probably not here (any more).”

The inquest of a Catholic teenager killed in a suspected loyalist bomb attack at Kelly’s Bar more than 50 years ago was dramatically halted just hours before the Legacy Act took effect.

Nineteen-year-old John Moran died 10 days after a car bomb was detonated outside the bar in west Belfast on May 13, 1972. Loyalist gunmen sprayed survivors with bullets after the bomb went off.

Legal teams were preparing to make their final submissions on Tuesday when coroner Maria Dougan just stopped proceedings.

She said she had considered making “partial findings”, but found that there was further evidence she needed to consider before giving a ruling into the circumstances of Mr Moran’s death.

Mr Moran’s brother Chris Moran, said the decision to halt the inquest has “devastated” his family.

“We were informed 11 hours before the (Legacy Act) deadline,” he said.

“It has now closed, unless something changes in relation to the Legacy Act, that’s the end of the road for us, we can’t go any further.”

Lawyer Pádraig Ó Muirigh said: “This decision has been made just hours from the guillotine imposed by the Legacy Act,” he said.

“Our position has been that... there was compelling evidence before the coroner that loyalist paramilitaries were responsible for the explosion at Kelly’s Bar.”

Patricia and Tracey McDaid, whose father, Terry, was shot dead in the family home by loyalist paramilitaries in 1988, were informed their case will also not proceed.

The sisters were six and eight years of age at the time.

On a Tuesday in May 1988, they were allowed to stay up late as their grandparents were visiting after an evening swimmers class. Their mother, Maura, had just brought them up to bed when they heard a loud bang.

“I don’t think Mummy got to the bottom of the stairs when we heard all the noise; we thought she had actually fallen down the stairs. It didn’t seem that long after she left us until… all the screaming and banging started,” recalls Tracey.

“We got up and as I opened our bedroom door, there was a neighbour going past. She had blood on her hands and she was asking for towels, she kept saying, ‘stay there, stay there’.”

Directly below the sisters’ bedroom, two loyalist gunmen had burst into the livingroom and shot their 29-year-old father seven times in the head and chest as he watched the 10pm news on television.

Maura McDaid fought one of the gunmen off with a metal pipe from a vacuum cleaner; they tried to shoot her in the head but the gun jammed and she escaped uninjured.

For Tracey McDaid, it’s a memory that still haunts her.

“My daddy was on his knees leaning on the sofa and my mummy was over him… It was the look on her face looking at me,” she says.

It emerged that their father’s murder was a case of mistaken identity; his brother, Declan, had been the target of the loyalist death squad.

The McDaid family is among those who are challenging the new legislation in the European Court of Human Rights.

Patricia has vowed to continue the fight for her parents. “My mummy told me they put the gun to her head that night and it jammed. She said she looked down the barrel of that gun.

“We’re heartbroken because she fought so long and so hard on her own. It’s not about getting prosecutions, we’re past that now. It’s about getting truth for our family and truth for our daddy. He was an innocent family man who was murdered. For what? For nothing. It did go higher than the man on the street and the British government know that too.”

Paul Whitters, 15, died in hospital 10 days after being struck on the head by a baton round fired by a police officer in Derry.

His mother has said she struggles to find words to convey her anger over the British Legacy Act, which has ended hr hopes for justice.

The family had moved to Derry from Scotland in the years before the killing in Great James Street on April 15 1981.

“Paul was a very sweet child, very loveable and intelligent,” said Mrs Whitters. “He was loved by all; an inquisitive and curious child and he’s missed every day.

“Paul died in 1981 and I’ve been fighting (for justice) since Paul died, along with my husband (Desmond) who has since passed away.”

The shooting happened after a day of disorder in Derry linked to the hunger strikes.

In recent years, the family successfully lobbied to secure a confidential file on the incident from the British National Archives at Kew. But Mrs Whitters said the document was so heavily redacted the family was left “no wiser”.

“There are still loads of questions that have never been explained,” she said.

Mrs Whitters said the legacy legislation would be “tragic” for many families still seeking the truth.

“You know, sometimes I just can’t find the words to say how terrible this is,” she said of the Act.

“There’s never been any justice for Paul, a 15-year-old boy with his whole life ahead of him who was just tragically taken away by somebody who, for whatever idea he had in his head, shot a schoolboy.”

A decision not to prosecute soldiers over the deaths of teenager girl and man shot in Derry in 1971 has been described as ‘unbelievable’.

However, the Attorney General has ordered a fresh inquest into the deaths of one of the two people, 14-year-old Annette McGavigan.

The teenager was shot dead during unrest in Derry’s Bogside area on September 6, 1971.

Nine days later, 41-year-old William McGreanery was shot after a soldier opened fire from an army sanger near Lonemoore Road.

Files on both killings had been sent to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS), with a soldier known as Soldier B reported in connection with the death of Annette McGavigan, and a Soldier A reported over the death of Mr McGreanery.

On Monday, prosecutors confirmed it would not prosecute either individual.

Assistant director Martin Hardy said the PPS had “carefully considered” the evidence in both cases, but they could not prove that the reported suspect fired the shots that killed the two victims.

