The soldiers subsequently claimed: An initial inquiry, led by John Widgery, issued its conclusions just eleven weeks after Bloody Sunday and largely exonerated the British soldiers, taking at face value their suggestion that ‘they themselves came under fire and their own shooting consisted of aimed shots at gunmen and bomb throwers who were attacking them’. Lord Widgery, Report of the Tribunal Appointed to Inquire into the Events on Sunday, 30 January 1972 (April 1972). This investigation was widely condemned as a whitewash. It was only in 1998 that a subsequent inquiry, this one led by Mark Saville, was convened. In its 2010 report, the Saville inquiry concluded that, ‘despite the contrary evidence given by soldiers … none of them fired in response to attacks’. Independent Report of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry (15 June 2010).
filled them with an overpowering anger: P-TKT.
In February, protesters set fire: ‘Nation Mourns Derry’s Dead’, Irish Times, 1 February 1972.
In March, London suspended: ‘British Take Direct Rule in N. Ireland: Heath Suspends Ulster Self-Rule, Names Aide to Run Province’, Washington Post, 25 March 1972.
Dolours Price travelled to Italy: Interview with Fulvio Grimaldi; ‘Misteriosa “Pasionaria” Irlandese Illustra L’attività Rivoluzionaria dell’IRA’, Corriere della Sera, 24 March 1972.
‘the ghetto system’: ‘Evidence Given on Handwriting’, Irish Times, 26 October 1973; ‘Violence “Not Included in IRA Principles”’, Guardian, 26 October 1973.
‘If my political convictions’: ‘Condannata all’Ergastolo’, L’Europeo, 29 November 1973.
In a photograph: ‘Espulsi dall’Italia, I 2 irlandesi dell’IRA’, Corriere Milano, 24 March 1972.
Chapter 5: St Jude’s Walk
The McConville family had two dogs: McKendry, Disappeared, p.14.
in March 1972, when he was seventeen: Interview with Michael McConville; McKendry, Disappeared, p.13; ‘Snatched Mother Missing a Month’, Belfast Telegraph, 16 January 1973.
‘She had sort of given up’: McKay, ‘Diary’, London Review of Books, 19 December 2013.
subsist on cigarettes and pills: Ibid.
Tranquilliser use was higher: Eileen Fairweather, Roisín McDonough and Melanie McFadyean, Only the Rivers Run Free: Northern Ireland; The Women’s War (London: Pluto Press, 1984), p.35.
‘Belfast syndrome’: Jeffrey Sluka, ‘Living on Their Nerves: Nervous Debility in Northern Ireland’, Healthcare for Women International, vol. 10 (1989). See also R. M. Fraser, ‘The Cost of Commotion: An Analysis of the Psychiatric Sequelae of the 1969 Belfast Riots’, British Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 118 (1971); ‘Mental Illness in the Belfast Trouble Areas’, Irish Times, 3 September 1971.
Doctors found, paradoxically: ‘Mental Illness in the Belfast Trouble Areas’, Irish Times, 3 September 1971.
At night, through the thin walls: McKay, ‘Diary’.
Increasingly, Jean became a recluse: McKendry, Disappeared, p.13.
There was a discomfiting sense: ‘Jean McConville’s Daughter: “If I Give Up Fighting, They’ve Won”’, Observer, 6 July 2014.
1972 marked the high point: McKittrick et al., Lost Lives, table 1, p.1494; table NI-SEC04, ‘Deaths (Number) Due to the Security Situation in Northern Ireland (Only) 1969–2002’, assembled by the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN).
several attempts at suicide: McKendry, Disappeared, p.13. Also see McConville, ‘Disappearance of Jean McConville’, p. 16.
Purdysburn, the local psychiatric hospital: Interview with Michael McConville.
Nights were especially eerie: ‘Helen McKendry: Some People Ignored Us … Others Didn’t Give a Damn’, Belfast Telegraph, 13 April 2015.
‘Please, God, I don’t want to die’: Interview with Michael McConville; McKendry, Disappeared, p.14.
As her children watched: Interview with Michael McConville; McKendry, Disappeared, p.14.
Then she comforted him: Interview with Michael McConville; McKendry, Disappeared, p.14; ‘Helen McKendry: Some People Ignored Us … Others Didn’t Give a Damn’, Belfast Telegraph, 13 April 2015.
‘That was somebody’s son’: ‘Helen McKendry: Some People Ignored Us … Others Didn’t Give a Damn’, Belfast Telegraph, 13 April 2015; McKendry, Disappeared, p.14.
BRIT LOVER: McKendry, Disappeared, p.14; ‘Sons Recall 30 Years of Painful Memories’, Irish News, 24 October 2003.
an antique mode of ritual humiliation: For a general account of how tarring and feathering fitted into the larger context of social control in Belfast, see Heather Hamill, Hoods: Crime and Punishment in Belfast (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2011), pp.76–77.
A mob would accost: Winchester, In Holy Terror, p.110; ‘3 IRA Men Jailed for Tarring Incident’, Hartford Courant, 13 May 1972.
‘Soldier lover!’: ‘Ulster Women Tar 2 Girls for Dating British Soldiers’, New York Times, 11 November 1971; ‘Ulster Girl Who Was Tarred Secretly Weds British Soldier’, Boston Globe, 16 November 1971; ‘Irish Girl Who Was Tarred Weds Her British Soldier’, New York Times, 16 November 1971.
Tarring and feathering became an official policy: ‘Officers of IRA Group Give Account of Fights’, Irish Times, 18 March 1971.
When the first few cases turned up: ‘Belfast Confetti’, New Yorker, 25 April 1994.
strangers in a strange land: Interview with Michael McConville.
After their home was marked: ‘Sons Recall 30 Years of Painful Memories’, Irish News, 24 October 2003.
Archie was badly beaten: Interviews with Archie McConville and Michael McConville.
Helen and a friend were harassed: McKendry, Disappeared, pp.13–14.
declining to take part in ‘the chain’: Ibid., p.15.
shoved the animals down a rubbish chute: ‘Sons Recall 30 Years of Painful Memories’, Irish News, 24 October 2003.
Michael had asthma: McKendry, Disappeared, p.15.
She requested a transfer: Interview with Michael McConville; McKendry, Disappeared, p.15.
Christmas was coming: ‘Shops Suffer in Bomb Attacks’, Belfast Telegraph, 20 December 1972.
Whenever she won anything: ‘Sons Recall 30 Years of Painful Memories’, Irish News, 24 October 2003.
One night after the family had moved: McKendry, Disappeared, p.15. There is some disagreement about the timing of the bingo night, but the McConville children maintain today that the episode occurred the night before their mother’s abduction. This was also what they said in the immediate aftermath of the incident. On 16 January 1973, the Belfast Telegraph published a front-page story that quotes Helen describing the bingo night abduction and saying, ‘The following night she was taken’ (‘Snatched Mother Missing a Month’, Belfast Telegraph, 16 January 1973).
Shortly after 2 a.m.: McKay, ‘Diary’. In the 1973 Belfast Telegraph article, Helen recalls, ‘My mother was robbed of her purse, handbag, shoes and coat and was badly beaten. She was found wandering the streets by soldiers who were then stationed in Albert Street Mill’ (‘Snatched Mother Missing a Month’, Belfast Telegraph, 16 January 1973).
Jean said that she had been: McKendry, Disappeared, p.16. This much of the account appears to be corroborated by official records consulted later by the police ombudswoman, Nuala O’Loan: ‘Police records show that on 30 November 1972 a report was received at 02.00 hrs from an army unit stating that at 23.00 hrs on 29 November 1972 a woman had been found wandering in the street. The woman had told them that she had been beaten and told not give (sic) information to the army. She was very distressed and the army stated her name was Mary McConville of St Jude’s Walk. Jean McConville’s mother-in-law was called Mary McConville. It is thought by the family that the woman found by the army may have been Jean McConville, who was asking for her mother-in-law’ (Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland, ‘Report into the Complaint by James and Michael McConville Regarding the Police Investigation into the Abduction and Murder of Their Mother Mrs Jean McConville’, August 2006, p.4). There is an obvious discrepancy in the timelines between the 29 Nov
ember date in this report and the suggestion by the McConville children that Jean was not abducted until 7 December. This anomaly is explored at length in a later chapter.
‘A load of nonsense’: McKendry, Disappeared, p.17.
lit one cigarette after another: Interview with Agnes McConville in The Disappeared, directed by Alison Millar (BBC Northern Ireland, 2013).
She told Helen that: McKay, ‘Diary’.
The children would later recall: Interviews with Michael, Archie and Susan McConville.
She drew a bath: Interview with Michael McConville; ‘Sons Recall 30 Years of Painful Memories’, Irish News, 24 October 2003.
‘Don’t be stopping for a sneaky smoke’: McKendry, Disappeared, p.18.
she noticed something strange: Ibid., p.18.
Chapter 6: The Dirty Dozen
A vacant house stood: H-BC.
It was a Saturday, 2 September 1972: ‘British Troops May Have Exchanged Fire’, Irish Times, 4 September 1972.
Looking up, Hughes noticed: H-BC. The fact that the van was green comes from ‘British Troops May Have Exchanged Fire’, Irish Times, 4 September 1972.
just to be on the safe side: H-BC.