Annette’s brother Martin said the PPS decision was unbelievable, and described receiving the news days before the legacy legislation took effect as “very cruel”.

Mr McGreanery’s nephew Billy said the decision “beggars belief”.

“It is a justice system but in our case it is unjust,” he said.

In a positive development, the Attorney General has ordered a new inquest into the RUC killing of a Catholic man in Co Fermanagh more than 50 years ago.

Michael Leonard was shot after a car chase close to the Fermanagh and Donegal border between Pettigo and Belleek on May 17, 1973.

A decision to order a new inquest came just hours before the Legacy Act came into force.

In reaching her decision Attorney General Brenda King has taken into account several matters, including the emergence of British army logs “which are capable of casting doubt on the version of events provided to the inquest by the police”.

Michael Leonard’s brother, John Leonard, welcomed the inquest decision, which will need the legacy legislation to be overturned in order to proceed.

“Like so many other bereaved families who have fought for truth and justice for so long, we now face the terrible reality that Britain will not let this inquest go ahead as it wants to protect its killers,” he said.

“Our fight for truth and justice will continue regardless.”

However, a second ex-RUC man linked to four murders and a series of loyalist bomb attacks carried out by the notorious Glenanne gang will not be prosecuted, it has emerged.

Known as Officer C, the former policeman was reported to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in connection with the murders of the Reavey brothers and another man in south Armagh almost 50 years ago.

The ex-RUC man was also reported in connection with the murder of Thomas McNamee as a result of an explosion at McArdle’s Bar in Crossmaglen on November 29, 1974.

He was also reported for alleged involvement in several other incidents including an attack at the Rock Bar, Keady, Co Armagh in June 1976, a bomb attack on Tully’s Bar, Belleeks, Co Armagh, in May the same year and conspiracy to cause an explosion at Short’s Bar Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, in November 1974. Eugene Reavey, who has campaigned on behalf of his siblings, said he will not give up.

“This kind of news only seeks to put salt in the wounds after all these years,” he said.

“I have been fighting for over four decades for justice for my brothers and I do not intend on giving up now.”

Mr Reavey said he will seek a review of the PPS decision.

“Time after time, the British government has put obstacles in our way with one aim - to stop their own police officers in the dock,” he said.

“This decision is no different and I intend on urgently seeking a review of this decision.”

Darragh Mackin, of Phoenix Law, said: ““It is difficult to comprehend how suspects who have openly made admissions can somehow be saved from prosecution.

“Irrespective of the context of the admission, it is exactly that, it is tantamount to a confession to involvement in an offence.

“With this in mind, we have been instructed to ask for an urgent review.”

And in an unexpected development, the Attorney General has ordered a new inquest into the murder of a husband and wife in the McGurk’s Bar massacre more than 50 years ago.

Fifteen civilians, including two children, were killed when the UVF detonated a bomb in the North Queen Street bar, in north Belfast, in December 1971.

At the time Crown Forces blamed the IRA but this was later shown not to be true.

Campaigners believe there was collusion in the murders and that attempts were subsequently made to mislead the public.

Lawyers acting for relatives of Edward Keenan and his wife Sarah Kennan have been told that Ms King “considered the submissions and documents provided and has decided that it is advisable to order a new inquest into their deaths”.

In 2018 Attorney General John Larkin rejected a request for a fresh inquest.

Gerard Keenan was 13 years of age when he lost his parents and watched the recovery of bodies from the bomb site.

“Our families welcome the historic decision of the Attorney General to direct a new inquest as all the families have campaigned with great dignity for over 52 years for scraps of truth and justice from the British state,” he said.

“Like many other bereaved families now, though, we face the reality that the British state will not allow this inquest to go ahead as it desperately wants to stop us from discovering why our loved ones were murdered in the McGurk’s Bar Massacre and how it failed to prevent it.”

In recent years research charity Paper Trail has uncovered new evidence relevant to the case.

Ciarán MacAirt, whose grandmother Kitty Irvine was one of those killed and his grandfather John badly injured, had submitted new evidence discovered through archive and other research.

The new evidence included British army logs that identified the location of military observation posts in the vicinity of McGurk’s Bar.

Mr MacAirt said “British armed forces had previously denied the presence of any of its units in the area”.

The campaigner, who works for Paper Trail, suggests the truth about what happened at McGurk’s Bar has been supressed.

“Even before we buried our loved ones in those dark days of 1971, the British state buried the truth,” he said.

“The British state’s shameful Legacy Act in 2024 is another attempt by a serial human rights abuser to bury the truth.

“Our families will not roll over and surrender to this latest British attack on our basic human rights. We will continue to fight for equal access to due process of the law and demand an Article Two (right to life) compliant inquest.”

Family representative Niall Ó Murchú said: ”This is a poignant reminder of the power of family campaigning and the fact that legal processes – however slow – can work if not shut down by the British state.

“The British government and its Ministry of Defence have spent millions covering up their involvement in the McGurk’s Bar Massacre and its aftermath.

“Even after more than half a century, an inquest may offer the families an opportunity for truth and justice but now, of course, they first must fight for the repeal of the shameful Legacy Act, Britain’s latest attempt to bury its war crimes in Ireland.”

Urgent Appeal