At twenty-four, Hughes: In his Boston College interview, Hughes said that he was born in June 1948. He did not recall the date of this incident, but contemporary reports and subsequent research indicate that it was 2 September 1972. See Ed Moloney and Bob Mitchell, ‘British “War Diary” Suggests Possible MRF Role in Effort to Kill Brendan Hughes While London Buries Secret Military Files for 100 Years’, The Broken Elbow blog, 23 February 2013. Also see Margaret Urwin, ‘Counter-Gangs: A History of Undercover Military Units in Northern Ireland, 1971–1976’, Spinwatch report (Public Interest Investigations, November 2012), p.15.
He was the officer commanding: H-BC; Brendan Hughes, ‘IRA Volunteer Charlie Hughes and the Courage of the Brave’, The Blanket, 10 September 2002.
In rural areas: ‘Portrait of a Hunger Striker: Brendan Hughes’, The Irish People, 6 December 1980.
Hughes had joined: H-BC.
Hughes moved from house to house: Brendan Hughes interview, Radio Free Éireann, WBAI, 17 March 2000.
D Company’s territory: H-BC.
the Dogs, or the Dirty Dozen: Ibid.; Dolours Price, ‘Gerry, Come Clean, You’ll Feel Better’, The Blanket, 26 February 2008.
Hughes adhered to a philosophy: H-BC.
‘He seemed to be a hundred places’: P-EM.
‘giant of a man’: Dolours Price, ‘Brendan Hughes: Comrade and Friend’, The Blanket, 17 February 2008.
D Company was carrying out: ‘Brendan Hughes: Obituary’, Guardian, 18 February 2008. (The obituary is citing a quote that Hughes gave to the journalist Peter Taylor, which I am paraphrasing nearly verbatim here.)
They were heady, breakneck days: H-BC.
He thought of going out: Ibid.
‘Good operations are the best’: Bishop and Mallie, p.218.
they did not know what he looked like: H-BC.
The soldiers would go to his father’s house: ‘Portrait of a Hunger Striker: Brendan Hughes’, The Irish People, 6 December 1980.
their intention was to kill him: Ibid.
The previous April: ‘Coffee? No Thanks, Said the Major – I Want a Tranquilliser’, Observer, 23 April 1972.
When they searched his pockets: Ibid.
The runner had not yet returned: H-BC.
There was a quote attributed to Mao: The original quote is from Mao Tse-tung, On Guerrilla Warfare (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2000), p.93.
local civilians would assist young paramilitaries: For the perspective of a West Belfast Catholic who resented the presence of the Provos and felt coerced into this type of allegiance, see Malachi O’Doherty, The Telling Year: Belfast 1972 (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2007).
When property was damaged: H-BC.
He cultivated the community: ‘Portrait of a Hunger Striker: Brendan Hughes’, The Irish People, 6 December 1980.
When the soldier looked up: Voices from the Grave, documentary, directed by Kate O’Callaghan (RTÉ, 2010).
Call houses were usually regular homes: H-BC.
The troops had developed: Voices from the Grave.
One day, a sailor: H-BC. For more detail on the mechanics of this operation, see Taylor, Behind the Mask: The IRA and Sinn Fein (New York: TV Books, 1999), p.131.
GOD MADE THE CATHOLICS: Adams, Before the Dawn, p.186.
Hughes was tearing along so fast: This event has become something of a legend. In addition to Hughes’s account in his BC oral history, this incident was recounted in The Irish People, which noted that ‘the window did not shatter, there was just left a hole – perfectly round and small – for Brendan is not a big man’. See ‘Portrait of a Hunger Striker: Brendan Hughes’, The Irish People, 6 December 1980.
The gunmen had been dressed like civilians: H-BC.
Hughes had grown up surrounded: ‘Portrait of a Hunger Striker: Brendan Hughes’, The Irish People, 6 December 1980.
‘lad you could depend upon’: Ibid.
In 1967, Hughes joined: H-BC.
When the family walked to Mass: Ibid.
‘Never get a tattoo’: Ibid.
When he crashed through: Ibid.
He badly needed: Ibid.
Then Gerry Adams arrived: Ibid.
Adams would ride in the ‘scout’ car: Dolours Price interview in Voices from the Grave.
Dolours Price liked to joke: P-EM.
‘tremendous following’: ‘Portrait of a Hunger Striker: Brendan Hughes’, The Irish People, 6 December 1980.
He regarded himself as a soldier: H-BC.
Brendan’s own little brother: Terry Hughes, quoted in Voices from the Grave; interview with Terry Hughes.
The doctor whom Adams had: Former IRA volunteer Paddy Joe Rice confirms the story about Adams bringing a doctor in Voices from the Grave.
So someone fetched a needle: H-BC.
According to the Special Branch: Mark Urban, Big Boys’ Rules: The SAS and the Secret Struggle Against the IRA (London: Faber, 1992), p.26. As Fintan O’Toole has pointed out, in 1996 Adams gave an enthusiastic endorsement of David Beresford’s book Ten Men Dead, which described him as the commander of the Belfast Brigade from July 1972 to July 1973 (Fintan O’Toole, ‘The End of the Troubles?’ New York Review of Books, 19 February 1998).
He could have fled to Dundalk: ‘“Provos” Go into Hiding’, Observer, 4 June 1972.
‘Local people knew he was there’: ‘Portrait of a Hunger Striker: Brendan Hughes’, The Irish People, 6 December 1980.
Adams saved Hughes’s life: H-BC.
In the secret internal records: Ed Moloney and a researcher discovered the corroborating paper trail in British Army files. The operation to kill Hughes was known as TOM TIME. See Moloney and Mitchell, ‘British “War Diary” Suggests Possible MRF Role’. For a contemporary account of the shootout, see ‘British Troops May Have Exchanged Fire’, Irish Times, 4 September 1972.
Chapter 7: The Little Brigadier
His father was an admiral: Frank Kitson, Gangs and Counter-Gangs (London: Barrie Books, 1960), p.1.
His grandfather had served: ‘The Guru of the New Model Army’, The Times, 14 May 1972.
Kitson joined the British Army’s Rifle Brigade: Ibid.
But by the time he became a soldier: Kitson, Gangs and Counter-Gangs, p.1.
In 1953, he was assigned to Kenya: Ibid., p.7.
He needn’t have worried: ‘The Guru of the New Model Army’, The Times, 14 May 1972.
He tucked the paper: Kitson, Gangs and Counter-Gangs, pp.28, 90.
Beneath his peaked and tasselled army cap: War School, part 1: ‘Kitson’s Class’ (BBC documentary, 1980).
He had a slightly nasal voice: Ibid.
He was known to dislike small talk: Mike Jackson, Soldier: The Autobiography (London: Bantam Press, 2007), p.81.
Before leaving on a night mission: Kitson, Gangs and Counter-Ga
ngs, p.163.
By ‘blacking up’ in this manner: Ibid., p.163. ‘Blacking up’ was standard, if unfortunate, vernacular. It is invoked specifically in relation to Kitson’s time in Kenya in Peter Taylor, Brits: The War Against the IRA (London: Bloomsbury, 2001), p.127.
‘Everything is strange for the first few moments’: Kitson, Gangs and Counter-Gangs, pp.180–181.
With their identities shielded by the robes: Ibid., p.79.
This was an epiphany for Kitson: Ibid., p.79.
This was a risky gesture: Ibid., p.127.
staggering human cost: Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya (New York: Henry Holt, 2005), p.xvi.
Some 1.5 million people were detained: Ibid., p.xiv.
Mau Mau suspects were subjected: Ibid., pp.54, 66.
Kitson had been awarded the Military Cross: Seventh Supplement to London Gazette, 31 December 1954. (The award was actually conferred on 1 January 1955.)
‘I wondered how much of the African mentality’: Kitson, Gangs and Counter-Gangs, p.184.
Kitson had found his calling: ‘The Guru of the New Model Army’, The Times, 14 May 1972.
dispatched to the Sultanate of Muscat: Frank Kitson, Bunch of Five (London: Faber, 2010), pp.155–201.
given command of his own battalion: Ibid., pp.205–77; Dillon, The Dirty War, pp.25–26.
he embarked on a new project: Frank Kitson, Low Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency, Peace-Keeping (London: Faber, 1991), bibliography.
a cornerstone of later counter-insurgency thinking: Kitson, Low Intensity Operations, pp.x–xi.
by the summer of 1972: Table NI-SEC03, ‘British Army Personnel (Number) in Northern Ireland, 1969 to 2005’, CAIN.
They were spread across the country: ‘Soldiers Scurry in Sniper Country’, Baltimore Sun, 26 November 1971.
What would they have to achieve: Ibid.
Or was it one of those restive colonies?: See Niall Ó Dochartaigh, From Civil Rights to Armalites: Derry and the Birth of the Irish Troubles (Cork, Ireland: Cork University Press, 1997), Chapter 4.
When Frank Kitson arrived: Taylor, Brits, p.53.
As one of Kitson’s subordinates: Jackson, Soldier, p.82.
‘It made them hostile’: ‘Paras Were “Jolly Good” Says Bloody Sunday Brigadier’, Daily Mail, 25 September 2002.
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